Five Favorite Chillers on Film

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It's that time of year again -- your top five favorite horror films and some commentary about each of the top three or whatever strikes you. Feel free to list ten if you'd like.

Mine:

1. "Frankenstein" and "Bride of Frankenstein" James Whale's two
masterpieces are really viewed best back-to-back as one film. The
one impressive thing is the atmosphere Whale creates and Whale
had a way with actors in setting up scenes in a highly theatrical
but believable way. Boris Karloff is still the monster!

2. "The Silence of the Lambs" A relentless suspense with twist and turns
that consistently surprise and shock is what makes
this film mesmerizing from beginning to end. The
characterizations are on target and extremely well acted and being
in lighting design myself, I couldn't fail to notice how effective this
film utilizes light. Light coming through windows, light playing across
shadows, light placed at angles to make some scenes appear to
be paintings.

3. "The Haunting" The Robert Wise black-and-white original, not the
very poor color remake. The way this film uses suggestion to instill
fear and forbodding has never been equaled. There are no monsters
that jump out of doorways but subtly creepy set pieces like when
the Julie Harris character believes she is clutching Claire Bloom's hand.
Even the homoerotic suggestiveness between those two rings true
in culminating to a climax that is chilling and provocative.

4. "Don't Look Now" Is as much a psychological thriller as a horror film.
The peerless direction of Nicholas Roeg is augmented by some truly
perfect performances by Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland as
well as the rest of the cast. It really keeps you guessing right up to
the end and I'm more satisfied with the way the film concluded than
nearly any in cinema history of this genre.

5. "Rosemary's Baby" What a superb cast of characters who draw you
into a tangled web of deceit and subversion that plummets into it's
dark premise like falling into a bottomless pit. It's storytelling at
its best and is one of the best adaptations of a book on film.

6. "The Thing" 7. "The Exorcist" 8. "Dracula" 9. "Psycho" 10. "Suspiria"

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As I said before, I'm not a fan of horror films. I find little pleasure in getting scared. (I do write horror stories, though: make my own chills).

This is my list:
1. Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma - Pier Paolo Pasolini- Not your typical horror film, but it really shows what evil lurks in the mind of men.

2. The Fall of the House of Usher - Jan Epstein- Weird silent horror, in which the atmosphere is so full of death you can hardly breathe.

3. Don't Look Now - Nicholas Roeg- Venice in shocking red and deadly black, strange British ladies, a lost child and a murderer on the run. The running little red ridinghood scene is unforgettable.

4. The Dead Zone - David Cronenberg -A modern day version of the legend of Sleepy Hollow, with a nice political twist.

5. Carrie -Brian De Palma - One of the few gores I throughly enjoyed.

6. Interview With the Vampire - Neil Jordan

7. The Fearless Vampire Killers - Roman Polanski (see, I'm always in the light side)

8. Poltergeist - Tobe Hooper - (this one scared me)

9. The Silence of the Lambs - Jonathan Demme

10. Bram Stoker's Dracula - Francis Coppola- (vampirism IS romantic).

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The Thing (the original, not the ho-hum 80s remake)-- there's just something about this film which keeps me coming back time and again.

Them (not sure this is of the horror genre, but that's where I find it at the video store).

Silence of the Lambs ("I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti..." Chilling!)

Night of the Living Dead (in this case, I like the color remake over the b/w original)

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fbaezer wrote:

2. The Fall of the House of Usher - Jan Epstein- Weird silent horror, in which the atmosphere is so full of death you can hardly breathe.

I didn't know there was a movie!

My list (if you can call two a list) is short because I really don't like this genre, nothing against it but they haven't scared me since I was a kid and I haven't seen very many good ones.

The Exorcist - I liked this movie because I used to believe in possesion. Had I seen this movie then I'd have been scared but even so I was able to appreciate that this film hits a nerve in Judeo-Christian culture.

Silence of the Lambs - Well acted, nice little twists. Hannibal is the villian America loves to hate. I liked this film because such a refined serial killer is something that hasn't ever been pulled off with the success of this film, when others try it it's corny.

I have Dracula and will watch it when I have some time.

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I'm afraid of spooky movies!!!
Silence of the Lambs,scared me enough, though I didn't see it.
How's that for being scared?

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These are my fave horror flicks and lets hope I can think of more than a few. Firstly, I was very attracked to Bela L. as Dracula and he's still my standard best Dracula of all time. But funnily enough Bram Stokers Dracula
has been one of my favorites too.I never thought I could like Oldman as the Vampire but somehow I made an exception with this film. Very Classy and well made. I found my self on occasion prompted by it's subtle force to mist about in the crowds.

