Top 10 Horror Movies
1. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (The ultimate in lo-fi horror. Note to lame re-makers: it’s a pretty subtle film)
2. Psycho (Because in 1960, Mrs Bates would have given you nightmares for weeks)
3. The Vanishing (Belgian version. The banality of evil, Low Countries style. Painful, horrible ending)
4. Dark Water (Japanese version. So, if I just saw my daughter come out of the apartment, who the hell is this girl with me in the elevator?)
5. Alien (Claustrophobia and HR Giger = perfect)
6. Halloween (Michael Myers)
7. Sixth Sense (Very creepy)
8. Ringu (Either version)
9. Freaks (Real 1930′s circus freaks out for revenge. Disturbing)
10. Last House on the Left (Do not watch this film. You have been warned)
Close but no machete: The Exorcist, Blair Witch Project, Candyman, The Wicker Man (not the rubbish Nic Cage version), plus many more.
Posted on October 30, 2007, in Holidays, Movies and tagged Halloween. Bookmark the permalink. 34 Comments.
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Meh. I agree with Psycho, but where’s Nosferatu, The Others, Bubba Ho-Tep, Shaun of the Dead? And any of the Evil Dead movies.
I’ve given up even trying to understand why Texas Chainsaw Massacre is such a classic. Blair Witch IMO is underrated: despite its limitations, it’s scary because if one were to go camping and get freaked out, that’s what it would feel like (annoyingly, frustratingly creepy and directionless, way more scary than fake looking slasher movies because you’re never sure what, if anything, is out there).
Tough to argue.
Some ommissions:
Jaws
The Shining
The Thing (remake)
I never could get into the slasher movies (Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm St.).
While the Vanishing is a great, great movie, I’m not sure it’s a “Horror” flick.
How about these, which I believe belong on any list of scary movies:
-The Shining!!!!!!!!!!
-The Haunting
-The Thing!!!!!!!!!!!!
-The Silence of the Lambs (don’t think it’s scary? Watch this)
The Exorcist was also pretty darned scary.
I toyed with Shaun. Great film. And no doubt, Buffalo Bill is Terrifying.
I second Silence of the Lambs. Seriously creepy.
I think the original Vanishing is probably the scariest movie I’ve ever seen. And I’m pleased you included the Japanese film Dark Water.
I recently watched The Sixth Sense and Deliverence two nights in a row, and even though Deliverence is not a Horror movie, it scared me way worse. I kept seeing visions of Banjo Boy!
I can’t really disagree with the list, but I can’t stand slasher anything. More horrific are psychological horror films. Has anyone ever seen Polanski’s Repulsion? That gave me nightmares for quite awhile!
Oh yeah. And any movie where a character has hollowed out eyes. Noooooo!!! Too scary!
meems, avoid Event Horizon.
Will do, SG! Will do.
Please believe me that Texas Chainsaw is not your typical teenage slasher crap. It’s really a remarkable film.
What about a good old haunted house movie, like Poltergeist, The Others, or The Changeling. I enjoyed each of those.
Onibaba. Bonus points for sexiness.
Horror movies generally suck.
The ones that scared me were Alien, The Shining, The Thing. I liked the Ring and Poltergeist as well.
There are lots of other movies that some call horror that I don’t. (Things like Silence of the Lambs or Wait Until Dark)
If “horror movie” = Saw III, then yes, they do indeed suck.
As for definitions, I believe in big tent horror.
Got to second Poltergeist and The Changeling. No film scared me more as little kid than a made for TV movie I saw on a Saturday afternoon: “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”
Thanks to internet, I was able to track it down and watch it as an adult last year. What a lame little movie. To think it haunted my dreams and freaked me out for literally years. Quite sad.
Speaking of made for TV 70s horror, if you haven’t seen Karen Black chased around by that evil Zuni warrior doll in Trilogy of Terror, your life is incomplete.
ROSEMARY’S BABY is a good pick, and I also think the Italian camp of horror is well-represented by SUSPIRIA.
