[Closed] Horror Films.

Last horror film that scared the bejesus out of me was The woman in black...

The Fog.

The 70s one with Adrienne Barbeau.

Because Adrienne Barbeau.

I love horror films, they generally fall into two categories, ones that are actually scary which tend to be more psychological than gory, and comedy gore fests.

Actually there's a third which are just gratuitous 'torture porn' for shock value like saw/hostel which I don't particularly like watching.

Brain dead (think that still holds the record for the most fake blood ever used in the finale scene where the protagonist works his way through a very large room full of zombies with a lawnmower) , evil dead 1 and 2 and dawn of the dead are must watches, more comedy, but absolute classics.

I am an utter wuss when it comes to horror films. Woman in Black was way too jumpy and I lasted all of 30 minutes of Insidious before leaving the room. Loved the Halloween films in my teens. Evil Dead 2 and 3 are brilliant, but more like slapstick comedy interspersed with great one liners. Any zombie film too as I just don’t find them scary.

Remember renting Event Horizon one night when I was in by myself. Honestly thought it would be a sci-fi romp. Slept with the lights on for three nights straight.

Last one I watched, and walked out of, was SeVen with Brad Pitt in..

Chuffing hate em’

I have never liked horror films.
I just don't get the attraction of scaring yourself stupid or watching blood and Gore.
Each to their own though.

I can't stand proper horror films-especially anything with creepy kids in-freaks me right out. I prefer the comedy horror-Zombieland & Tucker & Dale are about my level.

Scanners.
Omen.
Poltergeist.
Nightmare on Elm Street.

More recently, quite liked the Saw movies.

Hocus Pocus, obvs

I’d argue The Omen and it’s run of films aren’t Horror, more psychological rather than pure gore for gores sake.

Good thread OP. But unfortunately I don't think I find horror films scary, although I've possibly not watched any decent ones.

The last one I watched was called The Witch. I'd read reviews/word of mouth, but it was absolutely rubbish.

There was two films I watched as a child that were truly terrifying: Texas Chainsaw Massacre and A Fire in the Sky.

I watched one about five years ago called Rec (i think) and that was a bit edgy.

If anyone can recommend some truly scary ones, it'd be appreciated.

davidtaylforth - Member

The last one I watched was called The Witch. I'd read reviews/word of mouth, but it was absolutely rubbish.

You and me....outside....now.

Forgot about Tucker and Dale. That’s a great film. Supernatural and gorenography films are definitely not for me. Don’t mind old school slasher flicks though.

I remember the first time I saw Texas Chsinsaw Massacre and laughing at it. Man with chainsaw chasing you? Just jog a bit until he gets tired or the saw runs out of fuel. Then, whilst leatherface recuperates, go and push that old fella out of his wheelchair and hold him hostage. 70’s movie tennagers were gormless buggers 🙂

[img] [/img]

That'll make sure your Googie Withers.

davidtaylforth - Member

If anyone can recommend some truly scary ones, it'd be appreciated.

Check out Audition. We all have different triggers I guess but that film, while not really a horror, and not really gory is just....indescribable.

The ring - 15 years later I still haven't got over it. I seem to be a bit squeamish - probably why I gave the Gunpowder play a wide berth.

You and me....outside....now.

😳

TBF, I googled something like "reddit scary films" and it came highly recommended so was expecting great things. I just found it really slow going, although the goat was a bit creepy.

davidtaylforth - Member

You and me....outside....now.

TBF, I googled something like "reddit scary films" and it came highly recommended so was expecting great things. I just found it really slow going, although the goat was a bit creepy.

Well that's where it gets interesting. I wouldn't describe it as scary, but certainly creepy. Relentlessly so. I loved it, and I loved the ambiguity of whether it was psychosis or witchcraft, or even whether for people in that time whether there was even a difference.

I loved everything about it apart from the thickness of the lead actor's voice which made it difficult for me to catch all of his dialogue.

The original Japanese versions of The Ring, & Dark Water are good. (Not the Hollywood remakes)

Well that's where it gets interesting. I wouldn't describe it as scary, but certainly creepy. Relentlessly so. I loved it, and I loved the ambiguity of whether it was psychosis or witchcraft, or even whether for people in that time whether there was even a difference.

