Scapp70's Top 10 Horror Movies
Feb 24 '06 (Updated Apr 06 '06)
The Bottom Line Boo!
I am a huge fan of the horror movie genre, they are among my favorite movies. There are many horror movies out there that kind of blow, meaning that they're not scary. I'm not a big fan of the "horror" movies that do not scare you, and they happen to fall into the horror category because they have lots of gore. I'm bored with all of the Friday the 13th type of slasher films. To me, they aren't scary. I don't think they try to be scary, but to shock the viewer with the gory scenes. I thought it would be a good idea if I compiled a list of ten movies that are not only scary, but they have a great replay quality to them. I have viewed these movies that are listed here many times, yet they can still scare me too, especially when I watch them alone in the dark. My wife hates scary movies, so if I am going to watch these, it's me alone. I guess I don't mind too much, it makes it scarier.
10. Stephen King's It (1990) is, in my opinion, Stephen King's only scary made-for-television movies. This is based on Stephen King's extra long novel IT. The book is hailed as one of his best from King fans. The story is about a boogeyman that only the children can see. It is set in the 50s and then 30 years later in the 80s. The boogeyman's name is Pennywise the Clown. Pennywise seems to show up every 30 years in a small Maine town called Derry. Every 30th summer, Pennywise comes and kills a bunch of kids. A special circle of seven children cut one visit, in the 50s, short. Pennywise comes back in the 80s to collect some revenge on the circle of seven, who are now adults obviously. The stars include John Ritter, Annette O'Toole, Harry Anderson, Tim Reed and Richard Thomas. There are many scary scenes, and the fact that the children could not seek the assistance of an adult added to the terror.
9. The Ring (2002) was a horror movie phenomenon when it came out. That's not saying much, I mean Final Destination was somewhat of a phenom but the scare factor from that film was not that high. People had gotten scared at The Ring though. The premise is just as silly as something like Final Destination, but it seemed to work here because of the details. The movie is about a video tape. If you watch a certain video tape, someone calls your house and you die exactly one week later. The Ring doesn't even explain who was calling you on the phone, but it didn't seem to matter. Number one detail was that the video tape was very creepy, very scary. It has nightmarish visuals and this seems to get into the viewer's antennae of fear. The second detail was the subject of the video tape. The subject was a creepy Reagan-esque (The Exorcist), looking girl who's walk will haunt you. This sort of has a surprise ending, and if you didn't see it, I won't spoil it here.
8. Well, Halloween and Friday the 13th have created boogymen that are really hard to kill. They are like the boss at the end of a Role Playing Video Game. What Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) did with this hard-to-kill boogeyman is make him inescapable. Anyone can outrun Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers, but how can you escape Freddy Krueger who hunts his prey in your dreams? Everyone has to fall asleep, and the teenagers that Freddy Krueger is looking to kill are the children of the parents that killed him. So, the first in this series makes the most sense as far as motive. Some of the imagery was shocking for the time of release and of course very dream like. Since there are no rules or laws in dreams, Freddy could do whatever he wanted to. The acting was a little cheesy despite a cast that contained the likes of Johnny Depp or Amanda Wyss, but maybe that was deliberate.
7. The Others (2001) really surprised me. I had my doubts that this would be a quality movie, never mind one that would scare me. I missed this movie in the theaters, but the DVD has some elements that made it extra scary. The entire movie is very dimly lit since the two children in it are allergic to the sunlight. It was also very soft spoken. Nicole Kidman seemed to whisper for the majority of the movie, so I turned the volume up, and because the movie was dimly lit, I had to lend extra attention to the plot. Needless to say that when the "others" were beginning to make themselves known, their breathing and their loud footsteps made me jump out of my skin. There is a nice plot twist at the end that really doesn't take away from its watchability, I can watch this over and over and the knowledge of what happens last doesn't hurt the replay factor one bit. I also wanted to note that the actor, James Bentley, who played Nicholas, was brilliant. He is probably the best part of the movie for me.
6. People view Carrie (1976) as a horror movie, and it is, but I love this movie because of Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie. I love their acting, and Piper Laurie, in the role of Margaret White (Carrie's mother) is unforgettable. Margaret White had the scariest scenes in the movie. Of course, this whole idea of the school nerd getting revenge via telekinesis would have been great if she had gotten away with it, but because of Piper Laurie's character, Carrie White had to suffer the same fate she imposed on the school gymnasium. John Travolta here in one of his earliest films is the dopey mastermind behind the prom pranks on Carrie White, the beautiful Nancy Allen egged him on. As it turns out, the casting director wanted Sissy to play Nancy Allen's role, but she kept insisting for the lead, and she won. Most memorable line: "They're all gonna laugh at you"
5. Evil Dead 2 (1987) has as many comedic ingredients as it does horror. I admit the re-watchability isn't as great as all of these other movies, but some of the horror elements are truly scary. Movie director, Sam Raimi (Spider-Man), had written and directed this movie. I think that Bruce Campbell (Ash) was the perfect choice for these Evil Dead movies. The fact that he had to battle his own hand for a good portion of this movie was both funny-wise and scare-wise entertaining. This is probably the scariest of the 'do not go in the basement' movies. One of the scariest effects is the 'demon-vision'. This is when the demons would chase you through the woods and the house and you would see the chase from the demon's point of view.
