So, here's a short list of movies to cram in before the 31st. Are these our favorites? Sure. But in all honesty, a true list of favorite fright flicks would be pages and pages and pages. Carpenter, Hooper, Romero, Argento, Fulci, and Bava alone could have had their own section. So we're keeping short and sweet. You like gore? It's in there. You want ghosts? Here ya go. If you've not seen these films, check them out. If you've watched them before, see them again. Here we go.
I fucking love Halloween.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Tobe Hooper's first full feature terrified the shit out of me when i was a little kid...and i hadn't even seen the movie. The poster and big cut-out of Leatherface at our local video store (in the fabled days before Blockbuster) we're enough to send my 5 year old mind into dark places it had never ventured before. This still stands as a masterpiece, and although it was banned in several countries, the gore is really not that explicit, but the tension's a mother.
Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn: The best entry of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead trilogy keeps all of the horror, buckets of blood, and awesome camera tricks from the first film and adds a giant helping of slapstick comedy. Bruce Campbell is a genius, and "Evil Dead 2" is one of the greatest films of all time...and i'll stand by that statement until the day i die.
Dawn of The Dead: Motherfucking zombies. You put a zombie in a movie, i will probably watch it, and while George Romero's "Night of The Living Dead" is the forefather, his follow up had a much larger artistic, social, and cultural impact. Everyone should be required to see this movie.
The Wicker Man: Robin Hardy's story about a devout detective investigating the disappearance of a little girl on a mysterious island creeps along with a slow burning eeriness that comes to full throttle when the surprise ending hits and burns. This movie is awesome (fuck the awful remake with Nicolas Cage).
Cabin Fever: This is Eli Roth's slasher flick without an actual slasher in the movie. Instead, our young, nubile coeds in peril in a cabin in the middle of the woods are stalked mercilessly one by one by a flesh-eating virus. And it's gory as hell. Whether it's some nasty stuff that you never want to happen when making out, or a girl shaving her own skin off, this movie is an absolute delight. And, it's pretty funny too.
Suspiria: Dario Argento has made a lot of awesome movies, so it's kind of hard to pick one, but throw in a perfect score by Goblin (did they ever not make a perfect score?), a creepy story about witches in a European ballet school, and some truly beautiful cinematography, then this is as good a place to start as any.
Poltergeist: Tobe Hooper makes the list again...but Senor Spielbergo had his hand in this film as well. A genuinely scary haunted house movie (with a clown scene that scares my mother to death) has great performances, some cool effects, a face-melting scene, and Zelda Fucking Rubinstsein...and it's only rated PG, so bring the kids. Just watch out for the curse.
Scream: Wes Craven made some great horror movies in the 70's and 80's, and then decided to turn the genre in on itself. Starting with "New Nightmare," Craven molded horror movies into self-aware vehicles where the rules of the game were known by the characters, and thus could be twisted and played with. "Scream" progressed that idea further and ushered in a new wave of horror films for the new century. (Plus, it's the only thing Jaime Kennedy ever did that didn't make me want to cave his skull in with a hammer.)
The Thing: Want a little sci-fi with your horror? John Carpenter's got just what you're looking for. It was tough to pick just one Carpenter flick ("Halloween," "They Live," ya ya ya), but i've gotta go with Kurt Russell and Wilford Brimley on this one. This is a perfect monster movie, with awesome effects, a shape-changing alien, and just a damn cool story. Love this movie...and you should too.
The House of The Devil: The most recently made film on this list, Ti West's feature is a deliberately slow-paced, tense homage to the late-night fright flick, direct-to-video scare schlock i grew up on. And really, how could we have a list of horror movies without a little devil worship in there?
So there you go. Enjoy. We here at the incubator look forward to hearing what your favorites might be. Goodnight everybody. Bwa-ha-ha-ha!
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