Brainbugs Top 50 Best Horror movies of all time - Baumer's top 50 starts on page 18

[baumer]

9) The Last House on the Left (1972)

US

Box office:  3 million

Person of interest:  The trifecta of Wes Craven, Sean S. Cunningham and Steve Miner

Memorable quote:  I want you to piss your pants. 

 

 

 

Two young girls encounter a heinous group of psychotic criminals who then proceed to torment them.

 

Without a doubt (even to this day) the most disturbing film I've ever seen.

 

I have seen some films literally dozens of times. They will remain nameless, but they are there. Some of those films are pure entertainment and have left an obvious mark on me. I have seen Last House on the Left four times. And there is no film that has left more of an impression on me than this film. It is a visceral experience and one that will never leave your subconscious, and that goes for anyone who has seen the film. There are images here that are about as primal as you can go without feeling like you are in a Neanderthal like state. Wes Craven has tapped into something that few if any have ever been able to duplicate. There have been imitations as recently as the summer of 2005 when Chaos tried to usurp LAST HOUSE as the most disturbing film ever made, but make no mistake about it. This is the one and only. This film still has an adverse affect on me. The only reason I rented this film back in 1992 was because I was convinced that ( along with Jaws and Halloween ) Nightmare on Elm Street was the one of the scariest movies I had ever seen. And when I found out that Wes Craven had an earlier film to his credit, I had to see it. What happened in the next 90 minutes can only be described as an assault on my senses. Everything that was good in life no longer existed. I felt a plethora of emotions ranging from feeling sick, to shame, fear and trauma. I was so unabashedly disturbed after the film that a three hour, head clearing drive in the country was needed to calm my nerves. That is no exaggeration.

The story centers around two carefree young women who are going to a concert in the city. They are looking to score some weed and they meet Junior, who promises them some and he takes them to meet the rest of the gang. What ensues over the next 45 minutes is nothing short of the dehumanization of the two girls. They are forced to beat each other, touch each other and then they are raped and murdered horrifically. There is not much more to say if you do not want to ruin it for those that haven't seen it yet.

Was this a good film? Yes. Did I enjoy it? Absolutely not. It left me exhausted depressed and it drained me to the point that I thought I would break down and cry. For a horror movie to do that to me is quite astonishing. I have seen most of Fulci's gorefests but every time you see some guy with a drill through his head, you can dismiss is a schlock. You know it's fake. But not with this film. It imbues a realism to it that just makes you feel like you are watching someone's snuff film. It is that macabre and it feels that real. There is nothing else like it. 

I remember reading a review of Aliens by Roger Ebert and he said that the film was a work of art and he gave it high marks but the film was so much of a play on his emotions that he did not enjoy it. He was terrified more than he had been before. That is how I feel about this film. It is masterfully made, but it is a tough film to watch. Even after writing this review I am going to have a hard time getting the images out of my head. So my advice to you is if you are going to watch this film, proceed with caution. The subject matter in this film makes 8MM look like Anne of Green Gables.

This is the first time the tagline has read so true. Just keep repeating to yourself that it is only a movie, it is only a movie......

 

 

[baumer]

8> Aliens (1986)

US

Box office:  131 million

Person of interest:  Everyone

Memorable quote:  (hard to pick just one) Get away from her YOU BITCH!

 

 

Ellen Ripley is rescued by a deep salvage team after being in hypersleep for 57 years. The moon that the Nostromo visited has been colonized, but contact is lost. This time, colonial marines have impressive firepower, but will that be enough?

 

What more can be said that hasn't been said before about one of the greatest movies of our time? One of Jim Cameron's top three films, this is by far the best of the ALIEN saga, an endlessly rewatchable piece of classic action cinema which can best be described as "Vietnam in space". The alien is back and has multiplied, so now we have the now-classic action premise of "group of marines vs. invincible enemy".

