Horror Films

[Dumbledore lives]

I love horror films, pretty much all kinds from the psychological to the B filled with buckets of blood, and have been trying to expand my repertoire as much as possible recently, watching as many of the classics as I can. I also very much enjoy slasher films, though do not enjoy torture porn so take that as you will.

What I wanted was to here what films scared people, or what they considered to be the most horrific horror films. For an incomplete list of what I've watched see below, and try to recommend anything I haven't seen that is amazing.

The Exorcist
Nightmare on Elm Street
The Evil Dead
Friday the 13th
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Hellraiser
Halloween
Silence of the Lambs (Mostly the last sequence)
Black Swan
Alien
The Thing
The Shining
The Evil Dead

[Emmerask]

Well there aren´t particularly many us horrorfilms I like, most of them to me are a bit too formulaic (ie scream etc) tbh.
That said I did like the Paranormal activity movies, they have some pretty amazing attention to detail and each has a "unique" gimick that makes it rather interesting (rotating camera etc).

As for friday the thirteens and its ilk... I wouldn´t really consider this a horror movie, its a shlasher and I thought it was rather boring really.

That being said the movies where you really want to stay awake, don´t want to go to the toilet and have all the lights on in the entire house are made in Korea and Japan (and the us remakes like the ring are pretty none frightening in comparison).
So a brief list of some of the best:

A Tale of Two Sisters (after that one I let the lights on to sleep so... yeah)
Ringu
Ju-on
Kairo
Muoi: The Legend of a Portrait
Cello

[Axolotl]

Well first of all The Shining is in my opinion the best horror film ever made, you really need to see that.

Beyond that, the Thing and Videodrome for great body horror stuff, as well as most of the rest Caqrpenter's and Cronenberg's films.

[thubby]

horror as a genre is kinda goofy. so many of them are just dark and weird without being horrifying.

[Greensleeves]

Alien. Should be all.

[JustSomeGuy]

Alien. Should be all.

Alien x2.

Also, i walked in on my mum watching 'An American Werewolf in london' when i was young (4-6ish) and had nightmares for years, i can still remember the scene vividly. Watched the film 2 years ago not knowing until the scene occured that it was that film all this time! It was a pretty good movie too!

[Bhu]

http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=1193.0

I still have my list of recommendations for horror/monster/halloween movies I'm updating. It should have a few you haven't seen.

[Mauve Shirt]

Alien and the sequel Aliens.

[Zen Monkey]

The Descent
The Thing
Jacob's Ladder
Event Horizon
In the Mouth of Madness
The Ninth Gate
From Hell
Pitch Black

[Dumbledore lives]

I added a few more to my list that were mentioned, and feel really bad that I didn't remember Alien, since it is one of my favorites, topped only by Star Wars in the Sci-fi genre and I'm unsure of what in the horror genre. Aliens is not really a horror, not once they start straight up murdering all the aliens.

I realize I haven't really seen any Japanese horror films, so will try to expand myself there. I will say that I really enjoy slasher films, and that some of them, specifically the first and last Nightmare had some incredible moments of tension. They can also contain some really creepy imagery, which I appreciate greatly.

[Yora]

The only Horror Movie I ever really enjoyed was The Thing.

I also very much like Alien, but for some reason it never considered it a horror movie.

[Amiel]

I much prefer non-Hollywood horror films (although the Ring was very well done); I would classify slasher flicks as belonging more to the thriller genre than the horror genre, those films aren't particularly horrifying to me.

I like REC and its sequel, REC 2.
Also like Ringu, Ju-On, Premonition, the Orphanage, the Eye (original Hong Kong), Tale of Two Sisters, Shutter (the original Thai), Dark Water (original Japanese), One Missed Call (original Japanese),

[Cen]

Evil Dead 2 and Evil Dead 3 anyone?

(I don't recommend Evil Dead 1 because it's kinda goofy and story is totally retconned and discontinued in ED2)

[Dumbledore lives]

Evil Dead 2 and Evil Dead 3 anyone?

(I don't recommend Evil Dead 1 because it's kinda goofy and story is totally retconned and discontinued in ED2)


Really? I thought Evil Dead one was an effective horror film for the first half hour, then a good B horror movie for the rest. Now 2 was just straight B horror through and through and was great for it, but really didn't come anywhere close to scaring me. Army of Darkness is not a horror film, in the slightest, but is a good film worth watching.

