Top 10: Horror Voices #2
Mar. 20, 2008
Source: AITH
by: Matt Withers
A lot of things make for great horror, but ya got nothing without an awesome villain. Now some of them are nasty creatures, others just stalk you with single-minded evil. But there are some out there that really f*ck you up with their creepy azz voice.
How do you know you have a winner? Especially when so many of our best have been parodied to death? It's simple really. Imagine yourself walking through a parking garage at night. As you're about to unlock your car, you hear, right over your shoulder - THAT voice. If your sphincter tightens a little at that thought, then the voice is a winner.
So let's get to it, and don't forget to exercise your horror voice by spitting bullets!
Ah Freddy. The man, the myth, the psychotic child killer. How Wes Craven saw past Robert Englund as that sweet lizard alien in V, to let him create the burned up creature of our nightmares is anyone's guess, but thank everything scary he did. Sure the character got shticky and kinda ridiculous as the series went on, but that first movie turned terror into an all the time thing, and seared Freddy's charred, gravelly timbre into all of our nightmares.
Not too many voices can cause your marrow to shake, but the C-man gets it done. It's not only the deep resonant bass of his delivery, but the fact that Tony Todd sounds so damn charming, and persuasive, as he gets his victims to give him his due. Rarely do we get to see a legitimate example of how evil does what evil does. This voice, along with no small help from the mind of Clive Barker, makes a strong and terrifying case.
I've focused on individual movies for most of these, because no matter how badass the villain, there always seems to be a tendency for one performance to be stronger, more definitively evil than another. But with Pinhead, he's just one bad mofo from start to finish. In fact his presence is the only thing that makes a number of the lengthy list of sequels bearable. So while the movies vary in quality, dear 'ole Pinhead never wavers.
I once saw an interview with John Lithgow, who had auditioned for the role of Hannibal Lecter, and he was asked how he would have played the role differently. His response was that Anthony Hopkins created such a pitch perfect character that it was impossible to address the question. Lecter could be nothing other than what Hopkins made him. Further evidence of that is Brian Cox's turn in the role in Michael Mann's Red Dragon adaptation MANHUNTER. Cox does an excellent job, but he's just not Lecter. Seriously, who else in the world could make fava beans sound sinister.
What? The? F*ck? That pretty much sums up my first impression when Billy boy (girl? whatever) started those phone hijinx. I was generally unsettled for about a month after I saw the movie anytime the phone rang. This flick made me feel about being on the telephone the way JAWS made me feel about being in the water. In fact, I still owe an apology to a couple of late evening telemarketers, though quite frankly they sorta had it coming.
2:45PM on 03/20/2008