Scariest Movies:

I love horror films.. even took a horror film class when I was in college, which was kinda wierd seeing how i went to merchant marine academy..

But to start m list any of the argento films are good.. the first texas chain saw, the second is just funny. I love every rob zombie films even his remakes. Ive seen way too many to even keep track of.

Even tho its not a movie and not exactly horror but I am really into Dexter, just because of how twisted yet awsome he is.

When I was a kid, Gremlins scared me quite a bit. I didn't sleep for week. I watched it again when I was 15 and really didn't understand why I was that scared...

I'm not a huge fan or horror movies but there are a few that I saw that were scary. The Japanese horror films come to mind. Ju-on and Ringu are pretty scary yes.

Can't think of anything else, maybe Driving Miss Daisy... She was scary...

I think that it's a lot of fun to work your way through the classic Universal horror films. So much of what came after has been inspired by these early movies. For example, the box set of Tod Browning's Dracula has the original film as well as a couple of other (Dracula's Daughter, I think--and maybe also the Spanish language version that they shot at the same time). You can also watch it with the Philip Glass score, which is pretty cool.

The Exorcist, The Shining, The Eye, Blair Witch Project...

Movies that I find scary:
28 Days Later
28 Weeks Later
Salem's Lot with Vincent Price
Pet Cemetery

Horror themed movies that are not scary but I like:
John Carpenters Halloween I
Night of the Living Day (1990 remake)
Dawn of the Dead (2004 remake)
Signs

The original "The Haunting, " - use the remake for a coaster.

You could get any of the horrorfest films. They may not be the scariest, but you'll get some laughs.

John Carpenter's The Thing
American Werewolf in London
The Howling
The Exorcist
Dawn of the Dead
Evil Dead
The Mist (great, underrated film!)

Some of my previous posts:
lycanthropes: A long list of werewolf films
My personal recommendations (not necessarily my favorites)
A long list of H. P. Lovecraft films
My favorite H. P. Lovecraft films
What I watched for Halloween 2009

Can't find my vampire list on B&B. Anyway, I prefer...

Ghost Stories In Film
Ghost stories are among my favorite supernatural tales. I like some of those silly household tales type of Victorian ghost stories, which aren't really horror. It takes a certain Mysterious element (supernatural, cosmic, or psychological) to make it horror. The older ones also suffer for being written before Poe showed everyone how to do them right. They all seem to ramble and start with a two page prologue, just like much of Poe's work.

A great example that people here might like is Edith Wharton's "Afterward" which you can read online. http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Afte.shtml. It's one where the characters see the ghost but probably would fall under the category where you don't see the ghost. I don't know of any film version.

Anyway, here's my list of ghost stories and things related on film. I like to include some comedies, so I went ahead and put some other borderline things in the list. (Forgive the formatting and extra details. It's direct from my master list. * means I have it. Other notes refer to the DVD edition, directors, etc.)

Recommended films are in bold.

