Great Scenes will feature scenes from films I like.
Now, the films they come from might not be Oscar-worthy,
but why hold that against them?
Sometimes, good entertainment is found in strange places.
Anyway, to kick off the first Great Scenes, here is the opening to Jeepers Creepers 2.
Yeah, I know, not the best movie, but it is an okay way to spend some time.
The Creeper is a great horror movie villain, I think, and I'd like to see a part 3, eventually.
What do I love here? Well, to start, the Creeper hiding out in plain sight as a scarecrow? Scary! And then he snatches up the kid and off he goes into the wild, blue... er, gold yonder. Not many mainstream films follow through with something like this, but much like the end of part 1, they don't hold back here. And it sets up the rest of the film, the pursuit of the Creeper by the boy's brother and father. Definitely the better part of the rest of the movie.
Any scenes you'd like to see spotlighted here? Let me know!
Could go with a few different movies, I suppose. But I have to choose one, so:
Jeepers Creepers has quite a few unnerving, scary scenes and an overall feeling of unease. Lost some of its kick in the sequel, but the original is a good scary movie.
The thing that really gets me in horror flicks is when the killer notices the hero/heroine/victim.
Hard to explain, but it is that fleeting, unsettling moment when the hero/heroine just knows the killer is aware of their presence.
Halloween had a few examples:
There was a similar scene in Jeepers Creepers as Darry and Trish drove by the Creeper's church as he dumped a body. He stopped and watched as they drove by:
Something about going from that eerie, 'something's-not-quite-right' feeling to actually connecting with the maniac on the loose just gives me the creeps!
Okay, so I am one who likes being scared. Love horror movies, love creepy stuff. Like that feeling of eeriness you get from a good scare. So, here are 13 things that creep me out. I am sure there are more, but these are the ones that came to the top of my mind, so they have obviously had a lasting effect. I am not saying these movies or shows are the scariest, most unnerving things out there, but these are just parts that stuck out, to me.
1) The way Michael Myers watches Laurie in HALLOWEEN. There are a bunch of instances in this film: the scene after she drops off the key at his old house and walks away and he steps out onto the sidewalk to watch her; the scene in the school when she sees him outside the window; the scene in her backyard standing amidst the drying laundry. Not to mention when only Laurie spots him near the hedge on their walk home from school. CREEPY!
This is also done to great effect in HALLOWEEN 5: THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS - there is a scene, where the teens are in the park and talking and in the background you can see Michael, wandering around some trees. He isn't so much as hiding as just staying slightly obscured. Creepy! And the scene where Rachel is showering and what-not, and Michael is in the house, as well. I bet this scene can still scare people who are home... "alone".
2) The scene in JEEPERS CREEPERS where they are driving past the old church and see the Creeper dumping something in the pipe. What creeps me out here is when HE LOOKS BACK AT THEM! Something about evil being there but unaware of your presence is so much better than when evil looks at you and says "Oh, I see you, too..."
3) The same feeling plays into the very creepy X-FILES episode "Home". I think the scene towards the beginning, when Mulder and Scully are examining the ball field and they are told about the Peacock family and they look over to see the three men on their porch, watching the agents themselves. So much about this episode is wrong (in a good way), but the fact that those disturbed, bizarre, homicidal creeps were right there out in the daylight was scary stuff.
4) Clowns, to me, have lost that lovin' feeling. But that damn creepy clown doll from POLTERGEIST? Ugh, who in their right mind would give this to a kid, even before this movie came out? Just so wrong and such a nightmare inducer. I would never have just left it sitting on a shelf to watch me sleep at night. That fucker would have been locked up tight, preferably in another room. In another house.
5) The scene in FRIDAY THE 13TH: PART II where Ginny and Paul are in the cabin and the lights are out. When Ginny says "There's someone in this room!" and Jason is there, quietly waiting in the dark. THIS is why grown people can be afraid of the dark - there might be a once-dead-but-now-alive-with-a-sack-on-his-head-irrational-killer in the corner. Also in this movie, when Ginny is in Jason's shack and she peers out and see Jason running towards her. Holy momma! Where the flip can she go? There are only two rooms, and we KNOW what Ginny finds behind door number two.
