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Scipio
2006-07-05, 02:18 PM
Entertainment Weekly did a list of the twenty scariest movies.

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/commentary/0,6115,726267_1||365034|1_,00.html

The Shining
The Exorcist
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The Silence of the Lambs
Jaws
Halloween
Psycho
Seven
Rosemary’s Baby
Poltergeist
A Nightmare on Elm Street
The Thing
The Evil Dead
Carrie
Night of the Living Dead
The Omen
An American Werewolf in London
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
The Hitcher
Lost Highway

There are a few I think should have made the list:
Dawn of the Dead
The Blair Witch Project
Ju-On (the original Japanese version of The Grudge)
The Ring

So what are your Top 5 horror films?

My Top 5
The Shining
The Exorcist
The Silence of the Lambs
The Thing
Halloween

Zaggab
2006-07-05, 02:29 PM
My memory sucks, so I almost don't remember anything from any horror mocei I have seen. The ones I remember being good, though, are:
(in no particular order)

The Shining
The Sixth Sense
The Ring



I must complain on some of those movies, though.
The exorcist is not scary AT ALL. I saw it when I was 12, and I thought it was rather much like the children's show I had watched right before.
A Nightmare on Elm Street, I would rate 1/10, if I rated it as a horror movie, and 3/10 if I rated it as a comedy.
The Omen was about as scary as musty styrofoam.

The others I either haven't seen, or don't remember anything from.

Vaynor
2006-07-05, 02:32 PM
Hmm, I don't really enjoy horror movies. Haven't seen most of those. Oh well...

InaVegt
2006-07-05, 02:34 PM
I'm in the same situation as the smurf

Vaynor
2006-07-05, 04:50 PM
I'm in the same situation as the smurf
I think I might change my avvie just so I don't get called "the smurf" any more...

WampaX
2006-07-05, 04:51 PM
Its really sad there there are no "scary" movies on that list made before 1960 or any foreign language entries, either.

I'd have to weigh any list I made from a personal viewpoint. Films I find creepy/scary have to contain scenes that have imbedded themselves in my mind upon the innitial viewing and don't let go on subequent viewings. I would still have to get that tingle down my spine or that shiver of fright to even consider them as creepy/scary.

Heck, just thinking about some of them while I sit here and type this gives me goosebumps.

Max Schreck in Nosferatu (1922) - Creepy. Even moreso than any of Lon Chaney's performanaces.
The first act of Cat People (1942) - Heebie Jeebie City for me.
The Night of the Hunter (1955) - Oh my. Robert Mitchum turns the screws better than Anthony Hopkins.
Night/Curse of the Demon (1957) - The sound effects of the demon's approach and the hypnotism scene get me evey time.
The House on Haunted Hill (1959) - Contains a great performance by Vincent Price (and Carol Ohmart) but the great "boo" scare in the basement tingles my spine every viewing.
The Haunting (1963) - If you've seen and enjoyed it, then you know why.

Jack Squat
2006-07-05, 10:52 PM
Abbot and Costello Meet the Wolfman ;D

Vaynor
2006-07-05, 11:07 PM
Abbot and Costello Meet the Wolfman ;D
Agreed. Best horror movie ever.

Trog
2006-07-06, 02:42 AM
I always liked the movie The People Under the Stairs. Also I wouldn't qualify Silence of the Lambs as horror. It is a good movie though.

Also a good horror scene is in the Exorcist...3 was it? Anyways one of the Exorcist sequels. The scene with the nurse in the hall. You're totally prepared for a scare and it still gets you every time.

Oh, I also liked the Howling series (except that one set in Australia). Especially Howling V. That was the one in the castle. Bad acting but interseting plot.

Scream was also good when it first came out. As was the Blair Witch Project.

Another good scene was from the movie the Village. When one of the Others was in the background slowly coming for the blind girl. Freaky. Not really a Horror flick per se.

