The Rants of Anaximenes

With Halloween approaching, nearly all of the movie channels on cable are predictably showcasing their seasonal lineup of scary movies. Making the circuit, as one might expect, are the usual selections of the modern genre of horror films that have become the current standard bill of fare from Hollywood, like Saw (times five), Texas Chainsaw Massacre (times six), Nightmare on Elm Street (times seven), Halloween (times nine), Friday the Thirteenth (times twelve).

Do you see a pattern emerging here? No originality.

These are movies with the same basic theme: essentially innocent people being chased, pursued, hunted, followed, trailed, tracked, and/or captured, confined, restricted, restrained or detained by evil psychos, weirdos, wackos, nut-jobs and loons (that possibly possess some supernatural powers) who then get stabbed, slashed, sliced, cut, whacked, hacked, severed, incised, gashed, slit, ripped, lacerated - and in short, killed - in the most excruciatingly painful methods imaginable, all presented in the most graphically detailed and horrific ways. The formula rarely changes, so much so, that film makers are giving up on new characters and creative concepts in favor of just continuing the storyline of the first film with countless sequels. This theme has gotten so ridiculous that the antagonist from the movie Nightmare on Elm Street, Freddy Krueger, meets the antagonist from the movie Halloween, Jason Voorhees, for a showdown in the aptly if unimaginatively named Freddy versus Jason. And oh by the way, get ready to pick a number here too because, believe it or not, a sequel is on its way.

Horror has, unfortunately, become synonymous with gore. A scary movie today isn't about suspense and terror as much as it is about fear and revulsion. Truly scary movies, on the other hand, come from a position of anticipation and surprise, in the believability of the characters, and in the vulnerability of the afflicted. They also come with quality script writing, good directing and decent acting; not from special effects depicting the most creatively unique ways in which you can watch someone get eviscerated.

Consider the movie that really changed the genre of scary movies in 1960, arguably the first spark in the genesis of slasher-flicks, Psycho, directed by that master of suspense and horror, Alfred Hitchcock.

Hitchcock used Psycho to play the ultimate dirty trick on his audience. The first part of the movie was a complete red herring. He killed off his lead actress, Janet Leigh, halfway through the movie, and he did it with such unspeakable out-of-nowhere savagery that he seemed to be pulling the rug, the floor, and the earth right out from under the audience. He opened an abyss, exposing moviegoers to a dark side that few could ever have dared to imagine at the time. But he did so without one camera shot graphically showing the 8-inch knife blade penetrating an ounce of skin or severing a single limb. He photographed in black and white specifically to soften this pivotal, bloody scene. Even though by today's cinematographic standards the shower scene in Psycho is benign in terms of gore, it is powerful in its delivery, and no one who watches this movie for the first time is unaffected by the surprise and horror of the scene. This was true horror, without gore, even though Hitchcock was in fact recreating a very gory homicide.

The shower scene in Psycho is Number One on my list of the Top Twenty Scariest Movie Moments, and here below is my complete list. It is by no means a definitive list, but it is my list. Watch any of these movies and indeed these scenes, and you will understand the difference between horror borne of suspense, good storytelling and movie making, versus revulsion and fear based on gore and guts.

#20 - The Tingler

Year made: 1959

Notable cast: Vincent Price, Philip Coolidge, Judith Evelyn

Basic plot: You simply cannot have a list of scary movies without a 1950's B-List flick starring Vincent Price. In this case, a coroner and pathologist, Dr. Warren Chapin (Vincent Price), is researching causes and effects of human fear. He discovers that people have a large insect-like alien creature, called "the Tingler," living and growing on their spinal cords. Living off of fear itself, the creature attacks when people are frightened and it is only incapacitated when the host emits a primal scream.

Chapin meets Ollie Higgins (Philip Coolidge), who wishes to kill his deaf-mute wife, Martha (Judith Evelyn). Learning of the existence of the Tingler from Chapin, Higgins goes about devising a plan to kill Martha by staging a series of frightening chain events that culminate in her death. Since she cannot scream, her Tingler kills her. Chapin removes her Tingler in an autopsy. The Tingler eventually escapes into a crowded movie theater. The film was meant to be interactive at this point with the quintessential Price as Chapin yelling to the audience (both the film audience and the audience in the theater showing the film), "Ladies and Gentlemen: Please do not panic, but scream for your lives. The Tingler is loose in this theater. If you don't scream, it can kill you! Scream! Scream for your lives!"

