20 Artists Share Their Favorite Horror Movies
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It’s that time of year again when horror films truly shine. We asked 20 artists to share their favorites, and you can let us know yours in the comment box below.
15. Rachel Kolar – (He’s My Brother, She’s My Sister)
Favorite Horror Movie:
Halloween
Halloween! Hands down. I started my obsession with horror films when I was in second grade. I loved sleepovers and watching gruesome movies. The problem was, I was very much alone in this endeavor. All of my friends were terrified of Halloween, not to mention most parents didn’t endorse such extreme violence at such a young age. I grew up a prankster so I love anything that scares people. In the middle of the film I would usually say I was going to the bathroom and then creep back into the room and spook everyone. Little girls cry easily, so this usually resulted in tears. Halloween is the best because of the score and the expressionless killer. Michael Myers is so freaky because he has no reaction as he is massacring his victims. I think I liked the sexy scenes too. I guess I’ve always been a little pervvy too!
16. Rob Kolar – (He’s My Brother, She’s My Sister)
Favorite Horror Movie:
The Omen
I remember seeing this as a kid and finding the music and subtleties of the suspense and horror really terrifying. The idea of a child being the villain, not to mention the antichrist also stirred some real fear into my 12-year-old mind. The cinematography and acting was also really haunting. Sometimes it isn’t the gore which makes your heart skip a beat, but the anticipation of who will die.
17. Dana Falconberry
Favorite Horror Movie: Funny Games
Favorite Horror Movie: Funny Games
When did you first experience the movie?
On the night of my 29th birthday. Horrible ending to a good birthday.
What’s the scariest scene in the movie?
The never-ending long shot in the living room when all the shit goes down. Or the scene at the beginning where the dude asks for an egg and stands there creeping out while the woman gets it for him.
Are there any personal fears that resonate with you in this movie?
Recently my band and I camped in the redwoods on a west coast tour. We sang six part harmony around the campfire for a while, and every so often people would come up and ask if they could listen. At around 2 a.m. a car pulled up and started setting up camp across from us. A little while later they came to our campsite, three tall and thin dudes with super blonde hair, and sat down. They said they weren’t from around there and that they were very interested in what we were doing. They asked us how old we were. They asked us to play them a whole song from start to finish. They sat there staring us, unmoving and stoic as we played, and when we finished they said nothing and nodded. My bass player, Chris and I were the only ones in the band that had seen Funny Games, and we were both having internal panic attacks. The rest of the band thought they were charming and a little weird, but Chris and were totally freaking out. Finally they disappeared back into their campsite and left us alone for the night. This is one of many experienced I’ve had since watching this movie where I’m absolutely convinced that I’m going to have to live the plot.
Why is this better than any other horror movie out there?
I don’t know that I would say that this movie is better than other horror movies. I don’t even know if I like it! I think I might hate it. But it’s the scariest thing I’ve ever seen, and it still terrifies me on a very deep and real level even though I haven’t watched it again (and never will)! The long continuous shots are the most uncomfortable scenes ever, and the villains are ridiculously convincing. It’s very well made (except for that crappy rewind thing in the middle!) and even beautiful at times. So yeah, it’s got all the essential components to make itself a superb horror movie, but I wouldn’t watch it if I were you.
18. James Jackson Toth (Wooden Wand)
Favorite Horror Movie: The Shining
When did you first experience the movie?
I had a great dad, but the only thing he did that could be considered ‘abusive’ was force my sisters and I to watch movies that were way, way too, err, delicate for our young minds. The Shining is the one that sticks out in my memory, for obvious reasons. I was about eight or nine when he showed it to me, around the same age as the character of Danny Torrance in the film. The Grady twins haunted my nightmares for years afterward.
What’s the scariest scene in the movie?
At the time, I would have said that the scariest scenes were the ones involving those ghostly Grady daughters, or the scene in room 237 in which the beautiful woman in the bathtub transforms into the creepy cackling corpse, but as an adult, it is the sheer surrealism of the ‘pig mask’ scene that gives me the heebie jeebies. Though the unwholesome scene is explained somewhat in the book, in the movie it is presented without context, and is even creepier as a result, very vividly capturing nightmare logic better than any film before or since.
