ok peeps. saturday night, fuckin dark already at 5.25PM, it's cold and we want to rug up on the couch tonight and watch a good old fashioned horror/suspense movie.
not a slasher so not the likes of SAW or Freddy style, i mean it can have violence, but we're more after the truly suspenseful, shit your pants, testicles sucked back into your belly, fingernails drawing blood from your partners hand, type movie.
oh yeah we did woman in black last weekend. very good.
lots of oldies getting posted, that's exactly the type of thing i want. seems like most of the recent ones go for blood and guts instead of traditional suspense.
I Saw The Devil isn't scary though. It was good but it did get rather silly by the end of it. So High Tension is worth a look hey? We've got it at werk so I could grab a copy from there.
American Horror Story was good. Not terribly scary but definitely worth checking out. Rec (spanish one rather than the US remake) was good as well. Had been wondering how Woman in Black turned out, will check it out.
Rec (spanish one rather than the US remake) was good as well.
I saw the US version of Rec ("Quarantine") before I heard it was a shot for shot remake and didn't think it was too bad.
I haven't gone back to watch Rec though but it's definitely on the to-do list now because they made a sequel to the spanish version in 2009, and there's a third one due later this year it seems.
I guess that's an important lesson (for me at least) getting into the horror genre, don't limit yourself to the Hollywood regurgitations. There's some damn freaky Japanese and Korean horror flicks out there that tend to be better than the US counterparts (Ringu, The Grudge, Tale of Two Sisters, Memento Mori)
The descent was brilliant for a low budget, especially the bit with the handheld camera..
Tucker and Dale vs evil wasn't suspense filled, but was great.
I found Paranormal Activity 1 and 2 to be scare worthy. Number 3 not so much, and they don't have any rewatch ability, but for a first time scare they are great.
Recommend many of the suggestions in this thread. Seen both grave encounters and insidious and both were good. I saw the US version of REC first and didnt mind it. Even the sequel (same idea but on a plane then in a locked down airport) wasnt bad IMO. Then saw REC and thought it was poor - acting, quality, fear. Saw IT a little while back and thought it was really lame. maybe scary back in the day but was not impressed. Pretty sure the insidious people also did another one before it with ventriloquism dolls that was good. Tucker and dale isnt scary, its just comedy. Pretty good too. Enjoyed all the paranormal activities and although the 3rd was kinda lame, i really enjoyed the final few minutes.
Exorcist really isn't scary at all anymore though, I saw it recently and found it more funny than scary. Not to say it wasn't a great movie for its time, but it doesn't really stand up today.
Thats probably because its been parodied and copied so many times its lost its impact. I saw it late high school (approx 7 yrs ago) before i saw all the copcats and parodies and loved it. Every time i hear the tubular bells theme it gives me the skin crawls. Sure, its not the freakiest movie ive seen recently but its still got its moments. Stair walk?
Well, it was written in 1971. Maybe people were easier to scare back then.
Like when you look at Friday the 13th part 1, it's pretty tame by today's standards.
Yeah, I thought it was great. Funding was secured for a sequel a few months back so it might be in the works right now, I'm keen to see that. The offical site was distributing the original via torrent a while back and were working on donations, but seems they've taken it down since. :(
IMO Insidious was good right up until they brought in the paranormal inverstigators, then it just got silly. It was like two different movies, and the "demon"? Puhlease that thing was super lame. Anyway, won't comment further as I may spoil the movie but suffice to say it didn't do it for me at all.
Recommendations:
Poltergeist
Drag Me to Hell (not "scary" so doesn't fit the brief, but a good fun horror nonetheless)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The Signal
The Grudge/Ring (Japanese horror is creepy as fuck)
Let the Right One In
Halloween
The Changeling (the OG one with George C. Scott http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080516/ although I did watch this when I was about 10 so may not stand up today)
The Shining
The Thing (OG version)
Psycho
The Mist
Carrie
Pet Sematary
Cube
Funny Games
Hellraiser
Jacob's Ladder
Wolf Creek (not strictly horror but still pretty tense)
The Omen
Beverley Hills Chihuahua
also i havent really watched much yet, but the TV series American Horror Story looks okay for scaryness
I thought it started out ok, but by the end the number of extraneous characters and the "ghosts dropping in to say hi" kinda feel left me disappointed. Somehow the storyline and the general creepiness evaporated as the series went on, and it got bogged down and pedestrian. I forced myself to watch till the end for the sake of closure but I won't be going back for any subsequent seasons. I thought the whole premise/plot points around why they couldn't leave the house were flimsy at best and the ease of the ghost/real person interaction sapped all of the "horror", leaving you with a slightly leftfield soap opera.
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