10 Most Popular Horror Movies

Naming a list of the 10 most popular horror movies sounds like a game you’d play to pass the time at a friend’s party. Almost everyone loves horror films and it’s not hard to understand why. Thrills, suspense, gore and gimmicks that can make girls jump into guys laps are all good fun. Most people have seen the films on this list but if not, enjoy:

1. “Paranormal Activity” (2007). This low budget “mockumentary” broke box office records while scaring the pants off people. It's subtle scares build as the movie goes on, requiring that you keep the rewind button close. It might seem like there's little going on but the ending is sure to leave you guessing.
2. “Saw” (2004). From the opening till the very end this horror movie keeps you on the edge of your seat. Claustrophobic and clever, it is one of the most original horror movies of the digital age. You know a movie is popular when it spawns five sequels in as many years and gives rise to "Jigsaw," the popular culture killer from the franchise.
3. “Scream” (1996). Made during the heyday of the pop teen renaissance and packed with a who's who of then TV stars, Scream reinvigorated a sagging horror movie genre. Both scary and fun, the film uses every great horror film before it for reference. The killer’s mask from this movie remains a popular Halloween favorite.  
4. “Halloween” (1978). John Carpenter’s masterpiece about a masked killer stalking small town babysitters has become a modern classic. Michael Myers is a pop culture icon. The movies haunting score is infamous in its own right.  This popular horror movie was once the highest-grossing independent movie of all time.
5. “Friday the Thirteenth” (1980).  With over twelve sequels and a Freddy Kruger mash-up flick, this is clearly one of the most popular horror movies ever.  Jason Voorhees has immortalized the hockey mask as a symbol of intimidation.
6. "A Nightmare on Elm Street” (1984).  “Here’s Freddy!” The burned face, finger knife-wearing Mr. Kruger has more one-liners than a stand-up comedian. For a time in the 1980’s, Freddy was the face of horror. There were a string of movies, a TV show, merchandise, and anything else imaginable. It doesn’t get any more popular than that.
7. “Hostel” (2005). What Saw did for torture porn, Hostel took to the next level. Young college-aged guys backpacking through Eastern Europe and picking up hot chicks is a classic male fantasy. Getting lured into a snuff house and getting left for dead turns that fantasy into a nightmare.
8. “The Ring” (2002). The marketing campaign for this remake of the Asian horror film of the same name had everyone buzzing. “Seven days…” The first words you hear after the phone rings had everyone scared to pick up and even more afraid to watch TV alone in the dark.
9. “The Grudge” (2004). Another remake of an Asian ghost story, this horror movie has also become a franchise.  Most notable for it’s scene of fingers coming out of the back of someone’s head, it’s become a popular teen midnight movie.
10. “The Blair Witch Project" (1999). This dizzying film was the low budget box-office king befor Paranormal Activity came around. Filmed in the same “mockumentary” style, the movie became a popular cult hit and viral Internet sensation. The sequel didn’t live up to the promise of the original but the Blair Witch will always be remembered.

5 Horror Films Based on True Stories

One of the oldest tropes in horror films is the claim that the events that the viewer is about to witness actually happened in real life.
Be it alien abductions or reanimated corpses marching into a living room to munch on an unsuspecting babysitter, the hope is that by merely stating that “these events are based on a true story” the audience will be more willing to suspend belief and in turn, be more scared that what they are watching on screen might actually happen to them.
Whether or not the plots of the following films actually happened in the real world might well be up for debate, but what cannot be questioned is the disturbing and shocking scenarios which make these movies some of the best horror films ever made.

1) The Amityville Horror

The Lutz family bought a house in a sleepy Long Island town at a price too good to be true. Of course, the reason for the discount was the fact that the previous occupants had been murdered by a family member. That much of the story is well-documented.
What happens next is the focus of the film and a lot less verifiable. The Lutz family claimed that the house was haunted, and the movie takes the viewer through the escalation of spectral activity in the house. Slime oozes from the walls, flies accumulate on the windows, and the youngest daughter’s room is frequently visited by the glowing eyes of a demon named Jodie.
Even if the claims of the Lutzes are not to be believed, the story that they’ve concocted has long-since haunted the nightmares of those who have seen this movie, and can be said to be part of the inspiration for the television show, “American Horror Story.”

2) Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film about a motel owner who secretly watches his temporary tenants through peepholes, dresses up as his own mother and surprises them in the shower with a sharp knife suitable for stabbing is one of the iconic horror films of all time. 
The film was inspired by the true story of Ed Gein, a Wisconsin man who dug up dead bodies to

Bill Hinzman – “The Number 1 Zombie” Dies

Bill Hinzman – a beloved actor in horror movies has died at the age of 75. First appearing as a zombie in George A. Romero’s 1968 low-budget feature, Night of the Living Dead (1986), he went on to become a respected horror movie actor and was once called the “number 1 zombie” by fans.
Hinzman’s daughter Heidi informed Reuters that he had died on Sunday 5th February in his home after battling cancer. Heidi says that Hinzman will be cremated because, “He always joked with me that if he got buried he would come back!”
Hinzman’s movie career holds a special place in the hearts of fans because he was the assistant cameraman on the set of the Night of the Living Dead when Romero himself cast him to appear in the famous opening scene of the movie where he gets to attack a brother and sister. The scene is iconic among horror movie lovers because Hinzman, as a zombie, bashes the guy’s head into a tombstone and then scares the woman so that she runs off into the house. It’s considered by many to be a famous scene and marks the start of Hinzman’s horror movie career.
Producer Russ Streiner has told Reuters, “We’d like to tell the story that it was a hard audition session, but Bill was there and old enough and thin enough and he had an old suit.”
Hinzman was loved by fans – often because of the way that he always had time for the fans and would often appear in costume at horror movie conventions.
After his debut in Night of the Living dead, Hinzman then went to continue his work with George A. Romero and appeared in There’s Always Vanilla (1971), Hungry Wives (1972) and The Crazies (1973).
Hizman also dabbled in directing and gave the world two movies in the late 1980′s – FleshEater (1988) and The Majorettes (1987).
Hinzman will be missed by the horror community.
Bill Hinzman: October 24, 1936 – February 5, 2012

Horror Films that Won Oscars

When Billy Crystal returned to the stage at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony, he presided over a celebration of the best of the best of what cinema had to offer. As usual, missing from the affair was a recognition of the horror film.
If films like “The Artist” and “The Descendants” are considered to be the caviar of the movie industry, horror movies are more often than not lumped into the junk food category. Sure, you may want to partake occasionally, but it’s really not good for you.
Because of this bias by the Academy against films that even flirt with the horror genre, the list of horror movies that have actually garnered those gold statutes is not a lengthy one. But for those films that have managed to take home Oscar honors, the accomplishment probably deserves more respect than those awards won by other films. After all, the mountain these winners had to climb was far steeper and more fraught with peril.
Here’s a list of a few horror films that have managed to overcome the overwhelming odds and actually win recognition on movie’s most hallowed of nights:
• Black Swan (2010): Natalie Portman won the Best Actress award for her portrayal of ballerina Nina Sayers. Sayers is a gifted dancer who lives with an oppressive mother who had given up her own career as a professional ballerina when she gave birth to Nina. Nina has dark visions that ultimately drive her to homicidal thoughts. Her slow descent into paranoia and madness is no different than films like “The Shining” or “Carrie” so while

5 Best Horror Films Based on Novels

When it comes to the inspiration for some of the scariest horror movies ever made, your local library may well be the place to look. Some of the most disturbing screenplays have come, not from the land of nightmares, but from the world of literature.
Here is a quick list of just a few of the best adaptations of spooky novels that have leapt off the page and on to the screen, frightening the pants off of the movie-going public worldwide.

1) Frankenstein

Mary Shelley’s novel about “The Modern Prometheus” was first published in 1818. It’s the story of a scientist who tries to “play God” by creating life in his laboratory. He is successful, though his creation ends up being a lot less perfect than he had envisioned.
The story has been adapted on many different occasions, from the classic 1931 version starring Boris Karloff to Kenneth Branagh’s 1994 version to variations of the tale like 2009′s “Splice” starring Adrian Brody and Sarah Polley.
So iconic is the 1931 “Frankenstein,” directed by James Whale, that one cannot think of the monster without seeing the image of a block-headed lumbering hulk complete with bolts sticking out of his neck, grunting and moaning and running from torch-wielding villagers.
Interestingly enough, in Shelley’s manuscript, the monster teaches itself how to read by studying classic works of literature. There is no mention of a hunchback assistant named Igor. There is no grave robbing nor is there a giant platform waiting for lightning to strike the hastily sewn-together flesh in the hopes of it provided the source of reanimation.
Nevertheless, the film version where a mad scientist’s quest for immortality meets with disastrous results resides in the pantheon of horror films and has influenced countless other films of this genre right up to the present day.

