Happy Halloween: Favorite Horror Movies!

[TrueFaith77]

What are your favorite Horror movies?

In time for Halloween — what are YOUR best #horrorfilms?

#TheNineWorthies - 9 Best Horror Films
1. The Fury (Brian De Palma, 1978)
2. The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, 1963)
3. Vampyr (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1932)
4. Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau, 1922)
5. The Avenging Conscience (D.W. Griffith, 1914)
6. Exorcist II: The Heretic (John Boorman, 1977)
7. The Company of Wolves (Neil Jordan, 1984)
8. The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 1961)
9. Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow, 1987)

[SisterNightroad]

I had previously posted mine here but after five years my list changed a little; my favourites in chronological order are:

• Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
• The Haunting (Robert Wise, 1963)
• Operazione Paura (Mario Bava, 1966)
• Suspiria (Dario Argento, 1977)
• Quella villa accanto al cimitero (Lucio Fulci, 1981)
• Misery (Rob Reiner, 1990)
• Darkness (Jaume Balaguerò, 2002)
• Crimson Peak (Guillermo del Toro, 2015)
• Gretel & Hansel (Oz Perkins, 2020)

[FuzzyPlum]

El Orfanato
The Babadook
The Hills Have Eyes
The Exorcist
Sinister
Don’t Look Now
Midsommar
Poltergeist
Insidious

[Jondalar]

1. The Exorcist
2. Alien
3. Jaws
4. Sinister
5. Exorcist 3
6. RosemaryÂ’s Baby
7. Halloween 2007
8. Carrie
9. Suspiria
10. The Birds
11. Hostel
12. The Ring
13. Interview With A Vampire
14. Poltergeist
15. Audition
16. SalemÂ’s Lot
17. The Omen
19. Exorcist 2: The Heretic
20. Hellraiser
21. Evil Dead 2
22. Pumpkin Head
23. The Prophecy
24. The Bad Seed
25. Demons

[David]

Originally Posted by TrueFaith77

What are your favorite Horror movies?

In time for Halloween — what are YOUR best #horrorfilms?

#TheNineWorthies - 9 Best Horror Films
1. The Fury (Brian De Palma, 1978)
2. The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, 1963)
3. Vampyr (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1932)
4. Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau, 1922)
5. The Avenging Conscience (D.W. Griffith, 1914)
6. Exorcist II: The Heretic (John Boorman, 1977)
7. The Company of Wolves (Neil Jordan, 1984)
8. The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 1961)
9. Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow, 1987)

A fine collection of tales from the crypt. I might add some James Whale: THE OLD DARK HOUSE, BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, or some Browning: FREAKS or DRACULA, or maybe DRACULA'S DAUGHTER by Whoever. maybe Bava's BLACK SUNDAY, maybe THE CHANGELING, maybe Vadim's BLOOD AND ROSES with Claude Renoir behind the camera, maybe the Kaufman INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, maybe some Lewton like THE BODY SNATCHER or I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, maybe the Siodmak SON OF DRACULA, and certainly Edgar Ulmer's BLACK CAT. Maybe Bette Davis and Lillian Gish being embalmed before our eyes in the atrocious WHALES OF AUGUST.

Maybe some tasty TV candy, like WHITECHAPEL or PENNY DREADFUL or THE SIGNAL-MAN.

Or maybe not. Who knows?

[TrueFaith77]

@David: Well I Walked With a Zombie was real close to making the list. Thanks for the tip on the Vadim, have not seen it but love him so I will be sure to see it before next Halloween!

[mylittledemon]

Here's a few I like to watch this time of year. Some scary, some not so scary...

Ghostbusters (1984)
Fright Night (1985)
Coraline
Insidious
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Fly
The Wicker Man (1973)
What We Do In The Shadows
Beetlejuice
Shaun of the Dead

[greendaze5]

'The Silence of the Lambs'.

[Macfan4life]

Halloween (original)
The Fog (original)
The Exorcist
Salems Lot
Friday the 13th part 2 (First one with Jason as killer and before hockey mask)
Sinister

[BombaySapphire3]

Originally Posted by greendaze5

'The Silence of the Lambs'.

I was going to post that but still not sure that it is considered horror. It is one of my favorite films of all time. Just one where everything worked.

[TrueFaith77]

Originally Posted by David

maybe Vadim's BLOOD AND ROSES with Claude Renoir behind the camera

Does anyone know how I can see this movie? I don’t have a multi region DVD player :/

[David]

Originally Posted by TrueFaith77

Does anyone know how I can see this movie? I don’t have a multi region DVD player :/

You gotta get one, you gotta you gotta!! Some of the wickedest Ealing comedies, including a bunch of Alastair Sim, are on Blu-ray only for region 2!

[Villavic]

Originally Posted by TrueFaith77

6. Exorcist II: The Heretic (John Boorman, 1977)

I was going to post a sacartisc comment but since I've found several ledgies who included this movie, I need to ask: Why is this among your faves? I recall it was so boring. I've read also the original novel author claimed to have been the first person to start laughing at the theater in which he saw the film. And William Friedkind said "It's just a stupid mess made by a dumb guy". Besides the general negative response (that I didn't read at the time I saw the movie), I found it really really bad and boring. Is there something I didn't see?

[TrueFaith77]

Originally Posted by Villavic

And William Friedkind said "It's just a stupid mess made by a dumb guy".

I could be wrong because Friedkin sometimes says silly things in Hollywoodese, but I find it hard to believe he would say that about John Boorman, director of Point Blank and Deliverance. John Boorman is a giant.

There’s lots to say about what’s great about Exorcist II. But at a high-level it’s just one of the rare works of genuine visionary mysticism in film, much less Hollywood film. Its concept of The Wings of Pazuzu is a timeless idea about how evil really works in society (armed with this concept, one can enter many even greater works of art like Altman’s Short Cuts). Equally the idea of the Good Locust is profound from a filmmaker expert in Arthurian legend.

Visually, the film is amazing: the glass cells expressing layers of consciousness (very Jungian), the graphic matches (Linda Blair drawing/Linda Blair dreaming) and psychic editing (Linda Blair tap dancing), the African dreamscapes, the apocalyptic climax. This is the essence of cinema—restoring silent movie aesthetics and enchantment.

From a Ledgie perspective, I intuit a not-fleshed-out connection between the appeal of Stevie Nicks’s “dreams” on the phenomenon of Rumours in 1977 and the rejection of Linda Blair’s Good Locust in 1977 (they look remarkably similarly pretty). Great artists tapping into the zeitgeist, addressing some primal need with primal myths, but one is palatable, the other rejected. One grooves within a popular idiom, the other embarrasses in its radical earnestness (and some undeniable flaws insignificant next to its achievements). A case for further study.

[Villavic]

Originally Posted by TrueFaith77

I could be wrong because Friedkin sometimes says silly things in Hollywoodese, but I find it hard to believe he would say that about John Boorman, director of Point Blank and Deliverance. John Boorman is a giant.

According to Wikipedia (I know, not always 100% reliable) the source is in McCabe, Bob (2000). The Exorcist: Out of the Shadows. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-71197-509-5. The whole quote was:

Friedkin saw half an hour of the film: "I was at Technicolor and a guy said 'We just finished a print of Exorcist II, do you wanna have a look at it?' And I looked at half an hour of it and I thought it was as bad as seeing a traffic accident in the street. It was horrible. It's just a stupid mess made by a dumb guy – John Boorman by name, somebody who should be nameless, but in this case should be named. Scurrilous. A horrible picture".