I love horror movies! Do you?
When I mention horror movies, I’m referring to movies about ghosts, ghouls, vampires, exorcism and whatever that is related to the other worldly stuffs. And what better time to talk about horror movies during this Hungry Ghost Festival which is still ongoing till the end of the month.
However, I am quite disappointed with horror movies that are being churned out nowadays. They are either poor imitations of the good ones or they are so lacking in the horror element I actually yawned watching them! In fact, I have stopped going to the cinemas to watch horror movies nowadays because I think I’ll just be wasting my money!
I also cannot understand people who go watch horror movies in cinema and they cover their eyes during those scary scenes. I have a friend who is like that. She covers her eyes every time she thinks a ghost is going to appear. And I’m like... excuse me, this movie is not free, you know? Are you going to waste your RM10 ticket to cover your eyes? Me? I’ve paid for my ticket and I better get to see all the horror stuffs with my two eyes wide open!
Anyway, here’s my top 5 horror movies of all time.
Warning: If you have not seen any of these 5 movies before and you are planning to watch them, please don’t read any further as spoilers abound.
The Exorcist is the first horror movie that really gave me the shivers. I was quite small when I first saw it and as you can imagine, I had sleepless nights after watching it. Linda Blair was so realistic in her portrayal as the girl possessed by a demonic spirit she really deserved the Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. The way she threw profanities, spewed vomits and rolled her head 360 degrees had audiences in shock. In fact, I heard a few cinemagoers actually fainted during those scenes!
And it was much later in my adult life that I learnt that everything in that movie was done without any special effects! Certainly beat all those horror movies laden with special effects nowadays!
This movie had such a profound impact on me I had always used it to rate other horror movies. I had to admit though, when I watched The Exorcist a second time in later years, I found the first half of the movie quite boring, although the second half still gave me the shivers.
The creepy elevator scene from "The Eye"
The Eye (original Hong Kong version, not the USA remake) is to me, the scariest movie and the most entertaining! This is the kind of horror movie I like – good storyline, good acting, and have all the horror elements I want from a movie of this kind.
And if you saw this in the cinema, you would have got a bonus you cannot find in the DVD releases – a female ghost flashed on the screen before the actual film started. It was a shock tactic and it scared me to hell!
The scenes of the ghost in the creepy elevator, the old lady that appeared out of nowhere in the hospital, the female ghost that visited the restaurant and licked those meat with her long tongue, the female ghost in the calligraphy room that attacked Mun, the lead character – all these scenes are truly scary and classic!
This movie also won Angelica Lee Sin-Je, the leading actress who happens to be a Malaysian, a best actress award at the 2002 Golden Horse Film Festival and again at the 2003 Hong Kong Film Awards.
Nowadays if my friends were to ask me to watch a horror movie, my first question will be - is it better than The Eye or at least as good? If not, forget it!
Disturbing scenes from "The Ring"
The Ring (or Ringu in Japanese) is another great horror movie. Not only was it scary and spooky, it was thoroughly disturbing. In fact, this movie, released in 1998 was the highest grossing horror film in Japan and considered the most frightening.
I remember watching this on DVD and it certainly freaked me out. I found the video scenes watched by the victims highly disturbing. The ending where the ghost of the vengeful child came out of the TV screen was such a shock and totally unexpected I’m rating it a true classic scene in horror movies!
Although the USA remake in 2002 did a pretty good job, I still think the original Japanese version is the best.
"The Sixth Sense" Trailer
The Sixth Sense did a great job at giving me the most surprising ending for a horror movie. I did not see it coming, none at all! Who would have thought the leading character played by Bruce Willis is a ghost?
I won’t say it’s the scariest movie – certainly not as scary as The Eye (at least to me) but it’s such a clever film I totally enjoyed it.
This movie immortalized the line “I See Dead People” spoken in the movie by Haley Joel Osment who incidentally was nominated the Academy Award for Best Actor In A Supporting Role in 1999.
A scary scene from "Shutter"
Shutter is a 2004 Thai horror movie that claimed to be more scary than Ju On (The Grudge) and The Ring. The Grudge? Yes definitely. The Ring? Maybe. But certainly not as disturbing.
What attracted me to the show was the claim the producers made about the photos and images they used were of actual ghosts. I also like the idea that you can capture ghostly images with your camera, so to all bloggers who like to take pictures, beware!
There were lots of scary scenes, but one very humorous scene that stuck in my mind was the toilet scene where the lead character Tun, played by Ananda Everingham thought it was a ghost in the toilet next to him when it was just a transvestite or a ladyboy as they are called in Thailand. Very funny that!
The ending was another surprising shock when it was revealed the reason why Tun weighed heavier than usual – the ghost was sitting on his shoulders all the time! Now that freaked me out big time!
There were a few more horror movies that I enjoyed but did not make it to my Top 5, although they are worth a mention. They are The Omen, The Blair Witch Project, The Exorcism Of Emily Rose and Inner Senses.
And then, there are some successful horror movies that I don’t think deserve it. These are Ju On (the original Japanese later remade as The Grudge for USA version) and Dark Water (both Japanese and USA version), both of which are a waste of my time and do not scare me at all!
I’ll probably talk about them in my future posts, but in the meantime, do tell me what is your top 5 horror movies.
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