JPF Home Page Forums Creative Arts Forums Acting, Theater, Film and TV Forum 10 Favorite Horror Flicks

Here comes Halloween so what's your favorite 10 horror flicks.
I own over 200 so it's hard for me but here's 10 favorites off the top of my head. And for those few who DON"T know lol here's some good suggestions this Halloween.

1. The Omen 1976 - Between the nanny & the graveyard scene in Italy
with the wild dogs is one thing. The music is a whole nother thing.. Scares the bigeeza's out of me. I once had to sell the soundtrack and get it out of the house, as I could not listen through. (Jerry Goldsmith) music.

2. Psycho 1960 - Masterpiece! I can't even count the amount of times I have heard those shrilling strings used in so many horror movies. Just watched CARRIE tonight and heard them in there as well. The 3 hits.

3. The Exorcist - Even though time has worn this down just a tad it is still the most intense horror movie classic. Parts like the scene's with The priests Mother really get me now. I met Linda Blair and spoke with her on the phone. She has Tripps custom Doll of her. She was very nice and tiny & cute lol..
Again "Tubular Bells" Great MUSIC!

4. Night Of The Living Dead - Even though I enjoy Dawn Of The Dead more, this is the scary one. When My fiends and I saw this as kids for the first time. We had to walk each other home, the poor last one of us

5. Dawn Of The Dead 1978 - I just love this movie. Fun! and boy don't we all want that MAll to ourselves, especially that gunshop lol...

6. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1974 - One of the most unique films I have ever seen, Even the remake is good. When i first saw this I thought they were actually filming the real people like a documentary. What a sick flick great!
Feels so real..

7. The Shining 1980 - Stephen King, well he could fill this list all by himself. Carrie,Pet Cemetary,Christine,Children Of The Corn,Cujo and on & on & on
Jack Nicholson and Shelly Duvall shine in this intense ghost story directed by the lat great Stanley Krubick.

8. Halloween - One of the greatest low budget flicks ever.
Again the music!!!

9. Alien 1979 - Okay it's a sci fi but many include it with horror's. I don't but it's just too good not to be on this list

10. The Fog - John Carpenter again...


Some other great ones,fun ones and favorites of mine...

The Stepfather - 1987
Race With The Devil
Frankenstein - 1931
Amityville Horror
Return Of The Living Dead (fun)
Shaun Of The Dead (fun)
Saw 2004
Scream 1996
Omen II
28 Days Later
The Thing
My Bloody Valentine
The Grudge
Nightmare On Elm Street 1
Hell Raiser
The Hills Have Eyes
Day Of The Dead
Carrie
Fiday The 13th
Halloween H20
Wrong Turn

Have a Happy Halloween...

Here's a little known one that tops my list: John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness. My wife won't even walk into the room if it happens to be on TV. This is one of only three movies that kept me up at night. The others were The Exorcist and Wag the Dog, which, in it's own way, may be the real scariest of all.

Young Frankenstein

Two Silent Films make my list:
-The Phantom of the Opera
-Hunchback of Notre Dame - both with Lon Chaney Sr.

That's about all I can think of right now.

Hi Mike

I had fun thinking about this. It seems we think along the same lines

I would put The Exorcist at #1 and The Omen at #2. I would definitely include The Shining and Psycho. I love American Werewolf In London.

Let The Right One In is a modern classic (if you have not seen this please do), also Pan’s Labyrinth. Although it may seem a little tame now Bride Of Frankenstein is a true classic. I’m going to throw in another couple of classics: The Man With X-Ray Eyes and The Midwich Cuckoos because I found both quite disturbing

I would definitely dispute Alien as being horror, it is a great film but It's more suspense-thriller.

Cheers

Nige

Oh, add "Silence of the Lambs" to my list

oK...not sure I could even name 10 horror movies right now that I've seen...but I'll try...no particular order though...

Alice, Sweet Alice creeped me out the 7 or 20 time I watched it oh so many years ago..
Pet Cemetary..in the theater..$8 a ticket and I had to leave when they went to the cemetary after the kid died...disturbed me, I admit, I couldn't take it
Children of the Corn was a little twisted
Carrie....just love Sissy in any movie
The Exorcist..the original, as Mike points out
Ummmmm....that's all I can think of...not much on this kind of movie so its gotta be a short list

I was 14 years old when "The Exorcist" came out. My parents were out of town for the weekend and I was staying at a friend's house. HER parents took us to see the movie. I was scarred. I slept with my bedside lamp on for months. Finally, I confessed to my mother that my friend's parents took us to the movie. My parents strictly forbode me to hang out with her anymore. That made me hang out with her all the more.