[Cen]

Really? I thought Evil Dead one was an effective horror film for the first half hour, then a good B horror movie for the rest. Now 2 was just straight B horror through and through and was great for it, but really didn't come anywhere close to scaring me. Army of Darkness is not a horror film, in the slightest, but is a good film worth watching.

well yes that is true, but you said "I love horror films, pretty much all kinds from the psychological to the B filled with buckets of blood" and "try to recommend anything I haven't seen that is amazing." so I thought that it's quallify.

[Krazzman]

Woman in Black (at least I liked it)
Evil Falls (As Darkness rises - Evil Falls, beware of the toothfairy)
The Eye
Gothika (the one with Halle Berry)
Machete is cool as is Planet Terror (for slasher)
Tarrentino in general is good for slasher ;D
Idle Hands? more comedy if IRC...
Graveyard of Pets (any other stephen king movie?)
I liked Resident Evil 1 as Action Horror. 2 3 and 4 were action only, sort of.

[Mynxae]

The only real Horror Films that still scare me are..

Resident Evil 1
28 Days Later
28 Weeks Later
Alien Quad(?)rilogy

And I think that's it.. There's one really gory one but I can't remember the name. Something about a hotel with convicts in it, and there was the warden's crazy son who was slowly killing them off? :smalleek:

[HeadlessMermaid]

From Japan (explicit content, not for the faint-hearted):
1) Audition (1999) by Takashi Miike. It's not torture porn like Saw or Hostel, but it's been repeatedly described as sick.
2) Tetsuo, the Iron Man (1989) by Shinya Tsukamoto. This one takes the notion of body modification to unimaginable extremes.


Classics:
1) The Omen (1976) by Richard Donner. It has a few violent scenes, but the genius is in the atmosphere and the editing. The theme is the Antichrist himself, but even a pack of barking dogs will make your skin crawl.
2) Suspiria (1977) by Dario Argento. Really classic, though I'm not sure if it can scare a modern audience.
3) Seven (1995) by David Fincher. This one, along with Silence of the Lambs, pretty much defined the serial killer genre.


More recently:
1) The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) by Scott Derrickson. That's the best film on the subject I've ever seen after THE Exorcist. You never know if it's showing a medical condition, or a supernatural phenomenon, or what.
2) Three... Extremes (2004). Three segments by East Asian directors. The one directed by Park Chan-Wook (who gave us Oldboy) is amazing. By the way, I'm not sure if Oldboy (2003) counts as horror or not, but either way, watch it if you haven't!
3) The Host (2006) by Joon-ho Bong. That one has a lot of funny scenes, but it's also successfully scary. The subject is very simple (monster comes out of the river, eats people), but it's otherwise fresh and original, and in fact it's a damn good film.


Zombies:
Night of the Living Dead (1968) and Dawn of the Dead (1978) by George A. Romero. 28 Days Later (2002) by Danny Boyle. There are tons of b-movies, too, but these are essential for a start.

[Nepenthe]

2) Tetsuo, the Iron Man (1989) by Shinya Tsukamoto. This one takes the notion of body modification to unimaginable extremes. With the exception of the title sequence (which was brilliant), this is a horrible, horrible movie. For Japanese body modification watch Tokyo Gore Police instead.

My picks:
I'll second The Descent.
I'll also second Event Horizon
Funny Games
Dark Portals: Chronicles of Vidoq
Perfume

[Surfing HalfOrc]

The first Horror movie I ever saw was The Car. A big black chop top Lincoln MKIII runs over various townspeople in a small Utah town. The sheriff tricks the Car into going over a cliff, then blows the cliff face down onto the Car, crushing it. The demon appears, roars at the sheriff and friends, then is pulled back down into Hell. Good stuff when you were 11-12... (As a trivia note, Bender from Futurama tured into the Car when he was possessed in one episode.)

I liked it because I sort of knew the area (Arches National Monument, Utah), and I liked how the first two victims were killed: a teenage couple out for a bike ride. The Car chases them, then it smashed the girl up against a stone retaining wall, and finally chased/pushed the boy over the edge of one of those really high bridges. The boy screamed all the way down! Yeah... Still creeps me out when I'm riding!

