So for pretty much all my life I have had an obsession with horror movies. I'm not sure if it's entirely healthy that you can recite the entire dialog to the movie "Scream" by age 10, but oh well. Ten years, and many, many horror movies later, I can honestly tell you one thing, "Halloween" is probably the most underrated horror movie by the general public. Let me explain to you why I say the general public. If you go on websites devoted to horror movies or even see the selection of sites entirely devoted to "Halloween" or read forums of people trying to list their all-time favorite horror movies, arguing over which ones should make the top 10 or top 5 cut, you will notice that in fact most horror movie fanatics usually tend to pay "Halloween" homage. Now the general public in this situation, would consist of everyone minus die-hard "Halloween" fans and big horror movie fans in general. To get a better understanding of what I am trying to point out, take a look at "Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments" which is a five part television special that originally aired in 2004, but is continued to be shown every year around Halloween time. Well, I must say I was extremely disappointed when "Halloween" did not make the #1 spot, mad again when I saw that it did not even make the top 5, and pretty much irate when I found out that it didn't even make the top 10. If we take a look at their top 10 we have: 10. "Wait Until Dark" 9. "Night of the Living Dead" 8. "Carrie" 7. " The Silence of the Lambs" 6. "The Shining" 5. "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" 4. "Psycho" 3. " The Exorcist" 2. "Alien" 1. "Jaws" Lets start off with the fact that some of those movies aren't even completely classified as horror movies. This countdown is called "Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments." Okay, maybe a movie doesn't necessarily have to fall into the horror movie genre to scare someone, but that's usually the case. Lets take "The Silence of the Lambs" for example. If I had to compile a list of my all-time favorite movies this would definitely land a spot somewhere on the list. I think "The Silence of the Lambs" deserves it's 5 Oscars and 4 stars without a doubt (even though it did beat out "Beauty and the Beast" for best picture, can't win 'em all Disney), but it's just not really "scary" in my opinion. I don't anyone ever went to bed having nightmares because they watched "The Silence of the Lambs." I would expect for "Psycho" and "The Exorcist" (two other personal favorites) to be in the top 5 and am please with Bravo for getting that right. I mean the shower scene in "Psycho" and the stairway scene in "The Exorcist" are absolutely classic. "Jaws" taking the number one spot on on scariest movie moments countdown is just plain silly to me. I'm not doing any "Jaws" bashing, but I just don't think it deserves number 1 on this countdown. I'm not saying at all that "Jaws" isn't scary, because that would be a lie, or that "Jaws" shouldn't be on this countdown, because that would also be untrue; rather what I am trying to say is that I don't truly feel that "Jaws" should have took the number 1 spot on this countdown. On the countdown "Halloween" took the number 14 spot (absolutely insane, i know!) and "Scream" took the number 13 spot. Now don't get me wrong, I love "Scream," I can quote the entire movie, own the vhs tapes, the dvd trilogy, a few masks and robes, etc. and "Scream" without a doubt falls in my list of top horror movies and movies in general. My issue is that if you watch "Scream" you know all the "Halloween" references and stuff, I mean they are even watching "Halloween" on tv in "Scream" for the love of God! In my opinion that's just pretty much disrespectful to put "Scream" in a better spot than "Halloween." I mean I'm still mad that neither or them made the top 10 and even more mad that a classic like "Halloween" didn't even make the top 5. Another not so comforting thing, is the "Top Rated Horror Titles" on IMDb (The Internet Movie Database). "Psycho" made number 1, that didn't upset me or anything. "Jaws" made number 7 which made me a bit upset that it beat out many horror movie classics, but again I guess the great white truly must scare people to continue biting into the top spots. "The Exorcist" came in at number 23, disappointing for such a classic. "Halloween" came in at 36, which I'm sorry but is pretty much ridiculous that it didn't even make the top 5 or 10 and the list is only out of the top 50! Again, this is all just my personal opinion, I didn't say one bad thing about "Jaws" or any other movie. I know "Jaws" is a classic too just like "Halloween," but on a scariest movie moments countdown that was created to show around Halloween time and a list of the top 50 rated horror movies, I just think "Halloween" deserves a little move appreciation.
5 comments:
My stepfather took me to see JAWS the year it came out, I was 7 or 8. It was the scariest movie I'd ever seen up to that point in my life... so for some of us that were actually alive when it came out, JAWS is/was and will always be a HORROR movie.
As far as being "alive" when it came out, i feel that is irrelevant. you make it seem like you think that the movie is superior and people who are younger than yourself wouldn't understand that, because they didn't see it in the theatre; when in all honesty, a person grows up, but the movie is timeless so whether you saw it when it came out or 30 years later it's still the same. Of course you're more scared of things when you're younger, but that's a given. I'm sure if you saw "Halloween" when you were 7 or 8 (which you may have), you probably would have bee pretty frightened, but that's besides that point. "Jaws" can be as a horror movie and I'm not disagreeing with that, I just feel that it falls in the category of action first, which is what Spielberg probably intended (not that either of those things truly make a difference in whether or not it's scary). Again, my whole point wasn't to say that "Jaws" was undeserving of the horror homage that it receives, but rather to say that "Halloween" is owed way more credit than it is given :)
My goodness... you have somehow taken the defensive and imagined I was being a dick in my comment but I wasn't, I was just pointing out the facts of how JAWS played out for ME when I was a kid. I'm entitled to my opinion too right?
Good luck with the blog...
I couldn't agree with you more about Halloween. It's completely under appreciated by the masses, even though it created the slasher genre.
I love horror films too. I just recently started a film review blog. Check it out....
Wine and Werewolves
I'm glad to find someone who agrees with my opinion :) I think people tend to forget or maybe just don't realize that "Halloween" is what sparked the whole slasher genre. Though I will point out something I just realized to give recognition where recognition is due: "Black Christmas" did come out in 1974 (as did "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"), four years prior to "Halloween," which would technically make it the first slasher film, but "Halloween" is the film that truly created the spark and sent the standards for endless slasher flicks (and squeals! and remakes!) to come. I guess you can say this is because slasher movie cliches are the original motifs that can be credited back to Carpenter and "Halloween" for popularizing them. "Halloween" was originally supposed to be called "The Babysitter Murders" I believe, or something similar to that. The roads were paved for other slasher films like "Friday the 13th," "A Nightmare on Elm Street," "When a Stranger Calls," "Silent Night, Deadly Night," "Scream," and that's just to name a few. Maybe since Rob Zombie has done the remake, it will inspire people to go back and watch the original to remind them how great it is, or people who have never seen the original to watch it for the first time. As more and more horror movies come out and fall short of the standards that have been set by the classics (not all, but many do), we can only hope that "Halloween" will help the general public will find a way back to Haddonfield and start giving this movie the reverence and credit it deserves :)
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