Horror Movies What I Liked
Instead of sending this in a text message that will be lost for eternity once it’s been read, I’m going to write this here for next time someone says “hey what’s a good horror movie”.
The Obvious
There are many classics that I’ve seen, or seen parodied, or read about simply too many times to find scary any more, but there is always joy to be found in Alien, The Thing, The Exorcist, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Shining, Jaws, that kind of thing. All top of the line winners. So on to the maybe slightly less obvious.
The Actually Scary
Hereditary is probaby the best modern horror movie. I feel like you may need to be on its wavelength because it goes full histrionic, and the ending might seem silly in some circumstances, but I was on board and it was amazing.
It Follows is also a strong contender. Every single small background character or movement induces dread, and normally you’d get some kind of relief when the horror happens, but it manages to still be frightening after things actually start happening.
His House is about a refugee who ends up in some small English town in a house that is not in great condition. I feel like a few special effects bits lowered the overall score, but when it’s creepy, it’s creepy.
The Babadook the child in this film is so irritating you kind of hope he gets eaten by the monster, but they do a good job of scaring the bejesus out of you along the way.
Sinister if you enjoy watching someone else watch scary videos while you watch them do it, this is the movie for you. Those videos sure are scary though.
Barbarian The first half. We’ll get to the second half later.
Insidious James Wan does a good haunted house.
Signs M. Night has gotten a bad rap, mainly for making several awful movies in a row, but this one has solid scare set pieces.
[Rec] Good, fun, zombie movie until they get into the penthouse and discover things.
1408 Unheralded Stephen King adaptation in my opinion.
The Orphanage We had a good run of Spanish language horror in the early 2000s.
The Ring The remake is more coherent and more frightening, there I said it.
Lake Mungo Kind of OK for the most part but the ending nearly killed me.
Jacob’s Ladder The shaking heads and descent into hell on a hospital trolley.
The not scary but in the horror genre for other reasons
Inland Empire I’m not sure you’d want to jump directly in to a 3 hour movie that’s weird even for David Lynch, and deliberately looks awful, but this climbs into your subconscious and stabs you.
Malignant I thought I would get a James Wan haunted house in the style of Insidious, but I did not expect how completely bonkers this was
Martyrs The French one. I think I’ve seen the remake, but don’t bother with it. This is initially terrifying, but gives way to grim, almost mundane violence but ultimately with a purpose.
Resolution Mind-bending rather than scary but very much worth the time.
The Wicker Man Not the Nicolas Cage one.
Under The Skin An alien hunts prey in Scotland, looks like nothing else I’ve really seen before or since. Very dark.
The Empty Man Kind of like if a store brand Brad Pitt from Seven was investigating the Ring video, not afraid to go very weird places which I’m in favour of.
Horror, but funny on purpose
The Cabin in the Woods Ruins the slasher movie the way Don Quixote ruined the chivalric novel.
Re-Animator Very goofy but with geniunely great special (ie gore) effects.
One Cut of the Dead A Japanese crew tries to make a zombie movie. This is best if you watch it knowing absolutely no more than that.
Barbarian The second half. Done on purpose, I have not come to terms with it yet.
Shaun of the Dead Obviously