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Blue Fairy's Top Ten Favorite Horror Movies

Blue Fairy's Top Ten Favorite Horror Movies

Horror has always played a huge role in my movie watching experiences. Each of these entries came to me at a different time in my life. I remember watching “Halloween” on the last Halloween I went trick or treating, ending my childhood and ushering in my adult sensibilities. I watched “The Others,” cuddled on the couch in the dark, with my friend, who whispered, “It’s not what you think,” throughout the entire movie. Horror can be silly, or so frightening that we can’t watch it unless through the slits in our fingers. This October I urge you to watch some of these films, if you haven’t, and discover them as I once did: trembling in horror.

Dimension Films

Dimension Films

10. Scream

Though most of my enjoyment of this film is shaded in childhood nostalgia, no one can argue that Wes Craven didn’t create a superb send-up to the genre he loved, with this 1996 hit. Featuring television stars Neve Campbell and Courtney Cox, the film did very well at the box office and spawned two hit sequels. The mask on the Ghost Faced Killer has become as iconic as Michael Meyers’ and Jason Voorhees’, and besides being a great satire of horror movie clichés, the film actually manages to scare, especially in the first minutes with a Drew Barrymore cameo. This film is complete with creative kills, a great supporting cast, and a twist that almost no one could see coming.

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures

9. Rear Window

While technically not a horror film, and more of a thriller, this is definitely one of the scarier films I have ever seen. This was one of my first Hitchcock films and retains itself as  one of my favorite films of all time, because of just how insanely suspenseful the action is. Those final minutes have not been replicated for me, what with their nightmare fuel quality. The film also starred screen favorites James Stewart and Grace Kelly, whose witty banter and flirting offsets the suspense. This film is great for the Halloween season and features disturbing yet realistic action.

Universal Pictures

Universal Pictures

8. The Thing

John Carpenter has a special place in my heart. Whether he’s making horror classics or sci-fi marvels, he always impresses and floats original ideas and concepts. “The Thing,” can be frightening, but what makes it one of my personal favorites is just how gross it is. The alien being that takes over an Antarctic research station transforms itself into whatever organism it attaches itself to, and when it’s found out there’s often a horrific scene where it changes into a grotesque beast that surely will haunt your psyche forever. The terror of featuring “The Other,” as an alien, living among us, parroted real fears of the Cold War, and remains one of Carpenter’s greatest films.

Empire International Pictures

Empire International Pictures

7. Re-Animator

Based on a short novella by the maverick novelist H.P. Lovecraft, this is definitely one of the goofier additions to this list. The very first scene that is supposed to be scary actually had me laughing on the floor at its goofy execution and poorly rendered effects. Still, for a film that gets many things wrong it does a lot that’s right. This has become a cult film for its reanimation scenes, nudity, crass humor, and surreal villain. This is definitely one of the better films to watch with friends this October, because it’s both fun and bizarre to sit through.

Ambassador Films and Warner Bros.

Ambassador Films and Warner Bros.

6. Black Christmas

Based on the urban legend “The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs,” “Black Christmas” is one of the less convoluted and simplest additions on this list. Originally I learned about this film from the Bravo 100 Scariest Movie Moments List, but it didn’t sound all that scary. Not only is this film frightening, but it’s disgusting in a really twisted and freaky way. The murderer is never actually shown, and his motivations remain unclear, making it that much more frightening: We don’t know when or how he will kill, or why he is in the attic. Why does he make such strange phone calls? The film is one of the first slasher films and actually influenced John Carpenter’s “Halloween,” making it both iconic and a must see. This film, though forty years old, still frightens and grosses out its audience in the best of ways.

Rosebud Releasing, Embassy Communications, Palace Pictures, and De Laurentiis Entertainment Group.

Rosebud Releasing, Embassy Communications, Palace Pictures, and De Laurentiis Entertainment Group.

5. Evil Dead 2

The original “The Evil Dead” was written and directed by Sam Raimi. It cost $350,000 to make and was a harrowing shoot for the entire cast and crew. Since then the “Evil Dead,” franchise has created two sequels (this being one), a remake, and a television series on Starz. Why do so many people gravitate to this franchise? Mostly it’s because it’s totally disgusting. We’re talking crazy movie makeup, tree rape, decapitated dancers, and mutilation. This film merges the incongruous aspects of comedy and horror to create a film that not only freaks you out, makes you ill, and scares you shitless, but makes you belly laugh at the surreal wonder of what’s onscreen.

