Halloween Movie Watch Guide: 15 Picks From Horror-Loving Actors and Filmmakers

Nobody knows horror like the filmmakers behind some of your favorites, so EW polled the directors and stars of films like Don't Breathe, The Witch, Hostel, and more about which hair-raising flicks they'd recommend this October. Read on (if you dare) for their picks. 

"Night of the Living Dead is my absolute favorite. It’s just done in the simplest format possible, which makes it feel totally realistic. I love that it’s shot in black-and-white, which adds to the grit and to the mise-en-scene — and it has such a grim, tragic ending! Same with Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer — well, Henry has a tragic ending for everyone except Henry.
" — Michael Rooker (actor, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Guardians of the Galaxy)

"The Shining is great. The smell of The Shining is all over The Witch. I don't think it would succeed without it." — Robert Eggers (director, The Witch)

"My cousin took me to House on Haunted Hill when I was about in second grade and I fell in love with the movie and Vincent Price. He was my new hero. My parents were very unhappy that my cousin had taken me because I had nightmares for about a month afterwards. But I was both appalled by it, and fixated on horror, and begged my cousin to take me to more of those films. And that’s when Vincent Price was in a big run of films loosely based on Edgar Allen Poe, like The Raven and Tomb of Ligeia — oh my god, all those fantastic films. They did a remake of it which sucked. The original is wonderful and, of course, you really can’t beat Vincent Price, when it comes to spooky." — Cassandra Peterson (a.k.a. "Elvira")

"Usually when I’m having a party, I put on the original Evil Dead. Right from the opening shot, it never stops. You can’t go wrong with it." — Eli Roth (director, Hostel)

"I like Roman Polanski's The Tenant, because it messes with your mind, and I feel those are the most disturbing horror films, the ones that make you think you’re going insane. Even though people may not like Roman Polanski, the man, his work, I think, is pretty strong. I saw it in college and it stuck with me for about four days and most movies go in one ear and out the other. This one has a more lingering, damaging effect." — Bruce Campbell (actor, the Evil Dead franchise)

"I think I watch Halloween every Halloween. It’s one of my favorite films of all-time. It elicits a warm and fuzzy feeling for me. It makes me feel happy. The innovation within the context of the film still blows me away — and how simple it is. That opening sequence can't be beat, that POV shot, with the reveal of a child. It’s f---ing incredible. It still holds up." — Elijah Wood (actor, Cooties, Lord of the Rings, cofounder of indie-horror company SpectreVision)

"One of my favorites is called the Day of the Beast from this filmmaker called Alex de Iglesia. It’s about this priest who finds out the Devil is going to be born somewhere in Madrid, and so he finds this heavy metal dude, and together they wander the streets of Madrid doing evil in order to connect with Satan. It’s bananas, but it’s amazing." — 
Fede Alvarez (director, Don’t Breathe)

"I’ll recommend one that people probably haven’t seen, which is a Korean movie called I Saw the Devil. It has perhaps the best sociopathic killer I’ve seen on screen, maybe with the exception of Hannibal Lecter.
" — Scott Derrickson (director, Sinister, Doctor Strange)

"One of the greatest horror movies and one of the greatest movies of all-time. It's just a perfect piece of cinema, genuinely terrifying, and a masterpiece of suspense and thrills.
" — Greg McLean (director, Wolf Creek, The Darkness)

"
The best movie for people to watch over Halloween is Eraserhead. Eraserhead is the most disturbing, beautiful, textural, silent nightmare that I think has ever been made. I don’t think that they will make another one like that any time soon." — Osgood Perkins (director, I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, The Blackcoat’s Daughter).

"The Conjuring is a fantastic Halloween movie. The tension is so well-handled, it's so original, there's so many clever ways of creating unease. It’s a masterclass in how to direct horror. I was literally studying that film on how to do it.
" — André Øvredal (director, Trollhunter, The Autopsy of Jane Doe)

"I'm a little biased, but I recommend getting the 4-disc Blu-ray release of Tales of Halloween. Other than that, I would recommend Michael Dougherty's Trick 'r Treat. It not only covers the holiday but there's so many different genres in there — werewolf films, evil kids. It's just a seasonal classic." — Mike Mendez (director, Big Ass Spider! Tales of Halloween)

"For Halloween time, I go to the classics: Halloween and Texas Chain Saw Massacre. If I want to go into different, supernatural, territory I stick with Event Horizon and The Shining as a double feature." — 
Adam Wingard (director, Blair Witch, You’re Next)

"Carnage Park, which just came out, by Mickey Keating, is a really cool, tense horror movie. I just saw the Neon Demon, which I figured everybody and their mother would have seen, but according to the box office, nobody went to see it. That was a goddamned masterpiece. I really liked The Witch. I really loved Green Room. A lot of people bitch about the state of horror but there’s actually a lot of cool stuff out there right now. You’ve just got to dig around.
" — Joe Begos (director, Almost Human, The Mind’s Eye)

"While my initial instinct was to recommend a classic like Se7en or the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre, this Halloween calls for something different. I plan to re-visit a film that started in the theaters as a comedy, but has since evolved into a terrifying reflection of the actual world we live in: Idiocracy. The call is coming from inside the house." — Karyn Kusama (director, Jennifer's Body, The Invitation)