Top horror movies (with list from RT)

Kyriakos

Kyriakos

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Styled, loosely, after Arakh's thread on romantic films, the thread is meant to also provide suggestions for movies of the genre :)
As a list, I think it's good to refer to the RottenTomatoes one, since it is quite large and the site is among the centers for movie critique:

editorial.rottentomatoes.com

200 Best Horror Movies of All Time

It's the top horror movies to watch now, from Nosferatu to Get Out, and all the Aliens, Psychos, Living Dead, and Its in-between!
editorial.rottentomatoes.com editorial.rottentomatoes.com

Some in the list that I personally liked:
-Blackcoat's Daughter
-It Follows
-The Babadook
-AngelHeart
-The Brood
-Deep Red
-The Thing
-The Tenant
 
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To my surprise, I've actually seen 3 of these:

Duel (scared the hell out of me as a child)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Leonard Nimoy prompted me to see that; memo to self: Just because a Star Trek actor is in something, it doesn't mean it's not a piece of crap)

Carrie (big mistake; that one gave me nightmares)


Cube should be on this list.
 
Kyriakos said:
^ Carnival of Souls (#151 in the list) is a 60s movie, with some style. Though the start of the film may drive people away (looks more amateurish and the story simply isn't there yet).
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Sounds like a Kiss album.
 
I've seen.
Land of the Dead - Exactly what it says it is. Plus, Dennis Hopper as a bad guy.
Ginger Snaps - Good werewolf movie
28 Days later - Obvious movie
Shaun of the Dead. on the list for some reason.......
Zombieland, again for some reason..........
Invasion of the Body Snatchers(1978) a good remake of a 1950's "B" movie
Aliens. - James Camerons Vietnam-style military disaster take on Alien. One of the best. More Action than Horror.
Night of the Living Dead(1968) Super scarey when i saw it when i was like 7.........Only Maximum Overdrive scared me more in the way of nightmares........
Alien. - Classic 1970's Sci-Fi Horror.
 
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Kyriakos said:
Horror films can have core supernatural elements and still be good. An example of that would be... Angelheart.
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Hm. How would you classify The Crow? The whole thing is supernatural/urban goth, but there are definitely some horror elements in it, given how Draven kills some of Top Dollar's gang, not to mention Top Dollar himself.

That's a movie I've seen multiple times. Actually, this one belongs in the other thread as well, since it's definitely a romance movie (even though the lovers are both dead for most of the movie and Brandon Lee was accidentally killed on-set).
 
Valka D'Ur said:
Hm. How would you classify The Crow? The whole thing is supernatural/urban goth, but there are definitely some horror elements in it, given how Draven kills some of Top Dollar's gang, not to mention Top Dollar himself.

That's a movie I've seen multiple times. Actually, this one belongs in the other thread as well, since it's definitely a romance movie (even though the lovers are both dead for most of the movie and Brandon Lee was accidentally killed on-set).
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I am not sure if I have ever watched all of it, but like you said it is supernatural with a gothic aesthetic :)
 
AmazonQueen said:
Not really a fan of horror. Angelheart was good, but it was psychological horror, no zombies or other nonsense, just de Niro eating an egg.
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Angel Heart i'd classify as main genre thriller with sub horror & mystery. Horror elements only come in during the big reveal of what really happened.

Or Silence of the Lambs..thrillers can be scary too.

Would anyone really say i watch horror now with those 2 :)
Compared to let's say..Evil Dead or Exorcist.
 
Of those listed, I've seen 50 or 60. I won't bother listing them. Some personal favorites that I don't see listed:
  • The Hunger (1983) - Sexy vampire movie starring Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie and Susan Sarandon, with a club scene featuring Bauhaus performing "Bela Lugosi's Dead." Tony Scott's first feature, and you can already see his visual style beginning to emerge.
  • Near Dark (1987) - Bloody vampire movie directed by Kathryn Bigelow, starring Adrian Pasdar, Bill Paxton, Lance Henrickson and Jeanette Goldstein (the latter 3 fresh off Aliens). Bigelow's early movies just recently became available for streaming, if you haven't seen this or her cyberpunk classic Strange Days.
  • Prince of Darkness (1987) - John Carpenter movie about a group of scientists who may have discovered pure evil. Horror icons Donald Pleasance and Victor Wong, and '80s kids may recognize Jameson Parker from Simon & Simon.
  • The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) - The investigation of an exorcism gone awry. Part courtroom drama, part The Exorcist. Starring Tom Wilkinson, Laura Linney and Jennifer Carpenter just about clawing her own face off.
  • Bug (2006) - Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon lock themselves in a motel room and go absolutely bat[stink] insane. Directed by William Friedkin.


Valka D'Ur said:
Hm. How would you classify The Crow?
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Supernatural, superhero, revenge, action. I wouldn't call it horror, myself.
 
Great stuff Egon, Near Dark was tense and especially Lance Henrickson always delivered. Some real vampire horror atmo.
Prince of Darkness was a bit underrated imo.

Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight always was a guilty pleasure of mine..then again why guilty, it's an actually solid film with good actors :)
 
EgonSpengler said:
Supernatural, superhero, revenge, action. I wouldn't call it horror, myself.
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I bet you might if you read some of the novels. Even in the graphic novels there are some horror elements (the movie is based on a graphic novel and the TV series was based on the movie, though the Skull Cowboy appears in several episodes). The novels... yikes.

The idea is that Eric Draven isn't the only person who ever came back from the dead a year after he (or she) died, to take revenge on the killer(s) of someone - or more (in one novel the Crow is a kindergarten teacher who comes back to exact revenge against those who killed her students in a bomb attack).

As for superhero... Eric Draven isn't like a regular superhero. For one thing, he doesn't get his abilities until after he's dead. And the difference between movie Eric and TV show Eric is that in the movie, the "Crow" look is done with makeup. Eric just becomes much stronger and can't be killed unless his crow avatar is harmed or killed.

Contrast that with the TV show, when Eric physically turns into the Crow (gains the 'look' from the movie). He seems to have the ability to appear and disappear at will, though we never see him do it. A crow shows up, and then Eric turns up out of nowhere (usually scaring the crap out of the cop, Albrecht, who sorta knows what Eric is, yet refuses to treat him as anything but another annoying informant).

TV-Eric Draven does help strangers, sometimes going far out of his way for that. The premise of the TV show isn't "kill the killers". It's redemption for the soul. He does achieve this with one of them... who is murdered anyway. One by one during the single season this show was on, the gang members who did kill Eric and his girlfriend were being killed in various ways. If the show'd had the second season it was supposed to have had, I'd bet the rest of the gang would have died as well.

So yeah, you could consider the TV version of The Crow to be a superhero type of show.

I wrote a LOT of fanfiction for this show, back in the late '90s/early '00s. There were only 22 episodes, but they had a profound effect on my writing and writing habits at the time. I've still got story ideas that have been rattling around, over the past 20+ years.
 
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