My Top 5 Scariest Films for Halloween

So Halloween's coming up and I'm actually going to be at someone's birthday party rather than at home watching scary films and stuffing my face with sweets meant for the trick-or-treaters.

The theme of the party is 'dead celebrities' and, while I haven't decided who I'll go as yet (any ideas?), I thought I'd get myself more in the Halloween-y mood and list the top five films that scared me the most. :)


5) The Exoricst (1973)


I can't imagine anyone would discredit me for having this on the list. Regardless of what my generation and younger think of the "old-fashioned" special effects in this film (GTFO!), this is a scary film. Unlike other ignorant souls, I can appreciate a film for what it is and how it was regarded when it was released.

People were having fits and throwing up at screenings of this thing. How can you not find it scary?

I mean, a girl is possessed. Need I say more?

But this is on my personal scare list because this is one of the films that stayed with me after I watched it and that's what makes it frightening. Whenever I went to bed I couldn't shake the image of Regan MacNeil on her bed. That possessed voice haunted me and still does. She's a scary MoFo.



4) Candyman (1992)


So ... how many people avoided looking in the mirror after this one? I sure did. This film makes number 4 because I still can't stand in the bathroom, brushing my teeth in the mirror, without trembling slightly. When a film affects you like that, you know it's done its job.

Not only is Tony Todd the most frightening man in cinema but that rusty hook and the choir-sung theme music makes every moment of this film that much scarier than most. Todd's baritone voice is made even deeper in this and I will never be able to get that haunting "Heee-leeeennn" call in the carpark out of my head.

I do have to say, though, that the last time I watched this I saw it from a completely different angle. The love story that's underneath it is terribly romantic and, kind of like the way I was with vampires (before the unspoken rule was broken), I can't help but swoon now.



3) Salem's Lot (1979)


What do you know? I managed to find a picture of the scene that made me switch this film off. That's right. Regardless of the fact that I've read the book by Stephen King, a 14-year-old me sat down with her father to watch this and I had to ask that it be turned off.

I haven't returned to it since and have no intentions to. I couldn't watch it through the first time, I can't imagine managing it a second time.

Look at that image. Just look at it.

That is a little boy who was buried that day (because he's dead). Now it's the middle of the night and he's floating around outside (yeah, he's floating in the air!) the window while scratching on the glass!

Like Candyman with the mirrors, this film affected me to the extent that I still find it really difficult to look out a bedroom window in the middle of the night. Would you want to see that?


2) An American Werewolf in London (1981)


As much as I love vampires, werewolves have always scared me. I mean, really scared me. Vampires are too prim and proper and have much too much vanity to be that scary. Werewolves on the other hand? If one catches sight of you, there ain't no way you're escaping.

There's something so frightening about a creature that wipes away every trace of human thinking and just becomes a beast.

I think films have affected me a lot more than I should have let them. I've already mentioned about Candyman and Salem's Lot. The mythical creature that is the werewolf affects me to the extent that I really don't like going outside when there's a full moon. And I mean, really don't like it. I don't want to take the chance that ... you know. (Yes, I know, I'm an idiot.)

If this film taught me anything it was that both villagers and city folk can be hunted by a werewolf. No-one is safe. The scariest scene is that poor guy on the tube. He's underground, on his own in the middle of the night, and hears a growl. Next thing you know he's running through those endless tunnels trying to find a way up. Really scary stuff.

If I could have one wish it's that Hollywood drops its plans to remake this. There's no need. The groundbreaking transformation scene is still amazing to this day - you can't do anything to make the special effects seem all the more awesome.

But, yeah. Number 2. Werewolves frighten me and this really is a horror masterpiece.



1) The Blair Witch Project (1999)


Yeah, yeah, judge all you want to but this is the one film that has consistently scared the s*** out of me the most.

The feeling of actually 'being there' is probably what did the trick. I do feel like I'm in a tent with those kids. I can hear something outside the tent and don't want to know what it is. Weird stuff is happening when I wake up. And the end scene? *shudders*

I have this film on DVD and here's my confession: the only way I'm able to watch it is with the director/producer's commentary on. They take you through the film, telling you, "Oh, that was my pile of stones ... That was my stick man ... That was me shaking the tent ... Haha! He has tights over his head when she says, 'What the hell is that?' " I'm safe in the knowledge that the filmmakers are playing pranks on the actors rather than some scary witch person in the middle of the woods following kids my age.

But when I watch it without the commentary, I get sucked into the woods with the characters and end up screaming at the slightest creak my house will make.

The scariest thing about this film is that it's all in your mind. You don't see a guy in a hockey/scream mask wielding a knife around. You see practically nothing. And that's what's terrifying - the power of your imagination.


That's my Top 5 Scariest Films. Tell me if you agree or disagree. And give me your own Top 5. :)