Sam Raimi might have made the best Spider-Man movies, but he is better known for crafting jump scares and causing audiences to duck under their seats. He began his filmmaking career with the horror short Withing the Woods, before creating the highly successful Evil Dead franchise.
Since then, Raimi has told some of the scariest cinematic stories. From a loan officer getting cursed by an elderly woman in Drag Me to Hell to the eerie circumstances surrounding the disappearance of a socialite in The Gift, there has been no shortage of Raimi magic.
As someone who has created masterpieces, Raimi would be the right person to recommend a perfect horror movie. Thankfully, he has done so several times over the years. Thankfully, he isn’t biased towards a specific subgenre. The filmmakers taste ranges from zombie mayhem to serial killer chills. Even better is that Raimi never just name-drops the motion pictures he adores.
10 The Haunting (1963)
Based on Shirley Jackson’s 1959 best-selling novel The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting chronicles the experiences of anthropologist Dr. John Mackway (Richard Johnson) and a group of ghost hunters inside an alleged haunted house. As they attempt to prove that supernatural beings are real, each member is affected differently by what they witness. In the end, audiences are left wondering whether what they are seeing is real, or it’s just in the characters’ minds.
Claustrophobia and Neat Camera Angles
The Haunting excels by pushing the characters into tight spaces and keeping most of the action inside the house. This way, claustrophobic feelings keep surging throughout the 114-minute running time. The use of panning and tracking shots also makes the film scarier than many other horror flicks that came out in the ‘60s.
Speaking to MTV, Raimi saluted the director Robert Wise and specifically commended him for his unique filmmaking techniques. “I love his use of camera, how he never shows this ghost that’s haunting Hill House, how he just suggests it through angle and sound effects and suggestive shadows and visuals. It really allows the audience to paint their own picture of the creature that lurks there. And it’s so much more terrifying because of it.”
9 Frailty (2001)
Frailty takes audiences through the harsh realities of religious indoctrination. In it, widowed father Dad Meiks (Bill Paxton) claims to have had a revelation that informed him how demons are masquerading as humans.
To exterminate these demons, he sets himself on a serial killing spree across Texas, earning himself the nickname, `God’s Hand Killer.’ One of his sons adores him, so he becomes easily indoctrinated, while the other keeps doubting, yet he struggles to stop his father. 20 years, one of the sons goes to the police and confesses.
A Modern-Day Version of The Shining
Raimi was extremely awed by Frailty, describing it as “the most frightening horror picture I’ve seen since The Shining.” He also confessed that “It kept me on the edge of my seat, begging for mercy.” James Camero and Stephen King have praised the film too, but it’s Raimi who seems to truly understand its DNA.
The comparisons to the Stanley Kubrick film are accurate since both movies have killers who are convinced they are doing the right thing, yet they are deranged. Besides that, the axe is one of the preferred murder weapons for both Meiks and Jack Torrance.
Similarities aside, this is one of the better-scripted horror movies of recent times, given the way it draws inspiration from the bible and other religious dogma. The entire plot appears to be an inflated version of “The Binding of Isaac,” the Genesis 22 story about Isaac following God’s orders to kill his son, Isaac.
8 Psycho (1960)
Psycho
- Release Date
- June 22, 1960
- Cast
- Anthony Perkins , Vera Miles , John Gavin , Martin Balsam , John McIntire , Simon Oakland
Psycho revolves around Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), the proprietor of the fictional Bates Motel, who is secretly a serial killer. Audiences are first introduced to him when Phoenix real estate secretary Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) stops by the motel for a night. Crane is on the run, having stolen $40,000 from her boss so that she can clear her fiancé’s debts. Bates murders Crane, prompting an investigation that leads to an epic showdown at the motel.
Iconic Kill Scenes
A good horror movie needs unforgettable killing scenes, and Psycho has a few, notably the shower stabbing and the staircase murder. The former is especially more appreciated and has grown to be a cinema touchstone. This is mainly because it’s filmed from various unique angles, and the killer is never shown.
Speaking of the film to Rotten Tomatoes, Raimi said “I love that Hitchcock recognized the greatness of making the audience identify with the hero and then ending her life and introducing the real horror of the story, completely blowing our minds.”
He proceeded to point out more wonderful things, stating, “The whole grasp of the experience is quite terrifying: anything can happen, nothing is sacred, the hero can and does die. So nothing is off-limits. But his choice of shots, his composition, and the brilliant performances that he gets from all the actors are stunning.”
