Social Question

nerdgirl578's avatar

What's your favorite horror movie?

Asked by nerdgirl578 (1453points) July 14th, 2019

I have a thing for horror movies… Although there aren’t that many I find really great. So what are your favorites? Maybe I’ll discover some new ones :)

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87 Answers

flutherother's avatar

The Shining is hard to beat.

ucme's avatar

Now that’s a tricky one, me & my daughter love horror movies.
So many to choose from makes it pretty much impossible so i’m going to have leave a shortlist.

The Shining
Psycho
28 Days Later
Mirrors
Let Me In
Saw
Sinister
Us
Get Out
Conjuring 1 & 2
Insidious (all 4)

nerdgirl578's avatar

@flutherother I like that one, and I know it’s a classic, but I actually prefer Stephen King’s own version (the mini series I mean).

nerdgirl578's avatar

@ucme Thanks! I really wanted to see Us, but I went to the remake of Pet Semetary instead for some reason… Didn’t like that one. The Conjuring 1 and 2 I’ve also wanted to see for a long time but it hasn’t happened yet. Psycho is a classic that holds up, Saw isn’t my bag at all though…

kritiper's avatar

Young Frankenstein.

ARE_you_kidding_me's avatar

Dawn of the dead

nerdgirl578's avatar

@ARE_you_kidding_me Dawn of the Dead is a great one, although I don’t find it that scary. I like Night of the Living Dead too, and as horror movies go also the remake of Dawn of the Dead.

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

Army of Darkness.

rebbel's avatar

I’m not a fan of the genre, at all.
The last real horror movie I saw must have been Poltergeist, or Evil Dead.
But one that is horror, but also funny, to me at least, and that I watched some years ago, on TV, was Black Sheep.
It’s about genetically altered sheep, that attack humans.
Trailer

nerdgirl578's avatar

@RedDeerGuy1 I prefer the first Evil Dead…

ragingloli's avatar

The Thing.

ragingloli's avatar

there is only one

nerdgirl578's avatar

@ragingloli Well there are three that I’m aware of, I assume you mean the one from 1951 then?

ragingloli's avatar

Of course not. I mean Carpenter’s.

Yellowdog's avatar

Frosty the Snowman is pretty scary, too. A snowman comes to life when a group of kids obtains an evil magician’s hat (Kinda like something in a Stephen King novel) and the snowman coerces a little girl named Karen to board a dark, sinister boxcar to her icy death at the North Pole.

The evil magician tries to save the day by shutting them up in a warm, well-lit greenhouse. Santa Claus takes the girl back home and leaves her stranded on the roof of her house, where she presumably freezes to death before morning.

nerdgirl578's avatar

@Yellowdog I’m not sure that’s how the story went…

Stache's avatar

This is my favorite genre. I could make a huge list but I’ll just stick with the two most recent films that I enjoyed. Get Out and Hereditary. Hereditary is the best scary movie I’ve seen in years. It’s more of a thriller than horror but there are some gruesome scenes in this film and it’s definitely scary.

nerdgirl578's avatar

@Stache Thanks, I’ll check them out!

mazingerz88's avatar

Just got out of the theater after watching Crawl. Great cheap thrills and scares. Cheap but GREAT! :)

The Exorcist
Rosemarie’s Baby
Fright Night 1 and 2
Salem’s Lot
The Howling
American Werewolf in London

I’m currently waiting for another adaptation of Stoker’s Dracula.

nerdgirl578's avatar

Ah, I really like Rosemary’s Baby, even though I find the ending a bit silly and underwhelming. With Salem’s Lot I only read the book, which I liked. The Exocist is a classic of course, that girl is seriously creepy!

SQUEEKY2's avatar

The Republican party, horribly scary it’s said their leaders hair glows orange in the night and he feeds the poor to hungry wolves for entertainment.

nerdgirl578's avatar

@SQUEEKY2 Sorry but that’s not a movie (yet).

