Best Horror Film

[TransporterMalfunction 1]

My favourite is an Ealing film from the 40s called Dead of Night, but I did not put it up as I can't imagine many on here have seen it. Please say if you have as it would be most interesting to hear your comments.

 

Dead of Night is about a man who goes to a house knowing something terrible is about to happen as he has lived it out in his dream the night before. Eventually the group of people he meets sit down and tell stories about strange things that have happened to them. My favourite two involve a mirror that shows the room of it's previous owner who killed his wife and slit his own throat infront of it, and now it draws it's new owner to do the same. The other story that is of classic status involves a ventriloquist’s dummy (a bit old hat by now, but this film was the first to do it and inspired Serling to copy it in an episode of the Twilight Zone). This particular plot has been copied many times and this little film has been forgotten, but it is still the most effective.

 

There are also a few weak stories, remembering that it was made in the 40s, and a funny one to lighten the mood and throw the viewer into a false sense of security. The funny story involves two friends playing a game of golf to win the girl, of cource the winner cheats and the loser kills himself, only to come back and haunt his friend.

 

On the whole there are a few weak stories that have lost any horror over time, but the two that I mentioned have not lost any of the tension and take on a sort of Edger Allen Poe feel. Very macabre.

 

Anyway, out of the ones in the list I would go for Psycho, still good after all these years, although The Night of the Living Dead does create a very real and effective sense of claustrophobia. Shudder!

[TrekkieMage 0]

I haven't seen all of them, but I voted the Birds, just because it was a great movie

[Lollypop 0]

This has to be mine. Most horror films make me laugh but not this one

 

 

 

 

Night Of The Demon reviewed by Charlie M

 

That's the last time I let a doctor near me with a rubber tube...

 

This is basically an occult detective story with Dana Andrews as the sceptical American scientist visiting England for a conference on the paranormal in the 1950's who ends up investigating his own predicted death. Tuesday at 10pm to be precise. He tries to convince himself (and everyone else) that Niall MacGinnis playing the malign Aleister Crowley-lookalike "Julian Karswell" is just some old English bluffer with a wacky mother. When, in reality, the old-geezer with the (I'm trying to say a bad word but can't)cat is a right dodgy bloke with a dandy taste in smoking jackets and a rare skill for frightening several shades of (I'm trying to say a bad word but can't) out of all and sundry.

 

Based on the original (and well-spooky) writings of Montague Rhodes James, a medieval scholar and provost of King's College Cambridge, it all involves a load of symbolic rune mumbo-jumbo which threatens our hero's life. But unlike the Dennis Wheatley stuff (i.e. "The Devil Rides Out") which was carelessly thrashed to film, Night Of The Demon is a bona-fide classic.

 

The genius of the movie is the exceptional Tourneur direction and the suspense which is generated, ramped up and kept humming throughout. Solid British acting for once is in evidence and the whole tale of horror, intrigue and downright weirdness is managed with little or no recourse to cheap tricks. On a budget of about twelve shillings, this film manages to be frightening with consummate ease and skill. Even a simple scene with Karswell playing a magician at a windy party for young children manages to soften your trouser colour to a hued brown.

 

The BBFC gave it an X certificate - removing some line about "blasphemy and desecration". Hey, we shall no doubt all sleep much safer in our beds knowing how well we are being looked after. Indeed, many have seen parts of the film as a sharp satirical allegory on the anti-Communist paranoia being generated and stoked by the Prong's old comrades, Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, Roy Cohn and one Richard Milhous Nixon at HUAC in the States around that period.

 

Hence, US version was retitled "Curse Of The Demon" and had a whole 12 minutes of nerve-wrenching (and probably too near the right-wing viscera) footage removed; the first encounter of Holden and Joanna Harrington on a transatlantic flight to Britain, a chunk of the bloody spooky séance was sliced out and Holden's visit to the Hobart farm.

 

Anyway, the plastic and rubbery demon itself notwithstanding right at the end (straight from the BBC school of period horror), this film is an absolute blinder. Anyone who thinks that films from the 1950's can't be scary hasn't seen this gem. The Clifton Parker music, cast and screenplay are first-rate and guaranteed to make even the most staid of viewers involuntarily twitch a couple of times.

 

 

 

RECOMMENDATION: A couple of gin and prozacs before settling in to watch this from behind the sofa.

