Best Horror movie !

[ital8]

Many (most?) of the gorefests, I don't consider to be very scary at all. I would put a great many of them in the category of "exploitation" rather than "horror".
But, semantics...yawn...I know!

For me, a couple of "classics" reign supreme. Some may consider them old hat. I do not.

Rosemary's Baby is "classy creepy" to a degree that I consider genuinely masterful. Great script, wonderful casting, virtuoso perfomances, and direction that approaches perfection. There's not an ounce of gore in the film but it achieves a degree of horribleness that is almost unmatched. A "10".

The Exorcist is a film that I find completely fascinating. Throughout, it has that un-self-conscious melancholy aura that films from the 70's captured so well. Amongst a film full of great ones, Ellen Burstyn's performance (in conjunction with Blatty's story and Friedkin's direction) brings a humanity to the proceedings that translates into a realism that manages to legitimize the ultimately shocking and supernatural goings-on. Although at the time of its release it was considered outrageously gratuitous in it's portrayal of demonic horribleness, to me the filmmakers seem to have got it just right. I find its every move to be an essential step toward the truly brilliant climax.

For anyone who has not seen it, nor been spoiled of its charms(!) by exposure to its infamous elements, it offers a magnificently horrific viewing experience. I call it the greatest horror film ever. I once watched this alone on a foggy autumn evening in a Victorian row house in San Francisco and I've never been so scared in my life. I had to get out of the house and take a walk at midnight, just to find some other people to be around!

Horror films are an area where I cut more slack to the notion of subjectivity as relates to "greatness". But that's a topic for another day....

I just read this post after I posted my previous message, but you hit the nail right on the head. You put into words what I was thinking.

 

[2322]

Rosemary's Baby is indeed scary. It would have been much scarier for me if I didn't keep expecting Woody Allen to suddenly appear from behind a door. Rosemary's Baby is also one of the few horror films directed straight at women. I don't know of a single woman who has seen it and not been terrified by it in a way I don't find men can relate to somewhat like Sophie's Choice. The 70s were a great time for horror films and it certainly did culminate in Alien which brilliantly combined the scifi and horror genres by taking the haunted house story and placing it in a dystopian future. Alien is the only movie to leave me hyperventilating the second time I saw it.

 

[Enid]

I couldn't sleep alone for a week after seeing this movie. It's also a very beautiful film.

YouTube - Dark Water Trailer

YouTube - Dark Waters (Japanese Horror)

 

[Mickactual]

The first "Hellraiser", the first "Saw", and the first "Cube" are among my favourites.
I'm also a sucka for Linda Blair's pea soup vomiting, crucifix masturbation, and "Your mother sucks cocks in hell" one-liners from "The Exorcist".
:biggrin1:

 

[D_Dick_Dock_Doe]

Here's my list of what I consider the best horror films ever made:

1. The Exorcist: While many young people may find it funny nowadays, it is still the scariest film I have ever seen. William Friedkin did an amazing job creating a very serene, normal world in which a horrible situation just happens to be occurring in a typical house on a typical American street. Brilliantly directed, written, shot and acted. The subliminal shots of the demon's face during Father Karras' dream

2. The Shining: Fuck what Stephen King thinks of Stanley Kubrick's version of his book. Kubrick did King a HUGE favor - the film is fantastic. Kubrick, like Friedkin, was able to create a feeling of dread and "something's just not right" in the hotel - a feeling that there were greater forces at work that the caretaker and his family were powerless to stop. Kubrick did amazing work with sound, camera movements and visuals.

3. Rosemary's Baby: Say what you will about how the film holds up over time...the idea of a woman giving birth to Satan's child, and EVERYONE around her being involved in the deception, is shocking. I love the parts where Rosemary begins having a strange desire to eat raw meat.

4: Psycho: Not so much scary as it is thrilling, the infamous shower scene remains one of the greatest murders on film. To think that Hitchcock could make us squirm and wince in pain without showing ONE shot of the knife actually penetrating skin.