(OF COURSE a dude with a sack on his head lives here.)
6) The original THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE is scary stuff, especially when I first saw it as a wee lad. But there is one scene that always freaks me out. When Kirk enters the house and Leatherface just appears and whacks him. Before you know it, the door is shut and Kirk is just GONE. What just happened? The fact that something so unexpected and horrific can occur so damn quickly... Well, it just goes to show you why you should stay the hell OUT of strange farmhouses in the country. The fact that they made an actual toy/collectible of this scene tells me I am not alone in this feeling.
7) It may not hold the same punch these days, when everyone has a cell phone, but the 70s film WHEN A STRANGER CALLS was seriously creepy in it's time. The 'calls coming from inside the house' scare was something babysitters (and loners) feared already and this movie just made them jump up and say "SEE??? I TOLD you it could happen!!!" The very different sequel WHEN A STRANGER CALLS BACK has a semi-creepy scene, when that movie's killer hides himself right in the woman's apartment - by painting himself to match her brick wall and just standing still.
(Carol Kane, your eyes speak volumes. So perfect for horror flicks.)
8) The flying monkeys in THE WIZARD OF OZ. They are creepy in their own right, with their bizarre monkey/human hybrid faces and expressions of perpetual glee - which they shouldn't have. But, what puts them over the top are their little coordinated outfits! Holy buckets! The witch was evil, but this just proves the bitch was bat-shit crazy! She spends her off time making matching outfits for her band of flying monkeys?! Run, Dorothy, run!!!
(WHY would you even own this picture? And the dude got it signed!)
9) The Oompa Loompas from the original WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. They were like midgets but not, with odd colored skin and green hair and strange white jumpsuits and... they were helpers from hell, is what they were. ONLY Wonka would be okay with living and working with these bizarre and unsettling little men. The Oompa Loompas from the remake were odd, but not stay-the-fuck-away-from-me odd.
10) This albino dude from FOUL PLAY, the 70s movie with Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase.
I don't remember much about the movie, but he scared the CRAP out of me when I was a kid. Anytime I saw this movie in the TV Guide I would look away for something else. I couldn't watch it again cause I knew I would see him. Turns out he was an actor named William Frankfather and he WASN'T really an albino. Don't care, really, as he has haunted my brain for decades now.
11) The old 70s show IN SEARCH OF, with Leonard Nimoy. Hot damn, this show freaked me out. Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, aliens, heck - even Amelia Earhart and her disappearance scared me. But it was all because of the combination of fear and mystery and the unknown they infused into each episode. From the eerie music to Nimoy's normal-yet-scary-uncle narration, I was scared spitless.
(Could have done a show on missing socks - I would have been petrified.)
12) This creepy, creepy, CREEPY picture. It just gives me the willies. I have lost the image twice over the years (probably subconciously deleted it) and had to search the 'net for it, never recalling what to actually use as search terms. "Creepy midget", "Scariest dwarf", "What the fuck?".
I finally remembered something about him being arrested, so I searched for "arrested midget" and wham-o! As soon as I saw it, I jumped and aged another year. Great googly moogly ... I don't know if it is real or not, but frankly it doesn't matter. It freaks the ever-loving-beejebus out of me. I would jump up into Michael Myers arms for safety and tell him to high-tail it to Jason's shack if I was confronted with this alleged "peeping tom". Can you even IMAGINE seeing him looking in your window? I would move to a place with one entrance, no widows. And then blind myself.
In fact, I liked it even more. Maybe the "anticipation" of it all was too much for the film to live up to the first time. I dunno. I liked it and had fun watching it.
The end still annoyed me. WHY would they do that??? Oh well.
Good Jason flick, glad I saw it on the big screen one last time.
