First off, This article is dedicated to my late wife, Elizabeth and she was terrified of werewolves, mostly the movies. Let us start there. I think she liked the way they looked. So you will not see any werewolf movies here.
October 10th is my late wife’s birthday, so i thought I would honor her by dropping some of her horror favorites on this article. She was really the driving force for me and pretty much responsible for me creating The Horror Syndicate. With that, from this day forward, October 10th is officially, The Horror Syndicate Day in honor of my supportive and loving wife. So, no matter how bad her choices may be, let’s celebrate the horror she loved.
I actually had to think pretty hard about what she liked, a couple were obvious, but I did really have to think. She watched and endured so much with me. I remember experiencing the Fulci movies with her and her reactions, “What in the fuck did we just watch?” I would smile and say, “A fantastic movie”. Of course we had to do a lot of give and take, I had to give her a couple that she would like. She was in to movies with a good ghost story, some Satanic Panic or even an old Gothic style horror movie. She was rarely into the slasher genre, except for the Scream movies. She was a big fan of some of the shows, like American Horror Story and The Walking Dead, so she did in fact like a good zombie story. Growing up with a brother, who is a big horror fan and would watch movies like Dawn of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead and of course Evil Dead.
I would say Elizabeth, my wife was more into more current films, she found good in some of the newer horror that came out after 2010. Movies like, The Boy, The Forest, The Conjuring, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and she loved It Follows. And when I got back in to the horror game fully, we watched a few older movies that she ended up loving, like the first one on this list.
5. Near Dark (1987)
I should have known she would like Near Dark, if not for the story or the vampires, her favorite actor is Bill Paxton. Of course, Near Dark is a decent movie and it may be underrated a little. But, the main attraction for her was Bill Paxton. I remember, after we finished, I asked her what she thought. She said it was “damn good” and better than she expected. There were many times after the first viewing, I would come home and she would be watching Near Dark.
4. Paranormal Activity Series (2007-2015)
Elizabeth was a big fan of the paranormal and loved a good ghost story. So, it was no surprise that should love and be totally spooked out by these movies. I mean, for me, they are what they are. But she loved them and every time a new one came out. She was excited to see it, we would have to make an event out of it. Put the kids to bed, turn off all the lights and snuggle up. She would fall for the jump scares and made sure she would scan the room on screen for anything that may movie. She was super cute.
3. Insidious (2010) and Insidious Chapter 2 (2013)
Like I said, she loved ghost stories. It started with the first movie and the further, she loved the idea of another plain of existence and the chance to travel there. We had many of conversations on the subject. But, the second movie really set it off for her. She loved the idea of some of the events form the first movie being explained in the second. Which, I will have to admit was pretty damn cool. Mix in here new found love of Patrick Wilson and these were winners for her.
2. The Thing (1982)
The Thing is arguably the greatest horror movie ever. The special effects are some of the best, if not the best in any film, well not named Star Wars. Elizabeth was the one who introduced me to the movie, I actually never even thought to watch it. But she made me sit down and watch it and it literally changed the way I looked at horror, this was 2005. She loved it for all the right reasons, the fear, paranoia and of course…Kurt Russell. She was blown away that I was a horror fan and never watched the Thing. I know, her and her brother watched it with their father when they were kids. I just always passed it up. I have to thank her for introducing me to the Thing, it has become one of my favorites. I just miss watching it with her.
1. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
When we met, we talked on the phone for hours. We spoke about things that we were in to movies we loved. I mentioned I love Dracula. She was so excited and began talking about the Francis Ford Coppola film, I was referring to the Tod Browning Dracula from 1931 or the Terrance Fisher 1958 The Horror of Dracula. No, she was talking about Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Which was fine, I love it. She really loved Gary Oldman’s performance and the rest of the cast. This was one of her movies to fall asleep to and one of her favorites of all-time, period. She loved Oldman, the Fifth Element being here favorite movie, well that and Twister. I showed my son Dracula the other day and he was 100% in to it, couldn’t take his eyes off the screen, his Momma would have been proud.
This obviously dedicated to my loving wife her lost her battle with brain cancer in March 2017. Elizabeth Marek was everything to me and every single day she is celebrated by me and my kids.
Thanks for reading and being a part of the Horror Syndicate.
