When A Stranger Calls (1979) -An at home scare

If you've been thinking to yourself, "New horror movies SUCK!" I don't blame you. It seems that it's harder to scare today's generation since were so desensitized by modern movies and video games. Luckily, we can always go back to the classics.
I recommend watching When A Stranger Calls (1979). The simple summary of it is that Jill Johnson (Carol Kane) is a babysitter one fateful night. She gets harassed by a mysterious man over the phone continuously, and when she gets the police to trace the calls they end up to be coming from the house. The rest of film is what happens to the killer 7 years later when he gets revenge on Jill.
This is the perfect movie to watch in any suburban house at night; especially if you're alone. It's not the same scare now-a-days with the invention of caller ID. But there is always that unsettling feeling when your alone at night in an empty house when your mind wanders. You never know for sure if there's some intruder that's invading the sanctity of your home.
This clip from the film highlights the most suspenseful section. It's the last moments before Jill finds out where the killer is. It's worth noting the interesting use of music, low key lighting, and shot angels/sizes that creates the suspense.

Language of Film: The Sixth Sense

M. Night Shyamalan is one of my favorite directors and his ability to create a great movie is shown in The Sixth Sense. To me, this was his crowning achievement whether it was choosing great actors like Haley Joel Osment and Bruce Willis, or conveying an amazing story through all aspects of film making.
To me one of greatest talents in literary aspects of his films is symbolism. One prominent symbols in The Sixth Sense is the color red. Some examples of this are the church doors, Cole's sweater, Cole's fort, the cellar doorknob, etc. To me the best way to describe what it means is a warning, a way to repel the ghosts that are trying to communicate with Cole. A contrast to this is how green was used as a symbol for safety. For instance, when Cole's mother saves him from being locked in the attic she was wearing a bright green sweater. When I noticed this I instantly made a connection to Shyamalan's later film, The Village. However, the "safe" color in that movie is yellow.
Although this film was not necessarily a horror movie it still had great use of suspense. Even though we knew that Cole had the ability to see ghost for a fairly long time. We never got to see how his ability worked until half way through the film. When we notice the cold breath and the mood of the music changes it's as if we feel the same chill as the characters. This film still keeps me on the edge of my seat even though I've seen it once before.

One of my favorite scenes is when Cole is at a birthday party and he is forced into a closet that has voices coming out of it. If you watch it, notice M's use of the color red.