5: Paranormal Activity: I was so excited to sit through a modern horror film that perfectly captured the same creepy feelings as the films I mentioned above. There's nothing scarier than thinking about what could be going on around you at night - while you sleep. The use of the video camera as a window into a couple's life slowly being invaded by a supernatural entity creates a psychologically shocking reality that is unlike any film I've seen in years. Where The Blair Witch Project fails, Paranormal Activity succeeds. The ONE bad thing I can say about Paranormal Activity is that I would have preferred the original ending was kept intact. The current ending being screened is a bit of a let down, IMO.

 

[D_Dick_Dock_Doe]

The first "Hellraiser", the first "Saw", and the first "Cube" are among my favourites.
I'm also a sucka for Linda Blair's pea soup vomiting, crucifix masturbation, and "Your mother sucks cocks in hell" one-liners from "The Exorcist".
:biggrin1:

OMG - I forgot about Hellraiser and Cube. Fantastic films.

Also, I forgot to mention the original Night of the Living Dead. Still scary after all these years. And what an "in your face" choice for Romero to cast an African-American man as the hero at that time.

 

[Mickactual]

3. Rosemary's Baby: 5: Paranormal Activity:

Forgot about "Rosemary's Baby"...yes, a great film. I've heard mixed reviews of "Paranormal Activity", but I'd still like to see it.

OMG - I forgot about Hellraiser and Cube. Fantastic films.

The 2nd "Cube" sucked, but the 3rd one was pretty good.

Another one I just remembered is "Cloverfield". That also got mixed reviews, but I loved it. One that most people hated, but I loved was "Shutter". The original Asian one is far better than the remake tho.

Not really a horror movie per se, but I think possibly the most frightening movie I've ever seen was "Testament" with Jane Alexander and William Devane. It's about the after effects of a nuclear attack on L.A. on the survivors in the surrounding areas. As good as the film was, it disturbed me so deeply I could never bring myself to watch it a 2nd time.

 

[HellsKitchenmanNYC]

Not really a horror movie per se, but I think possibly the most frightening movie I've ever seen was "Testament" with Jane Alexander and William Devane. It's about the after effects of a nuclear attack on L.A. on the survivors in the surrounding areas. As good as the film was, it disturbed me so deeply I could never bring myself to watch it a 2nd time.

Just saw that not long ado again. I had seen it when it orig aired. It's very frightening and sad. And w/almost no special effects also.

 

[B_VinylBoy]

Absolutely love a good Horror/Suspense/Thriller. My favorites thus far:
Saw (The first one)
The Descent
Creepshow
Halloween 1 & 2
Scream
Candyman
Wait Until Dark (still waiting for an appropriate remake of this)
Texas Chainshaw Massacre (Original)
... there's so many more I can mention, but I'll stop here for now.

Ironically, the only horror movie to honestly freak the hell out of me was a rather low budget, B-Rated flick called "Piranha". A rather cheap Jaws ripoff, but OMG I didn't go swimming for a whole year after that!

Here's the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NmkXCSewdA
And here's a scene from the movie. Even up to this day, this still makes my skin crawl! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzf8_xwa5sI&feature=related

 

[Anything4you]

Great choice. What about Phantasm and Carrie?

 

[Mickactual]

a rather low budget, B-Rated flick called "Piranha".

OMG, I remember that one!

Great choice. What about Phantasm and Carrie?

Never much cared for "Carrie", but "Phantasm" - yes forgot about that too - great stuff.

Another one I know was mentioned that I loved is "Suspiria".

 

[SpeedoGuy]

I realized I forgot to include: Pan's Labyrinth

 

[Flashy]

Prince of Darkness (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

oh my *GOD*!

i hate horror movies, and this one messed me up severely...my girlfriend at the time wanted to see it and loved horror movies, and forced me to go...she was laughing, i was in terror with my hands over my eyes...

that blond girl that becomes the demon scared the hell out of me...that movie is fucked up.

