What's your Favorite Scary Movie?

Hellraiser

The Exorcist

Session 9

The Beyond

Seven

Saw

Carnival of Souls
...and the Roger Corman/Vincent Price collaborations from the '60's are pretty cool, too.

In the "not really scary but gory favorites" category:

anything by Herschell Gordon Lewis
The Guinea Pig Series

sorry, is this too many? I love horror films!

The Exorcist

Jaws

Alien

Se7en (although I wasn't scared -- more like disturbed)

Dawn of the Dead

Tell you on Saturday. Sister's just got it out.

sthrnwriter said:

I think Seven was a bit disturbing to watch though Saw wasn't all that pleasant either in some parts (especially towards the end).

I've thought about buying White Noise on DVD. Is it any good?

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Watch it before you buy it. I was really, really dissapointed.

BlueTexas said:

Watch it before you buy it. I was really, really dissapointed.

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I second that. But I'd add a couple more reallys in there. Another tragic case of Hollywood taking an intriguing premise and turning it into an insulting, overblown load of crap.

Wow. Guess I'm out voted here, but I liked White Noise. With so many other horror movies disappointing this year, I enjoyed it. Try on House of Wax for size, for example. Although I didn't expect much. I mean, hello...Paris Hilton. So maybe that's the trick. If you just don't expect much, most of them end up at at least "ok". I also liked the Amittyville remake. Probably alone there too, but I was born in 75 so the original was just lame for me. I love Halloween and the Nightmare on Elm Streets. Whatever you do don't go see Alone in the Dark. Is that what it's called? The one where Tara Reid is an archeoligist. Yeah..... I rest my case. I don't know an exact favorite. I like a lot of different ones for different reasons.

sthrnwriter said:

I've thought about buying White Noise on DVD. Is it any good?

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Not for me. I don't think. It belongs to the snoozefest with the Grudge and The Ring Two.

Jacob's Ladder, hands down. Scary without being too gory (personal preference), great performances by a whole bunch of actors who were just starting out. Plus, it came out long before its twist became cliche.

There's a horror movie starring Paris Hilton? Please tell me she gets killed early on. Please, please, please.

I thought at least the horror genre was safe from evils like that....

I always thought the exorcist was scary, because I watched it when I was 16, and had nightmares of Regan sitting in my room - spewing pea soup at me.


So I avoided watching it for many, many years - and in fact, just watched it a few months ago.


The funny thing is ......it's not as scary anymore. In fact, its quite funny now.


I can't think of any good scary movies anymore.

(Something by Mel Gibson.....?).

I wasn't scared by Exorcist, but found it mildly affecting in a thought-provoking sort of way the first time I saw it. The second time, it disturbed the hell out of me because at that time my daughter was a dead ringer for Regan. Needless to say, that was the last time I watched it.

Ridiculously enough, the only horror film that actually frightens me is An American Werewolf In London. I have no idea why.

There are a few acts or scenes that stick with me - the chase through the studio in Mute Witness; the peeking aliens in Communion; the parts of The Grudge that weren't boring. And especially Bob in Twin Peaks. He scared the crap out of me.

The one thing I can't watch, though, is the single shot in The Shining of the butler and the bear. For some reason that just freaks me out beyond the realms of human comprehension...

The Lost Weekend (1945), with Ray Milland. He plays a chronic, tortured alcoholic writer. (Oooo - I never thought about that coincidence.)

I saw it one Sunday when I was about 7 or 8 and my parents weren't paying attention to me. There's a scene where a rat or bat or whatever chews through the wall. It scared the living daylights out of me. I couldn't sleep without nightmares for a really long time, or fall asleep.

Finally, I decided to pretend that Casper the Friendly ghost lived in my room and would keep me safe if I talked to him before I went to bed, and keep that movie from playing in my mind.

When that stopped working, I decided my feet were Underdog and Sweet Polly and I would talk to them.

I needed a lot of imaginery protectors when I was a kid. Johnny Quest and Hadji, his best friend, also helped out. (I forced my parents to set a place for them at the table.)

All because of The Lost Weekend.

BlueTexas said:

There's a horror movie starring Paris Hilton? Please tell me she gets killed early on. Please, please, please.

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That would have been a romantic comedy.

No, they let her live! Now that's true horror.

What about the Sixth Sense? I thought it was pretty interesting. Gotta love the part where he is in the tent and turns to see that girl behind him vomitting. That was gross and a little spooky at the same time.

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In my minds eye, everytime I look up at a stairwell, I see people hanging.

Rhush said:

Wow. Guess I'm out voted here, but I liked White Noise.

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I liked it too.

...

You need to stop that! We both seem to be surfing the save brain waves here!


I just watched Saw the other night. Quite frankly, I fail to see why people were saying such terrible things about it. No, it wasn't -great- cinema, but it certainly wasn't hor-- er that bad. It had a very interesting premise, and a rather creepy ending that wasn't expected, but appropriate.

Alot of people complained about Cary Elwes acting being wooden. Um...Hello? His -character- is wooden! He plays a successful surgeon whose (who's? I always get those mixed up) lost his passion. For life, for his family...hell, even in a flashback, he didn't even have any real passion for the women he was having an affair with. But as the story unfolded, you could see this guy's veneer cracking, and see him fall apart. He was losing his cold, calucalted logic, and was starting to -feel-. Fear, regret, guilt. No Oscar-winning performance, no...but it was quite good.

The ability to suspend disbelief wasn't -that- difficult. My biggest problem, the one thing that took me right out of the moment for a bit, was when he got his hands on that cell-phone, and discovered that it would only recieve calls, none could be made going out.

Maybe because I have worked in this industry for so long, it was a glaring mistake to me...but it doesn't matter if all calls in, or out are blocked (it doesn't even matter if the phone is suspended, or the account cancelled), -ALL- cellphones can call 911 if you can get a signal. And, well, I did have my doubts about getting a signal in that room, but there are some phone that are powerful enough to do so. And it was a fairly new model, so I know it was CDMA, and looked to be a--

*blinks*

Erm...Sorry 'bout that.

Anyhow, that was the only problem I had with the movie.

firehorse said:

Jacob's Ladder, hands down. Scary without being too gory (personal preference), great performances by a whole bunch of actors who were just starting out. Plus, it came out long before its twist became cliche.

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OOOohhhh! Thank you for reminding me of how much I love that film!

I also thought The Serpent and the Rainbow was a very good film. From the trailers, I expected it to be something like Nightmare on Elm Street, but when I finally got to see it, it was anything but...and I was very happy with what it really was.

I think we do run the same brain waves, drgnlvr! I've agreed with eveything you've posted! Well... if I ever get my horror screenplay off the ground, you'll be the first one I tell about it...ha!

Wow, since this thread was started this has been bugging me:

I can't think of a favorite horror movie. The only ones that ever really scared me were the ones I watched when very young, but I don't think those should count because I remember back then a production of Puss n' Boots scared me once.

I enjoyed Seven but never really considered it horror. I always thought of it as a thriller.

I guess if Alien is going to be considered horror, it's my vote for favorite.

John Carpenter's The THING.
It scared the crap out of me, and the suspense (the whole theme about trust) was just masterful.