NeonBlack
2006-07-06, 06:16 AM
Seven a horror movie? Don't think so... And Evil Dead wasn't really scary, just damn funny to watch.

Anyway, that list needs more xenomorphs...

Closet_Skeleton
2006-07-06, 10:55 AM
Alien can be scary, Aliens is more action and I haven't been bothered to see the others. I've only seen Abbot and Costello meet the Mummy, maybe the Wolfman one was better.

I suppose it depends on if you define a good horror movie as a movie that really scares you or as a movie that's good and claimed to be in the horror genre.

Deadly
2006-07-06, 05:35 PM
An American Werewolf in London


Oh come on, that one is a comedy, it's something you watch with the whole family on a rainy evening. It's a great movie, but calling it horror is outright blasphemic.

I've been a fan of horror since I was 5 or something, and honestly only one movie have managed to freak me out, ever, and that was "IT" (don't remember which one). I saw it as a kid, and I remember only one scene where the sink fills with blood. I have no idea why but that scene haunts me still and I have sworn never to see that movie ever again.

A movie might still chock me or make me nervous, but only for a short while. Except for IT, no horror movie have left a lasting impression on me. Most horror movies are horribly non-scary. I remember laughing at the Exorcist, especially the infamous head-rotating scene is comical. Not comical as a comic is, but comical as only a horror movie can be. Surreal is perhaps a better word.

On the other hand many books have left lasting impressions of horror on me. I think I just find movies too unreal and difficult to engage in mentally. I need to conjure up my own images in my head to get scared, and movies take that right away from me by showing everything.

One movie I really love is "Interview with the Vampire". Though I wouldn't call that real horror, it is a hell of a great story.

madhatter66
2006-07-06, 09:17 PM
Several movies that are being titled as "Horror" I would describe more as suspense. The difference being, horror tries to scare you through sheer gore and cheap thrills, whereas suspense films are more about atmosphere and mystery.

I have to tell you, I wasn't really a fan of The Shining. Nicholson did a memorable performance, but the film as a whole left me feeling a little disappointed. Perhaps I just can't get into the older scare flicks, but I don't think that's the case. Certainly the phantom in Phantom of the Opera scared the hell outta me when I was a kid.

And Evil Dead is neither horror nor suspense. Sam Raimi was going for pure camp with those films and succeeded quite well. Awesome movie, but I agree, it doesn't belong on this particular list.

The Silence of the Lambs was, in my opinion, one of the best suspense films I've ever seen (sorry Wampa). Hopkins' portrayal of Lecter was so incredibly creepy that even though I first saw that movie eight years ago, I still shudder at that climactic conversation between him and Starling from which the film's title derives. Just seeing him so deftly break someone, and the sick glee with which it was done... I still have a hard time watching it.

I don't think people give The Sixth Sense enough credit as a good suspense film. Most people watch it the second time and now that they know how it ends, it loses all appeal for them. I still find several moments in that movie disturbing, and watching it the second time was actually just as exciting for me because this time everything that was so bizarre and seemed out of place now fit.

But who the crap made that EW list? A Nightmare On Elm Street?? That movie wasn't even scary when I was ten. Good grief.

The Thing is still one of my favorite Carpenter movies. There's just something about the way he distorted the human physique for the creatures that was... ugh. Just wrong. Definitely a good one.

And finally Lost Highway is in no way a horror movie. It's not even suspense, really. It's just 90 minutes of surreal WTF-ness. I'm not really a David Lynch fan, though, so maybe I'm jsut biased. Certainly the soundtrack was amazing, but that's all I can really say about it.

Most of the others I haven't seen or it's been so long since I watched them I don't really remember them.

CatCameBack
2006-07-07, 05:56 AM
Can I vote for just the first 45 minutes of the remake of House on Haunted Hill?


It gave me the heebie jeebies, and I don't get those a lot.

The original is ok, but the FX made it kind of a Dr. Who exercise in "ok this is an old movie, cut them a break...".


