October 6 – December 8, 2017
Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario
Members $10 | Public $12 | Students $8
Join us if you dare for the ten most terrifying films of all time, presented in association with Guillermo del Toro: At Home With Monsters.
Directed by Robert Wise
In this adaptation of Shirley Jackson's novel The Haunting of Hill House —- a group of people gather in a large old house to determine whether or not a poltergeist is the source of rumours that it is haunted. Wise makes the house itself the central character, a beautifully designed and highly atmospheric entity which becomes genuinely frightening.
1963 | PG | 1h 52 min.
Directed by Roman Polanski
Catherine Deneuve stars as Carol, a fragile, frigid young beauty cracking up in her London flat when left alone by her vacationing sister. She is soon haunted by specters real and imagined, and her insanity grows to a violent, hysterical pitch. Thanks to its disturbing detail and Polanski’s adeptness at turning claustrophobic space into an emotional minefield, Repulsion is a surreal, mind-bending odyssey into personal horror, and it remains one of cinema’s most shocking psychological thrillers. – Criterion
1965| R | 1h 45 min.
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
One of the most well-known horror films to date, The Shining is an adaptation of a novel by Stephen King. A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future.
1980| R | 2h 26 min.
Directed by William Friedkin
Controversial and popular from the moment it opened, The Exorcist endures as a brilliantly successful horror movie that still shocks and haunts today. Starring Linda Blair as a girl possessed by a demon, and Ellen Burstyn as her frantic mother.
1973| R | 2h 12 min.
Directed by Roman Polanski
This adaptation of Ira Levin's bestseller launched a trend for satanic pregnancy movies that extended well into the 70s. Starring Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes as a young couple with satanic neighbours, Rosemary’s Baby works on multiple levels – as a supernatural thriller, a psychological thriller and a portrait of marital betrayal. – Anne Billson
1968 | R | 2h 17 min.
Directed by Jonathan Demme
Jodie Foster stars in this adaptation of Thomas Harris’ novel as a young F.B.I. cadet who must confide in an incarcerated and manipulative killer (Anthony Hopkins) to receive his help on catching another serial killer who skins his victims. Widely considered a horror classic, the film won five Academy Awards.
1991 | R | 1h 58 min.
Directed by John Carpenter
Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield to kill again. "Halloween is an absolutely merciless thriller, a movie so violent and scary that, yes, I would compare it to Psycho. It's a terrifying and creepy film about what one of the characters calls Evil Personified." – Roger Ebert
1978 | R | 1h 31 min.
Directed by Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton’s sole directorial effort is a child’s-eye parable of good versus evil. Robert Mitchum is iconically sinister as the charlatan preacher who visits violence upon a widow (Shelley Winters) and her two children, whom he believes are concealing a stash of stolen money. A frightening fairy tale writ in expressionist chiaroscuro, Night of the Hunter is a masterpiece of almost folkloric power. – BAM
1955 | 14A | 1h 32 min.
