Fear Itself: Arrow top 10!

To go in tandem with NBC’S star studded horror anthology FEAR ITSELF
gearing up for another
season on June 5, 2008 (yup, today), I decided to write a TOP 10 LIST of the films that
prompted the most FEAR within me throughout my courtship with horror. Now let me clarify:
this is NOT about the best or even the scariest of all time, but about the
10 films that scared ME!

I’m not arrogant enough
to think that what frightened me also got to
you. But who knows you might relate to a couple of them. So here they are,
the 10 Films that put the fear of Zeus into me throughout my evolution
within that wonderful genre we all love – horror.

Lets get scared!

What makes THE ENTITY so effective and
terrifying is that it’s
grounded in reality. Carla is an
ordinary woman, living in an ordinary house, living an ordinary life. Within
that mundane setting, a slew of shocking attacks and rapes from an invisible
ghost (that some
reviewers thought exploitive…I didn’t) arise and nope they’re not pleasant to witness. The violence is very real
here and
the aggressive score that plays when the ugly happens make the scenes even more
visceral. Rape alone is scary; rape by an unseen assailant that seemly cannot
be stopped – now that’s bone chilling! I had
trouble sleeping after watching this
one, view it in the day!

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What sets THE
EVIL DEAD apart from other gore fests on the block
is the way director Sam Raimi approached it. The directing in this film was outstanding:
kinetic, energetic, relentless, tension driven and even artistic. Whoever said that good
directing is when you don’t notice it, is full of shite. The film was filled with shocking scenes and
was rarely polite enough to hold back. A woman gets
raped by trees (f**ked up), people get
hacked to pieces, hands get chewed off…you name it, it’s here and it had me
wet my pants. The Evil Dead was actually the first horror flick I ever saw, and I
watched it in a cabin in the woods at that i.e. it marked me.

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POLTERGEIST
is probably the
best ghost movie I have ever seen. The movie has everything going for it, starting with
its characters. The Freeling family felt like a real one. The
chemistry between all those who composed the unit was astounding. I swear to
god I really believed Craig T. Nelson was married to JoBeth Williams…damn…I
still do! Since the setting felt so ordinary and the heroes were so likeable,
it made the grisly events that transpired even more horrifying. The
film took harmless childhood fears and
turned them against us with no apologies. Be it the closet, the creepy toy clown, the loud
storm outside or the spooky tree out the window. Every time you think the
film can’t go any further in scaring the crap out of you…it does.

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If you thought
the 70’s were all about "peace n love"…you were dead wrong. Because of
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE I will never look at a chainsaw the same way.
The performances here really made this movie happen for me, they were so honest and true,
it really didn’t seem like anybody was acting. The film had a seamless pace
and doubled
downed on
foreboding to then deliver full blast suspense and SHOCKING bits. Moreover,
the mood here was
one of DECAY and DEATH – always fun stuff! It got under my skin. And wait
till you see the extended stalk set piece that didn’t let me come up for air
and the brutal happenings that had me
squinting my eyes like a bitch. A mean and stressful movie to watch!

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Much like half the population of planet
Earth, I was scared silly to step into the water after my first viewing of
Spielberg’s classic JAWS. Shit, I was even afraid to take a bath and
had to stick to showers for a couple of years. Spielberg’s restraint, axis
towards tension versus obviousness and the leeway he gave us to let our minds gap what was
missing (which is usually scarier than any shown prop), made it all come together. “Jaws” is still a very scary
movie today. Why? Because we’ve all been swimming at one time or another and we’ve all been put in that vulnerable situation on some level. Spielberg was
smart enough to use that universal fear against us.. Load up the boat, let’s go fishing!

——————–

Robert
Wise’s THE HAUNTING was mucho innovative for its time in the sense
that it relied entirely on suggestion when it came to its ghostly
shenanigans and delivering its potent scares. I’m talking doors that shut by
themselves and bumps that go LOUD in the night. I personally will never
forget the “ghost running up the hallway” scene – the footsteps get
louder and louder – we don’t see the ghost (its all sound) – hence closer and closer to our heroes…creeepyyyy! The
Haunting worked caused it used bleak atmosphere, clever sound design and the
simplest of things to
frighten us. I’ll take a creaking door over a CGI ghost blob any day!

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For a film shot in 1973, THE EXORCIST didn’t pull any punches.
Watching this flick was like going a few rounds with Satan
himself. It hits you from all sides until it knocks you the hell out.
This film worked so well because it was character driven. You get to know these
people, you get to care about them and then you get pulled into hell when all the
crazy stuff happens. The actors on hand
were dead on and the
fact that the special effects were flawless made the gruesome happenings hit
even harder. The religious aura of the picture also contributed in goosing my
bumps. I was raised Catholic and always thought a dead dude on a cross
resting on my bedroom wall was creepy. Here it went much further than that.
Unsettling!

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NIGHTMARE
ON ELM STREET wears its title well since watching it is like witnessing a
down and dirty nightmare
captured on film. It’s dark, weird, unpredictable and very out there. We get
many disturbing images (the long armed Freddy scene or the running lamb did
it for me), creepy settings, a few gore shows, some nice surprises (Freddy
phone tongue) and a messed up ending. Freddy Krueger was responsible for
many of my own nightmares when I was younger due to this flick. He was the
embodiment of “fear” and “perverseness” and even though the later entries in
the franchise turned him into a clown, I will always have a soft spot and a
brrr factor for the original.

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THE THING owned on all counts with the
first notch on its belt being the involving setting in which its mad tale
took place. The desolate, icy and snowy surroundings wondrously amplified
the film’s overall bleak and claustrophobic tone. I could really feel the
aura of isolation while watching this movie and that helped me sympathize
with the characters and their predicament on a deeper level.
Scare-wise, if
it wasn’t the constant sense of imminent doom crawling snuggly under my
skin, it was the “surprise” beast attack that got to me. I was bouncing off
my

couch like a tweaked up grass
hopper. FUN STUFF! A moody, oppressive and at times downright terrifying
flick.

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THE OMEN’s airtight
and well developed screenplay was its first strength. It’s said that when the film was initially
released, it sent moviegoers back to the Bible
and the Book of Revelations to double check on
the passages quoted in the film. After watching it recently, I didn’t go
back to the Bible (I went for a Hustler instead)
but I had bought what I heard, signed, sealed and “Zip-locked”. Moreover, Goldsmith’s
chilling
“Gregorian chants” score, his army of spooky whispers and odd sounds backed
the film up like Murtaugh had
Riggs’ back!

So many scenes were shot through the

roof of this creepy mansion by
William’s score alone. INCREDIBLE! Finally Richard Donner aced this one by
tackling the human drama credibly, addressing the supernatural/religious
themes in a dead serious manner, kicking my ass via the inspired kills and
injecting his fear scenarios (now all classic scenes, gotta love them
Rottweilers) with thick suspense and a powerful style. A must
see!

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