The Kids list has 4 movies that will satisfy the scare factor but won't give lifelong nightmares. Actually, each one gets campier the older you get. So, if your kids are fascinated (and scared) by horror movies, give them these to watch. You'll be starting a lifelong love of the fiendish and creepy. 3 of them involve outsized creatures. I think for kids, seeing something they recognize but in a grotesque fashion, can be horrifying.
The Crawling Eye (1958)
aka The Trollenberg Terror
This one scared me as a kid. The image of a young girl in a room by herself and the alien eye on the other side trying to get her with its tentacles was so scary. But it is all tolerable in the end.
Food of the Gods (1976)
Just the TV commercials scared me. Nothing like giant rats gnawing on your arm or crawling all over a farm house to terrify young minds. Bert I. Gordon was known for directing these things. Love his initials, don't you?
Them! (1954)
The last on my list of overgrown things. Nuclear waste in the U.S.A. didn't create new species like Gamera or Rodin. It just made our creepy crawlers bigger and deadlier. Them! is a classic. Don't let your kids miss it.
The Watcher in the Woods (1980)
Even Disney can make an effective thriller for kids. Bette Davis shines in this spooky tale.
And now for the Adults.....
Creepy is definitely what gets me most as an adult. While Leatherface stars in the best of the true terror for me, these 4 films have a more lasting creep factor.
Carnival of Souls (1962)
Without a doubt, the movie that can give me nightmares. Candace Hilgloss plays someone so miserable at life that she is equally miserable in death. Herk Harvey the director is the ghoulish man she envisions throughout the film. Get the Criterion edition since it has some interesting extras.
Suspiria (1977)
If you can let go of a dependence for strong narrative and give yourself wholeheartedly to a film, get this one. No film has a more beautiful use of color with a more repulsive subject matter. That juxtaposition is at the heart (film allusion) of what I believe is Argento's best film.
Peeping Tom (1960)
Come on...a photographer taking shots of the women he tortures and kills as he's doing it by the Director of The Red Shoes! Oh, but it's true. And what a creepy film this is. I seem to remember that it had been banned in several locales. The subject matter alone is enough to turn your stomach. But the shots are so well designed you just have to keep watching.
Les Diaboliques (1955)
Only get this original French version. You will be so immersed (film allusion) in this film that you won't know what's going on. See it now.
No comments:
Post a Comment