Top Five Scary Movies

In honor of Halloween, which is every day in my world, I tried to resurrect the old Top Five list I used to so enjoy. So, I asked a bunch of people to provide me with their Top Five Scariest Movies. We'll see how it goes.

So, first off, I gotta come up with my picks.
1. THE GRUDGE
2. THE SHINING
3. THE RING
4. DEAD SILENCE
5. AMITYVILLE HORROR (2005)I notice that most of these movies are recent, and there's a reason for that: I saw them in the theatre. Home video--or worse, television with commercials--just offers too many distractions, too many escapes, and stuck in a darkened room with a huge screen (and hopefully nobody text messaging across from you) is really the way to immerse yourself in the experience going on in the film. And I do have a great fear of ghosts, which I think all the above have in common.

You know what was really scary? DRAG ME TO HELL. The thing with that is, there was so much splatstick and comedy in it that you tend to brush off the fear easier than many horror flicks.

So, I asked a variety of people for their picks this time around, and the first to respond was Liz M. She included a practical essay for each entry. Her picks:

1. The Exorcist
2. The Shining
3. Se7en
4. Silence of the Lambs
5. Psycho Tyranist was next to respond (strange, since I sent him the request last). His picks:

1. Halloween (I still have to run from the dark when I'm done watching it)
2. The Exorcist
3. The Shining
4. Alien
5. Black Christmas
He and I watched the 1974 BLACK CHRISTMAS a couple months ago, and I was really surprised by how scary and well made it was. Especially since we both liked the 2006 remake when it came out. After watching them both back to back, the remake kind of blows.

My evil cousin Ryan sent in his response: "I don't think my opinion here would be very useful." At least he was honest.

Big Bob Freelander sent in a similar list (except his reason was that it's too hard to decide). He put THE CHANGELING on and nothing else.

Chemist Jeff said:
"I can't really recall that many that were truly scary. Yes a bunch of them startled the crap out of me, but that's not what I think of as far as being scared. So my (short) list is:"

1) Prince of Darkness
2) The Omen
3) Exorcist
4) Nightmare on Elm Street (the first one)
5) Big Mama's House (this was actually number one, but it's not really in the spirit of the question so I relegated it...)

Beta Ray Charles sent in:
I guess I haven't seen many, either. Or at least, not many good ones so my list will have some unorthodox ones, for sure.

5. The Grudge
4. The Fly (1958)
3. Terminator 2
2. This House Possessed*
1. Poltergeist

Prison Guard Johnny sent me:
1. Scream
2. The House on Haunted Hill
3. The Shining
4. Dead Girl
5. The ExorcistActually, he put BABY GENIUSES first, but I figured it would skew the voting. We want scary-fun, not scary-veryverywrong.

After a while, Evil Cousin Ryan did send it a list (he's not a big fan of Horror), which went like:
1 Terminator
2 Aliens
3 Alien
4 I know what you did last summer

I sent out my request several days ago, hoping I'd be in time for Halloween. But more than half the folks I asked for answers never got back to me. If they do, I suppose I can change this around, but until then, our winners are:
1. THE SHINING
2. THE EXORCIST
3. THE GRUDGEBut the weak turnout may be a reminder of why I let the Top Five lists die.

Rish "The" Outfield

*Apparently, this was, ironically enough, a movie about a possessed house. He said a scene where someone was taking a shower and the water suddenly became boiling hot and killed them stuck with him for years.