As for the rest:
Alien
Jaws
Dawn of the Dead
Nightmare on Elm Street
Pitch Black

And there was an episode on Star Trek TOS when these alien creatures dropped down on you and took over your body. As a 6-year-old, I remember saying, "Don't go in there, Mr. Spock. No! Don't go in there Mr. Spock! PROFANITY!" My mom made me turn off the TV after I dropped the F-bomb quite loudly when the alien blob thing dropped down on Mr. Spock.
:smallamused:

[missmvicious]

I don't wanna try and make a list but I will say that Insidious was possibly the best horror movie I ever saw. It had loads of the classic elements like tight angles and silence that kept me on edge the whole time.

[DigoDragon]

Alien. Should be all.

Oh man, I remember watching Aliens when it first came out on VHS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHS) tape. I was just "knee-high to a grasshopper" then and I pretty much didn't sleep for the next week. Though on the other hand, that movie first introduced me to the concept of androids so...

I did watch Alien when I was a bit older and handled that one alright, but it was stick scary-awesome. I think the best horror movies are the ones that play games with your mind using atmosphere and music instead of flashing the monster in your face.

[Verte]

Hmmm...I don't think I get scared by that many movies anymore, but there are ones that I find creepy or disturbing.

For a list off the top of my head:

Alien
The Shining
The Descent
The Others
The Haunting, 1963 version (I wouldn't say I was scared by it, but I think it's a good movie.)
The Legend of Hell House (It was creepy in a 1970's way.)
The Ring, US version (Mainly this scared me as a kid - I'm not sure how it would hold up now. I haven't seen the original version.)
The Mist
Seconding Jacob's Ladder, Pitch Black, and The Host, all of which I had forgotten about till now. I also like Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein, but I wasn't really scared by them.

[Ceridan]

All the original Romero Zombie flicks
Alien
Paranormal Activity
Paranormal Activity 2
Ju-on

[Rallicus]

I usually can't stand American horror movies. There are some exceptions, of course, but generally my favorite horror movies are foreign with subtitles. I don't know if it has something to do with the different culture, or maybe I can't see bad acting due to the language barrier?

Last horror movie I watched was The Orphanage. Pretty solid movie, took a while to pick up but it was still good. I'd recommend it if you don't mind reading subtitles.

[Verte]

Last horror movie I watched was The Orphanage. Pretty solid movie, took a while to pick up but it was still good. I'd recommend it if you don't mind reading subtitles.

Oh yeah, I had forgotten about that movie. It was quite good - it was creepy and disturbing, but also quite sad. However, I saw it a few years ago, so I don't remember the precise thread of the plot.

[HeadlessMermaid]

Another great Spanish film (Spanish/Mexican actually) is The Devil's Backbone (2001), by Guillermo del Toro. It's a good thriller/ghost story/mystery, but these elements are secondary. They're only there to support the main theme, which is the Spanish Civil War. I loved it.

[Rallicus]

Another great Spanish film (Spanish/Mexican actually) is The Devil's Backbone (2001), by Guillermo del Toro..

Sounds interesting. I'll definitely check it out.

I know del Toro had a hand in producing The Orphanage, and I thought Pan's Labyrinth was incredibly awesome. It's actually kind of funny that I used to hate the guy, because he's responsible for directing the only movie that I've ever fallen asleep to in the movie theaters (sober, anyway): Hellboy.

[Dragosai]

There are some French horror movies that are pretty out there.

I can recommend "Inside" it's been several years since I watched it but I think it was all English, but it might have been subtitled.

Either way it's worth watching, its a non-supernatural horror film that is pretty surprising with many crazy moments of "I can't believed that just happened" type stuff. Starts off creepy then goes to a whole new level. I will also say it's a gory movie but does it so very well. I personally could care less about gore, but this is one of the only movies I have seen where they use it very well and not just as a gross factor but more of a "real" factor.

[Rallicus]

There are some French horror movies that are pretty out there.

Only one that sticks out in my mind is Martyrs. Definitely not a movie for everyone, but it's one of my favorite horror flicks. It left me depressed and I couldn't sleep the rest of the night because I kept thinking about it.

It revolves mostly around torture, though, but not the sort of stuff that Saw brings to the table, and definitely not the tasteless stuff that movies like Human Centipede have. There's no sexual torture or anything, which I liked, because I find such additions to be a weak cop out when it comes to horror. Scenes found in movies like the latest Last House on the Left just make me shake my head in shame.

That said, I'd recommend Martyrs to anyone who can stomach a bit of disturbing torture but who also enjoys a solid movie that can really mess with your emotions.

