Horror in Films: A Month of Macabre Movies

This may be worth a look.....

http://www.aolnews.com/weird-news/article/the-chilling-story-behind-the-making-of-the-exorcist/19678606

 

6. Invasion of the Body Snatchers(1978) Dir: Phillip Kaufman, Starring Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright, and Leonard Nimoy

First off, I urge everyone to see the 1956 version which is brilliant in its own right. However, this movie is superior in almost every way to the original Don Siegal picture. The acting is top notch, with Sutherland giving a career best performance as the health inspector who becomes aware of the Body Snatchers. Also, the tension is one-upped, as becoming an alien in this seems infinitely more frighting. The final two minutes of this film scared me more then anything has in quite awhile and kept me up late.

Also, kudos must be given to Leonard Nimoy, who made me forget about Mr. Spock and instead inhabited Dr. Spock, until a great role reversal later in the film makes Nimoy almost a parody. Also, Kevin McCarthy gets in an excellent cameo here, one of the best I've ever seen. Watch it.

 

I think they are both great films on their own terms.

 

I think the 78 version is the better one, but they are both excellent.

 

7. Halloween(1978), Dir: John Carpenter, Starring Jaimie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Charles Cyphers, P.J. Soles, and Nancy Loomis

My pick for scariest movie of all time. Probably seen it twelve times, know all the twists, still lie sleepless every night I watch it, sure that Michael Myers will walk slowly and quietly up my staircase.

The plot is so simple, yet it is the simplicity that makes it so terrifying. Everyone has either babysitted or been babysat, and what if this happened to us? The Boogeyman is probably the scariest idea ever, Carpenter said they picked the mask because you could put all your fears on that emotionless face.

The acting is irrelevant except for Pleasence, who delivers one of my absolute favorite performances as Dr. Loomis. Watch the scene in the Myers house where he talks about the evil in Myers, it makes it mythical. And of course the final gut punch of a twist that has become cliqued now, but still terrifies me because of the expression apparent on Loomis's face of the inevitability of evil. And of course the music, which might be the most important element of this film. Watch it if you haven't.

 

The proto-slasher film, but don't blame it for that. It's actually an incredibly artistically directed film, full of Hitchcockian flourishes. Very little blood, but the tension amps up and up and up. Score? Yes, about the scariest ever. Villain? Implacable, unstoppable. Donald Pleasance? Treating it like it was Shakespeare. Great movie.

 

Agreed: Great film, artful and effective, with very little blood, no gore and no wound effects. Also, taken on its own, there is no supernatural element; Michael Meyers is simply insane, a fact which either increases the tension or reduces it, depending on your personal viewpoint.