I hated Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in their Vampiric frolic. I don't know how they even could make such a bad film.Thank god for the scene where the young girl declairs " I want some more" ie BLOOD. The only scene worth seeing if you ask me.

John Carpenters the "The Thing" was a big success as I can remeber. You don't want to be sitting beside me though, your hand or leg will be squeezed continuously and it's not for affection sake either.

I like the "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" as well.Sutherland applies himself with just the right amount of control and angst, that makes the whole progression quite marvelous.I remember the sound cues kept one at seats edge.

Speaking of books The Others is quite good . This is not the film with Kidman though. It's a detective story that becomes a juxtaposition of unsettling events with the less than perfect lead characters. It manages to create an atmosphere from it's opening chapter and builds and builds with the worse kind of monsters of all............

I think David Cronenberg did some fine work with Dead Ringers and brought out something in Jeremy Irons that was quite marvelous. It was the thoughts of what might happen before it happened that kept the scary edge up. Jeremy, who I saw at a film festival was all friendly and nice until I said "I liked you alot in those sex scenes in Dead Ringers".At that point he went Cold and became another the other brother in the film . then he just sort of dissolved into the lonely corridors of the hotel ,almost assuming one final scene from the film.

I wish Fasbinder had made a horror film and Pedro Almodovars Dark Hideway could actually be twiked into a very good film of the horrific nature. He seemed to have all the elements in that film for it to turn into something horrorific.

Fangs alot..............

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Anyone here familiar with "The Wicker Man"? That quiet little movie scared the living daylights out of me!

Link to "The Wicker Man"

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Hi all !!

Let's see,...
OK, this is a list of my favortite Horror films,..not that all of them were all that scary:

1. Halloween, the original and in it's time was probably the scariest film I've ever seen

2. Alien, much like Halloween, the original and in it's time was probably the scariest film I've ever seen

3. The Omen,..that kid gave me the willies!! Twisted Evil

4. Let's Scare Jessica To Death,...I haven't seen this since I was 10,..but I still have bad dreams about it,..I'd probably laugh at it now, but I don't want to ruin the creepiness.

5. The Exorcist,..again, I saw this when I was like 10 years olds, scared the bejeezuz out of me!!
6. Glitter, the Mariah Carey film,...'nuff said Laughing

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Really scary jbean

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My, we are pumping along! Craven - the Roger Corman/Vincent Price
turn with "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Mask of the Red Death" are uncharacteristically well made films. In both films, Price is, well -- priceless in the lead roles. I still like the original Howard Hawks version of "The Thing" even though John Carpenter's version is closer to the original story, "Who Goes There" (which, incidentally, is very chilling to just read the story!) There's already enough suggested here to keep anyone busy a for several weeks after Halloween!

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Most of these have already been mentioned, so I place my list in no particular order. I found each and every one of these movies truly scarey"

The Shining. It's the only movie made from a Stephen King book that I found really, really well-done. Nicholson is perfect in the role and the suspense builds by degrees instead of hitting you smack in the face.

The Alien. OK, it's supposedly SF, not horror but a scarier demon that that alien creature has seldom been devised. And the rest of the movie hangs together so well-- the sets are great. That spaceship looks like a rusty tramp steamer The crew talk to each other exacyly as you'd expect real-life people to make small talk .
The special effects are splendid, especially the scene where John Hurt gets his and the one where the Science Officer is revealed as an android,

silence of the Lambs. Anthony Hopkins can do no wrong in my eyes, anyway, but this time he's given a good script to work with. And Jodie Foster has just the right combination of toughness and naivetee to make her believable.

The Exorcist. If this movie doesn't scare you, I don't know what will.

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Merry Andrew- First time that I saw The Exorcist, I had to go into the lobby, and lie down on the carpeting. Funny thing is, I wasn't the only one there!

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The scariest, thoughts from Salon... http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/2002/10/31/scary/index.html

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Great, Blatham -- several of the titles mentioned here are selected on the Salon site. "The Vanishing" could be considered a psychological thriller with a horrifying ending a la Edgar Allen Poe.

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BTW Welcome, Blatham!

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Aw, shucks.... Embarrassed

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Yeah, Blatham- Welcome from me, too! Pretty nifty avatar!

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Phoenix

Thank you kindly. It's an old picture, of course, as I'm no longer in the force. I had to turn in my nifty jacket and jodpurs when they found my grow-op, but I did manage to keep the red thong underwear which all Mounties wear as part of the formal uniform.

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Well, we're advised that if you act up that someone has given you a wedgy with your thong. Nothing like a Royal Mounted Thong!

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Well, that's the thing with thongs - they come pre-wedgied. This accounts, as you might gather, for that particular ramrod posture force members are famed for.

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Five Favorite Chillers on Film

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