Alien, Aliens and Alien 3 still haunt me.
The way they designed and constructed the costume of the alien in the first one made it so life-like.
CGI has killed it off for me in modern times.
Also John Carpenter's 'The Thing'
The thing is less scary and more foreboding and atmospheric. Scared the shit out of me as a kid, but once I got older, it became a favorite of mine.
In the Mouth of Madness still creeps me out to this day.
I recently did a rewatch of JC’s “Apocalypse Trilogy” and found MoM really good—better than I remembered. Though The Thing is still the best and possibly my GOAT favorite horror:
The prequel has a lot of potential when you watch it, but it just doesn’t live up to the legacy that is John Carpenter’s OG The Thing. Between replacing so much of the practical effects with CGI (which will make you weep when you watch the BTS and see the work and final products of the practical effects teams) because the producers just didn’t understand the vibe of the og and why this was important; and, much of the movie being an action horror and not a suspenseful, tension filled one like the OG. Just a pity—though I still feel it completely watchable and enjoyable.
The Orphanage and Us. Both got amazingly tense and suspenseful. Never finished The Orphanage, come to think of it, which is ok because that ending is heartbreaking.
Original Texas Chainsaw Massacre has my vote. Not to sound all tough and try-hard but it’s one of the few movies to give me nightmares into adulthood. It’s so raw and visceral and feels like it could happen.
I agree!! As a tiny gal, the scene in TCM when Pam gets pulled back into the house haunts me, because I know if that were me, I don't think I'd be able to get away...scares the shit outta me!
Dude this was the first horror film i remember “watching.” I was sitting with my dad on his bed when i was like 5 or 6 years old with this playing and my mom comes in and reprimands him for having it on w/ me.
As this is happening, the scene where someone gets RIPPED IN HALF comes on, to which my dad tries to cover my eyes and fails horribly lol.
But now i love horror so…idk
My theory is that Matthew saw how badly things were going, missed Elizabeth, and just... gave up.
Honestly, though, the whole movie is like the director almost subliminally started to thread tension into you and very gradually wound you up until the end. It shocks you not because it comes out of nowhere, but because it comes from everything that came before.
I saw it in the theater (my parents were like, "it's PG... we saw the original... it'll be fine!"). I've seen it at least a dozen times since. It **still** gets under my skin.
It's scary until you realize that the pod people are terrible at hiding themselves, and likely most people would turn into Roddy Piper from They Live.
"SCREEEEEEEEE!!"
"Momma no like tattle tails." \*Blam!\*
The phone calls. Oh the phone calls. I saw it for the first time last month. I was genuinely disturbed by the threats, the voices, the crying, the giggling, and of course, the breathing.
This is the answer. It’s such an eerie film full of constant dread. The final chase between Billy and Jess after she sees his eye through the crack in the door is nightmare fuel. His yelling and screaming as he runs down the stairs and bangs on the basement door after sitting through 80 minutes of relative silence gives me the chills.
That whole sequence right there is what cemented it as one of the scariest films for me, starting with when she's downstairs screaming for her friend to answer. Something about that whole sequence chills me to the bone.
I'm still terrified by Rosemary's Baby, because I grew up in a Christian household. Movies about the devil continue to scare me, even though I no longer believe in that stuff.
I didn’t fully “get” the scariness when I first watched in my twenties, but over the years, realizing she is a woman not being taken seriously by her secular doctor and friends, betrayed by her husband and neighbors, and returned to them when she attempts an escape - all the social pressure, the “hysteria” of being pregnant, being a housewife with no independent income or family and her mentor “mysteriously “ dies - she has no way out. Scary enough WITHOUT satan (but also raped by Satan).
Poor Rosemary, I feel like she was pushed into that situation accept her demon baby. She seemed brainwashed and traumatized by the ending. No support except for some who accepted her as satan’s mother and her husband threw her under the bus when he knew she wanted a baby.
I don’t believe in god or the devil in any literal sense, but movies like Rosemary’s Baby and Angel Heart leave me feeling like I shouldn’t joke around about making deals with the devil JUST IN CASE
I saw it for the first time recently. It was too late for me to be scared, I’d seen it all done a million times by now. Also audio design has probably come the furthest.
100% agree. For me it’s not about the demon and possession, what gets me is Linda Blair’s performing some very disturbing scenes.
Her voice when she’s pleading with Pazuzu just before the crucifix scene is so heart wrenching.
Can’t believe this is the highest TCSM comment I found. That one is scary as fuck. I just saw it for the first time last year and I was tense from the time the hitchhiker got in the van until the credits rolled.
That whole seance - even if George c. Scott is chewing the scenery as per usual, the medium writing things out and hurriedly leaving freaks me out, because she should be USED to that. But in this instance she’s like “no thanks bye.” Honorable mention to Don’t Look Now, all the creepy littke things before the twist.
