Must-See Horror Films Part 6

"Blair Witch Project"

With found footage films now being a sub-genre of horror, it may be difficult to understand or remember how ground-breaking this film was. I was working in Marlyand at the time, and videos were circulating on-line of snippets of the film. The supposedly found footage from these kids who had disappeared. What they shot had been found in the woods somewhere and assembled, and now there was a documentary about it. The marketing was brilliant. Everyone was under the impression that the film was real. The film was shot with no budget, funded entirely by credit cards, using equipment that was bought from Best Buy and then returned. There was little script, just improvised scenes. This was a film that preyed on primal fears like the unknown, being lost, noises in the dark. This was not for people who wanted jump scares and a reveal of a big scary monster. Those people left feeling like they had been punked. The rest of us were terrified.

"The Strangers"

Two things help contribute to a good horror movie, and this film has both of them: scary situations and disturbing imagery. Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman play a couple on a romantic getaway to work out their relationship issues, who are suddenly attacked by a trio of masked assailants who arrive to torment, torture, and kill them, apparently just for fun. Grisly and terrifying, the film makes you think twice about wanting to get away for peace and solitude, as that could easily turn in to dying alone.

"Old Boy"

This film starts as kind of a mystery/suspense film, as a man is captured and held prisoner for many years without knowing why. He tries to escape, he tries to kill himself, but every time he tries he's captured and revived, finding himself back in the same room. So he trains himself to fight, keeping himself in fit condition, and is suddenly released, given a mission of finding his captor in five days. He meets a girl who helps him on his mission, at which point the film becomes an action/revenge film with outstanding fight sequences, before morphing into one of the most twisted horror films I've ever seen.

"Wolf Creek"

Essentially, imagine if Crocodile Dundee was a serial killer, chasing you across the Australian Outback. Yes, Crocodile Dundee, the charming, quirky Aussie, but with a mad sadistic streak. That, in a nutshell, is "Wolf Creek."

"Halloween" (Rob Zombie)

"Halloween 2"

With a plot essentially the same as the original film by John Carpenter, Rob Zombie's version of "Halloween" has the inspired casting of Malcolm McDowell as psychiatrist Dr. Loomis and Tyler Mane as a much larger, more imposing, but just as deadly Michael Myers. There are other Zombie-style touches that make Michael and his world a bit more visually disturbing, but over the course of both films we also so more background to him that make him a more interesting character.

"House of 1000 Corpses"

After directing a number of music videos, this was Rob Zombie's first film, part of a trilogy continued in "The Devil's Rejects" and "3 From Hell." With this film, Zombie establishes his own style, bringing back classic 70s actors such as Karen Black and Sid Haig, while pushing boundaries of abnormal behavior and gore, with an impressive body count.

"Final Destination"

Another new concept in horror films, this one finds a group of teenagers scheduled for a flight, when one of them has a premonition of danger. The friends get off the plane, which does tragically crash. When they start dying from freak accidents, they determine that they were supposed to die on the flight and now Death itself is coming for them to make things right.

"Paranormal Activity"

Years after "The Blair Witch Project" invented found footage films, "Paranormal Activity" perfected the genre, showing the tale of a couple's haunting through the footage of their security cameras. The film, and subsequent series, does a good job of making viewers feel like a voyeur, peeping in at the couple as they sleep, while also making viewers feel vulnerable, identifying with the sleeping couple as things move about their house and room, keeping them unaware they're in danger until it's too late.

"Cabin Fever"

Teenagers going to a cabin for sex and other misbehavior is a decades-old plot device that needs little establishment, just bring on the killer of choice and let the slaughter begin. What makes "Cabin Fever" different is there is no killer in this one, masked or unmasked. What gets the teens is a flesh-eating virus that spreads quickly, first getting one of the girls when she touches waste, but then spread through physical or sexual contact, which of course is what they're there for. A graphic thriller that will have you clutching your bottle of Purell long after.