The great Final Girl posted a list of what she calls "the sads", which are horror movie characters you felt sad for when they died or that you wish you could have saved. Here are the ones I pick (that I can think of right now):
Okay, so this has been bouncing around many of the horror blogs out there. HMV released their ranking of the Top 50 Horror Films. It is not surprising to me that no one has agreed on it. Horror fans are bemoaning the lack of older films and the inclusion of some newer ones.
50 films are a lot of films to rank, and I don't think you can find two fans who can agree on such a list. What scares one person enough to send them cowering under the covers may only generate a yawn in someone else. But, maybe that is the fun of these lists. They can start a debate (hopefully friendly and fun) of what belongs and what doesn't, of what should rank higher or lower.
Anyway, I took the top 50 films from their rank and RE-ranked them in the order I would put them, from #50 on down to my #1. Of course, there are movies I wouldn't include in the list (The House on Haunted Hill remake? really?) And there movies I would include that aren't listed (I personally think the original Black Christmas is damn creepy!)
But, just taking the list given, here is my RE-ranking of their Top 50:
(first number is my rank, second number is the film's HMV rank)
50) 41. House on Haunted Hill. William Malone (2000) 49) 35. Rosemary's Baby. Roman Polanski (1968) 48) 13. Lost Boys. Joel Schumacher (1987) 47) 4. The Silence of the Lambs. Jonathan Demme (1991) 46) 18. An American Werewolf in London. John Landis (1981) 45) 46. The Mist. Frank Darabont (2008) 44) 30. Salem's Lot. Mikael Salomon (2004) 43) 14. Dawn of the Dead. George A Romero (1978) 42) 45. The Changeling. Peter Medak (1980) 41) 27. The Evil Dead. Sam Raimi (1981) 40) 38. The Entity. Sidney J Furie (1981) 39) 22. Candyman. Bernard Rose (1992) 38) 43. It. Tommy Lee Wallace (1990) 37) 9. The Wicker Man. Robin Hardy (1973) 36) 8. Ring (Ringu). Hideo Nakata (1998) 35) 37. The Orphanage. Juan Antonio Bayona (2008) 34) 44. Audition. Takashi Miike (1999) 33) 49. Shutter. Masayuki Ochiai (2008) 32) 48. The Vanishing. George Sluizer (1993) 31) 50. Planet Terror. Robert Rodriguez (2007) 30) 24. Carrie. Brian De Palma (1976) 29) 36. Child's Play. Tom Holland (1989) 28) 47. Suspiria. Dario Argento (1977) 27) 28. Hellraiser. Clive Barker (1987) 26) 34. Misery. Rob Reiner (1991) 25) 17. The Blair Witch Project. Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sanchez (1999) 24) 7. A Nightmare on Elm Street. Wes Craven (1984) 23)11. The Birds. Alfred Hitchcock (1963) 22) 5. Saw. James Wan (2004) 21) 2. The Shining. Stanley Kubrick (1980) 20) 3. Alien. Ridley Scott (1979) 19) 10. The Omen. Richard Donner (1976) 18) 1. The Exorcist. William Friedkin (1973) 17) 20. Poltergeist. Tobe Hooper (1982) 16) 23. Scream. Wes Craven (1996) 15) 26. Final Destination. James Wong (2000) 14) 33. Wolf Creek. Greg McLean (2005) 13) 19. Se7en. David Fincher (1995) 12) 12. The Thing. John Carpenter (1982) 11) 39. Nosferatu. FW Murnau (1922) 10) 29. Hostel. Eli Roth (2005) 9) 42. The Haunting. Robert Wise (1963) 8) 40. Night of the Living Dead. George A. Romero (1968) 7) 16. Jaws. Steven Spielberg (1975) 6) 25. Friday the 13th. Sean S Cunningham (1980) 5) 31. The Descent. Neil Marshall (2005) 4) 21. The Amityville Horror. Stuart Rosenberg (1979) 3) 32. The Hills Have Eyes. Wes Craven (1977) 2) 15. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Tobe Hooper (1974) 1) 6. Halloween. John Carpenter (1978)
So, there you go. Like I said, not my ideal choice for the top 50, but I worked with the films from the HMV list.
