Dark Water, directed by Hideo Nagata. It made me scream in a move theatre for the first time ever.

Steve.

Bah! That was me, posting while not logged in. And now I've double posted.
<staggers away to get more beer>
Well, while I'm here, I'll toss in the Blair Witch Project for its final sequence vs Scream 2 which has the finest, more consistent Act 2 of any slasher film I've ever scene.

Now I'll lumber away into that dark hallway over there. I'll be right back.

Steve.

Heh...

Well, I did say I was a horror movie snob, did I not?

Iroonically, my favorite horror movie isn't particularly scary, nor especially obscure. It's Re-animator. Simple, beautiful, and hilarious.

- Scott

There's a Wu-Tang movie with hopping zombies. I'm trying to recall the title. I don't think it's the Five Deadly Venoms... but it's one of them. I love that movie.

As for just plain horror... I'd have to say The Omen. But for just "a good time with the genre", I'd go with In the Mouth of Madness or Exorcist (or Event Horizon or Dawn of the Dead or...)

Dav

Event Horizon is one of the few movies that has scared me as an adult.

Blair Witch Project was good as an immersive experience (i.e. you are essentially put behind the eyes of the victims).

In the Mouth of Madness was just...weird.

Silence of the Lambs was good for the non-supernatural horror, especially how it suggested much more than it showed. The intensity of the relationship between Clarice and Lecter was gripping.

And, I thought that 28 Days Later was really quite good, although I wished that they had stuck with the original ending (where Jim dies).

Seth Ben-Ezra
Great Wolf

Hey,

If you are talking plain scary - real horror - then I'm with Dav. The Omen is a terrifying movie.

For pure mastery albeit a certain amount of "gee look it's horror," then Dario Argento's Suspiria and Mario Bava's (terribly mistitled) Kill Baby Kill are both way, way up there.

Best,
Ron

I just don't get scared by motion pictures, so I look for atmosphere, deeply cool twists, and thought-provoking presentation of the supernatural. Above all: show me what it means to be damned.

Something Wicked This Way Comes is a first runner-up.

My favorite, though, is The Other, made (for TV!) in 1972 and based on a Thomas Tryon novel. (Not to be confused with the much more recent The Others.) A case study in Transgression, revealed (layer after layer...) at the pace of a New England summer.

- Walt

Evil Dead II. No film can be better or worse than this one.

I'm gonna side with the local horror movie snob and echo Re-Animator, which also gets the prize for inspiring the best Jeffrey Combs rip-off PC to ever put a whole new spin on playing Kult.

Rich

Hey Dav,

I think that's Tsui Hark's Vampire Hunters that you're recalling.

-Chris

Is that the one with the hopping zombie (or vampire) family? The monk puts the kanji of control on the foreheads of some spawn and makes them do a line dance to Day-O?

Because that's the one I'm talking about. The whole movie revolves around the fact that the little kid hopper hops away, so mommy and daddy go on a killing rampage to find him. Kind of a cute take on "Legendary Journey" with killing and hopping zombies.

Dav

And, if we are talking about two different movies, then I need to see yours.

Two different movies. Who woulda thought?

There are crazy Chinese vampires and hopping zombies (well, they're dead hopping people at any rate) in Tsui Hark's Vampire Hunters.

-Chris

I'm gonna watch all up in that bitch!

I go for schlock horror (especially poorly translated schlock horror).

Dav

the move that really gave me nightmares as a child was "the Andromeda Strain", for some reason. although it's not quite as scary now. "Trilogy of Terror", specifically the part about the murderous african fetish doll, also kept me alert a couple nights.

best creepy music is either "Incubus" (the one where Shatner screams "this is a pencil!" in esperanto while being raped by a goat) or "Carnival of Souls", or maybe "Burnt Offerings", but none of those is really very scary aside from their music.

best-looking horror movie is probably "Masque of the Red Death" with Vincent Price. proof positive that Roger Corman is not *necessarily* a bad director. the movie's scarier than "Incubus", but still not *really* scary.

