Happy Halloween – Let’s Talk Scary Movies

October 29, 2021

• 

• 

• 

As long as I can remember, I’ve been a wimp when it comes to scary movies.  I mean, when you really think about it, it’s kind of deranged to knowingly watch something that is going to scare you, right?  For those of you who are big horror film fans, please don’t be offended – we all like what we like.  So, why do scary movies appeal to some people more than others?  For me, there is a key distinction to make – Are we talking about a horror movie or a suspense movie?  For instance, The Sixth Sense is suspenseful and has some scary moments, but is not a horror film.  If there are some bloody deaths involved (Hello, any entry in the Friday the 13^th franchise), it’s clearly a horror movie.  Now, I don’t mind the jump scares of a suspense film.  In fact, it’s kind of fun.  I much prefer that to movies that just have meaningless kill after meaningless kill.  I don’t mind a few bodies and bloody scenes, but the story has to be clever, and I want the director to make me jump with subtlety and not an obvious scare tactic.  Build up the suspense, let me off the hook with a distraction, and then scare the sh*t out of me with something original.

Now my taste has evolved over the last several years as I have been catching up on recent entries into this genre, as well as some classics that I’ve missed.  When I was younger, I couldn’t say I was a fan of scary movies.  Poltergeist, even though it doesn’t have a high body count, scared the bejesus out of me – especially that scene where the tree comes to life and crashes into Robbie’s room.  But, I was ten when that movie came out.  Would it still have the same effect on me now? 

I recently watched another movie from that era – An American Werewolf in London.  Now, I’m almost positive that I’ve never seen the whole movie, but I know for a fact that I’ve seen parts of it, as it was on constant repeat on HBO in the 1980s.  When watching it the other day, there were certain scenes that were more impactful in bringing back horrible childhood memories than the most terrifying therapy session ever could.  Whoa boy – there were some gruesome moments in that one.  Pretty good movie that holds up well after forty years, especially considering the legacy it left on the film industry.  Makeup genius Rick Baker, who created the effects in the movie, won the inaugural Academy Award for Best Makeup for the film, and would go on to win the award six more times.  He also parlayed his work on Werewolf into turning a famous musician into a werewolf – that’s right, he created the effects for Michael Jackson’s groundbreaking Thriller music video, directed by John Landis, who also directed Werewolf.

One thing that Werewolf excelled in was the concept of body horror.  The scenes where David transformed into the werewolf were downright terrifying.  After discovering and revisiting many horror movies over the last several weeks in preparation for this post, I’ve come to the realization that body horror is just not my thing.  It makes me squeamish.  I can definitely handle (and even enjoy) being scared, even if there is some blood.  I can even handle the serial killer body count movie, even if it’s a little gory, as long as it’s fun and the story is good.  But things popping out of people’s bodies?  Nope, not for me.  If it’s a one-off scene in a brilliant film, like the all-time great Alien, I can deal with it.  But if it’s a big part of the story, like 1982’s The Thing, considered one of the all-time great horror movies, I’m just not interested.  Where I draw the line is being scared, but not grossed out. 

There were two films recently released that had the body horror feature that I just didn’t enjoy.  Malignant was directed by the creator of the Saw franchise and The Conjuring films, but was just too crazy and gross for me to enjoy.  And in one of the wildest movies I’ve ever seen, Titane, which won the Palme d’Or (Best Picture equivalent) at the Cannes Film Festival, features some eye-covering (I literally covered my eyes during a few scenes) disgusting moments in a freakishly bizarre plot.  In case I wasn’t clear – If you are into gross-out movies, you might like Malignant, but I don’t know what kind of taste you’d have to have to like Titane.  Just avoid that one.

So, now that I’ve diagnosed my taste in scary movies, let’s dive into some of my favorites.

