Good Scary Movies

[Your Mom]

I dont really mean like slasher stuff. I'm not against that, but I want a good scare. Anybody have some favorites?

[Ruki]

I enjoy the Paranormal Activity series.

[Silva]

Halloween, and not the Rob Zombie remake.

[I Don't Mind]

I thought Insidious was pretty scary

[h0mic^_]

Can't really help you unless you're a fan of comedy-horror films. If so, check out (at least) Return of the Living Dead, Killing Spree, Woodchipper Massacre, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Winterbeast and Spookies.

For a good scary movie I'd recommend House on the Edge of the Park, even though it's not categorized as horror but crime and thriller. Still a scary one, though; much more so than your average horror movie.

[Gabriel]

I thought Insidious was pretty scary

Insidious was perfectly creepy up until the last twenty or thirty minutes. Everything until then was exactly what I wanted. That's not to say the ending is terrible, just that it changed the tone of the film fairly significantly.

If you like Paranormal Activity, or the premise of it, then I would highly recommend Grave Encounters.

EDIT: If you don't mind comedy-horror, then Tucker and Dale Vs Evil is worth a watch. I turned it on one night on Netflix to kill some time before bed, and it had my girlfriend and I in stitches all the way through. What was supposed to be a twenty minute filler turned into us watching the whole bloody thing. It was awesome.

Edited October 26, 2012 by Gabriel

[Redefine Sick]

"Your friend must be allergic to bees."

Dread is a movie I tell almost everyone to watch. Not a slasher flick in the slightest, just a creepy fucking movie that I adore the hell out of.

[CobraKaiEnTai]

Showgirls

[ChrisO]

Haven't seen Paranormal Activity 3 or 4, but am going to watch both soon, however, the first two movies were good, so that's a good series for me. Also, I agree with the statement on all the older Halloween/Michael Myers movies whichever you want to call them, not the Rob Zombie versions, they're too 21st Century, imo. But those are two good scary movies/series in my opinion. Also, I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream

[Damian WayLNKe]

George A Romero's Martin is a great vampire movie, but it's probably not going to give you the creeps. The Strangers was the last movie that really creeped me out to the point that I was looking out my dorm room window and checking for people in masks wondering around.

[Toe]

I actually just watched Paranormal Activity 1 and 2 for the first time. The first one was legitimately creepy at moments with tons of suspense, and the second one was pretty good too. The original Halloween has some very good moments that I think are scary, and the original Nightmare on Elm Street and Wes Craven's A New Nightmare are also very good.

I hate that I had to preface those with "original".

[livid]

Haven't seen Paranormal Activity 3 or 4, but am going to watch both soon, however, the first two movies were good, so that's a good series for me. Also, I agree with the statement on all the older Halloween/Michael Myers movies whichever you want to call them, not the Rob Zombie versions, they're too 21st Century, imo. But those are two good scary movies/series in my opinion. Also, I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream

...what does that even mean?

[Toe]

Haven't seen Paranormal Activity 3 or 4, but am going to watch both soon, however, the first two movies were good, so that's a good series for me. Also, I agree with the statement on all the older Halloween/Michael Myers movies whichever you want to call them, not the Rob Zombie versions, they're too 21st Century, imo. But those are two good scary movies/series in my opinion. Also, I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream

...what does that even mean?

I can't really explain what he means exactly, but I get it. Take a slasher from the 80s and one from today. They could do everything the same, but the way movies are made today make things seem less gritty, less realistic, and less sincere (if that makes any sense). Slasher films today all look and feel the exact same. Movies from the 80s and 90s all had similar plots and stuff, but they all had a unique look and feel to them.

[zero]

I get what you're saying. A lot of horror movies today have too much polish, I think that's what you're trying to say? And that makes sense, a slasher movie today might have a couple million dollars behind it from a major studio. A similar movie from the 80s was made with what a couple dudes could find between the couch cushions.

I like Zombie's Halloween though (still haven't seen the sequel). It took balls to drift that far from the source material, and lack of balls is what usually kills horror remakes. See: Nightmare, Friday, The Thing, etc.

Back on topic, if you're looking for legitimate scares, here are some movies that have kept me from sleeping over the last few years:

Lake Mungo (might actually be the scariest movie I've ever seen)

Paranormal Activity (1 and 3 are the best)

The Exorcism of Emily Rose

The Poughkeepsie Tapes

V/H/S (some segments are scarier than others)

The Descent

The Orphanage

The Strangers

[livid]

Admittedly I'm a bit out of my element when discussing horror movies but that just sounds like a "been there, done that" attitude because you've seen the story re-hashed a million and one times in between so of course it's not going to come across as gritty because at this stage it just isn't. In hindsight, I can see his point because of shit like the Platinum Dunes remakes but that's just because they're shitty and unoriginal.

EDIT: I definitely second The Descent though, one of the few horror movies I've enjoyed in the past few years.

[Toe]

The plot being similar doesn't bother me. I actually liked parts of the new Friday the 13th and that series is my favourite slasher film series. Zero said it better then I did, and you can see it in the Friday the 13th series. There are exceptions, of course. I actually thought Freddy Vs. Jason was fun, and enjoy watching it still.

[Silva]

Agreed. I would recommend Freddy vs. Jason in this thread if it were actually a scary movie.

[Redefine Sick]

I like to think the new Friday The 13th didn't actually happen and it's some bad dream I had one night.

[MalaCloudy Black]

Street Trash.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Alien

Audition

Wicker Man

The remake of The Ring scared me too actually.

Alien is a beautifully crafted film all around. The rest build and leave you with lingering memories which is better than cheap thrills at the time.

Indeed, if you have the time and patience I would suggest Audition. It's not particularly enjoyable though.