My Top 10 Horror Movie Picks

In making this list, I decided not to make a list of what I feel are the best horror films ever made, but the scariest, (though many, if not most, would make both lists). All are ones that when I first saw them actually scared me and left me haunted by what I saw, lying in bed with my eyes open, thinking about what I had just experienced over and over again. I’d recommend any of these movies if you want to be scared.

Black Christmas (1974)-Bob Clark

The first time I watched the original Black Christmas, I was alone. When it was over, I had to check every room and every closet in my apartment before I could try to go to sleep and I lay there in the dark, fully alert to every sound and partly mad at myself for watching this movie right before going to bed.

I honestly feel this is one of the scariest movies I have ever seen. The plot is now a cliché: a sorority house starts receiving bizarre phone calls from a psychopath. Little do they know the killer is already in the house, ready to pick them off one by one.

For better or worse, Black Christmas invented the slasher genre. However, it is not a gory film, but is focused more on using shadows, "boo scares" and eerie music to create a truly frightening experience.

What adds to the terror: The audience never gets a good look at the killer, only his shadow, his demented voice on the phone and a single, horrifying shot of his eye through a crack in a door (one of the most bone chilling shots in a movie I have ever seen). The mystery around him, the fact that you never get a good look at him, makes him all the more frightening to me.

NOTE: Please, please, PLEASE do not confuse the original with the horrible remake released a few years ago. The remake is completely worthless and is an insult to the original.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)-Tobe Hooper

Though the remake has received some respect, it still cannot top the sweat inducing, claustrophobic, unrelenting original. The grainy, documentary style of the film (influential to this day) only adds to the horror. Leatherface’s mad ballet at the end is one of the most dementedly perfect final shots in movie history.

Hannibal Lecter is rightfully regarded as one of the greatest movie villains in history, but I have always found the “family” in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre more frightening. Since Lecter is fiercely intelligent there is perhaps a slim chance you could reason with him; with these inbred laughing cretins who only look at other humans as food, you have none.


Suspiria (1977)-Dario Argento

Though I believe Deep Red is Dario Argento’s greatest film, Suspiria is his most frightening. It is, for the most part, a very dark and VERY gruesome fairy tale for adults, as a young American ballet student learns the horrifying truth about the teachers at the German ballet academy at which she is studying. Argento’s masterful yet overpowering use of color, the now legendary score by Goblin and graphically violent murders that hold up to this day create almost unbearable tension. Definitely not for the squeamish.

Halloween (1978)-John Carpenter

This movie has been imitated so many times it might have lost some of its effect by now. Still, the original, not the Rob Zombie remake, scared me pretty bad the first time I saw it. The difference: the remake mistakenly humanized Michael Myers too much. In the original, he remains the fearsome Boogeyman, the killer in the dark waiting in your closet, or under your bed. The now legendary score and Carpenter’s brilliant direction only add to the terror. The final 10 minutes are still to me are about as terrifying as a movie gets.

The Shining (1980)-Stanley Kubrick

In my opinion, still the scariest haunted house movie ever made and perhaps the greatest horror film, period. Unlike recent special effects laden horror films like the recent Mirrors, Kubrick realized that less is more. The film is paced so that the classic scare scenes (the twins in the narrow hallway, the woman in the tub, the elevator filled with blood) remain horrifying to this day.

Note: one element that makes the film all the more disturbing and creepy: Is their ever any real proof the hotel is haunted? Or, perhaps even more frightening, are there no ghosts at all, but instead just a family, isolated in the hotel, trapped by miles and miles of snow, all going mad at the same time?

Who Can Kill a Child? (1979)-Narciso Ibanez Serrador

This is likely the least familiar film on the list-but anyone who sees it will not forget it. A man and his pregnant wife decide to vacation on a small island off the coast of Spain. When they arrive, they find that the island is completely deserted, save for the children. They soon discover the truth: something (like The Birds, never explained), has turned the children on the island into murderous psychopaths. In this truly disturbing film, the pursued couple must decide if they must commit the ultimate crime, kill children, in order to survive. The suspense builds to an unbearable tension-and the death scene of one character near the end will likely take you days to get over. 



