Dir - Rupert Julian
With a mug like that...
One of the most influential and historically important horror films of all time, it would be rather daft not to include the classic Lon Chaney senior version of The Phantom of the Opera here. I will be the first to admit that staying awake through silent films is sometimes a difficult undertaking and at a hundred and seven minutes originally, this one might seem to drag a bit during some of the opera scenes. Thankfully though, these moments are few and far between compared to the ones dealing with “Erik the Phantom’s” opera house haunts. The gloomy depiction of the Phantom’s underground lair and the early scenes of him either silhouetted or lurking in the shadows all reek of German Expressionism, (intentionally to be sure), and the lavish Paris Opera House sets are all good ole fashioned silent-era Hollywood. Obviously though, Chaney’s celebrated performance and make-up, (which is both equally grotesque and sympathetic), is what truly makes the film a masterpiece. The mask-pulling reveal of his face is as legendary a horror movie moment as the shower scene in Psycho or King Kong at the top of the Empire State Building. Chaney was already a legend at the time and the actor’s sudden death only five years later would only further cement his place in film history.
Dir - Joel Schumacher
"I still believe!"
I never realized how much I liked vampire movies until I started doing this list. Well, I guess I kind of did as stuff like this and the almost-on-this-list Fright Night have been nostalgic favorites of mine since forever. Of course we are all painfully aware that Joel Schumacher is certainly not the most respectable filmmaker out there. His movies generally fall into two categories; ones that critics hate and ones that critics hate yet still make a descent buck at the box office. The Lost Boys is one of his rare outings that has always had a solid reputation, as much today as ever. Part 1980s teen flick, part comedy, part homoerotic, and lots horror, Boys' balances everything to a tee. The “two Corey’s” provide most of the laughs and Keifer Sutherland and his undead underlings provide most of the malevolence. Though the soundtrack and some of the fabulous mullets are deliciously dated, there are some highly enduring vampire moments to be found here, especially in the “initiation” scene and of course the ingenious, undead-massacring finale. Oh and btw, there was no way I was not using a greasy sax player GIF to represent the film.
Dir - Alejandro Amenábar
They are around here somewhere
The best good ole fashioned haunted mansion movie to emerge for quite some time, Alejandro Amenábar’s The Others is the type of psychological horror stuff that harkens back to The Innocents, The Haunting, and The Shining in some respects. With such excellent “The…something” films to compare it to, The Others was perhaps bound to succeed from the beginning. More rooted in contemporary realism than the kind of dramatized flair that old black and white horror movies catered to, Amenábar’s direction is stylized and moody and the film is beautiful to look at all around. Speaking of beautiful to look at, the always elegant Nicole Kidman gives a most outstanding performance as the grief-stricken, over-bearing mother who slowly begins to sense the sinister “others” all around her Gothic abode. The whole affair is highly rewarding to be sure, devoid of all the CGI overkill and gratuitous gross-out gore many a modern horror film is laced with. It may keep that twist ending thing that most movies nowadays feel compelled to have, but it is exquisitely done. Amenábar certainly shows the chops to become a horror filmmaker to be reckoned with and I can only hope that he can give us at least a few more genre works in the future. Bringing Kidman along for the ride would not hurt either.
Dir - George Romero
"I'm runnin' this monkey farm now Frankenstein and I wanna know what the fuck you're doin' with my time!"
The last great film in George Romero's "dead series", Day of the Dead is by no means the masterpiece that either Night of or Dawn is, but it would be asking far too much to expect such a thing anyway. Romero had already given us so very much with those first two, and so very, very, very little with his last three at this writing, (Diary of the Horse Feces is still the worst movie I have ever seen in the theaters, bar none). With Day, he gives us just enough of what works. Great death-by-zombie scenes, copious amounts of gore, obnoxious characters whom we cannot wait to see eaten alive, (Dr. Logan and Capt. Rhodes are two of the best worst characters in any movie), and of course, human beings yelling, bitching, and conspiring against each other which ultimately gets them all killed. Romero certainly likes doing this stuff over and over again and it at least should have wrapped up nicely here. So I for one will just carry on the rest of my days pretending that is exactly what happened, ignoring the second trilogy that we need never speak of again.
Dir - James Whale
Femm fatal
At one point in time, The Old Dark House was presumed “lost”, one of many such would-be casualties from the period. Thankfully a print was uncovered in 1968 and the film has gained an admirable reputation ever since. All four of director James Whale’s horror movies appear on my list and this one which was made just a year after Frankenstein has many of the man’s usual trimmings. Equal parts comedy and horror, (with mainstays Boris Karloff, Gloria Stewart, and Ernest Thesiger all on board), the film is a mad romp with the dark, foreboding Femm Family household serving as a lovely setting for such uncheerful shenanigans. For the second film in a row, Karloff again stumbles around without any dialogue, (Universal had yet to discover what an iconic voice they had to go alone with that face). Stewart though is radiant as always and even Mr. Charles Laughton appears, making it his first Hollywood venture. There is not anything supernatural or terrifying in the film. It is just a handful of strangers bantering on as the Femm family’s twisted secret eventually makes it a life-and-death situation. Yet being held up in a creepy ass house with a creepy ass family is certainly heart-pumping enough and Whale handles the lot in an expertise manner, as only he could.
