Yet Even More of The Horror!

Hang on, folks; we’re almost there. Continuing my Halloween tribute with my list of top 13 horror movies that scared me, made me go “yeesh”, or ones that were just memorable to me in some way (even if the movie sucked):

6. 13 Ghosts (2001) – The critics (and apparently the general public) didn’t like this movie, but I did. Sure, it wasn’t a masterpiece, but I though it had some ideas that were really cool.

13 Ghosts was a remake of a 1960 film about ghosts inhabiting a haunted house which could only be seen through the use of special glasses. In the original film, people in the theater were given red & blue “Illusion-O” glasses that were supposed to enable them to see the ghosts on the movie screen. The glasses were even supposed to help you see ghosts outside of the theater! Zoinks!

In the remake, the special glasses are still integral to the story (although the audience sadly doesn’t get a pair). The new movie takes place in a house with constantly shifting glass walls designed to trap the ghosts inside. The walls where the ghosts can’t pass through are inscribed with a special writing. It’s a pretty clever update to the traditional spooky haunted house.

The 13 ghosts in the movie are all tortured souls with different names and characteristics: The Bound Woman, The Angry Princess, The Jackal, The Hammer, and so forth. On the extras sections of the DVD release, each ghost even has its own little mini-biography about how they came to be. For a comic book-geek like me, it’s a nice touch to give further definition to the characters in the movie.

This isn’t a scary movie, but it’s a fun one.


5. Audition (1999) – This is a Japanese movie directed by Takashi Miike, who apparently is the master of making disturbing films (I haven’t seen any of this other movies). Audition starts off as somewhat of a romantic drama, and then gets progressively weirder until the very last scene, which sneaks up from behind you and whacks you in the back of the head.

Audition is the story of a widowed TV producer who holds a fake audition to screen potential female companions. The one he selects is a meek, demure young woman with a mysterious past. Over the course of the film, the widower discovers more and more of her past, from her involvement with a gruesome murder to her troubled childhood. Both the viewer and the widower can see some potential trouble on the horizon, but it doesn’t prepare you for what’s to come.

Without giving too much away, the final sequence of the movie reveals his girlfriend’s true nature. It’s shocking, hard to watch, and may make some people blow chunks. Wow! What a movie.


4. The Ring (2002) / Ringu (1998) – I’m grouping these two movies together because while one is a remake of the other, both are particularly good.

Both movies have identical stories, about a female reporter investigating the deaths caused by watching a mysterious video tape. The story goes that if you watch this tape, you only have seven days to live before you die a horrible death. The reporter watches the tape, and then has to race against time to unravel the truth behind the curse before her fate is sealed.

It’s interesting how closely the US version mirrors the Japanese version. It kind of makes you wonder why they bothered to make another movie in the first place. Even better, they could have just brought Ringu into US theaters (and dubbed it into English for the vast majority who don’t like subtitles). However, it’s not surprising that the film was “Americanized”, since it’s been done before (like with Godzilla, where scenes with Raymond Burr were added in the US release).

The good news is that they didn’t do a bad job with the remake. I really liked the gray, bleak colors used throughout the film. The quick little subliminal snippets of the videotape were effective. Also, the US version did manage to add some additional scenes exploring the story behind the little girl that wasn’t in the original Japanese version.

Ultimately, the scariest parts come from the Japanese original, especially the little girl emerging from the well in the end. I prefer the Japanese version, which pretty much shows just the eye of the girl. The US movie showed more of a monster in a dress, which kind of cheapened it for me.

All in all, both movies are definitely worth watching, and both will make you wary of little girls with long black hair.


Next: The Big Finale! Eeeeeeee!