Each week in October, Brian Hamilton will recommend some of the best horror movies to get you in the mood for Halloween!

We’ve been pretty lighthearted here so far. We took a look at festive movies and the gorier side of horror cinema, but those rarely provide more than a single night’s entertainment. They don’t stick with you very long after the credits roll. Today, we’re tackling the big ones; my three favorite horror movies of all time.

Each of these films stirs incredible emotion inside viewers. They do disturbingly good jobs of making the audience feel engaged in the story, even though nobody would willingly spend months locked away in a hotel or in the hot Texas sun running for his life. But when there is a work of art that is as poignant, perfectly executed, and genuine as these films, you can’t help but be roped in. You’ll see things that you’ve never seen before and will likely never see in the future outside of the film. It's Halloween - you better get cracking.

The Shining

In my opinion, this is the greatest horror movie of all time. Based on the Stephen King Novel, it stars Jack Nicholson and Shelly Duvall as a married couple who spend the winter as the off-season caretakers of the Overlook Hotel. Secluded and prone to massive blizzards, the hotel plays host to Jack and Wendy and their son Danny. As Jack struggles with writing a novel and sobriety, he starts to lose his mind.

Nicholson’s portrayal of Jack Torrence is the greatest thing he’s done in his entire career, yet it’s only one part of what makes The Shining as beautifully horrific as it is. Director Stanley Kubrick, notorious for his perfectionism and meticulous attention to detail, made sure that every single frame of this movie is composed perfectly, to terrifying effect. The camera is almost another character in the hotel, a ghostly guide for the audience’s first visit to the Overlook as we survey its long hallways and uncover its many secrets. The Shining was the first movie to ever use the Steadicam, which allowed the camera operator to capture incredibly smooth, long takes without a dolly. I could go on and on about how flawless this movie is, but this article can’t be a novel. Go watch The Shining. Trailer

The Exorcist

If The Shining is the greatest horror movie ever made, then The Exorcist is the scariest movie ever made. Ellyn Burstyn is Chris McNeil, a mother whose young daughter Regan suddenly becomes incredibly ill. While sick, she starts to swear and become aggressive. When the doctors can’t figure out what’s wrong with Regan, and a friend of Chris’s falls from her bedroom window to his death, they see no other choice than perform an exorcism.

This movie is a far cry from any sort of theistic propaganda or morality tale. Chris doesn’t believe in God, and a priest who has lost his faith performs the exorcism. The questions raised in The Exorcist are enough to pique your interest in the demonic villain, but not enough for an audience to get angry about any sort of agenda the film may have (spoiler alert: it doesn’t). We never see any demon in the movie; all we see is Regan being possessed, saying horrible things, her skin a sickly pale color, her eyes full of hate, her body falling apart. By the film’s end, you feel so awful for this little girl, yet scarred by some of the most moving and disgusting imagery ever put on film. I’ve never had such a visceral reaction to a movie. It’s brilliant. Trailer

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Accept no substitutes. If you decide to seek this movie out, make damn sure you’re watching the 1974 original directed by Tobe Hooper and not one of the six other movies that share its name. That’s because, even though the plot for all of them is can be summed up as, “People getting killed off one by one by a deranged killer named Leatherface,” the original did so many things that had never been done before.

When you watch The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, you will feel the boiling Texas sun beat down on your face. No other movie ever made is as raw as this. Its troubled production, amateur production crew, and low-budget set design means that they couldn’t fake any of the things they wanted to. The house is decorated with real animal bones. Some of the onscreen blood was real because they couldn’t get the prop blood to look correct. It all goes to show that the filmmakers are just as crazy as the chainsaw-wielding villain of the movie. The final act of the film, an extremely long and nerve-wracking chase scene, is exhausting to watch. As an audience member, you get to experience a small fraction of the insanity that it took to get this movie made. You’ll want to take a shower afterwards. Trailer

Mugen: If living means bowing down to the likes of you bastards, I'd rather die on my feet with my head held high.

Jin: Well said, I agree with him.

