Horror movie recommendations for Halloween

the ball bouncing down the stairs in Changeling almost made my head explode with the rush of blood that got sent up there. Omg, it scared me real real bad.

Alien and In the Mouth of Madness and The Grudge (remake) are probably the 3 scariest movies I have ever seen in my life.

Mirrors surprisingly scared the crap out of me and turned us (my wife and I) off of horror for a few years. We were just too uncomfortably frightened, plus that bathtub scene is brutal

Wow lots of great replies!

I, like Michael Barnes, am also a horror movie nut and tend to watch them year round. The fall season is really one of the few times I can rope my dopey friends into my genre!

I'm not a huge fan of Paranormal Activity. I can appreciate what the creator did with zero budget, but I didn't find it too scary. Its funny how PA has replaced Saw as the big annual Halloween franchise.

Halloween - along with being a bonafide classic its one of the few movies horror movies that takes place during the "holiday". The original eschews gore for downright dreadful tension. Some of the chase scenes still make me sit on the edge of my seat all these years later. Good stuff.

Halloween 3 - This one gets a bad rap. The original idea was to have different plot/characters for each Halloween movie. Its a shame that they didn't move forward with that plan. Bringing back Myers wasn't exactly the best idea and most of the later Halloween films are derivative trash. Season of the Witch has some really messed up ideas and I find it to be an entertaining film. There are some really cool scenes that make it highly memorable. Plus, you can't really beat Tom Atkins. Personally, I think they should shit-can Myers for good and move forward with the different story arc for each Halloween movie. I'd go see that in the cinemas each year.

Near Dark - I love this strange vampire movie. It's so different, yet so good. The old vampire trapped in the little boy's body creeped me the fuck out... Most people have never heard of this one, but it is worth the effort to track down. I laughed when they recently released it on blu-ray...the cover looked like some Twilight ripoff bullshit lol.

Trick r Treat - I didn't love this one when I first watched it. I had high hopes for it and it wasn't really what I was expecting. However, I've since gone back to it a few times and it has grown on me. I really enjoy how they managed to weave most of the different stories together though if you blink you might miss the connections. Its a cool movie that is pretty much the exact opposite of what passes for Horror these days. A real shame it never got a wide release. I would much rather see a yearly anthology movie like this play in theatres during October instead of Saw or Paranormal Activity.

Night of the Demons - This is one of those trashy films from the 80s that I like to break out during Halloween. The plot involves some moronic high-schoolers partying in an abandoned funeral home. Of course they accidentally awaken a demon and all hell breaks loose. This one had some good makeup and special effects...not to mention plenty of gratuitous nudity. You could tell the director was a fan of Evil Dead as he copied several of Raimi's unique camera shots. This scores bonus points for actually taking place on Halloween. It is certainly not a "good film" but the entertainment value is pretty high.

Michael Barnes wrote: Finally, I'd recommend any of the British Amicus anthology horror films- Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, Tales that Witness Madness, The House that Dripped Blood, The Torture Garden, Asylum, Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, and so forth. All have two or three good to great horror stories and all usually have at least one light-hearted (and very English) one. Some good actors turn up in them too,including two Doctor Whos (Tom Baker and Patrick Troughton) and Hammer alumni including Lee, Cushing, and others. They're realy fun, and the short formats make for easy viewing if you're busy carving a jack-o-lantern or handing out candy.

Three Doctor Whos - Jon Pertwee is in The House That Dripped Blood.

but yeah, the Amicus films are great (and mostly adaptations of Robert (Psycho) Bloch short stories.)

The original Wicker Man is one of my favourite horror movies, up there with all the classics. A perfect fit for halloween and the soundtrack is great to boot.

Michael Barnes wrote: Carnival of Souls is _great_. Very interesting picture, definitely ahead of its time.

Heh, I was wondering whether I'd manage to post a film that Michael hadn't seen. I didn't think I'd get away with it

Space Ghost wrote: The Haunting -- as Michael mentioned, this is a great haunted house movie -- bet the original.

Poltergeist -- I just have a soft spot for it.

The Others -- best modern horror movie that I can remember

Good call on Poltergeist, that might have to slot into my top five as well. I remember the Others as being very good, but I don't remember much else about it. I always file it in my head alongside What Lies Beneath as both had vaguely similar concepts in them and came out around the same time. I've never seen the original of The Haunting. I must get round to it one day.

mikko_r wrote: The original Wicker Man is one of my favourite horror movies, up there with all the classics. A perfect fit for halloween and the soundtrack is great to boot.

