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I confess that when it comes to movies, horror is a favourite of mine. Now, I've seen many horror films both old and new, and I have to say, many are disappointments. Many would argue that I've seen too many and that's why they don't scare me to much. But in all honesty. Sinister, the Exorcist, the Conjuring, etc follow a pretty linear storyline based usually on one or two concepts.

There are some tht I have recently enjoyed. A lot of people would say that "As Above, So Below" and "The Pyramid" were bad movies, but I loved them for the history behind them and also for the natural acting. It's just that Paranormal Activity and SAW have just become too overrated for my taste

What I wanted to ask dakkanauts, which horror movie, would you say has genuinely sent chills down your spine, or was so disturbing or sinister, that you were afraid to turn the lights out?

Thanks

Recently?
Babadook

Some classics, and just a few I'm sure I'll think of 200 more (I love them I do)
Exorcist
Exorcist III
Seven
Silence of the Lambs
The Rear Window
Wait until Dark (this one will freak you, especially if you see the original play live)
The Thing (the original one not that Caprenter poop)
The Creature from the Black Lagoon (yea baby!)
Alien
Halloween
the Ring
The Grudge (or half of it, then you realize you can take the ghost chick and punt the little kid through the field goal of life)
American Werewolf in London
The Wolfman
The Mummy (B&W), especially the scene of the guy just losing it and laughing and laughing and laughing and you just see a little bit cloth trailing out the door.
Race with the Devil

I also liked As Above So Below. The spacial distortions leave you disorientated and it's very well done. Combine that with running through dark tunnels with unknown assailants giving chase and you have a pretty scary experience.

Pandorum and Event Horizon are also favorites of mine. You don't see enough space horror.

I enjoy horror movies that scare you by engaging your brain instead of the "it's really quiet and suspenseful.....loud music and something jumping at the camera" tricks.

Saw is less horror in my opinion and more torture porn, and torture porn should be a distinct category.

I did enjoy the Woman in Black and Mama a few years back, I enjoyed Signs and the Village, the classics are all great: Exorcist, The Shining, classic Jason.

I thought I was the only person who liked Signs. I loved that movie.

 Frazzled wrote:
I thought I was the only person who liked Signs. I loved that movie.

Signs did something that I love in horror movies: not showing you the monster (at least until the end).

It's easy to ridicule fake monsters since they are fake, but when you don't see the monster you start building it up in your mind based on your own fears. And whatever you invent will always be scarier than anything they can throw at you.

 d-usa wrote:
I enjoy horror movies that scare you by engaging your brain instead of the "it's really quiet and suspenseful.....loud music and something jumping at the camera" tricks.

Saw is less horror in my opinion and more torture porn, and torture porn should be a distinct category.

I did enjoy the Woman in Black and Mama a few years back, I enjoyed Signs and the Village, the classics are all great: Exorcist, The Shining, classic Jason.

Have you seen Audition? It has some of A and some of B.



"Kiri kiri kiri."

 d-usa wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:
I thought I was the only person who liked Signs. I loved that movie.

Signs did something that I love in horror movies: not showing you the monster (at least until the end).

It's easy to ridicule fake monsters since they are fake, but when you don't see the monster you start building it up in your mind based on your own fears. And whatever you invent will always be scarier than anything they can throw at you.

Indeed.


I've heard of audition. I've heard it is...disturbing.

As with the previous posters, I am a huge fan of horror movies while not being too happy with the current state of the genre: too many movies that should be titled "2 Hours Of Jump Scenes".

I did like The Babadook as well - the kids book was legitimately scare as hell, and they built tension without going for the cheap scare. I didn't love it, but I really appreciated that they were going back in the right direction.

Signs had a lot of plot problems that are sort of a dealbreaker after watching it - why would aliens who are super-vulnerable to water invade a planet that is overwhelmingly covered with water, and populated by beings who are mostly water? That being said if you can sort of detach that part of your brain, he did a masterful job of building tension, and it reminds that although Mel Gibson is sort of a whackjob, he's also a fairly skilled actor.

