Lets Talk Horror Films

Can you believe its friggin’ October already?  Where has the year gone?

There’s plenty to like about October.  The football is back on.  The big budget video games come out this time of year.  The Oscar-bait films start running at the cinema.  And there’s Halloween.

For me, October is a good excuse to watch a bunch of monster movies and horror films.  I can find something I like in just about every movie genre and there’s a special place in my heart for films that can creep me out and cause me to sleep a little less comfortably.

What’s your favourite scary movie?

I love horror films in all the weird and wonderful sub-genres that they come in.  If I can successfully find myself some time to blog this month, I’m hoping to write about my favourite scary movies.  I’ve only recently discovered and become a fan of the original Universal monster movies.  Frankenstein, Dracula, The Invisible Man, Wolfman, The Mummy, Bride of Frankenstein etc.  All of these films were made in the day by accomplished screenwriters and directors and their quality shines through.  These films have aged wonderfully well and it was a pleasure to discover each one for the first time.  They are inventive, genuinely scary and have impressive special effects and make up.  There’s an awesome Universal Monster Movie BluRay set that I highly recommend tracking down if you’re interested.

I’m also a fan of more modern works, such as the awesome run of horror films made by legendary director John Carpenter.  During the late Seventies and early Eighties, Carpenter went on an incredible run of films including The Thing, Halloween and They Live.  I think what makes these films so awesome is that they just pre-date the advent of computer effects being brought into the genre so everything is still made with physical models, buckets of fake blood and stop motion animation.  It gives these films a very distinctive visual identity that even the best contemporary horror films seem to lack.

While there’s plenty of fun to be had watching films that have creatures that say boo! and jump out of the dark, there’s also nothing cooler than a psychological horror film that gradually makes you more and more uncomfortable and messes with your mind.  Think of Jack Nicholson’s descent into madness in The Shining or Darron Aronofsky’s depressing and disturbing anti-drug film Requiem For A Dream.

And when it’s all said and done, most of my favourite horror films aren’t even in English.  I love the works of Guillermo Del Toro, Guillem Morales and Juan Antonio Bayona.  It might be time to revisit Pan’s Labyrinth, The Orphanage and Julia’s Eyes.

Look for a few write ups in the coming weeks of some of my favourite horror films.  I’m looking forward to some sleepless nights in October.