Favorite Scary Movies

[roddma]

What are your favorite scary movies? I havent seen a lot, but some of my faves are "Carrie", "Poltergeist", and "Christine".

[Curious]

I am a big fan of the horror genre, though not the newer style of films like Hostel which are just soft core snuff films, IMO.

Some of my favorites are:

A Nightmare on Elm Street (the original)

The Evil Dead Trilogy (Evil Dead 1 & 2 and Army of Darkness)

Pet Semetary

Misery

Carrie (including the various remakes)

Sleepwalkers

Halloween 1 & 2 (including the Rob Zombie remakes)

Fright Night (original, not the trashy remake)

I could go on and on.  October is my favorite month because there are scary movies on all month long.

Right now I'm watching a Puppet Master marathon on ElRey or maybe IFC.

[EyeQueue]

Huge horror fan here.  

I have to second all the films that you both have mentioned so far (though I haven't seen the Carrie remakes or the 2nd Rob Zombie remake).  I would also add:

The Blair Witch Project

Insidious and Insidious 2

Ju-on (and its American counterpart The Grudge)

Ringu (and The Ring)

The Thing (the original--haven't seen the 2011 remake)

Trick R Treat

Home Movie

Any of the Paranormal Activity series

[REC] and [REC]2 (*way* better than their American counterparts Quarantine 1 and 2)

The Innkeepers

The House of the Devil

It 

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the original)

Night of the Living Dead (the original, but the remakes aren't bad)

Cabin in the Woods

And probably more I'm too tired to think of right now.  I was lurking just before nodding off, but got all excited when I saw this thread because horror movies!!!!  

ETA movie titles

[sawasdee]

Not bloody horror, but terrifying all the same - The Wicker Man (the original) and Don't Look Now.

[Fascinated]

In my opinion, the words 'favourite' and 'scary movie' simply do not belong in the same sentence. 

I was scared of just about everything as a girl, including, but not limited to, spiders (massive black ones in the white bathtub or running across my bed when I was supposed to get into it), the sound of the toilet flushing (I would get ready then pull the chain - yes, as a child in England we had to pull a chain - and then run like hell trying to exit before flushing started, which is scientifically impossible), basements, naturally, and scary movies. 

Knowing this, my mum would not let me watch Psycho. This made me realize that it must be very scary so I couldn't sleep for several nights, even though I didn't watch it!

But, let's talk about Night of the Living Dead, shall we?  Fuck, that movie ruined me for years!  I don't know what possessed me to see it.  When I got home my family was asleep and the house was dark. Oh my god, I thought I would die. I woke up one brother and asked him to come downstairs and sleep with me and he told me to fuck off. So I did same with other brother. Same response.  I remember the trees outside my window waving in the dim moonlight, manifesting as people watching me, swaying to and fro as if they had plenty of time to consider their deed before daylight.  The worst part of the movie wasn't the zombies. That ending. Holy shit. I will never forget. 

Thats a longass post. Sorry. 

[clueliss]

I enjoy scary but more in the psychological end of things and not the blood/gore end of things.  (that said i do watch walking dead but spend a great deal of time looking away or putting my hands up - granted the same can be said of Grey's Anatomy).  

Christine (a friend had a car back in the day that rather acted like that car at times).  

Salem's Lot

Carrie

Halloween (i/ii and the reboot)

not scary per say but I'm more a fan of The Village (which I avoided for a while because the promos tried to make it seem like horror and it was more psychological - which I am told is why horror fans didn't like it).  & The Sixth Sense

And I am a fan of cheesy disaster movies.  Blame the Irwin Allen movies from the 70's.  

[sawasdee]

Hey Fascinated -  English too, and grew up with an outside toilet, and our house backed on to Hackney Marshes. One year there was a plague of horseflies - HUGE - and my brother had to take me to the loo - and at night I  was allowed to use a po    -  that loo was more scary than any movie!

[EyeQueue]

Fascinated:  Night of the Living Dead!!!

This was actually my gateway movie that solidified my love of all things horror. I saw it when I was in 6th grade (it was on a horror movie marathon that was on TV on Halloween that year). Prior to that, I loved all the old black-and-white creature feature type horror movies (The Wolf Man, Dracula, Frankenstein, etc.), and those overwrought, color-saturated Roger Corman Edgar Alan Poe flicks (Fall of the House of Usher is my absolute fave of those), but when I saw Night of the Living Dead, that was all she wrote.

That was something *different*.  And--yes--I think it had to do with that ending. That was something new. Plus, I'd never seen zombies before, and while grossed out, was interested in the technical aspects of putting a film like that together.

Also (and I probably didn't realize it at the time), NoLD was revolutionary not only in opening up a whole new genre of horror, but by having an African American (Duane Jones) as the lead "hero," which was virtually unheard of when the movie was shot in 1968. On the downside, though, I hate how Barbra is portrayed as a weak woman who falls apart as soon as the shit hits the fan, and then completely can't function for the rest of the movie.

[CTRLZero]

Love scary movies, though I tend to watch them with a blanket handy to hide my eyes!  When I was a youngster, I watched The Exorcist and wasn't able to sleep with a pillow for months.  My favorite is Poltergeist.  I watch that one every so often and still get a kick out of it.  There was a crummy sequel to Poltergeist and the bad guy actor's last name was the same as my family name, plus he looked just like my grandpa--creeped me out, yikes!

Happy Halloween, everyone! 

[princessmahina]

When I was in first grade, my mother made me watch Night of the Living Dead with her. My grandmother lives across the street from a cemetery. Guess who was terrified to visit grandma for years? UGH. Never watching it again.

I'm not a big horror watcher, but I like The Shining, Horror Hotel, The Exorcist, I Bury the Living, etc. I generally prefer the old-school campy terrible B movies. They're fun! Generally, I prefer family friendly movies like Halloweentown, Corpse Bride, Nightmare Before Christmas, and so on. Of course the Harry Potter series is appropriate for all occasions

[roddma]

Though not considered a horror film, I like the Addams Family movies. Yea the sequel to Poltergeist was cheesy. The young actress Heather O'Rourke, "Carole Anne" died not long after.There was a Poltergeist TV series in the mid 90s, and a 2015 version.

[ADoyle90815]

One of my favorites is the original version of The Haunting. I also love Halloween, Carrie, and The Shining.

[Geechee Girl]

I'm in the old school camp: Nightmare on Elm St, Halloween, Poltergeist, etc. What's that one with the babysitter and the call coming from inside the house? That movie messed me up for years. I babysat with all the lights on, and ready to dial 911. I also a sucker for cheesy Lifetime-type thrillers: The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, The Glass House, and Orphan. Demon possession, exorcism, and occult films are my guilty pleasure. I don't like the newer violent stuff. 

[Walking Cat Bed]

I love scary movies. Basically anything that's not focused on throwing as much gore around as possible (or the typical slashers/monsters) is my kind of movie.

Psychological, paranormal, anything with a good, solid plot and interesting characters. 

[EyeQueue]

Geechee Girl:  You may like The Last Excorcism, then. It was creepy, for sure.

I also gravitate more toward supernatural or the improbable when it comes to horror. I don't like like the ones that could really happen in real life, because that freaks me out just a bit too much. Now, I'm not saying the supernatural ones don't freak me out. When I saw Sinister a couple of years ago, I literally couldn't sleep that night (and I'm a 40-something-year-old woman! ).

I have to say, though, that for whatever reason I did enjoy one of the Hostels (can't remember if it was 1 or 2). And I don't remember why (it's been so long) but there seemed to be something ironic, meta, or social-comentary-ish about it that (for me) took it out of being just a straight torture-pron flick.

[choralcrusader8613]

Like some of the posters on the thread, I am not generally the scary movie type, for various and sundry reasons. However, there are some movies that I'm okay with because I think they're so well done:

• The Last Man on Earth
• House of Wax (the Vincent Price one, not the new one)
• The Silence of the Lambs (even after seeing Anthony Hopkins in Meet Joe Black, still cannot get those bits from the "Nashville" section of the movie out of my head.
• Seven. Already said this in the chat, so apologies to those I've already told, but I watched it because I was writing a paper on this and Silence of the Lambs. After seeing Seven 3 times in a row (for analysis), I know where the bad stuff is coming and don't need to cover my eyes.
• The Exorcist, but I do have serious issues with that scene with the crucifix.

[clueliss]

I forgot earlier - The Exorcist.  

[Terrie]

One of my favorites is the original version of The Haunting. I also love Halloween, Carrie, and The Shining.

The Haunting is an absolute favorite.I enjoy atmospheric and psychological thriller type horror, but I've never been a fan of slasher type movies. I watch them and just get annoyed. And gory movies leave me going "That's just gross." The only movie where the gory parts made me truly cringe and look away is Pan's Labyrinth. That was impressive horror, with the blend of fantasy and reality.

[JoyfullyUnavailable]

I'm also a lover of horror movies and the more psychological movies that get into your head. I'm not really into jump scares or gore ( but I kind a liked "saw"). My favorites not in any particular order are:

- The Exorcist 

- Silence of the Lambs

- Wicker Man

- The Shinning

- The Amityville Horror

- The Excorism of Emily Rose

- The Last Exorcism

- Haunting in Connecticut 

- Insidious 

- The Shrine (this one gave me nightmares, loved it!)

- The Omen

- Rosemary's Baby

- The Possession

I'm sure I missed a few on my long list.

Has anyone seen "botbadook"? It was recently recommended to me by the manager at the music store I shop at (yes, I still buy CD's and DVDs at an actual store). He said it was really creepy.

[EyeQueue]

JA: Thanks for the recommendation of The Shrine. I keep seeing this pop up on my recommended movies on Netflix, and haven't watched it yet.

The Babadook came highly recommended by my daughter and her circle of friends (16-year-olds). While I don't know if I would rank it among my favorites, it was a good flick with some good scares/creepiness.

 

[JoyfullyUnavailable]

EQ: I think what I found most appealing about The Shrine is my interest in cults. I think this might be a common interest around here. Movies about cults are almost always good, like I mentioned among others before me, the Wickerman. 

Speaking of movies about cults,  I forgot to add The Sacrament to my list. Though it is a fictional story, it is also a direct parody of what happened at The People's Temple at Jonestown. Even the leader in the story has a striking resemblance to Jim Jones. I recommend this one too.

[Terrie]

The Babadook is a great movie. It really has you seesawing back and forth on what's actually happening.

[EyeQueue]

EQ: I think what I found most appealing about The Shrine is my interest in cults. I think this might be a common interest around here. Movies about cults are almost always good, like I mentioned among others before me, the Wickerman. 

Speaking of movies about cults,  I forgot to add The Sacrament to my list. Though it is a fictional story, it is also a direct parody of what happened at The People's Temple at Jonestown. Even the leader in the story has a striking resemblance to Jim Jones. I recommend this one too.

I love me some cult movies, too (esp., e.g. Rosemary's Baby). I *did* see The Sacrament. Since it is written/directed by Ti West, my daughter and I expected a horror movie, so when we got like 45 minutes into it and nothing like that was on order, she started calling it a "bait and switch horror movie." Once I accepted that it was something completely different, as you say a twist on the Jones story, I enjoyed it. And it was psychologically creepy.

[CallmeChaCha]

Ohhhhhh! You guys are giving me a good list of movies to watch or rewatch! Let's see, some of my faves: Poltergeist, The Shining (or Shinning as they called it on the Simpsons), Scream (eh, it counts, right?), Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, Friday the 13th - the original, the original Carrie, although the latest one wasn't too bad. 

I can't watch zombie movies and I couldn't watch the Saw movies cus that shit was fucked up. I want to watch "No Good Deed" with Taraji P. Henson but it looks too real-life scary. 

Funny story, I was watching "Angels and Demons" with Tom Hanks one day (sequel to The DaVinci Code) and my husband asked me to change it because he doesn't like scary movies with supernatural stuff (like the Paranormal Activity movies). 

[Curious]

I am not sure why, but I didn't find Sinister scary.  Everyone was raving about it, so when I noticed it on one of the movie channels I turned it on.  I missed a bit so kind of only half-ass watched it and thought I don't get it, that wasn't scary.

I figured it was just because I hadn't paid attention so watched it on demand to see the whole thing and really watch it and again was like "eh not scary."   I've probably seen it 30 times now because I like to put on movies I've seen for background noise that I can just look up at and know what's going on and still...not scary.

I do want to see Sinister 2, however.

I liked the Babadook.   It got a lot of rave reviews.   There is another one I watched based on people recommending it as being like the Babadook, but can't think what it was now.  I'll have to look through my netflix watched list and see if I can figure out what is was.

I didn't realize there had been a Poltergeist remake (WHY!  Stop ruining the shows of my childhood).  

I did not handle scary movies very well in my childhood.  In the 6th grade a friend had a birthday party where we went to Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Donald Sutherland version) and that movie freaked me the fuck out.   I did not sleep for like 6 weeks.   My parents were not amused by this behavior and banned scary movies.   

Of course, that just made them more appealing so when a friend decided to have a movie night with Poltergeist as the movie of choice, I naturally lied about what movie we were watching and watched it.   Queue another 6 weeks of not sleeping.    My mom knew IMMEDIATELY I'd lied because suddenly not sleeping and forced me to admit what movie we'd really watched.

Then suddenly when I was about 16-17, I started to really love scary movies and never had problems sleeping after watching them again.   The mind is a weird and wondrous thing