[TransporterMalfunction 1]

I haven't seen all of them, but I voted the Birds, just because it was a great movie 

The Birds is a fantastic film and actually inspired many others such as Night of the Living Dead.

 

Did you know that the last shot was originally going to be of the Golden Gate bridge covered in birds? I think that would have been really cool although it was used later in a film called Zombi, which is more gore than horror.

[TransporterMalfunction 1]

This has to be mine. Most horror films make me laugh but not this one 

I shall have to have a look at that. I agree with your point though, it is the ones that try to shock that tend to lose me. The films that aim to built tension are the best. That is why I like well made films such as those made by Hitchcock or the older horrors.

 

By the way, I have just thought, I have left The Wicker Man out of the list. Sorry.

[Klingonmike 0]

As much as I liked "The Birds" I voted for "The Exorcist",that was one a the few films that actually made me jump.We all did laugh when Linda Blair's head spun completely around! There were some great effects in that film at the time.

[ddillard 2]

I voted for the excorsist. I don't watch much horror anymore, but I remember "Amityville" scared me to death when I was a kid.

[ARMS 0]

I've never found any "horror" film horrifying myself,....but then again, i'm the kinda guy, who can watch a show on gut surgery and still snack...

[Lollypop 0]

This has to be mine. Most horror films make me laugh but not this one  :lol:

I shall have to have a look at that. I agree with your point though, it is the ones that try to shock that tend to lose me. The films that aim to built tension are the best. That is why I like well made films such as those made by Hitchcock or the older horrors.

 

By the way, I have just thought, I have left The Wicker Man out of the list. Sorry.

" The Wicker Man " was pretty creepy

[TransporterMalfunction 1]

This has to be mine. Most horror films make me laugh but not this one  :lol:

I shall have to have a look at that. I agree with your point though, it is the ones that try to shock that tend to lose me. The films that aim to built tension are the best. That is why I like well made films such as those made by Hitchcock or the older horrors.

 

By the way, I have just thought, I have left The Wicker Man out of the list. Sorry.

" The Wicker Man " was pretty creepy

The thing I like about The Wicker Man is that it is intelligent horror that looks at the evolution of modern society and the contrast between pagan and christian beliefs. While the pagans are doing things that we would consider evil, they are only practicing their religion.

[fredbroca 0]

out of all of them that i have seen the thing is the worst but i have seen movies that have scared me more like alien.

[trekkergirl220 0]

I had to null vote because I haven't seen them all, but of the ones I've seen I liked village of the dammed and the Birds.

[Captain Jean-Luc Picard 1]

I nulled my vote as I don't like horror movies.

[Guest Ktrek]

I'm not a fan of horror as a genre. I have seen all the movies in the list but I nulled my vote because if horror means scary I think the best horror film I have ever seen was the first Alien movie. I don't scare very easily but I was home alone when I saw that movie for the first time and it scared me silly! :lol:

 

Ktrek

[Sarah 0]

for me , the older the move the less color there is, the scarier it is to me..I have a fright night every month with my best friend and we rent old black and white talkies and other films.......so I picked Dracula!!!!

[Goose 0]

Stardate:213463.9

 

I dont watch that many horror movies but i liked the Thing.The Birds i thought was another good one as well.

[dsbs 0]

Never seen any of them... hehehe

[Lessa_Soong 0]

I picked The Fly, but i saw the original too and the was good "help me!"

I have never seen The Birds, but i may have to.

But i like horror. My husband loves them. I even like the Freddie line and Hell Raiser.

Alien, darn, that was very good too!

[KayTroi 0]

1. The Exorcist

2. The Omen

3. The Fly(1986)

[Yillara Skye 1]

I have seen all but one of the ones on the list...and they are all pretty good, but my vote went to Psycho(I also like the remake, with Anne Heche).

I like horror films, but none ever scare me...very few even slightly creep me out. But there is one...that really creeps me out...Event Horizon! One-Hour Photo is kinda creepy too.

[TransporterMalfunction 1]

I picked The Fly, but i saw the original too and the was good "help me!"

I have never seen The Birds, but i may have to.

But i like horror. My husband loves them. I even like the Freddie line and Hell Raiser.

Alien, darn, that was very good too!

Which do you like most, the original or 1980s Fly?