Top Ten Best Re-Watchable Horror Films

There are a lot of great horror films but for a lot of them, you only really need to see it once and never see it again.  The Saw films are fun but I don’t feel the need to revisit them.  Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a masterpiece but I don’t really want to watch it yearly.  Here is my list of horror films that for whatever the reason I can watch again and again.

1. The Thing

2. Evil Dead 2

3. Ghostbusters

4. Into the Mouth of Madness

5. Shaun of the Dead

6. Poltergeist

7. The Frighteners

8. Hellraiser

9. Cabin in the Woods

10. Slither

Dead of Night (1945)

From Ealing Studios comes this collection of stories told in flash backs from guests at a party.  One of the guests named Walter arrives and believes he’s seen all of them before and forewarns of something terrible about to happen.   They try to convince him otherwise (this is where the flash backs come into play).   I’m not surprised that this film is as good as it is; that’s Ealing Studios for you.   All the stories are great; I especially love the one about the mirror.   There’s even a comic tale about two golf buddies that’s really fun.   What makes this all work is an ending that really seems ahead of its time.  Grade: A-

Baskin (2015)

This Turkish horror film is about a bunch of unlikable police officers who deserve to get killed that go to a house after being called in for an emergency, only to find they’ve entered a cult of torture and mutilation.  There’s also a dream-like quality to the film where you question if what is happening is real or if this place is actually hell.   If you like ultra-dark horror with torture and sex and lots of violence than this might be your cup of tea, or more like your mug of malice.   I was kind of bored after a while.  Maybe I’m a weirdo but the theater of it all didn’t hold much meaning for me.   It felt like Can Evrenol was so intent creating a gruesome hell sequence he forgot why we needed to see it.  Grade: B-

Videodrome (1983)

I can’t believe I never saw this one before.  I thought I had until talking with a friend and it became clear I was thinking of Cronenberg’s film Scanners.  I’ve been missing out.  This is a marvelous demented film that’s packed of ideas and surreal images.  It’s frightening as well as thought provoking.  James Woods plays Max Renn, a shock jock looking for pirated material to broadcast on his minor cable channel.   He finds a broadcast called Videodrome that shows torture and rape.  After watching it though he starts to have hallucinations and that’s when he falls into a trap that he must desperately try to break away from or be a puppet to an underground organization.  The Criterion version has a great behind the scene documentary about the make-up effects from Rick Baker.  If you haven’t seen this one, do.  It’s eerily prophetic.  Grade: A

John Dies at the End by David Wong

This book is way too complicated to even try to describe.  It’s a loony, gory, Lovecraftian adventure with two paranormal fighting friends named John and Dave.  They take an alien-demon substance they call Soy sauce to see into the future.  They battle a meat monster.  They travel to another dimension.  They have to help save a girl named Amy Sullivan.  Basically so much happens I can’t remember it all.  What I do know it was a blast to read.  Grade: B+

The Black Cat (1934)

Boris Karloff and Béla Lugosi get top billing on this original film written by Peter Ruric (it has nothing to do with Edgar Allan Poe’s story).   Edgar G. Ulmer directs this, his most memorable film, until Detour that is.  Honeymooners Peter and Joan get stranded in Hungry and a doctor (Lugosi) on his way to see his college (Karloff) at his castle invites them to come along.   It’s clear Karloff is a devilish foe and that the Lugosi is there for revenge.   It’s a convoluted plot but full of many memorable scenes, especially a cat that gives the doctor a scare and the dungeon where many dead women are displayed.  I wouldn’t say this holds up that much, it is old and feels quaint, but it’s a must-see if you want to see the classics.  Grade: B

The Canal (2014)

This Irish ghost story about a film preservationist named David who may or may not have killed his wife who may or may not have been having an affair.  Alone in a house with a violent past, David starts to feel an evil presence is trying to take away his son.  While the cops circle and his family worries about his sanity, he dives deeper into the mystery of his house in a hope to protect his son. Written and directed by Ivan Kavanagh.   Grade: A-

Spoilers:  Another depressing ending.  This is getting upsetting.  Okay, again I don’t mind it if a film has a sad ending.  The hero doesn’t have to live to make it a good film.  But in this one, did the boy have to die?  I mean, come on, the father gave his life so his son would live and then the kid dies anyway.   It’s haunting, that’s for sure, but so damn hopeless.