Halloween brings out the scary movie in me
Ever since I sneaked into an art-house movie theater to see THE EXORCIST — its original release had been banned in Spain, where I used to live — and found myself woefully unprepared and utterly freaked out, I’ve been a die-hard scary movie fan. I’m not an adrenaline junkie by nature, so my lifelong taste for being scared out of my wits in the cinema is a baffling contradiction. I just can’t seem to resist a good shriek, and Halloween brings out that little-boy-who-shouldn’t-but-does-anyway in me.
My Halloween celebration used to involve elaborate costumes and parading about on Castro Street in San Francisco before that bacchanal was blighted by violence. Nowadays, my celebration involves re-watching favorite scary movies. Not coincidentally, my all-time favorite powerhouse nerve-rattlers are classics, each frightening for distinct reasons. I saw all of these originally in the theater. All but one of these movies feature strong women at their heart and all have defied the passage of time, with most made before the advent of CGI. Here are my favorites, in order of their screen appearance:
1973’s THE EXORCIST remains a classic for good reason. William Friedkin’s shocking account of a young girl, played by Linda Blair in her astounding debut, possessed by a demon in an icy bedroom in Washington D.C. is not for the faint of heart or stomach. The visceral depiction of possession turns traumatic, with scenes that sink talons into your psyche. But what gives the film its pathos is Ellen Burstyn’s bravura performance as the girl’s desperate actress-mother, forced to risk the unimaginable to save her daughter’s soul.
1973 also saw the release of the less known THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE, based on a novel by Richard Matheson, with Pamela Franklin and Roddy McDowell as psychics leading an investigative team intent on uncovering the secret of a legendary haunted mansion where numerous teams before them perished. The film builds to an unexpected crescendo as the mediums are pitted against the team’s sole scientist. Franklin, an underrated actress, delivers an intense performance as the gifted young medium who opens herself up to the house and pays a devastating price. Likewise, McDowell gives one of the best performances of his career as the only person to have survived a previous encounter with Hell House.
1976’s THE OMEN took on the Antichrist in the form of a changeling child, placed into the unknowing care of the high-ranking U.S. ambassador to Britain. The cast is stacked with star power: Gregory Peck, a long-time leading man, goes all out in his role as the suave, older ambassador jolted into recognition that the eerie little boy he’s raised as his own may be something else. Lee Remick also gives a shattering performance as his unstable wife, overcome by fear that her son is not hers. Another award-winning actress, Billie Whitelaw, mesmerizes as the protective, malignant nanny. The ominous soundtrack adds to the ambiance of satanic dominion.
In 1978, John Carpenter gave us his oft-imitated HALLOWEEN. Abetted by his creepy score, leonine-maned Jaime Lee Curtis makes her debut as babysitter Laurie Strode, terrorized by serial killer Michael Myers. The dispatch of teenagers in a sleepy town during Halloween is enhanced by Myers’ emotionless gait as he goes about his spree. Curtis, whose mother Janet Leigh gave Hollywood one of its most famous bloodcurdling screams in Hitchcock’s PSYCHO, invests her role with frantic, all-American innocence as Laurie tries to evade the masked entity intent on disemboweling her. This low-budget film packs serious fear factor.
1979’s ALIEN, directed by Ridley Scott, introduced a horrifyingly unique interpretation of a familiar sci-fi trope and made film history. When a claustrophobic space freighter answers an unidentified distress call from a lifeless planet, its crew discovers a derelict alien ship bearing inexplicable cargo. As each falls prey to a vicious stowaway lurking in the labyrinthine air-ducts, third-in-command Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver in her long-legged, heroic debut, must fight for survival, armed with only a flame-thrower and sweat-drenched nerve. Oh, and she must save her cat, too.
In 1982, John Carpenter presented a remake of THE THING, with hunky Kurt Russell as the pilot of a team of Arctic researchers who unwittingly release an extraterrestrial parasite. Paranoia and conflict divide the team as the mutation infests their ranks, with Russell giving a nuanced performance as the rugged survivor determined to thwart the thing in their midst. Excoriated by critics at its release, Carpenter’s version has since become a cult classic.
In 2001’s THE OTHERS, Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar guides Nicole Kidman in one of her finest operatic performances as a besieged mother in an isolated manor during the waning days of WWII, where she waits for her soldier husband to return. Her children are photosensitive to the sun, putting her on constant vigilance, yanking drapes over windows and wielding a bundle of keys to secure doors. When strange phenomena plunges her into spiraling panic that her house is haunted, this Gothic ghost story takes a chilling twist.
2005’s THE DESCENT features an all-female cast. A group of dedicated splunkers and friends, shattered by the death of one of their families, descend into an unexplored cave, where they encounter a gruesome humanoid species. The oppressive setting and terrific performance by Shauna MacDonald as a grief-stricken wife and mother, whose loss of her loved ones may be creating a hallucinatory nightmare, create an almost unbearable sense of despair as the women struggle to outwit the ravenous beings hunting them.
For me, the best scary movies transcend the genre, driven by characters that make us care about their peril. And ladies who kick ass to protect those they love never fail to steal my heart.
Happy Halloween, everyone! Get scared.
