Horror Films

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What are some of your favorite horror films? My biggest film favs are Zombie and Supernatural Films, like Night of the Living Dead and the Ju-On Series (which The Grudge is remade from). I also might be sadistic, but I like horror films that don't have happy endings, and something horrible usually happens to all the characters, rather they die or go insane.

Then you must love the ending to THE MIST. I thought it was great, just because it was so unexpected. It just the ending I would have written for that film - a good emotionally gut-wrenching shock. Rod Serling would have been proud. As I recall, the Stephen King short story it was based on was much more open-ended and ambiguous about the ultimate fate of the characters.

I'd rather see a horror film with a real story any day, than 90 minutes of wall-to-wall slash-and-splatter. Night of the Living Dead is a classic, and I even liked both the B/W original and the color remake. The endings are slightly different, but both are still good. Return of the Living Dead is a lot of fun, 'cause they play it off as black comedy. Even Return of the Living Dead 3 was decent.

I'm still a fan of the old Universal horror classics of the 30s and 40s. They may not seem as scary now as they did to audiences then, but they have atmosphere like nobody's business. And I'd put Creature from the Black Lagoon (in original 3D)up against any CGI today, and it's just a guy in a rubber costume.

Eight Legged Freaks was a great comic tribute to dozens of previous horror classics and still delivered a few jolts of its own. The first Poltergeist film was pretty good, and though a little over-the-top towards the end, still fun. All of the sequels SUCKED, though. Was never crazy about the original FLY, but the Jeff Goldblum remake was okay - and the good guy dies!

The Exorcist is still the champ, but you have to watch it quietly, preferably ALONE and really absorb it to get the true effect. That film is all about atmosphere and subtlety, even when it cuts loose. Exorcist 3 (the only true sequel) was also pretty good, because the author of the original book insisted on directing it himself.

I'm not sure if its technically considered a horror movie, but Videodrome is compelling and bizarre. Speaking of which, if you just wanna see something that's freaky, gross, unintelligible and leaves you going 'WTF was that?' - Watch Eraserhead by David Lynch.

Frankenstein (Borris Karloff version)
Nosferatu
Jaws
Halloween (original)
Psycho
Night of the Living Dead

Oh yeah! I heard about The Mist, and I'd love to see it!

I also want to see this film called Orphan, but I have a feeling it's going to be another rip-off of The Omen.

I just saw 28 Days Later recently... it was pretty good, but I didn't find the zombies that scary. I thought the brutality that the survivors inflicted on each other was the most disturbing part .

My top 10 in order are...

The Exorcist (1973)
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Hellraiser (1997)
The Ring 1 & 2 (Remakes 2002/2005)
Final Destination 1-3 (2000/2003/2006)
The Butterfly Effect (2001)
Flatliners (1990)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (Most of the Series)
28 Days/Weeks Later (2002/2007)
Salems Lot (1979 and Remake 2004)

I'm not quite sure why since I like a lot of others too.... depending upon my mood.

I like a lot of horror movies for a lot of different reasons, but no movie has ever scared me more than The Blair Witch Project. I still can't walk by a pile of rocks without having a heart attack!

Horrors I like (I have probably forgotten some):

The Ring 1 & 2
Final destination
The Mist
The Fog
Poltergeist
Dead snow
Flatliners
Evil dead
Shaun of the dead
Day of the dead
1 missed call
The Shining
Nightmare on Elm street
Children of the corn 1-5
Child’s play 1-5
Phantoms
The glow
Carrie
After midnight
Sometimes they come back
Tremors 1-4
Fear of the dark
the grudge 1 & 2
The 6th sense
Slithers
Pulse
They
Ticks
Dark water
The others

Borderland horror / thiller: I know what you did last summer, Scream, The good son, Gothika, Hide and seek, Severance, When a stranger calls.

Borderland horror / sci-fi: Invasion of the body snatchers, Nightmare street, The forgotten, Brainscan, Communion, Stay alive

I found all of them exciting, but only 3 gave me any scare
The Fog, Invasion of the body snatchers (1978) and Flatliners (probably because I saw all of them at the age of 12-13 and alone).
The 6th sense and The others gave me goosebumps of joy because the ideas were so good, not a jump in the seat scare, though. A little chill when the dead kid with bloody head approached the psychic boy.

