9. Let The Right One In
There is just something about children being put into circumstances that are supernatural or horrible that is haunting. Let the Right One In is a film that understands that perfectly and uses the relationship between Oskar and Eli to not only unnerve the viewer but also to examine the nature of companionship. The film works as a meditation on the nature of love while still being one of the best horror films ever made. The fact that Eli looks, sounds and acts just like a little girl becomes incredibly jarring later in the movie when she is shown letting her vampirism take control of her. Her relationship with Oskar is the main way that the narrative seduces the viewer into wanting them to be together because they appear to be two harmless children but underneath that there are sinister undertones of murder. All great horror movies focus on surreal situations becoming prevalent in real life and few of them do that better than Let the Right One In.
8. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
While The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of the most terrifying grindhouse movies ever made it is the background behind the movie that makes it so memorable. The fact that the making of the film was almost as bad on the real actors as their fictional counterparts is sickening to think about. It becomes even more disturbing while watching the movie because the audience is given scenes of brutal torture that feel a little too real because they were a little too real. Human pain and suffering for no apparent reason is one of the most horrific things that exists and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre represents this to a degree that makes some parts of it very difficult to watch. Tobe Hooper's documentary style camera work is the most important factor in making the film so scary because it has a seedy quality to the image that seems to suggest that it could be a true story even though it obviously isn't. The film franchise remains so engaging that Hollywood continues to pump out reboots and sequels, like this one...
7. The Exorcist
The scariest film ever made. The Exorcist has something to offend and terrify anyone watching it whether they are particularly religious or not. The fact that the story focuses on a little girl being possessed and made to do unspeakably wrong things to herself and others is the centerpiece of the film. Like I mentioned earlier, there is just something inherently creepy about children being put into terrible situations and William Friedkin understands this better than anyone. He gives the audience a normal, happy family without a father, which already begins to suggest that the typical family isn't so typical even before Regan is possessed. The scene where Regan has to get a brain scan is one moment of the film that is incredibly hard to watch because it looks and feels all too real, which is a jarring tonal shift in comparison to the supernatural moments during the exorcism. That is the real reason The Exorcist will stay with you. It blends together the horrors of everyday life and the more fantastic elements of the horror genre to brilliant effect.
6. A Clockwork Orange
Stanley Kubrick's films all have a slightly insidious tone to them but A Clockwork Orange is his most outright unnerving. While The Shining is certainly a film that will remain with you A Clockwork Orange is slightly more disturbing because of how it deals with a specific vision of humanity. The film has an unfamiliar feeling to its science fiction world but also a relateable tone about it that is enthralling even though it is appalling. The duality of man and human nature is a very heavy issue to deal with but Kubrick's film excels in a way that no other movie ever has. It is both a glorification of the absence of free will and a meditation on the nature of free will itself. It seems to be two different movies both with two opposing viewpoints on a subject that somehow come together to equal something that is the sum of their greater parts. The way it contradicts itself is something that is not easily forgotten at all.