I have been on a scary movie adventure and would love other suggestions!
Not sure what flavor you’re looking for but here’s some of the ones I enjoyed:
- Pan’s Labyrinth - fairy tale horror
- Gretel & Hansel -fairy tale horror
- Babadook - dramatic horror
- Mothman Prophecies - dramatic horror
- Hereditary - dramatic horror
- The Descent - adventure/action horror
- Jeepers Creepers - adventure/action horror
- The Mist - adventure/action horror
- The Crazies - adventure/action horror
- 10 Cloverfield Lane - adventure/action horror
- This is the End - comedy horror
- Shaun of the Dead - comedy horror
- Zombieland - comedy horror.
On my Halloween movie list this year I’m planning on watching
- Little Otik (fairy tale horror with stop motion & live action - looks artsy)
- Lamb (supernatural horror)
- Tigers are not Afraid (supposed to be similar to Pan’s Labyrinth)
- Midnight Meat Train (Clive Barker horror- one of Bradley cooper’s earlier movies)
Saw some other good ones already posted here - Event Horizon, Midsommar - so I think you’ll get a good list.
I got in trouble with my mom when she found out I went to Midnight Meat Train. She thought it was a porno. Not sure why she thought the local theater would be playing a porno or why they would let a bunch of high schoolers in 🤷
A lot of contemporary horror is psychological, sometimes with one or two gory/violent/jump scare scenes. If you like that, watch recent ones like Talk to Me, Relic or the Babadook (all Aussie incidentally).
Hereditary is probably the best horror of the past decade, and before that, my 21st century favourite was Kill List. But there were so many more excellent horrors, slashers, psychological thrillers, and ghostly dramas last century.
Night of the Living Dead invented the zombie genre and is still probably my favourite movie of all time. Dawn of the Dead skewers consumerism and is similar but in lurid colour. The slasher craze of the 80s started with Halloween in '79 and continued with Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street and the many sequels from those franchises.
Other good ones in no particular order: High Tension aka Switchblade Romance, Dead Snow, Eden Lake, It Follows, Green Room, Hush, The Strangers, Martyrs, and if you’re really looking to punish yourself AND read subtitles, check out the works of Gaspar Noe, especially Irreversible. Deeply disturbing. Enjoy!
Hereditary is good, but man, I just don’t understand the insane hype around it. It was an enjoyable watch, but it wasn’t all that much better than the typical modern horror movie.
Different strokes, I guess.
I rewatched it recently and became aware of how much I’d missed the first time, which made it a rich experience up there with some of the best films of any genre. It’s pretty striking. Sometimes a universally respected piece of cinema doesn’t grab me either though - a horror example that comes to mind is the Exorcist.
I agree with the other person that it is one of my favorites as it’s one of the only movies to ever actually creep me out (though not a fan of the ending) as I feel horror should.
My wife is a big horror fan, and I can say that a majority of the ones I’ve seen with her are extremely predictable and rely on cheap tricks like jump scares most of the time, so outside of campy horror stuff or classics that I grew up with, it just doesn’t do anything for me.
All of the Hellraiser movies (some are great, some are not so great, but it’s worth it to work through all of them in order). The newest was kind of a re-imagining and you can start there if you want).
The Thing - the 1982 film is a classic, but the newest one is a prequel that came decades after the original movie- I’d recommend watching both, starting with the original.
All the alien movies. Some don’t consider Sci-Fi horror to be true horror, but these are essential watching. I consider it to be the best complete horror series of movies ever made.
Vampire’s Kiss (Nicholas Cage) - this is truly bizarre and if you are a Nick Cage fan it should be considered required watching.
Barbarian (2022) - simultaneously mind blowing and absolutely terrifying. Probably the best horror of the past 5 years.
The Mist - and mainly just for the ending which was a total mindfuck.
Train to Busan - This is a Korean made film (with subtitles) in the zombie genre, and is absolutely riveting.
