In honor of my favorite holiday, I just thought I’d discuss the finer points of some of my favorite things, scary movies.
Honestly, I have seen many horror/thriller/suspense/whatever films in my life and most of them are not worth the time. However, there are a select few that have never ceased to give me the wiggins and I like to watch a few of them every Halloween.
IT
They all float down here.
I actually only summoned the courage recently to re-watch IT and it still managed to scare the hell out of me even after several years between viewings. I must admit part of my fear is related to how deeply disturbed I am by clowns BUT the scene Part 1 where Pennywise attacks and drags Georgie into the sewer just scares the crap out of me every single time.
One, Two, Freddy's coming for you...
A Nightmare on Elm Street
There is a definite cheese factor to these movies but the way that Tina was tossed around, bloodied on the ceiling in the first installment of the series creeped me out. Even scarier still was Tina's reappearance later in the movie during Nancy's dream sequence where she is wrapped in plastic, being dragged by an invisible force down the hall.
A Tale of Two Sisters
A Tale of Two Sisters
This Korean film is less about gore and more about using atmospheric qualities to create fear and trepidation. Without revealing too much about the plot, there is a great scene a the character Eun-Joo discovers a strange presence in the kitchen. This film is definitely worth seeing, I have not seen the American remake titled The Uninvited but I have heard that as far as remakes go, this one is not half bad.
'Salem's Lot (1979 Miniseries)
Come on, let me in.
Although I have problems with the way the book (which is a FANTASTIC read by the way) was pretty much thrown out the window for this miniseries, I did enjoy the teleplay in its own regard. This particular scene scared the bejesus out of me as a kid:
Of course this was when vampires were scary instead of broody and sparkly. The 2004 remake wasn't as good as I had hoped. First off, Rob Lowe wouldn't be my first choice to play Ben Mears and the character of Mark Petrie was completely changed, personality-wise. Also, the whole hunting down of and death of Pere Callahan was asinine as he doesn't die in the book and he crosses dimensions to Mid-World in the Dark Tower series. Sheesh. Some parts were done well though like when Ralph visits Danny in the hospital as seen briefly in the trailer:
