We all love to get frightened from time to time and as a result, some of the earliest films made were horror movies. You can be certain that every year Hollywood will bring out some new form of terror to shock us in the theaters. Sometimes they achieve their goal – other times we are left with a pile of junk. With this post we are going to uncover the best horror movie of all time.
When you give us your view, try to tell us why you have chosen the particular film, and also, as a secondary question, tell us what style of horror is best – for example, psychological horror (with little or no blood) or slasher films. Tell us why you think one is superior to the other.
What is the best horror movie ever made?
My answer is The Exorcist – My reason for this is that the film doesn’t rely on cheap bloody tricks or fright tactics to make you jump – it simply shows you a situation that makes us all afraid – the concept of the devil existing, meaning Hell existing and the fact that we may end up there for all eternity. This film had brilliant ambience, brilliant acting (which is still relevant today) and had guidance from real Catholic Priests to make sure it was at least true to the rituals portrayed. At some point I will do a top 10 Exorcist trivia list because there is some great stuff that happened behind the scenes that many people are unaware of.
I liked Stephen King’s It. SCARY CLOWNS…NEVER GOING TO THE CIRCUS AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!
My pick for the best is also the exorcist for the same reasons as Jamie had, if you ask me, phycological horror films are the best because slasher flicks make you jump and you foret it the enxt day, but phycological horror films stick with you and truly scare you.
That’s a toughie! Hmmm, it’s a tie. . . Alien and Jaws.
Night of the Living Dead…. you can’t ignore the classic
It would be my second pick Doris, and that movie made me terrified of clowns forever.
jfrater: did you take my idea for this or did you get several requests?
I’ve got a couple:
American Werewolf in London! Man! I can’t believe I saw it as a kid! I will NEVER walk on the English moors at night during a full moon! EVER!!
Alien! In space no one can hear you scream. But you could certainly feel that freshly sprayed urine getting cold in you space suit after a while…
Psycho – brilliant imagery and symbolism and definitely unforgettable. Also, who is not still haunted by Anthony Perkins’ performance. “…but she didn’t fool my mother.”
Oh, you are on the ball about that one Jamie! I am not big on horror movies I am the first to admit that, but the scene where she backward crabwalks down the stairs… oh JESUS!! I didn’t think I’d ever be able to sleep again!
Audition. or Hostel
anderi: LOL! i thought the same thing when i saw that tagline!
wahoowah: yes a classic, but it was more of a gore film and after a while you weren’t scared, but the exorcist still scares me today.
IT by far!
Psyco is definately my #2 of all-time horror movies, well heres my top 10
1)The Exorcist
2)Psyco
3)Jaws
4)Night of the Living Dead
5)The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
6)Nightmare On Elm Street
7)Friday the 13th
8)Hostel
9)The Prince of Darkness
10)Saw-the whole series (the ways of killing are just awesome to watch!)
i could watch these only in the daytime, never at night.
and my only notable mention would be The Hills Have Eyes
oh and IT, sorry i forgot to mention it.
First, before you yell at me I have seen a TONNNN of scary movies, OLD scary movies included.
BUT I like Silent Hill. I have no idea why. I think the plot was good and not confusing. The special affects were not overdone. I like the Exorcist it was pretty good and scared me a bit when I first saw it (when I was in kindergarden) but now its just something I watch when I’m bored.
I liked American Werewolf too.
I gotta say, at the time The Blair Witch thing was friggen creepy as hell. I even knew it was a hoax, but I was creeped out for weeks after I watch that.
And I’m an absolute sucker for the old Hammar studio Dracula stuff.
Plus i just noticed this (forgive me if you think im spamming!) everytime you ask someone about IT here is the usual conversation
“Dude, have you seen IT?”
“seen what?”
“IT!”
“WHAT!?!”
“The movie with the goddamn clown you tard!”
Night of the Living dead, the original of course. After that, either Psycho or The Evil Dead.
Rob Zombie’s Halloween. I just saw that for the first time a few months ago and that movie was great. A lot better than the original
It, is also a great movie.
And in the more along real life lines: Silence of the Lambs
Social – I was just going to come here and post about that crabwalk. Something about that just creeped me the hell out.
That said, I prefer two movies to The Exorcist. The Shining, and Halloween.
The Shining is just great for so many reasons, and the only time I’ve literally screamed out loud during a movie was when the Cook comes back, and is walking down that hallway… I won’t spoil it for anyone, but man, is that movie scary. It is also just a good film, which helps.
Halloween is my other favorite. I think it is because all Mike Myers has to do is STAND there and I get freaked out. The scene where the girls are walking home, and he is standing by the bush, then just disappears… That is a “gives me the willies” scene, there should be a picture of that scene next to “willies” in the dictionary
I can’t stand movies that go by, more blood more scary… It was cool back in the Friday the 13th days, and at least Alien has a good reason for it (an alien popping out of someone’s chest was an awesome scare), but movies like Saw and Hostel look gross and scary. Maybe I could get behind the originals as semi unique, but sequels? no thanks.
