30 Memorable Horror Films
New to the horror genre, and an Alfred Hitchcock fanatic, I am a sucker for suspense and quality. Classics, Cults, B movies; many horror films exist that defined the genre, or were trailblazers which have embedded into the minds of horror fans everywhere. Not all of them will be on this list. But of what I've seen so far, these are my Personal favorites. Films you like won't be here; but I'd like to reach out to the Horror-Fan community I recently joined. Attached to each movie is the reason it's there.
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- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsAnthony PerkinsJanet LeighVera MilesA Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.We see the knife that kills her; it just wasn't filmed. Here's to the Master of Suspense, who reminds us that nowhere is safe.
- DirectorWilliam FriedkinStarsEllen BurstynMax von SydowLinda BlairWhen a young girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two Catholic priests to save her life.That moment we first saw her stabbing herself with the cross. When her head spun around, and her descending the stairs.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsJack NicholsonShelley DuvallDanny LloydA family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.Johnny, stampeding along wielding an axe; blood pouring from an elevator, and those creepy twins. As iconic as it gets.
- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsMia FarrowJohn CassavetesRuth GordonA young couple trying for a baby moves into an aging, ornate apartment building on Central Park West, where they find themselves surrounded by peculiar neighbors.Because of that feeling you got when she finally tore her way into the closet. Roman makes motherhood the creepiest thing in the world.
- DirectorJonathan DemmeStarsJodie FosterAnthony HopkinsScott GlennA young F.B.I. cadet must receive the help of an incarcerated and manipulative cannibal killer to help catch another serial killer, a madman who skins his victims.The intellectual, polite, courteous cannibal who fantasizes conducting an orchestra with human blood splattered along his mouth.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsRod TaylorTippi HedrenJessica TandyA wealthy San Francisco socialite pursues a potential boyfriend to a small Northern California town that slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when birds of all kinds suddenly begin to attack people.The sheer possibility, regardless of plausibility, is staggeringly frightening. The silence when we see a man's eyes gouged out among a room full of dead birds and loose feathers. When the apparatus is steadily flooded by birds. Those creatures we see every day, almost obliviously, become our worst enemy.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsRoy ScheiderRobert ShawRichard DreyfussWhen a killer shark unleashes chaos on a beach community off Cape Cod, it's up to a local sheriff, a marine biologist, and an old seafarer to hunt the beast down.You never see the shark, till the very end. An invisible, unstoppable enemy is terrifying, and when you do see it here-- it fills the expectations of your imagination.
- DirectorGore VerbinskiStarsNaomi WattsMartin HendersonBrian CoxA journalist must investigate a mysterious videotape which seems to cause the death of anyone one week to the day after they view it.The atmosphere is delightfully eerie, as is Samara. Ordinary things like a phone call become chilling.
- DirectorGeorge A. RomeroStarsDuane JonesJudith O'DeaKarl HardmanA ragtag group of Pennsylvanians barricade themselves in an old farmhouse to remain safe from a horde of flesh-eating ghouls that are ravaging the Northeast of the United States.Bad special effects, a bad hair piece; and one of the most iconic ideas ever considered, with solid acting and characters we can relate to simply trying to survive a dangerous world.
- DirectorRidley ScottStarsSigourney WeaverTom SkerrittJohn HurtThe crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform after investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin.A cornerstone of science fiction, the plausible villains beyond an alien race, a witty screenplay with flawless direction, once the film becomes tense it knows just how to sustain it.
- DirectorJames WanStarsPatrick WilsonVera FarmigaRon LivingstonParanormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse.Brilliant direction proves that gore is sometimes the least necessary tool in scaring an audience.
- DirectorTobe HooperStarsMarilyn BurnsEdwin NealAllen DanzigerFive friends head out to rural Texas to visit the grave of a grandfather. On the way they stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. Something armed with a chainsaw.Raw and gritty, and with hardly an ounce of actual blood. The rugged, indie visuals strongly contribute to a simple plot that would engrave the slasher formula into stone.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsMax SchreckAlexander GranachGustav von WangenheimVampire Count Orlok expresses interest in a new residence and real estate agent Hutter's wife.The German Expressionists knew how to carve memories into their audiences. Often relentlessly frightening ones.
- DirectorGeorge WaggnerStarsClaude RainsWarren WilliamLon Chaney Jr.Larry Talbot returns to his father's castle in Wales and meets a beautiful woman. One fateful night, Talbot escorts her to a local carnival where they meet a mysterious gypsy fortune teller.Classic tale of a man-turned-beast, this is a Universal monster tale that maintains its value through tone, acting, and creepy environments.
- DirectorAlejandro AmenábarStarsNicole KidmanChristopher EcclestonFionnula FlanaganIn 1945, immediately following the end of Second World War, a woman who lives with her two photosensitive children on her darkened old family estate in the Channel Islands becomes convinced that the home is haunted.Nicole Kidman is in fine dramatic form in this suspenseful film reminiscent of Rod Serling's legendary talent.
