There are a myriad of horror films: from the American Laird Kregar to the Russian Nikolai Gogol, from Japanese horror films to the Mexican pearl Alucard. Introducing the best horror movies.
Also don't miss: 20 GREAT HORROR FILMS OF ALL TIME. PART 1
10. '' Night of the Living Dead '(George Romero, 1968)
The iconic black and white film, directed by independent director George Romero, is a horror classic. The budget of the film was modest, so zombies were invented with their own hands, special effects were used, simple and rare, and the actors were not professionals. There was no money for a high-quality camera, but the graininess of the picture was beneficial, giving the necessary anxiety. According to Romero, Ben's role was not written for a black actor and any commentary on race in the film is accidental. However, the symbolism of the cast cannot be ignored. Dwayne Jones landed a very rare role at the time: a black actor in the film against the backdrop of a racially tense America undergoing significant social change as a result of the civil rights movement. Romera denies discussing the topic of racism in the film, but the choice of actors has opened it up to various interpretations and analysis. The film spawned several sequels and remakes. Of particular note is "Night of the Living Dead" 1990, where Tony Todd played the role of Ben.
9. "Alien" (Ridley Scott, 1979)
You can outlive Alien, but you can never truly avoid it - and not just because Ridley Scott will probably never stop making sequels and prequels. "Alien" has gone so far from its origins. Almost 40 years have passed since his birth. It's hard to remember how horrible the original film was, so let's remind you that the crew of the spacecraft Nostromo wakes up from suspended animation after receiving a distress call. John Hurt meets a not-so-friendly creature called the Facehugger. The said creature spawns something even worse that kills everyone on board the Nostromo except Ellen Ripley. The slogan of the film: "No one in space will hear your cry." But those on earth are so unlucky.
8. "The Thing" (John Carpenter, 1982)
John Carpenter creates paranoia and fear in The Thing. Few directors have faced this kind of tension. When Antarctic explorers cross paths with an alien lifeform capable of assimilating its victims, suspicion and fear builds up frame by frame. The special effects and creature designs are some of the finest in the history of cinema. This film grabs the throat and does not let go.
7. "Eyes without a face" (Georges Frangue, 1960)
Fairy tales can often use the same fears as horror films: fear of rejection, loneliness, aging, loss of beauty. Eyes Without a Face is a twisted fairytale film with terrifying soundtracks by Maurice Jarre. Georges Frangue's story is about a plastic surgeon obsessed with preserving his daughter's appearance - her face was disfigured in an accident. The father's only decision is a face transplant. But for this you need to kill women and take their faces. Alas, the daughter's body inevitably rejects skin grafts. There is so much sense here: the idea that the loss of beauty is the same as death itself (the father arranged a funeral for his daughter and hides her from the world), and that beauty is worth killing (with Alida Valli as the "hunter" kidnapping young women). “Eyes without a face” say that ultimate sadness is when happiness itself becomes an injustice: in order to get something for oneself, the only solution is to take from another.
6. "Psycho" (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
"Psycho" is practically a new era of cinema. There are before and after, and nowhere has anything quite like it. Perhaps all of today's questions are about: what is a film? and what is television? go back to "Psycho". Hitchcock filmed this picture with the crew of his television show "Alfred Hitchcock Presents." The director, with the help of Psycho, proved that it would be impossible for all the numerous imitators to capture his style. Despite all the fears and shocks, the film contains black humor and tricky jokes. Exciting moments when Norman is slightly worried that Marion Crane's car stops sinking in the swamp for a moment; the memories of the sheriff's wife of choosing a funeral dress for Mrs Bates; a challenge to the pseudo-scientific nonsense that the psychiatrist spews at the end, trying to "explain" everything that happened. Then it becomes clear that no explanation will suffice. There are such things in life, and Psycho is Hitchcock's cinematic grin at our futile attempts to make sense of meaninglessness.
