8. Paranormal Activity
This is probably my least favorite movie on the list. Katie and Micah are engaged to be married and move into a nice suburban home. The problem is, Katie tells her Fiancé that she has had a ghostly entity following her since she was a little girl. So Micah decides to get a camcorder and try to capture paranormal goings on inside their home. Ok, that’s the story and it’s told using the “found footage” method, which I think, is annoyingly overdone.
I hate paying money to watch a movie that will make me dizzy. For that I’d rather go to a carnival and take a spin on the tilt-a-whirl, but I digress. This movie has some genuinely creepy elements to it. The fact that is filmed on a hand held camera adds a little something to the overall creepiness. Katie’s screaming is also pretty bone-chilling.
But there are two glaring reasons why this film lost its scare towards the end. Katie and Micah! Never in my life did I completely turn against the leads in the movie in favor of the antagonist, but this movie made me switch sides. They are as annoying as they are completely idiotic. Micah is such an annoying dude that I rooted for his demise half way through and Katie is not far behind.
The movie would have been much more terrifying had I really gave a shit what happened to them, but they lost my sympathy mid-way through the second act, and by the third, I was all about the ghost. I was like please Mr. Ghost, please kill them off horribly and violently. Now, it’s not overall, a bad film. It’s good and has a good amount of jumps, but if all you’re doing for an hour and a half is waiting for these two idiots to die, then it could’ve been better and scarier.
7. The Thing
Before I start, this is probably my overall favorite movie on the list. I love The Thing. The first time I saw it, I stayed with me for a while. Not that I was scared, just the atmosphere of the film. I loved the fact that anyone, at any time, could be the Thing.
It’s about a 12 man research crew, stationed in Antarctica during the winter months. While preparing, they encounter a helicopter from a Norwegian research base, shooting a husky dog, as the dog runs toward the Americans for safety. You see, the Norwegian’s unearth a space craft buried deep within the ice, and along with it, an alien life form with the capabilities of mimicking any cells which it comes into contact with. We later learn the alien has mimicked the husky dog that the Norwegian’s are trying to kill. Anyway, after a short shootout and a misplaced grenade, the Norwegians are dead and the dog is safety in the American’s care. And for the rest of the movie you’re guessing, who is the Thing, as more and more people are devoured and mimicked.
It’s a great movie, with exceptional acting and a really original premise. Why is it on the list? I don’t know, but it doesn’t feel like a horror. Never once have I watched the “The Thing” and had to sleep with a light on, or got scared at every creak or bang in my house afterwards. Although some of the imagery is gory…it’s not scary. It’s cool, it’s awesome, it’s everything a Sci-Fi movie should be, but I have never classified this film as true Horror. The best way to explain it is, it’s like a graphic novel on film.