Hey! Would you like to see something really scary?

Rob at the Movies

Hey, do you want to see something really scary?

Well I hope you all enjoyed that first slice of cinematic catch up because it's all about to get a lot spookier... not too spooky, I'm not into the really hardcore stuff that some people are, and to be honest, only have the smallest of merits anyway compared to the real classic stuff. I am talking of course, about the horror genre... the genre that covers things that go bump in the night (that John Hurt so wonderfully in Hellboy claimed to be one of the ones 'who bump back') and yet can cover a wide range of the genres, from the comedy horror, o r the psychological thriller... there's all out gore fests, or torture porn as they're bizarrely known, or the realms of extreme cinema where only the brave or foolish dare to tread... horror can cover so many arenas of the genre and be so many things to so many people.... it's a genre that has mass appeal yet a lot are reluctant to give it a go, for strong reason.... not everyone has the stomach for it, or some people are just 'fraidy cats (I say this being somewhat of a scaredy cat myself)....

But what of horror? It's all very nice and all to mention it (or not, it is horror after all) but why do I bring it up? Well at the time of typing this particular bit, we're way into November (or even December, goodness knows when this will go out.... actually it's now May!) and October (heck all the months now) is setting off down the M6 to head over to France for a holiday so we're bidding it farewell... it was a good time of year to talk horror movies, it just happens to be really (I'm trying hard not to make it a Halloween reference, as apart from the chance to dress up in loads of amazing costumes, I'm not a fan of the season much at all!) and the coincidental thing is, the last blog I tried to do back in October/ November 2011 before it got lost to the sands of time and the computer died... was coincidentally exactly what I'm attempting to do again here... a big discussion of horror movies, but more importantly, the Top 25 Favourite Horror Movies of mine, and a few paragraphs/ essays on each particular movie... a chance to agree or disagree with me and just get a perspective on what makes me tick movie and horror-wise. So without too much more waffle, I'll just move into it and start by discussing a few that didn't quite make the cut....

The Runner's Up

Maybe it's a show of how little horror movies in the grand scheme of things that I may have seen, but there's a rare amount of massive standouts in the category of what may have just missed out on the big Top 25 list. I think I've managed a good bunch but a few straight up that didn't make it that I really dig are Event Horizon, Sleepy Hollow, Interview with the Vampire, Insidious, The Faculty, The Orphanage, The Fog, Jeepers Creepers and The Descent just to name a few. There ain't no Halloween or Friday the 13^th movies in here either, whilst the lead baddies in each is memorable and the series have a few good moments, overall I'm nowhere near as big a fan as many are of these series.... controversially, I much prefer the third Halloween movie that doesn't even have Michael Myers in (Season of the Witch) just because it has a creaky charm to it's inherent wackiness...

The classic Hitchcock chiller The Birds just missed out, as did Nicolas Roegs' spooky Don't Look Now and David Fincher's killer thriller Se7en. Great comedy horrors like Tremors, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, Zombieland, Lake Placid, Re-Animator, and maybe to an extent Blade (more cool than scary) and the terrific Grindhouse movies Planet Terror and Death Proof and all their fabulous insanity. On similar levels, there was sadly no place for Sam Raimi's bonkers scary Drag Me to Hell or Neil Marshall's werewolfs in the woods Dog Soldiers or even Christian Bale slowly going doo lally as the murderous yuppie in American Psycho. Zombie's seemed to miss out a bit too, as well as the previously mentioned Zombieland... there wasn't any space for the terrific Land of the Dead and not even Day of the Dead could make it, where previously it might have stood a chance...

