#81: THE OMEN (1976)

TW: Suicide

THRILL SCALE 1-10

8

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, once, but I can barely remember when. It may have been 10 years ago, it may have been 20

BEST SEQUENCE

The very early scene when Damien's nanny hangs herself

BEST LINE

"Damien! Damien! Damien, look at me! I'm over here! Damien, I love you! Look at me, Damien. It's all for you." - The aforementioned nanny, her last words before jumping

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

86%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"The Omen eschews an excess of gore in favor of ramping up the suspense -- and creates an enduring, dread-soaked horror classic along the way."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"Mysterious deaths surround an American ambassador. Could the child that he is raising actually be the Antichrist? The Devil's own son?"

THOUGHTS

• More than any other movie so far, my reaction to this movie really fluctuated throughout, which is kind of surprising considering I've seen it before. My pick for the best sequence happens at only the 10-minute mark, and then it takes a good long while to pick up again. Full disclosure, it took me three sittings to see the whole movie. For a fair while, I was thinking I'd grade this around the 5/10 range
• But then we get to the last 20 minutes or so, and man does this movie stick the landing. I totally forgot how it ends, and it gets DARK. Extremely effective climax, especially since things are still left a little ambiguous as to whether or not Damien actually is the Antichrist or just, like, a creepy-looking kid
• The special effects may be a little dated, but there are some pretty gruesome death scenes in this movie, a few of which may have been contenders for the best sequence. There's a fairly infamous decapitation scene, and I also like the scene in which a character gets impaled by a metal rod falling from a church roof
• This is the second Gregory Peck movie on the AFI list (after The Guns of Navarone), and we'll be seeing him again (Cape Fear is coming up, and there may even be others that I'm forgetting). Funnily enough I never really considered him a "thrilling" actor, but he's certainly well represented in this list. Just like in The Guns of Navarone, he brings a lot of gravitas to his role
• Incidentally, Peck plays an American diplomat, the Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and I haven't a clue what that job actually entails
• This is also the second appearance of composer Jerry Goldsmith (I really liked his work on Poltergeist), and looking at Goldsmith's credits, we'll be hearing his music several more times throughout the list (Chinatown, Alien, and Planet of the Apes, to name a few). The Omen brought Goldsmith his only Oscar and it's a pretty effective score, heavily influenced by religious choral music
• Speaking of influences, I kept thinking of this movie as kind of a combination of Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist, while not quite being as impactful as either of those classics. And the AFI agrees; Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist are both in the top 10
• Finally, the significance of 666, the number of the beast, is really hammered home. People have birthmarks in the shape of the number, Damien was born at 6 AM on June 6th, and the movie was even released on June 6th, 1976, in the UK. I have to imagine that this movie played a big part in solidifying 666 as a satanic number in the public consciousness

Up next: Time to get caught up with Marvel! It'll be Eternals, which I've already seen, Spider-Man: No Way Home, which I'm planning to see in the theatre, and then I'm very excited to say we'll be starting on the first block of thrilling movies which have been voted into the list by readers like you!

#82: THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

1.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Never

BEST SEQUENCE

The worldwide electrical outage orchestrated by Klaatu to demonstrate his power to all of humanity

BEST LINE

"I'm impatient with stupidity. My people have learned to live without it."

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

95%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Socially minded yet entertaining, The Day the Earth Stood Still imparts its moral of peace and understanding without didacticism."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"An alien lands in Washington, D.C. and tells the people of Earth that they must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets."

