This is the continuation of an earlier post -
5. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) - this is probably the most stylized vampire movie I've ever seen - thanks to Francis Ford Coppola's vision! Gary Oldman gave Dracula a more interesting dimension, someone who was nice but can be vicious if he wants too! The special effects at that time, really elicited screams from everyone in the theater!
4. The Others (2001) - I saw this movie in an SM cinema and I wanted to hit myself on the head. The cinemas in SM have very poor audio and very uncomfortable chairs!! So we had to strain our ears just to listen to the dialogue!! But still, we were scared especially towards the fantastic climax! The best climax I've seen since The Sixth Sense!! 'We're not dead!! We're not dead".
3. The Sixth Sense (1999) - I admit the twist in the ending made my head spin, since I wanted to see the movie again and check if all the scenes were feasible!! My favorite scene was towards the end, when both Mom and son were working out their issues. I've always loved Toni Collette and I was so happy for her that this movie finally broke her through Hollywood!
2. Alien (1979) - I saw this movie in the early 1990s and I was so impressed because all the while, I thought it was just released the year before! That's the genius of James Cameron. Of course, he went on through higher heights after that, but in this movie, you can see how the slow burn can actually make you very scared! The last 20 minutes of the movie were a blast and Sigourney Weaver here, was a Wonder Woman!!
1. The Exorcist (1973) - Mama once told me, that when this movie was shown in Manila, many people did not sleep with the lights off!! My brother will not watch the movie at night because he doesn't want bad vibes. I think the reason why many people are scared of this movie, including me, is that, this time, the bad boy is the devil himself. And the effects were just groundbreaking at that time and the ideas to scare us were really original!! Head turning 360 degrees, a person walking like a spider.... the list goes on and on!!
It's that time of year again where our collective fears of mothers-in-law, spiders, cockroaches and ghosts are being exploited by Hollywood, so in line with the times, I came up with my list of the ten scariest movies that I've ever seen. Now, this runs the gamut from sci-fi movies, to zombie movies, to ghost movies to vampire movies so find out if there's something you may have not watched yet!
10. The Shining (1980) - I saw this movie in Hong Kong when they had a Stanley Kubrick's retrospective. I remember being afraid of the isolation and the descent to madness of Jack Nicholson's character. There they were, in that hotel up in the mountains, with no one around except a mad man ready to chop them down!! Scream!!
9 - The Birds (1963) - I saw this movie in an Alfred Hitchcock marathon Halloween screening in Glorietta 4 and even if the effects are a bit dated, the birds are vicious, and scary looking! And Tippi Hedren is so stylish and beautiful and classy - so I was really concerned for her! For me, when the birds attacked the kids - now that part was very scary!
8 - Ringu (1998) - I saw this movie by mistake!! There was a Japanese film festival in Greenbelt 3 and there was a buzz around The Ring - the American version - so I bought tickets to The Ring - and found out I bought tickets not for the American version, but for Ringu!! I wanted to walk out of the theater with my friend and brother but we stayed on since we were gripped by the movie! Japanese films normally have no soundtrack and it's very quiet, just the scene unfolding. I think it made the experience more unnerving for us!! Weeks later, Sadako became a household name in Manila and Ringu became a sleeper hit. My friend wanted to go out in the middle of the movie to urinate but she didn't want to miss a scene so she stayed! When Sadako came out of the well and out of the TV screen - my heart was in my throat! Like the character, I wanted to scream, but could not, out of shock!
7 - Cloverfield (2008) - I went into watching this movie not knowing anything about it. I haven't even seen the trailer. All I knew at that time was, it was a big box-office hit in the US the week it was released. Lucky me! I was in for a fantastic and scary ride! I was so scared for all the characters there!! The helicopter crash was the scariest experience for me! I was flying so much at that time and I find the crash scene as too real!!
6 - 28 Weeks Later (2007) - I saw this movie without seeing the original, 28 Days Later, and I still find the sequel, much much scarier. When I was growing up, zombies walked very slowly, and were very lethargic. But seeing this movie, scared me so much, because now, the zombies can run as fast as us and were vicious eaters - of humans!!
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