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

Toy Story 3 is scary. When they are about to be incinerated.
The stuff and the blob are scary

Call_Me_Jay's avatar

For the most part, I can’t watch horror movies.

Alien is horror movie? And Aliens? I loved those.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – I thought it was about Buddhism or somesuch when we rented it but I really liked it anyway.

Get Out – I’ve seen it three times, once in the theater and twice at home.

nerdgirl578's avatar

@Call_Me_Jay As far as Im concerned Alien is a horror movie, Aliens is more action (still an ok movie though). You’re the third person to recommend Get Out, I guess I really should check that one out!

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

An inconvenient sequel is scary too. About global warming.

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

My favorite horror movie is Freddy vs. Jason. Not scary but I still liked it.

gorillapaws's avatar

What Lies Beneath was great with Ford and Pfeiffer. Also, I didn’t see anyone mention Tremors.

nerdgirl578's avatar

@gorillapaws Yes! That’s a great one. For some reason it reminds me of In the Mouth of Madness with Sam Neil which is also really good.

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

Aliens vs. Predator is good too.

nerdgirl578's avatar

@RedDeerGuy1 Ha, I watched all of the Jason movies and none are really good but some are at least funny. :) Like Jason Goes to Hell

Yellowdog's avatar

@nerdgirl578 Technically my description of Frosty the Snowman is correct. But there are some more positive elements, too.

nerdgirl578's avatar

@Yellowdog Lol, your interpretation is a bit on the pessimistic side though

KNOWITALL's avatar

Carrie
Christine
Birds
Hostel
Poltergeist
Cujo
Misery
The Beach w dicaprio
Predator vs alien was really good

nerdgirl578's avatar

@KNOWITALL I agree with Birds and Misery (It’s also one of King’s books I didn’t read)! Alien vs Predator, not my thing and Hostel… It’s even worse than Saw! I don’t get it, it’s not scary per say but I can’t stomach watching somewhat realistic torture scenes like that :)

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

@nerdgirl578 I have never saw Saw. Not my thing either.

nerdgirl578's avatar

@RedDeerGuy1 You never saw Saw? Well I saw Saw, but I wish I never saw Saw. (Sorry, couldn’t help it :))

jca2's avatar

I think my favorite one of all was The Shining. I just loved how the story came together with the past and the present, and to me it was so creepy.

When I was a teen, I loved Friday the 13th but then the sequels got stupid.

I remember one called Terror Train, which, at the time, was really scary.

I was too young to see Carrie when it came out, but so many people had said it was so scary. When I finally saw it, when I was in my 40’s, I thought it was so lame and tame. I guess at the time it came out, in the mid 70’s, that was scary.

I loved Stephen King’s books, but most of them I didn’t like on screen. I saw the remake of Pet Sematery, and I thought it was stupid. It had potential in the beginning, but just got so dumb, in my opinion.

nerdgirl578's avatar

@jca2 I already adressed my feelings toward The Shining and Jason movies in other answers and also the remake of Pet Semetary. When it comes to Stephen King though, I read most of the books and the movies have rarely been good enough. The remake of Pet Semetary was pretty horrible, but I didn’t really like the first one either. The book is great though. I do like The Stand though, it’s easier to do a book justice when you have almost six hours to do it I guess :)

filmfann's avatar

Alien & Aliens.
Psycho
Carpenter’s The Thing
The Birds

Zaku's avatar

My favorite horror films are horror-comedies:

The Ladykillers (1955)
Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010)
Young Frankenstein (1974)

But my favorite non-comedy horror films are:

Jaws (1975)
Aliens (1986)
Alien (1979)
The Terminator (1984)

I’d also mention:

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Let the Right One In (2008)

I may be forgetting quite a few good ones – I’ve seen far too many and certainly don’t remember them all.

Oh, and since Alien Versus Predator got positive mention, I feel compelled to mention that I thought it was awful, and the last Predator franchise film I gave a chance. I almost listed the original Predator as one of my favorite or honorable mention horror films, but I also class it as a campy action flick.

