Best Horror Movies of All Time

[Paul Farquhar]

Yeah, I have never seen a head explode in real life, so I have no idea how realistic that is

Well, the skull is in there - you would expect to see shards of bone flying out.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Also just wanted to say I am really enjoying the points you are making even if I am not always on the same page.

Came across this article that might be of interest to you: MSN

 

[TiQuinn]

There's a place for CGI, but well done practical effects are way cooler, IMO. But I'm old, so it's probably just my bias.

I think they have to be done as part of the greater whole. I watch a movie like Mad Max: Fury Road which has tons of CGI as well as models and then just plain ol camera work and angles and it’s a thing of beauty.

 

[Richards]

If we're talking about the best horror movie of all time, I'm willing to bet it hasn't been filmed yet. For some reason, you all seem to be focusing on horror films from the past and present.

Johnathan

 

[Bohandas]

Must be "horror". Yeah, I'm using Fight Club rules for emphasis. We're talking about something actually scary. If you want to go non-traditional by arguing that The Lego Movie is a terrifying depiction of Lovecraftian horror, you need to be able to back it up with serious discussion about why is actually scares you, not just academic posturing.

The Lego Movie IS a depiction of Lovecraftian Horror. The scene where he falls off the table is largely similar to the premise of From Beyond, The Render of the Veils, Lord of Illusion, Double Cosmos, Periphery, Assemblage Point, The Touch-Stone, Five Characters in Search of an Exit, In The Mouth of Madness, The Circular Ruins, The After Hours, The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag, and the opening of The Great God Pan. It didn't scare me since I saw it as an adult, but given that I was scared when I first saw the witch from The Little Mermaid and the industrial accidents in Willy Wonka it probably would have scared me if I saw it as a kid.

Edit:
But the only horror movies that scare me now as an adult are the ones where one of the heroes gets framed for the killings; ie. Evil Dead 2, Nightmare On Elm Street, Final Destination, etc (edit: And also occasionally by things that strike exactly the right mix of surrealism and existential dread, as is achieved in many episodes of The Twilight Zone, and (more rarely) in the works of Junji Ito, Jorge Borges, and Clark Ashton Smith)

Dracula (1931): The Bela Lugosi classic is almost a century old. It might seem quaint by today's standards, but it's a good movie and Lugosi set the gold standard for cinema vampires. If you've never seen it, I encourage you to give it a chance.

Plus it doesn't have that moronic reincarnation romance subplot that got tacked onto all the later adaptations

Halloween
I'll admit I'm not the biggest fan of "slasher" movies. They're a little bit basic, as horror goes. But this movie is absolute perfection of the art form. From the soundtrack to the shot composition to the editing, this is a masterclass in horror film making

I found this one tedious. It was just Michael lurking discretely in the background for 90% of the film like some kind of horror version of Where's Waldo. Then there's a couple of blink and you'll miss it murders. And then Michael walks away after getting a clip emptied into him, despite the movie not giving any indication that he's in any way paranormal. At the very least it was not up to the standard of John Carpenter's other work such as The Thing, In The Mouth of Madness, Prince of Darkness, and Big Trouble In Little China

Evil Dead - I think this might be the reason I dont like body horror

Do you mean Evil Dead 1 or Evil Dead 4? (or Evil Dead 5, which is the main body horror one)

Frankenstein (1931): Another classic that's nearly it's 100th anniversary. It's a good movie with some iconic scenes and Boris Karloff defined the look of Frankenstein for the last 90 years. Quaint by our standards, but a nice movie.

Was the professor supposed to be the scariest character in the film? He's the only one that came off to me as potentially dangerous. Victor was harmless, and of the two deaths caused by the monster one was a slapstick accident and the other was unambiguous self-defense

EDIT:
Anyway, favorite horror films

Coraline - Does the villain from this film make anyone else think of obnoxious pet owners? With the whole fake mother thing going on?
Return of the Living Dead - Not as scary as Night of the Living Dead but more interesting and apparently the source of the concept of zombies eating brains
Evil Dead 1 - I like movies about posession
Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn - This is one of the vew movies that actually scares me. Although Ash being framed scares me more than the demons do
Evil Dead 3: Army of Darkness - Mostly a comedy but the body horror bit with the tiny clones is legit. Also it's the first Evil Dead movie I ever saw
Evil Dead 4 The hand-ripping scene is intensely creepy. Way creepier than the equivalent scene in Evil Dead 2
The Exorcist - Again, I like posession movies
In The Mouth of Madness - Well executed. Interesting concept
Prince of Darkness - John Carpenter and Victor Wong are a winning combination
Hellraiser (2022) - Better pacing and production value than Hellraiser 1, and arguably
Hellraiser 2 - Better pacing than Hellraiser 1. Good worldbuilding
The Mummy (1999) - This isn't really a proper horror film, but it's significantly scarier than the original. And significantly more interestig
The Shining A Classic
Poltergeist
The Whisperer In Darkness - A genuinely good adaptation of the book
Ghostbusters 1 - Egon is what an INT based wizard should look like
Ghostbusters 3 - Didn't have the same problems as 2 or that bizarre reboot that had nothing to do with the series
Virtual Nightmare - This is sort of like a creepy, non-action-based version of The Matrix. Technically more of a thriller or a suspense movie than horror per se.

