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Psychological TerrorJun 02 '03 (Updated Jun 03 '03) Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line When it's all in your mind, there's no escape! The scariest movies have a psychological dimension. PSYCHO changed film history in this regard. Before PSYCHO, there were bogeymen like Frankenstein and the Wolfman, or (by the 50s) creatures from outer space. After PSYCHO, the bogeyman is us! That's a scary thought, even after you leave the theater. All my picks are psychological horror films. I consider the top 5 or 6 scarier, because they are more believable. The lower ones have more of a supernatural dimension, although this (demonic possession and such) tends to be scarier after you leave the theater than slashers and space aliens (to those of us with a Catholic upbringing, anyway!) Another thing that makes many of these movies so scary is that they embody evil in the form of someone you'd expect to be a trusted steward or protector (the writer/father in SHINING, the professor in VANISHING and SILENCE, the moral philosopher in SEVEN, the inn-keeper in PSYCHO, elderly neighbors in ROSEMARY, and the mother in OTHERS. ) EXORCIST (and many others not on the list such as the DAMIEN movies) turns this around: evil is embodied in something we would otherwise cherish and protect (an innocent little girl). CONQUEROR WORM, SEVEN, and VANISHING share similar features I like. They all build gradually toward a final moment of revealed horror. And in each case, the horrible act depends on some flawed quality in the soul of the protagonist that leads to his spiritual or physical doom. My picks: 1. THE SHINING -- makes you believe that, in some weird circumstances or other, YOU could go totally berserk. 2. VANISHING -- mostly a mystery movie, which does not become "horror" until the final scene, one of the scariest moments of inescapable terror in film history. 3. SILENCE OF THE LAMBS -- humanity at its worst ( an educated, highly cultivated cannibal). 4. SEVEN -- an atmosphere of gory depravity in the sets is complemented by the dramatic tension among the lead characters. The final scenes bring on Kevin Spacey as a psycho-villain worthy of Hannibal Lecter, and an ending almost as shocking as the last scene in VANISHING. 5. PSYCHO -- the somewhat comical nature of the Anthony Hopkins character is easily parodied, but in the context of the film, it just makes him all the more creepy. 6. CONQUEROR WORM -- a 1968 film with Vincent Price. Like the SHINING and SEVEN, shows the audience how a rather "normal" fellow becomes consumed by maddening rage. 7. THE OTHERS -- creepy sets, fine acting, and a fairly good twist at the end set this apart from ordinary ghost stories. 8. THE EXORCIST -- rotating heads and levitating bodies might have detracted from the based-on-a -true-story credibility, if not for the director's timing and the camera work. 9. ROSEMARY'S BABY --Roman Polanski has the restraint never to show the baby (nor Satan, except briefly in a dream-like sequence and flashbacks). This places the fear-focus where it belongs, in the neurotic mind of the title character. 10. NINTH GATE -- Roman Polanski again, not nearly one of his best, but scary nonetheless. Another case of badness welling up gradually in the soul of an ordinary fellow (Johnny Depp), to consume him in the end.  |
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by luquillo
by carstairs38
