The Gaming Den

What are peoples' favorite horror (or otherwise Halloween appropriate) movies? Not necessarily the best, or good, but enjoyable.

I have a strange interest in Hellraiser stuff. Probably because Pinhead, and stuff like this.

Depends . . there is one movie that i have a deep seated chilhood trauma from and i have not, in my 33 years of age, dared to watch again because of that . .

Moontrap

Horror-Films i ENJOY?
nightmare on Elmstreet. The OLD Fredy Krueger Movies.
Also, Halloween. Which is Friday the 13th but less bloody.

I think my top 10 list is probably:

Alien
The Thing (John Carpenter's 1980s version)
Hellraiser
Into the Mouth of Madness
The Ring
Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein
Army of Darkness
Them!
Get Out
Invasion of the Body Snatchers


Some other films worth checking out include:
Lost Boys, Bella Lugosi Dracula, Boris Karloff Frankenstein, Lon Cheney Wolfman, Brendon Fraiser Mummy movies, Jaws, Blair Witch, Kairo, Let the Right one In, Gremlins, Psycho, Rosemary's Baby, Misery, Scream I-III, The Fly (both versions), Videodrome, 28 Days Later and the sequel 28 Weeks Later, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Shaun of the Dead

Enjoyable, but not "good":

TremorsI - III, Night of the Lepus, The Stuff, The Bad Seed, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane

Lady in White. It's one that young people can probably handle - more suspense than horror, but I like it for Halloween.

Mine (listed in no specific order)

Hellbound
Event Horizon
The Fog (Carpenters' 1980 one)
Nightmare on Elm Street 4 and 6
In the Mouth of Madness
Creepshow 2
Welcome to Oldfield
The Company of Wolves
Paranormal Activity
Saw
The Exorcist (director's cut, the one with the Spider Walk)
The Shining
Romero's whole zombie saga (Night of The Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead, Island of the Dead)
Resident Evil
American Werewolf in London (the original)
Dawn of the Dead (Snyder's remake)
Interview with the Vampire

(may be forgetting some)

Some horror movies kind of straddle the line between horror and action, so forgive me for some of my selections that are more action-y.

10 Cloverfield Lane
Alien
Aliens
Attack the Block
Brotherhood of the Wolf
Evil Dead
Ex Machina
It (TV miniseries)
Pitch Black
Predator
Silent Hill
The Cabin in the Woods
The Shining (Jack Nicholson version)
The Thing
War of the Worlds (1953)

Alien and The Thing are the must-watch classics everyone's already seen. Let's throw The Exorcist, The Shining, and Romero's ____ of the Dead series to that.

The early Freddy Krueger films are probably the pinnacle of dumb fun slasher horror. Let's be real - none of the big three franchises (Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street) are particularly cerebral or engaging. You are not going to become invested in the setting's "deep, rich lore" and you are probably never even going to find yourself caring which - if any - of the protagonists actually survive. You are there to watch people get murdered, and Nightmare on Elm Street's quirky set-up keeps things from becoming too repetitive. If you were going to sit down with your friends and binge watch a couple movies from one of the big three, you invite Freddy to that particular party while telling Jason and Mikey to get lost.

Scream is a horror movie about horror movie tropes. It hasn't aged well, because while it may have been a fairly novel idea back then the mindset Scream asks you to adopt while watching it is exactly how everyone in 2017 already thinks when watching horror movies. Maybe that's Scream's fault? Maybe Scream ruined itself for future generations by being so successful? It's certainly not bad, but it's a 90's commentary on the 80's and will seem absolutely banal here in the the 10's. Enjoy it as a product of its era.

The Cabin in the Woods is to monster flicks as Scream was to slasher flicks. I suspect Scream will prove more durable in film literature because it beat The Cabin in the Woods to it by more than fifteen goddamn years, but being late to the party doesn't mean you can't be well-dressed for it. It's a good film.

The Mist is at least somewhat underrated and also one of my guilty pleasures. I mean, it's fucking Frank Darabont. How could a Frank Darabont film not be gold? This is the guy who gave us The Shawshank Redemption, the Green Mile, The Walking Dead S1, and... The Majestic... Hm. Fuck. The Mist's greatest sin is casting Thomas Jane to play Thomas Jane. He does nothing to hurt the film, but he also adds nothing to it and in the end all you can really say is that he was there and he played a character.

Josh Kablack wrote:Enjoyable, but not "good":

TremorsI - III...

Tremors 1 is very, very good and I'll fite u about it. Tremors 2 is pleasantly terrible. Tremors 3 is a thing which exists, and that is the strongest praise I am willing to give it.

As far as I'm concerned the high point of the Tremors series is the first act of the 2nd movie where Fred Ward's character is hired to hunt down a re-emergence of the monsters -- and he proceeds to do so with a plan that's pretty much what any player character who knows how these monsters work would do.

Josh_Kablack wrote:I think my top 10 list is probably:

Alien
The Thing (John Carpenter's 1980s version)
Hellraiser
Into the Mouth of Madness
The Ring
Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein
Army of Darkness
Them!
Get Out
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
(...)

Nice choice, right there.

Since this is presumably for Halloween party or movie watching...

my top 3 for horror movies to watch around Halloween from my list would be:
The Thing (Kurt Russel version)
The Cabin in the Woods
10 Cloverfield Lane

And I think we all neglected Halloween appropriate non-horror options.
E.T.
Donnie Darko
Ghost Busters

Actual horror: Let Me In

Comedic horror: Witching and Bitching