* The Abandoned (2006) [After Dark Horrorfest]
An American Haunting (2006)
* The Amityville Horror (1979)
The Amityville Horror <remake> (2005)
Arang (2005)
* Bangkok Haunted (2001)
Beetlejuice (1988) [Blu-Ray]
* The Bells (1926) (Lionel Barrymore, Boris Karloff)
* Below (2002)
Between Two Worlds (1944)
* Beyond Tomorrow (1940) (aka. Beyond Christmas)
* Black Sabbath "The Drop of Water" (1963) (aka. I Tre volti della paura; The Three Faces of Fear) Bava
* Burnt Offerings (1976) (Karen Black, Bette Davis)
* Campfire Tales (1997)
* Candyman (1992)
Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995)
The Canterville Ghost (1944) [comedy]
The Canterville Ghost (1986)
* The Canterville Ghost (1995) (Patrick Stewart)
* Carnival Of Souls (1962) (Candace Hilligoss) [Criterion, pd: Horror Classics, pd single]
Casper (1995)
* Castle of Blood (1964) (aka Danse Macabre) (Steele) [Synapse Video: French with English subtitles]
* The Changeling (1980) George C. Scott
A Chinese Ghost Story (1987) (aka. Sien nui yau wan)
* A Christmas Carol (1951) [Blu-Ray]
The Crow (1994)
* Curse of the Cat People, The (1944) (Prod. Val Lewton) [with Cat People (1942)]
* Dark Water (2002) (aka. Honogurai mizu no soko kara; From the Depths of Dark Water)
* Dark Water (2005) (Jennifer Connelly)
Darkness Falls (2003) (aka. Don't Peek; The Ghost of Matilda Dixon; Tooth Fairy)
Dead End (2003)
* Dead of Night (1945)
Dead Silence (2007)
* Devil's Backbone, The (2001)(aka. El Espinazo del diablo)
Dominique (1978) (aka. Avenging Spirit; Dominique Is Dead)
* Don't Look Now (1973) (Donald Sutherland)
* The Entity (1981)
* The Eye (2002) (aka. Gin gwai)
The Forgotten One (1990)
The Frighteners (1996) (Dir. Peter Jackson)
1408 (2007)
* Ghost (1990)
The Ghost (2004) (aka. Ryeong; Dead Friend)
* The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) (Fantasy / Romance)
* The Ghost Breakers (1940) (Bob Hope) [Universal]
Ghost Game (2004)
The Ghost Goes West (1935) (Elsa Lanchester) (comedy) [available in R2 Spain, and The Robert Donat Collection}
Ghost in the Machine (1993)
* The Ghost of Kagami Pond (1959) (aka. Kaidan Kagami Ga Fuchi; Kaidan Kagami Gafuchi; Ghost Story: Depth of Kagami; Ghost of Kagama-Ga-Fuchi) (Dir. Masaki Mori)
The Ghost of Flight 401 (1978)
Ghost of Yotsuya (1949) (aka. Yotsuya kaidan; The Yotsuda Phantom; The Yotsuya Ghost Story) [exploitedcinema?]
* The Ghost of Kasane (1957) (aka. Kaidan Kasanegafuchi; Kaidan Kasane ga fuchi; The Ghosts of Kasane Swamp; The Depths) (Dir. Nobuo Nakagawa) $29.99
* The Ghost Story of Yotsuya (1959) (aka. Tokaido Yotsuya kaidan; Yotsuya Ghost Story in Tokaido) (Dir. Nobuo Nakagawa)
* Ghost Ship (1952) (Hazel Court)
* Ghost Ship (2002) Julianna Margulies
x Ghost Story (1974) (aka. Asylum; Madhouse Mansion) (Barbara Shelley)
* Ghost Story (1981) (Dir. John Irvin) (Fred Astaire, Douglas Fairbanks Jr)
* The Ghost Train (1941) [comedy]
Ghostbusters (1984)
Ghostbusters 2 (1989)
* Ghosts of Angela Webb (2005)
* The Ghosts of Hanley House (1968)
* Ghosts of Mars (2001)
The Girl in a Swing (1988)
Gotham (1988)
* Gothika (2003)
The Grudge <remake> (2004) (aka. Der Fluch, The Juon)
Haunted (1995)
The Haunted Mansion (2003) (Eddie Murphy)
* The Haunting (1963)
* The Haunting (1999) (aka. The Legend of Hell House; The Haunting of Hill House)
* The Headless Horseman (1922) (Will Rogers) [Alpha: Double feature with The Mechanical Man]
The Heirloom (2005) (aka. Zhaibian)
* Hold That Ghost (1941) (Abbott and Costello)