4. Halloween (1978) was one of the first movies that made me hide my eyes. I was definitely too young to watch this movie. I first saw this movie when I was like nine years old. Remember the good old days of WHT (Wometco Home Theater)? WHT was the best. The fright factor was the fact that you couldn’t stop or kill this person, Michael Myers, who was on a mission to destroy any family he had left. The movie didn’t explain why he needed to do this, only that he was an evil mental patient who when escaped donned a bone white mask of William Shatner with hair like Roosevelt Franklin. On his way to kill his relative (Jamie Lee Curtis), he would just kill anyone and everyone that got in his way. The only one who could stop him (you hope) is one of my brother J's favorite actor, Donald Pleasance (Michael Myers doctor, Dr. Loomis). So, Michael Myers had been stabbed, shot and a wire hanger was shoved through his eye, but this would only knock the wind out of him. He kept going and going just the Energizer Bunny, and that's scary. After Jamie Lee Curtis would kill him, she would feel tired, relieved and somewhat safer, so she would throw down her weapon next to the "corpse" and turn her back on Michael Myers too.
3. I saw The Shining (1980) in the movies during one of its theater re-releases. I was probably fourteen years old and probably too young to view this unedited version. The movie is still scary, but back then it was extra scary. Director Stanley Kubrick added a sense of macabre to horror novelist Stephen King’s story that made it very nightmarish. Stephen King is on record stating he hated what Kubrick had done to his story, but now the movie’s a horror classic, and scarier than his novel. I mean come on, what’s scarier, a lunatic toting a large mallet or a huge axe? I go with the axe. Of course there were some more small differences between the two. The things that scared me were the Big Wheel cruises that little Danny Torrance would take through the hallways of this huge hotel. He would come across some things like the ghosts of murdered twin little girls, or a small tidal wave of blood escaping the elevator. The fact that Jack Nicholson (Jack Torrance) went crazy on a drunken dare was scary in itself. The grimaces of horror that Shelly Duvall displayed pulled you into her terror too.
2. I remember seeing this film, The Exorcist III (1990), in the theaters, and there was a man who was sitting behind me, he announced he had to leave immediately following one of the scarier scenes in the movie. The Exorcist III is a very good sequel to the original. Forget about the horror show of a horror movie attempt with The Exorcist II, this one works so much better as a sequel. Casting Brad Dourif (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) as The Gemini Killer was a stroke of genius. He made the dialogues so intriguing between Detective Kinderman (George C Scott), plus he scared you during these conversations. The scary scenes were much heavier with the supernatural factor compared to the original. There are possessed people crawling around on the ceilings, and the possessions were so frequent, you never knew who was next. Who was safe? It sounds like it cheapens the story, but writer/director William Peter Blatty makes it work easily. Blatty is of course the writer of the original story and screenplay, so add most of the characters from the first film, a new twist, and the original writer, it seems to add up that you’ll probably crap your pants.
1. The Exorcist (1973) is my all-time favorite horror movie. This is not an unpopular opinion as far as fans of horror go. For years, I was terrified of The Exorcist and until the second DVD release (25th Anniversary Special Edition) I wasn’t truly aware of why. The DVD has an amazing documentary called The Fear of God (which was scary itself) about the movie. It is very detailed about the making of the movie and they interview almost everybody involved in the movie. Director William Friedkin was a horror movie innovator. He started the horror movie trick of a very quiet moment followed by a loud sudden roar. What he is most proud of is the fact that he made this sort of far out idea for a movie (despite it was based on a true story), is that he made this tale very real. He's right too; the authenticity is in the details. The viewer gets pulled into the illusion and believes that Regan McNeil, a twelve year old girl is possessed by the devil. When I say details, I'm not kidding. Friedkin could have chosen a deep scary voice like Vin Diesel for example to supply the demonic voice, but no, he chose the voice of Mercedes Cambridge to supply the voice. The voice is still hair-standing-up-on-the-back-of-your-neck scary, but because Mercedes was a woman, it made the possession that much more believable. I think if Friedkin went with a male voice to portray the demon's voice, you could dismiss it somewhat easier. Plus the synchronization of the voice and Linda Blair's mouth is uncannily spot on. The little subplots such as Father Damien getting terrified that his mother may in fact be in Hell, because the demon informs him it's true. The subplot has a double impact because it confirms that he does in fact believe that Regan is possessed, but that it makes him face the facts about his faith in itself.
Here's Exorcist TRIVIA: One of the secret quotes from the movie..."It's warm in the body".
Runner-ups:
Burnt Offerings
The Exorcism of Emily Rose
Exorcist: The Beginning
Interview With the Vampire
The Cell
Pet Sematary
Jacob's Ladder
The Blair Witch Project
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scapp70
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Member: Michael Scapp
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