Lights, Camera, Action!

I have been a terrible blogger recently. There, I said it. I know, it’s been over a month since I’ve last written something, I never talked about my opinions of the Oscars, I’ve pretty much given up on many of the things that I started when I began writing this blog (like, Top Fives, and Face-Offs), and, in short, I just haven’t been a good blogger. I’m VERY sorry for all of that, but, I hope to get back into the swing of things, and maybe I will even find the time to come back to some of those “features” that I started a while ago.

But, for today, I’m just going to stick to a quick review of the movies that I have watched over the past month.

Up in the Air: A good movie… Not fantastic, not terrible, the acting is the best part of the movie (though the script is good too).

It’s Complicated: I didn’t really enjoy this one. Yes, Meryl Streep is fine, but she’s a fine actor in whatever she does. This one just fell flat for me.

The 400 Blows: Fantastic French film from the French New Wave period. A classic by all definitions.

The Apartment: I love Billy Wilder. If you’ve never heard of him, he’s the guy who directed movies like Some Like it Hot and Sunset Boulevard. Fantastic director, fantastic film (this one won the Best Picture Oscar in 1960)

M: Fantastic (and creepy) German film, which brought actor Peter Lorre (Casablanca) into the limelight.

Peeping Tom: Like the title suggests, this film is somewhat disturbing. But, if you can handle the subject matter, it’s worth the watch.

Down by Law: Great film, great script, great music, great acting. Certainly worth seeing.

Contempt: Another fantastic French New Wave Film (directed by Jean-Luc Godard) about film. A must see for any film lovers.

Fitzcarraldo: This one was kind of slow. A bit of a hit-and-miss in my opinion. But, they dragged a steamboat over a mountain, and that was pretty awesome.

La Strada: Fellini is a fantastic director, and this is one of his best (of the ones that I’ve seen, at least). See it!

Harold and Maude: A spectacular cult comedy film from the 1970s, that is both romantic and… odd. Watch out for the fantastic performance by Ruth Gordon!

L’enfant: This French film won the Palme d’Or in 2005. See it if you can find it!

Europa: A weird film directed by Lars von Trier. He has an odd style, but the visuals are fantastic!

Cries and Whispers: Ingmar Bergman is a fantastic director. This one’s slow, but, still very good.

Pierrot le Fou: Jean-Luc Godard is the man! Not as good as Contempt, but still a fantastic film from the French New Wave era.

The Elephant Man: Not as Lynchian as I expected it to be (considering it is directed by David Lynch), but it’s still very riveting and all in all a great movie! A short warning, though: This movie is one of the most depressing movies that I have ever seen.

Modern Times: The first Charlie Chaplin film that I’ve seen, and I was not disappointed! Definitely worth watching!

Charade: Known as “the best Hitchcock film that Hitchcock never made”, this film is suspenseful, entertaining, and very well written, with great characters and actors. All in all, a fantastic movie (and a fantastic score by Henry Mancini).

The Class: This French film won the Palme d’Or in 2008. It’s slow, but it’s pretty good nevertheless.

Rosemary’s Baby: A fantastic horror film. I’m sorry I hadn’t seen it back when I wrote my Top 5 horror films, because this one would certainly be up there! Yet another great performance by Ruth Gordon (she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for this performance) in this one as well.

The Silence: Another Bergman film. Same analysis as the first: slow, but good.

Scenes from a Marriage: Technically, this is a 6-part television miniseries (ALSO directed by Bergman), but it was shortened to a theatrical version that’s about half the initial length. I watchted the 6-part television version, and I must say, it was one of the best written and acted “films” that I have seen in quite a long time! If you can find it, this one’s DEFINITELY worth a watch!

Se7en: A pretty great suspense film directed by David Fincher (who also directed Fight Club), with some great performances by Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman.

The Hurt Locker: I STILL haven’t seen Avatar, but this one deserved to win Best Picture. Very well done!

