the horror of it all

Most of my friends know I'm a fan of horror movies, books, and nearly anything else I can get my grubby little hands on.  This morning Fangoria posted on Twitter asking what your favorite NYC-set horror movie was.  I had to look up a list (shame face) and from that list I selected Rosemary's Baby, Ghostbusters, and Cloverfield.

Then I started thinking about great 1980's horror, funny and otherwise.  Ghostbusters is funny, of course, but now I'm watching High Spirits (starring Peter O'Toole, Steve Guttenberg, Bevery D'Angelo, Jennifer Tilly, Peter Gallagher, Daryl Hannah, Liam Neeson, et al) and I love it almost as much. Most people have never heard of it when I ask and that is a crying shame.  Another one on the comedic side was Beetlejuice.  I miss Michael Keaton in good roles. More of the funny, gross favorites include The Evil Dead and Army of Darkness, Gremlins, Critters, Night of the Comet, Night of the Creeps, and A Nightmare on Elm Street (am I the only one who thought Freddy was *such* a comedian?).

My scary favorites include The Changeling (starring George C. Scott).  Watch it too early in life and you'll have a lifelong fear of wheelchairs.  Along those same lines is the original BBC version of The Woman in Black. Rocking chairs may no longer be comfortable for you after this. Poltergeist was discomfort-making but not exactly scary.  Definitely creepy.  (I will whisper a secret:  I've not watched Amityville Horror (1979) yet.  Don't tell anyone. I did watch an excellent documentary about it called My Amityville Horror.  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)  This may also be a dissenting opinion, but Friday the 13th got much scarier once Jason somehow grew up and donned the hockey mask.

I loved me some Child's Play back in the day.  This also caused me to avoid my friends' Teddy Ruxpin obsessions like the plague. I can neither confirm nor deny that I made them put such toys away when I spent the night at their houses.   In the spirit of sharing, enjoy this:



Fun, but not particularly scary: It's hard to believe that Aliens is an 80's flick.  That movie has aged SO well. No list would be complete without The Shining though I found the book much much scarier than the film. The original Fright Night wanted to be scary and kinda failed but still did a better job than the remake though Colin Farrell definitely hit my radar as seductive vampire more effectively than Chris Sarandon.

And speaking of hot vampires, Kiefer Sutherland's David in The Lost Boys was responsible for both my very first crush and my very first naughty dreams at the tender age of 10!  It was love at first bite.  I'll let you work out the morality and ethics of that.  I'm a mostly well-adjusted usually law-abiding citizen now so no harm, no foul.

There's no telling what I've forgotten and/or left out.  These are just what popped in to my head.  If you stumble upon this and have any input, comment and share it!