I usually laugh at the scary parts... I have never seen a movie that has truly scared me. I wish I had!

Last edited by Skilpadde on 24 Aug 2009, 10:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I know, there's a lot of horror films I enjoy, but none of them have ever scared me. I guess because I've watched them since I was a kid.

I knew I had forgotten something:
Langoliers.
Tommyknockers.
Pet sematary.

Some good recommendations there...

Willard... why didn't you recommend Willard?

My lists were written before The Mist, so I'll have to update them.. No idea why I'm missing Night of the Living Dead though... possibly because I feel like it's more social commentary than horror - or because of that annoying screaming girl...

BTW: GreenPele. If you already know the ending to the mist, it's gonna spoil it somewhat.
And the Orphan(age) is good if you don't mind Spanish. Don't read about it, just watch it. It isn't the Omen. Not sure if there's a different film called the Orphan... probably.

Anyway, here's the other half of my list... the "worthy mentions"

Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001)
Exorcist III: Legion (1990)
Halloween I and II (1978/1981)
Silence of the Lambs ()
Red Dragon (2002)
Misery (1990)
Dolores Claiborne (1995)
The Omen Series (Originals 1978)
Christine (1983)
Candyman (1992)
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)
Cabin Fever (2002)
The Audition (2001)
Amityville 1 and 2 Originals (1979/1982)
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
Event Horizon ()
From Hell (2001)
Ginger Snaps (1-3) (2000/2003/2004)
Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996)
Hostel I and II (2005/2007)
Jeepers Creepers (2001)
Mimic (1997)
Pet Semetary (1989)
Phenomena (1984)
Posessed (2000)
Psycho I and II (1960/1983)
Resident Evil 1-3 (2002/2004/2007)
The Shining (1980)
Thirteen Ghosts (2001)
The Wicker Man (Original 1973)
The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)

Silence of the Lambs was 1991 and Event Horizon 1997.
I can't really list my fave horror films cos I can't do orders
The Exorcist, Silence of the Lambs (not pre/sequels) and first 2 Alien films are awesome
Poltergeist, The Shining, Carrie and Nightmare on Elm Street were quite good
Original Halloween, Psycho and Eight Legged Freaks were boring
Resident Evil, Final Destination - bleugh, though FD I considered to get better as sequels - preferred 3rd, and new one out soon
Not too keen on zombie films, too gory and I didn't like Shaun of the Dead even though it's British like me! . But tbh alot of 'horror' films aren't even scary and I wouldn't count them horror. The only films that have ever truly scared me were Snow White (when I was 2/3) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (about 12 - freaked me out totally), Blair Witch Project was pretty damn scary, original Wicker Man was chilling too. Jaws and The Strangers made me scream twice.

Like beauty, Horror is in the eye of the beholder...

The things that scared you will usually have done so as a child. True fear of a film is gone by the time you're an adult because we know that we can walk out or turn it off. We know it's just a movie.

The things that really scared me as a child were;

Doctor Who - A lot of Planet of the Spiders (aged 4), Death to the Daleks and Monster of Peladon.
The Fall of the House of Usher - Just the scenes where the coffin was unscrewing itself and the old lady goes running down the hall.
Salems Lot -1979 the original TV movie ... and not actually the movie because I was too young (about 10) to see it when it first aired - just the adverts that they ran in the middle of Batman...

All of these are tame now but nothing has scared me quite so much since. The closest I ever got to that feeling as an adult was seeing the final scenes of Silence of the Lambs in it's opening week without knowing what the movie was about... I thought it was going to be about sheep because I'd never heard of it until I was sitting in the cinema.

Shock is different to being scared. The best movie shock moment I can think of is the white figure in Legion Exorcist III.

Resident evil.
Village of the damned.

The unknown (Swedish). http://www.cultreviews.com/reviews/the-unknown/

Not the remake with Superman in it I hope.

The only horror movie I saw is Carrie. YOW, after I saw it I got hooked to that stuff :3