Cinematical

If you have a teenager in your house, you already know they think everything their parents suggest is lame. Pop one of these flicks in the DVD player on family movie night, though, and you just might up your cool quotient a notch or two. Your teen is probably familiar with the more recent horror flicks that have come down the pike, but a marathon night of some of these films will show him that mom and dad know horror, too. Besides, every horror fan should have a basic knowledge of some of the old-school stuff. (And yeah, I know there are a lot of films I left off this list, but I could only pick seven, and these are my personal faves ... what are yours?)

Scream -- I can't say I'm a real horror girl, but if Scream had come out when I was a teenager, my friends and I would have watched it over and over again. It's fun, it's creative, it has (like so many great horror flicks) a scary killer in a mask. Who could the killer be? Half the fun of Scream is that the killer could be anyone -- after watching this film, your teen might just re-evaluate her own friends. Which of them might have the potential to be a psycho killer? You just never know.
Teen Wolf -- Back in high school, I once dated a guy who thought he was a werewolf. At least, he was so enamored of werewolves that he almost convinced himself -- and me -- that he was one. He was so into werewolves, that when Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video came out on MTV, he recorded it on his parents state-of-the-art (for 1983) VCR and watched it obsessively until he knew the dance by heart. He showed up for the Halloween Dance the next October dressed as Michael Jackon's teen werewolf in Thriller -- and then insisted upon doing the Thriller dance in its entirety when the DJ played the song. People howled at me in the halls for weeks. Yeah, high school was great. By the time Teen Wolf came out in 1985, Wolf Boy and I had parted ways, but I still think of him fondly whenever I watch Michael J. Fox discovering there's more going on inside him than the ravages of puberty that hit the average teen. If your teen thinks having a pimple when you wake up means the end of his social life, he's sure to appreciate the greater potential social stigma of turning into a werewolf.

The Lost Boys -- Your teen probably knows who Jack Bauer is, but have they ever seen Kiefer Sutherland in one of his best early roles, as a sexy teen vampire? The Lost Boys is freaky good fun, AND it has both Coreys (Haim and Feldman), and a mom in peril from a creepy new boyfriend. Teens dig anything vampirish and dark, and Lost Boys was goth long before goth was cool. Just don't be surprised if your teen starts looking a little pale, sleeping all day, and slinking around dressed in black like Jami Gertz (hey, this is the sultry younger Gertz, not the older matronly version we were reintroduced to years later via Twister). You can always get your younger kid to say, "Look at your reflection in the mirror. You're a creature of the night Michael, just like out of a comic book! You're a vampire Michael! My own brother, a g***amn, sh*t-sucking vampire. You wait 'till mom finds out, buddy!"

Friday the 13th -- Who needs abstinence-only education when you can teach your teen everything you want him or her to know about why not to run around in short-shorts and bikinis and engage in teenage sex by leaving a copy of Friday the 13th lying around? I suppose any of the sequels would suffice as well, but it was my first date with Jason Voorhees that made me mindful of going off into the woods with the boys at camp. Actually, I never wanted to go to camp after I saw this film. Lakes, woods, and cabins just didn't seem as appealing after that, somehow. On the plus side, Friday the 13th also teaches creativity -- just look at all the ways Jason comes up with to off the objects of his ... affections.

Halloween -- Another cautionary tale, this classic horror fare features everyone's favorite little brother, Michael Myers, whose favorite holiday is Halloween. Of course, Michael prefers the tricks to the treats -- and his tricks aren't the TPing the neighbors trees or bag-of-burning dog-poop variety, either. What I never got about Halloween, though (although this could be said about a lot of horror flicks) is how Michael ever managed to catch anyone to begin with. All these healthy, nubile young teens running about, and the only one who manages to outrun the lumbering murderer is the quiet bookworm? That should tell you something, kids.

Nightmare on Elm Street -- Another Wes Craven film (overall, I like Scream better for pure entertainment, but Nightmare is great horror, especially for teens), this one delves into the dream world, where if you die in your dreams, you really will die. Pretty teenager Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) has a serious sleep disorder, caused by horrific nightmares featuring one of the baddest slashers to ever grace the big screen, Freddy Krueger. Freddy, with his freaky knife fingers, gave me nightmares for weeks; all these years later, he's guaranteed to send shivers up the spine of the most finicky teen horror fan.

Young Frankenstein -- This one's a comedy, not a scary one, but every teen needs to see Mel Brooks' classic Frankenstein parody at least once. I guarantee, once they've seen it once, they'll want to see it over and over again, and probably they'll drive you crazy quoting lines from the film. When I was in high school, my friends and I watched Young Frankenstein over and over again. The only films we watched more than this one were The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. (Why yes, we did also play Dungeons and Dragons, thanks for asking -- I was Elantra, a chaotic-good half-elf, half-human ... ah, those were the days...)