TOP 20 Horror Movies

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With the Halloween season upon us, the country is in the mood for a good horror movie. Therefore this list is more of an advice of which movies to see for this Halloween season. This is the Movie Authority's list of the 20 best horror films. Now this list could potentially change if Paranormal Activity is as good as everyone makes it sound. This list was intended to be 25 films, but there were not 25 horror movies good enough to make this list.

20. Dawn of the Dead

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Zack snyder's Introduction of the fast zombie in the 2004 version of Dawn of the Dead finally made zombies worthy of fear. In the past I always found zombies to be the stupidest entity in horror films because the slow and stupid and only dangerous in large groups. The fast zombie finally made zombies seem dangerous. The movie is also entertaining. The characters are likable and its hilarious when they are having the guy across the street pick off zombies that look like celebrities. The forced isolation in the mall made it scary and how creepy was the little zombie baby.

19. House of Wax

A good horror film that is very easy to over look. Nothing revolutionary but Brian Van Holt was a very creepy killer who cut achillies tendons and glued a victim's lips shut to prevent screams. Plus Paris Hilton gets a giant pole thrown threw her head. Anyone like me who sees the negative impact Paris Hilton has had on our culture has to appreciate it. That is the main reason this movie is on this list.

17. I Know What You Did Last Summer

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While I Know What You Did Last Summer has a bad reputation because it was not as good as Scream, it is still a very good horror movie that builds the horror for the audience and the characters in the film as the movie progresses. The killer's continued presence is shown throughout the movie. The fisherman or Ben Willis stalks the group of friends who ran him over the previous summer. The actions of filling Julie's (Jennifer Love Hewitt) trunk with crabs, running over Barry (Ryan Phillippe) but not killing him, and cutting Helen's (Sarah Michelle Gellar) hair while she sleeps helps build the fear and shows the fisherman can kill them whenever he wants.

16.The Shining

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Jack Nicholson is such a great actor he makes this movie terrifying. As you see Jack Torrance's madness grow, the audience's fear grows. Nicholson's sadistic smile as he busts in the door and utters the famous phrase "Here's Johnny." The fear culminates much like Wendy Torrance's (Shelly Duvall). She realizes that her husband has been mad for sometime when she reads his novel repeating the phrase "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." Great filmmaking by Stanley Kubrick.

15. IT

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Stephen King's IT is terrifying because of IT's seemingly endless powers. Tim Curry does an excellent job of being frightening and charismatic as the dangerous Pennywise the Clown, a demented figment of the imagination. The scene where bully Belch is dragged through a sewer pipe is terrifying because you never see IT, you just see IT's dead lights. It had powers of possession and is one of the scariest Steven King adaptations.

14. Dead Silence

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Dead Silence slipped through the cracks of mainstream audiences, but was a great horror film from Saw director James Wan. Like Saw, Dead Silence delivers a killer twist ending that seems impossible to foresee. Ventriloquism is scary but the vengeful ghost spirit of ventriloquist is terrifying. Unlike many of the weaker horror movies like Rosemary's Baby and Carrie that take too long to get to the obvious conclusion, Dead Silence grabs you from the beginning and never lets go. A horrific ride from beginning to end a creepy film with a great twist.

13. The Exorcism of Emily Rose

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Jennifer Carpenter delivered one of the most convincingly frightening performances in horror history. It's amazing in a an era of C.G.I. and special effects how much of Carpenter's performance was actually real. It should be no surprise that the daughter of horror legend John Carpenter provide one of the best horror performances. The way she bent her body at some points made the possession ultra believable as the picture above shows. A terrifying tale of possession that deserves a good spot on the list.

12. The Sixth Sense

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I certainly appreciate movies with a great horrifying twist at the end. Few endings can beat Bruce Willis being dead at the end of the Sixth Sense. Young Haley Joel Osment received an oscar nomination for his portrayal of Cole Sear, the poor boy who keeps seeing ghosts coming to him for help. Osment could have easily won but this may have been one of the most competitive best supporting actors of all time. It's a shame M. Night Shyamalan has gotten progressively worse with each film since this masterpiece. The movie received a best picture nomination as well and deserved it after that great twist at the end.

11. Alien

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Ridley Scott's Alien is terrifying because it is perfectly done. The Alien bursting through Kane's (John Hurt) stomach is an iconic horror movie moment. Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) had the right idea initially to not let the alien attached to Kane's face on the ship. Another aspect of the Alien that is particularly terrifying is its acidic blood. That means killing it would just launch an acid spill that would burst a hole in the ship. Space like Antarctica is a remote location where no help is coming.

