Favorite Films - Horror

1. The Fly (1986)

The Fly, the 1986 remake by David Cronenberg, is so, so bad. It is bad in the sense that it is such a hard movie to rewatch because one already knows what is going to happen and it is terrible. It is the only movie on this list that has a lingering and menacing effect on me every single time I rewatch it. It is really bad.

It all starts well and good with the first half of the movie dedicated to Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum starting a romance. In the second half, Seth Brundle, a mad scientist played by Goldblum, accidentally crosses his DNA with a housefly, and gross, disturbing scenes of his gradual tranformation and deterioration ensue. All of it is rendered practically without a whiff of CGI.

I taught this film a few times, and students got really freaked out by it. Initially, many students expressed that some hoky 1980s movie with practical effects couldn’t possibly be scary, but like I said, it ended up freaking them out. We ended up talking about what’s going on with Cronenberg’s body horror aesthetics, and about the transformation metaphor, which turns out to barely even be a metaphor since people actually do deteriorate and fucking die. No fly necessary.

Despite the really awful scenes, it’s a scene that takes place off camera that really pushes things over the edge. Seth is quite far along in his tranformation so that he can no longer eat solid food, and he discovers that he can vomit a corrosive acid on his food to liquify it and . . . you have to imagine this because thank God Cronenberg doesn’t show it. It happens off camera and we get to see only John Getz react to it. Even though I know it happens off camera, I always feel relieved that that is the case, as if the outcome is uncertain.

It is a brilliant film. It is also just brutal and really hard to watch. It is hard to imagine a film supplanting it as my #1 pick.

2. It Follows (2014)

It Follows is a contemporary classic, emminently rewatchable, replete with a gloriously haunting 1980s-esque synthesizer-based soundtrack and a great premise that pays off in the end. I’ve written about it already here.

3. Funny Games (2007)

Funny Games is a shot-for-shot remake of the 1997 Austrian film of the same name. It’s basically just sadistic horror porn as these two dudes terrorize a family over a weekend. The killers, though, know that we are watching. The family doesn’t. It’s weird. I think it calls attention to multiverse theory, which I will only explain like this: If the universe is infinite, then Funny Games provides a real window into this other reality. Real as in real, as in, when one watches funny games he is watching real events that really happened. The universe has to be infinite, though.

4. Found Footage Horror: The Blair Witch Project (1999) and Paranormal Activity (2007)

How can one not love these great shoestring budget horror movies that deftly outmaneuver lesser horror movies with bigger budgets? The Blair Witch Project is great and decends into claustrophobic madness in no time. Paranormal Activity sucks on rewatch, because you know the twists, but on first watch it is completely great and might even give one nightmares.

5. "New Extreme Films", or the hardcore French body-horror movies such as Inside (2007) and Raw(2016)

All of these French movies are of a piece, clearly influenced by Cronenberg’s body horror; they are brutal and unforgiving movies. Inside is my favorite of these. (I just noticed that the year 2007 is over-represented on my list.)

6. Home invasion horror: You're Next (2013)

You're Next is a fun and fresh take on home invasion horror with a subtle tongue-in-cheek awareness of itself. It has some good jump scares, too.

7. Zombies and Monsters and Apocalypse

28 Weeks Later (2007) - Another picture made in 2007. I like it more than its predecessor, 28 Days Later. Biological zombies are great, and this is a hard-hitting and fast-paced romp through the lab-leaked apocalypse. A virus that spreads through body fluids causes madness and rage. That’s it, really. It’s a romp.

Speaking of zombies, the traditional dead zombies just don’t really work for me anymore. Am I the only one? I got so sick of The Walking Dead, I am just done with zombies. I’ve seen all the Romero movies, and I just want to be honest and say that I don’t think Romero’s work is very good.

Is Children of Men(2006) a horror movie? I was sitting here thinking about it, connecting it in British apocalypse movies like the 28 Days movies, and I think it has to be horror. The world is over and everything is falling apart. Women have stopped having babies, and nobody knows why, so when we take up with Children of Men the youngest person alive is in his twenties, I think. Humanity is witnessing itself go extinct. Such a good film.

8. Honorable Mentions:

Speaking of jump scares . . .

Ouija, Origin of Evil (2016) - Jump scares really only work on the first watch, but I found this movie delightful. The first quarter of it sets up this sweet little family just trying to make it in the world, then the first jump scare just smacks you in the face. It’s great, maybe the most fun movie on this list.

Oculus (2013) - A haunted mirror makes people do a bunch of crazy shit; a goofy premise that somehow delivers.

This scene alone is worth watching the entire movie.