"2001" is actually pretty scary in the HAL 9000 sequence, because there's *no* incidental music, no emotion in HAL's voice, and nowhere for Dave to turn in the end.

creepiest ending: "Being John Malkovich".

I have a feeling I'm about to go all over the place here, because "horror" wasn't really defined... But:

I'm gonna add another vote for The Others. Really, really great.

And I'll make a bid for Se7en. Not a supernatural horror movie, I know (unless you're into Christianity)... But it is horrific. And it had the best the "bad guy wins" endings I've ever seen in a movie. It may not be graphically horrific at the end (we've already been down that road in the second act), but the implications of the ending are astounding.

And I loved Blair Witch for much the same reason... The ending really, really worked as true horror.

But my favorite of favorites: An American Werewolf in London. The mix of horror and comedy complimented each other like reds and deep greens. And I saw it opening night, without any reviews beforehand, so the whole question of, "Is he really a werewolf or a guilt ridden lost soul?" was actually in play for a solid chunk of the movie.

Christopher

a 1970's Australian horror movie by the name of "The Long Weekend"... A couple go "up the coast" for a holiday away from the big city and are terrorised by nature at every turn. The haunting cries of a dying Dugong (manitee) that eventually crawls its way up the beach silently .....disappearing campers close by and a haunting beach landscape, the insanity of an urbane man in the bush with nature against him... unreal!

freaky..

I'll confer on the props to Dark Water... also The Ring (all versions), The Eye...checking out The Grudge this weekend (another uber scarey japanese movie)...

Jason K...

Dav,
The hopping vampires could be one of the Chinese Ghost Story movies.

Walt,
I can't believe someone else has seen The Other. Here I was thinking I imagined it. Seriously creeped me out as a kid.

Uhm. Horror movies. I'm on a Dario Argento kick at the moment.

One of my all time favorite horror movie is The Haunting. That's the 1963 version; the 1999 remake is a huge waste of time.

Julie

the remake of House on Haunted Hill scared the shit out of me. At lease, until they "let the darkness out" then it went to hell.

I'll agree with Seth on Event Horizon. It's one of the scariest things I've ever seen.

Also, the Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the first two versions), Night of the Living Dead (original) and In the Mouth of Madness.

Dark Water Scared the fuck out of me when I watched it. For others, though, it was just a "meh". But man, especially the creepy last-last-last sequence... I'm not comfortable with that stuff.

Ju-on (The Grudge), though, fucked my shit up so bad that I was afraid of the dark for about 2-3 days. It's not very 'logical', but it's got atmosphere and terror in spades. Actual, its lack of logic is probably scary: If ghosts were logical or understandable, they wouldn't be scary, would they?

Audition Has the most absolute worst displays of human cruelty that I've ever seen. Horror of Horrors. Yech. But good. Just a little slow at times.

I just realized that the above are all Japanese movies. Even though I'm a total whore for Japanese culture and language, I really don't think much of Japan's cinema at all. But when it comes to horror, J-Cinema hits more nerves than other flicks.

Oh, interestingly enough, the above Dark Water and Ju-On are being remade for US release, like the Ring (Ju-On was bought by Sam Raimi).

Aside from the above, my favorite outside-Japn horror flick would be Hellraiser 2. The story is still awesome by today's standards, but the effects are pretty cheesy by our standards, so it takes away from some of the effect. The calm, cool, elusive and captivating Hell of Hellraiser 2 really struck a nerve.

Here's a guide to bunches of Asian horror flicks:
http://www.mandiapple.com/snowblood/index2.htm

Oh, that reminds me, I'm selling a bunch of Japanese and Asian horror DVDs really cheap. I won't go into a big spiel here, but if you're interested PM me and we can work out the details. Most are all-region. I ship overseas:
The Eye * Ju-On (movie) * Ju-on (TV parts 1 + 2) * Chaos * Audition * Onmyoji * Dark Water * Fudoh * Red Dragon * Charisma * The Guard From Hell * Kourei/The Seance * Kairo/Circuit Pulse * Serpent's Path and Eyes of the Spider

Horror movies - I'm not a snob, but I'm definitely jaded.

