Just in time for Halloween, there has not been a shortage of horror movies. As someone who enjoys horror, I had to check these movies out for myself. Here are my spoiler free reviews for some of the most popular horror movies released in the past couple of months. Please note that these films are rate R.

Totally Killer ® 

 On Halloween night, 35 years after the horrifying deaths of three high school students, the murderer reappears to take his fourth victim. Jamie, the daughter of the fourth victim, flees to a time-traveling photo booth her best friend has been working on, and it instantly transports her back to 1987, two days before the iconic murders, when she sees the killer face to face. Jamie needs to work with her mother from high school to find the killer and return to the present.

The Halloween vibe of the film immediately grabbed me. The story takes off fast and maintains its pace throughout. I never got tired and, in fact, became more and more involved as time passed. The story is entertaining, with a wonderful mix of well-timed, smart comedy, exciting horror scenes, and touching scenes scattered throughout. The nods to and references to other movies, including Scream and Back to the Future, are right on target and consistently effective. The killings and gore are not overly graphic. This is an entertaining film, if you can get past the disappointing murderer reveal, the whole time travel nonsense, and the bare minimum attempt to make it look like it’s set in 1987.

Talk to Me ®

A group of friends get addicted to the new experience of conjuring ghosts with an embalmed hand until one of them goes too far and unleashes horrific otherworldly forces.

The existential loneliness that can result from losing a loved one is shown in this movie quite well. Despite not being particularly groundbreaking, the psychological insight provided is definitely significant. In terms of how straightforward the idea was and how they reinvented more traditional tropes to make it uniquely their own. The montage in the middle, which is amusing, disturbing, and thrilling, is one of the horror film’s highlights. Media on teenage culture rarely feels as attuned to the circumstances and feelings that young people are actually experiencing. The message is delivered quite well, even though at times it seems a little forced.

Saw X ®

 John Kramer travels to Mexico for an experimental medical procedure between the events of “Saw” and “Saw Il,” hoping for a cure for his disease. What he finds instead is that the entire operation is a scam designed to exploit the most vulnerable. With a renewed sense of purpose, the murderer goes back to work, using cunning, insane, and clever traps to turn the tables on the scam artists in his own violent style.

A decent balance between unexpectedly emotional sections and brutal slaughter. While it doesn’t in any way reinvent the horror engine, it does offer more than enough terrifying, squirmy traps to give you the full Saw experience, and it is definitely better than the more recent entries in the franchise. The movie does a really good job at capturing what makes Jigsaw so interesting. Despite everything, you have to sympathize for the guy as he battles his illness in the first part of the film. The horror element of the movie takes center stage in the second part of the movie. 

Though not every trap is as visually striking as one might wish, they are all rather inventive. They still give you that uneasy feeling in which people who watch the Saw movies go for in the first place. 

The Nun II ®

Sister Irene returns four years after the events in the Abbey of St. Carta and encounters Valak, the Nun, the evil entity.

The most flattering thing I can say is that it wasn’t completely dull. It’s not horrible if all you want is a ton of soulless scares every two minutes. I found the story to be uninteresting in the first two acts, and it felt like it was trying too hard to be scary when it wasn’t. Nor was there a justification for this to continue for as long as it did. It seemed to go on forever, even when I believed it was about to finish. 

These 4 movies will scare you all year long.