When news rolled out yesterday that Saw VI finally got the proverbial ass-whupping at the box office that the franchise deserves, we couldn’t help but feel a huge sigh of relief. Hollywood analysts will blame a lot of factors that could have contributed to Saw not being number one on the weekend before Halloween for the first time in what seems like forever: the recession, the age of Obama, global warming, Jon & Kate. How about we just had something better to spend our hard-earned $12.50 on than torture porn? More on the seemingly endless number of movies better than Saw VI after the jump.
It seems pretty clear to us that there really isn’t anyone to blame for Saw‘s lack of an audience this weekend except the shoddy studio execs who expected the public to fall for yet another tired horror rehashing when what we really wanted to see was something new or, barring that, at least something truly scary. Not since Jason got sent to hell, then re-animated in space, only to come back without a scratch on him to fight Freddy — in what might have been the most embarrassing display of “horror” on-screen in the last twenty years— has a movie deserved so little shock over it being a total box office failure.
Paranormal Activity, we salute you for being so much better than Saw. And to celebrate, here are some of the other movies — all of them classics — that we’ll be watching this Halloween, comrades in arms with the little horror movie that could.
Suspiria
Argento. The 1970s. Witches. What’s not to love?
A Nightmare on Elm Street
We have this movie to thank for not only keeping a generation of insomnia-afflicted children addicted to caffeine, but also for introducing the world to Johnny Depp. A world without Jack Sparrow? Now that’s kind of frightening.
Dawn of the Dead
Proof that sequels don’t always need to be sub-par in the genre, Romero’s take on the horror of consumerism still holds up. And you thought that shopping at the Barney’s Warehouse Sale was scary.
Halloween
Jamie Lee Curtis screamed her way into America’s hearts in what ended up being the highest-grossing independent movie at that time. Sure, the scariest thing about the last few sequels may have been Tyra Banks, but nothing can take away the power of the original, William Shatner mask and all.
Scream
Just when we thought horror movies were over, Wes Craven taught us to be scared again and it feels like we’ve been trying to recapture the magic ever since. We may still be wondering what ever happened to Neve Campbell, but there’s one question we have no trouble answering…
What’s your favorite scary movie?