Yes the Wicker Man is a superb piece of film making. In terms of classic British horror I favour the films that came out around this time rather than the earlier Hammer stock - movies like Blood on Satan's Claw and Witchfinder General. But The Wicker Man is the only one that really stands up to modern scrutiny.

Other favourites that I don't think have been mentioned yet, hmmm, Angel Heart? Rosemary's Baby? Nightmare on Elm Street?

My favorite topic, horror movies!

Some of my favs:

Lovecraft fix:
The Thing (80's version), not much to be said, a classic with tons of tension. Maybe more sci-fi, but has elements of horror.
From Beyond - Always liked this one, a nice Lovecrafian flick.
Dagon - Although a lot of people seem to dislike it, I really enjoyed it.
The Resurrected - Another one I really liked
Malefique - A great French film that's filmed entirely in a prison cell. Someone finds an old tome in the wall, and bad stuff ensues.
AM1200 - A short film, very Lovecraftian, a man driving along a road hears a radio station calling for help...

Zombie fix:
Dawn & Day of the Dead: My two favorite zombie movies.
Zombie (Fulci's) - Love the zombies in this one, and a great soundtrack to boot.
City of the Living Dead - I didn't like this one at first because it's nonsensical plot, but after watching it a few times, I enjoy it now!

Other stuff:
It - Never read the book, but really liked the movie, spare the ending...
Graveyard shift - Not a great film, but I still enjoy it.
Friday the 13th - The one with the sleeping bag death, always a good laugh with that one!
Massacre at Central High - Classic revenge flick, ridiculous.
Most horror anthologies - Already mentioned here, the British classics, plus Tales from the Crypt, Deadtime stories, Creepshow, etc... love them!
Ravenous - Not sure if this is horror or a thriller, but loved it, a take on the Wendigo tale.
Nightmare on Elm Street series
Halloween series (including part 3, I liked it!)
Grave Encounters - I wasn't a big fan of the actors in this one, but I liked the concept, borrowing a lot from the movie "Cube" it seems.

For television, the Friday the 13th tv series (nothing to do with the movies of the same name). One of my favorite shows of all time, an antique shop searches for cursed objects, each episode covering a different object. A solid show.

Lots more I can't think of right now...

Ravenous was really quite unsettling. The scene where they're sleeping and the wounded guy says "He's licking me!" in this really panicked voice freaked me out.

I love a good horror anthology. To be honest though, I haven't gotten around to any of the Amicus stuff yet. Given my propensity for the anthology format, I should certainly give a few of them a look. It does look like Amazon.com has plenty of Amicus releases on sale for pretty decent prices. Another reason to love October is all the horror movies at Amazon are dirt cheap.

A few more recommendations

Black Sabbath - This film by Mario Bava is all sorts of good fun. Three classic tales that are completely different, but very enjoyable. Boris Karloff stars in one of the shorts and he does some introductions as well. Each time I watch this I pick a new favorite of the three.

Universal Movie Monsters - Any of the classic Universal monsters movies are good for Halloween viewings. Dracula, The Wolfman, The Mummy, Frankenstein, The Creature from the Black Lagoon. I grew up fascinated by these movies and I still enjoy them today.

Cemetery Man - This little Italian horror film is usually classified as a "zombie" movie. Its much more than that. The plot follows a cemetery caretaker that has to deal with recently buried bodies coming back from the dead. The story doesn't appear to be linear or make much sense...if you hate movies where you have to think too much or come to your own conclusions then stay away. If you don't mind that shit then give this a go. It deals with some dark stuff in a very absurd way. Just trying to piece it all together can be half the fun.

In the Mouth of Madness gave me more of a Stephen King vibe than Lovecraft. I watched it a few months back and to me the film didn't age that well. It was great in the 90's when I was in High School, but now it was pretty bad and didn't scare me as much.

Event Horizon I think is still one of the scariest movies I've seen and I watched that one recently as well. And one I'd recommend to those who haven't seen it.

Event Horizon, holy crap. That movie still scares me when I think about it. There's just so much unsettling stuff in that movie. I love the meat hanging from the nooks and crannies in the bridge. Also, the scenes with the chick in the bathtub. Those eyes! Thankfully, "where we're going, we don't need eyes".