From start to finish this is perfectly made entertainment with every frame minutely conceived to be the best. The music is eerily gripping and there are dozens of one-liners to be had from Bill Paxton, excelling in his first big role as the comic relief. The horror and gore quotient hasn't been reduced at all, this is definitely not a film for the kids. But oodles of gripping suspense and guns-blazing action violence is the main thing this sequel offers and it still remains one of the best action classics of our time. Even now, when some of the special effects are starting to look a little ropey (most remain fantastic, however, especially the Queen) and when you begin to realise there are no more than six aliens on screen at one time, this is still pulse-pounding entertainment, packed with horror, suspense, tension and plenty of thrills.

The cast is efficient, an ensemble outfit that pays off nicely. Sigourney Weaver puts in her best performance in her best role that she can never hope to better success-wise. Michael Biehn is the hard-but-human soldier who befriends her, Lance Henriksen has his mainstream breakthrough role as the likable android Bishop. Paul Reiser's Burke is one of the greatest portrayals of corporate evil I've seen, a fantastic show of strength, corruption, evil and cowardice from Reiser. The rest of the marines are great and, most importantly, believable and likable. The action never lets up and the extended version has to be seen to get the full story. Although it runs for two and a half hours this is a film that never runs out of steam; instead it will just age gracefully like the finest wines, sitting in its place in history as a classic of the '80s.

 

 

[baumer]

And e'll get to the top seven over the weekend.  

[baumer]

7) Scream (1996)

US

Box office:  173 million

Person of interest:  Kevin Williamson

Memorable quote:  My mom and dad are going to be so mad!

 

 

 

 

 

@Krissykins  My favourite film of all time. A+

 

A year after the murder of her mother, a teenage girl is terrorized by a new killer, who targets the girl and her friends by using horror films as part of a deadly game.

 

 

 

Say what you will about the actual film but there's no denying that this Craven film put the horror genre back on the map.  I still watch it at least once a year and it never gets old, never dates itself and is always a good time.  The story is pretty simple as a killer wearing a ghost face mask stalks teens in a small community and he might have some sort of connection to one (Neve Campbell) whose mother was butchered a year earlier. This killer, however, has his own set of rules that those he stalks must play by. SCREAM was a massive hit back in the day and it saved the genre from its own self destruction and 22 years later the film rightfully deserves the label of being a classic.   

 

What made the film work so well is that director Craven was at the top of his game and one might say that he did the best work of his career by making this material work so well. Yes, there's quite a bit of humour here but it works because fans of the genre will get a kick out of seeing "rules" that they know carried out. The various references to other horror movies makes for a lot of fun and we even get a couple nice cameos from previous horror stars.

 

Kevin Williamson wrote the incredibly detailed and brilliant script and he shows that he grew up loving the same kinds of horror films as I did.  There's astute references here to all the classics, from Halloween, Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street (to just name a few).  Wes Craven also puts his mark all over the film in terms of suspense and this famously starts with the Drew Barrymore sequence that starts the movie.  Craven also keeps things moving perfectly well with the ending because not only does he keep the tension going he also manages to keep the mystery up in the air as well. There are many suspects from start to finish but we're always guessing and even when you think you have it figured out something else will happen to throw you off track again. Campbell, Skeet Ulrich, Courtney Cox, David Arquette, Rose McGowan, Jamie Kennedy and Matthew Lillard all fit their roles nicely and it was fun seeing the likes of Henry Winkler and Linda Blair. Even at 110-minutes the film never wears out its welcome as it moves at a very quick pace and whatever elements it's going for are always working. A lot of times horror films wear down with age but that's not the case here as the movie is just as strong and perhaps even stronger than when it was originally released. Each generation has films that built the horror genre and SCREAM certain did that and you really can't take away from it simply because of future rips that would eventually help kill the genre. With its story, fine cast and strong direction, this is a film that will stand the test of time and will always have its place in the history of the genre.  

 

@75Live  Being a huge horror fan, I have a lot of reasons to like this movie. It helped bring back the genre and change it at the same time. None of the 3 sequels have come close, but a couple of them were at least decent. I still have the soundtrack for this movie.

