We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat

I am a self-proclaimed horror movie expert. My fascination with horror movies started at age 8. My mom and me used to stay up late and watch such movies like The People Under the Stairs and Nightmare on Elm Street. I see a lot of things in movies that the normal person does not notice. I like to think about what goes into making a specific shot work and how underlying themes in movies reflect society. I am a very tough critic, while most people are busy enjoying cheap thrills in movies I am busy picking out small flaws in the plot. Enough about me lets get to the good stuff my five favorite movies and what makes them my favorite.

5) The Descent-From the time the movie starts you are sitting on the edge of your seat. All people have an inherent fear of being buried alive and being trapped in a cave is the next worst thing. That fear of being confined combined with the fairly original cave creatures makes this movie uniquely scary.

4) Halloween-Carpenter truly created something special with this movie. I love how Carpenter manages to create a truly scary film without all the blood and gore. Another aspect that makes this film scary is trick or treating is something everybody has done and Halloween is a holiday everyone can relate to. Ability to Relate = Scary

3) Nightmare on Elm Street-Where to begin with this? I will start where most people would not the music. Charles Bernstein created a perfect soundtrack to accompany this movie. I remember watching this movie with my mom and staying up all night because I was scared Freddy was going to get me in my sleep, this was just a few days ago. It is similar to Halloween in that we all have to sleep and that is a major part of what makes this film scary. You feel like you are dreaming while you are watching the movie because of the amazing visual effects. Do not be mistaken the effects are revolutionary for their time.

2) 28 Days Later-The best zombie film I have ever seen, and I have seen a lot. I like a zombie that can chase down a person on foot or chase down a car on foot for that matter. These infected are very quick that is one thing that sets this movie off from regular zombie/infected movies. My favorite part has to be that by the end you do not know who are the real bad guys in the movie the infected, or the soldiers. I will go much deeper into this eventually

1) Jaws-We’re gonna need a bigger boat. There are so many things in this movie that make it my all time favorite, but I’ll limit it to a couple for now. One is that every person who has seen this movie thought twice before going into the water at the beach again. For a while after this movie came out mothers would not let there kids go swimming in the pool, let alone at the beach. The big reason I like this movie is all of the great shot techniques used. One specifically is where Brody is on the beach and the Kitner boy is killed. The camera does a close up of Brody, but the backround seems to move away. This is very Hitchcockesque.