Best Horror-films

[Sandor 798]

With the upcoming War Of The Worlds being referred to by various sources as a horror-film, I wonder what you guys (and one girl) hold as the best horror-film ever made.

John Williams hasn't really been active in this genre with Dracula (1979) and The Fury being the exceptions. And although I don't expect WOTW to be a real horror-film, it probably has some horrific scenes and elements.

My favorite horror-films are The Exorcist, The Evil Dead, Dawn Of The Dead (original) and 28 Days Later. As sci-fi horror I love Alien and Aliens.

Recently there has been an revival of the horror-genre. I liked The Ring and Cabin Fever to a lesser degree.

Any opinions? Would you like to see Williams score another horror-film in the future?

[Hitch 57]

I don't think they're making any good horror movies anymore. They're making them more for laughs than gore! Being a fan of the horror genre, I have to say that horror movies made within the last couple of years have been awful! THE GRUDGE, EXORCIST THE BEGINNING were torturous to watch! Alma's cellulite is more frightening!

My Top 5 Horror spooks are as follows:

No 5: Nosferatu (Christopher Walken as Max Shrek is brilliant as is the voice-over by Mike Myers)

No 4: The Evil Dead II Never have I laughed so much at a chainsaw massacre.

No 3: Psycho My original still can't be beaten. Take that Gus Van Sant...u hack! Oh and Mother gives an Oscar-worthy performance though sadly over-looked by the now deceased members of the Academy. Look into the swamp next time you take the Universal Studios tour LOL LOL

No 2. Showgirls About as frightening as a lap dancer on acid. Verhoeven's minor masterpiece still packs some punch especially those lovely scenes in the hot tub.

No 1. Spongebob SquarePants: The Motion Picture The best blood-fest yet. At least he can be squeezed out after each clean up!

Hitch, who still can't get his movies just right at the moment

[A24 4,357]

Fire in the Sky is one of the titles from the last 15 year that really gave me a good scare.

The original Ring has some truly disturbing moments.

Silence of the Lambs was scary and yet, you couldn't help but feel sympathy for the doctor. The other guy, who kept a girl in his indoor pit, was the real evil in this movie.

Seven.

28 Days Later. I love this movie so much and I don't know why.

I don't think John Williams feels attracted to the horror genre. Should he do one? Nah, there's plenty of good, dark horror composers out there!

----------------

Alex Cremers

[Justin 2]

Even though the plot is full of holes, Signs has always scared the crap out of me.

Justin - Who thinks parts of The Village do but not so much.

[JoeinAR 1,949]

Roald,

you short changed Williams as far as horror films go,

you forgot to mention Jaws, which is the quintisential horror film, and yes its also action/adventure, as it is a multi-genre film. Even Jurassic Park is a horror film, or it has many ingredients of one. Some can criticize the film all they want, but when the T-Rex attacks the ford explorer with the kids in it, or later with the raptors, those manipulative scenes are what horror is all about.

most know my favorite horror film is

Carrie,

the film with the scariest shock ending ever, and not to mention its one of the best acted horror films ever.

Misery is another fine King horror film. Its amazing that 60 years no woman ever won an Oscar for a horror film, and then two years in a row female horror roles took home the Oscar.

I love many of the old 30's and 40's horror films, and the 50's scifi/horror films.

No film terrorized me more as a child than THEM!. At the same time no movie monster facinated me more than the Creature from the Black Lagoon, which IMHO edges out the Geiger's Alien as the greatest movie movie monster(man in a suit category). I love the Thing from Another World, and the schlocky The Deadly Mantis.

I love the elegant charm, and the atmospheric cinematography of The Bride of Frankenstein, one of the great films of all time. 70 years later, you think films would be routinely shot as well, but they are not.

Then there is the charmer, the Tingler, horror with ham and cheese perhaps, but what a great flick the must have been to take a date too. Scream, scream for your lives.

I loved the premise of the Ring, and despised the film, what a waste. Did the makers have even a single brain among them?

Silence of the Lambs is a horror film, and the producers hated that term, but it was, and they should be proud, because while there is really only a shock or two in the film, there is a wonderful feelilng of unease throughout. Seriously can you watch the movie and not shift in your seat?