THOUGHTS

• More like The 90 Minutes My Life Stood Still
• Catty remarks aside, let's talk Thrill Scale. It's an entirely unscientific process. I don't have a rubric, there's no specific criteria. Really, whatever number I assign is just a way for me to quantify my gut reaction to these movies. Going into this I was uncertain how low these scores would go; this is a list of the most thrilling movies of all time, so surely there's a good chance I'd be fairly entertained by all of them. But I can definitely state that while watching The Day the Earth Stood Still I was the least entertained, the least thrilled, out of any of these movies so far
•  And I know that this is considered a stone cold classic of early sci-fi. While watching, I was trying to find some sort of justification for this and I just couldn't. It's boring and it's corny and it did nothing for me. I will acknowledge that some of these early, influential movies may have lost some of their impact because aspects have been imitated in so many movies in the years since that the original iteration may have lost some of its novelty, but even with this in my mind, I just couldn't find anything in this movie that would stick with me
• Some of the special effects, especially when it comes to Klaatu's spaceship, were fine. But Gort, the main threat to humanity in this movie, just looks like a tall guy lumbering around in grey pyjamas. I didn't find him intimidating, and I mostly just kept thinking of Sam's Halloween costume from Freaks and Geeks
• Also, all the characters kept referring to Gort as a "robut" in that old-timey way
• And Klaatu's story, of learning about this funny little species called humans, was incredibly slow going. Even the scene in which he stopped all the power across the Earth, which I thought was the most effective scene, was kind of silly. How can we show the massive impact that this would have on people around the globe? I know, how about someone who's trying to make a milkshake, but the milkshake blender won't work! Goosebumps!
• I will admit that some of the Washington DC landmarks were used effectively
• I get that this is a parable about the Cold War and nuclear weapons, and I get that Klaatu is a pretty heavy-handed Christ figure. I'm sure this was a very effective concept during the actual Cold War. These days, the movie just doesn't hold up
• We also had to deal with an annoying child actor, who got to deliver such wonderful lines as, "I like you, Mr. Carpenter! You're a real screwball!" Credit to the rest of the actors, though, at least they engaged with the film
• And so, this is officially the lowest score I've given a movie so far, and it's going to be hard to go much lower. More than even The Poseidon Adventure, another "classic" which did nothing for me at all, I wouldn't be surprised if The Day the Earth Stood Still has its defenders. And who knows, maybe I'll watch it again some day and it'll click for me. But as it stands, I doubt it, and I probably won't have the urge to watch this one ever again. But hey, check another "classic" movie off the old list

Up next: The Omen from 1976

#83: THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925)

 

THRILL SCALE 1-10

5.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Never. In fact, this is the first filmed version of The Phantom of the Opera that I've seen (but I did see the musical on Broadway)

BEST SEQUENCE

It would have to be the famous unmasking scene, but when the chandelier falls it's also pretty cool.

BEST LINE

"..." - Everyone

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

90%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Decades later, it still retains its ability to scare -- and Lon Chaney's performance remains one of the benchmarks of the horror genre."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A mad, disfigured composer seeks love with a lovely young opera singer."

THOUGHTS

• This movie is best remembered for the physical appearance of Lon Chaney's face as the Phantom, which the actor designed himself with makeup effects. As most people probably know about The Phantom of the Opera, the titular character wears a mask for a large part of the story and we don't see the Phantom's face until exactly halfway through the movie at minute 45. Now, apparently in 1925 when moviegoers first saw the Phantom's face, there was much screaming and fainting. But come on, that was 1925, and we've seen some pretty intense movies since then. I knew about this scene, and I was prepared to be underwhelmed and scoff at the weak stomachs of those people from 1925. But you know what, in the context of the movie it worked pretty well. I didn't scream or faint, of course, but it was quite effective, especially with Lon Chaney staring directly into the camera. If you want to see just this clip, you can find it very easily on Youtube. Just look for the unmasking scene
• Speaking of which, as has happened with a few of these movies so far, at some point The Phantom of the Opera's copyright lapsed, so it's now in the public domain and you can find several versions of the whole movie on Youtube
• And in addition to his physical appearance, I thought Lon Chaney was great as the Phantom. Considering he spent half the movie behind a (still quite creepy) mask and the other half behind a full face of makeup, and the fact that this is a silent movie, his physical acting was really quite expressive and engrossing. He especially stood out compared to some of the other actors who were more hammy and exaggerated (we're talking giant stage winks and nudges to show us when someone's being sneaky)
• There have been a few different releases of this movie, including various versions of colouring effects and different musical scores. The version I saw used tinting on the black and white, and some scenes even appeared to be in full colour, which was quite striking visually. This version also used a score which was composed by Gabriel Thibaudeau in 1990, which I thought was absolutely fantastic
• The sets and scenery were also magnificent
• I'm pretty sure this is the last silent movie on the list, so I made my dumb "..." silent movie joke again, but if I did pick a favourite line it would actually be the Phantom saying, "Feast your eyes - glut your soul on my accursed ugliness!" Big mood

