Quit Your Day Job

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A Friday the 13th special top five list

June 13th, 2008

What else could the Friday five list be on a Friday the 13th? Obviously my top five horror movies, I will however point out that these aren’t the scariest movies. I don’t go into all that freaky deaky Ring and Grudge type of horror that the kids are all digging now days. Nor do I enjoy mutilation films like Saw and Hostel (in fairness to both I haven’t seen either but I don’t really have any intention on it, well maybe Saw if it’s on late one night).

No my favourite horror movies are all probably considered old school today and lame by current standards but I grew up on these ones and it is my list. You write your own list. Give me credit. Or money.

Quit Your Day Job Friday top five horror movies

Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors - there are reasons why I chose the second sequel, it brought Wes Craven back into the Elm St fold after the left of centre Elm St 2 and it was banned in Queensland, something I had trouble wrapping my head around when I first moved into the state. I still chuckle at the reasons why it was banned too, not because the main character slashes teenagers to their death in their sleep but because there is drug use??? Freddy was always my favourite character in the 80s/90s horror films. I wasn’t so keen on Freddy vs Jason but I found a lot of depth in those films, especially as a teenager who used to average a couple of hours of sleep per night at best. The characters avoiding sleep always appealed to me. The art direction of the films always impressed me.

Evil Dead 2 - Bruce Campbell is a living god. The evil got into his hand and he lopped it off and replaced it with a chainsaw, I mean dude!?! Groovy. It had plenty of gore, plenty of innovative sequences and a dead girlfriend who dances in the moonlight and loses her head.

The Creature from the Black Lagoon - I had to put a Universal monster in the list and Gill-man is my favourite of them so he gets the nod (the other Universal monsters are all awesome though). It was a very clever film for its time too, the underwater photography was brilliant, that suit must have been unpleasant under the water like that.

Friday the 13th VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan - Sigh. OK now just give me a chance here and I’ll try and explain, yes there are probably better instalments, no it isn’t Jason X, you’ve all made that very clear. But I have to have one of the franchise in here and I choose this one because Jason uppercuts a boxer and sends his head flying off into the distance. Classic. If I had to choose another I would say part three (the 3D one) it was nice standard edition.

Hellraiser - Clive Barker is an amazing writer, his Books of Blood are just mind numbingly great and so it comes to no surprise that I really enjoyed Hellraiser. Pinhead is a horror icon and the Hellraiser box has got to be one of the coolest props. The second film was banned in Queensland also (so was Near Dark) I’m not sure why but it may have been because of sexual content? I even enjoyed part three that starred a pre Star Trek Terry Farrell and had a Cenobite DJ that throws killer CDs.