The Best Horror Movies Part II
Why a part 2?
OK. Upon further inspection of my work, I realized I had forgotten so many of my favorites that I absolutely had to make a part 2 to the best horror flicks. I mean, no self-respecting horror movie buff would have forgotten some of the movies I did. I'm partly ashamed and now I plan to redeem myself. So here are the movies I felt bad that I didn't include. Feel free to let me know about any others I may not have seen or forgotten about. And yes, I realize there are a lot of Stephen King flicks on here. I am a fan thankyouverymuch.
Poltergeist
Totally should have been on my first list. Sorry. I can honestly say I forgot about it. That being said, there will probably end up being three or four more of these "best" lists. Or not.
Directed by Tobe Hooper in 1982, Poltergeist is a movie about a regular family living in a suburban area. Their house is haunted in the sweetest way possible. The ghosts are playful at first, then they start to become malicious. This is probably the cutesiest movie on my list with a family friendly rating of PG. I don't know that I would let my kids watch it, though. The stars of the movie are Craig T. Nelson, Heather O'Rourke, Dominique Dunne, and JoBeth Williams.
Stephen King's It
I remember my mom telling me a story about how my big brother read the book "It" by . She warned him not to read it (he was 13) but he did it anyway. Halloween was coming up and mother dressed as a clown for work. When she woke my brother to go to school that morning, she said she nearly had to peel him off the ceiling because he freaked out so bad. I still love to make fun of him.
It was directed by Tommy Lee Wallace in 1990 and stars Tim Curry (as Pennywise the clown), Harry Anderson, Dennis Christopher and, Annete O'Toole. It's about a group of kids that are terrorized by a force that takes shape as an absolutely horrifying clown named Pennywise and murders children. These kids are grown now and have moved apart to different places. When they learn of a new rash of child murders, they want to team up to eradicate this evil being before he can kill again.
Stephen King's Misery
Even though some would like to think it, this is not where I got my nickname. My nickname Misery came from high school (me being the little goth chick). Just had to get that out of the way. This movie is freaking awesome. I could watch it over and over again. I don't really know if it belongs in the horror genre, but should be enjoyed just the same. It's really more of a psychological thriller.
Directed by Rob Reiner in 1990, Misery stars James Caan and Kathy bates. James Caan portrays famous author Paul Sheldon who has written numerous novels about a woman named Misery. He has become weary of writing only novels about her and being identified by only that, so he kills her off in his eighth novel of the set. As he is driving to see his publisher through a blizzard (shouldn't have left the house), he crashes and is injured. He is miraculously rescued by a chick named Annie Wilkes who is Sheldon's self-professed biggest fan. She takes him back to her cabin and nurses him back to health, all the while telling him how much she loves his novels about Misery. He begins to notice there's something not quite normal about Annie and wants to be on his way. Annie explains that all the roads are closed and the phone lines are down, so he must stay. When Annie buys the eighth book in the Misery series, things go horribly wrong for Sheldon as she reaches the point of Misery's death. Like I said, he should have never left the house...
Rosemary's Baby
This is yet another movie that should have made my first list. Again, sorry. A true classic , no movie collection is complete without this. I didn't see it until a few years ago and have watched it hundreds of times since. If you never watch another horror flick, you should at least end with this one.
Directed by Roman Polanski in 1968 and stars Mia Farrow and Jon Cassavetes. Rosemary and her husband move into a new apartment and become friends with their elderly neighbors. When a woman from another apartment commits suicide by jumping out of a window, Rosemary starts to have nightmares, including one in which she is raped by a black mass while being watched. Shortly after this dream she finds out she's pregnant and becomes seriously ill. Eventually, she finds out her neighbors are witches and she can't trust anyone.
Stephen King's Pet Sematary
I told you there were a lot of Stephen King flicks on this one. I believe this is the first King flick I ever watched. The part where the kid comes into the room and his brain is all hanging out still grosses me out. This is so strange that is just simply had to be on here. I do have to say that I absolutely hate the scene when Gage gets hit by the truck. It never fails to make me boo-hoo like a little girl. Probably because I have two little boys of my own and one of my biggest fears is one of them getting hit by a car.
Directed by Mary Lambert in 1989 Pet Sematary is another Steven King adaptation starring Dale Midkiff, Fred Gwynne, and Miko Hughes. A family of four moves to another home. The little girl's beloved cat, Church, is hit by a car and killed. Conveniently the elderly neighbor man can give a solution. There is an ancient Indian burial ground in the hills and when you bury your dead animal there, it comes back a few days later. The cat becomes evil and when the baby boy, Gage, is killed the same way the cat was, Dad doesn't heed the warnings and buries him in the cemetery. Things can only get worse from here, and they do.
Psycho
I made the mistake of watching the crappy remake with Anne Heche before watching the original. DON'T DO THAT!!! If you want to see a good one, it's the original. The blood was chocolate syrup. Man, was that random.
A chick is on the run with stolen money and checks into a hotel for the night. Checking into the Bates motel run by an insane Norman Bates and his mother is worse than her decision to steal the money. Cuz "Momma doesn't like loose women"...
Stephen King's The Shining
This is the last Stephen King on my list, I promise. There are tons of other Stephen King adaptations, like Christine, Salem's Lot, Tommyknockers, Storm of the Century, and Rose Red. Hmm... Maybe I should just make a Stephen King list... This flick will leave you with chills and having nightmares. Trust me.
