The 45 Greatest Scary Movies Of All Time: Part 1 (45-31)

It’s that time of year–the time where the  Autumn leaves smother yards and jack-o’-lanterns take their place upon porches.   The one night a year where it’s legal for the kiddies to solicit the neighbors for food.  The time of year for costumes and overpriced pumpkin-flavored beer.  It’s Halloween, and what better way to take in the season than by hiding your eyes under the covers as you try to watch some of the 45 greatest horror movies of all time?

Note:  I am not a professional movie critic.  I just fully appreciate  Halloween and all that entails. Although your opinion is what makes the world goes around, I’m  just a simple fan of the horror genre.  Besides, Time Magazine listed Bambi as one of  their scariest movies so cut me some slack , would ya?

45:  Deliverance:  Released in 1972, and based on the James Dickey novel of the same name.  Deliverance was one of the first films to feature an all male rape scene.  As awful as the scene was to watch, and the sound of that hillbilly squealing like a pig as he violates the unsuspecting “city folk,” someone found the film to be quite significant.  It was selected for the US National Film Registry in 2008.  Bottom line, hillbillies are fucking weird.

44:A Clockwork Orange:  I loathe this film but, I felt it deserved a place in the countdown due to it’s historical significance.  Directed by Stanley Kubrick, and released in 1971, it has remained an underground, cult hit since.  Horrific scenes of gang violence and rape  riddle the film along  with the weirdest-looking  Beethoven-listening English guy I’ve ever seen make it pretty damn scary.

43:The Blair Witch Project: Capitalizing on the growing interest in the Internet in 1999, this film had a great marketing scheme in setting up a web site explaining how three students went on a hiking trip deep in the Black Hills to find the elusive Blair Witch.  The students ended up missing, and all that was found was the horrifying images that they filmed with their hand-held camera, the footage resulted in the film itself which was originally passed off as a true story.  Other than its promotional value, the scariest thing about this movie was that girl’s awful voice.

42: Psycho:  Directed bysuspense legend Alfred Hitchcock and released in 1960. Psycho and the all-too-famous shower scene took the world by storm even after facing lame reviews.  It’s on the list for it’s value but low on the list for generally just being boring.

41: The Amityville Horror: Based on a true story, I can see how this film could  have been taken as horrifying. Years after The Amityville Horror and its 200 sequels and the 1 remake that followed, not to mention multiple books and articles on how the real-life family was full of shit, it lost a lot of luster.

40: Dead Alive: Back in 1992,  the last thing on Peter Jackson’s mind were Hobbits and over-sized apes.  He started off directing straight-up B-movie gorefests that were so awful they were absolutely hilarious.  Bad acting, bad special effects, and above all, bad taste.  What more does a man need?

39: The Hills Have Eyes: One of Wes Craven’s earlier films about a family who ends up stranded in the vast deserts of California.  They end up being hunted by a family of deformed cannibals.  The main chill factor in the film has got to be the character Pluto, played by actor Michael Berryman, who was born with ectodermal dysplasia, which results in a unique physical deformities perfect for playing a radioactive cannibal wild-ass.

38: The Hitcher: Personally, as a kid in 1986, this movie scared the hell out of me.  You always heard of urban legends regarding the picking up of hitchhikers and C. Thomas Howell certainly learned his lesson.  Now as an adult it still frightens me for the simple fact the Rutger Hauer just got weirder looking the  older he got.

37: Misery:  As a writer, watching this film gets to me.  Not because of the horrific trauma he suffers from his  so called “biggest fan”.  I simply felt jealous for him even having a fan.  So piss on you James Caan and your broke ass ankles.

36:Saw: Originally rated NC-17.  This 2004 horror sensation featured the serial killer Jigsaw, who took a much more calculated approach to killing than the run-of-the-mill machete-wielding meatheads.  The suspense in this film was both breathtaking and complicated.  Saw definitely deserves it spot in Horror history.

35:Scream:  Directer Wes Craven came out of nowhere in 1996 with the rebirth of the “slasher” flick.  Spawning two sequels and truckloads of copycat, teenie-bopper, crap fests. No two hours of any of these films even came close to the first fifteen minutes of the original.

34: House Of 1000 Corpses: Rob Zombie is a true fan of Horror and, his debut film definitely proved it.  Although it was slated as a true fast-paced gore fest it was overshadowed by Zombie’s own off color comedy.  The film’s true highlight is the genius of actor Sid Haig and his portrayal of the smooth talking, gun toting, chicken peddling, Captain Spaulding.

33:Signs: M. Night Shyamalan is, to put it simply,  overrated and, to an extent, just plain silly.  With the same monotonous “twist” in every film the shock has faded, however,  being a Sci-Fi geek as well as a Horror fan I couldn’t pass this one up.  Shyamalan’s  methodical approach to introducing the aliens in this film wore on every nerve in my body. Just check out the birthday party scene. Gives me chills just thinking about it.

32:Salem’s Lot:  Originally a mini-series.  This Stephen King short story finally made it to the big screen in 1979.  Directed by the Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s Tobe Hooper, and featuring a slew of nods to earlier vampire films such as Nosferatu.  The movie was a definite improvement over the failed television series and to this day remains one of the most memorable and creepy films of the genre.

31:The Last House On The Left:  In 1972, Wes Craven once again wanted to change the face of Horror films.  He originally wanted the film to have more of a sexually hardcore edge as well as pushing the limits of gore.  For the times however, the movie ended up being a bit much for the film industry and the rating system, and some major edits were enforced.  Even with the deleted footage the film was still breaking all boundaries and was even banned from being sold in the United Kindom for over 30 years.

Next week: Films 30 through 16.

Related posts:

1. The 45 Greatest Scary Movies Of All Time: Part 2 (30-16)
2. The 45 Greatest Scary Movies Of All Time:(Part 3)