October 29, 2020

My Favorite Scary Movies


As I write this, I am watching a stupid scary movie about two people stuck in an elevator. I was halfway through it when I realized I'd seen it before! Hahaha, my memory is so bad, especially when it comes to TV shows, movies, or books--I can see/read the same things and vaguely remember them.

Anyway, I LOVE SCARY MOVIES. My very favorites are teen thrillers, always casting the stereotypical teenagers--male jock, hot popular blond girl, male nerd, cute girl-next-door, and the token comedic best friend. They are usually driving on a road trip somewhere and get lost and then wind up in a whole lot of blood and gore due to a killer who has no reason to kill them other than the fact that they are jackasses when they come across him at a gas station during their trip. And almost always, the cute-girl-next-door is the last one standing at the end. 

Am I right or am I right? ;)

In a perfect world, calories be damned, my favorite way to spend a Friday night would be to curl up under a blanket with my heating pad and pint of Ben & Jerry's Chubby Hubby, a glass of wine, and watching a scary teen slasher film. With Jerry. As long as he doesn't tell me how bad my choice of movie was.

What makes a movie scary? It all depends on the person watching. Personally, I do NOT like supernatural movies. I only like movies that could, even with some big stretch of imagination, actually happen. I don't believe in ghosts (or anything supernatural) so those kinds of movies aren't scary to me. I like the slasher films, and I am notorious for watching the B-movies of this genre. 

My age definitely plays into what movies are my favorites--I'm 38 years old, born in 1982, graduated high school in 2000. So, considering I like the teen slasher films best, I tend to gravitate toward the movies from that generation--the late 90's, early 2000's. 

I probably don't even need to tell you that I'm not a movie buff. I don't look at the cinematography of a movie film. I'm not a snob of sequels or remakes (I usually like the newer versions rather than the older versions of movies that have been remade). 

All of that said, here is a list of my favorite scary movies. I've only included movies that I've seen multiple times. I've seen SO MANY scary movies that I couldn't possibly try to list them, so I narrowed it down by first eliminating the movies that I've only seen once.

Movie Series (where I can't choose just one as a favorite!):

Scream
I think of Scream as the scary movie of my generation. Just like American Pie is THE coming-of-age-movie for my generation, Scream is that for the scary movie genre. 

Final Destination
The movies in this series may be considered supernatural, but the only supernatural part would be seeing "signs" before someone dies. The first 20 minutes or so of these movies are the best! The beginning sets the scene up for the entire movie in a fun way.

Saw
I really like these movies because of how clever they are. Puzzles that you have to figure out, and if you don't, you die! Simple as that ;) 

Jurassic Park
Even though I don't consider the movies in this series to be "horror" movies or slasher films, they deserve to be on the list. Jurassic Park is on the list of my favorite movies of all time. They're scary in a nail-biting way.

The Silence of the Lambs
I love the psychological aspect of this series. Anthony Hopkins is AMAZING as Hannibal and I love how creepy he is! 

I Know What You Did Last Summer
This movie gives me anxiety just thinking about it! Hahaha, I can't imagine doing something horrible and then getting a note that someone "knows what you did". 


Stand Alone Movies (they may have sequels (and I've seen them), but these are my favorites as "stand alone" films):

Big Driver
This is a great "revenge" movie. I hate that I love this movie--it's based on a Stephen King novel, and I'm NOT a fan of Stephen King (which is funny, because one of my favorite movies of all time is The Green Mile, another Stephen King-based film). 

47 Meters Down
This movie was TERRIFYING to me, because I imagined myself in the girls' positions, and it was killing me. I hate open water and the thought of being 47 meters below the surface of the ocean without being able to get back up? Kill me now.

Urban Legend
All of the urban legends I heard as a kid? Yep, they're in this movie!

The Purge
"The Purge" is a day where laws don't apply and you can pretty much do anything you want without getting in trouble... including killing people. Watching this is so scary because I imagine if it was a "real thing", what would I do to protect my family?

 
B-Movies

Unfriended: Dark Web
I watched this right around the time we had to lockdown for COVID. It's what gave me the idea to do a game night with friends via Skype (or Zoom). Basically, a group of friends is video chatting and one by one, they see each other get killed. This was scary to me because of the technology that can actually make it happen!

Better Watch Out
This has a great twist that I actually wasn't expecting! Usually I am good at picking out twists. Jerry and I also quote from this movie frequently. Like I've mentioned before, we love to quote movies randomly in conversation. 

Slumber Party Massacre
This movie is from 1982, and it has all the stereotypes of a teen slasher film from the early 80's. One thing I love about the older movies like this is that the actresses aren't all tiny with large fake boobs and tons of makeup. I miss when people looked like this in the movies!

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
The girl next door who is pursued by all the boys... and one by one, the "competition" is eliminated.

Would You Rather
This is a fun horrific game of "Would You Rather...?" only it involves things like, "Would you rather be submerged underwater for two minutes or have all of your teeth extracted?" And if you don't choose, you die. 


When I was a kid: I won't even write about these individually, because they are nothing at all like I watch today! But they are nostalgic for me. My dad actually enjoyed watching these with me! And I remember my mom taking me to the theater to see Tremors. (Wait--I just looked it up, and Tremors came out in 1990--I was only 8 years old. I highly doubt my mom took me to see it at that age! So maybe she took me to a sequel.)

The Blob
Gremlins
Critters
Temors
Arachnophobia


Looking through the movies I've seen, there are so many that I want to list, but it's hard to choose. So this is actually a short list of my favorites! Do you love scary movies? What do you consider to be "scary"?

5 comments:

  1. I saw Tremors again recently and it held up well! Worth revisting.
    Another scary on is Cube. It's a low budget simple concept film but well done. https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/cube-2-review/

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    Replies
    1. I LOVE Cube! I was super close to adding it to the list, but I've only seen it once so I chose not to. But maybe I'll watch it again tonight. :)
      Maybe I'll see if my boys want to watch Tremors and see what was scary to me when I was their age! Whenever I think of Kevin Bacon, that's the movie that comes to mind first, hahaha.

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  2. I hate scary movies. I guess I have enough fear in my real life after losing my parents and with my husband fighting terminal cancer. That's all the "Scare" I need in my life at my age. Stephen King used to be my favorite author and now I can hardly read his novels, especially if they involve death or people coming back after dying. I guess my real fears are enough at this point.

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    Replies
    1. Aww, I know you've been through a LOT. I do like the "feel good" movies too, like the ones on the Hallmark channel. That's what my mom loves!

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  3. Great list, I used to have an ex-boyfriend that made me watch all the scary movies but I always hated them lol so scary to me. I just watched IT though and I guess growing up really makes you look at scary movies differently lol the worst movie for me was the hills have eyes. Have you ever seen it? It made me so mad and grossed out. I can’t do gory.

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