My Top 35 Halloween Favorites: Demons & Devils

 In this final installment of of the Evil Dead series, it's time to go back in time and kick some Ash. The genre shambles its way from horror into fantasy adventure as the story shifts from the modern day setting of the isolated woods to the backdrop of the Arthurian landscape of the Middle Ages. And when you take a chainsaw back to medieval times, it's just as effective as a sword when it comes to slicing and dicing through the decaying flesh and skeletal limbs of a multitude of minions of moldered evil. It just does the job with a lot more noise. But it is a noise of pure manly and macabre satisfaction that tends to sound something like....
"GORRRRRRRRRE!"

As a self professed comicbook nerd, one would think that, naturally, I'd be a fan of fellow comicbook nerd, Kevin Smith. And as that sentence implicates, I'm not.
I enjoy watching and listening to his various convention and college speaking tours, but his movies, while not bad,
I don't think their humor and storylines are as solid as his stories that he likes to relay whenever he's in auditorium full of his fans.
Whenever I listen to one of his scripts, I tend to hear him talking more than I hear the characters conversing with each other.
Dogma is no exception to this,
the difference being that in this movie, I do enjoy listening to the points he brings about religion and the stigmas that result or tend to grow out it.
So, despite some stiff monolithically-centered writing, in the end, I still found it to be fun and pretty interesting on a biblical level.

This is a movie that, for me at least, could probably qualify more as a theological courtroom drama than a straight-up possession film.
Still, I recommend it for the scenes depicting the character of Emily Rose. Played by actress Jennifer Carpenter, she approached the part as though she were, well, y'know... "possessed" by the role. In scenes filled with demonic dementia that would've revealed the limitations of most any other actor, she snarled and screamed as though with every primordial atom in her being, while her body terrifyingly writhed and convulsed with the inner-struggles that usually result whenever a dispirited devil decides to take residence within one's soul. IMO, those scenes were enough to raise a goosebump or two onto the flesh of any typical horror-hardened scare-flick fan.

Crossroads is kinda like the movie version of the song The Devil Went Down To Georgia, except, instead of some kid named "Johnny", it's the kid from The Karate Kid. And instead of a duel of fiddle playin', it's a duel of hard guitar jamming. And instead of a golden fiddle, it's Steve Vai.
But the devil is still the devil.
And challenging the Prince Of Lies to any kind of musical stand-off always requires playing your instrument with enough "soul" to keep your soul.

  Obviously, this is much more a sword and sorcery type of fantasy tale than it is a demon flick,
but still,
when you look at how kick-ass the satanic visage of the personification of evil that Lord Darkness is,
ya gotta admit,
this has gotta be one of the coolest looks of "deviltry" ever captured on film.

And speaking of cool looking devils,
Hellboy is the super-hip cinematic adaptation of the kick-ass comic book creation of artist extraordinaire Mike Mignola.
A satannish sleuth with a more devil-may-care attitude who, visually and characteristically, could easily come off as the slacker son of the aforementioned Lord Darkness of the 1985 fantasy film Legend.

I once bought a oiuja board at a garage sale.
After I brought it home, I decided to try it out to since if it really worked, especially considering that I was never one to believe in the supernatural. I started out by asking "Are there any spirits there?" That thingamajig that slides across the board slid over the the "Yes" answer. Since I wasn't really expecting any kind of a response, I was taken somewhat aback, and asked it the first question that popped into my head. "Uhhh..." I mumbled "...just exactly how do you spell 'Ouija'?" (the board I purchased was homemade and therefore didn't have the word "Ouija" on it, like the ones that you can buy from Milton Bradley).
The "spirit" replied with the letters "W" "T" "F".
Guess beings from the other side aren't very good spellers.

What do you get when you mix alchemy and hermitry with demon summoning rituals?
You get a chemical reaction of a horror movie that covers the subject of demonolgy in a manner all it's own.
The Alchemist Cookbook is one of those rare films that, after watching it, will make you realize that just when you thought Hollywood had the genre covered from all angles, there will always be a filmmaker that will come from almost nowhere and tell you "No way, homie".
(BTW, that's a reference to something that's in the movie, for those of who haven't watched it).

A group of teenagers go off to an isolated cabin for the weekend, and soon come to discover that whenever a group of teenagers goes off to an isolated cabin in the forest, the end result is never good.
Particularly when the cabin contains a tome of demonology.
Hell, I coulda told them that.

