Most students have completed their midterms and are looking for a reprieve before the last push to final exams. That reprieve is Halloween, a time for partying and of course a time of spine-tingling tales and eerie creatures.

If you’re not in the mood for Halloween and want to get into it, then here are four horror movies that will test your backbone.

This is the first movie that drew mainstream attention to the “found footage” genre of film making. In fact, at the time of its release The Blair Which Project’s viral marketing campaign convinced audiences that the events in the film had actually happened. The movie’s plot is based around three film students producing a documentary about the legendary Blair Witch. As the trio journeys farther and farther into the forest they find themselves coming closer to the object of their documentary.

While the film was not an actual documentary, many of the screams and horrific reactions are real as the producers worked hard to scare the actors throughout filming.

The original Saw film helped reinvigorate the “torture porn” genre, even though it’s less gory than most splatter films. Two men wake up in a bathroom with their legs chained to pipes on opposite sides of the room. The men are then given specific tasks by an anonymous third party that will earn them their freedom. At the same time police are investigating the mysterious Jigsaw Killer, a serial-murderer who cuts a jigsaw piece out of his victim’s skin. With heavy psychological undertones and a morally misguided antagonist, the film doesn’t just scare you but makes the audience think about the actions the killer is carrying out.

The first in the Paranormal Activity series, it begins with a very simple concept. A young couple experience a series of disturbing events that points to something supernatural. The couple sets up video cameras to observe what they believe may just be an intruder in the house,

Rather than having a character run through the story carrying a camera like the aforementioned Blair Witch Project, the film is instead shot through the static field of what amounts to a series of security cameras. This allowed the movie to have a realistic look and — as backed by its boatload of earnings at the box office — plenty of scares.

The Exorcist is one of the scariest and most revered horror films ever created. Although its makeup and special effects are a little dated, the scares and horror are still just as effective as when the movie first hit theatres. The movie focuses on the demonic possession of a 12-year-old girl, Regan, and the numerous attempts to try to help her by scientific means. As each attempt fails, Regan falls deeper and deeper into the supernatural. The oldest movie on this list, The Exorcist still creates a sense of suspenseful horror and mystery that has the audience hanging on of the edge of their seats until the very last twist.

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