Be afraid, be very, very afraid
WATCHING horrors can burn calories, says a new survey, thanks to the adrenaline pumping terror. Here are the best of them...
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974): A farmhouse. Party-loving teenagers. A chainsaw. Tope Hooper’s gruesome, low-budget classic was revolutionary, for its semi-documentary style and the nihilism of the killers, led by Leatherface.
The Wicker Man (1973): Policeman Edward Woodward lands on the Scottish island of Summerisle looking for a missing girl, but is as baffled by the locals’ refusal to admit she was there as he is fascinated by their pagan lifestyles. It’s realism creates a foreboding atmosphere and builds to an iconic final scene
Halloween (1978): Jamie Lee Curtis entered horror’s ‘hall of fame’ with her performance in this classic slasher flick. Psychotic killer Michael Myers escapes from an institution to stalk Laurie Strode and her friends, pursued by the odd Dr Loomis (Donald Pleasance). Spawned sequels, and copycats (Friday the 13th, 1980).
Night of the Living Dead (1968): George A Romero’s low-budget classic put the zombie flick on the map. The radiation from a satellite has caused the dead to rise up and feast on humans, with a few survivors holed up in a farmhouse. Bleakly depressing, scabrously funny.
The Shining (1980): Stephen King didn’t like Stanley Kubrick’s version of his novel, but horror fans thrilled to it. Jack Nicholson plays a frustrated writer, Jack Torrance, who takes a job as caretaker of the Overlook Hotel high in the Rockies, but his young son starts seeing dead children in the hallways. Is the hotel a metaphor for hell? A construct of Jack’s disintegrating mind? One of the great psychological horrors.
The Blair Witch Project (1999): Three students go into the woods in search of the infamous ‘Blair Witch’, and leave behind only a video document. The original and best of the ‘found footage’ horror flicks, the realism of the low-fi home movie illustrates the banality of terror.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984): The talon-fingered Freddie Kreuger stalks the nightmares of the children of the lynch mob that accused him of molesting kids. Director Wes Craven later spoofed Elm Street in his Scream series. Here, the horror emerges from within, in the dreams of the sleeping teenagers.
Rosemary’s Baby (1968): After moving into a new apartment, Rosemary’s (Mia Farrow) husband falls under the spell of their creepy neighbours. Rosemary is pregnant, but is her child human? Roman Polanski’s film is a masterclass in tension, and the first of many ‘demon seed’ films.
Ringu (1998): Remade by Hollywood as The Ring (2002), but for the full force of its terrifying imagery Hideo Nakata’s film is the one to rent. A mysterious video tape will kill whoever watches it. The visual execution makes this one horrifying.
The Exorcist (1973): A 12-year-old girl is possessed in William Friedkin’s masterpiece, one of the greatest films of the last 50 years. Max von Sydow plays the eponymous hero, a world-weary priest who battles with the ultimate evil for the little girl’s soul. Technically brilliant.
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