I think David Fincher is a terrible director, but he got everything in Se7en right.

Like Hitch I like Evil Dead II, but I prefer Evil Dead for the sheer level of discomfort.

No one has mentioned Halloween, as bloodless a film as can be made, and yet one of the great horror films ever. It has so many clones. Friday the 13th is bad film in many ways and yet its a truely effective horror movie, as is the parody horror film it helped inspire, Scream, which is a great piece of entertainment. Interestingly, Friday showed more gore in 1980 than they can get away with in 2005.

Final Destination is another film with an interesting premise, and executed fairly well, but it has the best shock scene in the modern era. Anyone need to catch a bus?

The Fog is a movie that I didn't like on the big screen, but I think its found a better home on tv, its great fun.

Carpenter also remade the Thing which is a mixed genre movie, but what cool monsters.

That it for now, I may add to this later.

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

I haven't seen many horror films, but I really enjoyed Alien, which has a horror set-up in a science fiction environment that plays out to perfection IMO.

- Marc, to whom horror is one of his least favorite genres.

[Sandor 798]

Ok, if we percieve The Silence Of The Lambs and Se7en to be horror-films, than I'll include them as two of the best in the genre.

I would classify them as thrillers though, but horror will do.

[JoeinAR 1,949]

Roald, I agree they cross lines, but lets see

a man is making a coat of human flesh, while another man eats people italian style, and cuts peoples faces off, yeah that horror.

so many of the best films that are horror pretend they are not, afraid to take on the moniker because horror films are generally looked down on, and also tend to be lower budgeted.

[Figo 2]

Need I repeat myself, and say that Joe has marvelous taste?

For me, The Exorcist takes the top spot, although as a child I remember watching movies like Them with equal trepidation. Creepier still was The Last Man on Earth, like The Tingler, another Vincent Price vehicle, but far more unnerving. It's hard to take William Castle seriously, even as a kid. Even so, The Tingler is great fun, although arguably surpassed by The House on Haunted Hill (the original -- accept no substitutes).

Which reminds me of the Robert Wise version of The Haunting, surely the scariest haunted house movie ever made, and a powerful argument for atmosphere, restraint, and suggestion over explicit violence and special effects. Just try watching it alone at night. Spielberg really effed that one up.

Jaws is actually a brilliant update of the Dracula formula developed by Bram Stoker. Dracula the book is so effective, I can't imagine why no one -- even Francis Coppola -- has ever bothered to film it, without either dropping the exhilarating barrel chase-style finale or, worse, shifting the focus, misrepresenting the central character as a tragic-romantic figure, rather than the unstoppable engine of evil Stoker conceived. In the book, you can't even get close to him. He's always glimpsed disappearing over walls. Admittedly, it's the kind of thing that can be pulled off better in writing than on screen, but again there is much to be said for the power of suggestion. I just rented Van Helsing the other night, and oy vey!

I am an enormous fan of the Universal horror films of the '30s and '40s, but I like the earlier ones best, especially The Bride of Frankenstein. Talk about a genre-crosser! The acting and direction shift back and forth effortlessly between horror, comedy and pathos. A truly great film.

More recently, I thought The Fly was pretty good, although equally pretty gross. It certainly had that grimness about it, and I liked the mix of romance and tragedy, in this instance, with Goldblum given an opportunity to carry a film as the lead.

There are a number of subdivisions to the horror genre, and we appreciate different films for different reasons -- some for the scares, some for the suspense, some for style, and some for the camp value, either intentional or otherwise. It is unrealistic to elevate The Killer Shrews to the level of Dawn of the Dead (original), but both are, in their way, highly enjoyable action-adventure-horror-comedies.

[JoeinAR 1,949]

two not mention (I don't think) are An American Werewolf in London, and The Howling. The two top of the line werewolf films. American Werewolf is the often more praised of the two, but I prefer the Howling which is to me scarier, and the makeup effects are similar to AW, but with better results. In AW the werewolf resembles a bear while the Robert Picardo werewolf is a thing of nightmares, truely the most horrific wolfman ever on screen. Both films have story elements that I would have chosen to do something else with, but overall they are fun films.

