“What’s your favorite scary movie?”
Ah, Halloween. That iconic holiday filled with candy, children dressed-up all cute, jack-o-lanterns, haunted houses, scantily-clad women and gay men, and, of course, scary movies. And if Hollywood has given us anything over the years, it’s a never ending supply of horrors and thrillers. The really scary thing is how many of them just plan bad. Awful. Painful. Ridiculous. Excruciating. And I’m not talking about movies that some might find offensive or inappropriate. I’m talking about films that are poorly made. So, if you’re looking for a good scare this season, I have here my list of my five favorite scary movies.
Before we get to that though, I’d like to address a retort I often hear whenever I speak of my enjoyment of scary movies: “Why do you like to watch something scary?” It is indeed a fair question. Fear, fright, alarm, terror, and horror are not in and of themselves pleasant emotions, so why would we subject ourselves to an experience designed to stir those kinds of emotions?
One word: catharsis (noun; the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions). I don’t think anyone would disagree that we live in a scary world full of scary notions like ebola, ISIS, recessions, school shootings, and so forth. Often, the reality of the terrible events in our world can be too much for us as people to handle. Recall for a moment the Sandy Hook shooting two years ago . . . do you remember moments when you just couldn’t even think about it because the sheer horror of it was too much? However, any psychiatrist or therapist will tell you that it’s unwise to beat your feelings and emotions into submission; doing so usually causes greater problems like anxiety, depression, denial, or other issues. So how does one experience these strong emotions without going crazy.
Art is often an escape, but I think its higher calling is to provide an outlet for our emotions that are very real, but sometimes too difficult to face in reality. Art provides a safe place where we can feel what it is we want to feel without necessarily subjecting ourselves to adverse consequences. In other words, instead of using Art to escape from reality, we use Art to confront reality in a manageable way. For example, it is no accident that the popularity in scary movies rose dramatically in the months following September 11th, giving the Saw and Hostel franchises their legs. When life gets too scary, we ironically use scary movies to feel better.
So whether you’re looking for a good scare or need some catharsis this Halloween, here are my picks, in no particular order, for my favorite scary movies. I’ll try to avoid the spoilers in case some of you haven’t actually seen these.
The Shining
“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” so they say. While The Shining may not pack on the screams like some of its colleagues, to me a good scary movie isn’t just about something popping out of the closet, making the audience jump ten feet in the air. To be a good scary movie, a film should be plain good, as in well made. So it’s no wonder that one of the greatest horror films comes from the one of the greatest filmmakers, Stanley Kubrick. His extremely loose adaptation of Stephen King’s classic about a caretaker and his family snowbound in a Colorado hotel is not only just as unnerving and terrifying the sixth time you see it as it was the first, but is also a film that strikes you with its high intelligence and unplumbable depth. The Shining is also my first example in my long-held creed that great terror and horror comes from great acting. Nicholson has rarely been better, and poor Shelley Duvall more than just believable: director Stanley Kubrick intentionally terrorized her so she’d always be on edge. Those screams during the famous “Here’s Johnny!” moment? That’s not acting, folks . . . she was literally having an emotional collapse. What I love most about this film is that it is a true ghost story: it’s not the spirits of the dead that haunt us, it’s the memories of our darkest and most regrettable moments that will really come out and say “BOO!”
Scream
Every so often the horror/thriller genre undergoes a revolution. One such occurred in 1996 with the release of Wes Craven’s postmodern Scream, which is probably the first (and still the best) scary movie about scary movies (in fact, Scary Movie was the working title). While the film could have taken the low road of lampoon and parody as the actual Scary Movie series would do later, Craven instead crafted a film that while still satirical and tongue-in-cheek about the genre still manages to be fairly terrifying itself. It’s countless nods and homages to the horror greats are too many to count, yet the film still maintains its identity as a clever whodunit slasher that created its own iconic movie monster, Ghostface. None of the sequels came close to the brilliance of the original (though, since all but the fourth are on Netflix, are still worth a watch if you want to see the entire series), and more than likely, Scream will be remembered as one of the horror films of the ’90s. (I apologize for the poor quality of the clip)
Wait Until Dark
My second creed about scary movies: they don’t have to necessarily be horror movies or full of blood, guts, violence, or language to work you into a frenzy. In fact, I personally believe it is the greater accomplishment to elicit fear, unease, or terror without using the unsettling gore factor. Adapted from a stage play, the tension in this one simply builds and builds and then builds some more, coupled with Audrey Hepburn’s Oscar-nominated performance as a helpless-turned-heroic blind housewife being terrorized by a maniacal drug dealer, played brilliantly by Alan Arkin. Here’s a fun game to play if you’ve already seen this film: see it with someone who has never seen it before. Content-wise it’s tame enough for anyone over the age of twelve, and there’s nothing quite like watching a person’s reaction to that one moment . . . you all know what moment I’m talking about. (check out this awesome retro-trailer.)
Halloween
Remember how I said horror undergoes a revolution every so often? Here was another one that ushered in the likes of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and all the other late 70s/early 8os gems (and not gems). What is amazing to consider about this one is how bare-bones low-budget it is. No major studio would back the film or even distribute it, so the entire thing is made on a shoestring indie budget, back in the days when indie films weren’t making money and didn’t have their own studios to support them. While the lack of funds definitely shows the seams a time or two, no one can deny the brilliance that went into this film that screams “keep it simple, stupid” in every frame: the ludicrous-turned-frightening William Shatner mask; the synthesized two-theme score; the subtle, yet unnerving shots, angles, and sequences; the simple sight of a masked man staring at you; and a story so basic it could have come straight from a campfire urban legend. This film is also responsible for many of the rules of horror: sex equals death being the most notable. Is it meant to be a morality tale? Probably not, but I’m sure the horny teenagers of the day had cause to pause and check in the closet for an escaped homicidal maniac first. (we’ll use a pretty decent fan-made trailer for this one)
Psycho – “Pick of the List”
What can I say? This 1960 masterpiece is quite simply one of the best scary movies made, and one of the best films ever made. I envy anyone who has never seen this film, even more if they’ve somehow managed to avoid all its pop culture references. Those references have all but ruined the experience for any uninitiated, and the result is a film that while still phenomenal, doesn’t quite pack the same punch as it might have. Before you act like most in my generation and dismiss this film as “not scary” “lame” or “silly,” try to put yourself in the mindset of a 1960s moviegoer. Think of what kinds of films were popular at the time, what kinds of content standards were enforced, and you may just be able to catch a glimpse of how groundbreaking and industry-shaking Hitchcock was in making Psycho. Horror films exist as they do today because of this film, and it is for that reason that it is my pick out of this list to recommend to anyone: you can’t really appreciate seeing scary movies with Psycho any more than you can appreciate modern music without The Beatles. Oh, and the story for those of you who really don’t know? Let’s just say Norman Bates’s best friend is his mother . . . the less you understand that, the better. (and because it’s so wonderful, here’s the original trailer featuring the witty genius himself, Alfred Hitchcock).
Some honorable mentions:
Alien – the haunted house in space.
The Silence of the Lambs – the greatest example of amazing acting = amazing horror.
Cabin in the Woods – the other awesome movie Joss Whedon made in 2012, and the only movie to give Scream a run for its meta-money.
The Blair Witch Project – found-footage before found-footage was cool, with a story that ratchets from a 2 in intensity to a soul-crushing 13 in the blink of an eye.
Happy Screaming!
– Blake L.
[Awkward Pause] 