Instructional Media Center
• October Feature •
Horror it is. Remember "video" in the call# means VHS tape - those old giant tapes that your parents used to watch. We have VHS players in the IMC. Enjoy!
The Shining - PN1995.9.H6 S565 2007 DVD Stanley Kubrick directs this Christmas classic with jolly old Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, and a supporting cast of fun-loving kids (the twins are adorable). As caretakers for a lodge, the Torrance family gets snowed in making the best of it with games of make-believe, indoor tricycling, and high stakes hide and seek. Scatman Crothers provides comic relief.
Psycho – PN1995.9.H6 P8935 2000 DVD A man, a mother, and a motel.
Halloween – PN1995.9.H6 H3556 2003 DVD The most common reported nightmare is being chased by the monster that can't be killed. You can thank John Carpenter for that.
Let the Right One in – PN1997.2 .L48 2009 DVD Swedish vampire movie adapted from John Ajvide Lindqvist's Swedish bestseller about a girl that’s been 12 years old for a long time. The best of the bunch in contemporary vampire film.
Cannibal Holocaust – PN1995.9.C332 C36 2005 DVD A lesson in the importance of unobtrusive research in anthropological study. Said to be the inspiration for the Blair Witch Project.
Rosemary’s Baby – PS3523.E7993 R672 2000 DVD Roman Polanski’s film about Mia Farrow’s demonic child. This film also seemed to give birth to the demon child genre as it was followed soon after by The Exorcist and The Omen.
Eraserhead - PN1997 .E735 2005 DVD What is this film about? Make it up for yourself. Bottom line, it’s twisted and creepy. Not exactly scary, more disturbing. David Lynch’s first full-length film is a must see for film students, an odd exercise in Lynchian surreality for the rest of us.
Videodrome - PN1997 .V537 1998 DVD Cable TV programmer Max Renn seeks out the ultimate in bizarre shows for his channel. He meets a mysterious supplier named Harlan who gives him access to an underground sex and violence network called "Videodrome."
Hell House – PN1997 .H455 2003 DVD The folks populating the fringes of Dallas, Texas have some serious biblical issues to tell you about. To bring it down to a level we can all understand and fear, they host the annual “Hell House” on Halloween. Inside, the actors (mostly high school kids) play out scenes of eternal damnation. This can be viewed as either a comedy or as one of the scariest movie you've ever seen.
Jaws – PS3552.E537 J3 1995 video Selachophobia: the fear of sharks. If you don't have that phobia, you will. Surfing in the US was down 20% following the release of this movie.
Poltergeist – PN1995.9.H6 P658 2007 DVD Some of the visual effects haven’t held up over time but the plot and performance make this one of the scariest movies ever. Haunted house – check. Desecrated Indian burial ground – check. Creepy kid that talks to spirits – that too. All the clichés are in place and played out to perfection. But the scariest thing about this movie… the tragic, real-life death of the young actors after the movie’s release.
Alien – PN1997 .A456 2003 DVD Conversely, Ridley Scott’s Alien made in 1979, has held up quite well in terms of special effects - everything from the sets to the emergence of the little creature itself. This movie set the bar for modern horror sci-fi.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) - PS3556.I52 I58 1986 video The middle version of three major film adaptations of Jack Finney’s classic science fiction novel. Critics seem to prefer the original for it’s political connotations. This version is scarier and the acting is better.
Suspiria – PN1995.9.I8 S872 2007 DVD Here’s a clip from the IMDB plot synopsis. “While alone in the bathroom, she becomes transfixed by a pair of shining eyes outside the window, and a decidedly inhuman arm smashes through the glass, grabbing her. She is pulled out of the window onto the roof, stabbed numerous times, and then hanged by a cord when she falls through the skylight. The huge pieces of glass and metal that break out of the skylight fall on Pat's friend, killing her by impaling her body and her head in numerous places.” Enough said.
Deep Red – PN1995.9.I8 D446 2007 DVD “A psychic who can read minds picks up the thoughts of a murderer in the audience and soon becomes a victim. An English pianist gets involved in solving the murders, but finds many of his avenues of inquiry cut off by new murders, and he begins to wonder how the murderer can track his movements so closely” (IMDB)
Zombie - PN1995.9.I8 Z6525 2004 DVD "Girl seeking lost father turns up on Caribbean island aided by journalist and two locals, where they meet an English doctor, trying desperately to cure a plague which brings the dead back to life!" (IMDB)
Don’t Look Now – PN1997 .D658 2002 DVD from the Reed catalog – “Psychic terror in a Gothic setting provides the chilling backdrop in this tale of a couple's search for the ghost of their dead daughter.”
Les Yeux sans Visage – PN1995.9.F67 Y94 2004 DVD “A plastic surgeon, holed up in a Paris mansion, is obsessively slicing off the faces of kidnapped women and grafting the flayed skin onto the rotting countenance of his beloved young daughter, disfigured in an automobile accident.”