 

[Flashy]

The Exorcist is a film that I find completely fascinating. Throughout, it has that un-self-conscious melancholy aura that films from the 70's captured so well. Amongst a film full of great ones, Ellen Burstyn's performance (in conjunction with Blatty's story and Friedkin's direction) brings a humanity to the proceedings that translates into a realism that manages to legitimize the ultimately shocking and supernatural goings-on. Although at the time of its release it was considered outrageously gratuitous in it's portrayal of demonic horribleness, to me the filmmakers seem to have got it just right. I find its every move to be an essential step toward the truly brilliant climax.

For anyone who has not seen it, nor been spoiled of its charms(!) by exposure to its infamous elements, it offers a magnificently horrific viewing experience. I call it the greatest horror film ever. I once watched this alone on a foggy autumn evening in a Victorian row house in San Francisco and I've never been so scared in my life. I had to get out of the house and take a walk at midnight, just to find some other people to be around!

Horror films are an area where I cut more slack to the notion of subjectivity as relates to "greatness". But that's a topic for another day....

i hate horror movies...i rarely watch them...I loved the Omen, because it was smart and psychological.

but the Exorcist terrorized me for life...it is a brilliant film, to the extreme. it is both a visual and meticulously crafted, and paced psychological assault on the viewer... but i have been terrified of it since i first saw it advertised when i was young...

it took me literally 30 years to finally watch it, all i would see was her face in one of the quick shots that they would do to advertise that it was on TV, or in one of those montages for the academy awards...and it would just kill me...and i would not sleep that night...happened 100s of times.

so finally, in about 1998, i decided i was going to try to watch it...it was on cable, and i sort of watched it, but with my hands over my eyes, and once her face started getting really bad, i could not take it anymore and turned it off.

i was really disappointed with myself, and had nightmares that night, even though i really hadn't seen much (i got up to the pea soup scene)

then i saw it was on next on a channel i did not get, but that only came in gray lines and static, but you could sort of see, but not much...the sound was perfect though, so i thought that was perfect...

i watched it all the way through but could not see her face except in gray blurred snippets, but i heard everything...

so that was another small step.

then, it was on one of the spanish channels...i decided to watch it, hands over my eyes so i saw nothing, and the spanish sort of desensitized it for me, and of course i did not see her face.

then, i read the screen play on line...twice, so i always knew what was coming and when...finally i watched it all the way through (hands over eyes of course, but enough to watch it all and see most of it)

it really is a brilliant film in every way...writing, directing, camera work, acting...i have nothing but the highest regard for it, if nothing for not only scaring the shit out of me for so many decades, but for doing it without the cheap "aaaaaaaahhhh", jumping out from behind the corner scares that are an easy way out...

the terror is palpable...it builds, it stays, then ebbs...there is calm, then it builds again, gets more intense, stays longer, then it releases you...

you feel like you are actually in the kitchen of the house downstairs, and that is the only time you feel safe, either downstairs or outside the house...but you still, must go back up the stairs, and you hear her screams up there, and wonder what new horror awaits...

you dread going up the stairs...you must confront what you cannot handle...you hate and fear the terror that is behind that door...you cannot handle going in to that room...it is too terrifying...and it keeps going...you are never safe...the beginning of the final sequence when Merrin arrives, and the classic shot of him outside, with the streetlight and the fog, and the spectral light from her window, is just epically spinechilling...he arives to confront the demon Pazuzu, who he confronted all those years ago when he was a younger man in North Africa....

it is a brilliant work.


then of course, that awful maze game on the internet came out, and i got nailed with once, and since it is literally the most horrible picture of her, from the scariest point of the film, it just kills me, and now i see it everywhere on the net.

the picture of her still terrifies me, but i have managed to desensitize myself to it so much, that i can handle viewing the picture and the visuals almost completely, but i do not do well when it comes as a "surprise" still.

pathetic, i know. :redface:

 

[ital8]

Films about possession scare the hell out of me. I don't know why, but they just do. Another movie that scared me was the Amityville Horror: The Possession.