10. The Thing

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John Carpenter makes his second appearance on the list with his 1982 classic the Thing. A scientific outpost in Antarctica is perfect site for a horror movie because there is definitely no help the way. The Thing's ability to possess human beings make it a very scary antagonist because it forced the scientists to stop trusting each other. Seen as ultimate threat to mankind the scientist's eventually decide they need to make sure this Thing never leaves Antarctica at all costs. Never knowing who is infected makes movie terrifying

9.The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

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Another very creepy film Tobe Hooper's take on Ed Gein's murders is unsettling. Leatherface is scary looking and his clan of cannibals are enough to make many people shy away from the drive across the open spaces in Texas. This horror classic sets the precedent that these stories can happen anywhere in America because there are so many back woods roads that would make me frightened to take a true cross country trip off the main interstates. Leatherface's first appearance startles the audience as he emerges and kills the main hero quickly.

8. The Exorcist

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A truly creepy performance by Linda Blair made this possession tale terrifying. The Exorcist is just one of those movies you feel uneasy throughout the entire film. Another one of the true horror classics this one is truly terrifying as the father Merrin goes one on one with the devil in a battle for young Regan MacNeil's soul. The sight of Regan's head spinning all the way around just creeps out any normal audience. The Exorcist is scary and one of the genre's best.

7. A Nightmare on Elm Street

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We have all had nightmares that have disturbed us but in 1984 audiences found out what could happen if our dreams could kill us. Sleep always seemed like a safe haven but that was until Freddy Krueger was introduced. The charismatic boogeyman with spiked left hand is a truly sadistic killer who enjoys what he does maybe a little too much. Watching Glen Lantz (young Johnny Depp) getting sucked into his bed and then turned into a blood fountain lets the audience imagine what just happened. When Krueger (Robert Englund) kills Tina (Amanda Wyss) it is one of the craziest death scenes in horror history. As the camera angle alternates between what Tina is seeing Freddy do to her and what her boyfriend is seeing as his girlfriend is being turned into a bloody mess and dragged up the ceiling by some invisible force. Englund is great at performing the charismatic Freddy. There is a remake upcoming that will have someone else as Freddy, but A Nightmare on Elm Street without Robert Englund is like chocolate milk without the milk.

6. The Silence Of The Lambs

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Hannibal Lecter is a true mad genius. He is brilliant and demented while still charming and scary. As Clarice seeks his help with the Buffalo Bill case she keeps learning more about this mad man and he eventually helps her catch Buffalo Bill and how a brilliant killer can beat you with his mind not his machete. Buffalo Bill is a creepy character who is complete nut case. In the end Clarice (Jodie Foster) kills Buffalo Bill but essentially made a terrible trade. She ends Bill's reign of terror but Lecter escapes. The only horror movie ever to win an academy award and is another example of how great horror movies can be.

5. Halloween (1978)

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Halloween makes the list because like Psycho and Jaws the score enhances the fear experienced by the audience. The creepy music blares whenever Michael Myers is near. Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) helps add to the aura of fear surrounding Myers by describing how truly evil Myers is. Great acting by Jamie Lee Curtis and Pleasence as well great directing by John Carpenter make Halloween a horror classic. While Halloween is scary and a great example of film making, it launched many horror cliches that hurt the genre today. By making Myers invincible, takes away of the realism that makes the film frightening. This launched Jason's 80 returns. The final horrific image in Halloween is when Loomis looks down from the balcony, he just shot Myers off of and sees no body. This has lead to the stereotypical horror movie ending that leaves room for a sequel. It was effective in Halloween but now it has been run into the ground by every crappy horror movie that has done it since.

4. Scream

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Scream is great because makes an excellent slasher film while satirizing the entire horror genre. Scream acknowledges all of the classic horror stereotypes and then debunks them by letting the non-virgin heroine live, and plays off our logic that there can be only one killer. Jamie Kennedy is excellent comic relief as the horror movie geek, Randy. Excellent directing by Wes Craven who will always be a legend in the genre. The opening sequence is scary because you think that Drew Berrymore is a big star and is therefore safe, but that is not the case. Plus everyone has that one horror movie that scared them when they were a kid and for me that was Scream.

3. Jaws

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One major flaw with horror films today is that elite directors rarely direct them. Speilberg directed the best modern era monster horror movie in Jaws. The fact that you don't see the shark until half way through the film makes you imagine its size for the first hour. Then the first appearance of the shark is so subtle, yet scary because it was when it was you least expected to see it. Perfect framing allowed you to see Roy Scheider's, Chief Brody whining about chuming and the shark pop out of the water. Scheider's reaction is perfect as he bolts up in fear and retreats into the boat and tells Quint they need a bigger boat to take down this monster shark. Jaws sparked a fear of the ocean and unlike most horror movies it takes a real monster and only shows you its potential. The Ocean is so deep and we have explored so little of it, that it is not difficult to fathom a 25-foot great white shark is somewhere out there waiting to prey on helpless drunk skinny dippers.

