9. But I Wanna Play With Jody! The Amityville Horror
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yr6VbT8QcU This is an effective horror moment that has the bad luck of being in a poor movie. The Amityville Horror, released in the wake of the bestselling book by Jay Anson and the its a true story! controversy, cleaned up at the box office, mostly because of said controversy. Unfortunately, the quality of the film doesnt live up to the quality of the grosses. Its a pedestrian horror movie that doesnt really scare. This scene is the one exception. This scene, like most great horror moments, plays on a universal fear, one that almost all of us have felt at one point. That fear being best summed up by the statement theres a monster in my closet! Is there any kid, anywhere in the world, that has never been frightened by the monster in the closet or under the bed? Ive never met that kid. The makers of this film knew that the fear of the closet is universal, and they brilliantly decided to play on that fear in this scene, which does not appear in the book. In the scene, a teenage babysitter (wearing a truly terrifying 70s-era retainer and some frumpy Little House on the Prairie-style clothes) enters a little girls room to get her ready for bed. The girl resists, saying that she wants to stay up a little longer to play with her imaginary friend, Jody. The babysitter shrugs off this insanity and enters the girls closet to get the girls pajamas, just as the little girls rocking chair begins to rock on its own. No sooner does the babysitter enter the closet than the door slams shut behind her. When the babysitter tries to open the door, she finds that shes locked in. Its the details that make this scene work, like the babysitters knuckles leaving bloody marks on the closet door and the babysitters steadily increasing hysteria. The moment that earns this scene its place on this list, though, is the one at the end, where the closet light goes out, plunging the screen into total darkness. The babysitter complements this darkness with a scream that sends chills down the viewers spine and leads to all kinds of creepy speculation about just what is happening to the babysitter in that closet. Incidentally, the director of this film, Stuart Rosenberg, also directed a film that this writer considers to be one of the best films of all time: Cool Hand Luke. Unfortunately, Rosenbergs talent doesnt shine through often in The Amityville Horror, but it certainly does in this scene.
Alan Howell
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Alan Howell is a native of Southern California. He loves movies of any and all kinds, Hollywood, indie, and everywhere in between. He loves pizza, sitcoms, rock and pop music, surfing, baseball, reading, and girls (not necessarily in that order).
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