In general you cannot judge horror films by the same criteria that other films are judged. They must be judged on their own merits first, then against their ilk, and the time in which they were made.

[Figo 2]

The case of American Werewolf and The Howling is a remarkable one, in that, as I recall, they were released rather close to one another, and werewolf movies are not at all common, at least when compared to vampire films. Both are very good, and I admit The Howling has some very creepy moments, especially with Eddie in the porn shop at the beginning, which was a rather more realistic horror than I was expecting at the time. On the other hand, the satirical elements and the genre-referencing humor were much more blatant than anything in AW, perhaps prefiguring Dante's Gremlins. The shapeshifting was fascinating, but hardly realistic. Plus, it took so damn long! I'd have been out the door before anyone could change into a wolf.

All in all, I preferred AW, for me John Landis' last really good movie. In fact, I thought it was brilliant. I found it quite believable and rather jarring. I remember still thinking about it the next day and talking to my mom about it in the car. My mother said, "That's always the sign of a good movie, when you're still thinking about it the next day."

The Howling, at times, was almost a comedy. AW, for all its humorous elements, never strayed from the grim inevitability of horror. At the risk of hammering the point, it haunted me.

[Lurker 5]

I just rented Van Helsing the other night, and oy vey!

Why, Figo, why?

Neil - who thought he "took one" for the board by seeing this one in advance and telling everyone to stay away. Far, far away.

[Figo 2]

Why, Figo, why?

The idea was very cool (Van Helsing as action hero); however, the execution... I thought, how bad could it be? Certainly no worse than The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (another great revisionist idea badly fumbled)? As it happens, it was about neck and neck. How much CG slithering can one take? Regardless of the quality, surely it could have been trimmed of 30 or 40 of its repetitive minutes? I only thank God I didn't see it in the theatre. I'm much more tolerant of that sort of movie at home, where I can control the intensity of the assault.

Renting Hidalgo shortly thereafter was like night and day -- although I was a little worried on the home screen, since the looped action cue sounded unnervingly close to Silvestri!

[Justin 2]

I felt physically violated while watching Van Helsing.

Justin - Who thinks that wraps up his feelings on Sommer's motion picture quite well.

[JoeinAR 1,949]

The Howling, at times, was almost a comedy. AW, for all its humorous elements, never strayed from the grim inevitability of horror. At the risk of hammering the point, it haunted me.

Figo, for me its the other way around. I saw AW as a comedy, with the dead friend as comic relief, neither ever reaching their full potential.

[A24 4,357]

I try to demotivate the people who make movies like Van Helsing by not seeing them, not in theatre or at home.

[JoeinAR 1,949]

well Terry Goodkind fans need to shudder because Stephen Sommers has acquired the rights to one of his better known works.

[SturgisPodmore 0]

Although it's not really a horror film so much as a thriller, I really enjoyed What Lies Beneath. I completely agree with Justin on Signs and The Village. The Village was at times scary, but not to the extent of Signs, which is one of the best horror/thriller/whatever films I've ever seen. The "roof intruder" scene was very surprising and scary, and the Brazilian video scene scared me shitless the first time I saw it. I actually covered my face with my hat and made my brother tell me when it was gone. The fact that it was rewinded made it even more terrifying.

~Sturgis, who loves the last two Shyamalan movies, and can't remember much about the first two

Sturgis 2 - has anyone hear seen Saw? looks really scary

[King Mark 3,631]

In AW the werewolf resembles a bear while the Robert Picardo werewolf is a thing of nightmares, truely the most horrific wolfman ever on screen.

.

Oh yeah I remenber,that scared the shit out of me.American Werewolf didn't compare in scariness.

Movies that have scared me:

1-The Exorcist.I still think the makeup effects is the most scary in all movie history(even recent movies that tried like Constantine can't quite match the horrifying images of The Exorcist).Saw it when I was about 14,and I didn't turn the lights off at night for a month.

2-The Omen.Damn that kid is so creepy,and the music,I still can't really listen to it at night!So much suspense in that film,like when they dig up the graves!And the decapitation was pretty shocking in the days.The burnt baby in Omen 3 gave me a pretty good scare too.

