“Burn After Reading” and “The Big Lebowski” are probably two of the most well-known movies with the “idiot plot” trope. An “idiot plot” is when the entire plot of a movie could be resolved in minutes if the characters weren’t “idiots,” hence the name. “Tucker and Dale vs. Evil” puts a horror spin on the idea.

Six college students head into the woods for a weekend of swimming, drinking and hanging out. On the first night while swimming in the lake, one of the students, Allison, falls off a large rock and doesn’t resurface. After a minute of searching, the college kids hear from across the water: “We’ve got your friend!” Allison has been kidnapped by two crazy hillbillies, and it’s now up to the college students to rescue her.

What these college students don’t know is that Tucker and Dale, the two crazy hillbillies who “kidnapped” their friend, aren’t actually crazy at all. In fact, they’re as nice as can be. They were in the same woods fixing up Tucker’s new vacation house when they decided to go late-night fishing and saw Allison fall into the water. Without hesitation, Dale dove in to save her and accidentally scared off her friends in the process.

So if Tucker and Dale aren’t the villains, then who is? In actuality, the villain is one of the college students, Chad. Chad’s parents were killed by hillbillies, and because of that, he’s incredibly driven to kill Tucker and Dale, not even for “kidnapping” Allison, but for simply existing. Every time it seems like the two parties will resolve their misunderstanding, Chad derails the negotiation with some insane ramblings about how evil all hillbillies are. Chad feels like a much darker character lifted from an entirely different, more ridiculous movie and is one of the funniest parts of “Tucker and Dale vs. Evil” because of it.

“Tucker and Dale vs. Evil” is wildly funny throughout and one of the most wholesome horror movies I’ve seen due to the relationship that exists between the titular Tucker and Dale and the developing relationship between Dale and Allison.

After finishing the final book in his long-running “Misery Chastain” franchise, author, Paul Sheldon, departs from the hotel that he always writes in. On his drive down the mountain, he loses control of his car and drives off the side of the road into a snowbank. When Paul wakes up he finds himself in the home of Annie Wilkes, a nurse and self-proclaimed number-one fan of Paul Sheldon and his “Misery” franchise. Annie nurses him back to health and Paul repays Annie by letting her read the final “Misery” installment. When Annie learns that the main character, the titular Misery, dies at the end she becomes distraught, deciding she can’t let Paul leave until he corrects the book.

James Caan, who plays Paul Sheldon, knocks it out of the park. He’s able to capture this level of desperation that isn’t seen in most movies but his performance is almost entirely overshadowed by Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes. Annie Wilkes is one of the most hateable characters I’ve seen in a movie and she’s played to perfection by Bates who captures Wilkes’ erraticism in such an unbelievably realistic way. You never know when or why Wilkes will fly off the handle but you know that, at some point, she will and that only adds to the tension as Paul Sheldon tries to think of clever ways to escape.

The themes of toxic parasocial relationships come from Stephen King’s own experiences as an author making this one of his most personal works. In fact, the direct inspiration for the original novel, that this movie is adapted from, was fans’ reception to King’s 1984 novel “The Eyes of the Dragon.” “The Eyes of the Dragon” was a fantasy epic with almost none of the horror elements that had made King famous, which led to fans rejecting the book. King used “Misery” as an outlet to convey how he himself felt chained to the horror genre by his fans just like Paul Sheldon is literally chained to his own “Misery” series by Annie Wilkes. “Misery” is a very thoughtful, poignant portrayal of parasocial relationships and what they can be at their worst.

Freddy Kruegar is about as goofy as a child-murdering, dream-stalking, psychopath can get. Throughout “A Nightmare on Elm Street” apart from murdering children, he drops silly one liners and pranks his victims before killing them.

“A Nightmare on Elm Street” follows high schooler Nancy, played by Heather Langenkamp, as she is tormented in her sleep by Freddy Krueger, a serial killer who can only kill you in your dreams. 