Cube, Saw, and Friday the 13th Part 1 are honorable mentions for their genuinely hateable villains (edit: I mean the crazy cop dude from Cube, not the overarching offscreen villains who actually built the Cube)

Favorites that probably don't count for these purposes due to being campy or primarily comedy rather than horror
*Live Freaky, Die Freaky - Campy. Comedy. Technically true-crime rather than horror. A stop-motion animated musical based on the Manson Family
*The Rocky Horror Picture Show - Arguably primarily a comedy
*30 Nights of Paranormal Activity With the Devil Inside the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Campy comedy
*FDR: American Badass - Campy comedy where FDR fights a conspiracy of fascist werewolvez
*Little Nicky - Comedy about demons and satan-worshipping metalheads
*Underfist Halloween Bash - Made for TV comedy based onThe Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy
*Rendezvous With RagNaRok - Bizarre campy story about aliens and robots and conspiracies made by the shock rock band GWAR
*Space Zombie Bingo - Bizarre, intentionally campy comedy about space alien robot zombies. Repeatedly makes refrences to Plan 9 From Outer Space
*Brain Drainer - Intentionally campy comedy about an evil rock from space that drains people's intelligence and switches people's minds. They try to put it into a politician because he doesn't have a mind, but that just allows it to completely take over his body.
*Working Stiffs - Intentionally campy comedy about a temp firm that kills people and turns them into zombies so they won't have to pay them
*Vampires Suck - C0medy spoofing the Twilight saga
*Scary Movie 1-4 - Comedy
*Voodoo Apocalypse - Bizarre campy comedy about guys investigating some villain who's turning people into zombies
*Dracula Dead and Loving It - Comedy remake of Dracula with Mel Brooks and Leslie Nielson
*Young Frankenstein - Primarily intended as a comedy, even though it is arguably scarier than the original, the original having set such a low bar
*High Anxiety - Comedy. Technically suspense-comedy rather than horror-comedy. Mel Brooks' parody of the works of Alfred Hitchcock
*Plan 9 From Outer Space - Extremely campy
*The Bloody Pit of Horror aka The Crimson Executioner - Campy italian horror film. Guy stalks and kills a bunch of models while dressed as the local bogeyman. A little bit like a Scooby Doo villain who graduated to actual murder (this came out decades before Velma)

EDIT:
Did anyone else think the movie The Driller Killer was lame? I've never seen another horror film where the killer spends the entire movie moping. They should have called it "Bored to Death"

 

[Guest 85555]

Well, the skull is in there - you would expect to see shards of bone flying out.

Again, I have never seen an actual head explode, so i don't know how visible skull matter would be with that kind of explosion, but I don't think they were going to for accurate realism as much as gore impact (which I think they achieved). My understanding is they tried things like plaster shell on it, which would have modeled the skull more, but that it didn't achieve the result they wanted. I can certainly understand you not personally liking this one, but this effect is something people still write articles about because it was so impactful and has remained so iconic.

 

[Guest 85555]

I think they have to be done as part of the greater whole. I watch a movie like Mad Max: Fury Road which has tons of CGI as well as models and then just plain ol camera work and angles and it’s a thing of beauty.

I was very reluctant to see this because it looked overreliant on CGI in the trailers and I didn't like the guy they got for Mad Max (I have trouble picturing anyone else in that role but Mel Gibson, but Tom Hardy seemed an especially bad choice to me)). However the film won me over when I watched it this year. Amazing movie and very well done effects overall.

 

[Guest 85555]

Dracula (1931): The Bela Lugosi classic is almost a century old. It might seem quaint by today's standards, but it's a good movie and Lugosi set the gold standard for cinema vampires. If you've never seen it, I encourage you to give it a chance.

Plus it doesn't have that moronic reincarnation romance subplot that got tacked onto all the later adaptations

I have to admit, I have never been a huge fan of the 1931 Dracula. I understand its importance, and I understand Legosi's legacy in shaping portrayal of the character...it just always bores me to tears. It has some nice cinematography though. I like most of the early Universal Horror. This one has just always been a slog for me. Not suggesting others are wrong for liking it (I completely get that it is a classic for a reason). I just cannot seem to enjoy it no matter how many times I watch it. I am a bigger fan of Dracula's Daughter than Dracula.

Oddly enough my favorite Dracula is the 92 Coppola version with that reincarnation element to it. It isn't from the book, arguably it takes away from teh horror (a movie like Horror of Dracula, which I also love, is probably scarier), but the 1992 Dracula creates such unbelievable atmosphere, tells a very compelling love story and looks and feels so amazing. It builds a world. The special effects are completely captivating as well. It is probably one of my top ten, maybe even top five movies. Wonderful performance by Gary Oldman. The more I watch it the more I love it. At this point, Keanu Reeves doesn't even bother me in it (he is a terrible Jonathan Harker, but similar to Winona Ryder, I enjoy his presence in a movie)

That said for me if we are going with scariest versions of Dracula, Nosferatu is the one that gets me most.

 

[Guest 85555]

Return of the Living Dead - Not as scary as Night of the Living Dead but more interesting and apparently the source of the concept of zombies eating brains

This might be my favorite zombie movie. It actually scares me way more than Night of the Living Dead. The comedy element for some reason adds to the horror (I have the same reaction to Evil Dead II---the humor makes the horror more unnerving to me).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

reincarnation element

Where did that element first come in? I assume it was there before Ravenloft! I suppose it jumped from Jewel of the Seven Stars, probably in one of the Universal or Hammer movies.