‘Doctor Strange’ Director Knows Exactly What To Watch on Halloween

Prior to scoring a huge blockbuster success by directing Doctor Strange, filmmaker Scott Derrickson helmed movies like Sinister and The Exorcism of Emily Rose. To get in the mood for Halloween, Derrickson recommended fans check out The Witch, Green Room and Suspiria.

“I can always recommend Halloween movies!” Derrickson gushed to Entertainment Weekly. “Two of the best films I saw [recently] wereThe Witch and Green Room. I loved both of them.”

The Witch focuses on a family on the outskirts of a colonial community who begin to experience turmoil following the disappearance of their infant child. Paranoia begins to grip the family, as they believe they have fallen victim to a witch living in the nearby woods.

The director’s other suggestion, Green Room, has terror rooted in far more real-world threats.

“With Green Room, it’s the transportation into what felt like a very realistic, and believable, frightening world, this backwoods, white supremacist punk club, where things go wrong,” Derrickson detailed. “There was just something about the immersion into that world that was upsetting and disturbing from the very start. Don’t Breathe was also good.”

Not all of the director’s recommendations were contemporary films, going on to recommend another witch-centric horror film.

“If you want to go back, I can make recommendations all day,” Derrickson admitted. “Suspiria, the Dario Argento movie, is moving its way up to becoming my favorite horror film of all-time. I’ve watched it again in the last year, and every time I see it, its influence on me continues to grow. Probably the most influential horror film on me personally, that I’ve seen. If people haven’t see that, that’s the one to check out.”

There’s no better time to get caught up on Suspiria, as there’s a remake of it on the way. The update of the story of a ballet school in Eastern Europe that has connections to the supernatural will star Tilda Swinton and Chloe Grace Moretz.

Argento’s original film is praised not just for its story and visuals, but also its score, provided by Goblin. The remake will feature music composed by Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, his first venture into crafting a film score.