Ranking Scary Movies

I’ve love horror movies. I always have, ever since I was a little kid. Not sure why, there’s just something primal in them that appeals to me.

In my house, we have movie night every Saturday. We cycle so that my son picks the movie one week, my daughter the next, and my wife or I on the third week. However, in October I take over the movie decision-making for a selection of age-appropriate scary movies. I even make up a flyer and everything! Here’s this year’s:

As we’ve done with the James Bond movies and the comic book movies, let’s rank the horror movies. As this blog topic continues in coming weeks, we’ll do the ones I’m watching with my family this year, as well as last year’s. In addition, we’ll do some other ones I’ve seen in the past few years.

As with the James Bond movies, we’ll come up with a little rubric so this is scientific. Let’s score it out of ten points.

Story/Plot/Characters–Is it coherent and logical? Are the characters realistic? Acting, directing? (4 points)

Special Effects–This will be on something of a curve, so that movies from, say, the 1930s will be graded against other movies from the same era. (2 points)

Scariness–Duh, a horror movie should be scary. (2 points)

Atmosphere/Freakiness–This seems separate from sheer scariness to me. A lot of movies might not be that scary but are appealing as horror movies because of the atmosphere. (2 points)