Top 5
MOVIES
HORRORS
In anticipation of a haunting Halloween, movie fundi Spling finds the Horrors that will make you wish you never looked.
The Shining (1980)
The Shining is an iconic and epic
horror tour-de-force by Stanley
Kubrick, starring Jack Nicholson and
loosely based on Stephen King’s
fictional masterpiece. We’re immersed
in the haunted Overlook Hotel as a
struggling writer loses his mind and
his son’s “little friend” starts to glow
brighter.
At almost two-and-a-half hours, you can
easily feel trapped by the icy blizzard,
experiencing an alcoholic father’s
degeneration into an axe murderer as
the hotel’s darkest secrets seep through
the floor. Kubrick gets inside our heads,
affecting us with Indian motifs, nightmarish
visuals and a dizzyingly maniacal
performance from Jack Nicholson.
Scariest scene? Whenever the Grady twins appear.
Psycho (1960)
Alfred Hitchcock, the Master of Suspense, delivered
a game-changing horror masterpiece in Psycho,
starring Janet Leigh, Vera Miles and Anthony Perkins
as Norman Bates. After a Phoenix secretary steals
$40 000 and goes on the run, nothing can prepare
you for the slasher horror and psychological thriller
in waiting.
The black-and-white touchstone has aged well and
to Hitchcock’s credit, it doesn’t rely on much action
or blood to deliver chilling suspense and disturbing
drama. Psycho, Norman Bates and the Bates Motel
have become entrenched in pop culture and who
will forget that shrill soundtrack and nerve-shattering
shower scene?
Scariest scene? The feminine silhouette emerges from the shower curtain.
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October 2014 | TechSmart