Top 12 Favorite Scary Movies

As an ode to the holiday we’re currently celebrating, I give this to you, my 3 loyal readers, my favorite movies.  It’s not listed below, but the remake of The Last House on the Left gets an honorable mention because when I saw the unrated version, I was deeply distraught for hours, and could not stop thinking about it for weeks after.

Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

            This movie boasts that it has been banned in more than 50 countries.  In truth, the director and producers were arrested because people thought that what was happening in the film was true.  It follows a documentary team sent to look for another team that has gone missing in the African jungles.  When they get there, they’re brutally raped, tortured, and murdered by the natives living there.  This is one of the only films that has truly made me sick to my stomach from viewing.  Just so you know, it does feature on-screen, animal deaths.

Dead Alive (aka Brain Dead, 1992)

            Peter Jackson’s horror pre-cursor to The Frightening and those movies about the midgets, this starts as a brooding thriller but somewhere along the way, it devolves into a surreal slasher comedy.  Not for the faint of stomach, this flick throws in everything, from decapitations, dead mothers, intestines, lawnmowers, and giant monster babies.

Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)

            Directed and co-written by Scott Derrickson (he remade The Day the Earth Stood Still, but more importantly, he’s involved with Paradise Lost, a movie about the West Memphis Three murders), this movie takes what The Exorcist did write, and amplifies it by actually showing the girl get possessed instead of just talking about it for ¾ of the movie.  That first scene, when Emily is in the dorm room alone, still scares the shit out of me.

Frailty (2001)

            Directed by and starring Bill Paxton, this is a suspenseful thriller that went largely unnoticed when it came out.  Paxton steals scenery as a father that is convinced that God has chosen him to get rid of demons hiding as humans.  What is truly terrifying about this is when he turns on his own children.

High Tension (2003)

            From French filmmaker Alexandre Aja, who went on to helm another favorite of mine, The Hills Have Eyes, along with the crap-tastic Mirrors (but we’ll forgive him for that, because right now, he’s remaking Pirahna 3D), this film lives up to it’s name.  When her girlfriend’s family is attacked, Marie is forced to follow the killer to exact her revenge.  It is one of those “twist-ending” flicks that you can see from 30 miles away, and if you really think about it, nothing makes any sense, but that doesn’t matter.  Getting caught up in the chase is what it’s all about here, and this movie perfects that.

The Hills Have Eyes (remake) (2006)

            Here, Aja remakes a campy classic into something truly terrifying.  While the original was more about satirizing the family structure, and spent much more time on the Freaks, this one hardly leaves the human family.  From the squirm-inducing trailor rape, to the revenge-flick finale, this is not one to miss.

Hostel II (2007)

            Directed by Eli Roth, who arguably started the ‘torture-porn’ craze, this movie still makes me shake from fear and disgust.  I saw this one with White Goodman in a rundown movie theather, and we left the theater speechless.  But you know what? We fucking loved it.  I love the way Roth mixes the macabre with the absurd, and never gives an explanation as to why.

The Mist (2007)

            Adapted from a short story by Stephen King, this is another movie that builds and builds until it reaches it’s shocking conclusion.  It starts off relatively nice, and a little nostalgic, but ends in the darkest place you can imagine.  When Marcia Gay Harden’s character finally got what she deserved, the entire theater started cheering.

Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

            Back before Freddy was a one-liner spewing frat boy, he was the epitome of terror.  Not one to waste time waiting for you to wake up, Freddy murdered you in your dreams.  I saw this as a child, and was thereby hooked on horror.  Also, it’s Johnny Depp’s first movie role!

28 Weeks Later (2007)

            Most people go with the first movie here (28 Days Later), but to me, that one’s just a bunch of nothing (literally – Cillian Murphy spends the first 15 minutes absolutely alone), followed by some running zombies.  The sequel, however, amps up the tension to 15.  Nothing beats the opening scene in this, and (honestly) the rest of the movie kind of suffers because of it.  However, this one still goes into my “the sequel is better than the original list” due to a dynamic performance by Robert Carlyle.

The Orphanage (2007)

            Yet another entry from 2007, this one was produced by Guillermo del Tor, and it shows.  That kid with the bag on his head scares the shit out of me.  And the ending was as fucked up as anything I’ve ever seen.  This one keeps you intrigued the whole time, but still doesn’t back of the gore (which is my favorite part).

Trick ‘r’ Treat (2008)

            This is the movie that never was.  Actually filmed two years earlier than it’s release, this one was written and directed by X2 and Superman Returns scribe Mike Dougherty.  The problem was, WB didn’t know how to market it in a Saw world, and quietly released it straight to DVD this earlier this month.  A horror anthology in the vein of Creepshow, it features 4 interwoven stories on Halloween night.  The best part about this one, is it’s about the fun and mystery of Halloween.  With scene stealing performance across the map, but especially by Dylan Baker and Brian Cox, this is definitely one you should check out.