The horror genre is hard to do right, with most films in it either turning into jump-scare filled slasher flicks or just plain silly with ridiculous monsters and makeup. While the latter can be entertaining for a laugh, it's been a while since we have had a truly good horror film. But if you're in the mood for some good and some not-so-good horror movies this weekend, here are a few places to get started.
"Psycho" (1960)
Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" helped shape what we know of as horror movies today. It was a revolutionary film in many ways and was only possible due to the strict moral guidelines of the industry beginning to loosen. For instance, it is the first film to show a toilet flushing, something censors were actually concerned about at the time.
The movie is most famous for its "shower scene" where Marion—the character who had been the lead for the first 20 minutes—is suddenly, brutally murdered in the shower. The music from the scene, with its violent crescendo of violins, is some of the most memorable in movie history.
Those who see the movie today may not appreciate how truly shocking this scene was. Not only is it more violent than most other films at the time, but Janet Leigh, who played Marion, was a big actress at the time, not someone you expect to die early in the movie. The later death of another character implied to be the lead also helped create the feeling that anyone in the film could be dead by the end.
"Alien" (1979)
While I do love "Psycho," my personal favorite horror movie is Ridley Scott's "Alien." Combining science fiction and horror, "Alien" hits all the right notes for a horror movie. It does have lots of gore with its chestburster alien and numerous deaths, but it avoids the trappings of slasher films that came after it, which make bloody violence the focus of the movie.
"Alien" does something its many imitators fail to: it kept the alien a mystery. The alien is first seen in its facehugger form attached to a crewmember's face. After it becomes the chestburster, we do not see it for a while, at least not in detail. The alien isn't shown onscreen for much of the movie, keeping it largely unknown and thus more frightening.
While other movies, including "The Thing from Another World," had used this trope before, "Alien" helped codify the plotline of people in an enclosed space being hunted down and killed one by one. With its strong female lead, solid pacing and dark tone, it became a huge hit and is one of the best the genre has to offer.
"The Shining" (1980)
I'm not a fan of Stephen King and I find most movies based on his work unintentionally hilarious, but I do like "The Shining." That may have to do with Stephen King saying Stanley Kubrick's treatment of "The Shining" is the only movie based on his novels that he "remembered hating."
The film is very odd, like most of Kubrick's work, and is very confusing, like all of Kubrick's work. "The Shining" doesn't have much to do with its title, with the shining ability of the protagonist's son being downplayed in the film. Instead the movie focuses on Jack Nicholson's character, Jack, and the hotel where he and his family are staying.
Jack is an alcoholic writer with writer's block who goes to the hotel to try to finish his latest book. Ghosts from the hotel's past begin to appear to him and he goes completely insane. Jack Nicholson's acting is both good and bad. At times he is comically over the top, and at others it works perfectly. It's entertaining either way and his descent into madness is quite eerie.
"The Happening" (2007)
"The Happening," directed by M. Night Shyamalan, is a prime example of how not to do horror movies. It was Shyamalan's first movie with an R rating, and it is very obvious when watching it. He uses gore for the sake of gore and takes everything so far it becomes comical.
The plot makes the movie even worse, with plants causing humans to kill themselves in a variety of ludicrous ways. There is an actually chilling scene of a cop killing himself with his weapon before a bystander picks it up and does the same. Shyamalan takes this too far, thus ruining it, by having about three more characters doing the same thing again.
Other oddities including a character obsessed with hotdogs and a little old lady who threateningly utters the line "Why are you eyin' my lemondrink, boy?"
"Amityville 4 – The Evil Escapes" ( 1989)
Most of the Amityville movies aren't very good, but the fourth is notable for its badness due to the villain being a lamp. The original Amityville house has a yard sale and the evil spirit gets into a lamp before it gets sold. The movie even has several low-angle shots of the lamp in an attempt to make it somewhat menacing.
The lamp also spends most of the film doing comparably harmless things to the inhabitants of the house in which it now resides. Instead of horribly murdering the inhabitants, it kills their pets and gets the little girl to draw on the walls. It chops up a guy's hand in a garbage disposal, but none of the protagonists are never in any danger.
Without a tangible danger to the protagonists it never comes close to being scary, and the silly concept just ruins every other part of the movie.