The orginal Haunting was pretty good as well, the bulging doors and ceilings stand up pretty well even today.

Alien ( the first one) was the closest movie to scarring my childhood, however. I think our age amplifies the effect of older movies.

EDIT: Sorry, three more points.

Honorable mention for Night of the Living Dead (original) for direction...if you don't know the ending ahead of time. Unfortunately, I watched with two real big fans who discussed the film like a director's running commentary, and that blew it all to Hades.

Honorable mention also goes to Rosemary's Baby, again if someone doesn't know the big secret ahead of time.

And, how the heck did Texas Chainsaw Massacre, make the list and The Hills Have Eyes not make the list?

AdInfinitum
2006-07-07, 06:14 AM
Its really sad there there are no "scary" movies on that list made before 1960 or any foreign language entries, either.


That's because they're all american films. In one Japanese film class, I saw two pre-60's films that deserved to be on that list more than ones that are.

Heck, they don't even have the german one. I can't remember the name of it, but if you remember "eye and razor"...that's really enough, isn't it?

WampaX
2006-07-07, 11:15 AM
The Silence of the Lambs was, in my opinion, one of the best suspense films I've ever seen (sorry Wampa). Hopkins' portrayal of Lecter was so incredibly creepy that even though I first saw that movie eight years ago, I still shudder at that climactic conversation between him and Starling from which the film's title derives. Just seeing him so deftly break someone, and the sick glee with which it was done... I still have a hard time watching it.

Oh, I'm not saying that The Silence of the Lambs was a bad film. I'm just saying that Night of the Hunter creeps me out a bit more. It could also be the fact that I watched it nursing a half broken nail thanks to failing to speedily unwrap a tape to record it. So ontop of Robert Mitchum, I have the memory of pain associated with it.


That's because they're all american films. In one Japanese film class, I saw two pre-60's films that deserved to be on that list more than ones that are.
The title of their article was "The 20 Scariest Movies of All Time" and their disreguarding of international films from the list just chaps my hide.


Heck, they don't even have the german one. I can't remember the name of it, but if you remember "eye and razor"...that's really enough, isn't it?
Un chien andalou? Not German, French. The surrealist film by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí?

Not really a horror film, but could be considered creepy as most surreal things are . . . in some way.

Scipio
2006-07-07, 11:23 AM
The original A Nightmare on Elm Street was not very comedic. Freddy was strange, but it was not until later movies that he had all the funny one-liners.

Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness were both horror comedies, but the original Evil Dead was straight horror (remember the scene with the tree?). Personally, I like Evil Dead II the best out of the lot.

The Exorcist may not carry the weight that it once did, but it was a truly shocking movie when it came out. The idea of a poor defenseless young girl being taken over by the devil is shocking. The look on her face when Father Karras comes in and finds Father Merrin is just plain creepy. Since The Exorcist we have been bombarded by movies that borrow from it, so we are influenced by them.

In a broad sense, Seven and The Silence of the Lambs are horror grounded in reality. They contain nothing supernatural, but they are still shocking. The fact that there is nothing supernatural makes them even more scary. If Psycho is a horror (and it is), then you would have to include these two on the list. Of course they were not marketed as horror, because that scares a lot of audiences away. So Hollywood comes up with phrases like “thriller” to describe them.

I honestly do not know why Lost Highway or American Werefolf in London were included. Neither of them are scary, and the Lynch movie could hardly be called horror.

How is The Sixth Sense not on this list? Who cares if Hollywood calls it a “supernatural thriller”? That is just a modern phrase for horror.

Here are a few more candidates for the list:
Suspiria (Dario Argento)
Audition (great Asian horror)
May

AdInfinitum
2006-07-07, 07:24 PM
Un chien andalou? Not German, French. The surrealist film by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí?

Not really a horror film, but could be considered creepy as most surreal things are . . . in some way.

I was supressing the nation of origin. French is the only thing in school that has consistently given me troubles.
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