Spoopy season is upon us, dear readers, and any cineaste worth their weight in bone will be scouring the world's many streaming services for the best scary flicks. Most casual horror fans will be content to rewatch great classics like “Halloween,” while more avid gorehounds will scrutinize Shutter's carefully compiled films. Nervous, more experienced scare fans, however, will need strong coffee to overcome their fears, and those brave souls may dive in face first. Night Flight's over-the-top tank or Eternal Family seeks out oddities that the average soul can't stand. Are you going to watch a soft movie like “Hocus Pocus” or “Bloody Muscle Bodybuilder in Hell?” this October. Want to try that?
We can be sure that actor Kevin Bacon, a great actor with impeccable taste, is a fan of the genre and loves to assemble his own month-long horror marathons. On October 10, 2024, Bacon took to Twitter/X with a 55-second video of him quickly listing his 20 favorite horror movies. Most of them were released in the last decade, proving the actor's focus on genre, but he also included some well-worn classics.
Because Bacon chose images from around the world, the list has a lot of variety. Horror buffs may already be familiar with all 20 of his picks — none of which are completely obscure — but casual moviegoers may need a reminder to watch films like “Martyrs” or “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night.”
Bacon cheekily chose two films in which he starred (arguably one of the best horror films of the 1990s) and a recent film starring his daughter, Sosie Bacon.
Below is a full list of Bacon's favorite horror movies.
Kevin Bacon's 20 Favorite Horror Movies
The bacon bunch is as follows:
- Takashi Mike's “Audition” (1999)
- “Don't Look Now” by Nicolas Roeg (1973)
- Shin'ichirō Ueda's “One Cut of the Dead” (2017)
- George A. Romero's “Dawn of the Dead” (1978)
- “Shaun of the Dead” by Edgar Wright (2004)
- Danny Boyle's “28 Days Later” (2002)
- “Get Out” by Jordan Peele (2017)
- “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night” by Ana Lily Amirpour (2014)
- “Let the Right One In” by Thomas Alfredson (2008)
- T West's “X” (2022)
- “Pearl” by T West (2022)
- “MaXXXine” by T West (2024)
- “The Witch” by Robert Eggers (2015)
- “The Love Witch” by Anna Piller (2016)
- “The Blair Witch Project” by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez (1999)
- Neil Marshall's “The Descent” (2005)
- James Gunn's “Slither” (2006)
- “Midsummer” by Ari Astor (2019)
- “Martyrs” by Pascal Laugier (2008)
- Ari Aster's “Inheritance” (2018)
- Parker Finn “Smile” (2022)
- “Stir of Echoes” by David Cope (1999)
Bacon, of course, has many personal connections to many of the images above. He played the lead role in “Stir of Echoes”, a great movie about a working-class dude who starts seeing ghosts after hypnosis. Bacon also had a supporting role in “MaXXXine” as a scrappy private detective, and he also joined “X” and “Pearl” as those three films form a trilogy. The actor also starred in the James Gunn film “Slither,” a horror comedy about infectious worm monsters, and in “The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special” alongside Gunn.
Meanwhile, Bacon's daughter, Zosie, was the star of “Smile,” a film about a shape-shifting object that appears as strangers smiling at its victims. The sequel of “Punnagai” is slated to hit the theaters on October 18, 2024.
The above list is pretty incredible and you can't go wrong with any of them. You may have already seen many of them. Starting today, an ambitious horror fan can watch one of Bacon's movies every day until Halloween. Bacon doesn't list his options in any particular order, so choose whichever film you want to start with. If you want to skip a few days and run the marathon three or four times in one sitting, that is also acceptable.
Also, for a thrilling performance in Ron Underwood's 1990 film “Dreamers,” starring Kevin Bacon. This is one of those monster movies.