Blair Retch Project - nuff said. Stupidest movie I ever saw. Not scary (I would be so jazzed to find cool stick figures, but then, when I go to haunted houses, I'm all "Ooh! I want one of those!"), and the crappy filmography made me, a sailor, sea sick.

The Omen, Exorcist, etc...booooring.

My fave: Ginger Snaps. Not the best production values, but the twist on typical teenage horror romps is great. There's actually some social criticism in it, and it brings up issues of sexual awakening in a very different way.

Other faves: Reanimator is a classic. Shrunken Heads and Skeeter (Full Moon Ent rocks!). Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. The Ninth Gate. And the only horror movie to ever give me the creepies so I couldn't sleep....Salem's Lot.

I'm no good at "best ever," but May is my current favorite. I'm a little bit in love with that movie.

-Vincent

The first thing I thought of when I saw the thread name was Silence of the Lambs. But I saw it as an adult and was never scared. The movies that really fucked me up as a kid were The Omen and The Godsend. I haven't gone back to see them since, so I don't even know if they're scary, but they effected me at the time.

Chris

I agree with all the people on The Omen.

It's those fucking Rotweilers, no? Damn, but those are the scariest things on Earth. I don't even want to know how they got the things to behave like that for the scene. I mean, the physical danger is one thing, but those animals were acting evil. That's just unnatural.

Mike

Star Wars II - The Attack of the Clones. Scared the bejeebers out of me.

*looks around at the odd stares*

What?

orbsmatt wrote: Star Wars II - The Attack of the Clones. Scared the bejeebers out of me.

My creeping and growing sense of dread as Matrix Reloaded unfolded is all I can compare Clones too.

Steve.

Dunno if it qualifies as horror, but the British miniseries "Ultraviolet" is the best vampire film/show I've seen.... puts a cop-show/John Le Carre spy novel spin on the genre. It can be hard to find, though.

"Funny Games"

I don't know the director. It's german, and it's a brutal take on the "Home invaded by madmen" genre of thriller. It's very honest about our desire as a film audience to see bad things happen to good people, and then have bad people punished for doing the things that we, as an audience, want them to do. It's a little too ironic and self referencial at the end, though.

Audition was sick, sick, sick. Really very difficult to watch. Urgh... But not bad, though.

Blair Witch Project I enjoyed, despite the annoying camera-bounce thing, which got old after about 10 minutes. And that last sequence really was very scary, at least to me.

The Exorcist was excellent, but I don't like the retooled re-release, with the cheesy special-effects face popping up. Really screwed it up. The book is better, anyway, but the film was very good.

Angel Heart I still find very disturbing and creepy, and the first time I saw it I didn't know what it was about. I thought it was a straight noir thriller. Boy did the end freak me out! Kind of the way people were supposed to see 6th Sense, except that David Shitterman decided to blow the punchline for me -- last time I watched his show. (That'll learn him!)

For those of you who haven't seen it, and no, it's not particularly good, you really need to watch The Dunwich Horror. Directed by Roger Corman, the King of the Drive-In; starring Sandra Dee and Dean Stockwell [no, really]. It's cheesy, it's silly, it's Corman, yeah yeah. But until the last fifteen minutes or so, it's actually not half bad in a Hammer Horror sort of way. And if you know who Dean Stockwell was in those days (i.e. a former child star) and you know who Sandra Dee was (competitor to Doris Day), the whole thing becomes seriously creepy.

And speaking of Dean Stockwell, what about Blue Velvet? Mmm. And stop looking at me that way. Don't look at me! Don't fucking look at me!