Ghosts and other spooky things missed out in a way too... there was no room for Robert Zemeckis' super chilly What Lies Beneath or Nicole Kidman going bump as she encounters The Others... nor even sadly one of the increasingly few truly great M. Night Shymalan movies as Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment encounter dead people in The Sixth Sense. John Cusack might as well check in for the night again because Identity and 1408 didn't make the cut either. Whilst Ryan Reynolds might as well bury himself again because Buried just missed out too... and Christopher Walken couldn't predict The Dead Zone not making it. You don't have to wait 7 days to find out that the remake of The Ring didn't make it, and De Niro may well go mental when he finds out the Cape Fear remake didn't make the cut either.... boy these pun's of sort are fun! Lastly, one that I would have loved to acknowledge but again didn't make the cut... the chilling tale of a couple left abandoned at sea, widely derided by people I know but I loved it and was on the edge of my seat... I would have loved to give some love to Open Water!

The Top 25 Horror Movies as picked by the Ribby Keeper

Enough of the waffling and baffling... it's time to get on down with the list, these are my 25 favourite movies that either are scary scary, got a horror theme, or fit somewhere within the parameters of the genre and therefore are fair game for inclusion. You've already heard what didn't make the cut but what did, well sit back and find out:

25. From Dusk 'till Dawn (1996) Rated 18
    Directed by Robert Rodrigruez

Robert Rodrigruez has had a pretty prolific career from Sin City and Machete to the Spy Kids movies and stuff like Shorts, Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl... but back in 1996, he was merely riding pretty decently off the back of the terrific Desperado and his low budget debut El Mariachi... something similar could be said for George Clooney, fresh off E.R and making one of his big screen debuts here, both with something to prove, both about to prove it big!

From Dusk till Dawn seems fairly normal if you're coming at it like any other movie, maybe not really knowing the jist of it or where it's heading... Clooney and Quentin Tarantino play brothers who are on the run, robbing banks and stores across the state... they wind up on the road with a Christian family (led by Harvey Kietel) who they are holding hostage and they have to go to a bar across the border called the Titty Twister to lay low until the morning where they will meet a contact. And that's where everything changes... what exactly changes? Let's just say Vampires are involved, Salma Hayek is rather sexy and then deadly... and all sorts of mad action, fun characters, crazy gore, dry wit, and high drama occur....

Clooney is at his smooth best, both very dangerous but very cool and charming whilst Tarantino fares well in a acting role (or at least better than he has proved in subsequent acting roles) and there's a host of great supporting roles, not least a marvellous Tom Savini as crazy biker Sex Machine. If you want high cool thrills mixed with gory chills and a fantastic cast and pace... this is the movie that you want to check out, get it watched before Dawn!

24. 28 Weeks Later (2007) Rated 18
    Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo

Sequels are one of those big genres in movies that have a tendency to either go bigger and better in scope and scale but disapoint otherwise, or they can just be superior entertainment, expanding on the first movie in the themes, the character development, as well as the scope and scale and budget and proving the true masterpiece of the series of movies that it's a part of. For every Toy Story 2 there's a Hangover Part II or a Good Day to Die Hard. After Danny Boyle's supermly chilling and fast paced 28 Days Later hit big in the winter of 2002, making a star out of Cillian Murphy and throwing some energy into the Zombie genre, even if the monsters at the centre of the action aren't necessarily Zombies.... the question was where to go to next, does it even need a sequel?

Thnakfully the answer was yes. In the struggle to contain the outbreak as it spreads across the city of London, you have a more wide scope via the budget too to provide more action and more heart stopping thrills and in the story of Don (Robert Carlyle) and how the outbreak affects him and his family very profoundly, it feels more personal and the stakes higher emotionally. As well as the character stakes being raised... the scale is wider too, with the whole of London on lockdown and commander Idris Elba (in an early role) struggling to keep things under control whilst soldiers including Jeremy Renner (you could say an early role but he's been going steadily for a while now) are on the streets trying to maintain order in harsh ways, showing the lengths we can go to in order to maintain control, eerily similar to the infamous ending of Night of the Living Dead. The scope is bigger, the gore more crazy (a helicopter scene rather similar to something from Dawn or Day of the Dead) and it's essentially the sequel that improves on the original in the right way... and that opening scene is simply intense beyond words!

