So you think that 'The Exorcist' is the greatest horror movie of all time. Think again. Here are ten great films that are as iconic and as brilliant as William Friedkin's classic. Be ready to be scared to your wits.
10- Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)
Dir- David Lynch
When David Lynch decided to make a cinematic prequel to his sensational, ground-breaking TV series, few were actually ready for the heavy, sobering wallop of terror, incest, violence and insanity that he would unleash to give even the most seasoned fans of the series a jolting shock. 'Fire Walk With Me' is too bleak, even by Lynch standards; there is none of the surreal imagery or the sexual pyrotechnics at work here; instead, all we get is sheer, crazed horror of the central situation.
At the heart of the plot is Sheryl Lee's devastating Laura Palmer, a girl struggling with cocaine, confused relationships and-above all- a creepy father, even as spirits are warning her of something else. Lynch lets loose a throbbing, pulse-pounding streak of horrifying scares that lend 'Fire Walk' with a real bloody gutso that most horror movies lack in. True, it is a bit insular- confined to the environs of the small-town explored in the series. But that is a minor niggle compared to the heart-breaking horror all around.
9- Cape Fear (1991)
Dir- Martin Scorsese
Scorsese has never been much into chills (except for 'Shutter Island') but even before that 2010 psychological mystery, he was willing to unveil his hidden, inner Hitchcock all too well. J. Lee Thompson's original yarn was a clash of wits between the righteous Bowden and the devilish Max Cady; what Marty does is add his own darker dystopian portrait of marriage, morals and relationships- the new Bowden (played with sly slickness by Nick Nolte) is a cocky philanderer and there is an unsettling new angle introduced by Juliette Lewis' teenage daughter observing the chaos.
The real horror, however, comes from Robert De Niro's Max Cady himself- a blistering, foul-mouthed and deviously brutal avenger who justifies his own unforgivable evil with an obsessive conviction that could rattle you. To see him storm the scene, take on Bowden little by little, is what gives this version its real crackling fire. And the director unleashes his visual daredevilry in all these horrific moments, eventually going up to that hellish climax in the rough river rapids.
8- 28 Days Later (2002)
Dir- Danny Boyle
Between visually exotic adventures ('The Beach', '127 Hours') and grimy urban landscapes ('Trainspotting' and 'Slumdog Millionaire), Danny Boyle also finds time for blazingly intelligent cinema and this horror thriller set in a bleak, desolate London, is just the stuff of visceral film-making. Shot in mostly unfurnished digital format and bolstered with realistic, effects-free creature scares, this tale- of a zombie-infested city and survivors (including Cillian Murphy, Naomi Harris and Brendan Gleeson) scavenging for safety- is one that plunges the viewers right on the edge- to face the ravenous terror of the attackers from time to time.
The creatures of Boyle's film are hungry, foaming beasts, both attacking in numbers and stealthily hidden in grimy corners. And yet, it is when Alex Garland's taut narrative takes the bunch to a military embattlement, that the real terror of the situation sinks in. It also transforms, beautifully, into a rare film of power, poignancy and that elusive thing- hope.
7- The Birds (1963)
Dir- Alfred Hitchcock
Magnifying the sheer crushing terror of that famous crop-duster from his endlessly entertaining 'North By Northwest' would have been a tall order. But Hitch did it nevertheless, getting a bunch of ravens, gulls and sparrows to go crazy and unleash a real hell of beating wings, devilish talons and blood-thirsty beaks as they take down pastoral Bodega Bay shortly after a new arrival in the town. Surprisingly, even for Hitchcock standards, 'The Birds' remains enigmatic and elusive. There is no clear warning, no actual reason behind the onslaught of these feathered fiends.
Or maybe it has to do with the arrival of Tippi Hedren's icy blonde Melanie in the private life of the cocky Mitch (Rod Taylor) and how his possessive mother and ex-squeeze react to the same, in secretly fiendish ways. The subtext is as scorchingly intense as is the series of spectacular scares in offer- a house attacked and pecked at by a hundred talons, a fiery airborne view of Bodega Bay erupting into chaos, and finally, a murder of crows in the school playground, waiting to go berserk.
6- The Omen (1976)
Dir- Richard Donner
40 years have come and gone and still Hollywood has to make yet another Satanic horror fest as supremely terrifying or richly subversive as Richard Donner's 1976 classic for ages. Essentially, it repeats the same theme of 'The Exorcist' but with a lethal twist- the child here is not stumbling on the ghosts of puberty but rather is an innocuous, sweet-looking toddler who may not be who actually is.
One by one, the corpses pile up, all because of sudden and shocking circumstances. Matters reach a head only when the distraught father (an excellently world-weary Gregory Peck) decides to investigate it, only with more disturbing results. In between, meanwhile, Donner presents to us stealthily chilling moments of unexplained terror perpetrated by an evil force stronger than everything else. Jerry Goldsmith's excellently haunting score adds to the sinister menace all around.
5- Jaws (1975)
Dir- Steven Spielberg
As said before, 'Jaws' is a perfect machine- a well-oiled, functional horror film that hammers home not only startling, superbly mounted jump-scares and thrills but also genuine intelligence, sharp characterization and real, rousing drama. By this time, Steve had already demonstrated a mastery of visual and narrative craft ala Kubrick and Peter Benchley's novel ,about a Great White Shark preying on a New England beach, gave him meat as juicy as a bloody kill.