There are some flaws such as a messy ending due to studio interference and some wooden performances, but where “Elm Street” makes up for those flaws is within its special effects and creative kills.

Bedrooms were built upside down to make its inhabitants appear as if they were floating, ceilings were constructed out of elastic to make it seem like someone was living in the wallpaper and over 500 gallons of fake blood were used to achieve the gory kills. The actual craft of this movie is unlike most with some insanely innovative and creative ways of achieving insane effects.

“A Nightmare on Elm Street” is a landmark horror movie for good reason with its creative and memorable villain and its absurd practical effects. A must-watch for anyone who is even slightly a fan of the horror genre.

There are two films I’ve seen that seem to understand the internet more than any other movie. The first being Bo Burnham’s 2018 film, “Eighth Grade,” and the second being Jane Schoenbrun’s “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair.” Where “Eighth Grade” focuses on the anxiety that comes with using the internet, “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair” centers around the loneliness and slow horror that comes from interacting with strangers.

Casey is an isolated teenager who participates in an online roleplaying game called, “The World’s Fair Challenge.” After performing a ritual, participants will begin to experience bizarre changes to themselves, both physically and mentally; however, it’s all simply roleplay. Casey decides to participate and starts uploading video logs of her changes to YouTube. After posting a couple of videos, she is contacted by another participant named JLB. 

JLB takes a special interest in Casey, and they begin to chat more online. Around this time Casey’s videos start to become more intense and unsettling until the line between reality and roleplay starts to blur.

“We’re All Going to the World’s Fair” is incredibly slow and methodical in just about every facet of its design. Shots will linger on nothing just to build tension; Alex G’s score feels hazy and dreamlike, and a good amount of shots are filmed with a webcam, which only adds to the loneliness and unnatural feel of the entire movie.

It’s not for everyone, but those who are able to connect with “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair” will feel something that not many movies can make a person feel. 

Shaun’s life is caught in limbo. His job isn’t anything fulfilling, his relationship with his girlfriend is on the brink of collapse and his best friend, Ed, though fun and loyal, holds Shaun back from growing as a person. Shaun knows he’s trapped but lacks the want or willpower to mature in life, until his girlfriend dumps him. Shaun is heartbroken but isn’t given much time to process the breakup as the very next day London falls victim to a zombie apocalypse. Shaun and Ed then devise a plan to save Shaun’s (now ex) girlfriend, her friends, and Shaun’s parents.

“Shaun of the Dead” is much more comedy than traditional horror and is jam-packed with some absolutely incredible bits and jokes. One of my personal favorite moments comes at the start of the movie. Shaun leaves his house, and without any cuts, he goes through his morning routine of walking across the street, greeting his neighbors, buying a morning drink at the convenience store and returning home. The next day he goes through the same routine filmed in almost the exact same way, but he remains painfully oblivious to the corpses in the street or his neighbors looking much more like zombies. Simon Pegg, the actor who plays Shaun, has some incredible comedic timing, seemingly always aware of exactly how to deliver a punchline to make it the funniest it can be.

“Shaun of the Dead” remains fun throughout, never going that far with its horror or violence until a certain character is killed near the end of the movie in such an unbelievably gruesome and over-the-top way that it ends up being hilarious.

If you like good movies, then you should definitely watch “Shaun of the Dead,” and if you like other Edgar Wright movies like “Baby Driver” or “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” and you somehow haven’t seen this one, you need to drop everything and watch it yesterday. You won’t be disappointed.

Serial killers in movies have their reasons for killing their victims. The Riddler in “The Batman” kills people who facilitate Gotham’s corruption, John Doe in “Se7en” kills people who represent the seven deadly sins, and Beverly Sutphin, played by Kathleen Turner, in “Serial Mom,” kills people who don’t recycle correctly or people who wear white after Labor Day.

When Beverly visits a parent-teacher conference regarding her son, she becomes frustrated that the teacher badmouths her son and his obsession with all things horror-related. While sitting in her car after the meeting, she sees the teacher leave the school while chewing gum, something that Beverly despises for no real reason. In a fit of rage, she runs the teacher over with her car, killing him. Beverly now has a taste for murder and continues to kill people who annoy her.