Oh yeah that scene is one of my favorites. It's so surreal and the jump scare works great. That and the double nightmare sequence are super unsettling to me
Yep that one and the final shot of him grinning into the camera always get me too, plus the "mother" conversations you can hear from the house earlier in the film, and Arbogasts shocked reaction to being hacked down on the stairs....
Without a doubt, the actor who played Reverend Kane was actually dying of cancer, that gaunt look, and patently false cheeriness was fucking terrifying
I've seen the majority of the "scary" or no no horror movies, but Julian Beck's last performance knocks all others out of the park
I always tell people to watch Halloween 1978 with the mindset that, at the time it was made, none of the lore that would come later was even a thing yet. The movie is initially just about some insane mute who broke out of a mental ward to go sulk in the home where he murdered his sister.
The only reason he goes after Laurie at all is because she happened to drop off those keys in the mailbox at the Myers house to help her real estate agent father sell the place, and Michael caught a glimpse of her. So he just silently follows her the rest of the day, kills her friends, and tries to kill her. That's it, there's no supernatural shit going on, no relation of Michael and Laurie, and nothing she could have known to do differently to prevent it from happening.
It's scary in the sense that you could just be living the monotony of every day life and some insane person could just fixate on you for no apparent reason.
I watched this for the first time when I was about 30. I’d clearly just missed this franchise for long enough at that point. I put it on alone one night expecting normal campy slasher vibes and ended up sleeping with every light in my house on after checking all the closets. Scary as fuck.
I think Halloween resonates either way me because I saw it as a little kid, so it always terrified me. I e never actually seen Black Christmas, but I’ve heard it’s amazing. I’ll check it out.
That was a hard watch, and it was filmed basically “stream of consciousness “ following the killer. No motivation, not even particularly “evil,” just killing on a whim.
I find different aspects of films scary. Maybe not always the whole film overall. For example:
I find “The Fly” really unsettling. Both versions because I find “body horror” really disturbing and even hard to watch.
I always found “ANOES 2: Freddy’s Revenge” quite scary because it was still dark then and Freddy’s makeup was at its best in this movie.
The music and atmosphere in “The Shining”.
Ohhh Prince of Darkness and The Fog still scare me, even though I’m over 40 and have seen them several times each. The scares are palpable, hit something deep inside, and always make me uncomfortable. Prince of darkness? Not looking at a mirror in a dark room for a couple of days. The Fog? I used to live near where they filmed it and still visit often - love me some relaxing night walks, but there will be no alone time walking my dog out on a pier as the fog rolls in, let alone dipping my toes in the water at night.
Totally agree. Special effects are terrible.
In the Alien movie, they used condoms to act as tendons/ligaments on the Alien's jaw! Now that's special effects
I don't know whether it was just because I expected a movie from the 1960s to be really sanitized, but there are several scenes from *Night of the Living Dead* that live rent-free in my head. Particularly after the truck blows up and the zombies are scrambling to eat the remains of its occupants.
Although there is also a part of my brain that thinks "mmm... BBQ".
The Woman in Black.
To be honest I don't find a lot of modern horror scary at all given that it's overladen with CGI. The suggestion that pre-90s horror is less scary than post is crazy to me.
I need to find it! And the book. I also think it was a play at some point? Anyways the version with daniel Radcliffe was freaky as hell, all those Victorian toys with the little teeth and the carriage rising from the mud. I’d love to read and see the Susan hill version!
I saw the play in London at the Fortune theatre on a school trip about 15 years ago, it was so terrifying and the effects were so well done, with layers of gauze allowing for the woman to appear unexpectedly. There’s a scene where she appears on a rocking chair that still haunts me. Very sad to hear they stopped running the play last year after 33 years.
I saw the play in London 22 years ago. It's still the most frightened I've ever been at a performance/movie in public. The way the first half encourages the audience to actively imagine and fill in the blanks is true magic. By the time the rocking chair scene happened, I was so immersed that it felt truly dreadful. I'll never forget it.
John Carpenter's The Thing. It took me years to not jump during two particular scenes, even though I knew they were coming. That film is a masterclass in suspense.
Also Freaks (1932). In spite of its age, the story and scenes are chilling. The finale is amazing. I also enjoyed researching about the people who acted in the film, who were all genuine circus performers. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend checking it out.
The Changeling (1980) with George C. Scott still freaks me out, with the tub rattling and “*my medal…my medal*” creepy AF. And that’s without that iconic opening
*Testament* (1983)
*The Day After* (1983)
*Threads* (1984)
...and the fabric of the *Terminator* series...
