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Celebrating Fright Night: Top 25 scary movies for a Halloween movie marathon
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Some single parents love a great movie marathon fright night, as if some of our nightmare scenarios have not provided enough adrenalized fear. Others are hardcore English movie "Pride and Prejudice" fans. If you tend towards horror, turn off the lights. Click on the DVD and sit tight. Here’s a list of the Chicago Tribune’s top 25 pics for scary flicks (that I'd never show my kids). The links below take you to their original movie trailers to view.
The Omen (1976): Starring Gregory Peck and Lee Remick. 20th Century Fox. An American ambassador learns that his son (which is really not his but one he picked up at the hospital) is the literal antichrist. Naturally, grisly deaths occur.
Psycho (1960): Starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh. Paramount Pictures. A young woman steals $40,000 from work and takes off to start a new life. As luck would have it, her rest stop at the Bates Motel is her final one. Much blame and creepiness is experienced before the twist ending. Taking a shower and a mother's love were never seen the same.
The Amityville Horror (1979): Starring James Brolin, Margot Kidder and Rod Steiger. American International Pictures. Based on the true story of George Lee and Kathy Lutz, the movie follows their troubled stay at their house in Amityville. Buying the house for a steal in the fall of 1975 because of a multiple murder barely a year before, they move in to experience a series of increasingly disturbing paranormal events. Eventually they flee. George, a land surveyor, probably should of had his license revoked because the house was supposedly built on a tribal burial ground. Memo: don’t build your house on a gravesite.
Rosemary's Baby (1968): Starring Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, and Ruth Gordon. Paramount Pictures. Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse move into a New York apartment with a bad reputation. Sounds pretty normal these days but back in the 60’s it was a rare occurrence. Soon Rosemary finds out that the tenants, as well as her husband, and probably in that order, are intent on her having a baby. The downside to this bundle of joy is that it is Satan. No happy ending here.
The Exorcist (1973): Starring Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow and Linda Blair. Based on the novel by William Peter Blatty. Warner Brothers. This movie has made the top of many critics' list as the scariest movie of all time. A young girl is possessed by a demon and her mother calls on the help of two priests to save her soul.
Friday the 13th (1980): Starring Betsy Palmer and Adrienne King. Paramount Pictures. A group of young counselors are working to get Camp Crystal Lake up and running for the summer. But someone isn’t too happy with the camp and one by one they are knocked off in dramatic gory ways. The big surprise ending was whom the killer turned out to be and introduced the next family member to take up the Camp Crystal cause.
Poltergeist (1982): Starring Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams.MGM. They’re Here! A suburban family is first visited by what appears to be friendly ghosts. Before anyone can say Casper, things turn nasty with a pool full of corpses, an evil tree and one of the nastiest stuffed toy clowns you’ll ever meet.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984): Starring Johnny Depp and Robert Englund. New Line Cinema. A ghostly child murderer stalks the dreams of the kids of the lynch mob that killed him for killing kids.
The Shining (1980): Starring Jack Nicholson, Shelly Duvall and Scatman Crothers. Warner Brothers. A family spends the winter taking care of an evil hotel that makes the dad crazy, the mom really hysterical and the little boy run around at night in a frozen maze.
Halloween (1978): Starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence.
Compass International Pictures. An escaped psychotic murderer goes on a rampage while his doctor chases him through town.
An American Werewolf in London (1981): Starring David Naughton and Griffin Dunne. Universal Pictures. A Werewolf attacks two American tourists in England. One is killed and the other is mauled. The survivor, David, eventually turns into a Werewolf, wreaks terror and is visited by his gory victims for chats on how to end his curse.
The Fog (1980): Starring Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, John Houseman, Janet Lee and Hal Holbrook. AVCO Embassy Pictures. A small Northern California fishing town that was built over an old leper colony. The town is targeted for revenge by a killer fog containing zombie-ghosts seeking retribution.
The Blair Witch Project (1999): Starring Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael C. Williams. Artisan Entertainment. A "spookimentary" based on footage found a year after the disappearance of three student filmmakers in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland, this film had people talking about the mystery and getting sick at the dizzy handheld footage.
Saw (2004): Starring Cary Elwes and Danny Glover. Lions Gate Entertainment. Jigsaw, a serial killer who sets up elaborate devices that his victims must figure out or die in, has trapped Dr. Lawrence Gordon in one of his deadly games. Dr. Gordon must figure out a way to get out in time.
The Ring (2002): Starring Naomi Watts, and Amber Tamblyn. DreamWorks SKG. A young reporter investigates mysterious videotape that causes the death of anyone within a week of viewing it.
The Vanishing (1983): Starring Jeff Bridges, Keifer Sutherland and Nancy Travis. 20th Century Fox. The boyfriend of an abducted woman searches for her and the person who took her. He finally meets up with the abductor, who promises to reveal what has happened to her.
Hellraiser (1987): Starring Doug Bradley and Andrew Robinson.New World Pictures. A puzzle box is actually the doorway to hell in this film that introduces us to Pinhead, a scary guy with nails throughout his skull. The plot revolves around Frank, who has cheated Pinhead by living through an encounter with him earlier and his brother's cheating wife, Julia. Various people lose their skin and lives before all is set right by Frank's niece, Kirsty.
Dawn of the Dead (1978): Starring David Emge and Ken Foree. United Film Distribution Company. Due to a slight problem of the dead rising and eating every brain in sight, two cops, a traffic reporter and his TV exec girlfriend take refuge in a shopping center.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974): Starring Marilyn Burns and Gunnar Hansen. New Line Cinema. A group of friends drive on the back roads of Texas when they fall prey to a cannibalistic family, one of which is a leather-masked chainsaw-wielding maniac.
Carrie (1976): Starring Sissy Spacek, Amy Irving, Nancy Allen and John Travola. United Artists. An unpopular and picked on girl with telekinetic powers gets pushed too far on prom night and becomes a rage-filled killing machine.
Night of the Living Dead (1968): Starring Duane Jones and Judith O'Dea. Walter Reade Organization. A group of people hide from bloodthirsty zombies in a farmhouse.
Children of the Corn (1984): Starring Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton. New World Pictures. Creepy kids sacrifice the adults of Gatlin, Nebraska to the demon who lives under the corn. A kind doctor and his wife battle the evil force, freeing the kids and burning corn.
The Evil Dead (1981): Starring Bruce Campbell and Ellen Sandweiss. New Line Cinema. Hitting the books takes on a whole new meaning for five college friends who travel to a cabin in the woods where they the find a scary book and then play a recording of incantations unleashing demons who possess them one by one.
The Descent (2005): Starring Shauna Macdonald and Natalie Mendoza. Lionsgate. Six female friends reunite after a tragic accident and end up trapped in a mountain cave because of a collapse. They soon find themselves being attacked by the bloodthirsty creatures that live there. They struggle to survive the creatures and each other.
The Hills Have Eyes (1977): Starring Dee Wallace-Stone, Susan Lanier and Robert Houston. Vanguard. The creeps inhabiting these hills have their hungry eyes on an innocent family who had the bad luck to break down in their nuclear testing grounds of a backyard.
For more information:
50 scariest movies of all times
Screenings of scary movies for Halloween
13 scary movies for Halloween
Best classic scary films ever made
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