Halloween Week Movie Binge – Why We Love Scary Movies

Since this past weekend, when I am not at work or busy with other matters, I have been on a scary movie binge. I haven't done this in years, but this sort of happened in a default way. Someone at work suggested I watch the French film Eyes Without a Face. After watching that, I decided this year I would not let Halloween slip by without revisiting some of my favorite scary movies.

All of this movie watching has gotten me to thinking: Why do we love scary movies? I'll go into the movies I've watched first and get to that question later. I've also given each movie a Scare Score (from 1-10 with 10 being the scariest). 

Eyes Without a Face (1962)

This film has haunted me since I watched it last weekend. Director Georges Franju's descent into madness and horror is a deceptive film. At first it seems pretty straightforward that brilliant Doctor Genessier (a slimy Pierre Brasseur) wants to help his daughter Christiane (Edith Scob) whose face was disfigured in a car accident while he was driving, and she has to wear a mask on her face. However, his idea of plastic surgery is rather unique – he wants to give her a full face transplant. That means he requires a living donor to supply that face. He sends out his secretive laboratory assistant Louise (Alida Valli) to act as a more attractive version of Fritz (Dwight Frye from Frankenstein 1931) to kidnap beautiful young women with blue eyes. As the experiments continue to fail, the bodies pile up, and Genessier's young colleague at the hospital grows suspicious, things take an even darker turn. I don't want to ruin the rest for you because the ending is unforgettable.

Scare Score: 7

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead is a classic that I used to watch every Halloween season, but work and family pulled me away from that practice. Having not watched it in a few years, I feel it is still the grisly and bloody charnel I remembered it to be. The recently deceased are coming back to life because of a failed Venus probe that brought a mysterious radiation back to Earth. Barbara (Judith O'Dea) and her brother Johnny (a hilarious Russell Streiner) are visiting a local cemetery to put a wreath on their father's grave. Barbara is attacked by a ghoul, and Johnny dies as he tries to save her. Barbara runs to an old farmhouse where she encounters Ben (Duane Jones) and other survivors. They board up the place as the ghouls surround the house, which becomes like a covered pot on the stove when various personalities clash. Will they be able to survive together despite their differences?

Scare Score: 8

Dracula (1931)

This oldie but goodie stands the test of time. I haven't watched it in years, but seeing it again reminded me of it's true greatness, and it's even more scary in stark black and white and the slight hissing of the soundtrack. Director Tod Browning's masterpiece features the slick and deceptive Count Dracula (the magnificent Bela Lugosi) making lawyer Renfield (a deliriously amusing Dwight Frye) into his slave. They travel to London where Dracula lives in the rented Carfax Abbey. The Count insinuates himself into society and meets Lucy Weston (Frances Dade) and Mina Seward (Helen Chandler), both of whom he desires to take as his new brides. Dr. Van Helsing (a terrific Edward Van Sloan) discovers the situation when using a mirror as Dracula is speaking to everyone in a parlor. Can Van Helsing stop the count's evil plans before it's too late? I love this film, and Lugosi's vampire set the tone for all those who would come after him.

Scare Score: 9 

Horror of Dracula (1958) 

It was interesting watching this film after the original Dracula. Director Terence Fisher and writer Jimmy Sangster turn the tables on the storyline. With Renfield nowhere to be found, it is Jonathan Harker (John Van Eyssen) who visits Dracula in Transylvania to become his librarian. Harker is on a secret mission to destroy Dracula (the amazing Christopher Lee) at the behest of Dr. Van Helsing (the equally amazing Peter Cushing), though it is never fully explained. Dracula quickly discovers the plot and dispatches Harker and turns him into the undead. Dracula steals a picture of Harker's fiancé, and after Van Hesling kills Harker, Dracula sets out to take revenge on those near and dear to Van Helsing. The film works as an alternative to the traditional Dracula story, and Lee and Cushing are brilliant in opposition to one another. It is definitely worth your time to watch this one.

Scare Score: 8  

Frankenstein (1931)

I think that this stark black and white film is scary because of the lighting and the eerie atmosphere of the castle and the village in the Bavarian Alps. Director James Whale even makes a staircase leading up to the laboratory seem fraught with danger (and cobwebs). Brilliant scientist Henry Frankenstein (the outstanding Colin Clive) has a plan to create life from nothing but dead body parts. Aided by his sinister and deranged assistant Fritz (Dwight Frye back for more in the same year as Dracula), they gather body parts from graves to stitch together a new body. Fritz is sent to get a normal brain from the medical school, but he drops it and decides to take a brain that is marked as abnormal. The procedure is a success, but the Monster (Boris Karloff) with that brain cannot be taught to act as a normal person would, and the creature rebels and escapes. The Monster starts killing people, and the villagers with their torches and weapons seek him in the countryside with Henry at their side. Will they be able to stop this rampage that Henry created?

Scare Score: 8

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

With James Whale once again directing, Colin Clive is back as Henry Frankenstein who has recovered from his injuries sustained in the first film. He is trying to live a normal life and marry Elizabeth (Valerie Hobson replacing Mae Clark form the first film). The sinister Dr. Pretorius (the creepy Ernest Thesiger) has other plans. He discovers the revived Monster (Boris Karloff) in the graveyard, and they form a partnership. Pretorius wants Henry to build a woman as a mate for the Monster. Henry rejects the offer at first, but once the Monster kidnaps Elizabeth, Henry has no choice to proceed with the plan. Henry sends his assistant (Dwight Frye now playing Karl) to the morgue to get a heart (he obviously learned his lesson and secured the brain himself). But Pretorius directs Karl to get a live donor. I will never forget watching this as a kid for the first time and the blood curdling scream of the girl as Karl kills her. Things go well enough with the procedure, and Henry produces a mate for the Monster. Will they live happily ever after?

Scare Score: 9 

Halloween (1978)

John Carpenter's revival of the slasher genre (started by Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho) is the scariest of this batch because of where it takes place. It's not in some remote village in the Alps or the busy streets of Victorian London, but in a small town in America that seems like it would be the last place anything bad would happen. Young Michael Myers (Will Sandon) murders his sister Judith on Halloween in 1963. He is put away for 15 years, but on the night that Doctor Loomis (an intense Donald Pleasance) comes to take him away, he escapes the insane asylum. Inexplicably able to drive cars and find his old town without a map, older Michael (Tony Moran) is intent on returning home and getting revenge by killing his sister Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis in her first role). What is frightening about this film is how Michael stalks Laurie and others. Wearing the now iconic Shatner mask and wielding a knife,  he kills anyone connected to Laurie until he can get to her. This film spawned a franchise and many imitators, but Halloween remains as the standard for the genre and still the best scare fest.

Scare Score: 10

These are the movies I've binge watched since last weekend. Now, what about the question: Why do we love scary movies? Part of the answer is that we enjoy seeing someone else in a dangerous situation. We live vicariously through their desperate circumstances, and we basically take "a better you than me" attitude.

We also like scary movies because they are thrilling; they are sort of like the roller coaster ride of viewing experiences. There is an adrenaline rush to see other people getting in and out of trouble, and sadly even sometimes seeing them not make it. 

This feeling can be related to watching a Shakespearean tragedy. For hundreds of years audiences have enjoyed seeing plays like Hamlet, Macbeth, and Othello, where we witness someone of royalty or high importance riding high and then taking a terrible fall. It makes us feel like even those people who seemingly have it all can still stumble and fall.

So, Halloween night is fast approaching. After all the trick and treating is done, grab a bowl of popcorn and sit down and watch one of these movies  – or one of your choice – and enjoy being scared to death because it is a lot of fun. 

Happy Halloween!