231 Comments

Almost everyone who saw "Get Out" got it? Not me!

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I'm with you Bari - I can't watch them! I have an overactive imagination to begin with...I don't need scary or creepy content to make it worse! And for me it's The Birds - also by Hitchcock. Saw it in junior high and on the bus going home that day a bird almost came in the window! I'll join you for KitKats!

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In alphabetical order, a few that I don’t think have been mentioned:

Angel Heart

The Cabin in the Woods

Count Dracula (BBC)

The Crazies

The Descent

The Exorcist III

Ghostwatch

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

The Mist

Night (Curse) of the Demon

The Poughkeepsie Tapes

Se7en

Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism

Plus a few that aren’t horror, but are unpleasant/unsettling enough to almost qualify:

Bone Tomahawk

Brawl in Cell Block 99

The Day After

Elephant

Heavenly Creatures

Requiem for a Dream (made me physically sick)

The Swimmer

We Need to Talk About Kevin

“Enjoy.”

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in no particular order, my top 25 (had to "limit" myself, I'm a bit of a horror nut if you can't guess)

1. Hereditary

2. The Exorcist

3. Rosemary's Baby

4: Poltergeist (the original) (the clown scene, man lol)

5: In The Mouth of Madness

6: Event Horizon (the uncut if you can ever find it)

7: Aliens 1 & 2

8: The Ring

9: The Shining (yes the book is better but Kubrick's version as a stand-alone is still very effective)

10: Suspiria

11: Psycho

12: Halloween (the original)

13: House of 1000 Corpses

14: Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the original)

15: The Conjuring

16: Sinister (the first one, second one OK)

17: American Psycho

18: The Strangers

19: Jacob's Ladder

20: The Omen

21: Oculus

22: The Invitation (2015)

23: Creep

24: Black Swan

25: It Follows

Honorable mention to the Paranormal Activity series: my main complaint is the "plot" narrative is given so little at the end of each movie. I really want to know more about the "cult" and "Toby" - we need an "origin" movie. "The Fly" should also go on there as I saw it when i was kid (good ole' HBO box haha, and the transformation scene grossed me out for years). And of course to "Silence of the Lambs" but I don't consider that "horror" so much as a crime/psychological thriller.

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I do not watch horror movies. I was cured after watching the original Dracula at home in the 50s. If i want to be scared, I'll tell my wife something she doesn't want to know.

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Bari, Bari, Bari ... why don't you have a podcast episode on horror films? Why so serious all the time?

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Of more recent "big" movies, the original Alien and The Silence of the Lambs.

Psycho, definitely.

I never thought of Rebecca as a "horror film," although it's full of tension and mystery. It's based on the classic novel by Daphne Du Maurier, in turn based on a medieval legend.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17899948-rebecca

Another version of the same story is Bartok's opera, Duke Bluebeard's Castle, based on a 17th-century French version, one of those fairy tales more for adults than children.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebeard%27s_Castle

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One I haven't seen mentioned is Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" filmed in picturesque Morro Bay. Watching that as a youngster was scary and viewed birds in a different vein. Once I recognized the narrative of "Get Out' it became predictable and tiresome.

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Fun fact: the same author who wrote the novel Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier, also wrote the short story The Birds, upon which the movie is based. Clearly, Hitchcock had a good thing going.

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Wait until dark which starred the incomparable Audrey Hepburn as a blind woman who gets trapped with a psycho in her apartment scared me half to death. It's a great thriller/horror.

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I love that movie and I don't watch horror. I do like thrillers.

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"Incomparable" is damn straight. Nobody talks about Audrey in my presence unless it's good :)

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My list, in no particular order: Rosemary's Baby, The Birds, The Others, Jacob's Ladder (original with Tim Robbins), Repulsion, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, A Quiet Place

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“The Haunting” (the original 1963 version) spooked me good….

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Thank you, thank you to Bari and the commenters for reminding me of the good old days where people just sort of talked, lightheartedly, for fun!

Reminiscing about all these old movies was a nice treat -- a nice departure from all the anxiety-provoking things in the news. And, a great reminder that all of us, regardless of politics, simply like to relax, have fun and enjoy candy with loved ones. Thank you all. Happy Halloween.

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The Haunting, the original 1963 Robert Wise movie, made between West Side Story and Sound of Music (!!!).

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Hereditary is one of the best films of the decade, and one of the very best horror films ever made. What did your wife think of it?

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Not much into horror, get enough of that in real life

But The Thing from 1982 was fantastic

Still waiting for the sequel

Edit: and of course Alien. I’d read a review that described it as a haunted house story set in space. I was blown away by it in 79, still blown away today

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Talk about incomparable. The final minutes are some of the scariest minutes in movies, ever. I saw it in high school and was mesmerized and scared out of my wits, at the same time. So of course, I wanted to see it again. (Plus being a 17-yo straight male, more Sigourney Weaver :)

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As far as horror movies with a good storyline, I would add The Babadook and Mama.

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