It’s that time of the year again: Halloween. I suspect most people are already breaking out the warm hoodies and embracing the leaves turning colors and falling to the ground. This is the time of year where everyone is jumping around corners trying to scare each other or trying to chase the feeling of being frightened by visiting haunted houses. There is also one big aspect of Halloween that everyone tries to do at least once during the month of October: binge-watching horror movies.
The biggest thing about horror movies that some filmmakers don’t seem to understand is that the movie is supposed to leave a lasting impression on the audience member when the credits roll. You need to get into the viewer’s head and ultimately mess with them psychologically. Of course there are a vast amount of horror films that do this incorrectly and just rely on cheap jump scares or shock factor. You want to have the audience member have a desire to come back and watch your film again to see clues or foreshadowing.
As a starting filmmaker, horror is a scary genre to get right (pun intended). In this article, I am listing five movies that are great to introduce yourself to the horror/thriller genre. These five movies combine storytelling, aesthetic, and filmmaking in order to compliment the horror genre. I’m also not trying to spoil anything about these films, so I apologize in advance if my comments are vague in this article.
1. Psycho
Psycho is my top favorite horror movie. There are many twists and turns in the story to keep you invested throughout. This movie is worth watching just for the cinematography and editing alone.
Alfred Hitchcock uses the camera and editing style to help boost the tension in the film. Every cut, word, and camera movement has a purpose to the story. A good example of this is the famous shower scene, where every angle and editing cut is a “cut” with the weapon.
This movie also has some great writing techniques that makes the film very unnerving. About halfway through the film, after the famous shower scene takes place, the writer does something remarkable to switch perspectives in the script that is worth noting. There are also many clues in the story that make you want to watch the movie again to catch all of them.
2. Silence of the Lambs
This movie is a great thriller that gets your blood pumping quickly. The director, Jonathan Demme, does some remarkable camerawork by choosing mostly close-ups throughout the movie, which works perfectly with the script. By doing this, you are able to get a sense of the actor’s emotion through their dialogue. It forces you to pay attention to them.
This film is a great example of showing how the actors can help tell the story with no additional special effects to make the audience uneasy. This film has many twists and turns that keep you questioning to the very end. In my opinion, everything about this film is pleasing and is a must watch.
3. Poltergeist
If you want a classic horror movie to study the basics, this movie is the best way to go. Back in the day, most horror movies relied on monsters that the main characters were trying to defeat. To my knowledge, this was the first horror movie to introduce a supernatural element to the genre that hadn’t been explored before.
This film also introduces the element of the story where the incident happens to everyday people. When this was first released, this freaked out many people because of how it can easily happen to them. That is what made this film more believable to them.
4. The Ring
If you are looking for a film that is gory, this film isn’t for you. The best thing about this movie is that it doesn’t rely on jump scares or cheesy gimmicks to freak you out. This movie uses the psychological aspect to get your skin crawling. The “What If” question that makes the viewer wonder what they would do in that situation.
I am putting this film on the list because of the writing aspect alone. This movie will have you question everything until the very end, giving you just enough then introducing a major plot twist while at the same time giving you clues throughout.
5. The Shining
I have my own personal beef with this movie in terms of story, but it’s still a good one to watch to help you with horror filmmaking. The camerawork alone is a good enough reason to watch this film.
Just like Psycho, the director, Stanley Kubrick, uses the camera as a character to find out major plot points with just the movements alone. Have you watched a movie recently that had slow camera movements to follow the character from room to room? That’s because this movie introduced this method.
Also, the acting from Jack Nicholson alone is worth watching this film. I believe that Jack’s acting is a great character study on a horror film character. Most famous filmmakers that we look up to today, like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, all reference this movie as foundation in their career. Why not learn from the one of the first masters of the art of filmmaking?