The scariest scene: The staged events that Martha endures before she is literally scared to death culminate in her being confronted by a bathtub of blood. When a disembodied arm reaches up from under the blood and tries to grab her, Martha dies of fright. This was a black and white film, but the audience is given quite a jolt when the bathtub of blood appears in vivid crimson and the arm reaching out from under the surface is in living color.

A sphincter tightening moment: From behind a surgery curtain, and thus only seen in silhouette, Chapin pulls out the Tingler from the spine of the murdered Martha. Alive and writhing as it is lifted out of the lifeless corpse, it resembles a giant earwig, complete with tail pincers. At a half-inch long, earwigs freak me out, so seeing one that is three feet long is a tense moment.

What made the movie so scary? It's a laugh a minute to watch these days and although I was too young to have seen this movie when first released, I did see it sometime in the early 1960s at a movie theater. Color TV was barely in the market at this time, so watching movies in black and white was more the norm. To see a sudden flash of red in the bathtub of blood on the screen was shocking. One cannot help draw a corollary between this B-List movie and the classic Psycho. Both motion pictures had pivotal scenes in the bathroom. Hitchcock wanted to film in black and white specifically to soften the horror of blood on the screen. In The Tingler, director William Castle wanted to film in black and white specifically to present the contrast of a bathtub of blood in color.

Fun facts: Originally when the movie came out, Castle had certain theater seats in select cities rigged with small Army surplus devices that would deliver a vibration to the movie seats in hopes of inducing terrified screams. Castle also planted audience members who would scream and faint. The house lights would go up, the film would stop and ushers would carry the unconscious person out of the theater.

#19 - What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Year made: 1962

Notable cast: Joan Crawford, Bette Davis

Basic plot: A grotesque former Vaudeville child star, Baby Jane Hudson (Bette Davis), lives in virtual isolation with her sister Blanche (Joan Crawford), a movie queen forced into retirement after a crippling automobile accident leaves her paralyzed. During the downward spiral of Jane's progressive derangement, we learn that Blanche's accident was no accident after all. Jane was responsible for the incident that had disabled Blanche. She had intended to kill her sister to avenge herself for the years of humiliation she spent in the shadow of a more successful sister who became a beloved movie star. This is a story about the sin of covetousness personified in the extreme.

The scariest scene: Being held in virtual captivity and dependent on Jane for everything, Blanche is served her former pet bird for "din-din." Then, Blanche struggles to get downstairs to the phone before Jane gets home. Of course, she doesn't make it and Jane, furious, slaps and kicks her and drags her back to her room.

A sphincter tightening moment: In a defining and helpless moment, Blanche says, "You wouldn't be able to do these awful things to me if I weren't still in this chair" to which Blanche replies, "But 'cha are, Blanche! Ya are in that chair!" The reality of Blanche's hopelessness is overwhelming. As a side note, it is indeed a testament to her acting ability where one can actually feel sorry for Joan Crawford. Before this movie, I didn't think that was possible.

What made the movie so scary? Bette Davis is flawless in her depiction of a deranged sadist showing no mercy as she cruelly torments and literally starves Blanche almost to her death. A haggard and helpless Blanche is a believable character with whom the audience sympathizes, hoping for assistance of any kind. Any one of us could jump in and kick the crap out of Jane and that would be that. But the audience squirms in their chairs, scene after scene, with a vantage point as helpless as Blanche herself.

Fun facts: It is a well documented fact that Joan Crawford and Bette Davis had a lifelong hatred for one another. During the aforementioned kicking scene, Bette Davis kicked Joan Crawford in the head, and the resulting wound required stitches. In retaliation, Crawford put weights in her pockets so that when Davis had to drag Crawford's near-lifeless body, she strained her back.

#18 - Marathon Man

Year made: 1976

Notable cast: Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider

Basic plot: Dr. Christian Szell (Lawrence Olivier), a Nazi war criminal, loosely based on a real Nazi fugitive, Josef Mengele, comes out of his jungle hiding place and travels to New York City to retrieve his stashed-away fortune of diamonds when he becomes entangled with the brother, Thomas Levy (Dustin Hoffman), of a secret government agent, "Doc" Levy (Roy Scheider), who had been collaborating with the former Nazi for information to hunt down other Nazis in hiding. Szell kills Doc and then goes after Thomas, believing that either one or both of them intended to rob him of his diamonds. Thomas ultimately gets free of being held prisoner and tortured by Szell for information that he never really had. Thomas confronts Szell in the end but Szell dies at his own hand, falling on a six inch switch blade he had hidden up his sleeve.

