Friday Top Five / Horror Movie Month: The Last Twenty Years

If you're a fan of horror, then you know horror's hey-day was in the last 60's and early 70's. Next week, I will be presenting my ultimate Top Five list, my favorite horror movies of all time. But I felt it sort of unfair to more recent movies. There have been good horror movies recently, so I decided this week, to focus on my five best from the last twenty years.

05. Trick 'r Treat (Michael Dougherty, 2007)
A group of interwoven stories take place on Halloween night involving a high school principal, a group of teenagers searching for the ghosts of a school bus accident and a naive young woman. All of these are wrapped together with the presence of Jack, a seemingly small boy whose head is wrapped in a sort of burlap sack. He might be the cutest movie psychopath of all time. This is the sort of movie that absolutely captures the feeling of Halloween: traditions and urban legends and creepy tones. It's a refreshing film, and, of course, Anna Paquin is in it and I sort of love her!

04. High Tension (Alexandre Aja, 2003)
Cecile de France is bad ass! As Maria, one of two college pals who encounter, let's say, problems while visiting parents, she is a bad ass heroine if there ever was one. She may be a take on the final girl, but she's also more bad ass than just about any final girl ever. This movie has an old school feel. It could have been made in the 60's. It is uncompromising and absolutely relentless. Once the action starts, it never lets up, never lets you catch your breath. People who have seen this movie have a problem with the ending, but I don't. While it doesn't work perfectly, I think it's such a great twist, that I can forgive its clumsy feel. Word of warning: this movie is French and subtitled, but totally worth it.

03. House of 1000 Corpses (Rob Zombie, 2003)
When Rob Zombie first came on the scene as a horror movie director, I rejoiced. He seemingly loved horror movies as much (or more!) than I do. His first two films were absolutely fantastic. Then he made two misguided and terrible Halloween remakes. Then there was this year's terrible, like worst movie I've EVER seen terrible, Lords of Salem. A director should get better with time, not worse. Or maybe his first film, House of 1000 Corpses, was a fluke. Sure, it's sort of a rip off of Texas Chainsaw Massacre (at least until that balls to the wall, crazy ending), but it's still genuinely crazy and frightening. It's a shame he went downhill so fast as a director, because this movie is awesome and shows so much promise. At least we can enjoy this movie for years to come!

02. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (Scott Glosserman, 2006)
An absolutely original take on horror movies, Behind the Mask asks what if Michael Meyers and Jason Vorhees were real guys? What if someone, Leslie Vernon perhaps, grew up emulating them and wanting to be just like them? What if he decided to ask a camera crew to follow him around as he prepared for an epic murder spree? You know, those guys don't just happen upon houses of partying teenagers. The windows don't open in that pivotal moment because they've been staked out before hand, nailed down. These guys think of everything! It may sound jokey and cheesy but it's not. The first two thirds is so creative, and then the final act turns in to your typical slasher movie kill fest with a great twist. Bonus points for getting Robert Englund, Freddy Kruger himself!, to play the Dr. Loomis type hero of the film!

01. Scream (Wes Craven, 1996)
Scream was both the rebirth and the death of the modern horror movie. It came out of nowhere at a time when horror movies were lame and over. It was the smartest horror movie in a long time, featuring an iconic director and young, no name stars who would soon be famous. Scream was so good that, soon, everyone wanted to make horror movies. The bad part was that none of them were as good as Scream. Scream is great because it manages to be a terrifying slasher movie that is fully aware of every movie that came before it. These kids know all about horror movies, spent their formative years watching Halloween and Terror Train. They know the dos and don'ts of horror movies and to some extent, all of this is a joke to them. Of course, the body count is very real and eventually they have to live through scenes eerily similar to the ones they've watched in movies for so long. This movie was revolutionary; full of pop culture reference, killing off its star, the only name actor in the movie!, in first fifteen minutes. This movie is beyond clever and just endlessly re-watchable. It's a scream!