The 411 Top 5 10.17.08: Week 135

Posted by Trevor Snyder on 10.17.2008

The Top 5 Stand-Alone Horror Movies

You know the drill…a horror movie does well, so cue the sequel, with a bigger budget and body count. If that one does well, then cue another installment, and so on, and so on. This continues until the franchise has been effectively run into the ground, at which point you're left with no choice but to remake the first movie (or send the villain into space).

But what about the horror movies that never get sequels? And I don't mean the ones that just suck so bad that no one would ever even think about making a follow-up. No, there actually are some decent horror movies out there that, for whatever reason, somehow managed to avoid the standard law of diminishing returns that usually comes with sequels. I thought this week we could pay tribute to those movies, and in the process perhaps remind Hollywood that just because something is great the first time, it doesn't necessarily mean we want a dozen more helpings of it.

THE TOP 5 STAND-ALONE HORROR MOVIES


Trevor Snyder

5. The Burning

The first ever Weinstein Brothers production, this 1981 slasher – about a camp handyman who was horribly burned in a prank gone wrong returning years later to exact his revenge – did OK at the box-office, but was released too close to the similar Friday the 13th and therefore somewhat ignored. That's too bad, since it's actually superior to Friday in just about every way, including an excellent Rick Wakeman score, assured directing from Tony Maylam, better-than-expected performances (including early roles for Jason Alexander and Fisher Stevens), and superb FX work from Tom Savini, who actually trumps the gags he pulled off in Friday the 13th (in fact, he actually turned down the second Friday to work on this one). The raft massacre, in particular, is one the decade's most unforgettably gruesome moments. Clearly a high point in the slasher genre, The Burning has finally started to enjoy the sort of cult following it deserves in recent years. The one good thing about its initial lack of popularity is that it was not sequel-ized to death, which is definitely for the better given the finality of the film's final "hero vs. villain" encounter.

4. May

Arguably a sort of revisionist take on the Frankenstein mythos, writer/director Lucky McKee's twisted but endearing May is the ultimate dark fairy-tale, with just the right mixture of humor and horror. As the titular character, Angela Bettis gives one of the genre's strongest lead performances in years (this one movie single-handedly turned her into a cult horror icon), as it's impossible not to fall in love with her – even as she turns to murder in an attempt to preserve just the best "parts" of people. It contains one of the most memorable final scenes in horror history (the last few seconds can cause you to reconsider the entire movie), and is – in my opinion – one of the best horror films of the modern era. McKee and Bettis would switch roles (he starred, and she directed) for Roman, which should be considered a sort of companion-piece to May, but is in no way a sequel.

3. Near Dark

Just like The Burning was hurt by its proximity to Friday the 13th, so too was Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark hurt by its close release to a similar film. In fact, Near Dark had it worse, as it came out only a couple weeks after the much-more hyped (and much higher-budgeted) The Lost Boys. While Lost Boys might have won the box-office battle, there's really no question which is the stronger vampire movie (even if Near Dark never once utters the "v-word"). Even today, 21 years later, Near Dark still holds up as the best modern updating of the classic vampire legend…which is probably why we're soon to be treated to a sure-to-be-inferior remake. I can live with that, though. As long as no one gets it in their head to also make a far-too-late crappy sequel, a la The Lost Boys: The Tribe.

2. Videodrome

David Cronenberg…the undisputed master of cerebral horror…of sexual horror…of body horror. He's one of the genre's true visionaries, and he has admirably resisted helming sequels to any of his amazing movies. Of course, that hasn't stopped others from doing so in some cases, with less than stellar results (Scanner Cop, anyone?). For instance, I would have loved to include The Fly on this list, since I consider it to be Cronenberg's strongest work (it is also, somehow, his most mainstream film, oddly enough), but that abomination of a sequel with Eric Stoltz ruined that. Luckily, no one ever tried to add-on to the world Cronenberg created in Videodrome, perhaps because no other filmmaker could attempt to wrap their head around it. One of the strangest, most compelling horror films ever made, Videodrome is a movie that can't really be compared to anything else…except, of course, other Cronenberg movies. Some fans consider Cronenberg's later eXistenZ to be a sort of companion piece to Videodrome, which I can see…but that doesn't make it a sequel.

