My Top 5 Favorite Horror Movies
Horror is one of my favorite genres, and thus, a list has been formed.
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- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsJack NicholsonShelley DuvallDanny LloydA family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.I was 10 years old the first time I saw the Shining. I was at a sleepover, and this was 15 years ago, and we were watching horror movies on VHS. I saw the trailer for The Shining on one of those tapes, with the elevator and the blood and I just had to know what that movie was about. The next day I asked my Dad to rent it for me. Most parents would probably never let their kids watch The Shining at age 10, but my Dad was both a big King fan and Kubrick fan, and so he got it for me. I dont know if at 10 years old I could fully take in the glory that is this movie, but it stuck with me over the years, and once every two to three years I watch it. It never seems the same but also beautifully familiar. Slow and haunting, it creeps into your mind. Kubrick is a master at creating a movie within it's own world, its like an alternate universe. Perhaps it is simply the theme of isolation, and the questioning of human sanity. He was always good at taking the minimal and making it spectacular.
- DirectorMary HarronStarsChristian BaleJustin TherouxJosh LucasA wealthy New York City investment banking executive, Patrick Bateman, hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he delves deeper into his violent, hedonistic fantasies.This is a movie that goes beyond the horror genre, and that lies within the writings by Bret Easton Ellis, who is one of my favorite authors. The book is one of the most violent books I've ever read, and also one of the most hilarious. What is great about this movie is that it is almost Shakespearean in it's genius - horror and comedy are sometimes two sides to the same coin. When that dynamic is approached the right way, you can have a movie that is as great as American Psycho. Very post-modern, tongue in cheek commentary on the lifestyles of the rich and bored in the jaded 80s. It's fantastic.
- DirectorPascal LaugierStarsMorjana AlaouiMylène JampanoïCatherine BéginA young woman's quest for revenge against the people who kidnapped and tormented her as a child leads her and a friend, who is also a victim of child abuse, on a terrifying journey into a living hell of depravity.This movie for me defies the horror genre. I sometimes don't consider it horror at all, but rather an art piece that uses violence and the horror genre as a vehicle for expressing human obsession with the after life. Such and interesting concept and approach to a movie, especially a horror movie. It is known for being very violent and attracts a lot of gore hounds, but this movie is really fantastic. It is commentary on humanity in a number of different ways. Not only our obsession with the after life, but the beauty in not knowing, and also, how no matter what you do, there are some things you cannot escape. Death is not the worst thing there is.
- DirectorDanny BoyleStarsCillian MurphyNaomie HarrisChristopher EcclestonFour weeks after a mysterious, incurable virus spreads throughout the UK, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary.I think 28 Days Later could in some ways be called the perfect horror movie. It is very dark, not only in aesthetics but also in theme. The infected are fast and vicious. It is a fight for life, not only physically but emotionally. When everything you know has changed how do you exist? We all exist in relationships, to each other and to our environment. So many movies have tried to do what 28 did and failed. What makes this movie different? It is hard to describe, its not just the acting, or the great camera and editing work, or simply good characters and a good plot. The movie was not crafted to give you scares and jumps and exploit the zombie genre. After watching it you feel a bit dirty and raw (and 28 Weeks Later which is almost just as good makes you feel even more raw). This movie confronts you with what are a lot of people's worst nightmares, and it's not just the infected that we fear. It's the total loss of self and everything that we knew to be our world.
- DirectorGore VerbinskiStarsNaomi WattsMartin HendersonBrian CoxA journalist must investigate a mysterious videotape which seems to cause the death of anyone one week to the day after they view it.As I am rounding out this list, I am not entirely sure that The Ring is in my top 5, but I do know that I like it quite a lot and for now, it stays here. The movie itself is beautifully shot and well done. There are so many things in this movie that I continually question, like Rachel's weird little boy, for one. I was in high school when it came out and ten years later it still captivates me in how its done. The mix of the horror and the "normal" I think is what makes this movie great. Every once in awhile Rachel tries to grip on to reality, but after you've coughed up weird medical equipment, your life is never the same. All around great movie, weird concept, and whats best is that after it's all over you still have no idea what just happened.