Good and Bad Scary Movies

With the Halloween season among us, there’s no better time to indulge in the fun of scary movies! I, personally, have always loved scary movies and can watch them all the time any time. I feel that scary movies create a great sense of community and intimacy; there’s nothing quite like the sensation of cowering under the blankets with your family members or best friends and hiding in fear together, crying as you wait for the demon child to pop off the screen and kill you. In the spirit of Halloween and all that is evil and scary, I’ve compiled a list of the top three best scary movies and the top three worst scary movies.

#1 Best: The Others

The Others, starring Nicole Kidman, is a 2001 Spanish-American horror film that tells the story of a mother living with her twos small children in a remote country house. The two children have an uncommon disease characterized by photosensitivity, kind of like an allergy to light. Their lives are governed by a series of complex rules to protect the children from exposure to sunlight, and everything is normal (or at least as normal as it can be) until three servants come to the house, as very odd happenings succeed the arrival of the new people. Okay, “odd happenings” is the only way to describe them, but the things that happen in the film are actually scary. With a twist at the end, you’ll be sure to want to watch this film more than once to see all the puzzle pieces and how they end up fitting together.

#2 Best: The Ring

I’m sure many are familiar with The Ring, the 2002 American supernatural psychological horror film with the iconic image of a girl crawling out of a television screen. If that super freaky image itself isn’t enough to convince you that this film is legitimately scary, then I don’t know what would. The film manages to scare the exorcisms out of you, and the great thing about this is that the story actually makes sense. In the end, you get a thorough and logical explanation for everything that happened in the film, not just being left with a bunch of questions. If you want a scare that makes sense, you should consider watching this.

#3 Best: Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark is a 2010 Australian-Mexican-American horror film that tells the story of a little girl, her father, and her father’s girlfriend. The three of them spend a few days living in the Blackwood Manor to remodel the house and make it fit to put on the market for their client. The girl, Sally, is depressed because her mother forced her to spend time with her father and her father’s girlfriend, whom she doesn’t get along with. As their stay progresses, Sally becomes the target of little creatures that lives in the basement of the house, and they only come out in the dark. As tacky as this concept sounds, the film does manage to creep and frighten you a lot. It has a really good story, and the end will trip you out.

Now it’s time for the top three worst horror movies.

#1 Worst: The Devil Inside

This film, a 2012 American supernatural horror, had so much potential to be good. The posters are really creepy, one version showing a woman with an upside-down cross cut into the inside of her mouth and another version showing a nun with chilling, glassy eyes. Everything was okay, it wasn’t super scary and the story was pretty basic, but the end just ruined it for me. If you’re the type who doesn’t mind pointless storylines with no closure, then you’d probably be okay with this. But if you like to know what happens to the characters in the story and you like to know why things happen, this film won’t give you that. The ending is a big cop-out, so I would recommend not bothering with this movie.

#2 Worst: Paranormal Activity – The Marked Ones

This 2014 addition to the Paranormal Activity franchise was a disappointing one, to say the very least. The story is not as well thought-out as the stories of the other films in the series, and the whole thing just feels all over the place. The movie does manage to scare me at some parts, but there’s no real storyline for you to wrap your head around and think about. If you want pointless scares, this should be okay, but even then, the scares weren’t even actually that scary.

#3 Worst: The Blair Witch Project

This 1999 horror film was the one that started the trend of “found footage” scary movies. The Blair Witch Project tells the tale of three student filmmakers who journey into the woods to film a documentary about the Blair Witch who supposedly lives somewhere among the trees. They set up camp and spend a night there, and then things get creepy. The students find carvings in trees along their path, messages left for them by someone unknown, and bloody teeth placed in front of their tent. Then one of them goes missing. The film really does give a scare and it shows so much promise, but, again, the disappointing ending negates all the good that led up to it. If you want a good scare, this will provide you with that, but the ending will leave you disappointed and with more questions than you began the film with.