Great Horror/Suspense films

Strongbow10

Most people appreciate a good horror movie. I sincerely apologise for the very basic nature of my question, but can anyone recommend some really great horror movies?

These days they are getting more and more far fetched, reliant on gore etc. Now don't get me wrong there have been some decent ones, but would anyone be able to recommend a bunch of good ones? They can be modern or old classics. Or indeed anything in between.

Thanks a million in advance

safetyboy

Maniac (1980) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081114/

YbFocus

The Blair witch is fantastic for suspense terrifying film!

Strongbow10

cheers for the responses guys, keep em coming

safetyboy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctfsELU3TSU

Mum and Dad

podgemonster

I'd recommend the Horror forum and particularily Tindie's thread
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056851149&page=7


I presume you have seen The Shining, if not stop whatever you are doing and go watch it.

Strongbow10

podgemonster wrote: »

I'd recommend the Horror forum and particularily Tindie's thread
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056851149&page=7


I presume you have seen The Shining, if not stop whatever you are doing and go watch it.

Brilliant, thanks for that

Yeah i've seen all the classics and some "not so Classic"

Basically just looking for some hidden gems that may have flown under my radar over the years

Zombienosh

Ones I've watched over the past week or so,
Insidious
Don't be afraid of the dark
Dark Skies
Alien Abduction: The McPherson Tape
R-point

Da Shins Kelly

Asia has a great handle on the horror genre, in my opinion. A real focus on building atmosphere rather than going for cheap scares. They've turned out some classics over the years.

A Tale of Two Sisters (Korean):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anF5XiN8QY8

Audition (Japanese):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC3jCY4h0H0

Shutter (Thai):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvqWrkdZqn4

Confessions (Japanese):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vnws8ZymxME

Ringu (Japanese):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9Z-MOqAvtY

Thirst (Korean):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODoagpV68gA

There are loads more, these are just a few.

Space Dog

Some films that haven't been mentioned yet:
- The Haunting 1963
- The Changeling
- Rosemary's Baby
- Eden Lake
- Session 9
- Candyman
- Dark Water (Japanese version)
- May (more drama than horror)
- The Descent
- Rec
- Suspiria (visually stunning)
- In the Mouth of Madness
- À l'intérieur (Inside)
- Haute Tension (Switchblade Romance)
- The Orphanage
- Das Experiment (German, no horror but lots of suspense)

Banjaxed82

This was a tough watch. Dripping with atmosphere and suspense-orama!

rednik

This was great when it was released in the cinema.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVAx84hpo-c

Acacia

Imo, foreign horror movies are the best. Don't go looking for decent horrors in any mainstream Hollywood new releases, after being let down by Sinister (crapfest!) and Mama, I'm not bothering with American horror anymore...
My recommendation- always see the original foreign versions of horror movies!

Anyhoo, here are my faves of recent years-

1. REC- Spanish. Don't read anything about it, just go for it. The ending will haunt you!

2. The Silent House- very tense Uruguayan horror. Probably the most suspenseful 'haunted house' film I've seen.

3. Ils ('Them')- French, but set in Bulgaria. You'll never want to be alone in your house again!

4. Martyrs- French. Not really supernatural, but very gory and if tense is what you're looking for, it's very disturbing.

5. Ringu- if you've only seen the American version, this is way better, imo. Ditto for all of the 'Grudge' films.

6. Shutter- somebody mentioned it above and I second! If you love horror films where you have to hide behind a cushion, this is one for you.

7. Kairo- another Asian horror in the realm of of 'Ringu'/ 'the Grudge', but I would say creepier than both.

8. El Orfanato ('The Orphanage')- Spanish. Kept me on the edge of my seat the whole way through.

To give American horror movies their due, I do have a soft spot for Paranormal Activity (only the first one though) and the Blair Witch (classic). Another american horror which I saw recently which surprised me in a good way was 'Session 9', set in an abandoned mental hospital (natch!), Very tense!

sweetie

house of the devil
amnesia
the lucky ones (schlocky but very good)
the tunnel
lake mungo
triangle

Liam McPoyle

The Abandoned is an excellent Spanish ghost movie.
Frontier(s) is another in the recent new wave of French horror movies, not as good as Inside or Martyrs but still better than a helluva lot of movies released.

Bipolar Joe

Is there any style of horror you like in particular? Zombies, cannibals, gorefest, ghosts, so on?

Recently watched The Devil's Backbone (Del Toro) which was really good. There's a nice twist on the angle of the film.

Tucker & Dale Versus Evil is my absolute favourite horror comedy, a proper send-up of the teenagers-in-the-woods slasher (Not to be confused with Cabin In The Woods, which is also very good).

If you're a Vincent Price fan, The Abominable Dr. Phibes is fantastic, a very creepy revenge movie.

I'm kind of blanking on ones not already mentioned, but if you could give us a short-list of horror movies you like, it'll be easier to name more for you !!

Strongbow10

not too keen on the zombie movies if i'm honest, liked the paranormal movies also was a huge fan of the Halloween franchise

Was always a fan of the suspense/scare element in horrors rather than glorified gore violence, but saying that ive seen some good gory horror's aswell.

