Favourite Horror Flick?

[Doh!]

Jaws. Psycho. Halloween.

Here's another one-word title: ALIEN. What I liked about it was that everything in it looked so damned real. When the chestburster made its appearance, it not only scared you but looked like an actual creature. An actual, NASTY creature. And while the adult alien was "just" a guy in a rubber suit, it was shot in such a way that you never really noticed. Again, the close ups and quick-cutting of its toothy tongue looked amazingly real -- much better than they could ever hope to do with CGI.

ALIENS is terrific, too, but I'm still more a fan of the first one.

 

[Trampilot]

My very first horror film is still my favourite.

Val Lewton's Cat People. I saw it when I was far too young when it was shown on BBC2. Far too late for me at the time. I love all of Lewton's RKO chillers.

I've read a lot of the posts which have cited CGI as ruining the horror genre. Whilst the mainstream have overused these effects for extreme monsters and gore I've noted a couple of exceptions where the CGI was used in a subtle way.

To note, the remake of The Hills Have Eyes uses CGI to "mutate" the hill people slightly. The young girl displays deformed eyes - at first I thought it was merely a latex mask and fake eye but it was merely a very subtle CGI touch up.

However this is of course a rarity and too many films use CGI to hold together plots.

I do recommend these "modern" horror films:

Dark Waters (the Japanese version obviously)
Audition
Below (directed by the chap who directed Pitch Black - Below is far far better).
Dawn Of The Dead remake - if t wasn't a remake it would be the greatest zombie film of all time.

From the golden age:

All of Val Lewton's chillers.
King Kong - which I'm off to see at the cinema next week.
Invisible Man
The Black Cat (1934)

and I have a very guilty pleasure with Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman...

 

[imoldfashioned]

I've rented the original version of The Vanishing about 5 times but I've never been able to bring myself to watch it since I've heard it's really disturbing. I'm sure I'll do it someday though.

Another Vincent Price lover here, I'll watch anything he's in. Also Christopher Lee/Peter Cushing.

This isn't a classical horror, but Wait Until Dark seen in a movie theater made me jump many times (Alan Arkin's voice still creeps me out a bit, residue from this film). Psycho, of course. Love Anthony Perkins.

When I was in college there was a snowstorm so a bunch of us girls decided to rent some scary movies to watch in our dorm, very gothic architecture. Around 2:00 am we got to The Shining. We were all quiet, not wanting to admit to each other we were completely freaked out. All of a sudden there was a bang from the steam heating system and we all clutched our blankets and screamed our heads off. So much for being composed.

 

[Feraud]

This thread should be a sticky!
It has a great selection of horror films.

Let me add Ichi the Killer and Irreversible to the list.

For realy "grindhouse" fare, see Hostel and Wolf Creek.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

The first A Nightmare on Elm Street before Freddy decayed into self-parody, was one creative and scary movie.

The Exorcist may be the horror classic of the last 40 years.

As many of your know, I love speaking about movie cliche's. Have any of you noticed that every since Haley Joel Osmond mouthed the now famous line "I see dead people," the modern movie cliche' is that a child whispering something is really really scary. [huh] They always work it into the preview.

 

[WH1]

Currently showing on Chiller is Haunted with Aidan Quinn, Kate Beckinsale. Not sure if it is good or not but the clothing and setting ain't bad. England 1920's.

 

[Lady Day]

Currently showing on Chiller is Haunted with Aidan Quinn, Kate Beckinsale. Not sure if it is good or not but the clothing and setting ain't bad. England 1920's.

It sucked. Super lame story and not scary. Bad FXs.
Other than that it was fine

LD

 

[LadyStardust]

One I've always been curious about is Se7en, and I'm surprised no one has mentioned it here. I've heard it's severely disturbing, and has caused nightmares for fairly jaded people, and I get scared fairly easily, but I can't help being morbidly tempted to see. [huh] Any opinions here?

 

[Feraud]

One I've always been curious about is Se7en, and I'm surprised no one has mentioned it here. I've heard it's severely disturbing, and has caused nightmares for fairly jaded people, and I get scared fairly easily, but I can't help being morbidly tempted to see. [huh] Any opinions here?

Hype can kill a film. Seven is good but nothing to get severely disturbed about.

