TOP TEN SCARY MOVIES

1. PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925) *
Universal Pictures

When Christine (played by Mary Philbin) pulled Erik's (played by Lon Chaney) mask off and his hideous face beneath was revealed, audiences (men and women) screamed and passed out. Some bolted from the theater! You wouldn't be frightened today, as nearly a century of innumerable magazines and photographs have been on display everywhere depicting "The Face". In the days of videotape, they even had a photo of him without the mask right on the box cover.

Such marketing - so very poor.

But the mask coming off proved to be a popular device for scaring folks. The same thing happened with . . . ^

(Lots of good Horror movies in the 1930s. Some true classics! But no scary movies in the 1930s and 40s.)

This was a remake of the Fay Wray movie, MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM. When audiences saw that movie however, they were expecting Fay Wray to scream, waited for it, and were amused when she did (it was her reputation from her role in KING KONG. Fay Wray was the first Scream Queen). The surprise of HOUSE OF WAX (Besides the fact that it was shot in 3D!!!) is that it was played for droll laughs right up until the time that Vincent Price grabs his victim. She beats against his face, causing his wax visage to break and fall away, revealing the grotesque features beneath. Suddenly all the fun is gone and things are getting damn scary and tense FOR REAL! IN 3D! (the movie was black and white for 3D but originally shot in color). Laughter followed by Fright was a staple of Vincent Price movies. This moment, a call back to PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, so terrified audiences that it has become a standard of horror movies. Vincent Price did it again with his THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES. It was repeated in BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES. Remember the face-falling-apart scene in David Cronenberg's remake of THE FLY?

As a side note, I also like the way Warner Bros. enticed you with the magic of 3D. On this poster at the top left, the bold yellow words read, "Beauty and Terror meet in your seat..."

There's no getting around it, even in today's audience savvy world, when you find someone who has never seen Alfred Hitchcock's classic, there is that moment with "Mother" that makes them leap out of their skin. A movie that, like nearly all horror movies, unnerves the audience with a suggestive "It could happen to YOU" undercurrent. Robert Bloch's first masterpiece in movies.

Read James Futch's brilliant personal account of the PSYCHO movies.

7. JAWS (1975)
Universal Pictures

Like THE EXORCIST, this movie so terrified audiences that there were people by the thousands (in letters to newspapers and on talk radio shows) who refused to get more than knee deep in the ocean ever again (it didn't help matters when shortly after these declarations, some people in Florida were attacked by sharks in knee deep water!). My father was a body surfing fiend until he saw this movie. He never swam in the ocean again. This Horror / Scary movie is a tribute to Steven Speilberg, who made this film at the very height of his hunger as a film maker. He has made many other good movies in his career, but none so breathtaking as JAWS.

This movie, in fact, was so damn scary and influential, that it spawned an entire industry of shark hunters - men fighting their fears by killing sharks. In various interviews, they had all seen Jaws and admitted that it had an effect on them (whether this was for real or just an excuse, who knows?). In the late 1970s and on throughout the 1980s, shark hunting became such an epidemic that the author of JAWS, Peter Benchley, went on record as saying that he was sorry he ever wrote the book. Peter spent the rest of his days volunteering, working, and supporting various shark preservation efforts world wide.

And as for those message board clowns who think that a Horror movie can't be scary unless it's rated "R"? JAWS was and still remains rated PG.