It’s that time of year again. The annual survey asking, “What’s your favorite spooky movie?” I like posing this question, because you guys always come up with a title or two I haven’t seen yet. So help me find something to watch Halloween night when me and my cat will be sitting in a darkened apartment pretending not to be home to marauding neighborhood urchins.
Here’s a list of some personal favorites. Some of these creep me and weird me out both, so I haven’t tried to divide them up into two neat groups. It’s no thrill to get grossed out, so zombies or torture dungeons don’t usually interest me much. Arthouse horror is what I like.
- Audition
- The Chaser
- The Descent
- Don’t Look Now
- Eraserhead
- The Exorcist
- Ichi the Killer
- Ils
- Jacob’s Ladder
- Ju-on
- Nang Nak
- The Orphanage
- The Others
13 more after the cut.
- Paranormal Activity
- [Rec]
- Repulsion
- Riget
- Ringu
- Se7en
- Shutter (Thai)
- The Silence of the Lambs
- A Tale of Two Sisters
- Suspira
- The Thing (1982)
- 28 Weeks Later
- Wolf Creek
63 Responses for "13 movies that creep me out & 13 more that weird me out"
The Sixth Sense for me!
Day or night it doesn’t matter!
Don’t Look Now and The vanishing (the original) will forever be the ones that creep me out the most. God, what freaktastic endings.
“Halloween night when me and my cat will be sitting in a darkened apartment pretending not to be home to marauding neighborhood urchins”
Ryan, I love you.
Try watching the 1979 George C. Scott haunted house flick “The Changeling” (not to be confused with the Eastwood/Angelina Jolie flick) alone in the dark. Very, very scary stuff.
Other than that film, few films have actually frightened me. The original “Poltergeist” is incredibly creepy and well made.
Also – and I have heard a lot of people who watched this movie as a kid in the 80’s say this as well – but “Return To Oz” has some incredibly creepy and inspired moments. Still to this day one of the darkest family films ever made. The scene with the heads in the cases!!!!!
The original and brilliant “Unsolved Mysteries” television program to this day produced some of the scariest reenactments I have ever seen. To this day they hold up well in terms of scary atmosphere and mood if you watch them on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XjC_0lGm0E
You sure it’s 28 Weeks Later not 28 Days Later?
Absolutely none of these pictures should be watched alone. And not a one is a slasher picture.
1. Night of the Demon (1957)
2. The Uninvited (1944)
3. Salem’s Lot (TV, 1979)
4. The Woman in Black (TV, 1989)
5. Torchwood: Children of Men (TV, 2009)
6. Quatermass and the Pit (1967)
7. The Exorcist
8. The Haunting (1963)
9. Night of the Eagle (1962)
10. Dead of Night (1945)
I like them both, A.J., but 28 Weeks Later gave me more real chills.
yeah, Nick, thanks for the reminder. I need to see The Vanishing again. First time was on campus in a double bill with Tesis, but I don’t really remember much else about that night except the titles on the marquee.
oh, and Altman’s Images makes an unsettling double feature with Don’t Look Now.
Good mention of IMAGES Ryan. Has some creepy moments. NO love for “The Changeling” or “Poltergeist”?
Hunter, good mention of “The Exorcist” of course. Hollywood movie making at its largest.
Excellent list, Ryan!
My favorite creepy film pre-1970s is The Innocents with Deborah Carr, the movie with inspired The Others.
For surreal tastes, I liked Uzumaki ‘the Spiral’, although it almost goes into comic David Lynch territory.
And although its original scares have been dulled by dozens of sequels, I would say that the original Saw was pretty nifty.
Great list, Ryan. Any titles I could think of are already on your list.
The Night of the Hunter
Here are a few from my childhood that use to scare the heck out of me, or tweeked my “scarey bone”
- Let’s Scare Jessica to Death
- Race with the Devil
- The Manitou
- The Legacy
- Phantasm
- Food of the Gods (1976)
- Sssssss
Did anyone mention Tod Browning’s “Freaks”? That is another film that actually gives me some serious creepage.
