Yes, it’s another movie post, isn’t it grand? This time we’re doing our favorite horror movies of all time. Two mini-lists, one for Grace and one for myself, of our top 5 favorite horror movies of all time.
Lilyn’s Top Five Favorite Horror Movies of All Time
(and yes, they are in order from least favorite to most favorite.)
Wes Craven’s New Nightmare is always going to be on my list of favorite movies. Directed by Wes Craven, and bringing back Heather Langenkampf. The synopsis was “A demonic force has chosen Freddy Krueger as its portal to the real world. Can Heather Langenkamp play the part of Nancy one last time and trap the evil trying to enter our world?”
I think it’s extremely well done (for a Nightmare on Elm Street movie, at least), and it made Freddy scary again.
Directed by Paul Anderson, released in 1997, and starring he whom shall forever be known as Jurassic Park guy in my mind, Event Horizon was about “a rescue crew investigates a spaceship that disappeared into a black hole and has now returned…with someone or something new on-board.” And it is one of the few truly scary sci-fi horror films out there. That scene with the naked lady with no eyes? Gaaah. Or where the one dude gets ‘turned inside out’? No, thank you!
This 2002 remake of the popular Japanese horror film was directed by Gore Verbinski and starred Naomi Watts. The Ring operated under the simple premise that “A journalist must investigate a mysterious videotape which seems to cause the death of anyone in a week of viewing it.”. And it scared the ever lovin’ bejebus out of me.
I did not EVER willingly watch the very end of this film, where Samara’s face gets exposed. I always covered my eyes. And then I saw it quite by accident sometime last year, and turned the air blue.
Oculus is the ‘newest’ of my favorite horror films of all time, and probably one of the few truly good horror movies that have emerged in the last 10 years. Directed by Mike Flanagan and starring Karen Gillan, it’s about “A woman tries to exonerate her brother, who was convicted of murder, by proving that the crime was committed by a supernatural phenomenon.”
This movie is so good that as soon as we got to the end of it, my partner and I immediately restarted it to watch it again. This is just a fantastically well-done movie.
Ah, Thir13een Ghosts, how I love you. Released in 2001, and staring Tony Shalub, the synopsis is: “When Cyrus Kriticos, a very rich collector of unique things dies, he leaves it all to his nephew and his family. All including his house, his fortune, and his malicious collection of ghosts!”.
GracieKat’s Top Five Favorite Horror Movies of All Time
I have to say I agree with Lilyn’s list, particularly Event Horizon and The Ring. Like Lilyn’s list mine is also in order from most to least.
In the Mouth of Madness
Sam Neill makes the list again. I will forever be indebted to @NikkatsuNoir on Twitter for finally making me sit my butt down and watch this. It rapidly shot to the top of my favorites. The synopsis: “An insurance investigator begins discovering that the impact a horror writer’s books have on his fans is more than inspirational” doesn’t really do it justice. With all of the Lovecraft and King references this movie is a horror lover’s dream. Come back to horror, Sam, we miss you.
Jacob’s Ladder
This movie has so much cool stuff in it that it heavily inspired one of my favorite survival horror game series of all time, Silent Hill. Even without the fun of reference hunting this movie is still amazing with a crazy twist to the end. If you haven’t seen this yet DO NOT READ ANYTHING ABOUT IT. People love to spoil this movie and it really does it an injustice. It’s about Jacob “mourning his dead child, a haunted Vietnam War veteran attempts to discover his past while suffering from a severe case of dissociation. To do so, he must decipher reality and life from his own dreams, delusion, and perception of death” but the whipsaw of the jagged story and awesome effects takes it much further than the outline suggests.
Frailty
I honestly have to say I wasn’t expecting much when I first watched this. One of the few movies directed by Bill Paxton (and it’s a shame that we’ll never know how much better he could be) and starring Matthew McConaughey and Powers Booth this movie, about “A man confesses to an FBI agent his family’s story of how his religious fanatic father’s visions led to a series of murders to destroy supposed “demons” is deceptively simple. A lot of it is two guys talking in a room but the tension is at an even pitch throughout and just keeps going up until the end. I was almost afraid to watch until the ending because I thought “There’s no way they can end this in a good way.” Well, I was wrong and the ending made us want to immediately re-watch it. Which we did.
The Car
“A mysterious black, sleek automobile terrorizes everyone it comes into contact with in a small town in Utah. The local sheriff may be the only person who can stop this menace which has been possessed by pure evil”. That pretty much sums up The Car. The cheese level might run a bit high now and then but there are some truly creepy and startling parts in it. Plus the car is freaking cool.
Pumpkinhead
The level of acting in this movie is so good that it can b hard to watch. At least the one scene. But everything else is pretty remarkable. Great acting, excellent atmosphere and the creature? Definitely an awesome reflection on the special effects team. And it even has a great story! The synopsis: “After a tragic accident, a man conjures up a towering, vengeful demon called Pumpkinhead to destroy a group of unsuspecting teenagers”.
What about you? What are your 5 Favorite Horror Movies of All Time?
Let us know below!
New Nightmare is definitely underrated–i love it. (Though i do love all the Nightmare films with Heather Langenkamp is ♥
And Thirteen Ghosts is amazeballs. Even my partner (who generally hates horror films) loves that one 🙂
You know it’s a good one when a non-horror fan digs it!
The whole story line of New Nightmare was just neat and nightmare inducing.
I’m going to call list “Top 5 Films that use horror imagery but may not be actual horror films” because I tend to prefer horror/humor hybrids.
1) “Idle Hands”. Seth Green and Elden Henson totally steal this movie.
2) “Killer Klowns From Outer Space”. Do you need to know anything more than the title?
