My Most-Watched Horror Films
(All database links courtesy of the Internet Movie
Database)
"The greatest teenage slasher movie series ever
devised!"
Each film has teenagers
at a summer camp being brutally stalked and murdered by a masked killer.
My favorite one of the lot was part 5. I was too
young to get into the first three movies of the series. Part IV and V, I got in to see
when I was underage - I was lucky enough not to get asked for I.D.! I was over 18 when I
went to see part VI, and then they asked for I.D.!
These movies are more funny than frightening,
because Jason is such a stupid (literally!) killer -- although I remember hitting the roof
the first time I saw Jason jump out of the lake. Some of the killings were quite inventive
and realistic. Tom Savini's work is probably the best. The Friday the 13th films were an
inspiration for my own set of movies.
To find out a lot more about these
films,
there's an excellent Friday the 13th home page on the internet: www.fridaythe13thfilms.com
It's the best source of Jason information on the net. |
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There was a Friday the 13th Commodore 64 game which
was very loosely based on the plot of part III. The graphics were good for the C-64 at the
time. You must find the necessary weapons to kill Jason. One by one, your friends
disappear/are killed -- until only you remain to confront Jason.
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Nintendo
released a Friday the 13th video game, which wasn't too bad. The graphics of Jason were
well drawn. Although I do not remember the teenagers in movies having to jump from
platform to platform. Nor do I remember a cave with bats, zombies of former victims
walking everywhere, or wolves in the woods. Combat against Jason was especially difficult,
because you had to press the control pad diagonally in order to dodge Jason's attacks. The
Game Genie makes it possible to finish. It was considered a lousy game by most Nintendo
players, but was a good collectable for Friday the 13th fans. |
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Also available are novelization of
about half of the Friday the 13th films: Parts 1, 2, 3 and 6. There was a Part 9 Comic
Book adaptation.
There was a set of trading cards for Part 9 also. There are several Jason dolls,
model kits and action figures available as well..
There is a soundtrack album of "Jason Goes to Hell", as well as one with
music from the first three films, which is very hard to come by.
Bootleg CDs and MP3s are available on the Internet.
This movie truly is a "Masterpiece of Modern Horror". I was a
little kid when it came to the theatres, so I couldn't go see it. At another movie, I saw
the horrifying trailer with the bizarre music and credits scrolling over the scene of the
blood-gushing elevators -- I had no idea what the movie was about, but it scared me. I
knew nothing of the Stephen King novel which it was based on. I remember the freaky TV
commercials of a man limping through a blizzard with an axe and a meek woman hiding in
fear behind a door that was being chopped down. I saw the novel for sale at the
supermarket and bought it. It was a great scary reading experience. A few of the darkest
chapters were read in a camping tent by flashlight up in the mountains when I was only 11
years old. A great book! Could all of this be in the movie of the same name? Home
video was miniscule at the time, so I couldn't go out and rent it. A few years later I got
the chance to see The Shining on the ABC Sunday Night Movie, as I'm sure many kids did.
The film was preceded by a grave network warning along the lines of "This movie
depicts supernatural elements and a man attempting to destroy his family..." The
opening helicopter shots of the car driving up the mountain roads -- combined with the
eerie theme music and the glowing blue credit scroll -- was stunning. The movie grabbed me
in wonderfully creepy ways. The images that were stunning: the two girls in the hallway,
the hedge maze chase, the elevators gushing blood, the interaction with Halloran and
Danny, and Jack chopping down the door.
Overall excellent, a few things disappointed me in the Kubrick version. It's a shame the
hedge animals weren't in the movie, but it would've been hard to recreate; the hedge maze
was a nice substitute. The ending sucked compared to the book. Halloran wasn't supposed to
die and instead got possessed by the evil of the Overlook. The hotel was supposed to blow
up. On some rewatchings, certain scenes become boring. Overall, the Kubrick version was
excellent. I had the chance to see the film on a large screen at a local art house theatre
Halloween showing. The Shining is now available on DVD as part of the Stanley Kubrick
Collection; it may also be purchased separately. The transfer is disappointing. It's not
widescreen, and is the same sound and picture quality as the VHS and laserdisc versions.
It's sad to see the same scratches, dust and hair on the DVD version. Warner Brothers
could have really enhanced it. The DVD does include The Making of The Shining and the
theatrical trailer, which may be worth the purchase.
