“You’ve got red on you”
Stark Terror: My Top Ten Horror Movies
An American Werewolf in London
First real werewolf movie I saw. Probably had a very deep effect on me as I was about seven at the time and my only experience of the werewolf genre had been “Teen Wolf” and cartoons. The early scenes terrified me, particularly the nightmare sequences. The visitations from the undead victims made me laugh (probably my first experience of dark humor as well) then the transformation scene completely blew me away. This is probably the horror film I’ve seen more times than any other and I’ve owned it on practically every format. Never gets old for me.
Kill List
An unsettling, eerie genre mash, with no easy answers, that takes a hammer to typical conventions and shoots expectations in the back of the head. This movie may upset some, frustrate others, but one thing is certain - it will haunt you long after the credits roll. It certainly did me anyway.
The Collector
Another fairly recent one here so I don’t know if it’s going to stand the test of time for me. But I thoroughly enjoyed this flick all four times that i’ve watched it. I love the simplicity of the set up, I love its unprediactbility, I love its scuzzy, raw looking visuals and its soundtrack. I love that the main character isn’t a shy, but independent and resourceful teenage girl played by a twenty something woman and I love just how gleefully vicious it is.
Halloween
The very first horror film I saw, not long before I caught American werewolf for the first time. This absolutely terrified me. Until then life had been Star Wars, Superman, James Bond and cartoons. There would be an adventure, some humor, a bit of danger but there was always the certainty that the good guys would win. Seeing a movie about a silent killer murdering strangers for absolutely no reason AND THEN GETTING AWAY AT THE END not only gave me a week of sleepless nights but completely destroyed my image of the world. Thank you Mr Carpenter
30 Days of Night
The movie which gave vampires their teeth back and my favorite vampire movie. Ignoring what had come to be the standard depiction of vamps as good looking, seductive people, who often tend to know Kung Fu, largely thanks to the Lost Boys and Buffy, this movie provides malicious, sadistic, animalistic vamps who descend on an isolated Alaskan town during a thirty day polar night and have a feeding frenzy on the helpless locals. Downbeat, upsetting and genuinely scary, these qualities probably prevented it from being the hit it deserved to be, but it’s these very qualities which make it one of my top horrors of all time.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
I absolutely detested this when I first saw it at the age of sixteen. It really, really bothered me. Not because it was bad, because it’s so fucking good. I’d never been made to feel so uncomfortable watching a film before (or since) and I squirmed, shouted at the TV and resolved never to watch it again. Eventually I did, and found there was great pleasure to be had in inflicting this movie upon friends and girlfriends over the years. Watching them watching this always gave me something to laugh at and led me into fully appreciating the movie for what it does. TCM is a nerve shredding, assault on your senses.
Falling into the kitchen Payne ripped open a drawer, scattering cutlery in every direction. A chef’s knife landed at his feet and he sank to his knees to retrieve it. In both hands he embraced the blade’s rust, its germs, its history, its future and aimed it at the source of his torment: his own eyes. He cradled it a while then, weeping as he did so. Another vision, one so terrible he could barely comprehend it, forced him to act and with an anguished battle cry he drove the blade deep into the socket and further into his own brain, taking it right up to the hilt. Blood spurted and squirted in jets from the wound while his jaw opened and closed reflexively, his ultimate gasp dragging blood into his lungs.
‘Kate,’ he gargled, his final word before loose fingers slipped away from the blade’s handle, limp arms flopped to his sides and his body collapsed face first to the floor, the impact driving the knife tip right through the back of his skull.
Excerpt from Disturbing Events