Oh, BTW, has anyone seen The Happiness of the Katakuri Family? The world's two funniest discovering-the-horribly-dead-body scenes. Plus a nice dead-people-rise-from-the-grave-and-sing-for-no-reason scene.

Very weird, very Japanese, very funny. Joe Bob says check it out.

clehrich wrote: what about Blue Velvet?

Crap, I just remembered Night of the Comet. It's super cheezy and super bad, but it scared the bejeezus out of me when I was a kid.

-Chris

Wanna know my really really favorite, see-once-in-your-life-or-live-forever-a-social-pariah movie? It's only vaguely horror...well, depending...

Queerwolf.

By the light of a full moon, he becomes a drag queen, and can only be killed with a silver dil...well, you get the idea.

Oh, I forgot to mention Session 9. It's... damn, it's good, creepy atmosphere in spades. I was just a tiny bit disappointed in the end, but it was fucked up enough, plus creepy, Creepy, CREEPY enough, to make me forget all that.

I was scared by the Japanese Ring. Didn't see the other.

Blair Witch made me wish for my two hours back. But I was profoundly impressed by the ad campaign.

Alien.

I can watch it again and again and again. Best horror movie EVAR.

Shreyas Sampat wrote: I was scared by the Japanese Ring. Didn't see the other.

I just watched this & it scared the bejeezus out of me.

Wait, I changed my mind! I watched this Bush campaign commercial, and the thought of another four years...

<G>

That's not really a movie, though, is it? Ah well.

for those who have seen only Ringu or only The Ring, rest easy: they're pretty much the same. the hollywood version carried over a number of elements almost intact... in fact, tehre were a couple things that seem weird and/or creepy in the hollywood version that are really just cultural artifacts taken from the japanese version.

both were very creepy, and under the right circumstances (alone at night) scary... but I thought of them more as great movies in general than great horror movies.

one thing the hollywood version did better: the mysterious film on the videotape itself. it's EXCEPTIONALLY creepy.

... but May is my current favorite. I'm a little bit in love with that movie.

28 days later (sorry, can't be bothered to cap just now) was also a great fun movie...and much scaries to me than ringu.

I loved the Grudge even though at the back of my mind there was a small voice repeating "Just kick it's ass Buffy".

Mr. Frost is way up on my list. 

James

Heya,

Something Wicked This Way Comes is a first runner-up.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre

I always thought that Jacob's Ladder was a great movie. Not really all that scary but just a plain good movie. Though some of the things that Jacob sees are pretty horrific. Also Rosemary's Baby; the movie itself isnt scary but the a idea of what happens and really how plausible some things in it are is pretty scary. Especially if you are able to empathise witht he characters.

(to lazy to log in)

It seems appropriate that in a discussion of horror movies, a thread should be raised from the dead.

My vote goes for for a real oldie: Dead Of Night.
Probably the founder of those horror anthology movies, and unusually, the linking segments are part of a story of their own that lead to a literally nightmarish conclusion.

I only watched the Hollywood version of The Ring, but that surely scared the shit out of me. I don’t really like movies doing that. Also, though not a horror movie, I think The 6th Sense had some really, really creepy moments.

Hm. 6th Sense isn't horror, and Charles Williams would've loved it. But, yes, some very creepy moments, and "something I can't pin down is wrong, wrong, wrong" moments.

I detested Blair Witch, but at least part of this is because I was shown the fake documentary first. Bad -- this means I was waiting for the Heather-apology-scene the whole movie, and it lost its punch.

Very much agree on American Werewolf. I knew the premise, and it didn't matter. My hand flew to my throat in the dream sequence where someone gets his throat cut. And they didn't wuss out on the ending.

I loved se7en, but not sure it's horror. Being John Malkovich, oh yes, creepy little film.

The play version of Wait Until Dark I saw on Showtime years ago really creeped me out. Nothing supernatural, but very scary. And smart. I like that.