In 1997 there was a made for TV version of The Shining, which was very like
the book. But it wasn't as scary or fantastic. It tended to drag on too long as a six-hour
movie. With modern computer animation, the living hedge animals were possible in the TV
version. Many people didn't like them, but I thought it worked quite well. Wendy was
finally cast more accurately with Rebecca DeMornay-- although I had nothing against Shelly
Duvall. Some of the scenes that worked well in the book did not on screen, like the living
fire hose, the haunted Presidential suite, and the lady in the bathtub. The portrayal of
Tony, Danny's imaginary friend, was a goofy magical guy with glasses floating in the air
-- which wasn't creepy at all. It's a shame this will probably never be released on video,
because of an agreement between Stephen King and Warner Brothers.
The Shining Background Info
The Shining vs.
Titanic: A comparison essay
The Nightmare on Elm Street series
Freddy Krueger is a maniac who
has the ability to kill teenagers in their dreams. Seven films were made:
I didn't care much for part 2 and part 5, but the
rest of them were good. Starting with the third one, I saw them at the theatre. I actually
saw the second one on video before watching the first. Wes Craven's New Nightmare gave me
the shivers, and was the scariest. Part 2 was somewhat creepy also.
I did not like Freddy as much as Jason, because he
was always cracking cheap one-liners; which made me groan. Some people have described his
later personality as the "MTV Freddy"; I agree.
What Elm Street movies had over Friday the 13th
movies was sympathetic victims. It wasn't a "punishment of the
sinning-teenagers". Genuinely good kids were being slaughtered by Freddy, and the
audience grieved their loss.
There was a Nightmare on Elm Street computer game
for the Commodore 64. The graphics and gameplay are somewhat like Gauntlet.
Nintendo created a Nightmare on Elm
Street game for the NES, which was loosely based on the third film (Dream Warriors).
It was quite a strange game, where you went between a waking world and a dream
world.
You had to collect all of Freddy's bones from different haunted venues and bring
them to the furnace of the boiler room, which will destroy Freddy.
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All of the bosses are various
nightmarish embodiments of Freddy.
Up to four people could play at once with a special controller adapter.
Each player could have different dream powers to fight Freddy and his dream
creatures.
It can be finished easily with the Game Genie.
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There was also a Nightmare on Elm
Street Board Game.
I describe it in more detail on my Board Game
Page.
These movies centered around the strange-goings-on
at a funeral home. The tall man (played by Angus Scrimm) was the one to be feared in these
films. Other elements were flying chrome spheres with sharp tools inside, carnivourous
midgets in cloaks which looked like Star Wars Jawas, creepy undertakers, and men in gas
masks with chainsaws. The Phantasm movies had elements of science fiction and horror
intertwined.
I remember seeing the first Phantasm movie when I
was only 15 years old. KXLY television Spokane, Washington had it as one of their features
on Ghoul Theatre in the middle of night. I thought it was the coolest thing.
The second film had a higher budget, and contained a
lot more violence. It was great. It's rip-roaring action and horror.
The third film was more of a highway quest, with
Reggie attempting to rescue Mike from the Tall Man. There are abandoned towns, interesting
characters, perils and traps along the way.
Not everybody would like Phantasm IV as I
did. The pacing is slower and the plot is more cryptic. It reveals a few secrets
about the Tall Man. They wrote the story around unused scenes from the first film. It
worked quite well. The ending is vague and open to several interpretations; it completes
the loop that started with the first film. It's doubtful there'll be a part V,
because they essentially finished Mike's journey of sanity.
HALLOWEEN movies
The first two Halloween movies were great,
especially the second one with its synthesized soundtrack. Michael Meyers (some spell it
Myers) was a creepy killer, with his white Captain Kirk mask, coveralls, absence of
dialogue, and the way he stalked his victims like a heat-seeking missile. I do not need to
mention how Halloween established much of the horror film genre and set a new standard.
The chemistry between Michael, Doctor Loomis (played by Donald Pleasance) and Laurie the
babysitter (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) was wonderful.
Halloween III had nothing to with the first two
movies, having an entirely different story and set of characters. Michael was nowhere to
be seen, except on a commercial on a television set in the background. This movie would
have been a lot more successful had it not tried to connect itself to the Halloween
series, and instead be treated as a separate film.
