I’m a fan of Spiderbaby. It’s well acted and funny. Not so much scary/suspenseful, though, and no visible gore.
And there’s always Carrie, with the superb Sissy Spacek. Also funny.
Same here.
“I’m losing me!”
I can watch Sam Neill in any horror flick, which reminds me of Event Horizon which I just saw again a few nights ago. Don’t know if it’s considered good, but I’m a big fan.
Solaris with George Clooney and Natasha McElhonne is also good.
Thanks again to everyone for the recommendations. So now I’ve got J.D’s Revenge, the Flesh and Blood show and Spiderbaby to see. I’ll also have to hunt for Terror Creatures from the Grave.
Smid, Wolf Creek is exactly the kind of movie I hate watching. I want movies that will give me some second thoughts about turning off the lights not films that are (for lack of a better word) depressing.
Faithfool, thanks for all the recommendations. If you have any others I would love to hear them. And yeah, I love some of the tv horror stuff out there, the trouble is finding it on disc. I finally found a terrible copy of Dark Night of the Scarecrow but there are others out there that I’d love to see but can’t locate. Scarecrow was pretty good, btw.
And I also have to see Quarantine but I’m not in a rush. I know I’m in the minority but I thought Rec was pretty mediocre.
And Lance Henriksen as Jesse Hooker! Holy cow, what a very, very bad undead thing!
Adrian Pasdar was very good as well. Just a darn fine movie, all in all.
One of the cable movie channels (HBO/Showtime/Cinemax/etc) did a series called Masters of Horror, taking different guys and having them make a scary story. It looked pretty good, or at the least interesting.
IMO, very few of the so-called “masters of horror” really delivered. The premise of the series was great; ask veteran horror filmmakers to make the scariest one-hour movie they can come up with for the series. The only one that I saw that was close to “horror” was Takashi Miike’s “Imprint”, and Showtime didn’t even opt to show that episode. There were a few episodes that were OK, but I was pretty much disappointed in the series. The few episodes of “Fear Itself” that was on network TV was basically the same deal except, of course, on network TV, and I thought that some of the episodes of that series were stronger than “Masters of Horror.”
Billed as a Romantic Horror Comedy "Sean of the Dead"I found to be genuinly creepy because everything was played down rather then hyped up like so many Hollywood Horrors are .
With the result that it all seemed so real and normal and definitely increased the chill factor.
Also “Dog Soldiers”,a group of soldiers encounter Werewolves in the Scottish mountains.
Plus another Brit film,quite recent about a group of armament company workers sent on a bonding holiday in the Balkans but encounter some of the most disturbing characters I have seen for some time in a movie.
This works particulary weel because one minute you’re laughing at something and then the next your crapping yourself with shock.
The name of which I’m ashamed to admit that I cant remember but is similar to Deliverance .
1)* A Nightmare on Elm Street.* Surreal, gets in your head and eats your brain.
2) Blair Witch Project scared the hell out of me. Most people either love it or hate it, though.
3) When a Stranger Calls (1975?) is suspense, not blood and gore.
4) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978?). The guy with his dog…
5) Blade because you have to have a vampire movie.
6) Interview with the Vampire because you have to have another one.
7) Stir of Echoes is suspense/supernatural…not strictly “horror.”
8) Christine is fun.
9) *Night of the Living Dead *is classic, available free IIRC because the copyright wasn’t renewed.
10) Species is good, has Natasha Henstridge’s bare breasts, which are quite nice.
11) Sleepy Hollow with Chris Walken as the Headless Horseman, yeah.
12) Race with the Devil, wherein Peter Fonda et al accidentally witness a human sacrifice and then are chased cross country.
As you seem a fan of the '70s horror, I recommend the 1972 movie of “Tales From The Crypt” with Ralph Richardson, Joan Collins & Peter Cushing. There was a brief fashion for making portmanteau movies of short stories but this was my favourite. Joanie’s was the best story in this movie in my opinion - not every day you see a murderess trying hide from a psychotic Santa Claus. AND it being scary.