I remember running out of the theater on "Terror Train". My best friend just laughed at me and watched the rest of the movie while I stood in the lobby.

Other disturbing movies:

The Blair Witch Project

The Ring

Final Destination

Texas Chain Saw Massacre...The Beginning

Taken (It's not a horror flick, but disturbing!)

Rocky Horror Picture Show (Oh, wait, that was FUNNY!)

I don't watch a lot of horror flicks 'cause I can't handle 'em.

Hi Nige

Yes #1 or #2 is fine for me on either. I agree about Alien it is a Sci Fi actually but with that scare/horror element like The Thing (remake) Sci Fi

I have American Werewolf In London that is a great flick. Werewolf movies are not usually very effective for me they just never make them look cool enough.

I play on a song in Werewolf In Paris We had a track on that.

Silence Of The Lambs, I never consider that a tryue horror movie but it sure is scary along with "Seven" and then we get into all those "Kiss The Girls" and other serial killer type movies.
All the Silence movies are good... even the prequal about Hannibal.

Must add this to the list anyway...

Oh, lots 'n lots! To mention just a few:

The Blair Witch Project

The Ring

Burnt Offerings (Just thinking about it still creeps me out. With Karen Black and Oliver Reed.)

Don't Look Now (A stunning psychological thriller[with Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland] based on a book by Daphne du Maurier. I saw it with three friends of mine, and we later ended up sleeping in the same room, because after watching the movie we were too terrified to stay in our respective, separate places in the house. One of the girls ended up almost having a breakdown. Wierd.)

The Grudge (Japanese, and totally el-creepo. The Japanese are producing a lot of excellent horror flicks.)

Donna

My choices are not all great flicks - they are favorites because I saw them at an early age and they scared the hell out of me.

(1) Top choice - The Blob! Steve McQueen and a bizarre opening song.

(2) Night of the Living Dead - My sister was older than me and one time her and a friend took some of us younger kids to the drive in. I saw this when I was 9 and I think it actually warped me.

(3) House on Haunted Hill - the original, of course.

(4) The Birds. I liked Psycho too, of course, but, to me, animals running amok was scarier than people running amok...

(5) The Killer Shrews. I saw this a couple years ago and it was almost laughably funny. But when I was 5 or 6 and it was on afternoon theatre - whew!

Scott

The only scary thing about BWP is that it is scarily bad!! It has got to be the worst film I have ever had the misfortune to see. It’s saving grace is that it is short (circa 80 mins) but I still feel I wasted 80 minutes of my life watching it. Surely no one would ever watch this is second time?

The Ring – I did enjoy and The Birds is a good call too

Nige, I thought Blair Witch Project was excellent. BUT, if you think it's bad, you should see (or better, don't see) the sequel. It's unbelievably atrocious. (Not made by the same team that did BWP.)

Donna

I have a billion favorite horror films, it's my favorite genre and I really don't watch many movies outside of it. For anyone looking for a good one that's new, check out Paranormal Activity. It's kind of slow going but it's amazing. It's filmed in the same style as Blair Witch Project (another one of my favs) also the new Halloween movie that's out is good too.

Now you are scaring me!

Nice to see the art of exaggeration is not dead

I also like to watch horror flicks, but I don't think I could list 10 that were scary. Here's a few:

(1) M--Peter Lorre's first movie, done in German. The criminal community gangs up on a child murderer who's giving the bad guys a bad name. Scary without one act of violence being shown on screen.

(2) PSYCHO--the original. One of the few cases where (my opinion) the movie was better than the book. Also scary without being gory.

(3) INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS--the re-make with Leonard Nimoy as the doctor. Yes, the original flick was good, too--just not as.

(4) SLEEPING BEAUTY--yes, the Disney one. Got to see it on the big screen when I was little (my dad ran a movie theater), and I had nightmares for years about the dragon. I finally got up enough courage to see it again as an adult--and it was every bit as scary.

For the rest, I like:

Fright Night
My Best Friend's a Vampire
The Thing (the original)
Dracula (the 1931 Spanish version, not the Bela Lugosi one)
Love Bites
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Eight-Legged Freaks
Them (Joan Collins' first movie, I think)

--and would not consider any of them particularly scary. I saw The Blair Witch Project, and could not see any good reason to do so.

joe

The campier, more B-Grade the better.

My favorite is "Mark Of The Vampire" (1935) with Lionel Barrymore and Bela Lugosi. The lady vampire may be the model for Vampirella, Lilly Munster, and Elvira. She is very scary as she peeks through the window. It has a surprise ending and I won't tell. If it's not on TV this week, you should rent it.

"Plan Nine From Outer Space", (1959) Ed Wood classic. A mixture of science fiction and horror with Bela Lugosi playing a vampire again. The production is hilarious.

