Each new era of horror has a trendsetter, and the 90s postmodern horror movement was born with Wes Craven’s Scream. Released in December 1996, Scream twins genuine scares with comedic teenage hubris in light of a series of murders in smalltown California.
The story follows Sidney Prescott, a teenager whose mother was murdered the previous year, who must contend with the attention of a masked killer who works his way through her classmates. While the premise resembles traditional horror fare, the content is far from ordinary. The postmodern tag stuck due to its characters awareness over their predicament. In short: they know they are in a horror film. They are like us, the audience, aware of which horror clichés to avoid and which rules to abide.
Craven creates action we are all too familiar with, writer Kevin Wiliamson’s dialogue embraces exclamations we all shout at the screen, and the tone blends fear and humour to massive effect.
Williamson’s script attracted a wealth of Hollywood talent, including its biggest star, Drew Barrymore. Barrymore’s involvement in the project raised the stakes due to her choice of role as Casey Becker in the film’s first moments. Scream’s prowess is strongest in this opening scene which pays knowing homage to When A Stranger Calls, He Knows You’re Alone and Halloween. When the audience realise Barrymore’s fate; all bets are off and nothing is certain.
Wes Craven is a legend in the horror genre and his 1977 film The Hills Have Eyes is the perfect example why. Craven is a Master of Suspense, and that attribute is on full display here as the patient and careful approach that the director takes with building suspense and mounting the tension pays off in spades.
Given its low budget, and the fact that it was only Craven’s second feature, the film is a very well-made piece of horror, exhibiting creative craftsmanship and has since amassed quite the cult following. Still as effective in its portrayal of brutality as it was in 1977, The Hills Have Eyes really helped shape Craven’s career. It tells the story of the Carter family, who were travelling to California via the desert. Before long the family finds themselves in the company of cannibals and it is there that they meet their horrifying ends.
The trailer siege scene stands out as incredibly effective and particularly disturbing, but most of the film is full of moments that, at the time, were deemed too shocking for most audiences. For its time, The Hills Have Eyes really turned things up to 11, shocking most audiences and causing many a moviegoer to walk out of the theatre. It’s pure “down-and-dirty” 70s horror and it’s an unflinching and at times, bone-chilling film, one that lays it all out on the table and frequently pushes boundaries. Sure, the violence may seem tame by today’s standards, but back in ’77, it was pretty extreme.
There’s also the subtext of the film, with Craven commenting on the savage, animalistic instinct and the bloodlust that is hidden in all of us. The message is communicated quite well, and never forced down our throats.
Though not his best film, The Hills Have Eyes is a bright spot on Craven’s resume and a film that deserves to be seen by horror aficionados.
[h2]28) Zombi 2[/h2]
Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2 isn’t exactly a great film (though it does have a huge fanbase), but it’s an important entry into the horror genre nonetheless. Known mostly for its extreme, and we do mean extreme, gore, this “unofficial sequel to George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (which was titled Zombi in some countries) is a hardcore and unashamed horror film that values style over substance, which results in a bloody good time and a real nail-biter.
Though the story is paper thin (and is there only to serve as a backdrop for the extreme violence) and the acting often questionable, Fulci’s Zombi 2 is an exercise in pushing boundaries, which actually resulted in the movie being banned in several countries. The film is define by its gore and bloodshed, and rightfully so. The gore effects here are gruesome, detailed and on full display for you to feast your eyes on. Trust us when we say that nothing is held back. There are truly some absolutely grotesque moments here, things that need to be seen to believed.
Zombi 2 is a staple in the sub-genre of zombie films and is widely considered a classic. At the end of the day it’s just a really enjoyable watch (if you can handle the gore), there’s no subtext or commentary like we saw in Dawn of the Dead, this is just pure unadulterated fun. It’s a wild ride (despite its slow burn), and at times just downright sinister, but we’ll be damned if it isn’t one hell of a zombie flick.
I mean, where else can you see a zombie go up against a shark? And the eyeball scene? My god, I wish I could un-see that.
[h2]27) Se7en[/h2]
The first time I ever watched Se7en was at my parent’s behest. After watching Saw together, they recommended this masterpiece to me, marking the first and last time they would pick an amazing movie to watch. This is a perfect storm of terrific acting and marvelous directing, combining the talents of David Fincher, Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt and Kevin Spacey to create one of the best (if not the best) psychological thrillers of all time.
But this is a horror list, you say? There’s more than enough horror to go around in Se7en, as each gruesome murder at the hands of the killer is shown in gory, gritty detail. Mind you, we don’t witness the murders, simply the aftermath, a fact that manages to make this film more chilling than it already is. The crime scene for the sin of sloth will haunt you for years to come, making air fresheners one of the most frightening things you could have in your life.
Movie buffs owe it to themselves to watch this straightaway.
[h2]26) The Fly[/h2]
Utter the words: horror remake, and most fans of horror would launch into a horrific tirade mainly decrying and ranting against Hollywood’s obsession with trashing originals by making abhorrent remakes. And people quite rightly do that, most horror remakes are deeply terrible. Some are however pretty good and are better than the original. In the case of The Fly, enfant terrible David Cronenberg made a brilliant decision to take a shoddy Hammer-esque romp, which had aged severely, and update it to his gruesome sensibilities while retaining a backbone of humanism.
The reliance on prosthetic make up effects and animatronics to create the gloopy monsters are still impressively gory and lend a timeless quality that CGI just doesn’t have. Jeff Goldblum’s role as the mad professor, whose experimentations with teleportation goes hideously wrong when his DNA structure is mingled with that of a common house fly, is fantastic, while reliable support is provided by Geena Davis and the terrific John Getz.
