Horror Movies

You have to be a horror movies fan, a connoisseur, to read this. Well, you at least have to respect the genre enough to appreciate that some of the best films on the planet are those which, when you are watching, make you pee a little.

(WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS!!! Sorry.)

One of the all-time most terrifying of horror movies is now being re-done, and I can’t say I am all that happy about the trailers: for the advert for the film GIVES AWAY the most thrilling, most startling, most most most heart-stopping moment! The film is When a Stranger Calls and is a very simple but drawn out-until-you-are-giddy-with-fear premise: a teen is babysitting. The phone rings. The voice at the other end growls in a raspy, serial murderer taunting, “Did you check the children?” She doesn’t. She answers the calls again and again for about an hour and a half. And then (since the new versions trailers have already ruined it), the phone rings again. It is the chief of police, telling her to NOT checking the children for the calls are coming form upstairs! Thump thump thump goes the heart.

Another (fairly) new film that is brilliantly scripted and filmed is one of the best horror movies I have seen in years: The Grudge. The premise is tight, the acting under camp (realistic), and the symbolism is subtle but varied in its prevalence. That little creepy white-face imp with her inky black hair wild and disguising…crawling up the sheets….appearing in corners…showing up on surveillance cameras then vanishing….

The Ring is also well-wrought horror. And the water imagery, as symbolism, as foreshadowing, is tightly placed. Creepy enough to raise the heart rate.

My favorites are the psychological thrillers: they ride the blade’s edge between reality and insanity—which isn’t revealed until further in. The Stepfather is one such flick. He murders his families and then remarries to murder some more (to evade discovery). In one scene, for instance, the guy gets a visit from the suspicious step-brother. Stepfather slams the guy with an axe in the foyer, and says to the heacked up dead man, “Next time, call before you come.” Sick, dark humor at its worst, er, I mean best.

Hitchcock goes without needing mention, but Psycho is one bitch of a fright fest…no matter how old you are when you see it, no matter when you see it. And The Birds is up there on the terror scale, if you concentrate on the concept and don’t trip on the lack of special effects Hitch had to work with (pasting whole bay scenes, faking the bird attacks in montage style animation…).

Now, get yourself a few horror movies—of whichever caliber you can stand…heh heh heh. Turn off all the lights. And enjoy with a particularly psychotic friend who will simulate the most terrifying parts for days (or nights) to come….will sprinkle water on you, will sing “Jeepers Creepers…,” will just plain hide on your ass and leap out of the dark and dank that is your subconscious.