A Not So Tough Guy, Part 1.

Well my friends, we find ourselves shortly facing another Halloween season, which means television is about to get amazing with all the campy horror flicks and awful (but amazing) SyFy Channel specials. I try to keep Halloween in my heart all year 'round, which means never turning down the opportunity to watch a new horror film, or just bust out an old favorite. Granted, this has made me somewhat of the jaded movie-goer...not alot thoroughly creeps me out anymore. I tried to search the interwebs for an impressive list of the scariest horror movies of all time, but I found myself in disagreeance as to what most of them had to say. So here is my list of horror movies that I found to be nail-biters...the kind of scary where it doesn't really get to you until you're laying in the dark that night...the kind of scary where you keep eyeballing the closet door or wait for some ominous figure to appear at the foot of your bed. The kind of scary where it gets to you so bad you'll never divulge to your friends for further fear of public mockery.

Evil Dead 2 (1987) - I saw this for the first time when I was about Five years old. The scene where a girl's reanimated and rotting corpse is dancing outside, and she goes bowling with her noggin? Dude. That's alot to take in for a kid! As an adult now, I can appreciate Sam Raimi's overal comedic take on the whole thing...but nevertheless, that was pretty high on the list of crazy stuff I had seen thus far.

Pumpkinhead (1988)- Giant terrifying demon summoned from hell to murder teenagers. Enough said.

The Ring (2002)- Attack of the evil video tape. Not only did the footage of said tape really cut to my core of creepy, but that scene where they find that girl in the closet after she watched it where her face looks like a rotten deflated balloon made me jump out of my skin. I remember seeing this at the theatre and squeezing my soda so hard that it exploded everywhere. A clever ploy on my part, because that scene made me want to piss myself.

The Excorcist Director's Cut (1973 Originally)- What can I say about this film that isn't already known? Always a popular choice on the horror circuit, the Exorcist has been and will always remain an Icon in the industry. When I watched this for the first time at a young age, it was a heavy subject. Heaven, Hell, God, Demons, etc. So why the Director's Cut? This was the first brush I had with "stop motion" photography -- i.e. the scene where little Regan MacNeil crabwalks upside down along the stairwell. Oh. My. God.

The House on Haunted Hill (1999) - Now don't get me wrong, I LOVED the 1959 version starring Vincent Price. I chose the remake because of again, the Stop Motion photography. It added so much more to the film to distract from the usual-everyday ghost story. I personally was not a fan of the ending, on which they completely blew their load on cheesy special effects. Up until then, however, it had me hook like and sinker. I also really enjoyed the nods to the original film throughout, (Ex: The main character played by Geoffry Rush's name is 'Stephen Price', an obvious homage to the movie's previous star, Vincent Price).

So here is my list thus far, with much more to come. Questions? Comments? Suggestons? Feel free to give me some feedback. Pleasant dreams until then!