Beware! The members of the League of Tana Tea Drinkers dig six feet deep to uncover their favorite terror movies for your Halloween edification pleasure. Boo!
Dinner With Max Jenke says Let's Scare Jessica To Death:
No other horror film has given us a heroine as memorably fragile as the title character of director John Hancock's unusually sensitive shocker Let's Scare Jessica To Death (1971) and sadly, it's unlikely that we'll ever see her kind again.
Final Girl beams over The Shining:
It had been some time since I'd seen The Shining, and while I've always enjoyed it (and gotten some good creepy scares out of it), what struck me most while watching it today was the beauty of the whole thing. Visually, The Shining is one of the most stunning films I've ever seen- finding a horror movie to top it in that regard would be no easy task.
Fascination With Fear bites into JAWS:
It is known as the "father of the summer blockbuster", being the first movie to blow the pants off the box office in such a way that people lined streets in front of theaters just to see it.
Attentiondeficitdisorderly Too Flat conjures up The Blair Witch Project:
Let me say right off the bat that I don't expect to change anyone's mind here. This is a movie for which the phrase "you either love it or hate it" was invented. I remember seeing it on opening night in a theatre: Half the audience booed and yelled at the screen as the closing credits rolled, while the other half looked as though they'd just been eyewitnesses to a plane crash.
Classic-Horror goes to Hell for Jigoku:
While the direction may be understated, the writing is not. Most of the characters we meet are waist-deep in sin, most of it particularly heinous.
Slasher Speak bedevils us with a top ten list of all-time favorites. Creepy!:
The truth is that slashers are not the only films of the genre that I enjoy; actually, my #1 horror film of all-time is not a slasher film at all. So I thought I'd share my non-slasher Top Ten horror movie favorites for those curious as to my alternative tastes in terror.
Vault of Horror blames it on the movie that started it all:
Those who have read my intro to the right know how I got my first truly visceral shock watching The Exorcist as a little tyke. There were also all those classic Universal and Hammer flicks that syndicated TV piped my way on lazy weekend afternoons. But the one that grabbed my attention and didn't let go, the film that truly sparked my lifelong fascination with the horror genre, was ROTLD (as its fans so succinctly call it.)
And room for two more...
TheoFantastique makes The Final Cut:
For those interested in moving beyond the need for acompletely satisfying cinematic experience, it is worth watching and enjoying for those who would like to enter into science fiction’s ability to stimulate reflection on our own lives as we enter into stories involving our speculative future.
Zombos' Closet of Horror fears the Night of the Demon:
Contrary to Jacques Tourneur's preference for implicative events and obfuscating-shadows to force uncertainty of what's really happening and a did-I-see-what-I-just-saw? feeling, there is no doubt whatsoever a fire demon is coming to horribly mangle one, very skeptical, Dr. John Holden (Dana Andrews) for daring to expose devil-cult leader--and part-time children's magician--Karswell (Niall MacGinnis).
Until next time, then.
Photo courtesy of Dr. Macro's High Quality Movie Scans.
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