Top 3 favorite horror movies of all time?

Cafe Society
21

Another vote for The Thing.

Then, two that haven’t made the list.

The Orphanage made my wife swear off movies in which kids got hurt. We’d just had our first child, and it completely changed her attitude toward such movies. It remains one of the all-time great ghost stories.

So I waited to watch The Babadook until she was out of town. I swear to God that movie fucked me up. It’s one of the only times I’ve ever had to turn a movie off. Took me about an hour of pacing the house and swearing under my breath and shaking my head vehemently before I could bear to turn it back on. Brilliant stuff.

22

I guess Hereditary is off limits, then?
What was it about the Babadook that shook you? I heard it’s great but haven’t seen it yet.

23

I don’t know anything about it.

[spoiler]The first part of the movie is good-scary: a single mother with a traumatized, clingy, annoying child is overwhelmed, and it gets worse and worse as the child seems to be dealing with his trauma by summoning a monster-man into the house.

As the mother deals with the monster, though, she becomes more and more distraught, until it becomes clear that the monster has possessed/become her, and it looks like she’s going to murder her child.

That’s the point when I had to turn it off.[/spoiler]

24

If harm to children is a deal breaker, said film is definitely off the menu.

25

The Thing
30 Days of Night
The Descent

26

Audition (1999)
Dead Ringers (1988)
The VVitch (2015)

Shame we’re not doing television shows. Being easily spooked as a kid, my sister and my grandmother would make me watch Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Hitchhiker, and Ray Bradbury Theater back to back. I swear they had more fun watching me cover my eyes and cry than being scared themselves.

27

I’ll go for:

Alien
Young Frankenstein
The Exorcist

28

“Rosemary’s Baby”
“The Exorcist”
“The Haunting” (1963)

29

Tie for #1: Alien and The Shining
#3: The Exorcist

This was a tough one. I love others mentioned so far: Rosemary’s Baby and the John Carpenter The Thing being particular favorites. The 1963 The Haunting is great, too.

The OP mentioned anthologies so I’ll offer one not yet listed: the classic 1945 Ealing Studios Dead of Night. That’s the one with Michael Redgrave versus his ventriloquist dummy, as well as other great stuff.

30

Nosferatu
A Cabin in the Woods
Dawn of the Dead

31

You guys that keep mentioning Dawn of the Dead, do you mean the 70s or the early aughts remake? I liked both, but I was a zombie whore back before zombie movies became over-saturated.

Good suggestions so far! I’ve seen a lot of these but some I’ve not seen (I’ve not seen the Exorcist in many years. Fun Fact: I grew up in a fundamentalist Christian home and was forbidden to watch it because it was “too real”, as my pastor father had prayed demons out of people, allegedly). I’ve never seen Rosemary’s baby, nor the Prophecy, nor Hellraiser. I’m making a short-list, probably going to watch Babadook tomorrow.

Tonight I have the house alone, so I’m trying some anthologies out. Currently viewing: The Witching Season, an Amazon Prime affair, looks to be 6 short episodes. First one I saw was 11 minutes long. It’s not doing much for me. (Update: It’s doing NOTHING for me).

Up next is the 2019 Creepshow available on Shudder (but the first episode is free on Prime so I’m watching it there).

Next up will be Tales from the Darkside, the Movie. If I can make it, Creepshow (the original film) last.

total schlockfest. I love this time of year!

Worth mentioning:

Hereditary has been mentioned–it’s great and will stick with you. The director’s follow up Midsommar is another one that will stick with you for a few days. Both are deeply disturbing and require a lot of…processing.

Creep is a GEM of a horror movie. Creep 2 is not bad but I liked the first better. Both are great tho and really show what you can accomplish with “found footage” if you do it right.

It Follows isn’t bad, but some of the acting is. Worth seeing, tho.

I don’t know if these qualify, as they are SciFi horrors, but Annihilation was AMAZING. 28 Days Later is great, and another Danny Boyle flick (again, hard scifi with a horror bent) and one of my favorite movies of all time, Sunshine is amazing.

32

Speaking for myself, the original. I loved how it skewered consumerism. I actually greatly enjoyed the newer DotD, but IMO it was so different from the original that it would’ve greatly benefitted from having a different name and not had to live up to reputation of the first. Being set in a mall would’ve mostly been seen as homage to the first I think.

You mentioned It Follows, and I’m one of the rare naysayers on that film. It passed the time is the best review I can give. Actually I can say it passed the time twice because it left so little an impression on me I forgot I had seen it and rented it again a few months later and after I realized I had already seen it I said fuck it and watched it again. And I still only remember the bare bones of the plot.

33

The Thing (love the intense tension)
The Conjuring (some say this movie doesn’t spend enough time building mood and has the scares come too many, too quick, but the pacing works for me)
House of the Devil (great throwback 70’s/80’s vibe, but refined)

Honorable Mention: the Last Exorcism

34

I’m rather partial to the 1932 version of “The Old Dark House.” (points for anyone who knows why). It is seminal for that genre, which was even named after it.

“The Haunting” 1963, although I don’t think it scores so high on re-watchability, once you know who keeps popping up in odd places and I have to confess the explanation of that was a bit of a let-down.

The 1959 version of “House on Haunted Hill,” because I was 10 when I saw it in the theater and I didn’t notice any of the corn, it scared me out of my wits. So, nostalgia.

35

Original Dawn of the Dead for me, too. Somehow I find fast zombies less plausible

36
  1. Re-Animator 1985
  2. Dawn of the Dead 1978
  3. Carnival of Souls 1962
37

If you haven’t seen it Happy Death Day is worth a watch (or two), but -warning- it’s horror light.

38

*Night of the Living Dead
The Thing * (1982, anyone?)

Oh what the hell…

Plan 9

39

Oh, one that hasn’t been mentioned - Dog Soldiers.

If you like werewolf movies. This is the one IMHO.

A Scottish special ops team on a training mission comes across an unexpected foe.

Great effects, and atmosphere. And, of course, it comes with a twist.

40
  1. Alien
  2. The Exorcist
  3. Night of the Living Dead

I see a lot of people mentioning The Thing. I’ve only seen it once, when it first came out, and really need to see it again.