By Lindsay Renner, Advertising Editor and Greg Robinson, Multimedia Editor
It’s that time of year again, where the chill in the air outside can easily match the one going down your spine. The horror genre continues to persist in mainstream cinema, with studios releasing dozens of frightening, gory, and sometimes absurd movies come September and October. However, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the scary from the downright silly. Here is a brief rundown of some of the scariest films to ever creep across the silver screen.
Lindsay’s Top 5:
Psycho (1960): This particular Alfred Hitchcock classic introduced the American filmgoer to the prototypical slasher film. This film throws the viewer for a major loop, as its star, Janet Leigh, dies violently at the hands of a cross-dressing motel owner about twenty minutes in. It is not wildly contrived or over the top in its plot; rather, this film is utterly believable, thus the basis of the terror it continues to hold over audiences to this day.
Carrie (1976): This film is a doubleheader: it represents the American viewer’s introduction to both the adaptation of Stephen King films, as well as the directorial debut of Brian de Palma. Disliked by her peers, Carrie (portrayed by a particularly creepy looking Sissy Spacek) cannot seem to catch a break at school or at home, where she is a regular victim of her religious zealot mother’s outbursts. Like many so-called geeks, Carrie is pushed to her breaking point. However, most peoples’ breaking points do not typically involve buckets of pig blood and a subsequent psychic mass destruction of virtually everyone in the town, as hers does.
Halloween (1978): This was the first horror movie I ever saw, and remains one of the scariest I’ve seen to this day. The movie opens with a six year old boy, Michael Myers, stabbing his naked sister to death while wearing a clown costume. This alone would be disturbing enough, but then when the film cuts to some years later, the viewer finds that Michael has escaped from the mental institution and is in hot pursuit of yet another sister of his, this one younger. If you are scared of clowns or small children, or averse to teenagers being stabbed in the middle of illicit acts, stay far away from this one.
Alien (1979): The interesting thing about this movie is that, in many ways, it is a prototypical haunted house movie: the film’s protagonists spend most of their time being chased through a dark area by a shape-shifting, malevolent creature. The real twist lies in the fact that the movie is not set on Earth. Rather, they are being chased in a spaceship by this unknown entity. There is nothing quite as unnerving as watching an alien burst out of a coworker’s abdomen while in a location where it is impossible to run away for safety’s sake. The film’s tagline says it all: “In space, no one can hear you scream.”
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984): For many people, the only real time to rest comes through dreams and sleep. This is not the case when a maniac with extended claws attached to one hand comes calling. Perhaps most frightening is the fact that if one stays awake long enough, the body is bound to eventually crave sleep and pass out, meaning there is no escape. One, two, Freddy’s comin’ for you…
Greg’s Top 5:
The Exorcist (1973): Linda Blair’s backwards crab walk down the stairs and her grotesque full-head turn are just a few of the frightening images this movie offers. This film continues to spawn sequels, but itis the original story of a young girl possessed by the devil that remains an unparalleled classic.
The Shining (1980): The ghosts of two twin girls, telepathic powers, and the mysterious phrase “red rum” pale in comparison to Jack Nicholson’s terrifying portrayal of a possessed father wielding an axe. Award-winning filmmaker Stanley Kubrick directed this movie.
The Sixth Sense (1999): This film is arguably director M. Night Shyamalan’s greatest film and certainly his most critically acclaimed. Haley Joel Osment plays a boy tormented by ghosts that only he notices, and remain unseen by the rest of the world.
Saw (2004): Although the sequels since the original Saw have diluted this film’s impact, it was all the rage 6 years ago when Jigsaw was tormenting guilty individuals with devious puzzles and riddles.
Psycho (1960): The master of suspense and terror is at his best in this classic film. The murder of the female lead in the shower established a trend where the attractive female character is brutally murdered in an unexpected (typically revealing) manner in horror movies.