As you have surely noticed by now, as we have journey together through the realms of anime, a small number of names have popped up repeatedly. Most prominently, Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki has shown up several times already and will show up again an indeterminate time in the future. Hideaki Anno and Makoto Shinkai will both be making encore appearances soon. And today, we revisit one of the best creators in the anime realms: Shinichirō Watanabe. After making Cowboy Bebop, widely considered one of the greatest anime series of all time, he turned his creative attentions to a new series. The result—a blend of Japanese history, the Chanbara genre, and modern hip-hop music—is known as Samurai Champloo.

In feudal Japan there lives a young waitress named Fuu. Her life is mostly boring and uneventful until one day when two strange men wander into her restaurant. The first is a vagrant swordsman; brash, reckless, and totally fearless. His name is Mugen. The second is a mysterious ronin; stoic, composed, and elegant. His name is Jin. Both are master warriors and consider the other a worthy opponent. They begin a duel to the death but are arrested before they conclude their fight. After being saved from certain death by Fuu, they agree to travel with her on her quest in order to find “the samurai who smells of sunflowers.”

Like Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo is a mix and match of different influences that you would not normally expect to find together. Appropriately, the title translates to “Samurai Remix”, or “Samurai Mashup”. The show is set the Edo era of Japanese history (sometime between 1603 and 1868); the exact time is purposely inexact, and the characters will often reference events centuries apart as if both occurred recently. The show is heavily based off Chanbara films; that is, samurai films. However, the film also draws heavily from modern hip-hop music and culture. The show features such odd combinations as beat-boxing samurai, blood feuds settled by graffiti contests, and sword fighting merged with break dancing. Both the English dub and the original Japanese audio feature heavy use of modern slang and English-derived words. The genre mixing is not as pronounced as Bebop, but it creates a feel that is both unique and comfortably familiar at the same time.

Similar to Watanabe’s earlier work, Samurai Champloo consists of mostly self-contained episodes, although there is an overarching plot detailing Fuu, Jin, and Mugen’s search for the sunflower samurai. In addition, there are a number of multi-part episodes showing extended stories. All of the main characters’ pasts are revealed slowly, but for the most part they do not play a major role in the plot. Also like Bebop, Champloo’s tone switches back and forth from serious to comedic, although it is generally heavier on the latter element. The show’s anachronism shows up here as well, most notably in an episode where our heroes get involved in a baseball game. Of course, this being feudal Japan, none of them actually know how to play the game. So instead, it devolves into extremely violent NINJA baseball. And it is hilarious.

A heavy incorporation of music is one of Watanabe’s trademarks. Appropriately, Samurai Champloo has a wonderful hip-hop soundtrack comprised of primarily Japanese artists. Included here are artists such as Tsutchie, Force of Nature, and the late Nujabes. Some of my favorites include the opening song by Nujabes (“Battlecry”), the closing song by Minmi (“Shiki no Uta”, or “Song of Four Seasons”), and “Fly” by Tsutchie. But in keeping with its anachronistic feel, the series also includes a large amount of traditional Japanese music. Some gems are “Obokuri-Eeumi” by Okinawan artist Ikue Asazaki and “Kuzunoha no Kowakare” by Tsukioka Yukiko.

Although they may seem like an unappetizing mix, hip-hip culture and samurai actually go together quite well. Shinichirō Watanabe has once again shown his skill in throwing together strange genres and influences to create something new and engaging. This is not the last time that we will cross paths with Watanabe, but until then journey for a while with Mugen, Jin, and Fuu. Take in the Japanese countryside, the hip-hop music, and the sunflowers.

Aspiring 19-year-old jazz drummer Andrew Neyman (Miles Teller) is just beginning his first year at the most prestigious music school in the country. He catches the eye of Terence Fletcher (J. K. Simmons), a teacher and music director of the best big-band ensemble in the school. Fletcher chooses the young Andrew to join his band because he sees in him a talent and a drive to be one of the greats.

Okay, wherever you think this is going, I can promise you you’re wrong. You probably think this is going to be a ­Dead Poets Society-type deal, where the charismatic teacher helps a troubled student realize his full potential and even learns something about himself along the way. No no no. Whiplash simultaneously chronicles of an abusive relationship and an epic battle of two creative minds while providing a dark look into the creative process. If you want an uplifting teacher/student drama, look elsewhere.