1. The Thing

When you think about it, it's really damn surprising that there hasn't been a sequel to this one (not counting the video-game, that is). It's been rumored (or should that say "threatened") for years, but thankfully has never come to fruition. Really, how could any follow-up ever hope to match the terror of this, Carpenter's masterpiece? It's probably enough that almost every horror film dealing with paranoia or isolation that followed has taken cues from Carpenter's work here. Of course, few of them have come close to the perfection of The Thing - more proof yet that we're probably better off never finding out just what happened to MacReady and Childs. Perhaps they're both still sitting out there, waiting to see what happens next themselves.



Shawn S. Lealos

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Eyes Without a Face (1960)

The Wicker Man (1973) - There is a sequel on imdb by the original director to be made this year, but the filming was postponed, so it remains unmade

Frailty (2001)

THE TOP 5

5. The Devil's Backbone (2001)

Guillermo Del Toro was finally given his critical accolades with his beautiful and sad Pan's Labyrinth. Before that he was simply known as the director of Blade II and Hellboy. Well, anyone who saw this Spanish horror movie should have known what Del Toro was capable of. A young boy in the Spanish Civil War is left at an old orphanage which ironically has a defused atomic bomb lodged in its courtyard. The boy begins to see strange things and eventually comes face-to-face with the ghost of a dead boy who begins to haunt his every move. As with most ghost stories, it is up to the young boy to find out what the ghost is trying to tell him and do what it takes to help the spirit finally avenge his death and move on. It is atmospheric, and while it does not find it necessary to use the animatronics of the beautiful monsters Del Toro would create for his more popular films, resonates just as powerfully with its dark, foreboding story and creepy setting. It is a great ghost story and foreshadows the director Del Toro would become known as.

4. The Haunting (1963)

Horror directors today don't understand what it takes to really scare someone. It isn't gore, gore, gore. Movies like Saw and Hostel are made to make you squeamish, which is one aspect of horror movies that is definitely important. Movies like Halloween and Friday the Thirteenth are made to make you scared of the boogeyman, but the true enjoyment of those movies are not the jump scares but instead the cool kills as you find yourself rooting for the monsters. But what really makes a person frightened is what you don't see, the tension and the fear of what might be around the corner. The jump scares cheapens this effort but the truly horrific movies leaves as much to your imagination as possible. Nothing you see on the screen can ever be as scary as what you can imagine in your mind. Kids today have the attention span that can only be measured in nano-seconds. They find movies like The Haunting to be boring. Those kids are stupid. This was remade in 1999 and remains a crappy remake of a true classic. The reason the original is miles better is because you don't see the ghosts haunting the house but you know they are there and you worry they will get our heroes. What you imagine is behind that door is scarier than any CGI used in the remake.

3. Shaun of the Dead (2004)

I don't see any reason not to list a horror/comedy. The reason I include it is because it takes the horror aspects of the movie very seriously. Yes, we have the great humor of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, but what Edgar Wright does best is respect the source material. Like all good horror movies, the first thing you have to do is establish the normal, safe world. Then Shaun of the Dead follows that by showing the eventual disintegration of this world until there is nothing left but a fight for survival. No stone is left unturned and Wright shows his love for the original zombie movies that influenced him. You have the group of people trapped in a small building, unable to trust each other like the original Night of the Living Dead. You have the pop culture references of Dawn of the Dead. You have the military intervention of Day of the Dead. No one is safe and the deaths and murders carry the weight of any straight horror movie. George Romero was so impressed with the film, he allowed the boys to cameo in his Land of the Dead. Simon Pegg also had an un-credited voice cameo in Diary of the Dead. If you impress the man who created the modern day zombie then you win me over as well.