Yes, probably a "thinking man's" horror film. Unfortunately that's not me, I prefer a film where I can switch off my brain almost completely.

Se7en wasn’t a horror movie.

I used to love them - The Exorcist especially shit me up, but Poltergeist, Omen, and before them, things like Tales of the Unexpected and Hammer House of Horror scared me. For me it was the suspense rather than anything else that got me, not gore.

Not seen a horror film for years actually at the cinema. Went to watch that Annabelle creation. **** me I had a few moments in there. Very well made film.

The best ever..

[img] ?zoom=2&resize=546%2C280[/img]

Too wide a genre I think (more so than most others) to get any kind of concensus.

Modern horror/porn stuff (Saw, etc.) just doesn't interest me so not seen any of them.

Quite like 'classic' body horror (The Thing, The Fly, etc.) but don't generally find them scary beyond the odd 'jump'.

Sucker for 'knowing' or comedy horror - American Werewolf in London, Evil Dead, Shaun of the Dead, Bad Taste, Dog Soldiers (second best B movie of all time), etc.

I'm another one who found Event Horizon a bit disturbing, so I guess psychological horror films come closest to pushing my buttons - the only horror film I remember REALLY bothering me was one that I think is actually quite tame. Went to see The Serpent and The Rainbow at the cinema years ago and it's stuck uncomfortably with me. No idea why.

The Woman in Black is very well constructed and effective but not particularly original.

Another vote for Audition. It's a slow burner but boy does it deliver at the end.

The original Dawn of the Dead and Texas Chainsaw Massacre also.

Se7en wasn’t a horror movie

It was a bit gross :/ Same with Event Horizon, for me.

The only film that's made me feel genuinely uneasy was Ring. Quite like the original Halloween and H2O for a bit of jumpiness, otherwise I share the dislike of others here of the sick/twisted stuff.

By the time I was about 10 or 11 I'd seen all the Nightmare on Elm street films, my dad used to hire them for me from the local video shop 😆

I prefer the more physcological ones though which get your brain imagining things without necessarily seeing it, I've watched all the film's like saw & hostel but think they're just made to shock people with out & out gore rather than being scary.

Then there's the plain weird ones like the human centipede etc 😆

Grew up with Hammer House of Horror and various vampire, mummy, werewolf films on the TV, and a shelf-fulll of Stephen King, James Herbert, Ray Bradbury, Poe and Pan Ghost Story anthologies. Gobbled any supernatural/horror book, series or film I could either buy, borrow or persuade my parents allowed me to watch. My bedside book was 'Horror Films' - a history of horror on the silver screen. By 13yrs I had memorised every film and film and factoid contained therein. Some great B/W stills in that book. Became interested in black and white photography via the 'golden age of cinema'.

Then the home video age kicked in and watched the 'video nasties' and other low budget horror films with friends who constantly looked to find ever gorier and 'sicker' viewing material. A lot of which involved killng and dismembering naked or semi-clothed women with a fair bit of actual animal cruelty IIRC. It all left a bad/sad taste in my mouth at that point. I then sought instead to further satisfy my taste for gothic horror and supernatural/psychological thrillers and so spent more time hunting down books and films of that genre.

I too very much enjoyed 'VVitch' last year, I think it's the first horror DVD I've purchased for over a decade.

Films in my small collection from the past are few, and that probably says most about what I tend to like

Cat People (1942)
The Tenant
Repulsion
Dance Of The Vampires (charming horror/comedy)
Whistle And Ill Come To You (1968 - Jonathan Miller)
The Haunting (Robert Wise)
Psycho
The Birds
The Eye (Nakata)
Dark Water (Nakata)
The Signalman
The Woman In Black (1998)
The Descent
The Others
The Innocents
Misery
30 Days Of Night
Deliverance

I prefer the more physcological ones though which get your brain imagining things without necessarily seeing it

While not a horror film in the usual sense, the implication of rape and psychological terror of the original Cape Fear was quite disturbing for me.

*error - by 19 yrs I had memorised every film and factoid therein!

