Number 5 - Event Horizon (1997)
This was basically a flick about things going horribly wrong in space with a supernatural twist ... nice! The plot centers on a rescue crew that board a spaceship that has just returned from a black hole and they quickly find out they should have stayed home! Starring Sam Neill and Laurence Fishburne this was a real surprise chiller as I had never really thought space thrillers were all that scary before. Without a familiar setting (i.e Earth) I always assumed a space movie would be too fantastical to be scary, well I was wrong! I went to see this one with my better half who is normally way braver than me when it comes to the horror/supernatural genre but even she seemed to walk a little closer as we made our way through a dimly lit multiplex parking lot! Scare Rating: ****
Number 4 - The Exorcist (1973)
I was 6 when this movie opened and shocked the world so I had to wait until my teen years to hear Linda Blair's potty mouth and watch her regurgitating pea soup all over the place. I watched this with a group of other teenagers and so everyone was trying their best not to appear scared including my own Oscar worthy performance. Watched today you might say it lacks subtlety but when this film opened ambulances had to be called to carry traumatized moviegoers out of the theater! It really makes the list for the influence it had on so many horror movies made in later years and even after all this time if watched alone on a dark stormy night you will know you are most certainly not watching a rom-com! Scare Rating: ***
Number 3 - The Omen (1976)
The seventies sure knew how to scare us! This classic was the first of a series of films based on the devils son being born on earth and rising to power. The sequels were respectable efforts, The Omen II being particularly worthy, but it was the original that packed the biggest punch. The casting director was a genius to pick Harvey Stephens as a young Damian Thorn. Who knew a kid that age could look so creepy! This was a classic example of a movies sound effects really ramping up the tension and in the seventies filmmakers had a penchant for including sudden discordant sounds which increased the creep-factor so well. Scare Rating: ****
Number 2 - The Ring (2002)
What a corker this one was. The trailer for this flick got me so nervous I had to wait until I was on a plane to watch it! The pitch itself seemed somewhat silly to me, a videotape that caused the death of the viewer one week after watching it (maybe it was a video of Talladega Nights!) but the execution of the movie was anything but silly. With Naomi Watts as an excellent lead set against the gloomy backdrop of a grey Pacific Northwest this was an intelligent and genuinely frightening movie experience. Once was quite enough for me to at least say I have seen it! Scare Rating: *****
Number 1 - The Blair Witch Project (1999)
It turns out that on Millennium Eve it wasn't Y2K that was freaking everyone out but the age old fear of being lost in the woods after dark! I saw this movie in New York on a sunny September afternoon and my oh my did it have an effect on me. The docu-drama style of the film made it all the scarier for me as you slowly saw three perfectly normal individuals unravel as they slowly become aware something is going very badly wrong on their outdoor adventure. Ignoring all the marketing nonsense that went along with the flick leading to some to actually believing that this happened in real life (get a grip people!) it was hands down the scariest movie experience I have ever had. Now we all know that this is a love it or hate it movie with some people in my camp and others dismissing it as barely a thriller. Well for me this was the ultimate in horror movies as the supernatural always creeps me out more than horror involving gore and violence. If you haven't seen this go and rent the DVD now and get ready for the creepiest/scariest final scene of a movie ever! Scare Rating: *****
Happy Halloween!
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