3-Alien.I remember barely beeing able to look at the screen when Dallas goes into the ventilation shaft.

4-The Howling.As Joe said,I remember the actual werewolf beeing very scary.Gave me nightmares too.

5-Seven.Really frightening.It's the atmosphere that wears you down.

6-Angel Heart.Same thing.

The first time I saw Jaws,I wasn't scared(except when the head pops out of the boat),I thought it was a cool adventure movie.Williams music tends to "reassure" me in the second half of the film.The first half of CE3K is pretty scary the first time you see the film.

Recent movies like The Sixth Sence was mildly unnerving,and Signs didn't do it for me at all.

K.M.

[Justin 2]

3-Alien.I remember barely beeing able to look at the screen when Dallas goes into the ventilation shaft.

I think the scariest part of the film is at the end when Ripley is running through the tunnels trying to get to the shuttle before the ship explodes and she see's the alien. That is the stuff of nightmare's people.

Predator has several scary parts as well. But that's more like Aliens than Alien, IMO.

Justin

Justin

[JoeinAR 1,949]

anyone remember the scene in Carrie, when all the kids laugh at her, and she hears her mother say, They're all going to laugh at you, they're all going to laugh at you.

Its one of those seminal moments each kid fears going to school, that all the other kids are going to laugh at you, and that at its base is pure horror.

[Saxbabe 28]

What Lies Beneath was a GREAT movie. Intrigued and scared me, and had a super cast.

Alien grosses and freaks me out. I really don't like things coming out of people, just can't stand it.

Oh and speaking of, I know this was like, a bad movie, but Dreamcatcher freaked me out even more than Alien, I mean the bathroom scene *shudder*...jeez now I'm gonna have a nightmare about it...

The Village isn't scary to me, I liked it for completely other reasons, I don't think it ultimately sets out to scare. Part way through making it he had decided to change direction and go for the human drama. But it did stun me a few times. (Knife shot)

Signs was more scary, but still not much for me. I guess maybe if I seen it in the theatre...some good shock moments, but the aliens weren't repulsive or anything.

The best scare I've EVER had in the theatre is definitely the Scream movies. The beginnings are great, they don't pull any punches. The one with Jada Pinkett in the bathroom absolutely caught me off guard. And the endings, edge of the seat!

I Know What You Did Last Summer had the same effect, big scares in that for sure.

And I haven't been able to watch Seven since the first time I saw just after it came out on video. I won't watch it again, and have actually avoided it if I can. It succeeds actually too well for me. It's been years and the scenes are still imprinted in my mind clear as day.

Greta - who loves thrillers but just doesn't have the fortitude for true horror

-And who does not think that, besides Sixth Sense, Shyamalan movies are horror films

[Lurker 5]

well Terry Goodkind fans need to shudder because Stephen Sommers has acquired the rights to one of his better known works.

Flash Gordon fans should also be worried.

Alien grosses and freaks me out. I really don't like things coming out of people, just can't stand it.

I hate to break this to you, but you came out of your mother.

Neil

[Ray Barnsbury 8]

I love What Lies Beneath! Everything about that movie is just perfect for what it's aiming to be. The chemistry between the cast is superb, the music is just right, the story is intriguing, and it's not a gross-out at all. Excellent film! Other modern ones I like pretty well are the Scream movies. They're just fun (and sometimes unintentionally funny).

Ray Barnsbury-who generally stays away from horror films

[Lurker 5]

I love What Lies Beneath!  Everything about that movie is just perfect for what it's aiming to be.  The chemistry between the cast is superb, the music is just right, the story is intriguing, and it's not a gross-out at all.  Excellent film!

I think it was a re-write away from being as good as you say. It spends far too much time on the neighbors which has absolutely no impact on the outcome of the movie. It almost feels like 40 minutes or so wasted over nothing.

Neil

[Ray Barnsbury 8]

Interesting, and I can see your point...I'll need to watch it again to think about that, but it's never bugged me before. I guess I see it as an elaborate red herring. Plus, through it we still get the ghost setup and the psychiatrist sessions which are relevant.

