Question for the Week of Aug 13-19: Scary Still

What horror movies do I love that haven't lost the ability to scare with time?

Ah, a simple Question. I won't go about this at great, great length - I gave some Halloween recommendations last year, after all. This time out, I'll provide some lists, with links to what I've reviewed. There's something to be said for brevity - namely, that I should try it on this site more often. Here goes:

I. What horror movies do I love and still find scary?

Peter Jackson's Bad Taste and Dead Alive (aka Braindead); Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street, the first Scream, and A New Nightmare; Sam Raimi's Evil Dead 2; The Lost Boys; Brotherhood of the Wolf (I think it qualifies); Cube; the first Final Destination; Alien and even Aliens (it's scary enough to qualify); Korea's The Host and Tell Me Something; The Thing; Misery; Black Sheep; Pan's Labyrinth; and 28 Days Later.

Actually, y'know what? The first Matrix movie practically counts as a horror film, and those elements were incredibly effective and icky and... I shuddered. At least twice. I also greatly enjoyed a European horror movie from the 80's called Demons. Oh, and you should definitely watch Cemetary Man (aka Dellamorte Dellamore); it's a very fun and deliciously weird picture...

II. How about horror movies that are scary and that I don't love?

The Devil's Backbone isn't bad. Carpenter's Prince of Darkness is very, very scary - even if the quality can be a little low at times, it's got an inspired series of scares. Suspiria is excellent, but I find myself less scared by it as time goes by, and I need to rewatch my copy of Profondo Rosso (Deep Red) to see if it's suffered the same way. Ringu did earn its rep honestly, tho the chance to have it really freak you out has probably been ruined for most people by now.


I used to find Halloween to be an excellent and frightening film, until I was about 19 or so. I don't know why it lost its pull on me, honestly - but I still love the final 15 or so minutes, and find the closing scene to be just perfect.

I also kinda liked this late 80's horror pic called Night of the Demons, but not enough to recommend it more strongly. I have to rewatch Carrie before I decide if I still love or if it belongs in this section - it is still scary, tho, I remember that much. Cabin Fever has to get the same treatment, for now. Then again, The Serpent and the Rainbow was extremely scary, even on the second viewing...

III. And what about horror movies that I've heard are scary and that I would probably love?

Well, it's not really fair to write about what I haven't seen yet, but life isn't fair, is it? There's a lot of foreign work here - Let the Right One In, Time Crimes, Tell No One, the early Dario Argento pics that are kind of hard to rent. I'll even show you the trailer for one I'm looking forward to breathlessly - Dead Shadows from France (thanks, AICN) looks like it could be very scary and very, very fun. Let's watch the awesome trailer, shall we?

What do you think? I'm pretty sure that I'm not leaving much out. I think the movies above don't lose their ability to be tense and scary after one viewing or more... Actually, wait. I can already think of one more movie that would be a good fit for this post. I won't bother babbling about it here, I'll just cover it and add it to the "Horror" tag - I think I can show you why it's a match.

Tune in tomorrow for a new review, ya'll...