Well, that’s all for now. I hope to get back up to date with my blog writing, but, I have a very busy next month or so, so I don’t know what will happen. If I can, then I will!

Keep on watching!

R.S.

Well, I promised that I’d give a list of short reviews for the (multitude of) movies that I’ve watched over the past 2 months or so, but, to be completely honest, reviews for every movie that I have seen will be… Well, it would be a VERY long post. Off the top of my head, I’m sure that I’ve seen over 30 movies, and, making a review to every single one of them would be very draining. But, I’ll give a short review for a few of them:

Blood Simple – The first film written and directed by the Coen brothers (Joel and Ethan) is one of the best debut films that I have seen. While it is certainly not the best of their films, it holds up as a great film noir-esque movie, with great writing, great acting, and great direction.

Crimes and Misdemeanors – I’ll just say it, I’m a fan of Woody Allen. I think that he’s one of the funniest writers out there, because the films that he makes are great. This one is no exception, telling two stories about, well, crimes and misdemeanors! Look for the great scene near the end between Allen and Martin Landau.

Caché – Frankly, I need to see more movies directed by Michael Haneke, because this one was spectacular. Yes, it may be slow for most of it, and yes, the fact that it is a foreign film may turn people off, but, the reality of the situation (a couple are videotaped, more or less stalked, by an unknown person), and the way that the two lead actors pull it off is also very well done.

Alien – A great thriller. There’s not too much that I can say about this movie, but what it does is revolutionary to the general genre of sci-fi (even though I may not be the biggest fan of sci-fi movies). The sequel, Aliens, directed by James Cameron, is often seen as being superior to this one, but, since I haven’t seen it, I can’t judge that (though I do plan on seeing it soon). Once I do see it, expect a Face-Off between those two!

American Beauty – This is a spectacular film. The direction, the writing, the acting, all of it is completely breathtaking. The person to watch for, in my personal opinion, is Annette Bening, who plays the wife of Kevin Spacey (who also does a great job).

Brick – This is an interesting one. Think a film-noir made in the ’30s (you know, hard boiled detective, mystery, etc.). Now, set it at a modern day high school. While it is kind of odd listening to high school students talking in ’30s slang at first, it does its job quite well. The interesting camera work (which is pretty hard for me to explain) adds to the experience.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind – One of the first films written by Charlie Kaufman (one of my favorite modern day writers), while not as… well… confusing as his others, it’s still quite a captivating story. Watch out for the few extended takes, where you can really think about how much the actors would have to run around to pull it off. They’re not tricks, they were actually done in one shot!

The Spirit of the Beehive – Yet another foreign film (this one’s in Spanish) that is amazing. The person who steals the show is the little girl who plays Ana, a girl enchanted with the story of Frankenstein, the monster particularly. Is this movie about the Spanish Civil War? Is it about childhood? It doesn’t matter, this is a great movie!

Fight Club – Bloody, smart, entertaining. Essentially, this one is a crowd pleaser. That is, a crowd of testosterone-filled men. This movie is not for everybody, especially not the faint of heart. But, if you’re up for it, it’s a great movie. Also, it has one of my personal favorite performances by Brad Pitt.

Goodfellas – The fact that it lost the Oscar for Best Picture to Dances with Wolves… I can’t even really put my thoughts into words. This is a masterpiece. From the camerawork, to Scorcese’s direction, to the acting (look out for Joe Pesci), this movie is spectacular. Bloody and violent, but still spectacular.

Memento – From the makers of The Dark Knight, this movie… messes with your mind. While the acting is quite good, and the direction is too, the star of the film is the story. The fact that it a) goes in backwards-chronological order, and b) still keeps you guessing, shows how effective a good story can be.

Pleasantville – The acting is pretty good (especially that from Judy Davis and William H. Macy), as is the direction and the writing, but this film relies on the visuals. The visuals at points are completely breathtaking, and really blow you away.