7 Get Out (2017)
Get Out
- Release Date
- February 24, 2017
- Runtime
- 103
Get Out begins with the 26-year-old black photographer, Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya), experiencing the usual nervousness as he is about to head to upstate New York to meet the parents of his white girlfriend, Rose Armitage (Allison). There, Rose’s parents keep making racist comments about black people, and Chris notes the strange behavior of the black servants, Georgina and Walter.
Soon, he discovers that Rose’s family engages in bizarre voodoo and scientific practices.
A Frightening Analysis of Racism
Jordan Peele won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. This is hardly surprising considering how bluntly the film dissects a sensitive topic. The film points out all the dangers of post-racial America, rubbishing the assumption that black people no longer face any form of discrimination. Most importantly, the social critiques are brilliantly fused with a plot that’s wild yet plausible, especially within its genre’s context.
Speaking to Den of Geek about the film, Raimi said, “It’s just brilliant and original. I love the social commentary. I love the brilliant performance of the lead actress, Allison Williams – she was great. Great directing and funny, too – I just thought that was beautifully done.”
6 Night of the Living Dead (1968)
George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead revolves around seven people trapped in a rural Pennsylvania farmhouse as they try to protect themselves against zombies that have emerged from a nearby cemetery. The core group learns that they aren’t the only victims. The menace is spreading across the country and that the zombie reanimations have been caused by the radiation from an exploding robotic spacecraft that had just returned from Planet Venus.
Revolutionizing Cinema
Night of the Living Dead is one of the few films that launched subgenres, as it created the template for modern zombie horror where the cause for reanimation is science rather than supernatural phenomena.
In addition to that, it popularized the ‘barricade strategy’ where the would-be victims try hard to keep zombies out rather than confront them head-on. Will they? Won’t they? Such are the questions that audiences ask themselves for lengthy spells of the proceedings, hence the levels of tension and dread remain constant.
Raimi confessed that he was still a little boy when he watched the film, and it left him traumatized. His sister snuck him into the theater, and he ended up regretting it.
“I really had never been so terrified in my life. I was screaming and shrieking, begging my sister to take me home, and she was trying to shut me up. I’d never experienced horror like that before. It felt so real, like a docu-horror. I had never seen a black-and-white movie in a movie theatre before; it looked like a documentary. There was nothing Hollywood about it – it was just unrelenting and complete madness and very upsetting for me.”
Still, the filmmaker presumably wouldn’t have been as good as he is if he never watched the Romero mastperience. “It left a tremendous impression on me as a filmmaker and I think that’s why The Evil Dead was so influenced by Night Of The Living Dead, because that’s really what a horror film was for me.”
5 Crawl (2019)
Crawl
- Release Date
- July 11, 2019
- Runtime
- 87
Crawl’s protagonist Haley Keller (Kaya Scodelario) is introduced as an expert swimmer from the University of Florida, so when she learns that a Category 5 hurricane is about to hit the state, she isn’t worried. Haley is forced to act when she learns that her estranged father is trapped in the family’s Coral Lake home. She heads there and finds him in the house’s crawl space, but getting out proves to be challenging because bloodthirsty alligators are now swimming around.
A Relatable Experience
Anyone can experience a hurricane tragedy or alligator attack, and Crawl gets bonus points for being relatable. The film also benefits from having a director who is very familiar with the genre. 99% of Alexandre Aja’s films are horror.
On top of that, he had made a successful marine-related film before (Piranha 3D). While horror fans will be wowed by the scares, random cineastes will appreciate how Aja draws plot elements from some classics. For example, Haley’s decision to look for her father against the advice of experts is inspired by a scene from Hitchcock’s The Birds.
Raimi was impressed by many things about the film, but he singled out its simplistic plot as its strongest element.
“I love the fact that it doesn’t take a science fiction premise to bring this to life,” he adds. “I don’t need a giant monster – I’ll take my radiation at the beach, and I’m happy to cook a hot dog with it, but I don’t want my monsters to be radioactive. I love the fact that these monsters just live in Florida and the circumstance of this screenplay brings them into a person’s home.”
