Myself & Daughter has been on a bit of a Horror fest lately.
But frankly I'm a bit underwhelmed.?
We watched the Shining the other night - was it even scary in the 80's?
Poltergeist - remember being freaked out by it when I was younger, but again meh...
The Exorcist - again, might have been pant wettingly scary in the 70's but not now.
The Omen - only thing that scared me was the big dog.....
Newer films like the Conjuring, Children of the Corn, Jeepers Creepers and Wrong Turn are OK, but still not "OMG I can't go to sleep without the lights on for 3 weeks...."
Are there any decent horror films?
what type of horror films are you into as there are a lot of different types of horror (psychological, extreme torture type films like martyrs (not for me tbh those), supernatural, lovecraftian, demonic etc.)
some good ones (in my opinion) maybe not terrifying but definitely kept me interested in watching them.
the hitcher (1986 rutger hauer original).
terrifier 1,2 (there's a third one but not seen that yet)
the void
malignant
hereditary
the thing (john carpenter classic remake)
glorious
henry portrait of a serial killer
no doubt others will recommend you films i haven't seen.
The original "The hills have eyes"
The last scene of the original Carrie, if you haven't seen it? The ending of the Donald Sutherland version of Invasion of the Bodysnatchers? They both shat me up at the time.
I watched Talk to Me recently and had actual nightmares for the first time in years.
It's not a regular horror in a 'sexy teenagers being butchered one at a time' way. It just gave me a lot to think about and obviously my brain kept going while I was asleep.
It's What's Inside was good as well. Not scary but an original premise and deliberately confusing as hell.
The eponymous Scary Movie.
YouTube has some pretty good scary films, more the suspense types.
This short film gives you a flavour of the kind of stuff
Event horizon was goong to be my suggestion.
Surely its a problem with the genre you can only really watch it once and find it scary.
+1 more for Event Horizon.
Not necessarily scary, but proper unsettling.
How do you feel about video games? I've been more horror-ified by games than films in recent years.
The demo for Resident Evil Biohazard properly gave me the willies. Some people play that game on VR. ****, and indeed, that.
what type of horror films are you into as there are a lot of different types of horror
Also, this.
The scary part of the Shining was when Jack was talking away, and Lloyd the bartender appeared.
The Willem Dafoe movie ‘Antichrist’ will make you wince. Guaranteed!
Bring Her Back and Longlegs are the most disturbing films I've seen lately.. proper freaked me out. Others feel different course. Each to their own . Not sure if I'd watch either with my daughter (if I had one)
Event Horizon
Autopsy of Jane Doe
Bone Tomahawk (western turns into horror with one really unsettling scene)
Rec (Spanish version)
Hereditary
Mandy (not scary as such, just makes you think wtf am I watching)
The Thing
Audition (Japanese horror. Last 30 minutes are intense)
The Taking of Deborah Logan
The Void
The Blair Witch Project scared the living bejesus out of me when I watched it at the pictures at the time
I talked my partner into seeing Event Horizon at the cinema on the basis that it was a sci-fi. It is still used as an example of my bad judgement now.
I went to watch Mad Max 1 with a girlfriend, she found it disturbing. 30 or so years later I watched it with Madame - same reaction.
I talked my partner into seeing Event Horizon at the cinema on the basis that it was a sci-fi.
Ditto, kinda. Two friends and I went to the multiplex cinema in Stockport with no plans as to what to watch other than 'a film', saw the poster with a space ship on it and thought "yeah, that'll do".
We each left sporting a thousand yard stare.
Thanks all - had forgotten Event Horizon, yeah that's disturbing!
Brilliant film though.
Might have to watch that again.
Have seen both versions of Carrie.
Depends what scares you.
As a kid I was given a book* about "unexplained animals", there happened to be a report of one just up the road from where I lived and so that freaked me out. The story was of a sort of mothlike man... Fast forward 12 years or so and I rented The Mothman Prophecies and watched it alone in the house as an 18 year old.
The hairs on my neck stood up so much my hairline changed to gibbon.
It's rated 12 IIRC
* https://archive.org/details/creaturesfromels0000unse
Try “It Follows”.
Cube (and sequels)
Hellraiser
The Platform - it's not quite horror but it will give your mind a little shake. Watch in Spanish with subtitles not the dubbed version.
Not seen Hellraiser for years - Will rewatch that too.
Rec 2
Hereditary
The Witch
Cube (and sequels)
Whilst not really horror, Cube is phenomenal.
I can't say as I'd recommend any of the sequels though, unless you've watched one I haven't.
I remember watching Ringu with a friend in my parent’s basement in my mid-twenties. We had to watch City Slickers 2 twice before we could remember how to talk properly again.
The Exorcist - again, might have been pant wettingly scary in the 70's but not now.
I skipped a maths lecture to go and see it when it came out. It was far less scary than the maths lecture would have been.
+1 for It Follows: some real uncanny, unsettling scares. Some good underplayed performances too.
The Smile movies have a very similar concept, but are waaaay more schlocky. Still good, trashy fun, I thought.
Not a strict horror, but check out The Survivalist. Post apocalypse thriller, set against a surprisingly lush backdrop: nature has come back in a big way following societal collapse. Starvation Vs cannibalism, body horror, gangs of marauders - it's also just a really tight, tense little movie, again with some great performances.
Honestly though, I think the scariest thing I've seen in the last few years might be the opening sequence from Nocturnal Animals. Genuinely nightmarish.
Annihilation was very unsettling.
Bonus recommendation: The Orphanage. A great ghost story with a genuine emotional punch.
Also rewatched Threads recently and it still holds up really well. Fittingly enough, the doomsday scenario in that one begins with US involvement in a war with Iran.
Event Horizon is on Prime at the moment in 4K
The last film I saw that I found frightening was Free Solo, not horror but the jeopardy was real.
Before that The Blair Witch Project left an impression long after the film had finished but heck that was nearly 30 years ago.
I think once you've been exposed to scary concepts in films and TV they don't have same impact again, but it was fun introducing a few to my kids though my son wouldn't watch anything with a supernatural theme. He couldn't watch Stranger Things as a teenager which my daughter loved, you realise actually how scary something contemporary like that would have appeared in the 80s and 90s when there was nothing else like it.
Neil Marshall's The Descent was a pretty creepy experience.
Hereditary and Lost Highway also stick with me as genuinely spooky too.
There's was also something proper terrifying about the first Texas Chainsaw Massacre - at the time but we've become too sophisticated for these sort old films.
I don't think being made to jump is scary. It's all in the suspense.
The Blair Witch Project scared the living bejesus out of me when I watched it at the pictures at the time
Yes I've got to admit despite its massive hype and el-cheapo 8mm video - it worked very well on the imagination stakes. The woods is the scariest thing in the world at night
Cinema for me too. Made a big difference.
A sideways shout for Cronenberg's Videodrome. Proper under your skin tech-body horror - ahead of its time.