It’s now packaged with the follow-up “The Vault of Horror”.
A couple things- “Dagon” was mentioned above. Except for it being set on a Spanish island, it’s a relatively faithful adaptation of “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”. And speaking of Lovecraft, I have a special affection for two of the three AIP attempts to adapt HPL- Dean Stockwell, Sam Jaffe, Sandra Dee & Ed Begley Sr in “The Dunwich Horror” and Vincent Price, John Carradine & Lon Chaney Jr in “The Haunted Palace” (The Case of Charles Dexter Ward). However, even I can’t endorse Boris Karloff’s “Die Monster Die” (The Colour that Came from Outer Space".
I’m a big fan of the original “The Wicker Man” and there IS a TV-miniseries that has a slight resemblance- “The Dark Secret of Harvest Home” (based on Tom Tryon’s novel HARVEST HOME) w/ Bette Davis as the Matriarch over a New England town that keeps to the Old Ways - heh heh heh.
Many will differ with me on this, and it is a gore-fest, but of all the Texas Chainsaw films, I LOVE the first sequel “The TCM 2” which launched Rob Zombie horror vet Bill Spaulding (Otis) and also features Dennis Hopper as a Texas Ranger out to avenge his family that was killed in the first one…
Same era AND same production company- LIFEFORCE- space expedition to Halley’s Comet brings back Space Vampires. MUCH better than it sounds.
Try Link. Less of a horror film than a thriller . . . Still, it is interesting in being frightening with zero on-camera violence. Probably because the monster of the story is a real live ape – and while apes can learn a lot of tricks, it is probably impossible to teach one to pretend to tear somebody’s arms off, etc. Suspense is built up simply by Peter O’Toole’s very low-key, matter-of-fact comments about what apes are physically capable of doing. Also, you get to see Elizabeth Shue in the shower.
That IS horrifying! :eek:
Horror movies, huh? You’ve got the right weirdo to be asking about that, if I do say so myself. I can and frequently do talk all freakin’ day about that very subject and consider myself a scholar, a connoisseur, and an all-around savant on the artform!
NB-you’ll notice that I just list the names of some of the following flicks, while there are others I actually go into a couple sentences worth of comment upon. Don’t be misled by that – while some of them elicit more excitied rantings from me than others, every single movie I mention below is, in my considered (also somewhat jaded) opinion, very good indeed and comes highly recommended.
First, you’ve got your oldies…your classics…your relics. The only problem with 'em is, they’re mostly just not that scary nowadays, if indeed they ever were. However, there are always exceptions. Like Island Of Lost Souls, for example – one nasty horrific piece of work. There’s an almost metaphysical horror aspect t this movie; you get a creepy sort of unclean vibe from some of the imagery. And Charles Laughton obviously has so much funplaying Dr. Moreau as a gleefully evil old queen with a bullwhip that you can’t help but love him.
The Black Cat is pretty scary for that era too (besides, it’s got Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi trying to out-madman each other); so is The Cat People.
Curse Of The Demon, of somewhat later vintage, is pretty good too; nicely eerie and frightening, even though it’s based on a story by one of three tedious fellows surnamed James who have entirely undeserved reputations for scary stories (I don’t remember which one of them).
Several of the ones I’d recommend have already been invoked, including two or three I was a little amazed anyone would beat me to; but let me second or third them:
*Angel Heart
The Haunting *(the 1960s one)
Alice Sweet Alice
The (original)Texas Chainsaw Massacre – which has a reputation among people who haven’t seen it as a mindless bloodbath. It ain’t.
JD’sRevenge
The Descent…and most definitely, Black Christmas. About that flick, I have only this to say, Ho…lee…shit. It’s one of the half-dozen on my list which actually had me nervous about being in the house y myself at night for weeks afterward. “Where’s the BABY, Willie? AAAG-NESSSS!” Brrrr.