Now, Miles Teller is great, yes. His moments of meekness are just as compelling and believable as his moments of anger and egotism. But as good as he is, J. K. Simmons is just in another world. It’s so great to see him finally break out into a near-leading role after having been relegated to smaller roles in the past, like J. Jonah Jameson in the original Spider-Man trilogy and the voice of Tenzin in The Legend of Korra on Nickelodeon. Fletcher simmers with rage constantly, and his calm, stoic moments are just as terrifying as his fire-breathing outbursts. It’s the rare performance that is loud and showy not just for the sake of it. He is horrifying, manipulative, and impossible to stop watching. The two of them take the mentor and mentee dynamic to twisted, twisted depths.

Fletcher’s teaching methods are beyond harsh; they’re abusive. He hurls furniture and breaks instruments. He throws around homophobic, anti-Semitic, racist and sexist slurs with outrageous regularity. He justifies his actions by saying he pushes his students beyond where they think they can go, and that’s how the world will get its next great jazz musician; the next Louis Armstrong or Buddy Rich should be able to handle some emotional battery and a flying chair here and there. But is there a line dividing motivation and abuse? Are his morally reprehensive teaching methods justified if they get results? That’s a question that goes tantalizingly unanswered.

Every once in a while, a movie comes along that shakes you. In its storytelling techniques or technical prowess, it leaves an impact on you that’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen. Birdman is one of these movies. On paper, it’s not all that unique: washed up action movie star Riggan Thompson (Michael Keaton) decides to become relevant again by directing and starring in a Broadway play. He faces countless obstacles throughout the process; his colleagues, friends, family, and even his own personal demons get in the way of fulfilling his creative dream. But the meat of this movie is watching Riggan overcome them and what we get to see on screen is spectacular.

Most notably, the entire film is a single shot. Let me repeat: The entire film is a single shot. It’s incredible. As a result, the action is incredibly fluid, as if someone were simply following Riggan and his cohorts around the set. The camera becomes a character, showing you things in a way that feels completely organic and natural. It gives the movie a smooth, seamless feel. Scenes end and flow right into the next one, usually by some inciting action that the camera 
“decides” to go and follow. Even though doing the entire movie in one take is practically impossible, the fact that it looks so convicing still makes the film a prime example of flawless editing and special effects. There is simply nothing like it.

Birdman is all about the dichotomy between what’s real and what’s fake. When Riggan’s attempt at staging a Broadway play makes waves in the headlines, word on the street is that he is that he is simply using his Hollywood clout to make it on Broadway. Is he genuinely passionate about theater or is this a last ditch effort to be relevant to a jaded 
public? Sometimes, Riggan himself doesn’t even know. Michael Keaton is brilliant in this role, battling his demons while letting us inside his head in bizarre and sometimes disturbing ways. Also starring are Emma Stone, Zach Galifinackis, and Naomi Watts, but in my eyes, the real showstopper is Edward Norton. He plays Mike Shiner, an actor in Riggan's play who takes his devotion to the theater a little bit too far. He demands that everything be as real as possible, from the whiskey 
onstage to his relationships with his fellow actors. As a foil to Riggan’s uncertainty and flakiness, Norton is brilliant.

I had the chance to talk to Alejandro González Iñárritu, writer and director of Birdman, via a roundtable phone interview. The movie has garnered criticism for embracing the fake, showy world that it makes fun of - Iñárritu has made it clear that this was intentional:

Just because his characters are pretentious doesn’t mean that his movie is. 

It’s incredibly rare that we get to see a movie like Birdman. When you watch the trailer, you’ll get a taste for the movie’s quirky, off-kilter style. It’s awkward, yet meticulous. Chaotic, yet calculated. This is a movie that needs to be seen to be believed.

Grade: A+

Moderate Spoilers Follow

The retired soldier / hitman / warrior who gets call back into action to save / avenge someone is a cinematic formula that has been played out repeatedly. Due to films like Man on Fire, Kill Bill, Taken, Under Siege, etc. the audience knows exactly what to expect from the plot progression of films in the genre. Thankfully John Wick knows what kind of movie it is and does not try to shake up the formula to be original. It instead focuses its energy on perfecting the elements of its genre. And in that endeavor John Wick is very successful.