World War Z - an outstanding zombie genre movie - one of the first zombie movies to feature fast moving parkour capable zombies as opposed to the slow moving classic zombies.
American Psycho - scary because this could (and does) happen and you could be standing right next to the next American Psycho right now and not even know it.
Maximum Overdrive - doesn’t get recommended a lot, but it holds up and is a great machine-uprising type of horror.
Event Horizon - propped up as SciFi Horror but this is a classic true horror just with a scifi backdrop.
I WISH there would be a modern remake of “Scanners”. Scanners is great horror from decades past but it just doesn’t hold up well to modern standards-it desperately needs a modern remake.
This movie for me cemented Sam Neill’s acting range. From Dr. Grant with the dinosaurs…to this. This is also one of my favorite, if not THE favorite, sci-fi horror films of all time - which is kind of a tough genre to sell.
I love Event Horizon. I also love the theory that it takes place in the Warhammer 40k universe.
On the surface this comes across as SciFi, but it’s a true classic horror with a scifi backdrop. It’s essential watching for any horror genre fan, IMO.
The Thing from 1982 and Annihilation are two of my favourites. The Thing is just well shot and interesting and Annihilation has some gorgeous surreal visuals.
If you haven’t seen Color Out of Space you’d probably enjoy it as well!
Oh yeah I’ve seen it. Watched it and the Five Nights at Freddy’s style movie Willy’s Wonderland when I was doing a little bit of a Nicolas Cage binge.
Mandy is also worth a watch
A little older, but Braindead (aka Dead/Alive) is a really great early 1990’s horror. It is one of Peter Jackson’s earlier films. It is a really good body horror that has a good sense of humor.
You can stream the whole movie on YouTube.
If you haven’t seen any of the classic late 60s/early 70s horror movies, they are worth checking out. ‘Rosemary’s Baby’, 'The Exorcist, ‘Don’t Look Now’, or ‘The Omen’ are all fantastic.
My favorites are mostly classics: Alien, Return of the Living Dead, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978 version has Leonard Nimoy!), Shaun of the Dead, The Thing (1982), Tremors, and Hellraiser usually make my rewatch list.
Poltergeist for the best classic, imo. The acting performances are superb and the scares are still so effective.
Event Horizon.
Midsommar is one of my favorites, or you could try It Follows if you haven’t seen either of those. Midsommar is a slow burn intrigue sort of thing, but quite realistic, most of the most horrifying things about it could happen to you for real.
It Follows is a very creative movie, very much about the fear of being chased by an entity that never stops, extremely interesting premise
I feel like Hereditary and Midsommer have similar vibes for some reason even though the plots are not at all similar
Same director, probably what you’re feeling there is a sum of little touches. I liked the first half of Hereditary quite a bit, didn’t really like where it ended up, got too fantastical for my tastes, I like pulp horror too, but I really really like horror that’s plausible
I did not know they shared a director that’s interesting
I don’t have many movie recommendations, but I can’t express how much I enjoyed the miniseries that Mike Flanagan has on Netflix. My order of favorites being Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, and Midnight Mass. They’re all excellent though! He also is coming out with his take on The Fall of the House of Usher that premiered on the 12th. Haven’t gotten around to it to give my take though!
Which was supposed to be Midnight Club? Also FotHoU is great, in case you needed a push to watch it
Mama I don’t need more push, I’m hype to get time to marathon it but I’m glad to hear it’s good! Especially if it’s coming from a fan of his already. Big fan of the original story. And it was my understanding that Midnight Club was left unfinished? I’d love more of his stuff, but my heart is worn out from loving a show that’s left unfinished:/
Here are a few worth watching in no particular order or selection
Smile
The Void is great if you like campy lovecraftian stuff
A less popular one that was surprisingly awesome was His House. Its a Netflix movie but you should be able to find it a few other places as well (🏴☠️). I really liked it. Unique, creepy, and pretty well made. Definitely recommend.