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

4. The Fly

Though I absolutely love Kurt Neumann’s 1958 version, Cronenberg is one of my favorite directors and this might be my favorite film he has ever done. Though definitely freaky and horrifying to watch, it’s the gross-out factor that truly puts this film over the top, making it one of my all-time favorite horror movies. Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis have such animalistic, barbaric chemistry, and yet their deep affection also comes through in the bloody, gruesome ending. Come for the promise of horror, and stay for the commentary on humans playing God.

Compass International Pictures

Compass International Pictures

3. Halloween

Of the slasher film genre I usually am not a fan. Give me psychological horror, gore, haunted houses, or revenge killings by ghosts, but slashers, not so much. What entices the viewer about this Carpenter classic is how original and odd it is. The killer starts his reign as a child, and his main motivation for killing is his own insanity and disturbing past, making the killings that much more unmotivated and frightening. Jamie Lee Curtis began her reign as horror queen with this film, soon followed by “Prom Night,” and has been in our hearts ever since. The lack of convention and sheer originality of this film truly inspires and remains a holiday classic to this day.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

2. The Exorcist

Religious horror is one of my favorite genres, and this was the film that started it all. Based on the 1971 novel of the same name, William Friedkin’s masterpiece is most often associated with Linda Blair’s incomparable and rather freaky performance as Regan, the iconic imagery of the Church, particularly Max von Sydow’s Father Merrin, and stance on religious exorcism, which for the time was obviously groundbreaking and shocking. Some of the best films of the past forty years owe everything to this film and every barrier it broke down in the tradition of horror.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

1. The Haunting

Shirley Jackson is one of my three favorite writers, the others being Roald Dahl and Flannery O’Conner. The original novel “The Haunting of Hill House,” has been adapted many times, including into a film of the same name starring Vincent Price, which has its own merits, and the very terrible remake “The Haunting,” starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Owen Wilson. The reason I love this horror film to my very core, is that it’s scary because of what it doesn’t show. Psychological horror has always fascinated, and the best horror films of the past five years (“Oculus,” “The Babadook,” and “Black Swan.”) have featured an unreliable narrator who isn’t sure whether they are dealing with otherworldly forces or their own mania. This was the first film that not only explored the inner psyche of a disturbed young woman made tentative by death, but shook the audience’s sensibilities by not making clear what to fear. If you don’t know what to fear, you fear everything, and director Robert Wise understood this in spades, making the film ambiguous and yet frightening in an extreme way.

 

 

Honorable Mentions

Universal Pictures

Universal Pictures

The Birds

Birds frighten me. They come from the sky so you’re unaware where they are, and when there’s large flocks of them, I hide in a panic. This film brought out my worst fears as a child and still freaks me out when I re-watch it. Though some would argue that this is more of a thriller than a horror film, I would argue that there’s nothing scarier than a fast moving flock of seagulls.

Dimension Films

Dimension Films

The Others

This film falls into the category of psychological horror. Between the iconoclastic imagery of a Victorian manor in England, circa World War I, and the tension that repeatedly builds to an unheard of climax, this is a must-see for any lover of modern horror.

Universal Pictures

Universal Pictures

Bride of Frankenstein

Though the original “Frankenstein” is its own riveting horror watch, this is my favorite of the franchise, because the story feels more attune to my interpretation of the original novel. Here we actually see the monster talk, there’s more investment in the ending, and it even features Elsa Lanchester playing both the Bride and Mary Shelley herself. This is definitely James Whale’s ultimate masterpiece.

Produzioni Atlas Consorziate

Produzioni Atlas Consorziate

Suspiria

Though I don’t feel a lot of fear watching this film, I definitely respect it for what it accomplishes. Directed by the once-in-a-lifetime master Dario Argento, this story supposedly follows that of the fairy tale Snow White, and sees an aspiring ballerina realizing her studio is a front for a witch’s coven. The imagery of the film includes stained glass windows, beautiful Technicolor, and horrifying movie makeup.

Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures

Misery

Though I also love “Carrie,” this is the film that truly terrified me, and made me bow before Stephen King’s film adaptations. Kathy Bates is the perfect crazed fan, and her severe and delusional treatment of her idol makes for a film that not only creates a ceaseless tension, but makes you wonder how close you are to the same evil ends.

The Trend of Horror Remakes

The Trend of Horror Remakes

My Current Obsession: Marc Maron

My Current Obsession: Marc Maron