Now that it’s Halloween around these parts, there have been alot of horror movies on TV lately. This is a WAY good thing. All yous guys that know me know that I’m kind of a movie geek (believe it or not) and horror movies are my most favorite. Anyway, spending all weekend watching all these movies really got me thinking. I’ve decided to come up with my list of the best horror movies ever, six of them to be exact, sorted alphabetically because I can only do so much at a time. I shall call it, “Todd’s Alphabetical List of the 6 Best Horror Movies Ever”. So yeah, let’s get right to it!
- The Amityville Horror (2005)
- Final Destination 2
- Freddy Vs. Jason
- A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
- The Ring
- Thir13en Ghosts
The first thing you may notice about my selections is that none of them are very old. I have a reason. Horror movies don’t get better with age like a fine wine. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. You see, horror movies are very visualy driven. As time passes, technology gets better and technical capabilities improve, thus raising our level of expectation. As our expectations increase, older movies and their older, inferior technology seem to become less effective and, often times, campy. Campy is worst thing that can happen to a horror movie. It’s horror movie kryptonite.
I prove this point with my first alphabetical choice, The Amityville Horror. Not the original one, the new one. This version takes most of the story from the first (which makes a great plot by the way), cuts out the “campy” (wink wink), outdated special effects, puts a fresh face to the characters, and makes this old fixer-upper worth watching again. Good times.
I chose Final Destination 2 because I feel the Final Destination franchise is one of the best, most original examples of horror out there. Why not the first one you ask? Well, unlike The Amityville Horror fiasco above, I love the original. I just think the sequel is better. It takes all of the great things about the first one and adds a little extra spice and it is delicious. And speaking of delicious - two words - Ali Larter.
Freddy Vs. Jason - Who would have thought that a crossover like this would work? I had my doubts I won’t lie but I was still looking forward to this and it did not disappoint. Two huge horror icons like Freddy Krueger and Jason Vorhees coming from totally different kinds of stories and somehow, the horror gods made it happen AND managed to hold absolutely true to BOTH characters.
Now, for the sake of an easy segway, I’m gonna deviate from my alphabetical thing slightly. Out of the 178 A Nightmare on Elm Street movies I went out on a limb and decided the third installment is the best because I feel it has the best combination of the awesome Nightmare plot, good special effects, even Freddy himself seems to be at the height of his greatness, and there’s something timeless about it which is EXTREMELY rare (see above).
The whole world knows that The Ring is a remake of a Japanese horror movie and alot of people discredit this one because of that but, the fact is, this is a GREAT example of what a horror movie is supposed to be. It pushed the envelope with a new kind of imagery and it had you questioning if you yourself were going to die just by watching it. That’s terror!
Earlier I mentioned how visually driven horror movies are and Thir13en Ghosts not only knows it, but nails it. Fine, the plot is kinda thin, but it’s presented beautifully and only goes to show that it isn’t always about the content. Sometimes the presentation is what makes the difference. Way good movie!
So there’s my take. You don’t have to take my word for it - but you know I’m right.
P.S. Notice the The Shining, Silience of the Lambs, Seven or any other movie like that didn’t make my list. Well it’s not that they’re bad movies (except for The Shining because that IS a STUPID movie), they’re just not horror movies like people always want to think they are. They’re psychological thrillers. Think about it.
