I need a horror movie

[Proven_Paradox]

((It should be pretty obvious here, but I'll state this explicitly: this thread is very likely to be full of spoilers. It's best to wrap your spoilers in the appropriate tags, but that doesn't always happened. Warning given, moving on.))

Long story short, I've got a bet going with someone. It involves this person watching a horror movie of my choosing. No, you may not know details beyond that.

Now, I want this to be a good, scary movie. But at the same time, I don't want it to be too much; the person on the other side of this bet does not watch many horror movies (hence, this little bet) so diving straight in to some of the best ones would probably not go over well.

So, now for my definition of what makes a good horror movie, since this isn't something that everyone agrees upon.

The GrudgeI don't lose sleep over movies easily, but this one absolutely did it. It focused on being creepy rather than shocking, which meant the images stayed with you longer. Any movie can try to substitute scary for gory, but The Grudge never really does that. The relatively small amount of gore used is incredibly effective, as well.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's RequiemYes, I know this is actually a video game. No, I don't care, it still counts. I really liked the way it messed with the player just as much, if not more than, the character. I've yet to see a movie do the same thing, and this really disappoints me. If anyone knows of a movie that does this, let me know.

So, denizens of the Playground. What movies do you suggest? The ones above I think are too much for this person, but not by a whole lot.

[feghoot]

Evil dead?

Xmen 3?

[sealemon]

When in doublt, go old school:

Nightmare On Elm Street (The first one, natch)

Excorcist

John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness...at truly creepy movie that's not nearly as well known as Halloween, but arguably much better. Not a lot of gore, creepy as hell, and Alice Cooper has a cameo.

[turkishproverb]

Plan 9 from outer space

The terror of Tiny town

EDIT: Oh, yous aid GOOD movies?

HOw about Ringu? Or the origional Night of the Living dead? (Love the low budget effects in that one, manage to make oyu think chicken is human flesh.)

[Mordan]

Prince of Darkness, is the one where Alice Cooper has the bycicle he's carrying around until he's finally eliminated? And where the world's religions are backwards? Not to give to much away, but the one with the dreams about future events that no one sees the ending of until AFTER it's to late to stop them?

[Kjata]

Pulse is probably a good choice. There is death, but no gore, and it scared my friends ****less and they couldnt finish it in one go. I definately recomend it.

[Semidi]

The original Hellraiser directed by Clive Barker, the original Exorcist, and The Pit and the Pendulum with Vincent Price.

All good choices.

Edit: Forgot one: Carrie. Great film.

[Swordguy]

The Descent. British horror flick that came out in the USabout this time last year.

The Wiki page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Descent)

VERY good movie.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

The Reaping was pretty derned scary, and liked to mess with you a good deal yet wasn't a slasher flick at all.

[Grey_]

The Ring, by far, has scared me more then any other horror movie.

I think it's because it's not the kind of movie where things jump out at you and scare you, it's very psychological.

Absolutely terrifying.

[Winterwind]

I don't watch much horror movies - nigh none, in fact - so my opinion may not be worth much, but I found The Cell to be a very creepy movie.

[Nyarlethotep]

Seconding The Descent. Awesome film, and probably the only one that's managed to scare me. Although it is true that fear is contagious, i was watching it with my girlfriend and about half way through (when the s*** REALLY hits the fan) she got so hysterical we had to stop the film for a few minutes...ahh good times. still, i have to admit i had an uneasy nights sleep...

[Mad Mask]

One word: It.

Although I doubt you've never seen It, I definitely recommend It. The horror is mainly psychological, as they're is not many scenes with a big hungry monster scary the hell out of you (only the last scene) and It was also a Stephen King book.

[dehro]

So, denizens of the Playground. What movies do you suggest? The ones above I think are too much for this person, but not by a whole lot.
That depends very much on what you aim for.

if the bet consists in finding a movie of quality that he might start liking the horror genre I'd suggest one sort of title, maybe one of the classics, or a Dario Argento movie (though I do not know if they are well translated or not)

if you aim at him peeing his pants, cinematic quality might not be what you aim for..and it might be obtained by movies that are not generally filed under the horror genre
(as a kid i was thoroughly scared by the blokes with wheels on their hands, in "return to oz")

[Elidyr]

The Ring, by far, has scared me more then any other horror movie.

I think it's because it's not the kind of movie where things jump out at you and scare you, it's very psychological.

Absolutely terrifying.

