Everett, Wash.
Published: Monday, October 6, 2008

Hey, wanna see something scary: Favorite horror movies

 I remember trauma: First, please visit the Scream Queen blog and list your favorite horror movies under this topic. I'll pick the top three, and we'll do a day on each on Scream Queen toward the end of the month.

The first movie that truly scared me is still my favorite. I saw "The Exorcist," when it finally trickled down to the drive-in, with my best friend and illegally gotten beer. I remain grateful to Cathy for getting the car door open before she followed little Regan's example and threw up.

"The Exorcist" has everything going for it and lived up to its hype -- and there was a heap of hype. I think the aspects that caused such an uproar in 1973 would make it just as controversial if it came out today.

Terror, horror and gross-out: You get the whole trinity.

Movies heavy on atmosphere are the ones that steal my heart. "The Shining," "Psycho (1960)," "Alien," Tod Browning's "Freaks," "The Blair Witch Project." (Yes, I said "The Blair Witch Project.")

Without that powerful atmosphere, "Psycho" is a movie about an Oedipal nut, "The Shining" is a Tim Allen fixer-upper gone wrong and "Alien" is just a pretty decent creature feature.

Otherwise, there are "The Birds," "Shaun of the Dead," "Aliens," "Jaws," "Ju-on: The Grudge," "Halloween" (1978), "Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte" and -- this is like eating M&Ms, I just can't stop.

I'm also tossing "Silence of the Lambs" and "Seven" into that mix; we'll spend a day on the "is it or isn't it a horror movie" debate later in the month.

C'mon over to Scream Queen on HeraldNet and list your favorites.



Discuss horror movies with Jacqueline "Scream Queen" McCartney during the month of October on her blog at www.heraldnet.com/screamqueen.
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