Favorite Horror Scenes

I cannot believe I managed to write 31 blogs in this month alone, this was not something I planned beforehand, but it was happening spontaneously instead. It sure was a fun ride for me to think about horror related posts!

Let's share my 31 personal and favorite horror scenes, in no order. And anything goes with this list, from the most suspenseful to the most shocking to the most unexpected, to the most famous, to the most obscure.

Before seeing them, the best thing to do first would be by seeing the movies all the way through. I am just giving you my personal highlights from each one of them. Indeed, some scenes are more effective when you are given the buildup, background or more.

And don't fast forward through, because otherwise some of them get ruined!

1.The Woman In Black(1989) Bed Scene
2.An American Werewolf in London(1981) Deceptive Nightmare
3.[REC](2007) Attic Scene (Starts at the 8th minute)
4.Eraserhead(1977) Henry's Nightmare
5.Psycho(1960) The Truth About Mother
6.The Legend of Hell House(1973) Paranormal Activity
7.Trilogy of Terror(1975) The African Killer Doll
8.Day of the Dead(1985) Choke On 'Em
9.The Thing(1982) Chest Defibrillation
10.Re-Animator(1985) Dr.Hill's Head Issue
11.Saw II(2005) The Twist(s)
12.The Conjuring(2013) Hide and Clap
13.Deep Red(1975) The Hidden Killer's Face
14.Black Christmas(1974) Eye Scene
15.The Shining(1980) Room 237
16.Sinister(2012) Attic Scene
17.The Texas Chainsaw Massacre(1974) Ending
18.Martyrs(2008) Helping a Victim
19.Hellbound: Hellraiser 2(1988) The Doctor Is In
20.The Untold Story(1993) Family Murder
21.The Fly(1986) Ending
22.The Evil Dead(1981) Cheryl Williams
23.A Nightmare on Elm Street(1984) Bloodiest Nightmare
24.Friday the 13th part II(1981) Surprise, Surprise!
25.The Exorcist(1973) Spider Walk
26.Insidious(2010) The Smiling Family
27.It(1990) Kiss Me Fat Boy
28.Braindead(1993) Lawn Mower
29.Suspiria(1977) Heart Stabbed
30.Evil Dead II(1987) Laughing Scene
31.Halloween II(1981) Hot Tub

I will admit that some favorite scenes are missing because they weren't available on YouTube or elsewhere online. Perhaps you will see the rest in the next year. :) Happy Halloween guys, it was a fun ride for me, definitely.

The Cabin In The Woods

You think you know the story.

A group of people enter a cabin in the woods, but things don't seem to be what they appear to be. Actually, things are going out of hand, as they die off one by one. Just when you thought that this would be the umpteenth same scary story, the movie threw at me the first social commentary I can remember.

Pretty much a commentary onto the majority of the horror genre itself, The Cabin in the Woods with its generic title, early plot and characters overthrows all of that by literally unleashing major horror monsters upon the human characters during the second half, and by delivering a message about what we, as the general horror audience, want.

The general audience is depicted as the Gods of the universe of The Cabin In The Woods. Sigourney Weaver's character explains more about this(or us basically) and the movie's general motive regarding it's plot.

Sci-fi, fantasy and horror elements galore upon us, and it asks us not to go down into the same formula throughout the horror decades, at least the recent ones. The Cabin in the Woods is not only a pretty good horror comedy, it is also celebrating the genre, leaving us with a wishful commentary to see. That of continuing to be creative and original.

And for this "breaking the fourth wall" kind of theme playing, The Cabin In The Woods stands out for being mandatory towards only the most dedicated fans. perhaps it might even inspire a new wave of independent filmmakers out there.

Rating: 7.5

Silent Hill

My first Silent Hill was Shattered Memories, and I kind of feel dissapointed in doing so, because I usually go back to the past and experience the first carnation of anything. But because SM was so accessible to me, this was not the case this time. 

Anyhow, Konami's other proud horror franchise generally delves into psychological and religious themes, where as the main characters usually dissolve into nightmaristic worlds of mist, darkness and hellish locations.

And since Shattered Memories was more of a disappointment than a truly memorable game (Opinions of course vary), I had this giant urge to finally start with the franchise and enter the world of Silent Hill with the original. Glad that I started with this.

It shows it's age, but the fog, especially the foggy atmosphere makes it a great experience which by the way was a clever way of keeping the graphics in the distance obscure, lowering the loading times and keeping the frame rate stable. 

This is of course an assumption, but frankly I don't see why else other than the horror aspect that fog was included. I will let others find out the story for you. The gameplay is very familiar to a big Resident Evil fan like me, however Silent Hill has a nifty auto aim gun pose that shortens the time to kill those demons and manifestations.

It's almost identical otherwise, but it seems that in overall Silent Hill is a more difficult game, despite that it was generous with the health drinks and first aids. I am enthusiastic about telling you the most tense part I had while playing the game.

Yes, the cat in the locker was a good start but sooo obvious for a horror veteran like me, and its Otherworld alter ego was even better, plus random sudden shocking noises are also awesome to experience if implemented at the right time.

Not to mention the fuck up moments where you aren't playing the game, but the game is playing with you, including a warp sequence between the rest rooms of the school or when you hear the flapping sound of a bird in a room but you can clearly see no bird being present in the birdcage.

Even the metallic music playing at some parts was effectively scary in some way, but the top of the iceberg easily goes to when I first entered and explored the hospital. After a quick cutscene with a certain Dr.Faustman, you are left to explore the rest of the hospital.

Before I even encountered the nurses and doctors, Silent Hill completely had me around its finger when I was opening doors with high tension. And that music in the background, which is almost not music, but a creepy sound changing from its sound slowly that accompanied me while exploring the hospital was what made it an unforgettable period the next time I think back on Silent Hill.

It's another hard experience to explain, let me finish summarizing it by saying that you would NOT feel safe at an abandoned hospital after those freak events you already witnessed. Something was just not right about that hospital, heh. 

Rating: 8.2

Silent Hill games really set you up for the mood, I’ll give you that. I’m glad to have finally played and beaten this incredible PS2 game, once should be enough for now. Part 2 is more of a stand alone title from the rest of the franchise, it’s entirely about James’s life instead of some demonic cult bent on shaping the world.