I would pick Ringu (not the american version), I have yet to see anyone getting out of that unphased.

[Closet_Skeleton]

I would pick Ringu (not the american version), I have yet to see anyone getting out of that unphased.

Why call it Ringu, it's not meant to be called that. It's meant to be Ring. I know you want to distinguish it from the American remake but it ends up more like you're making fun of the Japanese inability to pronounce the word ring properly.

[ZeroNumerous]

Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. You kids and your "Ring". Cute. :smallamused:

[Telonius]

It's not precisely a horror movie, but I'll go with "Silence of the Lambs." Most horror movies don't get to me. They're either blood and gore (and I've actually seen a cadaver dissection - not much creeps me out), or monster of the week. But this one had all the elements of a great horror movie. Normal person in a situation that gets just a little creepier with each passing minute. Race against time. And a truly intelligent, utterly insane person. And you really get the feel that almost all of it could actually happen. Those feelings of shock, revulsion, and believable creepiness are what makes a really great horror movie, IMO.

[Elidyr]

Why call it Ringu, it's not meant to be called that. It's meant to be Ring. I know you want to distinguish it from the American remake but it ends up more like you're making fun of the Japanese inability to pronounce the word ring properly.

Its cited as ''Ringu'' on imdb, so why not?

[comicshorse]

What's your friend scared of. Personalize the movie to his achilles heel. As a clastrophobic The Descent terrrified the hell out of me

[nephtis]

Mmh... there's The Devil's Advocate.
Al Pacino make a great devil... it's not simply blood n'gore the horror is well hidden in the beginning and the most scaring moments are certainly not the ones with the most blood.
Spoilers: The Devil's advocate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil%27s_Advocate_%28film%29)

Then there was the one where a group of teens left a plane because one of them had an odd feeling about it. The plane crashed and they were the only survivors - but not for long, After all, they were destined to die and you can't cheat death...
Anyone remember the name of that one?

[WalkingTarget]

Its cited as ''Ringu'' on imdb, so why not?

Well, my question would be if the Japanese title of the film was Ring, Ringu, or リング.

Most Americans wouldn't be able to read the last even given that it's an approximation of an English word in a foreign orthography. Ringu is just a literal sounding out of those syllables. Well, approximately: the initial sound in リング isn't really the same as the average value or "r" in English either (at least for the dialects that I'm familiar with).

Come to think of it, what's the Japanese word for ring? I mean, if リング isn't just Gratuitous English (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main.GratuitousEnglish) but is really a loan word (like pan from the Portuguese for bread) then Ringu would be the actual title as it would be a Japanese word that happens to be very similar to the English word it's based on.

Anyway, on-topic: while it's not a horror movie, I always found the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_%28film%29) to be right up there on the vaguely-disquieting meter (and I love it). If you're looking for some general weirdness, I'd recommend In the Mouth of Madness (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Mouth_of_Madness) which gives a very Lovecraftian vibe (not based on any particular thing Lovecraft wrote, but in that style).

[WalkingTarget]

Then there was the one where a group of teens left a plane because one of them had an odd feeling about it. The plane crashed and they were the only survivors - but not for long, After all, they were destined to die and you can't cheat death...
Anyone remember the name of that one?

Final Destination?

[nephtis]

Final Destination?

That's it! I could have described the movie poster but couldn't remeber the title...

[Megalomaniac2]

I'd recommend either John Carpenter's "The Thing" or Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining."

[GimliFett]

I'd second "The Thing", but the special effects won't match up to today's and might leave a bad impression. I liked The Dark (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0411267/) quite a bit. I'll add about 5 more in a bit, but wanted to throw this one out there.

These are the most recent ones I've watched. Trying to stick with the more thoughtful, less gory ones.
Vacancy. Not at all what I was expecting (something like Saw and Hostel; not my style). Very good.
Dead Birds. A ghost story set during the Civil War. Great cast and acting!
The Haunted Forest. Surprisingly good, though somewhat low budget and obviously not American-made.
The Host. A lot of fun; Korean-made creature flick.

And my favorite ever! Bed Dead & Breakfast. Kinda gory, but man is it a fun flick!

[CurlyKitGirl]

The Haunting. Has to be the black and white version from the '50s. Pure pyschological terror; only noises.
I'm a horror junki and I watched thiss in broad daylight when I was off school one day. I was so scared I came downstairs to ask Mum to watch the rest with me. She wouldn't so I had to stick it out on my own.
I was afraid of every tiny little noise afterwards for 12 days. Pure cinematic quality.