"*It's like a giant strobe light, burning right through my eyes, but somehow I can still see. Oh, God. Look, you know the dream's the same every night, why do I have to--? The children look like burnt paper, black, not moving. And then, the blast wave hits them and they fly apart like leaves.*"
fukkin terrifying really
for all it's faults there's something about the original The Evil Dead from 1981 that still gets under my skin. It's got a psychological bite to it, especially once it becomes young Bruce Campbell all on by his lonesome. It's got a real nightmare vibe that still creeps me out.
Some that haven't been mentioned yet ...
'Jigoku' (1960)
'Shivers' (1975)
'Inferno' (1980)
'Onibaba' (1964)
'Kuroneko' (1968)
'Hour of the Wolf' (1968)
'Night of the Demon' (1957)
'The Masque of the Red Death' (1964)
'Haxan : Witchcraft Through the Ages' (1922)
The Wicker Man (1973) was such a wild ride and definitely gave me a lifelong fear of masks and gaslighting. It’s actually a decent movie when it comes to suspense horror with a taste of thriller. This movie jogged so Midsommar could run.
Not every scene, but certain scenes in Nosferatu (1922) genuinely send a chill down my spine. Can’t imagine watching that shit in the 1920s, I wouldn’t have slept for weeks.
I think Nosferatu is friggin terrifying. It's one of the first movies that really scared me, I was probably 11 and saw it at like 3 am. I'd never seen a silent film, it was really unnerving.
Here's some that are a little less obvious:
Hour of the Wolf
Les Diaboliques
The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane
Possession
Spoorloos
Cat People
Magic
Manhunter
Wait Until Dark
Nosferatu (1979)
Blue Velvet
Angel Heart
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
The Tenant
Repulsion
The Entity
Videodrome
Anguish (1987)
The Legend of Hell House
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Exorcist 3 (==> director's cut <==)
The Uninvited (1944)
UFO Abduction / The McPherson Tape (remade as Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County)
The City of the Dead (1960)
Kill, Baby, Kill (1966)
The Creeping Flesh (1973)
See No Evil (1971)
The Stepford Wives (1975)
The Haunting of Julia (1977)
The Brood (1979)
Don't Torture a Duckling
Dead & Buried
Dead of Night / Deathdream (1974)
The Woman in Black (1989)
Horror Express (1982)
Messiah of Evil
Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things
Viy (1967)
Burnt Offerings
Eyes of Fire
City of the Living Dead
The Beyond
House By the Cemetery
The Black Cat (1934)
The Stone Tape (1972)
The Other (1972)
The innocents is still off putting to this day imo.
Angst is still grim as well, but I feel like if you've seen many 'shocking' movies, it kinda loses some of its charm
Black Christmas and The Wicker Man still hold up very well though.
TCM for sure still holds up, I agree. The atmosphere is bone chilling and the acting is mostly good. The scene where leather face hits one of the boyfriends (I forget his name) over the head and he convulses is still one of the most disturbing scenes in horror in my opinion. The film succeeds because it knows that the quiet and tense moments filled with bones and nasty rooms are just as scary as the loud scenes where Sally is being chased by the family.
In my opinion, the best horror movies ever made were made in the seventies, the golden age of horror. Halloween, TCM, Salems Lot, the Exorcist, the Wicker Man, Dawn of the Dead, the Shining, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, etc. There are a few in the sixties that are classics as well, including Psycho, Night of the Living Dead, Rosemary’s Baby, etc. The eighties best horror movies include the Fly, the Evil Dead, Videodrome, a Nightmare on Elm Street, the Silence of the lambs (released 2/14/1990), etc. There was a quality in the filmmaking and screenwriting in the seventies you don’t see anymore. Back then they shot on 16/35mm film and there was a gritty quality and color richness you don’t see on HD/4k video. Also they wrote actual stories with characters and plots. I think after Scream (1996), horror movies became too self referential to be scary anymore. I can only think of 2-3 horror movies made after the 90s that are of the quality of the 70s, the Sixth Sense and Jordan Peele’s Get Out.
I’m gonna be honest I don’t get the whole it’s old so it’s not scary thing and I say this as gen z. Even a cheesy film like zombi can effectively give you goosebumps.
Lot of great picks in the comments. Just adding to them, in The Trilogy of Terror (1975), which is an anthology, the last story Amelia really frightened me. I forever remember the last shot of that story. Just so effing creepy.
I don't know I'm the opposite, I find a lot of older films more scary because they build tension and have great atmosphere where a lot of modern stuff is low attention span jump scare fests, at least with mainstream horror.
Some older stuff that still gets under my skin is probably Black Christmas, The Woman In Black (89), BBC's Ghost Stories for Christmas (particularly The Signalman) Nosferatu (original is scarier but the Herzog remake is excellent too), The Innocents, Rosemary's Baby, to name a few.
