My top 10 Horror Picks, and some stories behind them...
I should preference this with some disclosure. As many know, I was raised in an environment where the parental involvement was a bit weird. Generally there was no real censorship of what I was allowed to watch on tv, not because of some ideology of raising a more cultured child, but rather that someone thought it was funny to try to scare the bejesus out of the kids. This undoubtedly biases nearly the whole group...
10) Magic (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077889/) The aforementioned 'someone' at the parental controls tried to take me to this R movie... at the movie theater...with their date. Bless the attendant who turn us away. I was six when this came out. And I did see it on the Movie Channel (back in the day when it was all horror movies) a few years later and I was ruined for seeing either dummies or prothesis anything for a few years. I just realized that Burgess Meredith was in this. How's I miss all that? Oh yeah- because of Fat's face haunting me, that's right.
9) Horror Express (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068713/) This one I can blame not the parents, but my babysitting aunt too enthralled to change the channel. Again, about six years old. I didn't remember the plot, nor who was in it (and really Chris Lee, Peter Cushing, and Telly Savalas? That's just awesome) but I remembered dudes with white melty eyes. This was all I needed to remember. Screaming, blood, and white melty eyes. This was actually on a few months ago, and it was a buried 30 year memory that came bursting forth. I watched it and it hasn't aged well, but still there's a creepiness to it, like a long gone fear that came out of denial. OOOOOooooOOOOO.....
8) Psycho (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054215/) I have myself to blame on this one. Watched it the day before starting 6th grade. I got insomnia always the day before school started, so I was up at 4am watching this. Anthony Perkins played his part so well, that now normal looking people freaked me out. Still, there was a hype to it that I was kind of disappointed by- commercials would always show the part about turning "Mother" around to show the skeleton. I was totally expecting zombies and stuff as a result.
7) The Thing (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084787/)- Again back to the "Let's let the kids watch this cool movie and then scare them cause its funny" stuff. I think I was ten and had a friend over who was eight. Because what you need is kids with an overactive imagination wondering who was going to have crap burst out of them at any time, then jerk around a bit in your chair for full effect. I will say that I did learn to fear Wilford Brimley, a life long lesson that has served me well. Don't know about the special effects, but the acting is still pretty good, all things considered. I heard they were making a remake or a prequel or something- not sure they can top this one though.
6) Aliens (http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=Aliens). Actually, I saw this at the movie theater and thought it was pretty awesome. By this time I was not really as spookable, but did appreciate the effort. I was totally convinced that one of my children were going to be named Ripley up to the point that my youngest child wasn't. Tthe whole series is really good- the first Alien is really the only one I can comment on with any sort of disappointment, because my imagination had built up a pretty good image at what I thought the alien should be, and it was a scary buildup, but when you see the alien in that first movie, it was kind of a 'wah wah wah wahhhhhh' sad trumpet moment. They could've not shown it at all and it would have been better, I think. By the time we got to Aliens, the special effects team mind melded with me to pull out a fantastically intimidating image. Oh, and evil Paul Reiser to your left. Awesome Lance Hendrickson to your right.
5) The Others (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0230600/)- Probably the most recent entry. And I watched it a few years late. But WWI times? Dude who played Doctor Who? Creepy but not gory? Post Mortem photos as part of the plot? I can appreciate. Its more of the traditional kind of ghost stories that I think I should have been watching more of when I was a kid. More of the classic kinds of scares, like Rebecca, or Dragonwick, or Jane Eyre. *Not* the Tales from the Crypt or:
4) Creepshow (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083767/) OMG, I have no idea where to begin with this one. Cut back to my past again, and its all memories of freak outs here. One was the cockroaches. The other was the meteorite turning Stephen King green. Stephen King normal was creepy as it was. Abd then there was the smartass who put grass on my bed while I slept and tried to tell me it was from my skin. To be fair, the Ted Danson story I thought was schlocky even as a kid, so that was like a break. And for the dude wanting his cake, I think I was desensitized already by another movie further down. I was never a squeamish around bugs type, but that cockroach bursting scene came close to inducing new phobia. The only thing that saved me was my logic- cockroaches don't come that big in PA, so as long as I don't move down south or to the west, I am safe, right? This "I live in PA" thing also worked for Jaws, therefore negating any hydrophobia that it might have caused.