There are just a few others that did that much of a number on my head. *Cookers *is one. Great movie, it goes from “just” creepy and unnerving to flat-out terrifying in the space of just a few seconds, repeatedly. And since the characters aren’t really evil villainous types, but only three hard-luck felons strung out on crank, one has to feel for them when the shit that’s way worse than they deserve starts coming down on their addled heads.
Then there’s Open Water. Starts slow, but a half-hour into it I realized I was clenching my scrotum and staring open-mouthed at the screen – when all that I could see was just two people…treading water. And nothing else for miles and miles and miles.
The Blair Witch Project. Either this movie works for you or it doesn’t. If the latter, you won’t buy it for a minute and think it’s a stupid, plotless piece of shit. Me, I’m not in that camp at all. The damned thing hooked me in right from the giddy-up and by the last minute I was a shuddering moaning wreck. The weird hanging figures and the piles of stones…the teeth, ohmygod…and all those little handprints…and then the very last thing you see: just a guy standing there quietly with his back turned…
Nightbreed
Magic
Henry, Portrait Of A Serial Killer
Cloverfield
Witchfinder General, aka *The Conqueror Worm *- Vincent Price doesn’t camp it up one bit in this one – it’s a brutal horrific movie that’s all the scarier because it’s based on real occurences. Likewise for The Devils, which is over-the-top as only Ken Russell could have made it and has some truly nightmarish moments–moments that go on, and on, and on.
Seance On A Wet Afternoon
Repulsion
The Believers
Last House On The Left
Peeping Tom
Circus Of Horrors
Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?
Pet Sematary-especially the Timmy Baterman flashback
Black Sabbath
Deadbeat At Dawn
An American Werewolf In London
Devil’s Advocate
God Told Me To
Lady In A Cage – another slow starter that begins to creep up on you and then becomes a shrieking maelstrom of suspense, brutaliztion and sudden vicious violence.
The Offspring is a nasty gnarly little anthology movie, especially the orphanage sequence. Tales From Tha Hood, too – one helluva lot better than the original publicity campaign would lead one to suppose.
The Hand
The Shout
Picnic At Hanging Rock–three very peculiar, very unnerving arthouse/horror crossbreeds which play with ambiguity and mindfuck to great effect – and I speak as someone whose patience with arthouse movie mindfucks is severely limited. Plus The Hand has Michael Caine in it!
*The Stuff *is hilarious and horrific --also a wee bit pretentious, since Larry Cohen is plainly trying to use horror cinema to make Big Statements, like he thought he was David Freaking Cronenberg or somebody.
Speaking of the esteemed Mr. Cronenberg, at least three of his films must come very highly recommended indeed to the sophisticated horror fan: The Brood, Videodrome and *They Came From Within *(aka Shivers, aka The Parasite Murders. Those three are the best, but you can’t slight The Dead Zone either…or Scanners. Or Dead Ringers, Rabid, or his version of The Fly. Hell, the man is just GOD.
Lastly, since someone upthread stated that you’ve GOT to have a vampire movie, and Near Dark has already been mentioned, let me commend to you George Romero’s underrated, underexposed vampire movie, Martin. It’s a yes-no-maybe proposition as far as just how real the title character’s vampirism is, and Romero plays with that uncertainty, and our sympathies, in a way that will disturb you for hours after the movie’s over. Basically you can’t go too far wrong with Mr. Romero, IMNAAHO; even his failures are interesting and intense and well worth the watching, and when the man’s on, he achieves greatness.
NOS-fe-ra-TU!
/inside joke
DLuxN8R-13, thanks for the suggestion. I haven’t seen Martin so I’m definitely going to look for that.
I’ve seen all the others on your list (and it’s a great list) except JD’s Revenge which should be on it’s way soon. I should have mentioned in my original post that I’ve seen a lot of horror movies so it has to be fairly obscure for me to have missed it.
