6. Hellraiser
A man, his daughter, and step-wife move into the abandoned house, left by his brother, Frank. You see, Frank, in his many travels, purchases an antique box. After fuddling around with it, he manages to open the box, only to have chains with hooks pierce his skin and tear his flesh off. Ok we will get back to Frank in a second. Now, Frank’s brother Larry has just moved his family into the house. Unbeknownst to Larry, his wife Julia was Frank’s secret lover. While Larry is inspecting the house, he comes up to the attic, where he tears his hand on a rusty nail sticking out the wall. The blood drips to the floorand awakens the fleshless Frank. At first he is bones, but with the help of Julia, who finds him out, he slowly regenerates by drinking the blood of men, Julia has lured to the attic. Ok, so Kirsty eventually finds the box, releases the Cenobites and they give Frank a good flesh ripping for a second time.
This is BY FAR the biggest disappointment on the list. Oh what could’ve been…This movie is good; the many sequels it has spawned are unwatchabley bad. But the worst thing about this movie is the squandered potential. The whole movie is about this woman and her skeleton-lover, killing idiotic men, until the awesome pinhead comes for their comeuppance. The Cenobites are creatures that Hell basically assigned with the duties of torture, pleasure and pain. They could’ve made this film so disturbing if they focused a little more on the Cenobites, their victims, and the various ways of suffering. Instead you are left with a decent horror film with a giant heap of wasted potential.
The first 5 films were films that could have been scary or scarier but weren’t. The next 5 films are movies that started off scary, very scary is some cases, but as the movie progressed, they lost their way.
5. A Nightmare on Elm Street
By far, this is the scariest of all the NOES movies. In case you’ve been living comfortably under your rock, this movie is about the child killer, Fred Krueger who, after being burned alive by all parents of Elm Street, swears to kill their children. The key to his power; He kills them in their dreams and if they die in their dreams, they die for real.
It is one of the best horror franchises ever. Everything about NOES is amazingly good; the acting, the haunting music, the story, the creepy “1-2” song. The fact that he lives in dreams gives the director/writer limitless possibilities of what can be done, it’s also allows for the dark and haunting atmosphere to be as twisted and surreal as you want they want it to be. Fred Krueger himself is one of the best horror villains in the history of horror, complete with burnt face, fedora, and his razor-fingered glove. Unfortunately, as the sequels went on, Freddy became more like a cartoon character, spewing bad pun after bad pun before dispatching his victims in more funnier and creative ways.
This film does not reach the comedic heights of the others. Wes Craven stayed very unsettling throughout. So why is it on the list? The third act really. The protagonist of the film, Nancy, figures out a way to bring Freddy into the real world so she can kill him for good. What does she do? In true “Home Alone” fashion, she rigs her house with ridiculous booby-traps; a sledgehammer that slams down when you open the door; an exploding light bulb. And just like it’s written on paper, Freddy manages to foolishly get hit by virtually every one of her traps. It’s a little disappointing given that this movie was fantastically scary for most of its runtime.