It's October and you know what that means: hot cider, pumpkin beer, candy corn and of course, Halloween. In the spirit of the holiday here are some creepy and intriguing horror movies perfect for the Halloween season.

REC

REC is relentless. The way this single-camera, found-footage zombie opus tears back and forth from one disaster to another (almost all of the movie takes place in a single building), mounting tension and then releasing with masterful, rhythmic ease is breath-taking. The Spanish film was released in 2007, but you may know it as the American remake Quarantine, released in 2008.

REC 2

REC 2 takes the genius of REC and pushes it in different directions with parallel, yet connected stories featuring a new set of characters that are thrust into the same zombie-infested apartment building with different results. One portion of the movie continues the story of the main character from REC, another shows a team of riot police who, although heavily armed, are not as well-equipped to handle the outbreak as you might think, while another focuses on some teens who fall into an exorcism-rich sub-plot that ties into the main narrative. Action, horror and great pacing make this a worthy follow up.

The Orphanage

The Orphanage (another Spanish film, which is also known as El Orfanato) is supremely spooky. Ghosts are creepy, but The Orphanage ratchets up the fear with ghost children, which are always scarier. Though this movie is considered a horror, it focuses not on frightening you, but on creating an unsettling atmosphere with a pervasive mystery that's as engaging as it is repelling.

Event Horizon

When a captain and his crew respond to a distress signal on a seemingly abandoned space vessel only to discover the ship is "alive", terrible (and amazing) things happen. This is one of those rare sub-genre films that mixes horror and sci-fi with stellar results.

Silent Hill

Silent Hill is easily the most faithful and entertaining movie adaption of a video game ever made. From the sound effects and locations to the monsters and visual design, director Christopher Gans and screenwriter Roger Avary were able to take a game known for it's stifling and foreboding atmospheric flourishes and vastly improve what was the town of Silent Hill's previously incomprehensible back-story.

Attack the Block

This British film is a darkly comedic alien invasion monster movie mash-up. In it, the protagonists (who are actually filthy, low-life gang members) are unwittingly tasked with protecting their neighborhood from interstellar beasts with essentially nothing but gats and bats. Thrilling chases, amusing characters and bloody fun ensues.

The Devil's Backbone

The Devil's Backbone has such excellent dialogue and involving characters that it can draw in viewers who aren't even fans of the horror genre. Though there is certainly a strong horror element that permeates throughout, this Mexican film by Guillermo del Toro is set against the backdrop of an orphanage blending stories of love, crime and war beautifully into one compelling piece of cinema.

Dead Snow

In this fun and scary Swedish zombie flick, the zombies are not only Nazis (yep, just like in the Call of Duty games), but they also seem to have retained a large part of who they were. They're super strong and move with blinding speed, but also work in tandem with each other toward common goals (most of which are killing their victims in increasingly gory and amusing ways). This is a great movie for fans of the Evil Dead series or horror movie buffs who want to ask themselves 'Is this horrifying or hilarious'?

The Horde

This French zombie film begins as a cop drama, then quickly turns into a horror-fest forcing the gangsters and cops to work together against the oncoming horde. The zombies are super aggressive, the gangsters and cops are totally bad-ass (and better equipped to deal with the onslaught than most) and with true foreign film ingenuity, The Horde strays from the typical Hollywood ending. It's a fast-paced rush with effective characters, brutal action and good twists that any fan of the genre will enjoy.

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