Ok, that’s enough for now. Those were certainly not ALL of the movies that I’ve seen over the past few months, but they were all great ones that stuck in my mind.

Regarding the Oscars, I’m working on what might be a very exciting announcement, so, I’ll tell you as soon as that gets going (if I get it all to work out).

Until then, keep on watching!

R.S.

Before I begin, I’ll say this: I have yet to see Avatar. Yes, I know, it’s a movie that MUST be seen, since it’s “the best movie ever made,” but, I’ve been slightly incapacitated, thus making me unable to go to the theater to see anything. I have watched quite a few movies while I’ve been at home, and I intend to make a set of “mini-reviews” in the near future on a few of those.

But, back to Avatar. I’ve been hearing from many people who have seen it that it is one of the best movies ever made, it’s a visual spectacle, and that it’s completely groundbreaking in technique.

I have seen the trailers, and a few scenes from it, and, judging by that, I can clearly see that it’s completely groundbreaking in its use of the technology, and that it is clearly a visual spectacle. However, there are a few hesitations that I have about this movie that makes me not want to rush to the theaters to see it, incapacitated or not.

That first hesitation (and in turn, the one that leads to more or less everything else in my argument against Avatar) is James Cameron. I’ve seen a few of his movies, and, while they are ok, they are far from the best movies of all time, despite the fact that he currently holds both the first and the second top grossing movies of all time (the other one being Titanic).

As a director, he’s far from the worst one out there. He clearly knows what to do with his camera, and, it’s never that bad. But, as a writer, he has work to be done. Aside from the fact that he doesn’t exactly have the most original plot-lines out there (I’ll get to that shortly), his dialogue tends to be kind of rough, and his characters aren’t always the most developed.

Now, the plot. In some cases, his plots can be quite good (Aliens is an example of this, despite the fact that it is a sequel, so, technically it wasn’t all his idea), but, in the case of Avatar, this plot is (somewhat obviously) stolen from a few different movies. There are people (myself included) who sarcastically dubs this movie with the title “Pocahontas Meets Dances With Wolves… In Space!” and there is a reason why people do this. I saw a post a little while ago that had the plot of Pocahontas written out, with aspects (character names, places, etc.) crossed out and replaced by what it is in Avatar. Also, the general plot of a person going to a land unlike their own, and befriending people unlike their own (yes, I know this is a VERY brief plot-line, but, as I said, I haven’t seen it yet, so, I can’t go much further than this at this very moment) is one that has been done many times before.

Despite all this, something is clear: the effects and the visuals are groundbreaking, spectacular, and every adjective in between that can describe something of this caliber. From the minute I saw the trailer, I didn’t doubt for a second that this would win any visual awards that it is eligible for.

But, can a movie be judged solely by the visuals? Shouldn’t the acting, directing, writing, etc., all be aspects of what makes a movie great? In the opinion of a humble movie fanatic, I think that what makes a great movie depends on all aspects of the film, and not just the visuals. Just a week ago, this movie won Best Picture: Drama at the Golden Globe awards. This, I was admittedly not very happy with, because I know James Cameron’s writings, and I know the fact that this plot is overdone, and, shouldn’t a “best picture” be called “best” due to all aspects of it?

But, I digress, for the sole reason that I have yet to see it. I most certainly intend on seeing this movie in theaters, and, seeing that it’s been at the top of the box office for 5 weeks running, I don’t think it’s going anywhere any time soon. But, without seeing it, I think that this movie might be more than slightly over-hyped.

Keep on watching!

R.S.

Do you agree? Disagree? Post your comments and opinions below!

Directed by: Spike Jonze

Starring: Max Records, James Gandolfini, and Catherine Keener

I’ll be completely honest here, I have no idea whatsoever where to start with this, so, I’ll simply start by saying this: This is one of the best movies (recent or otherwise) that I have ever seen. And I’ve seen quite a lot of movies over the 15 years of my existence. This movie is near perfect; the acting, the direction, the visuals, the music, the script… the list goes on, but, it truly is one of the best movies that I have ever seen.

