Gerald Dean Rice's Blog, page 125

#22: Re-Animator

Re-Animator.  Do I really need to say anything about the classic movie based on a classic novella?  Nah, didn't think so.

 

 

#23: The Eye

No.  Not the Jessica Alba remake (that was originally supposed to be Renee Zellweger), but the Korean horror movie about a woman who gets corneal transplants from a woman who could see ghosts.  My wife hates subtitled movies, but this one had her ready to crawl a wall (with me shortly behind).  The elevator scene was the BEST!  But sadly, this movie suffers from a limp 3rd act.

 

#24: Saw & Final Destination

The mother of all torture porn movies had to make an appearance.  So did the mother of teeny bop horror. 

 

Actually, they're both good movies.  Too bad the movies they inspired weren't.

 

Two novel ideas: a serial killer locks two strangers in a room, chains them to the walls and leaves nothing but a tape recorder and saws only sharp enough for them to saw off their own feet.  Who will make it?  Or death has a plan for everyone, but one teen gets a peek behind the curtain and struggles in vain to skirt death's design.

 

#27: The Howling

I can still remember watching through my fingers as Robert Picardo pulled that bullet out of his head, sitting next to my brother in the theater.  No, it isn't scary by today's standards, but very few 80s horror movies do.  And Dee Stone's robot reaction to her friend's savaged corpse didn't help any, either.

 

"No, I don't have your pencil sharpener!"

#26: Evil Dead 2

Dead by Dawn was a complete rehash of Evil Dead but with a budget.  Ash and Co. go to a cabin in the woods and get wiped out by an evil spirit.  But an added bonus to this one is the oft-copied possessed hand Ash has to do battle with.  For me, the scariest part was Ash running through the house with the spirit just behind him, literally on his heels.

 

#25: Dawn of the Dead (2004)

This high octane remake of the 1978 George Romero classic is, let's be honest, superior to the original.  Better acted, better written, better action, better zombied.  And until the Day of the Dead remake it was practically scientifically proven you couldn't go wrong with Ving Rames.

 

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"Hey, do you want another bee--yaaargh!"

#30: Open Water

Not since Jaws have people been so skeeved out about going into the ocean, but this movie will have you checking the floor by your feet and afraid to close your eyes in the shower.  It's that feeling of helplessness, the certain knowledge that you are completely out of your own element and at the mercy of unseen creatures that may like to nibble on you.

 

Also aiding to the idea of terror is the fact the actors were in the water with real sharks.  Of course nothing really happened to them.  Right?  Then again, I've never seen either of them since this movie.

 

 

 

#29: House on Haunted Hill

Of all the remakes of the 1959 House on Haunted Hill (The Haunting, Th13rteen Ghosts), the 1999 House on Haunted Hill is the best.  Not the greatest story, but the first 2 acts are filled with really good scares.  Perhaps Th13rteen Ghosts would have made the list had they incorporated the ghosts' backstories (which would have been far more interesting than anything they put on film).  But by the 3rd act and the big monster reveal HoHH turned comical and completely unscary as the heroes flee to the attic from the main ghost.

 

#28: The Blair Witch Project

It's a no-brainer for this one to make the list.  A movie that cost $60,000 to make and earned just shy of $150 million with no elaborate sets, 3 no-name actors and an okay story?  This movie starts the scares and doesn't stop until the credits roll.

 

Advanced Copy

I should be getting an advanced copy of an ebook I've been looking forward to since I heard about it.  Don't know how much I should be saying about it, so I'm not going to mention the title just yet.  I'm kind of hoping to get in on the whole advanced reading circle (hey, who couldn't use free books?) so I can in turn do the same with mine.  If I can get some of the heavy-hitters in horror or writing in general to do an advanced reading an actually like my novel then that's a big chunk of my work right there.