The first time playing these atmospheric games, there is definitely a feeling of unease playing in your mind. Especially when you are searching for the destination in a foggy or dark town, or when you try to open the umpteenth door only to acknowledge that it’s a locked or a broken down door once again, or when the tension music is quietly yet effectively playing, in summary, Silent Hill is an expert in trying to creep you out.

And I can easily see why Silent Hill 2 is such an amazing game. It’s a messed up journey full of symbolism, weird occurrences, scary environments and a beautiful but sad complex plot await. Gameplay wise, Resident Evil comes to mind what with the weapons and the vast amounts of ammo. The enemies although scarce in variety are original and the most effective are the mannequins and of course Pyramid Head.

There are so many theories floating around on forums as to what it all means that it keeps getting interesting to talk about this classic horror game. And as for how scary Silent Hill 2 truly is…the sense of unease is definitely present. 

Sadly (but perhaps also thankfully in a way haha!) I missed the infamous Toluca Prison scream in the women’s restroom. I recently heard it on YouTube and I definitely would had peed my pants if I never knew of this scream from beforehand.

However I think that the original slightly wins more because of its sudden but well placed loud and scary SFX sounds and the Otherworld “looked better”. But make no mistake, Silent Hill 2 is easily the best SH game I have played so far, and it most likely will remain my favorite.

Rating: 8.6

From what I have seen, it definitely is the most disturbing of the three main Silent Hill games. Make no mistake, all three of them made me at unease to play through them, and that’s while using a walkthrough(!), and all three have memorable horror scenes neatly scattered through the areas here and there.

But Silent Hill 3 took a step further, adding in more bizarre scenes of indescribable horror, borrowing heavily from the movies Jacob’s Ladder and I think even Session 9, more monsters which means more tense and without a doubt the best Otherworld yet, better known as simply Hell.

The story is connected with the original, but like any Silent Hill game, the dialogue scenes are vague, mysterious and never too clear. Believe me, logic and reason are far and far away from the resort town known as Silent Hill. 

Fortunately there are plenty of experts out there on this twisted franchise. I’m really glad to have beaten them all so far, a must play for horror fans. A minor disappointing note is that Silent Hill 3 is the most linear of the three, meaning that there wasn’t as much exploration and freedom as in the other parts. 

Rating: 8.5

It has its moments, but part 4 has to be the weakest in the series yet. But since I know of other titles later on having an even worse reputation, I think I will stop here and see what Downpour can bring to us.

The Room suffers from repetition by the use of recycling previous world levels, by only adding in extra puzzles, new enemies and new progressions. The inventory system is inferior towards the previous one for limiting items with 10 objects only.

And by the way, the handgun and revolver in this game not only are less spectacular than the melee weapons, but their ammo block much needed item slots for health or key items, meaning that for each ammo box you find, it will occupy one slot, it won’t add up on itself, the same goes for health items. 

And although I usually can do fine with main characters, Henry here is noted for being more dull than Heather, James or Harry. The Room’s good things are the “locked in” concept of being stuck into your room, having still a decent eerie atmosphere (although the trilogy was scarier)and the gameplay plays fine, even Eileen wasn’t annoying to have as a partner.

And the story of course gets interesting, but only near the end, pretty much like any other Silent Hill. The twin baby monster, the SH4 nurses and most of all the very unusual hospital room where a giant Eileen head with focused dizzly eyes onto Henry are the creepiest things in the game for me.

Rating: 7.6

So this is my first game of the series, a remake from the original game, however I have heard that the differences vary a lot between the two. The best factor to this is the lonely atmosphere, the immersion is impressive to experience.

The profiling is an interesting touch to a horror game. Choices that affect the gameplay and the story is another cool addition. But while it's a very good cinematic game,the lack of effective horror and even gameplay lowered my expectations.

Rating: 7.5

Underrated Scares

Here are a few horror movies that in my opinion deserve more attention and are just as good as the ones who are famous:

Bad Ronald

The concept of this movie is just great, you just want to watch it all happen in Bad Ronald. Ronald, a distant nerd in life, accidently kills a girl after she taunted him, stating him to be weird. Because of the sudden moment, Ronald panics and decides to bury her using a showel.

This would be the first mistake inside the Wilby family. Once Ronald gets home, his mother confronts him with worries, and learns of the horrible event which just happened today. Now, the mother panics even more, and goes down through some possibilities which might happen to Ronald, and concludes that the only way to save her son from facing the law is to hide him.

For some reason, the mother thinks of the insane idea to hide Ronald inside their house, in their old bathroom on the main floor, which has now been modified so that it has become a living room for Ronald, complete with a hidden entrance.

She leaves out an option such as a hotel, or some woods where Ronald can camp through the night, and decides to go with this idea, why? Now that I think about it, the mother and Ronald both were afraid of letting Ronald get arrested and put in jail for a life time, so the mother figured that the best way to BOTH hide and to communicate the easiest and most effective way(for 1974 anyway)was to hide her son inside their own house.

And all of this happens just because Ronald accidently killed a girl and made a huge mistake afterwards to bury her. Once the idea has been set, Ronald starts living inside the hidden room, pretty much not having sunlight passing inside of it.

The mother and Ronald keep a close communication with each other whenever the cops or other people visit, and so far, everything works out(In particular because of the forged note the cops found), despite it being a crazy idea. Until the mother has to undergo a surgery and does not survive it.

After hearing the news from the now new family moving inside the old Wilby house, Ronald grieves with pain, yet at the same time, starts entering this psychotic behaviour, by observing the new family, or should I say peeping tomming as well, which just moved in, by use of small holes he has drilled using his toolkit.

All the while still hiding inside the hidden room, safe from the cops and people suspecting him. All the time, Ronald always liked fantasizing, and when he started living inside the hidden room, he started creating his imaginary world known as "Atranta". 

Maybe through a combination of panic, grief, loneliness, remorse and other negative emations, he started showing the viewers this behaviour. Anyway, once the new family has finally moved in, Ronald has become used to the moments when the whole family is absent from the house.

During those moments, he always checks the refrigerator to see if there is anything tasty. On a particular day, Mrs.Schumacher, a neighbour woman, suddenly catches Ronald at the refrigerator, and both are shocked to see each other.

