Being the Halloween season, it is quite possible that you’re looking for something worthwhile for movie marathons with friends if you were to do such a thing. Well, that’s where I come in. Tis the season to be scary and who better to guide you through the fear than someone who regularly finds time to embrace the dark while playing with his little demons. Here is a list of some of the best horror movies for the season as well as seasons to come.
John Carpenter’s Halloween: This 1978 classic and innovator of the American slasher flick set the pace for the slasher sub-genre. In terms of its execution, it was genius. Simple and taking a lot of cues from Alfred Hitchcock, the film put everyone on edge. It also happened to embrace something that not a lot of movies embrace nowadays. Aside from a chilling atmosphere and presentation, it also had characters that you cared about to some extent because they were very real. They didn’t rely on the stereotypes based off of race, gender and sexual orientation that all horror movies tend to rely on nowadays. Its remake was very well done and is also something that is worthwhile.
Halloween II: The original version of this movie was one of the few horror sequels that even matched the original. It was well-composed, well-written and incredibly acted. Some of the characters remained built up and very human. There was a lot of atmosphere and managed to make hospitals even more foreboding than they already seemed if you had a fear of hospitals. A word of advice though. Stay away from Rob Zombie’s Halloween II. It’s horrible with a story that makes no sense and doesn’t even follow the time frame set down by Rob Zombie’s original. What works with Rob Zombie’s Halloween II is overshadowed by everything that is wrong with the film. Just stick to the sequel to John Carpenter’s original and you’ll be very pleased with what you get.
Rosemary’s Baby: This was hailed as one of the best horror movies ever released. It is. The reason why is the fact that it corrupted something simple and close to where our hearts lie, home. Due to the location of the movie (a home apartment), you see a lot of really interesting camera work. Even on the simpler side it’s done in often weird that throw off the audience and their general perception. One of the other things that makes the story more compelling and frightening is the fact that it’s based off of an event reputed to be true in Chicago where a woman pretty much gave birth to the devil (look for information on the Devil Baby of Hull House). It works really well.
The Evil Dead: Take one part mystic horror, one part slasher movie and one part zombie movie and this is what you get. Some people think that it was a horrible movie, but it wasn’t. It was inventive for a budget that was even lower than that of the original Halloween. After all, it was filmed on a budget of $100,000 and some change. It was well-written and the use of darkness and fog made for an eerie atmosphere that made it worthwhile to watch. While some of the acting is laughable, it is still consistent with having realistic characters in unrealistic situations. Either way, if you’re dealing with your demons, who better to have at your side than Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi.
Jacob’s Ladder: Yeah, I know. It’s not a horror movie but it uses elements of the horror genre. And for a non-horror movie it fared better than most of the drivel that gets passed off as horror nowadays. A tale of coming to terms with death, you follow a Viet Nam veteran. He’s haunted by his war-time deeds as are his comrades from his term of service. Possibly one of the things that makes this film as incredible and unsettling as it is might be just the fact that it is very human. Everyone, including the demonic characters, were realistic and had a purpose that made you connect with them. The writing was masterful. The special effects were simplistic but had a lot of power in terms of implying what it was meant to imply. The score was also incredible. The general story side of it also ended up inspiring games like Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill Homecoming.
Saw I & II: So far, the first two were the only ones that were remotely interesting outside of the splatter spectacle. There was a lot of atmosphere and a chilling storyline to back it up. The characters, even the ones who were introduced only to die, were well-developed since they were given a back story. The visuals were as intense as they needed to be. What each story was built up to made sense and the stories actually developed the right way to be able to pull it off. Saw III-V seemed unnecessary, though Saw VI might actually do for the series what Halloween 20 Years Later did for its respective franchise. Saw VI might be a return to the basics of the first two, which would actually make it worth viewing. There will be more to come on Saw VI soon.
Infection (Kansen): This J-Horror production is simple but incredibly fun to watch. The entire thing rotates around a failing hospital as it’s preparing to be shut. It has a full cast of broken characters that have their own failing to deal with and not just the hospital’s. Slowly, after a patient is accidentally, things start going worse and worse for the remaining skeleton crew of a staff. As stated earlier, it’s simple. Then again most Japanese horror ends up being simple, opting for atmosphere than the shocking visuals American directors rely on. Music and camera work ends up being just as much of a star as the actors. Speaking of the acting, it’s top-notch. Even with the simplistic presentation, it still is a rather visually stunning piece of cinema.
Reincarnation: As one of the After Dark Horrorfest’s “Eight Films to Die For,” It brought the Japanese to the front of Western film viewers that might not have given Japanese horror movies a shot. While it is predictable, it is one of the best films shown in the first Horrorfest’s group of eight. It had everything. A creepy hotel, the past and present intermingling, film, a lot of mythology, creepy dolls and ghosts. It has a lot of atmosphere that make you want to both shrink away from the screen you’re watching it on but also stay at the edge of your seat with your full attention on the screen. It brought the art of scaring people through simple means back to the West. Sure, directors really didn’t listen. It still brought the idea back to the West though.
Night of the Living Dead: George Romero is a genius. He made a movie that was not only highly political and revolutionary for its time, but he also made a monster that we could all relate to. The zombie is, as almost everyone including Romero puts it, “a blue-collar monster.” The time that the movie came out was what brought out the political and revolutionary aspects are the fact that, at it’s core, it was an anti-war movie that also forced us to look in the ugly face of racism. It’s horrifying but also heartbreaking. It’s partially because pretty much everyone you’ve spent time connecting with throughout the entire movie and everyone who has done something right end up dead.
Candyman: Based off of a Clive Barker short story, here is another moving horror movie that is also frightening. It is your basic ghost story. However, it also brought the tragic monster motiff made famous by Frankenstein or Dracula back into fashion. The biggest shift though is the fact that the “monster” is the spirit of a former slave turned artist that died for love. It shined a light on the problems of Cabrini-Green and similar housing projects by mostly taking place in Cabrini-Green. There was something the movie that resonated with not only people who lived in housing projects but even with people who didn’t. It’s powerful with inescapable imagery and a lot of atmosphere, partially because soundtrack that was composed by Phillip Glass and held no indicators of when something scary was going to happen.
One Missed Call: This is for the Japanese version. Takashi Miike just knew what he was doing when he decided to make this film. The story is inspired. The visuals are disturbing. There’s a great deal of atmosphere just surrounding something as simple and commonplace in society as a cellphone. It’s sequel is pretty interesting but it isn’t quite as strong as the first movie. It’s not bad, just not as strong of a product as the rest.
Pulse (Kairo): The Japanese original for the movie Pulse was much better than the American version. While it wasn’t scary, it was unsettling. It had a certain level of atmosphere. Also, since it had the ghosts coming out of electrical devices like computers, it just felt very forbidden depending on how you watched it. It’s hard to find out how else the American version felt flat in comparison to the original.
Ju-on/The Grudge I&II: Either the American version or the Japanese version works wonders. It’s hard to list where either one went right because you have to figure out a starting point. The story was simple, just rotating around a cursed and haunted area. The camera work and lighting heightened the atmosphere to make it seem much more frightening than it already was. There was just a lot to love about either one. The third movie for The Grudge is largely unremarkable but the first two are definitely worth the time to watch them.
There are many others that would be worth the time but it’s a matter of just looking around and seeing if you find anything that might suit your tastes.
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