I actually – and I am sure I will be ripped for this – find the first hour or so of Robert Zemeckis “What Lies Beneath” to be outstanding and very scary. However – spoiler alert – once they connect one of the main characters to the ghost, I found it lost its footing and just became a standard thriller. Nonetheless, kind of feel that movie is underrated.
Key to any ghost movie is to cast an unknown actor/actress in the role of the ghost.
I’m glad you mentioned 28 Weeks Later! It may not necessarily be as good as its predecessor, but I definitely found it to be scarier.
Ryan, you’re forgetting the biggest horror film of all time “A Chorus Line”. Pure terror has few equals.
Otherwise, how about “Pitch Black”?
I watched, The Descent, the other day, first time in a long time. That movie is STILL scary. I also enjoy 28 Weeks later.
@ Gregoire – The Innocents! Definitely on my list
I’d also include a Haneke film: Funny Games (either version), Benny’s Video or Hidden, the original The Vanishing and Don’t Look Now (as Nick K. mentioned above). Also, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. I had to turn it off and watch it with my girlfriend…LMAO!
And, more recently, Antichrist. Damn well one of the scariest films I’ve ever seen.
I’d also make a claim for A Nightmare on Elm Street. Even if it wasn’t a pretty straight-up slasher film, the concept is fucking creepy itself. The guts and gore, for me, are just a different way of exploring the subject matter – a less subtle way than in any of the other films which I’ve included, but an effective way nonetheless. I think people are often afraid to praise it because the sequels have tarnished its reputation.
Martyrs for sure!
Where’s “the shining” on everyone’s list? Kubrick and horror together works pretty effectively.
“Black Christmas” (1974) is a great one. Definitely one of the most effective horror films I’ve ever seen.
Which movie is the picture above?
eef,
A Tale of Two Sisters
another vote for THE INNOCENTS,
Jack Clayton’s superb adaptation
of “THE TURN OF THE SCREW” with
the screenplay by Truman Capote.
Deborah Kerr was brilliant and
so were the kids. the one shot
of the dead housekeeper standing
in the middle of the lake still
gives me goosebumps.
this and Robert Wise’s THE HAUNTING
are my two favorite horror films ever.
EXORCIST is the third.
Wise’s original HAUNTING has inspired
so many other films. there are at least
2 rip-off sequences in PARNORMAL
ACTIVITY that are owed to HAUNTING.
the early scene in Claire Bloom’s bedroom
with Julie Harris is still the best horror
sequence ever filmed.
HAUNTING and INNOCENTS are also 2
of Stephen King’s all-time faves.
just turn off your phone, turn off
the lights, and pop in the DVD.
tolerate no distractions–and enjoy.
À l’intérieur [Inside] & Martyrs.
they are both french and actually very good.
A little violent but all around worth your time.
they will most deffinately hit you hard at how brutal both films are.
arthouse horror for sure.
You should also check out Trick R Treat.
Not amazing but pretty decent.
My favorite horror movie is the original Wicker Man. I love the really bizarre musical sequences. It would have been a creepy movie with out them, but they push the movie in to awesomeness. I hum this song a lot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awmQ3p58H9E&feature=fvste3
Seattle, THE HAUNTING and THE INNOCENTS are terrific. If you liked those you should definitely check out “The Changeling” with George C. Scott. All very scary stuff.
There was also a great BBC tv movie made of the famous play “The Woman In Black” which is another great, english ghost tale.
How about “The Brood” by David Cronenberg.
My favorite creepy movie is Pan’s Labyrinth. Actually the creepiest scenes are not fantasy ones but the ones with reality. Especially the one where Captain Vidal sews up his mouth. Classic horror movies really don’t do the trick for me, I just get bored.
one other film comes to mind…
the TV adaptation of THE SHINING.
granted, Kubrick’s film is wonderful.
but the mini-series sticks closer to
the book and manages, somehow, to
keep the dread and suspense going
strong for the extended running time.
i was impressed. and it brought back
the malevolent topiary animals.
