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.
Wait Until Dark. late 60’s.
I remember that one. It was creepy.
Frankensteins Daughter scared the hell out of me as a kid.
The 1979 original with David Soul (and directed by Tobe Hooper) left my then 10 year-old self petrified for weeks.
I think “The Stand” was pretty scary. I dreamed I was in the cornfield with the Walking Dude after reading it.
One that still scares me is: “I, Madman”
parsy, who shivered
And Hillary!
1408 with John Cusack has my vote for best horror film.
” haven’t seen it but I hear
“This is it” with Michael Jackson is pretty bad.
I saw an advertisment for it in the newspaper.
It said “Also available — the album “This is It”, featuring the song “This is it”. Reminded me of the Santo Gold infomercial and movie, featuring singer Santo Gold singing his song “Santo Gold.”
http://www.infomercial-hell.com/santo-gold/
I was going to say that. A frightening end of the world movie that seemed eerily realistic yet unbelievably far fetched.
I’m not a real horror fan but I did like Sleepy Hollow.
Saw Alien when I was a kid and had to walk home after.
My top ten, in no particular order of preference:
10. Arachnophobia: Spiders are creepy, especially deadly ones that can leap at you.
9. American Werewolf in London: Remember when John Landis made good movies?
8. The Thing: I’m not normally a big fan of gory films, or remakes of good originals, but this one is great. Scary as hell.
7. The Shining: IMHO, Kubrick’s last truly great film (FMJ had its moments, but I felt it was inconsistent).
6. Evil Dead/Evil Dead 2: Bruce Campbell is the man!
5. The Blair Witch Project: Yeah, it’s cheesy as heck in some spots, but it’s also danged scary in a lot of other places. Certainly scarier than a lot of films with much bigger budgets.
4. Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer. This one made my skin crawl in a way few films have. Very “real life” in its feel and in the behavior of its serial killer lead (Michael Rooker playing a character based on real life serial murderer Henry Lee Lucas). It’s one of those films that left me wanting to take a shower afterward.
3. Halloween (1978). Carpenter’s masterpiece. Proof that you don’t need a big budget or lots of gore to make a frightening movie.
2. Psycho (the original): No horror list is complete without it.
1. Alien: Absolutely one of the scariest films ever made. Never get tired of this one. BTW, one of the films that influenced Alien (there were several), was an Italian film called Planet of the Vampires. See if the first part of this clip looks a little familiar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUXlc8lLEzY
Honorable mentions to: Last House on the Left (original), Hellraiser, Nightmare on Elm Street, Magic, Suspiria, Deep Red, The original Wicker Man (with Michael Caine), and this freaky Spanish film I once saw about a guy who gets trapped in a phone booth.
The Skeleton Key
The Others
The Shining, hands down.
Funny how the list is forced to include Sci-Fi, Comedy, Musical, and Holiday movies with horror overtones to fill out the list. Man, horror is an awful genre.
By the way, I HATE Night of the Living Dead movies.
1. Legend of Hell House. Very little gore, intense suspense. Roddy McDowell and Pamela Franklin are brilliant.
2. The Thing. Either one. The Russell one is incredibly intense, the original has terrifically snappy dialogue and James Arness in a rubber suit.
3. Night Of The Living Dead. Little girl scene. I shall say no more.
4. The Fly. I'm not much of a Goldblum fan but this is his flick.
5. Theater of Blood. OK, so it's camp and dripping with typical Vincent Price black humor, but watching Diana Rigg pass herself off as a guy is worth the price of the ticket. Watching the two of them do Shakespeare together is as well.
6. Army of Darkness. Undoubtedly the zenith of the entire art of cinema. How it could have been ignored at the Academy Awards I haven't a clue. Shop smart!
7. Rosemary's Baby. Yeah, Roman Polanski, yadda yadda. One of the best Weird People Who Seem Normal treatments on screen. Mia Farrow is outstanding and beautifully vulnerable. One of the best horror movie heroines ever. The rest of the cast is just as good.
8. Carrie. I first watched it in a space full of rough tough sailors. When the hand came up (you know what I'm talking about) we durn near peed ourselves like little girls.
9. The Birds. I still look up when there's a telephone wire with a bunch of the little buggers sitting there staring at me...waiting...
10. The Silence of the Lambs. Fava beans and a fine chianti. In a long and glorious career Hopkins has never done better.
Lots of honorable mentions. Plan Nine From Outer Space because it truly is a horror movie. Lost Skeleton of Cadavra because you won't need drugs to think you're on drugs. Others will have many more, I'm sure...
When I was a kid there was a movie called “The Tingler”. I have not watched a scarey movie since.
It wasn't Michael Caine - was Edward Woodward [The Equalizer] ...
D’OH! You are correct, my friend. Not sure why I got those two mixed up.
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