“Serial Mom” is absolutely absurd, and that absurdity is only amplified by some great performances. Kathleen Turner is phenomenal, but the supporting cast should not be overlooked, with Sam Waterson as Eugene Sutphin, who’s able to nail this timid fear that his wife might actually be a serial killer but is unwilling to leave her out of that same fear. In other movies, this would be framed as an incredibly serious, borderline abusive relationship, but in “Serial Mom” it’s mostly played for laughs, which shouldn’t work under any circumstances but somehow does. Other standouts include Chip Sutphin, played by my sweet baby boy Matthew Lillard, and his equally horror-obsessed girlfriend Birdie, played by Patricia Dunnock, who both immediately become Beverly’s agents once rumors start to spread that she’s a serial killer.

Though wholly ridiculous and very funny, “Serial Mom” is a very clever look at America’s unhealthy obsession with true crime and the idolization of serial killers and how people are willing to overlook all the bad if the person involved is “cool.” 

Mima is a pop star who is encouraged by her agent to quit music and try her hand at acting. Her fans are not exactly happy with her going from a clean and widely appealing J-pop star to a B-list actor, with one truly obsessive fan beginning to stalk her. After receiving a letter from a fan, Mima discovers a website called “Mima’s Room,” which is full of diary entries written from the perspective of Mima. The diary entries detail her days down to a T with information about Mima that no one should know besides her. Shortly after discovering this website, Mima lands a role in a detective drama where she plays someone suffering from psychosis.

If my synopsis felt like I was dumping a ton of information on you, that’s because the movie feels this way too, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Watching “Perfect Blue” is like riding a rollercoaster while wearing a blindfold. You will never, not even for a second, know where this movie is taking you. While watching this, I must’ve said, “Okay, I think I get it now,” every five minutes.

I realize “this movie is absurdly confusing” isn’t a great selling point but, “Perfect Blue” has so much more at play here. It’s not so much that it’s confusing but more so that it requires multiple viewings to fully understand. The movie’s approach of drowning you in information and twists really helps you connect with Mima as you both feel like you’re slowly losing your minds. 

The voice acting is raw, and the animation, while crude at times, reaches moments where it’s wholly captivating. All that aside, the standout aspect, for me, is the score. Wavy synths and dissonant piano chords add to the atmosphere in a way that makes this movie truly terrifying.

If you were reading this list looking for “the one scary movie,” here it is. “Perfect Blue” is hands down the scariest and most disturbing thing on this list. For people who are able to sit through incredibly disturbing movies, this is a must-see.

“Bones and All” is one of the more mellow movies on this list in terms of traditional horror. It has its terrifying moments, and it remains disturbing for the entire runtime, but “Bones and All” is a love story first. 

Lost and wandering in the Midwest during the 1980s, Maren, played by Taylor Russell, and Lee, played by Timothée Chalemet, are two young adults with a secret: They eat people. Their cannibalism is born of a necessity that a few people in their universe have, but that doesn’t stop Maren’s father from abandoning her shortly after her 18th birthday. He leaves her a tape where he explains that he hopes she can overcome her hunger. Maren, heartbroken, decides to set out for Montana, where she hopes to find her long-absent mother. Along the way she encounters Sully, an older, more experienced “eater.” Sully very quickly develops a bizarre obsession with Maren, who promptly sneaks away onto the next bus leaving town. 

In the next town she visits along her journey, she encounters Lee, another “eater.” Lee is only slightly more experienced than Maren but seems like a pro compared to her. They decide to team up for Maren’s journey across the country and begin to fall for each other.

