Horror: The Greatest Genre
I have always been an avid horror fan. When I was little, I would ask my mother to tell me scary stories. The frequency for this request became so great that she decided her creativity was suffering, so she resulted to telling me Stephen King stories. I ate them up.
What I love is for a scary movie to be done right, and hopefully done originally. This brings up the obvious issue of how we have no original stories left to tell, and I understand that. The issue that I am discussing here is the problem of too much repetition seen in several movies that come out consecutively - looking at you, all movies like the Ring and the Grudge - as well as the lack of story depth, character development (once again, I was raised on Stephen King, aka, the King of character development), and cheap scares.
The past decade has not been kind to the horror movie genre. This is not to say that there has not been some great movies released recently. My only issue is that there has not been enough, and it is too difficult to find the better ones because the most popular tend to be the worst, or at least the most boring cinematically.
I recently went to see It Follows. I had heard superb things about this movie: how it will change the genre, how it is the best movie for the genre in the past few years, how it is so terrifying, etc.
Ultimately, the movie was an “eh” for me. It was clever though, really really clever. What it is not is terrifying. Yes, the tension builds like a classic 1970s horror film, but it did not have the climactic burst at the end like I had hoped.
In light of my recent let-down, here is my personal list for the best 10 horror movies:
10. The Silence of the Lambs
Cannibalism, Anthony Hopkins, and some good suspense.
9. Poltergeist
Ever since I was 10, there is something inherently terrifying about that clown.
Not only are you super confused the whole time, but that one woman grows a tail while they’re dancing. Ew.
7. The Others
This one is more of a drama/thriller, but it scared the pants off of me the first time I watched it.
6. The Amityville Horror (old and remake)
I know it is a fake story, but oh well.
5. The Conjuring
My sister and I watched it together when it came out a couple years ago. We almost had to sleep in the same bed that night and we are grown.
4. The Babadook
Very new and very scary.
3. Misery
Kathy Bates is absolutely terrifying. Also, read the book first, obviously. But no seriously, read the book first.
2. The Shining
I’m sorry Stephen King. If you ever read this, I truly love you. I really really do. But Stanley Kubrick did the movie so much better.
1. The Exorcist
It is number one on everyone’s lists because it is the scariest forever, duh. Watch that home alone one night and tell me you weren’t a little scared.