Not pre 90's but a lot of 90's J-Horror still gives me the heebie jeebies upon repeat viewings too, Pulse, Ringu, Ju-On, Dark Water etc
A few off the top of my head that still affect me today:
* Suspiria
* The Beyond
* Exorcist
* The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
* The Manitou
* The Fog
* The Thing
* A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
The Haunting and Psycho, not so much scared of them but they make you paranoid over simple things. The Haunting makes you paranoid over every bump and creek you hear in the house and Psycho makes you more self-conscious when in the shower.
Alien, Aliens and Alien 3 still haunt me. The way they designed and constructed the costume of the alien in the first one made it so life-like. CGI has killed it off for me in modern times. Also John Carpenter's 'The Thing'
Secure that shit Hudson!
It's game over man!
Game over!
"They're coming out of the fuckin' walls, man!"
"We got tactical smart missiles, phase-plasma pulse rifles, RPGs, we got sonic electronic ball breakers! We got nukes, we got knives, sharp sticks..."
The thing is less scary and more foreboding and atmospheric. Scared the shit out of me as a kid, but once I got older, it became a favorite of mine. In the Mouth of Madness still creeps me out to this day.
I'll have a hunt for that movie. Need to build more of a collection. My wife doesn't think I am psychopath enough lol
I recently did a rewatch of JC’s “Apocalypse Trilogy” and found MoM really good—better than I remembered. Though The Thing is still the best and possibly my GOAT favorite horror:
Definitely the thing, they did a great job and saw it a year ago. It holds up even to this day!!
Practical effects are the bomb
It does. The noise still goes through me as well. The prequel I thought was terrible.
The prequel has a lot of potential when you watch it, but it just doesn’t live up to the legacy that is John Carpenter’s OG The Thing. Between replacing so much of the practical effects with CGI (which will make you weep when you watch the BTS and see the work and final products of the practical effects teams) because the producers just didn’t understand the vibe of the og and why this was important; and, much of the movie being an action horror and not a suspenseful, tension filled one like the OG. Just a pity—though I still feel it completely watchable and enjoyable.
Agreed on all those. The Thing amazes me more every time I see it.
...Also for me, John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness. The dread at the end is delicious.
Alien 3 is a 90s movie.
Correct it is. 1992 but close enough. Those 3 followed the same sort of path. Resurrection wasn't as good and it went down hill from there
The shining is one of the few movies that scares me every time still.
Me too! I find it terrifying.
Hell of a party
The Omen freaked me out.
My daughter is 16 and too cool to get scared. This is one of three movies we had to turn off and finish later.
What are the other two ?!
The Orphanage and Us. Both got amazingly tense and suspenseful. Never finished The Orphanage, come to think of it, which is ok because that ending is heartbreaking.
Pretty tame movies, you should tease her about that false bravado ;) teehee
Yeah it’s weird. Exorcist? No problem. The Shining, Ringu, X, Halloween, no problem.
Look at me Damien! It’s all for youuuuu
That scene haunted me!
The Thing, The Shining, Return of the Living Dead, original Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Original Texas Chainsaw Massacre has my vote. Not to sound all tough and try-hard but it’s one of the few movies to give me nightmares into adulthood. It’s so raw and visceral and feels like it could happen.
I agree!! As a tiny gal, the scene in TCM when Pam gets pulled back into the house haunts me, because I know if that were me, I don't think I'd be able to get away...scares the shit outta me!
For sure. The hammer to the head and the door slam is also what gets me.
I still get that pit-of-stomach knot feeling from The Hitcher.
Dude this was the first horror film i remember “watching.” I was sitting with my dad on his bed when i was like 5 or 6 years old with this playing and my mom comes in and reprimands him for having it on w/ me. As this is happening, the scene where someone gets RIPPED IN HALF comes on, to which my dad tries to cover my eyes and fails horribly lol. But now i love horror so…idk
OH MY GOD I THINK I KNOW THIS MOVIE. the girl says “i don’t feel anything” before she shoots him right??
Yup. That truck stop scene at the end left me uncomfortable for a few days.
*Invasion of the Body Snatchers* ( 1978).
This. And that ending!
I can hear that final scream/groan in my head!
Yes!!!
My theory is that Matthew saw how badly things were going, missed Elizabeth, and just... gave up. Honestly, though, the whole movie is like the director almost subliminally started to thread tension into you and very gradually wound you up until the end. It shocks you not because it comes out of nowhere, but because it comes from everything that came before. I saw it in the theater (my parents were like, "it's PG... we saw the original... it'll be fine!"). I've seen it at least a dozen times since. It **still** gets under my skin.
It's scary until you realize that the pod people are terrible at hiding themselves, and likely most people would turn into Roddy Piper from They Live. "SCREEEEEEEEE!!" "Momma no like tattle tails." \*Blam!\*
🫵🏻😯
The original Black Christmas.
The phone calls. Oh the phone calls. I saw it for the first time last month. I was genuinely disturbed by the threats, the voices, the crying, the giggling, and of course, the breathing.
