Your Favorite Horror Movies

[Krispy]

I'm watching all the horror movies and thrillers I can to keep thoughts tumbling in the ephemeral word dryer that is my frontal cortex. That's why I want to hear what your favorite horror movies are and, hopefully, some words why you love it so much.

Now, I'm a pretty big proponent of casting the horror genre net very wide. I don't just mean creature features and teen slashers. If your skin tingled with thoughts of the unknown, your stomach churned in abject disturbance, or your arms lined with goosebumps it is fair game.

I'm going to litter this thread with my own horror movie reviews as I plunge and replunge (nohomo) through some interests of mine.

[Khrymsyn]

Horror is a weird genre. I wouldn't say I'm a horror FAN, but I definitely include some horror as part of my favorite movies. Here's a small smattering...

Evil Dead 2 - Come on... I'm on a geek website. This is required viewing for anyone even somewhat associated with geekdom. Funny, over the top buckets of red paint, and the dumbest anti-hero on the planet.

Slither - I HAAAAATED this movie the first time I saw it. Watched it a 2nd time drunk... enjoyed it enough to see it a 3rd time sober and now love the hell out of it. Great mix of horror, gross, and comedy.

Cabin in the Woods - Man, I cannot wait until I get a copy of this to see it again. Again, great mix of horror and comedy, and makes a pretty decent spoof of horror movies while itself being one.

and to go more "classic", The Shining. Just love this movie. Such a slow, plodding, forboding pace that you do NOT see in movies today. Sure, Jack is Jack, but damnit, Jack rules.

[Krispy]

Originally Posted by Khrymsyn

and to go more "classic", The Shining. Just love this movie. Such a slow, plodding, forboding pace that you do NOT see in movies today. Sure, Jack is Jack, but damnit, Jack rules.

PTA echoes this pacing. Check out There Will Be Blood or The Master. Both have this slow boiling up that engulfs the world with discord.

And I'm glad you are sharing some movies that aren't traditional horror. The sooner people start thinking of horror in a broader context the sooner it can get more respect as a genre.

[frederec]

The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Dr. Phibes Rises Again - Two of my favorite movies starring one of my favorite actors, Vincent Price. Number one and number two go together. Even if the second is inferior, I hate that only two movies were made (there were plans on other entries). In my opinion, there are elements of this movie that are early visions of what we see decades later in the Saw franchise (scary timed surgery).

The Thing - The original remake of The Thing From Another World by Carpenter, complete with almost identical title font. I didn't see this until fifteen years after its debut, and it still holds up. There's a reason this is on almost everyone's list of best horror movies. It deserves it.

The Ring - I know a lot of people like to debate the merits of the Japanese version over the American version, but for me, the atmosphere and excellent music put this one over the top. Aside from the fact that the out of nowhere abuse in the original put me off a bit.

Very good, but not quite favorites:

The Ruins - Way better than a movie about killer plants has the right to be. It takes it all very seriously, and manages to never get campy. I still love the quote from one of the trailers, "You keep saying it's going to be okay...but it's not..."

The Descent - Even before the monsters show up, there are claustrophobic moments in the caves that made me squirm something fierce.

The Shining - Another that's a classic for a reason. It's not on my list of favorites because for one reason or another I haven't re-watched it as much as the others.

Moving in to horror-comedies:

Severance - A slasher that flew a fair amount under the radar. A corporate team-building exercise goes horribly wrong when the corporation is a weapons manufacturer and the location is a place where the weapons had devastated the populace. Amusement ensues.

Slither - Sometimes accused of being a ripoff of Night of the Creeps, but I prefer this one. It's got moments of genuine hilarity, and also a very uncomfortable alien rape scene.

Ravenous - Quite possibly the best and funniest movie about cannibalism out there.

Planet Terror - Robert Rodriguez's grindhouse zombie-style movie. A ton of fun, a ton of gore, and a lot of attention to silly detail for how quick and cheaply this was filmed. A rare movie where I watched it, then immediately watched the commentary, and enjoyed the hell out of it both ways.

Does Shaun of the Dead count as horror? I guess, since it has zombies. Whatever genre it's in, this is one of the funniest movies out there. So many homages to zombie movies of the past, yet it's still entertaining if you don't catch a single one of them.

