Martin Scorsese: 11 Scariest Horror Movies of All Time
October 29th, 2009 by Scott Marks
The Daily Beast asked Martin Scorsese to select the 11 scariest films of all time. The biggest surprise is Peter Medak’s “The Changeling.” Haven’t seen it since it opened, but don’t remember much beyond a few hilarious grunts and grimaces from George C. Scott.
The only one I have yet to see is “The Entity.” It played in Chicago and I avoided it because the scariest part of the poster was “Directed by Sidney J. Furie.” At the time I only knew of him from such monumental stinkers as “Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York,” “Gable and Lombard,” and “The Boys in Company C.” After last year’s viewing of “The Appaloosa” (and Marty’s personal dispensation) I’d be more than happy to give it a look.
Only two of His selections (”The Exorcist” & “Psycho”) made it to my list. Never really connected with “The Haunting” or “The Innocents,” and “The Shining” has more black comedic chuckles that jolts. “Night of the Demon” is a masterpiece, but I can’t say that it scared me.
Read Marty’s list here.
It takes a lot to scare me so I only came up with 9. Sure, I could have talked about how the transformation sequence in “The Nutty Professor” traumatized me when I was a kid, but that’s not exactly a film that comes to mind when discussing horror movies. My selections are based on my initial responses to the movies, not how I react to them today. As Marty noted, contemporary audiences, hammered by constant scenes of graphic gore, might view “Psycho” as something tame, but when it first came out audiences were terrified.
You can listen to my thoughts on Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” Polanski’s “Rosemary’s Baby” and Robert Harmon’s “The Hitcher” here.
“Repulsion” / Roman Polanski (1965)
Say what you will about the man’s personal conduct, he sure knew how to terrify audiences. Before motherly Rosemary became trapped by Satan in a New York brownstone, a sexually repressed Catherine Deneuve was assailed by nightmares and rabbits in a London flat. First saw it on the second half of a midnight double feature at the Playboy Theatre. It didn’t hit the screen until around 2 am and it unnerved me so that I didn’t fall asleep until the next night. A truly terrifying psychological horror film that still finds me flinching every time those arms emerge from the wall and hook Catherine Deneuve.
“The Exorcist” / William Friedkin (1973)
I have grown to hate this movie, but when I saw it opening weekend at The Gateway I almost peed my pants. We stood on line in the freezing cold for 90 minutes waiting to get in to. Back in the day films didn’t open on 4,000 screens across America and The Gateway was the only Chicago theater it played on its initial release. The hardest part for me to watch is the needle piercing Linda Blair’s throat. At one point, my friend became so startled that his bucket of popcorn went flying four rows in front of us.
“The Seventh Victim” / Mark Robson (1943)
I first saw a pristine 16mm Kodak print in my friend Rick’s basement. This atmospheric tale of devil worshiping in the Big Apple continues to creep the hell out of me. Most horror films from this period are dated enough that the fright has been drained out of them. Not “The Seventh Victim.” The ending still packs a wallop: “I run to death and death meets me as fast, and all my pleasures are like yesterday” followed by the sounds of a chair falling and a noose tightening around the victim’s neck.
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Tags: Alfred Hitchcock, carrie, eyes without a face, george romero, halloween movies, horror films, Martin Scorsese, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, psycho, repulsion, rosemary's baby, scariest horror films of all time, scary movies, The Exorcist, THE HITCHER, the seventh victimFiled Under Rants
Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’ is coming to San Diego
October 24th, 2009 by Scott Marks
Alfred Hitchcock wrote this ad copy and took delight in the grammatically incorrect catchphrase.
Whether you view it as a darkly comedic assault against American complacency or an all out ornithological attack on your central nervous system, Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” has been delighting generations of film lovers since it first flapped its way onto theater screens in 1963.
On the night before Halloween, you will be able to thrill anew when Reading Cinemas turns beggar’s night into “Hitchcoctober” with a big screen video presentation of one of The Master’s many masterpieces.
‘Tippi’ Hedren, billed as “A fascinating new discovery,” stars as a blond igloo modeling a French twist and sensible black shoes. After being semi-thawed by the dashing Rod Taylor, the coo-some twosome is systematically pecked apart by a gaggle of fowl co-stars.
This special one-night-only showing of “The Birds” will take place Friday, Oct. 30 at 8 p.m. at Reading Cinemas’ Gaslamp 15 and Clairemont Town Square 14. Admission is only $5.
Hitchcock said that he began putting his legendary cameo appearances closer to the beginning of his movies so audiences wouldn’t spend more time looking for him than they did following the story. You won’t have to wait long: he makes his appearance in “The Birds” exactly 2 minutes and 16 seconds into the picture.
Enjoy the following video which contains over two dozen of Hitch’s cameos.
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This article originally appeared on SDNN.com.
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