A Curious Case of Writer’s Block – The Shining (1980)

So, as we start with the 1980 classic Stephen King novel adapted by Stanley Kubrick, it raises an interesting question.  Is this a horror movie or a suspense movie?  Well, it’s really the story of a man slowly losing his mind as he succumbs to the isolating experience of a winter in the Overlook Hotel.  OK, Jack Nicholson’s character does have some terrifying moments where he terrorizes his wife and son, but this isn’t a slasher type film with a high body count, right?  It’s not really a horror movie, right?  Checks notes.  Hmmm……the terrifying ghosts of the dead twin girls scaring Danny…..the decomposing body of the old lady….the elevators opening and rivers of blood flowing into the hotel lobby.  OK, let’s revise that.  You’re damn right this is a horror movie!  Although we don’t see a lot of people killed during The Shining, it’s still a terrifying film.  And even though it’s hard to really say what’s causing Jack’s demise (much like a number of King’s stories), that doesn’t change the terror we experience throughout the picture.  The suspense and chills ratchet up throughout the film, as Nicholson’s character continues his descent into madness, secured by Kubrick’s imagery and filmmaking style, along with a deliciously scary score.  There are some detractors of The Shining (admittedly, the book is better), including King himself, who hated the film.  I’ve always found it to be a fun scary ride, with Nicholson’s performance among the all-time greats of scary movie villains.

The Ultimate Enemy – The Exorcist (1973)

Every scary film needs a monster or a boogeyman and if it’s not a man losing his mind, or a terror-inducing serial killer (don’t worry, we’ll get to those), you can’t go wrong with the oldie but goodie – that’s right, Satan himself.  There have been many movies over the years where possession, or some mysterious evil spirit, is attacking our main characters, but few have done it better than The Exorcist.  I still think this is one of the scariest movies of all-time and holds up very well after almost forty years. 

Linda Blair gives an incredible performance as a twelve year-old girl who becomes possessed by a demon, slowly succumbing to its overwhelming power.  Her mother, played by Ellyn Burstyn in an amazing performance as a terrified parent, explores all medical options under the sun, before turning to a local priest to confront the inevitable.  Father Karras (Jason Miller, in his film debut) brings in an experienced priest (Max Von Sydow) to perform the ceremony to rid the young girl of her possession.  The last third of the movie features some of the scariest moments on film, particularly the special effects and voice work to portray the possessed girl.  It still resonates with me, even having seen it multiple times over the years. 

The theme of “Satan as the villain” has been done many times.  Some honorable mentions:  In 1976, The Omen portrayed a little boy possessed by Satan, terrorizing his family and killing people left and right.  My memories of watching that film when I was younger still make me cringe (like the nanny jumping out of the window and the priest getting impaled by the pole).  One of the first movies to explore the theme in the modern filmmaking era was Rosemary’s Baby, the 1968 picture directed by Roman Polanski.  Mia Farrow portrays a young wife, excited to learn she is pregnant, but becoming suspicious with the odd behavior of her husband and neighbors that she observes.  When she learns that they might be Satan-worshiping members of a cult, needless to say, she’s quite distressed.  The movie’s a bit dated now, but it was a big hit when it was released.  Probably my favorite from recent times was The Conjuring, and its sequel.  The films tell the story of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (who became famous working The Amityville Horror case) researching suspected cases of demonic possessions.  While I was disappointed with the third film released earlier this year, the first two movies in the series were excellent, leveraging today’s movie-making technology to deliver a scary experience for the audience, in a big improvement from these types of films from the 1970s.

An Original Story – It Follows (2015)

It’s one thing to be terrorized by Satan.  While you can’t see your enemy (like a serial killer), you at least can start to wrap your head around some “presence” that is making your life Hell (no pun intended).  But what if there is something after you that you cannot possibly explain?  That’s even more disturbing.  That’s the premise of It Follows, a terrifying movie that is fantastic for one main reason – it’s a completely original story.  Whenever you watch a typical horror movie, you pretty much know what’s going to happen, but this one feels different. 

The premise is a mysterious “entity” that follows its host until it catches them and kills them.  No one else can see the entity – only the person that it’s after.  And it looks like any other person, except it may have a deranged look on its face.  In fact, sometimes the entity looks like someone the person knows.  The trick to get rid of your problem?  Have a sexual encounter with someone else, and then the entity goes after them.  College student Jamie is faced with this terror after a date with a guy she recently met.  When she discovers she has now been infected, she has to decide how to escape the hell she is now facing.  Should she “pass it on” or try to defeat it?  Her friends help her fight off her pursuer, but it’s not easy, and the resulting chase sequences are scary fun.  One thing that I love about It Follows is the ability of the filmmakers to deliver jump scares without an obvious music cue – there are a few times you just see the entity appear behind someone’s back and it scares the sh*t out of you.  It Follows is six years old and, while there has been talk about making a sequel, I’m glad that it hasn’t been explored.  Some horror franchises have been beaten to death (and ruined in most instances).  It’s best to leave original stories alone and move on to another idea.

