Need recommendations for scary movies

[wryter2000]

My dh is in the hospital and will be for some time. That means I have the TV/VCR/DVD all to myself during some sleepless night. I can't bring myself to watch anything Christmas-y. In fact at this point, carols make me want to hurl. I'd love to see some scary movies that might be available at the video store.

However, I want them to be scary, not gory. If there's blood and guts, I turn the thing off. Movies I love are the Liam Neeson "The Haunting," "Poltergeist" (the original), "The Changeling." I love the original "The Thing" and hated the remake. No chainsaws or massacres, please. :) That'll give you an idea of my taste.

Please help me out here.

[oldtime dfl_er]

1. How about "Wait Until Dark"

or "The Sixth Sense" if you haven't seen it.

[Feathered Fish]

2. You could have a jolly old horror time

with 'Black Christmas'. I can't remember if there is gore, but I do remember it being pretty scary.

[Thurston Howell IV]

3. What about Hitchcock?

You've probably seen them all already, but just in case: Psycho, The Birds and Frenzy might do the trick.

The Hunger is also pretty good -- it has Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie and Susan Sarandon. Very stylish and "freaky" -- really a good choice if you're into vampires.

[AwareOne]

4. Rent "The Ring" it's the scariest movie I have seen in a long time

[ixion]

45. second that

the creepiest, scariest in quite some time.

[Kazak]

5. You've probably seen it, but...The Shining (the Kubrick version)

One of the scariest, yet not gory, films ever!

[jeff30997]

7. I love that movie.

Gimme the bat Wendy !

[Feathered Fish]

9. I just watched it last night.

for the 100th million time, and when it was over, I just wanted more, MORE!!!

[Kazak]

6. Mulholland Drive?

Most disturbing, indeed. Good luck understanding it though (adds to the charm).

[Ivan Sputnik]

16. MD is not that hard to understand

if you're familiar with Lynch's work. Otherwise, you might have to watch it two or three times before you "get" it. It's worth the effort, IMO.

[The Straight Story]

8. Dark City

Not really a horror movie, but scary in some weird ways - one of my favorite movies (I personally classify it as sci-fi-horror on my shelf at home).

Also "In the Mouth of Madness" which was entertaining.

Will dig up more, just got a call.

[idiosyncratic]

14. I don't like scary movies, but I liked "Dark City" n/t

[Ilsa]

10. The Omen

was scary, but very violent, and mildly bloody. But I htought the story was very scary because there was so much mystery about it.

[Ilsa]

11. TLC had a documentary on The Parker House

that got so scary I had to change channels because it's supposed to be about a true haunting. I don't know if it is available in video/dvd.

[wryter2000]

12. Thanks, everyone

I've seen some of these but not all. Some that I've seen could be worth watching over again. If you think of any more, add them.

I knew I could count on DU. :yourock:

[idiosyncratic]

13. Tremors . . . It is funny and scary. Kevin Bacon, Reba McIntire

[ooglymoogly]

15. how about 'the thing' one of the scariest movies of all time

1950's flick. but my favorite scary movie of all time after psycho is silence of the lambs

[mcscajun]

17. If you've not seen it ... "Dead Again" (1991)

with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson

[lazarus]

18. Some scary movies that aren't gory

Dead Again
Pitch Black
Blair Witch Project
Alien (the original, not too gory)
Jaws

I hate gore as much as you do. I can handle it if it's necessary to the plot, but too many films try to gross out rather than terrify.

[CBHagman]

19. "The Night of the Hunter" with Robert Mitchum.

"The Night of the Hunter" is chilling and suspenseful rather than gory, but it's one of the most disturbing films I have ever seen. Made at a time when both violence and sex were not depicted explicitly, it still packs a wallop.

Also consider "Night Must Fall" and all the various Hitchcock movies you might not have gotten to. Oh, and don't forget the classic "The Dead of Night," which will haunt you long after you've finished watching.

As far as more recent movies go, did you see "The Others"? That raised some major screams at my local cinema, to the point where people were shushing each other to hear the next line of dialogue!

