Chilltober Daze: My Horror Top 20, Part I -- "Alien" to "Jaws"

Are your favorites on my list?

What makes a horror movie worth watching? My favorites are favorites for a variety of reasons, including some or all of the following factors: They’re truly scary, they offer a new wrinkle on a familiar concept, or they successfully created the template for a sub-genre of horror.

Scary Stuff, Anyone?

Why do folks swarm to horror movies and books? That’s a question that’s too large to explore right here, right now. I’ve heard several sensible theories, though, including:

1. As is said about crime fiction, horror allows us to see order triumph over chaos, and good defeat evil.

2. It’s simply fun being scared — the heightened sensory awareness prompted by frightening moments is exhilarating. It amps up “viewers' feelings of relief and enjoyment, leading to a euphoric high.”

3. Horror offers a safe form of catharsis for those with violent urges who otherwise might express that aggression through real-life crimes (the least believable theory, IMO, and my least favorite).

My Horror Top 20

Here’s part one of an expanded version of the list I included in the introductory Chilltober Daze version of this newsletter. I generally dislike rankings, so I’m presenting these in alphabetical order.

Agree? Disagree? Are any of these on your list? Which ones would you add? Your comments are welcomed.

• ALIEN (1979) — Ridley Scott’s monsters-in-space epic offers a vicious, razor-toothed little chomper bursting out of John Hurt’s chest, a giant heavy-metal critter sniffing bad-to-the-bone astronaut Sigourney Weaver, a likable, diverse spaceship crew, jump scares and H.R. Giger’s still-astounding creature designs. What more could you ask for? The original film spawned five sequels and prequels, not counting the subpar “Predator” crossovers. And on a personal note, it scared the stuffing out of me when I saw it, at age 17, when it played the old Jerry Lewis twin cinemas in Lakeland, Florida; it was the first “R”-rated movie I was legally allowed to see without a parent.

  

  Sigourney Weaver in “Alien”.

• AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (1981) — Backpacking twentysomethings David Naughton and Griffin Dunne fail to pay heed to the villagers’ warnings to “stay on the road, keep clear of the moors” and “beware the moon, lads.” So naturally, a frightening human-to-wolf transformation — courtesy of Rick Baker’s Oscar-winning makeup work — is in the offing for John Landis’s horror comedy. On second viewing, it was funnier than I had remembered.

• THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999) — Something wicked lurks deep in a Maryland forest; we get only glimpses of the horror courtesy of “found footage” left by a trio of student documentarians who’ve vanished. That’s the concept of a low-budget indie — made for $750k max; grossed $250 million worldwide — from Orlando filmmakers who effectively capitalize on everyday fears about things that go bump in the woods. The lo-fi, no-frills chiller did for camping what “Jaws” did for ocean swimming. The earliest viewers of the movie had a better shot at suspending their disbelief about how the movie came to be.

  
  

  

  Original promo for “The Blair Witch Project”

• DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978) — George Romero, who essentially invented modern-day zombie movies, devises a gruesome horror thriller, set in a shopping mall during the Me Decade, that doubles as a commentary on the soul-sucking plague of rampant consumerism. Zack Snyder’s 2004 remake is well worth watching, too.

• DRACULA (1931) Bela Lugosi, with his elegant tux, slow-walk menace, jet-black hair and Eastern European-accented English, became a cultural icon as the Transylvanian count, in a performance that drew from his earlier appearance in the role on Broadway. Tod Browning’s film, part of the influential wave of Universal horror pics in the ‘30s and the first Dracula talkie, isn’t exactly scary for contemporary audiences. But the pre-Code production, inspired by the German Expressionism of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 “Nosferatu” as well as Stoker’s original novel, is loaded with moody vibes and subversive suggestions of eroticism, particularly concerning the old bloodsucker’s pursuit of the virginal Mina (Helen Chandler).

  

  Bela Lugosi in “Dracula”

• THE FLY (1986) — David Cronenberg’s engrossing and frequently gross remake of the 1958 sci-fi/horror shocker is equal parts squirm-inducing, humorous and even sexy (at first), with a game, very funny Jeff Goldblum as an egotistical scientist whose teleportation experiments inadvertently spawn a species-crossing disaster. The cast also includes Geena Davis as Goldblum’s love interest, Cronenberg in a cameo as a gynecologist, and an abundance of bodily fluids. As Davis says, “Be afraid. Be very afraid.”

• FRANKENSTEIN (1931) — As with the impact of Lugosi’s “Dracula” on vampire movies in its wake, Boris Karloff’s portrayal of the Frankenstein monster was the boilerplate for all subsequent incarnations of the laboratory-assembled fiend. Constructed from corpses and brought to life with the help of lightning, the monster with the bolt-on neck is alternately vulnerable and murderous. James Whale creates spooky settings, from the Frankenstein castle to the burning windmill where the monster is trapped during the conclusion. And he touches on topics — ignorant hatred of “the other”; collateral damage caused by those who dare to “play God” — generally not broached by movies from the era. Whale’s 1935 sequel, “Bride of Frankenstein” is viewed as a classic, too.

• HALLOWEEN (1978) — Slasher films rarely come with as many jump-out-of-your-seat moments as John Carpenter’s indie chiller. It marked Jamie Lee Curtis's movie debut and the first of many movie appearances by Michael Myers (Nick Castle), the deranged sanitorium escapee wearing a hockey mask; even those who’ve never seen the film recognize the killer’s image from millions of Halloween costumes and haunted-house attractions. The low-budget indie scored $70 million at the box office and spawned 12 sequels, remakes and reboots, including this month’s “Halloween Ends.” Promises, promises.

  

  Jamie Lee Curtis and Nick Castle in “Halloween”

• INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978) — Remember that time you ran into a friend you hadn’t seen for a while, only to discover that your once sane pal had been replaced by a look-alike creature who had inexplicably fallen into a political cult defined by unwavering allegiance to a celebrity lunatic and an open embrace of Q’anon-fueled MAGA conspiracy theories? Something like that, with the help of a transition by way of gooey, sticky pods, happens to otherwise normal San Franciscans including Donald Sutherland and Brooke Adams in Philip Kaufman’s remake of the 1958 Don Siegel-directed sci-fi flick of the same name. Kaufman does a great job capturing the characters’ creeping paranoia, as their suspicions about the transformations are gradually confirmed. Versions of the same story have made it to the big screen two more times — with Abel Ferrara’s “Body Snatchers” in 1993 and “The Invasion” in 2007, with Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman. How has the tale not been adapted for a streaming-network series?

  

  Donald Sutherland in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”

• JAWS (1975) — A monster shark comes from the deep to terrorize beachgoers enjoying a holiday weekend on Amity Island off the coast of New York (filmed in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.), and the beast dispatches several swimmers in living color, blood filling the water in scenes that were considered gruesome at the time. The heroics of a trio of brave shark fighters memorably played by Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw, save the day, but the subtext is all about public-safety mandates versus the pressures of modern commerce, a theme at least as old as Ibsen’s “Enemy of the People” and as fresh as debates over masks and vaccines during the Covid era. Should the city heed the warnings of Chief Brody (Scheider) and close the beach, or keep the tourist dough flowing even if that means risking lives? Steven Spielberg’s seaside shocker — back in theaters recently for another bite of the box-office apple — practically invented the summer blockbuster.
  
  (Stay tuned for Part II — “Let the Right One In” to “The Wolfman”)

©2022 by Philip Booth. All rights reserved.