top 10 scariest movies ever made
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09-04-2009 1:16 PM
The top 10 scariest movies ever made - as decided by DUSK! Do you disagree? Email us your top 10 lists and we'll post the best ones!
This is by no means a definitive list, or safe from ridicule (no such lists ever are) so if you disagree, write to us!
1. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (U.S., 1974)
Through relentless pursuit and unnerving sounds - especially from the thoroughly believable screams of pain and fright from the actors - the film generates a terrifying pitch. By the time moments of physical violence happens, the film stops short of depicting gory details, allowing our darkest imaginations to fill in the blanks. Ultimately thought-induced images are far more horrific then any special effect can be, and this movie exploits that to the fullest. In short, a most terrifying viewing experience.
2. Spoorloos (The Vanishing - Netherlands/France, 1988)
Professor Elliott Leyton wrote a definitive study of serial and mass murderers called Hunting Humans. In it, he concludes serial killers are not larger-than-life maniacs (i.e. Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal) but "straight arrows"; seemingly harmless people who fool even those closest to them. To look at them you have no idea of their secret life of brutality, torture, rape and murder. This film captures that conclusion. Few things are as scary as the banality of evil, and the menace in this film - not fully realized until the final moments - is some of the most chilling ever seen.
3. Targets (U.S., 1968)
Because movies are such a voyeuristic experience it's easy to feel a disconnected thrill when watching bad guys do bad things. It has an unreal quality, like watching a cartoon. But this film's sense of realism - achieved mostly through the believability of the characters than its visual style - achieves a uncomfortable level of dread for the fate of its victims. Targets also directly addresses the question of "What is horror?" within the context of film, emphasizing that the classic conventions of film horror in the form of monsters and the supernatural is not truly scary; that the real world holds far greater horror. No movie better illustrates that than this one.
4. Miracle Mile (U.S., 1989)
Ever have one of those nightmares when you're running away from something, and towards safety, but never seem to make any progress in either direction? That's what this film feels like; a dreamt nightmare in the guise of a possible reality (nuclear holocaust). It's also a story of incredible romantic love. After all horror works best when the viewer actually cares about the fate of the characters and, in this case, there's much to care about.
5. The Collector (U.S., 1965)
Terence Stamp plays an obsessive young man who kidnaps a woman and intends to keeps her prisoner until she falls in love with him. Of course, in such circumstances, such a transformation is impossible. But the kidnapper doesn't fathom that. Nor does the victim realize the impossibility of her situation. When she finally does, the film is at its most chilling. Rarely has a film captured such a deep level of bleakness, despair and injustice.
6. Seven (U.S., 1995)
Few films divide viewers as much as this one. What seems to separate them is their particular view of justice. Because narrative films are traditionally morality tales where good wins over evil (usually with "good" blowing away "evil" and walking away free of both guilt and responsibility), this film's resistance to walk down this path of film fantasy is understandably upsetting. But that's part of its power of disturb. Ultimately it pleads for a society that embraces passivism, for without it, we are doomed to repeat the cycle of brutality mankind continues to inflict on its own kind.
7. Dressed To Kill (U.S., 1980)
Alfred Hitchcock will forever be acknowledged as the master of suspense, and Brian De Palma as a cheap imitator. But Hitchcock never freaked me out as much as De Palma has, and this is one of the better examples. The scariest moments in this film (and there are more than a few) are consistently preceded by a sense of safety. Thus, when you least expect it, violent action jumps up and makes you gasp - if not scream. Besides, any film that can make a wordless visit to the museum its most suspenseful sequence (De Palma would later top this with his Odessa Steps homage in The Untouchables) is worthy of high praise.
8. Alien (U.S., 1979)
This is a truly masterful film that takes the haunted house concept and sets it in a plausible space future. It also has the scariest-looking monster ever to appear in cinema. Though we only see glimpses of it throughout, much like the visual style of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the film allows our imaginations to generate the most disturbing images.
9. John Carpenter's The Thing (U.S., 1982)
John Carpenter's films can feel like amateur productions, full of limp dialogue, stodgy acting, and listless visuals. What saves them is their fantastic stories of alien invasions, apocalyptic worlds and the supernatural. This film is easily his best. It takes an exceptional sci-fi/horror story and dresses it with top-notch character actors, exciting visuals, an unusual setting, great f/x and a mesmerizing score by the legendary Ennio Morricone. Normally gore effects seem out-of-place and, to me, unnecessary in horror films but here, they are an integral part of the story: an alien creature that adapts to its environment and has a different defense mechanism for every circumstance. Make-up artist Rob Bottin created some of the most original, terrifying concepts and, 20 years later, has yet to be outdone.
10. The Chekist (Russia, 1992)
This is the least-known film here, and it's not surprising. When this film played the festival circuit it was so revolting that many viewers walked out. Of course its premise didn't fit neatly into most people's idea of a horror movie either, so it's floated in limbo ever since. Based on the Stalin Purges in the 1930s the film details the systematic execution of civilians by the Cheka, the Soviet Secret Police. Scene after scene we watch as innocent people are hustled into a basement, stripped naked, lined up against a wall, shot, and carted away. The executioners show no emotions as they carry out their tasks. They look like they're handling widgets on an assembly line. You even see them break for lunch and share a joke or two, while the next batch of victims await their inevitable fate. It's this cold detachment - and the knowledge that this likely resembles the reality of that time - that chills me more than anything. Man is the only animal on earth capable of such brutality and, as with many of the examples above, it is cinema's dramatization of these human qualities that makes true horror.
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