Is there anything better than tucking into some loaded with salt and butter popcorn on a cold dark night with a bunch of friends and watching a scary movie to get your adrenaline kicking into gear? If you love scaring yourself silly and then laughing about it afterwards, you’re not alone. In fact, just about 75% of the world’s population shares your love of horror films. But why do we enjoy sitting on the edge of our seats? What is it about horror films that make people either love them or hate them? We’ve done our research and the ballots are in, plus we’ve got some suggestions for what to watch.
People go see movies to escape the realities of life. Many horror films are a take on the paranormal or the dream world and the heightened drama transports you to another realm of your imagination where your mind plays tricks on you, giving you the ultimate jolt of adrenalin. We find ourselves to be curious about the darker side of life and often the more extreme the storyline, the more it grips our imagination as our brain tries to make sense of what is happening. Horror movies often involve our greatest fear and the best scary movies all follow the same common elements – tension, mystery, suspense, gore, terror, or shock. Throw in some scary music, sound effects and clever camera techniques and our emotions intensify.
With so many to choose from, what makes a horror film popular amongst the public? Is it its relevance in society? There’s the obvious universal fear of death, and lets face it, in most horror movies the victims do not die a peaceful death in their old age. Horror films are also a way to explore societal issues in an interesting way. For example, Jordan Peele’s ‘Get Out’ critiques ‘White American’ society through the horror genre.
So now you’re starting to understand your obsession with the scary slasher films you’re thinking about which films you can watch . Here at FIB we did our best to narrow a mixture of the classic and modern down to five must see films.
The Exorcist
Although this movie isn’t the newest or the scariest anymore there’s no denying that it was a screamer in it’s time, the OG of psychological horror films. Directed by William Friedkin, the film follows a young girl who becomes possessed by an evil spirit and the family recruit the help of a priest to perform an exorcism for her.
Annabelle
One of the newer supernatural horror films to date, this movie had us jumping from the start. It wasted no time getting into the story lines and there were weird occurrences, suspense, thrills and gore from the beginning right on through until the end.The film serves as a spin off to The Conjuring movie which centres around the doll that is Annabelle who has become a talisman of an evil spirit who tortures and torments a young wife and her baby. Creepy doll movie, need we say any more?
Nightmare on Elm Street
An 1984 slasher film, a classic if you will…because what is scarier than dying in your sleep? Nowhere to run or hide from this film directed by Wes Craven that was the start of a very successful franchise. The plot revolves around several teenagers who are stalked and killed in their dreams and then killed in reality by Freddy Krueger. The teenagers are unaware of the cause of this strange phenomenon, but their parents have been keeping a dark secret from long ago.. The intrigue is there, but do you have the guts? Highly recommended as a must see.
The Conjuring
Creepy. Just, so, so, creepy. This supernatural horror film directed by James Wan had us doing the whole ‘jump to the bed from the doorway once you turned the light off thing.’ It follows The Warrens, who are a husband and wife team who come to the assistance of a family who are experiencing a rapid increase of disturbing events in their very creepy farm house (got that this film is creepy, yet?). 10/10 for scare factor.
Psycho
And who could forget Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. The 1960 psychological thriller that changed the game, or at least instilled the fear of showering into the minds of people everywhere. The film centres on an encounter between a secretary, Marion Crane, who ends up at a secluded motel after stealing money from her employer, and the motel’s disturbed owner-manager, Norman Bates. With a twists and scares this movie is a true classic.
So grab your popcorn and settle in for a night of fright, this one is on us. Just don’t call us when its 3am and you can’t sleep (ever again).