  For the next several years following the surprise smash success 1999's Blair Witch Project, fear-filled filmmakers began cranking a slew of horror mockumentaries hoping to cash in as quickly as possible on this whole new found footage trend.  Noroi is just one of those that was spawned from that trend and as a result of the law of averages, it turned out to be one of the rare few that was actually pretty good.
  To be honest, the depiction of an ancient curse bought forth to modern times comes off as a bit more complicated than it needs to be in this story, with some of the side paths that the plot takes feeling like they didn't really need to be there.
  But by the time the end finally does arrive, what happens does add a bit of the freaky jump scare satisfaction that is usually expected in this kind of shaky-cam subcategory of the horror genre.
  By no means perfect, as someone who has grown restlessly tired of the formulaic bone chillers that the American movie market has been cranking out for the past decade or so, I'm just glad to see any movie that makes the effort to step out of the typical horror-themed same-ol' same-ol' and try to do something different.

Y'know, if a kid ends up with a babysitter who's built like a long legged super-model, and she's really "cool" and "gets" him, there could be a chance that he may have made a deal with the devil. Especially at an age when other kids have sorta outgrown the whole "being sat while the parents are away" thing.
In The Babysitter, it's the long legged babysitter who has made the deal. But, in typical scary cinematic fashion, it's the kid who's gotta pay the price. And after seeing that her long legs also come with a demonic cult who need to sacrifice young boys in order to satiate the appetites of their dark lord and master, that's usually the point where a kid comes to the conclusion that maybe he is old enough to look after himself whenever mommy and daddy are gone.

After the very "scary" success of the first two Conjuring films, this third chapter in the continual demonic cold case files of paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren, starts to reveal the weakness that comes from a franchise that is not only based on supposedly real life events, but more specifically, real life "supernatural" events.
Now obviously, we all know that moviemakers had to take quite a number liberties with the details in the stories of the demon defying duo in order to present them as entertaining scare-fare for mainstream audiences, especially since they were making a "hell" of alotta money at the box office. Still, to keep on trying to present one "real" case after another on the big screen, after a while it's going to require stretching the creative lisencing a bit, beyond what is believeable, even to those who "believe" in the paranormal activities of people like the Warrens. Therefore, while The Devil Made Me Do It doesn't "possess" the macabre momentum of the first two films, the producers did inject enough "pea soup" into it to finish it off as probably one of the better horror themed franchises that Hollywood as been able to copiously spit out into the faces of horror fans who like this kind of stuff.

Angel Heart is one of two movies that I probably am giving a spoiler away by just including on this list. So, y'know....
you are forewarned.



A pre-plastic surgery Mickey Rourke stars with a hirsute Lisa Bonet along with a "special guest appearance" by Robert Deniro in this unforgettable neo-noir mystery that contains a plot which takes the kind of unexpected turn that can best be described as darker than Hell. And when I say "darker than Hell", I mean that literally.
Gotta love those twist endings that aren't afraid to go all the way.
And when I say "go all the way", I mean that literally.
And when I say "literally", I mean that literally.

The concept of this movie is basically the opposite of love in an elevator.
Occupants going up find their souls going down.



Okay, I know that M. Night Shyamalan has developed quite the reputation for producing overly over-rated crapfest flicks, but I gotta be honest,
despite it's lukewarm reception, I thought Devil was pretty decent.
I mean, it still sort of came off more as a made-for-TV movie, but for me, it was a well-made made-for-TV movie.
Particularly when it comes to handling the often hard to handle subject matter of dark deities that are spawned from below ground-level.

The whole "hell hath no fury" phrase is turned up a hell up of a notch when the woman involved utilizes her demonic tendencies to right the wrongs of the female injustices of her village.



Bulbbul is easily one the best looking horror movies of the year. The color ridden backdrops, used as reflections of the emotions and intentions that drive this fabled-dyed folktale as it unfolds, give Bulbbul an element of fantasy that visually, strays strikingly away from the dark and contrasting minimilism that we usually see in demon themed cinema. But make no mistake... behind the eyepopping and beautifully detailed scenery, are the kind of machinations that fuel the fire and brimstone of the furies that flay in this type of fear-filled formula.
The script itself may, at times, settle into the obvious, but as a whole, Bulbbul is one "hades" of a ride seen through the liberal lens of an "eye for an eye" tinted visionary.

