So Halloween is coming up pretty soon, so I've decided to think about the horror genre as a whole and one of my friends asked me, what is the best horror movie you've ever seen? I honestly couldn't pick just one, so I got a list together and these are (in my opinion) the best horror films ever made and just for laughs I'm also doing the WORST horror movies I've ever seen.
THE BEST LIST:
10. V/H/S
V/H/S makes it on the list because there's a bunch of parts in this film that are really disturbing and surprisingly weird. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept of V/H/S its basically an anthology film where a bunch of people break into some house looking for a tape, problem is there's a ton of tapes in the creepy house and they have no idea which tape is the one they need only that they'll know it when they see it so they start loading up the creepy tapes each is a short film by different directors.
Some of the films in this collection are really disturbing, granted I didn't find them outright terrifying but it is legitimately creepy, this film might've been higher on the list but like any anthology its a mixed bag, some are pretty intense but others fall a tad flat. I love the practical effects in this movie and it is pretty well done and horrific at times, its on netflix now and the sequel is pretty good too.
9. QUARANTINE
A found footage movie where people are trapped in an apartment complex where a mysterious mutated rabies has turned everyone into the 28 Days Later style zombies? What's not to love? Well aside from a satisfying ending of course. Anyway its not bad its immersive and it left me wondering what happens next. Too bad the sequel just threw out everything cool about Quarantine and made a generic boring horror movie.
8. 28 DAYS LATER
Speaking of zombies, let's not forget 28 Days Later, the movie that made zombies scary again, well for a little while before the spectacle of zombies that can run like Usain Bolt, this had some legitimately tense scenes and the tone of it was very hopeless and dreary. It started falling apart towards the middle with the military guys but aside from that it is a really good movie. The sequel is also decent, up until a certain point, then it gets really stupid and it just turned me off to the rest of the movie. If you're looking for an intense gory, and violent, film I'd recommend you at least watch the first one.
7. THE BABADOOK
I am so glad this movie got made, and so sad that it only has one star on netflix, because this is a very well done horror movie that doesn't have over the top gore and it doesn't show too much of the monster and instead chooses to build a creepy atmosphere and it actually really got me at certain points the movie seems like an interesting metaphor which I won't spoil for you, but the ending does kind of leave me scratching my head, and a bit confused but definitely check it out.
6. DEVIL
Yes I know, M.Night Shyamalan, and I know some of you are sitting here and probably ready to rip my head off, but hear me out please, this is a damn good horror movie. It is very well paced, it doesn't rely on over the top gore, it has little jump scares, and relies on atmosphere and a strong sense of dread, as well as some bits of humor. For those of you who don't know, Devil is about a group of people trapped in an elevator and one of them is Satan, and he is picking them off one at a time.
This movie is freaky because you never actually SEE the horrific bits you HEAR it and see the aftermath, keeping the suspense of who is actually the devil, and the movie does a very good job of making you guess who it is and its not revealed to the very end and it legitimately had it on the edge of my seat. Granted this movie isn't for everyone especially if you go in expecting a Paranormal Activity style movie, or if you just hate M. Night Shyamalan.
5. IT FOLLOWS
Just when I thought horror was dead and doomed to be endless Paranormal Activities and Conjuring Spin Offs, this little gem comes along. Its fresh, the music is pretty original and retro but still very chilling and scary, the pacing is well done, there's not an over abundance on the jump scares and it succeeded in being chilling and unnerving and I hope this is a turn around for horror movies, because goddamn I am so sick of these lazy jump scare movies go watch if you haven't seen it. The only thing I would complain about is the final confrontation in the movie, because I couldn't figure out at all what their plan was but aside from that this is a great movie.
4. SINISTER
Yeah this is on the list, this is another refreshing horror movie. Thank goodness this movie is subtle and doesn't rely on the freaking jump scares and instead actually understands pacing very well. It is has some gory bits especially towards the end Ethan Hawke is really good in this movie and he's believable and you actually see things affect him like a real person and he actually gets the hell out of his house when the creepiness level reaches about an eight, thankfully. Too bad I hear the sequel was absolute crap.
3. THE THING (2011):
I was so excited to find out the Thing was getting another movie and when I learned this wasn't actually a reboot like I thought it was and instead a prequel to John Carpenter's movie. This thing does that Thing justice it ties in with the original pretty well and doesn't contradict much that was established in the original, it keeps the suspense, although it isn't as suspenseful as the original it actually is a tad creepier because thanks to a near perfect blend of animatronics and C.G.I the Thing is a bit more mobile and can do things that weren't possible back then. It also leaves a little plot thread open that could mean a sequel perhaps (fingers crossed), if you want to see a disgusting and tense film, look no further.
2: THE THING (1982):
This movie scared me to death when I first saw it, even now it still gets me with its paranoia and disgusting practical effects that somehow still hold up to this day .
The creature designs are freaky and you can tell the developers of Dead Space (one of my favorite horror games), was directly inspired by the horrific monsters you see here. I will not spoil this movie for you but you better go find it if you haven't already seen it, just pack a flamethrower and a couple sticks of dynamite with you and don't trust anyone in the room with you.