In another category I put horror deconstructions, though they tend to be horror-comedies. There are so many out there now, many of them good, they earn their own place.

Scream - The big classic slasher deconstruction. The sequels are of debatable quality, but the first holds up.

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon - A different kind of slasher deconstruction. This time a college documentary filmmaker follows a guy in training to be the next Jason, Freddy, or Michael Meyers. Hilarity ensues. Robert Englund, Freddy himself, has a small role. I'm still really broken up that their Kickstarter for a sequel didn't get funded.

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil - A twist on the backwoods breakdown genre. This time the scary backwoods killers are nice guys, and the random teens are killed by crazy accidents or misunderstandings. Hilarity ensues.

The Cabin in the Woods - The recent big one. Any fan of horror needs to see this, as it does things that to me are so obvious I don't know why I haven't seen them before. I want a full inventory and story for every item in the basement.

I know I'm forgetting many things, but these are what jump to mind right away.

There are of course the classic Universal monster movies from the thirties, Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Wolfman, and The Creature from the Black Lagoon. And while I don't consider any of them all that "good," I'm always up for the big franchises like Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Halloween. And I will gladly watch any horror movie with Vincent Price in it. And probably any Hammer movie, especially starring Peter Cushing or Christopher Lee.

And while I may be one of the only people on the planet who thinks this, I am genuinely a little sad that we don't have any more Saw movies. They weren't high cinema, but there were a fun little series.

[Blue]

The Exorcist - Still one of the few movies that genuinely makes me uncomfortable when watching it.

Halloween (original) - perfect atmosphere and pacing, one of the first slashers I ever saw and it remains a favorite.

The Mist - so many elements make this good for me but the ending cinches it. Very Lovecraftian.

The Descent - almost left this one out, but I love the polarity of the film. The first half is a survival flick about a group of friends trapped underground (and, being mildly claustrophobic, some of that I found unnerving) and then about half-way through it becomes a monster film. So great.

Honorable mentions: Poltergeist, Event Horizon, The Thing, Alien, A Nightmare on Elm Street (original)

EDIT: I left off horror-comedies as I don't really count them as horror. The Cabin in the Woods deconstructs the genre brilliantly (as did Scream, though I wouldn't count that as comedy), but I didn't find it particularly frightening, just very well done. Same with Shaun, Tucker, Ravenous, etc. I love all of them but I don't see them as horror. Or, not strictly horror.

[Squidbot]

Christ, where do I start?
Evil Dead 1, 2 and 3. Because they're awesome, duh.
Hellraiser. I Also quite like all the sequels for their own merits (And failings) except Hellworld and the awful reboot.
All of the earlier Romero zombie flicks, because zombies.
Return of the living dead. This movie got worn out on tape when I was a kid. Punk, comedy zombies, boobs, and tar man.
Halloween and Friday the 13th.
Event Horizon. Creepy McCreeperson, and Sam Neil with no eyes.
The 1978 Invasion of the Bodysnatchers. Donald Sutherland carries the whole movie in his moustache.
Phantasm. Another teen favourite. Flying silver ball of death and freaky jawa midgets.
In The Mouth of Madness. A very nice spin on Lovecraft, with Sam Neil being crazy awesome and Jürgen Prochnow being Creepy McCreeperson.
The Omen (original). Just so damn good on so many levels. Amazing cast, great score.
Don't Look Now. Not sure this falls under Horror, but it's a great movie with a fantastic pace and tone.
I'm going to stop there. I could go on and on. Probably my favourite movie genre.

[frederec]

Originally Posted by Squidbot

Return of the living dead. This movie got worn out on tape when I was a kid. Punk, comedy zombies, boobs, and tar man.

When I was younger I didn't realize Return of the Living Dead was funny. It scared the crap out of me. Even now, I think it can still be one of the scarier zombie movies out there. With almost every other zombie story, a headshot kills them. Here, it does nothing. Chop them up, the parts keep coming. Burn them, the ashes seed the clouds with resurrecting acid rain. Nuke the city? Spreads the ashes further. No escape.

[evilgoodwin]

Horror is one of my favorite things. Let's see what I can do.

