Favorite Horror Movies

[Aram]

Event Horizon is pretty far from my top movie list, but that whole concept, the ship that bends the universe to get from point a to point b, but it found something in the bent space between--that was damn cool. That's the kind of horror I like. Horror that challenges that perceptions we have about the universe in some terrifyingly believeable way; that's ****ing scary.

[Kor Qel Droma]

Maximum Overdrive was so gay.

 

I'm adding Pet Semetary to my list.

[LadyCrimson]

Alien - probably the only movie, ever, that made me so tense I seriously had a hard time watching it in one sitting; even, for a little while, on repeat viewings.

 

John Carpenter's The Thing - nowhere near as tension-inducing as Alien, but great fun plus a decent level of tension. Still a fave movie overall.

 

Poltergeist - I know it's not really a horror movie by most folks standards, and it's probably badly dated now, but at the time, it was great. There's a few scenes that, when released, "got" to a lot of people, including me.

 

Evil Dead2 - keep in mind that 99.999% of zombie movies I view as being either hilarious comedies or very dreary comedies, rather than horror movies. Evil Dead2 falls in the hilarious category. I laughed like a loon almost the entire film, the first time I saw it.

 

Honorable mentions:

The Omen - (original)

Jaws

The Hitcher - (original - the remake was garbage)

Hellraiser 1&2 - (I like Pinhead....)

 

... it's hard to remember all the movies you've ever seen.

[Kor Qel Droma]

Evil Dead2 - keep in mind that 99.999% of zombie movies I view as being either hilarious comedies or very dreary comedies, rather than horror movies. Evil Dead2 falls in the hilarious category. I laughed like a loon almost the entire film, the first time I saw it.

 

Have you ever watched the movie with the commentary tracks by Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi? That stuff is pretty funny as well. Basically Raimi highlights how much fun the crew had torturing Ash throughout the filming, scene by scene.

[GreasyDogMeat]

Alien - Aliens (Though less of a horror movie)

Predator (Great build up to seeing the creature)

The Thing (This movie scared the living sh!t out of me as a kid)

Evil Dead Trilogy

Jaws (Even more frightening if you've seen/read what real sharks do to people)

Any Abbot & Castello Meet blah movies.

[LadyCrimson]

Have you ever watched the movie with the commentary tracks by Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi? That stuff is pretty funny as well. Basically Raimi highlights how much fun the crew had torturing Ash throughout the filming, scene by scene.

I think I have a DVD copy with the audio commentary, but alas, I must admit I haven't listened to them yet. Maybe I'll do that soon, one night when I can't get to sleep.

[Aram]

Have you ever watched the movie with the commentary tracks by Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi? That stuff is pretty funny as well. Basically Raimi highlights how much fun the crew had torturing Ash throughout the filming, scene by scene.

 

I love the way it starts--"Hello, I'm Bruce Campbell and I play the idiot, Ash."

[Rosbjerg]

28 Days Later is my favorite horror film.

 

Then it's the first half of Stephen Kings "It"! Damn that clown was scary.

 

The Thing, mostly due to the psychological impact it had on me - imagining being in a similar situation was a perfect horror setting in my mind. I would love to roleplay something like that, in a Lovecraft setting, with really talented players.

[Gorth]

I know it is an incredibly bad movie, but sometimes timing is everything. Having seen "The Fog" at a friends place a long time ago, I had to ride my bike home through a remote forest path in, yes, thick fog. Visibility was non existant and it was 2:30 am. I swear I saw things moving in between the trees...

[mkreku]

I'm trying to remember the horror movies we rented on VHS as kids. The one that stands out as the most scary was a really unknown flick called The Nesting from 1981. I wouldn't recommend it (since it's been probably over 20 years since I last saw it) but I remember that it scared the living crap out of me.

 

Other scary movies:

 

The Others

Sixth Sense

The scene with the two dead girls puking on the boy in Fanny och Alexander..

 

As much as I love Alien (and Aliens!) I can't remember being scared while watching it.

[Walsingham]

I also liked teh Sixth Sense. Although after The Village I intend to punch Shmyalan in the face should we ever meet.

[Guard Dog]

I'm surprised there are no Hellraiser fans here. The movies are not great but they do have a certain shock value.

 

 

 

 

But then we haven't heard from Dark Raven yet.

[Azure79]

Probably the most scary movie I've seen in recent memory is the Japanese movie Ju-on. (The Grudge) Watched it a few years back alone with the lights turned out.

 

The stair scene at the end scared me stiff and I had trouble sleeping that night. I find versions of ghosts with ghostly white skin, long dark hair that covers the face and a generally haunting and menacing presence more scary than the grotesque monster like stuff.