23. The Cabin in the Woods (2012) Rated 15
    Directed by Drew Goddard

Joss Whedon really can do anything he wants, can't he? Not content with beikng the wunderkind behind Buffy, Firefly, Dollhouse... and also having scripted Toy Story and created Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, he then assembled the Avengers for one of the biggest blockbusters ever created and pulled it off perfectly. He's also a big producing force on this insanely clever horror mind twister which came kinda' out of nowhere to a degree just before the Avengers hit and took the cult world by storm through it's well deserved word of mouth and hype... and like Scream when it first hit screens back in 1996, the horror genre was turned inside out once more in terrific fashion.

This will probably be a short summary as I don't want to say hardly anything about the film, lest I hint even slightly at it's twisty secrets, too good to spoil... suffice to say, it contains a bunch of kids who go up on the typical vacation to a secluded cabin, ignoring the usual ominous warnings from locals when they ask for directions, and then as is the way, spooky things occur... but are things really all they seem?

The way this completely turns the plot on it's head is rather crazy and bonkers in a way that is simply ingenious, and pays a whole truckload of tribute to the history of the slasher movie and the typical horror conventions. To say more would be unfair, but it also involves a seemingly unrelated strand of the story involving bored office workers going about their day (played with great wit by the wonderful Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford)... how could it all add up? It's a film that deserves to be explored in the dark (well you can turn the lights off too, but I mean more as in knowing as little as possible) and as soon as you can... this is one of the casualties that occurred when MGM when bankrupt and this had to sit on the shelf for a while... so when it was finally released, one of the 'at the time' unknown leads had suddenly hit big as Thor in the Marvel movies, Mr Chris Hemsworth... but released it was, and a cult classic it surely has become....

22. Saw II (2005) Rated 18
    Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman

Horror sequels are a bit the inevitable third part of a superhero franchise, always highly anticipated but very often pretty disapointing or even downright terrible... see Freddy's Revenge, The Fly II, Exorcist II: The Heretic, Halloween 2, Friday the 13^th Part II and so on and so forth. So it's refreshing and nice that the installment of the Saw franchise that I have chosen to represent it's presence on this countdown is in fact the second part, which via it's superb final twist manages to one up the ingeniousness of the first in my books, and delivers a finale that is both insanely tense but also twists and turns so much that what you think you know changes levels at a alarming level, and you never quite catch up with where it's headed until it's too late... possibly some of the intense originiality of the first movie's twists can't be repeated but the twists are so good it hardly matters....

In this second installment, the hunt for the jigsaw killer has intensified after the events of the first movie led to the identity of Jigsaw being revealed. The police catch up with him and hold him, but he has a further nasty surprise in store... and in an undisclosed location, a bunch of strangers wake up to find they are being held captive and the games will once more commence. What wicked schemes does Jigsaw have in mind and how will it all play out? Problems further arise when the lead detective Matthews finds out his son is amongst the housemates....

Because it's a sequel, the ante is upped for much more nastiness.... including a very chilling scene involving needles, the opening gambit that involves finding a key in a very hard to reach place as well as furnaces, shotguns and more. It's hard in a way to decide which out of Saw and Saw II is truly the best, because I think they're pretty equal in their chilling trickery and enjoyment factor if you can get past the ickiness. But out of the two movies, it's the second one that made me remember how awesome it is to be blind sided by a fantastic twist that turns your head and makes you go 'oooh'... sure the twist of the first one is so shocking but the twists in the second one are pretty terrific too....

I know the Saw films aren't for everyone, but certainly the first two prove why the franchise was such a hit.... get past the constant grue and it's a calculating and fiendish thriller with chills and spills aplenty.

