Yes I love to go to the movies or even watch them at home. I really enjoy action movies and a good comedy and frankly I was never a big fan of horror movies for one simple reason…I would always close my eyes when a scary part was happening. I have even been known to scream out or jump out of my seat when there was a really scary part going on.
When I think about horror films a number of them come to mind quickly:
- Halloween
- Friday the 13th
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre ( I am living in Texas so that has to make the list)
- Night of the Living Dead
- Poltergeist
And of course The Shining and The Exorcist–which frankly are two of the scariest movies I have ever watched. I still have trouble watching The Shining and need to make sure that all the lights are on in the house….Stop laughing….It’s true!
- With Halloween right around the corner, what is your favorite horror movie of all time?
- What do you think is the scariest scene you have ever seen?
Rhonda Ellis says:
My favorite movie is The Shining. Could watch it over and over and over.
The scariest horror movie of all time (to me) is The Exorcist. I have seen it once (when I was 19) and I will never watch it again….not even the 1st 5 minutes. Scared me to death and I’m a horror film buff!
No other horror movie scares me or has scared me since!!
Rick Johnson says:
I took a date to see Halloween when it came out way back when. It was in Pennsylvania in the fall and the theater was downtown and the leaves were all over the street and blowing just like in the movie. Am I painting a good picture?
When the movie was over we had to walk down the street and behind the buildings to the parking lot. I had thought of Michael Myers being in the backseat of the car and ready to “get me.” Needless to say, but I never dated that girl again. She probably thought I was a big wimp!
Well anyways, I don’t like horror movies either! The only time I watch them is when my wife wants to see them and I just have to be present. Go figure!!
Liz says:
Texas Chainsaw Massacre still gives me nightmares.
Kevin says:
The Haunting (the original version, not that awful remake), will keep you up all night. The Last Man on Earth with Vincent Price is also high on the creep-o-meter. It was remade twice, once as The Omega Man and last year as I Am Legend, but his is by far the eeriest.
Christopher Dallion says:
When I first saw Friday the 13th it was on cable at the time the second movie came out and I watched both the same weekend. I was 11 years old and those movies did a good number on me – it took about 4 or 5 years before I quit feeling the need to peek behind a closed shower curtain to feel safe in a bathroom. For the first month or two I wouldn’t walk across my bedroom floor after the light was off – I could jump from the light switch to my bed by only one step. Nothing has really done it to me since. I rarely ever jump or get startled/spooked because I’ve seen so many horror movies since.
I watch movies from the cheesy 80s slasher flicks to the modern R rated movies – not generally a big fan of PG-13 horror films but there are always exceptions. To quote Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream) “When you go into a horror movie, you need to feel that you’re in the hands of a madman.”
That being said I love so many horror films that it’s impossible for me to pick an all time favorite. I do like the list you posted and have seen them all. If I tried to give you a full list of movies I have seen and liked I’d take up entirely too much room so here are a few that I seem to watch more regularly than I probably should…
– Shaun of the Dead: great horror/comedy with my favorite thing… zombies
– Dawn of the Dead: actually prefer the remake to the original because fast moving zombies are really scary
– 28 Days Later: I sense a zombie theme here
– Final Destination: more about shock than scare but still pretty good
– Blade: action movie with a vampire kick – more about fights than scares
– It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown: okay, not scary but I watch it every Halloween.
I typically have to watch most of the horror movies by myself because my kids are not allowed to watch them with me and their mother doesn’t like them. She absolutely refuses to watch them at night but I can manage to get her to join me occasionally during the day.
Lisa S says:
I’m not a horror movie fan but one of my favorite high school memories is horror movie related. During my sophomore year, I went to see one of the Friday the 13th movies with a group of friends. Towards the end of the movie, we see the “heroine” from behind and hear the suspenseful music playing (think Jaws) so we know that at any moment, Jason will attack. The hair on our necks is standing on end when all of a sudden, a woman jumps up out of her seat and yells “Run, girl, run…that son of a ** is after you”. We all crack up and can’t stop giggling during the rest of the movie. That ruined the intended mood for the remainder of the show but that was fine by me since I’d much rather be laughing than scared to death.
Paul Kirch says:
The original Amityville Horror was truly scary at the time, though the special effects in todays terms are lame at best. However, there’s another movie that was actually a series around the same time that to this day is one of the scariest movies and premises of all time. If you haven’t seen Phantasm, do yourself a favor.
Keven says:
The Thing (John Carpenter version with Kurt Russell), and The Ring (Japanese or American version).
Drew J says:
W
Jeffrey Lorber says:
A very classy thriller set in Venice: Don’t Look Now. (Donald Sutherland, Julie Christie) If you have seen this movie you haven’t really slept well since 1973!
Here’s a nice review: http://www.deep-focus.com/dfweblog/2004/08/dont_look_now_1973.html
Ken says:
I have to second Rhondas nomination and vote Exorcist. It is a true horror movie and has held up really well over time. Still can’t get my son to watch it with me as I scarred him with it as a young child, though he’ll watch pretty much any other horror movie out there. Other honorable mentions for me are: Alien (the first one) and Psycho (again, the first one, in case anyone was foolish enough to think I was talking about the remake…by the way, who in their right mind remakes a classic?). I like both of these for “theatrical suspense”, proving you don’t always need a ton of blood and guts to make a good horror flic.
Steve Gentile says:
Jaws. Silence of the Lambs. And some of my NYU Film School pieces will give you a good jump in your seat at 4 minutes in length.
