Yep, The Shining hands down
Posted on 10/30/2009 2:50:19 PM PDT by Kid Shelleen
In honor of Halloween, I have assembled two lists. One holds a ranking of the ten best slashers of all time. While these characters were awesome, that does not necessarily mean that any of their respective movies were any good. So my other list looks solely at the movies, and which come in tops. The list of the best slashers will be published tomorrow (Saturday) on hometownstation.com. Today though, we'll take a stab (please pardon the pun I know it's bad) at identifying the ten best horrors movies...ever.
LOL! Let me get some tissues for my nose first.
My friends tell me that Paranormal Activity is a great horror movie and it just surpassed Blair Witch for box office.
“Young Frankenstein” is a brilliant parody, a hilarious comedy — but it is not a horror movie!
I was 12 years old watching it alone in the dark at the neighbors house while babysitting late at night.
The part where HG Wells went into the underground tunnels with the Morlocks to save Weena freaked me out so bad I was literally shaking and a total basket case.
I guess I was a wuss but man oh man I was scared.
I bought the movie and showed it to my kids and they laughed their heads off at how fakey it was.
No greatest horror movie list is complete without Manos: The Hands of Fate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manos_the_hands_of_fate
Anyone old enough to remember a very scary movie from the 50’s that was in a dungeon and an old hag had a TUFT of hair.....I only remember these parts.
F. Scott Fitzgerald was a member of the MGM writing department at the time the movie was in production. He never felt quite at home with all the movie stars and powerful moguls, and so he often dined in the commissary at the table of the sideshow attractions (freaks) during his lunch hour.
Dwarf actor Angelo Rossitto, who appeared as Angeleno, would go on to a successful career in TV and films including Little Moe in the Robert Blake TV series "Baretta" (1975) and as one half of the giant Master Blaster opposite Mel Gibson in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985).
Schlitze, the microcephalic member of the cast who appears to be female, was actually a male. The dress was worn for reasons of personal hygiene.
If you ever watch The Shining make sure it is the version with Jack Nicholson and Shelly Duval in it. Jack was made for that part, there are other versions but that one tops list as far as I am concerned.
I was 12 years old watching it alone in the dark at the neighbors house while babysitting late at night.
Point out to your kids that the special effects in that movie were top of the line then and they would have been scared also. I still love that movie, one of my favorites and I have it in my instant play list on Netflix. The new version sucks compared to the original BTW:)
Salem’s Lot was also a movie and pretty scary in it’s own right. The guys buddy floating outside his window trying to get him to let him in was enough to make a person’s skin crawl.
I honestly don’t consider ‘Freaks’ to be a great film (though I consider Browning’s ‘Dracula’ to be great), but it is strange and very compelling.
It’s more of an experience than a great movie, I think. Some very powerful and sometimes disturbing imagery. It stays with the viewer, no doubt about it.
Amazing that the film was permitted to be made, since it did involve people with serious physical abnormalities.
I dont think I will ever forget the microcephalic people dancing in the woods.
Yep, The Shining hands down
Speaking of it being amazing that the film was even made, I always found the sexual subtext (present in almost every scene in the movie) to be amazing, in itself.
Sometimes its more subdued, other times much more explicit. When the trapeze artist calls over the midget to massage her shoulder, she suddenly grabs and yanks her collar down and I swear, every time I see that I expect her to expose her bosom. Of course, she didn’t, but that’s just one example of how present sex is throughout that film.
I also never understood why that catepillar/snake man comes after the bad guy with the knife in his mouth. It’s a haunting and scary image, sure, but what’s he going to do? Poke at his ankle? I’d go for a field goal and send him dozens of yards away!
I didn't get it either until I saw that their was another ending to the movie that was not shown due to public outrage.
The film's original ending showed Hercules singing soprano in Madame Tetralini's new sideshow because he has been castrated by the freaks. After intensely negative reaction by preview audiences, this scene was cut.
I could never get how they changed the woman into a chicken.
That scene was done in an old Lon Chaney film, but I cant recall the title.
Todd Browning was concerned about it too.
The on-screen romance between Hans and Frieda was very subdued because the roles were being played by real life brother and sister Harry Earles and Daisy Earles.
Carnival of Souls! Thanks. I went through an ‘artsy dark phase’ way back when, so I remember that one. ;)
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