Favourite Frights

 

Before I take off on one of my babbles, I should perhaps give a little… explanation on my scale for rating films. 

First-Will I watch it again?

Second-How many times do I realistically see myself watching it in the future?

Third- If I have seen it more than once, have I discovered more in the film after the first viewing?

Fourth- Will anyone else in the family want to see it in the future?

Fifth-Am I willing to buy this DVD?

Sixth-Do I want to insist on normal over wide-screen format?

Seventh-Am I willing to pay $15.99-$19.99 for the DVD?

Eighth-Do I add it to my Wish List” of CD’s and DVD’s?

 

So, without further ado-

Gwenerrella’s

                       Favourite

Frights

 

 

In past years, for Halloween, I have listed the top scary movies, according to the film industry.  Since that isn’t as much fun the second time around, this year, I will list some of my top scary movies.

 

Here are my favourite movie frights, in no particular order:

 

 

“The Birds” and “Psycho”, Alfred Hitchcock knew what he was doing, he could scare the bejabbers out of me without any gore, or special effects, his films continue to be much better than a lot of the ‘new’ horror films. 

 

Watching the playground equipment being covered with patient, waiting birds with the children singing so fearlessly in the schoolhouse.  Knowing the whole time the children are singing they are fated to become bird-bait, it was the not knowing the when that kept me glued Hitchcock’s films.

 

Anthony Perkins’ skilful handling of his character still gives me the willies.  The cinematography is stunning (but then, the scenes of his films are normally full of realistic details and enticing distractions), there are images from both films that are indelibly etched on the retinas of memory.

 

“Rosemary’s Baby” again, all the special effects won’t save a weak story.  And an almost complete lack of them won’t matter to a well-told, and acted story.  This is another one of those forget-that-I-have-‘pause’-on-my-remote films.

 

It doesn’t matter how many times I watch “Rosemary’s Baby”, I am still thrilled and chilled in the best of ways by this film.  If someone is ever self-destructive enough to make a remake of this, I think a lot of people will boycott it.

 

“The Omen”, only the original one will do!!  Gregory Peck is too skilled of a performer, and the story is far too compelling to ignore.  Lee Remick is so lovely and fragile, I still feel it was a mercy that she had passed before all Hell broke loose!  (I know, bad, bad pun!!)

 

My brothers and I have/had a head for meanness, although we have wisely channelled it into a love of horror films.  Every time we see the photographer’s head cut off we can’t help but cheer in gory delight.

 

“The Exorcist”, of course, who hasn’t been seduced by the slow advance of little Regan’s possession?  It starts with such innocuous things, a scratching in the attic, and cold drafts.  And we are transfixed by Regan’s transformation from an innocent to a beast, how can we leave, until we know that the girl has been saved from the ‘Dark Side’? 

 

My family saw “The Exorcist” at the Drive-in, my brothers were 12 and 11, and I was 14.  My brothers spent most of the film hiding under the front seat.  Mum had taken us on the promise we wouldn’t have nightmares.  The only way I kept that promise was by not going to sleep. *laughing shamefacedly*

 

“Silent Hill”, I still can’t watch that film, one scene was that distressing to me.  It was so distressing that I jumped from my chair onto Mum’s bed and got a death-grip on her hand!!  It was these… these… things, I still don’t know if they were mutant rats or cockroaches, but they gave me a serious case of the heebie-jeebies!

 

 Me, the one that thought fresh mountain lion hairball in our campsite was cool; or the time I knew we were less than 20 feet from a black bear, we had nothing to defend us and I remained mostly calm; I crawled into bed with my Mummy and shivered like a lost puppy!

 

“Jaws”, there is one scene in there that scared the stuffin’s out of me!!  Brody and Hooper are out searching for the guilty fish of mythic proportions.  They run across a local’s boat, battered and capsized in the dark and misty sea.

 

Hooper goes in for a peek and the man’s chewed head pops out of the hull right at him.  I would have freaked under those circumstances as well.  That was one big toothy Hooper found stuck in the wood of the boat’s hull!

 

“The Hills Have Eyes”, the original one!!  I live in a desert like the location in the film.  It was a while before I stopped watching the foothills with a wary eye.  It was even longer until I would go kiting off on my own in the desert!!

 

“Phantasm”  ‘The Tall Man’ (Angus Scrimm) still hides in the shadows of my psyche, and awaits his chance to lope to the fore and cry in that otherworldly roar, “Boy!”  *shivering eloquently*

 

There is, in the horror film genre, an almost ubiquitous theme is the one with the bogeymen that only children can see, until it is too late. This film is one of the earlier versions of the theme; this is one of the few I bought for full DVD price without a qualm.

 

“The Silence of the Lambs”, “Hannibal”, and “Hannibal Rising” were all excellent, Anthony Hopkins brought Hannibal Lecter to full-bodied 4-dimensional being with his usual his usual skill and believability.

 

One year, for Valentine’s Day, my then-husband bought two tickets to see “Hannibal” at the local theatre.  I loved this gift, and we prepared to watch the sequel to “The Silence of the Lambs” with great excitement and relish. 

 

We were glued to the screen throughout most of the film.  When Hannibal starts cooking up the one man’s brain, slicing from the forebrain first; my husband, Jim, leaned over, and in a carrying stage whisper asked, “Is this what they mean by brain food?”  We were the only ones to find it funny.

 

“Hannibal Rising” was excellent, and gave us a peel into the mind of Hannibal the Cannibal.  I’ve been glued to it every time I’ve watched it.  The young man they cast as the early Hannibal was impressive, and one becomes even more sympathetic to Hannibal, despite his… ahem… quirks.

 

I think my last one (for now) will be “Alien”, my first peek into that film was via ‘Omni’ magazine; they published an article about the designer of the alien, H. R. Giger.  Giger is a very talented artist, whose work is stylised, mechanised and erotically sensuous at the same time.

 

I was waiting with impatient delight, awaiting the entrance of the mature alien.  Then John Hurt’s character began thrashing on the dining table, before, shriek, the baby alien is born!!

 

Thank you to those who are still reading my babbles!  I would truly like to see your ‘Favourite Frights’.