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Catch Halloween spirit with top horror films

By Carter Moulton (Last updated: 10/29/09 11:27pm)

Honorable Mentions:

“Halloween” (1978)

“Rosemary’s Baby” (1968)

“Les yeux sans visage” (1960)

10. “The Phantom of the Opera” (1925)

Director: Rupert Julian

Country: United States

“Feast your eyes! Glut your soul on my accursed ugliness!”

Rupert Julian’s “The Phantom of the Opera” is best adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s novel. Andrew Lloyd Webber turned the story into a cash cow Broadway musical, and while Webber’s music is endearing, the tone of Leroux’s work is flipped upside down. Webber would have us believe in a sweeping tale of romance and passion — but this is dark, dark stuff. The Phantom isn’t buff and handsome as Webber would have us believe; he’s a ghoulish monster with crooked teeth and beaten eye sockets. His stranglehold over the theater creates an atmosphere of paranoia and fear. There’s controversy concerning the production of the film as well with alternate versions in existence, making Julian’s film even more mysterious.

Signature moment: The most famous scene is the masquerade sequence (which was shot in Technicolor), but in terms of pure horror, the unmasking of Erik (the Phantom) takes the cake. Erik wears his mask as he plays the piano as Christine, Erik’s true love, creeps up behind him. She tears the mask off, and the Phantom’s stunned face is revealed. Crowds ran out of the theater and fainted at the sight.

9. “Night of the Living Dead” (1968)

Director: George A. Romero

Country: United States

“They’re coming to get you, Barbara!”

George A. Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” tells the most straightforward story you can think of: Zombies are murdering and eating victims, so the heroes board themselves up in a house and attempt to survive the night. Romero would go on to make other zombie films like “Dawn of the Dead” in 1978, but those films more or less mock the zombie genre. This film, with its lo-fi picture and convincing execution, embraces the genre and the result is much like a video game. Watching the distinct characters work together to survive presents a commentary on humankind’s struggles as well.

Signature moment: The eerie scene in the beginning where siblings Barbara and Johnny pay their respects to their father’s grave site serves as the perfect preface for the rest of the film. Barbara doesn’t feel safe in the graveyard, and Johnny teases her for it. A man is shown slowly walking in the distance, and as he approaches the siblings, Johnny mocks the situation even more. Then the man lunges for Barbara, throttling her before Johnny steps in.

8. “The Shining” (1980)

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Country: United States

“Here’s Johnny!”

Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” is loosely based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name. The film is a psychological “haunted house” story with the Overlook Hotel being the house. Kubrick’s a master of creating surreal imagery and making viewers uncomfortable — and there’s no exception here: little girls stand motionless in hallways, ghosts appear in the bathroom and a man in a bear costume performs sexual acts on a tuxedoed man. It’s hard to determine what’s scarier, the pale-faced Wendy squirming in terror or Jack Nicholson’s eyebrows pointed toward hell.

Signature moment: Everyone knows about the famous scene where Jack Torrance pounds an axe into the bathroom door and yells “Here’s Johnny!” But perhaps the most frightening look into Torrance’s mind is the scene where he slowly approaches Wendy, following her up the staircase and comforting her with, “I’m not gonna hurt you. I’m just gonna bash your brains in.”

7. “Låt den rätte komma in” (2008)

Director: Tomas Alfredson

Country: Sweden

“To flee is life, to linger, death.”

“Låt den rätte komma in,” or “Let The Right One In,” isn’t the most fear-provoking film of all time, nor does it try to be. It’s the most profound look into the life of vampires cinema has seen yet — yes, even more so than “Twilight.” Oskar is a 12-year-old boy who’s constantly bullied at school and Eli is a 12-year-old girl who needs human blood to survive. Their friendship is tense at times but mostly poetic. It’s the scenes where Eli is tempted or in need of blood that the startles arrive.

Signature moment: While most of the signature scenes aren’t horrific at all — in fact, they’re quite the opposite — for the purpose of this list, the scene where Eli preys on her first victim is of note. Pretending to be a homeless, helpless girl she lures in her target. The victim picks her up to take her to a safe place when she suddenly wraps her legs around him and takes control, gnawing at his jugular.

6. “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” (1974)

Director: Tobe Hooper

Country: United States

“My brother makes good head cheese! You like head cheese?”

Tobe Hooper’s “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” is about as exploitive as a film can get. Characters are thrown around like rag dolls and chopped up like uncooked chicken. The film’s willingness to display gruesome violence, while complementing it with unnerving suspense, increases its shock value. Leatherface and his chain saw have become icons in Hollywood horror, but don’t forget about the queasy quality of the hitchhiker and the old man.

