BAM Column: Scary movies recommended for Friday the 13th
“Psycho”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
It’s Friday the 13th all over again
These chilling choices on DVD will provide some eerie entertainment and leave you screaming for more
Through a quirk of the calendar, it’s Friday the 13th all over again.
Yes, we just marked that special day of black cats, broken mirrors and other superstitions back in February. But you know the drill: When February has 27 days, we get that weird repeat of the same dates on the same days in March.
So, Friday the 13th is back, and naturally, so is some horror movie from the past. Last month, a remake of the 1980 slasher classic “Friday the 13th” opened on the titular day. Today, a do-over of the 1972 horror thriller “The Last House on the Left” comes to theaters.
I’m not a fan of remakes, particularly of horror films, because the studios just want to crank them out fast and cheap and then dash off with a reasonably rich opening-weekend take. Frankly, it’s creepier than most of the villains in these chintzy re-dos.
Friday the 13th still offers a great time for cinematic scares, but my advice is to skip the remakes, forget the sequels and go straight for high-quality horror on DVD.
The 1980 version of “Friday the 13th” is an obvious choice, but here are 10 of my favorite fright flicks, listed in no particular order, to keep you up tonight:
1. “Halloween” (1978): If “Friday the 13th” doesn’t satisfy your yen for serial killers slashing sex-crazed teenagers, keep in mind that this John Carpenter film starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence isn’t just for Oct. 31.
2. “Jaws” (1975): Between the great performances and John Williams’ urgent, Oscar-winning score, Steven Spielberg’s creature feature continues to foster a fear of the ocean in millions of movie lovers.
3. “Psycho” (1960): Again, music helps strike a fear of water in the hearts of filmgoers. Bernard Hermann’s distinctive scoring of Janet Leigh’s famed shower demise remains a highlight of this Alfred Hitchcock classic.
“28 Days Later”
4. “28 Days Later” (2002): This was my favorite Danny Boyle film until the British director helmed Oscar winner “Slumdog Millionaire.” The film revived the zombie subgenre as it follows a group of survivors trying to avoid infection by a powerful virus that turns its victims into lightning-quick, mindless murders.
5. “Night of the Living Dead” (1968): And what’s a scary movie list without radiation-transformed hordes relentlessly preying on human flesh? George Romero has created several sequels, with “… Of the Dead” set for 2009 release, but the original low-budget black-and-white film should be required viewing for horror fans.
6. “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1956): Sci-fi scares don’t get any better than this McCarthyism metaphor about a California town whose residents are slowly replaced with emotionless “pod people” planted by sinister aliens. I prefer the original, but the 1978 version starring Donald Sutherland, Leonard Nimoy and Jeff Goldblum is the rare worthwhile remake.
“Let the Right One In”
7. “Let the Right One In” (2008): This acclaimed and affecting Swedish film just debuted on DVD this week. Intensely spooky and romantic, it centers on a bullied boy (Kåre Hedebrant) who befriends his strange new neighbor Eli (Lina Leandersson) only to learn she is a vampire.
8. “The Mist” (2007): Frank Darabont (“The Shawshank Redemption”) again successfully adapts a Stephen King novella, only this time the results are harrowing instead of uplifting. When a freaky mist covers a small town, a group of residents takes shelter in a grocery store. Blood-thirsty creatures are lurking in the haze, but it’s hard to tell whether the mysterious beasts are as scary as the panicky mob trapped inside the store.
“The Frighteners”
9. “The Frighteners” (1996): Before he won Oscar glory for “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, Peter Jackson wrote and directed this underrated horror-comedy about a widower (Michael J. Fox) who uses his ability to see ghosts to track a serial killer still wreaking havoc from beyond the grave. Among the teen-oriented schlock of the “Scream”s and “I Know What You Did Last Summer”s, Jackson’s film offered a refreshingly original change of pace in the ’90s.
10. “The Evil Dead” (1981): Sam Raimi’s extra-violent, super-gory, low-budget horror flick about a group of college students who accidentally unleash vengeful demons launched the career of B-movie icon Bruce Campbell and still offers a scary good time. It is the best exception to the rule that horror sequels stink; “Evil Dead II” and “Army of Darkness” are worthy successors.
-BAM
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It was nice to see “The Frighteners” on this list. I think people forget how scary it is because it also had comedy in it. Gary Busey’s boy Jake is just as good at playing a maniac as his father, and the FBI agent is CREEPY in this flick.