Ray Barnsbury

[BigKenLittle 6]

The Exorcist for me is the all time champion for scary movies. As I've grown older I've realized how life altering it was for me to see this movie. I was far too young to see the movie when it was first released in 1974, being only seven at that point. However, I remember distinctly when it was first aired on network television in the late 70s. It was the first time ever that my Mother sent me to my room, because she wanted to watch it and I was not allowed. I was shocked. I had never been banished like that before... In retrospect, she was SOOOO right to do it.

I saw The Exorcist for the first time on VHS a few years later... and it scared the piss out of me. I am never bothered by horror movies. I sleep like a baby after watching any horror movie... except this one. The gore doesn't bother me ... I know all too well how all these things are done... Even as a kid I understood that blood in movies was red food colouring and how make-up effects are done. I even dabbled in the art of making foam prosthetics for a few Hallowe'ens.

Now, as I've grown older, I've come to understand the underlying psychological fear that is inheirent in The Exorcist... It is the complete loss of control of yourself. It is having the ability to choose anything in yourself and your surroundings taken away from you... That is the evil of the devil. It is the sublimation of your very being that scares almost everyone.

Ask anyone who faces illness, for some it is an un-natural fear of pain, but for most people it is the prospect of having to give up the choices in their lives. Secretly, I think all young people think that they will either live forever or go out in a blaze of glory. But the secret fear that gets them in the middle of the night is that one day they'll end up like Grandma, unable to make it to the bathroom in time. That they'll need to be carried up and down the stairs, because their own bodies betray them and take away the ability to do these simple things away without their consent.

And these are the fears that drive all horror films. The Boogieman doesn't exist, he is the manifestation of the evil that is coming to steal away all our futures. The evil that as you get older, you lose control.

This is my greatest theory... You can take it or leave it

BKL 8O Tchaikovsky's Marche Slave - The Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim

Edit: By the way... After my long disertation, I realized that I had missed the whole point of the topic, my apologies. Joe and Figo hit on pretty much the cream of the crop of horror movies...

I like... Hallowe'en (the original only) Frankenstein, 1939 and 1979's Dracula, The Wicker Man, Prince of Darkness and The Fog... Although not technically a horror film, I am also very fond of any movie from the mid 50s that has the words... ...CAME FROM OUTER SPACE or ... THAT WOULD NOT DIE in the title...

[pixie_twinkle 48]

Some good movies have been mentioned, and I have to say I also find Joe's taste in horror pretty savvy.

My take is that the best horror films have to be played completely deadpan. The moment any (intentional) humour is inserted it really takes the viewer out of the film. It's as if the director has given up on really trying to make a scary movie. He has said "Ok, I don't have faith in my ability to scare people so I'd better have a backup plan and pretend it's a comedy in case people laugh at the shock-scenes". This is such a shame. Horror directors have to take real chances! Of course the audience might laugh at the monster, but it's a risk that has to be taken! There have been very few horror films since the early 80s that don't rely on humour as well as horror. All the Freddy films rely on people laughing at Freddy's quips and one-liners just in case people didn't find the films scary.

The best horror genre today (IMO) is the Japanese trend, if only because they seem to be making a solid library of films that are taken completely seriously, and po-faced. I particularly thought "Dark Water" by Hideo Nakata was as scary as hell! Ringu also scared the poop out of me. The first 2 thirds of The Eye also had me clutching a cushion in front of my face, though the final plot turns rather spoilt the effect. I'm going to try a film called Spiral next. It looks completely strange!

Here are my scariest films. (I haven't included Evil Dead 2 which I love, just because it really doesn't scare me.)

The Haunting (1962 version)

Psycho (1960)

Night of the Demon (1950s)

Invasion of the Bodysnatchers (both the 50s and 70s versions!)

The Exorcist

The Omen

Jaws

Dark Water

I'm sure there are others I haven't remembered yet, but these spring to mind immediately. There is very little humour in these films, and when there is a funny moment it arises out of a natural conversation rather than being a dumb gag put in to make the audience laugh. As a result I find myself completely drawn into the films, and completely gutted by the end!

[Ray Barnsbury 8]

Oh yeah, and I love the original Psycho....more for the amazing interations between Marion and Norman, and the other characters, than even the "horror" aspects. It's a damn shame Anthony Perkins didn't get an Oscar for that role.

