Be very afraid

From the moment we leave the womb, we are forced to face fear.

This is only natural, since we come from people who had to brave real-life lions, tigers and bears on a daily basis. When you never know what’s going to jump out at you, it’s always a good idea to be prepared.

And nothing charges our adrenaline better than fear.

In the modern world we live in, the vast majority of us – in America, at least – don’t walk around facing daily threats more obvious than a wayward driver or a surly retail clerk.

Yet we’ve inherited the genetic tendencies of our ancestors. And this is my pop-psychology way of explaining why so many of us are drawn to horror films.

Of the top 25 highest-grossing films ever made, most prey on some basic fear.

“Titanic”? Still the overall leader with more than $600 million in the bank. And why not? What’s more frightening than your ocean liner hitting a looming iceberg, being stuck in the narrow corridors of a sinking ship and then foundering in an icy ocean as your sodden clothes pull you down into the dark void?

“Star Wars”? Two words: Darth Vader. Isn’t he the ultimate bogeyman, made ever more complex because of the obvious oedipal references?

“Jurassic Park”? Velociraptors and T. Rexes are just far more scary version of lions, tiger and bears – not to mention surly sales clerks.

You get the idea. And so does Hollywood, which is why so many movies have based their plots, their very concepts, on one or more of our inherent human fears.

Since Halloween is just around the corner, and since being afraid, very afraid, is the basis of that holiday, we thought we’d list the top seven of those fears and some movies that exploit them.

(Note: The list is based on a 2005 Gallup Poll of the most common fears of teenagers.)

Terrorist attacks

Everyone remembers what he or she was doing on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when those two planes flew into the Twin Towers of New York’s World Trade Center.

So right away, we have to mention Paul Greengrass’ 2006 film “United 93.” Though far more than a mere exercise in horror, “United 93” puts us in the hijacked plane that never made its intended target (never confirmed) and instead crashed in a Pennsylvania field.

Other candidates: “Body of Lies,” “Collateral Damage,” “Die Hard,” “The Kingdom,” “Munich,” “Patriot Games”

Spiders

James Bond has faced many deadly foes. But one of the most frightening to the arachnophobes among us appears in the 1962 film “Dr. No” when Bond (the great Sean Connery) is stalked by a poisonous spider.

It isn’t particularly big, as are most spiders included in this category, but irrational fears don’t necessarily recognize size. Big is as big feels.

Other candidates: “Arachnid,” “Arachnophobia,” “Eight Legged Freaks,” “The Horrors of Spider Island,” “The Incredible Shrinking Man,” “Tarantula”

Death

Any student of Ingmar Bergman can tell you about the Swedish master’s 1957 film “The Seventh Seal” in which our hero, a knight (Max von Sydow) returning from the Crusades, plays chess with death.

Fans of the obscure might mention William Dieterle’s 1941 version of “The Devil and Daniel Webster” in which the great New Hampshire lawyer/statesman Dan’l Webster debates Mr. Scratch (aka Satan) for the soul of his client.

These days, death is more likely to take the shape of fate, as in the “Final Destination” films, or a masked killer, as in the “Halloween”/“Friday the 13th”/“Nightmare on Elm Street”/“Saw” series. All are films in which the question of death itself is the issue … or plot point.

Other candidates: “Carrie,” “City of Angels” (or the far superior “Wings of Desire”), “Ghost,” “Harold and Maude,” “The Sixth Sense,” “Stir of Echoes,” “What Lies Beneath”

Failure

When we’re talking about teens, virtually every teen film from “Say Anything” to “American Pie,” with late entries “Juno” and “Superbad” thrown in for good measure, deals with the question of failure.

Whether it’s disappointing a parent (“Breaking Away,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”), getting the person you want (“16 Candles”), losing the big game (“Friday Night Lights”), peer pressure (“Heathers,” “Dazed and Confused”) or falling prey to a deadly scheme (“The Lookout”), failure is always prevalent.

Other candidates: “Death of a Salesman,” “The Fisher King,” “The King of Comedy,” “North Dallas Forty,” “Risky Business”

War

One of my favorite movie quotes involving war comes from the 1981 comedy “Stripes.” It’s Bill Murray’s character, trying in his bizarro way to inspire his fellow soldiers: “We’re soldiers. But we’re American soldiers! We’ve been kicking ass for 200 years! We’re 10 and 1!” It’s an ironic statement about the U.S.’s attitude toward war: As a country, we don’t often lose.

But the best war films explicitly show the horror of war, and how the very fear of death can leech the courage out of the bravest among us. We’re talking about films such as “Apocalypse Now” (the “Redux” version), “Platoon,” “Hamburger Hill,” “Saving Private Ryan,” “The Longest Day,” “A Bridge too Far,” “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “The Red Badge of Courage.”

Other candidates: “Paths of Glory,” “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” “Das Boot,” “Full Metal Jacket,” “Braveheart,” “Ran,” “The Seven Samurai,” “The Grand Illusion.”

Heights

Two movies come to immediate mind here. One is Sylvester Stallone’s “Cliffhanger,” Renny Harlin’s 1993 movie that has Stallone’s character battling both his painful past (he watched as a friend fell to her death) and some very dangerous criminals. The other is “Vertigo,” Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 suspense film about a troubled ex-cop who gains, loses, regains and … well, you know, the love of his life (Kim Novak).

Both are marked by their protagonists’ memories of anguish involving heights, to the point of immobility, if not outright impotence.

Other candidates: “The Eiger Sanction,” “High Anxiety,” “K2,” “Touching the Void,” “Vertical Limit,” “Towering Inferno”

Crime/violence

Of all the categories, this has the broadest meaning. Each of us defines our reaction to crime and violence in a personal way. There’s what it means to be taken hostage in your home, whether the villain be Humphrey Bogart in 1955’s “The Desperate Hours” or Mickey Rourke in the 1990 remake.

There’s what it means to be the target of a serial killer, whether we’re talking about “Se7en,” “The Deliberate Stranger,” “The Boston Strangler,” “The Hillside Stranglers,” “Helter Skelter,” “Summer of Sam” or the most recent exercise in domestic intranquility, “The Strangers”

But two films that I would put atop my list don’t fit any particular genre. The first, Michael Haneke’s German-language “Funny Games,” was released in 1997. It, like Haneke’s own 2007 English-language remake, follows what happens to a well-to-do family when two white-gloved psychopaths invade their summer home.

The second, though, is even more creepy. John McNaughton’s 1986 film “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer” takes us into the mind of a mad killer (Michael Rooker), makes us a willing witness to his deadly obsessions, and leaves us with the taste of murder in our collective mouth.

If ever there was a film that forced us to check our closets upon returning home each evening, this is it. Remember that next Friday as those kids come knocking, asking for candy.

Beware the ones dressed as velociraptors – or, worse, wearing white gloves.