3) “The Hunger”. David Bowie, Susan Sarandon, Catherine Deneuve (and Dan Hedeya is a small but vital role.) All style and no substance, but it’s really good style.
4) “The Return Of The Living Dead”. Dan O’Bannon’s masterpiece. And the film that introduced the concept of zombies eating brains.
5) “The Thing”. Still unequaled in sheer over the top creature effects.
I vaguely remember Idle Hands. Enjoyed it! Killer Klownz From Outer Space was -awesome!- I just recently saw it for the first time. Watched it with my 8 year old.
I don’t think I’ve seen The Hunger. The Return of the Living Dead was a great one. And yes – The Thing!
The Thing seems to be the one almost everyone can agree on, lol.
I loved Idle Hands and you’re so right, Seth Green was hilarious. “Look at me I’m Leatherface!'” Always kills me (no pun intended, lol)
-Roman Polanskis ‘The Fearless Vampire Hunters’.
-‘Videodrome’
-God Told Me To.’
-The House at the End of the Lane.’
-Evil Dead II’.
Interesting list 🙂 Evil Dead II is a great film! I haven’t seen your first 3 at all.
Yes, thank you, Lilyn. I wanted to make an interesting list. 😉
The first ‘Evil Dead’ is too grim for me, but ‘Evil Dead II’ is silly and fun.
Aww, I only stumped you with three… I must be slipping.
No, seriously, those top three are really good in my opinion.
‘The Fearless Vampire Hunters’ is absolutely charming.
‘Videodrome’ features James Woods at the height of his career; and the same for Deborah Harry. This is made by Canadian film-maker, David Cronenberg. He made lots of horror movies throughout the seventies.
I don’t know anything about ‘God Told Me To’ except that I remember it from years ago as an odd and scary cult film. I think it stars Judd Hirsch, and Andy Kaufmann has a small role.
Hmm. I will have to look into that Videodrome one 🙂
I’ve seen Evil Dead II and Videodrome. Videodrome…I’m just going to say one sentence. Pulling a gun from a vagina stomach. You’re welcome. 🙂
Videodrome is one of those films that messes with the idea of reality. James Wood’s character, Max Renn, is definately hallucinating in some scenes, and there are some other scenes that you can be pretty sure are “real” in an objective sense. However, there’s a lot of it that could be interpreted either way. The ambiguity is what gives the film its power.
“The battle for the mind of North America will take place in the video arena–the Videodrome.”
Dr. Brian O’Blivion
I just now rented it on Amazon.
This is a very difficult choice. I love many of the classic horror films, although I don’t find them scary, but there are just gorgeous. Cat People, the 1942 version, is beautiful and I remember it scared me when I was a child (although you don’t really see anything) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034587/?ref_=nv_sr_2, the Bride of Frankenstein…
Alien always makes me jump (and it also looks amazing). And then I love Tremors. I’d be pushed to say I find it scary, but I can’t stop watching it any time it comes on.
I love the original George A. Romero Living Dead movies (sorry to see him go).
Yeah Tremors is one of my favorite films, but I just can’t consider it a horror. Lol.
Alien is another great film as well, but to me it’s more sci-fi than horror.
You cannot beat the originals. As you say, Olga, the old movies may not be as scary, but they are beautiful to watch.
We will always have Zombie George from Call of Duty Zombies, at least. I can’t think of a higher tribute to him.
I love the older ones, too. I don’t find them very scary, either, but some of them are just shot beautifully. I have always wanted to watch The Cat People but I’ve never found it anywhere. I guess I’m going to have to order it, lol.
This is why I love horror fans- their favorites can be so far and wide in between from the normal rotation of “classics.” I can definitely relate to Grace’s tastes!
Yeah -asking horror fans their favorites is always fun,:)
Thank you! I like making these, too. You usually get everyone else’s favorites lists and might come up with some new movies to watch.
Oh yeah, 28 Days Later is a classic too!
So many good ones on here. I adored Frailty and Jacob’s Ladder and man, I remember the days of Pumpkinhead. I was also scared by The Ring and The Grudge wasn’t too far behind. Oculus was good too and I remember going to see 13 Ghosts in the theater with my husband when we were first married – back in the days when it took movies 8-12 months between theater release and DVD/VCR.
I can’t imagine seeing 13 Ghosts,on the big screen. That must have been awesome!!
I heard that some people had issues with the loud sounds in the theatre. Did it strike you as loud?
When we first watched it my sister was like ” I wonder if these are real chants? Could we be binding ghosts to our house?” T which I laughed. Until I got home alone that night, lol.
So I can thank her for jumping at every little creak my house made.
Mine are: The Thing, Dawn of the Dead (1978), Event Horizon, Day of the Dead, Leviathan.
Oh yeah The Thing and the Dead movies are great!
Yay! Another person who appreciates Leviathan! It was really, really close to making my list because I love that movie.
I did have The Thing on there as well, along with In the Mouth of Madness and The Fog. Then I realized that it was rapidly becoming a top Carpenter films list, lol, so I limited myself to one.
28 Days Later. Event Horizon was creepy too! And thanks for choosing Jacob’s Ladder, it has been forever on my watch list, time to speed things up! 🙂
I saw The Ring at the movies and shit myself. Damn movie terrified me (I’m a big wuss with horror movies). Ditto with Jacob’s Ladder. That is a seriously scary but great movie.
I’m very very glad I didn’t see The Ring in theatres. Holy crap! Lol. Yeah horror movies terrify me.,that’s why I love them.
I can’t really say they ‘scare’ me anymore but they still are my favorites. I think so much more imagination is displayed in them than other genres. Even fantasy can get into ruts. I’m glad you guys like Jacob’s Ladder. It is such a great movie, even knowing the ending it still is a great watch.