28 Days Later
Alien
American Psycho
The Amityville Horror
Audition
Cabin in the Woods
Candyman
Carrie
Child's Play (fuck evil dolls)
Critters
Dawn of the Dead (Both)
Day of the Dead (The original. Do not watch the remake. It's fucking terrible)
The Descent
Dead Alive
Dracula (The Coppola version)
Drag Me to Hell (Hilarious)
The Exorcist
Event Horizon
Evil Dead 2
The Fly
Friday the 13th (Original, because it's a classic, and Remake because it's Jason killing a bunch of unlikable young adults, which is the only reason I watch those movies)
Gremlins
Halloween (Either)
Hellraiser 1 & 2 (the second one is a direct sequel, almost required material)
High Tension
House of 1000 Corpses
Jacob's Ladder
Juon (Original version of The Grudge)
The Last House on the Left
Maniac
Nightmare on Elm Street (Original only)
The Omen
Pandorum
Pet Sematary
Phantasm
Poltergeist
Psycho
The Ring (Don't know why I love it, but I do)
Rosemary's Baby
Scream
Seven
The Shining
Slither
Stir of Echoes
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (I happen to like both, the remake and the original. So sue me)
The Thing
Tucker and Dale vs The Evil
Village of the Damned
The Wicker Man (Original)

More than likely, some of you will disagree with this list, at which point you should go to hell. I enjoy all of these for one reason or another. I also know I've left off a few things, but that's life.

[Gorvi]

Probably Dead/Alive, I loved that movie. I used to watch a ton of horror movies, but haven't for years. Evil Dead 2 was always a favorite, of course, but it almost seems cliche at this point mentioning that one. The original Night of the Demons was great, Goonies, Critters, that kind of thing. I'll always have a special place in my heart for those cheesy, "so bad they're great" 80's horror movies.

[Krispy]

It's interesting to me what makes a film horror and not thriller or a very dark drama or some such. For example, Irreversible contains some of the most horrific pieces of film I have ever seen, but no one would call it a horror film.

[Gorvi]

Really, though, it doesn't get better than Troll 2:

[violent]

The Thing
The Shining
Event Horizon

[Dorkandproudofit]

Why the fuck has no one mentioned the truly excellent Robert Wise film, The Haunting? It is the very definition of Nothing Is Scarier.


Here's the scene everybody knows:

[evilgoodwin]

Originally Posted by Dorkandproudofit

Why the fuck has no one mentioned the truly excellent Robert Wise film, The Haunting? It is the very definition of Nothing Is Scarier.


Here's the scene everybody knows:

Because Poltergeist.

[Kelegacy]

The original Dawn of the Dead is still my favorite horror movie of all time. I don't know why, it is just one of those rare films that I can watch over and over and not get bored. That's VERY rare for me, since I don't have much a movie collection (i think it's a waste of money when a rental and one time view will suffice...until it comes on tv again someday)

[fitbabits]

The Thing (Kurt Russell)
Descent
The Omen
Scream
Alien
The Amityville Horror (original)
Nightmare on Elm Street
Rosemary's Baby
Halloween
The Exorcist
Friday the 13th
The Cabin in the Woods
Event Horizon
Etc...

[Vandabo]

I've never really been a fan of the more slasher oriented horror genre, but I do like a psychological thriller, or sci-fi based horror. Such as:

Alien
Pandorum
Sunshine
The Ring
The Shining
The Omen
The Exorcist
The Changeling

Since no one seems to have seen The Changeling (George C. Scott, not Angelina Jolie), here is a good clip from the seance they do in the haunted house. There's a creepier part where he goes back and listens to the tape recording of it, but I don't want to spoil anything:

[frederec]

Originally Posted by Vandabo

Since no one seems to have seen The Changeling (George C. Scott, not Angelina Jolie)

You make too many assumptions.

[Chris_D]

Juon
Ring
28 Days Later

[KamaItachi]

Most of my absolute favourites have already been mentioned (The Shining, Ravenous, Gremlins) but seems people have missed out An American Werewolf in Paris, which is an excellent horror comedy. Also The Descent was mentioned but Dog Soldiers was left out? For shame.

Also the last 15 minues of Rec genuinely had me creeped out for about 2 weeks.