Horror: One of my favorite genres. Part 2 (Movies)
Horror: One of my favorite genres. Part 2 (Movies)

Horror: One of my favorite genres. Part 2 (Movies)

In my last post exploring my favorite genre of Horror I wrote about horror in the written form. In this post I will be talking about horror in movie form.

Along with horror stories I have been watching horror movies since my school days. It started with a TV show called ‘Aahat’, Sony’s horror series. The best thing about Aahat was its theme music and the opening animated sequence. ‘Zee Horror show’ was another show which too had an equally chilling theme music. The skull at the start of the show used to terrify me more than the show itself.

The following movies are some of my favorites. I like psychological horror which involves little to almost no gore. Slasher movies don’t interest me and I don’t bother watching them.

Ring, the Hollywood remake.
Ring was a great movie which reignited my interest in horror. Its ending remains one of my most favorite horror moments. After ‘Ring’ I started looking for horror movies.

The Wicker Man by Robin Hardy
This was the most recent horror movie I saw and this is a horror movie like no other. Other horror movies have normal events taking place and then things turn for the worse. But in ‘the wicker man’ from the beginning you sense an undercurrent of foreboding. And there are no sudden sound effects, everything is shown so casually and normally. And yet as time passes by you can feel the helplessness and the desperation of the lead character. This film is not easy to forget.

The Exorcist by William Friedkin
The story of an exorcism of a young girl has some spine chilling moments. The spider walk down the stairs was one such. The theme song tubular bells provided the perfect atmosphere for the movie. I was once narrating a horror story to a friend and along with it I was humming this music in between words. After a few minutes into the story he stopped me exclaiming that I was unnerving him.

The Shining by Stanley Kubrick 
This has a superb premise. The sense of isolation is one of many factors of a horror movie and shining excels in it. The three characters are shut off from the world and the effects of the isolation slowly start showing in the main lead. Jack Nicholson’s acting adds to the already tense setup.

The Thing by John Carpenter
Again isolation plays a main role here.The research station in the Arctic plays a perfect part as the background of this masterpiece. 

Alien by Ridley Scott
The opening sequence where we first see the spacecraft and then slowly the different parts of it remains one of my favourite opening sequences. The stillness and the lifelessness of the craft provide a prelude to the coming events.
  
The Blair Witch Project
 It remained with me for a long time. The whole premise of a group of students documenting a trip to a haunted forest to investigate the rumours of a witch was very interesting. The camping scene was truly terrifying. Nothing is seen except the expressions of the actors as they listen to some unusual sound coming from the forest around them. When I was camping in the hills of Uttarakhand all I could think of during the night was this movie.

The Birds by the great Alfred Hitchcock. 
 Birds will never look the same again after you see this movie. Back home we have a lane which  is lined with trees on both sides and every evening crows crowd the branches and caw continuously. The last time when I was walking there all I could think of were the birds of the movie ‘Birds’. It was a bit unnerving. I chuckled to myself thinking of the effect the movie was having on me.

The Sixth Sense by Night Shyamalan.
The story of a boy who could see dead people has a scare a minute. The twist in the ending is one of the best ever.

Some other movies which I like:

  • The Village by Night Shyamalan
  • The Others by Alejandro Amenabar
  • Jaws by Steven Speilberg
  • Night of the Living Dead by George Romero
  • Ju on.The Grudge by Takashi Shimuzu
  • Scream  by Wes Craven
  • Session 9 by Brad Anderson
  • Signs by Night Shyamalan
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