Ronald then walks towards her in a creepy way, and she then suddenly gets a heart attack, because of the fact that she thought that Ronald no longer lived inside this house and that he was probably far, far away. Never could she calculate to find Ronald of all the places back inside here! "They will probably blame me for this too", Ronald said to himself after suggesting that she is dead.

Basically, he makes the same fucking mistake here like he did in the past, by hiding her body as well! Still, you could have some kind of sympathy for Ronald, despite him being psychotic and making bad mistakes, hence Bad Ronald.

It's actually pretty interesting, because the family starts thinking that their place is haunted by a ghost, while it really is Ronald making the noises and moving objects. Then, Ronald gets a so called golden opportunity to meet one of the daughters in the family he has been keeping his eye on, confirming that the parents other than their daughters are gone until atleast tommorow, and confronts her, which shocks her.

Ronald then started identifying her as the princess and himself as the prince in his fantasy. A chase scene happens, which ends at Mrs.Schumacher's house, where he locks her successfully inside the basement.

He makes a run back to his hidden room and forges another misleading note because he knows that another daughter would arrive soon. It appears to work, leaving the other daughter worried but the cops themselves not, because they have no traces to investigate. The next evening, even though Ronald heard that the cops will not bother him for now, he decides to kidnap one of the daughters's boyfriend.

Another foolish mistake, but maybe it is because Ronald did not like him, because he happens to be the brother of the girl he accidently killed in the past. The cops then decide to start observing the house from outside, and advises the two remaining daughters to close every door and window, so that nobody can come in, and so that they are safe from inside.

Ronald then beats the boyfriend up because of making a hard noise, and the daughters then discover because of their paranoia that their house has a suspicious small hole. Then THE scene happens, and Ronald makes a run for it, because soon everyone will know the truth.

And then Ronald gets captured, and the credits roll. In overall, a truly one of a kind movie you have never seen before, and it fascinated me. And yes, it was also creepy. On a side note, I think that this is one of the few movies I would love to see a remake from, because it definitely is a chilling thriller movie, and could possibly become an ever better movie with both horror and thriller in a remake.

Possession

By far the most confusing film I have seen yet, but NOT because of the movie itself. Instead, Possession's audio synchronization got worse throughout the movie. Once I fixed that first problem with Yet Another Avi Info, the audio got worse once again later on in the movie.

Since I could NEVER find english or dutch subtitles for this movie, and the english accents inside the movie were being too hard to understand(For me atleast) at some points, I gave up with frustration, and gave myself in for this unique movie.

I decided to see this movie in the first place because it got "recommended" to me when I was looking on the IMDB forums for an entirely different horror movie I remembered, which also had an intense woman character and an alien octopus being.

I am content that I saw Possession, but I still wish to know what horror movie I saw as a child in the past. Possession is said by viewers to be split up into 3 parts, first is the marriage gone wrong part, then the suspense/horror part, then the action/confusing scenes one after another part.

The last couple scenes either have symbolism behind them, or Andrzej Zulawski was on drugs when he made this movie. But let's pretend for the more interesting case to be fact, which is symbolism. Anna at one point feels nothing positive anymore, is very intensely showing insane behaviour at other points, and kills intruders who happen to stumble upon her secret octopus lover.

It seemed to me that she loved both Marc and the octopus, because she did not kill Marc when the unusual sex scene occured. Also, according to another viewer, the octopus seems to be an embodiment of some kind, something like misery or pain, which Anna gave birth too in the underground subway scene, where she went completely mad, which was a pretty interesting scene by the way.

I think that the viewer is on to something with this theory, and therefore I support it. If you did not understand so by now, Possession is not a movie where everything gets explained. Lucky for me that I have seen past confusing movies already, such as Tetsuo and The Holy Mountain, although Possession is an entirely different movie from the other confusing ones.

It also shares some resemblences to the dissapointment which I call The Brood, atleast that's what I think. The camera work was well done as well by the way, and about the ending....well, it either is a brilliant ending, or it made no absolute sense.

The octopus having become an exact copy of Mark, and later on, Bob, the son of the couple, telling Helen, the lookalike of Anna(I told you that it's not an easy movie to understand)not to open the door for this new Mark, but when she almost does, Bob suicided himself into the bathtub which was random but an effective scene, and the very last scene shows Helen listening to loud noises and then looking straight at the camera(Which Anna also does quite a few times).

Jesus, what is this movie about? I am kind of repeating a few sentences through some of my movie reviews, because I sadly have to tell you once again that this movie grasped my attention as well. In overall, expect to see a deep buried confusing movie if you plan to watch it. Oh, and why is there Godfather music playing during this movie?

Psycho II

The timeline is perfect, after sitting for 22 years, Norma Bates is released. This has to be an exciting sequel right!? Unless he turns out to be healed from his homicidal tendencies...After returning to his old home, Norman settles in with a new job but at the same time recollects his property Bates Motel.

After being friendly towards Mary a new colleague, the current owner of Bates Motel is being an asshole towards them but nevertheless they recover from it. Meanwhile, Norman is getting bad memories when he looks at knives or when he recalls his mother in several ways.

After a voyeur scene, the ex-owner is being drunk plus annoying and he bluntly states that he is moving out, finally. Before being able to do so, he gets killed by an unknown assailant. The next day, Norman’s psychiatrist checks up on him while Mary finds out about the peeping tom hole.

Psycho II is unpredictable and mysterious when it comes to it’s direction, and I have no clue who the killer is. They wouldn’t use Norman himself after the scenes playing out like that, right? Interesting how Mary’s mother is precisely the persistent one who wants Bates back in jail.

The bloody toilet and bath is a nice touch, also interesting how Norman seems to think he killed the boy in the basement despite not knowing for sure. Luckily Mary sees that he is trying to be a better person.

The soundtrack sounds from the 60’s instead of the 80’s, but it’s fine. Anyway, Psycho II is very good. It has a lot of good stuff going on, and I am pleasantly surprised. It's unrealistic at times, but nevertheless watchable.

Castlevania

What was once one of the most beloved franchises born on the NES is now seeing troubling times, as is the case with other well known franchises out there as well. Castlevania is the ultimate inviting party towards gothic atmosphere, mythological creatures, distinguished gameplay and pure terror.

