Just in time for Halloween: BAM’s reprised list of horror movie recommendations
Jamie Lee Curtis in “Halloween”
Back in spring, I compiled a list of 10 of my favorite horror movies available on DVD in honor of Friday the 13th. Since Halloween is nigh, I’m posting it again, with a few slight modifications, for your potential viewing enjoyment. Happy Halloween!
1. “Halloween” (1978): This John Carpenter film starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence isn’t just for Oct. 31. But it’ll certain satisfy your spooky-season yen for serial killers slashing sex-crazed teenagers.
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.
From left, Brendan Gleeson, Cillian Murphy and Naomie Harris in “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, 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.
7. “Let the Right One In” (2008): This acclaimed and affecting Swedish film is intensely spooky and strangely 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.
From left, Laurie Holden, Thomas Jane and Nathan Gamble in “The Mist”
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.
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. Raimi also has a new horror film, “Drag Me to Hell,” out on DVD, and I’m looking forward to checking it out.
-BAM
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