"Fido"

I've said several times in these lists, "I love this film," and I'll say it again. Because "Fido" is an exquisite, unique horror-comedy. If you've never watched it, watch any episode of "Lassie" before watching this film, then you'll get it. After the zombie apocalypse has occurred, humanity has entered a golden age in which everything is nice and neat and labor problems have been solved, because the undead have been tamed through the use of collars. They're our servants, they're our...pets? Billy Connolly plays "Fido" a zombie working with one family in their green-lawned suburb, who bonds closely with the family's young son. Their bond brings out Fido's inner humanity, and we start to question the morality of using the undead against their will.

"Bubba Ho-Tep"

Based on a short story by Joe R. Lansdale, this film is the definition of a must-see cult classic. A concept so weird, with performances so awesome, you just have to put aside all doubts and watch it. Elvis Presley (Bruce Campbell) actually is alive, living in a retirement home because he got tired of all of the hassles of being super-famous. There, he enlists the aid of former president John F. Kennedy (Ossie Davis), his brain transplanted to the body of a black man, to help investigate and stop the murder of other residents of the nursing home by an undead mummy. There's nothing corny or tongue-in-cheek about the film, everyone is playing their roles straight, knowing the situation is absurd, which is exactly what makes the film fantastic.

"King of the Ants"

Life isn't always easy. It's frequently hard. And when I've had to do hard things, like working for a day or more without sleep, I think of this film, and I feel better. In it, a young man agrees to commit a murder for a crooked contractor, but is double crossed when it comes to payment. Rather than kill the young man, the contractor's thugs decide to take him to a remote shack and hit him in the head with a baseball bat every day to give him just enough brain damage to forget. The young man survives, and escapes, and seeks vengeance, but does he still have the capability to avenge himself and live a normal life?

"Slither"

A sci-fi/comedy/horror mashup about alien worm/snake things that invade a small town, mutating and killing the residents, the film is an early entry from director James Gunn of "The Suicide Squad" and "Guardians of the Galaxy" fame, starring a cast including Nathan Fillion, Michael Rooker, and Elizabeth Banks, it's creepy, strange, and funny.

"Cigarette Burns" (Masters of Horror)

The Masters of Horror Series was an excellent concept, challenging the greatest living directors of horror films to produce new original slices of horror, just one hour long. This entry by John Carpenter was one of the best, showing he still had it after all these years. In it, a collector of rare films tracks down a legendary film so horrifying it drives those who have viewed it insane. Not believing the power of the film, we get to see its effect on him, and others who have seen even a part.

"Pelts" (Masters of Horror)

Dario Argento had two films in the series, this one, and the erotic horror piece "Jenifer." Both disturbing, this is the better film, bearing the hallmarks of an Argento classic. Unique, sexy, gory, it's a story about a furrier who finds animals with pelts so rich, so soft, they drive people to unbound pleasure. People will do anything to have clothing made from the pelts, even kill.

"Deer Woman" (Masters of Horror)

It had been a while since John Landis had made a horror movie, but as the writer/director of "An American Werewolf in London" he certainly had made his mark. Still, I wondered how his entry in this series would stack up. It ended up being one of my favorites. The tale of a Native American legend of a creature who is a beautiful woman from he waste up, but a deer from the legs down sounds absurd, and it is, but it's also scary, as she seduces truckers and other lonely men and kicks them to death. An excellent combination of Landis' comedic and horrific sides.

"Let the Right One In"

One of my favorite horror films, vampire films, films in general, this is actually a love story between a boy in his early teens and a girl who seems the same age who is really much older, and who happens to be a vampire. The boy is lonely at school and bullied, and the girl becomes his guardian, and a guardian and friend are what she needs as well to protect her during the day. But this isn't "The Littlest Vampire" or "Twilight" with tweens, it's a love story that involves a vampire who is at heart a killer, and kill she does. Brutally, mercilessly.

"The Descent"

You may have noticed that many of the films I've cited on this list are called "unique," and this is another one. I don't see much point in doing another version of the same stories that have been done a thousand times when I could just watch one of the great films that did it before. Show me something different. This is definitely different. In "The Descent" a group of friends go spelunking, exploring underground caves in Kentucky. The become lost, and then find they are hunted by odd cannibalistic creatures that live beneath the surface. As they fight for escape and survival, the women find they must become every bit as brutal as the things that hunt them, if not more.