This is a huge franchise, so let me only talk about the ones I have beaten and experienced so far. my first Castlevania was Super Castlevania IV, but I didn't get far with it as a kid. Years later, I did manage to beat it. The controls and gothic setting are mindblowingly good here.

The first title I did manage to beat was Circle of the Moon on the Gameboy Advance, which continued the famous formula starting with Symphony of the Night, which is basically action RPG with a large playground, or as they are called by fans, Metroidvania and Castleroid.

Aria of Sorrow was next. This felt like a really new way of presenting the franchise, as it was happening in the future, the characters were reincarnations and some of the monters in it remain pretty weird.

The Soul Capturing system was interesting as you were able to use abilities from the enemies themselves, adding more gameplay. There is also a little twist involved in the story, and the level design was very good.

I went back to Harmony of Dissonance because I was hungry for more, and I was pleasantly surprised of the huge castle layout and that despite having like 8-bit music playing, some of the songs were really good. It was a lot of fun to just dash around the huge castle, looking for secrets or the next path that just opened.

Dawn of Sorrow turned out to be my favorite Castlevania because of the excellent bosses, the graphical animations, the tight mechanics, an improved Soul Capturing system, celebrating music and good extra unlockables.

Symphony of the Night on the contrary turned out to be the most dissapointing for me after playing all those others already. I disliked the very easy challenge, most of the castle or the inverted castle felt unnecessary to explore and I wasn't really a fan of the overall soundtrack.

It is by no means a bad game, but it was easy for me to disregard it as the best of the franchise. Portrait of Ruin introduced a dual partner system but re-used a ton of enemy designs, previous bosses and had poor level design, but it still offered enough new content to satisfy me.

Order of Ecclesia is another very solid experience that once again changed the formula here and there, such as the Glyph feature and splitting the level design into smaller maps(and one huge castle later on).

The latest Castlevania games I managed to play and beat is the NES trilogy. The first one was short, difficult and classical, Simon's Quest is a oddity like many NES sequels back in the day and Dracula's Curse is rightfully the best of the three.

As you can see, I still have a lot of Castlevania's to play out there, such as Rondo of Blood. Recent titles like Lords of Shadow don't seem to be successful enough nor interesting. Sure it's a new direction, but Castlevania is starting to go underground.

I really hope to see a classical 2D action platformer or a phenomenal 3D attempt from this franchise in the future. Or at the very least see it continueing to survive, as Castlevania deserves to stay after making many memorable entries already.

Disturbing Exploitations

If you are an avid reader, then you knew already that A Serbian Film is the most extreme movie I have seen yet. There are several others with infamous underground cult status of which I would like to talk about now. Because let me tell you; I have seen some serious disturbing, shocking and fucked up ones. These are some of the toughest movies to watch out there.

Usually, storylines, acting and other normal cinematic terms do not apply with exploitation movies. Controversial topics, specific target audiences, gross out or any kind of disturbing issues DO apply here:

Men Behind the Sun

The "hunt" for the most shocking movies ever continues. It is kind of a different hunt from horror movies such as The Exorcist and Eraserhead though, which are my favorite horror movies so far. For me, there is a clear difference in the genre inbetween movies such as Salo & Men Behind the Sun and these two I just mentioned.

Now that that speech of my current thoughts is out of the way, let me start with the latest review. Men Behind the Sun is about the Japanese during World War 2 doing terrible human experiments on their neighbour country people.

The grim atmosphere and it's low quality of dialogue as well as the plotline were annoying, but the story was atleast more interesting to follow than other exploitations. Plus, it can be argued, or just be pure opinion, that the disturbing scenes in Men Behind the Sun are some of the worst out there.

Atleast in my case, the scenes were more varied, more gruesome and I will most likely remember these better for their shocking nature. The infamous cat scene was no trouble for me to observe, instead, I felt more sad by the boy who died before the cat.

The Japanese had some sick sense into making bacterial weapons, but I can't blame them in the same way, because viruses are very deadly to mankind. What would you do in times of war? Right, innovate and experiment.

Their guinea pigs just so happened to be humans, and that my friends is the summary of this movie, which is a Japanese concentration camp(Squadron 731) full of "marut's"(Translated into specimen I guess) which get experimented and exploited on by the Japanese force of Squadron 731. In overall, another movie which is not for everyone.

The Untold Story

Heh, this is one sick movie, and it is supposed to be based on real events as well. The Untold Story is a mix of the funny cops investigating the brutal case while trying to impress their chief Lee, who almost always has hookers around his shoulders, and of course the brutal murders done by the criminal himself, Wong Chi Hang.

Taking place mostly at the local Police Department and the crime scene itself, the Eight Immortals Restaurant. Oh, this movie is not really about the plot itself though. It is more about the criminal and his crimes.

Although the movie did not talk about why Wong would really murder so many people, be a cannibal himself, and make human pork meat out of his victims(Other than some money business for some of his victims), it still was interesting to see this murderer work in the shadows, trying to hide from the cops because of him being a wanted criminal already, before he start murdering a whole family inside the restaurant, including it's owner, and use their meat as food(most likely).

Anthony Wong playing the killer felt realistic and interesting for me. Wong Chi Hang was one insane motherfucker, who always did not want to get messed up by anyone. And if they did, he would give them brutal punishment, and show them who's boss.

And when the cops are quite sure that Wong really killed a whole family, Wong literally gets fucked up and beaten up by everyone he encounters. Many beat him up, including the angry brother of the previous owner of the restaurant, and although it was cruel and evil to look at, it did left a rightful feeling for me though, watching the cops and fellow prisoners beat him up so many times.

After all, he did murder a whole family full of children. Although Wong is pretty beaten and fucked up many times, he still tells everyone that no one will get him. And after a failed suicide attempt(which was pretty intense to look at, since it looked painful), he finally suicides by stealing a sharp object out of the hospital.

And that marks the end of the Untold Story really. The movie did not bore me, as the killer and the murder scenes were interesting to watch. In overall, this is the most famous of the Category III movies, which is a genre only for either the most violent or the most erotic titles out there.

Cannibal Holocaust

Continueing on with one of the most controversial and shocking movies ever, Cannibal Holocaust. The raw footage of this movie was delightful, and yes, this movie was pretty intense.

Now that I think of it, comparisons are hard to make with shocking movies such as this one and Salo plus Men behind the Sun, even though pretty much all of them are effective in their own different ways.

