Figure 1 shows a pumpkin I carved over fifteen years ago—not from a template, but freehand from a photo. I like horror films, as you may have guessed. Once a year, Halloween comes around and legitimizes this one of my favourite genres! (I must differentiate “horror” from “slasher” movies. A slasher movie, one that concentrates only on the gore, and hurting people, is usually one that won’t interest me. Unless, for example, it’s intentionally “over the top” as a sort of “black humour” thing; the other kind of slasher that I will watch is one that is deliberately humourous. I have little or no interest in gore for gore’s sake. There are exceptions, however.) And I like supernatural as well as psychological horror—even “animals on the rampage” horror.
To me, horror movies are ones that succeed in scaring the audience, and I don’t mean “jump” scares, where Jones the cat (Alien) jumps out unexpectedly. I’m talking about movies like Robert Wise’s The Haunting (1963, Figure 4), based on Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House (as opposed to the new TV series, which has totally changed the dynamic of the story as well as neglecting Hill House itself as the reason for the evil; or the remake—the 1999 movie with Liam Neeson, which focused more on the CGI than Jackson’s story). This movie, filmed in black and white, has more scary atmosphere and good acting, than any remake, be it TV or movie. Unfortunately, this kind of movie doesn’t come along very often.
Back in the ‘80s, I used to do “minute” movie reviews (60 seconds) for a local AM station in a University town where I used to live. So I’ll do these as “micro” reviews (not even a minute), and I’ll try to convey the sense and tone of the movie, and whether I think it’s good horror. These will be in no particular order and will include some very old stuff. Please don’t forget, this is entirely subjective and by no means complete; these are movies I found scary for one reason or another. The list is off the top of my head—and every time I think of a new one, I have to resist the temptation to add more, or it would be dozens of movies long; it’s just a fun thing for Halloween.
Just so you know that there’s “nothing new under the sun,” Figure 2 shows German actor Conrad Veidt in The Man Who Laughs, a silent 1928 melodrama with horrific overtones. Look familiar? Can you say “The Joker”? Sure, I knew you could! I learned of this film through 4SJ “Forry” Ackerman’s Famous Monsters of Filmland back in the 1960s. Haven’t seen it; can’t rate it, but others have said it’s 4 out of 5. (5 what? Whatever you use to rate films with is good enough for me.)
Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn: Bruce Campbell; Better and funnier than the first one. Necronomicon Ex Mortis (Book of the Dead) calls up Deadites; Kanda; someone give Bruce a hand. Need I say more? 4 out of 5.
Okay, I touched on it before. The Haunting: Evil house, vulnerable people, superb supernatural creepiness. Extremely scary! Julie Harris, Claire Bloom. 5 out of 5.
Nightmare on Elm Street: Dead child killer returns from grave to kill again; teens are killed in dreams, die in reality; a teenaged Johnny Depp; Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund). Original is best. 1 remake, 7 sequels. 4 out of 5.
Frankenstein (1931): A classic; not really scary for modern audiences, but a seminal movie. “Mad” Doctor Fronkonsteen… er, Frankenstein makes non-Lego “monster.” Boris Karloff; Igor, not Eyegor; angry villagers, torches and pitchforks; Grr, Argh! 5 out of 5.
The Wicker Man (1973). Edward Woodward, Britt Ekland. Summerisle. Christopher Lee. Christians vs. Pagans! (She offers, he refuses. He loses!) Please forget the Nic Cage version! 4 out of 5.
The Silence of the Lambs (1991): Hannibal Lecter! Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins! “I ate his liver with fava beans and a nice Chianti”; “It puts the lotion in the basket.” Classic! 4 out of 5.
The Thing (1982): Remake closer to the original John W. Campbell story, “Who Goes There?” Kurt Russell. Antarctica; alien saucer; paranoia supreme! Who’s real? Keith David: “We’ll just wait here a while…” 4 out of 5.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956): Emotionless pod people! Just like in The Thing, who’s human? Kevin McCarthy! (National paranoia about communism….) Scary! 4 out of 5.
American Werewolf in London (1981): “Stay off the moors!” Dead Griffin Dunne eating bacon; Jenny Agutter (she’s scary hot in shower); dead people in the movie theatre! “You gotta kill yourself, David.” 4 out of 5!
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978): The best remake; Pod people again!; Leonard Nimoy; Donald Sutherland; Brooke Adams. San Francisco paranoia! Who can you trust? 4 out of 5!
