WDEL Blog: Lights, Camera, Reaction! with Rachael Samuels
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Halloween Horror
In honor of the upcoming holiday I decided to put together my list of the 10 best horror movies (to me). Feel free to disagree or support my decisions. As always I welcome the feedback.
10. 30 Days of Night
Based on a graphic novel, 30 Days of Night scares you more in the setting than any vampires throughout the tale. Set in a remote town in Alaska during their “twilight days” the movie offers the perfect setting for vampires to come out of the woodwork (no pun intended.) Danny Houston (Angelica’s half-brother) puts in a memorable performance as the head vampire, Marlow. Gory though so if you don’t like blood, this one is not for you.
9. Dawn of the Dead (Remake)
Slow and lumbering, zombies don’t really scare me too much. This is set in a mall (much the same as the original) where a group find themselves trapped, surrounded by zombies. The scare factor here is in not knowing. You never know when a zombie will pop out. By the way, one of the small group members has been bitten and she’s pregnant. Uh oh….
8. Bram Stoker’s Dracula
This retelling of the classic story is an epic movie any horror buff should enjoy. Gary Oldman’s performance is sexy and scary, making the viewer believe they may be under the thrall as well. Just a great flick.
7. The Shining (mini-series)
Although I enjoyed Jack Nicholson in the Stanley Kubrick film of the same name, it irked me in its inconsistency with the novel. Stephen King disliked the movie so much years later he decided to redo it with some very scary consequences. Steven Weber and Rebecca De Mornay play the hapless couple who will take care of the Overlook Hotel for the winter. Originally shown on the ABC network, the crew was worried about how much would make it past the censors. ABC aired it in a later time slot allowing a lot of the scares to come through.
6. Dead Silence
From the creators of the SAW franchise comes a movie about ventriloquist dummies. Most of these dolls are creepy anyway but given a back-story about a female entity, who cuts out your tongue when you scream if you see her, the film is very, very creepy.
5. SAW II
Speaking of the Saw series I was worried this film wouldn’t top the first which had such a twist ending, most people were left guessing until the final reel. I was wrong. This movie has most of the scares of the first one but the ending is every bit as twisted as the first film. A great horror treat.
4. Silence of the Lambs
This movie is scary in its subtlety. Anthony Hopkins plays Hannibal Lecter so mundanely you are freaked out by his very appearance on screen. Not to mention the killer who is stalking women to make a body suit of their flesh and you have an Oscar winning horror movie on your hands. (To this day the ONLY horror movie to win Best Picture).
3. SAW
The original is still the best. Forget all of the sequels (except II) this film has enough power to scare you long after the movie is over. Just the thought of waking in some sort of sadistic puzzle kept many people sleeping with the door locked and the lights on. Jigsaw is one of the greatest horror villains ever, but remember he’s not a killer. After all he wants you to live…let the games begin.
2. House on Haunted Hill (remake)
This is my favorite horror movie but I didn’t want to make a completely biased list so I put it at number 2. Geoffrey Rush does a great impersonation of Vincent Price welcoming 5 strangers to the House on Haunted Hill for his wife’s (Famke Janssen) birthday. Each will receive $100,000,000 the only catch is they have to live through the night.
1. PSYCHO
In my mind Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece, Psycho has the distinction of being the only film of its time to kill off the main star in the first 20 minutes. Anthony Perkins, who played romantic leads until this point, is forever imprinted in our minds as Norman Bates the owner of a motel co-run with his mother…A fun family drama right? In true Hitchcock style the twisted ending leaves no room for doubt. This is the greatest horror film of all time.
Since I love the genre I did have some Honorable Mentions on my list which didn’t quite make the Top 10.
Amityville Horror (remake) – Whether the events are true or not this is a scary movie.
April Fool’s Day – old and cheesy but once again the twist ending makes up for the lack of acting talent.
28 Days – the zombies run making this tale a bit scarier than previous zombie flicks
Halloween H20 – of course the originals of Freddy, Michael and Jason will always be classics this film went a step beyond bringing Lori’s tale full circle.
A New Nightmare- Pulling Freddy Krueger out of the screen to stalk the actors who starred in his films was a great move by Wes Craven.
Event Horizon – more sci-fi than horror (hence why it didn’t make the list) this is a great outer space tale worth a look.
Posted at 10:06pm on October 28, 2009 by Rachael Samuels
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