Cannibal Holocaust is about a documentary which gets found by a professor. The 4 americans inside the documentary are curious indeed, as they perform in many cruel acts when walking inside the green inferno, looking for cannibals.

Yes, this is also the most infamous animal killing movie. And the most infamous of all, the turtle scene, was fascinating to see. What I mean by that is that I haven't seen such a brutal animal killing as that before yet.

I don't have any problems that they got killed during this movie though, it might sound wrong, but then again, for others it might sound right. As the professor reviews the footage with collegaues back in New York, one particular act is stuck in my head: why did they burn the village together with many cannibals?

As "clean" as it may look like compared to the many gory scenes in the movie, this moment is possibly the guiltiest act for me. Apparently they did this in order to stage a scene for their documentary, to get more profit or something.

What a manipulation, which is also shown in the next controversial scene, where the males rape one of the cannibal women and later claim that the natives in the end impaled her because of an obscure sexual rite.

Their obsession with the documentary itself gets even worse when they decide NOT to rescue their fellow partners while they get fucked up and killed by the cannibals. And then the movie ends, all americans are dead in the footage.

Back in New York a man says a strong sentence, that is, all of the footage must be burned. In overall, still to this day, a very effective shock movie, presented with a raw quality to it. Oh, and that happy music was so inappropiate for me.

Aftermath

The continuation of looking for the most shocking movies in existence, this time Flok takes a quick look at Aftermath, a short movie about the daily life inside the morgue, excluding the aftermath part then, or isn't it? DUM DUM DUM DUM.

This very bloody picture has zero dialogue, little music which felt more at home in churches, necrophillia and some dog eating a human's heart, which is not cannibalistic. Anyway, Aftermath's presentation is good, but it isn't more shocking for me than for example Men Behind the Sun's evil autopsy. In any case I was content with this and before I knew it the movie was over. We're talking about a short movie yes but it was still 30+ minutes which went by quickly.

Salo or the 120 days of Sodom

Unusual made movie. Definitely near the top of one of the movies which is not for everyone. Salo is infamous for it's extreme scenes throughout the movie. The story shows an experimental area ruled by fascists somewhere in Italy, who enjoy every moment of toying with their "specimen", be it boy or girl.

There's lots of naked bodies and lust moments, which I previously saw in Caligula as well, but perhaps these are more disturbing. We follow the fascists, the storytellers, the guards and the "specimen", who all participate into these experiments.

Personally I had no problem sitting through the whole movie while I was normally eating up my dinner plus dessert, but it is advised by many not to. The film is extremely controversial, and the climax features quick shocking scenes for the viewers.

It seems during this climax that every fascist finds it very intriguing to observe these torture and rape scenes...In conclusion, Salo is a film that should only be experienced by those who want to have seen this movie and be glad that they saw it.

The ending after that was pointless though in my opinion. I cannot say that I was dissapointed with Salo's content, because the promises reviewers have said about this movie are pretty much true, but I can number atleast 1 more movie on the top of my head which was both a better movie plus a more disturbing one, which is The Untold Story.

In any case, as I said before, if you are on the hunt for the most disturbing/horrifying/freaky/gorefest/disgusting movies ever filmed, Salo would be a good start, or a good end to some, heheh.

Ebola Syndrome

Anthony Wong is at it again, he is pretty much my favorite Hong Kong villain right now. The opening scene begins nasty. An early quote is quite funny, "I am killing them, isn't that ok?" with Wong's expression.

The tongue scene looked really fake, too bad. After the opening credits we get to see frogs being sliced up from close. Kai is working in South Africa now while he is still wanted for the murders of 3 people.

The English portions have finally been improved, but it's still poor. Argh, seems that this is the first time I witness the very disturbing nature of employees jacking off and ejaculating inside food. Yuck if I think about it.

Ebola Syndrome on a whole is a very dirty movie, really. Further on we see that Kai and a collegaue need pig meat so they go to a local tribe which is busy with a dirty ritual of recklessly decapitating chicken.

Some people there also seem to be dead, possibly because of Ebola. Kai himself hates bullies. He feels that he gets bullied again by his current boss, so then he leaves him alone with a wrecked car. What happens next is very nasty, he sees his chance to rape his first black female, but it turns out that she is heavily infected and his dick is somehow stuck inside.

He then gets splashed with a disease and proceeds to smash her head to bits. More stress moments happen, and Kai is then sick of his boss's wife(Like before) as they are sick of his non discipline behavior and stinky smell.

He attempts to rape her(Oh Anthony so traditional of you), but his boss comes just in time to stop the mess. But things get even worse, and in the end the boss's head falls off when Kai is busy stomping the door on him and then dragging him out.

And before that he was walking around confused with a stabbed eye. Kai returns to the wife by humiliating her and eventually eating a piece(!) of her cheek and then drops the round edge of a table on her neck, proceeding by spitting out the meat.

My god, this director was definitely enjoying it all. "I killed everyone and still I am working and cleaning up." Wong pulls an Untold Story as he is seen yet again making human meat feasible and then selling it.

Oh, the humor is also still here, especially when Wong is talking crappy English, sounding like a bad tarzan from the jungle. Wong kills A LOT of people indirectly by sneezing, close contact etc.(Slow motion with high tension music scenes confirms this), but also directly because of his "African buns". 

Victims of the Ebola Virus get fucked up by seizures, heavy internal and external bleedings and basically just dying. So many scenes where people get seizures...Yeah, Ebola Syndrome definitely beats The Untold Story in my opinion.

The later might have a whole family killing and nasty self cutting scenes, but the former is the ultimate CAT III movie for me. Disgusting, disturbing, gory, sexual abusive, homicidal, creepy soundtrack and extreme violence. Bon appetit. Great for horror/extreme/CAT III fans.

Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon

A most welcome addition has been added towards Luigi's career. The cowardly likable fellow has been given his best adventure yet, as Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon is a huge improvement over a creative title that happened to have an interesting backstory back in 2001.

The mechanics and the length have been vastly improved, however, I do miss the special portrait ghosts from the GameCube version. This is the only nitpicking I could find, other than that there are no checkpoints between the missions, and sometimes these can last up to 30 minutes.

As Luigi, it will be your task to search for the pieces of the Dark Moon in order to restore the habiting ghost's senses which have been twisted by King Boo and his fellow Boo's. There are 5 different mansions to be found this time.

