It is that time of the year! I always take the month to watch as many scary movies as I can. The wife decorates the house all up and that just makes the spooky atmosphere that much better. Here are some of my faves:
1. John Carpenter's Halloween: The original and the best. This pic was shot in 3 weeks and on of budget of $300, 000. At the time this was the most profitable movie ever made. Carpenter's score makes it that much better. Mikey Myers is my favorite horror icon.
2. The Exorcist: Probably the scariest movie on the list. Those stairs, that split pea soup throw up, the sounds. The only horror movie to ever be nominated for an Oscar. Director William Friedkin was in his prime back then.
3. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre '74: I love me some Leatherface. Anything with a chainsaw rocks! This movie was financed by the mob so it is impossible to really know how profitable this movie was. It ran for theaters for years and was a drive in main stay for quite some time. My dad had to sneak me in to see it. The cast saw very little money for their work.
4. Psycho: The granddaddy of horror movies. Alfred Hitchcock created this master peace using his tv crew to keep the budget modest. Anthony Perkins was perfect as Norman Bates and this haunted him for awhile until later on he embraced the role and made 3 more sequels. Look for the director cameo at the beginning of the film.
5. The Thing: John Carpenter is the only director to makes this list twice. The setting is perfect as a group of scientists are alone in Antarctica. The special effects were one of a kind back in the day. One of the few movies Carpenter did not do his own music.
6. An American Werewolf in London: This was a first as this horror movie had quite a bit of comedy in it and it worked very well. The special effects team of Rick Baker made werewolf's look real. Remember the Alamo!
7. Phantasm: I have been a phan for a long time. The Tall Man scared the piss out of me when I would catch this greatness on HBO late at night. I love all the car scenes in the pic.
8. Frankenstein: The Boris Karloff one. The movie was made almost 80 years ago but the monster is magnificent. This must have scarred the piss out of everyone back in those days. The scene where the monster throws the little girl in the water was deemed too graphic then and was not reinserted back into the picture until the 60s.
9.Dawn of the Dead: I will get cheap here and say I like both the Romero and Snyder versions. I do enjoy the original a bit more because of the great gore effects by the great Tom Savini who also has a role in the pic. Living in a mall with a gun store, that would be cool.
10. The Strangers: This is the newest pic of the list. It is so simple and that is what makes it great. A couple at a lake house in the middle of no where and some people messing with them. Your eyes will not be able to leave the screen. You can tell the makers of this are big Carpenter fans.
Honorable Mention: Psycho 2: This is probably the best horror sequel there is. At the time it was unheard of to try to make a sequel of a movie twenty something years later but the studio wanted to cash on the success of horror movies of the time. It relaunched Anthony Perkins career and his performance is just as good as the original. Tidbit: When Norman enters his mother's room for the first time look for Hitchcock's shadow on the right if the screen.