* House on Haunted Hill (1959) Price [Diamond, pd: Horror Classics]
House on Haunted Hill (1999)
The House of Seven Corpses (1974) (aka. The House of the Seven Corpses)
House of Mystery (1961)
* The House Where Evil Dwells (1982)
* Illusion of Blood (1966) (aka. Yotsuya Kaidan)
In the Grip of the Spider (1971) (aka. Nella stretta morsa del ragno; Dracula in the Castle of Blood; Web of the Spider; And Comes the Dawn... But Colored Red) (Antonio Margheriti) [remake of Margheriti's Castle of Blood]
* The Innocents (1961)
* Ju-On: The Grudge (2000)
Ju-on 2 (2000)
* Kill, Baby Kill (1966) (aka. Operazione Paura) (bava) [Bava Box Set Vol. 1]
* Kaidan (2007)
The Kingdom (1994) (tv miniseries) (aka. Riget; Geister; Hospital der Geister - The Kingdom; Lars von Trier paesenterer: Riket)
* Kwaidan (1964) (aka. Kaidan)
* Lady in White (1988) (aka. The Mystery of the Lady in White)
* The Legend of Hell House (1973)
Lost Voyage (2001)
The Maid (2005) (aka. Kimyo na sakasu)
A Name For Evil (1973)
Nang Nak (1999)
Nine Lives (2002)
* The Night Comes Too Soon (1947) (aka. The Ghost of Rashmon Hall) [sinistercinema]
Nomads (1986)
* Old Scrooge (1913) [with Scrooge (1923)]
* One Missed Call (2003) (aka. Chakushin Ari; You've Got a Call) [Blu-Ray]
The Orphanage (2007) (aka. El orfanato) [Blu-Ray]
Orson Welles's Ghost Story (1953) (aka. Return to Glennascaul)
* The Others (2001)
* The Phantom Carriage (1921) (aka. Korkarlen; The Phantom Chariot)
Poltergeist (1982)
Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986)
* Portrait of Jennie (1948)
* Reincarnation (2005) (aka. Rinne)
Ringu (1998) (aka. Ring)
Ringu 2 (1999) (aka. Ring 2)
R-Point (2004)
* The Screaming Skull (1958) [pd: Horror Classics]
* Scrooge (1923) (aka. A Christmas Carol) [with Old Scrooge]
Scrooge (1935)
Scrooged (1988)
* Shikoku (1999) [Kadokawa Horror Collection]
Sightings: Heartland Ghost (2002)
Silent Hill (2006) [Blu-Ray]
The Sixth Sense (1999)
* Sleepy Hollow (1999) Lee
* Snake Woman's Curse (1968) (aka. Kaidan hebi-onna; Ghost Story of the Snake Woman) (Dir. Nobuo Nakagawa)
* Stir of Echoes (1999) [Blu-Ray]
* A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) (aka, Janghwa, Hongryeon)
The Tenant (1976) (aka. Le Locataire)
* Terror, The (1963) Boris Karloff, Jack Nicholson [pd: Horror Classics, DVision, Digiview) Karloff, Nicholson
* 13 Ghosts (1960) (Dir William Castle) [needs special red / blue glasses]
Thir13en Ghosts (2001)
* The Time of Their Lives (1946) (Abbott, Costello)
* Tokaido Yotsuya kaidan (1956) (Dir. Masaki Mori)
Topper (1937)
Topper Takes a Trip (1938)
* Tower of London (1962) (Price) [MGM Midnite Movies with The Haunted Palace]
* The Turn of the Screw (1974)
* Ugetsu Monogatari (1953) (Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi) (aka. Tales of Ugetsu; Ugetsu; Tales of a Pale and Mysterious Moon After the Rain) [criterion]
* The Uninvited (1942, released 1944) [vhs]
x The Unseen (1945) (aka. Fear)
* A Warning to the Curious (1972) (aka. Ghost Story for Christmas: A Warning to the Curious) [sinistercinema]
* What Lies Beneath (2000)
* The Whip and the Body (1963) (Dir. bava) (Christopher) Lee (aka. La Frusta e il corpo; Son of Satan; Night Is the Phantom; The Body and the Whip)
Whispering Corridors (1998) (aka. Yeogo goedam; High School Girl's Ghost Story)
Whispering Corridors 2 (1999) (aka. Yeogo goedam II; Memento Mori; Memento Mori: Remember the Dead)
* Wishing Stairs (2003) (aka. Yeogo goedam 3: Yeowoo gyedan; Whispering Corridors 3: Wishing Stairs)
* The Woman in Black (1989) [dvdr]


