Friday the 13th has always been an excuse to watch a gory horror movie. A tradition that would be fine, except most of movies with these horrific traits are bad and, at times, abhorring to watch. Top picks of these terrible movies include “The Village”, “Hostel”, any “Saw” sequel, any Freddy and/or Jason spin off and “When a Stranger Calls.” As a result, this Friday I may skip this particular cinematic celebration in favor of real quality horror films.
Check out this list of Eddie Quartin's top ten scary movies. (CU Independent Illustration/Josh Shettler)
Frankly, I’m starting to get sick of the predictable thrills. So, I compiled a list of my top ten quality horror movies to truly scare yourself this Friday the 13th. No cheap pop-ups or unnecessary gore included.
10. Paranormal Activity: Some will think ‘of course he says that’ due to the movie’s popularity, but my response is yes, of course I did. The movie progressively gets more and more terrifying, and is fun to watch in the dark.
9. The Thing: The combination of really cool gore and Kurt Russell will have you smiling at how much you squirm throughout this film.
8. The Descent: A group of women become trapped in a caving incident, the caves are infested with creepy, flesh eating crawlers, and it is a very entertaining film. ‘Nuff said.
7. Poltergeist: Definitely one of the perfect movies to watch on a couch with friends. The haunted house setting will have viewers jumping at any abstract noise made around them.
6. The Blaire Witch Project: The movie that popularized the hand held camera style of filming. Turn off the lights for this one because when it’s night in the film, the fun begins.
5. Dawn of the Dead: Yeah, it’s cliché, but how could it not be on the list of best horror flicks. The zombie killing is entertaining and the movie is funny. How could one not enjoy the celebrity look-a-like target practice game from the roof?
4. REC: The Spanish movie, that would later be remade into the film “Quarantine,” is a terrifying movie with shaky, hand held camera work.
3. 28 Days Later: My personal favorite zombie apocalypse movie, the film follows the few survivors remaining after an epidemic turned the world’s population into zombie-like creatures. The psychological intensity of the film amplifies the horror of the zombies.
2. The Shining: Of course one always thinks of Jack Nicholson’s iconic performance as a crazy murderer, and the famous line “Here’s Johnny!” but not enough credit is given to the rest of the movie. Stanley Kubric has quite a taste for horror as many of the scares come from the strange hallucinations of the father and son.
1. The Exorcist One of the best scores in horror movie history coupled with good acting, and the whole time you are scared because everyone knows, “The devil creeps up on you like a burglar in the night.”
As a runner-up I chose “Psycho”. I really wish I could have added it to the list, but I fear the famous director Alfred Hitchcock is not as appreciated in our generation. So if you are itching for encore, give Hitchcock a chance. Find a way to obtain any of these movies, and this year’s Friday the 13th party will be sure to entertain the bajeezas out of you.
Contact CU Independent writer Eddie Quartin at Edward.quartin@colorado.edu.
