008 - 10 scary films I love (HALLOWEEN SPECIAL!)

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Inspired by the Mark Gatiss TV documentary series 'A History Of Horror'
  1. Psycho 
  2. Dawn of the Dead 
  3. The Shining 
  4. The Omen 
  5. The Wicker Man 
  6. Suspiria 
  7. The Birds 
  8. The Thing 
  9. The Orphanage 
  10. XXXXXXXXXXX
And a special mention goes to 'that bit at the end of Halloween where Michael Myers sits up'. Paralysing terror.


I must point out that I'm in no way an aficionado of the horror genre. I don't even own copies of a lot of the movies on this list, save for the ones that meet some other quota of my love of film. Dawn of the Dead, for example, is to me the seminal zombie movie, and the one that first sparked my morbid interest in the zombie genre. Psycho, again, fascinates me as directorial masterclass - if it were not for the Hitchcock masterpiece being the subject of an English Language A-Level exam question, I wouldn't have earned a B. I cite the expertly-crafted sound design of films like The Birds and Suspiria when I'm trying to explain how important audio is in movies, and cite the latter of these when discussing the importance of colour and cinematography. And the others are great examples of using a mixture of all of the above, mixed with eerie set pieces to create a sustained sense of unease that lifts the viewer out of their cinema seat and doesn't drop them back in it until way, way after the credits begin to roll. 


I may not consider myself a horror fan, but there are, contained within these ten films, everything you need to know about making truly great films across the genre board. Movies are nothing without rushes of emotion, good or bad, and the creating, holding, and subsequent release of sustained tension. I'm hugely disappointed with the way that modern 'horror' cinema has dissolved into one cat scare after another (Val Lewton would be turning in his grave/bus). 


I have deliberately left the 'ten' slot blank, because there are so many films that wouldn't typically be thought of as 'scary' movies that are utterly paralysing due to their constant and relentless tension. Films like Jaws, No Country For Old Men, Alien, War Of The Worlds, Children Of Men, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Shutter Island, could all easily occupy the '10' spot for me. The sustained terror you feel when watching these movies comes from temporarily feeling like you are the movies, like you are every character feeling every emotion in every single second of the plot, and that doesn't happen by magic. It comes from truly masterful movie making. Whether you feel like you're the protagonist being pursued by some malevolent, almost omnipotent force, or whether you feel the shared fear and corporate panic of humanity at the very limits of its capacity, these are the movies that really get me. 


And the great thing about these movies is that, once the blood has returned to your fingers and you've prised them from around the armrests of your seat, most of them have a deeper set message that stays with you until long after you've left the cinema, slowly seeping from the back of your mind to your inner-subconscious. Whether it be George Romero's satirical commentary on social justice or mass consumerism, or Ridley Scott's almost Freudian sexual undertones, it's clear to see that these movies have something really important to say about the human race, rather than just a cheap fright on a Saturday night. And that's why I love them.

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