 

 

 

 

 

[baumer]

6) The Shining (1980)

US

Box office:  44 million

Person of interest:  Jack Nicholson

Memorable quote:  REDRUM!

 

    

 

A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future.

 

@Brainbug had this at number one, so really, what is there left to say?  I'll keep this brief because he already covered it so well. Even though The Shining is almost 40 years old, I challenge anyone to not get freaked out by Jack Nicholson's descent into madness. This is a rare example of something so unique that no one has been able to rip it off; instead it has been referenced time and again in pop culture. The twins, the elevator of blood, RedRum, the crazy nonsense "writing"... this should be seen, if for nothing else, to understand all the allusions to it in daily life. The film is simultaneously scary, suspenseful, beautiful, and psychologically intriguing. It has the classic mystery of Hitchcock and the terror of a modern thriller. And it has what many horror movies usually lack: a great script.  The Shining is one of the staples of the genre and it has never been duplicated.  An all time classic.

 

@redfirebird2008  This is another Kubrick movie that shows how versatile he was. One of the two scariest movies I've ever seen

 

 

 

 

 

[baumer]

This brings us to the top 5.  Some of you guessed The Shining in my top three, and it just missed out.  But it's absolutely one of my favourite horror films.  But without further ado, here's the remaining five.

[baumer]

5) My Bloody Valentine (1981)

Canada

Box office:  5.6 million

Person of Interest:  George Mihalka

Memorable quote:  Daddy gone away...Harry Warden made you pay

 

 

 

@The Stingray  Pretty good and effective slasher. In fact I'd say it's one of the better slashers out there. Cool killer, cool setting, solid kills, likable characters etc. 

 

A decades-old folk tale surrounding a deranged murderer killing those who celebrate Valentine's Day turns out to be true to legend when a group defies the killer's order and people start turning up dead.

 

My Bloody Valentine is the best Canadian horror movie ever made.  It's scary, well acted, expertly directed, has blood, violence and the body count is high.  Here's some interesting behind the scenes stuff.

 

 

The film was originally entitled The Secret, however, the producers decided to change it to My Bloody Valentine, so to overtly reference the holiday serial killer trend with which the slasher genre was becoming increasingly popular, through films such as Black Christmas, Halloween and Friday the 13th.

Shooting on My Bloody Valentine began in September 1980, taking place around the Princess Colliery Mine in Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia, which had closed in 1975. Two mines were considered for the setting, the other in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. The production company decided on the Sydney Mines location due to "the exterior [being] a dreary, cold and dusty area [with] no other buildings around it so it looked like it was totally in the middle of nowhere."

Upon arrival at the town for principal photography, the crew found that the townspeople, unbeknownst to them, had redecorated the mine so to make it more presentable, thus destroying the dark atmosphere that had convinced the production company to base the film there. The cast therefore spent a few days staying in Sydney Mines, encouraged by the director to get a feel for the small-town location.

Mihalka has said since making the movie that the most difficult element of My Bloody Valentine was filming in the mines. Located 2,700 feet underground, filming in the mine was a lengthy process, as, due to limited space in the elevators, it would take an hour to assemble the cast and crew underground. Also, due to the methane levels, lighting had to be carefully planned as the number of bulbs that could be safely utilised was limited. Producer Dunning recalled that the production spent an estimated $30,000 painting portions of the mine to achieve a darker atmosphere. Dunning referred to the shoot as "horrendous."

 

There are two versions of this.  One is the theatrical version, which allowed them to get an R rating.  It's much more tame than the unrated version, which ups the violence quite a bit more.  Here's my review of the unrated version which I bought on DVD.

 

 

*** This comment may contain spoilers *** When My Bloody Valentine was released in 1981, the censor board cut it to pieces leaving us with a good horror film but not a great one. All of that has changed now that the producers have managed to get a hold of the 9 minutes of gore that was cut out of the film to retain an R rating. What started out as a very atmospheric yet pedestrian film, is now elevated to near perfection with the lost footage being added. My Bloody Valentine can be bought on DVD in Special Edition format and for the $15.00 you will pay, it is more than worth it.