The Sixth Sense was another really great movie, I think, as far as a slow drive with a satisfying conclusion. I wish M. Night hadn't decided to become a one-trick pony, because his first couple of movies really were quite good.

So far as my favorite horror movies, I'd have to go with The Thing (Kurt Russell version), Halloween, Alien, Night of the Living Dead, 28 Days/Weeks later, Jaws, Psycho, Let The Right One In (American remake), American Werewolf in London, and - though it subverts the genre - The Cabin In The Woods.

 Frazzled wrote:

 d-usa wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:
I thought I was the only person who liked Signs. I loved that movie.

Signs did something that I love in horror movies: not showing you the monster (at least until the end).

It's easy to ridicule fake monsters since they are fake, but when you don't see the monster you start building it up in your mind based on your own fears. And whatever you invent will always be scarier than anything they can throw at you.

Indeed.


I've heard of audition. I've heard it is...disturbing.

Signs really freaked me out.

On the whole I don't really go for horror much at all since I don't think it's really done that well anymore, (especially since it seems so many are being aimed at idiot teen girls), but I really, really enjoyed Mirrors.
Not excessively gory just for the sake of 'OMG! Blood everywhere!!!1!' crap, and the story goes from a seemingly age-old, 'oh noes, creepy building is mega creepy & scary stuff happen' to something much darker and threatening.


Of course the film did terribad in the theaters, but then the story was too beyond the intelligence & comprehension of your average teen girl.

 Artorias the Abysswalker wrote:
A lot of people would say that "As Above, So Below" and "The Pyramid" were bad movies, but I loved them for the history behind them and also for the natural acting.

Ya, I liked As Above, So Below. Reminded me of Goonies, but instead of finding One Eyed Willy and his treasure, they found Hell. Would've liked a bit more of the movie being in actual Hell, but it was neat nonetheless. Weird ending though.

I've been on this weird Netflix/I-tunes horror movie kick, watching low budget, crap acted horror flicks. There's some flashes of genius, but generally its just to pass the time/have noise while I do stuff. "The Door" was the most recent, neat concept and kind of creepy at times, but falls flat due to aforementioned crap acting and "lets hide in the shed full of chainsaws" type writing.

Super pumped for "It Follows", which is supposed to be the horror movie to watch in 2015. Reading a lot of good things about it on the various horror sites I go to. We'll see if it lives up to the hype though.

Evil Dead series (included Army of Darkness)

Event Horizon is probably in my top 3 favorite horror flix.

Stigmata tweaked me out...

Fallen and Se7en is great.

Midnight Train!!!!

I too loved Se7en and feel dumb for not having included it. Event Horizon was terrific as well - so 40k-ish in it's backstory.

 Frazzled wrote:

The Thing (the original one not that Caprenter poop)

Wha...wha...wha...what!

It's a horror masterpiece!

Practical effects that still hold up today. An understated and creepy score. Great plot. Infinitely re-watchable.

Alien is a must.

I'd actually throw my weight into Signs as well. It's pretty creepy. Has the biggest plot hole in the world but it's definitely worth a watch.

Oh my god did you just dis John Carpenter?

 Ouze wrote:
Oh my god did you just dis John Carpenter?

I certainly hope not!

Also... HELLRAISER!

Since no one mentioned it Something Wicked This Way Comes.

 Ahtman wrote:
Since no one mentioned it Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Good man.



Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Ouze wrote:
I too loved Se7en and feel dumb for not having included it. Event Horizon was terrific as well - so 40k-ish in it's backstory.

Event Horizon is 80% there, IMO. Great buildup, only to completely lose its way in the final 15 minutes or so. I guess it's fixable if you just skip all the "the ship brought me back" nonsense and Human Torch fisticuffs to get right to the part where the ship goes down the drain.

But I really can't call it a great horror film with such a flawed ending.



Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Frazzled wrote:

 d-usa wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:
I thought I was the only person who liked Signs. I loved that movie.

Signs did something that I love in horror movies: not showing you the monster (at least until the end).

