I do not claim to have watched every single horror movie ever made but I can claim authority on what is scary or frightening as it take more than just some blood and gore to scare me. So based on the degree of my horror, I now present you with the top five Hollywood horror films of all time.
Statutory Warning The movies mentioned below contain adult content not suitable for viewers under the age of 18. The following movies are also not for the faint-hearted or those prone to nightmares after a scary movie. You have been warned!
The Exorcist
Released in 1973, The Exorcist still has the power to chill one to the bones. The story line is simple enough; an innocent girl is possessed by the Devil, Linda Blair as Regan McNeil plays the part of the possessed child to perfection. Father Karass (Jason Miller) is the lone priest who is trying to help the parents of the possessed child to rid them of the beast inside her. The climax is the absolute chiller when the resolute priest walks into Regans room determined to cast out the devil at the risk of his own life.
Unlike the movies of this century, The Exorcist doesn’t have music and sound filling every inch of the reel. What it has is loud noises followed by an endless and bottomless silence, thereby creating the perfect spine-chilling eeriness for the viewer.
Excellent directing by William Friedkin who has put a lot of love and effort into the making of this horror film fantastic. Mercedes McCambridge is the voice of the demon. The sound effects are perfect. Visual effects are simply superb; the makeup of the child in various stages of possession is nothing short of excellent for a movie from the 70’s. The possessed child’s face is probably one that will remain imprinted in your mind long after the credits have stopped rolling!
A Nightmare on Elm Street
From the very first nightmare to the very end i.e. Freddys Dead: The Final Nightmare, A Nightmare on Elm Street is the one that will remain as the very first nightmare slasher movie of all times. Although, I am quite certain there were many more attempts to kill off Freddy, this is as far back as I could go into the Nightmare on Elm Street sequels.
Freddy Krueger is the child molester who is murdered and soon returns to take revenge on the children of parents who murdered him. All this with a glove made with 6 inch steel claws! The bottom line is, if you sleep, you dream and if you die, then you’re really dead. Freddys out for revenge and he ain’t stopping for nothing. So don’t sleep!Not your typical slasher movie, A Nightmare on Elm Street, is your nightmare come true. At some point one starts to wonder where the nightmare ends and reality begins.
The music is chilling and perfect for Freddys entrance and action! Wes Craven has done a fantastic job on Freddy and his character and has displayed perfect control of the characters in this gruesome tale of revenge and bloody murder.
The Evil Dead
A group of teenagers take off for the weekend to an isolated cabin somewhere in the mountains. What was supposed to be couple of days of sex and drugs turns out to be a regular trip to hell! The chance finding of the “Book of the Dead” and an audio cassette with demonic incantations, opens a portal to the netherworld thereby unleashing demons of every caliber who possess and continue the night of revelry in a more macabre way. The survivors soon find out that the only way to be rid of the demons, is to dismember the possessed ones.
Special effects are nothing to write home about, though the music is apt for the gruesome killings. The horror that takes place in these movies is mostly in its quietest moments when your ears are straining to hear any sound and then BOOM! Someone gets dismembered/possessed.
Director Sam Raimi’s brainchild produced about four more sequels However, the consequent sequels are nothing more than a shadow of the first and foremost Evil Dead.
Scream
There are certain rules one must abide by in order to successfully survive a horror movie. For instance, Never drink or do drugs. The sin factor……. Never, ever, ever, under any circumstances, say ’’I’ll be right back.’’ Adapted from the dialogues of the movie.
A teenager, Sidney Prescott, played by Neve Campbell, is being stalked and is the primary target for a killer. When one of her classmates is killed by this killer, speculation arises as to the identity of the killer. Tabloid reporter Gale Weathers, played by Courtney Cox, is out to uncover the identity of the killer. Suspicion is laid on the man who was suspected and later convicted for the rape and murder of Sidneys mother. The killer uses the knowledge of horror movies to stalk and kill the teenagers living on Elm Street sound familiar?.
Another Wes Craven marvel. The movie does not characterize voluptuous bimbettes who do nothing during the movie except scream and play damsel in distress. The characters are not only intelligent but also wear trousers! So important when trying to make a get-away.They fight till the end and tackle the killer with smart words and actions. The movie also has an element of mystery. Who is the killer? If its not Sidneys boyfriend, could it be her father?
Halloween
Haddonfield, Illinois, we are watching the scene through the eyes of someone. What we see is two people making out. It is Halloween as we see it with the pumpkins and the characters all dressed up. After the act, we see this person going into the kitchen and then brutally stabbing the girl to death. We soon realize that the murderer is the girls six year old brother, Michael Myers. His parents find him on the lawn with the bloody knife in his hand.
Myers is committed to a mental asylum where he is treated by Dr. Loomis. He remains there for the next 15 years during which he doesn’t utter a word. Then, on Halloween night, he escapes and stalks the residents of his old neighborhood. He goes after three girlfriends, one of whom is the queen of scream, Jamie Lee Curtis.
What also makes this movie is the fact that there isn’t much for the director to go on and yet this horror flick became a huge hit with excellent performances from the cast.
Directed by John Carpenter, there are many more Halloweens (eight, unless I missed some!) after the first one very nearly frightened everyone of Halloween. The music score is the best and mostly written by the director himself. Absolutely terrifying! Although, another movie in the Slasher category, Halloween is a movie that builds tension and suspense to an almost unbearable limit.
And so my fellow ghost busters, concludes my review on Hollywoods Five most horrifying horror films. It is an unstated fact that most, if not all, horror movies have to have a certain amount of adult scenes. A horror movie can never be complete without one. Hence my statutory warning in the beginning. If you can survive the movies without gagging on your lunch/dinner/popcorn, you certainly have what it takes to sit through anything!