TOP 10 HORROR FILMS YOU NEED TO SEE (… again)

by Michael Benni Pierce

9) Halloween (1978) - A staple in the horror genre, Halloween still scares me to this day. Michael Myers brought fear into suburban America, showing everyone that you're not even safe in your own home anymore. It created a new genre of supernatural killers (soon to be seen in Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street) that would plague the ultra yuppie audiences of the 1980s.

8) Uzumaki (2000) - Not exactly the easiest movie to find, Uzumaki is a Japanese horror film based on a 3-part Manga series by Junji Ito. The premise? A small Japanese town is slowly taken over by spirals. If you think it sounds bizarre on paper, then you'll need to see the movie, because it's just too difficult to explain.

7) Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (1972) - Directed by Bob Clark of Porky's 2 and Baby Genuises fame, this film actually clocks in at number 7 on my list because of just how bizarre it is. Six members of a theatre troop follow their leader to an abandoned island where they plan to dig up one of the freshly planted bodies and bring it back to life. The movie becomes even stranger as they remove the corpse, bring it back to the house on the island, and then proceed to marry it to the troop leader. The ending is typical, although this movie, only rated PG, does a great job of giving you goosebumps.

6) The Exorcist (Special Edition re-release 2000) - This film has been hailed for years as one of the scariest movies ever made. Surrounded by intrigue and Hollywood rumors, you can't help but feel there's more to this movie than it seems. I suggest viewing the re-release from 2000 not only because of the spider walk sequence (this will freak you out,) but because it includes footage that dates the piece as a film from the 1970s. One such scene features a doctor, smoking in his own office as he talks to Reagon's mother. This grounds the piece and actually somehow, makes it scarier.

5) Resident Evil (2002) - This film marked the resurgence of zombie movies in mainstream cinema. Although based on the hit video game, the movie doesn't actually subject itself to the rules of the game. Instead, it builds on the more interesting and dark elements of the game and includes some new horror of its own. See it now before its sequel, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, comes out next spring.

4) Dawn of the Dead (1978) - The second movie in the Dead trilogy, it remains the strongest of the three and yet, the hardest to find. I searched for weeks to find a print worth viewing, and still, my only choice was VHS since all DVDs of this movie are not Region 1. Anyway, Dawn exhibits the world post-zombie takeover and presents 4 people with the unique opportunity to hide out in a mall, away from the zombies and away from the rest of humanity. Since shopping malls were slowly becoming a new center of American culture and capitalism, it becomes a very interesting metaphor as they use this installation as a place to hold out as, quite possibly, humankind's last hope.

3) Funny Games (1997) - Directed and written by Michael Haneke, this Austrian horror film is never exactly what you might expect it to be. Almost painful to watch at times, the story revolves around two young men who terrorize a family on vacation in the country. But it doesn't end there. Never have I ever felt the bitter taste of escape as much as this sour movie allows me to. This is one of those films you watch again and again, saying to yourself, "So close … she's so close …" but in the end, you know it wasn't meant to be.

2) 28 Days Later (2002) - The newest film on our list, 28 Days Later, is not simply a zombie movie, but much much more. This movie was shot on Digital Video instead of film, which lends to this tale's grittiness as a group of 4 attempts to make their way over the ravaged England countryside to another possible pocket of post-horror survivors. Of course, the story takes a deadly turn as you realize that we, the living human beings, are still scarier than the blood thirsty monsters that have dominated this region of the world. You may not scream watching this movie, but you will certainly feel sick afterwards.

1) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) - With the release of the 30th anniversary edition of Tobe Hooper's college thesis project, this is the perfect time to see the movie that enraged people all across the United States for its violent depictions of the midwest. Using low budget techniques to his advantage, Tobe Hooper's vision of the hardworking inbred backbone of America as killers is poignant, unforgettable, and scary. However, it's not due to his use of blood or over-the-top murder sequences. In fact, it is rumored that Hooper only used a vial's worth of blood on this horror masterpiece. Instead, he utilizes music, crude filmic techniques, and one woman's screaming for almost a full 30 minutes to titillate the viewer. And in the end, the inescapable vision of Leatherface, dancing in the street, brandishing his chainsaw, will never be forgotten, leaving the feeling in the viewer that out there, somewhere, Leatherface and his family still live, day to day, waiting for their next unsuspecting victims …

There are many other films that I've left off this list that would make for fantastic viewing this Halloween, but I really felt that these 10 would give you a great chance to see something you hadn't already seen before or see something again for the first time. Use these choices wisely, and please, please, please, don't watch them all in one sitting, because I'm afraid there will be nothing left of you afterwards except for a drooling, convulsing ghoul. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

--released on the Great Hoboes of New York on October 29, 2003