21. Final Destination 2 (2003) Rated 15
    Directed by David.R.Ellis

If you want a really cool original idea for a horror movie but also one that really is the aepotheosis of a good fun gory silly horror movie... then you need look no further than 2000's supernatural slasher Final Destination from director James Wong (also responsible for Jet Li's The One)... following the events that occur when a bunch of teens get off a plane moments before it takes off and subsequently crashes and burns, due to a premonition had by Alex, a teen on a college trip to Paris. What happens next is the strangest thing... one by one, the people who got off the plane are bumped off one by one by a unseen force in a series of unusual and increasingly elaborate accidents. It seems that you can't cheat death and death is out to restore the balance....

This surprise horror hit sparked a never ending (well five) franchise that managed to be consistently enjoyable and daft and great fun.... maybe the fourth one was the weakest but even then it had a great 3D element and still some ridiculously fun daft moments involving a shopping mall and a cinema. Whilst the first of these movies is undoubtably a genuinely fun and shocking thrill ride, it was with the second installment that the series proved just how fun and clever it could be.

From the opening accident, which proves a massive step up from the terrifying plane explosion in the first... which whilst chilling in it's terror was a simple straightforward incident. Here, you get a pile up on the highway that involves numerous car flips, logs through windows, people squished by objects and bikes and so on... it's epic and gruesome and again truly chilling (in later films the accidents became gruesome but comical) and in the deaths that occur, once more the bar is raised, dancing the threshold between comic and horror from a ladder to the face via a kid being squished by falling glass through to a sinister air bag incident. It's in the trying to figure out what gruesome incident will happen next where the fun lies... it's silly but you know from the off that it's going to be a bit over the top so you can just go with it, unless you're squeamish, in which case be a bit concrned!

To a degree, these films aren't exactly Picasso... but they themselves were pretty and colorful. These films are the most fun with lowered expectations and just a massive threshold for fun.... and then you'll have a mega fun time.

20. Slither (2006) Rated 15
    Directed by James Gunn

There is no greatest chemical conundrum to figure out than the delicate balance of Horror and Comedy into one big gallumping riotous fest of fun... from Ghostbusters and Shaun of the Dead on one end of the scale to films like The Cottage and Tormented that maybe don't work as well... and then there's the Scary Movie films that don't even try and be scary anyway. You'll see more examples as the countdown continues, but this movie throws a big wallop of sci-fi into the mix and is one of the biggest throwbacks to the heyday of the 80's when gloopy horror comedies like Night of the Creeps and Toxic Avenger were all the rage...

Set (as all these films are) in a sleepy small town in America... it finds a couple (Elizabeth Banks, her off Pitch Perfect, 30 Rock and more... and Michael Rooker, Merle off Walking Dead) having a few difficulties which only get worse when he comes across a strange object and slowly being to experience a few changes.... which only get worse when he becomes a big blobby creature that starts infecting the citizens of the town, turning them into mindless zombies (in a call back to Night of the Creeps, people are infected by slugs going into their mouths). So it's up to the local sheriff Bill (the legendary Nathan Fillion, who better to be the charming lead hero in ANY film) who has a romantic past with Starla (Banks) to team up with Starla, the mayor (Gregg Henry, fabulously grouchy) and others to survive and stop the alien menace....

Like all the best horror comedy movies of the 1980's... this is way out bonkers and full of gore and mayhem. From sloppy zombies and blobby creatures to fat people exploding with slugs and all sorts of other gloopy nonsense that re-calls everything from Society (you really don't want to know) to Shivers (slugs in the bath)... it's very witty and very funny, it's very gloopy and sinister... and it does exactly what a good horror comedy should, it makes you chuckle a load but still makes you go ooh aah and yuck! Plus it has a great cast of familiar faces who make it work a treat.... it's sorely underrated so if you've never seen it, rectify that now!

19. Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987) Rated 18
    Directed by Sam Raimi

A sequel surely can't essentially be a remake of the first can it? Otherwise it'd be a remake not a sequel. I ask this because Sam Raimi's bonkers follow up to his controversial gore fest Evil Dead plays essentially as a more fun remake of the original movie rather than continuing the story. You essentially have a very similar cast (Bruce as your hero for one, though they could never change that as he is such an icon and wonderful hero, though more of the back of this one as opposed to the *whisper it* too straight faced first one) and a very simple plot: teens go on holiday to a creepy cabin, unleash evil spirits who then kill them all and take over their bodies. It's creepy and kooky and seriously, once things kick off, boy do they really kick off...

Taking the outlandish excess of the first movie and twisting it into something equally outrageous and blood covered, yet slightly more accessible and a lot more fun... this manages to be almost every bit as insanely gory as the first movie yet manages to make it more mainstream... the first one was just nasty whereas this one is great fun. The madcap comedy sensibility making a film that is a great example of a horror comedy because it really is as nasty and scary as it is bonkers and funny... from slapstick involving a possessed hand to sight gags involving book titles and laughing mooses. Anchoring all this of course is the wonderful Bruce Campbell and whereas Evil Dead make him noticeable, ED2 made him a bonafide icon.... witty, funny and truly commited to the physical stuff... he is a joy to watch and a cult icon in the making and it's testament to his charms that he remains a star and icon to this day....

Because I wouldn't say it's a horror, Army of Darkness isn't in the list.... but I need to mention it quickly because it's my far favourite of the three and the biggest reason I'll always madly love Bruce and this series. Endlessly quotable, relentlessly wacky and funny and packed to the brim with invention and zaniness, it's superb fun... a medieval comedy with elements of horror and action. It's a real treat and hopefully you'll all track it down and have a blast, or simply agree because you've already seen it....

18. The Hitcher (1986) Rated 18
    Directed by Robert Harmon

Never was the advice 'Don't talk to strangers' more apt than when young Jim Halsey decides to pick up the mysterious John Ryder and lives to regret it. I am of course talking about The Hitcher, and one of the finest examples of why Rutger Hauer is so damn awesome. I'll give the briefest of a nod to the remake, which was essentially the same everything but with a female lead, more over the topness and Sean Bean doing good psychopath also, but overall it ain't even a blink of a shadow of this supreme chiller. It's the simplest of premises, Jim picks up John on a dark rainy night and John then proceeds to make Jim's journey a living hell, framing him for endless murders and crimes and threatening and taunting him all the way... John Ryder soon becomes an unstoppable force with an unknown dark background, much like a Mike Myers... we don't know why he's doing this, and we don't need to. We just know he's a damn scary guy not to be messed with.

And thus begins what is a pretty straight forward thriller, as it goes from a simple taunt in the car through to a full cross country chase, mowing down police stations and multiple murders along the way. It's like a more modern day and much more gritty road version of Halloween with Ryder the Michael Myers figure, kinda blank and emotionless almost as he chases Jim and his girlfriend... you don't need to know, he just does. It's really chilling, really taut and exciting... and even though it's been remade, you may well not know much about it, so check it out....

17. Fright Night (1985) Rated 18
    Directed by Tom Holland

Ever thought your neighbour was a bit strange? Maybe that he was a vampire? No? Well Charlie Brewster does.... he's sure of it, sure that Jerry Dandridge (played to perfection by the wonderful Chris Sarandon, also of Humperdinck and Jack Skellington fame) is of the night and that he has designs on his mother. So what to do? How about seeking out the presenter of a television show about vampires (the eponymous Fright Night), one Peter Vincent (the late great Roddy McDowall) and seeing if he can help? Of course though, it's only a TV show... he thinks Charlie is insane. But what if all this is real? What if it is Fright Night, but for real?

