September
30
Scariest Horror Movies
The New Yorker is taking nominations for the scariest movie ever made.
Their quite reasonable list includes:
1. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Tobe Hooper (1974) (I'd say goriest, not scariest)
2. The Silence of the Lambs, Jonathan Demme (1991) (creepy, not terrifying)
3. The Body Snatcher, Robert Wise (1945) (I'd give the edge to Wise's The Haunting, below)
4. Night of the Hunter, Charles Laughton (1955) (Excellent movie, but scariest? It's psychologically scary, in the sense that kids want to trust grown-ups, and in this case that's a very bad idea.)
5. Mulholland Drive, David Lynch (2001) (Hmmm. I'd say Blue Velvet was scarier.)
My adds to their list:
Japanese zombie flick Oni Baba (1964).
Robert Wise's The Haunting, the most terrifying haunted house movie ever.
John Carpenter's 1978 Halloween. The prototype for a lot of imitators to follow.
George Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1978). "They're coming to get you, Barbara..."
Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Just because it's predictable doesn't mean it doesn't deserve inclusion on this list. It still works. Here's the shower scene:
Roman Polanski's Repulsion (1964) puts a young and dewy Catherine Deneuve through the ringer.
If you're thirsting for more horror movie lists, Cinematical has seven horror remakes that don't suck.
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The Texas Chain Saw Massacre isn't really that gory. Most of the violence is implied. That's what's so brilliant about the direction.
I once caught a Halloween double-feature of TCM and Night of the Living Dead, and I remember on the way out a woman was remarking that TCM was the goriest movie she'd ever seen.
But it isn't...
Posted by: Mr. Milich | September 30, 2008 at 09:06 PM
Woaw! some of them are horrible, but there are a lot of more scarie movies.
I have my particulary list. Please, see it:http://www.historiasdecine.com/2007/11/01/las-mejores-peliculas-del-cine-de-terror-top-5/
Posted by: Mike | October 01, 2008 at 03:41 AM
What is The New Yorker doing compiling such lists? Are they now trying to compete with Entertainment Weekly? The people who read The New Yorker aren't interested in such lists and the people who are interested in such lists aren't reading The New Yorker. Not only will The New Yorker NOT attract new readers, but they'll alienate their regular readership.
Posted by: Brian | October 01, 2008 at 09:11 AM
In the spirit of open communication, the writer is preparing for a New Yorker Fest panel on the subject. He's enlisting readers to help him research thoroughly. He's seeking insight and analysis. And building traffic on the NYorker site, because as we all know, folks like lists.
Posted by: anne thompson | October 01, 2008 at 10:45 AM
It's strange that the O.G. TCM still has the reputation for be a total gorefest -- it's not very gory at all. Most of the actual violence is off-screen (or filmed in extreme long shots) until the very end. Anyway, my nominee for scariest film is definitely Carpenter's "The Thing." Seeing "The Exorcist" in the theater (Halloween '96) was extremely frightening as well.
Posted by: Dave | October 01, 2008 at 07:08 PM
Nope, DIABOLIQUE.
Posted by: cadavra | October 01, 2008 at 09:18 PM
Not sure why but the American remake of Ju-on / The Grudge (w/ Sarah Michelle Gellar) scared the s**t out of me when I saw it alone at home.
Posted by: Micha10589 | October 02, 2008 at 09:35 AM