The Halloween Three - Part III: The final reckoning. Cult Manchester’s Halloween film picks come to a grisly end.
Like all things connected to horror films, you’ve got to have at least a trilogy. So far, we’ve had Andy Murray on weird genre films and Brontë Schiltz on modern international horror… So, in the final part of our series of scary, seasonal suggestions, regular Cult Manchester contributor Paul Hanley gives us his favourite horror films that a lot of people don’t think are horror films at all (and why they are).
Am I an aficionado of horror films? Well, I do love a bit of Hammer… and Carry On Screaming is one of my favourite Carry On offerings ('Frying tonight!') - does that count?
When they’re done well - The Exorcist, say, or An American Werewolf in London - horror films, like any good art, can tell us lot about ourselves, even if it’s only that clowns scare the shit out of us. Personally, the horror films I find most engaging are ones which test the boundaries of the genre. So here, in ascending order, are five of the best 'are they/aren’t they' horror movies.
Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017).
Rightfully critically acclaimed upon release, Peele’s twisted fear-flick functions, to a greater or lesser degree, as a satire, a comedy and a mystery. But there are more than enough nods to horror to justify it making this list. True, its only real jump-scare shares some DNA with Bambi but jump scares are always the lowest form of horror anyway. In any case, white privilege and racism are far scarier than Ben Gardner's severed head any day, aren’t they?
The Sixth Sense (M. Night Shyamalan, 1999).
Yeah yeah, we know it’s got that twist (it wouldn’t be an M. Night Shyamalan movie without one). But speaking as someone who saw it for the first time with the pay-off as firmly about my person as my packet of Paynes Poppets, I can say it stands up perfectly well as a story - and looking for clues to the ending is actually rather good fun. But is it horror? Well, yes. Haley Joel Osment’s tangible dread creeps off the screen and down the back of your neck as unnoticeably as the fact that no one ever speaks to Dr. Crowe. And any film that puts you off going for a pee in the middle of the night counts as horror in my book. If you’re still not convinced, I'll show you where my dad keeps his gun.
Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979).
Well, it’s got a monster, some nice body horror and lots of tension, so we’re well on the way, aren’t we? Obviously, there are lots of science fiction elements, but Alien has a fundamental horror vibe that transcends its setting effortlessly. And the final showdown in the shuttle, with its protracted tension building and ‘we know something you don’t’ tone, proves that the Nostromo is as classically ‘horror’ as Nosferatu.
The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973).
The Wicker Man’s creepy, unsettling vibe is absolute proof that films set in the daylight can be as scary as those set at night. Those who argue that it’s actually a mystery or a police procedural (which includes the writer, Anthony Shaffer) are completely wrong - the last fifteen minutes represent some of the finest horror ever committed to celluloid. Like The Sixth Sense, it’s a marvellous film to watch again, once you know what’s going on, to pick out all the clues - Sergeant Howie is the beetle! Willow was testing him! - you never know, you might even end up siding with the villagers.
The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991).
Obviously one of the greatest films ever, if only for its superb soundtrack [ha, cheeky! – Ed.], The Silence of the Lambs meets the criteria of horror as much in its scenery as its plot – would Lecter’s cell really be as Gothic as it appears here? Personally, I’d have gone for wipe-clean surfaces rather than bare brick, for purely practical reasons if nothing else. Similarly, Buffalo Bill’s lair seems more like Castle Frankenstein than the home of an elderly seamstress. On top of that, Demme’s direction is so cloying that sometimes it feels like Lecter is looking into the viewer’s soul, rather than Clarice’s. But ultimately, it’s the fact that such people as Lecter and Bill could actually exist that makes the horror so deliciously disturbing. ‘I’m having an old friend for dinner’ is still a crap last line, though.
More information about Paul and his books here. Thanks to all the cults for their suggestions.