Are there any personal fears that resonate with you in this movie?
Oh, yes. Cabin fever is a very real thing, and I think there’s a little Overlook Hotel in all of us. As far as onscreen depictions of descents into madness go, people have been using Nicholson’s Torrance as a model for years. Though the book takes great pains to portray the Overlook as a cause of madness and not merely a catalyst, the Kubrick / Nicholson version of Torrance is a man who seems pretty prone to lunacy from the jump, with the Hotel providing the necessary nudge. Whether a directorial liberty or a misreading of the character, it nevertheless makes for fascinating cinema, as each scene finds Torrance visibly plummeting deeper into oblivion, until the final scene, in which he’s literally reduced to a snarling, seething animal stalking his prey.
Why is this better than any other horror movie out there?
It is the only horror film I still probably wouldn’t watch by myself before bedtime. I miss being frightened by movies. Like the excitement of Christmas or the anticipation of a birthday, feeling genuinely afraid of The Wolfman or Frankenstein or Dracula is a magical feeling that gradually fades without warning as you grow older, when your nightmares start involving medical bills and lung cancer and shit. But The Shining is a movie that still scares me, because the monster in The Shining is not a werewolf or a zombie, but the theoretical dormant maniac in all of us, just waiting for the right setting and set of circumstances to invoke itself and wreak unholy havoc on our loved ones. That’s some grownup kinda scary right there.
19. Alicia Gbur (FAWN)
Favorite Horror Movie:
House
A couple years ago, there was this place in Detroit’s Cass Corridor called the Burton Theatre (it’s now called the Corktown Theatre and you should check it out). Anyway, they show all sorts of crazy stuff that’s fun to see on a head full of booze or whatever else suits your fancy. A film that really stands out is House. Not to be confused with the ridiculous string of comedy-horror movies from the ‘80s (which, admittedly, scared the shit out of us when we were young), this is a Japanese piece from the mid-70s. Basically, you’ve got a bunch of young Asian gals getting TORE UP by a haunted house. Crazy analog special effects make this the horror genre’s answer to Bruce Haack’s Electric Lucifer. Watch it and you’ll never look at a piano the same way again.
20. Michael Jirkovsky (Social Studies)
Favorite Horror Movie: The Shining
When did you first experience the movie?
As a teenager I watched The Shining in a friend’s living room during a particularly cold Chicago winter. It was snowing outside and I had no notion of what the film contained.
What’s the scariest scene in the movie?
I love the scene when Shelly Duvall’s character discovers Jack Nicholson’s “manuscript”. The soundtrack builds tension with high strings as Wendy unravels Jack’s instability. With each repetition of “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” Wendy feels greater uncertainty about the man she married. It’s the turning point in the film. Everything you thought you knew is false. Your darkest thoughts couldn’t prepare you for the terror of reality.
Are there any personal fears that resonate with you in this movie?
The Shining thrives by suggesting a subcutaneous evil. Beneath the world we take for granted lives an unimaginable darkness, either supernatural or psychological. I don’t believe that’s true but it’s a terrifying thought nonetheless. Also, hedge mazes freak me out.
Why is this better than any other horror movie out there?
I now assume all hotel elevators will deliver a river of blood. Take the stairs!
21. Kyle Field (Little Wings)
Favorite Horror Movie: The Boy who Cried Werewolf
When did you first experience the movie?
It was on TV and my babysitter was watching it, I think it was getting close to Halloween.
How old were you? I was five.
What’s the scariest scene in the movie?
There is a scene where the werewolf (who is actually his father) punches a hole In the garage door and a hairy claw bursts out right by the boy’s head.
Are there any personal fears that resonate with you in this movie?
Besides the obvious, I had a secret fear when I was 4-5 years old. In my active imagination I thought that there was a chance that my parents were devils with dark short hair covering their entire bodies and that they had human suits that covered them entirely. I was afraid to catch them snoozing without their earthling body masks on!
Why is this better than any other horror movie out there?
For me it doesn’t actually hold up anymore, but to my five year old self it was really significant. I feel like I enjoy The Shining every time I see it. When Kubrick passed to the other side I was in Portland mixing an album and got to see it at the Baghdad Theatre, seeing it huge was big for me!
