Scream Play- A list of the Top 10 Horror movies
Carved pumpkins, creepy costumes- it’s that time of the year again. Halloween! Horror movies have forever been like monsters – mistreated, misunderstood and subject to critical attacks. For most, these movies are nothing but fun: a chance to shriek and snigger at someone else’s nightmare. For others (like me), it’s about cuddling up in a blanket and sitting with my eyes shut!
Here is a list of all-time favorites from the horror department for this Halloween…
1. Nosferatu Director: FW Murnau. Year: 1922.
FW Murnau’s loose adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula was probably not the first horror movie, but it’s certainly one of the most iconic ones. The use of light and shadow, beauty and ugliness, a man in grotesque threatening an innocent girl make it one creepy affair. Max Schreck’s vampire, with his hideous make-up, will give you nightmares.
2. Dracula
Director: Terence Fisher. Year: 1958.
This saucy take on Bram Stoker’s classic novel, with the cleavage and creaky sets, was nothing new, but this was the film which showed the link between vampires and eroticism.
3. Night of the Living Dead
Director:George A Romero. Year: 1968.
George A Romero’s low-budget nightmare movie is a gory and bloody one. Holed up in an isolated farmhouse, Barbara and a small group of fellow survivors are attacked by a tide of flesh eating zombies. Need I say more?
4. The Omen
Director: Richard Donner. Year: 1976.
Never ever think little boys are cute! Satan dwells in them! Richard Donner’s The Omen is a hand-full of creepy business: the weird nanny, the zoo animals behaving erratically, the young kid on his tricycle bumping his mother over the banister, the church lightning rod, killing the priest (IRONY!) and who can forget the cinema’s most iconic beheading scene, shown from multiple angles in slow motion.
5. A Nightmare on Elm Street
Director: Wes Craven. Year : 1984
I can assure you that sleeping will not be an easy task after watching this movie. Set in the fictional Midwestern town of Springwood, Ohio, the film revolves around a bunch of teenagers stalked and then butchered by Freddy Krueger. And all this happens in their sleep! Sweet dreams!
6. Raat
Director: Ram Gopal Varma. Year: 1992.
Indian horror was not much of a scary affair until Ram Gopal Varma entered the scene and decided to seriously scare audiences with his Raat(Night). Mini is a young woman possessed by an evil spirit residing in her house. The movie has a list of eerie scenes, my favorite being Mini’s many nightmares, which included laughing by herself in an empty cinema.
7. The Others
Director: Alejandro Amenábar. Year: 2001.
Children make for some great horror devices. A creepy psychological chiller involving a bunch of spooky kids humming nursery rhymes, this movie must not be watched alone! Alejandro Amenábar’s ghost story is a hair raising menace, even with no violence or blood.
8. Pulse
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Year: 2001.
A sci-fi and supernatural horror mixed with online communication, Pulse will creep into your soul. A bunch of soul-sucking creatures appear online and spread like a virus. The internet becomes the home to cryptic messages asking, “Do you want to meet a ghost?” leading obsessive internet users to abandon friends, family and colleagues.
9. The Exorcism of Emily Rose
Director: Scott Derrickson. Year:2005
Loosely based on the story of Anneliese Michel, the film follows a lawyer who takes on a homicide case involving a priest who performed an exorcism on a young girl. This is not an easy watch, I assure you that.
10. The Orphanage
Director: JA Bayona. Year: 2007.
A haunted orphanage. Yup, that’s what this movie is about. A classic creepy ghost story, full of creaking floorboards. Orphaned seven-year-old son Simón doesn’t know that he’s adopted. One day, while reading Peter Pan, Simón says he will never grow old. And then he goes missing.