Just goes to show how flawed my memory is, could have sworn I had that book in my early teens but Google says it was published in 1986. I wonder did anyone else here 'of a certain age' have the same book?

if in the mood I also enjoy really cheesy horror romps such as Final Destination, Anaconda, Lake Placid, The Hills Have Eyes, etc.

[img] [/img]

Argh the shutter just blew in the wind and clacked against the window frame. Near shat me'sen thinking about this little film:

The Hills Have Eyes,

Is that the one with the cannibals in the desert? If so, all I recall is that the dog was an utter bad arse and had the highest body count 🙂

I like films that spark a severe reaction, either laugh, cry or shit my pants!! So I do enjoy horror. There are not many I find genuinely scary tho, I saw the IT recently, I loved it but the scares just make me giggle.

The last film to really creep me out tho was Get Out!!
It Follows and Dont Breath were two more recent favourites...

The Shining - perfectly sustained atmosphere of pure dread.

Ring - can't forget Mark Kermode's apt description of Sadako's first appearance: "Sheer balletic awfulness".

The Orphanage - Spanish movie. Like all proper ghost stories, it's horribly sad. Has a real emotional core.

Best I've seen recently is It Follows - Underplayed, not over-explained and genuinely unsettling.

[img] [/img]

The original Saw is a really good film IMO. Thereafter it just became a race to the bottom of torture porn and they’re increasingly dire.

I found “Shrooms” quite scary actually, although it’s a terrible film, I quite like it!

I had my foray into extreme cinema at uni, with Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Driller Killer etc., but these days I prefer proper ghost stories: the Japanese films (the Ring, The Grudge etc) are terrifying, and their more recent remakes are pretty good as well.

I agree the original Saw, before it became an exploitation series, was actually very good. More recent ones I thought were decent are Sinister and Insidious. However, the best of the more recent ones are the first 2 Paranormal Activity films, IMO.

Although not strictly horror, I'd also give Guillermo del Toro's films a look: the Devil's Backbone is a particularly affecting one. I would also suggest Pans Labyrinth borders on the horror genre.

Personally, despite my great affection for them, the likes of Seven and Alien don't class as horror, for me: I think true horror should contain an element of the supernatural. If it doesn't, it's a dark thriller. By that mark, the likes of Halloween barely scrape into being horror with the faint suggestion that Michael has a supernatural element and cannot be killed.

Similarly, Cape Fear (the remake) only starts becoming horror towards the end when he almost seems indestructible.

Although not strictly horror, I'd also give Guillermo del Toro's films a look: the Devil's Backbone is a particularly affecting one. I would also suggest Pans Labyrinth borders on the horror genre.

See also: The Strain - Vampire themed TV series by Guillermo del Toro which is way more fun and entertaining than I thought it was going to be.

I'm another one who found Event Horizon a bit disturbing, so I guess psychological horror films come closest to pushing my buttons - the only horror film I remember REALLY bothering me was one that I think is actually quite tame. Went to see The Serpent and The Rainbow at the cinema years ago and it's stuck uncomfortably with me. No idea why.

Agree with this above completely.

serpent and the rainbow is just an absolutely awesome movie...

Event Horizon is mind bendingly freaky.

LAst for me on my top 3 is the Devil Rides Out.... Love that !

^mikey74 that touched upon somethign I was mulling over last night. The definition of 'Horror' (as a film-genre) has certainly narrowed in the last 30 years (going by my aforementioned Horror Encyclopedia)

+1 for The Ring, its the first film I remember using that fast/slow motion effect thing...

+1 for Event Horizon. Now that is a horror in space.

Ooooo and how could I forget, one of my favourite films: The Masque of the Red Death. Vincent Price at his best.

Not into horror films at all..
I saw the Exorcist as a 16 year old in Newcastle with two different girlfriends which at the time was the ultimate in horror / scary movies ..why the hell I went back a second time is beyond me as I was scared shitless the first time ..

Yes, there can't be a horror film thread without mention of The Exorcist. I'd also throw The Exorcist III out there as well, albeit not as good as the first one.

I've always avoided the genre like the plague because I thought horror films were (1) fairly rubbish and (2) stressful.

My partner watches them constantly. I think I'm right, but she only gives whatever she's watching a fraction of her attention so she doesn't notice. 🙂