Most of my posts involve books. Well, yeah, I’m a writer and I love to read. But, I also like movies. I’m as picky about movies as I am about books. That 90-120+ minutes could be spent reading, writing, or playing old-school video games, so the movie better be pretty damned good. I’m focusing this post on my first love, horror. I’ll do more posts in the future with fantasy and sci-fi movies, too, because I do love me some speculative fiction!
Unfortunately, it seems like some of the worst movies out there are horror. A lot of screen writers seem to think that if you throw enough monsters, violence, and gore at the audience, then the movie is scary, ie, good. Theses films are plagued by a constant barrage of tired tropes, cheap jump scares, and plots where the stupidity of the main character is required to make it work (I’m looking at you, Lauri Strode from Halloween. Why the hell would you run up the stairs instead of out the front door? Tuck one kid under each arm and run AWAY from the psycho killer!).
There are some films that got it right. Yes, they have monsters, violence, and gore, but there’s just the right amount in just the right places to make you want to leave the lights on all night. The plot actually makes sense *gasp*! The first few in my list are from the 70’s and 80’s. Then there’s a bit of a jump because while some of the movies that came out in that timeframe weren’t bad, they also weren’t good enough to make my list.
Here are some of my favorite horror movies in chronological order (warning – slight spoilers below):
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978): This fantastic film combines horror and science fiction to perfection (*chef’s kiss*). Even if you’ve never seen it, you’re probably vaguely familiar with that iconic picture of a curly-haired Donald Sutherland. The weird pig-scream noise the pod people make will haunt your nightmares. It even has a twist at the end that’s actually good (just give up already, M. Knight). If you like this movie, I highly recommend the sci-fi novel The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham. It’s got similar vibes.
- Alien (1979): Another horror/sci-fi combo that definitely has monsters done right. Facehuggers and xenomorphs, oh my! The xenomorph is one of my favorite monsters; it’s alien, beautiful, and terrifying all at once. John Hurt gets hurt in the most horrifying and iconic way, Sigourney Weaver kicks ass, and the cat doesn’t die!
- The Shining (1980): Because of course. Kubrick, Jack Nicholson, empty hotel, creepy twins, and whatever lurks in room 237. Oh, and the main character is a writer who might be losing his mind? I’m in. If you’ve seen the movie but never read the book, go read it! It’s perfectly scary in very different ways from the movie because Kubrick rejected Stephen King’s screenplay and co-wrote his own.
- Poltergeist (1982): The classic haunted house, but it isn’t just the ghosts that will freak you out. Scary tree? Check. Creepy doll? Check. Portal to another world? Check and check. It’s great to see a horror movie that relies on so little blood and gore. Rewatching this as an adult, I found it to be much weirder than I remembered. There are some plot issues (really, you built a whole housing community but somehow didn’t notice what was under the ground?), but I think it’s a great movie overall.
- The Babadook (2014): This movie also has a monster, but that isn’t the most terrifying part. In this psychological horror, the grieving mother and son are way creepier than the titular Babadook. I would not want to live with those two. Bonus: it’s written and directed by a woman.
- It Follows (2014): This movie takes an old horror trope and makes it new again. Teenagers having sex, uh oh. There’s a monster in this movie, too, but you and the characters never know much about it. You don’t know where it is, what it is, or when it will show up. And then it’s right behind you.
- The Witch (2015): This is a fantastic, slow-burn folk horror. Everything creeps you out from beginning to end: the New England 1600’s setting, the strict, Puritan religion, the two little kids, the dark forest. Oh, and the goat. Move over Anya Taylor-Joy, that badass goat practically stole the film.
- Hereditary (2018): Hoo boy. What to say about this one… I think it’s safe to say it beats The Shining in terms of supernatural scares. Unsettling is putting it mildly. This film pulls no punches from beginning to end, and you’ll be scratching your head as much as covering your eyes for a lot of it. Does the ending totally make sense? Ummm… I can say that Toni Colette is fabulous as always.
Now pick a movie, turn off all the lights, and buckle up!