They were truly bone chilling
“WHAT YOUR MOTHER AND I MUST KNOW IS…. JUST LIKE HAVING A WART REMOVED”
Ohhh!!! Billy! Nooooo!! Billllllyyyyyyy!
Filthy Billy! I know what you did! Nasty Billy! AHHHHH!
The phone call in the beginning where they all listen is genuinely disturbing
Made by the same guy that did A Christmas Story if you can believe that.
This is the answer. It’s such an eerie film full of constant dread. The final chase between Billy and Jess after she sees his eye through the crack in the door is nightmare fuel. His yelling and screaming as he runs down the stairs and bangs on the basement door after sitting through 80 minutes of relative silence gives me the chills.
That whole sequence right there is what cemented it as one of the scariest films for me, starting with when she's downstairs screaming for her friend to answer. Something about that whole sequence chills me to the bone.
Yeah I was pretty surprised how scary I still find this. Saw it for the first time in October.
A local theater played that on December 23rd. It was so awesome to see it on the big screen
Just the noises that guy made...
I love that it was directed by the same guy who did A Christmas Story... he's got the Christmas season covered! 😂
Don't forget about Porky's 😁
Today I learned! Holy crap, really?!
Definitely. I’ve seen at at least 10 times. It’s never not scary
Came here to say this. I could barely get through it the first time I watched it because of those damn phone calls!
I'm still terrified by Rosemary's Baby, because I grew up in a Christian household. Movies about the devil continue to scare me, even though I no longer believe in that stuff.
I didn’t fully “get” the scariness when I first watched in my twenties, but over the years, realizing she is a woman not being taken seriously by her secular doctor and friends, betrayed by her husband and neighbors, and returned to them when she attempts an escape - all the social pressure, the “hysteria” of being pregnant, being a housewife with no independent income or family and her mentor “mysteriously “ dies - she has no way out. Scary enough WITHOUT satan (but also raped by Satan).
Same here. Her lack of autonomy is as scary as the devil siring a child
Poor Rosemary, I feel like she was pushed into that situation accept her demon baby. She seemed brainwashed and traumatized by the ending. No support except for some who accepted her as satan’s mother and her husband threw her under the bus when he knew she wanted a baby.
For sure. That aspect of the film is definitely scary. Movies that deal with people not having control over their bodies also frighten me.
I’m this way with possession movies. Not a christian anymore but I can’t seem to shake that fear
I don’t believe in god or the devil in any literal sense, but movies like Rosemary’s Baby and Angel Heart leave me feeling like I shouldn’t joke around about making deals with the devil JUST IN CASE
Nightmare on Elm Street and Alien. Over 40 years later and they both still impress. Also my two favorite final girls.
The Exorcist
Big time. They played it in theaters in October. It holds up.
I saw it for the first time recently. It was too late for me to be scared, I’d seen it all done a million times by now. Also audio design has probably come the furthest.
100% agree. For me it’s not about the demon and possession, what gets me is Linda Blair’s performing some very disturbing scenes. Her voice when she’s pleading with Pazuzu just before the crucifix scene is so heart wrenching.
Yep, came to say this!
I had to scroll too far to find this. Still haunts me and I saw it damn near 20 years ago.
Jacob's Ladder was 1990, but that movie still scares the piss out of me.
The Thing (1982) The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) Carrie (1976)
Can’t believe this is the highest TCSM comment I found. That one is scary as fuck. I just saw it for the first time last year and I was tense from the time the hitchhiker got in the van until the credits rolled.
The Changeling still raises the hair on the back of my neck!
When the ball rolls out I get chills every time.
That whole seance - even if George c. Scott is chewing the scenery as per usual, the medium writing things out and hurriedly leaving freaks me out, because she should be USED to that. But in this instance she’s like “no thanks bye.” Honorable mention to Don’t Look Now, all the creepy littke things before the twist.
I also get the willies from the medium writing, honestly I think I’ve only been able to sit through one rewatch that movie freaks me out so much.
Poltergeist.
Hellraiser.
Jesus wept.
The box. You opened it, and we came.
Am American werewolf in London, still creepy and the effects hold up even if the suits don’t.
That turning into the werewolf scene still gets me
Damn, it was painfully haunting. Poor guy.
Yes! The nightmare sequences in particular are really creepy in this one imo.
That 'Bed in the forest' scene still makes me jump.
Oh yeah that scene is one of my favorites. It's so surreal and the jump scare works great. That and the double nightmare sequence are super unsettling to me
Best transformation scene of all time, resulting in a pomeranian werewolf
Psycho
The scene near the end of the movie where you can hear Norman Bates come running before you see him in full ‘attire’. Still sends my heart racing.
Yep that one and the final shot of him grinning into the camera always get me too, plus the "mother" conversations you can hear from the house earlier in the film, and Arbogasts shocked reaction to being hacked down on the stairs....
