What horror movie sticks out to you?

Under the Skin is a film that I suppose you could classify as horror that has... erm... got under my skin. It gives me the creeps just thinking about it which it does more often than most horror films in that I occasionally pass locations used in the film. The scene with the child on the beach is probably the reason I am most reluctant ever to watch it again.

Is that a test for whether a horror film works on or not ?A reluctance to rewatch?
 
I'm surprised that I didn't mention Hellraiser (1987) earlier in this thread. It's lost some of its power from rubbish sequels and pop-culture overload, but the original is a strong exercise in dread that could almost be a stage play. Clive Barker does a really good job as director, adapting his own story The Hellbound Heart, and the lead two actors (Claire Higgins and Andrew Robinson) are really strong. The design of the demonic cenobites is great and the score by Christopher Young is excellent. Despite its low budget and occasionally cheapness it's very impressive.
 
Jaws is pretty much the perfect horror movie. And there is nothing about this movie that could have been improved upon. Michael Myers, the Alien and most of the unfeeling, psychopathic killers that followed are basically the great white in Jaws.
 
The one I've never been able to forget was part of the six-film TV series Beasts, created by Nigel Kneale and broadcast in 1976. It was called Baby, and here's a synopsis: 'A young couple buy a remote farmhouse in Cornwall, and begin to renovate it. He has to work away from home for a few days and as his pregnant wife waits alone in the cottage, things start to happen'. You feel the ancient silence of the place, and are as disturbed as she is by the vague, unexplained noises. You almost-see what she almost sees. But you never actually see anything until right at the end; it's all happening in your head and you become as terrified as she is. 5/5.
 
I rewatched 'Watchers' 1988 last night.
Book was great, movie not so much except for the dog. He done good.
 
Not a great horror fan - I do like the 60s/70s Hammer films, and the original Universal Dracula/Frankenstein/the Mummy, and the Wolf Man series, but nothing much later. I don't think I've watched any of the later splatter movies, and really don't think I've missed much.
For me though, the granddaddy and stand-out horror film is Nosferatu (1926, Max Schreck). Some of the scariest scenes I've ever seen, and as far from the sparkly Edward Cullen as you can get whilst being basically the same creature.

 
A Quiet Place (2018)

The pressure to be silent leaked out of the screen and into your psyche.
 
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Pyan said:
For me though, the granddaddy and stand-out horror film is Nosferatu (1926, Max Schreck). Some of the scariest scenes I've ever seen, and as far from the sparkly Edward Cullen as you can get whilst being basically the same creature.
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A few years ago, for Halloween, our main performance hall decided to screen the original silent Nosferatu. This was accompanied by a virtuoso organist, who could see the film on a small screen and improvised in real time. We were told that this was how it was done back in the 1920s. It was absolutely superb. Oh - and the audience were invited to dress in costume, which many of us did. :giggle:
 

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I mentioned this on another thread, but the 1960s Robin Redbreast is a must for anyone interested in British folk horror. It came a couple of years before The Wicker Man, and is similar in some ways with a quite scary ending.
 
The Grudge 20o4 version with Sarah Michell Geler and Bill Pullman . There so many scenes in that one that really stuck with me . When I saw this film the first it was dammed scary . The whole horror concept of this film caught me off guard.
 
The crate beast in Creepshow munching on the dude's arrogant wife in the basement of some university campus, is horror gold. That's a very eerie film in general, with five different tales.

I... want... my... cake! :lol:
 
I don't quite get the love for Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but then I only saw it for the first time a few years ago. I suppose much of it's impact has been diluted by time.

For me, the movies I have watched, or would watch, more than once include -- well, I started a list, but most of them have already been mentioned, so I'll mention some that I didn't notice above:
Vampyr (1932; one of oddest movies I've ever seen)
Bride of Frankenstein
The Invisible Man
The Black Cat
The Leopard Man
The 7th Victim
The Body Snatcher
Dead of Night
Them
The Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Psycho
The Birds
Black Sunday (1960)
Kill, Baby ... Kill (terrible title, good movie)
The Night of the Living Dead
Lisa and the Devil
Halloween
Phantasm

Along with these, some movies -- The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Deep Red, and the truly weird Your Desire is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, come to mind -- that, like one Toby mentioned, Zodiac, have a horror-like kick to them but sit on the borderline between horror and the mystery/crime movie. I suppose The Silence of the Lambs applies, as well. Also, glad to see someone mention Suspiria. Watched it again a couple of weeks ago and it holds up.

Among more recent movies, I agree with others about It Follows and The Babadook. And I found Midsommar, Last Night in Soho and X effective. A bit off the beaten path, The Vast of Night works as creepy s.f.
 
My favorite horror film of all time would have to be "Repulsion". I realize Roman Polanski is a dirty word right now, (or two dirty words) but there's no denying he made some cinematic masterpieces in his time. It's one of the most disturbing and unsettling pieces of cinema ever made. Clearly a huge influence on Kubrick when he made "The Shining", but superior in every way (Both films even share the same ending - a long tracking shot into a photograph.)
 
Ian said:
My favorite horror film of all time would have to be "Repulsion". I realize Roman Polanski is a dirty word right now, (or two dirty words) but there's no denying he made some cinematic masterpieces in his time. It's one of the most disturbing and unsettling pieces of cinema ever made. Clearly a huge influence on Kubrick when he made "The Shining", but superior in every way (Both films even share the same ending - a long tracking shot into a photograph.)
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I paid to see Pirates. He still owes me £2.50!
Not a gore-horror film but the 1955 Les Diaboliques
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Diaboliques_(film)
 
Yeah, Pirates stinks - I guess we all have our off days. But I'd forgive the man who directed Chinatown anything. Er ... well, within reason, that is.
 
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