Again the mix of horror and comedy blends like a fine sauce for a fun and monstrous time, with some terrifically 80's creature effects and gory moments mixing with the sarcastic wit and teen banter that makes for that perfect mix, you're pretty chilled and freaked out at points but you also laugh like a drain at some of the dialogue and moments. Something that also worked well in the lesser but still terrifically fun remake from 2011, with Colin Farrell being superbly sinister and smooth as Jerry whilst David Tennant is essentially Russell Brand as Vegas magician Peter Vincent, it's the mark of a classic that it can be remade, and thankfully with solid results too.

If you haven't seen Fright Night, you owe it to yourself to do so immediately... it really is a outstanding example of how to do a horror comedy, and one of the finest horror classics of the 80s, A real treat, immensly entertaining and massive fun... it will woo you and make you chuckle, it really is tremendous!

16. Scream (1996) Rated 18
    Directed by Wes Craven

For the many different movies that can define the genre and make a splash, there's only so many films that can really lay a claim to changing the face of the genre and re-defining it forever. Scream is one of those movies. Tearing up the rule book laid down by Halloween, Elm Street and more, much in the way that Cabin in the Woods did two decades later, but Cabin owes it all to Wes Craven's slasher reboot. As does a generation of movies that came afterwards, and nothing was ever the same again...

Back in the winter of 1996, no one really knew what to expect.... sure Wes Craven was infamous from his Elm Street movies amongst others, but who knew the radical game changer that was to become a massive sleeper hit going into the early months of 1997? Taking the concept of a slasher movie and re casting it with a cast of characters who've seen a whole load of those movies and know the ins and outs of the genre and are pretty savvy to the rules... it was dark, entertaining, witty and knowing and it's so easy to under appreciate the impact it had.

In the small American town of Woodsboro, the local teens begin to receive prank phone calls from a sinister voice who simply wants to talk classic horror movies, and after a cameoing Drew Barrymore in the iconic opening sequence is brutally butchered.... tensions rise. What is the link between these murders and Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and her dark past? With a culturally savvy killer on the loose, it pays to have seen your fair share of horror movies.

Scream is great, simply put it's just a terrific movie.... it does the great thing that all of the best horror comedies do. It gels the two sides of the coin perfectly, it makes you jump and shriek and kept on the edge of your seat whilst also making you laugh and wink a lot too. Plus there's some top twists and edgy turns, you really don't know where it's going at some points which is really cool. The cast are terrific, mixing people you already know with new faces who went on to bigger things or not. Then there's a great cameo from Henry Winkler, not to mention a director's cameo that is one of the coolest things ever. It went on to spawn three more sequels, and whilst only maybe Scream 2 really is in a similar league of funny scary and twisty, all of them are great fun and if the series wants to do a Scream 5 I really won't argue....there ain't many horror movies this much fun!

15. The Omen (1976) Rated 18
    Directed by Richard Donner

It's an interesting experience when you see a remake before the original, you can find yourself fascinated by a story that is only great because of the movie that came before it that thought of the great story. This is only a simple remake, not one of those like The Fly that does something fascinating, it's essentially the same film done again (ala Hitcher or Psycho)... but upon watching the remake, despite liking the story you merely find the film ok. It is upon watching the original and allowing the passage of time to take its toll, that you realise how superb the 1976 original is. At first, you admire the story once more and appreciate it's a better re telling but that sense of deja vu from already having seen the remake takes away too much of the special that you should feel. But with time and re watching and reflection (and the remake fading into a meh mush in the distance, though by remake standards it's a solid enough re telling... even if it was just a marketing gimmick to get THAT release date) the original classic becomes just that, a bona fide terrific and terrifying and chilling tale....

It shows what a man of many talents Richard Donner is, he really is among that unsung group of directors who have done such a wide varied range of amazing movies but never get as much credit as they should. The Goonies, Scrooged, Lethal Weapon, Superman, and this amongst many many many others.... and he really pulls this off wonderfully. The mix of outlandish moments with the quiet chill and what you don't see is great. This of course is the tale of Senator Robert Thorn (played stoically by Gregory Peck) and his wife Katherine, who unbeknownst to them, during childbirth... are given the gift of a child who is not their own. His name is Damien, and when very strange incidents begin to occur... it becomes apparent to some that Damien is more than he seems and is very very dangerous.... you know the rest.

