In observance of that autumn spell when we celebrate the primal, compulsive instinct of fear, Rainestorm highlights 31 days of spooky scares to season the eerie atmosphere of Halloween.

Reign of terror: 1968

The horror… the horror: Few living director’s can lay claim to inventing a movie genre, but that’s just what George A. Romero did with this unsettlingly lurid social commentary. Confining the action to a few rooms in an abandoned farmhouse, Romero creates a siege mentality meant to emulate the struggle in Vietnam at the time. Instead of letting the horror play out off-screen or in the shadows, as was customary up to that time, Romero shows the audience up close and in vivid detail the fate that waits to befall the protagonists should any of them be caught off guard. Before Night of the Living Dead, zombie was just a word.

Halloween haunt: From a creepy cemetery on a gray afternoon to the aforesaid farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania, the film plays out over a single night that finds our heroes braving the outside in various efforts at escape. With dread literally around every corner, the scene is rife with Halloween ambiance.

Tastiest treat: Wife Helen takes refuge in the basement, only to find young, undead daughter, Karen, feasting on her father’s flesh.

Devilish discourse: “They’re coming to get you Barrrr-bra!”

Goes great with: Popular opinion would point to Last Man on Earth as it is one of the many influences that informed Romero’s movie. However, I recommend The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). Shot in a similarly minimalist style with virtually no music to distract from the verisimilar horror, Tobe Hooper’s gruesome classic is still an abhorrently shocking film.