Here we are at the penultimate chunk of list where we really learned what movies have scared you guys the most. Time to enter the Top 20...
Each of the following films received ten votes:
20. Audition -- 1999, Takashi Miike
19. The Changeling -- 1980, Peter Medak
18. The Strangers -- 2008, Bryan Bertino
17. Ringu -- 1998, Hideo Nakata
16. [REC] -- 2007, Jaume Balaguero & Paco Plaza
15. The Haunting -- 1963, Robert Wise
For the remainder of the list, the number of votes received is enboldened!
14. Salem's Lot -- 1979, Tobe Hooper -- 11
13. Paranormal Activity -- 2007, Oren Peli --13
12. Session 9 -- 2001, Brad Anderson -- 14
11. Jaws -- 1975, Steven Spielberg -- 15
I've yet to punch the numbers into my science calculator, but I'm pretty sure that ultimately, Steven Spielberg will have the most mentions on this list. How very, very unexpected.
You know what's great about your 20-11? If someone came up to me and said "Hello, Final Girl, I am a horror movie ignoramus. Can you recommend ten stellar horror movies to me?" I could just hand them this little list and say "Here are nine, and also The Strangers." Ha haaaaa, zing! Now zing me back by saying that Paranormal Activity isn't stellar. This is how The Internet works, right?
Anyway. I want to do a [REC] trilogy blitz because I looooove the first one, like the second one (but I've only seen it once), and have heard good things about the third. Also on my list of things to do: laundry. Oh, and also a big scientific study about the Ringu/The Ring phenomenon, which is that it seems whichever version you saw first is the one you like the best. Anyone out there feel the opposite?
Here, have some nightmare:
7 comments:
Did people really like THE STRANGERS that much? I thought it was solid but forgettable.
And I can never get over the fact that Scott Speedman looks like the douche from Creed but sounds exactly like Ed Norton.
He's a human mash-up.
As much as I enjoy Session 9 I am slightly surprised to see it so high on the list. As for Paranormal Aciv... zzzzzzzzz
A. What a fantastic finish - #19 - for The Changeling, a traditional haunted house movie that I feel always gets lost in the shuffle of higher-profile, gorier, more audacious scare-fests. I had no idea a film starring two not-sexy middle-aged people would garner such support. Even more amazing regarding this final ranking: As much as I love The Changeling, it's really only 80% of a great movie. I always get bored and have to slog through to the finish after the Big Discovery.
B. On the other side of the coin, all of my hopes are dashed with this ranking for Salem's Lot. I stayed awake at night, dreaming of a Top-5 finish. I poured my life's work into teaching Ned Tibbetts that curveball and showing Marjorie Glick how to back up the third baseman on a throw from the outfield and explaining to Mike Ryerson how to recognize a changeup when it was coming out of the pitcher's hand. This was the team that COULD. The team that could go all the way. All my former childhood dreams were redirected into them, so I could vicariously enjoy a Shocktober championship. And now ... this. I have no words. I blame that drunk played by Elisha Cook Jr.
I love the Changeling. I saw it as a kid and it's probably the movie that got me into horror.
The first [Rec] is amazing. The second one is a pale clone of the first. The third one… I just found it dumb. I just couldn't go with it. Do your laundry while you watch it.
Yeah, I don't get The Strangers there. Everything The Strangers did right - which wasn't much - was just a shade of something older and better. The movie itself was too frustrating and dumb to be scary. But then again, I think I get Paranormal Activity even less. And Ringu? Scary? Come on, guys! Dudes in burlap sacks? Sure. Vampires? Once upon a time. Sharks? Why not. But kids? I don't care how ghostly they are, I can't get into horror movies where grown adults are running around terrified of kids or where the audience is supposed to be shaken to their core because a little girl crawls out of a TV. It's like Child's Play all over again. Even as a kid I didn't get the threat. BUT I DIGRESS.
I suppose I just hate the things that people like now because I am crotchety before my years. I'll go back to watching the original Halloween on repeat. And maybe Friday the 13th Part II, for a burlap sack done right.
@Dead In Hell: RINGU has the most oppresive atmosphere of dread and pure twisted Japanese fuck-up-edness ever. That video was so raw and incomprehensible, I still get shivers at that dude in the handkerchief mask pointing at whatever the hell he is pointing at. Not to mention those crawling people. Brrrr...
Sadako's famous reveal just comes as the graphic punctuation to a whole movie of masterfully-orchestrated creepy shit.
Horror was dead in the 90's. When I first saw RINGU I became convinced the genre had new hope.
And I was right. As I always am. :-D
I am the same way with [REC] 1 & 2. I saw [REC]3 and liked it. It's very different from the first two, but I thought it was entertaining enough. I was glad that they did something new.
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