Assembled from the found footage of three college students, the fictional tale of the Blair Witch is a stunning mythology wrapped around a simple parable about kids getting lost in the woods. Three college students, Heather, Mike and Josh, after interviewing local townsfolk about Elly Kedward, a supposed witch, wander into the Black Hills forest to never be seen again.
A slow burner, there are payoffs aplenty as tensions rise through the struggle of group mentality in a high pressure situation. The production method of three actors actually living the experience while filming it causes a confusing reality – are they really arguing, or is it their characters? The scares are served out of your own imagination, a cunning tactic which determines just how scared you will become. Everyday noises and objects are reappropriated as terrifying totems.
The genius in this chiller lies in the attention to detail from creators Sanchez and Myrick, who layer it up thick so you cannot help but believe. It’s most telling secret lies in the first 20 minutes of the film, a sliver of foreshadowing dropped into conversation – ignored by many first time audience members who were left scratching their heads at the end.
If you haven’t yet seen it, it may be time to go down to the woods today. Oh, and make sure you listen to those interviews with the townsfolk.
[h2]19) The Silence of the Lambs[/h2]
We can thank this standout classic for the now-ubiquity of FBI profilers, police psych analysts, serial killer hunters, and general obsession with the Dexters of this world.
Sweeping the 1992 Oscars with Best Actor, Actress, Director, Picture, and Adapted Screenplay, The Silence of the Lambs introduced us to one of the most unnerving, intriguing, and compelling fictional characters of all time, Dr. Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter. Brian Cox debuted him [extremely well] in the wholly-insufficient Manhunter (a grievous iteration largely corrected by 2002’s Red Dragon), but it was Anthony Hopkins who claimed the space, boring into us with his high-powered perception, tempting us toward the bars to peer inside his psyche with Clarice and pray he finds us, like her, courteous enough to be left alone should they fail.
Hopkins brought the dulcet, menacing tones of “Ready when you are, Sergeant Pembry,” “I’m having an old friend for dinner,” and “No, that is incidentalll” face to face with Clarice’s steadfast “I’m here to learn from you,” trust-building honesty regarding the embarrassing truth about Miggs, and remarkably courageous quid pro quo regarding her doomed ovine beloved. Student and Svengali, hunter and hunted, such the pair they make, both as character and actor.
Crisp, complex, beautifully acted, and nerve-janglingly suspenseful, The Silence of the Lambs allows us to glimpse what makes people tick, what makes some go one way and others, well, another… It leaves us exhausted and somehow elated, and endures in consummate psychological thriller perfection to this day.
[h2]18) 28 Days Later[/h2]
Danny Boyle’s entry into the horror genre comes full of terrifying zombies, a handful of truly dark moments and some fantastic characterization. 28 Days Later is a great film in its own right, but as a horror piece, it’s downright superb.
A success both critically and commercially, the film really revitalized the zombie sub-genre, delivering a swift kick to the gut of a part of horror that was slowly growing stale.
Boyle’s work of art is so much more than just a zombie film though. It acts also as political allegory and even a compelling look at human nature. The film really does ask some tough questions and if you’ve been paying close attention, it will leave you thinking. This is a thought provoking film that is trying to say something.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some absolutely terrifying moments here, thanks to Boyle’s decision to give the zombies the ability to run, but there is so much more to 28 Days Later than just zombies and gore. Boyle has done something truly wonderful here. He has created a zombie film with depth and smarts. For that, it will be regarded as a classic for years to come.
[h2]17) Frankenstein[/h2]
No one does classical horror like Universal. Within two years they released Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy and The Invisible Man, and it’s hard to decide which one is the more iconic. Luckily, we don’t have to.
Frankenstein only slightly follows the plot of its literary namesake, but we can forgive that. Dr. Henry Frankenstein builds a Monster, said Monster runs amok, and a windmill burns down. Karloff gives a grand, wordless performance as the Monster, bringing pathos to a mindless brute.
Gothically beautiful, with some additions of weirdness courtesy of director James Whale, the original Frankenstein has remained the yardstick by which all other monster movies are measured.
[h2]16) Friday the 13th[/h2]
Jason has been everywhere – Camp Crystal Lake, New York City, Space, Hell, Freddy’s Dream world – this killer is quite the adventurer. But with that said, the only Friday the 13th film included on this list happens to have nothing to do with our hockey mask wearing horror icon, and instead his schizophrenic mother which started it all.
Sean S. Cunningham, the man smart enough to direct our original Friday the 13th film and never return, is exactly who to blame for those sleepless nights spent at sleepaway camp with your friends. Is the mother of a dead camp-goer seeking vengeance on all those now in attendance?
Poor Kevin Bacon didn’t think about those implications, playing one of Mrs. Voorhees’s young victims in one of the most influential films which sparked the slasher explosion of the 1980s. Looks like the only thing scarier than Jason is his…Mom?
