LET THE BLOOD FLOW: FILMS TO GET YOU INTO HORROR

It's been a while since i last posted something for you wonderful wonderful people so seeing as we're now in the month of October, the month of horror, I thought i'd make a little list of films for the non-horror aficionado's to help them ease into the genre. So please click read more to find out my recommendation...

For many films obsessives, October is a the month of fear. 31 days of horror movies and a lot people, myself included, annually do the 31DAYSOFHORROR challenge where the idea is to watch one horror film a day leading up to Halloween on the 31^st. I've started my challenge with the classice 1968 Terrance Fisher Hammer production The Devil Rides Out and Scott Derricks' 2012 creepfest, Sinister. The post is just a few recommendations for people who are new to horror, or stuck with what to watch. So check out my recommendations below and let the blood flow freely.

HALLOWEEN (1978) Dir: John Carpenter.

This is the obvious one, you can't watch horror movies for Halloween and not watch where it all began. Carpenter's follow-up to the successful action thriller Assault On Precinct 13 is a completely different beast of a film, a slow-burn slasher, well it's not that slow but the pace allows for atmosphere galore. This is the film that gave us the first truly terrifying franchise killer, 3 years before Jason Vorhees and 6 years before Freddy Kruger killed them in their dreams (do that in a Scottish accent-you'll get the reference). I could easily just list all of Carpenters films from Halloween right through the 1980s but i'll just post them here as “also recommended”. The cast has everyone from Jamie Lee Curtis, P.J Soles and Donald Pleasance. Watch it and enjoy....

Also Recommended: The Thing, The Fog, Christine, Prince Of Darkness, In The Mouth Of Madness.

TRICK r' TREAT (2007) Dir: Michael Dougherty

Trick r' Treat has become a tradition amongst horror fans since it's release in 2007 as it perfectly captures the fun and darkness of Halloween. A portmanteau style anthology film consisting of 4 inter-connecting stories taking place on Halloween eve. The stories consist of a grumpy old man who hates Halloween, a psychopath Teacher, A virgin with a twist and a group of kids pulling a prank. While at times it's very cartoonish with it's tongue firmly in it's cheek at other times it's down right dark and gory. With it's 70s style aesthetics and a weird sort of Tales From The Crypt feel, Trick r' Treat is a treat for fans of horror, comedy and anthology films. I sort of see it as Hocus Pocus for adults although I bet you won't find one adult who doesn't watch Hocus Pocus at Halloween, regardless of whether or not they have children.

“Poison, Drowning, Claw or Knife, So Many Ways To Take a Life!”

BRAINDEAD (1992) Dir. Peter Jackson

Before he discovered the art of CGI and making huge fantasy epics, New Zealand director Peter Jackson, was the king of low-budget practical FX Splatter. Braindead is his biggest gore fest to date, a zombie love story comedy with more gore than Al (i'm super serial). The best thing about Braindead is how far Jackson takes the practical FX and gore. Braindead is and always will be the goriest movie of all time but it's not sickening, it gets to a point in the film where the blood and guts become so OTT that they actually become comical. The films is also actually very funny too and it's a credit to Jackson for pushing the FX to the limit on such a small, tight budget. I'm not a huge fan of Lord Of The Rings or The Hobbit films and would one day love to see Jackson return to the Horror genre.

Also Recommended: Bad Taste, The Frighteners, Black Sheep, Wolf Creek, Undead

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984) Dir: Wes Craven

Wes Craven was known for making the brutal rape/revenge film The Last House On The Left and the cannibals in the mountains film, The Hills Have Eyes, he continued his horror career with the absolutely bonkers slasher flick, A Nightmare On Elm Street. The film introduced us to the eponymous Freddy Kruger, the murdered child killer who haunts the dreams of the children of the lynch mob that killed him. Craven employs some utter brilliance in the script and the visuals are fantastic. The original film is a far more serious affair compared to the films that followed it but that's not to say it doesn't have it's humorous moments. Craven made a great, scary film in which (spoiler) Johnny Deep famously gets devoured by a bed. Definitely worth a watch on a dark and scary October night.

Also Recommended: Friday 13^th, Laid To Rest, Sleepaway Camp, Slumber Party Massacre.