Other movies I’ve seen lately:
Rewatching these. Love val Lewton. Curse of the Cat People, while bearing little resemblance to Cat People or horror in general, is a terrific, incredibly underrated, movie.
Pieces
Campy but fun.
New York Ripper
Really just a nasty movie. I expected better from Fulci.
Maniac
Pretty meh but I’m a sucker for older movies that feature NYC.
Someone’s Watching Over Me
I love John Carpenter.
Also, I haven’t seen these mentioned by anyone but they’re some of my favorites:
The Prowler
Underrated slasher.
Curtains
I think the only movie where the homicidal maniac wears ice skates for one murder.
The Sentinel
Yes, it’s a Rosemary’s Baby knock-off but it’s got a cast of thousands, great NYC vistas, Beverly D’Angelo masturbating and a threesome in which two of the participants are an elderly man and a fat girl eating cake…what’s not to love?
Dead Alive
Don’t Look Now
Ringu
The Shining
Friday the 13th
Candyman
Evil Dead
Day of the Dead
Cube is decent.
Oh shit yeah. Three of them that came to mind all too easily just now when I read that (thanks a zillion, faithfool!:eek:).
Crowhaven Farm.
Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark , and
Our Mother’s House.
Of the three, Crowhaven Farm was the one that really frosted my teenage balls. Oh, man, I can still remember how my hair started crawling at the very end, when the seemingly friendly stranger ties down the balloon for Hope Lange’s baby. That’s not to say the others didn’t deliver, though; this was much stronger stuff than one would think could be shown on broadcast TV in those more censorious days.
And we mustn’t forget the movie-length debut of our favorite fiend-beleagured newshound, Carl Kolchak, in The Night Stalker – although I thought the sequel was better, myself, with a more original premise and those creeeeepy Seattle-underground locations…
Picture Mommy Dead was another ABC Movie Of The Week that I remember seeing; that one was actually fairly silly, but as I recall, it did have a couple of pretty intense sequences.
Even though it is the one damned near everyone knows about, Duel is still pretty nerve-wracking too. Thing is, most of the people I know who’ve seen it, think that it’s the truck, itself, that’s after Dennis Weaver, when you definitely see the phantom trucker getting in and out briefly-just a pair of cowboy boots and rolled-up jeans, true, but he’s there, dammit!
And everyone raves about Trilogy Of Terror because of the He Who Kills segment, which does merit the hype – but nobody (me included) even *remembers *the other two-thirds, which I’m afraid doesn’t say much for the quality of storytelling that was involved.
Oh, and that one about the guy who got locked in the department store all weekend, with the pack of vicious dogs running loose – what was that one called? And Glenn Ford, contracting (psychosomatic?) rabies in Rage. That was a real butthole-clencher, for a 70-some-minute cheapie.
In short, the ABC Movie Of The Week series almost managed to redeem itself sometimes! Too bad they didn’t concentrate on horror movies instead of the “topical” drek and laughable tearjerkers they generally specialized in.
Oh man, yeah. Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark scared the living hell out of me as a kid and I’d love to see it again now. It’s another one I suppose I’ll have to try and get off of eBay. 
In the same category, did you ever see House on Greenapple Road? The opening sequence had a decidedly Helter Skelter-ish feel to it that’s seered into my memory. It’s awesome! And some of the folks on the IMDb boards say that it can be purchased at A Different City, but I’m not sure about the quality. Now I’ll have to check out Crowhaven Farm (which I’d somehow missed) and Our Mother’s House (which I knew about but forgot – it sounds like the pre-cursor to The Hamiltons). Plus I’ll recommend to you A Reflection of Fear with Sondre Locke and a Sleepaway Camp twist.
Perhaps we should start a thread just on these ABC Movie of the Week series just devoted to horror. Or, you know, we could add each other as friends to keep up with who must see what. 
Who wouldn’t want to make sure they don’t miss the next Gargoyles? 
