New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

As always seems to be the case these days in Hollywood, the Halloween weekend is upcoming and none of the new movies are horror films. You'd think, of course, that if it's the weekend of Halloween, the holiday of frights, there'd be a movie or two at the multiplex to celebrate with some scares. Granted, considering that Halloween arrives on a Saturday this year, there's a likely chance that the box office will take a bit of a hit, as families are out trick-or-treating, and teenagers are at Halloween parties. Still, I've always found it a bit odd that the horror movies of the season open around Halloween; take the upcoming The Fourth Kind, an alien-abduction movie opening...on November 6th. Because nothing says scares like the upcoming celebration of pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock.

No, the only movie opening this weekend is Michael Jackson's This Is It, a movie with one hell of a grammatically incorrect title; not to go on a tangent, but a) seeing as Jackson tragically passed away before the film even came to fruition, it can't be his, though he could be "starring" in it; and b) what is "This" or "It"? Clarity always wins in my book. Anyway, since there are only a few great posthumous performances in film (and frankly, that A-List would turn into me extolling the well-known virtues of Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight), and I'm not a concert-movie aficionado, let's ring in All Hallows Eve with a look at some of the great, truly scary movies.

Of course, as you've noted from the title, this A-List is about scary movies that are not horror movies. You won't see Michael Myers (or Mike Myers) on this list, nor Freddy Krueger, nor Jason Voorhees. None of the films on this list are strictly meant to be vehicles for blood-gushing mayhem. In fact, gore is not prevalent in any of the films, at least not the kind that spills onscreen. This list is by no means definitive, but the five films on the list are among the most frightening movies I've had the pleasure to see. What's more, sometimes, a bit of the true pleasure of such movies as these ones is not expecting to be scared, creeped out, or the like. Sometimes, the best scares come when you least expect them. Here are five films that proved noteworthy when it comes to giving you the heebie-jeebies.

The Night of The Hunter

In the style of Southern Gothic literature from authors such as Flannery O'Connor and William Faulkner, 1955's The Night of The Hunter is an all-time classic, despite having been a bit of a throwaway when it first came out. Starring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, and Lillian Gish, among others, this freaky film came and went with little fanfare, despite being the sole directorial effort from famed actor Charles Laughton. When Ben Harper (Peter Graves) goes to jail for robbery and is sentenced to death, he manages to give his young son, John, the location of his hidden loot. Unfortunately, Harper's cellmate, Harry Powell (Mitchum), gets wind of Ben's stolen cash and decides, once the robber is dead, to romance the widow Harper (Winters), kill her, and get rich. He believes, correctly, that John and his sister, Pearl, know where the money is and will do everything to find out its location.

Continued:       1       2       3