2. The Thing (1982)

When people talk about John Carpenter, I often hear them question his later output and wonder where the man who made Halloween went. I argue that, as great as Halloween was, it was nowhere near as good as his true masterpiece, The Thing. A remake of the 1951 film The Thing From Another World, Carpenter's movie does what most remakes only dream of doing. John Carpenter's The Thing is better than the movie it remade in every way. Kurt Russell stars in this claustrophobic thriller about a group of men trapped and alone in the Antarctic who find themselves attacked by a mysterious monster who can take the form of anyone or anything. The original movie was fed off the fear of the Communist scare but the remake simply chose to scare the crap out of you all by itself. It has been spoofed and reworked since its release but nothing that has followed has come close to this cool, demented movie.

1. The Shining (1980)

When Stanley Kubrick adapted Stephen King's The Shining into a movie, King publically disowned it. King was unhappy that Jack Nicholson was made to look crazy from the beginning of the film, while the book was about the slow decent into madness by the man due to the isolation of the Overlook Hotel. Despite King's displeasure, The Shining remains arguably the greatest horror movie ever made. Kubrick created a film that showed Jack Torrance's decent into a murderous rampage and the effects of the creepy, possibly haunted hotel on him. The film starts with a beautiful areal shot (you can actually spot the helicopter's shadow at one point) that eventually leads into a picture perfect tracking shot of Jack walking through the hotel. We start in wide open spaces and end up enclosed in the same claustrophobic situation Jack finds himself in. Forget the acting and the scary moments for a moment. This movie is the most perfectly constructed movie showing the downfall of a man ever made. Every move Kubrick makes in this film is gold. Notice the white lights surrounding every character that Jack talks to that is a ghost. Notice the narrowing of the frame as the movie moves on into Jack's madness. Notice the beautiful shots of the long hallways with the patterns in the carpet. There is so much about this movie that is perfect, I can't think of another film that deserves this top spot.



Arnold Furious

5. Duel (1971)

The TV movie that alerted the world to Steven Spielberg is a Hitchcockian compendium of tension. The faceless, nameless foe of terrified driver Dennis Weaver is one of the great bad guys. There's no insight into what makes the man tick. He's just there and intent on ruining someone's life. Spielberg made such a reputation with Duel that he was a hit cinematic director almost overnight with the success of Jaws coming in 1975. Of course Jaws is a much better film but it spawned three sequels of varying quality. And by varying they tended to vary towards terrible. Duel was a stand-alone project though. Spielberg's calling card to Hollywood. Look what I can do with one character and a truck; give me some money.

4. Der Cabinet des Dr Caligari (1920)

Re-made 4 times this silent era horror is one of the most memorable of all time. It's one of the foremost expressionist films with the shadows so intense they're literally painted onto the walls, which give way during some innovative nightmare sequences. It was one of the first horror movies, along with the somewhat overrated Nosferatu, to be made. Caligari, for me at least, stands out amongst it's early rivals for it's use of visuals to chill. It still looks ‘out there' today, nearly 100 years on. People simply don't make films like this.

3. Don't Look Now (1973)

Creepy and atmospheric film about the horror of loss. Director Nic Roeg made Venice just about the creepiest place on Earth with Donald Sutherland haunted by images of his deceased daughter. The subplot allows for a superb and unforgettable ending that sends chills down my spine just thinking about it.

2 Happiness of the Katakuri's (2001)

If there's a more ‘out there' horror film I've yet to see it. HotK is a musical horror comedy…with zombies. It's about a guest house run by a singing family (think Sound of Music on crack) whose guests always die. If the set-up, including a bizarre tribute to National Lampoon's Animal House, sounds ridiculous it's nothing compared to the films conclusion where a claymation dog surfs on lava and the dead rise. It's Takashi Miike at his most disturbed and unusual. If you only know him for his slow paced Audition or uber-violent Ichi the Killer then this is a worthwhile investment of time. Just be prepared for the abnormal.

