Best Horror Films of All Time (Halloween wooo) - The Bear and Badger

Dark Soldier

I'm watching Ocarina of Time speedruns this early. Day is pimp, and so are all of you.

mk64

shouldn't that only take 19 minutes?

LarryDavid

I don't think it's anywhere close to being his best book but Pet Sematary was the one that scared me the most whilst going through my King-reading phase at 12/13. I found it terrifying. So much so that even the rubbish film adaptation managed to unnerve me, purely by association.

Dark Soldier

mk64 wrote:

shouldn't that only take 19 minutes?

Its a guy practising the route, not Cosmo or teh leet.

Dark Soldier

http://speedrunslive.com/#!/AUTOc0utslide

SO BEST. He's 9th in the world(!)

TheDJR

Speedruns lead to madness.

Dark Soldier

Might write some creepypasta speedrun ting, cos why not I'm talented.

MattyJ

LarryDavid wrote:

I don't think it's anywhere close to being his best book but Pet Sematary was the one that scared me the most whilst going through my King-reading phase at 12/13. I found it terrifying. So much so that even the rubbish film adaptation managed to unnerve me, purely by association.

I read it a few months ago and it is very unsettling, especially the end.

Aaroncupboard

Been thinking about this list over the past day; was very difficult to put together!

10. What Lies Beneath

This gains a place in the top ten purely becuase it was my first ever horror film experience and many moments have stayed with me since (the radio suddenly blasting on, the bath!!!).

9. Paranormal Activity

This can be slightly overlooked by many, but when it came out it was very good and really scary. As mentioned before, I didn't sleep too well after watching this. The concept is strong and the film builds up very nicely until the slightly crappy ending.

8. The Blair Witch Project

This deserves to be on the list as it made me realise just how terrifying my imagination could be. Minimalist, slow and very scary.

7. A Tale of Two Sisters

A fantastic story, great visuals and a hell of a suckerpunch towards the end. Plenty of very creepy moments.

6. Sinister

Certainly one of the better horror films of recent years. Full of decent ideas and some excellent subtle scares (the simple sound of the projector starting up was horrid).

5. Saw

It can be difficult to see past the diminishing sequels which veered into ridiculousness, but it is important to remember the quality of the original. The story was great, the twist brilliant and some of the scares were very effective.

4. The Innkeepers

I loved this, even more so than House of the Devil. The mixture of horror and comedy was excellent and it was surprisingly, and devestatingly, tragic.

3. The Strangers

This really affected me when I first saw it. I personally find the unknown prescence of people with malicious intent in someones house to be terrifying. Made worse by the sheer pointlessness of it all. The original french film is just as good.

2. REC

This film blew me away. The experience of seeing it at the cinema remains my greatest cinema trip to date. The build up of tension in the room was incredible and the final twenty minutes was unbearable. I also loved the second one and the third (although for different reasons!).

1. The Orphanage

A beautiful film. Made me shit myself and cry at the same time. Just stunning.

Honourable Mentions

The Last Exocism, Martyrs, The House of the Devil, VHS, Psycho, The Birds, The Shining, I Saw the Devil, The Descent, Wolf Creek, The Hills Have Eyes, Friday the 13th, Insidious, The Conjuring, Sleep Tight, Julias Eyes, Dont be Afraid of the Dark, KM 31, Texas Chainsaw Massacre (original and remake), Stitches, The Pact, The Cabin in the Woods, Dawn of the Dead, The Signal, The Awakening, The Woman in Black, Stake Land......

tigersgogrrr

g.man wrote:

Agree. The Descent is absolutely terrifying.

Yup. Saw it at the cinema and did NOT sleep well that night.

davyK

The first 20-30mins of Jeepers Creepers was excellent - I watched it in the cinema and just before it lost it's balls,copped out, and got stupid, my wife was about to leave as it was scaring her shitless.

Moot_Geeza

Nice to see Wolf Creek in Aaron's honourable mentions. I wasn't expecting much when I first saw it, but watched it with a decent group and everyone ended up loving it.

Moot_Geeza

I saw Mothman Prophecies for the first time the other day, which imo is as good an example of a 12 rated horror as you're likely to find. I also re-watched Stir of Echoes, which still stands up. Jacob's Ladder is superb too.

adored

Jeepers Creepers set a precedent for pretty much most Hollywood horror films that followed. Ok premise, raise the suspense, then a shit reveal that leads to a thoroughly unsatisfying ending, usually straight after they reveal the monster/ghost macguffin/whatever.

regmcfly

Glad Aaron mentioned Innkeepers. When I was speaking to mrs reg about my list she suggested it but sadly 'twas no room

Wookienopants

Oh I forgot about Innkeepers! I saw an early preview of this at The Prince Charles and they had a skype interview Q&A with Pat Healy on the big screen afterwards. Was a lot of fun and the film really did scare me silly at several points.
As Aaron said it has such a wonderful mix of scares and comedy. Writing is fantastic.

Wookienopants

Also I'll go with Sinister too, it's the only film that her indoors will not watch again with me, first time we saw it was in the cinema and she didn't sleep for 2 nights afterwards. During the film she squeezed my arm so hard she left nail marks! Lol

Dark Soldier

I honestly struggle to get this Sinister thing. It becomes a comedy about halfway through.

tigersgogrrr

Dark Soldier wrote:

I honestly struggle to get this Sinister thing. It becomes a comedy about halfway through.

The first half was fantastic. The snuff films were creepy as all hell.

But, sure, yes, I concur... it became pretty lol by the end.

Moot_Geeza

I didn't mind the ending to Sinister. T'was OK.

Dark Soldier

Aye, the films themselves were wonderfully done, but after:

Spoiler:

it lost me completely. If it'd gone to pot with 10 minutes or so left I could've forgiven it more, I spose. As has been said, promise by the bucketload but relatively poor execution.

