Time to bore out another list, this time looking at the most effective horror movies. I’m not basing this list on the amount of bloodshed or gore because that isn’t horror, instead I’m judging it on a mixture of critical acclaim and my own personal favourites. Again, limiting to only one entry per Director, otherwise John Carpenter and Wes Craven would undoubtedly dominate the list.
10) It Follows
This psychological horror gem took an artsy spin on the formula. When Jay has a seemingly innocent sexual encounter, she soon finds herself being followed by strange beings, all with one goal: to catch and kill her.
It’s a head-scratching concept, but one that plays its strengths through the subtext of the piece – the idea of the ‘viriginal’ girl in Horror is quite broadly spoken about. Think of most Horror classics, the girl who stays ‘pure’ and what have you gets to the end. It’s the template that The Cabin in the Woods satirises so well, and here in It Follows it allows for us to read into the stigma attached to casual sex. Plagued by these entities that want to consume her, Jay and her ragtag group of friends try to figure it all out before what’s following her catches up.
It’s filled with tension-brimming scenes, beautifully contextualised through the first act, allowing for some set-pieces that leave you mouth agape, eyed-widened staring at the screen hoping for a respite. There is never much of one, however, with evil lurking just around the corner. Though the final ten minutes or so does get a bit up-in-the-air, the ninety minutes that come before are some of the most effective horror scenes of recent times, all set to a thumping and nostalgic soundtrack that ratchets up the atmosphere to electrifying effect.
9) Alien
This 1979 classic, brought to us by Ridley Scott, is a sci-fi horror masterpiece that has forever gone down in the annals of film history. What seems like a rudimentary explorative space mission turns sinister after a distress call lures the Nostromo to a distant planet. Inhabited with strange terrain and an annoying little face-grabbing alien, the crew soon finds themselves fighting for their lives on the very ship they need to get home.
It’s Sigourney Weaver being a badass, it’s beautifully orchestrated cinematography that creates fear and dread around every dimly lit corner. It’s everything you could want in a horror film – the atmosphere overwhelms the violence in this film, which it could easily have not done. After Aliens the franchise went south very fast, but nothing tops the original in ideas and execution. Ridley Scott is now working on a prequel, which should be rolling out next year. Whether or not it’ll add or subtract from the legacy is up for debate, but anything that has the word ‘Alien’ and the director ‘Ridley Scott’ attached is going to be a fun ride either which way. If only there was more Ripley.
8) The Shining
Stanley Kubrick is without a doubt the most masterful filmmaker of all-time. Perfectionist to a degree of borderline insanity, his filmography boasts such classics as Spartacus, Dr. Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange and Barry Lyndon. But what was to come next in his filmography was his own interpretation of the Stephen King novel, The Shining.
With Jack Nicholson comfortably sat as the lead, the film unravels in a complex, psychological series of events that confuse just as much as they terrify. The most fantastically choreographed shots are when Danny, the young son of Jack and Wendy, cycles around the peculiarly designed hotel on his tricycle. Encountering the ghostly apparitions of murders long since past, Danny finds himself able to wield The Shining, a psychic gift.
Taunted with the visions of his family, Jack Torrence finds himself slowly decaying away, psychologically speaking. I mean, we all know how it goes down – Here’s Jonny – but it’s the getting there that makes it so unique. Not receiving much appraise on its release, The Shining has found itself a fan base over the years for the massive amount of symbolism utilised throughout. Some film readings have gone as far as to say that the film stands as a parable for Kubrick’s own inner turmoil at faking the moon landing. Either way, Kubrick’s genius really knows no bounds and decades later, everyone still talks about this highly.
7) Psycho
You can’t have a Horror list without featuring Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. This 1960 classic is perhaps most known for the shower scene of Marion Crane’s murder. Context is key here, though, as Hitchcock cleverly used Marion as the ‘main’ character for the story. Then, just as we start to connect with her moral ambiguity, she’s offed. A real ‘What the fuck?’ moment and perhaps one of the first of its kind, filmmakers such as Wes Craven mimic this Horror narrative styling with the first of his horror film series, A Nightmare on Elm Street.
It’s a tale that keeps churning along, too. No pace is lost from the shower scene, and the harsh violins that forebode violence illuminate the psychological terror that lies underneath. Toiling with the notion that Norman Bates is dominated by his mother, the last ten minutes shock even more so when it’s revealed that (SPOILERS) it was him all along. The bone-chilling final scene that beautifully weaves a shot of his Mother’s skull against his sadistic grin. It’s cinematically ahead of its time, but more importantly it’s horrific.
6) The Exorcist
The 360-degree head turn, the projectile vomiting and the crab walking. All of these scenes speak for themselves, and are a testament to the vision of William Friedkin’s disturbing 1973 masterpiece, The Exorcist. Two priests are tasked with visiting a young girl, whose mother fears has been possessed. She sure has, and we lay witness to the ultimate battle of Good Vs. Evil.
Renown for how frightened this film left the audience, it may be easy to staple The Exorcist as a slow-burner by today’s standards of screams and splatter. But, the Two Academy Awards aside, The Exorcist is still capable of shocking some 43 years later. Perhaps it’s the end scene, that leaves us dangling on the edge of our seats, or perhaps it is the religious subtext strewn throughout the 120-minute epic. Either which way, this film is untouchable in its own right, and though there have been countless (I mean, really, countless) carbon copies, no film has managed to convey the same sense of hopelessness while still keeping the audience interested.
