1) Misery (1990)
This is the film that introduced me to the unstoppable force that is Kathy Bates. Seriously, she nailed this role (and got an Oscar for it too). Ms. Bates plays Annie Wilkes, super-fan to James Caan's Paul Sheldon, the writer of her favourite series of books. Annie rescues Paul after a car wreck in a secluded Colorado town. To his knowledge it's Annie's intention to look after him until the authorities can pick up Paul and take him to a hospital. That wouldn't make a fun movie though, would it? No, instead Annie decides to keep Paul. Literally. She decides to keep her favourite writer, injured in her home. When Paul starts to get wise to her game she decides to induce one of the most cringe worthy methods of torture on Paul by taking a sledgehammer to his knees in order to keep him put. This film holds up as one of my favourite thrillers mostly due to how convincing Kathy Bates was. She presented such an unbalanced and lonely individual that can change with the flick of a switch. To this day I consider it one of the greatest performances I've ever seen. I also can't help but think how this scenario might someday happen to Stephanie Meyer and a crazy Twilight mother/daughter fan club.
2) Halloween (1979)
Halloween was the film that kick-started the slasher craze into the 1980's. Although many attempted to imitate, none ever duplicated the scariness or the success of John Carpenter's horror classic. Starring Jamie Lee-Curtis, Halloween is about an escaped mental patient by the name of Michael Myers (no, not that Mike Myers) that comes back to his hometown on Halloween night only to stalk and kill a trio of babysitters. I wrote in an earlier blog post about the importance of music in film. I don't think there is a greater example of how necessary the musical score is to a movie than Halloween. Without the music all we'd have is a cheesy, somewhat boring 1970's exploitation horror flick. Carpenter's score adds that extra ingredient that sends chills up our spines and has gone on to be one of the most iconic themes in film history. Halloween went on to become one of the most successful independent films of all time raking in over $60,000,000 worldwide on a budget of $325,000.
3) American Beauty (1999)
Director Sam Mendes and writer Alan Ball gave us a glimpse inside the imperfect lives of the seemingly perfect Burnham family. Starring Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, and Thora Birch, American Beauty aims to analyze where something in one's life can go so wrong. When did the beauty in life get lost in between dead-end jobs, routines, social status, and all that other crap that people worry so much about. I remember seeing this film when it first came out...so I was lets say at best 8-years-old. I had no idea what the hell was going on in this movie. It was confusing and seemingly had no real plot, but then again I was eight and a) wasn't the intended audience & b) probably shouldn't be watching a movie with so much dysfunction. Again, I'd like to thank Mom & Dad for letting that one happen. In all seriousness though I commend them for believing I was mature enough to watch that film at my age. Anyways, a few years ago this came on television and I re-watched it. It instantly became one of my favourite films. It was something different that begged to be analyzed and questioned. It's the kind of movie that requires a discussion after watching it with a group of people. It was a film in every sense of the word because it welcomed us to sit back and look at this family as it crumbles before our eyes and attempt to figure out why this happened.
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