Favorite Horror Movies!

[Evvie]

Bocefish had a good idea and I'm nothing if not a plagiarist

Anyway, I really enjoy a good horror movie but I have to admit I've not seen many zombie movies because I'm not a huge fan of gore.

I'm interested in people's favorite horror movies, myself! I haven't seen a good one in a while.

My favorites are psychological movies, like Children of the Corn, Rosemary's Baby, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, and Wicker Man.

Because I prefer horror movies without a lot of gore, I've gotten in to a few discussions about what makes a horror movie. Most people these days associate horror with torture/gore porn. A horror movie without that to most people is a thriller.

In my opinion, a horror movie tells a morally reprehensible story. It should promote in the viewer a feeling of horror. This can easily be done without gore or bloody visuals, although these days that is often a shortcut.

So, what are your favorite horror movies, and in your opinion, what differentiates between a horror movie or an action/thriller?

 

[Bocefish]

I liked the Rob Zombie and SAW flicks. Some of the other classics in no particular order:


Alien (1979, Directed by Ridley Scott)

The Descent (2005, Directed by Neil Marshall)

The Exorcist (1973, Directed by William Freidkin)

Jaws (1975, Directed by Steven Spielberg)Hostel (2005, Written and Directed by Eli Roth)

Silence of the Lambs (1991, Directed by Jonathan Demme)

The Thing (1982, Directed by John Carpenter)

The Hills Have Eyes (1977, Written and Directed by Wes Craven)

Hostel (2005, Written and Directed by Eli Roth)

 

[Diana Blake]

The Dentist (1996)

I still can't sit through the movie without squirming. I watched it when I was 11 or 12 and...yeah, I don't like dentists...

 

[Anonymous]

I liked the SAW flicks. Some of the other classics in no particular order:


The Descent (2005, Directed by Neil Marshall)

As soon as I saw this thread, I headed straight over to mention The Descent and The Descent Part 2. :thumbleft:

I also enjoy the SAW movies.

 

[JoleneBrody]

"PumpkinHead" is my all time favorite! The monster was AMAZING! The way they slowly morphed Lance and PumkinHeads faces to look alike throughout the film is a fine example of Hollywood monster magic!

I LOVE horror but I prefer monsters. I'm really not into the more realistic horror. Ghosts, murder and torture freak me out and leave me feeling squeemish. But Monsters and Zombies! Awwww yeah!

 

[AnabelleLeigh]

I really like I spit on your grave both the old one and the remake. Something about movies with rape scenes really freak me out.

 

[Shaun__]

I have always been fond of the themes found in the Hellraiser movies. Would you solve the puzzle box to experience things beyond mortal comprehension?

 

[sweetiebatman]

I can't do with horror movies that set out to shock with over the top gore or violence. Dont get me wrong there is a place for both but its the easy way out IMO to go over the top

I much prefer a bit of the old suspense or percieved threat keeping you on the edge of your seat, Quite liked the first half of Insidious before it got silly in the 2nd half

 

[VeronicaChaos]

I love horror movies! I'm a huge fan of old horror movies with Vincent Price, but I also really love torture porn and gore. Hostel, Saw, Human Centipede 2, A Serbian Film, Cannibal Holocaust, Hellraiser...and then of course the zombie comedies: Evil Dead 1&2, Dead Alive, Return of the Living Dead. Oh! And the Guinea Pig films. amazing. A lot of people think gore is the easy way out, but...not really. A lot of work goes into those effects, especially the more gruesome/hardcore ones. I think a lot of people see gore and don't pay attention to the story, and therefor dismiss it, but I think A Serbian Film has an amazing plot to it.

And of course, Nightmare on Elm Street. Fuck yeah.

 

[AnabelleLeigh]

I love horror movies! I'm a huge fan of old horror movies with Vincent Price, but I also really love torture porn and gore. Hostel, Saw, Human Centipede 2, A Serbian Film, Cannibal Holocaust, Hellraiser...and then of course the zombie comedies: Evil Dead 1&2, Dead Alive, Return of the Living Dead. Oh! And the Guinea Pig films. amazing. A lot of people think gore is the easy way out, but...not really. A lot of work goes into those effects, especially the more gruesome/hardcore ones. I think a lot of people see gore and don't pay attention to the story, and therefor dismiss it, but I think A Serbian Film has an amazing plot to it.

And of course, Nightmare on Elm Street. Fuck yeah.

I have always had a small crush on vincent price.

 

[Diana Blake]

I have always had a small crush on vincent price.