 

[ital8]

i hate horror movies...i rarely watch them...I loved the Omen, because it was smart and psychological.

but the Exorcist terrorized me for life...it is a brilliant film, to the extreme. it is both a visual and meticulously crafted, and paced psychological assault on the viewer... but i have been terrified of it since i first saw it advertised when i was young...

it took me literally 30 years to finally watch it, all i would see was her face in one of the quick shots that they would do to advertise that it was on TV, or in one of those montages for the academy awards...and it would just kill me...and i would not sleep that night...happened 100s of times.

so finally, in about 1998, i decided i was going to try to watch it...it was on cable, and i sort of watched it, but with my hands over my eyes, and once her face started getting really bad, i could not take it anymore and turned it off.

i was really disappointed with myself, and had nightmares that night, even though i really hadn't seen much (i got up to the pea soup scene)

then i saw it was on next on a channel i did not get, but that only came in gray lines and static, but you could sort of see, but not much...the sound was perfect though, so i thought that was perfect...

i watched it all the way through but could not see her face except in gray blurred snippets, but i heard everything...

so that was another small step.

then, it was on one of the spanish channels...i decided to watch it, hands over my eyes so i saw nothing, and the spanish sort of desensitized it for me, and of course i did not see her face.

then, i read the screen play on line...twice, so i always knew what was coming and when...finally i watched it all the way through (hands over eyes of course, but enough to watch it all and see most of it)

it really is a brilliant film in every way...writing, directing, camera work, acting...i have nothing but the highest regard for it, if nothing for not only scaring the shit out of me for so many decades, but for doing it without the cheap "aaaaaaaahhhh", jumping out from behind the corner scares that are an easy way out...

the terror is palpable...it builds, it stays, then ebbs...there is calm, then it builds again, gets more intense, stays longer, then it releases you...

you feel like you are actually in the kitchen of the house downstairs, and that is the only time you feel safe, either downstairs or outside the house...but you still, must go back up the stairs, and you hear her screams up there, and wonder what new horror awaits...

you dread going up the stairs...you must confront what you cannot handle...you hate and fear the terror that is behind that door...you cannot handle going in to that room...it is too terrifying...and it keeps going...you are never safe...the beginning of the final sequence when Merrin arrives, and the classic shot of him outside, with the streetlight and the fog, and the spectral light from her window, is just epically spinechilling...he arives to confront the demon Pazuzu, who he confronted all those years ago when he was a younger man in North Africa....

it is a brilliant work.


then of course, that awful maze game on the internet came out, and i got nailed with once, and since it is literally the most horrible picture of her, from the scariest point of the film, it just kills me, and now i see it everywhere on the net.

the picture of her still terrifies me, but i have managed to desensitize myself to it so much, that i can handle viewing the picture and the visuals almost completely, but i do not do well when it comes as a "surprise" still.

pathetic, i know. :redface:

HAHA!! You crack me up. I love your step by step account of overcoming your fear of The Exorcist. I can totally relate. I first saw the movie when I was nine. My sister told me about it. I didn't even know what an exorcist was at that age, and since I was told she was strapped to the bed, I thought it would be harmless to watch. Little did I know!!! Good God, when she started convulsing on the bed, her eyes rolling up in her head, and her voice changing into the demon, I nearly shit myself. But that's the beauty of the film, seeing her slow deterioration as opposed to one big drastic change. Like you said, it is not a movie that makes you jump out of your seat, but it certainly stays in your head, and makes it so believable that it could happen to you. I can't even imagine what the first movie- goers felt when they saw it in the theaters back in '73.

 

[Anything4you]

I was going to mention suspiria too. The Exorcist really is the scariest film ever. I saw it when I was 10 and was traumatized for life. The Evil Dead was pretty bad too.

