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| image credit: FOTOKITA |
Before I
present you these films I want to state my utter disappointment and
sadness that they didn't ask me to be a test subject in this experiment - I would have gladly sacrificed myself for science in this case... Hear me Science of Scare!
As an additional point, on this list there are many movies I haven't yet seen, I was surprised to find out. So, I have been missing out on the real good stuff and call myself a horror fan... I'll shortly pitch some titles in the list, linked as usual to their imdb pages. Sometimes I won't comment a movie at all, maybe because I haven't seen it, don't want to see it or have nothing to say or nothing nice to say about it. Here we go!
1. Sinister
2. Host
3. Skinamarink
Unbelievably, I haven't watched any of these films in the top three, how scandalous of me!
I will swiftly try to catch up and watch these at the very least. From what I've heard though, Skinamarink isn't really a movie which sends the audience wild with fright. Many of the Horror Aficionados with whom we discuss movies report they were unsettled, bored or slept due to the darkness of the screen. I'm pretty happy I still have these three movies before me, I have to say.
4. Insidious
OK, so I have been doing re-watches of these two in order to prepare myself for their last series installments and I see why they would send the audience's hearts racing. Especially Insidious is just really so loud and there are so many jump scares in both of them it's impossible to finish watching and not being on the verge of a heart attack.
I have watched the first Conjuring in the group house I used to live in before the pandemic, where I had a roommate with whom I used to watch horror movies all the time and who used to always immediately download the latest films. We watched this and I remember feeling so tense and stressed out that he made fun of me, saying he'd think I'd be much tougher than that. A challenge for my horror pride after which we started a veritable horror marathon and watched a myriad of horror movies, some of them on this list.
6. Hereditary
I wrote a whole blog post on Ari Aster's work, including Hereditary. For me, this was a soul crushing experience.
7. Smile
I had completely forgotten about this movie, but it was so good!!!
It gave me a lasting fear too - whenever I wake up in the middle of the night and it's 3:33, and this really happens more often than you'd think, I freak out and I'm unable to go back to sleep. Very creepy!
10. Talk to Me
I didn't want to immediately watch this title, but this past summer I was roaming the streets of Kadıköy, the Anatolian side of Istanbul, and suddenly there was an incredible amount of police presence with police cars and special teams also roaming the streets, which means there might be tear gas in the air soon. So, I literally threw myself into the next movie theater and found myself watching this. The decision was made for me.
A kind of It Follows, but with super uninteresting and unlikable characters you wish would just get a grip, this movie is endlessly overrated.
11. The Descent
12. The Conjuring 2
13. It Follows
I mentally link the time I watched these three movies above with a time in my life maybe around 2014-2018 when I worked as a technical translator and lived in a shared apartment in Friedrichshain watching horror movies with my roommate. Those were nice times... The job (or rather the structure of the company I worked for) was rough and I used to watch The Descent as a comfort movie, I don't know why, it's a terrifying movie but somehow addictive and leaving me with a great feeling, almost energized. I like films that take a traumatized character and traumatize them some more just to teach them to be happy they still live after all. How exhilarating!
While we watched The Conjuring 2 and It Follows in Friedrichshain, both of them blew my mind. I miss watching horror movies with people. My friends generally aren't very keen on horror or don't have much time anymore. So although we had our problems, I remember watching horror with my roommate with fondness.
Plus, that scene in It Follows, you know the one I mean, where that lanky huge man comes in the door all of a sudden giving everyone a stroke, a scene like that needs to be shared with someone, preferably laughed about, because you'll get sick otherwise, hah.
Ever since a former work colleague told me that Paranormal Activity is nothing more than a few chairs and furniture being pushed around, I don't find this movie scary anymore. Thank you, Melissa, for ruining Paranormal Activity for me.
16. The Babadook
17. A Quiet Place 2For me, André Øvredal's The Autopsy of Jane Doe is perfection in a movie. The picture about a father-son forensic pathologist duo, trying to solve the case of a perfectly well-preserved body of a young woman delivered to them, combines elements of locked room mystery and horror, leading to a completely unanticipated, breathtaking finale. I think I'd love to watch this story as a theater play too, that would be really neat.
19. Insidious 2
20. The Ring
21. Terrifier 2
22. A Quiet Place
23. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Another perfect movie. By now, I guess everybody is aware that the movie does in fact not use any gore or blood, it's mostly your mind filling in the blanks, which is genius of director Tobe Hooper. There's a documentary on YouTube from 2000, titled The American Nightmare, where you can watch Hooper tell about the circumstances that lead to the making of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It also includes interviews with Wes Craven, John Carpenter, Tom Savini and George A. Romero about their respective works.