Definitely a nod for Black Sabbath- I _love_ Karloff in it. The Wurdulak story is by far the best. While we're on Bava, Black Sunday would definitely make for great Halloween viewing- it remains one of the best B&W horror films ever made. I also really like Lisa and the Devil with Telly Savalas...very strange picture. The Whip and the Body is an interesting one too, with Christopher Lee as a whip-wielding sadist. Very gothic, very atmospheric. Avoid the US cut called, stupidly, "WHAT?!". Then there's Bay of Blood, which is really kind of the precursor to Friday the 13th, and Blood and Black Lace which is one of the better gialli.

Cemetary Man/Dellamore Dellamorte is one of my all-time favorite Eurohorror films. It's zombies, yeah, but it's also the preminent zombie comedy. It's not cornball or silly at all, it's actually a very Kafkan/surrealist satire. Awesome atmosphere, and Rupert Everett is awesome in it. Based on the Dylan Dog comics...kind of. The director, Michele Soavi, did a couple of other interesting films including a giallo about a slasher that wears this giant owl mask called Stage Fright (or Aquarius, or Bloody Bird...depending on the print). He did the third Demons film, La Chiesa (the Church) that was actually quite good. He also did an uneven devil worshipper picture with Jamie Lee Curtis' daughter called The Sect.

Pug- I liked Dagon too, I thought it was a very reasonable Lovecraft pastiche. Good call on Friday the 13th: The Series- I loved that show. Very creepy and weird.

The Universal stuff is still great- all of it- but Whale's Frankenstein pictures just tower over the others. As much as I love Tod Browning and the quirky, very much pre-Tim Burton tone of Dracula, it just isn't as good a film as Frankenstein or Bride. You know, the other Frankenstein films- Son of and House of- were actually pretty good too.

Universal's best outside of the Frankenstein films though is The Black Cat. It is absolutely a must-see. Karloff and Lugosi square off as rival satanists. Some _incredible_ set design in this one.

You know, some fun stuff you guys might not have considered are the Roger Corman Edgar Allan Poe adaptations...none are particularly faithful to the source material, but they all have a really fun, macabre vibe and of course, Vincent Price makes them automatically awesome. Masque of the Red Death is almost universally regarded as the best (and it is great, actually a very sophisticated horror film), but I tend to prefer Tomb of Ligeia over it if only because it's more of a traditional gothic ghost story. House of Usher is also great, but there again I prefer The Pit and the Pendulum over it- it's practically a remake, but set in Spain and with torture instead of paintings.

If you want to go REALLY TRASHY with your Halloween viewing, pick up a copy of Dracula Contra Frankenstein, a 1970 Jess Franco film. I don't know where to begin with it. It's super cheap, jazzy, and WEIRD. There is one incredibly brilliant scene where a vampire is killed by being staked through the eye. The vampire is identified by the shadow of a bat in their iris. There's also Erotic Rites of Frankenstein, which isn't very Erotic once the silver-painted bird girl starts dancing.

Mad Monster Party is a perennial Halloween favorite too...if you like the Rankin-Bass holiday specials (Rudolph FTW), check this one out. It's very 1960s, groovy ghoulie kind of stuff. Karloff is one of the voices, and there's some rather strange drug references in it. But it's got tons of fun stop-motion with neat classic monster puppets. It's strangely long though, like over 90 minutes.

WHAT?!?!? Where is the love for Lou Diamond Philips and FIRST POWER.....

In seriousness, I do enjoy FALLEN with John Goodman and Denzel Washington

Has anyone seen the Romero "vampire" flick called Martin?

I've always been curious about it, though it appears to be out of print at the moment. Is it worth checking out and spending some cash on?

Egg Shen wrote: Has anyone seen the Romero "vampire" flick called Martin?

I've always been curious about it, though it appears to be out of print at the moment. Is it worth checking out and spending some cash on?

I've seen it - only once and a long time ago. It's a very unusual film, and not at all what I (and probably you) was expecting. It's crammed with some unusual ideas and unsettling scenes but the pacing and plot are very wonky indeed. Worth seeing on TV? Definitely. Worth spending much money on? Probably not.

Egg Shen wrote: Has anyone seen the Romero "vampire" flick called Martin?

I've always been curious about it, though it appears to be out of print at the moment. Is it worth checking out and spending some cash on?

I purchased the movie years ago, I really liked it, it's a very different take on the whole 'vampire' genre. It was done on a really low budget, Tom Savini, Romero are all in the film. The soundtrack is outstanding, and one I own on vinyl, one of my more cherished soundtracks. So for me, it's certainly worth adding to the library, but as Matt said, it's a bit wonky, and maybe not for everybody.