Beginner's Horror Guide: The Revenge

Beginner's Horror Guide:

The Revenge

Your partner had a lot of fun with the last round of movies, getting a solid fright out of them, and wants to watch more. Before you go diving into the deep end with them, you want to give them another round of easy shocks, and this list is here to help.

The Amityville Horror

Andrew Douglas, 2005

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Melissa George, Phillip Baker Hall, Rachel Nichols

Remakes are hit with the stigma of being inferior to their source, but one of the few to both live up to and outshine the original is the 2005 remake of the cult horror classic The Amityville Horror. Based on the reportedly true novel of the same name, the story follows a family moving into a home in Long Island where a family murder occurred and subsequently begin experiencing hauntings. Its story is fairly predictable and lacks character development, but there’s a truly unsettling and disturbing nature to the film that makes it an easier watch, and more chilling one than its source.

Devil

John Erick Dowdle, 2010

Cast: Chris Messina, Logan Marshall-Green, Jenny O'Hara, Bokeem Woodbine

M. Night Shyamalan is better known for throwing twists and turns in every one of his movies, and though he has touched on the horror genre before, his best effort was one in which his only contribution was the concept and producing. 2010’s Devil follows a group of strangers trapped on an elevator who slowly begin to learn that someone is not who they say they are but rather a malevolent force out to punish them for their actions. Combining a tense atmosphere with a few good scares and strong performances from its minor ensemble, the film overcomes a few questionable elements and remains a chilling and intense horror-thriller.

The Innkeepers

Ti West, 2011

Cast: Sara Paxton, Pat Healy, Kelly McGillis, Lena Dunham

Who doesn’t love a good old-fashioned ghost story? When crafting 2011’s The Innkeepers, writer/director Ti West might not reinvent the wheel of the genre, but he executes it with near precision. Following two amateur ghost hunters investigating the Yankee Pedlar Inn, at which they work, in its final days of operation, the film takes a chillingly slow and eerie approach to teasing both the characters and the audiences. From a slow-burning pace to some terrifying visuals and a few great jump scares, West brings back a classical ghost story in grand fashion, resulting in a compelling, fun and easy to digest horror film.

The Others

Alejandro Amenábar, 2001

Cast: Nicole Kidman, Fionnula Flanagan, Christopher Eccleston, Elaine Cassidy

While M. Night Shyamalan might’ve mastered a certain twist in The Sixth Sense, one thing that The Others did better and featuring a similar twist was creating an actually creepy and occasionally scary story. The film follows a mother and her two children living in their isolated mansion in the aftermath of World War II as they find themselves haunted by unknown paranormal events around their home. Combining a dramatic story with a powerful lead performance from Nicole Kidman and an eerie and chilling atmosphere, this is a laid-back psychological horror-thriller that will break your heart as much as it makes it race.

An American Werewolf in London

John Landis, 1981

Cast: David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Griffin Dunne, John Woodvine

Before Wes Craven’s Scream blended satire with horror and before Sam Raimi chose to infect his Evil Dead franchise with a comedic element, Animal House mastermind John Landis brought his natural talent for humor to the horror genre with the cult classic An American Werewolf in London. Following American tourist David in London as he fights off the coming transformation into a werewolf after attack that left his friend Jack dead, there’s plenty of horrifying images, namely the morphing into the titular creature, while still conjuring up some laughs through the disembodied spirit of Jack paying him nightly visits leading up to the dreaded full moon.

The Grudge

Takashi Shimizu, 2004

Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Bill Pullman, Jason Behr, KaDee Strickland

The early naughts saw American cinema overrun with the new trend of J-Horror remakes and though some were better, and more terrifying, than others one of the easier and fairly interesting options out there for prospective horror viewers is the American remake of The Grudge. Set around a house cursed by the spirits of the family murdered there, the film follows a young nurse as she tries to get to the bottom of the mystery. Featuring a moody atmosphere, some creepy imagery, an intriguing time-jumping narrative and strong performance from Sarah Michelle Gellar, this makes for a relatively low difficulty viewing.

Insidious: The Last Key

Adam Robitel, 2018

Cast: Lin Shaye, Angus Sampson, Leigh Whannell, Spencer Locke

You might be baffled at the notion that I would tell someone to watch a franchise out of order, namely the fourth installment in a multi-generation spanning series, but every Insidious film is an integral viewing in the horror-going experience, and The Last Key is certainly the easiest of them all. Following parapsychologist Elise Rainer as she returns to her childhood home to investigate the hauntings she experienced as a kid, the story might not be the most original nor compelling, aside from some threads setting up the original two films, but the visuals continue to be creepy, the jump scares mostly effective and Shaye shines once again in her most vulnerable performance yet.

Pyewacket

Adam MacDonald, 2017

Cast: Laurie Holden, Nicole Munoz, Chloe Rose, James McGowan

The indie horror genre may be filled with hundreds of duds that are neither especially terrifying nor original, but one of the more chilling entries that takes a seemingly basic story and uses it for an intriguing character study and rapidly more haunting story is the 2017 Canadian horror thriller Pyewacket. A typical tale of an angsty teenage girl exploring the dark arts in retaliation against her mother for moving her far from their longtime home, the film chooses to play with the mind of the audiences just as much as the lead character as rituals take a dark turn and events become harder to predict and even tougher to figure out.

House on Haunted Hill

William Malone, 1999

Cast: Taye Diggs, Geoffrey Rush, Ali Larter, Famke Janssen

Rest in peace, Dark Castle Entertainment, you will be sorely missed. Though not technically defunct yet, the Joel Silver-founded production label hasn’t produced a project in a few years, namely a hit, but one of the most fun and disturbing pieces they’ve ever produced was the 1999 remake of the 1959 classic House on Haunted Hill. Set in an abandoned insane asylum as six strangers try to survive the night to win $1 million each, there might not be a level of complexity to its characters or its storytelling, but thanks to some horrifying visual effects from Gregory Nicotero and Dick Smith and strong direction from William Malone, this a thrilling and chilling joy ride of an easy horror movie.

White Noise

Geoffrey Sax, 2005

Cast: Michael Keaton, Deborah Kara Unger, Mike Dopud, Ian McNeice

Alright, so it’s time to discuss another lackluster entry into the horror genre that still has enough chills for newcomers, and that is the 2005 supernatural thriller White Noise starring Michael Keaton. After the unexpected death of his wife, architect Jonathan Rivers begins looking into the realm of electronic voice phenomena (EVPs) to learn more about his wife’s death, only to open the doorway to malevolent entities. The story is a bit slapdash and jumps all over the place between generic thriller and intriguing paranormal horror, but there are some genuine scares and an undeniably unsettling atmosphere that make this a relatively intriguing watch.