The film’s brilliance though lies in its ability to repel and emote, the final moments of The Fly are actually quite moving and it is in this that Cronenberg finds the reason for his updating of the material.
[h2]25) Dawn of the Dead[/h2]
What can one really say about George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead? It might just be the best zombie film ever made, and it’s certainly the most influential one. Unanimously praised by fans and critics alike, this is the real grand-daddy of zombie films, and horror films in general. And it’s not only the horror elements here that are worthy of praise, Romero’s satirical jabs at consumerism are also of note, as the film takes place mostly in a mall where the survivors are trapped.
It’s gory, it’s violent and at times downright terrifying, but it’s also an intelligent film that has influenced nearly every other piece in the genre since its 1978 release. Dawn of the Dead is undoubtedly a masterpiece, it acts extremely well as a straight up horror film, but the depth and insight that Romero brings to the film make it something truly special and really gives you something to think about.
Throw in Tom Savini’s make-up effects, The Goblin’s soundtrack, solid performances and some absolutely classic scenes, and you have one of the best horror films of all time, a truly groundbreaking movie.
[h2]24) Ringu[/h2]
There’s some debate over whether Ringu is actually scarier than its Hollywood remake, The Ring. Well that debate is ridiculous. The Ring may be scary, but Ringu takes the terrifying story to a whole other level. Japanese horror almost always has a frightening vibe, and Ringu is the best that’s come from that country in a long time.
The sinister way that the story simmers along while Asakawa researches deaths linked to a mysterious video tape builds the sense of dread to such a level that it’s almost unbearable to watch. The slightest hiss of “seven days” turns every phone ring into a reason to jump out of your skin for fear of who is on the other end of the line. The pool scene is so bleakly lit and filled with terrifying sounds that it’d be scary in itself, but throw in the masterfully created monster of a girl and Ringu makes for one of the scariest films of all time.
Werewolf movies are always kind of tough. You can’t get away from the fact that sooner or later, your main character has to turn into a furball. Thank God for the 80s, which brought some much needed camp into the werewolf subgenre.
John Landis’s An American Werewolf In London should be shown in a triple feature with Mike Nichols’s Wolf and Joe Dante’s The Howling. Here, we’ve got the typical werewolf narrative with a twist: basically decent guy David (David Naughton) gets bitten by a werewolf while on a walking tour of England with his good friend Jack (Dunne). Jack dies, but David survives and begins having some pretty freaky dreams about growing hair in odd places. He’s in London now, has met a pretty young nurse (Jenny Agutter) in the hospital, and all seems hunky-dorey … until Jack appears to him in a dream and informs him that he’s going to become a werewolf. Which he does.
An American Werewolf In London brings both the gore and the inherent humor of a guy turning into a Golden Retriever. The scenes of horror – thanks to amazing effects by Rick Baker – are off-set by tongue-in-cheek humor as David prowls the London Underground and the London Zoo. But David is still sympathetic, a guy who does not deserve what happens to him, just like Lon Chaney Jr. in The Wolf Man.
An American Werewolf in London is horror for the self-aware, but not the less scary (or sad) for all that.
[h2]22) The Descent[/h2]
Hands down one of the greatest modern-day horror tales, The Descent is any claustrophobic adventurer’s nightmare. Seriously, if you don’t like dimly lit tight spaces, the atmosphere Neil Marshall creates will have you gasping for air out of anxiety influenced terror.
Mix that unfiltered natural fear with blood-thirsty cave dwelling beasts who hunt our exploring main characters, and you’ve got the terrifyingly visceral film that is The Descent. As the characters venture deeper into the deadly underground labyrinth, their descent into madness only increases, culminating in a spectacular horror watch which will leave you emotionally jarred.
You cannot deny Brian DePalma’s Carrie is a horror film and yet it doesn’t belong exclusively to the macabre, doubling as a teenage morality tale with gruesome consequences. For those of you who haven’t seen it the film centres on Carrie White, a social misfit, who receives her first period which awakens in her a unique ability which causes devastation to her small town.
The film, based on the Stephen King novel, extends beyond the boundaries of your typical high school horror and plagues the audience with the ‘woman as monster’ archetype. It’s not a beastie under the bed, or an entity you can’t see, it’s a teenage girl.
A common trope exploited in horror the archetype poses female characters as villainous towards their male counterparts. Oddly enough, this is thought to be due to the similarity of women with monsters; monsters mutate and terrify with their utter disregard for traditional body boundaries and women mutate and terrify husbands when they squeeze babies from their pleasure hole.
Carrie occupies that space to perfection, as the menstruating woman shrieking and wide-eyed who believes herself to be dying, only to be ridiculed and mocked by her peers for her ignorance.
Either a clever plot point or nuanced performances by the supporting cast never make clear people’s intentions towards Carrie. Is Sue, who out of guilt forces her dishy boyfriend Tommy Ross to take Carrie to the prom, genuinely altruistic? Does Miss Collins, doling out gym detentions and saying ‘shitty’ to students, truly care for Carrie’s well-being? You can’t help but twinge with empathy for Carrie as she struggles to accept the kindness of others after a lifetime of ostracism.
By the time the finale rolls around and the fate of each player is divided neatly into De Palma’s you-can’t-believe-it-actually-works split screen, you’re aghast at how quickly a prank escalates into (pig) bloodshed and just want it to end for poor Carrie.
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