Up next: The Day the Earth Stood Still from 1951

#84: POLTERGEIST (1982)

 

THRILL SCALE 1-10

8.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yep, a couple of times

BEST SEQUENCE

Going into this, I thought my answer would be the scene involving the bathroom mirror. And that part is still gory and gruesome in a very fun way, but the special effects were a lot less convincing than I remembered. Instead, I'm going with the earlier, more restrained scene in which the chairs at the kitchen table are suddenly paranormally rearranged. It's a simple effect, but it actually gave me a little bit of a shiver

BEST LINE

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

86%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Smartly filmed, tightly scripted, and -- most importantly -- consistently frightening, Poltergeist is a modern horror classic."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A family's home is haunted by a host of demonic ghosts."

THOUGHTS

• So! Right off the bat, Poltergeist is a bit of a milestone on this list, as it's the first appearance of Steven Spielberg. A filmmaker like Spielberg doesn't need much of an introduction, but he's the second-most represented director on this list (behind only Alfred Hitchcock) and he's responsible for some of my favourite movies of all time. Now, officially speaking, Spielberg only wrote and produced Poltergeist and Tobe Hooper directed it. And hey, even if that was all Spielberg did to make Poltergeist come to life, that's still pretty impressive! But ever since this movie came out, there have been rumours that Spielberg pretty much did the bulk of the actual directing but he couldn't be credited as the director because his other huge hit from 1982, E.T. (also coming up on this list eventually), was released a week after Poltergeist and there was a clause in Spielberg's contract preventing him from directing another movie while working on E.T. Tobe Hooper himself was a great horror director, including the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and both Hooper and Spielberg have said the rumours were false and Tobe Hooper really was the main director, but accounts from other people on set contradict this. Regardless of what the truth was, though, I think we can certainly consider this a Spielberg movie through and through
• And even if this isn't my favourite Spielberg movie, I still like it a lot! As horror movies go, this one is a lot of fun. Iconic scenes, impactful practical effects, and lasting visuals. In particular there are the bathroom mirror scene and the chair scene I mentioned above, but I also like the enormous head coming out of the closet, and any scene with that goddamn clown doll. Like seriously, what parent in their right mind would buy a clown doll that looks like that?!

• And speaking of whom, I really like Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams as the parents. They're cute together and with the kids, and they're also both kinda sexy in an '80s suburbia kind of way
• There are a lot of really funny lines and visual gags which, fortunately, don't undercut the effectiveness of the scares. For example: one character, an expert on supernatural activity, says, "Well, Mrs. Freeling... the determination as to whether your home is haunted is not very easy." And immediately, with perfect comic timing, a coffee pot slides across the table, unaided by human hands. You wacky ghosts!
• The score is great. I kept thinking it must be a John Williams joint, largely because of his connection to Spielberg, but nope, it's Jerry Goldsmith. Nice work, Jerry!
• I loved the fake-out ending. Hugely effective in convincing us we've got a happy ending, only for us to realize things aren't over yet!
• Finally, I feel like I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that this film was rumoured to be cursed. However, I also don't want to sound too glib, because part of that comes from the untimely deaths of two of the young actors in real life. I don't want to conflate real-life tragedies with silly superstitions, so let's not spend too much time on that, but I will mention that the skeletons seen at the climax of the movie, which look very much like props, were actually real, human skeletal remains
• Oh, and one last thing. I recognized this guy! That's Dirk Blocker! He shows up briefly at the beginning of the movie, and these days you may know him better as Detective Hitchcock from Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Up Next: The Phantom of the Opera, the silent film from 1925

MARK REVIEWS THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE: SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS

 