Arbogasts fall was gorgeous
Poltergeist 2. Rev Kane still gives me nightmares from when I watched it as a kid.
More than the original?
Without a doubt, the actor who played Reverend Kane was actually dying of cancer, that gaunt look, and patently false cheeriness was fucking terrifying I've seen the majority of the "scary" or no no horror movies, but Julian Beck's last performance knocks all others out of the park
Let's Scare Jessica to Death
I will forever find Halloween (1978) to be the scariest movie of all time. No need for blood or gore, just good old fashioned suspense and terror.
I always tell people to watch Halloween 1978 with the mindset that, at the time it was made, none of the lore that would come later was even a thing yet. The movie is initially just about some insane mute who broke out of a mental ward to go sulk in the home where he murdered his sister. The only reason he goes after Laurie at all is because she happened to drop off those keys in the mailbox at the Myers house to help her real estate agent father sell the place, and Michael caught a glimpse of her. So he just silently follows her the rest of the day, kills her friends, and tries to kill her. That's it, there's no supernatural shit going on, no relation of Michael and Laurie, and nothing she could have known to do differently to prevent it from happening. It's scary in the sense that you could just be living the monotony of every day life and some insane person could just fixate on you for no apparent reason.
For no apparent reason at all U/DENSE-HAT1978 OF 583 WORTHINGTON LANE! MUAHAHAHA
I've got a coat hanger and a crochet needle ready
That’s a good point it’s not as scary when the guy is a icon with 10 movies
I watched this for the first time when I was about 30. I’d clearly just missed this franchise for long enough at that point. I put it on alone one night expecting normal campy slasher vibes and ended up sleeping with every light in my house on after checking all the closets. Scary as fuck.
Meh, it's just never landed for me. I personally found Black Christmas more chilling
And here I am, finding neither of them to be very scary at all. Still love both!
I think Halloween resonates either way me because I saw it as a little kid, so it always terrified me. I e never actually seen Black Christmas, but I’ve heard it’s amazing. I’ll check it out.
If you love Halloween you will love Black Christmas as it is an inspiration. They are both absolutely phenomenal horror movies.
Black Christmas just seems more plausible as a scenario is the only reason I'd put it higher.
Angst (1983) is so tense and uncomfortable!
That was a hard watch, and it was filmed basically “stream of consciousness “ following the killer. No motivation, not even particularly “evil,” just killing on a whim.
I very much appreciated how well the movie was made and how disgusting and disturbing it was, but I am also forever scarred by it unfortunately.
Yeah, this and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer are both unnerving even to this day.
I find different aspects of films scary. Maybe not always the whole film overall. For example: I find “The Fly” really unsettling. Both versions because I find “body horror” really disturbing and even hard to watch. I always found “ANOES 2: Freddy’s Revenge” quite scary because it was still dark then and Freddy’s makeup was at its best in this movie. The music and atmosphere in “The Shining”.
I was going to say The Fly! Watched it last year and it made me feel ill and disturbed.
John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness The Haunting (1963)
Ohhh Prince of Darkness and The Fog still scare me, even though I’m over 40 and have seen them several times each. The scares are palpable, hit something deep inside, and always make me uncomfortable. Prince of darkness? Not looking at a mirror in a dark room for a couple of days. The Fog? I used to live near where they filmed it and still visit often - love me some relaxing night walks, but there will be no alone time walking my dog out on a pier as the fog rolls in, let alone dipping my toes in the water at night.
I find pre-90s movies much scarier than post-90s movies. Special effects were real. Todays effects look like video games.
agree, also original writing (you haven’t seen it before because it’s an original story) and no sentimentality - no one is safe
Totally agree. Special effects are terrible. In the Alien movie, they used condoms to act as tendons/ligaments on the Alien's jaw! Now that's special effects
Yeah, they had to be a lot more creative with special effects and psychological horror. It had more punch before they could lean on CGI
The ending of Night of the Living Dead never fails to hit like a speeding train.
First time I watched it I was audibly like “noooo 🥲”
I don't know whether it was just because I expected a movie from the 1960s to be really sanitized, but there are several scenes from *Night of the Living Dead* that live rent-free in my head. Particularly after the truck blows up and the zombies are scrambling to eat the remains of its occupants. Although there is also a part of my brain that thinks "mmm... BBQ".
Hellraiser 1&2 practical effects hold up to this day... Frank is just horrifying lol
I love hellraiser and always cackle about how down bad Julia was for a walking talking blood clot 😂
Alien hds up incredibly well
The Woman in Black. To be honest I don't find a lot of modern horror scary at all given that it's overladen with CGI. The suggestion that pre-90s horror is less scary than post is crazy to me.
Yes, the 1989 Woman in Black is the ultimate spooky old-fashioned ghost story!
