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Friday, October 29, 2010

Horror Movies, My Top 5

I don't watch many Horror movies these days. Mostly because I have kids and I worry about the kinds of images they take into their brains. Kids don't make as clear of a distinction between real and make-believe as adults do. Therefore, I do my best to avoid giving them nightmares about zombies or werewolves.
The other reason is that the standards for today's horror movies are much different than they were even 20 years ago. The blood and gore, satanic elements, and sex have increased to the point that I've generally given up on horror movies.
However, that doesn't mean I don't like horror. In fact It's just the opposite. A well written, well acted, horror flick with plenty of suspense and horror and a sci-fi twist is about as good as it gets for me. So, I've compiled a short list of some of my favorites. I'm not recommending any of these movies for family viewing unless your kids are older. But, if you're a consenting adult who likes a well made horror movie and you're tired of wading through the buckets of blood, guts, and even sex that Hollywood insists on filling every horror movie with, than maybe this list will be of use to you. I'm not saying that the movies on my list are free of blood. etc.. but. rather. these are movies that creatively scare us without depending on the cheap thrills.

1. "Poltergeist" (1982) This is the only movie on my list that has no sci-fi element, just ghosts and the supernatural. This is Steven Spielberg's homage to horror movies. Poltergeist sets the standard for every ghost movie to follow. It's extremely well made and because of that, it's incredibly scary.





2. "American Werewolf in London" (1981) This was the first movie to effectively combine comedy and horror. It also broke ground by using popular songs to score scenes of horror. It's a wild ride of laughing hysterically one second and then jumping from fright the next.





3. "King Kong" (1933) I'm not sure if this truly is a horror movie, but it's definitely a great monster movie so it has to be on my list. I find it amazing that it was made in 1933 and it's still a thrill to watch. The 2005 version was a good remake, but the original is still king in my book.







4. "The Fly" (1986) Well directed by David Cronenberg and Jeff Goldblum gave the performance of his career.
The movie wasn't so scary, but creepy and sad.






5. "Alien" (1979) A horror movie set on a spaceship, what a brilliant idea. Plus, the alien monster was horrifying and like nothing else in movies at that time. The movie took it's time and built suspense. setting every scene up perfectly. Equal parts horror and science fiction, it doesn't get much better than that.
Looking back at my list, I see that I'm dating myself by choosing movies that all came out in the 70's and 80's. To remedy that, I'll mention that I do have a couple of recent favorites that belong on this list. "District 9" and "Cloverfield". I highly recommend both.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Scott,
    I was in a Emmy Award winning movie with you called The Spit Brothers. My opinion is, that will always be a classic horror movie for me. :)

    You and your family live maybe 2 hours from me. I live in Mooresville NC around Lake Norman area. It'd be great catching up with you. I don't know if you remember but you lead me to the Lord when we were in the Tyson SS class together. (Becky Watts)

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