• I liked it a lot!
• Especially in the first half of the movie, the focus on practical effects, physical stunts and sweet martial arts fights gave me the kind of action I like the best in a Marvel movie. The bus fight, in particular, was a very early highlight. The confined environment of this fight scene also reminded me of the elevator fight in The Winter Soldier, one of the best scenes in the whole franchise
• Even the fight scenes which were CGI-enhanced still looked great. There was still a ton of athleticism and physicality, and the effects used for the titular ten rings were pretty cool
• Midway through things got a lot more fantastical, a lot more CGI-heavy, but I didn't mind. They were showing us something we hadn't seen before, and the movie had already built up a lot of goodwill for me
• Loved the connection to Iron Man 3, one of my favourites
• I haven't seen Kim's Convenience, so this is the first time I've seen Simu Liu in anything. It's very cool to have a Canadian playing a Marvel hero, and I admired how many of his own stunts he did. Aside from that, his character didn't really pop for me like other Marvel heroes have, but I look forward to seeing more from him
• And Awkwafina had a few good lines as Katy, but her "in over my head" schtick got a little old. Had a couple of nice moments during the climax, though
• Tony Leung made for a complex, multi-faceted villain. I liked how he played a power-hungry tyrant, but they still gave him sympathetic motivation
• I decided to go to the theatre to see this by myself, and I had a grand old time! I really don't understand why it's not more common to go to the movies by oneself. If you're a decent person, you're not talking to people during the movie anyway! I think I'm going to make this a more regular thing now that the theatres are open

#85: DRACULA (1931)

 

THRILL SCALE 1-10

7

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

No, first time

BEST SEQUENCE

The first official meeting between Dracula and Renfield, on the steps in his castle

BEST LINE

Dracula: "This is very old wine. I hope you will like it."
Renfield: "Aren't you drinking?"
Dracula: "I never drink...wine."

- You can practically hear Dracula's urge to nudge and wink at Renfield in this line.

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

94%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Bela Lugosi's timeless portrayal of Dracula in this creepy and atmospheric 1931 film has set the standard for major vampiric roles since."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"Transylvanian vampire Count Dracula bends a naive real estate agent to his will, then takes up residence at a London estate where he sleeps in his coffin by day and searches for potential victims by night."

THOUGHTS

• This movie is, of course, iconic. Bela Lugosi's performance as Dracula is so famous, so influential, that I felt like I had a pretty good idea of what to expect despite this being my first viewing. He was great to watch, with his creepy stare and his commanding voice and presence
• I also thought Dwight Frye as Renfield was a lot of fun, at least after he went insane and started chewing the scenery like his life depended on it. In the beginning, before he was turned by Dracula, he was kind of annoying
• I also really liked the face-to-face confrontations between Dracula and Van Helsing
• My favourite part of the movie was probably the first 20 minutes. The sets and the scenery around Dracula's castle were amazing, and his introduction was great. The movie had some really drawn-out action, a more modern movie probably wouldn't be as patient to just show things like Dracula descending a flight of stairs, but at least in the Transylvania scenes, the visuals were interesting enough that I never felt bored
• Side note, my whole life I thought Transylvania was a fictional, made-up country, but I was wrong! It's actually a very real region in central Romania
• Once we got to England, though, I found myself a little bit less entertained. Dracula was still creepy, and Renfield was crazy, and I liked Van Helsing, but the multiple scenes which took place in proper English drawing rooms were just less interesting than the ones set in a vampire's castle
• A seminal movie like this gets bonus points just for paving the way for everything that would come after it. I said similar things about Night of the Living Dead. I enjoyed watching Dracula, but it is now 90 years old, and it shows. It's a very short movie, at only 74 minutes, and it felt like it ended extremely abruptly. Lugosi did indeed have a hypnotic stare, and there were some effective shots of Dracula staring directly into the camera with just his eyes lit up, but these shots just kept being used again and again, diminishing their effectiveness. The fake bat special effects are pretty silly, but endearingly so. And finally, something that struck me as very jarring, the movie didn't have a score. Philip Glass was commissioned in 1998 to retroactively write one, but at least the version I saw had absolutely no background music except for during the opening credits. This was especially odd to my modern sensibilities when something sudden and surprising happened, like Dracula seeing a crucifix and shielding himself. In scenes like this I could almost hear the dramatic musical sting we'd expect to have in a modern movie
• But all of that being said, Dracula is a classic for a reason, and Lugosi's performance has been the one to beat for 90 years. If you haven't seen it, definitely watch it to see where it all began, and to see the actor who imprinted this character on the public consciousness. Just don't be surprised if it feels just a little old-fashioned

Up next: Poltergeist from 1982

#86: THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (1945)

 

THRILL SCALE 1-10

5.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

I haven't seen any filmed versions of this story, but I was quite familiar with the plot.