Don't forget to check the windows and doors before you go to bed.
:-)

[mitchum]

29. I second "The Night of the Hunter"...

but of course I would

It is indeed a grim fairy tale (and one of the best films ever made)

[Pepperbelly]

20. The Gift. nt

[derbstyron]

31. Great movie!

It's one of my favorite DvDs

[Pert_UK]

21. Blair Witch Project? (runs for cover....)...The Wicker Man?

I really liked the BWP.......totally, utterly scared the living piss out of me and I had to go back and see it a second time because I'd got my eyes closed during the ending first time around.

What a wuss.......

Suspense and terror but no gore.......A lot of people thought it was over-hyped and a bit shit, but I really liked it.

DON'T see the similar film about the Jersey Devil though - I have rarely seen such turd, and I work in a sewage plant.

The Wicker Man is classic '60s British suspense and kicks ass IIRC, although I haven't seen it for years.

P.

P.S.
I don't really work in a sewage plant.

[derbstyron]

32. I loved Blair Witch

It scared the shit out of me, especially the last five - ten minutes.
:scared:

[ExclamationPoint]

38. You mean "The Blair Witch Projectile"

That movie is completely prejudice against modern day wiccans and should not be watched or supported, as images of witches as "evil" (I hope most of you know) are as outdated as thinking about Jews in the same way.

Something so religiously intolerant is, indeed, quite frightening.

[Pert_UK]

44. What...........the...................FUCK??????

On edit.........if you were being ironic then I totally missed it at first......10 out of 10 for a VERY amusing set of comments! :toast: You may stop reading now.

If you were being serious, please continue to read this post while I take the piss out of you. Thanks.

"That movie is completely prejudice against modern day wiccans and should not be watched or supported, as images of witches as "evil" (I hope most of you know) are as outdated as thinking about Jews in the same way.

Something so religiously intolerant is, indeed, quite frightening."

Thank you for making rabidly critical comments about a film which you've clearly not seen.

By all means fully embrace whatever beliefs you happen to have, but you might be taken a bit more seriously if you didn't run around making random pronouncements of repression with no regard to their accuracy.

Did you also lobby against "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" on the grounds that it was clearly cashing in on 9/11? That's the kind of ill-informed and knee-jerk response we're dealing with here.....

Newsflash - this movie says NOTHING about modern day wiccans and makes only slight, passing reference to a witch who lived a long time ago. There are NO witches in the film, no representations of witches, no religious intolerance and NOTHING that even remotely resembles your bizarre comments. All there is is a series of frightening and inexplicable events.

You must really go out of your way to feel oppressed, eh?

[ixion]

46. I agree

I'm a big fan of the wiccan movement, and I saw nothing offensive in the movie.

Then again, I saw the movie. :evilgrin:

[Pert_UK]

47. Thank you!

I'm just waiting now to see whether ExclamationPoint is going to come back with something to demonstrate that he/she is either:

- a comedy genius, or
- an insane, ignorant fool with a chip on his/her shoulder the size of a whole field of potatoes.....

There is no middle ground IMHO.

I hope for the first option and that I misjudged him/her......

[Hell Hath No Fury]

22. The original of "The Haunting"....

is miles ahead of that turd of a remake (sorry, but it was!).

No gore, no overdone special effects -- just a full-on, creepy, mind fuck. Watch it late at night with the lights out. :)

[karl meltdown]

26. but keep your glock handy...

grown men will try to turn it off if left alone.

[puddycat]

37. Older movies scare using the mind, new ones just punch in the gut

newer movie makers tend not to use finesse...or even plot and character development.

[quispquake]

23. Suspiria

Probably my favorite horror movie...I saw it in the 70's when it came out, and it freaked me out really bad...the music needs to be played LOUD with this one (and yes, it's on DVD!)

[ceile]

24. If you like Japanese scary movies....

Ringu
Tomie (any of them-there's 6)
The Eye
Audition
Ju-On (The Grudge)

All psychological and other-worldly, not blood and guts

[Lydia Leftcoast]

28. The Eye is actually a Hong Kong movie, but

I really found it original and unnerving.