The film stars Keanu Reeves as the recently widowed, retired hitman of the title. When his car is stolen and his dog killed, Wick decides to pursue the thieves and use a special set of skills he’s gained over a long career to avenge his dog and release his pent-up grief over his wife’s death. Needless to say, the population of NYC decreases quickly over the next 100 minutes.

And ohhh it is so much fun to see the bodies drop. John Wick is directed by Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, both former stuntmen who have worked on movies such as The Matrix, 300 and Serenity. Through their experience they are able to craft incredibly exciting, impressive and well-coordinated gunfights and combat. The spectacle is not unlike watching a highly skilled video game player dominate in a popular first-person shooter. John Wick is a very entertainingly efficient killer. The world Stahelski and Leitch create around John and his unfortunate victims is surprisingly fleshed out and different from what I’ve seen before. The underground world of hitmen is extensive, professional and lavish. There is honor and respect among these evil men and women, similar to samurai culture. If John Wick doesn’t garner a sequel, then I’d really like to see another film set in this world focusing on someone else; it’s that interesting.

Keanu Reeves isn’t any more dynamic than he has been in his more recent films, but his stoic nature works well with the character. When he needs to, he brings a welcome quiet intensity to some of the heavier scenes. Michael Nyqvist, on the other head, is a pleasure to watch throughout. A character who starts out as a generic Russian mobster continuously evolves into a villain with a distinct personality. Willem Dafoe, Adrianne Palicki, Ian McShane and Lance Reddick are all good in their supportive roles, but never given much character development. The film carries a serious tone overall but with a handful of well-timed and well-delivered instances of humor.

John Wick is a great action film, but the third act is mildly anti-climactic. Overall, you are still left with a great sense of satisfaction when you exit the theater. However, I feel like it had potential to be something even greater. If the film had delved deeper into why John was so intent on killing everyone connected to his dogs’ murderers and became more of a character study in addition to a very well shot thriller, we may have had something truly great on our hands. Perhaps Stahelski and Leitch knew they would be out of their depth if they had attempted such a feat, this being their directorial debut. Maybe they’ll go the route of The Raid films. The first being an exercise in action, the second being a perfection of action and drama. Let us hope this is not the last time we see the world of John Wick.

Grade: B+

Saw

The movie that started it all. To be honest, it's much more of a detective story than blood fest, but when horror fans latched onto the movie's few scenes of extreme gore, it got all the credit for starting torture porn. The movie stars Carey Elwes and Leigh Wannell (who also wrote the screenplay) as two men who wake up chained to the wall of an old dilapidated bathroom. A cassette tells them that they can "win this game", that they can escape using clues hidden all around them. Let the game begin. Saw also follows the evil mastermind Jigsaw and the detectives on his tail, one of which is a fantastic Danny Glover. The resulting clustercuss of a film is a beautiful example of plotting, pacing, and gritty filmmaking at its finest. With a relatively small budget of $1 million and an emphasis on "The Script Is The Star", Saw will rope you into its tangled web of razor wire and leave you wanting more. The sequels are solid, but stop after the third movie - the first three make for a pretty good trilogy. The first, however, started a new wave of American horror cinema. Trailer

Hostel

Riding that wave almost immediately after Saw was Hostel by Eli Roth. He had previously made Cabin Fever, a throwback to 80s teen movies with a modern twist, so nobody could have expected what came next. Roth, with Quentin Tarantino as his producer, made a movie that is 40% porno, 60% straight-up torture porn, and 100% ridiculous social commentary. At its most basic, Hostel follows three college kids as they backpack around Europe doing exactly what you'd expect: getting wasted and having one-night stands. In a remote Slovakian village, they stay in a hostel that captures them and sells them into a brutal murder vacation ring. What makes this movie so effective, and elevates it above bad-taste schlock, are the lead characters. The leads (relative nobodies in the film industry) are the most stereotypical Americans ever. You spend the entire movie with them as you see what horrible people they are, but as the movie reaches it's absurdly disgusting climax, you'll have find yourself rooting for them in a way that shouldn't make sense, but does. Hostel walks a very fine line between bad taste and making its point. Trailer