Halloween 4 brought back Michael and Doctor Loomis
to battle it out again, but Laurie was gone, and replaced by her daughter as the killer's
new target. It wasn't bad at all. I liked how Michael wiped out the entire police force of
Haddonfield and had the citizens forming a posse to get him.
Halloween 5 I thought was cheap and stretching
things too far. It ended with a cliffhanger, introducing a mysterious new character, which
wouldn't be resolved for about five years.
Halloween 6 was terrible in my opinion, with a ads
that claimed to reveal "why Michael kills". It had a good setup which never
followed through. The last third of the film gets really confusing and hacked together.
The ending left things open for Michael to return for a seventh film, but it wouldn't
happen. Instead we got Halloween H20...
Halloween H20 - Twenty Years Later is more of a
sequel to part 2 than part 6. It does mention Laurie's accident from part 4, but no
references are made to her daughter Jamie. And now she has a son! What's that all about? I
liked the bit about her faking her own death to get away from Michael, but why put Jamie
through all that unnecessary grief? H20 was a short film (1 hour 15 minutes!!!). The
ending was abrupt. The roller coaster ride was a short and meaningless one. I had hoped to
learn more about Michael's motivations, but nothing new was revealed. Michael's last scene
was almost touching. I expected him to take off his mask and communicate with his sister,
but it didn't happen. Overall, a letdown.
Halloween Resurrection - the 9th movie in the
series was great! It brought back the Meyers house and had great opening
credits. Laurie Strode and Sam Loomis were both absent from most of the movie.
The plot of having a webcast inside the Meyers house was destined to fail - but
with skillful direction and snappy editing, they were able to pull it off. The
movie was exciting and creepy. I vote YES!
Wanna be scared? You can listen to the HALLOWEEN Theme in MIDI file format.
| There was a videogame of Halloween made for the
Atari 2600 by Wizard games. The plot of the game was very close to the first Halloween
movie. You controlled a babysitter in a big house, and had to get the children to safety.
Michael stalks you and the children. You can sometimes defend yourself with a knife. The
graphics were bloody if the killer caught you or any of the children. Loomis was not in
the game. The Halloween movie theme was well re-created with the Atari's audio hardware.
It's a fairly rare game to come across. |
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Dario Argento Horror Films
"Italian Horror Cinema at its finest! Dario,
along with Bava, is a master."
My favorite Dario Argento film is
Suspiria. Jessica Harper stars as Susy Banyon, an American student who has enrolled in a
German dance academy. On the very night she arrives, two of the students are brutally
murdered. Throughout the film, she slowly learns that the school is being run by witches!
There are some really cool and stylized death scenes in this movie. The ending of the
movie is sort of cool, as Susy enters the forbidden areas of the academy. As for the last
twelve minutes being the most terrifying, I'd say that it's all fantastic. The music in
this movie is awesome! It was done by a group called The Goblins, and is as memorable as
the Halloween theme and the Exorcist theme. The look of the film is wonderfully done, with
creepy contrasted lighting. The movie felt very much like one of the Omen films.
Dolls
(1986, Vestron Video)
This horror film is quite cool! It's about a couple
and their little girl, whose car breaks down in a thunderstorm. They take refuge in a
large mansion, the home of a doll maker and his wife. The house is filled with dolls. It
soon becomes apparent that these dolls are alive - and will kill anybody who doesn't
believe in them. The doll effects and gore aren't too bad. If I was in that house, I'd
have a grand time! The ending was nice, with Judy and Ralph leaving, and another family
getting stranded in the countryside. It had a very British-Hammer feel to it.
Then, there are the horror
movies I've made with my friends:
The "My School" series of
films
Skeleton-masked Kevin Markson
and the his pet Doom Bear are the killers in these films.
A hilarious spoof on high school killer films. Not
as stupid as "Student Bodies" though. It's basically about a low-budget film
crew making a horror movie in a haunted high school where unsolved murders occurred five
years ago. The killer, obviously, is still alive, and starts murdering the film crew. The
plot twists and turns. When you think you know what is going on, a new curve is thrown in.
Flashbacks delve into flashbacks. It gets quite confusing, because you sometimes are
misled about what timeframe is being shown.
