Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Ooh, Scary!

I like making Halloween themed posts, and I've been thinking about what I'd like to do this year.  I've done games before, I've done Friday the 13th kills before.  I don't think I've actually done movies as a whole, though.  So this year I'm going to do something different.  A few years ago, Bravo compiled a list of the top 100 scariest movie moments.  I'm going to take their top 10 and comment on them myself.  Mainly, I'm going to express the reasons why I feel the movie is on the list.  So without further adieu, let's get to it, starting from the bottom:

10. Wait Until Dark 



Wait, what?  I've never heard of this movie.  Well, this is embarrassing, isn't it?  *Goes to Wikipedia*

Okay, so it's a thriller from the 1960's...oh hey, it's directed by Terence Young!  He did some of the earliest Bond movies.  It seems that it made the list due to the ending of the movie, which is apparently quite harrowing.  Seems the heroine is blind, which probably adds to the tension.  Sounds alright, I suppose.  Anyway...moving on.

9. Night of the Living Dead

"They're coming to get you, Barbra!"  Ah, I still remember that line.  So this one is obviously on the list because it's basically the first zombie movie.  Ever.  Needless to say, it's not a happy film.  I can't really pick out any one portion of the film that stands out to me -- the whole damned thing is one big mess, pretty much.  The ending is quite depressing, though, so I suppose I could mention that.  (It's a zombie movie, what do you expect?)

8. Carrie

The ending.  Definitely the ending.  Prom queen gets pig's blood thrown on her and snaps.  On a side note, I'd like to point out that Carrie was Stephen King's first published novel.  The book is excellent.  Read it.  (Hey, I'm a fan.  Sue me.)

7. The Silence of the Lambs

I can think of two scenes that stand out to me.  One, when Hannibal escapes from captivity.  He eats a man's face and wears another as a disguise.  HELLO?!  The other is the end, when Clarice is in a pitch dark basement and the killer is behind her with night vision goggles on, close enough to touch her and she has no idea.

There are a few other memorable scenes I should mention, but they're more iconic than truly frightening.  One is, of course, the infamous "Would you fuck me?" scene. where the serial killer tucks his penis between his legs and pretends to be a women.  And the other is the "It puts the lotion in the basket" scene.  These are DISTURBING, which adds to the incredibly creepy atmosphere of the film.

Since I plugged Stephen King's books, I should also mention that this one was based on a novel of the same name by Thomas Harris.  Most of the Hannibal books are good.  "Hannibal" itself is not.  Don't bother with it.  Nor the movie.

6. The Shining

"All work and no play make Jack a dull boy."

The little girls in the long hotel hallways.  I -hate- creepy children.  I mean, kids are creepy to me under normal circumstances.  I don't need them to make the extra effort.  Also, Jack hacking through the door with the axe, though that scene is more iconic than frightening.  "Heeeere's Johnny!"

Also an excellent Stephen King novel I might add.  You may be interested to know that he's penning a sort of sequel to it, entitled "Doctor Sleep".

5. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

I saw this movie when I was too young to understand it, and I will admit that I haven't seen it since.  I remember some things, though.

First of all, I remember that the entire movie drips with this feeling of despair.  It's like it saps all hope from your body and leaves you with a rather low opinion of human beings.  It also left you feeling that even though that one girl survived, it really doesn't matter because she's mentally destroyed anyway.  Bottom line is, you're left sitting there going, "Why am I watching this again?"  Not one of my favorites.  While I am a fan of horror movies, I do not appreciate horror movies that end up being depressing.  I believe the best ones are movies where the ending is rather hopeful.  That is why you will never see a Saw movie in any list I create on my own.  I consider them to be garbage.  And I consider this movie to be garbage.

4. Psycho

I love this movie.  It's just so, so well done.  And it was such a shocking film for its time.  Obviously, the infamous shower scene is what everyone will mention when you bring up this film.  And it's quite good, indeed.  My favorite part is the ending, though, when Marion's sister finds the mummified body of Norman's mother in the basement, and Norman coming up behind her dressed as his mother.

"A boy's best friend is his mother."

Also, "Everyone goes a little crazy sometimes."

3. The Exorcist

This movie is #1 for me, bar none.  To me, it is THE horror movie.  (I'm sort of stealing the thunder of #2 and #1, aren't I?  Well I don't care!)

There are particular reasons why I like this movie.  Remember what I said about endings?  Well, even though the ending of this movie is sad, it's still -good-, and it's still -hopeful-.  I like it.  It's bittersweet and touching.

Next, there's a lot of suggestion.  It's the age old mantra of things that you -don't- see are often scarier than things you -do- see.  With that being said, there's also plenty of things -to- see, which scare the fucking crap out of you. Regan walking bent-over-backwards down the stairs?  WTF is that shit?

And finally, realism.  The science in this movie is very genuine, and they try to use every medical procedure possible to cure Regan before they resort to an exorcism.  And it's detailed to the audience as being painstakingly real.  Don't even bring up the spinal tap scene.  I still cringe when I think about it.

2. Alien

I tend to forget about this movie too often.  I suppose when I think about this franchise, I tend to always think about an action movie rather than a horror or thriller.  It's James Cameron's fault, obviously, for making "Aliens".

But this movie does belong on this list.  It's -one- alien, and you hardly ever see it.  Again -- the power of suggestion.  There's nothing like it.

1. Jaws

Okay, I'll admit -- I don't consider this movie to be scary.  It's a thriller, sure. But it doesn't scare me.  I -love- the film, don't get me wrong.  But it makes me watch it with rapt attention on the edge of my seat, and sometimes laugh (in a good way).  I don't really feel it's appropriate for THIS list.



There are quite a number of movies that could have been on this list instead.  Poltergeist, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Pet Semetary, Hellraiser, The Sixth Sense, The Hills Have Eyes, Cujo, The Amityville Horror...

I could be here all day.  So I'd better stop now.

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