Kayleigh’s Top 5 Horror Film recommendations for the Halloween weekend. If you’re not the (undead) life and (damned) soul of the party this weekend then I have a few horror film recommendations that will make your heart thump in your chest and your blood run cold. As a massive fan of horror, I have belligerently trawled through sequel after sequel for the ultimate scare; here are just a few of my favourites.
5. The Amityville Horror (2005) Directed by Andrew Douglas, starring Ryan Reynolds.
The story begins with George (Reynolds) and Kathy (Melissa George) Lutz and her three children from her previous marriage looking for a dream home. 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York is on the waterfront and is a massive, beautiful home coming in under below market value, so what’s the catch? As the estate agent explains the house was a scene of a brutal murder – Ronald DeFeo Jr shot and killed his parents and three younger siblings three years before claiming voices in the house had persuaded him to do it. The story is based on a novel by the same name which documents the alleged true experiences of the Lutz family after they moved into the property. Almost immediately the family becomes subject to unexplained and supernatural goings on. What ensues is a clever and scary film, George becomes the main target spending most of his time in the basement hearing voices…Ryan Reynolds turn here is brilliant, a stark contrast with the characters he plays in films like Blade: Trinity. The children are subject to seeing all sorts of ghouls and both babysitter and priest get a nasty surprise. This film will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end, with a disturbing clip at the end of the credits.
For fans of: House On Haunted Hill, The Haunting, Jeepers Creepers.
4. Drag Me To Hell (2009) Directed by Sam Raimi, starring Alison Lohman.
Loan officer Christine Brown (Lohman) is desperate for a promotion and in rivalry with another member of staff refuses a loan to an old gypsy woman Mrs Ganush, demonstrating her ability to make tough decisions. What proceeds is one of the funniest yet still disturbing fight sequences I have seen, as Christine makes her way to the parking lot beneath the bank, Mrs Ganush is waiting for her. After this violent fight, she curses a button from Christine’s coat. Christine and her boyfriend Clay Dalton (played by the brilliant Justin Long) visit a fortune teller who informs her that she is being haunted by a spirit. Over the next three days Christine experiences genuinely frightening attacks by the spirit, disgusting nightmares and faces a very large decision if she wants to rid herself of the curse. Again as a staple with many horror films, the massive twist at the end of the film assures the uneasy feeling lingers with the viewer. Alison Lohman is amazing as the long suffering Christine trying to make a name for herself at work, be accepted by her boyfriends parents and ultimately wanting a marriage proposal. The film also has moments of comedy genius, a staple of Sam Raimi’s early work in The Evil Dead films.
For fans of: The Evil Dead Trilogy, ‘The Dark Age’ Episode 8 Season 2 Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Jennifer’s Body.
3. Final Destination (2000) Directed by James Wong, starring Devon Sawa.
Not the sequels or the 3D version, I’ve gone with the original and best film in this series. Alex Browning (Sawa) has a premonition that the flight he is about to get on will end in not only his death, but also the deaths of his graduating class. When the events in his premonition begin to play out in reality, commotion ensues and Alex plus a teacher and a handful of students are left behind, only to watch the plane explode into flames from inside the airport. This film is one of my favourites as it was original; the idea that death has a plan intrigued me. Although this film is gorier than my previous choices, ten years on it is still very affecting. The opening sequence is one of the most terrifying moments in horror. As the film progresses each of the survivors is bumped off in elaborate ways (see teacher Valerie Lewton) but Alex and friend Clear (Ali Larter of Heroes fame) aim to try and cheat death, figuring out the sequence of who’s next from Alex’s premonition and saving both Carter and Alex from near death experiences. Another classic horror ending ensues with a fright and the assurance that death wins in the end.
For fans of: Saw I, The Butterfly Effect, White Noise.
2. The Omen (1976) Directed by Richard Donner, starring Gregory Peck.
Although there is an excellent remake of this film - The Omen 666 released in 2006, I have chosen the original as a stand out scary film. Now I’m not a particularly religious person but as I was brought up as a Catholic anything to with the devil still has the ability to play with my mind. I first saw this film when I was about fourteen at a sleepover. These sleepovers basically consisted of what can we rent from Blockbuster that will scare us the most? The Omen fitted the bill perfectly and we all felt rebellious watching it. The story is of an American Ambassador to Britain - Robert Thorn (Peck) who adopts a child in Rome without his wife’s knowledge shortly after his own child dies during childbirth, they name the child Damien. Mysterious events start to unravel from Damien’s fifth birthday, his nanny hangs herself, priests who warn the ambassador are burned or killed and after too many coincidences, he finally decides to go looking into Damien’s past. His discoveries lead him to believe that Damien is the antichrist. A striking and unforgettable score from Jerry Goldsmith (who won an Oscar for his work on the film) adds to the evil undertones of the film, every look by Damien is punctuated with foreboding Latin chants - "Sanguis bibimus, corpus edimus, tolle corpus Satani" Latin for "We drink the blood, we eat the flesh, raise the body of Satan", interspersed with cries of "Ave Satani!" and "Ave Versus Christus" Latin for "Hail Satan!" and "Hail, Antichrist!". As with the previous three films, the tale never ends well….
For fans of: The Exorcist, Sphere, The Exorcism of Emily Rose.
1. A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) Directed by Wes Craven, starring Heather Langenkamp.
For my top choice, I’ve gone with a film that is very close to my black heart, again viewed at a sleepover when I was about twelve, this film left a lasting impression on me. Forget the sequels, comic strip and awful rap song and just concentrate on the first film in the franchise. This film transgresses the boundaries between reality and dreams. If you die in your dreams then you die in real life, whom of us hasn’t had a dream that felt so real you jolted awake and feared to fall asleep again? Following in the vain of John Carpenter’s series of Halloween films, A Nightmare On Elm Street concentrates on teenagers and the morality around teenage promiscuity. A burned man with a hand that has knives for fingers tortures the inhabitants of Elm Street, stalking their dreams and Tina (Amanda Wyss) tells her friend Nancy (Lagenkamp) about these dreams, only Nancy has experienced them first hand. When Tina is brutally murdered her boyfriend is blamed and the teenagers fight to keep their sanity and stay awake. Nancy is an excellent protagonist; she is a strong willed girl that knows to look deeper than what is on the surface and finally uncovers the horrible truth about the burned man – Freddy Krueger. The success of the film is keeping your villain under wraps, Freddy is more of a threat half seen in the shadows dragging his knives along pipes in his boiler room (which subsequent films failed to recreate) than a tumult of blood and gore. I would suggest this film as an excellent introduction to horror and also the version released in 2010 as it is more of a re-imaging than a remake, Jackie Earle Haley is excellent in the role of Krueger. You all know by now that the ending will never satisfy the audience as a Disney film would and this never fails to disappoint and after the first viewing, a few titters at the nineteen eighties effects. All of this however adds to the charm of the film, to this day I still get chills if I hear a scraping or rapping on a window, images of Freddy always come to mind.
For fans of: Halloween, The Grudge, Thir13en Ghosts.
Other horror you might enjoy:
Zombies – Dawn Of The Dead, Shaun Of The Dead, Resident Evil.
Serial Killers – Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Creep, Urban Legend.
Supernatural – Pitch Black, Cabin Fever, Carrie, IT.
And just to cheer when Paris Hilton dies – House Of Wax (2005).
Kayleigh xxx