The plot is very similar from the beloved children’s book (which I haven’t read in quite a while, so, this is simply the plot of the movie, and not that of the book). Max (played by Max Records) is a young child who isn’t exactly the most relaxed and nicest of kids out there, and, after being sent to his room without dinner, he runs off, and, finding a ship in his neighbours’ yard, travels for days and nights until he finds land. This land is inhabited by Wild Things; large, threatening, and yet seemingly fuzzy things that, after being convinced to not eat him, crowns Max their king.

I doubt that can explain the entire plot very well, but honestly, I don’t know exactly how to explain it, because there isn’t a lot of plot. It’s very “freeverse”, in a sense. Once Max gets to this land of the Wild Things, over the course of 90 minutes or so, he partakes in having a “Wild Rumpus”, builds a giant fort, has a dirt clod war, and so much more. The plot is very loose, but, that’s ok. It’s ok because this is truly a movie about childhood, and that’s the way that childhood is. Childhood isn’t so set out that you will do everything in order, and it would all make sense, and this movie captures that perfectly.

The director, Spike Jonze, who has also directed Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, has really made this movie into a masterpiece. He spent years trying to get his idea to the screen, and after years of hard work, it paid off. This movie is truly a masterpiece; visually, and in many other ways.

The acting is also superb. Max Records completely changes the idea of what can be expected in a child actor, and, this really changed what goes into a performance by a child actor. He shows everything that he has to perfectly; when he’s supposed to be sad, he’s sad (perfectly). When he’s supposed to be angry, he’s angry (perfectly). No matter what he’s supposed to be, he shows it incredibly!

Many people were very surprised as casting James Gandolfini (famous for his role in The Sopranos) as the lead Wild Thing, but, after seeing it, it’s clear that he was perfect for the role. One moment, he’s cuddly and sweet, and the next morning, he’s chasing max around, threatening to eat him. He voices the role amazingly.

And, adding to the actors is the visual. I must ask Spielberg and Lucas to take note, because they did this entire movie completely on location. And this includes the desert that you can see in the poster above. Yes, they did that without using green screens, or CGI. Another thing, they didn’t use animation or CGI for the Wild Things. They actually made those suits, and the only thing that was CGI were the eyes and mouth. You completely believe everything that you see, and it just wouldn’t have that impact if it wasn’t for the fact that it was all real.

I could go on forever on this movie, but, I can summarize this entire review in two words: SEE IT! This is truly one of the best movies that I have ever seen, and, it is truly a masterpiece!

I must warn you, though, this is a love it or hate it movie. I’ve heard of many people who completely hated it, and I can accept that. I mean, quoting a good friend of mine, “everybody is entitled to their own wrong opinion”. But, I recommend this movie to anybody; children, adults, anybody. See this movie.

Rating: 10/10

Keep on watching!

R.S.

Directed by: Pete Doctor

Starring: Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer, and Jordan Nagai

Disney/Pixar are very well known for the amazing animated movies that they make. Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, WALL-E and others that they’ve made have all been examples of the great movies that they make. Up, their latest film, is not an exception to the amazement that is the films they make!

This animated movie tells the story of Carl Fredricksen, a 78-year old man (voiced by Ed Asner) who’s dream was to travel to South America with his wife. After his wife dies (in the first 10 minutes of the movie), he decides to travel to South America on his own to fulfill his wife’s dream. Except, he does so in his house. To which he attaches hundreds of helium balloons. No, I’m not making this up, that’s what happens! Along the ride with him comes boy scout Russell (voiced by Jordan Nagai), who will do anything to achieve his “assisting the elderly” badge.

On the outside, the movie has a very child-friendly plot. You know, a guy flying his house with giant balloons. But, there are many ideas of this film that young kids may not really be able to grasp, like death, letting go of those you’ve lost, divorce, and more… But, don’t worry, the movie is by far a complete downer… It’s a movie that I think both kids and adults alike would be able to enjoy (though, kids younger than 10 might not be able to truly appreciate some aspects of it).