[A Rainy Knight]

This one probably isn't scary enough, but it's a classic that we're watching in school that I like very much so far.

Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.

A lot of it seems pretty obviously fake, but it was very good for its time period and is still a pretty good movie.

[Glawackus]

The Thing or the original Candyman, methinks.

[FoE]

The Descent. British horror flick that came out in the USabout this time last year.

The Wiki page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Descent)

VERY good movie.

This is my thought as well. The Descent was so awesome that I saw it twice. For some reason it never caught on with North American audiences, but damn, it really should.

GimliFett suggested The Dark, which I would also recommend. Not quite as scary as The Descent, but still pretty good. Lots of spooky atmosphere. And sheep ... evil sheep.

Gimli, I'm going to nix your suggestion of Dead Birds. It's a good idea but it's not that well-executed, and the ending is a little too vague, I think. Aside from the demon bursting out of the slave's stomach, there's not a lot of visceral gore in it either.

One of my favourite horror movies is The Thing but it might be too scary for your friend to handle. It's very gory, but it's also very suspenseful.

Y'know, I never found The Grudge to be that scary. Oh, sure, there were one or two hair-raising moments in it (the girl in the attic), but for the most part it was kind of cheesy.

Curly's right on the Haunting, but that's only if you're into purely psychological horror. It might be hard to find as well.

I just saw 30 Days of Night and I can say that it's alright. The vampires in the film are very terrifying and ferocious, but the plot doesn't move along very well. It feels like they're jumping randomly all over the place.

[GimliFett]

GimliFett suggested The Dark, which I would also recommend. Not quite as scary as The Descent, but still pretty good. Lots of spooky atmosphere. And sheep ... evil sheep.

Thanks. I liked The Descent, though I've still not made up my mind about how I like the ending. Those things were wicked fast; reminded me of Gollum on steroids and speed!

And speaking of evil sheep: Black Sheep (http://imdb.com/title/tt0779982/) . I haven't watched it yet, but as soon as we can get it, my wife and I will. It looks great, and wrong: more in the funny/messed up scary than an outright horror movie, though.

Also, An American Haunting and In Dreams were quite good, in their areas, though the latter reminded me of Hideaway, which I also liked very much.

[Clementx]

Ginger Snaps is one of only three decent werewolf movies ever made, and it is unique in that lycanthropy=puberty. A bit of gore, but it avoids the classic mistake of showing too much for its budget (Canadian B-movie, so there is a refreshing lack of CGI). The perfect thing to pray on all your teen anxieties and feelings of alienation. Mostly, it gets you by perverting the universal inclinations towards sex, violence, and addition into something that starts frightening, gets really hot, then a bit furry, then horrifying.

[doliest]

Get the original 'House on Haunted Hill', it is one of the only 3 movies to ever scare me. I will point out that I enjoy watching most modern slashers-I just don't find them scary.
Freddy-I was scared first five minutes(not of the movie, of the rep of being scary, I was laughing 15 minutes in from the acting.)
SAW-Supsensful, gory, but not scary.
Jason-Loved em' wasn't scared though.
Movies that scared me-
House on Haunted Hill(original)-Price at his best, I mean the way price casually describes killing his wife to her face just creeps you out, great ending also.
The ring(american)-This movie haunted me for 5 years-til' I SAW(pun) scary movie(number?) on TV, now thats what I'd do.
Night of the living dead(original)-Scary, Low Budget, the MST3K of horror.

[turkishproverb]

Thanks. I liked The Descent, though I've still not made up my mind about how I like the ending. Those things were wicked fast; reminded me of Gollum on steroids and speed!

And speaking of evil sheep: Black Sheep (http://imdb.com/title/tt0779982/) . I haven't watched it yet, but as soon as we can get it, my wife and I will. It looks great, and wrong: more in the funny/messed up scary than an outright horror movie, though.

Also, An American Haunting and In Dreams were quite good, in their areas, though the latter reminded me of Hideaway, which I also liked very much.

The american version of THe Decent had a new ending specially made for the U.S. which explains part of the damage.

[SDF]

Jacob's Ladder is a great horror movie. Tim Robbins is awesome in that movie.

And my favorite horror movie could be Session 9... it's just so good.

