Thursday, April 29, 2010

Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments: Watched, Reviewed and Completed.

Strike up the band, get the hanging munchkin down from the tree and make me a sandwich--I have watched and reviewed every movie on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments list and lived to tell the tale. I know I gripe a lot about what Bravo has chosen to highlight and yadda yadda yadda- but the truth is I actually owe a large portion of my horror movie mania to Bravo. I wouldn't call myself a traditional horror fan, who tells stories about how they've loved horror movies since then can remember and what not. Sure I did my community service for the horror world by looking at the VHS covers at the video store and what not--but the big difference was, that I was terrified of them. I wasn't in any kind of hurry to be able to rent them, and I usually muted any horror movie that found its way to me via the TV set. The curiosity was there but I could just never pull through and watch an entire scary movie.

I did however from time to time, catch Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments program that they would air every Halloween season. Every snippet of a movie that they showed, sparked a little bit of curiosity. I wanted to watch these films and experience what it was that truly made them a scary moment. Using my mother's Netflix account, I began ordering the movies I was most curious about. Suspiria,and The Last House on the Left to name a few- and even though they left me feeling off and in the case of Last House on the Left--dirty, I just couldn't get enough.


So began my great intrigue into the horror world and I made sure to catch every showing of the Scariest Movie Moments to ensure that I knew all the classics, and all the moments that made horror so appealing. When I started this blog its main purpose was for me to watch and review every movie on that list as part of my ultimate horror crash course. With a few months of unemployment under my belt and a brand new Netflix account, I was ready to finally watch and review all those movies that I had wanted to see for so long. Over the course of 9 months, I have achieved this goal. The goal would have been achieved quicker but then something quite mysterious happened.


I started to realize that there was a plethora of great and scary movies out there that were not on the list at all. Therefore my Bravo queue was often overruled by the other scary movies queue. This of course welcomes the debate that Bravo's list is pretty shitty if it doesn't include some truly great pieces of horror. While I both agree and disagree with the sentiment- I think that Bravo's list is actually pretty damn good- and I'll tell you why. The key word is "moments". It's not a list about scariest movies rather, it is a list about individual moments that sparked a true sense of fear within you. I tried to go through the list and find ones that I didn't think belonged, but to be honest, I couldn't. Sure I question the ranking for many, but all of them are great representations of cold and brutal fear- at least at some point during their running time.


The program may be the perfect way to get people interested in horror movies because it has the ability of getting people hooked on the movie after only about a minute or so of talking about it. My one main gripe about it however is that you do get a sense that the "celebrities" talking about the movies know little about it- which is at most times insanely aggravating. Other than that, I find myself unable to say anything bad. Sure they missed out on some other great scary moments, but for the most part, it's a pretty solid list.


Through my journey I've come across some truly great movies that I would have never known about, and the list did of course cause my favorite genre of film to be horror- so I just can't diss it man. I owe my horror fandom to Bravo TV, and also my inner gay mandom thanks to Project Runaway....and also my inner chefdom thanks to Top Chef. I guess I owe my life to Bravo and I never realized it. These days they spit out more scariest movie moments and even scarier movie moment lists like crazy- but my heart will always belong to this first endeavor and the way it established my hunger for horror.


Here's the list with all the links to the reviews. Check out the ones you've never seen and enjoy yourself. Try to refrain from dissing the list--it is like my inspiration and all.....jeesh.



Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments


1. Jaws
2. Alien
3. The Exorcist
4. Psycho
5. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
6. The Shining
7. The Silence of the Lambs
8. Carrie
9. Night of the Living Dead
10. Wait Until Dark
11. Audition
12. Misery
13. Scream
14. Halloween
15. Freaks
16. The Omen
17. A Nightmare on Elm Street
18.The Haunting
19. Hellraiser
20. The Ring
21. Jacob's Ladder
22. Don't Look Now
23. Rosemary's Baby
24. Suspiria
25. Phantasm
26. Se7en
27. Frankenstein
28. When a Stranger Calls
29. The Serpent and the Rainbow
30. The Blair Witch Project
31. Friday the 13th
32. Pet Semetary
33. The Fly
34. The Hitcher
35. Aliens
36. Cape Fear
37. House on Haunted Hill
38. Peeping Tom
39. Dawn of the Dead
40. Black Sunday
41. The Hills Have Eyes
42. An American Werewolf in London
43. It's Alive!
44. The Game
45. The Wicker Man
46. The Sentinel
47. Nosferatu
48. John Carpenter's The Thing
49. Diabolique
50. The Last House on the Left
51. The Dead Zone
52. The Phantom of the Opera
53. Demons
54. The Changeling
55. The Vanishing
56. Single White Female
57. House of Wax
58. Cujo
59. Fatal Attraction
60. The Beyond
61. The Devil's Backbone
62. The Wolf Man
63. Deliverance
64. Near Dark
65. The Tenant
66. Marathon Man
67. Duel
68. The Black Cat
69. Re-Animator
70. The Stepfather
71. The Sixth Sense
72. Them!
73. Blood Simple
74. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
75. The Candyman
76. The Evil Dead
77. Signs
78. The Brood
79. Dracula
80. Poltergeist
81. The Howling
82. The Terminator
83. The Others
84. Blue Velvet
85. Blood and Black Lace
86. The Wizard of Oz
87. Black Christmas
88. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
89. Alice Sweet Alice
90. The Night of the Hunter
91. Shallow Grave
92. Village of the Damned
93. Pacific Heights
94. Child's Play
95. Jurassic Park
96. The Birds
97. Cat People
98. Zombie
99. Creepshow
100. 28 Days Later
