I like Drew J’s response and think that indeed some of the current election footage is kinda scare ya big time stuff.
Joe Bourland says:
Merrill, great topic and this is a genre I’m starting to get into again. I’m going to put my responses into two groups: First, the most scary movies when I was younger was definitely the original Halloween with Jamie Lee Curtis. The music. The tension created onscreen. The Halloween environment. In today’s genre, I really enjoyed the 2002 horror film out of London entitled “28 Days Later.” Combine Stephen King’s “The Stand” with “Dawn of the Living Dead.” Here’s the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBZnuUZIbBQ.
Hope business is going well.
Lynda Manning says:
maybe not the best “horror” films but definitely the scariest movies I’ve ever watched
1. ORIGINAL “WHEN A STRANGER CALLS” STARRING CAROL KANE CIRCA 1980.
2. “WAIT UNTIL DARK” WITH MIA FARROW
3. “SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
Kimberly White says:
I’d have to say that it’s a toss up between April Fools Day (1986), Cape Fear (the 1991 version) and Silence of the Lambs (1991)!! Merrill – I am totally with you! All lights on for sure and I never watch any of these movies when I am home alone.
I hate this time of the year as all of the commercials that are currently running seem to be for scary movies. I find myself muting the TV during all commercial breaks. 🙂
Happy Halloween everybody.
E.G. says:
Can I be anonymous on this, as no one will believe I am a fanatic horror movie groupie.
Halloween
Shining
all Hitchcock movies – but Psycho is a classic and will forever be the best.
I absolutely LOVE good horror movies. When I was 9 months pregnant with my first born, soon to be 29 year old. I went to see Halloween. At one point I jumped up screaming like an idiot and sat promptly down , but my seat had flipped up – so this very pregnant me fell to the floor. Needless to say , my son was born a week later on HALLOWEEN. eeerrriiee! Then I read the Book – Shining, and the day that JACK flips out in his snow bound mansion and tries to kill his family is Dec 2nd. This book (soon to be movie) frightened me more than a book should. Well, being pregnant again, I told everyone that I would probably have my son on Dec 2nd. Brian was born Dec 2nd. I love a good haunted house as well!
Merrill Dubrow says:
Joe,
Appreciate you sharing a link to the trailer. I just watched it and it looks pretty scary.
Thanks.
Merrill
Bob Graham says:
Of the movies mentioned so far, I’m a big fan of the original TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE which was really an innovative film when it was released 34 (!) years ago.
The definition of “horror film” has changed so much over the years. Now it seems to be related solely to slasher/gore films which I watch occasionally, but don’t really have much affection for.
The horror films that I love were the ones that came out when I was a kid:
Vincent Price in PIT AND THE PENDULUM, HOUSE OF USHER and all those other great Roger Corman/Edgar Allen Poe films; and the great Hammer films with Peter Cushing and Christoper Lee: HORROR OF DRACULA, REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN and many others. Those are the horror films that I return to year after year. They don’t scare me like they once did, but I still hold a great deal of affection for them.
It has been said that fans of Stephen King are divided on THE SHINNING. They either love it or think it’s one of the worst films ever made. I’m in the second category. I really liked the book, but I was disappointed that Stanley Kubrick turned it into a dysfunctional family drama and left out some of the more sinister parts of the book (King made you like Jack Torrance before he became possessed; Kubrick treated him as if he were possessed from the beginning). As for the TV mini-series–well that sucked, too. It may have been made twice, but the definitive version of “the Shinning” has yet to be made. The same is true of “‘Salem’s Lot”.
Merrill Dubrow says:
We may have a new one!!
`Friday the 13th’ nails No. 1 spot with $42.2M
Feb 15, 1:41 PM (ET)
By DAVID GERMAIN
LOS ANGELES (AP) – “Friday the 13th” had all the luck as the remake of the 1980 slasher flick opened with $42.2 million, putting blood and guts ahead of hearts over Valentine’s Day weekend.
That was a record for the horror genre, topping the $39.1 million debut for 2004’s “The Grudge.” Accounting for today’s higher admission prices, “The Grudge” sold slightly more tickets, however.
Released by the Warner Bros. banner New Line Cinema, “Friday the 13th” updates the grisly story of killer Jason Voorhees and his rampage among youths at a secluded summer camp.
On opening day – which fell on Friday the 13th – the remake pulled in $19.4 million, slightly more than the $19 million it cost to make the movie.
“It’s a great title, and it was a great weekend to open. We had Friday the 13th and Valentine’s Day,” said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros. “I’ve seen it play a number of times, and the audience is with it the whole way. A lot of screams and a lot of laughs.”
The “Friday the 13th” series has been one of the most-enduring horror franchises, spawning 10 sequels, including the crossover grudge match “Freddy Vs. Jason,” pitting Voorhees against the boogeyman from “A Nightmare on Elm Street.”
The movie bumped off the previous weekend’s top earner, the Warner-New Line romance “He’s Just Not That Into You,” which fell to second-place but held up strongly over Valentine’s weekend with $19.6 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. “Friday the 13th,” $42.2 million.
2. “He’s Just Not That Into You,” $19.6 million.
3. “Taken,” $19.3 million.
(AP) Graphic shows U.S. box office sales for the past weekend; 1 c x 4 3/4 in; 46.5 mm x 120.65 mm; 3 c…
Full Image
4. “Confessions of a Shopaholic,” $15.4 million.
5. “Coraline,” $15.3 million.
6. “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” $11.7 million.
7. “The International,” $10 million.
8. “The Pink Panther 2,” $9 million.