Wait, what? I don’t see The Grudge on your list. Either the Japanese or the American remake are just fine. Both are great in their own way.
That’s the movie I think of when I’m alone somewhere dark.
The missing jaw scene gets me every time. But they did it better in the original.
I’m going with the original. It’d have to fight for space with the American version, and I think in the end it loses that fight.
At some point in the next month we’ll have to get what might be a list of close to 100 films down to 30, so…
I hope that some of them are on Netflix or Amazon Prime. For some reason it seems like they used to have a bunch of great horror films…but then they dumped most of them.
I’ve got a few to add. I don’t know that I would include many of them in a “Top 30” list from this century, but some should be at least talked about.
Saw (2004) – I think that once this series devolved into pure “torture porn” you can throw it out the window, but the first was a pretty good, gross, psychological horror movie and it certainly has had a major impact on horror as a genre.
Human Centipede (2009) – never saw it, don’t really want to. Which is why someone who did actually see it might want to debate its merits.
The Mist (2007) – A pretty good rendition of a classic Stephen King story. I don’t know if it makes the top 30, but I enjoyed it.
Final Destination (2000) – Another example of a good Freshman effort that has spawned a billion (lesser) sequels, and another good example of a pure “gore-out” movie.
Carriers (2009) – Almost more of a post-apocalyptic movie rather than horror, I’d argue that it falls into the category far easier than, say, Zombieland.
Cabin Fever (2002) – Like Carriers, a movie primarily about the fear of catching a disease from a loved one. An under-rated film, I think.
Scary Movie (2000) – OK, it’s pretty much a scene-by-scene parody of “Scream”.
Dawn of the Dead (2004) – One of the better slew of Zombie Apocalypse movies out there, and if you’re going to include one this is by far a better choice than WarZ; though…
I Am Legend (2007) – This was a pretty good ZA movie. More action/adventure than “horror” though.
If you include those, you should put A tale of Two Sisters as well. Slow burning, BEAUTIFUL to look at, a heavy sense of dread, effective scares. I love this movie.
Plus, you are missing creature films! (aka fun horror). Take for example Splinter, or Big Ass Spider. And if you want some werewolf goodness, there´s not much to choose from but I really liked the Ginger Snaps series, as well as Dog Soldiers. I would also throw in Stake Land to cover my vampire bases. I think the qt3 podcast hated it, or maybe I saw a post from Tom, but I liked it myself.
Ohh another one, not very well known I fear, is May. Just a creepy, well done little movie.
Adding these.
Also adding House Of The Devil before Tom comes in here and yells at us for such an obvious oversight.
I see you listed Penumbra earlier. If you get a chance, check out the director’s earlier film Cold Sweat, which is available on Netflix. It’s not as good, and it’s more gore and titillation than anything else, but you can see how the filmmaker evolves by watching that first, then moving on to Penumbra.
I have not seen it myself but my brother insists that the 2005 version of House of Wax is a good movie.
It has Paris Hilton so of course it’s great!
I dunno. We’d be going down quite the rabbit hole there. It opens the door to Snakes on a Plane, which is absolutely a horror movie for any of the (many) people with ophidiophobia.
Hmm, this reminds me. Triangle really belongs the list. And unlike those two, it’s a bona-fide horror movie.
Might as well throw in Black Death as a candidate as well, by the same director. Kind of a medieval, pestilential Wicker Man.
Mmm maybe. Big Ass Spider is very much comedy/horror tho, while Splinter is a more straight up creature horror feature.
Splinter is absolutely a horror movie. i was just to lazy to slice up the quote to exclude it.
I’m not sure that giant monster movies fall into the ‘horror’ category even if the are not played for laughs. Is ‘Cloverfield’ a horror movie? it certainly had a couple creepy, creature-feature scenes, especially the one with the exploding head thing.
I think horror films can be broken down into creature features, slasher flicks, psychological terror, ghost stories, and probably a few others. Hell, cheap knock offs of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge are probably their own sub division of horror films considering the number of hack writers who’ve shamelessly stolen it for their scripts.
This reminds me that I really need to see Triangle.
Now I need to see Dark Water. Is the US version good, or just the original one?
I’ll second paranormal Activity as a good effort.
I’d also like to suggest adding a few:
John Dies at the End: A quirky, sorta-feels-like-an-acid-trip monster movie.
Open Water: Not sure if it is normally classed as a horror movie, but it sure plays out like one. And IIRC, Jaws made the list last year.
Drag me to Hell: It’s not often my wife will sit through a horror movie with me. This one did the trick.
Some that I think make the cut:
28 Days/weeks–it’s not gonna get cut anyway.
Call of Cthulu: It was playing to its own tune (since music is all there was). At first I was like “WTF,” but it grew on me. Like scales.
Trollhunter: I really loved this one. The way the effects were done and the storyline caught me almost right away.
Ginger Snaps: I liked this one when it came out. It was a good multilayer teen angst/monster in the closet movie. I think my memory of it got tainted by the sequels.
Shaun of the Dead. “De de dededede de de de…(Moan).” I don’t have the level of Simon Peg love that I’ve seen others display on QT3, but I liked him in this.
House of Wax–I was all set to hate this one. Then it had good effects, Paris Hilton being abused, and at the end I liked it. I can’t quite tell you why, but I did.
I’d actually recommend the US version, though I may be in the minority. It wasn’t reviewed well, mostly I think because the US version lost some of the overtly scary moments. The US version was way more interested in mood and atmosphere, and had a stronger story. The cast is almost universally stellar (I think the little girl in the original was better). Both Jennifer Connolly and John O’Riley are amazingly good in this film. And Tim Roth is excellent in a supporting role. Nobody phones it in, nobody’s slumming.
But it’s much more focused on the main characters internal psychology. As such, it’s a slow burn with not that many scares and a fairly bleak ending. It didn’t do that well with American audiences, but I think it deserved better.
If you want to get some Lovecraft stuff in there, pickings are slim (like with werewolf films :() but you can include Dagon
If it´s the one I´m thinking of (and it´s gotta be, THE scene really) I agree completely. Creeped me out big time. I much prefer the original version.
Yes. And it is a fantastic movie, it rambles a bit in the middle but the payoff, wow.
Speaking of Lovecraftian, anyone seen Pickman´s Muse (2010) and if so, how is it?
OK, caught the list up.
80 movies…yowza.
Keep 'em coming.