When Scary Movies Aren’t So Scary: My Horror Picks

It's not for everybody, and I understand that. What's your take on scary movies?

Paul and I were talking this morning, and I discovered that he didn't have any idea who Beetlejuice was. I thought that even if you hadn't seen the movie, you'd know the character, but not in this case.

All of this got me thinking about scary movies that I enjoyed.

Rotten Tomatoes and I must think a lot alike. They have Alien, which came out in 1979, as their top pick. I even remember the promo for it: "In space, no one can hear you scream."

RT then has Silence of the Lambs at #5. Agreed.

Then there are a few of the Halloween movies along with some of the Nightmare on Elm Street series. Those never really were my cup of tea. I guess, to be scared, you need a plot that could really happen in real life.

It, written by Stephen King, was a great book but didn't translate into a scary movie very well.

The original The Thing with Kurt Russell was always a cult classic. I know they made a newer version recently, but I haven't seen it yet. Same with The Hitcher starring Rutger Hauer.

A series of movies that I enjoyed was called Scary Movie. These spoofed all of the improbable events from the movies that tried to be scary—a little tongue-in-cheek redo.

I don't know if you would call it a scary movie—maybe it's more of a crime thriller—but I thought that Midnight in the Switchgrass was pretty good, even without a real car chase scene.