Have you heard the intro he did for Alice Cooper's "Black Widow"? OMG, I want to hump the man! It's like him and Keith David...I don't care if they have a Ken doll nub where their dick should be I would hump the bujeezus out of them for their voices alone. :drool:

 

[MadisonLeigh]

The Nightmare on Elm Street series is probably my favorite. I also dig Japanese horror, like Ju-on, Suicide Club, Ringu, etc. (The American versions tend to fall kinda flat for me though, Japan is just really great at conveying that creepy feeling.) I love the Evil Dead movies as well, and basically any campy B-movie horror. I enjoy watching awful 80s horror movies as comedies. I like gore if there's a good story accompanying it but without a plot line it doesn't do it for me.

 

[NancyNoNude2012]

Trick'r'treat was actually pretty good, I found it humorous and... well, disgusting! I also really really liked See No Evil, with Kane!!! I kinda fell in like with him even more after that movie!

 

[adorkabelle]

Ravenous. Much less of a monster, gore fest. More of an ...drama/horror. It certainly fucked with my head, but then cannibalism freaks me out. But still..."HE WAS LICKING MEEEEEEEE!

 

[SweepTheLeg]

In no particular order

Let the right one in

Nightmare on Elmstreets

IT, watched it alone when I was 8 gave me the best kind of nightmares.

Event Horizon

The Omen trilogy.

Alien trilogy.

 

[LiLredhairedgrl]

Definately Nightmare on Elm Street for me too! Scared the hell out of my lil' sister with that movie when we were kids....all she saw was the jumproping scene--in the middle of the afternoon, mind you--and that night the MINUTE my parents went to bed and all the lights were out, my 9 year old lil' sister let out the most blood curdling scream I have ever heard in my life! I ran to her room, my parents ran to her room, lights on everyone is standing there like what the heck and finally she stops and tells us all she could hear was that creepy chanting. So of course, I was in trouble. :lol: She STILL refuses to watch that movie to this very day...

The first movie I ever remember seeing was "The masque of the Red Death" back when Vincent PRice hosted a weekly horror show on television....SCARY! I loved it.

And my latest favorite is HITCHCOCK "The Birds"---I lived in sonoma county when I first watched it, just a few towns inland from Stinson Beach, which is where they filmed the movie. SCARY bb's!

No gore for me. I hate hate hate melting flesh.

 

[SatanJonez]

Too many to list them all, but off the top of my sleepy head


Hellraiser
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Dawn of the Dead (remake)
The Eye (Pang brothers version)
Sick Nurses
House of 1000 Corpses
The Devil's Rejects
A Tale of Two Sisters
Ichi the Killer
Trick R Treat
The Wizard of Gore (remake, Crispin Glover is always a creepy fucker)

 

[mynameisbob84]

Showgirls. Absolutely frightning. (Scream 2 reference FTW bb)

The only two films to actually ever scare me (discounting stuff I watched when I was a kid) are The Excorcist and The Blair Witch Project.
There's something about fundamentally evil supernatural forces that have SOME precedent in real life that freak me out. I'm not particularly religious but when I watch something like The Excorcist, I'm at least conscious of the fact that "demonic possessions" are actually a documented phenomena. In like, real life. They were probably all psychosomatic, right? But I'm not CERTAIN of that. That freaks me out.
Same applies to Blair Witch (albeit to a lesser degree). Witchcraft is a real world thing and curses are something that can't exactly be disproved. A bunch of kids being cursed by a mythical old woman who practices witchcraft? Who the fuck am I to say that's never happened?
The evil perpetuated my man (and woman, yo) is seen on the news every day. It's often horrific and tragic and depressing and upsetting and confusing but it's not scary per se (that's why I don't like torture porn, it's not scary and it's no more shocking than the news). Evil that just exists as an entity ... that gives me the heebie jeebies.

I do love the Scream films though. The first two anyway. They weren't scary but they were fun. I like films that are self-aware. See also; An American Werewolf In London, The Howling.

April Fools Day also has the most audacious ending of any horror film ever. If you've never seen it; watch it.

 

[SatanJonez]

Adding Soylent Green to my list. Charleton Heston is surprisingly hot in this, so that's a weird perk.

 

[CurvyBookworm]

I'm with you, Evvie! Psychological horror is my favorite type of horror, but I love scary films across the board. Some favorites:

House/Hausu (Obayashi, 1977) - My #1! Not psychological horror; House is a cult treat. If you haven't seen this zany '70s film, I'd highly recommend it. Demonic cats, Japanese schoolgirls, death by piano, seas of blood, innovative visuals--what more could you ask for?

