Summer holds a special place in the hearts of horror movie fans. Maybe it’s because summer camp is basically a genre, and it looks something like this: Heat makes randy campers sweaty, and that makes them strip off their clothes, and that makes deranged psychopaths extra crazy enough to plunge axes in faces.

Summer is also one of my favorite times of the year to watch horror movies; give me AC and give me death. (Christmas is the other.) New York is a treasure island for horror fans, with robust first-run and repertory calendars at the Quad, IFC Center, Nitehawk, Alamo Drafthouse, Metrograph and other theaters. When it’s too hot to go outside, I’ll turn off the lights in my apartment and watch slasher films until my Tater Tots and wine coolers run out.

Whether you want to be immersed in maniacs for a night or an entire weekend, here’s one horror fan’s guide to films and series you can see in theaters or stream right now. (Just so you know: I don’t care for zombies, and I don’t do sharks.) Some of these picks are for newbies. Others are for the “I’ve-seen-‘Martyrs’”-level aficionados. Most are for folks who like to be scared but still get to sleep at night.