Scary Movies

This past Friday was Halloween and I thought I'll share with you my top 5 scary movies I've seen. These aren't ranked in any special order. They are just 5 of my favorite horror movies of all time.


Halloween (1978)
This is a classic scary movie. Directed by John Carpenter, it became one of the highest grossing independent film. It was also the movie that made Jamie Lee Curtis famous. The story centers around a man who escapes a psychiatric hospital and stalks and kills Jamie Lee Curtis and her friends. It's a classic slasher film where the killer is known to wear a white mask. This movie has little graphic violence but nonetheless very scary. The theme song especially defines the scary moments in this film.



The Shining (1980)
Another well known classic scary movie is The Shining. Jack Nicholson plays a writer who is seeking a quiet place to write his novel. He accepts a job as a caretaker of a hotel closed during winter season. The manager warns him that the formal caretaker got cabin fever and killed his family and then himself. Despite this, he takes the job and eventually turns psychotic and tries to kill his family. What makes this movie so scary is Jack Nicholson. He does a tremendous job in playing someone who becomes psychotic slowly.



Seven (1995)
This movie is also one of my favorite movies of all time. It stars Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, and Kevin Spacey. Pitt and Freeman play two detectives who are investigating murders that Kevin Spacey committed based on the Seven Deadly Sins. The horror in this movie comes from the gruesomeness of the crime scenes and what was done to kill the victims. There was also a twist at the end of the movie.



Dawn of the Dead (1978)
This movie was the goriest movie I have ever seen in my life so far. It is even worse than any of the Saw series of film. Directed by George A. Romero, this movie received an equivalent of NC-17 rating of today's standard because of the graphic scenes. It was released with an unrated rating to make it more of a commercial viable film. This is a sequel to "Night of the Living Dead". It tells the story of a group of people who managed to trap themselves in a mall to survive from the zombies that has taken over the town. The graphic scenes are what made this movie so horrifying because it looked so real.



Saw (2004)
And last but not least Saw. Although it span four other versions, I've only seen the first two. The original remained the scariest. The movie is about "Jigsaw" who kidnaps people and put them in life threatening traps in which to teach them lesson to repent from their previous wrongdoing. Each person trapped must make a sacrifice whether it's cutting your arm or leg off, or killing another person trapped in the room with you in order to save your family. Detectives frantically search for the killer as the kidnap victims lives remain on peril. This movie was rate NC-17 for gore but under editing drop down to a R rating (unlike the previous movie mentioned). This movie is one of the scariest in recent times.