 

I liked the Ring too, but could never really get scared because all the while I wondered what would happen if they recorded an episode of Barney and Friends over the tape. In my imagination the girl would start crawling out of the well then Barney would come dancing and singing along saying, "Will you be my friend?" The girl would shudder in horror and crawl back in.

 

The Shining was scary. I remember reading the book and being scared with the description of the drowned lady clutching at the kid. The twins in the movie unsettled me as well.

 

My father and I watched Evil Dead 2 together one Saturday afternoon. We both laughed hysterically throughout the movie. Good times.

 

Pennywise the Clown haunts me still.

[tripleRRR]

My favs

 

Alien

Aliens - Yes not quite a horror film but close enough

Seven

The Thing

 

That's about it, not much for horror films myself. Whenever the creepy music starts you know something is gonna leap out screaming and someone is gonna die. Bleh.

[Joseph Bulock]

My favs

 

Alien

Aliens - Yes not quite a horror film but close enough

Seven

The Thing

 

That's about it, not much for horror films myself. Whenever the creepy music starts you know something is gonna leap out screaming and someone is gonna die. Bleh.

 

Sounds like you just need to watch better horror movies.

[Pidesco]

Indeed. The better horror scenes are when everything seems to be going fine and dandy, but all the time there's this strange feeling that things will go south before you know it.

 

Like in Psycho.

Edited October 30, 2007 by Pidesco

[samm]

is seven considered a horror film? if so, it should be on my list too

there also was some lovecraftian movie about some aristocrat or doctor who moved in a house in arkham (most probably ), who was really an evil inquisitor. something like that. very cheap, but somehow cool movie i forgot the name of.

[Pidesco]

I wouldn't call Seven, horror. It isn't particularly scary.

[Kelverin]

Some of my favorites

 

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

The Exorcist (1973)

Jaws (1975) - Yes it's a horror film

The Omen (1976)

Halloween (1978)

Salem's Lot (1979) - Made for TV but still scared the hell out of me

The Evil Dead (1981)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Fright Night (1985)

Re-Animator (1985)

The Return of the Living Dead (1985)

The Lost Boys (1987)

Beetle Juice (1988)

Tales from the Crypt (1989) - Excellent HBO TV series, would not bother with the movies.

Planet Terror (2007)

[Starwars]

Alien - Beautifully shot, beautifully acted and beautifully paced. Perhaps not as scary nowadays as it once was, I still think it's extraordinarily tense. The design of the Aliens lifecycle is still a great elements, and the facehugger never fails to gross me out. Such a disgusting concept.

 

Jacobs Ladder - This is perhaps more thriller/horror. But it gave me quite a few startles, and the imagery is quite haunting (Silent Hill was inspired by this film). There are a few "jack in the box" scares that still manage to scare the hell out of me even though I've seen it quite a few times and know where the scares are.

 

Session 9 - Again, more a mix of thriller and horror. Reminds me quite a bit of Alien (though this not very supernatural) in terms of its slow pace. Builds beautifully to the ending, and the location they shot this in (a real abandoned asylum, can't recall the name atm) just makes so much of the film.

 

Dark Water - The japanese version, I haven't seen the american version. I rented this movie expecting a not so scary movie. There was a huge buzz about the Ring at the time (which I liked, but didn't feel it was particularly scary). So I was expecting a good film, but not something that would scare me.

I watched this in the afternoon, with the sun shining brightly in the room I was watching, and holy god did this movie freak me out. I'm not sure why, but it *really* got to me.

 

While I don't classify it as horror at all, an honorable mention goes to Eraserhead by David Lynch. One of very few movies where I actually felt uncomfortable watching it.

Not scared or disgusted, just really uncomfortable. It's a great film, and man it really messed with me.

[Guard Dog]

Session 9 - Again, more a mix of thriller and horror. Reminds me quite a bit of Alien (though this not very supernatural) in terms of its slow pace. Builds beautifully to the ending, and the location they shot this in (a real abandoned asylum, can't recall the name atm) just makes so much of the film.

 

Totally agree with you on this one. This movie does not work on a regular movie set. The location and setting made that what it was.

[Musopticon?]

I thought the cinematography and editing was brilliant, myself. But yeah, the location is spot on. When the camera rolls over the mansion grounds at the end with the voice over...exhilarating stuff.

 

Also, has anyone seen Dead Birds? I've heard good things about the movie and wondered about renting the thing.

[LadyCrimson]

I'm surprised there are no Hellraiser fans here. The movies are not great but they do have a certain shock value.

 

Hellraiser 1&2 - (I like Pinhead....)

 

 

Shock value is a good way to describe them ... they're not really about "BOO!" type of scary.

[WITHTEETH]

I'm not a big fan of horror flicks because i can't stand the suspense, hehe. I guess thats why i like the cheaper horror movies like Evil Dead and Planet Terror. I did like 28 days later, although 28 weeks later was only so-so i thought.