The scariest scene: After kidnapping Thomas, Szell confronts him to ask, "Is it safe?" Levy has no idea why he is being asked this question and no matter his answer, he is not spared the terror and agony of Szell's interrogation technique as a trained dentist that would make water-boarding look like a neck rub.

A sphincter tightening moment: Szell: "Oh, don't worry. I'm not going into that cavity. That nerve's already dying. A live, freshly-cut nerve is infinitely more sensitive. So I'll just drill into a healthy tooth until I reach the pulp. That is unless, of course, you can tell me that it's safe."

What made it so scary? Who could argue with the horrific impact of a diabolical Laurence Olivier as the personification of Nazi evil ripping into the healthy tooth of what we know is an innocent man, caught up in a series of events being at the wrong place in the wrong time, through no fault of his own? Who didn't cringe when the sound of a high-speed drill ripped into the dentin of Hoffman with no hope that he could lessen his anguish by answering the esoteric, nonsensical question, "Is it safe?" This was classic suspense and horror, and no blood was ever shown; the gore was merely implied along with some damn fine acting. In fact, the torture scene was edited down and shortened by the director after several members of a preview audience were taken ill.

Fun fact: The title Marathon Man refers to the main character, Thomas Levy. It is only incidental to the story that he is a marathon runner, other than he is able to escape from his captors on foot after being captured and brutalized. Hoffman lost 15 pounds and ran up to four miles a day to get in shape for playing the part. He would not come into a scene and fake heavy breathing. According to producer Robert Evans, Hoffman "would run, just for a take. He would run for a half-mile so when he came into the scene, he'd actually be out of breath."

#17 - Play Misty For Me

Year made: 1971

Notable cast: Clint Eastwood, Jessica Walter, Donna Mills

Basic plot: Before there was Fatal Attraction, there was Play Misty For Me. In fact, Fatal Attraction was almost a plot-line-for-plot-line copy of Play Misty For Me, right down to the part where the antagonist slits her wrists in a manipulative sympathy play for the person with whom she is obsessed. Dave Garver (Clint Eastwood) is a hip, late-night disk jokey for a radio station where a female caller frequently requests him to play the famous Errol Garner jazz ballad, Misty. Evelyn Drapper (Jessica Walter), is picked up by Garver in a bar who later learns that she is the lady that has been calling the radio station, and just as quickly learns she is an obsessed fan with a bi-polar disorder switching from jealousy rage fits to maudlin tenderness.

The situation escalates in intensity as Dave attempts to revive an old love affair with Tobie Williams (Donna Mills). Dave tries to tell Evelyn the affair is over, and she reacts by sneaking into his house, tearing up his clothes and attacking his housekeeper. After the attack, the police take Evelyn into custody. Dave and Tobie reunite happily with Dave returning to his radio show and Tobie getting a new room mate, who turns out to be - Evelyn! In a knife-wielding ending, Dave is attacked and wounded by Evelyn before he punches her in the jaw, sending her through the balcony to the rocky ocean shore below.

The scariest scene: Dave is awakened in the middle of the night in his bedroom to the sounds of Misty being played. Evelyn, now a possessive, obsessive, murderous psychotic, appears above him with a butcher knife ready to stab him. He evades her, saving his life, but she escapes.

A sphincter tightening moment: Dave nearly has a national DJ deal signed in a meeting with an elderly female radio network producer in a restaurant when Evelyn crashes the lunch with insane jealousy. Evelyn says, "A little old for you, isn't she?" Then, she creates a public and humiliating scene in the middle of the dining room. As Dave is dragging her out of the restaurant, she screams: “She couldn’t get laid in a lumberyard!” When Dave returns to his table, the producer is gone and the deal is dead. I know this isn't an especially scary scene unless you've ever been in business and just missed signing "the big deal" by a fraction.

What made the movie so scary? Who hasn't been in some sort of possessive, manipulative relationship with a person you wished you had said "no" to from the beginning? Few of us have life altering or near death experiences with psychos like Evelyn, but some of us have come close. The fact that this model screenplay for a scary move is replicated in Fatal Attraction, and to some extent Basic Instinct, tells you that it strikes a common chord almost everyone can relate to.

Fun fact: This movie was made in-between Eastwood's spaghetti-western days after The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, but before his San Francisco cop days as Inspector Harry Callahan. When the movie Dirty Harry debuted later that year in 1971, the opening sequence shows a scene where Eastwood as Callahan walks in front of and past a theater marquee advertising the movie, Play Misty For Me.

