Onibaba (1964) – An old woman and her daughter-in-law live in the middle of a swamp in Feudal Japan. They make a living by murdering lost samurai and selling their looted weapons and armor for food they desperately need. One day a friend of their son/husband comes home and tells them that he was killed in the war – but he’s available if they need to have a man around (wink, wink). What follows is an unfolding tale of psychological savagery, with a mix of jealousy, sexuality, hate, love, lust, fear and violence that would make Freud orgasm about fifty times over. I know that I just made this movie sound like a psychological drama rather than a horror movie, but the key is all in the mood… this movie can get very creepy, and there is a horrific element that enters the film in the latter part that qualifies Onibaba as a bona fide horror classic.Scanners (1981) – A woman is gripped by unexplained seizures in a shopping mall. A man’s head literally explodes in front of a corporate conference. Both of these events are the result of Scanners – telepaths with the ability to not only read minds but completely interface with the body of another human being. One of these scanners, until recently a homeless derelict is recruited to hunt down the leader of a dangerous group of his brethren – a group whose mission it is to eliminate all “normals” and establish scanner supremacy. Any other movie dealing with human telepathy would be a straight-up sci-fi movie, but since this movie is directed by David Cronenberg you’re going to get a lot of body horror watching this. Cronenberg seems to be more
Prince of Darkness (1987) – An L.A. church is housing an ancient and deadly secret… a canister of green goo that has been locked away for more than two thousand years. A team of scientists and grad students is called in to study it, and they find out what it is: pure Liquid Satan (now 50% more refreshing!). The evil substance calls out to the homeless population of Los Angeles and they besiege the church, while inside the science team is slowly taken over one by one by the soft drink/unholy terror. This is easily John Carpenter’s most underrated film – for some reason a lot of people don’t like this one as much as his other stuff. I can kind of see why: it is a little clunky and not as well put together as some of his other movies. But the premise is interesting, the ideas are cool and the atmosphere is genuinely scary. I certainly consider it to be better than Halloween, which is considered by most to be his best film but that I find overrated (sorry). This movie has a lot to recommend: good FX, Alice Cooper and a truly frightening pornstache. Check it out.Well, there you go. My personal recommendations for a Horror Movie Night. And keep in mind that these don’t have to watched only on Halloween – Horror is good year round! ‘Cause when you continually confront the dull existential horror of your everyday life, the best way to entertain yourself at the end of the day is watching the horror of seeing someone’s eyes imploding or seeing the grim spectacle of endless corpses being dumped into a bottomless pit.
Pleasant dreams.