Dead Alive*

Fun Fact: Before Peter Jackson made arguably the greatest trilogy in cinema history, he made a whole series of bloody, campy movies in the late 80s and early 90s. My favorite of these forgotten gems is called Dead Alive from 1991. Set in New Zealand (big surprise), it follows Lionel Cosgrove, who lives with his overbearing mother, Vera. She is bitten by an infected rat-monkey and turns into a zombie. Lionel spends the rest of the movie coming to terms with his mother's transformation while also dealing with his developing feelings for a local girl… but mostly fighting the zombie outbreak that overcomes the town. The cinematography is insane. Zooms, Dutch angles, unflattering close ups, and unparalleled energy make Dead Alive a visual treat from the get-go. Even if it's not the most technically perfect movie ever made, an insane amount of care was put into making sure it looks unique. What's actually on camera, however, will blow your mind. Mind-bending puppets and prosthetics. Lighting reminiscent of a shitty local haunted house. Dead Alive holds the record for most blood used during a film production, with 300 liters of fake blood in the final scene alone. There is a lawnmower involved. Best of all, all of this is done in an extremely silly way, unlike the two previously discussed films. I can't overstate enough how much fun this movie is and the bizarre emotional impact it'll have on you. It's one of my all time favorite movies. Watch it. Trailer

*Also known as Braindead in some parts of the world. You know it's good if it has multiple titles. 

Fans of Studio Ghibli know quite well that it’s most highly-acclaimed director, Hayao Miyazaki, absolutely loves airplanes. He puts them (or scenes of characters flying) into nearly all of his films, from Chihiro riding a dragon through the night sky in Spirited Away to a young witch delivering pastries via broomstick in Kiki’s Delivery Service. One of his earlier films was Castle in the Sky (about, predictably, a flying castle), and one of his lesser-known films is about a World War I Italian fighter ace chasing air pirates after he was transformed into a pig (Porco Rosso). So, it is not particularly surprising that for his (supposedly) final film, he would create a film about airplanes. However, The Wind Rises (Kaze Tachinu in Japanese) is not about flying airplanes; it is about building them.

Jiro Horikoshi (voiced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the English dub and by Hideaki Anno in the original Japanese) is a boy who only dreams about one thing: flying. Unfortunately, he is very near-sighted, which prevents him from ever becoming a pilot. After reading an aviation magazine, he has a dream where he meets a man named Count Giovanni Battista Caproni, a renowned Italian aircraft engineer. He tells Jiro that he can’t be a pilot either, but that it’s even better to build airplanes. Jiro immediately decides that he is going to become an aviation engineer and goes away to study at Tokyo Imperial University. Eventually, he gets a design position with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries aviation division. He wants nothing more than to build beautiful airplanes, but things are not so simple. The only planes he gets to design are fighters for the army, as the specter of war looms over Japan. In addition, he meets a falls in love with a beautiful woman named Nahoko, but events conspire to keep her, Jiro, and his airplanes from living a happy life.

The Wind Rises is Studio Ghibli’s first (and so far, only) biographical film. Jiro Horikoshi was a real man who designed the infamous A6M Zero fighter plane used by the Imperial Military during the Second World War (although the plane most focused on in the film is actually the A5M Claude, which was apparently Horikoshi’s favorite design). However, the film is not a 100% accurate representation of his life. Much of Jiro’s personal life as shown in the film was actually based off the novel The Wind Has Risen (for which the film is named) and the life of its author, Tatsuo Hori. One of the characters is lifted from a novel called The Magic Mountain by German writer Thomas Mann. The film is also partly based on Miyazaki’s father, who was in fact a designer for Mitsubishi during the Second World War.

The film generated a considerable amount of controversy when released. Many Japanese conservatives criticized the in particular film for its negative portrayals of war and Miyazaki in general for his well-known pacifist views, dubbing him “Anti-Japanese.” In contrast, some leftwing Japanese criticized the film for sugarcoating history, pointing out that many of Horikoshi’s airplanes, in addition to being war machines, were built through Korean and Chinese forced labor. The film itself discusses the fact that designer’s planes are used for war; in one of their dreams, Jiro and Count Caproni talk about whether they should build planes even if they will inevitably be used for war. In the end, they come to the conclusion that they should, because they “…would rather live in a world with pyramids [airplanes] than without them.” The fact that that the film was released when the Japanese government was considering altering Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, which outlaws war as a means of settling international disputes, only inflamed matters further.