1 La Cabina (1972)

A great filmmaker can make a movie in a wardrobe interesting. This is the concept of minimal space pushed to the extreme. Basically a man gets trapped inside a phone booth. Not like the Colin Farrell movie thankfully. At first the situation is played as comical. A fat man tries to open the phone box by running into it and various attempts are made at freeing the poor bastard. But as time progresses the man's sense of humour dissipates. Then the phone company comes to collect the box and we go off on a winding tour across the countryside. The film takes a switch to the weirder as he encounters another man trapped in a phone box at a junction. The desperation in the other man's eyes parallels his own. Eventually the film rumbles to a shocking conclusion that bumps La Cabina up from a curio to a genuine masterpiece. Thankfully it's on YouTube in its entirety so you can sit here and watch it if you like. It's in 4 parts…this is part one.





Owain J. Brimfield

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Shaun of the Dead (2004) - I still think this is a tad too contemporary to have yet reached 'classic' status, but it's certainly on its way there.

Les Diaboliques (1955) - perhaps not a true horror movie, but certainly this most terrifying thriller Hitchcock never made.


THE TOP 5

5. Nosferatu (1922)

My learned friend Mr. Furious errs slightly when he labels this movie "overrated" - I believe the term he's looking for is in fact "milestone" or something similar. In terms of filmmaking, no, Nosferatu isn't the greatest movie ever made, but it's certainly a landmark horror film and the visage of Max Schrek's eternally creepy title character is as iconic an image from pre-Depression world cinema as Maria from Metropolis or Chaplin's tramp. The film in my opinion beats out the many incarnations of Dracula as the definitive screen depiction of vampires in horror, and not far off its 90th anniversary it deserves to be remembered as a pioneering horror movie.

4. Suspiria (1977)

Currently, apparently, being remade for a 2010 release, but there really is no need. Dario Argento's surrealist horror is memorable for featuring some of the most famous murders in horror movie history, and the masterful use of colour throughout the film combines superbly with the Goblins' unnerving score. I'll confess to only having seen Suspiria in its entirety once, but there are moments that will remain indelibly printed in my memory. Knife in the heart for god's sake! The Italians do horror as well as anyone, and this is the film that cemented Argento's legacy.

3. Duel (1971)

This is the one Arnold did get right, if he can contend with my good-natured ribbing. I'd still rate this as my favourite Spielberg along with Raiders, although certainly not his "best". You wouldn't think the simple tale of a truck chasing a man through the desert would lead to one of the most suspenseful films of the 70s, but that it did my friends, that it did. Is it a case of man versus machine, or does the single glimpse we get of the truck driver (the chilling shot of his arm waving our protagonist past) mean he's human after all? Hard to tell, but equally creepy either way.

2. The Shining (1980)

I probably don't need to elaborate too much on this one, as Kubrick's finest hour (yeah, I said it, but think of it as a turn of phrase rather than an objective assessment) has gathered more column inches than almost any other horror film ever made. Not least in the criticisms by Stephen King, whose own take on the story met rather less acclaim. The Shining contains some of horror cinema's most effective scenes and chilling moments, but the real success is the atmosphere of growing dread the film creates, which stays with you long after Wacky Jack has "Here's Johnny" 'd his way into the night.

1. The Thing (1982)

We're going to ignore the videogame quasi-sequel for the purposes of this one (besides, it ruins the ambiguity of the movie's ending, which is a large part of its appeal for me). John Carpenter shows the world how cinematic remakes should be done, with his treatment of The Thing From Another World (or the book, for you pedants). The sense of isolation and growing threat is just staggering, and there's plenty to keep gore-hounds happy too. Although there're constant threats of remakes and sequels involving everything from Carpenter and Russell themselves to Ronald D. Moore and TV series', it really doesn't need to be done. The Thing stands as one of the finest horror movies ever made and nothing should change that.



