The Shining: Filmed in 1980 and directed by Stanley Kubrick, “The Shining” is a terrifying thriller about a man, Jack Torrance, who is out of work. He decides to take a job as the caretaker of an isolated hotel during the heart of winter while every room is empty. He takes his wife and son with him, and they have a good time-- until Jack slowly starts going crazy due to “cabin fever.” His son, Danny, has a gift called “The Shining,” which allows him to have visions of the hotel’s gruesome past. The movie goes on to tell the story of a horrified mother and her “gifted” son, struggling for survival against a man ready to kill.
Disgusting Factor: 7
Relatable Factor: 0
Creepy Factor: 8
Nightmare on Elm Street: In the dreams of four teenage friends, a dead child-murderer named Freddy Krueger comes to life. The movie starts out when all four friends, including Nancy Thomson (whose father arrested Krueger), begin having the same dream about the same man. Krueger starts terrorizing each of them and eventually kills three. As Nancy watches each of her friends die brutally, she decides to catch Krueger, unraveling his long, dark history as a murderer and a victim.
Disgusting Factor: 9
Relatable Factor: 8
Creepy Factor: 4
Halloween: On October 31, 1963, Judith Meyers was stabbed to death by her six-year-old brother, Michael. He was then institutionalized for the next fifteen years until breaking out just days before Halloween, 1978. The story takes place in Haddonfield, Illinois, where Laurie, Lindsey and Annie are each home alone, two of them babysitting. Soon enough, Laurie begins to think it weird that none of her friends will answer their phones or the doors of their homes. Michael is back, as crazy as ever.
Disgusting Factor: 6
Relatable Factor: 7
Creepy Factor: 9
The Omen: A movie filmed in 1976, this selection shows the work of the antichrist, who has come to live with a family in England. A man named Robert Thorn, whose wife is about to have a newborn baby gets to the hospital only to find out it has been a still birth. The priest suggests adoption, so the couple adopts a little boy named Damien. After Damien’s fifth birthday party, his nanny hangs herself, and her last, chilling words are “This is all for you, Damien.” The local priest knows there is something off about Damien and eventually tells Robert that his son is the antichrist and he must kill him. Through a series of deaths and devastation, predictability and denial, the movie keeps you on the edge of your seat.
Disgusting Factor: 5
Relatable Factor: 4
Creepy Factor: 10
Cape Fear: The 1991 remake of this movie with Robert Deniro cannot even compare to the original, filmed in 1962. Eight years after small town lawyer Sam Bowden testified that Max Cady attacked a little girl, he is stalked by the former convict. Cady terrorizes Bowden’s family but makes it look like Bowden is framing him for everything he does. The Bowdens try to ignore it and half don’t believe Sam in his attempts to convince them that Cady is bad news. While they’re being stalked, the Bowdens deal with a fight for peace, stability and, most of all, life.
Disgusting Factor: 8
Relatable Factor: 5
Creepy Factor: 8.5.
Psycho: Marion Crane is a young secretary hopelessly in love with a man she can’t marry due to their lack of money. One day at work, she is ordered to put 40,000 dollars in the bank for a client. Instead, she takes the money and drives out to see her boyfriend. Along the way, she runs into a sudden rain storm and stops at a motel for the night. This unleashes a disturbing tale about a man who may have grown a little too close to his mother.
Disgusting Factor: 9
Relatable Factor: 3
Creepy Factor: 9
The Exorcist: Reagan Mcneil is a 12-year-old girl with a famous actress for a mother. When the mother, Chris, starts shooting a movie in Georgetown, Reagan starts exhibiting strange behavior, including seizures and bladder accidents. Meanwhile, a priest, Father Damien Karras starts hanging around Chris and stats suspecting that Reagan is possessed by the devil. The girl learns to kill (and succeeds greatly), while answering to the ultimate evil—all unbeknownst to her.
Disgusting Factor: 6
Relatable Factor: 8
Creepy Factor: 9
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (One): Sally, her brother (Franklin), her boyfriend (Jerry) and her best friend (Pam) and her boyfriend (Kirk) decide to travel to her old family homestead after checking up on her grandpa’s grave. Along the way, they pick up a very bizarre hitchhiker who cuts off his hand when the kids decline his dinner invitation. They continue their journey until they run out of gas, which leads them to a decrepit old house where, one by one, the friends start disappearing.
Disgusting Factor: 11
Relatable Factor: 6
Creepy Factor: 7
Rosemary’s Baby: Filmed in 1968, the movie centers around Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse, newlyweds adjusting to their new apartment (which has a bad reputation for housing witches and Satanists). After a friend of Rosemary’s dies, she and Guy become friends with the neighbors (the Castavets) of the friend who died. Guy likes their hospitality, but Rosemary feels there’s something weird about them. After she gets pregnant, she believes a lot of weird things are happening because everyone around her is studying witchcraft. After she has the baby and is told it died, she panics and thinks the Castavets have taken him as a sacrifice. However, the baby is very much alive. But it’s not Rosemary’s-- it’s the child of Satan.
Disgusting Factor: 5
Relatable Factor: 5
Creepy Factor: 9
Night of the Living Dead: Barbra and Johnny are siblings visiting their father’s grave when they encounter a small, white man who starts attacking the two of them, throwing Johnny against a grave stone. He hits his head painfully and dies. Barbra runs up to a deserted house, where she finds a corpse at the top of the stairs with a bite taken out of its flesh. There, she meets Ben, who helps her beat the “living dead.” She later finds out that the dead have been awoken by radiation coming from space. She, Ben, and a family they meet in the cellar of the house, fight for survival against the deadly creatures.
Disgusting Factor: 7
Relatable Factor: 4
Creepy Factor: 8
photo by G.Smith