"Dracula Prince Of Darkness" (1966) Christopher Lee. Scared the hell out of me in 5th grade.

"Plague Of The Zombies" (1966) saw it as a double feature with "Dracula Prince Of Darkness".

"The Abominable Dr. Phibes" (1971) Vincent Price. Loved that pipe organ. The way that he raised his arms up before hitting the keys.

"Frankenstein" (1931) Boris Karloff. "It's Alive"!

"Bride Of Frankenstein" (1935) Elsa Lanchester is Hot!

"The Body Snatcher" (1945) Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi.

Only eight. Can't think of any more right now. I don't care for blood and gore movies. They remind me of real life crimes (Jeffery Dahmer) even though they are acting. I look at horror movies like cartoons and want to keep it that way.

The Blair Witch Project

Two things stuck out in my mind about this movie

1- I have been lost in the woods and THAT is scary.. reality scary. The witch aspect did not scare at all.

2- The scariest thing about the Blair Witch Project was how DUMB kids could be I am a CLUELESS outdoors man. But even I would know after the 10th time I crossed over the same stream back n forth to pick a side of it, left or right and follow that route duh!!

Okay the water is ALWAYS at my left foot so I always know which direction I'm heading.

While I appreciate the new approach to film making and the super sales at a tiny budget approach, I'm still not a fan of that movie.

Since then they have made a slew of hand held first person camera view films and I can't watch them at all. \
1- My vertigo won't let me

2- It's the same reason why our home movies rarely get watched, they suck lol. Unsteady camera blurry. bad lightening, etc.. And now were supposed to love that & pay for it? Nah..

Regardless of what they think I still like to be entertained by a film, and watching one for 2 hours through someone else's video camera is not entertaining to me at all just annoying.

I love the old ones also.. especially the Frankenstein series.

I find that ones from the 60's & 70's hold up the best over time. Dracula is just not scary anymore Time gets to everything eventually but some films just stick for good.

But favorites and entertaining can be different from scary to.

Love the B movies as well...

That may be true and may be a generational thing. We are around the same age but differ there. 70's horror movies are still being played on TV. 20 years ago 50's movies were on TV. You can actually find any movie you want on TV today if you know where to look.

70's Hollywood exploited horror movies after the success of The Excorist. I didn't see The Excorist when it came out, but read the book. Didn't see the movie until years later. I never cared for 70's horror flicks. Much like 70's cars (Ford Torino for example), and polyester clothes.

I'll take 30's, 40's, 50's, and early 60's black and white horror movies. The music and eeriness.

"Mark Of The Vampire" is a truly scary movie with a surprise plot twist at the end.

Funny. I never considered "Mark of the Vampire" a horror movie. More of a good detective story. (And very good plot.) Ditto for the original "The Fly," with Vincent Price.

I have seen "Plan 9 from Outer Space" a lot of times. I still haven't figured out if director Ed Wood was being serious.

joe

Ed Wood is one of my heros. He never let the little things (like a lack of talent) stand in his way.

Too many films today rely on gore and effects, and back in the 40's & 50's it was just too much theater type acting and WAY too much dialog.

The Exorcist is NOT all gore and effects and it is not coming off like a play in a theater being dragged out with dialog and loooong explanations for everything.

It is just flat out frightening and brilliant.

While I was always a collector being greatly restricted these past years has really left me watching flicks at 4am

Below is my DVD only collection, All I could fit in one picture anyway, this is without my music films, and all my boxing films.



I'd say there's about 200 horror movies in there...

The far end case to the right has TV show sets, mostly vintage.

Wow that's impressive, you should open up a rental store.

I've discovered the root cause of your vertigo, Mike!!
Get straight DVD racks.

Here is a listing of the top 31 horror movies I found this morning on AOL... It looks like moviefone put it together...

http://insidemovies.moviefone.com/2007/10/31/best-horror-movies/

and then the 31 scariest movie moments...

http://insidemovies.moviefone.com/2008/10/01/scariest-movie-moments/

Quite a collection Mike!

The creepiest film I've ever seen was "Wrong Turn". Here's the trailer: http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/wrong-turn/trailer

John

A fun Netflix double feature is "Ed Wood" with Johnny Depp & Martin Landau(who either won or was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of Bella Lugosi...& then watch Plan 9...We spent Ed Wood rolling up spitballs, which we then peppered at the screen during Plan 9.

Oh, and the "Shakey Cam" SUCKS!!!! You won't get me within 3 blocks of a film with it. And it's not because of vertigo, I just find it extremely annoying.

And even though it wasn't a horror film, the first one that made me cling to my theater seat was "Play Misty for Me". I was sitting in the aisle seat and the whole row had to wait while I unclenched my hands from the armrest when the film was done.