5) Let The Right One In
This Swedish Vampire flick came out of the woodwork in 2008, and breathed new life into a sub-genre of horror films that was, in the same year, being systematically destroyed by the first entry in the Twilight Saga. Truly fantastic, the emotion captured in this story is in part thanks to the desolate, snowly landscapes – but more so, it’s due to the dynamic between the two leads. Oskar, a quiet and bullied boy, falls for Eli, a vampire girl who moves into the same building.
Utilising its setting and the dynamic between Oskar and Eli, Let the Right One In was remade (as most amazing foreign films are) in the US as Let Me In. Rest assured, it’s a copy of this film almost shot-for-shot, so it’s worth reading the subtitles to get the real emotive nature of its narrative out in full force. The unsettling scenes that linger, the respect it has for the Vampire lore and the contemporary reflections all elevate this to a cult status. Much like Eli, it’s sweet and somber on the outside, but underneath is a monster waiting to get out.
4) The Thing
John Carpenter’s classic, not the 2011 CGI-transfomration prequel, I might add. A stand out in a catalogue of fantastic horrors, nothing can top the 1982 sci-fi horror lead by Kurt Russell. An American Research Base is met by an alien force that can assimilate any form it comes into contact with. Cue the paranoia, cue the flamethrower and cue the… Stomach splitting open into a mouth and biting your hands off. It’s bat-shit crazy and the special effects are a result of Rob Bottin’s genius.
Managing to stay afloat in part thanks to its surprising narrative depth, The Thing remains a staple of horror that all newcomers try and base their efforts on. In between the grotesque transformative sequences and Ennio Morricone score, the film boasts a deep underlying message – the secret monsters that walk among us, invisible to our eye. That’s just one reading of many, but needless to say when this film initially came out it wasn’t anywhere near as lauded as it now is. The cult fanbase coming into effect once again, even John Carpenter considers this film the pinnacle of his craftsmanship. The spooky setting, unsettling underscore and penchant for tension make this an edge-of-your-seat horror of its own breed. And that blood test scene is one of the most nail-biting sequences of all time.
3) A Nightmare on Elm Street
Wes Craven’s horror film series, A Nightmare on Elm Street, debuted in cinemas with a fresh-faced Johnny Depp in 1984. Giving us the nightmarish figure of Freddy Kruger, Craven managed to give us the creepers in the one place that we should by all rights be safe – in our sleep. What a bastard move, but what a fantastically twisted concept to play around with.
Kruger, the victim of a neighbourhood’s own brand of justice, comes back in full pizza-faced force to take revenge on their kids. We focus on Tina for the first half hour or so, her being taunted by the eponymous Kruger playing out in feverish dream sequences that gain more hallucinatory traction as they progress. Then, a-la Alfred Hitchcock, she’s offed. Brutally. Jesus, what a bastard Craven is being.
The rest of the film plays out like slasher film but with our protagonists trying their best to stay awake as a few (including poor Depp) get suckered into a hellish abyss by Freddy. Spawning a droll nursery rhyme, this mammoth of Horror filmmaking went on to spawn countless sequels, a TV-series and a remake. But the remake is awful, just to clarify. This, the first of its kind, is hands down the best of the bunch.
2) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Taking us to the isolated outbacks of America as a group of friends travel in their hippie van, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is the low-budget 1974 horror piece that gave us another huge icon of Horror today – Leatherface.
Using the screeching soundtrack that calls back to Psycho, TCM benefits from its grainy filmmaking, almost adding a documentary feel to the proceedings. Sure, the characters aren’t always on the top of their intellectual game – but the final twenty minutes play out like a slideshow of tortuous techniques, from the dinner table laughing to the now-iconic beyond all measure final shot of Leatherface swinging wildly as the sun sets. Beautiful, chaotic, grimy, grisly and at all times uncomfortable viewing, TCM is another film that spawned a plethora of sequels, prequels, threequels and remakes. Again, if you want the best possible fix – your best bet would be to aim for this film. Few horrors craft their atmospheres so effectively, and even fewer end as full-fledged as this original.
Honourable Mentions:
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Friday the 13th (1980)
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Halloween (1979)
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Carrie (1976)
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Hellraiser (1987)
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Ringu (1998)
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A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)
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Ju-on (2002)
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Saw (2004)
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28 Days Later (2002)
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The Cabin in the Woods (2010)
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Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn
Taking the top spot on this list is the Sam Raimi follow-up to his also incredible horror flick, The Evil Dead. This 1987 sequel sets up the same pretense as the original – Ash is holed up in a cabin filled with evil spirits after they are accidentally unleashed form the book of the dead. A group of strangers come by in a similar time, and together they band to fight against the un-killable force that wants so badly to take their souls to hell.
It’s incredibly quirky, and helped to establish the original ‘Cabin in the Woods’ storyline that so many films have used either satirically or literally. It’s shot with an aura that changes perspectives – one moment we are Ash slowly losing his grip on sanity, or at least losing his grip on account of having one hand. The next moment, we are the POV of the spirit trying to find a way in. The classic shots of the camera chasing Ash around the house are cinematic gold for the genre – and a cheeky way of making the scene terrifying on a lower budget than if he included some large CGI/Animatronic/Claymation beast.
The craziness keeps going up and up until the explosive conclusion that sends Ash whirling in a time spiral to the medieval ages. It truly is the most fun, scary horror experience that cinema has offered up to us in its time. Though some would argue that there are more fitting number ones, this takes the top spot for the imagination going into the creatures and demons that target Ash and co, but also because Bruce Campbell’s charisma and charm lead this film wherever its weird director takes it. And with Ash vs. Evil Dead a TV series now some 30 years later, it goes to show that his appeal doesn’t die with age, and neither does this classic. Check it if you want a fun slice of horror with a self-aware campness and trademark for the surreal.
Hope you enjoyed!
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