Most Important Horror Films of the Past Decade?

[Misfit Toy]

I find High School Musical to be pretty frightening.

[Mike Farley]

david g wrote:

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While I love the original Night of the Living Dead, I think that Romero's sequel Dawn of the Dead is the greatest of all horror movies. I think the first 40 min of the Zach Synder remake are masterly and it totally falls flat afterward.

I don't know if I'd say greatest but the original DAWN is certainly up there. Definitely top 5.

The problem with the remake is that while it got all the jumps and survival horror aspects right it missed most of the social commentary and dark satire that was at the core of Romero's version. DAWN 78 is a great movie regardless of genre.

Plus Ken Foree is just pure coolness dressed in a SWAT uniform.

[Goliath]

Misfit Toy wrote:

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I find High School Musical to be pretty frightening.

Yeah--but not in a good way.

[Barbados Slim]

Most important? The Ring, which introduced J-horror to the west, followed by Saw which created a subgenre.

Best? I'd go with The Descent, The Ring, The Others, Cloverfield, The Orphanage and maybe Vacancy. Oh, and Quarantine.

Sixth Sense was more of a supernatural thriller than a horror film.

[NileQT87]

I guess I'll list as many horror films as I can remember having seen:

(I have a few I confess to having seen--for some reason, I haven't yet seen Dracula, The Wolf Man, The Invisible Man, Psycho or practically anything past NotLD with the exception of Carrie... Yes, that includes Jaws--I admit I'm not itching to see this one as I'm afraid of Discovery Channel specials on sharks!!!--and all of the Freddy Krueger/Michael Myers/Jason Vorhees stuff... Just haven't seen it.)

Anyway, ones I recall having seen (admittedly, some are absolutely horrendous film-making and are examples of being up at 2-3 in the morning during October or getting together with friends to watch truly horrible films like Eegah!):

I used this list to figure these out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_horror_films

1920 - Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde
1922 - Nosferatu
1923 - The Hunchback Of Notre Dame
1925 - The Phantom Of The Opera
1931 - Frankenstein
1932 - Freaks
1932 - The Mummy
1935 - The Bride Of Frankenstein
1935 - The Raven
1939 - Tower Of London
1940 - The Devil Bat
1940 - The Invisible Man Returns
1940 - The Mummy's Hand
1942 - The Mummy's Tomb
1943 - Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man
1946 - House Of Horrors
1953 - House Of Wax
1954 - Creature From the Black Lagoon
1954 - Them!
1955 - Revenge Of The Creature
1960 - The Little Shop Of Horrors
1960 - Village Of The Damned
1962 - Eegah!
1963 - The Birds
1963 - The Terror
1968 - Night Of The Living Dead
1968 - Rosemary's Baby
1970 - House Of Dark Shadows
1976 - Carrie
1977 - Exorcist II: The Heretic
1986 - Vamp
1987 - The Lost Boys
1990 - Child's Play 2
1990 - Stephen King's It
1991 - Silence Of The Lambs
1992 - Bram Stoker's Dracula
1993 - Leprechaun
1994 - Interview With The Vampire
1994 - Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
1995 - Village Of The Damned
1997 - I Know What You Did Last Summer
1998 - The Faculty
1999 - The Astronaut's Wife
1999 - Deep Blue Sea
1999 - The Haunting
1999 - Sleepy Hollow
1999 - The Rage: Carrie 2
2002 - Queen Of The Damned
2003 - Wrong Turn
2007 - Sweeney Tood: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (not straight horror, but it is based on a horror story--kind of a quirky horror musical)

As I said, some are quite abysmal and some are legendary classics. I've also seen significant amounts of the Night of the Living Dead remake (thanks YouTube), The Exorcist (countless clips), Jaws (countless clips), Firestarter, The Funhouse (saw a few of Elizabeth Berridge's scenes), Plan 9 From Outer Space (thanks YouTube), etc... I think I did see part of one of the A Nightmare On Elm Street films (and of course, I've seen the famous Johnny-Depp-gets-turned-into-a-bloody-geyser-in-bed scene).

