Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Favorite Scary Movies

October is my favorite month of the year. Not necessarily because of Halloween. I just love a blustery October day, the changing of the leaves, seeing a full moon on a cold Fall night. Maybe it's the horror writer in me. Seeing as I've listed my favorite horror novels in a previous post, today I'm putting up some of my favorite horror films.

Halloween (1979)  Carpenter wisely leaves much of Michael Myers' motivations and back story to our imagination, creating a faceless terror that is as scary today as it was thirty years ago.

Alien (1979) A masterpiece.  The chest bursting scene is the most referenced scene in the movie.  For my money, the scariest sequence is when Dallas creeps through the bowels of the ship, searching for the Alien. We see him tracking the Alien with a motion detector until finally he finds the creature (or the creature finds him).  Gets me every time.

Feast (2005) Loaded with gore, dark humor, and some unique takes on introducing key characters, this one's just plain fun.

Paranormal Activity (2007) This one goes for a slow build, but it's worth the wait.  Proves sometimes what you don't see in a film is scarier than what you do.

The Descent (2005) A group of female adventurers goes spelunking only to find they're not alone. The caves provide a creepy, claustrophobic feel. But that's nothing compared to what they find in the caves. I saw the unrated version, and if you're a fan of gore, you won't be disappointed.

Jaws (1975) To this day, I won't swim in water where I can't see the bottom. Enough said.

The Road (2009) A horror film (although not presented as such) based on Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize winning novel. See if the scene when The Man and his son search the seemingly empty house doesn't give you chills.

2 comments:

Jim Sperduto said...

Nice List! Agreed on all. I would add these (not in any particular order):
*The Thing (1982 - Carpenter again)
*The Exorcist (I know cliche', but still gets me every time)
*The Exorcism of Emily Rose (the barn scene where the demons name the...mselves - YIKES)
*The Fourth Kind (this movie just thoroughly creeped me out)
*Mothman Prophecies (another one that's probably not that popular, but creeped me out)
*The Changeling (1980 - This movie does an awesome job with the less is more concept - little noises here and there, flickering lights, etc.)
*American Werewolf in London (bad ass)
*The Devil's Backbone (Guillermo DelToro - CREEPY stuff. Subtitled, but really cool)
I'm sure I could go on all day, but that's my 2 cents.

Nick Houle said...

I agree with this list 100%. The Feast series blew my mind when I watched them. On the movie note. Your book Evil Harvest would make one excellent film! The story and plot of the whole book seems like you're watching a Horror movie as you read the entire book!

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