The nightly news is more disturbing.

 

[Doh!]

I would hardly call Se7en a horror film, but there are a couple of shock moments in it. Some of it is a little graphic (although because it's about a serial killer I don't think the material is out of line), but overall I think it's quite good. Kevin Spacey really makes it the film it is.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

I've rented the original version of The Vanishing about 5 times but I've never been able to bring myself to watch it since I've heard it's really disturbing. I'm sure I'll do it someday though.

Oh, watch it next time. All the way to the end. I'll never forget it. No way will I spoil it for you, unless you ask me too. Ya know, if you decide you really aren't ever going to watch it but want to know what happens.

 

[Shearer]

Does anyone like Giallo films? Or Dario Argento... although he kinda strays out of Giallo at times.

Phenomena and Suspiria are a couple of his more American-friendly films, but I quite like Deep Red and Tenebre.

 

[Lee Lynch]

I have Suspiria on video. I liked it more than I thought I would. Although it's a far,far cry from the "most terrifying film ever made" which is pretty much what it's claim is, I found it visually kind of pretty, actually. It's been some time since I watched it, but the story did keep me engaged...

 

[Shearer]

Yes, I didn't think Suspiria lived up to its hype either, but it WAS pretty to look at. Argento said he was going for an Alice In Wonderland reinterpretation with that one.

 

[chucklehead]

How about Nude For Satan or anything by jean rollin.
house of whipcord, captian blood. I wish there was
a channel on tv just for stuff like that.
I love 50's - late 70's euro horror.

Does anyone like Giallo films? Or Dario Argento... although he kinda strays out of Giallo at times.

Phenomena and Suspiria are a couple of his more American-friendly films, but I quite like Deep Red and Tenebre.

 

[Mojito]

Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House is one of my favourite novels - one of my ten desert island books - and as much of the action is internal I don't know if it can ever entirely be satisfactorily adapted. The 1963 version came close, though, and is a fine movie in its own right. It capitalises on strange camera angles to capture something of the off-balance elements to Hill House that helped make it the diseased, evil thing that it was (however neatly the bricks met, and firm the floors!). It also kept what I think is one of the eeriest lines in literature ("whose hand was I holding?")

The 1999 adaptation is an absolute hoot. Bears no resemblance to the book, beyond an occasional shared place or character name. But fits into the So-Bad-It's-Good category. The three of us who saw it agreed it was well worth spending the money on as it was so unintentionally funny - at one point, as a bed grows multiple tiny hands and starts reaching for Eleanor, one friend started giggling uncontrollably. "Look at that...it has three thousand hands and it still can't grab her!" Then one of the characters finds himself in a situation ensuring 'he'll never be the head of a major corporation' (in an Austin Powers sense), and we were in the aisles.

The Fog had a very jarring effect on me as a child. Must be because I'd always taken an interest in ghost stories involving the sea and ships, and because we lived by the ocean. I still get a bit of a shiver when the fog rolls in and envelops our house, so we can't even see the next headland or even the beach.

 

[Shearer]

How about Nude For Satan or anything by jean rollin.
house of whipcord, captian blood. I wish there was
a channel on tv just for stuff like that.
I love 50's - late 70's euro horror.

You know, I was kinda hoping that new Chiller channel would have stuff like this, but I don't think they'll go for it. And Rob Zombie was hosting that late night show on TCM called Underground... he's had some good stuff on there. But he's on a Pam Grier kick this week.

He did Romero's Crazies not too long ago though.

 

[Jack Scorpion]

A sucker for zombie flicks, I'm afraid. Romero classics (NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD) and sometimes even more so, the gore horror epics of Lucio Fulci: "ZOMBIE," "THE BEYOND."

An odd favorite: POSSESSION w/Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill.

Val Lewton classics. Especially those directed by Jacques Tourneur: "I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE," "CAT PEOPLE," "LEOPARD MAN."

 

[RBH]

All Vincent Price fans check out this trailer

http://www.moviefilmfest.com/800/AbominableDrPhibes_MGM_DVD.htm

I still love this film! :eusa_clap

 

[Doh!]

Excellent choice -- I love Dr. Phibes! I think it still holds up due to its sense of humor. If it were done "straight" it'd be quite grim.