Dawn of The Dead (2004)

Well, the original is my favorite zombie movie and this is pretty damn close as a runner up. A very spiritual successor of it’s namesake, this ‘Dawn’ has an interesting spin on characters and story. It basically takes the largest premise of the original, what happens if survivors took refuge in a mall, and imports modern problems and dynamics into it. The only concern I have is the use of ‘fast zombies’. I just don’t like them. But hey, if that’s my only complaint, you are doing pretty good.

Spoopy Fact: The scene where Ving Rhames’ character is getting stitches in his arm, the actress sewing him actually pierced his skin with the needle. he just grinned and bared the pain for the scene.

It Follows (2015)

METAPHOR CITYYYYY! This slow burning stalker film is essentially an anti-STD PSA. Sort of. A mysterious entity follows around with the intention of killing whomever “it” has been passed to…via hooking up. The only way to stay safe is to pass “it” to someone else. Obviously though, you aren’t going to tell someone what is going on so it totally plays on the fear of someone knowingly transmitting something to you.

It’s not very gory but it’s got great jump scares and a heavy atmosphere. Certainly one of the better horror ideas of the last five years.