As is normal with Pixar movies, while the voice acting is great, as is the plot, the star of the film is the animation. The animation in the film is spectacular, and, even though some of the things are larger than life, it’s almost possible to believe that it could happen, because of how realistic some of the animation is. From showing the characters’ emotions to the smallest detail, to making us believe that the impossible could be possible, the animation is amazing! The movie was shown in theatres in both 3-D and 2-D formats, but, I saw it in 2-D, and I can tell you that, while I haven’t seen it in 3-D, it didn’t take away from the overall experience.

This is a movie that I’d recommend to anybody, parents and children alike!

Rating: 9/10

Keep on watching!

R.S.

Directed by: Mike Nichols

Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, and Katharine Ross

This movie shows the first large role of Dustin Hoffman’s career, as an awkward graduate from college (played by Hoffman) who has no clue what to do with his life. All this takes a turn for the… well, odd… when he has an affair with the wife of his dad’s business partner (you might recognize the all too famous line “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me… Aren’t you?”). Eventually, he falls in love. With Mrs. Robinson (Bancroft)’s daughter (Ross).

It’s kind of hard to figure out if this movie is a drama or a comedy at points, but, whatever it is, it has some of the best direction that I’ve seen in quite a while. Mike Nichols (who has been famous for movies like Carnal Knowledge, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and most recently, Charlie Wilson’s War) makes some spectacular choices with his direction, at one point doing something that most directors wouldn’t dare ever do, and that is filming two of his leads walking on a sidewalk from the OTHER side of the street, making it at points hard to even see them because of the other pedestrians on the sidewalk. In other words, it’s no surprise that Nichols won the Oscar that year for Best Director.

Also, this movie has what may just be the greatest use of montage that I’ve seen for quite a while. All of these montages are to the great music of Simon and Garfunkel. From the opening scene to The Sound of Silence to the many scenes with Scarborough Fair, these montages are scenes that you should definitely watch for.

Onto the acting, for Hoffman’s first leading role, he does quite the spectacular job. During his initial audition, it was said that he fumbled through all his lines, and acted very awkwardly, thus causing him to walk out after his audition “knowing” that he didn’t get the part, at least, until he learned that awkwardness was what Nichols wanted for the character, and ended up casting him. And, his awkwardness shows. And it works.

The other main lead, Anne Bancroft, also does a great performance as the somwhat troubled Mrs. Robinson. Some of the scenes around an hour into the movie shows how great an actor she is, by showing her sadness and yet staying completely somber (you’ll know what I mean).

So, this is overall a very well made movie, and the only thing that I thought was wrong with it was that after about 40 minutes or so, the movie seems to go a bit slowly for about 20 minutes. This may just be my imagination, and lack of sleep, but, either way, this is definitely a movie that’s worth seeing!

Rating: 8/10

Keep on watching!

R.S.

Picture from http://www.hollywoodteenmovies.com/TheGraduate.jpg

In the first half of this review, I spoke about Hitchcock, and the plot. In this half, I’ll say the REST of my thoughts on this movie (though really, I can go on and on, so, I’ll cut myself short, as much as I’d love to ramble on for another 5 posts)!

I mentioned the shower scene when I was talking about the plot, but I didn’t go into much detail, so, here’s that detail. In what may have been one of the most shocking moments in cinema history, a leading lady is killed off a third of the way into the movie. In fact, in a very controversial move during that time, Hitchcock stated that nobody could be admitted to see Psycho after it had already began (risking people wondering where Janet Leigh, the “leading lady”, was during the last two thirds of the movie).

