My Favourite Horror Movies
For me a good horror movie is not simply about jumps or scares, but rather manages to psychologically unsettle us.
Disclaimer: While I would loosely define a "horror" as having a supernatural element to distinguish it from thriller or mystery genres, admittedly I have submitted two or three titles here that will evoke the same level of psychological terror, without there necessarily being an "unseen agent" at play.
Disclaimer: While I would loosely define a "horror" as having a supernatural element to distinguish it from thriller or mystery genres, admittedly I have submitted two or three titles here that will evoke the same level of psychological terror, without there necessarily being an "unseen agent" at play.
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18 titles
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsJack NicholsonShelley DuvallDanny LloydA family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.I don't think any horror movie list would be complete without The Shining. The slow, nail-biting pace, balanced by rich cinematography, lends itself to a feeling of mounting tension as the characters gradually crumble into despair, or into the depths of insanity.
- DirectorWilliam FriedkinStarsEllen BurstynMax von SydowLinda BlairWhen a young girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two Catholic priests to save her life.The idea of a child possessed by an evil spirit can still send chills down the spine. Indeed, so often replicated and copied, somehow the original still holds a raw coarseness never equalled. A simple narrative makes for a dramatic showdown of good vs evil.
- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsMia FarrowJohn CassavetesRuth GordonA young couple trying for a baby moves into an aging, ornate apartment building on Central Park West, where they find themselves surrounded by peculiar neighbors.Straddling the line between reality and mental deterioration, it's hard to distinguish between the truth of the matter or paranoid delusion; the setting of this movie lies predominantly within an every-day-world we only too easily can relate to. Perhaps as much a commentary on domestic isolation, it subtly draws you into the anxiety of the maternal mind, trying to reason within a largely patriarchal society.
- DirectorJames WhaleStarsBoris KarloffElsa LanchesterColin CliveMary Shelley reveals the main characters of her novel survived: Baron Henry Frankenstein, goaded by an even madder scientist, builds his monster a mate.Perhaps taken as slightly kitsch rather than frightening by today's standards, nevertheless the Bride of Frankenstein offers some of the most iconic imagery of the horror genre that it simply could not be omitted! It remains a visually rich masterpiece, even today.
- DirectorDario ArgentoStarsJessica HarperStefania CasiniFlavio BucciAn American newcomer to a prestigious German ballet academy comes to realize that the school is a front for something sinister amid a series of grisly murders.An American student comes to study ballerina in a European academy, lending to the classic tale of isolation, building into paranoia, as she grapples with bitchy students, a strange culture and austere tutors; all this to a backdrop of a killer on the loose and mysterious disappearances. This movie hits an eery tone felt something like an off-kilter dream, supremely aided to by a soundtrack by Goblin.
- DirectorTomas AlfredsonStarsKåre HedebrantLina LeanderssonPer RagnarOskar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl.Though the American remake, "Let Me In", is a fine movie in its own right, somehow it lacks the subtle ambience of the nordic original. A spine-tingling romance of a different kind, sometimes falling into dark, ironic humour, the terror lies as much with presentiment as it does with the horror being played out in front of you.
- DirectorRobert EggersStarsAnya Taylor-JoyRalph InesonKate DickieA family in 1630s New England is torn apart by the forces of witchcraft, black magic and possession.This atmospheric period piece is set in the seventeenth century. With rich attention to detail through costume, language and cinematography, the core of this movie is all about presenting mood and texture; thus it will immerse you into the mindset of the period so that superstitious belief may way feel like an authentic reality.
- DirectorHideo NakataStarsNanako MatsushimaMiki NakataniYûko TakeuchiA reporter and her ex-husband investigate a cursed video tape that is rumored to kill the viewer seven days after watching it.The original Japanese version somehow creates a better setting for this weird horror rather than its American remake, The Ring (2002). This movie plays on an inherent primordial distrust that technology itself can be haunted, used as a conduit to the "other" place, or even to trap the soul. A traditional haunting experienced through modern devices leads to one of the scariest scenes in horror movie history – after this, you may not want to watch the T.V. alone in the dark again!
- DirectorAlan ParkerStarsMickey RourkeRobert De NiroLisa BonetA private investigator is hired by a man who calls himself Louis Cyphre to track down a singer named Johnny Favorite. But the investigation takes an unexpected and somber turn.Somewhat overlooked in its time, this movie starts like an hard-boiled, investigative, film-noir, set in the mean streets of New York, but moves into the backdrop of voodoo rituals and the occult, down in New Orleans. This gives the movie a unique grain; a 'grittiness' felt in few other horrors. Robert De Nero manages to create one of the creepiest, foreboding characters in his portrayal of Louis Cyphre. Why rolling a hard boiled egg across the table to crack its shell or inspecting his perfectly manicured nails should be so eerily disquieting, is quite hard to explain!