Exploration is a vital keypoint into experiencing this, and this time, a lot of secrets have been added so that if you look well enough, rewards and satisfaction can be found. Special valuable gems are selectively chosen to be harder to find than mere hidden coin or bill staches.

The mansions themselves are split into missions, where Professor Elvin Gadd will once again guide Luigi through the next objective, using the Dual Screen. This time, the second screen on the 3DS will naturally offer a helpful map feature alongside some statistics and a list of objectives.

It wouldn't be complete without the actual ghost hunting however! You are equipped with the Poltergust 5000, a powerful vacuum cleaner specialized into flashing and capturing ghosts or other objects.

Blowing or sucking are part of the overall gameplay, as creative puzzles and new elements continue to pop up throughout the long adventure. The mood is spooky yet funny and adorable. The level design is compelling because everything clicks regarding progressing.

The Thrill Tower, or the multiplayer is surprisingly exceptional and one of the best online sessions I've had in recent memory. There are plenty of modes including clearing ghosts quickly and finding the puppy dogs quickly.

There is enough added to the multiplayer in order to consider it, which also includes 3 difficulties, an endless mode, upgrades, bonuses and from what I have seen fluent online gameplay, although the occassional connection error and/or players leaving are always present.

Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon is without a doubt the green plumber's best game yet, and one of the must haves for the 3DS in this Year of Luigi, as it is a unique and addictive ghost hunting game with plenty of content and challenges awaiting you.

Rating: 8.5

Haunted Castle

Haunted Castle can reference plenty of things, including a video game, an actual haunted castle, or in this case, a Halloween event in The Netherlands. I am glad that Halloween is becoming more popular, it's too bad I missed this during my youth.

With a couple of friends most of us dressed up for the occassion, including a banshee, a vampire, a guy with too much blood on his t-shirt, two members of the Addams family and myself playing as Billy the puppet, or Jigsaw's way of communicating.

Surprisingly, people wanted to take pictures with me, while some of them got scared of my presence even though my act was that I could not talk, but only play a soundboard on my mobile once in a while of pronouncing that I want to play a game.

We saw an independent movie called "Rood" based upon a fairy tale, a metal band, scare zones, a freakshow and numerous places where things were on sale. I gotta say that the carnival zone and the scare zone were rather dissapointing, or my expectations were too high.

Still, I am glad to have experienced a somewhat horror "maze" for the first time, although I think there are better ones out there. Other recognizable figures I saw were plenty of witches, zombies, a quarantine guy most likely from The Crazies, Slender Man, Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees and a random tall guy with a chainsaw.

Haunted Castle was a fun event, if you can understand the culture surrounding Halloween and horror media in general. This might not be the last time I will go to an event like this, as I am already wondering on how to dress for next year.

Amnesia

At the very least doesn’t Frictional Games’s latest franchise have a majority of bugs I found in Penumbra: Overture, and next to that, the setting, dialogue, voice acting and horror have improved.

You are stranded in a large castle, suffering from amnesia and it is up to you to unravel the mysteries surrounding the location and ultimately escape. The creatures following you around had the purpose of holding your tension, you are after all unable to fight back.

Like Clock Tower and Haunting Ground, you must hide, avoid and as an added effect, reach for the light, or else your sanity will get to you. Or, if you look at the Gatherers for too long, you will suffer even worse and your vision becomes blurred and your controls lessened.

Unlike Outlast, Amnesia: The Dark Descent keeps the pacing effective, and there is no repetitive nature to be found here. As your character can only carry a lamp, tinderboxes and run away, you  must adapt to the darkness and solve puzzles while avoiding the creatures.

I do applaud these kinds of independent horror games, removing the violence option and leaving survival horror closer than ever, even more than the original Resident Evil, Silent Hill or Fatal Frame. It's a good current trend.

Eventually the story takes a new direction at the climax, allowing you to make up your own ending, but as with Overture before, I wasn’t really interested in the overall story, I was only interested in the clues for solving the puzzles and disturbing events playing here and there out.

Rating: 7.5

In this indirect sequel, you are tasked with rescuing your children from some vague industrial behemoth known as the Machine. I felt that the narrative and the plot were much stronger here than in The Dark Descent.

However, the gameplay has become even more thin than before. A Machine for Pigs removes item management, lamp refillment, an inventory and even the sanity. What you get in return is a permanent lit lamp while reading journals and storing memo's are intact.

Navigation felt disoriented but I always seemed to be able to find my next path. The Manpigs are a dissapointing enemy, but an interesting story object, as the Machine was created by the main character to deal with the degenerates.

These involve the poor, the beggars, the orphans, the whores, the filthy and the rest of the lowest "classes". I am not entirely sure how the machine for pigs works, but from what I gathered, these kinds of people were captured, slaughtered and then they were turned into pigs.

Meaning they were figuratively speaking already pigs, but the Machine merely killed and perhaps disguised the bodies inside pig parts? Not really sure, but I liked where the story was going and how it ended.

But a story alone cannot save a simplistic game like A Machine for Pigs, and therefore, it's a dissapointing sequel. It's not even remotely scary.

Rating: 6.8

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Notorious NES title that has ruined many children's lives back in the 80's. Since Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has gained negative attention thanks to the internet stars, I decided to delve into this game as well.

What I found out is that rumors regarding mechanics, difficulty and general annoyance all were exaggerated in my opinion. Instead, I figured out how the gameplay works after a few deaths. The game is split up into two gameplay segments.

First is the Dr. Jekyll scenario, where you walk to the right, slowly, while trying to avoid any kind of enemy hazards the game throws at you. The enemies are bizar, including pink gentlemen carrying bombs, singing fat ladies and gravediggers.

The second scenario is played out with Mr.Hyde. This only happens when your second meter, which I call the rage meter, has been depleted(or rather filled up). This occurs when enemies have hit you enough times, but you have a HP meter that also gets affected.

If your HP meter is depleted, regardless of turning into Mr.Hyde, you will die and get a game over. But if you can defeat enough demonic enemies with your alter ego, which lets you able to shoot fireballs and punch, then you will regain a lot of HP and restore your anger.

