My favorite horror movies. What are yours?

[rmill3r]

So I was never a big horror fan when I was younger. It was partially due to the fact that my parents wouldn't let me watch scary movies, but also partially to the fact that I simply didn't want to be scared! I got scared easily, and I hated the feeling.

I don't know what changed but when I got a little older, I decided I needed to give them a shot. Part of me wanted to prove my manhood ("I can handle this") and part of me was just morbidly curious (what I personally think is the big pull of horror movies for anyone). In the end, I found I liked some of them quite a bit. The thrill of the unknown and the shock of seeing something that you feel you're not meant to see is what can make a good horror movie so engrossing.

So, since I have only recently decided to watch scary movies, I consider myself a relative newbie. I still get scared by some of them, but I've decided to go back and watch older ones as well as newer ones since there is a lot I've missed out on.

With Halloween approaching I've decided to make this post. If anyone is familiar with the Tatuaje Monster cigars (non-cuban), it can be a lot of fun to light up a Churchill-ish for a bloody treat of a movie...

The Sixth Sense

Even though this probably isn't the scariest movie I've ever seen (and many would probably feel the same way), it most likely tops my list of favorite horror movies simply because of where I was at when I saw it. This was the first legitimately scary movie I ever saw and I swear to god, I could not sleep at all that night. I played volleyball at the time, and I had practice the next morning--which was a Saturday so I wasn't looking forward to it at first--but as I was lying in bed that night, eyes wide open, scared out of my mind and wincing at every little noise I heard, I could not wait for daylight and to get up and go play volleyball.

It has a massive twist ending that became the signature of any good M. Night Shyamalan film, and even though the movie is nearly two decades old, I won't give it away, as I recently found out that my girlfriend has somehow gone this whole time without having it spoiled for her! I was so excited and said, "Oh my god, there's no way! We're definitely watching it tonight!" Sure enough...before we're able to watch it, my roommate and friend (innocently without knowing she didn't know the ending) gave it away to her in an offhand comment, assuming she knew it like most everyone else in the world by now.

I was so disappointed...

Still, the aspect of the movie that anyone can guess from a trailer alone is that the kid sees dead people. In fact, specks of his hair have gone grey/white, which was done on purpose to show the trauma he has to live through day in and day out because of what he sees. It's such a frightening concept and one that has stuck with me to this very day.

I re-watched it again recently and it didn't quite have the same impact in terms of its scare factor, but one thing I can say for sure is that the overall concept--a young child, witnessing horrible acts and atrocious things every single day of his life, all while dealing with the pains and troubles of child development--is incredibly haunting.

The Shining

I actually only just saw this last Halloween for the first time in my life. All I can say is, how have I missed out on this one? I don't even know where to begin with The Shining. There's a plethora of theories and analyses out there that fans and critics alike have about what the film really means (Native American genocide, faking the Apollo moon landing, etc., etc.), but ignoring all of that since it's clearly not provable, the movie is a thoroughly absorbing scary movie. Jack Nicholson is just amazing. I was so on edge with every scene he was in and the visuals were far past its time.

Re-Animator

Re-Animator was a small 80s horror movie about re-animating the dead. The concept was simple, the execution was gory and repulsing, and the result was quite funny. It's weird, it's flawed, but it's endearing in its own weird way.

The House of the Devil

I also saw this recently. First of all, it's filmed in a purposefully grainy way that replicates horror movies of the 70s and 80s. It also imitates horror movies from that era with its pacing and tension build up. One thing I truly enjoyed about this movie (that I may mention more than once in this list) is its ability to pull off scares and thrills without the use of "jump scares" or general loud noises. Too many movies today use sudden, loud noises to make you jump out of your seat, which in a sense can be thrilling for a millisecond, but often takes away from the scariness from the film itself. In my limited and newbie opinion, true horror is something that holds onto you, grips you, and stays with you long after the movie is over. A jump scare lasts a fraction of a second, and relieves all tension from a scene as soon as it is over.

The House of the Devil is about a college student who desperately needs rent money so that she can move out of her current crappy living situation. She takes a job house sitting for some very inexplicably creepy people, only to find out...something that I won't give away. It's a slow build, but I liked the tension and style.

