Good horror movies – do they exist?
Horror films are a genre that I’m personally not a big fan of. I’ve always found them to be banal, skin-deep, and mostly just silly the whole way through. So is it possible to find good horror movies when the genre itself is so insipid?
I say it is. For every silly film like “A Haunting in Connecticut,” there’s a classic like “The Exorcist.” When it comes to good horror movies, The Exorcist is the standard-bearer. Here’s a review from IMDB.com:
Father Karras (Jason Miller) is a priest torn by conflict. He is ridden by overwhelming guilt for having abandoned his mother to enter the priesthood. He is torn spiritually by the confessions of those priests who seek his help as a psychiatrist, so much so that he now questions his own faith. When he states to the Bishop that `Regan’s case meets all the criteria,’ we know that even more than Chris, he doesn’t really believe in the power of Satan to inhabit a living being in the manner that it has taken over Regan. Yet, he will do what is required of him as a priest concerned about the health of a child.
Jack McGowran gives a terrific performance as the alcoholic director filming Chris’s latest film in Georgetown. Kitty Winn is Sharon Spencer, the secretary who works for Chris and always seems to be in the line of fire when Chris is angry. She is always there but for all the horror she witnesses, Winn appears too bland and emotionless and her performance is probably the weakest in the film.
Max Von Sydow as Father Lancester Merrin is a no nonsense aging priest. He has done battle with evil before and he shows us its effect in every scene he occupies. One could pass it off to being just good make-up but it is so much more than that as Sydow demonstrates all the nuances that brings to life a man who has faced Satan and lived to tell about it. He knows what he is up against, understands he must do it again and the consequences of what that battle may be.
Of course the 1970s as a whole were they heyday for good horror movies. In addition to The Exorcist, there was also Straw Dogs, Sam Peckinpah’s horror/thriller masterpiece. Tobe Hooper’s “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is another classic of the genre, as is his later work, “Poltergeist.”
Another favorite, one of the creepiest of the good horror movies, is called “The Wicker Man.” Stay away from the remake starring Nicolas Cage and instead go for the original, one of the brightest lights in an otherwise dim genre.