It's easy to ridicule fake monsters since they are fake, but when you don't see the monster you start building it up in your mind based on your own fears. And whatever you invent will always be scarier than anything they can throw at you.

Indeed.


I've heard of audition. I've heard it is...disturbing.

Yup. Audition has a slow buildup with a genuine payoff.

 Ouze wrote:
Oh my god did you just dis John Carpenter?

I dissed "the Thing" yes. It was hokey. People were laughing in the theater at all the supposed monster scenes.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Ahtman wrote:
Since no one mentioned it Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Oh yes indeedy!

Also The Gate. Its more G ratedish but really works.

Its films so its subjective: but............

The Thing scared the crap out of me. The new one with great tension and atmosphere Not like the rubbish old one - our dog looked a bit like the husky so that did not help..............

Event Horizon was also very good

American Werewolf was prety scary

Descent and Dog Soliders were great - but not that scary

I really enjoyed Dark Skies. Kinda like a dark Xfiles episode.

Dark Skies was alright. Another similar movie was "Alien Abduction" which was released recently. They changed the image of aliens to me more with the horror theme. Has anyone seen it?

Also, one movie that I saw when I was a kid was "Jeepers Creepers" but I never saw the ending. Should I watch it again?

Also a lot of people are mentioning "Signs" and "Audition", neither o fwhich I've seen. Could someone tell me what they're about, and what's so unique about them. Thanks.

I love the Carpenter Thing and Hellraiser. Thought Tusk was ... interestingish. Pretty horrifying at least.

 Artorias the Abysswalker wrote:
Dark Skies was alright. Another similar movie was "Alien Abduction" which was released recently. They changed the image of aliens to me more with the horror theme. Has anyone seen it?

Also, one movie that I saw when I was a kid was "Jeepers Creepers" but I never saw the ending. Should I watch it again?

Also a lot of people are mentioning "Signs" and "Audition", neither o fwhich I've seen. Could someone tell me what they're about, and what's so unique about them. Thanks.

Jeepers Creepers was actually pretty good. Sequel(s?) not so much.

Signs was an M. Knight Shamamalamanan movie where aliens were invading Earth and using crop circles to coordinate.

Audition is a Japanese movie that I never saw. Guess I know what I'm doing tonight, if I don't watch Foxcatcher.

Event Horizon is definitely up there. Also I would say the Exorcist, the Thing (yes, the one with John Carpenter), the original Night of the Living Dead was pretty good. 28 Days Later is one of the more recent well done movies I've seen, along with Insidious (the 2nd was meh). Also, the Strangers was very creepy, along with Funny Games.

I always find the creepier movies are less the monsters, but more the real life situations with every day people. In that way, Se7en and Zodiac were also very creepy.

Well, I've dealt with enough stalking so neither the wife or I watch horror movies generally involving people (plus we're always "JUST SHOOT HIM! WHATS THE PROBLEM! Oh yea this is hollywood")

Did anyone mention Zodiac yet? Creepy. I've been to that lake.

While it's a creature(s) flix... The MIST's ending messed me up.

 whembly wrote:
While it's a creature(s) flix... The MIST's ending messed me up.

Different than the book. There were little kids in there watching that with us. Wife was appalled.

I enjoy some horror movies, but as an adult I've never been scared, nor probably can as it's impossible to make me forget that something is fiction.

At the top though I'd probably rate Alien, largely due to Giger's fantastic art design and the Xenomorph being a fairly disturbing entity. It's basically rape turned into an actual living creature, and the original scripts/concepts were even more horrifying and implying that the alien was sentient and a sadist.

Then I'd have to go with John Carpenter's the Thing. It's the most faithful adaption of the book, is a generally fantastic movie, and the paranoia of not being able to trust anyone, and just how freakishly powerful the Thing would have been if it landed on another continent.

Or maybe it did....

 Frazzled wrote:

 whembly wrote:
While it's a creature(s) flix... The MIST's ending messed me up.

Different than the book. There were little kids in there watching that with us. Wife was appalled.

I laughed my ass off. Got a lot of looks from other theatergoers.