The film has taken Ghibli’s trademark animation style to its furthest extent yet. As can be expected, the film contains astoundingly beautiful shots of the sky, planes, and landscapes of Japan. Jiro, Nahoko, Count Caproni, and all the other characters are drawn in an extremely simple, almost childlike style. The backgrounds, however, are extremely lush, alternating between possessing a sort of watercolor-like stylization and reminding one of vintage photographs. While this is not a war film, it does contain a few scenes of devastation brought about by the war looming inevitably over Jiro, detailing destruction which brings to mind similar scenes from Grave of the Fireflies. The film is also notable for accurately depicting engineering designs and mechanical systems and for the fact that all of the airplanes shown in the film were real (yes, even this one).

Hayao Miyazaki has announced his retirement several times now (approximately six), so his most recent iteration of “retirement” has been met with skepticism from many fans, who expect him to suddenly announce a new film sometime in the future. I hope that Miyazaki does make more films, but if not, than The Wind Rises is the perfect swan song for one of the greatest creators of animation ever; the perfect ending for a man who loves airplanes.

The cranky old man yelling at people to get off his lawn is a highly common, if not cliché, trope in the public consciousness. The character is nearly universally used as undeveloped comic relief, which is easy since we can all laugh at him. But, we rarely think much more about him. We rarely ask why he is so cranky, why he’s bitter. We don’t think that he might have a family or more of a life beyond his role as a character for us to laugh at. St. Vincent shows us that the cranky old man can be more than comic relief—and that Bill Murray’s still got it.

Vincent McKenna (Bill Murray) is, as I mentioned, a cranky old retiree. He’s frequently intoxicated, likes to gamble on horse races, and often enjoys the company of a prostitute named Daka (Naomi Watts). He’s rude, callous, vulgar, and generally unpleasant to be around. Maggie Bronstein (Melissa McCarthy) discovers his demeanor the hard way when her move-in men accidentally damage Vincent’s car, and she receives a vicious verbal beat down. But, through a chain of unfortunate events, Vincent becomes the unlikely babysitter for her young son, Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher). As Oliver spends more time with Vincent, he realizes that the old man may have more of a story than just being the cranky old neighbor.

The best part of this movie by far is the acting. Bill Murray, unsurprisingly, makes the movie. Maybe I’m biased due to my love of Ghostbusters and Wes Anderson films, but I so thoroughly enjoyed Murray in this role. He is perfect both as the drunk yelling at the barkeep and as the sympathetic character who teaches Oliver how to fight after he gets beat up by bullies at his new school. He is able to transition seamlessly between playing the jerkass, making some really funny jokes, and sometimes being a character we can’t help but feel sorry for.

Melissa McCarthy is a welcome surprise in this film. Although most of us have gotten used to her in humorous roles, St. Vincent reminds all of us that she has real acting chops. She plays the struggling single mother, and her character is always played for drama rather than laughs. I didn’t realize that Naomi Watts was in the film before I saw it, so seeing as her as a Russian prostitute was a surprise. She ends up supplying much of St. Vincent’s comic relief, providing ample (and sometimes uncomfortable) laughs. The previously unknown Jaeden Lieberher plays Oliver, and I can safely report that he is one of the few good child actors. There are few worse things in a film than a bad child actor, especially in a prominent role, but Lieberher opposite Murray creates a dynamic that is alternately hilarious and heartwarming.

Now, this is a feel good film. In fact, if not for the Russian prostitute and Murray’s vulgar mouth, it probably would have snagged a PG rating and be marketed as a family film. The film can get a little overly sentimental at times (especially the ending), but it is balanced out by an adequate amount of humor and serious (and not overly sentimental) drama. In the end, St. Vincent is a movie that in a way deconstructs the trope of the cranky old man. Bill Murray shows us we can laugh at that kind of character, but we can also feel with him.

Grade: B