- DirectorBrian De PalmaStarsSissy SpacekPiper LaurieAmy IrvingCarrie White, a shy, friendless teenage girl who is sheltered by her domineering, religious mother, unleashes her telekinetic powers after being humiliated by her classmates at her senior prom.Subjected to stick, religious upbringing, and bullied by her peers, Carrie's frustrations manifest as a psychokinetic ability, impulsively activated. There is a tragic inevitability about this movie which thickens, like a gathering thunder storm, as the story progresses to one of the most iconic horror movie climaxes.
- DirectorNicolas RoegStarsJulie ChristieDonald SutherlandHilary MasonA married couple grieving the recent death of their young daughter are in Venice when they encounter two elderly sisters, one of whom is psychic and brings a warning from beyond.A cerebral journey, this movie may not give one the satisfaction of a typical linear storyline, but instead throws one into the imagery of premonition, made manifest by the labyrinthine streets of Venice, reflecting a grieving, haunted mind.
- DirectorRobin HardyStarsEdward WoodwardChristopher LeeDiane CilentoA puritan police sergeant arrives in a Scottish island village in search of a missing girl, who the pagan locals claim never existed.A policeman, with a clear sense of duty, comes to an isolated island to investigate a disappearance, but he is faced with superstitious locals who seem to have a rather different moral compass to his own. A supernatural hand at work, or a community scheming against him? At all accounts, we sense the mystic world etching away at the rigid pillars of contemporary conceit, to what must be one of the most beautifully disquieting climaxes.
- DirectorBob ClarkStarsOlivia HusseyKeir DulleaMargot KidderDuring their Christmas break, a group of sorority girls are stalked by a stranger.Perhaps a little ironically, the one movie I picked for this list that could be termed as a "slasher", is probably best classed more as a thriller than a horror, mainly for the lack of supernatural prowess exhibited by the main villain. But it is precisely these vulnerabilities which seem to make the prowler even more eerily creepy than some of his later superhuman, unstoppable slasher counterparts. Black Christmas came out four years before Halloween (1978), which is often cited as the catalyst to the golden age of the slasher movie; thus Black Christmas is blissfully unaware of the conventions that might make later slasher movies seem clichéd, which, though somewhat a contradiction in terms, helps give it a 'freshness' to the slasher theme.
- DirectorTrey Edward ShultsStarsJoel EdgertonChristopher AbbottCarmen EjogoSecure within a desolate home as an unnatural threat terrorizes the world, a man has established a tenuous domestic order with his wife and son. Then a desperate young family arrives seeking refuge.In the tradition of zombie or "infected" movie, It Comes at Night brings the notion that the real enemy being "the enemy within" to a whole new level of paranoia. What it is, that comes at night, is barely understood and never really seen, yet it is felt as a foreboding presence, knocking at the door, in this ultra claustrophobic movie.
- DirectorGeorge A. RomeroStarsDuane JonesJudith O'DeaKarl HardmanA ragtag group of Pennsylvanians barricade themselves in an old farmhouse to remain safe from a horde of flesh-eating ghouls that are ravaging the Northeast of the United States.George A. Romero's "ghouls" became the prototype for the modern day depiction of the zombie. As like in all good zombie movies, the battle is not so much with the enemy at our gates, but rather with the enemy within. The wall of zombies threatening to break through at any moment, is like a symbolic representation of our fragile ability to hold things together.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsAnthony PerkinsJanet LeighVera MilesA Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.By the strictest definition perhaps more thriller than a horror; still Psycho is so suspenseful, with allusions to violence which shocked audiences at its time, and by inspiring more mystery of fear than most horrors actually manage, while playing on themes of fragility of mind, this title simply has to be added. Indeed, Psycho both managed to break movie convention with its shock killing off of main characters, while at the same time wrote a whole new playbook which would go on to inspire a new 'slasher' genre.
- DirectorM. Night ShyamalanStarsBruce WillisHaley Joel OsmentToni ColletteMalcolm Crowe, a child psychologist, starts treating a young boy, Cole, who encounters dead people and convinces him to help them. In turn, Cole helps Malcolm reconcile with his estranged wife.The Sixth Sense has some of the most spine tingling representations of ghosts that, though in many ways it just doesn't feel like a "horror" (its overarching theme is too uplifting), for its representation of the supernatural, it simply could not be omitted. Indeed, the words of the kid saying, "I see dead people" will send a shiver down your spine every time!
- DirectorJulia DucournauStarsGarance MarillierElla RumpfRabah Nait OufellaA young woman, studying to be a vet, develops a craving for human flesh.A quirky, dark, 'coming of age' movie, can one blame Justine (Garance Marillier) for succumbing to her innate nature, even if that involves a unique form of carnivorous indulgence? I guess her cannibalistic tendency represents the more destructive impulse within us all, trying to cope within a society that expects us to conform to what is perceived as normal convention.