I am going to assume that most people have seen the film, so I'll refrain from giving you a synopses of the film, but instead I'll tell you about some of the missing pieces to the film and why it makes it so much better.

The film opens with two people walking deep into a mine and then stopping to have sex. As the woman takes off her shirt, above her left breast is a tattoo of a heart. This drives the other miner mad and he pushes her up against the pick-axe stuck in the wall. The pick axe comes out of her chest and protrudes from the tattoo.

The next addition to the film is one of the most infamous cuts to the film and it gained a reputation for one of the goriest scenes ever cut from a film. And no one had seen it. It involved Mabel, at the laundromat, getting killed and then her corpse shows up in the dryer the next day as the police chief finds her. Her body has all it's skin burned off it and the eyes are bulging and she is blood red. The corpse is very, very real looking and it is a celebration of make-up and special effects. Just the addition of this scene is worth buying the DVD.

The next that I recall is when the bartender tries to set up some sort of booby trap to scare the kids. He has a miner's costume, complete with a pick axe, wired to one of the doors. As the door opens the costumer pops out to give a bit of a scare. As he opens the door one last time, the real Harry Warden pops out and rams his pick axe through his chin and out of his eyeball. This is another wondrous shot with amazing attention to detail. The scene looks authentic and for a film with such a parsimonious budget, they certainly got the most out of the special effects.

I'll mention two more. One is when two of the party goers are in the mine and are about the make love and then of course the guy runs off to get beers. This leaves the girl all alone and then she is attacked and rammed into one of the pipes in the shower. She is left suspended by the pipe and water is shooting out of her mouth. It is truly a marvellous scene.

We also get a very realistic nail gun to the head scene when the nails look they went into Hollis' head.

The only caveat to this is that when the old footage is inserted (edited) into the film, because is is so old and has presumably been sitting in a tin can somewhere for almost 30 years, the film is faded, but this doesn't take away from how effective the scenes are.

My Bloody Valentine, the theatrical cut is a creepy, stylish, claustrophobic feeling film with enough suspense and likable characters that it is a nice addition to the horror family. But there was always something missing. Well here we are 28 years later and that missing something has turned this film into one of the best horror films of the last 40 years. I highly recommend that if you like the film, get this edition on DVD. You won't be disappointed.

Theatrical Cut: 7/10 Special Edition: 10/10

 

@ddddeeee  This movie really creeps me out. The outfit itself is pretty scary but the POV shot of the girl being carried by him and the dude's blurred POV shots and muted reaction after being shot with the nail gun really freak me out.

 

 

 

 

[baumer]

4) A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

US

Box office:  25 million

Person of interest:  Robert Englund

Memorable quote:  Come to FREDDY!

 

 

 

 

@Thrylos 7  

A+ .

Iconic, different than most slashers , scary and with a wonderful and charismatic villain (who, unfortunately became a parody of himself in the sequels ) . Its sequels make me think that it's a good thing that we didn't get a sequel for "the thing". 

 

Nancy and her friends suffer violent nightmares which all feature one common element, a disfigured serial killer with a glove made of razors on his right hand. When one of the group is murdered while asleep, Nancy realizes that she must stay awake and try to uncover the truth behind this phantasmic killer Fred Krueger.

 

The horror genre today has cornered the market on slasher films of all types that appeal mainly to teen-agers and young adults. But the one Wes Craven film that still stands high and above as a towering example of a great horror film is NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET.

Its great success is partly because the blurring of dreams and reality is so cleverly done that the audience, along with the participants on screen, scarcely knows when to believe Freddy is real or not. And Freddy Krueger here is not played for laughs, as he was in later NIGHTMARE films. There is an occasional touch of humor, but for the most the horror is played straight and it really works.

The revenge motif is clearly explained with Freddy getting even with the parents who burned him to death by tracking down their children. Perhaps the scariest moment in the whole film is the episode involving the unfortunate victim, Johnny Depp, in one of his first roles. The gory, vindictive nature of Freddy Krueger is fully exploited in this sequence.