It's hard to separate ghosts from possession after death or reincarnation, so...
* Audrey Rose (1977) Anthony Hopkins
* The Haunted Palace (1963) (Price) [MGM Midnite Movies with Tower of London] [Lovecraft: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward]
* The Mephisto Waltz (1971) [Midnite Movies with The House on Skull Mountain]
* The Shining (1980) (Dir. Stanley Kubrick) Jack Nicholson
* The Tomb of Ligeia (1964) (Price) [MGM Midnite Movies with An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe]

Finally, I recently saw Viy (1967) (aka. Spirit of Evil). I heard about this because Mario Bava's La Maschera del demonio (1960) (aka. Black Sunday) is supposed to be loosely based on it. It's not--not at all. Viy (the movie) is a faithful adaptation of Nikolai Gogol's story of a seminary student that gets entangled with a witch's ghost. It impresses me how well the movie stood up even after reading the story. The acting is pedestrian, at best, and the mood and characters suffer for it, but it's otherwise very good if you can get beyond that.

For further reference:
http://www.fosteronfilm.com/horror/haunt/revhaunt.htm
http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com/topic/9063?page=1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_movies

Poltergeist scared the cr*p out of me when I was a kid.

How about a shaving theme Halloween, with movies selected from the B&B Wiki page on Shaving in movies and television

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Bruiser (2000)
Dark Passage (1947)
Event Horizon (1997)
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
Final Destination (2000)
The Ghost (1963)
Ghost Story (1981)
Gods and Monsters (1998)
Hannibal (2001)
The Henderson Monster (1980)
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)
High Plains Drifter (1973)
Live and Let Die (1973)
The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
Maximum Overdrive (1986)
The Monster Squad (1987)
1984 (1984)
Pan's Labyrinth (1986)
Pitch Black (2000)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Predator (1987)
Repulsion (1965)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Se7en (1995)
The Seventh Sign (1988)
The 6th Day (2000)
Soylent Green (1973)
Spellbound (1945)
Sweeney Todd (1936, 1982, 2006, 2007)
The Thing from Another World (1951)
28 Days Later... (2002)

Though not typically from the "horror" genre, one that scared the hell out of me when I saw it (c.1984?) was Threads.
I watched it again recently and it hadn't lost any of its impact. A truly frightening film.

Check out the viewer reviews here.

duamuteffe said:

the original "the haunting, " - use the remake for a coaster.

Click to expand...

+1

SiBurning you give expert advice for sure.

I was looking through your lists and saw "Mark of the Devil". I remember wanting to see that movie but the mayor of our town felt that it was his duty to ban it from all movie theaters...and he got his way.

I watched clips of it on YouTube and it almost makes you laugh. Thank you for bringing that back to my memory. I am glad that 40 years later I can say that I have seen why Mr. Mayor felt so compelled to banish this movie in our town. (what a joke).

Thanks for the suggestions. I picked up a few and will report later.

I agree that suspenseful horror rules over the bloodbath model. No matter what, the The Exorcist is still scary. Some of the scenes...just ain't right. Know what I mean? I think Mercedes McCambridge's voice work was the spookiest thing about the show. Who would have thunk a woman would voice a demon like that?

I have watched some of the Japanese horror films like the Ring and the Grudge. Pretty spooky stuff. Creepy, really. And they did it without a blood fest. These are the kind of movies that have you looking twice at shadows for a few weeks.

I also agree that many of the shows that scare you when young just don't have the effect later in life. Such is the jading of age. I want to watch some really good horror films this season. Si Burning has a good list. I should be able to find something there. Netflix will get a workout I am sure.

Regards, Todd

One of the main difficulties in picking scary movies is that people are affected by different things. To recommend a so-called horror movie requires an understanding of the individual's beliefs and experiences, and particularly what mystifies them. After all, the genre we call horror has never been about being horrified. Poe called his work Tales of Mystery and Imagination. Lovecraft says it requires a sense of the Cosmic. It really is about Mystery, that sense of wonder and dread of things beyond the known and knowable. Each of us forms a personal mental model of the universe, within which some things are safe, and others not so safe. These films are only valid genre films when they reach into the beyond. Many excellent films touch us in areas that are beyond human norms,and possibly beyond what is knowable, but they're drama, not horror, if they fail to reach into the Mysteries. The difficulty lies in knowing what is a Mystery to a particular person, as opposed to something rationalized.

Of course, one needs to know oneself before this can become clear. And we can be difficult creatures to come to know, even to ourselves. Rather than try to give recommendation of movies that affect me personally, it might serve better to share a recent personal revelation that suggests--if perhaps doesn't quite explain--a reason for my love of horror films.

My earliest memory is of catching measles and being deathly sick with a temperature nearly 106F when I was exactly one year old. I clearly remember a few short, but precise images of those days, and have confirmed my recollection with my mother by describing the events, people, and surroundings, including the color, shape, and pattern of a nearby wall clock. It was a dark evening and the lights were out in the living room on the second floor apartment where my crib was kept in the corner near the window. I remember the glow and movement outside, as if there were a snow storm eerily reflecting the small amounts of light coming from the street lamps below. A tall, wide stranger entered the room, and was ushered to my side. He carried a large bag, and wore a wide brim hat and heavy overcoat. He laid the bag on a nearby table, and removed his coat and hat. I remember thinking how wide and dark this mysterious stranger was. Then he leaned over me, this large, dark mysterious shadowy figure, terrifying me and covering me in shadow. Then he withdrew, opened his bag, and reached inside for something. As he did so, he turned his back to me, hiding whatever he was holding, while he held a short conversation with my mother and someone else nearby. My fears returned suddenly when he turned around and hovered above me again. He reached out for me, and with his other hand, drew some kind of contraption towards me. And then came the shock.

