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Saturday, October 25, 2008

My Favourite Scary Movies

So in honour of my fav holiday every year I thought I'd put out this list of some of my favourite scary/suspense movies.

First up on my list is Scream. I really loved this movie when it came out. I think I saw it in the theatre at least twice. I loved the way it poked fun of the horror film genre.

I really thought that it was a smart move to have Wes Craven do a cameo as Fred the janitor in one of the scenes and to be wearing the original Freddy Kruger sweater.

I actually liked all 3 of the Scream movies. They made sense and they had a direction. Thankfully it only took 3 of them to finally conclude everything. I don't think that series could have been drug out any further.*addendum-as I finish this I see that Wes Craven is currently in talks for a possible Scream 4.*



Next up is Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow. Sure I read the book as a kid and sure it was intriguing. Let's face it though, Tim Burton has a way of taking a subject and making it into something really fucking awesome.

This film reunited Burton with Johnny Depp and Martin Landau. It also had Michael Gough and Christopher Lee which he cast in films on a regular basis.





Now this was one that I just saw recently. I must say that I went into it expecting it to be more like Descent. I was a bit off on that one. They did come out the same year and have the same kind of theme.

This film wasn't a total loss however. It had a good plot to it, but not much of a back story. I was a little lost on the origins of the cave until later on in the film.

Definitely watch The Cave. It has some moments, but not nearly as scary as I thought it would be.








This is another Carpenter classic. I actually just watched it today on tv. One of the characters uses the word "totally" so often in one scene that it's almost annoying. This was 1978 and I think it was in there as we were coming up on the 1980's and the beginnings of the Valley Girl era.

One of the directors of the film that I worked on had pointed out that there is a scene in the beginning where you can see cigarette smoke drift onto the scene from a smoke that John Carpenter had lit while filming. Kind of fun to look for these things when watching films.

This was the film that really gave Jamie Lee Curtis her jump start in the industry as well cuz lets face it, no one ever remembers you from bit parts that you do in tv series unless your a reoccurring character.



I actually never saw this film in the theatre. The first time I saw it was on HBO (in it's heyday) while staying over at a friends house. Bunch of kids staying up after midnite in the middle of winter and the wood stove cranking out heat and wood popping like Chinese fireworks at the wrong time during a slasher flick...........ah good times.

This film did better out of the theatre as a cult film, which is too bad since it had a decent plot..............guy slashes up folks that celebrate Valentines Day.

The most memorable parts for me are finding that body in the dryer in the laundromat and the some of the scenes in the mine shaft towards the end. If you can get your hands on it, watch it. Beware the fact that some disappointment will come.........apparently the only version of this film out has 9 minutes of missing blood and gore footage.


This was one of those so-so films. It reminded me more of that film Cat People with Nastassja Kinski, but with some kind or weird mother/son insestual overtone.

Definitely not one of the best film adaptations of a Stephen King novel. That tends to happen to his books anyway.

The highlight of this film is Alice Krige. She is most noted for her role as the Borg Queen in Star Trek: First Contact and again in the Star Trek:Voyager episode called End Game.

Definitely peep this one!! There are cameo appearances by Clive Barker, Stephen King, Joe Dante, John Landis and Tobe Hooper (who by the way is in production right now on "From A Buick 8").





This movie is a must see!! This movie kept me on the edge of my couch!!!

Director/Writer Neil Marshall brought this film to us. He is responsible for "Dog Soldiers" and is currently working on a film called "Drive".

This one is about a group of ladies that are some serious cavers. They end up in an uncharted cave thanks to a friend that thought the cave they were supposed to dive into was too easy and the terror begins there.


John Landis always puts out a films that are fun to watch. This is one of my favs by him. A great mix of comedy and horror.

The opening sequence is one that has always stuck out in my mind with the characters walking through the English moors at nite with just the moonlight to guide them until they come across the Slaughtered Lamb pub.

Again one of the best animal/slasher films of my lifetime.

Oh and An American Werewolf In Paris wasn't able to touch this film as cool and entertaining as it was.







Again another Stephen King book ruined by Hollywood. I do have to say that of all the SK books that have been made into films, this is my favourite.

There was so much more to the book that just wasn't in the film. This one is on my list for one fact only: I think I was 13 when this one came to the theatre. There is this scene at the end where Christine is under some crates at Darnell's and all of a sudden she roars out from under these crates and the headlights come on and the engine is howling like a cat in the dryer..............at that very moment imagine if you can an 13 year old boy jumping straight up from his theatre seat and screaming: Jesus Mother Fucking Christ!!!! in front of his parents and a theatre full of strangers. Yeah........good times.



I'm not sure that I would consider this a horror film as I would psychological slaughterhouse.

When you combine horror with space you get some pretty fucking freaky films. This one was no exception.

The highlight of this film is Sam Neill. This guy really brought his piece and laid it down for this one.

His character joins a rescue ship going out to Neptune to recover a ship called the Event Horizon which had disappeared 7 years earlier without a trace. Seems it's back now and wherever it was it has brought evil back with it. The longer the rescue crew spends on the Event Horizon the more they encounter the evil within the ship.




This is actually a remake of a Vincent Price film. I have not seen the original, but this one was pretty damn good in my humble opinion. This has Geoffrey Rush in the lead role as Stephen Price which in the original film was Frederick Loren.

This film offers $1 million per person to who ever can stay the night in a house with a notorious past.

It's only fault is the ending. The special effects team did a great job of working with the director and writer on keeping the audience on the edge and then at the end it seemed as if they needed some kind of apperitional gimick which kind of turned me off.

I'm a sucker for horror films so I watch it again periodically.




Kubrick did wonders for this film adaptation of the Stephen King novel. His first brilliant move was to get Jack Nicholson to be in this one. Brilliant!!!

No special effect gimmicks in this one. Just a good old fashioned haunting.

And the creepy connection between Scatman Crothers character and the kid in this film...........man that is the other half of the tension in this film!!! Fucking awesome!!!









I know what you're thinking right now.........why did this douche bag put this piece of shite on his list?!!

Well I do work for a cruise line. I was really into this film from the very beginning when all those guests are on the bow dancing and having a great time when those Nazi hijackers slaughtered them via that cable that made Ginsu look like training wheels for Jack the Ripper.



This is the remake of the original John Carpenter film of the same name.

This one is pretty scary and I like that John Carpenter was behind it 100% and was one of the producers on this project.

I like the cast in this film: Tom Welling and Selma Blair and Maggie Grace.

The fog effects in this film are just goddamned creepy!!!










Like I said before when you combine space and horror you get some scary mother fuckin' shit!!!

The tag line for this film was: In Space No One Can Hear You Scream

How true was that!!! Great cast great original script work and one of my fav directors: Ridley Scott.

I was 9 when this film came out. I lived about 100 yards from a movie theatre and I walked up there to see it and was told I could see it by myself. I had to come back with my parents to see it. Man was that one awesome film!!! This is one franchise that just couldn't top the original. Not even with James "I'm The King Of The World" Cameron helming the sequel.

Ridley Scott, you ARE the king. Thanks for bringing me movie nightmares. I'm still smiling.....................

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