In the spirit of the Halloween season, you may be in the mood for for a scary movie or two this week. Although not entirely necessary – somehow watching Lassie while dressed as a ghoul and eating peeled grapes done up to look like eyeballs, just doesn’t cut it. So here’s a quick post to make a few recommendations. I apologize, in advance, if i neglect to list your favorite scary movie.
FIRST – the criteria:
- I don’t want to be grossed out – I want to be scared.
- I don’t go in for the new generation of “torture porn”. I don’t want to be disturbed – I want to be scared.
- I don’t mind being just slightly grossed out or somewhat disturbed if I’m also a little scared.
- You know what wouldn’t be so bad? – if there’s a little comedy relief in there somewhere – as long as it doesn’t interfere with me being scared.
- If a movie isn’t going to scare me, it should, at least, spook me.
- Startling me – doesn’t count!
- If a movie could be funny AND creepy – at the same time – now THAT would be something.
- In the future, there should be a technology that makes all the characters in the movie look like you and your friends. Think of the possibilities. (Do I have to spell it out?)
- #8 has absolutely nothing to do with the criteria for choosing scary movies for Halloween.
- I don’t want to be blatantly obvious by recommending the film Halloween for Halloween.
SECOND – the movies:
The Changeling: Perhaps the scariest and eeriest ghost movie ever. You never see the ghost, just boatloads of creepy atmosphere.
The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra: Strictly for laughs, it’s reminiscent of an earlier time where you might have been scared of a movie like this.
Shaun of the Dead: If you’re going to have zombies – you might as well make them amusing. This relate to somewhat to criteria #4.
Little Otik: Scary AND disturbing AND funny all at the same time! How about that.
Audition: Horror film directors like Rob Zombie, Wes Craven, John Landis, and others, all agree – Audition is one bad-ass movie – maybe a little too creepy.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: Great spooky and creepy movie from the silent film era. Don’t be put off by silent movies enough to miss this one.
May: Creepy creepy creepy – funny funny funny – creepy – disturbing – funny.
Bubba Ho-Tep: Elvis and JFK team up to battle an evil Egyptian mummy. Need I say more?
Three Extremes: A collection of three 40 min. stories from three different Asian horror masters. These guys know how to push the right buttons on the creepy meter.
Army of Darkness: Ash, from the Evil Dead movies, is transported to the 1300’s to fight the army of the dead. It has perhaps the most quotable of all horror movies – then again, it’s not really a “horror” movie.
Grindhouse: Death Proof /Planet Terror: More on these two movies in a future post.
Scream: Hip dialog with lots of inside references. A must for horror movie buffs.
And, of course, you can’t go wrong with the classics:
Psycho: The granddaddy of all scary movies stands the test of time. If you’ve never seen this film, do it now – preferably not alone.
The Shining: Gothic horror as only Stanley Kubrick can do it. Based on a novel by Stephen King.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers: The 1978 version of this film is effectively creepy and has one of the all-time greatest endings.
The Thing: More of a psychological thriller than a horror movie – but it is scary – and so makes this list.