While I usually try to keep only films that were released in movie theaters on these lists 'o' mine, every once in a while I come across a piece of TV cinema that's so good, that for me, it's quality ranks up there with the best of theatrical releases.
Duel is a good example of this type of cinematic excellence. Not surprising, considering that it is Steven Spielberg's major film debut (well, at least from my memory it is). And with just the use a big ol' rusted semi-truck, a lone driving Dennis Weaver and a desolate desert road, the Spielmeister is able to demonstrate why he will eventually become a king of energetic, exciting blockbuster-fare.



And yeah, even though it wasn't specified, I view the killer truck in this flick as a demon-possessed semi. Kinda like Christine, but bigger, rustier & with eighteen wheels.

  One of the most popular jobs that many young girls start with when they are first getting into the workforce is babysitting. Which I always found as quite an odd way to start considering what a pretty big responsibility comes with watching over someone else's child. Not only that, but it also seems like it can be a situation that can be set up for some pretty scary scenarios.  And obviously, these are scenarios that horror movies have exploited to their benefit since back when the first Halloween movie first came out.  And TBH, only a very few of them were made at the quality level of a Halloween. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe that's a good idea for another Halloween (the holiday, not the Carpenter film) themed list that I can put together, my top favorite babysitter themed horror movies. Which, of course, would include this one, the aptly named Babysitter Wanted, since it is one of those rare few that stands above what we usually see in these types of stories.



 Angie Albright is a decent, upstanding, God-fearing young woman who is ready to break out into her own. And in order to kickstart her road to financial independence, she decides to answer an ad for a babysitter job. After the parents of the child that she is sitting go off into their planned " date night", she comes to discover that the household isn't as God fearing as she is. But every family has its secret demons. And sometimes, what can make those demons so secret, is that they need sitting.

Just when you thought the Evil Dead were dead, this second installment of the series shows that one of the main reasons they're so evil is because they have a nasty habit of not staying dead.



After the surprise success of the first flick, Bruce Campbell revisits the role as the teenage kid who comes back to the cabin in the woods and settle a score. But this time, he taking names and kicking Ash.

AfAfter Blair Witch Project changed the playing field when it came to horror movies, the found footage genre seemed to experience quite a backlash. Personally, I think a lot had to do with the fact that this type of movie making took the concept of "less is more" to it's farthest level. And after the tidal wave of schlocky movies that continually rolled out of the late 70's, 80s and 90s, some fans didn't want anything to compete against their favorite formula, a formula that wasn't afraid to show the guts and all when it came to visual centered fear. But for me, I was happy to see the genre explore the kind of scary tactics that tired to show you that, maybe, just maybe, this could happen in real life. Which I think comes off much more scarier than seeing a burnt-scarred smart-alecky dream-weaver in a striped shirt and razor-bladed glove.
And while the found footage feature may not have succeeded in every venture, The Taking of Deborah Logan is one of the instances where it does.

  Earlier, in my entry for Angel Heart, I warned that there are two movies whose inclusions on this list might hint towards a spoiler.
  Well, I'm sure most of you reading this are smart enough to have figured out that I wouldn't start the entry of this flick by stating that unless [REC] 2 was the second of those movies.



   Even though the sharper ones of any of you guys reading this have most likely figured out what the spoiler is, I'm still not going to bring it up, just for those readers who aren't all that up to speed with what's going on here. But what I will say is that, for me, the first [REC] was a wee bit of a gamechangers in that it really helped to revitalize the zombie genre, which up to that point in time (which was the year 2007), was a genre that seem to have one foot in the grave (which for a horror subgenre may seem like a good thing, but I mean it more in terms of the general sense, which in this case, makes it a bad thing). After decades of shambling through schlock, zombies were scary again, thanks to franchises like this one and the 28 Days Later one. 
  Now [REC] 2 had its heart in the right place with the addition that it placed in this chapter in order to try to sustain the level of quivering quality that was established in R1, but the truth is, there was nothing really that could've have been added in the follow-up that would have been able to match the level of scare that it managed to scrounge up just by its initial shock value. That doesn't make 2 a bad movie, as a matter of fact it's a really good movie. It's just that it never really stood a chance of being as good let alone exceeding the expectations that were a result of its successor. 
  But it is the "A for effort" quality of this second installment into the franchise that makes this a qualifier for a spot on this list and its particular theme of thriller-chiller.