I'm also a huge fan of zombie movies.^_^

[Amotis]

It's not precisely a horror movie, but I'll go with "Silence of the Lambs." Most horror movies don't get to me. They're either blood and gore (and I've actually seen a cadaver dissection - not much creeps me out), or monster of the week. But this one had all the elements of a great horror movie. Normal person in a situation that gets just a little creepier with each passing minute. Race against time. And a truly intelligent, utterly insane person. And you really get the feel that almost all of it could actually happen. Those feelings of shock, revulsion, and believable creepiness are what makes a really great horror movie, IMO.

My suggestion too. It's called a drama...but you know I can't let this movie go. For basically all the reasons you named. Gets under your skin (no pun intended).

[Jerthanis]

Pulse is probably a good choice. There is death, but no gore, and it scared my friends ****less and they couldnt finish it in one go. I definately recomend it.

I hope you're not talking about the original Japanese version, which was probably the most boring piece of cinema I've ever seen. I haven't seen the American version, but the Japanese one will involve more headscratching and yawns of boredom than cries of terror.

I recently had David Lynch's Inland Empire described to me over the phone, and it sounded like the most terrifying thing I've ever heard of. Over the phone I felt chills creeping up my spine. It's definitely more of a cerebral horror though, as if it's a bunch of mad symbolism tied together by several loose plots.

I really liked Silent Hill, but that's just me. I've heard people have responses all over the board as far as it goes, but I really liked it.

[MrsbwcMD]

I'm not really into horror (I wouldn't even watch any of the "Alien" movies with my husband, and I love sci-fi). However, two films I happened to see that really creeped me out were "Event Horizon" and "Audition" (a Japanese film kind of in the style of "Ring" and others like it). I'll never watch either one, again!

[Jack Squat]

Evil dead?

Evil Dead II or Army of Darkness would be a better choice.

Some others:
Dead Alive
Slither
Nightmare on Elm Street (the first one only)
The Covenant
John Carpenter's Vampires: Los Muertos
Young Frankenstein (ok, so it's not scary...but good nonetheless)

[Ed Sigma]

Hmm, a good horror title to get their attention, but not enough to scare them off. Well, a good bet would perhaps be John Carpenter's orginal classic "Halloween", that has a great, consistantly scary mood throughout, and dosn't go the easy route a lot of subsequent slasher flicks went and go for the gross-out, in fact there's no real blood at all, so that might fit the bill.

Speaking of John Carpenter, The Thing is a true classic, it dosn't just shock or sicken you with the creature effects (which still haven't really been surpassed to this day I rekon), it uses a lot of suspence and tension to build up to the moment first, then hits you with them. Plus Kurt Russell is the Man in that one!

The original Janpanese "Ring" has been mentioned, and I've got to agree that's a good one, that had me giving TVs and phones nervous glances for weeks after I first saw it.

My final suggestions would be either An American Werewolf in London or Shaun of the Dead, those use a great combination of horror and comedy, the way it should be done, by having the horrific aspects played seriously, and all the humor comes from the characters, which works both to settle the audience before hitting them with the scary stuff, and it makes you sympathise with the characters more. Add to that American Werewolf has one of the greatest special effect sequences ever and Shaun has one of the best uses of a song by Queen ever (besides Wayne's World or Flash Gordon) and you can't go wrong with either of those! Come to think of it, Slither and Severance work by those rules too, and those are also great movies. Still, hope this helps.

[Siric]

Most Horrors aren't scary. This might have something to do with me loving Horror movies. But most of them aren't scary. Laughable at best.

Mr. Brooks made me Jump. That's the only one that's made me jump. Plus, it's a good story. It's one of the few 'scary movies' that doesn't involve mentally handicapped evil kids, or monsters.

Feast is also pretty good. Check it out sometime. I liked it, a lot.

EDIT: The Descent is pretty good as well.

[Falconer]

When in doublt, go old school:

Nightmare On Elm Street (The first one, natch)

Excorcist


I'd say this would be some good advice. Ye just can't beat movies like the Excorcist (that one made me wear a crucifix 24/7 for almost two weeks straight)

The Poltergeist. Haven't actually seen it myself, but I hear it's a classic.
They're hEEEEEeeeeere!

Also The Haunting wasn't too bad, either. It's a black and white movie. Granted, I was in fifth grade when I saw this one, but there was more than one scene where it genuinely scared the crap out of me. Looking back on it, it's nice how the horror is a tad more subtle than most movies today.