I am a horror movie buff. I love them. It’s stupid, because sometimes I see one that actually freaks me out and then I can’t sleep without staring around the dark room wondering if I’m going to hear weird noises or see something standing in the corner. But hey, whatever. Some people like roller coasters, I like my scary movies. So, in the spirit of the season, I present the top five scary movies, in no particular order:

5. Halloween–Okay, the first two originals are great, mostly because they are a continuation of each other, but the first film in the series definitely trumps the second. Also, the remake from last year by Rob Zombie was phenomenal. He delved into the psyche of knife-wielding Michael Myers a good bit and made the story much more three-dimensional.

At the same time, John Carpenter was a genius. His direction of the first film was what made it such a great jump-inducing movie. He doesn’t build up to his scary moments with music, so if you haven’t seen the movie, you won’t know when some of those “gasp” moments are coming–and it makes it sooo awesome.

4. House on Haunted Hill–I include this one because even though you might not find the original all that scary, it still has Vincent Price in one fantastic role. The plot is good and there are some cheesy scares, but if you’re not that into truly terrifying movies, this is a good one. House on Haunted Hill is also a good girls’ night movie: you can get  your thrills without feeling too scared to drive home at three o’clock in the morning when the popcorn and pizza has run out. Definitely a classic that everyone should see at least once. Read More »

Something Old: Halloween (1978)

Something New: The Strangers (2008)

The Connection: Both feature the creepiest of horror creepshows, the lurky masked killer (or killers, plural, in the case of The Strangers)

Long before I had ever seen Halloween, Michael Myers scared the crap out of me. The iconic pictures of his blank white face, unmistakably human and at the same time utterly monstrous, the brief clips from the movie of him unhurriedly lumbering towards his hysterical victims; for me, Michael Myers was an exact representation of that thing that you suspect is lurking in your closet or following you down the street at night when you feel like you’re being watched. Michael Myers was, as young Tommy Doyle observes so astutely in the film, the quintessential Boogeyman.

But a terrifying killer does not necessary insure a good horror movie. And while I respect Halloween’s place in film history, and acknowledge that when John Carpenter made it in the late 70s, he was dabbling in uncharted territory, it just doesn’t quite gel for me. The movie opens with a six-year-old Michael Myers stabbing his older sister to death with a large kitchen knife while she babysits him on Halloween night. His parents arrive home shortly thereafter to find him standing on the lawn in a trance-like state holding the murder weapon.

Flash forward fifteen years to October 30th, 1978, and he’s being transferred from one institution to another under the supervision of psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis when he escapes, steals a car, and drives off in to the night towards his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois. Hiding out in his now abandoned family home, he spots high school student Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) on her way to school and spends the day stalking her and her friends, hovering around behind bushes and the like in coveralls and his sinister white mask. That night, while Laurie babysits the aforementioned Tommy Doyle and another neighborhood girl, Myers picks off her drinking, drug-using, promiscuous friends one by one until the final showdown between Laurie and Myers. Read More »