For what Predator is, I’d rate them like:
Predator :8/10
Predator 2 : 3/10
Alien Versus Predator : 1/10

I recently did watch just the Unbridled Rage review of The Predator reboot , though, and that one is clearly off-the-charts terrible. But that review was hilarious to watch.

seawulf575's avatar

I liked The Conjuring, both of them
I also like The Hitcher 1986. Lots of psychological horror, very little actual gore shown
Poltergeist 1 & 2
Jaws
The Ring

rockfan's avatar

I still don’t understand why people like The Shining so much. Personally, I think the acting is abysmal. And the direction/cinematography is rather insufferable.

Although it’s not a pure horror movie, I prefer Misery way more.

rockfan's avatar

I also love The Witch and The Babadook, both are recent horror films

nerdgirl578's avatar

@seawulf575 I’m actually surprised you’re the first to mention The Ring. I also like The Grudge, both the original and the american version.

flutherother's avatar

I should have mentioned “The Ring”, the Japanese version of course and Whistle and I’ll Come to You still the scariest thing ever to be broadcast on television.

Zaku's avatar

@rockfan I think The Shining is very well done in many ways. I don’t know what you mean about the acting being abysmal, or the direction/cinematography being insufferable. I’d tend to give it high scores in all those areas, though it’s not really a favorite of mine. It is rather long, with a protracted development, but I think that’s its chosen style and I appreciate that.

I agree Misery is very good, but I think of it as a “psychological thriller” film rather than a horror film.

KNOWITALL's avatar

@Zaku That’s how I feel about Saw, too.

nerdgirl578's avatar

@Zaku Personally I like the original The Shining movie but I don’t particularly care for the female lead, she’s too hysterical imo. I also think Jack Nicholson comes off as too crazy too soon. That’s some of the reasons I prefer King’s mini series.

Misery is one of the best movie adaptations of his work I think.

Dutchess_lll's avatar

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane.

Yellowdog's avatar

The entire family in The Shining are kinda like people you meet at a laundry mat.

Yellowdog's avatar

Even some annoying kid going around moving his finger and saying, “Red rum! red rum!”

rockfan's avatar

@Zaku

The acting by Shelley Duvall to me is the worst in the film

seawulf575's avatar

The mini-series of The Shining with Rebecca DeMornay and Steven Webber was WAY better than the Nicholson movie. It followed the book so much better.

nerdgirl578's avatar

@seawulf575 I thought I was alone in thinking this!

seawulf575's avatar

@nerdgirl578 I guess I could change my moniker to nerdguy575. I think even Stephen King liked it better! I read many books before they became movies; Carrie, Firestarter, The Shining, The Borne series, Silence of the Lambs, etc. I get really disappointed when the movie keeps the name of the story and that is about it. The Shining was like that. Everyone raves about how good it was and I thought it was bad. When I saw the mini-series I said “Wow! they actually kept the story line!”

ucme's avatar

Bates Motel was better than Psycho…there, I said it.

nerdgirl578's avatar

@seawulf575 In the cases where I read the books of Stephen King I generally liked the books better than the movies. And that’s almost all the cases actually, Misery would be the only exception, I like that one.

And yeah, I saw an interview with King where he said he didn’t like Kubrick’s movie and saying people would already assume Nicholson’s character would be insane because of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest which was aired the year before or something. I hadn’t seen it yet when I saw the original The Shining but that’s still what I thought.

nerdgirl578's avatar

@ucme Really? I only saw like two episodes of that and missed the rest.

ucme's avatar

Yes, really.
Just my opinion, of course, being me…it’s the correct one ;-}

nerdgirl578's avatar

Well, on a related topic (off topic here) I really enjoyed The Sarah Connor Chronicles. They were way better than any movie post T2, too bad it was canceled…

ucme's avatar

Never caught that, but on a similar related note, I loved 11/22/63.
Okay, not a horror although there is some gore in there, Frank & his axe.

nerdgirl578's avatar

Thanks, never saw that. I do seem to have a thing about old TV shows that never really made it though. I also was recommended and enjoyed a series called 666 park avenue, it was cancelled as well unfortunately.