Fans of the series should make sure they see this one. It stands head and shoulders above most horror flicks that have come along since 1984.

Wes Craven has gotten an excellent performance from Robert Englund as the man with the claws and the other players are not far behind. This one ranks with HALLOWEEN as one of the best fright flicks of the last few decades.  It also has perhaps the most innovative death in horror history.  Here's a piece I wrote explaining the death of Tina:

 

This brings us to my favourite horror movie (and most innovative) death of the 1980s. The death of Tina in A Nightmare on Elm Street is innovation and risk at its finest. Wes Craven said he wanted Tina’s death to be otherworldly and when he came up with the idea of dragging her across the ceiling, mechanical effects supervisor, Jim Doyle thought of the Fred Astaire film Royal Wedding where there was a scene with him dancing around a rotating room. When Craven asked Doyle if could do this, Doyle said “I think so.” Editor Rick Shaine later said in one of the behind scenes features that to this day he’s still not sure how they pulled it off.

In the film, Tina, played by Amanda Wyss, is sliced up in her dreams and then wakes and is dragged from the bed to the ceiling and pulled by an unknown force while screaming out Rod’s name, before being dropped to the bed in a splatter of blood and guts. To accomplish this effect, they built a rotating room and everything was pinned down, including the props and other actors. Wyss said it was the most bizarre thing she’d ever been asked to do in her film career and initially didn’t feel safe. It took the prop department an entire month to build the rotating set and when you put it all together, some incredible movie magic was created. Craven directs it with flair and style, Wyss sells it with her terrified screams and desperate eyes and the effects department adds the coup de grace by making it all work. Tina’s death is one of the most iconic in horror lore and it deserves its place as the best and most innovative death of the 1980s.

 

And finally, concerning the truly wacko ending:

 

The ending, that most people dislike, had nothing to do with Craven.  He wanted to make a film that was a one off.  Bob Shaye was the only one who believed in Craven's script.  Craven was rejected by 20 or more studios and producers before finally letting Shaye and New Line produce it.  Shaye wanted to make it for about $100,000.  Craven told him it would have to be at least 2 million to make the film he needed to make, based on what was in his script.  So Shaye spent a year raising the money and he got it all.  

 

So he had a bit of say when it came to making the movie.  He didn't interfere with anything else creatively, but he insisted that the end be left open for a sequel and hence the ending we got.  Shaye wanted Krueger to be driving the car the kids were in, Craven refused to do that so they came to a compromise and had the Krueger colours on the rag top of the car.

 

Shaye was successful at the time, but on a minor level.  NL had made some money distributing foreign films and horror films that were not copyrighted.  He saw NOES as his ticket to hitting it big time.  And he was right.  

 

I don't like the ending all that much either.  And I don't really care for the sequels.  But without Shaye's help, NOES might never have been made and NL might not have become the studio it did.  

 

 

@Blankments  I liked it. Pretty tense, even though I'm not a horror fan. A

 

 

 

[baumer]

3) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

US

Box office:  30 mill (officially) more than 100 million (unofficially...mobsters ran the finance company responsible for the receipts and they were rumoured to have stolen and funneled the money to use in projects like Deep Throat.  No one knows how much the film really made)

Person of interest:  Tobe Hooper

Memorable quote:  Why, my old grandpa was the best killer there was at the slaughterhouse. Why, it never took more than one lick they say. Why, he did 60 cattle in five minutes once. They say he could have done more if the hook and pull gang could have gotten the beeves out of the way faster.

 

 

@Jack Nevada  Even today this movie is such a giant punch to the gut. The chase through the dark and the dinner scene that follows are closest to a filmed nightmare I've seen. Its the grimy, unforgiving realism of the acting and the production that makes it so upsetting from beginning to the end, and truly one of the scariest movies I've seen.

 

 

Two siblings and three of their friends en route to visit their grandfather's grave in Texas end up falling victim to a family of cannibalistic psychopaths.