In honor of the ongoing Halloween week horror movie-fest, and since another site decided to do their own Top 28 Horror Movie Villains, here are My Top 10 Horror Movie Monsters/Killers.
Notice I said MY, as in this list is totally my point of view. But, feel free to tell me who scares the beejeezus out of you!
10. 112 Ocean Avenue, Amityville (The Amityville Horror)
This house scared the crap out of me when I was a kid. I haven't watched the film in years, that shows you the fear etched into my brain. I remember seeing it at a drive-in one night and being freaked out by the scene where the stairs break and there is blood oozing. Gives me shivers still.
9. Norman Bates (Psycho)
Bates is one that lingers in my mind, because even a quiet mama's boy can be a nut-job, as insane a killer as the flesh-wearing maniac with a chainsaw. Anyone can be the lunatic.
8. The Miner (My Bloody Valentine)
This movie and it's killer had more to do with mystery and atmosphere, to me anyway. Something always seems dark and hidden, waiting to jump out and get you. Just unnerved me enough once to leave a lasting impression in the dark shafts of my mind.
7. Dracula (Dracula)
Even though he has been played by seemingly hundreds of actors over the years, there is still something evil about the Count. I like different takes on the character, for different reasons. Bela Lugosi's Dracula has that "Old World" mystery about him, but Christopher Lee's Dracula has a strange aloofness that can unsettle you. And don't forget Max Schreck's Nosferatu, so bizarre and creepy and weird. Was he playing himself?!?
6. Curt Duncan (When a Stranger Calls)
Not a typical pick, but this guy is so nuts that he stalks the babysitter so he can enjoy the torment he causes. The second half of the film shows more of his insanity. An uncomfortable experience, but I say that in a good way. Really.
5. The Creeper (Jeepers Creepers)
The first film is the better one, showing a really strange creature who is not human, but yet does such human things (driving like an ass, for one). The single scene that clinched this monster as a goosebump inducer is when the siblings drive past him as he dumps the bodies down the pipe. They see him and are justifiably creeped out, but he stops, looks and WATCHES THEM TOO! ack...
4. Leatherface (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre)
I can feel some sympathy for ol' Leatherface, due to his obvious mental problems stemming from whatever the hell happened with his face. But all pity goes out the window when he whacks the kid on the head, drags him into the kitchen and shuts the door. What the hell just happened???
3. Billy/The Prowler (Black Christmas)
I never saw this one as a kid, and that may be a good thing. When I did watch it a few years ago, I realized that Billy is one creepy, scary freak! Not only is he bat-shit insane, he is hiding in the attic! I would never have gotten our Christmas ornaments down from our attic again had I seen this when I was younger. I guess that would have made for 2 "black Christmases."
2. Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th)
Jason, Jason, Jason. Some films in the series are seriously lacking in real scares (A New Beginning and Jason Takes Manhattan the worst, in my opinion), but Jason is so hell-bent determined to just kill, kill, kill that you have to be afraid of ever crossing his path. Relentless, ruthless, patient. How DO people sleep at campgrounds?
1. Michael Myers (Halloween)
The blank white face, the dark eyes, the tilt of his head. The original film does it best, of course. Michael Myers is a human void filled with the need to kill. Is he insane? Immoral? Just plain evil? Who knows and who cares. He is out there, and he wants to stalk and kill. To this day, I still feel uneasy, unsettled when I watch Halloween. It has the power to make me do double-takes at shadows and jump at slight noises. At age 37.
So, there you go, the ten movie monsters and killers that make my heart beat a little faster. But in a good way, as any horror movie fan knows.
Watch one of these flicks this week since "It's Halloween, everyone's entitled to one good scare."