[Raiden]

25. Freaks

Classic cult horror film

Also try...

The Omen
Suspiria
Inferno
Don't Look Now
The Wicker Man
Phantasm
When a Stranger Calls
Rosemary's Baby
The Vanishing (The original is the best)
Night of the Living Dead
Psycho (DUH!)

[karl meltdown]

27. the other

freaky early 70s thing, very rural americanna.

[derbstyron]

30. The Changeling; The Legend of Hell House

Creepy, chilling, but subtle haunted house fliks.

[Killarney]

33. The Others and The Gift

The Changeling is such a classic. I saw it first when I was 12 and when that ball came down the stairs, I nearly pissed my panties.

[puddycat]

36. The Others is an interesting movie--with a shocker ending

at least I didn't see it coming.

The Village is good, also (although I guessed that ending!)

These movies are more suspense than horror, like the movies they made in the "olden" days.

[MissBrooks]

34. Just watched the Panic Room

That was good - and scary...

[MISSDem]

35. Frailty.

"ultimate cinematic horror" - Stephen Holden
"edge-of-the-seat entertainment" - Stephen King

[whalerider55]

39. "Don't Look Now"

The scariest movie bar none i've ever seen.
The way Nicholas Roeg has structured the movie, you don't realize until the end that you've seen the entire movie already in flashbacks and flashforwards.

damn, it scared the heck out of me in 1973; it still does.
also, beautifully filmed. DOnald Sutherland and Julie Christiue, as i remember.

whalerider55

[MemphisTiger]

40. Pet Cemetery by Steven King

This movie messed me up for a long time when I was a kid. I don't remember any blood or guts

[Pierre Trudeau]

41. some more favourites...

I'm a huge horror movie buff, and have probably seen hundreds in my lifetime. Few of them actually scared me, though: mostly they're just fun to watch. But there are some I would recommend for effective creepiness which have not yet been mentioned:

Roman Polanski's The Tenant (also Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby of course)
Mario Bava's Black Sunday
David Cronenberg's The Brood (a bit gory... hey what do you expect, it's Cronenberg)
Robert Aldrich's Hush.. Hush... Sweet Charlotte
Sam Raimi's Evil Dead (the first one; Evil Dead 2 is a better film but more fun than scary)
David Fincher's Se7en
William Castle's Homicidal and The Night Walker
Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later
David Lynch's Eraserhead (still his best)
Bernard Rose's Candyman (gory)
Dario Argento's Deep Red (gory)
Lucio Fulci's The Beyond (VERY gory)
John McNaughton's Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
Andrzej Zulawski's Possession
Adrian Lyne's Jacob's Ladder

OK, none of those actually made me pee my pants, but are among the most effectively creepy that I've seen (The Tenant is particularly twisted). There are a lot of other great horror flicks I'd recommend, but I don't find them particularly "scary".

I'll also add my endorsement of some of the other titles mentioned, such as Wait Until Dark, The Ring (original Japanese version), In The Mouth Of Madness (John Carpenter doing H.P. Lovecraft), The Thing (BOTH the original and the Carpenter remake are good, the latter being a little gorier), Night Of The Hunter, The Wicker Man, The Haunting (original Robert Wise version), Suspiria, Inferno, The Eye (except for its sucky ending), Don't Look Now, Phantasm, The Changeling, The Vanishing and especially Audition. I can't recommend that one highly enough, but ceile is wrong about the "not blood and guts"... it's definitely NOT for the squeamish.

Finally, here's a handy and relatively comprehensive database of horror titles:
http://www.brimstone.org/horrormovies.php?mode=full_list

Unfortunately, it doesn't cover many of the recent films from Asia, where all the best horror is being made these days.

[leeman67]

42. The Eye

this movie definitely gave me the creeps. a very good ghost story. It's in Cantonese, but w/ english subtitles on the dvd.

[northernsoul]

43. 28 Days Later

Very, very frightening. Moderate gross-out factor.

I don't like horror movies at all, but that movie scared the living piss out of me for about a week.

[henslee]

48. very frightening.