 

 

 

There will never be another film like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  It's like being in a nightmare.  This film is almost too real and too macabre.  I felt horrible after watching the film for the first time.  There's nothing really enjoyable about this movie.  It's just violence and death and then repeat.  The last half hour is extremely tough to sit through and when it film ends, you don't feel happy or redeemed or satisfied that justice was done or that the good guys prevail.  It's truly one of the most emotional and visceral experiences I've ever been through.

 

This film is a dark disturbing look at a family gone mad. They have no reason, no remorse and no pity for doing the things that they do. The only thing I can even think of is that they have all worked at a slaughter house and the daily grind of taking an animal's life has desensitized them to the value of life, whether it be human or animal. I found it quite interesting that the film goes into great detail on how a cow is killed. Because what that does (besides gross us out) is it shows how sadistic a process it is to get our meat from the animal that it came from to the cellophane wrappers in the grocery store. And then when these butchers do the same thing to the humans in the story, it becomes more real, more disturbing and more eye opening. It makes the characters helpless. And it easy to live vicariously through the characters in this film, especially the main (Debbie) character. You can see how mad she has become by going through what she has. She has been brutalized in almost every way you can imagine. Physically, she is a mess, but psychologically she would never be the same after her experience. Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a rare film that shows that you don't need special effects or even a large budget to make a scary film. All you need is some ingenuity, a vision and a horrific story. TCM has all three.

When watching the film, you don't feel like you are watching a character named Sally. To me she really went through this nightmare. She really was tortured by a sick family of cannibals. Her performance was one of sheer terror. When she screams, you believe that it is real. It felt and looked like Tobe Hooper just put a camera at this house and film all that went on there. And there really has to be a Leatherface. He felt that real. Also, the fact that there was absolutely no lighting can be attributed to two things. 1) no budget. But secondly, the darkness adds to the fear, the paranoia and the mass confusion that this movie makes us experience. There are times when you don't know what's going on. All you hear is that horrifying buzz saw. And you know it is close, but just not how close. 

Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a classic!

 

 

[Lucas]

[baumer]

2) Friday the 13th the Final Chapter (1984)

US

Box office:  33 million

Person of Interest:  Tom Savini and Ted White

Memorable quote:  You son of a bitch.  I'm going to give you something to remember me by

 

 

@ddddeeee  Dark and brutal. Love the prologue and the main titles. The characters are the most likable of the series and Ted White is very menacing as Jason.

 

Thought to be killed by the sole survivor of the last massacre at Camp Crystal Lake, Jason Voorhees kills his way back to the camp to once again murder its inhabitants. This time, has Jason met his match in the little boy Tommy Jarvis?

 

I think Jason has been killed one too many times. He is probably tired of kids hitting him with axes and machetes and knives because in this episode of Friday the 13th, he is just plain mean. Not that he was a "nice" killer in the previous entries, but this time he just seems like he is taking it personally.

The Final Chapter is one of the best horror films I've ever seen and if you are a fan of the series, this is as good as it gets. There are some great scares, a likable cast, wonderful direction, nudity and Tom Savini decides to show up to make the final death of the film a memorable one.

Following closely in the tradition of the previous three Fridays, The Final Chapter places Jason smack dab in the middle of two isolated cabins deep in the woods, one occupied by a group of fun loving teenagers and the other by a peaceful lakeside family. Well of course the violence and gross fun is plenty, but what really sets this film apart from a lot of horror flicks and almost all of the Friday the 13th films is it's tone, quality and over all entertainment level.  The Final Chapter is directed by Frank Zito, and more than Steve Miner and even more than Sean S. Cunningham, he seems to get everything about the series.  He understands what makes Jason and Friday so beloved by its fans.  Here, he has created an atmosphere of doom and dread and tops it all off by increasing the body count and the gore.  Tom Savini didn't return after the first one.  He only agreed to come back for this one if he got to kill Jason.  And kill him he does.  Sure there are 127 more sequels out there, but Jason is definitely killed in this one. 

