Published: October 30, 2009 10:39 pm      

Residents reveal most thrilling horror movies

BLUEFIELD — While some ghosts, goblins and assorted super heroes come out on Halloween and roam the streets in search of candy, others creep across movie and television screens to give horror enthusiasts their dose of fright. Which horror movies score highest on the Fright Scale depends on personal tastes.

Fans shopping the day before Halloween at the Mercer Mall had a wide range of horror movies that deliver scares. Some prefer more recent additions to the horror genre.

“I like Rod Zombie movies,” said Kendra Severt, 18, of Princeton. “He’s like a musician who makes movies. He redid ‘Halloween’ and he made ‘The Devil’s Rejects’ and ‘House of 1,000 Corpses.’ The first time I saw ‘House of 1,000 Corpses,’ I was pretty freaked out.”

For others, one good horror movie was enough for a lifetime. Marcia Gurganus, 53, of Princeton still remembers a classic that made her seek refuge.

“’The Fly’ from the 1950s. That was the last one,” Gurganus recalled. “I think I was 5-years-old. My brother and I slept with my mother because my father was out of town!”

The black-and-white 1953 movie, starring the late Vincent Price, told the story of a scientist who develops a way to teleport from one point to another. Disaster strikes when he fails to notice a fly that gets into the teleportation booth with him; the machine turns him into a half-man, half-fly monster. Many found the man with a fly’s head and leg horrifying then, but tastes change.

“Now when you look at it, it’s kind of hilarious,” Gurganus said.

Larry Fife, 56, of Green Valley and his grandson, 9-year-old Chandler Aliff, like more current movies offering sudden frights.

“The ‘Saw’ movies are good,” Fife said.

“’Friday the 13th,’“Chandler added.

“They just catch you off guard and scare you a little bit once in a while,” Fife said.

Two Virginia residents thought for a few moments before deciding which horror movies were the most frightening. A 1973 classic came to mind.

“The Exorcist.’ That’s the scariest movie of all time,” said James Stephens, 27, of Giles County.

“I’d say ‘The Hills Have Eyes,’ the first one,” added Breann Rhody, 18, also of Giles County.

Horror movies edging into the science fiction genre were contenders, too.

‘”Aliens Vs. Predator was good, too,” Stephens remarked.

“’Predator.’ That was a cool movie,” Rhody said.

One resident sent a list of horror favorites that ran the scale of horror movies. Old black-and-white movies like “Dracula” with Bela Lugosi and “Frankenstein” starring Boris Karloff’ and “The Day The Earth Stood Still” with Michael Rennie and Patricia Neal. And the newer version of “The Exorcist.”

Horror movies old, new and remade will lurk across screens this Halloween.