Generation Z Meets Generation X: A Review of 4 Classic Scary Movies of the 20th Century

If you've read my blog, you know that I'm a '90s baby. That's right, I'm a teenager so most of the stuff I see and hear, my mom likes to say was "already done right before."

I'm getting into the holiday spirit and decided that why not share a review I've done on four not so new horror films, that are new to me.

Did I mention I watched them all in one sitting? Yeah.

1. When a Stranger Calls                                             

This pillow gripping movie will have your eyes wide open and you falling out of your seat.

In the beginning, it starts out with a girl, Jill Johnson who is babysitting alone in a big house. The terror doesn’t begin until someone calls the house phone and asks, “Have you checked the children?”

At first, she thinks that someone is just playing around with the phone. But then he calls again, and again, and once again. So now, she’s really freaked out. So she calls the police and they trace the call.

When you here the cops say, “the call is coming from inside of the house,” your spine tingles and all you want to do is yell, “GET OUT THE HOUSE RIGHT NOW!”

Jill ends up getting away, but the kids that she was babysitting unfortunately were murdered. The movie the flashes forward to seven years. And the killer has just escaped from prison, and he is set to get revenge on Jill. This movie captivates the horrors of babysitting.

When you watch this movie, you may not want to ever babysit a day in your life. It had me looking behind my back for a couple days after watching. 

2. Poltergeist          

If you are interested in movies that deal with spirits and supernatural happenings, Poltergeist is it the movie for you! But, it wasn't the movie for me.

Poltergeist is about a suburban California family who all of a sudden notices strange actions going on in their beautiful home. When Steven and Diana’s daughter, Carol Anne starts communicating with spirits inside of the television, they think nothing of it; they think that it is just her imagination. But the next few days, things start getting a little strange and objects start moving by themselves. Then their pet bird dies suddenly. Diane first notices this and thinks that it is just a joke, but little does she know, things will get more serious the next night.

What happens next is pretty horrifying. Carol Anne gets sucked into another world by the “T.V. people” that she was talking to two days earlier. And the family fights the spirits to get her back. There is a surprise ending that will make you angry.

The movie is scary yet funny at some moments. It will keep you fully interested from the time little Carol Anne says, “they’re here,” to the time the end credits appear on the screen.          

At first, I was really resistant to see this movie, but once I started watching it, it wasn’t as scary as people claimed it to be. I would probably rate this movie a five in the scary department.  

3. The Shining                                                

Creepy, chilling, crawling up your spine good, The Shining is a hair raising movie from middle to end. While I can admit that it was a little slow in the beginning, when it gets past the first 30 minutes in the movie, it gets interesting.          

The Shining is about a guy named Jack Torrance, who takes a job at a hotel called the Overlook Hotel. He brings his wife, Wendy, and his son, Danny, to move into the hotel with him. Together, they take care of the hotel.

What Jack soon finds out is that the hotel is very haunted. He also finds out that in the past, a caretaker went crazy and killed his wife and two kids. Soon enough, Jack starts to do the same.          

Jack and Wendy’s physic son sees visions of the past and the near future. What Danny sees is horrifying and soon the hotel turns into a mad house. From the time Jack says “here’s Johnny,” till the bitter end where Wendy and little Danny are running for their lives, you are literally rocking back and forth wondering what’s going to happen to them next.          

The movie keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time.  

4. Psycho

Psycho is about a crazy motel owner who dresses up as a woman and kills anyone that stays at his motel. To him, he is his deceased mother, but to everyone else, he is just a man.

It all starts out with a business woman, Marion Crane who steals $40,000 from her job. Then she goes fleeing from Phoenix, Ariz., to Fairville, Calif., so that she can live happily with her divorced lover, Sam Loomis. On her way there, she stops by a motel to crash there for the night. That’s where she meets Norman Bates, the motel owner.

The two quickly hit it off. Later, Marion hears a woman speaking to him in an aggressive tone. Little does she know is that it’s his crazy psycho mother. His mother is jealous of the two’s attraction to each other. Norman decides that Marion should die for his mother’s sake. He has his mother kill Marion. After about a week, Marion’s sister Lila and Marion’s lover, Sam begin to worry. Marion hasn’t called, seen or been at work for over a week. They decide to set out and search for her. And they soon discover a shocking twist in the end.          

Psycho is more of a thriller then a horror movie to me. Some scenes make you jump a little. And the others just weren’t scary. If you are looking for a heart pounding, nightmare filling, truly scary horror movie, Psycho is not the movie to see. The script is great, but the acting could have been better. All together, the movie would get 1 1/2 thumbs up from me.

All-in-all, I enjoyed my classic horror films cram session. Tell me, what classic horror films do you enjoy watching as Halloween nears?