3) The Serpent and the Rainbow (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096071/) Well, this was about every one of my base nightmares rolled into one movie. Buried alive, check. Bug walking on eyeball, check. Horrible hallucinations, check and checkmate. One of the last to truly scare/disturb me. And hey, its got the President from Independence Day dude from Space Balls. Rock on! When I went to Slippery Rock, one of the anthropology teachers would actually assign this as required materials, I knew the movie back and forth by then so I could say it was one of the few times I was totally prepared for class.
2) Poltergeist (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084516/) So if Creepshow caused me a few nightmares, then Poltergeist really messed me up. Creatures coming out of closets. Dudes peeling their faces off. Meat crawling. Clowns choking, Trees grabbing, Old bodies in the pool. Oy. Its been about 30 years, and I still hate the face peeling scene, and count lightening the same way.
1) Raiders of the Lost Ark (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082971/) It is not your traditional horror, I know, but since my poor dad had no idea what he was taking me and my cousins to when taking us to this in 1981, it might as well have been. It only took him 15 minutes to realize that this was not really a Disney flick (ie about the time Doc Oc is spiked- yes, that's him in the cave with Indy). In hindsight, of the four kids who went, I think we each reacted to different scenes. One of my cousins I think came out with a snake phobia, one was about the tarantulas, I was more of the anticipatory fear and cringed with the big dude around the plane propellor and Indy possibly getting poisoned, and all bets were off at the finale for all of us. And none of us could shut up about it for weeks or years on end.
Honorable mention for camp factor: It (for Tim Curry alone), Shaun of the Dead, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream (only the first one), The Howling, Rejuvenatrix, Re-Animator, Pumpkinhead, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Jeepers Creepers, Anything that was on MST3K, or USA's Up all Night.
Honorable Mention for Disturbing: Ringu, Audition, Boxing Helena, Something Wicked This Way Comes (though it hasn't aged well), Hellraiser (only the first two); Purple Rain (what? I saw it at the movie theater and I was 11, Prince is disturbing.)
10) Magic (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077889/) The aforementioned 'someone' at the parental controls tried to take me to this R movie... at the movie theater...with their date. Bless the attendant who turn us away. I was six when this came out. And I did see it on the Movie Channel (back in the day when it was all horror movies) a few years later and I was ruined for seeing either dummies or prothesis anything for a few years. I just realized that Burgess Meredith was in this. How's I miss all that? Oh yeah- because of Fat's face haunting me, that's right.
9) Horror Express (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068713/) This one I can blame not the parents, but my babysitting aunt too enthralled to change the channel. Again, about six years old. I didn't remember the plot, nor who was in it (and really Chris Lee, Peter Cushing, and Telly Savalas? That's just awesome) but I remembered dudes with white melty eyes. This was all I needed to remember. Screaming, blood, and white melty eyes. This was actually on a few months ago, and it was a buried 30 year memory that came bursting forth. I watched it and it hasn't aged well, but still there's a creepiness to it, like a long gone fear that came out of denial. OOOOOooooOOOOO.....
8) Psycho (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054215/) I have myself to blame on this one. Watched it the day before starting 6th grade. I got insomnia always the day before school started, so I was up at 4am watching this. Anthony Perkins played his part so well, that now normal looking people freaked me out. Still, there was a hype to it that I was kind of disappointed by- commercials would always show the part about turning "Mother" around to show the skeleton. I was totally expecting zombies and stuff as a result.
7) The Thing (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084787/)- Again back to the "Let's let the kids watch this cool movie and then scare them cause its funny" stuff. I think I was ten and had a friend over who was eight. Because what you need is kids with an overactive imagination wondering who was going to have crap burst out of them at any time, then jerk around a bit in your chair for full effect. I will say that I did learn to fear Wilford Brimley, a life long lesson that has served me well. Don't know about the special effects, but the acting is still pretty good, all things considered. I heard they were making a remake or a prequel or something- not sure they can top this one though.
