My favorite horror films

Well I talk about my love of scary movies alot and I figured now is the best time to list my favorites and revie them. Not that you care but dammit its 2am and im not the least bit tired so read on or i'll skin your ass and roll you in salt.....but organic , earth friendly sea salt...im not totally evil.... lol ^_^



1)The Shining.
A man, his son and wife become the winter caretakers of an isolated hotel where Danny, the son, sees disturbing visions of the hotel's past using a telepathic gift known as "The Shining". The father, Jack Torrance, is underway in a writing project when he slowly slips into insanity as a result of cabin fever and former guests of the hotels ghost's. After being convinced by a waiter's ghost to "correct" the family, Jack goes completely insane and stalks them through the empty corridors of the Overlook Hotel. With a raging blizzard outside and the radio destroyed The only thing that can save Danny and his mother is "The Shining".

Fricking amazing film! The classic one is freaky and tastefully done allthough limited by the effects of the time and frankly strays from the book alot. The newer one done as a mini-series on abc....eh...im not a fan. Its just NOT SCARY , I mean its too well lit, overly dramatic and has the dude from "Wings" as Jack Torrence...gimme a break . Its like when Robin Williams does a serious drama or murder film. You keep expecting him to crack a joke and when it never happens your left wondering WTF is wrong with the film. The classic 1980 one with Jack Nicholson is the be all and end all of scary films if you are afraid of being alone. I recommend reading the book on this one too , its a great read if too short.




2) The Exorcist

Great film if you've seen the original not the crappy "edited for content " version the show on TBS every halloween. Epic struggles between good and evil don't get much more intense than God and the Devil fighting a proxy power struggle through the souls of a few Earthly vessels. That's the sort of premise that is sure to crush any movie under its weight. The Exorcist not only holds it up brilliantly, but it has managed to retain all of its power to remain relevant, influential and shocking 30 years after it was made. Much of that shock comes from the progressively nasty ways a young girl's demonic possession manifests itself. Those scenes - grounded as they are in meditations on faith, good, evil, and innocence - are probably the closest thing to genuine holy terror that has yet to be captured in a dramatic film. William Friedkin's direction, William Peter Blatty's script, and the performances delivered by Ellen Burstyn and Jason Miller are all examples of moviemaking at its most powerful. (Tad Roebuck/BOP)

3)Alien
The story of an isolated group of people being picked off one by one by an unknown and deadly menace is one of the biggest horror clichés around. In Alien, the familiar scenario is transferred into the depths of space and under the watchful eye of the then-relatively unknown Ridley Scott somehow manages to transcend both genres. Scott had a lot of help. A fine ensemble cast, a solid story, excellent production and art design and one of the most original and memorable movie monsters ever. The scene where the crew is hunting for it ( ineptly I might add) and doing the usual dumb things like walking alone into a dark room and standing in the only shaft of light are expected of 80's horror but still fun to watch.

4)Aliens

The only survivor of the Nostromo ( you dont think they would kill off the lead character did you?), Ripley is discovered in deep sleep half a century later by a salvage ship. When she is taken back to Earth, she learns that a human colony was founded on the same planet where the aliens were first found. After contact with the colony is lost, she finds herself sent back to the planet along with a team of warriors bent on destroying the alien menace forever, and saving any survivors -- if any remain.
Ok ok I have to admit the second one is just as freaky as the first only more so because theres more aliens..ALOT MORE. The setup, the scenery, the gore is fantastic.

5)Exorcist III

This is actually the film that SHOULD have been Exorcist 2. Based on William Peter Blatty's follow up novel "Legion", and directed by Blatty himself, the film follows the exploits of one of the minor characters from the original movie, Police Lt Kinderman (played by George Scott, who takes over the role from the late Lee J. Cobb from the first film).
Set some 15 years after part 1, and Georgetown has been shocked by a series of extremely grisly murders, with the victims having been nailed to crosses and decapitated. The police are completely baffled, with each crime having the markings of the same killer, but finding different fingerprints and evidence at each crime scene.