Midnite

Oh...And Creature From the Black Lagoon...More of a creature feature than horror, but still.

Midnite

Have to add this little gem to the collection of great horror movies

Invaders From Mars the 1953 version

Yes, Invaders from Mars was scary. I saw it as a little kid (on TV, though), and I stayed away from patches of sand for *years*.

Joe

The original Nosferatu, 1922! AAAAAAAaiiiigh!

I didnt read all the posts but most of mine were already mentioned but at the top would be

1 People Under the Stairs
2 Leprechaun
3 Wrong Turn 1
4 Chucky 1
5 Puppetmaster's

Most of these I found more comedy then horror but they are some of my favs

I thought the best of the Chucky movies was "Bride of Chucky." But I thought of it as a kind of sweet love story rather than a horror movie.

Joe

It's that time of year again. "Plague Of The Zombies" is on TCM tonight. Don't miss it.

Mark, i'm pretty sure that was my 3rd husband, ....glyn

LOL

Halloween again. Last night I saw one of the cheesiest blood and gore flicks that I can remember. "2000 Maniacs" from 1964. It was hilarious. Lots of obvious mannequin body parts and plenty of blood. It would give Ed Wood a run for his money.

Ah yes,

With the countless movies we see we haven't found any new gems in horror lately. Mostly what we call "Ten Minute Movies" We audition lots and lots of those. There off in 10 minutes hence the title.

The series "The Walking Dead" is very good, better than anything Romero has done lately. As far as Zombie films go.
And the remake of "The Crazies" was enjoyable.

I am not a huge blood & gore kinda guy. Still, I dig a good horror flick. So, here it is:
1. Halloween (1978) -- Just plain scary. And fun.
2. Psycho (1960) -- One of the best twists ever. Too bad its infamy has ruined the shock for everyone in the world.
3. Les Yeux Sans Visage (1960) -- Beautifully shot French horror flick, that brings the "trapped with a mad scientist" thing to a whole new level. A lot more gruesome than you would expect from a film of this era.
4. Sean of the Dead (2004) -- Horror flick or comedy? Both, really. Love it.
5. Night of the Living Dead (1968) -- The original.
6. Body Snatchers (1993) -- Updated and reimagined story from the same concept as the original 60's film. But better. Set on an Army base, the ultimate setting for conformity. An incredible, chilling monologue from Meg Tilly.
7. Evil Dead 2 (1987) -- Okay, so this is probably my #1. It's what the 3 Stooges would look like if they really did poke out each other's eyes.
8. The Shining (1980) -- I actually interviewed for the role of Danny when I was a kid. But I got no farther than that first interview. Probably a good thing. I would have had nightmares forever had I been on set for this, I think.

Maybe I'll think of more later.

Wow Todd that is wild!!! Imagine what life would have had in store had you been picked for that... Maybe good? Maybe bad?

Well at least you would never have the nick name "redrum"

Yes Shaun Of The Dead is an excellent movie, I love when they are throwing albums at the two Zombies and deciding which albums to throw or not LOL

"Stone Roses"
"No."
"It's their second one."
"I LIKE that album!!!"

best part. best line.

My favourite horror film has to be Dracula......for an alternative version click on this link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0HvpeHhK3s

It features me and some of my pals acting up for a crowd of unruly drunk pals at a stag night we hold every year in our local bowling club...apologies in advance for some of the language and adult content......I have heard and seen much worse but had to put in that disclaimer to protect the innocent.

Any comments or constructive criticism is welcome......LOL


ps the vid was just a handheld video camcorder using its own little mic and some of the jokes are Scottish or bowling club orientated so might not travel well or may be on a different wavelength as they are aimed at an audience who are "in the know" so please make allowances.

Yes! I love that movie, "The Wrong Turn" but have to close my eyes at the gorey parts. lol

The Shining was awesome, but A movie I never full recovered from was a movie called "Phantasm"

I guess I was only 11 when i saw it too.

Never recovered from 'Daddy's Gone a Hunting' Released in 67 or 68. Based on title - my parents must have thought it was a nice Disney Movie, gave me 25 cents and sent me off to see Saturday matinee @ Kent theater - right down the block from where I grew up.

Movie turned out to be a psycho-thriller, something from which I never really recovered...and it ruined me from enjoying all the best horror flicks that followed! My loss...

Well,
I finally read this post. A coupls of older films that could be considered Horror Films are REAR WINDOW, Hitchock, and THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, Gene Barry. I have both versions of INVADERS FROM MARS on tape. When I was young I saw the Previews but never saw the film.

Ah yes the Tall Man Gave that one and it's sequels a few chances and later years but it never stuck for me.