What are your favorite horror movies?

[n107]

I'm always looking for suggestions on horror movies that I may not have seen. However, taste in the horror genre is just as individual as that in comedies. Even so I think it's a good idea to share not only which movies we enjoy but also why we like them. It may help to give a fresh take on films we're already familiar with.

Here is my top 5. Positions 3-5 change frequently, but I think all the movies in this list are good enough to mention even if they don't always hold the same position in my opinion.

5. Ringu: The original Japanese film that led to "The Ring". Both films are similar, though they have a different side plot. I prefer the Japanese version to the remake as I'm usually a bigger fan of the "less is more" principle in horror. The special effects in the American version were good, but not always necessary. I don't think FX are needed to tell a good horror story and Ringu proves this. The movie is pretty cliche now and many of the themes that seemed new at the time have been copied 100 times over. Still it's a good movie in my eyes. I'd also like to add that I read the book that the film is based on and it is very different. I think I like the book more than the films, but the book is less horror than it is investigative mystery.

4. Evil Dead: The original Evil Dead is a great horror movie. Unlike the sequels which drifted into comedy (and are also very enjoyable movies), the first movie tried to be straight up horror (for the most part). It's low budget but filled with atmosphere and gore. Lots and lots of gore. I'm usually not a fan of tons of blood thrown into a movie, but it seemed to fit in with the simple nature of the concept. It's a movie that's best watched alone at night, but I'd recommend that for all horror movies.

3. Halloween: The classic slasher film. Although I own the recent Rob Zombie remake/reboot, it doesn't hold a candle to the original. What could be scarier than a silent, relentless maniac coming after you? The fact that he is not an imposing figure but somehow cannot be stopped makes it all the more terrifying. And that blank, expressionless mask really sells the feeling. Some of the film seems a bit on the cheesy side now after all these years but it does the job correctly. It's what all other slashers have tried to emulate with few ever coming close.

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Ah, and now I have to go home from work! I'll have to write the rest later tonight when I'm online.

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Ok, it's evening and I've had time to make mousse, play a round of AToE, watch a movie, and play Rock Band. Now back to the list.

2. The Blair Witch Project: This is one movie that I find people either love or hate. Luckily for me, I'm on the "love it" side. The thing that I love about it is that it is presented as realistic while obviously being a work of fiction. This is something that could happen: three students go out into unfamiliar woods, they get lost, fear takes over, and they're never seen again. Though we're led to believe that it may be the Blair Witch haunting them, we never get any proof that's what happened. It could have been anything from the supernatural to the ordinary. Perhaps there was a witch and they fell under her curse when they entered the woods. Maybe it's another specter of Native American lore that came after them for disturbing the stone markers (graves?). Another possibility could be one or more sadistic humans hunting down the easy prey and tormenting them until the end. Or it may be their frayed nerves and fears tearing them apart psychologically. As much as we get to see on tape we have to realize there's a lot more that was not on tape. The reason for their misfortune can be anything so it remains a mystery. That's what makes it so chilling: the unknown.
This movie does away with the garbage that Hollywood forces into a movie to make it "scary". There's no soundtrack waiting to blast your ear drums at certain moments to try to insist you should be scared. There are no overly made-up "ghosts" leaping into the camera in a cheap attempt to startle the audience. Those things are not scary; that's being annoying. Little brothers and sisters have been using those tricks to surprise family members for centuries. You don't categorize that as "horror". It's uncreative and unimaginative. The horror in the real world, the true horror that lies out there is what you do not know. It's what you do not see. It's the mystery surrounding how three vibrant youths can go out for a weekend and never been seen again. It's all the things that we can't explain and wonder if it could ever happen to us. That's the atmosphere of real horror.

1. Noroi (The Curse): This one is by far my favorite horror film and it's been at the top of my list since the first time I watched it. It can be described as being similar to the Blair Witch, although that really isn't fair. But I love the movie for most of the reasons that I listed above. Unlike the Blair Witch Project, this one definitely delves deep into the world of the supernatural. We're never left wondering if there was a ghost or a curse, we see it happen. For those unfamiliar with this Japanese film, it is mostly revealed through the footage of a documentary filmmaker named Kobayashi. He had done many documentaries on ghosts and spirits around Japan when he started to follow up leads for a new story. What we see in the movie, Noroi, is the completed documentary of his last investigation. The movie begins by telling the audience that after finishing "Noroi", Kobayashi's wife died when his house burned down while the director disappeared without a trace. Then we get to watch the documentary itself. Kobayashi's own footage (filmed by a professional cameraman, so there's very few "shaky cam" moments) is intermixed with segments from TV shows, news programs, and other film footage. All this seems unrelated as it comes up, but as the mystery begins to unravel we can see how all these events and people are connected. As creepy as his investigation is, it cannot compare to the final footage that was discovered after Kobayashi vanished.
Again, this is another movie that people seem to either love or hate. A lot of the complaints come from the long running time as well as the fact that no one is holding the audiences hand, telling them when to be scared. I think I love this movie because I'm a fan of both scary films and documentaries. If you watch this movie as a documentary, where you become engrossed in the material, you may find yourself sucked in to the disturbing horrors. That's not to say the film is without fault. Actually, the only things I don't like about the movie are few of the parts where you can see the supernatural happening on camera. Save for the end of the movie where I thought my stomach jumped for the last time at what I saw, only to rewatch the film and notice one more thing lurking in the background. It still gives me chills remembering the first time I saw it.
This movie is dear to my heart. I've shown it to all my friends and my family and they loved it too. The amazing thing is the only copy I have is, obviously, in Japanese with no subtitles. Even with me only roughly explaining what was going on from scene to scene, the movie was powerful enough to frighten those I've shown it to.

Well, there you go. I hope you enjoyed reading about the kinds of films I like and I really hope you all share your own with me. Of course, I should say that even though I love these films and call them "horror", I really don't find any movies scary. "Creepy" and "unsettling" are usually the strongest emotions I can pull from a film, but I appreciate the movies that can be original and effective without relying on cheap tricks and cliches to get the job done. I may post more later, but I need to catch my breath and read about other people's favorites first.