So what really matters is that you keep note of both of your meters. Sometimes it is better to enter as Mr.Hyde in order to regain HP for some of the tougher spots near the end of this game, as the length is short.

It is also required that you walk as far as possible with Dr.Jekyll because if you otherwise walk towards his location with Mr.Hyde, you will also receive an instant game over. This is odd and frustrating, but only at the beginning.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde turns out to be a very average game, but it's playable if you can outsmart your enemies, it's beatable(As I got to the ending) and you might even slightly like it when you understand what is required from you.

By no means an above average NES game, but it was fun to prove the pessimists wrong about this title, as there are worse games out there.

 Rating: 6.0

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

Silicon Knights was once a successful second party developer for Nintendo until they became third party, and slowly started melting down their success after the bummer known as Too Human and having financial problems.

Recently a spiritual successor towards Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem was announced on Kickstarter, but that too seems to have problems as it was unable to reach their funding goal, for now at least.

It's a shame to see them falling down like this. It's the same with Rare Ltd., but that's even worse and honestly should be reserved for another post. Let's just take a trip back to the era of GameCube, where a decade ago, arguably the best horror of that console was released.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is a third person adventure with a revolutionary sanity system implemented where your character will go insane because of the monsters and the scary environments.

The higher your meter, the worse you will start hallucinating and experience nightmares such as blood dripping from the walls, haunting voices, your character dying or even breaking the fourth wall such as erasing your memory card with all of your save files.

It also has a remarkable varied soundtrack that alongside the different chapters and their settings attempt to capture the atmosphere of all of the locations. From medieval times to ancient Persia and Cambodia, there is certainly enough variety, the same goes for the twelve playable characters.

The story is about an ancient evil rising up, possessing one of the twelve characters, and it's up to you to stop it. What's more interesting is that you are able to choose one essence from 3 ancient gods, giving you either more strength, more intelligence or more sanity.

There are 3 main gods involved; Chattur'gha the Red, Ulyaoth the Blue and Xel'lotath the Green. They have a rock-paper-scissor theme playing, and this also reflects back with the enemy design and how your characters benefit depending on which essence you will choose.

In the shadows however, a fourth being is involved, who is called the Corpse God Mantorok the Purple. And there are even subtle hints that a fifth Yellow god exists too, but we might never know the lore of Eternal Darkness fully.

Gameplay involves puzzles, combat, magic spells and the sanity effects I talked earlier about. By using a specific alignment, you will be able to enhance weapons, change the puzzles, invoke a strength and a weakness plus change the story considerably depending on which god you choose.

Eternal Darkness has a creepy tone in general but it's most of all the alignment and sanity features that shaped this up into a unique horror game classic. What's interesting is that Nintendo producers were involved with this project as well, making it the first serious attempt at the genre from the video game company.

Rating: 9.0

The Collector

Why did I not see this sooner!? I’ve been missing out on one hell of an exciting movie! The Collector is about a desperate ex-convict trying to get a debt taken care of hanging on the edge at his ex-wife. As he tries to reason with the loan sharks, he decides to act irrational by breaking and entering inside his new employer’s country home to perform a heist.

Arkin the ex-con attempts to break the safe holding a valuable ruby, but the collector has then entered and locked the room he was in. Arkin’s new boss Michael appears bloody and beaten, and as he attempts to attack him, a trap goes off around the golf club he wanted to pick up, knocking him out.

As Arkin tries to call 911, another trap is set on the phone while the windows have been boarded up with razors behind them, keeping communication and escape out. From then on out, The Collector becomes Home Alone for adults, with unpredictable deadly traps awaiting all around the home and victims being dispersed in such ways that chaos is controlled for a while, until Arkin starts to outsmart the collector.

The suspense and intensity got better and better the longer I watched and there were scenes where I really got surprised of the creative outcomes, plus the gore and deaths will make gore seekers very happy.

Some really solid acting work from Arkin and realistic reactions from the others in this bizarre situation, while the collector himself might look bland first, but his actions surely only made him more memorable the longer I watched.

And he is supposed to have a theme with spiders playing, as he appears to be an exterminator for insects, has spider eyes and takes care of them, like they are his family. This is a must see for thriller and horror fans, where gore and Home Alone fans will especially be pleased!

Rating: 7.5

The Collection is pretty good but not as clever as the first. Effective sequel promising more of the good same traps, action, gore and thrills, The Collection goes more overboard and felt more chaotic during scenes but during the background too.

Arkin is blackmailed by a private mercenary group to rescue a wealthy man’s daughter from a booby trapped warehouse where the collector resides. As expected, the group dies off one by one, and this felt more all over the place. Still, there is creativity and exciting action to be found, and we still do not know the real relationship between Arkin and the collector, nor the latter’s motive(s).

Yes, he collects certain victims, but why? And how are they all being tested? Are the collection boxes a trademark or do they serve a higher purpose? Have these questions been answered already through hints, or will a third film reveal these? In any case, both of them were definitely something different, creative and have good thrills, action and acting.

Rating: 7.0

Macabre

I have discovered a new horror gem. A sophisticated Indonesian slasher with influences and elements including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Macabre is a gruesome tale about a group of normal adults that get invited towards a cannibalistic family, unknowingly of their intentions.

Also known as Rumah Darah, the buildup towards the main event is effectively introducing us towards the group, which consists of a married couple with the wife being pregnant, 3 male friends and the husband's sister.

The latter must first be convinced to wave goodbye to the couple(who are traveling to Sydney), but thanks to a conflict happening at the bar she works in, apparently she needs to recover from this, and thus she goes along.

Before continueing on the road, they pick up a stranger, Maya, who thanks them for the ride and invites them to meet her mother. The way this buildup plays up until the dinner scene is portrayed naturally, with no acting hiccups being visible for me, even if it's foreign.

The way the group gets separated from each other is not only because of a drug found in their human meat meals(and possibly blood wine), but the married couple wanted to discuss about the sister's future, so they where sent to the guest room upstairs.

Soon after the rest of the group is drugged and fallen asleep, the main event can begin. Macabre is soaring with bloody disgusting shots of decapitations and slashings. The gore flows through the villa where almost everyone dies at the end, and the body count is high.

Aside from being cannibalists, the family also works together with a secret society that has the ambitious goal of becoming immortal. I am not familiar with Indonesian cults, so indulge me about details.

