First up:
Lots of people never liked this movie for various reasons. One of the reasons is because the found footage genre is hopelessly overused, and flooded with terrible, terrible movies. The other reason is that the motion of the movie footage is very erratic, and many people found this disconcerting. Me? I FUCKING LOVE THIS MOVIE! This movie revolutionised the horror movie industry, and did it with a tiny, tiny budget. Before this movie found footage was dead, and this movie dragged it kicking and screaming from the grave, and made it into probably one of the most popular movie sub-genres of all time. Before this movie Cannibal Holocaust introduced to us the found footage genre. Another thing that made this movie absolutely brilliant, is the amount of people who were convinced that this movie was real. It was absolutely terrifying, and scared the shit out of a 16 year old me, who lived on a creepy farm.
Three film students travel to Maryland to make a student film about a local urban legend… The Blair Witch. The three went into the woods on a two day hike to find the Blair Witch, and never came back. One year later, the students film and video was found in the woods. The footage was compiled and made into a movie. The Blair Witch Project.
The father of possession movies, and one of the best horror movies ever made! The movie that put fear into the hearts of generations of people, and is still terrifying people decades after it’s release. This movie is one of my favourites because of the quality of the movie, considering it was made in 1973, and because it was just a great movie overall. Satan, Exorcisms, Levitation, Green Projectile Vomit, Head Spinning. What more can you ask for?
A visiting actress in Washington, D.C., notices dramatic and dangerous changes in the behavior and physical make-up of her 12-year-old daughter. Meanwhile, a young priest at nearby Georgetown University begins to doubt his faith while dealing with his mother’s terminal sickness. And, book-ending the story, a frail, elderly priest recognizes the necessity for a show-down with an old demonic enemy.
Poltergeist! A movie everyone knows. A favourite amongst horror movie lovers. This movie was, and is iconic for many reasons, all which are completely well deserving reasons. A little girl talking to people in a TV, getting captured by the dead and dragged into another dimension, a kooky old lady who exorcises the spirits from the house and saves the girl. This movie spawned hundreds of movies trying to copy it and its fame, including a remake that came out recently in 2015, but failed to capture the magnificence that is the original.
A young family are visited by ghosts in their home. At first the ghosts appear friendly, moving objects around the house to the amusement of everyone, then they turn nasty and start to terrorise the family before they “kidnap” the youngest daughter.
The Birds is an absolute classic by the late master of horror himself, Alfred Hitchcock. This movie entertains the terrifying idea of what will happen when nature attacks us humans. Birds of all kinds attacking, and killing humans viciously? I think there are few things quite as horrifying as the idea of being attacked by birds, and you’d be powerless to stop them.
Melanie Daniels is the modern rich socialite, part of the jet-set who always gets what she wants. When lawyer Mitch Brenner sees her in a pet shop, he plays something of a practical joke on her, and she decides to return the favor. She drives about an hour north of San Francisco to Bodega Bay, where Mitch spends the weekends with his mother Lydia and younger sister Cathy. Soon after her arrival, however, the birds in the area begin to act strangely. A seagull attacks Melanie as she is crossing the bay in a small boat, and then, Lydia finds her neighbor dead, obviously the victim of a bird attack. Soon, birds in the hundreds and thousands are attacking anyone they find out of doors. There is no explanation as to why this might be happening, and as the birds continue their vicious attacks, survival becomes the priority.
As the saying goes, old but gold. In this case, pure gold. Nosferatu is nearly 100 years old, and still horrific after all this time. Based on Dracula, the movie was named and made differently than Dracula, because they were unable to procure the rights to turn the infamous book by Bram Stoker into a movie. Boy, am I glad they didn’t get the rights for the book, because while I do love Dracula, this movie was a masterpiece. Made in 1922, this movie depicted an all too real image of a vampire which made people actually wonder whether the actor Max Schreck was actually a vampire. This led to the creation of the movie, Shadow of the Vampire, in 2000, which entertained the idea that Max was actually a vampire.
Wisbourg, Germany based estate agent Knock dispatches his associate, Hutter, to Count Orlok’s castle in Transylvania as the Count wants to purchase an isolated house in Wisbourg. They plan on selling him the one across the way from Hutter’s own home. Hutter leaves his innocent wife, Ellen, with some friends while he is away. Hutter’s trek is an unusual one, with many locals not wanting to take him near the castle where strange events have been occurring. Once at the castle, Hutter does manage to sell the Count the house, but he also notices and feels unusual occurrences, primarily feeling like there is a dark shadow hanging over him, even in the daytime when the Count is unusually asleep. Hutter eventually sees the Count’s sleeping chamber in a crypt, and based on a book he has recently read, believes the Count is really a vampire or Nosferatu. While Hutter is trapped in the castle, the Count, hiding in a shipment of coffins, makes his way to Wisbourg, causing death along his way.
Considering the movie was created in 1922, it is now in the public domain and so is available to watch on YouTube for free. Enjoy!
