TGWTG User Blogs

I had some trouble posting this earlier. I'm a horror movie fan, so I thought I'd come up with a short list of horror movies people should be aware of. Some of them should be seen at all, while some should be avoided by most. Either way, this is a list of the most noteworthy ones I could think of off the top of my head. I tried not to include any similar horror movies, so just because it's not on the list doesn't mean I don't love it. It's a personal list, so most won't agree. Criticism is very welcome. I'm always up to seeing horror movies you think are better.

5. Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Directed by George A. Romero
Starring Duane Jones and Judith O'Dea

A group of people are trapped inside a house during a zombie epidemic.

It's not the first zombie movie, but it's still what started the zombie movie franchise. This was ballsy for its time. There is no back story or reasoning whatsoever in the beginning. It's just, "Oh shit!" and then chaos.

I wanted to include a classic in this list, so that's why this is here. I'm sure others would put older classics (Nosferatu comes to mind), but this is my favorite. If you haven't seen it yet, go find a copy. I would advise finding an older one since they tried to jazz it up in newer versions. Why must they always fuck with the classics? Arrogant asses always think they can do better and improve/adjust classics for modern times, but these are classics for a reason. Or maybe they know full well that they're taking away from the quality of a classic. Maybe they just want to make minor changes to bank off of selling it yet again.

The movie is in black and white while most movies were in color at the time (that's how low budget it was); the lead actor is black, which was uncommon for the time; and this is where gore makes its first notable appearance . This was before any rating system prevented small children from seeing a horror movie. Kids would watch it in the middle of the day not knowing what to expect and leave completely scarred. The end alone is enough to give anyone an uneasy feeling.

This movie went through Hell to get produced, but horror movie fans everywhere are glad it did.



4. The Thing (1982)

Directed by John Carpenter
Starring Kurt Russell, Keith David, Wilford Brimely, Donald Moffat, and David Clennon

A scientific research team in Antarctica is terrorized by a shape-shifting alien.

The second film adaption of John W. Campbell, Jr.'s "Who Goes There?" was quite possibly the best horror movie ever made. A disappointing performance at the box office made many forget about this film until its home video release. Since then, it's developed quite the following and with good reason.

There are two reasons why this movie is on the list. The first is because of the paranoid suspense. The alien can disguise itself as anyone it comes into contact with. There isn't anything much scarier than being trapped in the middle of nowhere while knowing that at least one member if not your entire team is a creature capable of ripping you apart in an instant. There is no security when you're trying to band together with everyone that's a suspect. It's truly terrifying. The second reason is the special effects. Half of this movie is the suspenseful "fear what you can't see" approach, while the other is a brilliant, pre-CGI gorefest. These are some of the best costumes I have ever seen. They went all out making it as realistic and terrifyingly exaggerated at the same time.

Plans for a sequel have been developed, but nothing has really been confirmed. A remake is on the way, but I highly doubt it'll compare to this. Maybe people would take the horror genre more seriously if people would stop remaking remakes of interpretations of books. Being original isn't impossible.



3. Evil Dead 2 and Brain Dead (Dead Alive in the US)

Evil Dead 2

Directed by Sam Raimi
Starring Bruce Campbell

Ash, the only survivor from the first film, is still stuck in a cabin with the book of the dead.

Brain Dead (Dead Alive in the U.S.)

Directed by Peter Jackson
Starring Timothy Balme

Lionel's mother is bitten by a rat monkey that turns her into a zombie. She bites and infects various people which results in one big zombie party.

Who knew combining slapstick comedy with horror would make for such great movies. I thought about it for a long time and I couldn't decide which one earned this spot, so I'll just discuss both.

Evil Dead 2 is a combination between extreme low budget gore and Three Stooges-esque comedy. Nothing in this film is truly terrifying despite the amazing make-up and props. What makes this worthy of my list is Bruce Campbell's hilarious performance. Throughout the movie, he fights nonexistent creatures, fights the head of his dead girlfriend, and even fights his own hand with hilarious results. In the process of doing this, he spits out some of the most quoted lines in horror history.