28 days later and 28 weeks later are kinda tied but if i had to chose one i’d say 28 weeks
Edit: Sorry, that should be “more gross than scary” rather than “gross and scary”
I liked the japanese guinea pig films; the devils experiment, flowers of flesh and blood, he never dies, mermaid in the manhole, android of notre dame & devil woman doctor. they can be a bit cheesy at times, but they have really good effects made using simple techniques.
Flowers of flesh and blood is possibly the most convincing horror movie, it was even investigated after its release, after Charlie Sheen was convinced it was a real snuff film!
ichi the killer and suicide circle (suicide club) are from japan too, and i reccommend them to people who like a bit of gore :]
i collect horror movies so i have a seen a lot of them, in no particular order
exorcist – many of the same reasons listed above
Dawn of the dead remake – just found it a great all around movie
28 days/weeks later – helicopter zombie seen has to be one of the most gore filled scenes in horror.
silent hill – easily one of the best videogame movie ports and pyrmaid dude is scary as hell, human skin rip was great
Texas chainsaw remake – found it quite intense and better than the original
jason goes to hell – love the twist at the end and one of the btter in the series
saw series – reivented the horror movie
village of the damned remake – loved it as a kid and quite and original movie.
soooooooo many more i susect this wont be my only post
“The Bride of Frankenstein” is the greatest horror movie of all time. James Whale was a genius, and Boris Karloff was a fantastic actor.
The greatest latter-day Horror film is “Halloween”—John Carpenter’s original… and ONLY the original. No sequels, no reboots.
Slasher films are NOT horror films. Slasher films are slasher films.
Horror requires an element of the supernatural. Serial killers are not supernatural (even if sometimes they seem superhuman in the movies) they are simply disgusting human monsters, and our fascination with them is indicative of a sickness in our society.
Horror doesn’t have to be gross or filled with blood… it’s about eeriness and other-worldliness… being pitched out of yourself into a nightmare world.
Gore has its place, but I prefer psychological. Jaws still scares the bejesus out of me, and is probably the main reason I still don’t go in the water past my knees..LOL!
Horror has always been my fave genre for movies and books, so I love all the old-school movies and find it hard to pick one I think is the best. Poltergeist has always been a favourite though. Trilogy of Terror (for making little girls scream in the middle of the night at a slumber party); The Exorcist; The Omen; the old Dracula movies…..the list goes on.
IT. Silent Hill. Candyman. They freaked, me out! Still to this day, “We all float down here!” Makes me shiver, and not in a good way. I am Legend may not have been horror, but I was pretty freaked after watching. And 30 days of night. And Bubba Ho-Tep
-Andrea Carlena Beauman
But Randall can you really have Halloween without Halloween 2?
the shining, night of the living dead, un chien andalou, and any frightening lynch film.
Mike Myers scares me too. . . especially in those Wayne’s World movies. . . *shudders
Alien
The Descent
Hellraiser
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
The Mist
“IT” was not scary, it made me giggle like a little girl.
anthony p:
Why the hell not?
Why do we always need sequels to everything? “Halloween” ended perfectly. Michael Myers was shot repeatedly and fell from a window. Then he was gone. What was he? Was he even really there to begin with? What monstrous nightmare has this been?
End of story. Nothing needed after. No follow-ups, no explanations. “Halloween” was complete.
Sequels can spoil a good, contained story, a good scare. Nightmares don’t have sequels.
Which is not to say that all sequels are bad–I presented a sequel as the greatest horror film of all time (Bride of Frankenstein) but that’s because it was a rare case of the sequel being better than the original.
Halloween, though, was flawless. Why do we need to try to “add” to something that’s done, flawless, needs no further elucidation?
i laughed at the end of night of the living dead…i wont spoil it but i wanna know if anyone else found it funny.
the exorcist the beggining when the kid gets eaten by ummmm whatever it was that ate him scared the ***** out of me, to the point where i went over and over again with the slow mo
The end of the Blair witch project is pretty damn scary, I love the Aliens series Oh! and nobodys mentioned the original Chainsaw massacre, so drab and simple. Has anyone seen a movie called ‘May’, theres a weird one.
anthony p:
And anthony–I see you collect horror films… so do I. Though clearly our tastes are different. I don’t consider “Saw” or any of its sequels to be horror. They’re simply tense kill-flicks.
I’ve got a collection of horror films going back to the silent era, and up to the Universal and Hammer years, and on to things like the original “The Wicker Man” and such… and everything in between. Horror films are one of my big loves… but I’ve never been impressed by blood-and-gore films. To me, as I said—horror has to have the element of the supernatural about it. The weird, the nightmarish.
chucky. I havent seen too many scary movies [[well too many GOOD scary movies]] well maybe chuckies just extremely scary for me cause of an extreme fear of dolls. I dunno. But thats one movie i couldnt even get through the whole thing, and I watched it like 6 years ago and Im still scared at night haha
childsplay was a great horror filmed which by the end of the series was very much horror/comedy i think nightmare on elm street went a bit down the same path and then there was halloween resurection which was just a joke full stop.
I really need to stop posting now i must be starting to get to people.
