With only nine films to go, the task of writing about 100 films you must see (and avoiding the obvious ones) gets that much harder. I haven’t written about Time Bandits yet (Brazil is too obvious), what about Light Sleeper or Body Heat? – no, too obvious. I’ve not touched any Terrence Malick? Not done enough Peckinpah…
Looking back through the list, I’m going to start where I began, with a slasher movie. Not just any slasher movie – the big Daddy of them all. Halloween.
This film has gone beyond the horror genre, it’s become something of a myth. Shot for very little money it became one of the most profitable films of all time. It launched John Carpenter’s stuttering career properly, made a scream queen of Jamie Lee Curtis and spawned a whole genre in its own right.
To me, this film is bigger than anything Hitchcock did (even Psycho). The great thing about this little film is that it’s still very watchable – it stands up to modern audiences and it’s still inspiring other filmmakers (see It Follows).
I try to watch the film once per year, and I marvel at the music, the control of mood and the ending. If you want to get into horror films, old or new. This is the place to start.
I haven’t seen any of the sequels…
So, 9 films to go…
Matthew Cooper has written for most of the UK soaps, including writing episodes of Emmerdale, Eastenders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs. Matthew was winner of the Lloyds Bank Channel Four Film Challenge, the Oscar Moore Screenplay Prize and has been BAFTA shortlisted. He’s been a script consultant and script writer for hire for over 20 years. You can find a partial list of his broadcast credits on the IMDb.