Movies: scary West

A filmmaker doesn't need a particularly overactive imagination to recognize that the West is a place where anything can happen--the good, the bad, and the scary. From the early days of filmmaking up until the present, our hills, dales, shady woods, and temperamental shores have provided the backdrop for many a hair-raising caper. Here are a few of our favorites, featuring a strong sense of place, that are memorable for either camp appeal, bizarro sci-fi high jinks, or flat-out nail-biting thrills.--A.A.

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THE MOVIE        THE SETTING                  THE THRILLS

The Birds        The everyone-knows-everyone  A wealthy socialite (Tippi
(1963) Rating:   hamlet of Bodega Bay,        Hedren) plays a rather
PG-13            California, where gossip     complicated practical joke
****#            spreads faster than those    in the name of flirting,
                 irritable birds can fly.     incurring avian wrath in
                                              the process.
Planet of the    Malibu Creek State Park,     Astronaut George Taylor
Apes (1968)      near L.A. (Ape City); Page,  (Charlton Heston) finds
Rating: G        Arizona (desert scenes);     the tables turned when he
**###            Westward Beach, near Malibu  crash-lands on a planet
                 (the famed ending).          where advanced apes rule
                                              over primitive humans.
The Ring         The gray weather and sodden  People are mysteriously
(2002) Rating:   trees and landscape of       dying a week after
PG-13            Seattle and Puget Sound.     watching a bizarre video,
*****                                         and a young mother (Naomi
                                              Watts) investigates, as
                                              her own seven days tick
                                              by.
The Shining      The Colorado Rockies in      A novelist (Jack
(1980) Rating:   winter, where help is a      Nicholson) and his wife
R                million snowed-in miles      and son find themselves
*****            away--although front         the winter caretakers of a
                 exteriors of the Overlook    haunted hotel, where
                 Hotel are actually           grisly visions grip the
                 Timberline Lodge on          boy and eventually drive
                 Oregon's Mt. Hood.           Dad nuts.
The War of the   Ripe-for-martian-invasion    Martians are taking over
Worlds (1953)    hills outside Los Angeles,   the world, and it's up to
Rating: Unrated  the natural headquarters     a geeky scientist (Gene
***##            for zapping Southern         Barry) and his girlfriend
                 California.                  to save it. Look for a
                                              Spielberg-Cruise remake in
                                              '06.

* = Chill factor

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