Basically put, there is no finer genre in film than the genre of horror. It's easily the most malleable genre and can hide itself anywhere from a film about a mourning housewife all the way to a bunch of humble Disney films.
I've tried over the years to pare down all the horror films out there in the world to a top ten horror film list. It's simply not possible. I know the top few, but after that it's a bust. So the following list is merely a list of some of my favourite horror films. I've tried to keep it to films that usually wouldn't feature in lists like this, but if you were so inclined, you really couldn't go wrong with these films either: Suspiria, The Descent, Dawn of the Dead, The Night of the Hunter, The Birds, Halloween, Alien, An American Werewolf in London, Witchfinder General, The Silence of the Lambs and Tenebrae.
The Grand Daddy of horror films is easily The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. This is a brutal film and a nasty one at that, but it's the finest nasty film around. Unlike the over the top Saw's and Hostel's of the gore porn genre, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is an exceptionally suggestively violent film. The violence is intense and the deaths are shocking - even the attempted murder of Sally by the head of the family with a feeble tapping on her head with a hammer is terrifying. The fact that the remakes, sequels and prequels haven't tainted what is a perfect film through and through (in my opinion, the third finest film made) is a testament to how great The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is.
The House of Sand and Fog is one heck of a claustrophobic film. It suffocates the viewer - and a fair amount of the cast as well - in an intense haunted house style horror. The way the film moves along with this devilish house gradually eating up or injuring character after character in various gruesome ways - a board with nails sticking out of it for example - is glorious in its use of horror. This is not a traditional horror film at all, but the elements are all in place. The house at the center of the film is a vortex of pain for all the characters involved and nobody wins.
Val Lewton had his hands on some of the finest early horror films, but for me the finest of the lot is Cat People. Simone Simon is a mesmerising minx as Irena, a woman who is shackled with a curse that whenever she is aroused she will turn into a panther and kill. The basic plot sounds a lot cheesier than the film is. It's a fantastic investigation into the fear of the unknown and the fear of myths. One of the best horror scenes is a pool scene where a woman swimming alone is stalked by something that may not be there at all.
A great horror film should make you want to write an angry letter to all those involved. It should make you want to sit in your shower and cry yourself to sleep as the water falls down on you. It should make you question yourself and everyone you meet. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer does exactly that. Where Ruggero Deodata was taken to court for the (non-)deaths of his cast members in Cannibal Holocaust, I wouldn't be surprised if some police body would have looked into Michael Rooker with his performance of Henry - simply one of the finest performances in film, the commitment he has to the role of Henry is astounding. Rooker is possibly only matched by dedication to a role in a horror film by Joe Spinell in the also cry-shower inducing Maniac.
One of the finest elements about horror films are how prescient they can be. Eyes Without a Face focuses on the continuation of beauty and the oppression of anything different. Whilst the plot alone is haunting, the addition of gruesome surgical scenes and the photo's of a surgical transplant being rejected by the recipient elevates the film to a ghastly level which makes it an unforgettable French horror (and those French do know how to create a damn fine horror film.)
Not a week goes by where I don't think about this film. When you look back on the 2000's with horror films, there were really only a small handful that really held the horror flag high and Martyrs is right there alongside The Descent screaming at the top of their lungs. This is a relentless and exhausting film, but one of the most rewarding horror films. Most great horror films have something to say - which is why I find I get bored easily with slasher films or found footage films - and Martyrs packs its message with a punch. This is not only one of the best horror films, it's also one of the finest films ever made.
Carnival of Souls is one of the earliest horror films I ever remember watching. Alongside The Mummy and Child's Play 2, Carnival of Souls was one of those horror films which played on TV late one night whilst my Dad slept and I watched it from the hallway ready to run back to my bedroom if it got too frightening. Carnival of Souls had such a profound effect on other horror films looked and worked that it's disheartening to not see its name thrown around a heck of a lot more - especially when decades later The Sixth Sense tried to steal Carnival of Souls thunder and appropriate its twist as its own.
If I ever have kids and it comes to the 'don't do drugs' discussion, I'll just sit them down in front of this film and show them the ups and double ended downs of drug use. Darren Aronofsky has always been a director who has leaned towards elements of horror in his films - Black Swan being another great horror film in his ouevre. In only his second film, Aronofsky paints drug addiction as a soul destroying experience. It's not pleasant. There are no happy endings. And no matter how much you say 'be excited, be be excited', just closing your eyes and imagining that montage near the end with the infected injection site, the double ended dildo, the electro shock therapy and whatever happened to Marlon Wayans in jail, will be enough to keep you awake at night not even being able to contemplate taking those sleeping pills in case Christopher McDonald appears and haunts your dreams.
The Wicker Man isn't a film which is overtly scary or terrifying. A sequence with Britt Eckland thrashing to music topless halfway through the film will most likely bring a few laughs rather than make you quake. But it's on reflection after the finale that The Wicker Man is terrifying. It's on repeat viewings when you understand why Eckland is doing that (besides for the paycheck, which probably wasn't a heck of a lot) crazy dance, and why the kids act the way they do. It's a film which gets under your skin and won't let you go. And there's no bee's in this one either.
The majority of Audition is really quite boring. It's not a perfect film, but it does contain one of the most perfect horror finales. The torture sequence that Takashi Miike stages as the finale is one of the most chilling scenes I've ever seen. The beauty of Asami and her quiet assurance of kiri kiri kiri (deeper deeper deeper) to Aoyama as she saws into his feet with a piano wire is an unsettling image to put you on edge and help you forget the first half of the film. It's a masterclass of horror cinema.
Hopefully this short list has given a few suggestions of what horror films to watch for those dark nights where you want to be frightened.
Oh, and finally, fuck you if you don't like The Blair Witch Project.
And in closing...
We accept you one of us.