Ah, I have a real soft spot in my heart for horror movies that were made for the TV back during the seventies.
But because of the countless batch that were spawned during this decade, most were crafted from writers who seemed to have gotten their "writer's license" right out of the seventh grade,
only three are worthy enough to include my lists of favorite fright flicks.
The first one, Salem's Lot is vampire mini-series, which I'll include on my list of bloodsucker bad guys. The other two are Trilogy Of Terror, listed earlier here, and, of course this one, Dead of Night.
And just like ToT, it's because of the third tale in the trio that scared me outta my superhero-themed underoos as a kid. It was a short story called "Bobby", and it involved a distraught mother who recently lost her son and eventually resorts to supernatural means in order to bring him "back".
And I'm sure that anyone reading with even the most rudimentary of mathematical skillz can put two and two together to realize where this is going to go wrong.
And while, the idea was simple enough,
the execution of the story led to an ending that, just like the other early movies on this list, contributed to the trauma that I probably still suffer from today.
I mean, after reading some of the description boxes on my movies lists, I'm sure some of you must have noticed that I ain't right in the head.

  As I explained in my entry for the 2013 version of the Evil Dead, in a franchise that was made up of mostly hardcore dedicated fans, I myself have always been more of a middling admirer of the series, at best. In that entry I also stated why I was located more in the grey zone of Deadite fandom, so to go into any detail about it here would be rather redundant. Especially since it would require me also reiterating my over-all distaste for over-the-top schlock which has come to possess so much of both the demon and zombie genres. I will add however that I am not surprised to see that kind of gloppy gore so abundant in the original EDs considering that this was the first franchise to meld the demon and zombies into one unique standalone mythical beast, a carrion combo that allows such a creature to shamble apart from the rest. 



 Now Evil Dead Rise may be my favorite one out of the franchise, but truthfully speaking, I highly doubt it'll qualify for any awards anytime soon. But the attempt at writing within the means of the premise is there and it does manage to sacrifice very little brain cells in the telling of how the dead of evil have returned to start their satanic shenanigans all over again.  Armed with a serious application towards such a campy concept, the end result is a different kind of fun energy that along  with the high quality production value that comes with the modern cinema making process of today, not to mention a cast who treat their roles as serious acting jobs, Evil Dead Rise is a seriously entertaining reboot of a "dead" franchise that is once again, is on the rise.

  'Ey look, we all have our own personal demons, okay?

  Some are the result of genetics, other are the result of being passed down from our fathers. In this movie, it's a case of being both. And it's also the result of a third cause, demons in the literal sense. Which makes sense, or why else would this movie be on this list?
 In Frailty, the late great Bill Paxton plays "Dad" Meiks, a single parent who believes in God and tries to instill that into his two boys, Fenton and Adam. By day, he works as a mechanic to support his family, but by night, he works as a devil-slayer to support his faith. Dad reveals to his sons that he's been "touched by God" and as a result, he can now see past the disguise of these so-called "demons" who walk the Earth in human form. He then enlists Fenton and Adam into helping him to carry out his mission of wiping out these evil beings, an act which causes the eldest boy, Fenton, to question the frailty of his father's sanity.
  Frailty is one of the few motion pictures in Paxton's lengthy filmography in which he receives top billing and unfortunately, it's one that fell under the radar of mainstream movie-goers at the time. Which is too bad since it's an exceptionally good movie that was a directed by Bill himself and therefore acts as an excellent "demon"stration of Bill's abilities behind the camera.
  The framing sequence is rounded out by a cast that includes Matthew McConaughy and Powers Booth, two interesting and distinctive actors who always bring an exciting presence to many of the productions that they are featured in. The story itself comes off much sharper and more in-depth than one would expect considering the premise and how often this kind of subject matter was handled by Hollywood up to this point. In the end, Frailty is one of those underrated unknowns that not only proves that the only thing better than a high-quality serial killer flick is a high-quality serial killer flick with a twist ending, but also, has garnered the type of following that doesn't get any more "cult" than those groups whose members like to worship devils and drink cyanide flavored Kool-Aid.

In the first Omen, we are introduced to a little boy named Damien, who just so happens to be the hellspawn of none other than the Devil himself.
Yep, he's the Anti-Christ. But in the first film, we hardly got to know "Lucifer Jr." as the story & action centered more on the "paternal father" and how he deals with the fact that the boy who he thought was his son was in reality, "the Beast marked with the 666".
So in this follow-up, we now get to see what Damien the person is really like as he struggles thru the growing pains of anti-christlike adolescence. And just like any boy approaching manhood (or half-manhood, half goat-hood), he soon finds that even a pathway towards a demonic destiny is bound to be paved with a few blemishes and pimples along the way.