Even when a cop force arrives that picked up one of the victims on the road does this massacre not end, on the contrary, the whole force gets slaughtered alongside the remaining group by the family members, consisting of mother, daughter, son and butcher/pervert son.

It's easy to say that acting, directing, cinematography or other cinematic terms are inferior in the horror genre. These excuses however do not apply here, for the characters all appeared human with the exception of the mother character perhaps for surviving a bit too much coming after her.

The cop force may have acted not smart, but they didn't look that professional either from appearances, so I can forgive how they reacted towards the madness coming after them. This family sure knows how to operate.

If you liked the French wave of horror from the late twenty zeroes, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or any gory horror, for this one is very nasty, without further ado, go see Macabre immediately, because this Indonesian horror deserves more attention from the target audience.

Rating: 7.5

Evil Dead

It has been five years already since I last saw this incredible trilogy. What follows below are the old reviews from the trilogy and below that the recent review about the remake which came out last April.

The Evil Dead

And BAM, just like that! I can glady say that The Evil Dead is another movie who lives up to it's name as one of the best horror movies out there. Forget Halloween, forget Nightmare on Elm Street, forget Alien.

Having seen this movie for the first time today, I am honestly very surprised, considering the low budget, the special effects and the fact that Sam Reimi and friends just wanted to make a fun little horror movie.

It turns out that The Evil Dead is intense, very intense. It has scary moments, point of view scenes, suspense and fear and even lots of gore. Obviously not as much gore as Braindead, but it has a respectable amount if I may say.

The evil beings are not zombies, but demons in my opinion. A few parts are funny, intentional or not, but others are definitely scary too, so I am definitely happy to have found a scary movie once again. Sam Raimi's debut deserves all the respect in my eyes, for The Evil Dead truly is a great movie.

Rating: 8.5

 Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn

Delicious combination of horror and comedy! Evil Dead 2 is one heck of a ride of randomness, cat scares, gore, crazyness and entertainment. This is definitely a movie with no logic. Our hero Ash somehow gets stuck again in this crazy remakish/sequelish movie against the demons.

First he is busy with personal matters, then a group of humans arrive as well, and things start to get even more crazy. But although I enjoyed watching this wacko flick, I must say that I prefer the original Evil Dead over this one.

Evil Dead 2's greatest point is that it is mindless entertainment, but in my opinion, Sam Raimi went a bit too far by making too many over the top moments. Other good parts were the very quick scares, the "laughing scene" and Ash equipped with weaponry.

I also prefer the demons from the original over this one. So, in overall, Evil Dead 2 truly is a must see for horror fans, as it definitely is not always a comedy. Another worthwhile classic.

Rating: 7.5

Army of Darkness

The serie's weakest link, but it's humor was pretty funny. The fear and suspense moments were pretty much gone in this one. Army of Darkness feels totally different from The Evil Dead or Dead by Dawn, Ash being stuck in 1300 or something and all.

As I said, some of the humor was funny, and some ridiculous scenes are also present. The army of darkness was cheesy but entertaining, and some of Ash's one liners were funny, such as the infamous "This is my BOOMSTICK!".

It seems that at the end, the evil dead are still alive in present day, I wonder though...will they only disappear once Ash is dead himself? Remember, only he was the survivor from the past 2 movies, and the dead even follow him sort of in Army of Darkness.

The evil Ash was also briefly seen in Dead by Dawn. Eh whatever, it isn't that important. I applaud the absurd nature. And with Army of Darkness, it has ended well, but obviously the story is very much likely not over yet. There have been talks of an Evil Dead 4 for a while now by Sam Reimi. I wonder if it will ever get released, but meanwhile, there's a new kid in town.

Rating: 7.0

Evil Dead

Join the haunted house ride! You’re gonna love what we have in store for you, as anything is possible and expectations become lifted away. This is a new horror remake to challenge the viewers and the best of horror cinema in general. Regarding shock and gore, this is delivering very, very much. However, it does not surpass the original or even it’s quasi sequel.

Escalation regarding shock and gore include a demon licking a sharp working knife with tongue, ripping it into two, a girl slicing of her infecting arm with an electronic kitchen knife, a girl slashing open her mouth, a girl vomiting with either red blood or worse, a spike “gun” device being used to wound, crowbar violence, bone fragments, chainsaw to the mouth splitting someone in two and literally bloody rain.

You can tell from the opening scene that they are trying to deliver for the horror fans, after the first victim turns into the monster. Evil Dead the remake progresses quick, and classic scenes from the original include the ghostly camera technique, the tree “rape” scene, combined with new jump scares early on.

The new cast features a little sister who is unstable after her mother’s death and has overdosed already. Her big brother is annoyed upon in the group because of being quite often late with events. The high school teacher invokes the forbidden words to let hell return inside and around the cabin, and the two remaining girls are more supportive and minor than anything.

As you can guess, Evil Dead does not have a happy ending. It does feature a Bruce Campbell cameo appearance after the credits, pronouncing “groovy” in an older tone. It's an odd way of ending something like this, but at least it can be called fan service.

Rating: 7.5

Sweet Home

Highly original Famicom horror RPG where your group is interested in the work of Lady Mamiya’s fresco’s. Unbeknownst to anyone, they are soon stuck inside the lady’s mansion and must work together in ways I never saw before anywhere else in video gaming.

It is still largely very playable if you happen to try it translated, the game isn’t really cheap with awkward design, it is rather intelligently designed that each character has an ability to overcome obstacles in the mansion.

Plus, the graphics are great, especially towards the monsters inhabiting around, and the horror effects are just marvelous for 8 bit standards. The music is effective, and best of all the gameplay is very original in that you can call for help during battles, carry up to 2 items per character, pray at uncertain and desperate moments and traverse with 2 groups.

There is more, such as there are no typical RPG inns or shops to be found, every item is scattered around, plus once a character dies, it is permanent, much like Fire Emblem. Sweet Home is created in such a way so that items, even ability items, can be replaced if a person happens to die.

It is wise to level up at certain areas before going deeper in this haunted location. The game is not punishing, but only if you decide to take your time and not to rush things. You will be walking around and gathering clues along to way for the puzzles in the mean time anyway.

Sweet Home is the original survival horror game from Capcom, and is absolutely a must play for everyone interested in the horror history of video games.

Rating: 7.4