The Information Store's Top 5 Spookfests!

Rather than frightening you all with one horror film this year, we thought we would give you FIVE of our spookiest films  to chill you to your bones.
 

Ghostface in Scream

5. SCREAM (1996)

So strictly speaking, Scream is more of the horror spoof genre than an actual horror, but it is still packed with enough jumps, blood and gore to warrant a spot in our list. Scream has one of horror’s greatest opening sequences as a young girl is harassed on the phone by the murderous ‘Ghostface’ who murders her boyfriend and mutilates her in her own back garden.  Word gets around the school and young Sydney, a student, is reminded of her awful past and her mother’s brutal murder. However, it becomes clear that Ghostface’s intentions are to bring about a swift end to Sydney’s life as her friends are gut wrenchingly murdered one by one, will she be able to uncover the person beneath the mask?
 

Starring Neve Campbell, David Arquette & Courtney Cox

Best line: “Movies don't create psychos. Movies make psychos more creative!” – Billy



The Headless Horseman in Sleepy Hollow

4. SLEEPY HOLLOW (1999)
A genuine horror film this time, as creepy as the name suggests and sure enough to raise the hairs on your spine at least once. Ichabod Crane, played by Johnny Depp, is sent to the small village of Sleepy Hollow to investigate three beheadings, the culprit of which is the legendary Headless Horseman who haunts the nearby forest.  With the body count rising as the Horseman continues to massacre the village inhabitants, time is running out for Crane, who fears he could be next. With romance, comedy, peril, danger, mystery, magic and horror it’s a Halloween classic!

 Starring Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci and Christopher Walken

 

Best line: “Villainy wears many masks, none of which so dangerous as virtue...” – Ichabod Crane

The Biker Gang of Vampires in The Lost Boys

3. THE LOST BOYS (1987)

Again, like Scream, we have wandered into Comedy/Horror territory with our third place film. However, The Lost Boys is the perfect mixture of genuinely scary and subtly funny. It’s a cult classic about a gang of vampires who terrorise a small town in California. A series of unexplained deaths and strange goings on lead two of the towns newest inhabitants, two brothers to investigate further. One befriends a pair of so-called ‘vampire hunters’ and the other joins a biker gang who sleep all day and party all night…will they manage to uncover the towns gory secret? As scary as it is funny and gruesome enough to turn your stomach, this is the perfect example of how a vampire movie should be.

Starring Corey Haim, Keifer Sutherland and Corey Feldman

Best line: “What, you don't like rice? Tell me Michael, how could a billion Chinese people be wrong?” - David

Stabbing its way into second place:

Norman Bates in Psycho

2. PSYCHO (1960)

Last year’s blog entry for Halloween was all about Alfred Hitchcock’s creepy, suspenseful and terrifying Psycho so I won’t go in to too much detail.  Norman Bates is the owner of the secluded Bates Motel which is visited by a woman on the run. The heavy rain forces her to pull in and she famously meets her end while showering in her room. The mystery unravels in pure Hitchcockian style as more people fall to the same fate, but who is wielding the dreaded knife? From ‘The Master of Suspense’ Psycho is a classic horror movie with a gasp-inducing final twist.

Starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins

Best line: “We all go a little mad sometimes” – Norman

Screaming into first place is:

A terrified Wendy in The Shining

1. THE SHINING (1980)
Based on Stephen Kings legendary novel of the same name, Stanley Kubrick took a classic text and turned it into something else, something more twisted, creepy and frightening than King could have predicted.  The Shining is a terrifying, psychological story of a family who offer to take care of The Overlook Hotel during the winter months when the road to it is closed off and the hotel is void of any guests. Jack and Wendy Torrance along with their strange son Danny travel up there for a peaceful, secluded winter in the mountains, but little do they know, the hotel has other ideas. Plagued with the terrifying memories, the hotel unleashes hell upon Jack and Danny who both receive strange visions and meet apparitions of it’s former inhabitants. The hotel takes a hold of Jack and he spirals into madness taking an unexpecting Wendy with him.  By far, my all-time favourite horror movie, it will stay with you for days.  What’s REDRUM backwards?

Starring Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall and Scatman Carruthers

Best line: “Redrum. Redrum. REDRUM!” – Danny Torrance
 

Further Reading the Information Store:

Come and see our HALLOWEEN display of books and DVD's. Its packed full of scary films, horror novels, books about ghosts, witches and hauntings! Plenty to scare you silly this Halloween!