Anyways, the shower scene does its job incredibly well, making it so, contrary to what the film board initially believed, the knife NEVER hits the body (the film board had to watch it frame by frame to actually believe it). My major issue with this is that, after almost 50 years, these shocks are known. Even people who haven’t seen the shower scene know of its existence, so, I’ll show it for you right now. If the fast cuts, mixed with that scream, mixed with those screeching violins don’t scare you, then you are a rock. No, that is NOT a good thing.

This is one of 3 big shocks in the movie… Yes, you heard right, in a 109 minute long movie, there are only THREE major shocks (take THAT Saw XXVII), but, while myself and most of the world has spoiled the first, I will NOT bring myself to spoil the other two, even if most people already know the big one at the end!

Moving on to one of the other things that makes this movie for me. Anthony Perkins’ performance as the creepy Norman Bates. Everything about it is perfect; the little nuances like the stuttering, the mother loving attitude (because, a boy’s best friend is his mother). All in all, he was perfect for the role.

Now, unlike Saw, I can forgive and ignore the sequels (yes, there are sequels), and the remake (Vince Vaughan as Norman Bates… Enough said). I decided to test my tolerance by watching Psycho 2, Psycho 3, and Psycho 4: The Beginning, all in one day. In short, they all got progressively worse, and none of them held a candle (or a knife) to the original (and really, don’t get me started about the remake), but, I can forgive it, simply because the original was so amazing.

So, for all those reasons and more, that is why Psycho is not only my favorite horror movies, but, one of my favorite movies of all time, and in my opinion, a complete must see for everybody!

Keep on watching!

R.S.

Before I begin, I’ll just say that due to length (or an excess thereof), I’m going to be splitting this review up into 2 parts… The second will be going up on Halloween night, so, if you want to read the rest, you’re going to have to be a little patient… But, to the review:

Throughout this list, we’ve seen the simplicity, the psychological horror, the shocks, and the great performances that can go into making a great horror movie. But, the best of the best are movies that emcompass all of these factors. Without being too gory, and still shocking you. Having a few performances stand out to cause terror, and finally, not being too complicated. THIS, is what makes a near perfect horror movie.

So, without any further ado, my favorite horror movie of all time:

Psycho (1960)

Where do I start when talking about how amazing this movie is? The acting, the direction, the script, the moments? To be completely honest, I have no clue where to start, so, I’ll just show you the trailer (warning, this trailer is a long one, but, definitely worth watching):

I suppose that due to this trailer, I’ll start with Alfred Hitchcock. There are many directors who I really appreciate, if not love, like Paul Thomas Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, Stanley Kubrick (just to name a few). But, the one director who I always come back to as being one of my favorites is Alfred Hitchcock. There is a very good reason why he’s known as the “Master of Suspense”. The movies that he makes are some of the best movies ever made, suspense or otherwise. North by Northwest, Rear Window, Dial M for Murder, the list goes on (and on), and constantly, he surprises us with some of the best movies ever made.

Moving onto his work in Psycho itself. Of the movies of his that I’ve seen (and I’ve seen quite a few), this is the closest that he has ever gotten to doing a horror film. But, he doesn’t play it like a horror film, or at least, not like a Halloween movie, or a Friday the 13th movie. He plays his shocks very well, and some of the things he does with his camera have you on the front of your seat, gripping you for minutes at a time (watch for one scene where he follows a character up the stairs… I’ll say no more).

The plot as well is fantastic. Janet Leigh as Marion Crane, who runs away after having taken $40 000 from the bank where she works and stops for the night at a motel run by Norman Bates (played extremely well by Anthony Perkins, but, more on him in the second half of the review). And then the shower scene happens, and things spiral out of control. Crane’s sister (Vera Miles) and boyfriend (John Gavin) come to investigate how Marion went… “missing”… with the help of Detective Arbogast (Martin Balsam), to try and find out what could’ve happened.

Interested in my thoughts on the shower scene, the performance of Anthony Perkins, and the entire movie? Wait to read the second half of the review in two nights!

Keep on watching!

R.S.

