Tomorrow I’m kicking back with a buddy and will plow through some top scary movies in honor of halloween. I thought I’d share some of the picks for tomorrow and I’d love to hear what movies get you going.
Drag Me to Hell
First up is
Drag Me to Hell (2009), which I only caught for the first time a few weeks ago. I won’t say too much about this film other than it’s everything that’s right with horror movies. Sam Raimi really knocked this beast out of the park and it makes me sad to think that we have to wait at least until
Spiderman 4 is done before we’ll even have the chance to see more of this goodness.
Drag Me to Hell is an excellent viewing experience and has a great mix of thrills, outlandish tongue in cheek humor, and also sincerity. I was even more impressed with the film after I found out it came in with a PG-13 rating.
The Thing
Next up is a little classic that’s near and dear to my heart, John Carpenter’s 1982 masterpiece
The Thing. I watched this less than three weeks ago but it’s a necessary inclusion in any scary movie marathon. Carpenter’s masterful construction is the ultimate suspense horror/sci-fi film. The practical effects are beyond excellent and hold up quite well. One of my favorite elements, however, is the tense and jarring soundtrack.
Candyman
Next we’ll jump 10 years in the future to
Candyman (1992). After skipping over this film for so long I was fortunate to finally sit down with it a few years back. The film does a wonderful job guiding the viewer through the different transitions of the Candyman from demon, to urban legend, to reality.
Candyman gets some slack from hardcore horror fans but it holds its own and presents some shocking visuals to boot.
Halloween
(1978) is another John Carpenter flick, and is perhaps a cliched addition to a halloween movie list. I’ve got a lot more respect for this film over the past few years especially after looking past Michael Myers as the antagonist and instead paying more attention to how Carpenter portrayed and directed “The Shape.”
I’ve also got some new picks lined up because it’s always nice to find something new to add to the rotation. It’s my hope that at least one of these will be decent.
Rec (2007). Spanish zombie movie, as far as I can tell.
Trick ‘r Treat (2008). Appropriately themed horror anthology.
Here are some other notable scares to check out if you haven’t already.
In The Mouth of Madness (1994). Yet another Carpenter flick. A nice mix of Lovecraft, King, and Carpenter. I really regret not catching this one sooner.
Night of the Demon (1957). I overlooked this gem for too long. Enjoyable demon film noir. Still brings in the scares.
Lastly, I’m going to check out Seconds (1966), and The Innocents (1961) today on recommendation from the thoroughly enjoyable Horror Etc Podcast, which I highly recommend for anyone looking for a good discussion of horror films.
::update::The Innocents was quite good. I made the mistake of thinking it was inspired by The Turn of the Screw while in reality it was pretty much a straight adaptation. Big trivia: Truman Capote assisted with the screenplay.
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Just saw Drag Me to Hell a couple weeks ago… I agree, it was quite good. Not a lot of comedy/horrors nail both aspects.
Had avoided Candyman for a long time b/c I thought it was a schlocky slasher flick take on the real Candyman–apparently there’s no relation. After I read your review I went to add it in Netflix, found it was available for streaming, and enjoyed it last night. Good rec.
Speaking of, heard good things about Rec though I haven’t seen it yet, as I was afraid it would be “gimmicky”.
Unfortunately I don’t think I’ve probably seen any good horror movies lately that everyone else here wouldn’t be aware of.
Rec was pretty good. I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much alone, but watching it with someone definitely helped make it a scarier movie. Something about sitting alone in a room yelping every few minutes is not really so enjoyable.
I’m glad you checked out Candyman. The Horror Etc podcast also recommended Polanski’s “Repulsion,” which seems a bit off the beaten trail but chock full of film snob goodness. Might want to give that a try.
I also agree that Drag me to Hell is excellent. I’m not super into horror as a genre (my weak monkey heart cant’ take it), but yeah taht film really nailed both both sides of the horror/comedy thing, and did it with a really great aesthetic.
Has anyone here seen Paranormal Activity? I’m definitely curious, but probably wont’ see it because it seems like the kind of movie thtat would freak me out too much.
I’m trying to see Paranormal but haven’t yet, alas. Repulsion I saw a few years ago, it was OK. Mixed feelings… I remember reading a lot about it when I was (much) younger but it didn’t leave me with any definite impressions I can recall right now.