Apparently I opened a bit of a can of worms by starting my lists of movies. I had a request a couple of days ago for a list of my favorite horror films. This is a tough one to come up with. I love horror movies. I have written before about my love of horror. The problem is that horror movies can be so subjective. I already know that there are a couple of movies on my personal list of horror movies that other movie snobs will roll their eyes at.

Of course I think what prompted this was the proximity to Halloween. This is the time of the year when people love to snuggle up with a good scary movie. However, as I have said, what scares some people will just make someone else laugh. Plus, I have to admit, I still haven’t seen the one movie nearly all horror movie aficionados agree is the scariest. So, that being said let me be the first to confess that I have never seen “The Exorcist.” I can’t even explain why I haven’t seen this movie. I just know that I have not. So, this list has to have the caveat that it is my list of all-time scariest movies having not yet seen “The Exorcist.”

So, here’s my list of horror movies you should see. My guess is most of you horror fans have already seen them. These are in no particular order and, as always, I would love to know yours.

1. Nosferatu – yes this is a silent film. Yes that means you have to read title cards. Yes the music has that cheesy silent movie feel to it. However, this is the first vampire movie and it is the vampire movie every single vampire movie since has tried to live up to. Never has a vampire looked scarier. Never have shadows been used to greater effect. I saw this movie when I was young and it chilled me to the bone. The cheapness of the special effects give them an other-worldly feel to it that makes them even creepier.

2. Psycho – Ok, I know. This one makes everyone’s list. Well, in my opinion, there’s a reason for this. It’s a movie I did not like very much when I first saw it. I had been raised on slasher-films and the body count in this movie was so tame it didn’t do anything for me. However, as I have gotten older, for some reason, this movie has gotten creepier and scarier. So much of the horror is left up to your imagination, which is what I truly love. You really don’t see as much as you think you do during that famous shower scene. Tony Perkins was typecast for the rest of his career with this movie. This movie is chilling from beginning to end, filled with surprises and builds to a kind of terror crescendo few others have ever matched.

3. Alien – The sequel to this movie is also great, I will admit. However, James Cameron’s “Aliens” is a non-stop action movie. It’s this original that was so good this movie was at the top of my all-time favorite movie list for a long time. This was the first movie to feature the chest-bursting scene that has become so common place. I knew about that scene when I first saw this movie and it still shocked the hell out of me. This movie also builds slowly, building mood, building upon the claustrophobia. It is classically terrifying and a must-see.

4. The Thing – I have never liked the first one. This version, directed by John Carpenter, was so disgusting it made me queasy. I have totally fallen in love with this movie over the years. The grosser the scene the more I love it. This also is a movie that has a claustrophobic feel because I is about men trapped in Antarctica facing off against an alien that can look like anyone. The special effects were state-of-the-art and there isn’t a single computer-generated effect to be found. They did all of this with latex and tubing pumping jets of fake blood all over the place.

5. Halloween – Never been better than the original. Much of the brilliance of this movie has been lost due to the subsequent sequels and the seemingly hundreds of copycats. What is so great about this movie is how much you don’t see. Michael Myers is seen mostly as a shape in the bushes or in shadow. You should see this one again just to remember how some shadows, creepy music and a spray-painted William Shatner mask can lead to terror.

6. Suspiria – This is an Italian horror film. It makes no sense. Italians made movies by having people who speak different languages say their lines in their native tongues and then dubbing the voices over. This means the mouths and voices seldom match. The scenes, when thought about later, make no sense (wait, to have that knife pierce the heart the killer would have had to remove the sternum, right?). However, there are scenes in this movie filmed so well and with such bright colors they will stick in your mind long after the credits have rolled. I didn’t think this movie had had any effect on me at all when I saw it until I realized I was having dreams about it and turning on the lights in my house at night.

7. The Blair Witch Project – OK, I know everyone hates this one. This movie is a look directly into my fears. I hate camping. I hate darkness. I hate being away from civilization. What was shown up on that screen was most of my fears and in very tall images. Are the characters whiny? Yes. Do you think they deserve what they get? Yes. Did this movie work on me? Completely. I love movies that leave it all up to your imagination and this one did from beginning to end. It’s flawed, but damn, it still gives me the heebie-jeebies.

8. The Ring – Here’s another one a lot of horror fans will roll their eyes at. I know this, but this movie got its claws into me and would not let go. To me what is scary is not when the girl comes through the television at the end but the images. There is a scene where a spindly ladder leads up to a lighted loft in a barn that still gives me shivers. The images work as a whole in this movie and, again, what is left up to the mind. The video is creepy even though nothing particularly disturbing is seen. To me this movie would have been perfect if they never showed the girl coming through the TV screen.

9. Signs – This movie had me gripping the arms of the chair in the movie theater. Another movie that was great right up until the end. When the aliens are hands scurrying under doors and legs disappearing into cornfields this movie is great. Once it looks like a guy in a rubber suit the effect is lost. Still, the rubber suit only makes an appearance at the very end and up until then you have a roller coaster ride that will leave you breathless. A movie that is about aliens but also about faith and God and whether or not there is a purpose to things that happen to you in life this is a great movie. It’s great even with crazy Mel Gibson in the lead.

10. Dead Ringers – This movie is what I think a true psychological horror movie should be. There is gore, but mostly this movie is about the slow descent into madness of twin gynecologists played brilliantly by Jeremy Irons. This movie isn’t “boo” scary but oozes creepiness from the first frame. This movie chilled me the way few others have. I couldn’t believe what I was watching and couldn’t believe what had happened by the time it was over. This movie seeps into your subconscious and may make you wonder how much of a push you would need to descend into madness as well.

I hope you enjoyed my list. This was an agonizing one. There are so many movies in this genre I haven’t seen, so it is a list that may change in the very near future. I could create a whole different list of movies that just narrowly made this list.

Hopefully you found one you haven’t seen and may go out and rent it. Happy viewing and sweet dreams.

Bryan W. Alaspa’s new novel Dust is now available for sale at his website www.bryanalaspa.com and www.amazon.com.