For a marathon to work, you need a few films that people already love, at least one genuine discovery, and something that sparks a conversation at the end.
The 80s and 90s are where a lot of cinema's DNA was written. Films that set the templates still running today.
Horror works best when it earns the dread before deploying it. The best films in the genre build something you care about, then threaten it.
On a stormy night, young Jim, who transports a luxury car from Chicago to California to deliver it to its owner, feeling tired and sleepy, picks up a mysterious hitchhiker, who has appeared out of nowhere, thinking that a good conversation will help him not to fall asleep. He will have enough time to deeply regret such an unmeditated decision.
Seymour Krelborn is a nerdy orphan working at Mushnik's; a flower shop in urban Skid Row. He harbors a crush on fellow co-worker, Audrey Fulquard, and is berated by Mr. Mushnik daily. One day, Seymour finds a very mysterious unidentified plant which he calls Audrey II. The plant seems to have a craving for blood and soon begins to sing for it's supper.
While staying at a hotel in England with his grandmother, Helga, a young boy named Luke inadvertently spies on a convention of witches. The Grand High Witch reveals a plan to turn all children into mice via a magical formula. When they discover the eavesdropper, the witches test the formula on him. Now, with the help of Helga and hotel manager Mr Stringer, Luke the mouse must fight back against the witches.
Val McKee and Earl Bassett are in a fight for their lives when they discover that their desolate town has been infested with gigantic, man-eating creatures that live below the ground.
Once an architect, Frank Bannister now passes himself off as an exorcist of evil spirits. To bolster his facade, he claims his "special" gift is the result of a car accident that killed his wife. But what he does not count on is more people dying in the small town where he lives. As he tries to piece together the supernatural mystery of these killings, he falls in love with the wife of one of the victims and deals with a crazy FBI agent.
What separates great horror from cheap horror is craft. These films use silence, anticipation, and image with the precision of a surgeon.
A young woman inherits an old hotel in Louisiana where, following a series of supernatural "accidents", she learns that the building was built over one of the entrances to Hell.
Five grisly tales from a 1950s-style comic, including a murdered father rising from beyond, a bizarre meteor, a vengeful husband, a mysterious crate's occupant, and a plague of cockroaches.
Francesco Dellamorte is the groundskeeper at a cemetery where the dead just won't stay dead-and it's up to him to deal with those who come back to life with a hunger for human flesh. But Dellamorte's job soon becomes much more complicated when he falls for an enigmatic young woman whose husband has recently died.
A hedonistic man finds a mysterious puzzle box that summons a group of gruesome beings known as the Cenobites. These otherworldly entities open the doors to a dominion where pain and pleasure are indivisible.
Nerdy high schooler Arnie Cunningham falls for Christine, a rusty 1958 Plymouth Fury, and becomes obsessed with restoring the classic automobile to her former glory. As the car changes, so does Arnie, whose newfound confidence turns to arrogance behind the wheel of his exotic beauty. Arnie's girlfriend Leigh and best friend Dennis reach out to him, only to be met by a Fury like no other.
A good cry isn't weakness - it's release. These films provide it honestly, without manipulation, without cheap sentiment.
These films work not in spite of their darkness but because of what they do with it. Fear, in the right hands, is one of cinema's most honest tools.