What does Scorsese consider scary?

October 29th, 2009 at 08:58am Will Pfeifer

This time of year, you have thousands of schmucks on the Web recommending scary movies for Halloween viewing. Most of them you can safely ignore. But when Martin Scorsese — a man whose directing talent is exceeded only by his knowledge of movie history — makes the suggestions, it pays to pay attention.

The Daily Beast has 11 picks from the man himself. Here’s a sample:

5. DEAD OF NIGHT: A British classic: four tales told by four strangers mysteriously gathered in a country house, each one extremely disquieting, climaxing with a montage in which elements from all the stories converge into a crescendo of madness… It’s very playful… and then it gets under your skin.

7. THE SHINING: I never read the Stephen King novel, I have no idea how faithful it is or isn’t, but Kubrick made a majestically terrifying movie, where what you don’t see or comprehend shadows every move the characters make.

9. NIGHT OF THE DEMON: Jacques Tourneur made this picture about ancient curses near the end of his career, but it’s as as potent as his films for Val Lewton. Forget the demon itself—again, it’s what you don’t see that’s so powerful.

I’d quibble with Scorsese’s pick of ISLE OF THE DEAD, which I’d consider producer Val Lewton’s worst movie (CAT PEOPLE and I WALK WITH A ZOMBIE are much, much better), but he gets credit for picking NIGHT OF THE DEMON, a truly unnerving movie that deserves a bigger audience.

Check out the rest of the list here, along with video clips from the movies.

Entry Filed under: directors, Horror movies