[h2]15) Evil Dead 2[/h2]
If you’re horror fan and don’t know the Evil Dead franchise, go jump off the tallest building you can find, but before you do, watch Evil Dead 2. It’s a horror film so enchanting and so unique both Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell have ascended to the status of genre Gods because of it, and still to the day remains relevant in current horror culture.
Goofy, silly, riotous, and downright psychotic are all terms that describe what is essentially a black comedy wrapped in devilish horror, as main character Ash and a few of his friends attempt to spend some quality time in a run-down little cabin.
What follows is the death of all but Ash, his spiral into chainsaw-armed madness, tremendous amounts of gore as he hacks his way through the Deadites, and then there’s a scene where he laughs at some furniture – and it laughs back. Yes, this film is special, and help shaped the horror comedy over time – too bad no one has been able to achieve such greatness since.
[h2]14) Jaws[/h2]
Whether you count Jaws as a horror film is something you could debate with theorists for hours and hours, but the stamp of fear it brandished on most people, including the “I’ll never go swimming in the ocean again” line you’ve probably heard from one of your relatives lucky enough to see the film on original release, is very difficult to ignore. Many people have not swam in the ocean since as a result of Spielberg’s masterpiece and despite some clunky visual effects here and there, nearly 40 years on, it is still an absolute milestone.
Spielberg often talks about Kubrick and his obsession with craft. With Jaws, Spielberg’s craft is at its absolute highest register. Most obvious in this is the incredibly long, one shot, no coverage takes. Spielberg allows everything inside the frame to create tension and then he underlays it with one of the most iconic scores of film history.
The troubled production behind Jaws is well known and incredibly well documented, particularly in reference to the shark which failed to work. For Spielberg, the malfunctioning monster proved to be a saving grace leaving him to come up with solutions for showing the shark. These included the score, the barrels and the end of the dock which the shark rips from the jetty when the two fisherman decide to bait him with a massive lunk of beef.
Then there are the unforgettable cinematic moments which Spielberg handles so beautifully. The head coming out of the hole in Ben Gardner’s submerged boat, Quint scratching his nails down the chalk board and Roy Schneider’s horrified gasp of: “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.” Jaws still manages to get the blood pumping and keep you gripped, there are moments of perfectly constructed tension that are yet to be matched.
[h2]13) Invasion of the Body Snatchers[/h2]
The 50s were a time of somewhat low-budget and often very creepy sci-fi/horror films and Invasion of the Body Snatchers is one of the best. Remade several times – as a sort of camp creepfest in 1978, parodied in The Faculty, and remade again (poorly) as The Invasion – the original remains a classic.
It is a freaky idea. A town in California has a rash of people suspecting their family members of being imposters, dismissed initially as ‘mass hysteria’. They’re right, of course. The pod-people have invaded and begun replacing everyone with emotionless copies. As the population of real people dwindles, Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) and his girlfriend Becky (Dana Wynter) try to figure a way to stop them, escape the town and warn the rest of the world of an extraterrestrial invasion.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers is executed with a constant sense of paranoia and low-key menace. There are few overt scenes of horror but it’s the encroachment not really of death or violence but total lack of human emotion is what makes the whole idea so creepy and so effective. It references Cold War paranoia, the slow dehumanizing of American suburbia and the terror of the mundane. Even the tacked-on ending doesn’t dispel the paranoia that it’s all too late. “They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next!”
[h2]12) Night of the Living Dead[/h2]
A truly revolutionary horror film, George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead changed the genre forever, spawning countless ripoffs, remakes and reshashes, few of which ever lived up to this masterpiece. This is the film that really established the rules of the zombie genre and dictated how zombies would be depicted and portrayed for years to come.
It ushered in a ton of new trends and genres within horror and its influence and legacy is still felt to this day. Honestly, the fact that it is was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry as a film deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” speaks volumes.
Watching it again today, I would say that it still mostly holds up. Obviously it’s not as effective as it once was, given that zombies have been done to death, but its importance and significance can still be seen. George A. Romero is a legend for a reason and no films solidiefis his status as a horror god more than Night of the Living Dead.
[h2]11) Poltergeist[/h2]
Back before the paranormal got all active in the San Diego suburbs, there was Poltergeist. Ostensibly a Tobe Hooper film, but produced by Steven Spielberg, it has a definite Spielbergian vibe. A normal suburban home in a normal suburban neighborhood transforms into a portal to hell, complete with an evil clown doll and something nasty in the closet.
What makes Poltergeist so damn effective is that it plays on all those childhood fears that even adults can relate to: there’s something under the bed, in your closet or outside your window; your toys are coming after you, the TV will suck you in. The whole concept about the poltergeist – it knows what scares you – has been done and re-done in horror movies ever since. But there are very few that accomplish it with such composite humor and horror.
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