-Lisa

I kind of dislike "Best Horror Movie" discussions because they seem to mostly be "most recent horror movie that I liked alot" discussions. And I just don't get modern horror movies. Too much gore, not enough scariness/creepiness. And too much humor. Plus, I rarely get to the theaters anymore. I'd have to say the best modern horror movie (because it doesn't have the flaws I just mentioned) is The Ring, either version, although the American one is better.

I like the old stuff, mostly. Corman's Poe movies would be up there in my favorites, but I suppose I like them more for style than for horror; same with the Hammer films, or "Incubus". I can't think right now which one I'd call the best horror movie ever. "Freaks", maybe. "Seconds" is also very creepy and very well done, although it starts getting more into a conspircy genre rather than horror, which is where "Pi" is, firmly.

The things that scared me the worst as a kid were "The Andromeda Strain", "Trilogy of Terror" with Karen Black, and the opening of "Night Gallery". Also, one movie whose name escapes me at the moment, but it was really a "Gaslight"-type plot, which wasn't scary in itself, but the nightmare that the victim has scared me pretty badly.

My favorite horror movie is probably John Carpenter's The Thing, but not because its scary. It's just a cool ass movie.

I guess I don't really get scared by movies. I was mild creeped out by Ju-on, but it faded after a couple of hours. I'm surprised people are mentioning Event Horizon, I thought it was disturbing, but not scary at all.

One of the scariest movie experiences I ever had was watching Steven King's It back when it was first aired. I was young, and it scared me for days. I got nervous everytime I went to the bathroom. Of course, when I went back and watched it a second time a couple years later, I couldn't believe how cheesy it was and that I ever thought it was scary.

Actually, the scariest thing I've seen in recent memory wasn't a movie at all, it was Silent Hill for the playstation. Creeped the shit out of me. Oh! I got a great story I love to tell... I was visiting my parents after just finishing the game. It was Saturday at noon, and I went out to their backyard for some reason. Just then I heard a siren (the near-by firestation always tests it Staurday's at noon) and I looked around---everything else was silent, and noone was to be seen. Yes, I suddenly got really creeped out... I'm hoping the soon-to-be-released movie version does it justice.

All of my faves have been covered except for Legend of Hell House, which conveys horror without that American urge to go "booga-booga!" with a monster at the end.

Also nicely subtle is the recent Below, by the director of Pitch Black I believe.

I'm nowhere near the horror afficianado that Scott Knipe is, say.

And, I'm nowhere near the skillful dissecter Ron is.

So, I just shrug and say that pretty much the only two movies that fucked me up are The Wizard of Oz and, much later in life, Jacob's Ladder. Remember when CBS (or whichever network) showed Oz once a year on TV? Yeah, pretty much fucked me up every year until I hit double-digit age or so. Fucking witch and her freaky ass monkeys!

Matt wrote:
Remember when CBS (or whichever network) showed Oz once a year on TV? Yeah, pretty much fucked me up every year until I hit double-digit age or so. Fucking witch and her freaky ass monkeys!

KingstonC - Funny Games is by Michael Haneke, whose latest offering, Hidden, is out in the cinema in Europe (and his The Piano Teacher is the only film I had to stop-midway because I thought I was going to faint...) and is way tough. I wouldn't exactly call it horror, but it is intensely fucked up, in the best way.

I also second Jacobs Ladder, which used visual effects that have been pillaged since, like the rapid head-shaking shit. Also, the premise predates all the Donnie Darkos and 6th senses you can throw at me, and is much more ambiguous to boot. Yikes, I'm getting creeped just thinking of that hospital scene.

Don't Look Now was one of those movies where you see something coming from the  beginning - after all, it's been foreshadowed throughout the movie - and yet, when it happens, you're still 'aaaa god no!' It's a truly beautiful movie also.

I think I have to give super mega points to Spoorloos (The Vanishing, original dutch version) for taking a totally normal fear - losing a loved one, and not knowing their fate - and twists it to unbearable levels. It's chilling.

