It’s horror movie season in the US and my favorite type is zombies. I also love campy B movies. Watching Dead Snow 2 right now and I think it ranks up there with Shawn of the Dead and Evil Dead 3: Army of Darkness.
What is your top pick for whatever genre?
I also recommend It Follows. It is so different. And the characters don’t act dumb. And everything makes sense in the context. Like why they dont get a car or catch a plane, because they are broke teenagers.
“The shutter” the original asian one. I remember watching it when it came out and loved it. ETA and the original Halloween of course but I also liked Rob Zombie’s versión of it.
Sinister - the home movies and music are so creepy.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1974 Alien Paranormal Activity (first one) V/H/S Train to Busan Children of the corn Frozen (about three skiers - not sure if this counts) Saw Orphan
The shining. I watch it every year at the first snow. I’m afraid I won’t get that chance this year.
The Blair Witch Project. Terrifying.
GYO Tokyo Fish Attack. Body horror is a great genre that doesn’t come around very often without looking kind of cheesy so it helps being animation.
The Fly is another great example of the genre. Such an excellent movie with a sad ending to top it off.
If you like body horror, go watch The Substance. That movie brought back memories of when body horror used to be good (Videodrome, Scanners, Toxic Avenger, etc)
Try this one.
“Altered States.”
A Harvard neuroscientist is experimenting with sensory deprivation and other hallucinogens.
Haven’t yall seen The Conjuring II, The Nun, or am I an idiot to call these horror 😒
That nun is something else. Goosebumps every time! And I’ve rewatched it dozens of times
The Thing (1982) has basically consistently been my favorite horror movie
It Follows
I like that it’s such a simple concept for a horror movie, but it’s still highly engaging for the audience.
spoiler
Early on in the movie, it (quite literally) teaches you a set of rules that the monster operates by, and the rest of the film feels almost like an interactive game.
- the monster is a shapeshifter
- it has stack (as in the data structure) of targets
- it’s always walking straight towards the target at the top of the stack (peek())
- the target can have sex with someone else to make them the new target (push())
- if the target at the top of the stack dies, the previous target is the target again (pop())
Beyond that, the writing and cinematography just let the audience play along. The characters are deliberating their plans on how they would deal with the monster, letting you also think about what you would do in their situation. And the camera likes to slowly pan around the people talking so that all the while, the audience is scanning the background looking for the monster. It can look like anyone, and they constantly, and deliberately put extras in the background walking directly toward the camera just to make you go “oh shit! Is that it right there? Hey, pay attention, we need to move!”
It’s just such a fun, unique experience. I don’t know of another horror movie experience quite like it.
Signs (2002) is my favorite horror movie to watch during spooky season. While it was mocked so perfectly in Scary Movie 3, I feel like the atmosphere it creates is still so unnerving. The humor in the movie adds an element of B movie campiness to an otherwise serious movie.
Cabin in the Woods (2011) disassembles the horror tropes in a hilarious way. Inspired by the Evil Dead movies.
After I saw Signs the first time, I started carrying a steel mop handle around my apartment and next to my bed at night.
Aliens really get to me from when I watched X-files as a kid, and this movie did it nicely.
The Witch (2015)
Since you asked the favorite, i will have to describe it, trying to avoid the spoilers.
It is a masterpiece on many aspects at the same time. It is a historical movie, focusing on an isolated devout settler family living on the frontiers in the beginnings of US history. It is a dramatic and heavy movie with believable people, showing their realistic hardships in everyday living, how they really live and think the world through their strict religion, and how they react realistically to the supernatural events that unfold. It is a Horror movie that gradually builds the mystery, tense and fear thorough the relatively long stretch of time it takes (months i guess), and the actual terror moments felt deserved (i.e. not a cheap scary gag).
For all that, it is considered one of the more ‘artful’ horror films out there, and i’m sure it will (or already is?) considered one of the Greats in the genre with Dracula 1932 and The Exorcist 1973. It however leans on being slow and heavy, not good if you seek a lighthearted film.
One way I like to describe it is that They took one this witch trials account/documents, took it at face value and just recreated it as an historical movie.
Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010) and The Cabin in the Woods (2012) (go in spoiler-free with this one) are both good comedy horror.
I was not prepared for how good Tucker and Dale vs. Evil is!
Not my favourite but Sleepaway Camp is an absolute classic of so-bad-its-good 80s horror with an unforgettable ending.