Oh, hey look, what a surprise, a horror movie that "startled" everyone at just how much money it made at the box office has been followed up by a sequel and then quickly has been made into a franchise which includes a buncha spin-offs. The Annabelle flicks (based on a "devil doll" that was introduced in the first chapter of the Conjuring) were the first to come cranking outta this new macabre multi-movie-making machine , which then spawned off two other flicks, The Nun and La Llorona. While the production value of all these projects are in the top class category, for me, the first two installments of the Conjuring are the only ones worth putting on any "best of horror" lists, so far.

Because The Exorcist is my favorite horror film of all time, I'm much more "persnickety" when it comes to demons/possession flix. We live in a point in time when seeing people onscreen with white-out irises and heavily dark mascara around the eyes doesn't have the same black magic it did back in the 60s and 70s. Therefore, Veronica, which, like The Exorcist, is about an innocent young girl's struggle with a nasty darklord of the unseen variety, decides to embark in it's own direction of telling this type of story, relying more on the the girl's desperate sojourn into amateur exorcism to keep viewers on the edge of their seats rather than on the usual standard of overwrought pasty makeup and anatomical abuse of a biblical nature.

  In this latest comedy directed by Evan Goldberg (he's done a bunch), The End is not only nigh, but also, it is here. In Hollywood, some of its biggest names (well, biggest when it comes to the circle of friends who tend to hang around Seth Rogen & Co.), are not excluded from all the apocalyptic mayhem just because they're better than the rest of us.
And just as the Book Of revelations said that there would be demons walking the earth, in this depiction of The End of Days, there are. And to be honest, despite the comedic slant of Ragnarok, the makers of this movie did a serious job of making Lucifer and his legions look pretty damn cool.



Not since Ghostbusters has a film been able to merge so many out-loud laughs with so many Luciferic-like legions

One day, during the nationwide lockdown of 2020, as the world was caught in the grip of the CoVid 19, I decided to peruse through the internet during the month of October, to search out what many onliners were listing as the best horror films of the New Millenium. At that time, Host was the one I saw people were talking about the most. So naturally, I streamed it, to see how it would rank based on my own personal preferences for the genre. After watching it, I found its premise of pandemic lockdown possession pretty effective, but I think I maybe would have enjoyed it a bit more had I not seen Death of a Vlogger and Paranormal Activity just days prior. The theme of Host runs along the same lines of PA, and it uses a lot of the same tropes that Activity did, just more updated to the tech of the day. At the same time, it's presentation of the story was very similar as Vlogger's in that the whole plot of the film unfolded as though the viewer was watching the events develop on some kind of social media format. I can't blame the film for "hosting" the same updated format as other movies of this time, especially since it provides a new slant to the overly used subject of hapless humans being haunted by the hoary hordes 'o' hell, but I would have to watch Host again in a more isolated setting to evaluate just how blackened its heart truly is. In the meantime, I find the concept of demons using social media to "stream" through to their victims is a good idea for a horror flick and for now, it'll be getting a "like" from me. Maybe even a "hugs" emoji.

As time goes on, I find it more and more difficult for Hollywood to make quality horror flicks, particularly the kind that can satiate my kind of blood thirst for these kinds of movies. A big reason for that is that the genre has pretty much run the gamut multiple times over when it comes cinematic scare tactics.
The Conjuring runs alot of those same tactics, but it doesn't skimp (at least, not as much as we're used to these days) at the story and the way their scare tactics are utilized in the story.
This is a scare flick that doesn't really bring anything new to the table of haunted hijinks, but it does remind us that today's tales of terror don't have to be so totally brain dead as they have been lately.

   Okay, so despite the theme of this list, I'm not gonna reveal who the real daddy of Rosemay's baby is. Even though, by this point in time, I think this movie's infamous ending is well known throughout the film loving community, I'm still not gonna spoil it for any of the few out there who don't have clue of what I'm talking about.
  But what I will say, is that for those who have seen this movie, there is a question that comes up concerning the nature of the baby. As he gets older, and considering why he was bought into the world, does that mean that anytime the kid behaves himself or does anything good, will he made to take a timeout or something to that effect?



