Join me in watching 31 horror movies in October! It’s harder than it sounds. This year, I’m planning ahead to keep you in movies all month long. These first 7 are my again and again horror movies. They never get old for me.

1. Halloween

This landmark tale of a babysitter (Jamie Lee Curtis) fighting my favorite murderer, Michael Myers, kicked off the Golden Age of Slasher Films. The re-watch helps you analyze the music and the cinematography for the shaping of an entire sub-genre.

2. Carrie

Carrie (Sissy Spacek) plays a girl bullied at home and school. We cheer for her when her telekinetic powers give her confidence, then don’t know how to feel when she becomes the worst bully of all. The re-watch is good for analyzing what makes someone a villain.

3. Scream

An important iteration of the slasher genre, Sidney (Neve Campbell) picks up where Jamie Lee left off. The re-watch is shows the clues to the killer and gives you time to consider Sidney’s choices as a heroine. Does she ever go too far?

4. Secret Window

Johnny Depp plays a writer recently divorced from his wife who finds job trouble when a dairy farmer from Mississippi (John Turturro) accuses him of plagiarizing a short story. I never tire of watching the choices made by these two actors in this movie.

5. The Strangers

A couple (Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman) find themselves at the mercy of three home invaders in the woods. This one is hard to watch, because it’s the scariest movie I’ve ever seen.

6. Trick ‘r Treat (2007)

Four interwoven horror stories that also teach you about the history of Halloween. I re-watch it to find more connections between the stories.

7. The Conjuring

A family terrorized by a demon seek out the Warrens (Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson) to perform an exorcism. While it cannot dethrone The Exorcist, this film moves the demon sub-genre forward.

Honorable Mentions

If the horror gets to be too much, the following humorous Halloween/horror films can be substituted:

• Hocus Pocus
• Shaun of the Dead
• Zombieland
• At World’s End

What movies do you watch every October?