It seems that everytime the first of October rolls around I go back to my favorite horror movies and watch them. It's sort of my only Halloween activity now that I'm way too old to trick-or-treat (which trust me, is a heartbreaking reality). Still, sometimes going back and watching my horror favorites provides me with a month-long celebration to look forward to, similar to my James Bond Thanksgiving-to-Christmas countdown. The following is a list, some you may have seen, some you may have not, that is a painstakingly thought-out tribute to my favorite horror movies. Even if you don't take some new recommendations away from this, hopefully you'll enjoy nevertheless.

1. Dawn Of The Dead (1978) Without a doubt, Dawn Of The Dead is the grandaddy of all zombie movies. Don't confuse this with it's lesser-talented retarded make-over brother from 2002 that offered Ving Rames sporting a shotgun and spitting-out one liners like a funkadelic Dolemite mall-cop. No, this one features an epic story being told and unfolded in neck-breaking paces. It's fun, it's violent, it's quite possibly the most "realized" zombie movie around....that is to say, the characters live, fight, and die with consequences. They change, and the zombie outbreak provides obstacles for them to change their thinking in order to avoid getting bit. At the end, writer/director George Romero creates a weird and creepy American history in order to provide the viewer with even more escapism.

ALSO SEE: Day Of The Dead (1985)

2. The Evil Dead Trilogy (1981-1992) When Sam Rami hit the horror scene, the world didn't exact set itself on fire to see his debut. Rather, it was a bitch for him to find any kind of audience. It's been said that he sold VHS copies to local gas stations and mom-and-pop video stores. Still, even then the film wasn't an overnight success. In fact, if those early movie pirates didn't make illegal copies of the original Evil Dead, it's highly suspect if it would've caught-on at all. But it did, and horror audiences are all the wiser for it.

Perhaps the best thing about the trilogy is that it doesn't take itself seriously. The first begins simply enough: a bunch of teenagers go to vacation in a cabin in backwoods where-the-fuck find a reel-to-reel full of demon incantations. Throughout the night, they one-by-one fall victim and become possessed. They also turn into hilariously strong and psychotic demons. From there, Rami takes the first one into a graphic horror thrill-ride. To this day, I still cringe at some of the "fight" scenes, as they stretch way further than any imagination could to get that extra bit of gore.

With the second, Rami took a much more lighthearted approach, giving the trilogy's hero, Ash, a few more players to kick undead ass with. From here, we get such iconic images as the laughing demonic deerhead, a decapitated girlfriend dancing like a ballerina, and even an old hag screeching threats like "I'll swallow your soul". It's not so much about thrills as it is about realizing what it is. It's the three stooges meets silly low-budget horror movies, and it pulls no punches nor makes any apologies for it.

In the third (or, more accurately, the last ten minuets of the second), Ash it sent back to medieval times to do battle against the Army Of Darkness. Nice change-over, huh? Gone were the old days of ultra-violence, and here were the days of comedic hi-jinks to the fourth power. Make no qualms about it, Army Of Darkness was about 1/5 horror, 1/5 war movie, and 3/5 stooges and Mel Brooks having sex. This is why it's so original and fun. The movie, like the rest, starts fairly simple, and from there gets both odd and hilarious, eventually even pitting Ash against an evil form of himself (which leads an army of the dead to a great cinematic finish).

ALSO SEE: Drag Me To Hell (2009)

3. The Shining (1980) More a podium for Stanley Kubrick's film-making than a straight-up horror movie, The Shining just brings an over-whelming feel of quality to a genre lacking a lot of it. Based on Steven King's novel, The Shining features recovering alcoholic author Jack Torrence (played by the genius Jack Nicholson) and his wife and son stuck in a hotel for a very long winter. As time goes on and Jack can't write, he slowly begins to lose his grip on reality. He'd sell his soul for a drink and....well.....he pretty much does. From here, Torrence decides to go on a killing spree of sorts, chasing his family around the hotel with an axe. Pretty simplistic plot, but with Kubrick, certain aspects are shrouded in mystery (and more importantly, asked by Kubrick to let the viewer fill-in-the-blanks). That being said, Nicholson's performance is both witty, fun, and psychotic. Crazy has never quite been this good. Although the scares are sparse, or quite possibly none, the film is highly enjoyable as a project in which to scrutinize about how great the late Stanley Kubrick really was.

ALSO SEE: A Clockwork Orange (1975)

4. Sleepaway Camp Trilogy (1983-1989) See now, this is a trilogy of films that pretty much splits itself right down the middle. While the first left me feeling bored and unimpressed, it was completely necessary in order to understand the next two. What came after, however, were two movies that celebrates the art of the kill with great humor and fun. Pretty much all you need to know is there's a girl named Angela who works at a camp councellor and kills off almost everybody. The lack of plot is more than made up for by the interesting and funny ways Angela kills the campers. For instance, in Sleepaway Camp 3: Unhappy Campers, just TRY and look at a lawnmower the same way after viewing. In the same hour and twenty minuets, I found myself never being able to look at AJAX cleaner the same as well. If you're interested, I recommend buying the box set. It's cheap, and it's one of the most well put together sets I've owned in a while. It also rewards the viewers and fans by giving them an extra bonus disc with scenes from the canceled fourth installment. For me, the Sleepaway Camp Trilogy stands as the ultimate set of slasher movies (way above Jason Voorhees in my opinion, although these movies obviously took a few notes from the Friday The 13th Saga).

ALSO SEE: Halloween (1978-2006)

5. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre II (1985) Cursed by assumptions from the original's fans over what exactly a sequel should be, TCM2 had a long, uphill battle to fight for itself. It's not much like the first, and in fact, it's not much like any of the other installments. Rather, it's yet another horror-comedy that gives Leatherface and company a bit more of a side story. In here, Leatherface and family stalk a small southern town's radio station DJ....and that's pretty much it. The only cop investigating the prior cases of the suspected psycho family is a lose-cannon who goes by the name of Lefty (played perfectly by Dennis Hopper). The movie bends and plays with humor until the final outing, taking place in the Sawyer family lair. More importantly, this is one of the only movies I've seen that features a CHAINSAW FIGHT.....once again, a fucking CHAINSAW FIGHT! Easily one of the most innovative and overlooked 80's horror movies, it's easy to draw conclusions as to where Rob Zombie took heavy influence to make his own films with.

ALSO SEE: House Of 1,000 Corpses (2003) and The Devil's Rejects (2005)

The list could go on for days, but I'd much rather give you a shopping list, as these are slightly more than honorable mentions, but slightly less than the examples giving above:

The Gate
Nightmare On Elm Street Saga
Child's Play Saga
High Tension
John Carpenter's The Thing
Videodrome
Shaun Of The Dead
Dead Alive