 

[Anything4you]

The Omen and Jaws were great too. All the horror movies of the 70's were incredible to me, maybe because I was a kid. Halloween is one of my favorites though. Chainsaw Massacre was sick - still haven't watched that whole movie yet. Can't get through it. I also remember a movie about a baby who killed people, I think it was called, It's Alive, a movie about people who turn into snakes - sssssss and the island of Dr. Moreau. There was one about a guy who carried his brother's head around in a basket - basket case i think it was called. Oldies but goodies.

 

[Flashy]

HAHA!! You crack me up. I love your step by step account of overcoming your fear of The Exorcist. I can totally relate. I first saw the movie when I was nine. My sister told me about it. I didn't even know what an exorcist was at that age, and since I was told she was strapped to the bed, I thought it would be harmless to watch. Little did I know!!! Good God, when she started convulsing on the bed, her eyes rolling up in her head, and her voice changing into the demon, I nearly shit myself. But that's the beauty of the film, seeing her slow deterioration as opposed to one big drastic change. Like you said, it is not a movie that makes you jump out of your seat, but it certainly stays in your head, and makes it so believable that it could happen to you. I can't even imagine what the first movie- goers felt when they saw it in the theaters back in '73.

yeah, i agree... i was born in 71, so i was too young to understand the initial craze, which much have been something from all i have heard. but i remember around 1977-78 or so as cable tv began becoming more widespread, and TBS and HBO and other tv channels began to pop up, they would always show it on halloween, and that was when the fear began to build for me from this initial moment: they were showing it on regular TV some time around 1977 or so, and they were advertising it on TV commercials (it was heavily edited obviously), but they were running the commercials for it in the afternoons and early evenings...and i would see these and they began to terrify me...i was in hysterics for days over it and had nightmares for years afterwards, and it was so upsetting that my mother, who was one of the biggest anti-censorship types ever was so enraged that she and several other mothers led a boycott that got the laws at the time changed so that one would not be able to advertise really scary movies during the time when children may have been likely to be viewing a TV, i.e. before 8:00 pm or so...

i forget what the agreement was, but it was rather sensible...

but that was where it all started for me.:frown1: strange that one movie should cause such a journey of torment to eventual acceptance of how good it was while still retaining that grip of fear over me so palpably, and my inability to still fully get over it, even if i can handle it now.

that is what truly makes it a landmark film...


on a sidenote, the worst thing that happened was i fell asleep one night about two years ago with the TV on AMC,

it was one of their classics nights and they always have good stuff...it was a "films of the 70s" or something, where they would pick a film from each year of the decade (70, 71, 72, 73, etc) and run them over the course of a day i looked at the evening schedule and saw Patton, then the French Connection, then Deliverance, and i did not check beyond that as it would be around 2:00 AM by the time Deliverance ended

so first i watched "Patton" (1970) then i was watching "The French Connection" (1971) and i fell asleep around 11 pm probably... right after it was "Deliverance" (1972)...

so i am asleep....i start having these terribly vivid nightmares about the Exorcist, which i had not had in awhile and i am hearing all the lines pretty clearly and i suddenly bolt up in bed in shock, and i have a big 48 inch LD TV directly on the opposite wall from my bed, and there in high def, is the final exorcism scene and her face closeup, and i literally hit the ceiling, and the volume was so loud, and i couldn't find the remote in the dark and i was flailing around trying to find it just to change the channel...christ that was horrible. :frown1::frown1::frown1:

 

[mitchymo]

I love my horror movies (i'm sure some of you know, i say it often enough lol)

It is practically impossible to beat the great classics because they had to focus more on creating atmosphere. These modern horrors rely heavily on great make-up and sound and FX and quite often have a wholly ficticious story using monsters instead of more believable ghosts and demons.

Rosemary's Baby, The Omen, The Fog, The Exorcist, Amytiville Horror and Carrie are classics which will always rank well amongst the faves, i certainly cannot think of any better. I have none of these in my DVD collection tho because i much more enjoy action in my horror films rather than suspense.

I recommend Session 9 as a good modern atmospheric horror, always good when set in an old mental asylum.