1: ALIEN
This and the Thing were duking it out for my top spot on this list and believe me it was a tough call but I had to go with this movie simply because well its Alien, and I have feeling the Thing probably wouldn't exist as we know and love (or fear) without this movie coming along first. This movie is the granddaddy of the monster movie. If you're a fan of creature films and you haven't seen this one, you are missing out. Admittedly the movie isn't as terrifying as the Thing but it gets to you and its hopeless atmosphere really does a great job, plus the mystery of the alien puts this movie a little bit above the Thing.
Well we got through the best, here comes the worst.
THE WORST
10. INSIDIOUS
When this movie first came out I thought it was scary but now I just kind of roll my eyes at this and its sequels, its a jump scare movie but it does handle them better than most movies but still, it doesn't hold up for a second viewing, unless you're watching it with someone who hasn't seen it before, then its just hilarious. Honestly this movie will make you jump, but then you'll immediately bust out laughing, like when your friend try to scare you themselves.
9. THE CONJURING
Some of you are wondering why this is on the list, I'll tell you why, because my friends overhyped the hell out of this movie and I was expecting a scary movie what I got was a cliche overload that was predictable and worse yet, not scary.
8. MY SOUL TO TAKE
This might be Wes Craven's worst movie, it might actually be his worst movie. Seriously I have no goddamn idea what the hell is going on in this movie the only thing I gathered was we have a serial killer he gets killed, but problem is his soul has been divided and put into several characters, and one of them may or may not actually have the killer's mind inside them. This could've been pretty interesting but sadly everybody is forgettable and the plot is told in such a nonsensical manner that it'll leave you scratching your head and asking WTF and not in a good way.
7. OCULUS
This movie has a really interesting storyline and I love how the movie is telling two stories at once, unfortunately the movie isn't really all that scary and ending is just sort of meh. I love the creepy mirror and I love how they actually explained how it worked and liked the female lead how she thinks she has this demon mirror figured out but she realizes that she's made a huge mistake and the mirror is craftier than she thought it was.
6. YOU'RE NEXT
This movie only comes out slightly better than the Purge mostly because the concept isn't as ridiculous and nonsensical, but the antagonists are incompetent and given how they're supposed to be trained ex marine's they're somehow getting their asses kicked by a bad ass Australian chick who honestly is both the strongest and weakest part of this movie. She's the strongest because she's the smartest person in the movie but she's the weakest simply because she's a Mary Sue, as in, she can do no wrong and it diminishes all the tension, the plot twist is kind of just...well uh, its there. It's forgettable and honestly its a movie you watch when you're bored and just want to watch some gore and blood and I have to give them some points there.
5. THE PURGE
So aside from the absurd and ridiculous premise (watch the FlickPick on youtube, he explains exactly how I reacted to this movie's premise), this movie is still bad, mostly because no one has COMMON SENSE. I don't know what happened with Ethan Hawke between Sinister and the Purge, (probably the script), but he is pretty bad, but he isn't the worst out of the bunch that would be the hot teenage daughter and dumb ass weird son. I wanted to throttle him because he basically causes all of the family's problems. It's not scary, its not intense its actually pretty boring and infuriating, and unintentionally funny at times.
4. PIRANHA 3D
I can't honestly tell if this movie is a porno or a horror movie, seriously which is it? I can't tell and am still wondering, what did I expect going into this movie? Well I expected to see a bunch of dumb teens to be ripped apart by piranhas, instead what I got was wet T-shirt contest, body shots, an underwater porno nymph sequence, and a scientist who looks like the guy from Back to the Future. When the actual demon fish start killing people all I could think was "F***** finally!" unfortunately these scenes get boring real fast and then they try to set up a sequel with a "surprising revelation" unfortunately this just comes off as funny and had me rolling my eyes, everyone was it fails as a porno and fails as a horror movie.
3. PARANORMAL ACTIVITY SERIES
I'm including all of these for a reason, they all suck. Seriously none of them are scary, the third one does a good job of building suspense but there is no pay off and I just sat there thinking "I just wasted like two hours on a P.O.S movie". And worse yet we're getting another one of these. Marked Ones wasn't much better and with its crappy attempts to tie in with the main series, this lands on my worst series.
2. THE EVIL DEAD (2013)
Why did I let a friend of mine talk me into watching this movie? Admittedly I have only seen clips from the original movies, but I can tell they were leagues above this movie and looked more like campy action horror movies whereas this film is full of some of the dumbest characters I have ever seen the movie comes as laughable because it mistakes gore for horror (spoiler alert it is not) and the only reason this isn't higher on my list is because in the theater my father and I, and the four other people there took our time just ripping on it and actually had fun doing that.
1. THE APPARITION
This movie is everything wrong with horror today, its forgettable, nothing scary happens and SPOILER ALERT: you see this poster above? Yeah that's the last shot of the movie. I am dead serious that is how the movie ends and there is NOTHING scary about this movie, seriously, you want to know how this movie tries to scare you, creepy sounds and people walking around their house, and yeah that can be scary if there is actually a damn payoff and if the script wasn't lazy and boring.
So that's my best and worst list what are you favorite and most hated horror movies? Let me know