Detective Kinderman is also alarmed to find that the killings match the work of a serial killer known as "The Gemini", whom he had sent to the electric chair some 15 years previously. Meanwhile, the body count begins to increase, with one of the victims even being Kinderman's long time friend Father Dyer (another character from the first movie, played here by Ed Flanders). His death is particularly hard on the old cop and when you find out how the killer got all the blood ...ALL THE BLOOD out of the priests body without spilling a drop on the white hospital sheets and floor your gonna smile at the devilish enginuity. No insects or magic just plain ol crafty murder. Demonic possesed murder but murder none the less. Simply fantastic.

All in all, this is a very good film and is very much in keeping with the original. Praised by critics as being the first true sequel to The Exorcist, it (thankfully) since part 2 was like a train wreck full of lard and bad music . It ignores the disastrous part 2, and fans of the first film will undoubtedly enjoy it. No chunky cherubic dancing Linda Blair this time though!

Heres a bit of dialouge....
"
Patient X: Well, there I was so awfully dead in that electric chair. I didn't like it. Would you? It's upsetting. There was still so much killing to do, and there I was, in the void, without a body. But then along came - well - my friend. You know. One of them. Those others over there. The cruel ones... the Master. He thought my work should continue. But in this body. This body in particular, in fact. Let's call it revenge. A certain matter of an exorcism, I think, in which your friend Father Karras expelled certain parties from the body of a child. Certain parties were not pleased, to say the least. The very least. And so, my friend, the Master, he devised this petty scheme as a way of getting back, of creating a stumbling block, a scandal, a horror to the eyes of all men seeking faith, using the body of this saintly priest as an instrument of, well, you know - my work. But the main thing is the torment of your friend Father Karras as he watches while I rip and mutilate the innocent, his friends, and again, and again, on and on! He's inside with us! He'll never get away! His pain won't end!
[Abruptly calm and composed]
Patient X: Gracious me. Was I raving? Please forgive me. I'm mad. "

Fantastic....

6)Poltergeist

"They're here." Two simple words, usually completely innocuous. In Poltergeist, they take on an ominous tone (it was the "I see dead people" of its day), considering they're coming from the mouth of a five-year-old girl who's been spending time communicating with the snow on TV. A weird little girl isn't the end of things, as soon enough, chairs are stacking themselves, the backyard tree is carrying a grudge and you've got a little more closet space with that whole 'other dimensional vortex' in there. It could just be rowdy college kids, but they didn't call it Poltergeist for nothing.

Probably the definitive suburban horror film, Poltergeist carries a significant subtext about the rapid expansion of urban sprawl and the culture of 'profit at any cost'. Mostly though, it's a triumph of stylish FX (which pretty much hold up today) and although official directing credit goes to Tobe Hooper of Texas Chainsaw Massacre fame, it's all but been confirmed that this was Steven Spielberg's baby all along. There's ample evidence of his handywork. The suburban setting, the focus on children (Heather O'Rourke gets most of the credit, but Oliver Robbins as the brother does a terrific job as well), the mix of mysticism and science; these are all trademarks of 1980s Spielberg.

Some of the scariest horror films are those that use the everyday against us; it shakes up our comfort level and makes us question our most basic safety levels. Nothing gets to that faster than the thought that your own house could be out to get you. As the epitome of this sub-genre, Poltergeist will remain a classic for years to come. (Reagen Sulewski/BOP)
The scene where the wife falls into the unfinished swimming pool and rotted corpses start slowly rising out of the mud around her and she has to touch and climb over them to get out is great....

7)The Thing
An arctic research station discoveres a frozen chunk of flesh in a crater and takes it back to the facility to examine it. Alone, thousands of miles and weeks from help they must confront a horror of epic proportions. It could be masquerading as anyone..or anything.
So this guy is having a heart attack. They clear a table and lift him onto it. The doctor grabs some resuscitation paddles, places them against the guy's chest and yells clear. He flicks the switch and a jolt runs through the guy on the table. Nothing. His paddles recharge, he hits the switch again and...