“Bones and All” has a fantastic soundtrack, a great script and absolutely incredible performances, especially from Russell, but its shining aspect to me is its cinematography. The composition of the shots is fairly simple, but the lighting and overall look of the movie are gorgeous. Many scenes in the film were shot during golden hour, the time right after sunrise or right before sunset, which meant that they would sometimes have less than an hour to shoot entire scenes. The crew used special lenses during these times to capture as much natural light as possible, and it comes through beautifully in the film.

“Bones and All” is not for the faint of heart, as the “eating” scenes happen pretty often and utilize incredibly realistic special effects, but those who can stomach the gore will find one of the most beautiful love stories told in recent memory.

Despite the “2” in its title, “Evil Dead 2” is not a sequel to the original but more of a remix. The original “Evil Dead” was Sam Raimi’s feature directorial debut and was made on a shoestring budget by him and his friends from Michigan State University. “Evil Dead” made almost 700% of its budget and was revered by Stephen King as “the most ferociously original horror movie of the year.” 

“Evil Dead” is a true testament to what filmmakers can accomplish with an unwavering creative vision and a lot of determination. All that being said, “Evil Dead 2” is leagues better. Raimi takes every idea that even slightly worked in the original and expands on it with so much creativity and excitement that you can feel the cast and crew having fun through the screen. First-person camera shots, sickeningly large amounts of blood and bizarre claymation are just a few of the things this movie employs in its 84-minute runtime.

The movie follows Ash (Bruce Campbell, a longtime friend and collaborator of Raimi) and his girlfriend Linda (Denise Bixler) on a weekend retreat to a supposedly abandoned cabin. Once there they find a tape recorder from the historian who used to live there. On the recording, the historian recites passages from his most recent discovery, The Book of the Dead, causing Linda to become possessed. Ash must now fight off his undead girlfriend and other forces of evil, whether it be laughing household objects or his own possessed hand. 

“Evil Dead 2” is a classic and easily one of, if not, the funnest movies in the horror genre.

“Donnie Darko” is one of those movies that, no matter how hard you pay attention, you will not understand on a first viewing. Early in the movie Donnie Darko, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, sleepwalks into the street, where he’s suddenly visited by a man-sized rabbit named Frank. Frank tells Donnie that the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds. When Donnie wakes up the next morning on his town’s golf course, he finds the countdown to the end of the world scribbled on his arm. Not sure what to make of it, he begins to walk home only to find that in the middle of the night, a jet engine fell off of an airplane and crashed directly into his bedroom.

For the next month, Donnie navigates high school, a blossoming relationship, time travel and crimes that his town becomes riddled with, all while Frank sits in the background, seemingly pulling the strings.

Even if it isn’t clearly evident, a lot of things in “Donnie Darko” feel incredibly sinister, whether it be Frank the rabbit or the community that surrounds Donnie, which is obsessed with fear being an ontologically negative emotion. His gym teacher, Kitty Farmer, played by Beth Grant, tries reinforcing this viewpoint in her class and hounds Donnie when he defiantly tries to argue that human emotions simply aren’t that simple. The irony is that, even if Donnie would never admit it, fear drives a lot of what he does in this movie; Fear of Frank, fear of his parents’ disappointment and fear of being alone

Gyllenhaal as Donnie Darko is one of the best casting decisions ever made. When “Donnie Darko” was in pre-production there were talks of Vince Vaughn, Mark Wahlberg (who didn’t get the part because he insisted on playing Donnie with a lisp) and Jason Schwartzman all playing the titular Donnie Darko but all of them dropped out and thank god for that because no one would’ve been nearly as good as Gyllenhaal. 

“Donnie Darko” is shrouded in an uneasy atmosphere that owes a lot of its darkness to the score. Unsettling ambient sounds, peaceful piano chords, and eerie vocals raise the tension, which is capped off by a cover of Tears For Fears’ “Mad World” by Michael Andres and Gary Jules.

“Donnie Darko” is an incredible cult classic and, despite being one of the more confusing movies on this list, is my strongest recommendation. Amazing performances throughout with some truly inspired cinematography and a script that has been dissected over and over throughout the years make this a movie that will live forever.