Most recently, I saw Old Boy. Hm. My initial take on this film was that it awkwardly meshed the totalitarian evil of Funny Games with the inexorable tragic drive of Spoorloos, and the two cancelled each other out leaving nothing to say. But the bottom line is the plot is a byline to the pay-off, which is my textbook definition of horror. As in, the horror, the horror <mops brow>.

Oh. Wicker Man?

I never thought of Wicker Man as a horror movie. It's a great movie, but it's not scary. Only one person died, and he deserved it.

Alex wrote: I think I have to give super mega points to Spoorloos (The Vanishing, original dutch version) for taking a totally normal fear - losing a loved one, and not knowing their fate - and twists it to unbearable levels. It's chilling.

Alex wrote:
I think I have to give super mega points to Spoorloos (The Vanishing, original dutch version) for taking a totally normal fear - losing a loved one, and not knowing their fate - and twists it to unbearable levels. It's chilling.

(Warning, in what follows I talk vaguely about filmic content, which should trouble nothing but your waning interest, but in the case of Wicker Man, a little more about its ending. Nothing definitive,  but skim over if you haven't seen it. And see it!)

Hmm, my horror movies don't seem to be working for you guys: if spoorloos isn't horror then neither are any of the others. My definition is a little fast and loose: a story with disturbing, distressing or shocking content, that induces empathy with the victimised by placing you in their position, and has a strong element of the unknown.

So Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is not horror, no matter how horrible the film is, as you walk the road behind Henry, not him behind you. Neither, as I understand it is a film like Salo (which I haven't seen, nor wish to), rather, it's cruelty-porn that obviates any suspense. (It's into this other-category that Funny Games ultimately falls, in my opinion. Haneke credits Salo as his favorite movie.)

In Old Boy, you get to walk in Oh Dae-Su's shoes, and hence experience with him the horror he is subjected to, not knowing where it will all end up. Ditto Laurie Strode in Halloween. And ditto, I would say, to Rex Hofman in Spoorloos. (However, it is complicated by the other perspective you get - Raymond Lemorne's - which runs a parallel Henry-esque strand through things).
The Wicker Man is interesting. In Sergeant Howie, you are forced to follow an unlikeable character. Empathy is muted, and I found myself almost wishing they would kill the pompous prick. But his eventual fate is to me so dehumanising as to flood my feeling back. I definitely 'felt his pain'. But I agree, probably not a horror movie. A musical anthropological study?

talysman wrote:
I never thought of Wicker Man as a horror movie. It's a great movie, but it's not scary. Only one person died, and he deserved it.

Darren wrote:

talysman wrote:
I never thought of Wicker Man as a horror movie. It's a great movie, but it's not scary. Only one person died, and he deserved it.

In that film, the pagans were the bad guys - they were performing increasingly desperate and deadly fertility sacrifices, which weren't working.

I wasn't actually responding to the "wicker man isn't horror" part of that quote, I was responding to the "and he deserved to die" part.

Darren wrote:
I wasn't actually responding to the "wicker man isn't horror" part of that quote, I was responding to the "and he deserved to die" part.

Matt wrote: Remember when CBS (or whichever network) showed Oz once a year on TV? Yeah, pretty much fucked me up every year until I hit double-digit age or so. Fucking witch and her freaky ass monkeys!

Glad to know I wasn't the only one freaked out by the boat scene!

I don't know if they are the absolute best, but here are my nominees:

George Franju's Eyes Without a Face and Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.

The scene where Shelly Duvall discovers what her husband has been writing is chilling and (because it's Kubrick) all the more horrific because its filmed in almost complete silence (there's some music playing I think, but not a word spoken).

Cheers,

Eric

Eric wrote:
George Franju's Eyes Without a Face and Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.

I find horror hysterically funny most of the time. My wife can't believe I belly laughed the entire way through The Shinning. I mean c'mon, "Honey, I'm home!"

Having said that as an adult there has only been one horror movie that genuinely gave me the creeps: Blair Witch.