Choosing a favorite horror movie is very difficult because it is an inexhaustible genre that has given us the best and the worst of itself, and the criteria varies from person to person, also depends on the mood with which we find ourselves, however here I present four movies that beyond the feeling of fear or terror that could have caused me entertained me:
1.- The Changeling, 1980 by Peter Medak.
When I was 14 years old I remember seeing a movie that scared me a lot, in it a piano teacher loses his family in front of his eyes in a traffic accident and ends up spending his sorrows in a mansion inhabited by a strange ghost.
Thus, the life of this professor changes in a drastic way, facing paranormal situations and discovering a secret related to an impersonation. In this house he experiences a personal change, as well as becoming aware of the afterlife, that is, of a spirit that tries to tell him something.
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John Russell, (the piano teacher and composer), is a person who knows how to listen, who interprets the musical notes and their tempos. Through sound a revelation manifests itself to him, the fury of the spirit of a child who in his earthly life was an undesirable and who was finally supplanted by a healthier one.
Russell is a man who has lost everything affectively, and the house he inhabits is excessively spacious and with unexplored floors, it is as if this mansion were an extension of his life. When we see the face of the protagonist we connect with his personal ordeal, through his pain he manages to connect with the spirit of a child who in life also suffered and was forgotten.
In the mystery plot there is another character involved, Senator Joe Carmichael, who inherited an important patrimony that may not correspond to him.
The scenes with paranormal phenomena are well interspersed with Russell's investigation of the mystery in the attic of the house where he lives, alternating the story between feelings of fear and suspense. He is aided by Claire Norman in this one, she is the woman who facilitated the musician's rental of the house.
This haunted house film features a tenebrous hidden history from the past, an alluring attic, seance, paranormal phenomena of psychophonies, mysterious wells, and ghosts clamoring for revenge. Over the years it has become a cult film.
Peter Medak, the film's director, films it in a sober and elegant way; it is a story with no greater pretensions than to entertain the viewer thanks to intelligence and good performances. It stars George C. Scott as the tortured character of John Russell, Trish Van Devere as Claire Norman, and Melvyn Douglas as Senator Joseph Carmichael in an essential role in the outcome of the story.
2.- The Evil Dead,1982 by Sam Raimi.
A group of young people decide to spend a weekend in a cabin in the middle of the forest, what they do not know is that inside the same, there is a book made of human flesh called The Necronomicon, which awakens demonic entities if you read some of the passages of this.
However, given the imprudence of these demons awaken from their lethargy, for this reason these young people will become guests of the demons and only our protagonist Ash has the audacity to survive and as a last resort, to have the cold blood to kill his companions.
The film breaks several canons in the horror genre, the use of twists and turns, and suspense, make the film a swing of emotions. Sam Raimi inserts doses of black humor to relax the viewer a little and then presses the accelerator with its share of scares. For this reason, the narrative is fluid and does not allow the viewer to be distracted.
The visuals are dark and gloomy throughout the film due to its effective mise-en-scene supported by the lighting and a very tense soundtrack.
The framing and shots taken by Sam Raimi are very original. The demonic possessions and the gore used are presented in a great way, the production had scarce economic resources, but the latex prostheses and some other effects made purely in stop motion, give the film an organic air.
Bruce Campbell stands out, who delivers scenes to remember every time he fights against his possessed companions. With this role he shows personality and charisma.
3.- The Descent , 2005 by Neil Marshall.
It is a film that conveys a sense of terror and tension very well carried. Six friends who, after a fateful event that happened to one of them, decide to go on an excursion to inspect some caves in the United States, where they first find themselves trapped and desperately looking for a way out. Then, they will discover some horrifying living beings inside the cave.
When they descend into this cave, the terror is real, overwhelming and claustrophobic. These beings attack the girls, showing scenes of gore and terror in its purest state.
These six women find themselves in an extreme situation, yet they are capable of doing anything to survive the horrors they experience in this dark, dank and unexplored cave, unaware that a bloody end awaits them inside.
Neil Marshall here presents himself as a skilled horror filmmaker, with scenes sometimes mixed with efficient action shots that are treated by the camera in excellent angles, taking full advantage of the caves to create feelings of fear that are truly frightening.
Its six female protagonists are; Shauna Macdonald (Sarah), Natalie Mendoza (Juno), Alex Reid (Beth), Saskia Mulder (Rebecca), MyAnna Buring (Sam), Nora-Jane Noone (Holly).
4.- The Cabin in the Woods, 2011 by Drew Goddard.
At the beginning of the film we have the strong, big, college boy, the beautiful and sexy blonde girl, her faithful friend, the virginal but also attractive, the classic drug addict boy who senses and warns about the dangers that lurk and the sporty boy. They go to spend a few days in a cabin in the woods when strange events begin to take place.
Apparently, we are in the presence of the typical slasher in which one by one these boys will be dying at the hands of the murderer on duty until the boy or girl protagonist (usually survive one of each gender) finish with him.
However, in this movie two parallel stories are shown: on the one hand, we have the five surviving on vacation, and on the other, an organization that controls all their movements through video cameras and can even change what happens at will, because everything is mechanized and orchestrated. In their offices they place bets and laugh about what they see.
But in a genius plot twist, the movie turns into chaos turning what we are about to see into something unexpected and different, chaos breaks out, many people die, many bugs come out, and at the end we learn that the plot is based on a massive experiment being conducted in a secret laboratory that is meant to appease the gods with sacrifices.
Drew Goddard sustains the pulse of the narrative is held perfectly by the cast, with the group of youngsters led by Chris Hemsworth and Kristen Connolly. On the side of that investigative agency we find Richard Jenkins as the cornerstone and in a cameo Sigourney Weaver. The film mixes science fiction with humor and horror.
The monsters and fantastic beings referenced in this film in spectacular visual fashion are: Alien, the dead from Evil Dead, Pennywise from It, the serial killer John Wayne Gacy, Ghouls, Gremlins, Ghoulies, Critters, Dragons, Bats, the porcelain doll-like killers from the movie The Strangers, Giants, Giant Anacondas, the Headless Horseman, Jack Skeleton from The Night Before Christmas, the Cenobites from Hellraiser, Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Mummy, the mutants from The Hills Have Eyes, Sil from the movie Species, the reptiles from Jurasic Park, the faun from Pan's Labyrinth, Sasquatch or Yeti, the living trees from The Evil Dead, Ghosts, The Witches of Eastwick, Mad Doctors, reanimated from the movie Re-Animator, Indian spirits, Unicorns, Werewolves, Vampires, the twins from The Shining, the Zombies from George A. Romero's Zombies, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre family, and Jason Voorhess.
I highly recommend these four horror movies of which The Changeling and Evil Dead are already considered cult, often imitated but rarely equaled. The first is an underrated gem that influenced films like "Poltergeist" (1982) by Tobe Hooper,The Ring(1998) by Hideo Nakata, "The Sixth Sense" (1999) by M. Night Shyamalan and recently "The Woman in Black" (2012) by James Watkins.
For its part, Evil Dead shows that a film considered low budget can show a strong horror atmosphere and be very inventive in terms of shots, sequences and gore, and also laid the groundwork for the emergence of one of the most famous antiheroes of B movies: Ash.
The Descent given the empowerment given to women in the film and its gory scenes is on its way to being a cult film. And The Cabin in the Woods puts a twist on horror films, is self-parodying and at the same time is a tribute to a large number of films of the genre just as The Descent deserves cult film status.
Thank you for your attention, dear CineTV community. This is my post to participate in the CineTV Contest #10- Your favorite scary movie(s). Link Here
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