FRIGHT NIGHT (1985) Dir: Tom Holland

The 80s wouldn't have been complete without Fright Night, there were a lot of Vampire films in the 80s, Lost Boys, Near Dark and Vamp just to name a few but Fright Night is the one which you'll have most fun with. Not only is the film super fun but also have a great performance from the great Roddy McDowell as Peter Vincent, a fake TV vampire hunter hired to help High School student Charley Brewster kill his neighbour who he suspects is a vampire, throw into the mix a best friend called Evil Edd and Marcy Darcy from Married With Children and you my friend have a hell of a time coming your way. Great special FX, a good score and some good performances are the order of the day with Fright Night. The remake ain't half bad either..

Also Recommended: The Lost Boys, Near Dark, Vamp, Salem's Lot ('79), Fright Night (remake).

EVIL DEAD (1981) Dir: Sam Raimi

The film horror author Stephen King referred to as “the ultimate experience in gruelling terror”, well in 1981 he may have been onto something, 33 years later, it does lose that appeal but Evil Dead is still a phenomenal piece of horror film making. Made for a very low budget and starring a cast of unknown actors including it's lead, the almighty one and only Bruce Campbell, The Evil Dead has become a classic of the genre and paved way for countless imitations and “creepy cabin in the woods” horror flicks including the horror dissecting awesomeness that is Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard film, Cabin In The Woods. Upon it's release, Evil Dead was extremely controversial, especially here in the U.K where it was considered a video nasty and director Sam Raimi was held up in court on obscenity charges. But The Evil Dead and it's sequels, Evil Dead 2 and Army OF Darkness hold up extremely well today. Definitely worth every minute of your time.

THE SHINING (1980) Dir: Stanley Kubrick

The first film to ever scare the shit out of me, Stanley Kubrick's vision of Stephen King's novel is, from what I gather a little different from King's source novel. What Kubrick does with The Shining is not only brilliantly realized, visually and narratively but also the unease you feel as you watch a man descend into madness. It's a hard watch but it's a must see for any horror fan. Watching Jack Nicholson underplay for the majority of the film is more uneasy than most of the actual scary shit in the Shining and really shows how incredible Jack can be as an actor. Shelly Duvall gives an utter bravura performance as the wife watching her husband slowly go mad and she should have earned an Oscar for her performance. Unfortunately over the years the impact that The Shining had on me as child has been destroyed due to this line...”no TV and no Beer make homer something something”, but despite the Simpsons, The Shining is still a masterclass in both visual and performance led horror. If you can get the uncut 144 minute version I highly recommend it, if not the 119 minute European cut is more than satisfactory.

THE OMEN (1976) Dir: Richard Donner

From the director of Lethal Weapons 1 through 4, The Goonies and Superman (1977) comes The Omen, a frankly creepy as shit occult horror which introduced the world to Damien, the Anti-christ, born with a birth mark of 666 on his head and able to make people do things and the name alone gave Rodney Trotter the heebie jeebies. The Omen is just creepy for creepy's sake but gives legendary hollywood actor Gregory Peck a great role as the American ambassador who finds that a lot of people are dying around him since the birth of his son Damien. The Omen is atmospheric and well directed by Donner and contains some really twisted death scenes. All three of the Omen films are worth your time, especially the first and the third which finds Sam Neill as the older Damien. It followed in the footsteps of The Exorcist but managed to be it's own film. Another worthwhile film to watch this Halloween.

Also Recommended: The Changeling, The Ninth Gate, Insidious, Sinister.

SUSPIRIA (1977) Dir: Dario Argento

Like Carpenter I could easily list countless Argento films like Tenebre, Phenomena, Deep Red etc... but i'm going with what I consider to be Argento's crowning achievement. A little harder to get into than the films posted so far but Suspiria is a phenomenal film, full of vibrant cinematography and a truly haunting score from Goblin. It's also very violent. It follows an American student as she arrives at a prestigious Italian ballet school where people start turning up dead or missing. She discovers that the school houses a coven of witches. Dario's eye for the visual is fantastic, not as symmetrical as Kubrick's but his use of Colour really make Suspiria stand out. Jessica Harper (the 70s version of Ellen Page) carries the film incredibly well as the lead but the support cast also hold their own including a short role for everyone's favourite evil German, Udo Kier. I highly recommend spending some time with Suspiria, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Also Recommended: Tenebre, Inferno, Deep Red, New York Ripper, Dellamorte Dellamore (Cemetery Man).