Really appreciate the thought put into the replies

sweetie

oh forgot about v/h/s on us netflix - very good. I quite enjoyed both Grave Encounters movies as I like found footage genre. I was in New York in '99 when Blair Witch was released. We thought we were watching a documentary (for a while at least)

Bipolar Joe

Strongbow10 wrote: »

not too keen on the zombie movies if i'm honest, liked the paranormal movies also was a huge fan of the Halloween franchise

Was always a fan of the suspense/scare element in horrors rather than glorified gore violence, but saying that ive seen some good gory horror's aswell.

Really appreciate the thought put into the replies

Then I'd echo both [REC] (Spain) and The Tunnel (Australia). [REC] is a zombie film, kind of, but more from the supernatural side of things, and has an incredibly tense ending. The Tunnel is a hidden-horror movie, set in abandoned tunnels as a being scares the balls off the characters. Both are amazing examples of where documentary / found-footage style movies can work, with The Tunnel paying homage to other well-known movies of the type.

Funny Games (Either German or American, shot for shot it's exactly the same, down to the score and sets) is a favourite. A family is kept hostage by two violent young men who use them for their amusement. Not particularly violent, and uses tension to keep the film going. Dunno if you could really call this one horror, but give it a try, it's a good film either way.

Antiviral was a good body-shock film out last year by Brandon, Son of Cronenberg. It gets a bit of flak for the mumbly cast, but personally I think it lends to the claustrophobic feel that body-shock should have.

The Descent (Not sure if I saw it mentioned) is another good claustrophobic film. Starts off slow, then suddenly becomes a tense survival movie. Some cave-divers go up against a bunch of violent Gollum type things.

Event Horizon, a great sci-fi horror. A couple of ridiculous parts, but over-all very well made. I recommend watching it with a good sound system, or with decent headphones, it has amazing sound design.

I'll update as I think of more, but that should be a good start. As an aside, jinni.com/ is a great site for finding movies you might like. It's suggested some films which I ended up loving, definitely one of the best engines out there.

Decuc500

Acacia wrote: »

Imo, foreign horror movies are the best. Don't go looking for decent horrors in any mainstream Hollywood new releases, after being let down by Sinister (crapfest!) and Mama, I'm not bothering with American horror anymore...

There are some fantastic American horror film makers, Ti West, Lucky McKee and Jim Mickle to name a few...

jh79

"Spider baby aka the maddest story ever told" is a classic .

"Who could kill a child?" is a great old Spanish horror, don't let the title put you off.

"Black Sunday" and "Black Sabbath" by Mario Bava are excellent also.

"Dark night of the scarecrow" is also an excellent Halloween type film.

gazzer

rednik wrote: »

This was great when it was released in the cinema.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVAx84hpo-c

When I was about 10 years old the yearly summer project was on in the area where I lived. It went on for a month and every Thursday from 8 till 10 there would be a movie for all the kids (up to age of 16) in the community centre. The first week they showed Jaws which frightened a fair few people, then the next 2 weeks they showed 2 movies that where pretty forgettable. The final week however they showed When a Stranger Calls. Frightened the ****e out of me

Zombienosh

Got some good recommends from this thread, Watched The Tunnel last night, Loved it.

Strongbow10

Some Brilliant replies for sure, thanks a million folks really enjoyed some of these

Oh and keep them coming

Aidric

Polanski made two of the finest films in this genre: Repulsion & Rosemary's Baby.

sillybeggar

The history channels haunting in Connecticut documentary (Not the movie that's just useless)
and The Exorcist original movies cant go wrong
pretty much all of Stephen kings are worth a watch and the forth kind is pretty good

Fysh

Sleep Tight is a great Spanish horror/thriller from the director of [REC], with a fantastical central performance from Luis Tosar.

Tesis is a great thriller about a young student working on a paper about violence in media who discovers a snuff film hidden in her university's library and tries to find out who made it.

La Habitacion Del Niño is another decent Spanish horror film. The same director also did a great horror-comedy about the coming of the antichrist called El Dia De La Bestia.

Speaking of horror comedies, Idle Hands and Detention are both well worth a watch. Idle Hands is a bit more straightforward, while Detention is a bit more hyperactive. They're both good fun, though. Severance is also worth considering if you like those two, being kind of like a comedy/horror version of Hostel and featuring some inspired sequences.

I'll add to the list of Asian recommendations upthread with Tetsuo: The Iron Man - a body horror film about a man who finds that his body is gradually being taken over by scrap-metal after a collision with a mysterious stranger. Hansel & Gretel is a wonderful Korean horror fantasy film inspired by the titular fairy tale. Meanwhile, The Happiness Of The Katakuris is full-on mental - it's not really a thriller, more a deranged musical horror comedy. Well worth your time, though, and it's a great introduction to Takashi Miike's films. (If you like this, check out Ichi The Killer and Visitor Q, then go from there).

Demon Seed is a great sci-fi/horror thriller in which an artificial intelligence, infuriated by its lack of ability to interact with the physical world, starts to plot against its creator to achieve freedom. The Thing is a fantastic sci-fi/horror thriller about an Antartic research team who discover what appears to be an alien lifeform, only to discover that it can mimic any living creature. Invasion Of The Body Snatchers has a similar theme, although it features a full-on covert infiltration effort by numerous aliens.

American Mary tells the story of a medical student who starts moonlighting to cover her tuition costs, moving into underground body modification surgery from there.