YouTube can be the home for lots of not-so-great things. But one of its big positives lately is how many fantastic movie reaction channels have popped up. It’s heartening to see how many younger fans are exposing themselves to classic films and sharing their love of cinema to a younger generation. And a great deal of these reactions are for horror movies.
So what better way to celebrate Halloween than with some of the best horror movie reactions out there? Here are some of our very favorites this year:
Halloween
You can’t do Halloween season movies without doing, well….Halloween. Lakia Jai TV won our hearts this year with her Gen-Z reaction videos for the entire Star Wars saga. But, for spooky season, she’s experiencing the terror of “The Shape” in his original October 31 murder spree. She sums up the original movie as “just Mr. Myers stalking and dropping bodies,” and that’s not an incorrect assessment.
The Fly
Shaun and Tom at Cinema Rules have a relatively new YouTube reaction channel, and they’ve started by doing a deep dive into classic horror. Why horror? Their answer is pretty simple: “The adrenaline you get from watching horror movies compares to being on a theme park ride! You laugh you cry you’re nervous and excited, you get an entire range of emotions that reflect well in our reaction videos. And because of this horror movies are nothing but pure entertainment and who doesn’t love to be entertained?” Can’t argue with that.
The Shining
Nasser lives in the United Arab Emirates, and has been reacting mostly to classic ’80s sci-fi movies on his channel. But for spooky season, he’s dipping his toes into horror. Actually, by watching The Shining, it’s not really dipping your toe. It’s jumping into the deep end.
Carrie
While we’re on the Stephen King tip, 17 year-old Marcos of the Marcos Movies Channel has been experiencing a ton of classic horror films for the very first time. And the original King adaptation (and still one of the best) is Brian de Palma’s adaptation of Carrie. Marcos’ face during the prom scene is priceless.
Dimension Films
The Witches, Scream, Poltergeist, and Evil Dead
Trixie Mattel and Katya are two of the most popular drag queens do ever emerge out of RuPaul’s DragRace, and rule YouTube with their show UNHhhh. So it’s no wonder Netflix asked them to react to some of their horror selections this Halloween. Among them are Scream, Poltergeist, The Witches, and Evil Dead.
A Nightmare on Elm Street
If you’ve never seen the original A Nightmare on Elm Street, and only know it from pop culture, you might not realize that Freddy Krueger wasn’t always just a campy jokester. J.Mark Swartzentruber and his wife Asia have found out how damn scary he was in the original Wes Craven film was in their reaction to this all-time classic.
Hereditary
Not all of the online reactors are just watching the older classics. Some of them are newer films, like Hereditary. The Canadian-based Lost In Nostalgia channel recently tackled Ari Aster’s deeply disturbing modern masterpiece, and these young filmmaker’s faces during a certain scene involving Toni Collette and a pair of scissors is everything.
The Conjuring
Another modern horror film that now qualifies as a classic is James Wan’s The Conjuring. TheMikeLawz channel recently dropped his reaction, and although he’s skeptical of the whole “based on a true story” part of the movie, it still scared the crap out of him. Listen, it still scares the crap out of us!
The Exorcist
The best YouTube horror reactions by far though are reserved for The Exorcist. They almost always start out the same too. “This movie is almost fifty years old, how disturbing can it be?” Then, it gets to THOSE scenes, and everyone’s jaws just drop. These are the best reactions to William Friedken’s all-time classic.
Ashleigh Burton decided to watch this movie for the first time at 4AM for her channel. Maybe not a wise move. Although by the time you’re done, the sun is coming up, so maybe it is a good idea.
Natalie Gold
YouTuber Natalie Gold was also not prepared for how deeply effed-up The Exorcist is. Nope, not at all.
And all of these are just the tip of the iceberg. With Halloween being a largely indoor event this year, watching these delightful reactions might be the best way to spend the holiday.
Featured Image: Lakia Jai TV / Cinema Rules