Some horror movies have their script being the thing that makes it really frightening, but there are other times where it is an actor who can put that feel of fear into your head (similar to Kathy Bates in Misery). Another thing that shows how great a performance can be is when a certain character is only on screen for under 1/5 of the running time, and can stay with you for the entire film.

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

If you hadn’t guessed by this point, the actor/character who I was talking about in my introduction was the Oscar winning role of Hannibal Lecter, as played by Anthony Hopkins. Every scene that Hopkins is in has you on the edge of your seat being drawn in to his performance, and being completely afraid of him throughout. Hopkins will most likely be remembered for his performance as his performance as this madman.

Before I continue, here’s the trailer:

As you can see from the trailer, the movie spends a lot of time revolving around Hannibal Lecter, but, he is only on screen for about 20 minutes! Despite this, his performance and character is one of the creepiest performances in film. For example, here’s one of many creepy moments in the film (and, in turn, one of the most famous lines in this movie).

In short, there’s no surprise that Hopkins won the Oscar for Best Actor.

Moving on from Anthony Hopkins to Jodie Foster, who won the Best Actress Oscar that year, while she doesn’t leave as much of an imprint on the movie as Hopkins does, she was very much essential to the film. Foster, who plays FBI student Clarice Starling. She’s a complex character, who Foster does a very good job at portraying. She leads the film very well.

The other character of note is serial killer Bufallo Bill, played by Ted Levine. Levine does a good job at portraying this character, and he plays the creepiness and craziness well. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to be anywhere near as much as Hopkins was, simply because he didn’t have as much to work with. Nevertheless, not a single terrible performance in the cast!

Onto the direction, Jonathan Demme does a great job at directing, working with cinematographer Tak Fujimoto well to make the film look as good as it does. Whether it’s the longer shots at the beginning following Starling through an obstacle course, or the faster cuts between Starling and Lecter during their many scenes together (which end up being some of the creepiest scenes in film), the camera work is great throughout.

Keep on watching!

R.S.

Have any ideas to what will be #1? Tell me your guesses or opinions!

While some of the greatest horror films are based on being a psychological thriller (see my last review, on Misery), another thing that makes some horror films great is the shock-value of it. And, I don’t mean a twist ending. I mean moments where purely the subject matter can scare you.

The Exorcist (1973)

Before I begin, I am aware of the fact that there are people who will wonder how this isn’t on the very top of my list. With a movie that needed to have ambulances placed outside the theatres, and had some of the watchers having heart attacks or even dying from the pure shock of this movie, it’s certainly hard to keep it off of a list of top horror films, but, me not being extremely religious, or Christian for that matter, the prospect of a person getting possessed by a demon simply doesn’t freak me out as much as it would freak out other people.

Anyways, onto the trailer:

This movie is listed as the scariest movie of all time, and, I might even go so far to agree with that, but, in my opinion, it doesn’t take JUST scares to make a horror movie. But, when it comes to scares, this movie has them!

As I stated earlier on, this is the story of a young girl (played by Linda Blair) who gets posessed by a demon, and the exorcism that eventually follows over the second half of the movie.

But, in my personal opinion, the best acting role in this movie doesn’t come from Blair, whose role in her “posessed” state resulted in an Oscar nomination, and even was potentially going to win said Oscar, until it was revealed that the voice of the possessed demon was NOT, in fact, Blair’s voice, but was that of actress Mercedes McCambridge. I believe that the best acting in this movie comes from Ellen Burstyn, who plays the mother of Blair’s character. She really puts emotion into her role, and shows that even in movies like this, it’s possible for a character to be real and emotional.

This movie certainly provides scares for the audience that watches it, and, this certainly holds up even 30 years after its original release. The only truly unfortunate aspect (and I’ll speak about this more when I write about my favorite horror film) is that even the creepiest and scariest scenes are fairly well known by people, thus making it not as shocking as it may have been during its release. None the less, it still holds up as one of the scariest movies of all time today!

Keep on watching!

R.S.