I think DAWN OF THE DEAD or NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD are excellent representations of horror-as-social-commentary.
DARK WATER is an interesting J-horror choice. I think there’s some other leading candidates, such as AUDITION, A TALE OF TWO SISTERS, KAIRO, BATTLE ROYAL.
ONIBABA is a great film, but I don’t know if I consider it that sexy. I guess demon masks are a bit of a turn-on in some circles.
Brian,
Two line review of Audition, please.
Brian G, you seriously don’t think Onibaba is a sexy film?
Kwaidan is also quite good, BTW.
At the urging of his son, a lonely widower decides to “audition” younger women to bring a woman’s touch into his home, but come to find out the lady he settles on keeps her last lover at home, partially dismembered in a gunny sack, and sometimes she lets her ex drink out of a dog bowl.
Hilarity ensues.
kuri,
I’ve seen KWAIDAN and I liked it, especially the last story. So I commend your taste in film because both ONIBABA and KWAIDAN require some seeking out to find.
I think you might be right, ONIBABA might be sexier than I remember, but I don’t remember it as particularly sexy. I do remember a lot of people in rags running around in grass–and that’s always sexy on some level, so…
BTW, for what it’s worth this is a link to a post I did about Japanese horror years ago. It mentions both ONIBABA and KAIDAN.
Never been a big “slasher” horror fan. I like horror that is hinted at, or psychological. Don’t like a lot of blood or torture. I’ve never seen a Saw movie, and have only seen bits and pieces of the various Freddie and Jason and Leatherface or Pinhead or Chucky movies. However, the original Halloween is a classic.
Not sure I consider Silence of the Lambs or Jaws “horror movies.” If the former is a horror movie, then so is Se7en, Cape Fear, 8 MM, The Serpent and the Rainbow, etc.; I consider the latter (Jaws) more of an action movie.
Great horror movies:
The Exorcist
The Shining
Halloween
The Thing (Carpenter)
Dawn of the Dead (both new and old version)
28 Days Later
28 Weeks Later (Zombie movies are more fun than scary)
Alien (love Aliens too, but that feels more like an action movie)
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (kind of sexy, I think)
Misery
Nice clean ghost stories
The Others
The Lady in White
Poltergeist
Horror movies that freaked me out as a kid but would probably suck if I watched them again:
Prom Night (Linda Blair)
Sleepaway Camp (one of most shocking endings in film)
American Werewolf in London
Cat People (Natasha Kinski version)
The Howling
The Blob
The Amityville Horror
The Hunger
Videodrome
I checked out Event Horizon thinking it was scifi. What a load of crap. Demon-infested spaceship cum portal to hell…
Yes indeed, Ben.
The Brit,
No love for zombie movies? I would at least think that the London based 28 Days Later would get some love from you.
I don’t do horror movies.
That clown doll in Poltergeist freaked me out.
I made the mistake of reading The Exorcist when I was a teenager, and guess which chapter I was reading when an earthquake struck?
For Me, Seven was the scariest movie. It left me frustrated for weeks.
I will be staying in and watching Shaun of the Dead tonight!
Jaws always frightened the life out of me when I was younger. Now, any array of Korean/Japanese horror films my hubby likes to watch will do the trick!
Se7en was a horrible movie, in that it left me feeling very dark and evil afterward (and not in a good scared way).
and 28 days later was one of the best recent ones. Multitudes of fast zombies… ugh.
Seven wasn’t a horror movie. I really liked it although there are still questions about the last two sins. It was very ironic of course in its style. But the 90′s were the decade of irony.
Jaws was, in a way, a classic horror movie. I’m not sure I call it a horror movie. But it had a lot of the tropes.
28 days later was good for the first 2/3rd and falls apart when they meet the soldiers.
My wife and I used to watch Delicatessen every year for Halloween. Of course, it isn’t scary.
John C.
I’m glad you turned up. Remember when you blubbered like a baby during Ring? Did your BIL ever recover?
BTD Greg,
YES! The Changeling is ALWAYS left off lists but has freaked me out since I was a kid. I still watch it every year.