"I'm fine... I'm fine."
"We just cut up our girlfriend with a chainsaw. Does that sound... 'fine'?"

"Hey! I'll swallow your soul! I'll swallow your soul!"
"Swallow this."

"Groovy..."

"For God's sake! How do you stop it?!"

It's gore is very exaggerated with blood literally pouring out of the walls, but if you're looking for the goriest movie ever made, Brain Dead is definitely a contender for it. The entire movie is an excuse to find as many creative ways to kill people as possible. It also has a badass priest and some zombie-on-zombie action, which results in a fight scene that rivals Bruce Campbell fighting his hand. Enough said.



2. Gozu

Directed by Takashi Miike
Starring Hideki Sone and Sho Aikawa

Batshit craziness happens to a Yakuza.

It's true that horror movies overseas are much better. If you want to see a good horror movie, watch something out of Japan. The best and worst recent horror movies in the US are remakes of overseas masterpieces anyway. And the one director that really stands out from there is Takashi Miike. If you want to see a good horror movie that he's done, then watch Audition. If you want to see something he came up with while he had complete freedom, then watch Gozu. It's something else entirely.

The movie starts off as a comedy. A yakuza has gone crazy and thinks everything is against his gang. A younger yakuza is ordered to kill him and does so... sort of. That's where the movie stops making sense. The rest is this mysterious dream-like story where nothing seems to make sense. It feels like a nightmare where anything can happen. Every scene is beautifully handled while taking you back to child-like fears. When you're somewhere unfamiliar, your imagination convinces you that anything can be around the corner. Sometimes a surprise will make you laugh your ass off; sometimes a surprise will make you cringe in disgust; sometimes a surprise will simply scare the shit out of you. This movie isn't for everyone.

1. Cannibal Holocaust

Directed by Ruggero Deodato
Starring Robert Kerman

A well known anthropologist goes on a rescue mission after documentarians go missing in the Amazon Rainforest.

You can watch the entire movie here, but I must warn you. It's not for the squeamish. I feel I shouldn't advise watching this because of how far they take things. Spoilers are ahead.

If this was a list of the most disturbing horror films, I would have filled it with exploitation films. Since I'm trying to tell people about a wide variety of horror, I think discussing the king of them is enough.

This is as close to real as horror movies get, despite the pornographic acting. The director was even arrested for the murder of the actors. They had to break their contract to stay out of the public spotlight in order to clear is name. That's right, they went as far as disappearing for a feeling of authenticity. I admire such lengths, but they took a step in the wrong direction with animal cruelty. They killed half a dozen animals in vicious ways, though some were eaten on and off camera). Even the director regrets the involvement of animals. It limits the market to just exploitation fans, which isn't a giant audience. It's a shame, because it has such a gripping story.

This attacks how accurate everyone thinks documentaries are. From the opening, you assume it's something as simple as an evil tribe killing trespassers. They send in Monroe with a team of guides to figure out what happened to a missing team of documentarians that taped a tribe of cannibals. He finds the tribe and they're extremely hostile, throwing spears at his group until they find a way to reason with them. He finds the remains of the team that was killed by the cannibals and discovers that the tribe still has the film the documentarians made. After some effort, Monroe is accepted by the tribe and trades the audio tapes for the footage the first team left.

The second half of the movie is viewing the uncut footage the documentarians took. It shows them brutally murdering and raping a number of tribe members and claiming it was all done by the tribe for strange rituals. The tribe eventually corners them and murders them in an act of vengeance.

It's a powerful film that leaves an uneasy feeling inside you. If you aren't too busy being emotionally scarred from seeing exotic animals murdered and eaten on screen, it'll force you to question the authenticity of every documentary you've ever seen. Given time, money, and opportunity, it's so easy to edit footage and convince people anything you want.

Plans for a sequel were made after a recent interest in extreme movies. It would be nice to see such a movie done right.