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ALIEN (ALIENS is probably a better movie, but it's more of an Action movie than a Horror movie)
PSYCHO
THE HOWLING
SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
--------------------------------
Honorable mention should go to ...
HALLOWEEN (1978). The first hour or so of this movie is a masterpiece. But once the maniac actually begins his Halloween night killing spree, it just gets silly. It becomes more of a "scene gag" scenario than anything.
AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON. A great movie up until the last 10 minutes or so, where it compeltely falls apart. This movie's non-sensical ending undermines the rest of the movie, which had gone to such great pains (and succeeded!) in setting up a tragic ending.
BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN. Easily the best of the "classic" horror films. Really, though, it's so poignant and tragic that it really elevates itself out of the "horror" genre.
ALIEN (ALIENS is probably a better movie, but it's more of an Action movie than a Horror movie)
PSYCHO
THE HOWLING
SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
--------------------------------
Honorable mention should go to ...
HALLOWEEN (1978). The first hour or so of this movie is a masterpiece. But once the maniac actually begins his Halloween night killing spree, it just gets silly. It becomes more of a "scene gag" scenario than anything.
AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON. A great movie up until the last 10 minutes or so, where it compeltely falls apart. This movie's non-sensical ending undermines the rest of the movie, which had gone to such great pains (and succeeded!) in setting up a tragic ending.
BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN. Easily the best of the "classic" horror films. Really, though, it's so poignant and tragic that it really elevates itself out of the "horror" genre.
I beg to differ! I thought the last 10 minutes were very powerful too and they had the same mixture of gruelling horror and dark comedy of the movie as a whole, with an added twist of sympathy towards the plight of the main character.
I beg to differ! I thought the last 10 minutes were very powerful too and they had the same mixture of gruelling horror and dark comedy of the movie as a whole, with an added twist of sympathy towards the plight of the main character.
I didn't buy it. The movie sets up the theme that the werewolf can only be killed by someone he loves. The movie sets up this great relationship between David and Alex, then ...
He kills a bunch of people in a porno theater, causes some traffic fatalities, and the police shoot him in an alley.
My Top 5 Scariest
(in no Particular Order) The Exorcist The Ring The Omen The Sixth Sense The Shining
I don't get scared by movies with monsters, killer animals, or zombies, so they don't make my list. I tend to get the most frightened by movies with demons and/or malevolent/vengeful ghosts. Sixth Sense was groundbreaking for its time because of the point of view of the ghost (even for those of us who guessed about the "surprise" ending, it was scary and compelling).
Best classic, but not actually very scary to be honest: Psycho
Honorable Mention: Nightmare on Elm Street (1st one)
Have to add: Movies I thought were extremely scary when I was a kid, but now, not scary and even a little laughable (whether they were meant to be or not)
--Ghost Story (still a good, tight little haunting/revenge story, but through adult eyes, not as scary as it was when I was a kid and snuck in to see it even though it was a R).
--every "Living Dead" movie (zombies, {yawn} they walk so slowly...)
--Salem's Lot (seriously, this scared the crap out of me as a kid and teen, but now it looks like a tongue-in-cheek comedy).
--Happy Birthday to Me (now as a adult I see it HAD to be a joke, but as a kid, when it would come on HBO, I found it so scary I'd have bad dreams).
--When a Stranger Calls (was terrifying until every time I or a friend would babysit, and 30 people we knew had to call and say "have you checked the children?" and it got old)
I didn't buy it. The movie sets up the theme that the werewolf can only be killed by someone he loves. The movie sets up this great relationship between David and Alex, then ...
He kills a bunch of people in a porno theater, causes some traffic fatalities, and the police shoot him in an alley.
Epic fail.
I didn't want to give away any spoilers lol. Just in case, spoilers ahead...
Spoiler
Does the movie set up the theme that the werewolf can only be killed by someone he loves? I thought that David's friend Jack had told him that killing a werewolf was nothing special, not even silver bullets were required. And the werewolf that had attacked the two friends in the first place was shot by the villagers.
When, at the very end, Alex says "I love you", the werewolf seems to hesitate, as if able to recognize that feeling, but then he either simulates that he's about to attack her so that the police kill him (he wanted to die after all), or he's actually unable to repress his wolf-ish side lol. I thought it was a nice touch and the tragic thing was that his fate was unavoidable.
I felt sorry because David's character was sympathetic and because the wolf actually looked scared and confused all surrounded by traffic, city lights, noise and, eventually, trapped in an alley in front of so many men with guns pointing at him.
I never paid that much attention to the love story, to be honest.
BTW, I like the rest of your list.
Last edited by noela; 10-31-2011 at 12:07 PM..
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