2. Saw

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The original Saw is simply excellent due to the best surprise ending in horror movie history. I don't want to divulge the ending because the twist made this movie an elite thriller. In fact the first three films of the Saw series are the best trilogy in horror history. In recent years the surprise twist ending that separates the Saw films the rest of the garbage horror films released today have become weaker (See Saw V). Outside of the great ending the first film actually has a fantastic plot. The first Saw raises the question: What will you do to stay alive and save you family? In a twisted way it tries to teach its audience to be thankful for the good things in their life and not take them for granted. The Saw series is the saving grace in a period of weak horror films that go more for the gross out than a plot and a scare.

1. Psycho

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Psycho is the ultimate horror film. It defined the genre and took it to new heights. Unlike most modern horror films, it is perfectly filmed to not show too much gore, but still gives full effect of the murders. A creepily awkward killer who is not truly revealed until the end also make Psycho great. Every aspect of the story telling is sound. Norman Bates does not have super powers but some how finds a way to be scarier than Jason or Michael Myers can ever be. The shower scene is shot perfectly from inside the curtain looking at the door giving the audience full omniscience to the situation as our hearts pound as the killer walks slowly to the shower curtain and rips it open. The score is enough to make John Williams jealous and adds to the fear. The horror genre peaked early with Hitchcock's 1960 masterpiece.

18. Hostel

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Hostel is scary because it is not the furthest stretch to believe that something like this could actually. The horrific images in Hostel and are tough to forget once your done watching the movie and the torture scenes are tough to watch. So disgusting it becomes horrifying this movie teaches you to beware of places that seem like paradise. Oli, the Icelandic backpacker, is a hilarious character and it is simply amazing to believe that Eli Roth thought up these torture scenes

Sorority Row: Another Average Chapter in the history of slasher flicks

Grade: C-

The year was 2006 and a movie was released about a maniac killing sorority sisters. It was called Black Christmas and it was really lame. Now less than 3 years later Sorority Row was released with essentially the same plot and same lame scare tactics.

INow I will say Sorority Row was much better than Black Christmas. The added mystery of who the killer was made it worth watching until the end. I can't say the same for Black Christmas. I generally like horror movies with at least some degree of mystery as to who the is the killer. Jason coming back for the 90th time to kill people is just boring since we know who is doing the killing and that everyone will end up dead in the film except the main heroine and her boyfriend if he is lucky enough not to have gotten lucky with her.

However, Sorority Row tries to use the tired horror film cliche of the prank gone wrong that results in a wrongful death (or is this person actually dead). We have seen this formula thousands of times in horror movies including the movie Valentine and it has become so mundane by now that it is just a effortless way to set up a horror movie plot.

Sorority Row featured some mediocre acting performances especially by the two female leads, Cassidy, played by Briana Evigan, and Jessica, played by Leah Pipes.

Another flaw with Sorority Row is the ending. It is difficult to explain why the ending sucks without revealing it, but the entire ending did not make logical sense. The murderer's motive was illogical and it feels like the film went too hard for a surprise ending then a logical one.

The casting for this film was interesting. Carrie Fisher, famous for playing Princess Leia in the first three Star wars movies, has slipped from the ranks of the summer blockbuster to the low budget horror movie. A meteoric plummet that is really sad to see. Fisher plays the sorority house mom, Mrs. Crenshaw.

It is also interesting to see people I watched on the Disney channel as a kid in horror movies now. Margo Harshman, who played one of Shia Lebouf's friends on Even Stevens, plays Chugs, the promiscuous alcoholic sister. Another horror movie with former Disney Channel stars is the horrible See No Evil.

Overall this movie C- because it is the definition of an average horror movie. It features a generic plot, some inventive death scenes, an unsympathetic character who everyone hates but hangs out with for some reason ( Jessica in Sorority Row), a stupid final scene that is supposed to leave room for a sequel that nobody wants to see. The final scene in Sorority Row fits this last cliche perfectly and like every other horror movie that final scene that sets up the sequel defies all common sense and logic.

However, this C- is judging Sorority Row by horror movie standards. I find it impossible to judge movies by comparing them to movies in other genres. For example when comparing comedy movies to action films I find impossible to decide which one is better because the audience does not go to those movies for the same reason.