5. “Halloween” (John Carpenter, 1978)
There were many horror films before legendary slasher John Carpenter debuted in 1978. Halloween has found the perfect formula to turn a creepy holiday into an unforgettable one. Jamie Lee Curtis is the perfect Final Girl as Laurie Strode and the Boogeyman Who Can't Die. Halloween changed the horror genre forever. When Michael Myers was only six years old, his older sister was inexplicably murdered on Halloween. After that, he spent most of his life in an asylum. But on the fateful Halloween night of 1978, he returns home to Haddonfield for a murderous rampage that terrorizes Laurie and her friends. With a disfigured face hidden behind a hideous white mask, Myers chases and kills him through another movie. Although Carpenter would have technically killed him in the 1980s in Halloween II. Myers proved so popular that he was resurrected again in 1988 to create some more horror stories still loved by fans.
4. "The Exorcist" (William Friedkin, 1973)
Almost half a century after the film's release, The Exorcist remains one of the scariest films ever made for one reason - there is significant discomfort from the contrast between an innocent young girl and a demon possessing her soul. Linda Blair's fruitful performance as 12-year-old Regan, her head bending over and vomiting. Harassing laughter and careless vulgarity embody the idea that nothing is sacred. Even the perspectives of the biblical Max von Sydow do not guarantee that everything will be rosy for poor Regan and her family. Friedkin, who was hardly a first-class horror genre, approaches William Peter Blatty's novel with the same sophistication he brought to countless other genres at the height of his career. The Exorcist is one of the most grossing films in history. The film spawned several sequels and television series, but none of them matched the clarity with which the original reveals the mythology of upper-middle-class America in such deep, unsettling moments. Decades later, Fridkin presented a documentary about exorcism, The Devil and Father Amorth. The plot of the film proved how this fruitful achievement of the director continues to haunt his creator and generations of moviegoers.
3. “Rosemary's Baby” (Roman Polanski, 1968)
The viewer experiences anxiety from the moment Mia Farrow begins to sing. Roman Polanski's masterpiece sinks its claws into you and leaves the same terrible mark as on Rosemary herself. Evil is not an unknowable entity. This story is about a woman run by her husband and neighbors. If there is no shaban of singing witches at night, then the pregnancy is rather alarming. This doubly grieves poor Rosemary's suspicion that they made a pact with Lucifer for her unborn child. Polanski's approach to psychological horror deserves a doctorate. Rosemary's Baby has become even creepier over time - and not just because we now know more about Polanski than we did 50 years ago.
2.The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974)
The 1970s changed the horror genre forever, and Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was the catalyst. A group of friends stumbled upon a literal Texas horror house filled with a deranged cannibal family led by one of the worst horror villains, Leatherface, wearing a mask made of human skin. Breaking free from the clutches of a leather face with a chainsaw, Sally became the Final Girl of Horror who survived, conquered fear and became an angel of vengeance, drenched in blood. While Final Girls have undergone multiple empowerment transformations, these tropes remain one of the greatest feminist horror accomplishments.
1. "The Shining" (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)
The mistake is not in the ghosts that haunt us, but in ourselves. Wouldn't Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) follow his psychotic path in The Shining, no matter what? When we first met him, he was already involved in a domestic violence incident with his son. The Shining has a certain dream logic, very similar to that of Kubrick in Eyes Wide Shut.
Nineteen years later, this suggests that if you are afraid of something but brush it off, it might be true. This fear doesn't lie. If your instinct tells you that your husband might try to kill you and your son, there is probably a very good reason for this instinct. Denial is necessary to just live life, to get through each day. But horror films invariably show that denial can kill too. This, of course, almost kills Wendy and Danny in The Shining, but they wake up, change and see the reality of their situation without making any more excuses, and so they start living. Many of us don't - walking blindly through life so hard, as if we could just as well freeze in the snow, doomed to repeat mistakes over and over again, as if we really have always been a caretaker.
We recommend watching:
Top 10 horror movies worth watching! Best Movies! from the DRAGLER channel. An excellent collection of good movies to watch at night with movie shots.