The Perfect Parody – Scream (1996)

A funny thing happened in the mid-90s.  A decade after creating the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, and twenty-five years after his debut film, The Last House on the Left, director Wes Craven started a new franchise that put a whole new spin on the horror genre.  Scream was not only a horror movie about a sadistic serial killer terrorizing a small-knit community, particularly the high school students.  It also wonderfully satirized the best of the horror genre – pointing out the ridiculous plot points that we watched time and again.  The killer always stalking kids who just had sex.  The kid who says “I’ll be right back” while leaving the room, right before getting killed.  Even the sensationalist nature of television coverage of crime stories is portrayed through Courtney Cox’s news reporter character.  The lead of Scream is Sydney, played by Neve Campbell, who is the prime target of the killer’s pursuit. 

The film pays homage to horror classics like Halloween and Friday the 13^th (with a masked killer hunting teenagers), as well as When a Stranger Calls (the brilliant opening sequence), and any classic whodunit movie (with the constant guessing of who the real killer is).  Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson did a fantastic job of combining inside jokes and Easter eggs, with some terror-inducing jump scares.  In particular, when we are only ten minutes into the movie, and one of the top-billed actresses in the film is killed (spoiler alert, if one is really needed twenty-five years later), it’s clear that all bets are off for the traditional plot of a scary movie, and we have no idea what awaits us the rest of the way.  Scream was a massive success upon its release, and was followed by three additional sequels (decent, but not as good as the original – usually the case with horror franchises).  A fifth entry is also planned for release in January of next year.  Campbell, Cox, and David Arquette (as local cop Dewey) are all back to fight the Ghostface killer.  I’m sure it won’t be as great as the one that started it all, but it’s sure to be a fun and scary ride.

A Masterpiece on All Levels – Get Out (2017)

The Academy Awards have never been known to shine the Oscar spotlight on horror movies.  Yes, The Exorcist was nominated for ten awards back in 1973, but other than that, there are few examples in recent memory.  And no, I’m not counting The Silence of the Lambs – to me, that’s not a horror movie.  Don’t get me wrong, Hannibal Lecter is pretty damn scary, but that’s more of a suspense thriller, than a horror movie.  So, with all of that said, it was a nice surprise to see Get Out, the directorial debut from Jordan Peele (who won the Oscar for his screenplay) receive four nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Daniel Kaluuya, who plays the lead character Chris. 

What starts out as a nice story of Chris and his girlfriend (played by Alison Williams) traveling to meet her parents, who don’t know that their daughter is dating a Black man.  The topic of race is introduced early in the film, and while her parents (and all of their friends) feebly try to connect with Chris (“You know, I would’ve voted for Obama for a third term if I could.”) something just feels……off.  It’s hard to put a fine point on it, but Chris knows that something is just not right with the parents (Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener in magnificent performances), or the parent’s housekeeper and gardener, and even the young friend of a party guest.  The first half of the film intentionally throws us off balance as we can’t explain what is wrong, only that something is just not right with the situation.  When the true intentions of the family are made clear, we’ve officially gone over the edge in terms of a batshit crazy plot, but by that point, we’re sprinting toward the finish line and eager to see how the plot unfolds. 

Get Out was a truly impressive achievement from Peele, who provided not only a scary film, but one with very funny moments (particularly those involving Chris’s friend back home giving him advice over the phone that mostly consists of the film’s title), and a biting social commentary on the state of race relations in our country at this snapshot point in time.  Peele’s second film (Us) was an unequally unsettling story with a similarly crazy plot, albeit not as successful as Get Out.  His next film is scheduled for release next year and once again is horror-themed.  It’s title is pretty simple – Nope.

