I can honestly say the two most powerful horror movies I have ever seen are The Exorcist (1973) and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). By most standards, they are considered among the top ten best of the genre.
Both these films are raw and scary due to very different circumstances.
That there could be spiritual evil invading a person's body and soul is one of the most frightening aspects about The Exorcist, the loss of personal identity and control. I first saw this film about ten years after it was made, at home on TV and I was only about nine years old. To this day I kinda regret having watched it at such a young age, for I think it rather traumatized me for a good while. The acting is phenomenal, the special effects incredibly convincing, and that voice, DEAR GOD, that voice! UGH! Many today will say the film has lost most of its initial impact, which is probably true, but even now, many of the scenes still can be quite unsettling.
When I was much older, I ran into a television airing of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (the original please, the remake is a joke) and this film is pretty disturbing. Made on a minimal budget with unknown actors and in a very grainy documentary style, this movie is effective on all levels. We are perturbed to see the crazy family that inhabits that house in the middle of nowhere, the cannibalism, Leatherface and his arts and crafts, and probably the scene that will always stay on my mind: the first victim, a cute young whiteboy who goes into the house unsuspectingly and is conked on the head with a mallet, his body convulsing and seizuring on the floor until a second blow kills him for good. YIKES! F**KIN' TWISTED!
Both films have hardly any gore or blood, yet on a psychological level work extremely well. If you can tolerate this kind of trauma, these are excellent masterpieces for this time of year.
Happy Halloween!
Further reading:
http://www.filmsite.org/horrorfilms.html
http://www.houseofhorrors.com/vault.htm
7 comments:
Have you seen the prequel to the Exorcist? Not Exorcist: The Beginning but Dominion. Just came out on DVD. Paul Schrader directed it, the studio wasn't happy, so they reshot it with Renny Harlin. I hear Dominion is really, really good. Your thoughts?
And Doctor Life is a tool.
Doctor Life is a tool? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! Hey, the man has a right to his opinion though. (chuckle). Hey Brad, never heard of "Dominion", but I will read up more on it. Thanks for the info!
What a tool!
Speaking if which... you need a new blog. George Takei finally come out. They just outed him on channel 4.
Oh god.....hmmm...let see he's been in the pride parade...on Howard Stern and they just noticed?
Anyhowzit back to the Blog at hand....Exorcist was a joke. And the Texas Chainsaw event is just a grizzly murder family.
Scary movies are alien's and stuff.
The greys..that is scary!
By the way Dr. Life...who is this offensive to your god. I am not assuming you are talking about the christian/islamic/judiac one that I know of?
If it is, the "Exorcist" is a very hopeful movie. Showing you that
1)Demons are real and people do need to seek a relationship with god or work on being spiritual.
2) It also shows compasion and the self-sacrifice that a minister or "catholoc" priest is willing to do to save a child and enforce gods will.
Now Texas Chainsaw Masacre has no religious message there. Only a social warnings.
Well I would go further...but this is not the place.
the exorcist is one of my favorite horror movies too. By the way, and responding to Dr. Life, I believe that no limits should be placed on fiction and art (as long as adults are the consumers). For example, not because a movie shows a rape scene, it means it is promoting rape. Catholics, at least, believe in the devil, and this movie shows how Catholic priests would deal with such a situation. By the way, I also like praying, and often I pray that people understand that being gay is not abnormal at all. I am sure in my heart that God accepts my homosexuality as long as I respect others. Jesus taught me that I should love even those that society thinks I shouldn't love. He loved prostitutes, and even his enemies. I might be interpreting Jesus’ message to my own advantage, but I firmly believe that one of his messages was "like me, don't be afraid to publicly love who you actually love." This, for me, includes gay love too.
But, your pretty on the inside.
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