I’ve been offline for a while. A week of the stomach flu followed by a week of a very difficult corporate job left me with no time for social media stuff.
But, I’m feeling much better after having slept through most of the weekend so I’m back to writing and editing Young Sorcerers Guild #2 (Summer’s Cauldron).
Since its Halloween I thought I might share a few of my favorite horror films:
The Haunting (1963)
http://youtu.be/jRqX_C2P8Xc
I had such a crush on Claire Bloom the first time I saw this movie. When I met her years later in the mid-90s the crush only got worse. I really love this movie. Robert Wise does a great job of creating fear and anxiety out of mostly atmospheric effects. No gore. Just psychological terror.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
I’ll write more about this film when I get to it on my list of favorite sci-fi films, but I think it is a great horror film as well. It presents a unique kind of existential terror. Space pods are replacing people. Are your parents really your parents? Your friends really your friends? Will you be next? Will you be stripped of all emotion and feeling? Will you lose what makes you – you?
Alien (1979)
This movie scared the hell out of me the first time I saw it on TV when I was 12. I was very thankful for the commercial breaks. Ridley Scott was very wise to create a solidly believable setting for what is essentially a loose remake of IT! The Terror from Beyond Space. By making the ship and the crew so believable the alien monster become that much more believable – and terrifying.
The Shining (1980)
I haven’t read Stephen King’s novel (yet another novel on my shelf I need to get around to), but Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation creeped me the hell out when I saw it. It still creeps me out. Jack Nicolson is at his terrifyingly bizarre best and Kubrick’s floating camera work creates an atmosphere of dream-like horror.