2) Rosemary’s Baby

Ira Levin’s book of the same name was written in 1967 and became an instant best-seller. The story centers on a woman named Rosemary Woodhouse, played by Mia Farrow, who lives in a New York City apartment building with her wannabe actor husband.
One night, she has a nightmare where she believes herself to be set upon by a demon in her bedroom while many of her neighbors look on. Shortly after that incident, she gets the news that she is pregnant.
The remainder of the film is a tour de force of paranoia, as Rosemary continues to believe that there is “something wrong” with her baby while everyone around her tries to calm her down and convince her that she has nothing to worry about.
The film culminates in the chilling revelation that Rosemary has been right all along, and in fact, the demonic liaison she had “imagined” at the beginning of the film actually took place and that she has given birth to the son of Satan.

3) The Exorcist

William Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel about a young girl who exhibits signs of being

Why Don’t Movie Critics Like Horror Films?

Every so often a horror film comes along that even the staunchest critics of the genre cannot ignore. On those rare occasions, like what happened with “The Sixth Sense,” which was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor Original Screenplay and Editing in 1999, a horror film was unexpectedly treated just like every other film that was released that year.

This is far from the norm. Typically, horror films are viewed by critics in the same manner that many people watch them in theaters – through closed eyes. However, it’s not out of a sense of fear that critics don’t seem willing to take horror films seriously. It is prejudice, plain and simple, that holds horror movies up to an unfair higher standard than critics do for films of other genres.
When a comedy makes critics laugh, it is typically praised. When a drama packs an emotional punch, the critics can’t wait to declare it as an Oscar frontrunner. However, when a horror film accomplishes everything it sets out to do, most critics are loathe to give it any credit. They’ll find excuse after excuse to give themselves a reason not to recommend the film.
Typical “code words” for “I don’t like horror films” from critics run the gamut include:
• Bashing a horror film for being “too bloody, violent or gory”. Vincent Canby did just that in his New York Times review of 1973′s “The Exorcist” calling the film “a new low for grotesque special effects.” However, if the same amount of gore was present in a war movie, it would most likely be hailed as “gritty realism.” Funny how Canby gave positive reviews to Apocalypse Now, Platoon and Full Metal Jacket.
• Deciding that the depiction of violence in these films is equivalent to the filmmaker’s endorsement of said activities. For example, in his panning of “Silence of the Lambs,” Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader said the movie “plays on the desire to see victims, preferably women, get torn to pieces.” He further implies that only sick individuals would delight in seeing such events unfold, totally missing the point that these actions are performed by “the bad guy” in the film.
• Complaining about the “low-budget look” of the film. When “The Blair Witch Project” came on the scene in 1999, much of its success was related to what the audience didn’t see. It was the off-screen screams and the naturally occurring patterns in nature that allowed for the viewer to scare themselves with their own imagination. That kind of skill in horror films, where darkness is typically key to setting the proper mood, is usually panned by critics as a flaw.
• Decrying the lack of “character depth” of a horror movie’s characters. This is true of many films, not just those of the horror genre. Put a bunch of one-note stereotypes into a situation where they are suddenly being chased by an axe-wielding maniac and there’s every reason to be critical of the screenwriter’s talents. But how is that any different than the poorly-fleshed out characters in a romantic-drama like “The Vow”? Just because a character like Jamie Lee Curtis‘ Laurie in “Halloween” is under constant menace and terror, it doesn’t mean the performance lacks depth.
• “It’s so unrealistic.” More than any other negative criticism of the horror genre, this is the one that

HORROR MOVIES THAT WERE BANNED

Horror Movies That Were Banned

Sometimes the directors of horror movies do too good a job. Even when we know that what we’re witnessing on screen is just a bunch of actors using fake weapons and makeup, nevertheless we can be fooled into thinking that we’re actually seeing something we simply should not be seeing.
The gore and violence depicted on film often looks a bit too real for audiences to handle. In a few cases throughout history, there have been films that have been banned from being shown in theaters as a result of governments determining that they were far too graphic to be seen by anyone.
Here is a list of some of the better movies that were initially banned from being seen by the movie-going public, either in this country or abroad.

1) Freaks

This film was shot in the 1930′s and explores the world of circus sideshows. The cast in the movie were actually veterans of the carnival circuit and many of them did indeed suffer from hard-to-look-at physical deformities.
So, when you were seeing characters such as “The Human Skeleton” and “The Armless Wonders” there was no clever special effects at work. What you saw was exactly what these actors looked like every day of their lives.
That realism was way too much for most audiences to handle and the film was largely unavailable for public consumption for nearly thirty years when it began to circulate via underground videotape dubs and at midnight showings at art house cinemas.