Signature moment: The ending is insane. Leatherface and the hitchhiker chase Sally down the road. The hitchhiker stabs Sally repeatedly and the film’s conclusion seems apparent, but a truck driver approaches and helps Sally escape the madmen. The road becomes a circus of terror, with Sally screaming, the truck driver grabbing a wrench from his truck, Leatherface swinging his chain saw and vehicles driving past. It’s a rare example of such horror occurring in mid-daylight with onlookers involved, and its imagery resonates long after the film is over.

5. “Blue Velvet” (1986)

Director: David Lynch

Country: United States

“The candy-colored clown they call the Sandman.”

David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet” is many things in addition to horror, but the film’s production of one of the most wicked human villains in cinema history — Frank Booth — merits a spot on this list. The film starts and ends with the discovery of a severed ear in the middle of a park. Lynch’s terror doesn’t take place in a faraway land but in a utopian suburbia, and Lynch’s message is clear: We all live among scary people, whether we realize it or not.

Signature moment: The most disturbing scene shows Jeffrey Beaumont, the protagonist, helplessly peering out of Dorothy Vallens’ closet while he witnesses Booth command, “spread your legs” to Vallens. Booth crawls toward Vallens, reaching for his gas mask and living out fetishes too disturbing to describe. All Beaumont can do is watch.

4. “Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari” (1920)

Director: Robert Wiene

Country: Germany

“You die at dawn!”

Robert Wiene’s “Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari,” or “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,” is widely considered to be the first horror film ever made. Keeping in mind the expressionist movement of German cinema in the ’20s, the film’s set design is as equally as nightmarish as Caligari himself. Caligari and his circus performer Cesare, a somnambulist, lurk through the jagged buildings and streets of the town, murdering and kidnapping civilians, particularly those who are friends of Francis (the protagonist). Is it ironic that the first horror film ever made also features the best twist ending?

Signature moment: Cesare tiptoes into Jane’s (the love interest of Francis) room. He grabs her by the throat, with his face painfully smiling as he hoists the flailing Jane. He carries her up a crooked path, and it’s then up to Francis to save her.

3. “The Exorcist” (1973)

Director: William Friedkin

Country: United States

“I’m the Devil. Now kindly undo these straps.”

William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist” is wet-the-bed scary, not only because of the visual frights, but because of the subject matter. The transfiguration of Regan from an innocent, sweet little girl into a mucus-faced, demon-possessed monster is enough to cause a mental breakdown. If scares alone determined the rankings, “The Exorcist” would be No. 1, but a handful of sequences, including one too many scenes depicting the exercising habits of Father Karras, push it back a few spots.

Signature moment: As Father Karras and Father Merrin attempt to exorcise Regan, who’s strapped to her bed, the bed begins to shake. As they continue reading from the Bible, she begins to bark at them, and later in the exorcism she breaks through the bed straps and slowly lifts off of the bed into the air. The priests, who up until that point have religiously recited the appropriate passages, gaze in fear, and silence fills the room.

2. “Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens” (1922)

Director: F.W. Murnau

Country: Germany

“Blood! Your precious blood!”

F.W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu” is the definitive version of Count Dracula’s tale, although the vampire in the film goes by the name of Count Orlok because the production company couldn’t obtain rights to Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” novel. Orlok’s makeup and costume combine to form one of the most menacing images ever shown the screen. With his elongated fingers and enlarged eyeballs that pop every time blood comes into his view, Orlok’s threat is that he begins in the fairy tale world of Transylvania but later travels to civilization to wreak havoc on the townspeople — even sunlight doesn’t kill him.

Signature moment: Thomas Hutter, who’s been sent to visit Orlok on business, is eating dinner with the Count when he accidentally slices his finger while cutting a loaf of bread. Orlok gets up from his seat and walks toward Hutter with his eyes and arms pointing toward the open wound. Hutter stands and backpedals in panic, but Orlok just stands there, staring like a child on Christmas morning.

1. Psycho (1960)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Country: United States

“A boy’s best friend is his mother.”

Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” delves into the dark psychology of humanity, with voyeurism and eroticism being linked to murder and pleasure. For Marion Crane, a young woman who steals $40,000 from work and skips town, victimization is a central theme as trouble follows her wherever she travels. This includes the Bates Motel, which is owned and ran by Norman Bates. Bates lives in an old mansion neighboring the motel, where he takes care of his frail but commanding mother. Mysterious killings occur at the motel throughout the film, with Bates’ mother only appearing as a vague silhouette in the upstairs window of the Bates’ Mansion. Hitchcock wants the audience to feel uneasy about Bates, who has a schoolboy charm but an overly-anxious undertone. His ability to give him that ambiguity makes the ending that much more threatening.

Signature moment: Although the shower scene is one of the most widely recognized horror scenes of all time, it’s the ghastly look on Bates’ face as he enters the fruit cellar that is most unnerving. Lila Crane is the to-be victim here and she’s just discovered the truth about the Bates family. In flies Bates, dressed in his mother’s clothing and wielding a knife above his head. The pleasure he acquires by playing a sadistic and seemingly erotic game of house is bloodcurdling.