Persona (Bergman, 1966)

Picnic at Hanging Rock (Weir, 1975)

Possession (Zulawski, 1981)

The Descent (Marshall, 2005)

 

[AnabelleLeigh]

I went to a david lynch double feature recently, and his movies made me feel really uneasy... not exactly scared but a very similar feeling. I'm looking forward to diving deeper into his body of work soon.

 

[RogueWarrior]

Interesting to see different interpretations of what horror is.

I love the Alien movies (1 &2) but would not consider them horror, more science fiction to me.

Not a big slasher fan. Too predictable.

Saw movies were interesting. Had a mental aspect which I like.

I enjoy the campiness of some zombie flicks and the parody of the Scary Movies.

One of the most horrifying movies I have ever seen, I can't remember the name. It had Nic Cage in it and centered around "snuff flicks" in which they were not simulations but actual death. Pretty disturbing.

For a campy/sci-fi/horror/spoof combo, "Killer Klowns from Outer Space" can't be beaten. Bonus for the theme song by The Dickies.

Stream of consciousness rambling over. Carry on...........

Edited for grammatical purposes.

 

[Bocefish]

IIRC this is from 'Hostel'

 

[lordmagellan]

IIRC this is from 'Hostel'

That was my favorite scene from either of those films. I'm a little sick.

Rogue, the Nic cage film was 8MM. Pretty good flick, actually.

I'm finding it harder and harder to suspend my disbelief anymore with regards to horror, and instead just enjoy the make-up/ action effects on screen.
Hellraiser will always be special for the mythology alone.
I grew up with Freddy and Jason.
I consider the saw to be family.
I have the original Fright Night practically memorized because for some reason I really enjoyed it as a child.
Return of the Living Dead will always be a fave, too, because I want them to send more brains.

But by far, the most frightening film I've ever scene was the documentary, Jesus Camp. Truly, truly scary stuff in that film.
A close second and third are the Paradise Lost docs. Those are scary on a very personal "That could have been me" level.

 

[mynameisbob84]

I went to a david lynch double feature recently, and his movies made me feel really uneasy... not exactly scared but a very similar feeling. I'm looking forward to diving deeper into his body of work soon.

I love Lynch.
Twin Peaks is one my favourite shows ever. There's just nothing else like it. Even the myriad shows that ripped it off never came closing to matching it for weirdness.
Blue Velvet is a great film and one of his more "straight forward" stories.
Eraserhead is like some delirious nightmare.
Lost Highway is creepy as fuck though I could never quite explain why.
Mulholland Drive is awesome even if it did take me three viewings to even start to piece it together.
Wild At Heart is pretty good too. Although, the pairing of Lynch and Nic Cage should have produced something a little more memorable.

Still yet to watch Elephant Man and Inland Empire.

 

[AnabelleLeigh]

Still yet to watch Elephant Man and Inland Empire.

Inland Empire and Eraserhead are the 2 I saw.... My friend told me that lost highway was the best so that's next on my list

 

[mynameisbob84]

Still yet to watch Elephant Man and Inland Empire.

Inland Empire and Eraserhead are the 2 I saw.... My friend told me that lost highway was the best so that's next on my list

It's a great film. Though I think Mulholland Drive is my favourite. If you've never seen Twin Peaks, please do so. It's brilliant in ways I could never describe. The film isn't bad either, but the first season of the TV show is maybe the best season of television I've ever seen

 

[Anonymous]

I've never seen Hostel, however I have stayed in NYC hostels before.

 

[Poker_Babe]

My favorites are psychological movies, like Children of the Corn, Rosemary's Baby, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, and Wicker Man.

I think I just fell in love... where have u been all my life? I love all those movies u just named!

 

[CurvyBookworm]

I went to a david lynch double feature recently, and his movies made me feel really uneasy... not exactly scared but a very similar feeling. I'm looking forward to diving deeper into his body of work soon.

I love Lynch.
Twin Peaks is one my favourite shows ever. There's just nothing else like it. Even the myriad shows that ripped it off never came closing to matching it for weirdness.

Still yet to watch Elephant Man and Inland Empire.

Twin Peaks love! It's my all-time favorite TV show. So many lovable characters, all odd in their own unique way. Still holding out for my own Special Agent Dale Cooper... Swoon.

Inland Empire I didn't love so much. I wanted to! Epically long Lynch movie, plus some Jeremy Irons thrown in for good measure. But it was too meandering and abstract; it never felt as coherent as the best Lynch movies, like (IMHO) Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive.