My top 5:
- Alien
- The Shining
- The Thing
- Evil Dead 2
- Hereditary
Movies that actually left me feeling unnerved:
The Witch
Bone Tomahawk
The Babadook
XTRO
The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
Top “fun” or interesting but not haunting horror movies:
Alien
The Thing
Friday The 13th Part 6
Evil Dead 2
House (1985)
(A lot of runner ups in the fun category, including basically all of the Jeffery Combs catalog, but I’m not even sure those can be considered “horror” instead of comedy with horror trappings. Similar to Dead Heat and the like.)
The Witch and Bone Tomahawk are absolute classics. now I guess I’ll have to watch your other recommendations
I had to look up House, I was only familiar with the Japanese one. I’ll check it out.
House and House II are classics, nice to see a human with some taste
I don’t like horror movies but Shawn of the Dead is brilliant.
Try Tucker and Dale Vs Evil. It’s a similar kind of horror comedy.
- Nosferatu (1922)
- Cat People (1942)
- Alien (1979)
- Under The Skin (2014)
- It Follows (2014)
Under the Skin is great.
Good ass list. Cat People rocks.
The only valid list as it includes It Follows.
I’m biased toward stuff I’ve watched recently (and more than 5)
- hereditary
- evil Dead rise (2023)
- Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum
- midsommar
- talk to me
- rec (the Spanish one)
- the orphanage
- Veronica
Talk to me was fantastic! Been a good while since I felt so unnerved from watching a horror film.
- Event Horizon
- In the Mouth of Madness
- The Thing
- Dead Alive
- Evil Dead
This is a great list. I’d only replace dead alive with the void.
I like the concept of Event Horizon but not the execution, a remake could be interesting.
Yeah it’s gotten a lot of praise lately and I found the movie a bit drab and jarring. I might need to re-watch it
You gotta love a sci-fi horror movie where the spinning tunnel of evil blades has handrails.
You have excellent taste.
Off the top of my head:
- Exorcist
- The Thing
- Blair Witch Project
- Hereditary
- Event Horizon
Solid list. I would probably take off Hereditary, since I haven’t seen it… I’d sub in Hellraiser.
The Shining never really hit me as “horror”. Maybe “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”?
The Shining is certainly a flavor of horror. I think part of the problem of trying to make a list where the only criteria is horror sweeps up such a broad array of movies. Like Hostel, From Beyond, Alien, and Silence of the Lambs are all equally in the same bucket, which doesn’t seem right.
There are a lot of way to sort the distinctions, but The Shining is deserving of a slot somewhere in the realm of supernatural horror. It relies on creepy atmosphere and a descent into isolation with audience along with the characters, more than blood splattering, or some kind existential question to shake the audience. It is, at its core, a haunted house movie.
Exactly, no other movie evokes that feeling of dread and doom quite like it. It does a lot with very little.
I’m also surprised you’re the first person to mention From Beyond, the ick factor of that movie is off the charts and I love the campy acting.
I have a hard time categorizing Stuart Gordon movies as horror (I suppose technically that’s where they end up). They have horror trappings, but everything is so theatrical that it doesn’t really scan as scary. It’s not a failing either but more like the intentional tone.
The closet modern analog would be maybe Slither? It’s incredibly gross and has concepts that would be horrific to experience, but I’m so removed as an audience member that it’s really just more fun being grossed out.
Invasion of the body snatcher is the movie i watched when i was like 8 at a friends house. After that i had to walk home by myself at night. I never ran that fast home and never felt that scared, in kind of a good way. I never felt like that again and i’m not super into horror movies anyway, but that must be what junkies talk about when they say they chase that first “high” except for horror movies. A few years ago i discovered the band wolfie’s just fine, and their song reminded me a lot of that experience. https://youtu.be/qG8iAtpavK4?si=7bIu109xXBdY68aG
I caught the original b&w version when I was about the same age, spent a month checking under the bed for pods. I feel you!
I think it’s a generational thing too… there have been so many versions of that story it can hit everyone:
The original was 1956. Then the remake in 1978. “Body Snatchers” in 1993 which is creepy as hell, and apparently “The Invasion” in 2007 which I somehow missed.
1956 trailer - https://youtu.be/pNJB363yql8
1978 - https://youtu.be/vc_0dlmSq7I
1993 - https://youtu.be/sR8pqAB788U
2007 - https://youtu.be/-TrCrxKimoY
- The Thing
- Alien
- Braindead / Dead Alive
- Possession (1981)
- The Wolf House
This was so hard to narrow down
In no particular order, ill go with these:
-
Wes Cravens New Nightmare
-
Evil Dead (2013)
-
The Shining
-
Halloween (1978)
-
Poltergeist
Upvote for New Nightmare. Nice pick.
I love the Freddy movies, but New Nightmare is the only one the made me scared even AFTER watching them.
To this day.
And ill still rewatch it because its so amazing.
My only complaint is that it indulges in some of the old Freddy cartoonish weirdness (the big fake Freddy head and long tongue) but otherwise it’s just such a mature evolution of the whole franchise. It’s really one of my favorite trashy slashers.
-
- Evil Dead
- The Exorcist
- Dawn of the Dead
- Halloween
- REC 1/2
The Wicker Man is at the very top for me, I never seek out horror films as any sort of fan of the genre, and this one transcends it.
So does Evil Dead 2. As well as The Shining.
So that’s three. Alien also belongs up there. Four down, one to go…I’ll round it out with The Exorcist. And you know why that film was so shocking for the time? Because it wasn’t filmed as a horror film, but as a family drama. That dry context is what made it feel so immediate for seventies audiences, and it’s still effective today, as it’s not a conceit nor gimmick, it’s an artistic statement of intent.
-
- Rosemary’s Baby
-
- Cure
-
- The Other (1972)
-
- Talk to me
-
- The wiker man
Also in random order: Rec, The Others, The Visit, Repulsion, 28 days later
-
No order:
Poltergeist Alien Hereditary Dale and Tucker The Witch
Extras: Sunshine, Event Horizon, Evil Dead (the reboot), Longlegs
- Silence of the Lambs
- Nope
- Aliens (the second one)
- Videodrome
Twilight Zone (1983)Prince of Darkness
Honorable Mention: Threads (1984) not technically a horror film but pretty horrific.
The Fly (1986) X 28 Days Later Hereditary The Silence of the Lambs
Not specifically in that order, but those are some of my favorites as of late. The list changes from time to time.