Bryan Kristopowitz

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Tales from the Hood (1995): One of the very few "black" anthology horror flicks, this flick has been overlooked for far too long. Featuring five stories (four straight up stories and a wrap around story), this Rusty Condief directed anthology flick has plenty of great performances (David Alan Grier as an abusive bastard, Corbin Bernsen as a scumbag KKK member, Wings Hauser as a racist cop, Clarence William III as a Crypt Keeper type character), plenty of gore, and plenty of dark humor and social commentary. I'm kind of surprised that it doesn't have a better reputation.

Def by Temptation (1990): This low budget horror flick stars Kadeem Hardison, Samuel L. Jackson, and the great Bill Nunn concerns a hot female vampire (played by Cynthia Bond) going around New York City killing men who want to have sex with her. She eventually seduces damn near everyone around her, killing them one by one (one guy gets eaten by his television). I haven't seen this flick in a long time, but it deserves another look. It's not what you expect. It's not the movie I expected it to be. Was actually released by the fine folks at Troma back in 1990.

The Pit and the Pendulum (1991): This, of course, is the Stuart Gordon directed, Lance Henriksen starring adaptation of the Edgar Alan Poe story released by Full Moon Entertainment that scared the hell out of me the first time I saw it. Henriksen is brilliant as Torquemada, a Grand Inquisitor in 1492 Spain, essentially ruling with an iron fist and killing scores of people, all in the name of religion. The scene that most disturbed me at the time was a scene where Henriksen sticks his fingers into someone's hand wounds (there was also a scene where a guy dumps dead, naked bodies over the side of a castle that was pretty nasty). And the actual Pit and the Pendulum torture device was pretty cool looking. If you can hunt this flick down, do it. It's one of Full Moon's best.

THE TOP 5

5. The Dark Half (1993)

This George A. Romero directed adaptation of a Stephen King novel is an excellent horror thriller about a writer literally fighting his own pseudonym (sort of a "guy must fight off his evil twin" type story). Starring Timothy Hutton as both Thad Beaumont and his evil pseudonym George Stark, the flick is one of Romero's best non-"Dead" movies, one of his most polished flicks (this despite the fact that it was held up for a year or so in the collapse of Orion Pictures and Romero has claimed that the flick's last reel isn't technically finished. Something to do with the score). Hutton is brilliant as both Thad and Stark. Watching him go from the studious, professional college professor to the dark and mysterious, nasty ass George Stark (the man knows how to use a razor) is pure horror movie joy. Amy Madigan is also excellent as Amy Madigan, Thad's wife. I will admit that the movie gets a little hokey at the end, with the birds and the black arts voodoo or whatever the hell it was, but Romero makes it seem less ridiculous than it probably could have been. Romero got stuck in "development hell" after this flick and didn't make anything for seven years (Bruiser). He wouldn't get "good" again until 2005.

4. In the Mouth of Madness (1995)

John Carpenter's last, straight up psychological horror flick and the third part of the director's "Apocalypse Trilogy," features Sam Neil as an insurance investigator who finds out that a famous horror novelist's diehard fans are insane because the novelist makes them that way through his books. That's essentially the story anyway. The last third of the movie is where everything gets really screwy and weird (it's like the story collapses into itself) but in a good way. The last scene, where Neil's John Trent watches In the Mouth of Madness in a deserted theatre is both disturbing and hilarious all at the same time. Jurgen Prochnow also puts in a great performance as the evil novelist Sutter Cane. This flick also has one of Carpenter's best themes, a hard rock tune he collaborated on with Jim Lang that fits the movie perfectly.