6) Aliens (http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=Aliens). Actually, I saw this at the movie theater and thought it was pretty awesome. By this time I was not really as spookable, but did appreciate the effort. I was totally convinced that one of my children were going to be named Ripley up to the point that my youngest child wasn't. Tthe whole series is really good- the first Alien is really the only one I can comment on with any sort of disappointment, because my imagination had built up a pretty good image at what I thought the alien should be, and it was a scary buildup, but when you see the alien in that first movie, it was kind of a 'wah wah wah wahhhhhh' sad trumpet moment. They could've not shown it at all and it would have been better, I think. By the time we got to Aliens, the special effects team mind melded with me to pull out a fantastically intimidating image. Oh, and evil Paul Reiser to your left. Awesome Lance Hendrickson to your right.
5) The Others (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0230600/)- Probably the most recent entry. And I watched it a few years late. But WWI times? Dude who played Doctor Who? Creepy but not gory? Post Mortem photos as part of the plot? I can appreciate. Its more of the traditional kind of ghost stories that I think I should have been watching more of when I was a kid. More of the classic kinds of scares, like Rebecca, or Dragonwick, or Jane Eyre. *Not* the Tales from the Crypt or:
4) Creepshow (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083767/) OMG, I have no idea where to begin with this one. Cut back to my past again, and its all memories of freak outs here. One was the cockroaches. The other was the meteorite turning Stephen King green. Stephen King normal was creepy as it was. Abd then there was the smartass who put grass on my bed while I slept and tried to tell me it was from my skin. To be fair, the Ted Danson story I thought was schlocky even as a kid, so that was like a break. And for the dude wanting his cake, I think I was desensitized already by another movie further down. I was never a squeamish around bugs type, but that cockroach bursting scene came close to inducing new phobia. The only thing that saved me was my logic- cockroaches don't come that big in PA, so as long as I don't move down south or to the west, I am safe, right? This "I live in PA" thing also worked for Jaws, therefore negating any hydrophobia that it might have caused.
3) The Serpent and the Rainbow (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096071/) Well, this was about every one of my base nightmares rolled into one movie. Buried alive, check. Bug walking on eyeball, check. Horrible hallucinations, check and checkmate. One of the last to truly scare/disturb me. And hey, its got the President from Independence Day dude from Space Balls. Rock on! When I went to Slippery Rock, one of the anthropology teachers would actually assign this as required materials, I knew the movie back and forth by then so I could say it was one of the few times I was totally prepared for class.
2) Poltergeist (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084516/) So if Creepshow caused me a few nightmares, then Poltergeist really messed me up. Creatures coming out of closets. Dudes peeling their faces off. Meat crawling. Clowns choking, Trees grabbing, Old bodies in the pool. Oy. Its been about 30 years, and I still hate the face peeling scene, and count lightening the same way.
1) Raiders of the Lost Ark (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082971/) It is not your traditional horror, I know, but since my poor dad had no idea what he was taking me and my cousins to when taking us to this in 1981, it might as well have been. It only took him 15 minutes to realize that this was not really a Disney flick (ie about the time Doc Oc is spiked- yes, that's him in the cave with Indy). In hindsight, of the four kids who went, I think we each reacted to different scenes. One of my cousins I think came out with a snake phobia, one was about the tarantulas, I was more of the anticipatory fear and cringed with the big dude around the plane propellor and Indy possibly getting poisoned, and all bets were off at the finale for all of us. And none of us could shut up about it for weeks or years on end.
Honorable mention for camp factor: It (for Tim Curry alone), Shaun of the Dead, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream (only the first one), The Howling, Rejuvenatrix, Re-Animator, Pumpkinhead, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Jeepers Creepers, Anything that was on MST3K, or USA's Up all Night.
Honorable Mention for Disturbing: Ringu, Audition, Boxing Helena, Something Wicked This Way Comes (though it hasn't aged well), Hellraiser (only the first two); Purple Rain (what? I saw it at the movie theater and I was 11, Prince is disturbing.)