Ten years before "Scream", it had you guessing who the killer was. A very
interesting and funny movie. Many of the jokes are in bad taste. Look for Marsha Brady at
the beginning of the film, smearing blood over herself. And look for George Clooney as the
security guard. This movie is cheap, but should be appealing to schlock horror fans.
"Killer to the left. Killer
to the right. Stand up. Sit down. Fright! Fright! Fright!"
The
Exorcist III
(1990, 20th Century Fox / Warner Brothers)
Yeah, I'll admit that the first Exorcist movie
scared me totally. It's something I shouldn't watch alone at night. The thing that scared
me was the flash frames of the eerie white demon face with the bulging eyes in Father
Damien's nightmare about his mother. I don't like thinking about it when I'm lying in bed
at night.
Exorcist II - The Heretic? Dull. Not much devilish
happened in that one really. It wasn't scary or shocking. It was more of an adventure film
-- a mix of The Serpent and the Rainbow and Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was beautiful and
magical -- but not much horror. Nothing like the first or third film. A real letdown.
Nothing memorable except for Pazuzu saying "Come fly with me, Regan!" And the
unfrightening locusts. You can't forget about those. Here's a hysterical In-Depth Review of The Exorcist II.
But the Exorcist III was great. It scared me when I
saw it in the theatre. The scene in the hospital hallway (you know the one?) almost gave
me a heart attack. The little Jesus statue opening its eyes was shocking. How about the
little crucified boy rising up out of the floor? Or the decapitated statue? Or the statue
with a painted face? Or the Lieutenant's nightmare about Heaven? Those scenes I still
don't like to think about at night. This movie was a sequel to the first movie, and
pretended that the uneventful second film didn't exist. The mystery of the Gemini killer
was a good one. I'm sure "Seven" got a few inspirations from this film. I would
have liked if the final battle was a bit longer. I remember a few scenes in the trailers
which never made it into the film.
Mother's
Day
(1980, Kaufman Productions)
Another farce of holiday-themed horror films. It's
got a lot of laughs and groans. Three college girls are unfortunate enough to stumble
across a mother and her two psychotic sons who live in the woods. It's very reminiscent to
the plot of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies. The mother is the one running the show.
Her demise at the end is humourously done. Some of the scenes I found offensive, like the
rape and torture of one of the girls. The rope-burn scene was gruesome.
"They wanted to make their
Mother proud... in the worst way!"
"Whatever Momma wants, Momma
gets!"
Not a very good horror film. A group of kids are
making a rock video in an old-abandoned slaughterhouse. Guess what? There's a killer after
them! A crazed meat packer takes his revenge on the townspeople responsible for his
bankruptcy. Using "Buddy", his kill-crazy, maniacle son, he cuts a bloody swath
of death and destruction during the town's annual "Pig-Out" Festival.
Buddy the killer is a fat, bearded man in overalls, who prefers the company of pigs
to humans. He carries around a huge meat cleaver with a dingle bell tied to the end.
This movie is pretty bad, which is what makes it so entertaining. It's hardly
scary. The plot is written from a horror-movie formula. It's sort of a bad version of the
Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The box states "Contains footage too intense for the
theatrical release." I doubt this movie was ever at the theatre!
Some notable deaths are the man going through the meat grinder, and an old man's
head being rolled over by the car. The ending is left open for another Buddy attack, but I
doubt they'll make another one. It's a waste of 90 minutes.
Why do I like it? Because the box artwork interested me. Buddy the bear is my kind
of guy. |
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Remember the commercials for this one? "This
movie is so shocking, we can't show you any scenes from it. Instead, we'll just tell you
about how scary it is." I was only 8 years old when this movie was at the theatres,
so I didn't get to see it for many years afterwards on television. This movie has many
scenes which stick in my head: the bucket of blood, the shower-room, the flying ashtray,
the cheesy music when the girls are doing jumping jacks, the knives, the broken mirror,
the prayer closet, the little Jesus statue which looked like Carrie's mother, the kid on
the bicycle "Creepy Carrie!", the spinning dance shot, the pig slaughtering, the
curve-ball automobile, and the laying of the flowers at the end... Gosh, the final scene
was just as shocking as Jason jumping out of the lake! It was a tragedy that Carrie's date
and teacher had to die. I think they were on her side.