• Freaks
• List Price:
• Price: $2.99

2) Hostel

Eli Roth’s 2005 film was one of the first of a new brand of horror film where the realistic portrayal of torture took center stage at the expense of things like plot and character development.
American college students traveling abroad in Europe get lured to a Slovakian hostel, with the promise of “loose women” and a time they’ll never forget. Of course, the pretty girls are just for show and the whole enterprise is merely a way to collect fresh victims for the real paying customers in town: the ultra-rich who are looking to kill people without fear of reprisal.
Intensely graphic scenes of brutality caused many countries to ban the film, and the government of Slovakia was not at all pleased with the thought of their homeland being linked with such sadistic mayhem.

• Hostel (Unrated Widescreen Edition)
• List Price: $19.94
• Price: $2.97

3) Last House on the Left

The United Kingdom refused to even consider allowing this film to run with the most restrictive

ASTRONOM KLAIM TEMUKAN 2 PLANET "ALIEN"

 
CALIFORNIA - Astronom mengklaim telah menemukan dua planet "alien" (asing) yang berputar di sepasang bintang. Astronom mengatakan bahwa sepasang bintang ini merupakan sistem tata surya dengan matahari kembar yang menyerupai dunia fiksi Luke Skywalker (star wars), Tatooine.
Dilansir MSN, Sabtu (1/9/2012), sebagian besar bintang seperti matahari dan planet-planet, termasuk bumi, bukan merupakan bintang yang "lajang". Astronom mengungkapkan bahwa matahari memiliki pasangan yang mengorbit satu sama lain.
Ilmuwan menemukan planet dalam sistem biner, yang disebut planet circumbinary dengan dua matahari seperti Tatooine dalam kisah Star Wars. Untuk menemukan planet circumbinary, astronom menganalisis data dari teleskop luar angkasa Kepler NASA.
Teleskop luar angkasa tersebut telah mendeteksi lebih dari 2.300 potensi planet alien sejak peluncurannya pada Maret 2009. Hingga saat ini, Kepler berhasil mendeteksi empat sistem dengan planet circumbinary, Kepler-16, 34, 35 dan 38.
Ilmuwan kini mengumumkan deteksi dari Kepler-47, yaitu sistem pertama terkait planet asing yang melingkari sepasang bintang. Bintang dan planetnya tersebut, disebut Kepler-47b dan Kepler-47c, yang berdiam sekira 5000 tahun cahaya di konstelasi Cygnus.
"Kepler-47 menunjukkan kepada kami bahwa bintang biner memiliki kedekatan dengan sistem planet, seperti yang kami lihat di bintang tunggal," ujar peneliti Jerome Orosz di San Diego Sate University kepada SPACE.com.
Menurutnya, Sebagian besar bintang di galaksi berada dalam biner atau beberapa sistem tertinggi. Sehingga, fakta bahwa planet dapat hadir dalam sistem jenis ini adalah penting.
"Jika kami dibatasi untuk mencari planet di sekitar bintang tunggal, kami akan kehilangan sebagian besar bintang di galaksi," pungkasnya.

10 IKAN PRASEJARAH YANG MASIH HIDUP SAMPAI SEKARANG

10. Hagfish

Menurut catatan, hagfish telah ada selama lebih dari 300 juta tahun. Ditemukan di perairan yang relatif dalam, binatang ini kadang-kadang disebut lendir belut, tetapi mereka sebenarnya bukan belut, dan sebenarnya mereka bahkan tidak mirip ikan sama sekali. Menurut beberapa ilmuwan, mereka adalah hewan yang sangat aneh dalam semua hal, mereka memiliki tengkorak tetapi tidak memiliki tulang belakang, dan mereka memiliki dua otak. Hampir buta, mereka makan di malam hari mereka memakan bangkai hewan besar (ikan, paus dll) yang jatuh ke dasar laut.
9. Lancetfish

Lancetfish dikenal sebagai ikan yang sudah ada pada zaman prasejarah, gigi yang tampak keluar dan tajam pada rahang dan sirip pada punggungnya. Panjang Lancetfish Sampai dua meter, predator ini ditemukan di semua samudra kecuali untuk daerah kutub, Lancetfish memakan ikan kecil dan cumi-cumi, dan Lancetfish juga memakan ikan-ikan besar.
8. Arwana