14 comments:

Unknown said...

I love you for having this

Liam [Less Than Three Film] said...

Congrats on actually making it through the entire list, quite an achievement!

JLG said...

Congrats! You should be proud!!!

Franco Macabro said...

I wonder why they included Wizard of Oz on that list...oh wait, its because the wicked witch of the west, and the spooky castle, and the woods....but still SCARIEST movie moment? I dont know...

But congrats for having completed this!

Andre said...

Wizard of Oz is questionable but if you think about it, that movie is very creeptastic in a weird, wicked witch, munchkins, flying monkeys way. Soemthing about it is off putting at times.

It's not the scariest moment, but I think it does stand out as one of those moments that scared people growing up- and therefore stayed with them year after year.

Anonymous said...

1. Is there a way to get Bravo's scariest movie moments? This was my favorite thing ever I had it all on VHS many years back.
2. Also did you know they added an extra 30 or so to this list?

Christine Hadden said...

Mighty impressive, indeed! Congrats.

Going down through the list, I see there are only two I haven't seen (The Tenant and Blood Simple)- but you did reviews too? .... you are the man. Well, the woman actually... okay - you're a force of nature!
Well done.

(*heads back to list to read reviews of The Tenant & Blood Simple*)

Andre said...

You can watch all the snippets of each movie on Youtube. I include them with each review!

I do know about the others. There was 30 even scarier movie moments which had Hostel as #1....again questionable.

And then they came out with a new one recently that had 10 or 15 with movies like Hard Candy and Bug--which was actually pretty interesting. They'll keep making them as long as new landmarks in horror keep coming.

Thanks Chris-

Since I blossomed into a horror fan later in life I had actually only seen about half, or maybe less of the movies on the list when I started!

oducerproducer said...

Love the top 100 list, didn't mind the 25 sequel but didn't much care for the new top 10 from last year.

kindertrauma said...

It's been great reading your thoughts on these classic films, now that you're done all I can say is...Bravo!
-Unk

erin k. coughlin (cog-lin) said...

This list also made me a horror fan after a lifetime of being "too scared." I have yet to make it through the whole thing, but I have discovered some great movies because of it (hello, The Wicker Man, Suspiria, The Haunting, The Others, The Changeling).

I also agree with The Wizard of Oz being on there. There is something intensely creepy about it even when the Witch isn't onscreen. Maybe it's all those hanging munchkin stories I heard growing up, but it's true. Also the Witch is a scary character, and she's often the first villain kids encounter. Those psychological scars don't heal in a hurry no matter how old and seasoned you get.

Anonymous said...

Help!

I tuned in for just a moment of this special and saw one scene. I don't know what movie they were talking about, and it's driving me nuts!

What is the movie with the scene where many people are dancing...there's a beautiful girl...slowly you see some sort of tentacle or tail come from behind her...

What movie IS that?

Andre Dumas said...

Jacob's Ladder!
A very strange scene where you have no idea what is happening.....but a great movie that really messed with your head overall. RENT IT.

Floyd said...

Seeing how Bravo seemingly refuses to replay the “100 Scariest Movie Moments” program, or any of its sequels, and the fact that you can’t find it on DVD or streaming (I don’t really count YouTube), I seem to find myself every year around this time scouring the internet for “100 Scariest Movie Moments” info. The first couple of years I inevitably ran across your exhaustively comprehensive list of reviews and found myself entranced in the knowledge there within. Now, it’s almost become somewhat of a tradition for me to hunt down your site each year and bask in the glow of your horror movie reviews. Each year I have this little twinge of fear that your site is no longer up, but again this year I’m happy to see it is doing just fine. Needless to say I’ve come to love this list and your reviews, I don’t agree with them all, but it probably wouldn’t be as good if I did. Thanks for compiling this and great job, hope it’s here for years to come.