3. Near Dark (1987)

Near Dark is one of those vampire movies that tries very hard not to be a "traditional" vampire movie (no one turns into a bat or is Eurotrash), and for the most part it succeeds. Some people have called it a "vampire western," since the flick takes place in the west, which I think is also accurate. But, to me, the thing about this flick that sticks out in my mind the most is its stunning brutality. The vampires, headed by Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton, just ride around from town to town, draining people dry all the while scaring the crap out of them. Remember the scene where Henriksen coughs up the bullet? Or how about the famous "bar" scene, when Paxton bits into that guy's neck and just goes to town? These vampires are just nasty, nasty creatures. The weird thing is, though, when they all either go up in flames or get hit by big ass trucks, it doesn't seem like much of a comeuppance. It's exactly what you'd expect to see happen to them. They all live nasty lives, so they die in nasty ways. Man, I need to see this again.

2. Maniac (1980)

I hated this William Lustig directed movie when I first saw it. I didn't understand what exactly the point of it was. Here was Joe Spinell, sleazy fat guy living in an apartment in New York City with a bunch of manequins who also happens to be a brutal serial killer. He goes around town, killing women and then scalping them because he was abused by his mother as a child. I couldn't figure out why that was supposed to be interesting or even entertaining. The gore effects were outstanding, sure (the Tom Savini exploding head via shotgun scene the best of the bunch), but so what? Is that all this movie has to offer? It seemed as though that's all anyone would talk about in regards to it. But then I watched it again, and I think, with that viewing, I got it. It's a character study of a guy no one would ever notice walking down the street and what's going on in his mind. Is Spinell really a serial killer? The bit where he goes out with the fashion photgrapher is just bizarre. Why would a fashion photgrapher want to see Spinell socially in any way? He's not rich, so, again, why? It's all in his mind, isn't it?

1. The Thing (1982)

The first part of John Carpenter's "Apocalypse Trilogy," this sci-fi horror flick has managed to endure for twenty -six years (and will continue to endure into the future) because of its stark, bleak tone. It takes place in Antarctica (white and gray and cold), features a monster that can basically change into anything and really do anything it wants, and has characters (especially Kurt Russell's MacReady) that know they're going to die because there's no way out but continue to fight on anyway (out of a sense of social duty?). Think about the ending where Russell and Keith David's Childs sitting out in the cold, alone. The monster is dead, right? Maybe. But then again, is Childs breath showing? Good God, that's bleak. The battle against the monster may have been all for naught. Simply awesome, simply brilliant all the way through. And, heck, the flick's got a detached human head that sprouts alien bug legs and then walks across the floor. How can you not love a movie that features something like that?



Rick Tym

5. Seven (1995)

I've decided to risk some geek cred and spell Seven correctly rather than Se7en as it is sometimes referred to in the entertainment world. Some may debate whether this is a true horror film; I posit that many horrific things happen in this serial killer tale and therefore warrants inclusion in the genre. I remember being blown away when first seeing this movie, not only by the diabolical scheme brought to fruition by John Doe (Kevin Spacey), but also by the dark atmosphere and great chemistry shared between Detectives David Mills and William Somerset (Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman). Examining one's beliefs is hard enough, but it gets even more difficult when a homicidal genius is forcing them right down your throat. The mechanisms and clues used to keep the plot moving forward may cause debate when it comes to suspension of disbelief, but the killer's methods and motives sure are a hell of a lot more plausible than what Jigsaw serves up in the Saw series. Although upon subsequent viewings I often wonder whatever happened to Mills and Somerset, I'm always glad it's left to my imagination rather than spelled out to possible dissatisfaction in some inferior sequel.