Stars like Shelly Duvall and Jack Nicholson and a director like Stanly Kubrick can only make for a great flick. This is about a little boy who has a gift of seeing certain things before they happen. When his formerly alcoholic dad takes a job as an overseer of a huge, luxurious hotel called the Overlook, Danny starts to see some crazy things. The more sucked in you become with the storyline, the more you notice dad going nuts.
The Thing
I had never even heard of this until a friend brought it over one night. I watched in disgust as it became gorier and gorier. LOVED IT!!! The imagery is far beyond its time in this flick. I would have sworn it came out later than what it did. I was completely shocked to find out the year it was released.
Directed by John Carpenter in 1982 starring Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley (and his diuhbeetus), and Keith David. Scientists in Antarctica find an alien body buried in the snow and bring it back to camp to thaw. The alien awakens really pissed and all hilarity ensues. It takes over the scientists' bodies one by one. The men who haven't been overtaken must figure out who hasn't been infected by the alien and how they can kill it.
The Evil Dead
One of the single goriest movies I've ever seen, it's chock full of gore, cheesy acting, and you can get a couple of laughs from it. The sequels aren't near as good as the original, but if you've got nothing better to do, you know.
Directed by Sam Raimi in 1979 and starring Bruce Campbell, Five kids accidently wake the dead after conveniently finding the Book of the Dead in (where else??) Tennessee of course. All of the friends except one are turned into zombies, and the last guy has to do some pretty horrible things to his former sister and friends to survive.
Hellraiser
My best friend and I would rent these every single Friday night and stay up all night watching as many as we could. Every single Hellraiser flick is just as good as the first. Some are better. They came up with the best movie monster ever. No, I'm not talking about Pinhead, I'm talking about Chatters. *shudders* It's one of those kinds of movies that if you don't watch it you have no idea what's going on.
A Clive Barker film released in 1987, Hellraiser is a great story with deliciously gory scenes and nighmare inducing monsters like Pinhead. A young couple move into an old house (seems a familiar storyline) to find a disgusting creature hiding upstairs. This creature is the man's half brother and the woman's former lover. He lost his earthly body to demons and is brought back to life by a drop of blood that was spilled on the floor. So the chick (his former lover) starts to bring him sacrificed bodies so he can complete his regeneration, and the Cenobites are going to be angry about that...
Alien
I watched this flick for the first time when I was a little bitty girl. Well, tried to watch it. I didn't make it all the way through it until I was at least 10. If you've never seen it, don't watch the watered down, cable-censored version. You have to see the full thing.
Directed by Ridley Scott in 1979 and starring Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerrit, and John Hurt. It's a science fiction film about a crew in space respond to an SOS signal. They find a crashed space ship and discover a horribly vile and disgusting looking alien in a pod. It breaks free from its pod and attaches to one of the crew member's face. He returns to their ship with the alien on his face and it lets go. The best scene of the entire movie is when the alien's offspring bursts out of the same dude's chest. The rest of the movie is spent trying to find and destroy this continuously growing, dangerous alien.
Event Horizen
This is a movie that totally does not get enough credit. I used to watch this movie every night before bed, and then would lay out of school because I couldn't sleep. There is absolutely mesmerizing imagery in this flick, and you can't simply watch it once. There's a great story line and plenty of gore. There are some jump scares as well. An out and out great freakin' film.
Directed by Paul Anderson in 1997 and starring Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, and Kathleen Quinlan. A scientist decides to try and save his life's work, the Event Horizon after his wife's suicide. When they arrive at the ship, it comes to life and all sorts of good things start to happen.
The Blair Witch Project
No, I will not apologize for having this on my list. Yes, it totally scared the hell out of me (when I was a teen). I went to see it in the theater with my boyfriend and begged him to stay at my house with my until my parents got home because I was so freaked out. Remember all the hype about it being real video just being released to the public? That was still going on when I watched it. And we didn't have the convenience of Reddit to debunk that it was a total farce.
Directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez and starring Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael Williams. This flick is about 3 college students that take their cameras on a trip to do a documentary about the Blair Witch that supposedly haunts the woods of Western Maryland. They end up getting hopelessly lost in the woods and then weird things start happening. It only took $30,000 to produce, and raked in millions.
Final Destination
True to most horror flicks, the first in the series is the best. They just gradually get worse and worse as the number goes up, and I'm not really looking forward to watching the newest one, even though I know I probably will. Chock full of gore, this flick will have you questioning life and death.
Directed by James Wong and starring Devon Sawa and Ali Larter. This movie starts out with teens who are going on a trip. Before the flight, one kid keeps having visions and sees signs of imminent doom. Before takeoff, he has a horrible dream and wakes up screaming that the plane is going to crash, which results in some kids voluntarily getting off the plane, and a couple was thrown off the plane as well, by accident. The plane crashes in mid air moments after take off, killing everyone aboard. When the kids who were supposed to be on the plane start to die crazy deaths in the order they were sitting on the plane, pieces to the death puzzle start to fall in place.
Frailty
Another movie my friend brought to me that I had never even heard of. I am so glad she did. I loved this movie. It doesn't fit into the typical horror genre, but it is really worth watching.
Directed by Bill Paxton and starring Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, and Matthew O'Leary. This was Bill Paxton's directorial debut, and what a debut it was. It centers around two small boys who's father is bringing home people to kill. He says these people are demons. Wicked, awesome story line with an amazing twist at the end.