AS we head towards the last quarter of the year with more horror films on the way, it is good to reflect on the great films that inspired many of modern projects, regardless whether the latter were effective horror films or unintentional blunders that have made audiences laugh.
Here are some of the best horror movies and where they can be watched, sorted chronologically according to year of release.
Nosferatu (1922)
The grand-daddy of horror flicks, this silent film has not lost its ability to chill audiences despite the grainy black and white quality of the surviving footage. Perhaps it is even made spookier by it. But anyone who tunes in to watch this German classic will be spellbound by the performance of the truly evil-looking baldy vampire played by Max Schreck.
Nosferatu can be watched for free on YouTube.
The Exorcist (1973)
At its heart, The Exorcist is a drama about a mother attempting to find a way to “cure” her daughter’s sudden physical and behavioural change but director William Friedkin wrapped the film up in a layer of vomit and horror that put the fear of Satan into the hearts of Christians and non-Christians alike on a global scale.
The Exorcist is available on Apple TV.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Demented and gross in equal amounts, this slasher classic places a group of hapless travellers at the mercy of the cannibalistic, inbred Sawyer family in rural Texas. Though not the first film in the slasher subgenre, as Italian giallo films were doing it a decade before, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was the first film that made the subgenre globally popular due to how uncompromising its horror was.
The film is available for free on YouTube.
The Shining (1980)
Stephen King’s hatred for Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of his novel is widely known but it does not take away from one of cinema’s undisputed horror masterpieces, which revolves around a caretaker slowly losing his mind in a vacant hotel as supernatural elements coerce him into harming his wife and young son.
The Shining is available on HBO Go.
The Thing (1982)
A group of researchers in a remote research station in Antarctica are attacked by an alien lifeform capable of taking over the human body from the inside-out. John Carpenter’s film thrives on the suspense and horror of people and situations not being who they are or what they seem to be. It is also a fantastic example of the “trapped with nowhere to hide” scenarios favoured by the director.
The Thing is available to rent on Amazon.
The Fly (1986)
From the creator of the body horror subgenre, The Fly is a tragic romance tale about a scientist that slowly transforms into the film’s title after a teleportation experiment goes wrong. As his mind and body are ripped apart by the gross transformation, his girlfriend is dragged into the same living nightmare.
The Fly is available for rent on Amazon.
Audition (2000)
Beyond the popular Ring franchise that created a template for Japanese and Asian horror, Japan has an extensive library of spine-chilling horror films and one film deserves a bigger mention compared with the mainstream Ring films.
Audition is a story about a lonely Japanese widower, who through a fake film audition, comes across a mysterious young woman and becomes obsessed with her. A majority of the film focuses on his obsession, building the sense of unease and dread while slowly flipping the script, leading to a stomach-turning finale involving a piano wire.
Audition is available on Blu-Ray from Arrow Films.
The Descent (2005)
If you thought exploring caves is scary, writer-director Neil Marshall shows that it could be so much worse with The Descent, a film that many horror buffs to this day still consider to be one of the scariest films ever made.
After a group of friends enter a cave hoping to go spelunking, the entrance collapses behind them. Due to the cave being uncharted and not a fully explored cave, rescue is impossible. The group pushes further in and instead of finding an exit, they find something else in the claustrophobic, dark, complex cave system.
The Descent is available to rent on Amazon.
Hereditary (2018)
Ari Aster’s debut film uses horror and drama to deliver one of the scariest films in the last decade, in which bizarre events escalate into tragedy and mayhem for the Graham family after their grandmother dies.
Aster uses trauma as a medium to channel Hereditary’s terror that ranges from controlled bursts of unexpected violence to making the elderly into an effective prop for horror.
Hereditary is available to stream on Hulu.