Movies I have interest in seeing next are probably Dracula and The Unholy Three (might as well see some more of those Tod Browning flicks). I've seen extensive clips of Dracula, but not the whole thing.

And yeah, for horror/retro campy cheese fans, you've got to see Tim Burton's Ed Wood. Great film.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Oh man, you've got to get some Hammer stuff in there.

[Hermiod]

MeanJoePhaser wrote:

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People seem to love THE RING, even though it's as bullshit as any supernatural horror movie is.

I can't comment on "TORTURE PORN", as I've never seen one. Well, I mean what they call that, not the actual cool torture porn with Jewell Marceau and shit.

Jewell Marceau does "torture porn" now ?

[Michael Chris]

Nevermind, googled, ew.

[Too Much Fun]

NileQT87 wrote:

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(all of the Freddy Krueger/Michael Myers/Jason Vorhees stuff... Just haven't seen it.)

And yeah, for horror/retro campy cheese fans, you've got to see Tim Burton's Ed Wood. Great film.

I've seen extensive clips of Dracula, but not the whole thing.

Wow, as a classic horror fan, you have got to see the 1978 "Halloween". It probably won't seem that original to you now, but keep in mind that it pretty much invented the whole 'slasher' genre, and even after being ripped off endlessly over the past 30 years, it's still got some of the most beautifully chilling opening scenes of any movie and remains masterful in its pacing in order to achieve maximum suspense.

I love the way it teases you by waiting so long to reveal what the big threat of the movie looks like (a lesson learned well by Alien the following year) to make you anxious to see it and more intrigued when you do. I've seen it more times than any other horror movie and it's still my favourite. In addition to amazing atmosphere, music, and direction, it also has a riveting (and occasionally funny) performance from Donald Pleasance. His dialogue about Michael Myers is unforgettably eloquent and intense.

And Ed Wood isn't just a nice tribute to retro/cheesy/campy horor films...it's marvelously touching in its reverence for movies in general. One of the reasons it's one of my favourite movies is because of how it celebrates Ed Wood through his passion for movies and how much he loves talking about them and making them, even if he's bad at it. By lavishing so much reverence on Ed Wood, it's able to be a poignant tribute to all people who are passionate about movies too.

Are you talking about the 1931 Dracula? I found that movie disappointing. I love Bela Lugosi's performance and visually it's really interesting with its use of location and the way Dracula's interactions with his victims are lighted, shot, etc., but the ending is really anti-climactic. I guess it had to be the way it was due to limits of the time about how much violence could be shown in a movie, but I think it could have been done better.

[Misfit Toy]

Spaceman Spiff wrote:

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Oh man, you've got to get some Hammer stuff in there.

I love the Hammer Dracula series (the Christopher Lee ones, anyway). Those movies led me to believe that in women, the jugular vein extends into the boobies.

[Pingfah]

Deckerd wrote:

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Indeed. Nosferatu still scares the living daylights out of me.

Wimp!

[david g]

Too Much Fun, I totally agree with you about John Carpenter's original HALLOWEEN. It's a great movie from beginning to end, and still one of the most terrifying movies I have ever seen. I also love his films generally, especially THE FOG, THE THING...

[Sephiroth]

Can anyone realy say that there has been more passionate performances in a horror film in recent decades than The Devils Rejects?

[TheArsenal]

Silent_Bob wrote:

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28 Days Later stands out as true horror, because it doesnt rely on shoving gore and tits at the audience. It actually has more depth - like the fact that its not the Infected that are the real monsters, its Christopher Ecclestons gang of thugs in Tatton Hall.

Also, what on the surface is a cosmetic change - making slow moving zombies into frenetic fast movers - injected the genre with energy it had been lacking for some time. Once you moved past many of the classic well made zombie films, the shuffling dead was shuffling toward camp.