The Others (2001); Governess and children think there are ghosts! Atmospheric; suspenseful remake of 1961’s The Innocents with Deborah Kerr; adaptation of Henry James’s Turn of the Screw. Similar to Sixth Sense in that it has surprise ending. Nicole Kidman. 4 out of 5.
Alien (1979): Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None in space; Sigourney Weaver; chestburster; H.R. Giger aliens; acid for blood! Okay, one “jump scare”—Jones the cat! 5 out of 5!
Get Out (2017): Jordan Peele directing; Daniel Kaluuya; “meet the parents”; interracial fear; tense and involving. Again, who can you trust? Solid 4 out of 5! (I just realized the poster is in black and white—for a reason!)
Rosemary’s Baby (1968): Roman Polanski directing; Mia Farrow; Ruth Gordon; Rosemary gets preggers; the Dakota; Devilish goings-on. Tight, suspenseful, supernatural-based conspiracy. 4 out of 5.
Dracula (1931): Tod Browning directing. After Nosferatu, the granddaddy of vampire movies! Bela Lugosi; Renfield; “Children of the Night—what music they make” (“Swan Lake,” actually)! 5 out of 5. Beats all remakes.
Figures 18 & 19 – Don’t Look Now (Left) and Halloween (Right)
Don’t Look Now (1973): Venice (Italy); Donald Sutherland; Julie Christie; dead daughter; red coat; psychic warnings; tense and suspenseful. 4 out of 5.
Halloween (1978): first and best “slasher” film; Michael Myers! (Not the comedian); Jamie Lee Curtis; John Carpenter directing and music; taut and suspenseful, but most of it has become a cliché, like the “Last Girl” (See Horror’s Greatest below). Myers kills and kills again. 4 out of 5.
Psycho (1960): Alfred Hitchcock’s classic take on Robert Bloch’s story about a boy who loved his mother. (Not the Tom Lehrer version.) Janet Leigh; Tony Perkins; Bernard Hermann’s signature score. Shower scene; Bates Motel. 5 out of 5!
Nosferatu (1922): F. W. Murnau’s plagiarized version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula! First film version; Max Schreck as Count Orlok. Sinister; atmospheric; silent. Extremely well worth watching! 5 out of 5.
Jaws (1975): First and best shark movie; Robert Shaw; Richard Dreyfuss; “We need a bigger boat”; scary and tense; Don’t go in the water! 5 out of 5.
The Exorcist (1973); William Friedkin’s “demonic possession” opus; Linda Blair; pea soup; “Your mother [does unmentionable things] in Hell!”; frightening! 4 out of 5.
Train to Busan (2016); Korean “undead” film; rather than zombies, it’s “rage monsters” like Resident Evil meets 28 Days Later; stellar special effects; characters you can empathize with; frightening and involving! 4 out of 5.
Hellraiser (1987); Clive Barker; “Lament Configuration” puzzle box; Cenobites and Pinhead; Doug Bradley; pain and pleasure demons!; creepy as Hell itself. 4 out of 5.
The Descent (2005): Claustrophobic movie; six female cavers (spelunkers); trapped in cave with crawling cannibals! Gory and scary! 4 out of 5.
Jeepers Creepers (2001): Justin Long (The “Mac vs. PC” commercial guy); what is The Creeper?; two-eyed no-horned flying ugly people eater!; unkillable?; where did he get those peepers? 4 out of 5.
Night of the Living Dead (1968); might as well end the movie list with this George Romero movie, which started the whole “zombie” craze. Undead rise from their graves; munch on the living. Add a little racial tension—black man as hero; trapped in old house; “They’re coming to get you, Barbara!”; still excellent after 54 years! 4 out of 5.
New for 2024 is a TV series on Shudder called “Horror’s Greatest” (5 episodes in September), featuring actors, writers and horror professionals, like Tananarive Due, David Dastmalchian, Alex Winter, where they talk about horror tropes and clichés, giant monsters, Japanese horror, Stephen King adaptations and more. It’s streamed on Shudder, which has a 30-day free trial. You can see a lot of movies in 30 days!
So there you have a list of twenty-eight movies I still find scary. How does your list compare? Let me know!
N.B.: this is revised from a 2018 column; in a new column I’ll write up some of the movies I’ve seen since then—because there are a lot of horror movies out there, I may do another “minute movie review.”
Comments? Let me know what you think; did you like this or not? I’m not afraid of negative comments; I almost always learn something from them. So please drop me a line, won’t you? My opinion is, as always, my own, and doesn’t necessarily reflect the views of Amazing Stories or its owner, editor, publisher or other columnists. See you next time!
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