Osteoglossids(Arwana), ikan ini sudah ada pada periode Jurassic. Hari ini, mereka ditemukan di Amazon, dan di beberapa bagian Afrika, Asia dan Australia. Kadang-kadang disimpan sebagai hewan peliharaan eksotis. Arwana adalah ikan yang memakan binatang kecil dan cacing yang mereka bisa dapatkan, termasuk burung dan kelelawar yang mereka tangkap saat terbang, Arwana juga dapat melompat hingga 2 meter Ke udara . Di Cina, Arwana dikenal sebagai “ikan-naga” karena penampilan mereka, dan mereka dianggap pertanda nasib baik.
7. Frilled Shark

Ini predator laut dalam, salah satu hiu yang paling primitif hidup pada zaman sekarang, adalah peninggalan dari periode Cretaceous, hiu berjumbai dapat tumbuh hingga 2 meter (Ukuran Hiu perempuan lebih besar daripada hiu laki-laki) dan mereka tinggal di perairan dalam, di mana sebagian

41 Legenda Makhluk-Makhluk Aneh Di Seluruh Penjuru Dunia

41 Legenda Makhluk-Makhluk Aneh Di Seluruh Penjuru Dunia

1. Pegasus

Pegasus adalah seekor kuda yang memiliki sayap putih lebar.Dalam mitologi yunani disebutkan bahwa pegasus lahir dari darah medusa saat Perseus memenggal kepalanya. Disebutkan juga bahwa Pegasus ditunggangi oleh Bellerophon untuk melawan Chimera. Pegasus adalah kuda yang mempunyai sayap dan penerbang yang unggul. Pegasus adalah hasil dari hubungan Medusa dan Poseidon yang menyakitkan. Lahir dari Medusa ketika kepalanya dipotong oleh Perseus. Dijinakkan ole Bellerophon dan melayaninya digunungnya selama petualangannya termasuk ketika Bellerophon membunuh Chimaera. Ketika Bellerophon ingin menerbangkan Pegasus ke gunung Olympus, dia dihempaskan oleh Zeus. Tetapi Pegasus tetap terbang dan berhasil tiba di gunung Olympus. Disinilah Pegasus menghabiskan hari-harinya dengan membawakan petir untuk Zeus.

2. Dragon

Dragon atau naga adalah hewan dengan ukuran yang sangat menakjubkan.Mereka berbentuk reptil dan terkadang memiliki beberapa kepala dan dapat menghembuskan nafas api.Naga dipercaya dapat ditaklukan lewat musik.Naga juga disebut2 sebagai dewa oleh beberapa suku.

3. Yeti

Yeti yang disebut sebagai Manusia Salju Liar telah menjadi legenda di daerah Himalaya.Dari dahulu sampai sekarang banyak cerita orang yang hilang di daerah pegunungan Himalaya, dipercaya mereka telah diculik oleh Yeti.Foto diatas diambil tahun 1925, N. A. Tombazzi melaporkan telah melihat hewan besar mirip manusia 300 yard dari Sikkim.Walaupun banyak yang telah melapor melihat yeti, tidak ada bukti yang menunjukan dia ada.Daerah tempat terlihatnya yeti sangat curam dan landai sehingga sulit diadakan investigasi.

4. Bigfoot

Bigfoot dilaporkan telah ditemukan didaerah Kanada dan Amerika Utara sejak abad 19-an.Dari jejak kakinya diperkirakan beratnya mencapai 400 kg.Bigfoot dikenal juga dengan nama Sasquatch, itu adalah nama hewan legenda yang beredar di Amerika Utara.Bigfoot kadang diciri2kan sangat besar, dengan bulu2 menutupi seluruh tubuh, dan orang percaya makhluk ini dapat ditemukan diseluruh dunia dengan nama2 yang berbeda, seperti Yeti di Tibet dan Nepal, Yeren di China dan Yowie di Australia.

5. Harpies

Harpy, di mitologi Yunani diceritakan bahwa harpy adalah hewan bersayap yang memiliki tubuh seperti burung elang dan memiliki kepala wanita.Legenda menceritakan bahwa harpy suka mencuri tubuh orang mati, menyebarkan bau busuk dan meracuni makanan di desa2 yang dilewatinya.

6. Griffin

Griffin adalah hewan legenda yang memiliki sayap seekor elang dan kaki seekor singa.Disebut sebagai burung terbesar dan menjadi hewan yang sangat sakral untuk dewa