4 Night of the Demon (1957)
In Night of the Demon, American professor John Holden (Dana Andrews) heads to London to attend a parapsychology conference only to learn that the British associate he was supposed to catch up with was killed in a bizarre accident. After doing some digging, he discovers that the dead man had been probing the activities of a cult led by the nefarious Dr. Julian Karswell (Niall MacGinnis). As a strong believer in science, Holden is initially skeptical of the cult rumors, but his subsequent experiences make him question everything he ever believed in.
Visually Stunning
The film is renowned for its well-balanced pacing, eerie black-and-white cinematography, and special effects that were quite advanced for a ‘50s movie. Generally, it’s a fun film for those interested in the discourse surrounding religion and science. Perhaps the director’s most misguided decision is showing the demon. Without it, the movie is solid in all other areas.
Raimi totally enjoyed Night of the Demon. He admitted that he ripped it off that he ripped it off to create one of his own gems.
“My brother Ivan (a scriptwriter) and I were affected by it so much that its influence can be seen directly in a movie we made called Drag Me To Hell, which really is based on Jacques Tourneur’s film. The whole idea of a curse that can be handed down to another, of an unstoppable thing from hell that’s coming to get you, is really terrifying. That was really the basis for our movie.”
3 High Tension/Switchblade Romance (2003)
High Tension (alternatively known as Switchblade Romance) sees French student, Alex (Maïwenn Le Besco), traveling to her family’s farmhouse to visit her parents and study for her exams. She brings along her best friend Marie (Cécile de France), and the two briefly enjoy their stay before a murderous truck driver shows up and begins slaughtering members of the family, one after the other. Alex and Marie thus work together to try and stop him.
Bloody Good
Like many of the greatest slasher movies, High Tension goes too far when it comes to violence, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Time Magazine even included it in its list of The Most Ridiculously Violent Films. Unfortunately, fans who enjoy gore will have to look for the original version, since the American version was trimmed to avoid an NC-17 rating.
Some of the shocking scenes include the killer decapitating Alex’s father using a bookcase and a gas station attendant (they are always unlucky in movies) getting an axe to the chest.
Raimi was impressed by the movie’s unpredictability and it’s general terrifying effect. He said, “I think it was as simple as the way I felt in the theatre – terrified and on the edge of my seat. I didn’t know what was going to come next – my expectations kept being thwarted.”
2 The Tenant (1976)
Based on Roland Topor’s similarly-titled novel, The Tenant (Le Locataire) follows the reserved Eastern European émigré Trelkovsky (Roman Polanski) rents, who decides to settle in Paris and rent an apartment in a spooky building. He learns the previous occupant (Egyptologist Simone Choule) attempted suicide, so he begins his investigations.
He eventually finds himself on the path of a mental breakdown due to the constant berating by his hostile neighbors, and the weird occurrences in the apartment block.
Kafkaesque Motifs and Xenophobia
The movie makes use of Kafkaesque motifs. Because of this approach, the lines between reality, and the paranormal, remain blurry. Whether the events are all in Trelkovsky’s mind. Additionally, the film exists as a tool for condemning xenophobia. Many of the protagonist’s neighbors mistreat him because he has a foreign name. Soon, things get out of hand.
Even though Rosemary’s Baby — the second installment in Polanski’s “Apartment Trilogy” — is the more popular film, Raimi prefers The Tentant. Interestingly, he enjoyed Polanski’s performance more than the themes. “I love his acting in it,” he told MTV, adding “You never really know if it’s happening in his mind or something is really cursed about that room he’s living in.”
1 Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Bride of Frankenstein is the first official sequel to the 1931 critically acclaimed film Frankenstein. Here, Dr. Frankenstein (Colin Clive) suffers a crisis of conscience as he is recovering from injuries sustained during a deadly mob attack. He vows to stop experimenting with dead bodies, only for his former mentor, Dr. Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger), to blackmail him and demand that he continues doing what he does best.
Of specific interest to Pretorious is the creation of a bride for the monster.
Love and Mayhem
Raimi named Bride of Frankenstein as one of his favorite films during a during a Total Film Q&A Q&A. He didn’t provide any further explanation for his pick, but he really didn’t have to, since there is a widespread positive consensus regarding the film’s quality. The sequel has appeared on many “greatest movies’ lists and continues to be seen as a yardstick in the genre.
A major way in which the movie shines brighter than the rest is by humanizing its monster. Many monster movies depict the creatures as mindless and malicious figures but, on this occasion, there is a hideous character capable of feeling love and pain.
