Being that it’s now officially the five days leading up to Halloween, I thought I’d share with you folks what I feel are five of the most horrifying feature flicks out there. I can safely say that watching these films in order once a day until Halloween will probably make you insane in some way shape or form. And a word of caution: these videos are pretty effing scary.
And without further ado…
5. The Thing
John Carpenter’s 1982 flick about a team of researchers in Antarctica that encounter a …Thing. I personally cannot believe that this movie is 27 years old and the special effects really and truly hold up. It’s an awesome, scary, aweseome movie.
4. Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Purists love the original, but 2004’s DotD (Zack Snyder) is like 1978’s DotD on crack cocaine and adrenaline snorted through three nostrils. The sense of urgency throughout the film is visceral, the zombies are absolutely horrifying and the story arc is one of the bleakest, most nihilistic things you’ll see in a while. It’s actually emotionally draining by the end of it. Watch this clip right up until 05:30, that’s all you’ll need.
3. Eraserhead
I’ve heard Eraserhead (1977, David Lynch) referred to as a lot of things; surrealist horror, that creepy movie with the baby, a David Lynch film, but Eraserhead’s use of sound and somewhat obscured black and white footage definitely contains some rather disturbing – if not at least uncomfortable – moments. Quite frankly if you watch this clip and it doesn’t disturb you to some degree you’re either a) Crazy or b) David Lynch.
2. The Shining
So many millions of words have been written about The Shining (1979, Stanley Kubrick) already that it seems fairly redundant to the max that this is one of the greatest horror movies ever made, period. The performances by Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall are absolutely flawless. The score is amazing. There are literally hundreds of scenes in this movie to choose from which could be considered “American cinema classics.” I just plain love this movie and it scared the piss out of me the first time I saw it.
1. Begotten
Begotten (1991, E. Elias Merhige) is a movie that defies a whole slew of things: convention, logic, the senses, and good taste – just to name a few. While technically not a horror film and described by the director as “art,” you’d be hard pressed not to watch the first 10 minutes or so of Begotten (or this particular clip below) without feeling a cold shudder of some variety. I won’t go into the plot – mostly because there isn’t really a plot – but the events that take place in this film are really quite shocking. The editing, sound, and sense of total unfamiliarity throughout bearing witness to whatever the fuck is going on in this movie can and should leave you disturbed. I can personally attest to seeing Begotten for the first time in high school with two of my friends and I had to sleep on the floor of my own room with them after seeing it.
Since then, I’ve shown Begotten to numerous people and the reactions are always 50/50 – some think it’s the stupidest crap they’ve ever seen, while the others were visibly disturbed. If you get your hands on this movie, watch it in the dark and among friends.