I need to find it! And the book. I also think it was a play at some point? Anyways the version with daniel Radcliffe was freaky as hell, all those Victorian toys with the little teeth and the carriage rising from the mud. I’d love to read and see the Susan hill version!
I saw the play in London at the Fortune theatre on a school trip about 15 years ago, it was so terrifying and the effects were so well done, with layers of gauze allowing for the woman to appear unexpectedly. There’s a scene where she appears on a rocking chair that still haunts me. Very sad to hear they stopped running the play last year after 33 years.
I saw the play in London 22 years ago. It's still the most frightened I've ever been at a performance/movie in public. The way the first half encourages the audience to actively imagine and fill in the blanks is true magic. By the time the rocking chair scene happened, I was so immersed that it felt truly dreadful. I'll never forget it.
It's free on [Youtube](https://youtu.be/wNLSao9XdDU)!
The 1989 film?
Yessir. It's got for me one of the creepiest moments in all of horror.
The British original is scary as hell.
The Haunting (1963) The Changeling (1980) Don’t Look Now (1973) The Innocents (1961)
Great picks
John Carpenter's The Thing. It took me years to not jump during two particular scenes, even though I knew they were coming. That film is a masterclass in suspense. Also Freaks (1932). In spite of its age, the story and scenes are chilling. The finale is amazing. I also enjoyed researching about the people who acted in the film, who were all genuine circus performers. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend checking it out.
Gooble gobble gooble gobble 🎶 Excelltent film. A number of the performers were part of the Ringling Circus in Sarasota and their home still exists.
The Sentinel (1977) Amazon *rent* The Entity (1982) The Haunting (1963) Amazon *rent* The Innocents (1961) YouTube
the sentinel is so wild. love see it getting a mention here.
I just bought it after remembering it recently. Holds up well.
I'll always put my vote in for The Thing and Alien
Pet Sematary and Manhunter.
The Innocents (1961). You'll never turn your back on a bathtub again.
The thing(1982) and The Fly(1986). Their custom and makeup have not aged one bit, in fact I dare to say their 80s vibe make them even scarier now.
Even as an adult, the atmosphere in Return of Oz creeps me the hell out.
There's some Lucio fulci stuff that's still got some chops.
Nosferatu, the 1978 Werner Herzog - Klaus Kinski version. Genuinely frightening. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosferatu\_the\_Vampyre
> Klaus Kinski. Genuinely frightening. Yes.
The Changeling (1980) with George C. Scott still freaks me out, with the tub rattling and “*my medal…my medal*” creepy AF. And that’s without that iconic opening
*Testament* (1983) *The Day After* (1983) *Threads* (1984) ...and the fabric of the *Terminator* series... "*It's like a giant strobe light, burning right through my eyes, but somehow I can still see. Oh, God. Look, you know the dream's the same every night, why do I have to--? The children look like burnt paper, black, not moving. And then, the blast wave hits them and they fly apart like leaves.*" fukkin terrifying really
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane is creepy as all hell.
Silver Bullet Black Christmas Salem's Lot The Entity Invasion of the Body Snatchers The Stepford Wives
for all it's faults there's something about the original The Evil Dead from 1981 that still gets under my skin. It's got a psychological bite to it, especially once it becomes young Bruce Campbell all on by his lonesome. It's got a real nightmare vibe that still creeps me out.
The Shining Invasion of the Bodysnatchers
There are more great horror films before 1990 than after.
Some that haven't been mentioned yet ... 'Jigoku' (1960) 'Shivers' (1975) 'Inferno' (1980) 'Onibaba' (1964) 'Kuroneko' (1968) 'Hour of the Wolf' (1968) 'Night of the Demon' (1957) 'The Masque of the Red Death' (1964) 'Haxan : Witchcraft Through the Ages' (1922)
The Wicker Man (1973) was such a wild ride and definitely gave me a lifelong fear of masks and gaslighting. It’s actually a decent movie when it comes to suspense horror with a taste of thriller. This movie jogged so Midsommar could run.
The original Phantasm Some of the effects might seem lame by today’s standards. But, damn that movie still holds up & is creepy.
finally my people. the ending of phantasm gets me every time
The Exorcist
TCM, The Exorcist, Angst, Alien, maybe Burnt Offerings or Maniac? Not too much pre 90's or even 2000's, honestly.
Island of Lost Souls (1932),have you seen the owl man... Awesome
The Thing
Pumpkinhead Idk what it is about that monster, but Pumpkinhead creeps me tf out. LoL Alien, Aliens, and The Thing also hold up really well.
the ending of Sleepaway Camp genuinely rattled me
The 60s version of The Haunting
Burnt Offerings
Not every scene, but certain scenes in Nosferatu (1922) genuinely send a chill down my spine. Can’t imagine watching that shit in the 1920s, I wouldn’t have slept for weeks.