The Exorcist terrified me as a kid. Plus I think it portrays worldwide fear, as in the devil, and we are powerless against it. “IT” was also freaky, especially the idea that nobody can see it but the kids. I also thought The Ring was visually effective in scaring us all and making us jump.
All in all I think psychological fright is way worse that anything.
Laure, I believe i mentioned the Chainsaw Massacre in my top 10 thank you very much
Randall: I whole heartedly agree on the sequel thing, great horror films like the exorcist were ruined by their sequels, a few good examples are Friday the 13th and A nightmare on Elm Street, Both ended perfectly on their first movie and were ruined by their way *****ty sequels.
I wouldn’t include Chucky to all of you who mentioned it, it got ruined by its bad sequels, the only true good horror film with sequels was Saw because each sequel had a good plot and great ways of killing in each one.
Your a faddist
Hey what about What Lies Beneath, I quite liked that even though it’s less “horror” and more “supernatural thriller” but still it’s on my top ten. Others are probably Ju On, I agree with Silent Hill, but also The Hills Have Eyes and, I feel this one’s under-rated, but I quite liked Last Winter, it reminded me of the novel “White” by Marie Darrieussecq. It had similarities.
Oooh and I almost forgot, “30 Days of Night.”
no. bottom 10. you suck
I love horror, I dislike slasher films. Hostel? How could that be anyone’s favorite? Even my oh so jaded teenagers thought it awful. Want graphic blood and guts? Go read crime library or watch the news. Personally I loved The Exorcist,Aliens (Ripley kicks ass), The Shining, John Carpenter’s The Thing (maybe not horror, but scary), I even have fond memories of old Vincent Price Movies; The House on Haunted Hill etc. New horror; I actually liked Silent Hill, and the one with J-Lo where she does the mind meld thing with the psycho…The Cell
Oh and the original Halloween, and the 3 part one (I know it was made for TV) with Karen Black,,,Terror Trilogy I think…
The Blair Witch Project
Audition
Imprint – banned episode from masters of horror
Guinea Pig: Flowers of Flesh and Blood
The Devil’s Rejects
I think without a doubt John Carpenter makes some of the best films that can scare the ***** out of you and they are not considered a horror film, like The Thing, because you don’t know if the thing died at the end.
The best horror movie ever made was “Attack of the Website that Tried to Get it’s Readers to Create Content for it.”
Chucky? Did someone mention Chucky? Chucky . . . Yeah, Chucky should be mentioned on the same level as The Exorcist. Jeez while your at it, why don’t you just throw in The Toxic Avenger.
WTF people, this is the best horror movie, not the *****tiest. Go back to your coloring book and you can have a juice box with your bowl of raisons.
oh bugger i forgot all about the hills have eyes, love when the guy just kinda snaps and starts killing all the mutants and everyone was clapping for the dog.
the thing was great
house of 1000 corpses was really messes up and i enjoy rob zombies style of film making.
Blairwitch scared the begesus out of me but it gave me a headache as well
the halloween series scared the crap out of me. when i was in fourth grade i always used to picture michael myers in my closet waiting until i fell asleep.
bucslim: the chucky movies were scary but they got worse over time like all the great horror series
by the way, the exorcist wasn’t scary at all. my mom showed it to me and my friend when we were twelve and we ended up laughing at it. as for the whole “its scary because it makes you believe in the devil” concept, i already believed in the devil so that didnt scare me at all.
i suppose it depends on your interpretation of horro movie and its best not scariest, silence of the lambs anybody or does that fall under thriller?
i suppose it depends on your interpretation of horror movie and its best not scariest, silence of the lambs anybody or does that fall under thriller?
Mom:
You are a woman after my own heart…
Silence of the Lambs is not horror. It’s a thriller.
Randall I agree about the sequels and haven’t watched most of them myself, however I thought that Rob Zombie’s Halloween was pretty good.
I liked that he took us back to the beginning of Micheal’s killing career, not to mention the kid that played young Mikey just freaked me out completely. On the flip side we saw a side of ol’ Mikey we never saw before, the love for his sister was brought out a lot more and made him seem a little more human, there were parts of the movie that I actually felt a little sorry for him, mostly at the beginning before he killed anyone. I will not say any more as I don’t want to spoil it for anyone and hope that I haven’t already.
I thought it was a pretty good remake and I don’t usually like those much ether.
I am think Cape Fear is the best horror movie ever. Some may disagree and say it’s a thriller, but I’d say Horror fits it more accurately. The acting is amazing an the suspense is INTENSE. It is psychologically frightening and when Robert DeNiro turns around as the made…! gets me every time!
Exorcist or Jaws.
Personal favorite, John Carpenter’s The Thing
Two of my favorites are Legend of Hell House and The Little Girl who Lives down the Lane
If anyone mentions slasher flicks that are *****tier than hell one more time(that means you Chucky)Im gonna go frickin’ beserk.
mitchsn:i think that would be considerd a thriller but im not certain.
Personally, I liked The Blair Witch project.
Also, The first Nightmare on Elm Street
I don’t know which I would call the best. I have seen so many horror movies.
I guess it would be the one where that one person dies and the entire town goes stark crazy trying to protect themselves.