BEST SEQUENCE

The climactic sequence during the last five minutes of the movie is quite memorable with some striking shots and visuals. Aside from that, anytime we see the painting it's pretty effective.

BEST LINE

"There's only one way to get rid of temptation, and that's to yield to it." - Lord Henry Wotton, the corrupting influence on Dorian Gray

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

93%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

None available, for some reason

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A corrupt young man somehow keeps his youthful beauty, but a special painting gradually reveals his inner ugliness to all."

THOUGHTS

• So, I feel like this is a pretty well known story, but just in case, spoilers ahead. As a wealthy young man of 22, Dorian Gray has his friend paint a portrait of him. While the painting is being finalized, Dorian makes a wish that he would never age physically, and instead the painting would age for him. Through some sort of ancient Egyptian mystical curse (or perhaps blessing), his wish is granted. Cut forward to 18 years later. Dorian still looks exactly the same, but he's been living a hedonistic, debaucherous lifestyle. So when we see the titular painting again, not only has the passage of time aged the person in the picture, but the lifestyle he's led has also turned it into a cruel, evil-looking old man. I haven't read the book by Oscar Wilde, so I don't know if the details are exactly the same, but that's how the movie plays out.
• And it really is a creepy painting, done in kind of a psychedelic way, which is interesting for a movie from 1945. If there's a chance you might watch this movie, try not to look it up beforehand. I had seen a picture of the painting already, but if I was completely surprised by it, I bet it would have been even more effective. If you don't plan on watching the movie, though, it's worth checking out a picture online. You can find one here, on Wikipedia.
• Adding to the impact, this is a black and white movie, but when we see the painting (both the original and the corrupted one), the shots are suddenly in colour. It's a pretty cool effect, although I wish we had gotten to see more of the painting as it was changing over the years. Then again, perhaps it was more effective to show the huge change which occurred over 18 years instead of a gradual progression.
• However, the movie isn't really very thrilling, and that might be partly due to the fact that they're quite coy about the evil deeds that Dorian has actually performed. This may be a result of the sudden jump to 18 years later, but we're never told what Dorian has been getting up to over those 18 years. Sex? Drugs? Violence? Overdue library fines? We can only assume. We do eventually see him kill a guy, but that happens after the painting has already reached its final form. And for the first act of depravity we see, before the 18 years pass, he kind of callously breaks off an engagement (with Angela Lansbury, who was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar). Like sure, that's not a nice thing to do, and she doesn't take it very well, but it's not necessarily evil.
• And interestingly, at least according to the IMDB trivia, Oscar Wilde's book was similarly written to obscure the bad things that Dorian has done to warp his painting so much. It was written in 1891, so perhaps Wilde was just showing restraint?
• Dorian was played by an actor named Hurd Hatfield, who I don't think I've seen in anything else. While he's supposed to be a man who maintains his youth and good looks while the painting changes, I thought he was pretty creepy looking from the get-go. He had dark, kind of soulless eyes, and his face was a bit cadaverous with high cheekbones. Plus, there are a lot of scenes which have an off-screen narrator describing Dorian's thoughts and feelings while Dorian himself just kind of wanders around or stares off at nothing, adding to the eeriness of his performance.
• Finally, as I mentioned, I never read the book, but we all know that Oscar Wilde was renowned for his wit. So while I don't know how much of it came from Wilde, or how much of it came from the screenwriter, I found this to be quite a witty movie. In particular, the character I quoted above, Lord Henry Wotton, played by George Sanders. He's always tossing out one-liners and cutting remarks, and he was a really fun character to watch

Up next: Another black and white horror classic which I've never seen, Bela Lugosi's Dracula from 1931.