4.. John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness (1995)

There's been a lot of John Carpenter love here at 411 during the month of Halloween, and with good reason. When he's at the top of his game it's hard not to enjoy his work, whether it concerns babysitter murders, snakes in New York, or Egg Shen's mystery bus tour. While The Thing is prime example of a fine Carpenter horror film without a sequel (and sure to be on many lists submitted by my esteemed colleagues), In the Mouth of Madness is a personal favorite that I feel is often overlooked. Sutter Cane (Jürgen Prochnow) is an author who writes novels that evoke the imagery of H.P. Lovecraft and sell like Stephen King's in his heyday. When Cane goes missing, his publisher (look for the cameo by Charlton Heston) hires private investigator John Trent (Sam Neill) to find him to ensure the release of his upcoming novel Horror in Hobb's End. Accompanied by Cane's editor, Linda Styles (Julie Carmen), Trent indeed does find Cane, and along the way to the fiction-turned-twisted-reality town of Hobb's End they both discover the extent of the writer's influence. Filled with both subtle and shocky scares, In the Mouth of Madness may be Carpenter's most underappreciated work. Sam Neill does a great job throughout, but especially during the film's bookend scenes, where he is at first a sane person in a world going mad, and at the last succumbing to the insanity of that world when he realizes that it, like himself, is just another character in one of Cane's macabre tales.


3. Misery (1990)

Once again I may hear cries of "not a horror movie!" and again I would disagree. Obsessed fans make for scary situations, and Misery depicts such obsession at its most extreme. Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates, deserving of that Oscar win) is Paul Sheldon's (played by James Caan) biggest fan, the author of a popular romance series featuring heroine Misery Chastain. After sustaining major injuries in an automobile accident while traveling to Boulder in celebration of the completion of his latest non-Misery novel, Sheldon is rescued and nursed back to health by Annie. Of course, the terms "rescued" and "nursed" are subjective once she finds out that Sheldon has killed off her favorite character in what was meant to be the last of the Misery series. The former nurse uses her own curious treatment methods, including drugs and a sledgehammer, to encourage Paul to bring Misery back to literary life while keeping him captive in a state of terror. Physically and psychologically unrelenting in her motives, Annie is scarier than an unnamed, masked killer—she is the epitome of diabolical in the form of a horror cocktail, one part obsessed fan and two parts crazy, served over the ice of a wintry Colorado backdrop.

2. The Shining (1980)

I would never want to stay at a place like the Overlook Hotel, much less spend a winter there as a caretaker. Yet that's exactly what Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) opts to do for work one Colorado winter (winter in Colorado again? Must be another Stephen King adaptation), taking his wife (Shelley Duvall) and son Danny (Danny Lloyd) along, paying no mind to the establishment's sordid past, which just happens to include a former caretaker's axing of his family under the same isolated conditions. Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's novel stands as one of the shining (pun intended) examples of a horror classic that needs no further exposition—in fact, Kubrick cut a scene which leaves the tale a bit open-ended when it is explained that Jack's body, although shown frozen at the end of the film, was never found. And while many may look at the casting of Nicholson in a positive or negative light (as the author himself did at the time), the true star of The Shining is the Overlook Hotel itself, a place many would never want to visit. I'm just glad that Kubrick's work stands on its own—that is, that Hollywood, while probably tempted and maybe even urged to, was wise enough never to revisit it.

1.. Freaks (1932)

Director Tod Browning drew upon his past as a member of a traveling circus to tell the tale of sideshow performers who are a peaceful, trusting group until they learn of a "normal" couple's plan to steal the inheritance of one of their own. When wealthy midget Hans (Harry Earles) falls in love with and marries trapeze performer Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova), the group begrudgingly celebrates her inclusion into their society at the wedding reception. However, Cleopatra becomes drunk on wine and mistakenly admits her affair with strongman Hercules (Henry Victor), ridiculing the freaks and humiliating Hans. Still, he stays with her but becomes ill due to the poison she has given him. After a member of the family of oddities overhears Cleopatra and Hercules talking about their true motives, they rise up with guns and knives, exacting revenge for their fallen brother by mutilating them both. Never has a scarier sequence been put on film than that which shows the freaks stalking their prey in the stormy night, some dragging themselves along in the mud due to the anatomic anomalies which have given them the title's moniker. Made even more convincing by the use of real people with various sideshow carnival-type deformities, Freaks is the scariest—and perhaps saddest—stand-alone horror film ever released.

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