Have you already exhausted your collection of Jason Voorhees blu-rays? Well, fret not, horror fiend! We’ve got 13 horror films for your Friday the 13th that have absolutely nothing to do with Friday the 13th! These flicks are ripe with superstition and flavored with urban legends, perfect for marathoning on a rare Friday the 13th occurring in the hauntiest month of the year, October!
So pop some popcorn, grab your four leaf clover, and settle in for 13 Horror Movies to watch this Friday the 13th that aren’t Friday the 13th!
1- The Black Cat (1934)
The Black Cat is an early American Horror film starring the iconic duo Béla Lugosi and Boris Karloff. Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer. In Hungary, honeymooners Joan and Peter Allison share their train compartment with Dr. Vitus Verdegast, a kind but tragic man. After their bus crashes in a mountain storm and Joan is injured, the travellers seek refuge in the home, built upon the site of a bloody battlefield of famed architect Hjalmar Poelzig. There, cat-phobic Verdegast learns his wife’s fate, grieves for his lost daughter, and must play a game of chess for Allison’s life.
Very Superstitious
Cats. This film is about Black Cats.
2- Candyman (1992)
Graduate student Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) be-friends Anne-Marie McCoy (Vanessa Williams) while researching superstitions in a housing project on Chicago’s North Side. Helen soon learns about the Candyman (Tony Todd), a knife-wielding figure of urban legend that her neighbors believethe assailant of a recent murder. After a mysterious man matching the Candyman’s description begins stalking her, Helen comes to fear that the legend may be all too real.
Very Superstitious
Melting Pot. A bit of ‘the man with a hook for a hand’ with a dusting of ‘Bloody Mary‘.
3- Urban Legend (1998)
Gruesome murders resembling urban legends plague a university. After Michelle (Natasha Gregson Wagner) is murdered by someone hiding in her car, Natalie (Alicia Witt) begins to notice a pattern. Her suspicions grow stronger when her own roommate is strangled to death, both fashioned after popular legends. As the bodies pile up, Natalie struggles to find the killer before she becomes the next victim.
Very Superstitious
All of them. Literally all of them.
4 – Bloody Mary (2006)
When a group of psychiatric hospital nurses invoke the spirit of Bloody Mary, the slaughter begins. First, a young nursing assistant disappears, her body never found. Now, patients are turning up dead-battered beyond recognition, soaked in blood, their eyes ripped out. Mary’s wrath has begun. Freed from her eternal prison behind the mirror’s reflection, she unleashes a murderous, maniacal fury upon the asylum. Moving at will through mirrors, she strikes when her victims are unsuspecting, defenseless, and alone. Bloody Mary’s legend is real, her vengeance is fatal, and to free her, all you have to do is say her name.
Very Superstitious
Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary.
5 – The Mothman Prophecies (2002)
Based on true events in Point Pleasant, Virginia, The Mothman Prophecies examines a series of inexplicable occurrences surrounding strange sightings. A man (Richard Gere) is driven to investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding his wife’s (Debra Messing) death — and how they might be connected to the strange phenomena in a town four hundred miles away.
Very Superstitious
The Mothman
6- When a Stranger Calls (1979)
Jill Johnson is babysitting one night for a physician and his wife. During the evening, she is taunted by a mysterious phone caller. e asks, Jill, frightned for her safety, calls the police. The police successfully trace his next call and discover something horrifying – the calls are coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE. Police arrive and Jill narrowly escapes into the arms of Lt. Clifford. Officers soon discover that the children had been savagely murdered hours ago by the caller, who had been using an alternate phone line. 7 years later, the murderer escapes from a mental hospital and resumes his twisted calls – this time going after Jill’s husband, Steven – and their children. Clifford, now a P.I. hired by the father of the murdered children, hunts the murderer all these years later.
Very Superstitious
The Babysitter and the Killer In the House
7 – The Village (2004)
M Night Shyamalan’s The Village revolves around a desolate pioneer town in Pennsylvania. The residents of this town live by strict rules – they are not to leave the village or the monsters beyond their boundaries will surely attack them. Two residents, Lucius and Ivy, fall in love. But when Noah – a man with an intellectual disability and whom also has feelings for Ivy, finds out, Noah attacks Lucius. He will die if Ivy (who is blind) does not breach the borders and find help to save Lucius.
Very Superstitious
8 – The Wraith (1986)
Packard Walsh and his motorized gangterrorize an Arizona desert town where they force drivers to drag-race so they can ‘win’ their vehicles. After Walsh stabs teenager Jamie Hankins to death for being intimate with a girl whom Walsh wants for himself, the mysterious Jake Kesey arrives, an extremely cool motor-biker with an invincible car. Jake befriends Jamie’s girlfriend Keri Johnson, takes Jamie’s sweet brother Billy under his wing and manages what Sheriff Loomis can not – the methodical and otherworldly elimination of Packard’s criminal gang.
Very Superstitious
9 – Triangle (2009)
The Triangle revolves around the passengers of a yachting trip in the Atlantic Ocean who, when struck by mysterious weather conditions, jump to another ship only to experience greater havoc on the open seas.
Very Superstitious
10 – Cat People (1942)
Irena Dubrovna (Simone Simon), a New York City–based fashion designer who hails from Serbia, begins a romance with marine engineer Oliver Reed (Kent Smith). After the couple gets married, Oliver becomes concerned about Irena’s notion that she is cursed and may transform into a large cat in the heat of passion. Confiding in his beautiful assistant, Alice Moore (Jane Randolph), about his marital issues, Oliver unwittingly triggers Irena’s curse, with tragic results.
Very Superstitious
11 – Black Christmas (1974)
As winter break begins, a group of sorority sisters, including Jess (Olivia Hussey) and the often inebriated Barb (Margot Kidder), begin to receive anonymous, lascivious phone calls. Initially, Barb eggs the caller on, but stops when he responds threateningly. Soon, Barb’s friend Claire (Lynne Griffin) goes missing from the sorority house, and a local adolescent girl is murdered, leading the girls to suspect a serial killer is on the loose. But no one realizes just how near the culprit is.
Very Superstitious
The Babysitter and the Killer In the House
12 – The Hitcher (1986)
While transporting a car from Chicago to San Diego, Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell) picks up a hitchhiker named John Ryder (Rutger Hauer), who claims to be a serial killer. After a daring escape, Jim hopes to never see Ryder again. But when he witnesses the hitchhiker murdering an entire family, Jim pursues Ryder with the help of truck-stop waitress Nash (Jennifer Jason Leigh), pitting the rivals against each other in a deadly series of car chases and brutal murders.
Very Superstitious
13 – I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
A year after running over a fisherman and dumping his body in the water, four friends reconvene when Julie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) receives a frightening letter telling her that their crime was seen. While pursuing who he thinks is responsible for the letter, Barry (Ryan Phillippe) is run over by a man with a meat hook. The bloodletting only increases from there, as the killer with the hook continues to stalk Julie, Helen (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Ray (Freddie Prinze Jr.).
Very Superstitious
