seeking (spooky) movie recommendations

For the past several years, I’ve treated October as an excuse to watch the Big Famous Movies (horror edition) that I’ve never gotten around to watching, plus some other ones thrown in that are on-theme. So far Natalie and I have done:

Draculas month, featuring:

• Dracula (1931). The One with Bela Lugosi
• Dracula’s Daughter (1936)
• Dracula (1958). Lee/Cushing, delightful
• The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974). Hammer Horror and Hong Kong martial arts crossover.
• Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992). has also inspired a different project, “watch every film costumed or designed by Eiko Ishioka”

Zombies month, featuring:

• Night of the Living Dead (1968)
• Dawn of the Dead (1978)
• Day of the Dead (1985)
• Evil Dead II (1987). watching Evil Dead in the Draculas year inspired the zombie theme
• One Cut of the Dead (2017)

Aliens month (ongoing this year!), featuring:

• Alien (1979)
• Aliens (1986)
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
• The Thing from Another World (1951)
• The Thing (1982)

So here’s where you come in: what are some important themes we could do? What goes on those lists? I’m largely looking for The Big Ones (like the Romero trilogy, Alien, Dracula, stuff like that), but give me any sleeper hits you think really should not be missed and what theme they go with. I don’t do great with loving depictions of torture or human-on-human violence, but if you think there’s something I really shouldn’t miss for cultural reasons, recommend it and let me know whether I should prepare myself going in.

Future themes we’re rotating in our minds include: Vampires (non-Dracula edition), Ghosts (The Shining, Poltergeist, etc), Horror Comedy (things like Evil Dead would go here), Witches, and Werewolves. Any major categories we missed? Recommendations for movies to add to theme year reprises are also welcome.