[When it comes to horror, I'm a scaredy-cat. I don't mind playing the occasional creepy video game, but I can't stand the thought of having my nerves shredded by the unspeakable horror of the big screen in a movie theater.

Make no mistake, it's not because I have anything against horror fans or horror filmmakers: I'm well aware of how popular this genre is. In fact, when I see some fans talk about their favorite films, it makes me want to become more familiar with horror myself.

Usually, the “Alien” movies are my limit, and even then, there were some scenes in “Alien: Romulus” that made me a little sick. So when I was planning my Halloween coverage this year, I decided to stop being a chicken and ask my fellow Tom's Guides for their horror movie recommendations. To my chagrin, they didn't refrain.

The fact that I want to see something I've never seen before, and not something with lots of blood and guts (I just puke.)

On top of that, I promised to be seriously scared, and every time I pressed the play button with a huge adrenaline rush. Here's what they made me watch and how freaked out I was.

I got off to a brilliantly creepy start with “The Witch.”

I'm already a certified Robert Eggers fanboy, fascinated by the strangeness of “The Lighthouse” and the brutality of the action-packed Nordic revenge thriller “The Northman.

First, slowly building tension, the film excels at establishing an uncomfortable atmosphere, building on isolation, family tensions, and religious fears, layering horrifyingly creepy imagery and an oppressive, unsettling mood.

The chills build slowly but incessantly until things take a full-blown dark turn, dragging you into the grim, hallucinatory black magic of the piece. It is evocative, engrossing, and chilling. I never want to see the scene where the whole apple is vomited up again.

Watch “The Witch” on Prime Video now

I'll be honest: “Talk to Me” never really caught on for me. I remember it being heavily advertised last year, and I was expecting an all-time supernatural thriller, but I was a bit disappointed.

It's a fun setup for a teenager obsessed with reaching out and connecting with the other side, and it hides a critical look at social media and mimicking what's on the internet. However, “Talk to Me” left me a little cold, given that I was expecting a scare, but wasn't quite as stuffed in and wasn't drawn in by the creepy atmosphere.

That is not to dismiss the Filippou brothers' work. However, I don't think “Talk to Me” lived up to my expectations.

Watch “Talk to Me” on Hulu now

Oh, this sucked. I was told that this “trick-or-steal” experiment was meaningless unless I was genuinely terrified by at least one of the things I watched, so “The Exorcist” was added to my watch list. [29] [30] Given how widespread “The Exorcist” is and how familiar I am with its many iconic horrors, I expected that the film would not scare me as much. But I was wrong. Knowing what was in store for me did not prevent the film from being terrifying.

The relatively calm, slow-paced opening serves to effectively heighten the sense of dread. From then on, however, we are faced with increasingly harrowing scenes as the demons take over.

I think it speaks to the quality of the film that even now, more than 50 years later, I genuinely felt sick to my stomach in the middle.

Watch “The Exorcist” on Max now

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