Bolstered by a great support cast, including the wonderful David Warner in a head turning role... this is a bona fide classic pure and simple, the story is well known and even a lot of the classic scenes. It manages to be really chilling and terrifying with the air of menace as opposed to a whole ton of jumps and gore (though there are few funky scenes nonetheless) and even the remake ain't too bad, it's essentially the same film but with lesser actors in the roles but still manages to be effective.

14. The Lost Boys (1987) Rated 15
    Directed by Joel Schumacher

Vampires eh? They're in vogue and then they're not and then they are again, but regardless of Twilight and all the current iterations of the fanged wonders, they'll never be cooler than they were in the late 1980's when director Joel Schumacher (he of killing the Batman series fame) created the wonderful encapsulation of the 1980s that is The Lost Boys. Not only that, it is the wonderful Kiefer Sutherland as his most deliciously mischevious and has a soundtrack of infinite wonders, not least the chillingly beautiful Cry Little Sister by Sisters of Mercy and a upgrade of People are Strange by Echo and his men who are bunnies. Nothing screams the late 1980s quite like The Lost Boys.... a top mix of chilling Vampires and witty banter

When a family have to move to the Californian town of Santa Carla, a number of things happen.... while the mother settles in getting a job, the two brothers find themselves on very interesting paths. The youngest Sam, meets the oddball Frog Brothers, who tell him of the myths and mysteries of Santa Carla and there may be dark secrets lying under the surface.... and when Mike falls in the local gang, especially the beautiful Star and their charismatic leader David (Kiefer), it seems Mike has fallen in for a lot more than he bargained, including a penchant for sleeping during the day and needing to feed....

Great performances from Kiefer, as well as the Coreys and a delightfully sinister Edward Hermann as Max, not to mention the wonderful Barnard Hughes as the wonderfully potty Grandpa. Some terrifically witty dialogue, and a great mix of laughs as well as scares and iconic scenes.... from the synthy saxophone soundtrack to the poodle hair and fashions, this is the 80's through and through, it's also a stone cold classic, and my guess is you'll either go with it or think it's overblown.... only a fool wouldn't be won over though...

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13. The Mist (2008) Rated 15
    Directed by Frank Darabont

When you get to the end of a horror movie, it's typical for it to be either a nasty silly jump or a dark moment, or even just a simple ending. And no, I'm not going to say much more about the end of The Mist, but it's memorable. I was aware fairly quickly that I was veering towards spoilers so I stopped myself... because the first thing you remember when discussing The Mist is THAT ending but I shall say no more. There is of course, plenty other cool things to discuss about this dark creature feature from the pages of Stephen King and directed by Frank Darabont (who had Stephen King adaptation history with Green Mile and Shawshank, and later went on to make more horror history by helming The Walking Dead).... and it plotlines a whole host of horror cliches with such aplomb that it's fairly easy to go along with it and experience it all over again.

In the small town of Maine (where else?) a strange foggy mist rolls into town and weird things begin to happen, a small group of people covering plenty of the cliches hole up in the local supermarket, where they must keep the fog out and whatever it could be that is trapped in the fog wanting to get out.... whilst also battling each other as madness sets in and the group is seperated into factions and they become much more dangerous than whatever could be out there!

The cliches are out in force: you have the band of cliched people, you have them trapped in a single location going barmy, you have the creepy creatures, you have the people being more trouble than the creatures, and you have plenty of mystery and twists.... but what's great about The Mist is it takes these cliches and makes them still work aplenty. It's creepy, it's dramatic, it's scary, it's fun.... and with that ending, it's all worth the journey just to be.... I can't say ;)

There is a version of this film available in Black and White, which is a terrific version and says all you need to know about this creepy B-movie throwback that mixes nasty drama with cliched chills to great effect....

