An Anytime Movie is a movie you can put on at anytime and be perfectly content. They are movies that do not depend on mood. You do not worry about how long they are, or anything else. They suit you at anytime. They are rainy day movies, or I-am-not-doing-anything-else movies. They are go to standards. This collection does not represent my all time favorite movies, but the movies I can put on and be immediately happy I did. Yes, two are featured in my all time favorites, but that is not the point. These are the movies that do something to me every time. Movies I never tire of. I have 25 of these movies and for the next five Sundays I will be rolling out 5 of them. They will be semi-grouped into genre or have a connection in some way.
It is time for Horror movie week here on Anytime movies. Once again, these are in no particular order.
1. Final Destination 2- I pick the second one because I find it to be the most Final Destination-y of all of the Final Destination movies. Perhaps I am twisted picking a movie like this as an Anytime Movie, but so be it. This installment begins with the best car crash I have ever seen in a movie. It is long, bloody, interested, creative and totally kick ass. Then there are awesome deaths like someone being smashed by falling glass, a body being sliced up by a loose telephone wire and all other sorts of craziness. The entire series does creative things with the antagonist being death, but for my money, the second one is tops!
2. Cloverfield- I know this is not exactly a horror film, but where else are monster movies supposed to go? I know the complaints about this film, but I do not understand them. I love watching every second of it. I find the shaky camera to be very effective in this film, and I find our cameraman pretty charming. Yes, there is a central suspension of disbelief one has with a movie where a character has to have a camera, but I think it is effective. I love all the glimpses of the creature and then I thought the pay off was nice. I was worried they were never going to show it full on, but when they did, I was impressed with how it looked. I will never forget seeing the first teaser for this movie in a full movie theater and for that reason alone, it is worth pulling off the shelf and watching every so often.
3. Halloween(1978)- This is the first horror movie I remember watching. I was 9 years old at the time and far too young for such a film, but I was enthralled! From Halloween, I went deep into horror films and to this day still enjoy a good slasher flick. Michael Myers' killing spree left me shaken, scared and excited. I still feel that when I watch the movie. Carpenter's opening sequence is a brilliant showcase of how to hide a cut to give the feel of a single tracking shot and from there, he keeps up the intense frightening ambiance with the help of the best horror movie theme and great creepy shots of Myers cut into all of these seemingly happy moments. It is still a wonder to behold, in my opinion.
4. Scream- This is probably my favorite scary movie these days. I will always say Halloween is because of how much it meant to me at that age, but Scream is the perfect scary movie. It is absolutely hilarious in its winking knowledge of horror, but it also has some great jumps and scares. It has a killer soundtrack, interesting shots and a wonderful climax. I love the reveal of the killers and everything that leads up to it. As a series, Scream is wonderful, but the first movie just sets everything off perfectly. Any movie with an opening sequence as good as Scream's is probably going to be a winner. However, the scares are not the only thing that make it. It is so difficult to properly blend horror and comedy and Scream strikes the perfect balance of laughs and screams.
5. The Grudge- To be honest, I have a hard time defending this choice, but something about it just scares the crap out of me. And for that reason, I pull it off the shelf randomly. It is not particularly interesting in a visual way and the score is not terribly interesting, but Sarah Michelle Gellar is so committed that I cannot help but get wrapped up inside this movie. I get freaked out by the creepy Asian boy and the black cat. I jump three or four times without having any explanation for it. It just gets to me. I am sure some of it is remembering the first time I saw it and how everyone in the audience jumped, or whatever, but The Grudge just works. I walked out of the sequel, though.
So there you have it. I know, I know, my list is supposed to have movies like Evil Dead on it. Also, Night of the Living Dead should be on this list, but as it turns out, I do not own it on DVD at the moment, so I cannot just pull it off the shelf and watch it at any moment.
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