NIGHT, DAWN & DAY OF THE DEAD (1968, '78, '85) Dir George A. Romero

This one is a no-brainer for me, THE zombie trilogy to end all zombie trilogies. Romero's films are not just iconic horror films but also some of the most intelligent horror films you're ever likely to see. Each of his films has an underlying theme of something, Night's theme is that of the Vietnam war, Dawn's is consumerism and Day's is brains over brawn. Each film is expertly written and crafted films. Yes they have moments of sheer horror such as the “ghouls” coming to the house in Night, the mooney priest zombie coming for franny in Dawn and the overun/escape from Day. I'm a bit biased here with the inclusion of these movies as Dawn is my favourite horror film of all time so it was clearly going to make it the list but watched as a trilogy, the three films work incredibly well together. It's also worth pointing out that the remakes of both Night and Dawn are well worth your time too, Day on the other hand is a steaming pile of wank and if you really want to go all out I suggest Night, Dawn, Day, Land, Diary and Survival Of The Dead as a full on Romero Zombie blitz. Greatest zombie movies ever made.

Also Recommended: Zombie Flesh Eaters, The Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue, The Beyond, Return Of The Living Dead plus many many more.

SCREAM (1996) Dir: Wes Craven

Craven's second film on this list and it's a damn good one to. Scream brought about the slasher film renaissance when it hit theaters in 1996, a return to the 80s style slasher flick but a film that would reference those films in both visuals and in dialogue, a testament to writer Kevin Williamson's love of the genre. Scream was the first post-modern slasher film and it was huge. It paved the way for Williamson's other written work, I Know What You did Last Summer and guff like Urban Legend and sequels to IKWYDLS, Halloween, Candyman and also sequels to Scream it's self. Scream took the well worn themes of the 80s and updated them to the 90s. It followed high schooler Sydney Prescott and her home town of Woodsboro, where a masked killer is offing her friends and classmates. It's up to Sydney, TV reporter Gail Weathers and doofy deputy Dewy to get to the bottom of the killing. Scream worked on so many level, you never knew who the killer was until the last 15 minutes but it kept making the audience believe they knew then off'd that person. It was brilliant writing and directing from Craven. Scream is an iconic 90s horror film which I still get an enormous amount of joy from watching even after 10 or 15 views.

Also Recommended: Scream 2, 3 & 4, SAW, Cherry Falls.

THE SIMPSONS TREEHOUSE OF HORRORS 1-10 (The 90s)Dir: Various

Remember when the Simpsons was laugh out loud funny and not just smirk a bit when Moe said something about syphilis? Those were fucking awesome times. Between 1990 and 1999, The Simpsons put out 10 utterly brilliant Halloween specials, each episode featured three tales of terror, some of them were set up in an anthology style, the first one was Lisa and Bart in the treehouse telling spooky tales, a haunted house, an alien abduction and one of best tellings of Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven, narrated by James Earl Jones. Each year a new episode would air and each episode would again tell three tales of terror whether it be a brand new story like “Time & Punishment” where Homer travels through time and different dimensions or sometimes they'd be parodies of films or TV shows like The Twilight Zone, some of the stand out stories are things like Terror At 5 ½ Feet, Nightmare Cafeteria, The Homega Man, Hell Toupee, Attack OF The 50 ft Eyesores and my personal favourite, Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace which I referenced above in the Elm Street review. These were and still are some of the best written and conceived episodes of The Simpsons and remain today, for me especially, a Halloween tradition. Whatever you do though, stop at episode 10, after that they just get shit.

Well there we go, these are pretty much the gateway horror films for you to get started with, I'll list a few more below for you but these, I would say, are the most accessible films for new horror fans to use to get into the genre. For all you hardcore horror whores, y'all know ya shit so you ain't getting nowt from me....So from all of us here at CA towers (pretty much just me and about 5 cats) I bid you all a happy Halloween and a remember, when there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth, stay safe!....

Additional recommendations