This is all I remember. It wasn't until years later that I learned how my older brother caught the measles in school and gave them to me. Or how the doctor drove 15 miles each way after office hours in a wintry blizzard to give me a shot. At that time and age, this could have been fatal without proper care. I was obviously on death's door when this dark stranger came by to deliver the coup de grace. And then, somehow, I recovered.

As I said before, it was only a short few months ago that I realized the implications of this memory. Having been on the verge of death, and rescued by a painful shock administered by this huge, brooding, dark, mad doctor, I must have somehow unconsciously associated some element of darkness, fear, and pain with redemption and life. There's little wonder anymore of the attraction these monsters hold for me.

Not about ghosts and goblins but the "originals" of ' Pyscho' and 'On The Beach' both scared me. My husband, I and good friends were almost kicked out of the theater we were at to see the Exorcist due to laughing out loud.
Sue

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919)
The Haunted Castle (1921)
Nosferatu the Vampire (1922)
The Bells (1926)
Dracula (1931) -- The Spanish version
Frankenstein (1931)
The Most Dangerous Game (1932)
The Mummy (1932)
The Old Dark House (1932)
Vampyr (1932)
White Zombie (1932)
Island of Lost Souls (1933)
King Kong (1933)
Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
The Black Cat (1934)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
The Raven (1935)
The Devil Doll (1936)
Dracula's Daughter (1936)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)
The Man They Could Not Hang (1939)
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
Cat People (1944)
The Uninvited (1942 or 1944)
Gojira (1954)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1955)
I Vampiri (1956)
The Abominable Snowman (1957)
The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
Bell, Book And Candle (1958)
The Fly (1958)
Horror of Dracula (1958)
The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)
The Ghost Story of Yotsuya (1959) (aka. Tokaido Yotsuya kaidan) (Dir. Nobuo Nakagawa)
The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959)
Black Sunday (1960) (aka. La Maschera del demonio; Mask of the Demon)
The Brides of Dracula (1960)
The Fall of the House of Usher (1960)
Mill of the Stone Women (1960)
The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960)
The Innocents (1961)
The Cabinet of Caligari (1962)
Carnival of Souls (1962)
Doctor Crippen (1962)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Black Sabbath (1963)
Diary of a Madman (1963)
The Haunted Palace (1963)
The Raven (1963)
The Terror (1963)
The Virgin Of Nuremberg (1963)
Whip and the Body (1963)
The Comedy of Terrors (1964)
The Evil of Frankenstein (1964)
The Gorgon (1964)
Kwaidan (1964)
The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)
The Skull (1965)
Terrore Nello Spazio (1965) (aka. Planet of the Vampires)
An Angel for Satan (1966)
Queen of Blood (1966)
The Cremator (1968)
Curse of the Crimson Altar (1968)
Kuroneko (1968)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Blind Beast (1969)
The Vampire Lovers (1970)
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
Countess Dracula (1971)
Daughters of Darkness (1971)
Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971)
The Omega Man (1971)
Twins of Evil (1971)
Burke and Hare (1972)
Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972)
Blood for Dracula (1973)
Flesh for Frankenstein (1973)
High Plains Drifter (1973)
The Legend of Hell House (1973)
Soylent Green (1973)
The Wicker Man (1973)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
The Cursed Medallion (1975)
Jaws (1975)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
The Stepford Wives (1975)
Trilogy of Terror (1975)
Audrey Rose (1977)
Coma (1977)
Rappaccini's Daughter (1980)
The Shining (1980)
The Woman in Black (1989)
Event Horizon (1997)
Dark City (1998)
Pi (1998)
Shadow of the Vampire (2000)
The Others (2001)
Dracula, Pages From a Virgin's Diary (2002)
The Call of Cthulhu (2005)

The very first of the Halloween movies - think it came out in the mid to late 1970's - starred Jamie Lee Curtis.