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When you to to The ABCs of Death, showing now at the Sie FilmCenter, you’re going to get the equivalent of horror tapas — one short, punchy tale for each letter of the alphabet, each delivered by a current or rising star in the genre. It’s a tasty appetizer that can serve as a meal in and of itself, but what if you want more? What if it just whets your appetite for horrific death and graphic dismemberment?
We’re here to help. In the spirit of The ABCs of Death, we’re offering 26 full-length horror movie suggestions, one for each letter of the alphabet, at a pace of five a day for each day the film is showing (day five we’ll actually offer six, because the alphabet and math). Some are favorites old and new, some are overlooked gems and some are just there because look, there aren’t very many horror movies that start with Q, okay?
Scared yet? You will be after watching these 26 films.
See also: – Horror films from A to Z: part one – Eight things every horror movie needs, according to Bruce Kawin – Horror auteur Don Coscarelli on meat monsters, Paul Giamatti and getting typecast
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F is for Friday the 13th
It wasn’t the first slasher, and depending on who you ask, it may or may not be the best slasher. But the fact remains that it is one of the slashers that popularized the genre and made it a perennial favorite of horror fans everywhere.
G is for Godzilla Giant monsters devastating whole cities are scary in a whole different way than some psycho killer crawling in your bedroom window to do awful things to you, but let’s be real — at least you can run from the psycho. When Godzilla comes to town, all you can do is hope you’re lucky enough not to get squashed.
H is for Halloween
Speaking of movies that popularized the slasher genre, the original Halloween can’t be overlooked. It introduced the world to both Michael Myers and Jamie Lee Curtis, plus cemented John Carpenter’s reputation as a top-flight director.
I is for Invasion of the Body Snatchers Sometimes aliens come down and blow the shit out of everything, and that can be kind of scary. You know what’s scarier? When they come down and quietly replace everyone with nearly indistinguishable copies. Both the original 1956 version and the 1978 remake of this one are top notch scares.
J is for Jacob’s Ladder Sometimes the scariest thing happening is what’s going on inside your own head. Tim Robbins learns all about that in Jacob’s Ladder, a classic mind-bending psychological horror story that could be about PTSD, covert drug testing and insanity, or something else entirely, depending on your interpretation.
Check back Tuesday for the letters K through O.