Bravo Brian DePalma! The split-screen was innovative
for 1976. I wouldn't try it these days, though. This is your best effort yet! And bravo
Sissy! You fleshed out the role perfectly. Bravo Piper Laurie, for being such a creepy
mother. Bravo Stephen King for writing such a classic!
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This could be
considered a science fiction movie as well, but I'm classifying it as a horror movie,
because people are killed in gruesome ways. |
| Described as a forgotten
Twilight Zone episode, this bizarre movie is about a group of seven people trapped -- for
no explainable reason -- inside a maze of cube-shaped rooms. Many of the
rooms have deadly traps inside, so the unfortunate people must use their combined talents
to find a way out. |
The biggest obstacle is the clashing of different personalities within the
group: a policeman, a doctor, a student, an office worker, an escape artist, an autistic
and some bald guy (who we don't get to know, because he dies in the very first scene). |
| The movie is very surreal and nightmarish. The soundtrack is eerie. But I
loved this movie! I can watch it again and again, seeing it from different angles.
The ending was meaningless, just like their reason for being put into the cube. |
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It's very cartoonish, but also quite violent. There
are many memorable scenes: the security guard saying "What are you going to do with
those pies, boys?", the living popcorn, the puppet show, the cute little baby Jo-Jo
clown and his broken bike, the Officer Mooney dummy, the goofy farmer and his dog, the
giant clown behemoth, the girl clowns, the stupid guys in the ice cream truck, and the
wonderful theme song by "The Dickies". The clown costumes and makeup effects are
very well done. The story is somewhat lame; it's like one of those 1950's Invaders films,
which is what was intended. It's more funny than scary.
(1977, Anchor Bay)
Originally titled "Communion", then bootlegged as
"Holy Terror", this movie is presently known as "Alice, Sweet
Alice". I wish they wouldn't rename films! It's only selling point is that Brook
Shields was in it -- the truth is that she is killed early on in the film. She is killed
in a rather gruesome and satanic manner. The rest of the film is the investigation of her
murder. The prime suspect is her almost-twin sister Alice, who isn't exactly a kind little
girl. It's a horrifying mystery. Alice does some very strange things, which would make any
parent shiver. A creepy movie overall. The music is good. This film is often found in the
bargain bin of video stores, but it's worth viewing.
Tourist
Trap
(1979, Media Entertainment)
Find out why, every year, people disappear on the
highway. Likely inspired by the lost-on-the-highway success of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
(1973), this film pre-dates Friday the 13th. Could this be one of FT13's inspirations?
Chuck Connors stars as Mr. Slausen, who lives in a run-down frontier America museum along
the road. He's gone a bit bonkers and has started holding conversations with his
collection of mannequins. Their dialogue is amusing. The film's killer is creepy with
telekinetic powers. There are lots of living dolls and mannequins! Let's see what happens
when a group of young people have an automobile breakdown in the vicinity. One of the most
disturbing deaths is when one of the girls is made into a mannequin by having plaster
poured onto her face, over her mouth and nose! The chase scene at the end is very much
like a Jason chase. The telekinetic showdown with the killer in the attic is thrilling.
The very last scene in the movie is cool. Friday the 13th fans ought to check this
movie out!
Horror Films that didn't quite made the
list, but I still enjoyed...
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series (especially part 2), Leprechaun parts 1,2,3,4,5,
Candyman, The Thing, The Brood, Wishmaster 1 & 2, The Poltergeist trilogy, The Evil
Dead three, Happy Birthday To Me, In The Mouth of Madness, April Fools' Day, My Bloody
Valentine, George Romero's Living Dead films, Anaconda, The Fog, The Watcher in the Woods,
Sorority House Massacre, Black Christmas, Maniac, Screams 1-3, Urban Legends, I Know What
You Did Last Summer (first one only), Child's Play 1-4, Blair Witch Projects, Prince of
Darkness, Hellraiser films, Let's Scare Jessica to Death, Prom Night series, The Omen
I-III, The Funhouse, Night of the Creeps, The Fly I & II, Witchboard, Company of
Wolves, The Legacy, Turn of the Screw, Burnt Offerings, The Howling, An American Werewolf
in London, Piranha, Interview with a Vampire, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, Slaughter High,
The First Power, Seven, Pet Semetary, Flatliners, The Silence of the Lambs, and IT !
Whew! That's a loada scary movies,
eh?
This page was last updated on
Thursday, January 26, 2006