Dir - Masayuki Ochiai
Green jelly time
This modern J-Horror Theater entry, (where six Japanese directors each made a film under producer Takashige Ichise), has yet to establish a lauded reputation like some of the better known films in the genre such as Kairo or Ringu. Still, Infection gets in your head and under your skin in a deliciously icky and spooktacular way. It sets up shop in a somewhat dilapidated, criminally understaffed hospital where everyone immediately seems a bit on edge and things seem to be a bit off. More and more as the film goes by, creepy, gross, and bizarre things start happening. Some of these do so for little other reason than to simply have creepy, gross, and bizarre things start happening. I hardly minded what “made sense” in this madhouse of a hospital and in fact very much enjoyed the weird goings on they keep throwing at you. There is a kind of fast, “let’s get to the good stuff” pacing throughout that could have made for some music video editing obnoxiousness. In fact though, it was a welcome change to some of the very slow and moody, (though still also excellent), Japanese horror films that rank as the best. This may make it a good ice breaker then for those lazy blokes who do not like to read sub-titles yet also like their horror fully-loaded.
Dir - Takashi Shimizu
Home is where the curse is
“Buh?” you say? I am sure I have few allies when it comes to my enjoyment of The Grudge 2 and I guess that makes it this list’s “guilty pleasure” entry. I can certainly understand the confusion. Takashi Shimizu directed both the Japanese originals as well as this American sequel to a typically uninspired American remake that was not worth anybody’s time, (is Sarah Michelle Gellar truly doomed to never find success outside of the Buffyverse?), which makes me wonder why the hell I bothered seeing it in the first place. Such low expectations may have influenced my liking for the film, but far more than just being infinitely superior to its sub-par predecessor, it is in fact creepy as fuck. There are memorable scenes galore, with the school counselor-turned-ghost moment in particular ranking as one of the freakiest things I have ever seen. I do have a soft spot for ghost stories and cannot help but dig the Japanese, vengeful-spirit-out-to-get-everybody variety of such. Even if this time around they all speak English.
Dir - Wes Craven
It is tourist season down in Haiti
Try as I may, I am surprisingly not that big of a Wes Craven fan. Nightmare On Elm Street does nothing for me, Scream(s) sucks, and I absolutely despise Last House On the Left. Those being his three most acclaimed films in most circles, that leaves me very little else to go for. The Serpent and the Rainbow, (Craven’s unholy venture into voodoo land), therefore may be an odd choice as my sole inclusion in this list from the legendary horror maestro, but alas, I stand by it as his best work. The always excellent Bill Pullman does that “terrified white man in Haiti” thing great and he gets some mighty frightening shit thrown his way. The film’s many supernatural hallucination scenes are top notch and as the actual nightmare moments in Elm Street were the most memorable there, this is hardly surprising since Craven certainly proves his expertise in the horrifying dreams field. Serpent almost goes off the hinges with an extra ending that comes off more silly and absurd then “bad ass”, but this is small potatoes really. Once Pullman gets a face full of yellow powder blown onto him, the movie can really do no wrong in what is to follow.
Dir - George Romero
The Count of Pennsylvania
Shot on location and made for even less money than Night of the Living Dead, (and featuring a cast made up largely of family and friends of the crew), George Romero’s Martin is definitely low-budget filmmaking, yet also as good a horror movie as one can make. For that matter, it is also as good a vampire movie as one can make. Like many a great horror film, very much is left ambiguous in Martin, in this case concerning the title character’s “vampirism”. This results in most blood-sucker clichés being both tossed out of the window and even openly mocked in several humorous scenes. Whether a member of the legion of the undead or not, Martin is assuredly a very disturbed individual and his tragic loneliness is essentially at the film’s core. This makes its more serious, real-life themes, (something Romero has always dealt with in his work anyway), far more personal than in his often heavy handed Dead epics. Romero himself sites Martin as his favorite of his films and coming from the man who forever revolutionized movie zombies and gave us their two greatest outings, that says quite a lot.
Dir - Neil Jordan
"Vampires pretending to be humans, pretending to be vampires."
I am kind of surprised that I do not see this on more “best horror movies of the 90s” lists. My dad took me and my brother to see Interview with the Vampire when I was thirteen and I loved it then as do I now. Odd that all these years later I still have yet to read the book as well as the remaining “Vampire Chronicles”, as I have always intended. Too many comics to get to I suppose. Anyway, the big-budget, big name adaptation of Anne Rice’s most beloved novel, (which she also wisely wrote the screenplay for), brings some highly memorable vampire moments to the screen. Particularly when Louis and Claudia hit up the old world and meet Antonio Banderas, (whose dialogue is harder to understand than ever), and his diabolical Théâtre des Vampires. Stan Winston’s vampire make-up is top notch, (I particularly dig Lestat’s transformation after drinking dead blood), and adequate praise I believe belongs to Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt which is not surprising as they are pretty great in every film they do. Of course Kirsten Dunst’s star-making turn got the attention it deserved and oh yeah, isn’t Christian “what-the-fuck-ever-happened-to-him” Slater in this too? Solid cast, solid vampires, solid stuff I must say.
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