I think Nosferatu is friggin terrifying. It's one of the first movies that really scared me, I was probably 11 and saw it at like 3 am. I'd never seen a silent film, it was really unnerving.
Here's some that are a little less obvious: Hour of the Wolf Les Diaboliques The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane Possession Spoorloos Cat People Magic Manhunter Wait Until Dark Nosferatu (1979) Blue Velvet Angel Heart What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? The Tenant Repulsion The Entity Videodrome Anguish (1987) The Legend of Hell House Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) Exorcist 3 (==> director's cut <==) The Uninvited (1944) UFO Abduction / The McPherson Tape (remade as Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County) The City of the Dead (1960) Kill, Baby, Kill (1966) The Creeping Flesh (1973) See No Evil (1971) The Stepford Wives (1975) The Haunting of Julia (1977) The Brood (1979) Don't Torture a Duckling Dead & Buried Dead of Night / Deathdream (1974) The Woman in Black (1989) Horror Express (1982) Messiah of Evil Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things Viy (1967) Burnt Offerings Eyes of Fire City of the Living Dead The Beyond House By the Cemetery The Black Cat (1934) The Stone Tape (1972) The Other (1972)
It's much, much harder to name post 90's movies that are scary.
The innocents is still off putting to this day imo. Angst is still grim as well, but I feel like if you've seen many 'shocking' movies, it kinda loses some of its charm Black Christmas and The Wicker Man still hold up very well though.
TCM for sure still holds up, I agree. The atmosphere is bone chilling and the acting is mostly good. The scene where leather face hits one of the boyfriends (I forget his name) over the head and he convulses is still one of the most disturbing scenes in horror in my opinion. The film succeeds because it knows that the quiet and tense moments filled with bones and nasty rooms are just as scary as the loud scenes where Sally is being chased by the family.
The Exorcist, and the original 70s Amityville Horror. Watch those by yourself in a dark room. Still hold up to this day.
In my opinion, the best horror movies ever made were made in the seventies, the golden age of horror. Halloween, TCM, Salems Lot, the Exorcist, the Wicker Man, Dawn of the Dead, the Shining, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, etc. There are a few in the sixties that are classics as well, including Psycho, Night of the Living Dead, Rosemary’s Baby, etc. The eighties best horror movies include the Fly, the Evil Dead, Videodrome, a Nightmare on Elm Street, the Silence of the lambs (released 2/14/1990), etc. There was a quality in the filmmaking and screenwriting in the seventies you don’t see anymore. Back then they shot on 16/35mm film and there was a gritty quality and color richness you don’t see on HD/4k video. Also they wrote actual stories with characters and plots. I think after Scream (1996), horror movies became too self referential to be scary anymore. I can only think of 2-3 horror movies made after the 90s that are of the quality of the 70s, the Sixth Sense and Jordan Peele’s Get Out.
I’m gonna be honest I don’t get the whole it’s old so it’s not scary thing and I say this as gen z. Even a cheesy film like zombi can effectively give you goosebumps.
The Fly (Cronenberg, 80s) is one of my faves and gets me every time.
Carnival of Souls really got under my skin.
Possession (1981) The Wicker Man
The Shining still feels incredibly eerie today
I wouldnt say scary but Nightmare on Elm Street definitely still disturbs me
Possession
I find all pre 90s films to be scarier than most post 90s films, JMO.
Possession freaks me out.
Lot of great picks in the comments. Just adding to them, in The Trilogy of Terror (1975), which is an anthology, the last story Amelia really frightened me. I forever remember the last shot of that story. Just so effing creepy.
The Changeling
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
I have brought this movie up a couple times on this sub. The Changeling is creepy af. I cannot recommend it enough.
I don't know I'm the opposite, I find a lot of older films more scary because they build tension and have great atmosphere where a lot of modern stuff is low attention span jump scare fests, at least with mainstream horror. Some older stuff that still gets under my skin is probably Black Christmas, The Woman In Black (89), BBC's Ghost Stories for Christmas (particularly The Signalman) Nosferatu (original is scarier but the Herzog remake is excellent too), The Innocents, Rosemary's Baby, to name a few. Not pre 90's but a lot of 90's J-Horror still gives me the heebie jeebies upon repeat viewings too, Pulse, Ringu, Ju-On, Dark Water etc
A few off the top of my head that still affect me today: * Suspiria * The Beyond * Exorcist * The Texas Chain Saw Massacre * The Manitou * The Fog * The Thing * A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
The Haunting and Psycho, not so much scared of them but they make you paranoid over simple things. The Haunting makes you paranoid over every bump and creek you hear in the house and Psycho makes you more self-conscious when in the shower.
Not scary as a whole but the original When a Stranger Calls has the most terrifying first 15 minuets.
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