As it’s that spooky time of year – the time when,
weirdly, I’m at my most productive due to the naturally atmospheric environs in
which I’m writing – I’ve taken to watching lots of horror movies. Now, I love
horror films, but I also hate them. Why? Because they’re so often hackneyed,
low-budget, jump-scare-laden bore-fests that every time I rent a new movie it
feels a bit like Russian roulette. Or, worse, eating a bag of Revels.
So every time my dear lady wife gets annoyed that I’ve
made her sit through yet another stinker, I instead turn to the classics –
those scary movies that are proven winners. They’re not all oldies, but they
all have common elements: they value atmosphere over CG high-jinks, and
storytelling over gore.
As Hallowe’en fast approaches, I give you my top 5 spooky
movies (with the emphasis on spooky, as opposed to horror). Do check them out –
you won’t be disappointed.
The Woman in Black (1989)
“Oo, that one with Harry Potter in it?” I hear you cry.
Nope (although I don’t actually mind that verison – see below). Written by
Nigel Kneale, the talent behind Quatermass, this was ITV’s answer to the BBC’s
Ghost Stories for Christmas, and what an answer it was. Dripping with
atmosphere, this TV movie remains one of my favourite creepy tales on screen –
I saw it as a nipper, and ‘That Scene’, which many people who watched it first
time around remember all too well, gave me nightmares for some time to come.
Even though this is a fairly faithful adaptation of the
book (which I love), rumour has it that Susan Hill wasn’t happy with some of
the minor changes, and blocked its release on DVD in the UK. It’s now pretty
hard to get hold of, although you can find it on YouTube of all places.
The Haunting (1963)
Dr. John Markway (the late, great Richard Johnson), an
anthropologist with an interest in psychic phenomena, takes two specially
selected women to Hill House, a reportedly haunted mansion. Eleanor (Julie
Harris), a lonely, eccentric woman with a supernatural event in her past, and
the bold Theodora (Claire Bloom), who has ESP, join John and the mansion’s
heir, cynical Luke (Russ Tamblyn). They are immediately overwhelmed by strange
sounds and events, and Eleanor comes to believe the house is alive and speaking
directly to her.
This is another movie that spawned a terrible remake
(starring Catherine Zeta Jones and Owen Wilson), but the original stands the
test of time, in no part due to phenomenal cinematography and sturdy
performances. You won’t find any ghost special effects here – but you’ll be
spooked nonetheless.
Whistle and I’ll Come to You (1968)
In my view the best of the BBC’s Ghost Stories for Christmas (just pipping The Signalman), and the quintessential M R James adaptation, ‘Whistle’ is carried by a bravura
performance by Michael Hordern. He’s almost alone in the hour-long production,
and hardly has any coherent lines, and yet he manages to convey perfectly the
character of the bumbling old antiquarian on a busman’s holiday to the seaside,
unleashing dark forces. His portrayal of a rational man forced to confront the
supernatural is simply brilliant, and his decent into madness more terrifying
than even the thing that follows him relentlessly across a deserted beach.
It Follows (2014)
Speaking of things following relentlessly, It Follows undoubtedly takes some cues
from M R James, with shades of Oh,
Whistle and perhaps the Treasure of
Abbot Thomas in the evil antagonist. The idea of a personal haunting, in
this case passed on through intercourse, hunting down the current bearer of the
curse is an interesting one. The film does not shy away from presenting the
whole gamut of moral dilemmas one might face in that situation, and once the
curse is unleashed the onslaught is inexorable. This movie is not only
genuinely frightening, but clever, too. It sets its own internal ‘rules’
for the entity at the heart of the action, and never once breaks those rules,
which allows the protagonists to plan accordingly. A rare thing in horror
movies.
Session 9 (2001)
“Hello… Gordon…”
Perhaps an odd one for the list, this film for me defies
classification. Is it a psychological horror film? A ghost story? A mystery? I
have no idea, but it’s almost impossible to watch without being forced into a
perpetual state of tension. Seriously, it’s exhausting. And the plot isn’t
really wrapped up either, so you carry that tension around for days, trying to
work out what was going on, and feeling unnerved by it. Pretty successful, I’d
say.
The movie was shot in the now-demolished Danvers StateAsylum, and follows the exploits of a work crew hired to strip all the asbestos
out of the building. What can be creepier than a huge, deserted asylum?
Nothing, that’s what.
Honourable Mentions
The following movies (and one three-part TV series, as it
happens, but it’s brilliant so you’ll have to forgive me) almost made the list,
and have made this year’s watch-list. If you like the ones above, you may well
get a kick out of these, too.
Night of the Demon (1957):
A brilliantly staged telling of the M R James classic ‘Casting the runes’, this
is a slow, thoughtful tale of black magic and demonology. It hasn’t aged quite
as well as the others presented above, hence it makes the footnotes.
Midwinter of the
Spirit (2015): A three-part exorcism TV drama written by the modern master of the
genre, Stephen Volk? Oh, go on then. Seriously, it’s a crime this was never
commissioned for a second series.
The Borderlands (2013):
Even though I hate found footage movies, I loved this. Ultra-low-budget, with
elements of folk-horror, this film has one of the most mind-bending twists in
recent memory.
The Canal (2015): This
is an effective, low-budget British horror film. Ostensibly a psychological
horror, there’s an element of the unreliable narrator here, a bit like Session
9, that keeps you guessing even after you think you’ve guessed it!
The Woman in
Black (2012): Not a faithful retelling, and full of jump-scares ripped straight
from J-Horror, this is nonetheless an incredibly atmospheric movie, thanks
largely to its cinematography and soundtrack. The haunted house is brilliantly
done; the protagonist less so.
The Conjuring 2 (2016):
I had a bit of a soft spot for the first Conjuring
movie, and I think this recent sequel actually tops it/ James Wan uses his
now-familiar bag of tricks again here, but he seems to have mastered his art in
this offering. If you can forgive the bending of history here (the real-life Enfield
Haunting was never quite like this!), then you’re in for quite the ride, I
should also mention here the recent Enfield
Haunting TV series, which was also brilliant, but very much a different
experience.