12. Stir of Echoes (1999) Rated 15
    Directed by David Koepp

1999, Autumn. M. Night Shymalan's The Sixth Sense is a massive hit.... everyone goes ooh and ahh and praises Shymalan as this next big thing (funny how that worked out) and the twist is all anyone can talk about (to the point which I knew it way before I saw the film, sheesh). What people don't realise as much is another movie about someone seeing spirits and spooky things was released around the time, and for my money is even stronger and sorely underrated. Not least for a tremendous performance from Kevin Bacon, on terrific form as the naysayer who suddenly and fiercely is forced to believe after a hypnotism gone wrong....

This is one of those unsung gems that more people are slowly discovering and is getting a nice little fanbase of it own thankfully. Whilst the Sixth Sense is rightly terrific, Stir of Echoes is darker and spookier and more thrilling with the really gothic way it does the whole way he becomes 'ghost seeing' (I'm rubbish at making terms) and in the way the events unfold, it's creepy and it's very dark but it's always engrossing and intriguing. Bolstered by a solid support cast including a terrific Illeana Douglas as the physic who accidentally empowers Kevin's character with this ability, as well as the always delightful Kevin Dunn as the concerned neighbour and best friend. Also featuring a tremendous use of the Rolling Stone classic Paint it Black (watch the film to discover for yourself) as well as a creepy early performance by Jennifer Morrison of House and Once Upon a Time fame.

It's great to get the word out about films more people need to see, and this is certainly one of those. The director David Koepp is an underated talent too, having gone on to direct Ghost Town and Premium Rush, two terrific little movies that also need more love.

11. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) Rated 18
    Directed by Jonathan Demme

When is a villain not a villain? When does it turn into the term anti-hero? In the case of Hannibal Lecter, it's the perfect example of this. He might be a bad 'un, but there's been something about him right since Manhunter and this classic example of the character. People can cite Brian Cox as the best incarnation of the character all they want (he's great no doubt but overrated in my opinion really, as is Manhunter... it's too overstylised and cheesy) and to be honest I think Mads Mikkelsen is a strong contender for best Hannibal, and definetly not the young random in the terrible Hannibal Rising. Anthony Hopkins is definetly the most iconic portrayal and for very good reason, sure he went a bit hammy as the movies went on but he remained utterly chilling and charming throughout... a delectable portrayal of a fascinating character....

In this, the terrific Jodie Foster is FBI Agent Clarice Starling, who is on the hunt for the terrifying Buffalo Bill (a chilling Ted Levine, iconic) who is kidnapping women for a horrific purpose. To catch a psycho, maybe you need to use a psycho... so she consults the imprisoned criminal mastermind Hannibal Lecter, a former psychiatrist and notorious cannibal. The friendship and psychological war that develops makes things interesting even whilst the hunt for Bill intensifies...

The one thing there might not be enough of, yet at the same time there's plenty that go completely wrong... is the dark psychological thriller, it's a really fascinating genre. Silence of the Lambs is one of the ones that does it perfectly, it's got a really solid cast of characters and isn't afraid to go to really dark places while staying mainstream enough to attract a blockbuster audience with it's hollywood thrills. See for example the chilling sequence in which Hannibal escapes his cell, and what he does to the guards.... it's horrific yet done in a way that will please the big crowds.

There's not much that needs to be said for this one really, it's so iconic... it's big moments and dialogue very memorable and everyone kinda' knows the story. But if you're looking for an intro into the character of Hannibal following an interest in the new TV show... then this is the perfect entry point. Grab some fava beans, a nice Chianti and some liver and settle on down....

And there you have it, the story so far. But wait I hear you cry, what about the rest? Well that'll be for the next installment of this mighty fine blog, in which I'll count down my Top 10 of the spooky variety. So if you're concerned I missed your favourite out here, then fear not it may be on the way....

But for now,

You stay classy!