I still haven't seen this!!!!
25. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Freddy Krueger is THE villain and THE nightmare of my childhood. There is somewhere on the Otherlander's Blog an article I wrote about my childhood and my early introduction to horror fiction at about the age of 6. And although I made peace with many terrifying figures that traumatized me back then, Freddy is one figure I still can't face. And in this first installment there are scenes which even today give me the shivers - that young girl being dragged bloody on the ceiling of the room, Johnny Depp being eaten by his bed, that fake happy ending...
It was all so horrifying for me and so much did Freddy become the incorporation of evil in my head that he actually starred a nightmare of mine. We had visited a dripstone cave and that environment being scary in itself made it into my dream, with Freddy emerging from the walls of that cave. I was so scared back then but I eventually slept, and didn't die.
So, totally deserved to be on this list.
26. Halloween (1978)
27. Barbarian
I liked this a lot but could use a re-watch. It was just such a surprise horror, such unexpected directions it went to, sublime really...
28. The Nun 2
29. Hush
30. IT (2017)
Older works from King, like Salem's Lot or It or any Night Shift short story or even Christine and Carrie, are successful for me in the extent that they correspond to the pictures I had in my mind while reading the book. And taking that as my measure, IT Chapter 1 works very well, it even gives you that feeling of being back in your childhood with all its references to late eighties, early nineties. Too bad though a movie obviously addressing young children can't be watched by its target audience due to the age restriction.
31. The Visit
32. The Excorcist
33. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
Back when this movie was released I remember losing my shit, there was nothing like this before. I'm surprised it's not higher in the list.
36. Evil Dead Rise
37. Lights Out
38. Saw X
I haven't seen this one yet either! I have been trying to find and watch all previous Saw movies and finish with this glorious finale, but it's kind of hard finding them all right now. I want to watch it so much, though...
During the lockdown, me, Caro and Dorothy Scarecrow (that's of course not her real name, she doesn't want her name mentioned on the net) used to do horror group reads or send each other horror-related games and such. In one of these correspondences we shared with each other, there was an article in which you could find out which horror movie villain you are according to your zodiac sign and I was Mr. Jigsaw, after which I started feeling a perverse kind of affection for him.
39. The Grudge
40. Oculus
42. Scream
43. Poltergeist
I'm not a big fan of this movie, not of the first version either, mainly because I find it really stupid and not very logical. Like, if I had the ability to be invisible, I'd be really hitting it off and doing all sorts of things, world dominance and all. In these movies all the invisible guy can think of is sexually assaulting women... Hey dude! You're invisible, go do something that matters!
45. Get Out
46. The Witch
I'll take every opportunity to state how much I love this movie... I too want to taste butter and I want to live deliciously... Black Philip was probably the best use of an animal in a horror movie since... Jaws. Or Cujo.
47. Black Phone
48. 28 Days Later
49. Alien
There is an ongoing fight between me and my sister as to whether Alien is a horror movie or a science fiction movie, and at times this fight can get ugly if we unleash our Mediterranean temper. I am a defendant of the first category, while she, inconceivably, insists Alien is SF, which is ridiculous because it's basically a slasher with a final girl and all, only the slasher is an extraterrestrial entity and not some bloke. Don't even try convincing me, I'll die on this hill!!
In sum, I'm very pleased to see this title on this horror list.
50. The Thing
Another comfort movie of mine, when I can't decide what to watch (a problem I won't have for the near future though, since I have this awesome list of 50 titles I want to go through), I go back watching this. It deserved to make the list.
On a last note, me being me, I wouldn't close this post without stating my disappointment over the fact that the titles on this list are all together US productions. For instance the French flick Martyrs is one of the scariest movies I have watched. When I know a movie will hit me hard, I watch them while working out, the logic being that I produce stress hormones when I watch an intense horror movie, I can simultaneously get rid of them by moving my body. It wasn't enough to work out while watching Martyrs, I also firmly closed my eyes while working out and watching the movie. I must have looked very stupid and ridiculous.
I personally also felt terrified by Event Horizon back when it was released. Hell being an actual place and a scientifically possible portal there was just too much for my tender heart!
Other than that I think this is a pretty good list, hence why I'm sharing with you. Have a wonderful week!
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