#16 - Misery

Year made: 1990

Notable Cast: James Caan, Kathy Bates

Basic plot: I very nearly left this one off of my list because I never really thought this movie was all that original. If you take the dominion of a psycho over a helpless invalid (à la What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?), and combine it with the obsession of a psychotic female over an unsuspecting male (à la Play Misty For Me), Misery might be the plot you would come up with. But I did include it in my Twenty Scariest Movie Moments list and gave it slightly higher marks if only for its superb casting, outstanding acting and needless to say, its scariest scene.

Kathy Bates is totally believable as the antagonist in this movie, with flawless execution as the deranged nurse who inflicts much misery upon her non-ambulatory house guest. Misery is a double-entendre besides being the title for the movie. It is also the title character of a series of novels written by famous author Paul Sheldon (James Caan), who decides to end the character's life in a final novel, the just-completed manuscript of which he is delivering to his publisher. After a car accident on a remote mountain road, he is rescued by Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) who returns him to her isolated cabin. Paul is bed-ridden from his injuries sustained in the accident and quickly learns that Annie is off her rocker when she burns his manuscript and demands that he bring Misery back to life by writing another novel. Like Evelyn in Play Misty For Me, Annie's dichotomous personality goes from effusively sentimental to uncontrollably angry and violent. After numerous thwarted or failed attempts to escape or incapacitate Annie, Sheldon finally wins by killing her with an iron doorstop in the shape of a pig. I'm sure there is a metaphor in there somewhere.

The scariest scene: Annie quietly and matter-of-factly explains to Sheldon about the process of "hobbling," an old-world technique used by diamond minors to keep their slave workers from running away by crippling them. As she is calmly describing this to Sheldon, she places a four-by-four wooden block between his legs just above his ankles. As Sheldon begs Annie not to do what she is about to do, Annie uses a sledgehammer to break both his ankles; first the left one, to which she says "Almost over..." and then the other.

A sphincter tightening moment: As Sheldon screams in agony and then passes out from the pain, Annie says, "God, I love you." While there was no gore, we do see the impact of the sledgehammer turning one ankle at a 90-degree angle to the wooden block while hearing the unmistakable sound of bones crushing and breaking, not to mention Sheldon's blood-curdling screams. The director was kind enough not to show the sledgehammer impact on the second ankle.

What made the movie so scary? Not unlike What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, we sit as an audience, powerless to jump in and help Sheldon. We're right there with the poor bastard, wishing every inch of the way that he is able to overtake this bitch and take her down, and not just take her down, but pay her back for her unbelievable cruelty. In the end, Sheldon does that in a very gratifying way.

Fun facts: The main character role, Paul Sheldon, was offered to William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Michael Douglas, Harrison Ford, Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Richard Dreyfuss, Gene Hackman, Robert Redford, and Warren Beatty, all of whom declined. Before declining, Beatty commented that the hobbling scene made Paul Sheldon "a loser for the rest of the film." Beatty has never been right about a lot of things.

#15 - The Omen

Year made: 1976

Notable cast: Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, Harvey Stephens, Billie Whitelaw

Basic plot: Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) is a U.S. Ambassador, married to Katherine (Lee Remick), and they are having their first child. But Katherine's baby is stillborn, a fact that is concealed from her when Robert is approached by a priest in the hospital offering to replace his dead child with another newborn whose mother had died in childbirth that same morning. Thorn agrees to accept the changeling, a secret he keeps from his wife. The child is named Damien (Harvey Stephens).

Five years later, a lot of strange events start taking place, including Damien's nanny publicly hanging herself at his fifth birthday party. Damien's new nanny, Mrs. Blaylock (Billie Whitelaw) joins the Thorn family and we learn very quickly that she has a preordained relationship with the child, as if she had been sent to watch over and protect him. Thorn is confronted with several people possessing several facts that ultimately lead him to the conclusion that something is terribly wrong with Damien; that he is in fact not human and something far more sinister. Thorn's discovery of a birthmark on Damien's scalp in the shape of the number 666 removes any remaining doubt.