I so want to see that too, especially since I sometimes see Charles Durning as an enigma. Well, an enigma who was in another of my favorite 70s horror flicks with When a Stranger Calls, which I’m positive you’ve seen. So let me dig a little deeper and see if I can come up with anything you might not have gotten around to yet (and I’ll even branch out into other decades, oh no!)…
Soft for Digging is pretty creepy in the sense of what could happen randomly.
Love Object is the scary counterpart to Lars and the Real Girl that came later, just minus Ryan Gosling.
House on the Edge of the Park is another awesome giallo (I can’t believe I forgot to mention it already), much in the tradition of Last House on the Left. So much so in fact, that they both share David Hess.
I’m a huge Jack Ketchum fan, so I’ll recommend all three of his movies thus far that I’ve seen: Red probably has the best acting (with Brian Cox in the lead) and story, The Girl Next Door the most chilling backstory (based on the real life story of Sylvia Likens) and The Lost as another true-ish story (this time on the Pied Piper of Tucson, Charles Schmid)whose ramifications make your stomache turn. But be forewarned, the last is a bit gratuitous in the nudity department, so if that’s not a cup of tea your interested in enduring, disregard. Heh.
The remake of The Wizard of Gore. The leads suck, but one can never go wrong with Crispin Glover and his usual trippiness.
Nails is a bizarre and disturbing Russian short film about the lengths a hitman will go to to rid himself of a headache.
5ive Girls had a more sinister vibe then The Craft and Ron Pearlman. I liked it quite a bit.
The Attic Expeditions wasn’t particularly frightening, but it was a hoot none-the-less. And it has Alice Cooper in it briefly at the beginning. Always a plus.
Blood and Chocolate is a decent vampire movie. I’m usually not big on them (although Martin rocks!), but this one seemed more realistic than most. Ok, realistic for vampires.
Final Draft has James Van Der Beek in it, but if you can forgive that, it’s one of the more unsettling portrayals of a clown I’ve seen. 'Cause It didn’t scare me one bit.
The Insatiable is really, really funny and if you like Sean Patrick Flanery and Michael Biehn, it’s worth all the more for the witty.
Headspace is a good mind bend.
Salvage for a “Did that really happen like that?” a la Memento movie.
Reeker is just plain ol’ cool weird.
The Quiet is more horrific drama-y than scary, but incredible. Camilla Belle is a hell of an actress and you’ll want to off Martin Donovan yourself.
Another for atmosphere is Picnic at Hanging Rock. Personally I love the open-endedness of it and the cinematography to boot, but there’s still Peter Weir to consider too. Another true gem of the 70s.
Suicide Club, which the less said about, the better. Ya just gotta get the full effect man.
I know you’ve seen Spoorloos, right? Because it’s so much better than the American version and dear Og, the claustrophobia!
The Tattooist almost feels like a throwback to Ray Bradbury.
They could be a really good Twilight Zone episode gone max.
The Tripper is David Arquette’s wild slasher nod. 'Tis somewhat hilarious.
The Wisdom of Crocodiles is Jude Law’s turn as Patrick Bateman. And I may be committing sacrilege here, but I think this is a tad better.
More craziness in Shock Treatment. It’s a little alarming to know that some of these methods were used back in the day…
And finally is Shallow Ground. I don’t know how to explain it except to say it’s like a bizarro Stephen King epic come to life. This is one of my more recent absolute favorites.
Anyway, perhaps that’ll give you a few more. There’s been so many good suggestions and lots of others I’ve left out because there’s no way that someone with your well-versed tastes hasn’t already been there, done that. So I’m off to scower the thread and see if there’s any I missed and need to add to my Netflix queu.
If you ever wanna email about horror flicks, my addy is: faithfool @ gmail. Give me a holler.
I’ve got just a couple more to mention here:
Der Todesking.
In A Glass Cage
If you have ever seen these movies, you’ll understand why they needed a post of their own.