The suspense is terrific indeed and that shark is still a marvel of painstaking creature design and effects but it is when the leviathan is hidden out of sight that the real horror hits home. There are entire moments that can make you break out in a pespiration of spray and sweat. And as Steve steers the film towards darker territory- with Robert Shaw's delusional shark-hunter reaching his doom, it becomes even more elegiac and haunting.
4- The Thing (1982)
Dir- John Carpenter
And you thought that 'Alien' was the ultimate monster movie. There is essentially nothing new in John Carpenter's claustrophobic shocker- it is about a ragtag team stranded in a hostile zone (in this case, the snowbound wastes of Antarctica), and a relentless enemy in their midst that stealthily, sneakily kills them all. It is essentially 'Alien' set on Earth's South Pole. Think again, for you may be mistaken.
The tension is unbearable, the chances of surival almost non-existent, the stakes are bloody and real and the screaming, gut-busting, gruesome and slimy horror, bolstered by Rob Bottin's effects, is upsetting and truly terrifying. 'The Thing' was a disaster in its day- blame it on 'E.T'- but today it is a masterwork of body horror and monster mayhem, and also a thriller of paranoia that is so devilishly nasty that it might have inspired Tarantino to make 'The Hateful Eight' in a similarly suspicious tenor. And Ennio Morricone's heart-thudding score is also the composer at his darkest and most devastating.
3- Psycho (1960)
Dir- Alfred Hitchcock
Instead of talking about the plot, its twists and turns, its big reveal and its unforgettable moments, let us talk about how 'Psycho' shaped the suspense thriller genre for once and for all. For here was a film that introduced to us the tropes of shifty females on the run, haunted places with their grim secrets, sympathetic sociopaths lurking in the corners, bloody murders and their bizarre truths and twists and turns that left the mind both shaken and stirred.
In many ways, it was also reflective of the new social revolution of the decade, of skewed gender equations and a whole new cutting-edge to the thriller genre that brought both sophistication and style. But that is detracting from its sinful pleasures- and the fact that it is really, really creepy as hell. In short, Hitch not only invented the rules of the game. He also smashed them all with a knife, a running shower and frenzied screams. History was created by 'Psycho' and so was the future of edgy filmmaking.
2- Eraserhead (1977)
Dir- David Lynch
For David Lynch, the horror lies in not fancy concepts, in uncontrollable forces, or in creatures out of hidden spaces. Rather, horror, for him, lies in the unpredictable nature of life's worst nightmares coming true. While all his twisted, beautiful films deal with dreams gone sour and nightmares coming alive, none of them are quite as horrifying as 'Eraserhead'. This time, the nightmare is the world around Henry Spencer (Jack Nance), a helpless bloke whose hair could do with some trimming. It is an industrial, smoke-filled hellhole, cold and damp with decay and despair.
Above it all, Spencer faces the ultimate nightmare of masculinity- becoming a father, without warning, to a creature who hardly looks like a baby. Yet that disgustingly ugly critter is the least terrifying thing here. Hope is nowhere in sight as Spencer starts losing everything that was once his- including sanity- and the crushing gloom of his environment soon takes its toll. Made on a stitched-together budget and crafted with a surreal nightmarish vibe that none can rival, this is Lynch's ultimate dystopian portrait of humanity collapsed by all its inner demons unleashed. What can be more horrific than that?
1- The Shining (1980)
Dir- Stanley Kubrick
Stephen King, the writer of the novel that inspired Stanley Kubrick's finest film, is highly dismissive about it. According to him, 'The Shining' has more ideas rather than emotions. It is ironic because the film itself is an emotional roller-coaster ride that makes us cringe in disgust, cower in fear and look desperately for some place to hide from the terror that is let loose. Stripped of all the director's usual mental masturbation, this is a film that delivers monumental, larger-than-life chills and spills with monumental artistry.
It is also one of those rare films, next to anyone of Hitchcock's classics, that spends a good time of its narrative in building up a prelude to the horror that would follow in gruesome fashion in its heart-pounding lengthy climax. Yet, what makes 'The Shining' so supremely effective as a horror masterpiece is how its jaw-dropping grandeur (Kubrick and lensman John Alcott's breathless play of the Steadicam technique in their fervent runs around the desolate Overlook Hotel) conceals the writer-director's typically dystopian digs at family, relationships and the fragility of life in face of forces beyond their control. The mounting insanity and subsequent psychotic downfall of Jack Torrance (a spectacularly slimy Jack Nicholson) is less to do with evil spirits than with his own ghosts of failure, alcoholism, marital problems and battered masculinity.
That does not mean that 'The Shining' does not explode with devilish evil. It's scares are every bit as seminal (an elevator disgorging gallons of blood),
unbearable creepy (the hidden secret of Room 237), quietly devastating (the ghost of Mr. Grady in the men's room) and disturbingly freaked-out and frenetic ('Here's Johnny!'). And even with these unforgettable moments, it is also a terse, tense character study as well as a pitch-black comedy of the highest order. Can any other horror movie be as brilliant and profound as this?
No comments:
Post a Comment