Mrs. Blaylock kills Katherine to protect Damien, and Thorn kills Mrs. Blacklock in order to take Damien to "sacred ground" where only by using the "Seven Daggers of Meggido" can Thorn put an end to the life of the Antichrist. Dragging Damien kicking and screaming to the alter of a nearby church, Thorn is set to plunge the first dagger when the police shoot and kill him, and the child's life is spared. It is at the end of the movie that we learn Thorne's brother is the President of the United States, who is holding Damien's hand at the funeral of Robert and Katherine Thorn. Thus, the prophesy of the Antichrist is coming to fruition.

The scariest scene: Katherine becomes pregnant again and Thorn is warned that Satan will not tolerate any competition for his son's birthright to the Thorn fortune, that the unborn child is in danger. As Katherine stands on a ladder in the second floor atrium hallway of their home, Damien "innocently" rides his tricycle through the house. There is malice on Damien’s face as he rounds the corners of the hall headed toward the attempt on his mother’s life that will be completely explainable as normal play-time. The evil and malice along with the powerlessness to prove that anything is amiss makes this scene suspenseful and terrifying. Damien's tricycle runs into the ladder, sending Katherine to the floor below. Although she survives the ordeal, she loses the baby, and the warning that Thorn had been given comes to pass.

A sphincter tightening moment: On his quest to learn the truth about Damien, Thorn returns to the hospital where his son was born and that leads him to the burial location of Damien's real mother. In a classic horror scene of an overgrown graveyard on a cloudy and foreboding night, Thorn learns the truth that the mother of Damien is a jackal, the devil's beast, and the skeletal remains of his real son reveal he did not die stillborn, but was murdered after birth. In something of a recurring theme throughout this movie, a pack of Rottweilers guarding the devil's secrets circles up to attack Thorn and his accomplice within the graveyard's wrought iron fence. The two barely escape, but not unscathed as the vicious animals rip and tear at them as they make their way back over the fence to safety.

What made the movie so scary? The "mark of the beast" and the number six-hundred-sixty-six are taken from a passage in the Book of Revelations portending the end of days and the rise and reign of the Antichrist.

"Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast; for it is the number of a man; and his number is 666." -Book of Revelation, Chapter 13 Verse 18

Not since Psycho has music played such an important part of the mood and cadence of a movie. An unbelievable musical score created by Jerry Goldsmith, and the title song, Ave Satani (Latin for "Hail Satan"), actually made the movie scarier than it otherwise might have been had Goldsmith not been involved in the project. Additionally, the casting of child actor Harvey Stephens was spot-on. This was a spooky-looking kid and his final sinister smile at the end of the movie was nothing short of bone chilling.

Fun fact: Harvey Stephens was actually blond. The director felt that dyeing his hair brunette would make him look more ominous and menacing. Boy, was he right.

#14 - Rosemary's Baby

Year made: 1968

Notable cast: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Ralph Belemy

Basic Plot: Before there was The Omen there was Rosemary's Baby in another tale of the arrival of the Antichrist on earth. Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse (Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes) are a young married couple who rent an apartment in a Gothic building in Manhattan called "The Bramford," despite it being rumored to have been occupied by Satanists and witches. These rumors included a rather unsavory character, Adrian Marcato, who created a scandal in the late nineteenth century by claiming to have conjured "The Living Devil."

Rosemary and Guy are befriended by a strange couple, Roman and Minnie Castevet (Sidney Blackmer and Ruth Gordon) who rent the apartment next door. Soon, Rosemary finds that Minnie and Roman are, increasingly and unsubtly, becoming surrogate parents for her and Guy, and she doesn't like it. Other troubling events occur, like Guy's sudden and inexplicable success as a playwright. Rosemary becomes pregnant and is introduced to Dr. Abraham Sapirstein (Ralph Bellamy) when things begin to go horribly wrong. He gives her strange herbs and potions to drink, and as a result, Rosemary is in pain, loses weight and looks sick and emaciated.

After learning that Roman Castevet is an anagram for the aforementioned Steven Marcato, Rosemary slowly comes to the realization that all of those around her, including her husband, are a part of a witches coven's plot to take her baby away from her, and to sacrifice it in one of their rituals. Only at the end does Rosemary learn that the plot was not to sacrifice the child, but that her baby was really the offspring of Satan, and that indeed, her nightmare was only beginning.

The scariest scene: After being drugged by Minnie, Rosemary has a dream sequence that becomes a nightmare. Two figures tie her to a bed and something that looks and feels inhuman brutally rapes her. "This is not a dream!" she cries, "This is really happening!" When she wakes up, Rosemary is sore and scratched. Guy halfheartedly apologizes for having had her while she was out, leading her to believe she had too much to drink the night before and passed out.

