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What is your favourite Horror movie(s)?

17K views 100 replies 36 participants last post by  Phil Classical Purist 
#1 ·
In terms of scary, and in terms of production values.

For plain scariness I found the first Paranormal Activity scary and disturbing. My favourite is the Shining, even though it's not that scary.
 
#2 ·
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is, I think, still one of the most effective horror movies (the original, of course). The Shining is nice but it's more of a psychological thriller to me, with a few shocks, and is surpassed in that vein by Rosemary's Baby among a few others.

A few of my favorites quickly: The Thing (Carpenter), Return of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead (original), The Evil Dead 2, Alien, Hellraiser, The Exorcist, The Innocents, Halloween (Carpenter), City of the Living Dead, Mystery of the Wax Museum, The Body Snatcher, The Curse of Frankenstein and Blood of Dracula (among other Hammer pictures). Plenty more, I like all types of horror from all eras and all countries.
 
#4 · (Edited)
Some of these are on the border between "mystery/crime/thriller" and "horror", and several incorporate multiple additional genres/sub-genres, but whatever... My top 25 would probably go something like this:

1. The Kingdom - Lars Von Trier (1995)
2. Lost Highway - David Lynch (1997)
3. Possession - Andrzej Zulawski (1981) [Original Cut, 123 minutes]
4. Inland Empire - David Lynch (2006)
5. Rosemary's Baby - Roman Polanski (1968)
6. Hush... Hush Sweet Charlotte - Robert Aldrich (1965)
7. Funny Games - Michael Haneke (1997)
8. What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? - Robert Aldrich (1962)
9. Psycho - Alfred Hitchcock (1960)
10. Dressed to Kill - Brian De Palma (1980)
11. Erasherhead - David Lynch (1978)
12. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - Robert Wiene (1920)
13. The Phantom Carriage - Victor Sjostrom (1921)
14. Hour of the Wolf - Ingmar Bergman (1968)
15. Repulsion - Roman Polanski (1965)
16. Silence of the Lambs - Jonathan Demme (1991)
17. Alien - Ridley Scott (1979)
18. Body Double - Brian De Palma (1984)
19. The Exorcist - William Friedkin (1973)
20. Videodrome - David Cronenberg (1983)
21. Under the Skin - Jonathan Glazer (2014)
22. Antichrist - Lars Von Trier (2009)
23. Nosferatu - F.W. Murnau (1922)
24. Night of the Living Dead - George Romero (1968)
25. Vampyr - Carl Theodor Dreyer (1931)

Sorry Phil, but I didn't really take your requested criteria into much account. This is just my top 25 favorite films that are also horror (or are multi-genre and could also be classified as such).
 
#5 · (Edited)
As a note, if you're looking for the scariest film of all time (that is also an excellent movie, not just something pointless where a bunch of people die very shocking brutal, unwatchable deaths, like "Saw 17" or something...) ... it is David Lynch's Inland Empire. Though it is quite experimental, even for Lynch, so if you haven't seen it, you've been warned ... and don't watch it alone and in the dark (seriously)
 
#6 ·
Never watched it. The only Lynch movies I saw were Blue velvet, Mullholland Drive, Wild at Heart, Eraserhead, and Elephant Man. I guess that's more than I remembered. I saw Repulsion, and thought it was great, but don't recall what it's about.
 
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#16 ·
Yeah, definitely when I watched it the first time when I was 5 years old. And many times since. But after the special effects revolution earlier in the 2000's, it doesn't feel scary anymore.
 
#19 ·
Yeah. Great movie. The climax really toyed with my mind, as it was unexpected and not obvious why it happened until later. Defifnitely one of my favourites. The Changeling with George C. Scott is also great. The ultimate ghost story.
 
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#22 ·
The original Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
This would've made my list too, but I didn't consider it to be horror, at least to the arbitrary degree I was applying to my choices. But, if we're infact counting it, consider it one that should've been on my own list, as well as Hitchcock's The Birds (which was simply forgotten when I put it together).
 
#44 · (Edited)
This is a hard one based on the opening criteria because scary is relative to different people.

I have approximately 3,000 horror movies in my collection. My personal favorites are still the ones I grew up on:

The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari
Nosferatu
The Phantom Of The Opera
Frankenstein
Bride Of Frankenstein
Son Of Frankenstein
Dracula
The Wolfman
The Mummy
Creature From The Black Lagoon
The Invisible Man
King Kong
Godzilla
The Blob

Now those movies aren't going to be scary to most folks these days but I never tire of seeing anything with Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Sr. & Jr, Claude Rains, Giant Monsters, etc.

For some scary is an uncomfortable atmosphere which makes me think of movies like like "Alien".

For some scary is jump scenes which makes me think of something like "Jaws".

For some it's a religious thing that they believe in which makes me think of "The Exorcist".

For others is the reality of a helpless situation which makes me think of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" or even "Deliverance".

I haven't found anything in a movie scary since I was probably 6-8 years old, but I can feel uncomfortable. Watching someone in a helpless situation makes me feel uncomfortable. Watching someone trapped in isolation in the dark much like Alien can make me feel uncomfortable. A loud jump scene can make me jump but it's not so much what's happening on the screen as it is a sudden loud noise that I wasn't expecting. I don't find blood or gore scary. I don't find Slashers scary although I enjoy them. I think the more realistic the situation the more scary something is.
 
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