Shaun of the Dead

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are excellent, plain and simple. They are hilarious and witty and know how to move a story along. Shaun of the Dead is a movie I saw when I still didn't like horror movies, largely because it isn't that scary (although I want to note it actually does a good job at making a couple legitimately scary scenes), but rather funny. This is really more of a comedy than a horror movie, but I feel it deserves it spot here as well.

Halloween

This seems like an obvious choice. I also watched this movie recently in an effort to catch up on horror classics. It's slower than someone with a modern scary movie mindset would probably want it to be, but I liked when I saw it because I could see exactly how it greatly influenced the modern slasher flick genre. Also, John Carpenter is just a badass. I haven't seen any of the others, and don't really know if I will...

Friday the 13th

Whoever made this movie really did not like the idea of pre-marital or adulterous sex. Still, like Halloween, it was fun for me to go back and rewatch what was something that was then the product of slasher flicks. There are so many others, though, that I honestly don't know if I can keep watching them...it was just fun to watch the first since it's so iconic.

Nightmare on Elm Street

Unlike Halloween and Friday the 13th, which were fun and interesting for me to watch simply because of how iconic and influential they were, I thought Nightmare was a legitimately great movie. Again, it has an element of humor in it that a lot of horror movies are missing, and also it pushes the boundaries in regards to what people expected of scary movies. It's very inventive in the way Krueger approaches his victims.

Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Just like Halloween and Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm was not immune to the insufferable barrage of endless franchise sequels and spin-offs. But then in the mid-90s Wes Craven came back from the 1st and 3rd to direct a meta/fourth-wall-breaking take on his own movies. The concept is that Craven himself is directing a new Nightmare movie, but slowly Freddy Krueger comes to life and starts haunting Heather Langenkamp, the real-life actress of Nancy Thompson, the fictional character that Freddy haunts in the original.

Again, elements of humor and just a very fresh take on the series lift this up to another great horror movie.

The Descent

Truly frightening in more ways than one, this movie pushes its viewers buttons not just with its scary creatures but its real-life claustrophobic situations. Discomfort is the name of the game with this one.

28 Days Later

Zombie movies have become a dime-a-dozen these days. It's so overplayed that it's hard to find it scary or be entertained by it any more. But Danny Boyle did it so effectively with 28 Days Later in a way that is very human and difficult to ignore. The movie goes back and forth between being fast-paced and action-packed and slow-paced and somber. It's hopeless and draining, but also thrilling and fearful. This is zombies done at its best.

The Host

This was a South Korean film that was so much more than I expected it to be. It's a creature horror movie in a time when creature movies are very scarce. We've given up Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Swamp Thing in favor of possessions and scary children. The Host was great about giving us a throwback to monsters hunting us, and it also happens to be an excellent satirical film as well. There really is a little bit of everything here from blood and violence, to laughs, to some actual deep themes. I was happily surprised.

Cabin in the Woods

Joss Whedon takes on horror in a full-on satirical/comedy sense. It was made excellent by the fact that almost no one knew what it was going into it. It looked like a cheap knock-off of a 1,000 other scary movies about teenagers in a...cabin in the woods. It turned out to be something else entirely and it paid off so very well.

Evil Dead 1, 2, and Army of Darkness

While I would consider Sixth Sense to be the scariest movie I've ever seen (simply because it was the first truly scary movie that kept me up all night), Sam Raimi's Evil Dead movies are probably my favorite overall. The first one nearly became a comedy due to their low budget and lack of means (this was a movie that Raimi directed straight out of film school), so with the second movie they were straight into the horror/comedy realm and ran with it. Then Army of Darkness turned it into total action movie/camp schlock but with great effect!

From cliches, to subtle jokes, and gross-out real-life special effects, these movies are just a treat in every way in my opinion.

____________________________________________________

Those are my favorites. There are others I have seen and loved as well, but those are the ones that stick out to me. There are also others that I actually haven't seen....

Rosemary's Baby

Psycho

The Exorcist

Poltergeist

The Orphanage

The Thing (John Carpenter's)

[ErikB]

Creepy favourites: Candyman, Blairwitch Project, the Woman in Black

[ebhead]

Favourite would be Alien, with honourable mention to Shaun of the Dead, Friday the 13th and The Shining (although The Shinning was just as good)

[JohnS]

M, Psycho, Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, Alien, The Shining, The Thing and Pan's Labyrinth are among my favourites.

