These are my top four horror films, if i were to pick four from Hollywood. Do let me know what you think. You can add to the list and make it more insightful and vibrant. Happy reading and writing.
THE RING
115 mins, 2003; Director: Gore Virbinski
This film has enough unsettling scares that will keep you awake all night. Based on a 1998 Japanese super hit film, it’s as eerie as they come. It’s about a lady journalist’s niece dying of fright after she watches a disturbing video. The rest of the film is about the journalist’s efforts at finding the tape’s origins and its links to a string of suicides at a horse ranch. Yes, it’s shot-by-shot faithful to the original Japanese film on many counts, but it’s also got its own molar-grinding moments that surpass expectations. The Ring has Naomi Watts coming up with about 45 different facial expressions and just as many moods. And she does it with much aplomb. What scores is the pervasive feeling of dread, rather than cheap scares. With little gore and a lot of creepy visuals, The Ring gets under your skin before you know it.
THE OTHERS
104 Mins, 2001; Director: Alejandro Amenábar
The Others is a spooky thriller that reminds you that a movie doesn’t need expensive special effects to be creepy. Atmospheric, stylish, and spooky, it packs a formidable fright simply through the time-tested special effect of atmosphere. While most horror movies aim for the stomach, this one is made to tingle the spine. Like the best ghost stories, it’s frightening because of what you don’t see; suspenseful because you anticipate disaster, not because it has struck. Before you wonder what the film is all about, here goes… it’s about a woman raising two kids in a haunted mansion. Her problem is compounded because she has to guard them against light as they are allergic to it. Things begin to take horrific turns when her staff vanishes and three others take their place. But what gets you gasping for breath is when one of the kids starts talking to strange, unseen people. A must scream!
THE BLAIRWITCH PROJECT
87 mins, 1999; Director: Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sanchez
Made for $30,000 by two young filmmakers from Florida, The Blair Witch Project is an ingenious creation that makes effective use of its lack of budget and cast of unknowns. What you end up seeing is a living nightmare. Definitely not for the faint hearted. The film is about some video footage shot by three missing college students who made their journey into the forests to profile a “witch” of local legend who is linked to murders and mysterious occurrences over 200 years. The latter part of the footage only has voices of screaming children piercing the blackness from a distance. The film keeps audiences in the dark about its titular villain — thus proving that imagination can be as scary as anything onscreen. There’s no blood, no violence. The film explains nothing, and seems to mean nothing, but scares you and keeps scared long after it is over.
THE EXORCIST
220 mins, 1973; Director: William Friedkin
The Exorcist is acknowledged as one of the scariest films of all time because of its remarkable special effects and eerie atmosphere. When it was released, it created a worldwide sensation and led to religious boycotts, fainting, and raked in the moolah at the box office. It’s about a 12-year-old possessed by the devil and her mother’s efforts at scaring away the devil through a priest. But the priest is not sure of his faith or himself. Friedkin brings William Peter Blatty’s Oscar-winning script to shocking life by establishing a realistic, everyday tone before allowing the terror to creep in. The beauty of this film is that it is still scary because of its visual and sound effects. Not to mention, its screenplay, direction and sterling performances by Ellen Burstyn as the mother and Linda Blair as her daughter. Statutory warning: It is so scary, you may refuse to watch it again.