Friday, the final chapter is a great example of a scary horror film that concentrates on gore and suspense. It is easily the best in the series and if you forget what it is like to watch the early efforts of the series, then my recommendation is to watch the first four. They are great and if the series would have ended here, this would have been a perfect ending.

@DAR It's probably my favorite of the Friday the 13th films

 

IMO, one of the best sequences in horror history:

 

 

[baumer]

And now we come to number one.  The only person to guess this as my number one film was @The Stingray...he also guessed that My Bloody Valentine was the only non US film remaining in the top 10.  You just won two months of a gold membership.  

 

Without further ado...here it is...my number one horror film of all time!

 

1) Halloween (1978)

US

Box office:  47 million

Person of interest:  John Carpenter

Memorable quote:  I met him, 15 years ago; I was told there was nothing left; no reason, no conscience, no understanding in even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, of good or evil, right or wrong. I met this... six-year-old child with this blank, pale, emotionless face, and... the blackest eyes - the Devil's eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up, because I realized that what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply... evil.

 

 

 

 

 

Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield to kill again.

 

I'm not even sure I need to write why this is the best horror film of all time.  To most who like horror, Halloween is high up on their list.  It is simply the standard to be judged by imo.

 

Written in 1999:

 

The personification of fear. 

 

Halloween does perhaps something no other film in the history of horror film can do, and that is it uses subtle techniques, techniques that don't rely on blood and gore, and it uses these to scare the living daylights out of you. I was in a room by myself with the lights off and as silly as I knew it was, I wanted to look behind me to see if Michael Myers was there. No movie that I have seen in the last ten years has done that to me. No movie.

 

John Carpenter took a low budget film and he scared a generation of movie goers. He showed that you don't need budgets in the 8 or 9 figures to evoke fear on an audience. Because sometimes the best element of fear is not what actually happens, but what is about to happen. What was that shadow? What was that noise upstairs? He knows that these are the ways to scare someone and he uses every element of textbook horror that I think you can use. I even think he made up some of his own ideas and these should be ideas that people use today.

 

In 1963 a young Michael Myers kills his sister with a large butcher knife and then spends the next 15 years of his life, silently locked up in an institute. As Loomis ( his doctor) says to Sheriff Brackett, " I spent eight years trying to reach him and then another seven making sure that he never gets out, because what I saw behind those eyes was pure e-vil. " That sets up the manic and relentless idea of a killer that will stop at nothing to get what he wants. And all he wants here is to kill Laurie. No one know why he wants to kill her, but he does.( Halloween II continues the story quite well )

 

What Carpenter has done here is taken a haunting score, mendacious lighting techniques and wrote and directed a tightly paced masterpiece of horror. There is one scene that has to be described. And that is the scene where Annie is on her way to pick up Paul. She goes to the car and tries to open it. Only then does she realize that she has left her keys in the house. She gets them, comes back out and inadvertently opens the car door without using the keys. The audience picks up on this but she doesn't. She is too busy thinking about Paul. When she sits down, she notices that the windows are fogged up. She is puzzled and starts to wipe away the mist, and then Myers strikes, from the back seat. This is such a great scene because it pays attention to detail. We know what is happening and Annie doesn't. But it's astute observations that Carpenter made that scared the hell out of movie goers in 1978 and beyond.

 

Halloween uses blurry images of a killer standing in the background, it has shadows ominously gliding across a wall, dark rooms, creepy and haunting music, a sinister story told hauntingly by Donald Pleasance and a menacing, relentless killer. My advice to film makers in our day and age is to study Halloween. It should be the blue print for what scary movies are all about. After all, Carpenter followed in Hitchcock's steps, maybe director's should follow in his .Halloween personifies everything that scares us.  And if you have already seen it a hundred times, go and watch it again.  It's the best horror film ever made.  IMO.  

 

 

 

@75Live  

This is the only horror film that really stayed with me for years. Just the music would creep me out for the longest time. I am sure it stayed with me due to it being a childhood memory type fear, but still I have a friend that still can't watch the movie with the sound on or at night time.