Also - I watched Devil's Backbone last night, and found it to be pretty good. I'll probably check out Inside tonight, if I can find it.

[turkishproverb]

For American Horror there's The Landlord and Puppet Monster Massacre, both great little indy horror movies.

[Dumbledore lives]

I've discovered I don't like ghost in a house movies, ie The Grudge, A Tale of Two Sisters, it just doesn't scare me. Sometimes the imagery is cool, but I find there is often no or insufficient explanation, and it just leaves me feeling wanting.

In terms of random movies I will see I have REC rented out, and might go looking for some crappy horror movies soon, including the Subspecies series which sounds like a good laugh.

[Wookieetank]

I don't wanna try and make a list but I will say that Insidious was possibly the best horror movie I ever saw. It had loads of the classic elements like tight angles and silence that kept me on edge the whole time.

I'll second Insidious, acutally made me jump a number of times and I find myself more fascinated than scared by horror movies.

For other Creepy type horror:
Beneath the Darkness
The Ruins (although the book was scaier in my opinion)
Drag me to Hell (done by the same people who did Evil Dead and Army of Darkness)

For Horror/comedy:
Shaun of the Dead
Zombieland
Dale and Tucker vs Evil

[Bhu]

I've discovered I don't like ghost in a house movies, ie The Grudge, A Tale of Two Sisters, it just doesn't scare me. Sometimes the imagery is cool, but I find there is often no or insufficient explanation, and it just leaves me feeling wanting.

In terms of random movies I will see I have REC rented out, and might go looking for some crappy horror movies soon, including the Subspecies series which sounds like a good laugh.

Most asian ghost stories of the modern era are based on the yurei

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C5%ABrei

Or some similar myth or aspect of religion. They don't give explanations because they assume the audience is already familiar with whats happening.

[turkishproverb]

I've discovered I don't like ghost in a house movies, ie The Grudge, A Tale of Two Sisters, it just doesn't scare me. Sometimes the imagery is cool, but I find there is often no or insufficient explanation, and it just leaves me feeling wanting.

IN fairness, the myth those are based upon is about as well known in japan as the idea of demonic possession is in the states.

Asking to explain too much of it would make the movie clunky to a native viewer.

[kind_of_a_ROBOT]

I've discovered I don't like ghost in a house movies, ie The Grudge, A Tale of Two Sisters, it just doesn't scare me. Sometimes the imagery is cool, but I find there is often no or insufficient explanation, and it just leaves me feeling wanting.

Check out The Innkeepers. Very well done, effective take on the classic haunted house (or inn, in this case) movie. Its very suspenseful, with a few classic jump scares. The director, Ti West, also made a film called House of The Devil which is intentionally done in a VERY 80's style (he even had custom film stock made to shoot it on!) And is also a really terrific horror movie. It has, hands down, the best use of a gun in a horror film.

My absolute favorite horror movie is totally Stephen King's The Mist. It is brutally effective with its scares and tension. Also, Best. Ending. Ever.

PS - this is my first non-new member thread post. Yay!

[JustSomeGuy]

For Horror/comedy:
Shaun of the Dead
Zombieland
Dale and Tucker vs Evil

Dog soldiers
American Werewolf, anywhere'll do
Faculty (Robert Patrick's "do you have a pencil?" is one of my favorite scenes in any movie)

[Kyberwulf]

I am surprised IT hasn't made the list. That scared the CRAP out of me.
Silver Bullet. That was another good one.


Crossroads... GOD.. Brittney's acting.. was SOOO HORRIFYING.. >.<

Killer Klowns from Outerspace. That one .. >.< I watch it now... wondering what scared me so much about it.. but back then. ..

I don't know if it counts as Horror, but Donnie Darko was kinda scary. Not in the way of AHHHHHHHH..more just I didn't know what was going on... or what was going to happen next. + that scene with the rabbit.. when you first see him. It actaully made me turn around and look behind me IRL ... lol..
That was spooky

Insidious was pretty good..The part where she is telling them about her dream, and that face just randomly appears... >.< it lost me towards the end though.

I have to say this about Texas Chainsaw Messacre.....When I first watched it Scared me. I Truely thought it was real. I mean I actually thought that it REALLY happened. lol.. For the longest Time,. I didn't ever want to go to Texas..... Then I found out it was just a movie ... lol .. Now i am scared to go to Texas for a different reason *shudders(bush)* that is scary ... >.>