Ray Barnsbury

[JoeinAR 1,949]

He wasn't even nominated for the role, and considering what a tour de force 1960 was for acting its not surprising. Burt Lancaster beat out Jack Lemon, Laurence Olivier, Spencer Tracy, and Trevor Howard, for the Oscar, so Tony was lucky to get such a memorable role.

Only twice has an actor even won an Oscar for a role in what is perceived as a horror film.

Fredric March in 31 for Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, and 60 years later, in 1991, Anthony Hopkins for Silence of the Lambs, in what is really a supporting role.

[Justin 2]

Alien grosses and freaks me out. I really don't like things coming out of people, just can't stand it.

I hate to break this to you, but you came out of your mother.

Strangely enough my mothers name was Kane.

Oh my God I'm an Alien!!!

Justin

[JoeinAR 1,949]

do you have acid for blood?

[JoeinAR 1,949]

I just realized I haven't mentioned one of my favorite movies

from 1980,

Dressed to Kill. Is it a horror film, I don't know, I certainly jumped more times than in most films, and yes it basically steals the ending of Carrie, but then it does it so well, and it works so well, who can gripe.

And never watch this film in pan and scan as the scene in the Restaurant at the Top of the World (sadly destroyed) becomes meaningless in P&S.

[Lurker 5]

I just realized I haven't mentioned one of my favorite movies

from 1980,

Dressed to Kill.  Is it a horror film, I don't know, I certainly jumped more times than in most films, and yes it basically steals the ending of Carrie, but then it does it so well, and it works so well, who can gripe.

And never watch this film in pan and scan as the scene in the Restaurant at the Top of the World (sadly destroyed) becomes meaningless in P&S.

Some have accused it of being a simple Psycho rip-off. While the films have there similarities, Dressed to Kill has so many twists in it (and that startling museum set-piece) that to write this film off is a grave injustice. It's a masterwork of suspense, and as you said, a wide screen tour de force. I urge everyone to check out the DVD of this one to see the unrated cut, widescreen. It's worth it.

Neil

[Figo 2]

The Wicker Man and Night of the Demon both bear repeating. The former successfully conjures the creepy logic of an unsettling dream (and a nude Britt Ekland!), while employing the eerily ambiguous symbols of Celtic paganism. Also, the ending must be one of the bleakest of all time. I made one of my ex-girlfriends watch this film, and it completely freaked her out.

Night of the Demon is also very well-done. Fortunately, it was filmed in black-and-white. The idea of that demon-thingy hunting one's ass... AAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[JoeinAR 1,949]

Night of the Demon gave me nightmares as a child.

[SturgisPodmore 0]

I don't think I'll ever actually get over Psycho. It really makes you realize how vulnerable one is in the shower. Quite scary, I always still peek out from behind my shower curtain just in case. Even the star, Janet Leigh, said she can't take a shower anymore for fear of the same fate her character befell. If you look closely, you can see...erm, the person's eyes in that scene.

And they look like that.

~Sturgis

[StrongBad992648 0]

I'm a huge horror freak. Halloween is my favorite holiday...haha...I even run my own haunted house for select people in October. www.terrortour.com

Id say my favorite alltime horror movie is The Evil Dead because it makes you feel so uncomfortable and queasy. Second behind that is Audition. It's actually a Japanese film that was subtitled. If you want to feel like dying yourself...WATCH THIS MOVIE...but be warned...it's not for even the brave...it's basically for the clinically insane. And then you can't go wrong with Halloween (the movie). I mean...it invented the whole slasher genre...I only wish that Halloween was my first exposure to slasher movies and not Scream...which...sucks. I have how Wes Craven calls himself the master of horror or something like that...if you ask me...his stuff is cheesey and is in serious need of non-suckage.

For laughs, I'd say People Under the Stairs...just because it's so rediculous...I never stopped laughing.

Does anyone else here love Halloween (the holiday) and all things scary? I'd love you hear from you!

[Figo 2]

Scream does suck. In fact, it sucks donkey.

[Justin 2]

Scream doesn't suck, it blows.

Justin