My Ten Greatest Horror Movies!!

1. Dawn of the Dead............More than a horror film...Ask yourself who are the real monsters??
2. Suspiria.........................Great atmosphere....
3. Rosemary's Baby.... Suffocating horror..
4. The Exorcist... Atmosphere..slightly slow to get going...brilliant when it does!
5. Profondo Rossi...... Stylish and explosive...great soundtrack..
6. Black Christmas 1973.......Beautifully crafted....When Saxon phones to say the killer is in the house!!
7. Alien...... .Best horror sci-fi for me..
8. The Thing from another World..... Beautiful for it's time
9. Invasion of the bodysnatchers 1956.........Claustrophic with a sensational ending..
10. The Fog 1980............ eerie.........

Truss - one I would look to immediately include is Dead of Night, an anthology collection with a staggering twist to the wrap around theme at the end.

At risk of destroying all credibility (however tiny anyway), I do adore Carry on Screaming.

nosferatu
let the right one in
onibaba
black swan
jaws
exorcist
blair witch project
omen
dark water
suspiria

Jaws is probably a glaring omission on my list......Never thought of it as horror......More of a drama....

It's like two films..........One before the boat trip and another one after..

Great great film................Think the Omen was slightly overrated as was the awful "classic" Chainsaw massacre..............

good list though................................

I wish I wasn't so squeamish because I'm sure I miss out on watching some good films because they're gory (or have a reputation as such). However, three good old "horror" films I've seen that I'd recommend are The Innocents (with Deborah Kerr), The Wicker Man and The Haunting (the original 1960s version). All very atmospheric and disturbing in their own way.

Not the Greatest Horror movies , but 10 of my personal favourites

The Omen
The Exorcist
Jaws
An American Werewolf in London
Dracula ..........the Gary Oldman one
The Hills Have Eyes original
Candyman
Poltergeist
The Ring
Evil Dead

@ TRUSSMAN

Jaws is a bit touch and go as to whether it's a horror, the fact the shark seems to have a psychotic intent to destroy the boat tends to push it into the supernatural category horrors need. Agree the Omen is overrated but I do still enjoy it, not near as terrifying as I'd heard it was.

The horror that probably did me the most psychological damage was Satan's Triangle, a 1975 made for TV film. Had snuck down alone to watch the late night film (I was a kid at the time) and the ending terrified me to the point I was too scared to sneak off back to bed. Managed to find the ending on youtube and it was a bit of a "meh" moment but at the time I doubt if a known child murderer breaking into the house could've scared me more.

Haven't watched Rosemary's Baby or Black Christmas, the former's definitely overdue a watch, haven't heard of the latter but sounds interesting.

Cari - The Innocents is an excellent call as is the original Wicker Man. Can't immediately recall The Haunting although will look out for it.

Yeah it's the original black and white version made around 1963 I think. Another great disturbing drama/horror type film is the 1960s one Night Must Fall with Albert Finney.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058401/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_2

1. Dawn of the Dead - agree with you completely on this one, Truss.
2. Halloween - the music still gets me.
3. Psycho - not an all out horror but still great.
4. The Haunting - amazing how scary a few little bumps can be!
5. The Omen - silly but I liked it
6. Alien - scary as all hell
7. Ringu - the end is terrifying
8. Witchfinder General - Vincent Price!
9. Audition - what's in the sack?
10. Freaks - "one of us"

@ superflyweight
The scene in Freaks that (no pun intended) freaked me out was when they were crawling towards him in the rain, I think they were under a wagon. In the forest as well near the beginning with one of them lying on his side looking normal then you realise he had no body from the chest down. Wish I could've seen the intended ending which, unfortunately, no longer exists instead of the contrived one it ended up with.

It's been a while since I've seen it, Galted - some truly "freakish" stuff! Not sure they'd get away with it now!

The greatest horror film of all time in my opinion is still John Carpenters 'Halloween' so that is number one on my list but the rest are in no particular order.

1 - Halloween
2 - Jaws
3 - The Thing
4 - Poltergeist
5 - Phantasm
6 - Hellraiser
7 - Psycho
8 - Night of The Living Dead
9 - Nightmare on Elm Street
10 - Candyman

SharkSoul wrote:9 - Nightmare on Elm Street

Can't believe I left it out. The series turned into a bit of a self-p1ss-taking comedy but the first one was a horror classic.

Yeah I agree it turned into something of a parody but the original was brilliant. Nothing like it had been done before. Same goes for Hellraiser G. They continued to churn them out and it diluted the concept but initially it was frightening.

It's quite interesting looking at horror film fans lists. Many of you seem to enjoy the older scarier/atmospheric classics rather than the torture porn/gorenography of now which we're lead to believe is favoured.

Oh I did watch Wolf Creek which was good story, but I didn't see the icky bits.

Cari - one I overlooked yesterday and which falls into ''the older scarier / atmospheric classics'' category is Whatever Happened to Baby Jane from the early 1960s with Bette Davies and Joan Crawford competing brilliantly against each other in both the story as it dramatically unfolds and on the screen.

That film is class Guildford. Shows how terrifying the power of suggestion can be to the viewer. I'd also recommend Don't Look Now.

Cari - I saw Don't Look Now at the cinema soon after it first came out (yes, I'm incredibly old!). It was the lead film in a double bill. Incredibly the supporting film was The Wicker Man (the Edward Woodward and only real version obviously). You could get money's worth back in the day!

Don't Look Now was certainly disturbing although I don't think I've ever fully picked up on all the significant aspects and meanings. I'll give Julie Christie's distracting performance some of the blame for that!

I can understand that.

I don't undertsand the themes and everything either...I remember just being scared witless watching it (on my own in the small hours of the night though).

The end of Dont Look Now is the stuff of nightmares.

Tenebre goes on a bit to long......But it's worth a dig.....

Haven't seen Don't look now..but will definitely try to get a copy...

Actually, now i have a young daughter, the start of Dint Look Now is the stuff of nightmares!

As long as the isn't an alsation and a raven in the garden next time you look...you'll be ok!!

I'm in Scotland, Truss - the bampots' pit-bulls killed all the Alsatians!

I think true horror fans appreciate the origins of it and the old scares rather than the new generation of 'Gorno' ala Saw, Hostel Human Centipede et al. Implied horror which taps into human emotion and imagination is the perfect tool to scare as opposed to the over the top blood guts and gore.

It's why I love zombie films. The real threat is never the undead chomping at your cranium but rather the human behaviour of those trying to survive.

Absolutely...A good horror film makes you relate to the characters, care about their survival and puts you in their predicament....

Nice to have a twist in the ending as well.........

Atmosphere, atmosphere and atmosphere!

Watched Black Christmas last night, Truss. Enjoyed it and it was pretty scary but had to suspend belief a little bit with the stupidity of the police.

No film is perfect.........and fancy killing LOIS LANE!!

The original bloody valentine is well worth a pop sometime...