There are some people whose advice on certain topics you definitely shouldn’t trust. But Phoebe Bridgers on horror movies? It just makes sense. The beloved LA musician and Saddest Factory Records CEO painted over her childhood self with a bedsheet ghost for the artwork of her 2017 debut album, Stranger In The Alps. On the cover of her second record Punisher (the best thing to have happened in 2020), Phoebe is photographed alone in the desert wearing her skeleton costume — something she’s rarely seen without these days. The release is full of haunted houses, death, the apocalypse and a song called “Halloween”. She’s kind of an expert on the subject; the holiday’s unofficial patron saint.
If you follow Phoebe on social media (and you really ought to), you’ll be familiar with the fan practise of spotting a pale-faced white-haired Halloween decoration — typically a ghost, witch or ghoul — and asking the internet, “Is this Phoebe Bridgers?” because, well, it’s uncanny. She’s everywhere right now.
Jokes aside, Halloween is coming up and, feeling overwhelmed with the number of scary movies out there, we asked Phoebe to fill us in on her favourites. Expect a couple of modern classics, an emotional stop-motion creeper, a truly scary doc laying out some political horrors and a whole lot of vampires.
Baby, it’s Halloween and we can watch anything… but Phoebe highly recommends you watch the following:
Pan’s Labyrinth, 2006
“I was not allowed to see this movie when I was a kid, so I watched it for the first time the other day and it destroyed my life. In a good way. 10 out of 10.”
The Lost Boys, 1987
“A homoerotic vampire movie that is, apparently, a metaphor about the Jerry Falwell era of conservatism taking over America. What more could you ask for?”
Hereditary, 2018
“The best horror movie out there. So good in fact, I will be seeing it in my nightmares for years to come and will never consensually watch it again.”
13th, 2016
“A documentary about a dystopian world where slavery never ended, prisons are privatised and for profit, huge companies profit on slave labour and the government successfully stops a huge percentage of the population from voting.”
Frankenweenie, 2012
“Watched this on a plane and it made me cry.”
The entire Twilight series, 2008-2012
“Abstinence propaganda films full of coercion and emotional blackmail. Very scary.”