Kazaam is my favorite scary movie.
Audition was waaaaay too intense, I actually didn’t watch the screen in the last few scenes, and I don’t think I will ever watch it again.
The Fly from Cronenberg??
To those who have mentioned Pascal Laugier’s, Martyrs, I agree. Just seeing the title, here, made my pulse rate rise. Yes, it is horrifically violent and nihilistic, but also it is deeply philosophical, playing with the whole Joan of Arc theme of extreme suffering which leads to profound enlightenment. Ultimately, it is a devasting indictment of the human condition.
Also, I am in agreement with those who mentioned Michael Haneke’s, Funny Games (1997) and Benny’s Video, but I would also add The Seventh Continent, the first of his Glaciation Trilogy (followed by Benny’s Video, and concluding with 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance). Switzerland’s foreign film submission, Home, is stikingly similar to The Seventh Continent.
Gasper Noe’s Irreversible is particularly disturbing if one watches I Stand Alone first, which Irreversible is a continuation of.
Finally, you can’t go wrong with anything from Kiyoshi Kurosawa, particularily with the dread-filled Kairo (Pulse). People dying from indifference, lonliness and lack of love, is not what the ridiculous Hollywood remake offered. Other Kurosawa must-see films are Cure (Kyua), Barren Illusions and the remake of the great British film, Seance on a Wet Afternoon, which Kurosawa titled simply, Seance (Korei).
The first 30 minutes of ‘Sisters’
Wish I cared more for Paranormal Activity, but I second Repulsion from your backup list. And I must pay my respects to Cronenberg’s deliriously stomach-churning Videodrome, which any TIFF attendee ought to watch as a grotesque, topsy-turvy depiction of Toronto.
Well to step outside the bounds of standard production company film making, I would say Stan Brakhage’s “The Act of Seeing with One’s Own Eyes”. It is an absolutely disturbing look at “the act of seeing”, it is a 30 minute avant garde film that is just actual autopsies. A weird break down of the human body and sight and made me sick for about 2 days, during I was fine but as soon as it was over my stomach would not allow food to stay down. But this is probably for those you like avant garde film.
The original version of The Vanishing.
I don’t scare easily, so my faves are the ones whose craft I admire/respect. “Suspiria” is the only movie that has ever made me feel a bit uncomfortable watching (AND LISTENING — great music).
To the mostly excellent titles above, I would add “Anguish” (with “Poltergeist” alum Zelda Rubenstein).
Check out these movies:
1. High Tension
2. Let the right one in
3. Wrong Turn
4. The Gathering
Ingmar Bergman’s highly unnerving but beautifully so (well, duh, it’s shot by Sven Nykvist) masterpiece, “Hour of the Wolf.”
glad you included DONT LOOK NOW. It was the first time I remember walking out of a theater and being unsettled, paranoid, spooked. Closely followed in the same decade by THE OTHER, not the Kidman THE OTHERS but THE OTHER directed by Robert Mulligan from the Tom Tyron novel. Actual physical shudders at the twists in the film…
In terms of Art House horror, I’m surprised E. Elias Merhige’s “Begotten” hasn’t been mentioned. At least watch the 1st 20-30 minutes which you witness god doing terrible things to himself. Very disturbing images. You can watch it on Google Video.
The Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fadhsuINHfk
Same go for “Tesuo: The Iron Man” which follows a “metal fetishist” with an insane compulsion to stick metal objects into his body. It only amps up from that point on.
The Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uROMTzJsfOI
There’s also 2 really interesting Brazilian Horror from the ‘60 called “At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul” & “This Night, I’ll Posses Your Corpse” Both are part of the “Coffin Joe” trilogy which was ahead of it’s time for it’s tension and gore. Both were directed by Jose Mojica Marins.