A sphincter tightening moment: After giving birth, Rosemary is told the baby died, but she believes instead that the baby was taken away after delivery by the witches coven. Stealing into Roman's and Minnie's apartment, Rosemary observes that all of the witches in the coven are assembled and all are tenants of The Bramford. Rosemary sees a black crib in the room and walks over to it, where she's horrified to see that the baby's eyes are not human. Rosemary screams and Roman tells her that "Satan is his father, not Guy" as cries of "hail Satan" fill the room. As the baby starts to cry, one of the assembled witches rocks the crib too quickly. Rosemary walks over and rocks it gently, as she slowly begins to accept the situation. She is the child's mother, after all.

What made the movie so scary? Guy sacrificed his wife for his career and allowed her to be brutally raped by the devil. What could be worse than realizing the person with whom you are married has such disregard for your life and well-being, and betrays your trust by participating in a conspiratorial plot to bring the Antichrist into the world?

Fun facts: (well maybe, not so fun) - This movie was directed by Roman Polanski, whose pregnant wife actress, Sharon Tate, was murdered in 1969 by Charles Manson and his followers, who titled their death spree "Helter Skelter" after the 1968 song by The Beatles. The Gothic apartment building in which the movie was filmed, named "The Bramford," was in reality the Dakota Building, where ex-Beatles member John Lennon would one day live and be murdered in 1980.

#13 - Frankenstein

Year made: 1931

Notable cast: Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Dwight Frye

Editorial comment: This true horror classic has been around so long, created, re-created and then parodied in so many ways, it has almost become a caricature of itself. Hell, there is even a kid's breakfast cereal based on the central character. We therefore sometimes don't think of it as being a truly frightening film. But a largely rural, unsophisticated movie-going public in 1931 didn't have ready access to audio-visual entertainment, and would scream and run out of the theaters at the sight of Mary Shelly's creation come to life on the silver screen.

The movie was so popular in the 1930's and early '40's that it was reincarnated (no pun intended) several more times with some big stars behind the credits, like Basil Rathbone in Son of Frankenstein, Elsa Lanchester and Bela Lagosi in Bride of Frankenstein, and John Carradine in House of Frankenstein. This was the face that catapulted Boris Karloff's career who appeared in all four films, although he returned to the screen in the fourth installment not as the Monster, but as the lead doctor antagonist. As is often the case in a movie franchise, the original flick is the best adaptation because it was done to bring something new to the screen. Everything thereafter is about a perpetuation of ringing the cash register.

The Frankenstein Monster has been recreated possibly more than any other motion picture icon. In fact, the very first adaptation of Frankenstein in 1910 was also the very first motion picture to ever be released. It has gone through numerous versions, iterations and re-makes since then, even as late as 1994 when the monster was played by Robert De Niro in what is perhaps the closest adaptation of Shelly's novel from where this gruesome and lonely tale first originated in 1818, Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus.

Basic plot: Convinced he can reanimate lifeless human tissue and cheat death, Dr. Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive), employs the services of his strange assistant, Fritz (Dwight Frye), to exhume a corpse from the village graveyard. When they realize the head and the brain of the body are severely damaged, they decide to steal a brain from Dr. Frankenstein's former teacher. Fritz finds two brains when he steals into the teacher's dissecting room. One of the brains is normal, labeled "Cerebrum - Normal Brain." He grabs its glass jar and begins to rush out, but inadvertently drops it when startled. In order not to disappoint Dr. Frankenstein, however, the dim-witted Fritz grabs the other glass jar labeled "Dysfunctio Cerebri - Abnormal Brain."

Back at Frankenstein's lab using electricity from a passing thunderstorm, the good doctor is successful in bringing the reassembled corpse to life. At that moment, one of the longest running, most popular scary characters in modern film was created. Although the Monster (Boris Karloff) is allegedly destroyed at the end of this film by vigilante villagers in a burning windmill, he returns again and again for many more sequels before we knew enough to call them sequels.

The scariest scene: The door slowly swings open, revealing a dark, lumpish silhouette in the doorway. The hulking figure lurches clumsily into the room with halting steps, gradually revealing a bulky head and broad back. The Monster awkwardly moves into the room by backing in and then slowly turns around, providing a shadowy profile in our first chilling close-up of his blankly expressionless, elongated face. A jagged surgical scar around the jaw appears. There is a prominent electrode that gleams into view on the side of the figure's neck. A series of camera jump cuts provide increasingly tighter close-ups of the hideous visage of the cadaverous creature. The monstrous face is placid and gaunt. The creature has a square-shaped cranium with a boxy forehead, hooded eyelids over deep-set, sunken eyes, electrical connectors on his neck, jagged surgical scars, a matted wig and a large surgical staple that binds his scalp and forehead together.

