Welcome to the first annual—perhaps the only—Pepper Bough Halloween Movie Tournament!

Over the next nine school days, you will have the opportunity to vote for your favorite horror movies from this century, with the champion being crowned on none other than Halloween night.

The game is simple. Like any tournament, we have set up brackets in which horror movies can square off against each other in individual matchups. On each entry, there will be a poll for you to vote for your favorite of the two. The winner will move on to the next round.

Today’s first round match-up is . . .

1. Hereditary vs. 8. Candyman

Our staff has put together some defense for each film. Take a look, then make your vote!

When “Hereditary” was unleashed upon the world in 2018, no one was ready for the potent mix of family drama and extremely weird horror that has come to define the films of Ari Aster. And let’s be honest, is anyone ready yet? “Hereditary” is still a flat-out frightening film about a family coping with an earth shattering amount of grief that may or may not be caused by a cult of Paemon-worshipping naked old people. It has a ton of memorable moments, from perhaps one of the most grisly deaths ever committed to film to one of the most quotable when Toni Collette screams “Wipe that face off your face!”

One of the biggest knocks on 1992’s “Candyman” is that its really all about white guilt. The movie takes place in the poverty-stricken Cabrini-Green projects, a real place that was eventually demolished because it was so unihabitable, and that is where the lily white heroine encounters the tragic Candyman. When Nia DaCosta added her twist on the film in 2021, she chose to center the black experience. And the result is a powerful take on how the history of violence against black americans impacts current generations. The terror is real, and the history even moreso.