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OK, so the phrase, "Based on a True Story" get's thrown around a lot! Which one of these is more horrifying and hard to forget?
The Amityville Horror: 1979, -+. Hrr One of the most frightening movies based on the "horror house" theme, this one will really make you have second thoughts about moving into an old house with history. Starring Rod Steiger, Don Stroud, and Murray Hamilton, this movie really gets under your skin.
This is partially due to the fact that the director, Stuart Rosenberg, captures Jay Anson's overall terror factor from the novel he wrote, while also maintaining an element of true horror. What I mean is that at the end, you are made to wonder if it's the house that was haunted or if the husband just realty went completely crazy. The horror starts to build when a priest is due to come by to bless the house but gets into a car accident.
I also loved the scene with the flies in the room and the dreadful, "Get Out" uttered seemingly by the house itself while the door slams.
There is a certain amount of dramatic build- up as well because you start the see the slow deterioration of the husband into a deranged psycho path. Based on the true story of the Lutz family who moved into a home where there was a mass murder and soon experiences paranormal activity, the husband undergoes a gradual downward spiral until he is completely insane. First he is sick, and then after awhile he starts getting completely obsessed with chopping wood.
What also made this movie extremely creepy was the tone of the music which really pinpoints the parts of the movie that are pivot points and get the horror kicked up into another gear. Lalo Shifirin did an outstanding job and many horror movies copied the way in which the music was performed and meshed with the movie itself.
Memorable parts in this movie are when he starts unraveling and fantasizing about killing and then of course, the ending, where all hell breaks loose. Literally.
There are many scenes where he chases his wife around with an axe,...ala The Shining. This movie is just one of those movies that will stick with you because it didn't have any "cheesy" horror elements like soft-to-loud extremely and fake scares. It is just scary, period.
Yes, there was a remake, but that just seems to be a reason to show the male in that movie with his shirt off. There was no reason to remake this movie, it was great and there was little way to improve it. Perhaps it just made it more recent. 85%
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The Exorcism of Emily Rose: 2005: HRR: When this movie came out, I was pretty excited about it and made sure that I saw it in it's first week. While being a fan of The Possession, The Exorcist I & III, and other possession type movies, I found that the format in which this movie was made was sufficiently different and set it apart from it's peers in this crowded genre.
Based on a failed exorcism of Annelise Michael, who was possessed in 1976 and given drugs while an exorcism was performed, this movie has a terrifying back story. She eventually died and the priest and family were charged with manslaughter.
(actual pictures of Anneliese, before and after possession)
The production was top notch in this movie and the overall sense of realism pervades without being too obvious. Jennifer Carpenter was extremely persuasive with her body contortions, many of which were performed without special effects. Some of them are so odd that they gave me nightmares for awhile. She won an award from "most frightening performance" and the movie is still among the top 100 scariest movies of all time.
The movie was primarily shown as flashbacks during the trial in which the priest has to defend his use of the exorcism. The trial and flashbacks flow flawlessly and it's a testament to Scott Derrickson's direction.
It got a little bit predictable in the end and the scenes kind of all blended together. The last scene was the most memorable in the barn. I thought that this is among the scariest of all the possession movies, but not as scary as The Last Exorcism. I want to watch this movie again, because I haven't seen it as many times as Amityville Horror.
The mythology was somewhat intriguing, but the part of witch's hour and conducting the séance the day before Halloween seem cliché, but actually they can't be because these are based on true events.
Both movies are in different horror movie genres, but I will give the nod to The Amityville Horror, because it laid the framework for so many horror movies in the future, and although it was made 20 years ago, it can still hang with the best of them. This movie gets and 84%, so it's close.
Amityville Horror wins! Anyone disagree, feel free to give me a comment..
It got a little bit predictable in the end and the scenes kind of all blended together. The last scene was the most memorable in the barn. I thought that this is among the scariest of all the possession movies, but not as scary as The Last Exorcism. I want to watch this movie again, because I haven't seen it as many times as Amityville Horror.
The mythology was somewhat intriguing, but the part of witch's hour and conducting the séance the day before Halloween seem cliché, but actually they can't be because these are based on true events.
Both movies are in different horror movie genres, but I will give the nod to The Amityville Horror, because it laid the framework for so many horror movies in the future, and although it was made 20 years ago, it can still hang with the best of them. This movie gets and 84%, so it's close.
Amityville Horror wins! Anyone disagree, feel free to give me a comment..
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