Honorable mention for the family you DEFINITELY want no part of: I recently checked out Ready or Not, a 2019 horror movie that I had heard good things about.  The premise on this one is a little paper thin, but if you don’t try to poke too many holes in the plot, it’s a fun ride.  Samara Weaving plays the main character who discovers on her wedding night that her new in-laws have an interesting tradition to carry out in their family mansion.  It seems that new members of the family have to play a “game” based on the card pulled from a game box.  When she randomly picks “Hide n Seek”, she sets out to hide so everyone can search for her.  She soon realizes that their goals include more than just finding her – they have to kill her.  The premise involves an old family friend and a potential curse, but that’s the paper thin part.  The chases, scary scenes, and funny family dynamics make this a fun (albeit pretty gory) watch.

The One and Only – Halloween (1978)

OK, we’ve covered the ordinary man’s descent into madness, the demonic possession, the unknown entity, the psychotic family, and even the clever parody.  It’s time to cover the old reliable stalking madman.  The guy who, for some reason, has decided to wreak havoc on a community of (usually) teenagers and their parents, teachers, and camp counselors.  Some of these films incorporate a feature to make it unique (like the puzzle box nature of the Saw franchise, which followed the same pattern of a brilliant debut followed by subpar sequels), but at the end of the day, it’s about if (and how) the madman will be stopped.  For the last forty years, the holy trinity of this genre has been Jason, Freddy, and Michael, who have appeared in a couple dozen movies combined.  From a franchise standpoint, all three of these lost their luster after the first few installments and while I remember liking the early Friday the 13^th movies a lot, and have very little memory of the Nightmare on Elm Street series, the best of the original films for me was the first one we saw – Halloween.

While the trope of the madman stalking a community is now pretty common in movies, that wasn’t the case in 1978.  Director John Carpenter came up with the idea of a deranged boy who murders his older sister on Halloween.  Fifteen years later, he escapes the institution to which he’d been committed, and travels back to his hometown to terrorize teenage babysitters that remind him of his sister.  In my Fall movie preview, I wrote about why I loved this film so much, in anticipation of the newest installment, Halloween Kills.  Sidebar:  Gotta be honest, I was kind of disappointed with the new one.  It was the second of a “new” trilogy that began in 2018 with a film that I thought was fantastic.  This year’s version felt like an excuse to show some gory kills throughout the movie while we are biding our time waiting for the third film, which is due to arrive next year.  Oh well, can’t win ‘em all.

The 1978 original excels for a big reason that the newest version fails, in my opinion.  While horror films these days tend to overly rely on the gore factor – maximum blood and disfigurement in the kills (one of the minor downsides to the recent Fear Street films on Netflix), Halloween took the approach of scaring us with what might happen, not putting a bloody kill on full display for the audience.  With the eerie score and the brilliant use of shadows, Carpenter could take us right to the edge of our seats, waiting for something bad to happen.  If you show mindless kill after mindless kill, each one becomes less and less impactful.  Instead, as we feel the tension building throughout the movie, by the time we get to the big showdown, we can hardly take it anymore.  Yes, there are a few problems with the film (some wooden dialogue and a few plot holes that don’t make a lot of sense), but for a 1978 low-budget horror movie, it’s a damn good one.

One last note on Halloween.  In my previous post about the franchise, I referenced how fun it must have been to experience this movie in a theater in 1978.  On a recent episode of The Rewatchables podcast, the host described a YouTube video that shows the reaction of an audience watching the climactic scenes in a crowded theater.  It’s pretty wild and available here if you want to see a fun example of a bygone era of movie-going.

One More Thing

One final note that has nothing to do with scary movies.  If you are on the fence about watching Dune, I highly recommend it.  And if you feel safe going to a theater, see it on the biggest screen possible (I saw it in an IMAX theater).  It is truly an amazing film and quite an accomplishment from all involved, particularly director Denis Villeneuve.  If you don’t want to see it in the theater, it’s on HBO Max until November 21^st.

That’s all for this week.  Thanks for taking the journey through some of my favorite scary movies.  I’ll be off next week, but back in two weeks for another look at some of my favorite comfort movies.  Thanks for reading and if you’d like to be notified of future posts, you can subscribe here.