The Thing (1982)-John Carpenter

Imagine you are in a room with another person, perhaps even your best friend, with the two of you isolated from anyone else for hundreds of miles. Now imagine that other person is not your friend at all, but a hideous monster in disguise, simply waiting for the right moment to consume you.

A box office and critical bomb when first released, the reputation of The Thing has grown to the point that it is now rightfully rivals Alien as one the greatest sci-fi/horror films ever. It is also a very rare example of the remake being superior to the original (thought the 50s original is still very good).

Like The Shining, The Thing uses the utter isolation of its characters to full effect. The film’s now legendary gory special effects (which still hold up well) are perfectly paced so that their shock value has maximum effect. The paranoia the film creates as the men turn on each other continuously builds. The film’s much discussed controversial ending is both nihilistic and ambiguous at the same time (I obviously feel the ending works, as it only makes the story that much more haunting and effective).

&

Don't Look Now (1973)-Nicholas Roeg

Like The Exorcist, this horror masterpiece is aimed more for adults than teens, is it deals with truly frightening themes for adults: the loss of a child, the inability to control our destiny and death, always present and waiting for us all.

Don’t Look Now does not have many “boo” scares, but creates its horror though a mounting sense of unease and dread. The film makes brilliant use of Venice, Italy, perhaps the creepiest city on earth. The washed out, dank and gray tones of the city are used as the backdrop for the now iconic horror image of the little girl in the red raincoat. Is she the ghost of the couple’s drowned daughter, or perhaps something more sinister? The final 10 minutes of this film, as the protagonist seems to doggedly pursue his own demise, were truly terrifying to me (and I remember barely being able to watch the ending between my fingers).

The Exorcist (1973)-William Friedkin

The other horror classic from 1973 that was aimed more so at adults had tremendous cultural relevance at the time as well on two counts. First, our original villain, The Devil, decided to reintroduce himself to a world that was starting not to believe in him. Second, the story contains strong allusions to the generation gap created by the 60s, as the Greatest Generation watched in horror as their children gravitated towards a society in many opposed to the values and norms they were taught. Much of the horror is derived from the utter helplessness Ms. MacNeil feels in her inability to stop the changes overtaking her daughter.

The film, with such explosive material, could have been a total disaster were it not for the brilliant direction by William Friedkin. He masterfully combines a story grounded in reality, with very human characters we come to care about, with some of the most shocking and appalling scenes ever included in a mainstream motion picture. The film jumps from moments of deathly silence to sudden screams of pain-and from the very real fear of failing to support one’s family to now famous but still shocking supernatural horrors seen in the possessed child’s bedroom. Few films ever made have created such an unrelenting sense of unease throughout its entire length and it is not surprising that it was more than a number of filmgoers could stomach in 1973.

Inside (2007)-Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury

In making this list, I realized it is dominated by films from the 70s. I do feel that it was the strongest decade for horror and, to be honest, the majority of horror films that truly affected me came from that decade for some reason.

However, I feel I must include the most frightening and disturbing horror film I have seen in quite some time. For 83 minutes, Inside is as nasty, brutal and traumatic as a film can get and will haunt the viewer for quite some time.

The simple but brutal plot: on the day before she is scheduled to have labor induced, Sarah, a pregnant widow, is stalked by a fearsome villain known only as The Woman, who is determined to take Sarah’s baby, even if it means removing it by force with a long, sharp, shiny pair of shears.

In its battle to the death between Sarah and The Woman, Inside becomes uncompromising in its nihilism, brutality and gore. It never lets up. Characters who try to help Sarah are slaughtered graphically. So merciless is this film that it even cuts at times to shots of Sarah’s helpless baby being jostled inside the womb. It is one of the few horror films that I have seen that had me so spent that I knew I would have to avoid seeing it again for awhile.

Would I see these films again? Yes, but preferably with someone next time. There will be a cold night where I will test my bravery again, knowing that after I watch one of these films, I will check every closet, every door, look under every bed and will lie down wide awake in the dark, watching the shadows, listening for any sound and wonder what-or who-it is.

If you find yourself lying awake at night after seeing these movies, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

---

LINK THIS ARTICLE