Olson: Horror flicks affect everyone differently
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BY MELISSA OLSON
For the Herald
Friday, October 10, 2008 5:05 PM CDT
We love to make lists. Movies, books, sports, and economics are crowed with lists of “best of” and “worst of” anything from housing developments to right-handed rookie catchers to movies starring dwarfs. And with Halloween coming, film journalists everywhere have seized the opportunity to dig into best and worst, and most scary, horror movies.
These lists are nothing new — Bravo did a whole special series on Scariest Movies of all Time — but this year it got me thinking about why different people are scared by different movies. We all seem to have had that one scary movie experience that haunts us (no pun intended), and it might not necessarily be one of the “official” Scariest Movies.
Aside from the usual subjectivity of list-making, maybe there’s no such thing as a Scariest Movie — maybe there’s just what scares each person the most. My father, for example, still shudders if anyone mentions Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds.” My 33-year-old co-worker can’t even talk about “Poltergeist,” and my husband still hates clowns a decade after seeing “It.”
It would be easy to suggest that this difference is entirely based on age — each generation has their own movies that they specifically find scary, based mostly on special effects and the shifting ratings system. That’s probably part of it: as the world changes, and as film changes, so does what we’re afraid of and the ways in which we’re able to depict it onscreen.
But it’s not quite that simple. Yes, “Psycho” today is just not as frightening as it was when it was first released, but some movies are. And, although lots of once-terrifying movies are now almost laughably cheesy, there are plenty of films, like “The Exorcist” and the original “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” that have stood the test of time when it comes to scariness.
So how does each person end up with at least one traumatizing scary movie experience, and why that movie?
It’s a fascinating question, and the answer is different for everyone. Personally, I think it’s a combination of the movie itself, your age the first time you saw it, and what your experience with horror movies was up until them. But that’s just me.
So if you’d like to spice up your day a little, ask yourself, and the people around you, what scared them the most, and then ask why. The answer might be pretty interesting.
As for me, just for fun, here are my own personal Five Scariest Movies Ever:
5. ‘The Evil Dead’
My college boyfriend was a horror nut, and got me interested in Sam Raimi’s (director of the Spiderman movies) Evil Dead trilogy. The second one is known as the best, with a little humor mixed in with the scares, and the third film is intentionally campy and hilarious, but it’s the first movie that gave me nightmares.
Stark, unrelenting, and suspenseful, the story of five friends terrorized at a cabin in the deep woods is not to be watched late at night. Especially at a cabin in the woods.
4. ‘The Blair Witch Project’
I was 15 when this movie came out, the absolute perfect age to find it terrifying. “Blair Witch” was a phenomenon because it provided a combination we had never seen before: documentary-style filmmaking, completely unknown actors, and a webbed internet trail that promised a true story behind the film.
Add on the terrifying images that stay with you (remember the witch’s symbol? The guy standing in the corner in the last scene?) and the open ending, and it’s no wonder this movie had everyone talking.
3. ‘Audition’
“Audition” was actually the first movie I was ever assigned to review for a newspaper. It was freshman year of college, and I rented this 1999 Japanese film to promote part of a midnight screening series. And it was horrifying.
The story of a guy who cooks up a fake movie audition to find a new wife, “Audition” features what has to be the single scariest female killer I’ve ever seen, played by Japanese actress Eihi Shiina (two words: piano wire).
2. ‘Jaws’
I have not been in the ocean in the 15 years since I first saw “Jaws” on TNT (despite going to school, you know, in Los Angeles). “Jaws” is scary for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that sharks are a really, really scary predator.
But what makes this movie the most frightening is the idea it drives home about water: it’s not our world. We have no idea what goes on only inches beneath the surface of the ocean (or lake or dirty swimming pool) and to venture even a few feet in is to play in a world we neither own nor understand. Also, there’s this part where a dead guy’s head pops out.
1. ‘Scream’
With so many incredibly terrifying movies out there, I’m a little ashamed that this is the scariest movie experience of my life. It’s true, though. “Scream” was not only the first actual horror movie I’d ever seen, but also probably the second R-rated movie of my 13-year-old life.
Watching it with my friends in the middle of a bright afternoon on teacher in-service day, I almost peed myself in terror. I didn’t sleep that night, and woke my parents up at 3 a.m. to confess my illegal R-rated viewing and beg for a hug.
To add your scary movie to the list, visit www.chippewa.com and comment on this article.
A Chippewa Falls native, Melissa Olson graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in film. She works in Madison for the television program Discover Wisconsin. Visit her online at www.melissaolson.net.
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