A sphincter tightening moment: Henry Frankenstein: "Look! It's moving. It's alive. It's alive....It's alive, it's moving, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive! Oh, in the name of God. Now, I know what it feels like to be God!"

What made the movie so scary? It was the first of its kind. The make-up was unbelievable. The story, classic. Think of seeing this in a theater in 1931 for the very first time.

Fun facts: After bringing the monster to life, Dr. Frankenstein uttered the famous line, "Now, I know what it's like to be God!" The movie was originally released with this line of dialogue, but when it was re-released in the late '30s, censors demanded the last three words be removed. I guess this says something about changing social mores of the time after a decade-long economic depression. A loud clap of thunder was substituted on the soundtrack and all subsequent releases of the film no longer contained the censored part of Henry's sentence that, quite frankly, was central to the theme of the entire story. Restoration has now completely brought back this line of missing dialog after a clean recording of the missing dialog was found on a Vitaphone disc. Modern audio technology was used to insert it back into the film without any detectable change in the audio quality, and the censored dialog has been returned to the soundtrack in DVD "restored version" releases.

#12 - The Birds

Year made: 1963

Notable cast: Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren; Jessica Tandy; Suzanne Pleshette; Veronica Cartwright

Basic plot: Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) meets Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) at a San Francisco pet store and as a flirtatious joke, decides to deliver a pair of love birds to the Brenner family home in the California coastal town of Bodega Bay. Melanie learns from the town school teacher, Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette), that Mitch has a young sister and tomorrow is her birthday. Melanie establishes a shaky, but kindred friendship with Annie who also had been Mitch's girlfriend once. Melanie decides to use Annie as her cover story for coming to Bodega Bay, and the girl's birthday as an excuse for delivering the birds.

While in the process of carrying out her plan in a rented boat, Melanie is attacked by a sea gull that swoops down and slashes her forehead for no apparent reason. Thereafter, Melanie meets Mitch's mother, Lydia and sister, Cathy (Jessica Tandy and Veronica Cartwright). Lydia gives a guarded and very cool reception while Cathy falls in love with Melanie for bringing her the love birds. A series of progressively aggressive and frenzied bird attacks occur, wreaking havoc on the town of Bodega Bay. A gas station is attacked, resulting in an explosion and fire; children are attacked as they leave the school house; Cathy's birthday party ends in chaos with yet another assault; Annie is killed in the aftermath of an attack where she saves Cathy, but at the cost of her own life. Hitchcock ratchets up the suspense and terror with each episode until Melanie, Mitch, Cathy and Lydia all drive off against a landscape that is filled with hundreds of thousands of birds.

Docile as the birds are when the car slowly rolls off into the distance, one can't help wondering when or where the next bird attack will occur, but Hitchcock surprises the audience by ending the movie there, and never answers the most important question, why? This wasn't answered in Hitchcock's movie any more than it was answered in the 1952 novelette by Daphne Du Maurier upon which the premise was based. By the way, Hitchcock's film and the original story share no characters and little resemblance, save for the bay-side town setting and the birds' inexplicable tendency to launch frenzied attacks.

Editorial comment: Ah, but unlike De Maurier, Hitchcock did answer the question, why? This becomes clear when you realize the birds and their attacks are a metaphor for the jealousy and rage of an over-protective mother in Lydia who will have nothing to do with another woman taking Mitch away from her. This is why Melanie is the first to be attacked, and why both Melanie and Annie are jointly and then separately assaulted. After Melanie's confrontation with the birds, she is left wounded and in a state of shock, while Annie dies a gruesome death. Even Mitch's sister is attacked as it is clear she and Mitch share a special bond that excludes Lydia, and because Cathy liked Melanie from the beginning.

Lydia is the only female character that isn't specifically attacked. She is, however, forced to confront her own inner rage and petty jealousy when she observes a nearby neighbor dead in the aftermath of a bird attack in a horrific scene where his eyes have been picked out of their sockets. This scene was one of the few times that Hitchcock resorted to real film-screen gore, and it is only after this scene that Lydia admits to Melanie that her biggest fear is Mitch abandoning her. Thousands of people really hate this movie because they believe it has no ending. They're wrong. It does. It ended quite nicely if you understand the subtle underpinning and symbolism of Hitchcock's story.