Darth_Algar's avatar

@ucme

You are not wrong about Bates Motel.

@nerdgirl578

It gets better as the series progresses.

nerdgirl578's avatar

@Darth_Algar Which series are you talking about?

Darth_Algar's avatar

I only mentioned one series in that post, so…

nerdgirl578's avatar

@Darth_Algar Fine, sorry, that was directed at someone else and I mentioned a couple of other ones before which is why I wasn’t sure

filmfann's avatar

I didn’t mention two of my favorites:
Cloverfield
The Blair Witch Project

ragingloli's avatar

I hated Cloverfield. One of the worst movies ever made.

Dutchess_lll's avatar

I have an acquaintances who swears Blair Witch is an actual, true documentary. She can’t grasp that the producers deliberate chose that format.

nerdgirl578's avatar

@filmfann Blair Witch also reminds me of Paranormal Activity which I really liked.

Dutchess_lll's avatar

There was another documentary style fictional show about some evil force taking over LA. We happened to be at her and her husband house when it was on. She was utterly beside herself.
“This isn’t possible!! This is unbelievable!”
“Yeah, it’s pretty hard to believe, isn’t it.”
The sarcasm went right over her head. I escaped the house and went and hid in the barn.

ragingloli's avatar

You should play this on her TV.

Zaku's avatar

On the subject of horror movie sequels & King, I was fairly annoyed at the hype promoting “Stephen King’s” Kingdom Hospital, having already watched and enjoyed Lars von Trier’s very bizarre, opaque, quirky (to me, hilarious) and individual TV miniseries The Kingdom or Riget.

The hype/advertising and titling made it seem like it was King’s invention, when it’s based on that (more interesting to me) original.

nerdgirl578's avatar

@Zaku I agree it was kind of a weird thing to do for King. I haven’t seen the original series and only a few episodes of Kingdom Hospital, but from what I saw I liked it for what it was. At some point I’ll check out both of the series in their entirety.

Dutchess_lll's avatar

Some times I wonder what.it must be liken in King’s head.

Yellowdog's avatar

I guess I’d have to say, after much contemplation, that the 1979 Salem’s Lot movie would be my favorite.

Much scarier would be , The Ring, The Conjuring, and Insidious. The Ring is particularly an artsy film—with nods to Alfred Hitchcock. And a lot of 1978 overtones.

The Conjuring and Insidious are what could have been done with a good Amityville Horror film if anyone had sense enough to produce one Plenty similar to the nightmarish and creepy places I’ve been familiar with.

But Salem’s Lot is a lot more watchable, and more of a story and plot going on. And people who are a little sensitive to horror will not find this one as dark and diabolical, even though it is.

nerdgirl578's avatar

@Yellowdog Are you talking about the remake or the original The Ring?

Yellowdog's avatar

Seems like it came out around 2002.

There was the Japanese version originally. Then the American version. Not the kind of film that makes sense that it would be creepy when describing it to someone.

nerdgirl578's avatar

Oh I’ve seen both, I just wanted to know which one you were talking about :)

jca2's avatar

Haven’t seen the first one, but this was just linked from a local radio station on FB:

New Trailer for “It.” I haven’t looked at the trailer yet.

https://i95rock.com/the-it-chapter-two-trailer-concludes-the-scariest-horror-series-in-years/?fbclid=IwAR11XSkQoSdA8s3gaIdbnz_BetQzJawV3I4RRHei3r4e9bqJ0YWgmLXuHfQ

nerdgirl578's avatar

Oh, I saw the first one. It was ok I thought, maybe with all the hype I found it a bit overrated though. I also wasn’t aware at the time it would be two movies, I only found out towards the end when I realized there’s no way they have time left to finish the story :)

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