 To modern day film viewers, this may come off as rather timid and tame, but back during the latter half of the flower power generation, when Rosemary's Baby first hit the movie theaters, it did so with a tsunamic wave that swept over the counterculture of its time. It bolted both its director and lead actress into the very top tier of stardom and ended up as a kind of cinematic phenomena which served as a precursor of The Exorcist and it's impact on the world of the horror movie genre. 

When you are the mother of a family full of dysfunction, it's important to realize doesn't take much to edge the household into a place that can be pretty scary. That's why it's usually mom's job to try and keep things together. She's the one who usually tries to empathize with the troubled teens and their tribulations. Or tries to make sure dad doesn't let his emotions stray too far from the home. And when the youngest kid is kinda weird, has a nervous "click" tick, not to mention a severe allergy to nuts, it's up to mom to help that kid keep her head on straight.
If not, well then, she's gonna find out if all the strange happenings in her house are her fault for not doing her job, or if it's all just hereditary (...see what I did there?).



When it comes to horror lead roles, I think Toni Collette's performance here is second only to Essie Davis' in The Babadook (which I have often said, is one the single best performances to drive the dread and danger of a film's plot in recent horror movie history).
Her portrayal of skewered matriarchial emotions that spiral down into complete disintegration really helps to bring out the deep-seated dread and overall cryptic creepiness that is the heart of Hereditary.

Even though I find myself surprised at how much I've been consistantly entertained by the majority of those movies that have been made with the handheld-cam method of filmmaking, I thought for sure that by this point in time, we've pretty much reached the point of exhausting the genre.
Then comes along this movie & shows that in a style of cinema that should've been drained of life by now, when entering the realm of the paranormal, there can still be some signs of activity.

 The dead are starting to rise on the streets of New York. Well, moreso that usual that is. And at the center of it all, is the head ghost demon known as Gozer The Destructor. Who, even in marshmallow form, is still a destructor. So, when ol' Goze decides to start gigantically rampaging down through the avenues of the Big Apple, who you gonna call...? The only guys around who know how to show this prehistoric b#tch how we do things downtown.
Ghostbusters is a fun, 80's summer-blockbuster defining sci-fi comedy that not only features Bill Murray at his sharpest and Sigourney Weaver at her sexiest (even though at one point, she does turn into a dog....), but also cool specials effects, a couple of proton packs, sliming goblins, a key master, a gatekeeper, streams crossing, cats and dogs living together, not to mention one really big "Twinkie".

This movie continues the great tradition begun with Rosemary's Baby, and then masterfully followed up with The Exorcist as the Devil himself is seriously depicted (though never shown) in a manner that is genuinely intended to keep even the most heartily-minded awake at night.
As in those earlier works, in The Omen, Satan is the unseen antagonist who uses a human in the form of a child to dote out his diabolical deeds of death, despair and destruction.



Y'know, for me, there's something about the 70's era that seems to really lend itself to the atmosphere of hellish dread that are these types of films. Maybe it's because since this was the decade in which "movie realism" had finally come to touch the ground (evidenced thru the films of actors like Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino), the monster genre had really started to become a caricature of itself, many times to the point of being cartoonishly silly. Therefore, one of the few avenues of true horror left was to those that focused the evil that resulted from the more sins of man, which of course can be personified best by he who most represents it, ol' Lucifer hisself.
Or maybe it's just because such evil could only come from the decade that was also responsible for polyester suits, platform shoes and dancing Travolta movies.
Whatever the reason,
The Omen carries with it a new-found injection of horror that rattled our nerves more on a biblical sense of hopelessness than thru the fear of a Hollywood-spawned rubber-suited creature of which many movie-viewers had become largely desensitized to at this point.

First of all, movies don't scare me all that easily. A few did when I was a kid, but not anymore now as an adult. Therefore I rarely watch "scary" movies with the idea that I'm going to get frightened in any way. These days, I just judge 'em based more on the quality of entertainment that I get from the story, art direction, acting, blah blah blah....
That said,
boy, when I think of the time that this movie was first released and watching it as a kid, I know now why there hasn't been a movie since that has been able to scare me. This one got it all out of my system all in one shot (my mentality is probably still scarred from this flick in a manner that I, even as an adult, have yet to realize). From here on end, all other horror flix are just a step down for my traumatized pimp-ass.
Even before I saw the movie, I remember catching a preview of this on T.V., as it depicted the scene of when the girl was on the bed, cryin for help as it shook on it's "own" volition. That night, I was scared as hell to go upstairs to my f#ckin' bedroom.



That f#ckin' movie.......