[MIKA27]

That's a big ask as there are so many great movies out there over the years.

I will mention a few but my list could go on forever really.

Some stand outs for me;

- The Strain (TV Series)

- The Exorcist

- Alien and Aliens

- The Thing (What a classic)

- Halloween series (Michael Myers is a legend)

- 30 Days of Night (The best Vampire movie of all time)

- Poltergeist I, II & III (NOT THE REMAKE!)

- The Decent (Absolutely brilliant)

- Friday the 13th Series

- The Walking Dead (I'm addicted)

- The Howling (Only the first one)

- The Conjuring 2013 (Crank up the volume on this one!)

- Mama 2013 (What a great show)

[garbandz]

Legally Blonde..........

[rmill3r]

That's a big ask as there are so many great movies out there over the years.

I will mention a few but my list could go on forever really.

Some stand outs for me;

- The Strain (TV Series)

- The Exorcist

- Alien and Aliens

- The Thing (What a classic)

- Halloween series (Michael Myers is a legend)

- 30 Days of Night (The best Vampire movie of all time)

- Poltergeist I, II & III (NOT THE REMAKE!)

- The Decent (Absolutely brilliant)

- Friday the 13th Series

- The Walking Dead (I'm addicted)

- The Howling (Only the first one)

- The Conjuring 2013 (Crank up the volume on this one!)

- Mama 2013 (What a great show)

I definitely want to check out Howl since you mentioned it in the other thread.

Legally Blonde..........

I mean, I was terrified...

[Fosgate]

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[Mr.T]

I'm going with (no particular order)

1. Nightmare on Elm Street

2. Friday the 13th

3. Rosemary's Baby

4. Children of the Corn (won't do any corn mazes)

5. The Descent

6. The Omen

7. The Shining

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Fuzz]

You want to be truly scared out of your wits, clawing at the walls wishing the torment would end, but yet it just keeps going on and on? Watch "Justin Bieber's Believe" with a bunch of teen girls.

Seriously, though. Watch "Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror". When I first saw this film (I think I was about 5 or 6 yrs old), I refused to go to bed for 3 days.

[khamy]

I love horror movies so all the above are great to watch.

When i get on youtube i also like watching

* Ghost Hunters

* Ghost Hunters International

* Ghost Adventures

* Psychic Kids

plus all the multitude of real and fake ghost footage on the internet.

I also think the asian horror genre is one of the most enjoyable to watch, they draw on fears and cultural beliefs that i grew up with and so can relate so much to what is freaky about them.

• Dark Water (Jap)
• Ju-on aka The Grudge (Jap)
• The Ring (Jap)
• Nang Nak (Thai)
• The Eye both American one with Jessica Alba and the HK version with Shu qi (Eye 2)

[Fosgate]

I haven't seen a good horror flick in years. I feel like nothing has really topped the late 70's and 80's horror flicks. I cant think of any recent movies that I see the name and think of anything in the movie that disturbs me especially with creature features as everything is CGI anymore. Psychological thrillers I barely even find entertaining let alone scary.

[MIKA27]

I should also add to the list;

Extraterrestrial 2014, was pleasantly surprised with this movie, wife and I enjoyed it

[rmill3r]

Just saw Texas Chainsaw Massacre for the first time in my life (original)...don't know how I missed that one but it holds up surprisingly well. It's pretty disturbing.

[Fosgate]

Just saw Texas Chainsaw Massacre for the first time in my life (original)...don't know how I missed that one but it holds up surprisingly well. It's pretty disturbing.

Oh yeah man! I was stationed at Fort Hood Texas. Coming back through Florence Texas where it was filmed after a night of drinking in Austin made a person hope not to break down in that area. End of the movie where Leatherface is in the road swinging the chainsaw is the highway going through there.

[rmill3r]

Removed, cause I put this in the wrong thread..

[Scardinoz]

I don't see where anyone has said "Night of the Living Dead" from 1968. Seriously. It holds up well and was complex. Racial tension, jealousy, uncertainty, and terror. Watch it with a fresh mind and consider how "zombie" movies and tv shows today could learn a thing or two.

Also, I'd like to add "Event Horizon". People either love it or hate it. I love it.

[JackFNQ]

Movie posters are great, mostly. Anything with Meryl Streep is scary to me.