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We’re coming closer and closer to the end of October. October 31st, this year, can mean only one thing: yes, I’m talking about the premiere of the AMC zombie drama The Walking Dead. Wait, did you think I meant Halloween? Well, there’s that, too. Of course, with the candy-soaked holiday coming up, there are more and more scary movies showing up on television, including AMC (who is using their programming as an excuse to have actors from Mad Men talk about their favorite scary movies in advertising, which is just weird). This time of year is unavoidable, and this week’s A-List can’t help but give into the peer pressure of the season. This week’s A-List will look at five of the best horror movies ever made. You may well remember that last year at this time, the A-List looked at five scary movies that aren’t horror movies.

This year, we’re doing things straight. Now, keep one thing in mind: the five movies on this list aren’t just great horror movies, they’re all pretty close to genuinely great movies - some more than others. Also, keep in mind that I am not a horror-movie buff. Frankly, horror movies aren’t usually my kind of thing. Part of the problem is that most horror movies these days are all pretty much the same: insanely gory deaths, inane characters, and so on. Part of the problem is that I am incredibly squeamish; yeah, based on the early reviews, this means I’ll be looking away or closing my eyes a lot during The Walking Dead, but it’s Frank Darabont, writer/director of The Shawshank Redemption! This list isn’t without its gore or gross-out factor, but some of the great horror movies know how to freak you out without dumping blood all over the screen. Let’s get on with the list.

Psycho

The slasher movie, these days, is the bane of filmdom. There are all types of horror movies, granted, and two of the most popular genres - torture porn and found-footage - are being represented at the multiplex this month, not slashers. But the slasher film has been the genre of horror that remains the standby, the one that can’t ever truly go away. There have been plenty of disgusting slasher films, plenty of gross slasher films, and even more terrible ones. But the slasher film, for all intents and purposes, began in 1960 with the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. The movie, of course, is called Psycho. Psycho goes alongside older films such as Citizen Kane as a movie known for its moments while still being regarded a classic. And, like Citizen Kane, Psycho deserves its status, as it’s one of the great American films. It’s also damned scary.

In a bait-and-switch that hasn’t ever been topped, Psycho starts out as the story of Marion Crane, a pretty blonde in Phoenix, Arizona who needs money if she can ever run away with her lover, Sam Loomis. She ends up stealing a lot of money from a wealthy Texan and is on her way to Sam when she’s forced to stop at a small motel in California: the Bates Motel. Of course, Marion won’t be making her way out of the motel anytime soon, as the proprietor’s mother stabs her in the shower, in one of the greatest, most memorable sequences in film history. It shouldn’t spoil too much more to reveal a bit more: that Marion is really killed by Norman Bates, the motel owner, not his mother. If you haven’t seen Psycho, you’re in luck: a brand-new Blu-ray edition of the film is available in time for Halloween.

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