Kow

Like a lot of these horrors it starts off well but by the time it ends it's up to its neck in bullshit. I could say that about almost every other horror I've seen in the last few years.

Dark Soldier

Kow wrote:

Like a lot of these horrors it starts off well but by the time it ends it's up to it's neck in bullshit. I could say that about almost every other horror I've seen in the last few years.

Excision is the only one of very recent memory that's got it right imo (although its a marmite film, going off reactions).

Wookienopants

Yea, wasn't perfect by a long shot but for me was a very effective horror and had quite an old fashioned horror feel to it.
Thing is horror, much like comedy, really does depend on what speaks to you as a person. I know people who were terrified by films I laughed at and films that scared the hell out of me just made them giggle at the silliness.
Just horses for courses isn't it

adkm1979

I've found this kinda difficult. It's hard to balance not so great films that have nevertheless left me shitting myself (like The Devil Inside) and those that are great films, but much less scary (like An American Werewolf in London). Shaun of the Dead is one of my all time favourite films, and is a great zombie film in its own right, but somehow it doesn't feel like it fits here. In fact, most zombie films I enjoy feel more action than horror. Ditto a lot of modern vampire films, except maybe 30 Days of Night. Then there are those films that unsettle me and at times scare me, but aren't technically horror films (like Pan's Labyrinth), or those films that scare me throughout then fuck it up at the end (hello Mama). I guarantee that the following list is 100 inaccurate.

10. The Plague of the Zombies
This is an old Hammer film. I haven't seen this for a very, very long time, and it probably hasn't aged very well, but I watched it when I was a little too young and it probably accounts for my genuine fear of zombies.

9. The Orphanage
A strange cookie, this one. Unnerving, unsettling, and possibly a better film than ones I've got higher up the list, but I dunno.

8. Sphere
I used to watch this in a double bill with Event Horizon, which should probably be in this list too. It's not popular, not critically acclaimed, which I think is unfair.

7. The Exorcism of Emily Rose
Possession films terrify me. I'm not religious, and don't believe in demons, but nevertheless, I'm scared when watching these, and this one is a good example.

6. The Blair Witch Project
This didn't scare me much first time I watched it, until I tried to go to sleep that night.

5. The Descent
Probably deserves to be higher in the list.

4. [•REC]
Handles found-footage better than most, and shifts in pace.

3. The Grudge
Uses many of the popular-in-Japan tropes expertly handled in Ringu/The Ring, but frankly handles them almost as well itself.

2. Paranormal Activity
Maybe controversial to say this, but I'd include all of them. They very in quality, but I've watched each of them at home alone in the dark, and have had to have a full hour of all the lights on, watch a sit-com before bed.

1. Ringu / The Ring
Both are equally good, if you ask me. It does a great job of keeping you unsettled throughout, with the weird footage, and then there's the climax. Genuinely terrifying.

Kow

Andy in (some) good taste shocker.

Aaroncupboard

Bonus points for the red dot before REC!

I like The Innkeepers love mentioned earlier, it really is a great film and I could of, maybe should of, put it higher.

Moot_Geeza

I wasn't keen on The Descent. It's appeared on a few of these lists over the past couple of days, so I dug it out of the dvd wall to rewatch.

Kow

It was well done horror with scares a plenty. There are two versions, if I remember correctly - one slightly edited with a few bits cut out, mainly at the end.

Wookienopants

Right, been giving this some thought and here's what I came up with.

Iiiiiiin at 10: The Decent

Went with my mum when it released one quiet Sunday and we both had no idea what to expect. We went to see something else but it was sold out so we bought 2 tickets to the first thing that was showing at that time.
I then shat myself for nearly 2 hours.

iiiiiin at 9: House of 1000 Corpses
Watched this whilst drunk, impressionable and at 3am with no sleep and the twisted, horrible imagery stayed with me for ages

iiiiiin at 8: Event Horizon
Yea... Fuck that. Watched this one night on the sci-fi channel expecting it as a simple sci if movie and it absolutely terrified me.

iiiiin at 7: Drag Me To Hell
As a huge fan of Sam Raimi films, rating Evil Dead 2 as one of my favourite films of all time, the news of his newest attempt at a horror film was music to my ears. And this didn't disappoint. Brilliant scares mixed with comedic moments made this feel like one of his best.

iiiiiin at 6: The Ring
Enough said about this in other peoples posts, it truly is brilliant. I saw the American release first so I'm including that over Ringu simply because it was new and the scares didn't hit me quite the same when I saw Ringu and knew vaguely what to expect.

iiiiin at 5: Saw
First saw this on DVD when the sequel was in cinemas, had no idea what to expect other than my friends talk about the infamous reverse bear trap scene and it simply blew me away. Truly couldn't watch most of it unless it was through my fingers.

and bored of the iiiiiin gag at 4: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The original and the best. Simply a master class in horror, suspense and atmosphere. Wonderful.

3: Paranormal Activity
Simple premise, low budget, perfect little ghost story. When that night vision camera kicks in you couldn't hear a pin drop in that cinema.

2: Kill List
Two hours of such slow boiling tension that sucked me in, held me tight then shook me to my core at the ending. Stayed with me for days and days after. I told everyone about it for weeks.

1: The Exorcist
What can I possibly say about what some consider the finest cinematic horror experience there is. I saw this at the age of 12 and didn't sleep for days, it stayed burned in my memory for years and I still get freaked out by Tubular Bells now. Just the absolute terror of this unknown entity able to take control of the absolute picture of innocence and have everybody unable to do a damn thing about it. The shattering of the American dream of family,home life and middle class suburban ideals by something so ancient, so evil, so unknown... I love it.

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