This video helps explain them: http://www.cinemassacre.com/new/?p=2612
I am watching the 1978 classic, HALLOWEEN as I type this. It’s still got the goods to make me jump.
Come on people…
Halloween!!!
The best horror film, ever!
I also think The Orphanage, [rec], inside, teeth, black christmas and rosemary’s baby.
Wait until Dark is good too.
Repulsion was too boring and too pretentious for horror.
dont look now is boring. They spent like 6 mins alone on a sex scene.
and by the way, Exorcist is way overrated. Never scared me…
I’ll admit Pedro, it was slow. But that sex scene was fantatstic. Not because we saw titties or anything like that, but because it told us a lot about the characters without saying anything. Their grief is so palpable that once they’re done making love, they cannot express any further intimacy save for putting on each other’s coats. It is undoubtedly one of the greatest sex scenes of all time.
I don’t know why, but that thing at the end terrified the living bejesus out of me. I don’t know, maybe because I didn’t expect it to be what it was, but it’s certainly the type of face that dwells in your nightmares. Watching “Mulholland Dr.” recently, I think David Lynch took a lot of inspiration from that movie, particularly when we see the thing behind the dumpster. And it’s just so….. spooky. *shudder*
And Ryan, thanks for the recommendation. A horror movie by Robert Altman has to be at the very least intriguing. I’ll definitely give it a look.
And I agree with the inclusion of Eraserhead. It is a creepy movie overall, but the very ending was absolutely unsettling. It wasn’t shock value, just…. dark. It made me seriously consider the consequences of being a parent.
SCARIEST MOVIE I’VE EVER SEEN
*Paranormal Activity* scared me like no other film ever has. Only movie I’ve ever seen to force me to sleep with the light on….as an adult.
THE MOVIE THAT’S JUST WRONG
*Funny Games* God I hated this movie for how utterly sick, twisted, and wrong it was. A sociopathic misfit buddy movie that just makes you want to turn inside out and scrape off any memory of ever having seen this evil ugly flick.
THE MOVIE THAT FILLS ME WITH HATE AND ANGER
*Slumdog Millionaire* Yep, TDK fan here, AND I’M STILL PISSED. I hope that stupid game show host contracts an untreatable case of chronic, violent diahrrea.
LOL
:peace
How about the blair witch project! try watching that movie at night… its very unsettling and spooky!!
I saw the Exorcist in a re-release a few years after the original release. I was 12. Very impressionable and I snuck in. I did not know what to expect. It’s not really the actual things you see on the film that are disturbing that so much bothered me but the subliminal messages it sends to your psyche. Damien seeing his mother in the subway, then flash to the demon’s white face and black eyes, less than half a second. Almost as if the demon knows what Merrin and Damien are thinking. And when it starts to speak in latin and french, and toying with Damien, as a 12 year old I was transfixed but yet freaked as hell at the same time. Nothing ever before dialogue wise or what you were seeing had ever been on screen in a mainstream motion picture. The movie was just too heavy in it’s themes for me lie a major mind f*ck and just blew my mind in more facets than one. Then we it starts talking in Damien’s mother’s voice ” Damey, why you do this to me ? ” My skin crawled. I’m thinking ” How does it know how to sound that Damien’s mother ?!
I began to have nightmares and my imagination was running away with me bigtime. I started thinking I was seeing and hearing things in my dark bedroom. What really got inside my head was that I believed demons existed and you can’t shoot or stab a demon. So I felt helpless and couldn’t shake seeing that white face and black eyes. I ened up having to see a child therapist because I truly was convinced I might get possessed. Talk about a movie that did a number on a kid !
I also was freaked out by SSS ( which is down right wrong ! )
Food Of The Gods ( that now looks ultra cheesy )
The Last House On The Left ( the scene in the woods is just wrong as well )
Race With Devil made you think twice when you were a kid walking in the woods at night.
Let’s Scare Jessica To Death was freaky when you were young too.
Nothing though impacted me psychologically as The Exorcist though. That was a rough couple weeks on this kid. Think my mom was just a little pissed I saw that ?!
