Friday, October 30, 2009
My 10 favorite horror movies....
If you feel like watching something creepy on All Hallows Eve, may I recommend one of my 10 favorite Horror movies…....
10. The Ring (2002) Gore Verbinski
Before all the hype more or less killed the scares in this film, remake of the Japanese film Ringu, delivered plenty of atmosphere and scares. At the same time it paid homage to plenty of horror staples like dimension bending TV's, scary little girls, people being marked in photos for death and me being creeped out and loving it.
9. Suspiria (1977) Dario Argento
Dario Argento's Suspiria is the great auteur’s best film. Bloodshed mixed with wonderful use of Techicolor makes the whole thing seem like a nightmarish hallucination. The whole thing may not make perfect sense but it’s horror as high art and the visuals are just so beautifully shot that you can’t help but captivated. A scene involving a girl with very little clothing and a pit of barbed wire still gets me. Not to mention having a blind man get killed by his own seeing eye dog. Disturbing yes, and just a little funny too.
8. 28 Days Later (2002) Danny Boyle
Visceral, unrelenting and extremely effective Not a Zombie movie, according to Danny Boyle, 28 Days Later reinvigorated the long stagnate zombie movie genre. This movie offers some of the best zombie scares around and the director puts you right in the middle of the action, by shooting the whole thing with digital cameras, the tension and immediacy of the predicament is always palpable.
7. A Nightmare on .. (1984) Wes Craven
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Before Freddy Krueger lost all his fright and became a walking one liner machine in the lesser sequels, he was pretty scary. Wes Craven's first foray into nightmares was a head-trip of a movie that is still effective today; just watch that scene where Freddy is walking down the alley with the super long arms in the dark and tell me it doesn’t freak you out.
6. Poltergeist (1982) Tope Hooper
An underrated, sometimes forgotten, ghost movie that still packs a punch today. Plenty of everyday things are turned sinister in this Tobe Hooper classic. It became very hard to look at clowns, tree branches and especially TV's in the same way after watching this flick.
5. Halloween (1978) John Carpenter
John Carpenter's low budget film slasher is still the standard by which all slasher films should be measured against. Simplistic and precise, it laid all the now recognizable plot points of slasher movies. Jamie Lee Curtis kicks offs off her career in this flick at the tender age of 19. Now a days you'll know what's coming but with such an effective use of atmosphere it can still give you the creeps.
4. Dawn of the Dead (1978) George A. Romero
George A. Romero more or less created the modern zombie horror genre with his groundbreaking film Night of the Living Dead with Dawn of the Dead he perfected it. Now I've never, even as a kid, been a fan of the blue zombies but if you can get past that you have one of the best horror films ever made. Gory, funny and laced with Romero’s social commentary Dawn of the Dead is one of top horror movies ever made.
3. The Thing (1982) John Carpenter
John Carpenter's best film, The Thing, is a marvel of the now lost art of creature effects; and they still hold up today. Carpenter's movie moves at an perfectly deliberate and paranoid pace. When the Thing makes its first and subsequent appearances, it's the stuff of glorious nightmares.
2. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) Tobe Hooper
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is over 30 years old and still a scary piece of filmmaking. This films effectiveness is directly related to its budget. It feels grimly dirty and real. That's the main reason this film's remake could never live up, it just look to clean and proper, reeking of ..Hollywood.. hokum. One of the favorite and most manic scenes has to be the finale with Marilyn Chambers covered in blood in the back of the pick up screaming her brains out as Leatherface waves around that chainsaw in the dawn sunlight before we cut to the credits.
The Exorcist (1973) William Friedkin
Friedkin's The Exorcist is still the ....Mount.. ..Olympus.... of horror films, for me at least, and too be honest I doubt anyone will ever top this masterpiece. Directed with a detached almost cold point of view, the audience is subjected to subtle jabs then in your face scares that build as the movie processes. The acting in this film is top notch, especially note worthy are Ellen Burstyn, Jason Miller and, of course, Linda Blair. The scene with the final exorcism maybe the most effective horror movie climax ever. A movie that's not just about silly scares instead this one get under your skin
