Booooo To You Too!
Another Halloween season has come, and as usual, I find myself scanning the 100+ channels on the TV trying to find a movie that's scary. It's not easy, because so many movies rely simply on gore and special effects in order to scare. Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but gore just doesn't scare me all that much. In fact, I find that the scariest movies are the old, b&w ones, where the scare was due to atmosphere, lighting, and the talents of directors and live actors.
I was going back over my movie collection list in order to find my top 10 scariest movies, and I found that there's no way I can list just 10. I won't list the top 100 like I did last year, just the cream of the crop. The first one on the list is my all-time favorite scary movie, and the rest are listed in no particular order:
1. The Haunting (1963) - scariest movie ever!
2. The House on Haunted Hill (1958) - scary despite its obviously low budget
3. The Blob (1958) - one of the first great teen horror movies
4. Psycho (1960) - because Tony Perkins looked so normal
5. The Exorcist (1973) - who wasn't scared by this?
6. Halloween (1978) - still scary after all these years
7. Night of the Living Dead (1968) - the scariest part? The hunters at the end!
8. Phantasm (1979) - scared the bejesus outta me in the theater!
9. Suspiria (1977) - artsy Argento, but still scary
10. The Omen (1976) - scary kid
11. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) - makes me wonder about the neighbors
12. Alien (1979) - nowhere to run in outer space
13. The Stepford Wives (1975) - scary husbands
14. The Birds (1963) - just imagine the birds**t!
15. Godzilla, King of Monsters (1956) - back when he wasn't a Japanese hero!
16. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973) - even small creatures can be scary
17. Rosemary's Baby (1968) - scariest pregnancy
18. The Car (1977) - you never see who's driving it
19. Carrie (1976) - outcast gets revenge
20. Wolfen (1981) - nature strikes back
21. Christine (1983) - another killer car
22. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) - makes us scared to fall asleep
23. Poltergeist (1982) - research your new home!
24. Prince of Darkness (1987) - atmospheric, & Alice Cooper!
25. The Entity (1982) - supernatural rape
26. The Fog (1980) - makes our fog look mild
27. Flatliners (1990) - atonement eases a scary conscience
28. Dean Koontz's "Intensity" (1996) - that guy from Scrubs as a psycho
29. The Grudge (2004) - another scary little boy
20. Any of the oldies but goodies, in B&W: Frankenstein, Dracula, & The Wolf Man
Now, I realize that there are some movies that aren't considered horror, but they're suspenseful enough to be scary. I also realize that some have special effects, and some have gore, but at least these things don't detract from the scary elements.
Speaking of scary, I have to go down to the basement and move stuff around so that the new furnace can be put in tomorrow. Can you say, "spider webs?"
"Never knock on Death's door: ring the bell and run away! Death really hates that!"
---Matt Frewer, as Dr. Mike Stratford in "Doctor, Doctor"
I was going back over my movie collection list in order to find my top 10 scariest movies, and I found that there's no way I can list just 10. I won't list the top 100 like I did last year, just the cream of the crop. The first one on the list is my all-time favorite scary movie, and the rest are listed in no particular order:
1. The Haunting (1963) - scariest movie ever!
2. The House on Haunted Hill (1958) - scary despite its obviously low budget
3. The Blob (1958) - one of the first great teen horror movies
4. Psycho (1960) - because Tony Perkins looked so normal
5. The Exorcist (1973) - who wasn't scared by this?
6. Halloween (1978) - still scary after all these years
7. Night of the Living Dead (1968) - the scariest part? The hunters at the end!
8. Phantasm (1979) - scared the bejesus outta me in the theater!
9. Suspiria (1977) - artsy Argento, but still scary
10. The Omen (1976) - scary kid
11. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) - makes me wonder about the neighbors
12. Alien (1979) - nowhere to run in outer space
13. The Stepford Wives (1975) - scary husbands
14. The Birds (1963) - just imagine the birds**t!
15. Godzilla, King of Monsters (1956) - back when he wasn't a Japanese hero!
16. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973) - even small creatures can be scary
17. Rosemary's Baby (1968) - scariest pregnancy
18. The Car (1977) - you never see who's driving it
19. Carrie (1976) - outcast gets revenge
20. Wolfen (1981) - nature strikes back
21. Christine (1983) - another killer car
22. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) - makes us scared to fall asleep
23. Poltergeist (1982) - research your new home!
24. Prince of Darkness (1987) - atmospheric, & Alice Cooper!
25. The Entity (1982) - supernatural rape
26. The Fog (1980) - makes our fog look mild
27. Flatliners (1990) - atonement eases a scary conscience
28. Dean Koontz's "Intensity" (1996) - that guy from Scrubs as a psycho
29. The Grudge (2004) - another scary little boy
20. Any of the oldies but goodies, in B&W: Frankenstein, Dracula, & The Wolf Man
Now, I realize that there are some movies that aren't considered horror, but they're suspenseful enough to be scary. I also realize that some have special effects, and some have gore, but at least these things don't detract from the scary elements.
Speaking of scary, I have to go down to the basement and move stuff around so that the new furnace can be put in tomorrow. Can you say, "spider webs?"
"Never knock on Death's door: ring the bell and run away! Death really hates that!"
---Matt Frewer, as Dr. Mike Stratford in "Doctor, Doctor"