Flowers of Flesh and Blood was both creepy and scary
Salem’s Lot (the original)
The Thing
2 good scary movies
The three films that really, truly scare me that I’ve watched so far are The Exorcist, The Strangers, and Paranormal Activity.
I’m also a huge fan of Psycho, Carrie, [Rec], The Orphanage, Silence of the Lambs and The Shining.
I like a lot of asian horror movies. very artistic
and also i like evil dead, alien and halloween
evil dead is just very suspenseful and gross
alien and halloween are both very new for its time and imaginative.
halloween wasn’t gross or that violent. it was more on the suspense and violent kills. the soundtrack was also exellent.
Not bad…
3 Spanish movies in your list…
The Orphanage, The Others and Rec
kudos to Hunter for mentioning
THE UNINVITED with Ray Milland
and DEAD OF NIGHT–that amazing,
vintage British anthology of
scary stories. check out today’s
NYTimes for A.O. Scott’s take on
DEAD. Michael Redgraves’ dummy
has haunted me for years…
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/10/26/arts/1247465374388/critics-picks-dead-of-night.html
(a reply comment to brian)
Slumdog Millionaire was a great film
so was Milk and CCBB
F/N was a good movie
but the reader was not a BP worthy movie
and its been some months since the last oscar show.
get over it already. i was pissed as well
In my opinion the 15 best horror movies are:
1.The Exorcist.William Friedkin.
2.Psycho.Alfred Hitchcock.
3.Alien.Ridley Scott.
4.The Birds.Alfred Hitchcock.
5.Play Misty for me.Clint Eastwood.
6.Halloween.John Carpenter.
7.Shutter.(Tai).
8.Evil Dead.Sam Raimi.
9.Jaws.Steven Spielberg.
10.Night of the living dead.George A.Romero.
11.The Beguiled.Donald Siegel.
12.Day of the dead.George A. Romero.
13.Dawn of the dead.Zack Snyder.
14.The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.Marcus Nispel.
15.Hostel II.Eli roth.
(wow this part was cut off on my last blog – hmmm)
jacob’s ladder is the second one that ever freaked me out
oh we have somethin in common, ryan adams!
let’s hit the sack together halloween night
It sounds like you would love Noroi: the Curse. It’s a 2005 Japanese horror mockumentary about a guy who investigates the paranormal and after documenting seemingly unrelated events, discovers that they all share a connection to the legend of an ancient Japanese demon called the Kagutaba.
It’s not available in the States, and I consider it one of the best horror movies out there.
I’ve been trying to get it more recognition in the US by getting as much word out about the movie as I can, so have a look at it on YouTube (in its 2nd incarnation. First one before it was taken down was uploaded by me 
)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLpXVqdalSg
Suicide Club and Battle Royale
I’m glad Halloween is a 3-day weekend this year. I knew you guys would have a lot of terrific suggestions and you didn’t let me down.
The Vanishing is already lined up for a long-overdue 2nd viewing. I have Dead of Night and Kairo standing by too. I’ll need to go through the rest of these lists carefully to see what else I can get my hands on between now and Friday.
Carnival of Souls
Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice
Queen of Spades
Night of the Living Dead (original)
Dressed to Kill (1980)
Marathon Man
already mentioned:
The Innocents, The Haunting, The Exorcist, The Wicker Man, Dead of Night, Don’t Look Now, Psycho, Suspiria,
Ils, The Vanishing (original).
Hoping to watch Cronenberg’s “The Fly” with my gf this Thursday, Don’t look now and Alien with my homies on Friday, and Rocky Horror at midnight at the Uptown theater. It’s gonna be an awesome weekend.
Ringu/ the ring
an American werewolf in London
cabin fever
dog soldiers
the lost boys
trick r treat
IT
peeping Tom
X Files
carnivale
twin peaks
lost highway
open your eyes
cabin fever
jaws
Scream
funny games
AN AMERICAN CRIME
the girl next door
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