Scariest scene: Melanie waits for Annie to finish the school day so she can take Cathy back to the Brenner home. As she quietly sits on a park bench outside the school house, she hears the children singing a sad, roundelay-type sing-song tune with the reprise: "Ristle-te, rostle-te, now, now, now..." We watch her casually light up and smoke a cigarette, oblivious to a growing gaggle of ravens amassing on the playground jungle-gym behind her. In classic Hitchcock style, the audience is aware of the inevitable danger and pending disaster while the character on the screen goes about her mundane business, unobservant and unaware. Eventually, Melanie and Annie are aware of what now has become a huge horde of birds, and while quietly trying to usher the children to safety, the birds viciously attack.

A sphincter tightening moment: During the full-scale flock assault on the gas station, Melanie runs for cover to the safety of a phone booth. As birds bang on and smash into the glass of the booth all around her, one of the less fortunate members of the crowd suffering this attack blindly and wildly bangs on the glass, screaming in agony for help as many large birds covering him are biting and picking at his face and eyes with their sharp talons and beaks.

What made this movie so scary? Aside from being a unique tale based on a premise that seemingly could really happen, we're completely a part of the movie, not mere spectators. In every scene, we relate to the characters and immediately understand what it would be like if wildlife suddenly developed the intellect and organizational skills to wage war on mankind. There would be no defense, and we would be just as helpless as Melanie and Annie.

Fun fact: Melanie wears the same green suit throughout the movie, so Tippi Hedren was provided with six identical green suits for the shoot.

#11 - The Changeling

Year made: 1980

Notable cast: George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, Melvyn Douglas

Basic plot: John Russell (George C. Scott), is a distinguished composer who moves to Seattle following the tragic death of his wife and daughter. Living out of a hotel, he is offered by Claire Norman (Trish Van Devere) the chance to stay in an old mansion in the fictitious Chessman Park neighbor of Seattle, which is owned and maintained by the local historical society. John takes the offer, feeling that it would be the perfect place to compose a few more masterpieces. But it doesn't take long for him to realize that something is wrong. From the loud banging noise that fills the house every morning at six, to the faucets randomly turning themselves on, it clearly becomes obvious that something is living in the house with him. But is it trying to drive him away, or communicate and ask for help?

Through research and with the help of an extremely well-acted seance scene, John and Claire learn that the house is haunted by the ghost of a murdered boy, true heir to the Carmichael name, original owners of the house. His tragic history unfolds: because the boy was born a cripple, he had been relegated to secluded living quarters in the attic of the house and therefore had little contact with the outside world. In creating a cover story that he is taking his son to Europe to be "cured," the boy's father murders his helpless child, and a changeling takes his place who ultimately inherits the Carmichael fortune. He grows up to become a powerful U.S. Senator. Russell confronts the aging Sen. Joseph Carmichael (Melvyn Douglas) who must now face the reality of his life and the monster that his father really was.

The scariest scene: There is generally a solid build-up to the scares; there are very few, if any, jump scares. Instead, the movie creates that constant feeling of creepiness in setting a mood where the sight of a wheelchair or a rubber ball descending from a staircase can send chills up your spine. The scariest (and most heart wrenching) scene is in the historical recreation of the child's murder wherein his father grabs his son's paralyzed legs while the boy is in the bathtub, lifting them up out of the water and forcing the child's head under the surface. As he cruelly holds the boy under water until he drowns, the horrified boy bangs his fists on the side of the tub as he unsuccessfully struggles to stay alive. At that point, we learn the source of that loud banging noise that fills the house every morning at six.

A sphincter tightening moment: The opening scene in which John, making a call from a roadside phone booth, watches in horror as an eighteen-wheeler crashes head on into his parked car in which his wife and son are waiting. The impact of watching them die while John helplessly looks on sets the tone for the whole movie, even though there is no real connection to or resolution of the event relative to the rest of the story.

What makes this movie so scary? The creepy quality and somber tone of the storyline, as well as Scott's superb acting with a well-written plot that is hard to fathom or predict until you're slowly given the facts, make this one of the best haunted house movies of all time. The Shining can't even come close.

Fun fact: The movie is based on events which supposedly took place at a house in Denver, Colorado in the 1960s. The fictitious "Chessman Park" neighborhood in which the Seattle home is located in the movie is a reference to the real-life Cheesman Park in Denver, where the original haunting supposedly transpired.