The sequence that follows is one of the most memorable in the film. A stomach-churning escalation of biological horror. At its climax, the infamous spider-head, the on-screen, "You got to be fucking kidding", echoes exactly what the shell-shocked viewer is thinking. A lot of horror films rely on suspense and shadow-shrouded glimpses of the creature to crank up the fear factor. Not The Thing. There is some suspense there, claustrophobia and paranoia, but the horror of the film is the creature itself.
John Carpenter's The Thing was a state-of-the-art surreal freakfest at the time of its release. Speaking of surreal, I would have paid anything to be sitting in a theatre next to Wilford Brimley, watching himself star in a movie that features a disembodied head move across the floor with the use of a tentacle-like tongue, then sprout spider legs and scurry away. Effects aside, there is also a good deal of suspense and paranoia as the identity of The Thing - who could be assuming the shape of anyone in an isolated Antarctic research facility - remains hidden in plain sight.

8)Prince of Darkness (1987)

A sinister secret has been kept in the basement of an abandoned Los Angeles church for many years. With the death of a priest belonging to a mysterious sect, another priest opens the door to the basement and discovers a vat containing a green liquid. The priest contacts a group of physics graduate students to investigate it. Unfortunately, they discover that the liquid contains the essence of Satan himself, and they also discover that he will release HIS father - an all-powerful Anti-God! The liquid later comes to life itself, turning some of the students into zombies as the Devil comes forward to release his father. Will these students be able to stop him? The scene where the dude leaves and is killed by the homless people and then re-appears to deliver a warning to the survivors is great.

"I've got a message for you, and you're not going to like it. ( he starts falling apart and its revealed that his innards have been eaten by roaches and as the arms fall off the bugs pour out of him) ......Pray for death. " He then disentigrates completely...

Friggin beautiful!

9)The Sixth Sense

"I see dead people".

A tidy little spook movie that kept audiences guessing at its core secret till the very end, Sixth Sense contains many genuine chills and gotcha moments along the way to its not-entirely-happy ending. Another film that uses atmosphere, music and sound effects to heighten the terror factor, this one had everything and yet kept it just intellectual enough to make you think about what was going on. The ending twist...eh..I got it like 20 minutes into the film but whatever. Still scared teh crap outta me.

10)Event Horizon

There are two kinds of horror movies: Those that scare you, and those that fuck with your head. Event Horizon is an extremely unappreciated member of this second category. It starts out simply enough, with a spaceship that disappeared into space for seven years turning up once more, only now the entire crew is dead, like turned to smeared paste dead. It's up to a team of scientists and marine rescuers, led by Lawrence Fishburne as the crew captain and Sam Neill as the mysterious scientist, to figure out what went wrong. Event Horizon is extremely gory, and there are certain parts of the movie that are quite formulaic in the sci-fi/horror genre, but the real strength of the movie lies in its use of the implied and the unseen to get you scared. This is most definitely the type of movie that will leave you lying awake at night trying to tell yourself that it was just a movie. Not a lot of people have seen Event Horizon, but those who have will tell you it's one of the scariest movies they've ever seen. I have it on VHS if anyone wants to borrow it, its worth the time trust me.



11) Hellraiser II:Definitely not one for the weak of stomach, Hellbound takes up where the first Hellraiser left off, with tons of Gore and rotted corpses all around. Made in 1988 the sequel retains enough of Clive Barker's macabre wit to make it an interesting story. Hospitalized following her last misadventure, Kirsty (Ashley Laurence) implores authorities to destroy a bloody bed at the carnage scene, but the enigmatic Dr. Channard (Kenneth Cranham) brings an addled patient there and unleashes a dread Cenobite instead. As if that's not bad enough, Kirsty's getting distress calls from her father, who begs her to rescue him from hell. A Mute girl is used to open the puzzle box and opens a gateway to hell again . Kristy winds up running into hell to save her father and the little mute girl only to have to face Pinhead and his Cenobite demons. Who in Turn must face a new threat from within hell itself.





If I think of anymore i'll add them. ITs 3:14am and im finally starting to get tired. Rent these, watch these....share in the horror with me :).

-Steve