"High Tension"

A French film that showed me the French are every bit as brutal and twisted in their horror films as Brits, Italians, and Americans, maybe more. The plot involves a young woman who travels out to the country with her friend to visit her family. After they arrive, the family is attacked by a psychotic truck driver, who then stalks the two girls, capturing one of them, leaving the other to try to stage a rescue.

"Carver"

By the time I saw this film I was pretty tired of movies about teens going camping, which is how this one starts. Thankfully, it gets a lot, lot better, and supposedly is based on real events. These particular teens stop in a small town, like in so many other movies, and in helping out one of the locals, they find a collection of snuff films. Thinking they're fake, they find out they're real, and then without knowing it, start starring in new ones. There is no final girl in this slasher film, which is another trope/cliché I was happy to see tossed aside. What we're left with is characters actually having realistic character development in the middle of the slaughter, and the slaughter is some of the most horrific I've ever seen. One in particular was so sudden, so realistic, my jaded little horror fan self almost threw up.

"Saw"

This film came out around the time when "torture porn" horror films got to be a thing. However many movies with lose plots about people being held prisoner with their faces burnt with an iron or eyes filled with acid or whatever. And "Saw" as a franchise does get increasingly brutal, more diabolic. But this first one, starring Carey Elwes as a doctor held prisoner with another man for initially unknown reasons, is a brilliant psychological horror piece that just happens to involve Elwes having to decide whether to saw off his own leg or let his family die. Excellent acting and a clever plot, plus brutality makes exceptional horror.

"The Ring"

Based on the original Japanese film, this film h as an excellent concept - a legendary video tape that reportedly places a curse on all those who watch it. Supposedly, when you're done you get a phone call, and you die 24 hours after that. Naturally, the teens who get the tape have to watch it, just like everyone who hears the legend of "Bloody Mary" or in films, "The Candyman" has to go look in the bathroom mirror and say the name three times. One of the things I liked about this, aside from the original concept is that what's on the video is already disturbing as hell. Then when the curse kicks in, things start to get really scary.

"The Grudge"

Another American adaptation of a Japanese film, this one finds Sarah Michelle Gellar as a young woman in Japan who falls victim to a curse placed on all those who have been in contact with a house where horrible violence occurred. As with "The Ring", this film has some disturbing imagery, which seems to be a hallmark of Japanese films.

"28 Days Later"

When Danny Boyle's zombie masterpiece came out, "Night of the Living Dead" and its sequels and rip-offs had been a staple for decades. Everyone knew that zombies were shambling carcasses killed by destroying the brain. Which is what made it so terrifying when this film showed a man waking from a coma 28 days after the zombie apocalypse wipes out London and most of the world. He explores this odd ghost town of the city he once knew and finally encounters what he thinks is a church full of people asleep, not knowing they're zombies. Zombies full of blind fury who run. Fast.

"Joy Ride"

If you've read my installment about horror films of the 70s, you recall my love for Steven Spielberg's first film, "Duel," about a lone commuter in a car, playing a deadly cat and mouse game with a truck driver. This film is like that, made worse. A group of young people on a cross country trip interact with a trucker on a CB radio and decide to play a prank on him, not knowing he's a psychopath who would like nothing better than to hunt them down and make them all pay.

"Dog Soldiers"

There aren't a ton of werewolf movies, and of those, some stand out as doing something different. This is one of those, combining horror and comedy in the style of "Evil Dead." The film follows a squad of British soldiers on a training mission in the Scottish Highlands, when they are attacked by unknown assailants, who it is revealed are werewolves.

"Planet Terror"

There were two films in the "Grindhouse" event created by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. Each of them directed one of the films, they both appear in this one, which is directed by Rodriguez. It's the better film, really capturing the weird, cheap, sleazy feel of a 60s and 70s Grindhouse movie. You'll see a zombie outbreak with the Army coming in to help, gore, girls, guns, and a girl with a machine gun leg. How it fires, no one knows. But it's brilliant.

"American Psycho"

One of the blackest black comedies ever, it may seem like a straight-up horror film, but it's a statement about elitism and materialistic society. If you don't get it, it may be about you. If you spent more than a minute or two picking out your business card, and you know the weight of the paper it's printed on, that may be another clue.

Next: 2010-the present, and films I forgot