I don't have to add much to what baumer said. It's truly a classic.

Easily an A

 

@K1stpierre  This is a beautiful classic. Attention all horror films being made today: Watch this film please. PAY. ATTENTION. TO. THIS. FILM. Notice how blood isn't squirting all over the place and gore just being randomly thrown about about 5 minutes. Notice how we feel for the characters, because of umm....oh, that's right, character development. Horror films today feel like they need to have action at every waking moment, or gore, regardless of the characters and actually feeling for them. This film is a classic horror film. My top favorite films of all time. 100/10, A++++++++++

[Brainbug]

Fun story: My mother, who was scared shitless by Poltergeist of all films and who refuses to watch something like Conjuring because shes simply too afraid, found Halloween to be boring and not at all scary.

 

 

Very good Number 1 pick @baumer. Halloween is timeless.

[baumer]

Thanks to everyone who read, commented and participated.  This has been a lot of fun.  I love juxtaposing @Brainbug choices against mine.  Its fascinating to see how horror affects people in different ways.  

 

As mentioned Stingray already won two months of a gold membership.  I am going to randomly choose three others and give them one month as well.  My thanks for participating in this countdown.  

 

I'll let you know later today.

[baumer]

1 minute ago, Brainbug said:

Fun story: My mother, who was scared shitless by Poltergeist of all films and who refuses to watch something like Conjuring because shes simply too afraid, found Halloween to be boring and not at all scary.

 

 

Very good Number 1 pick @baumer. Halloween is timeless.

 

That sounds like me and The Exorcist.

[Lucas]

5 minutes ago, baumer said:

And now we come to number one.  The only person to guess this as my number one film was @The Stingray

 

On 6/10/2018 at 9:39 PM, Lucas said:

Oh dear, I'm not sure... eh fuck it.

 

1. Halloween

2. The Shining

3. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter

I'm offended, I almost got The Final Chapter in the right place too 

[baumer]

@Lucas....yep, I was just coming back to say you nailed the first position as well.  So you also get a one month gold membership.

 

Three random people that get a gold membership as well are (I literally just looked back over the last few pages and picked names):

 

@75Live

@ddddeeee

 

You both get one month 

 

and @Brainbug...I'm giving you two months since you started this whole thread.

 

Congrats to all of you and I will take care of this tomorrow.  

[baumer]

The final list:

 

 

1)Halloween

2) Friday the 13th the Final Chapter

3) Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

4) Nightmare on Elm Street

5) The Shining

6) My Bloody Valentine

7) Scream

😎 Aliens

9) Open Water

10) Last House on the Left

11) Blair Witch

12) Evil Dead

13) I Spit on Your Grave

14) Gates to Hell

15) Mothman

16) The Ring

17) Angel Heart

18) It Follows

19) The Changeling

20) friday the 13th

21) Texas remake

22) The Thing

23) Sleepaway Camp

24) Psycho

25) Night of the Living Dead

26) Wes' New Nightmare

27) Suspiria

28)The Bay

29) The Prophecy

30) Invasion of the Body Snatcher

31) Phantasm

32) Bay of Blood

33) Paranormal Activity 2

34) The Fly

35) Raw

36) The Autopsy of Jane Doe

37) Final Destination 2

38) Sixth Sense

39) Conjuring

40) Near Dark

41) Rosemary's Baby

42) Inside

43) Amityville Horror

44) Grotesque (Japan)

45) Scanners

46) It

47) Stir of Echoes

48) Lords of Salem

49)  Hellraiser

50) Them

[Lucas]

Really fun and interesting list and it was a great read, I assume most of us have some catching up to do.

 

 

btw Final Chapter was your second, not your third 

[baumer]

4 minutes ago, Lucas said:

Really fun and interesting list and it was a great read, I assume most of us have some catching up to do.

 

 

btw Final Chapter was your second, not your third 

 

Yea, sorry....lol....Freudian slip there...or maybe I have a hard time deciding which is number three and number two.