- DirectorM. Night ShyamalanStarsBruce WillisHaley Joel OsmentToni ColletteMalcolm Crowe, a child psychologist, starts treating a young boy, Cole, who encounters dead people and convinces him to help them. In turn, Cole helps Malcolm reconcile with his estranged wife.In the year 1999, it was iconic among American Beauty and The Matrix. With a twist for the ages, remarkable acting and chemistry among the cast, drama matches horror from beginning to end with ceaseless quality. Genius quality, that should have endured in the filmmaker's later career.
- DirectorZack SnyderStarsSarah PolleyVing RhamesMekhi PhiferA nurse, a policeman, a young married couple, a salesman and other survivors of a worldwide plague that is producing aggressive, flesh-eating zombies, take refuge in a mega Midwestern shopping mall.Zack Snyder's remake actually includes a zombie baby. All the gore, action, and horror you could want, its pace is more fitted for today's generation despite the obviously effective original.
- DirectorJaume BalagueróPaco PlazaStarsManuela VelascoFerran TerrazaJorge-Yamam SerranoA television reporter and cameraman follow emergency workers into a dark apartment building and are quickly locked inside with something terrifying.Once the horror begins, it is unrelenting.
- DirectorSidney J. FurieStarsBarbara HersheyRon SilverDavid LabiosaA woman is tormented by an invisible being.A family faced with dissolution by an unstoppable, invisble enemy. When anyone can be a victim of such paranormal intent, the scares come from the inevitable harm.
- DirectorSam RaimiStarsBruce CampbellEllen SandweissRichard DeManincorFive friends travel to a cabin in the woods, where they unknowingly release flesh-possessing demons.A "B" movie, all the terrible cheap things about it are enjoyable because it never claims to be better than it is. Tongue-in-cheek film that balances well between amusing and horrific, from a woman raped in the woods By the woods to a demon that screams for at least a minute flat.
- DirectorSam RaimiStarsBruce CampbellSarah BerryDan HicksAsh Williams, the lone survivor of an earlier onslaught of flesh-possessing spirits, holes up in a cabin with a group of strangers while the demons continue their attack.Follow-up to the cult classic, even more silliness would eventually amass large numbers of fans who can appreciate a "B" movie with creative direction. The scene when blood splashes on a light-bulb, making the whole room glow red.
- DirectorLewis TeagueStarsDee WallaceDaniel Hugh KellyDanny PintauroCujo, a friendly St. Bernard, contracts rabies and conducts a reign of terror on a small American town.Plausibility remarkably high throughout, a marriage is saved by the attacks of a ferociously infamous dog. It is the possibility so well delineated by Stephen King's imagination that fuels this story.
- DirectorTod BrowningKarl FreundStarsBela LugosiHelen ChandlerDavid MannersTransylvanian vampire Count Dracula bends a naive real estate agent to his will, then takes up residence at a London estate where he sleeps in his coffin by day and searches for potential victims by night.Lugosi has never been creepier; he is undoubtedly the scariest Dracula to exist since Nosferatu because of his undeniable talent for scaring.
- DirectorFrancis Ford CoppolaStarsGary OldmanWinona RyderAnthony HopkinsThe centuries old vampire Count Dracula comes to England to seduce his barrister Jonathan Harker's fiancée Mina Murray and inflict havoc in the foreign land.Francis Ford Coppola's rendition of Dracula is charged by sexual themes and horrific images which bring to life the nature of the source material and certainly fills the shoes of its predecessors.
- DirectorJohn CarpenterStarsKurt RussellWilford BrimleyKeith DavidA research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.The foul beast is as terrifying as it is disgusting-- and the paranoia which builds among those trapped together is handled well.
- DirectorBrian De PalmaStarsSissy SpacekPiper LaurieAmy IrvingCarrie White, a shy, friendless teenage girl who is sheltered by her domineering, religious mother, unleashes her telekinetic powers after being humiliated by her classmates at her senior prom.Brian De Palma draws from Hitchcock again, while faithfully adapting--and even enhancing--the successful King story detailing a tortured girl who claims her vengeance. The sense of impending doom is maintained as effectively as the novel.
- DirectorDanny BoyleStarsCillian MurphyNaomie HarrisChristopher EcclestonFour weeks after a mysterious, incurable virus spreads throughout the UK, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary.Because we never really know what we'll wake up to in the morning. An accurate origin for a zombie disease that realistically depicts survival among the living dead.
- DirectorDavid SladeStarsJosh HartnettMelissa GeorgeDanny HustonAfter an Alaskan town is plunged into darkness for a month, it is attacked by a bloodthirsty gang of vampires.Because of the shock value when we first saw a town ripped to pieces whilst soaring above it.
- DirectorVictor SalvaStarsGina PhilipsJustin LongJonathan BreckA brother and sister driving home through isolated countryside for spring break encounter a flesh-eating creature which is in the midst of its ritualistic eating spree.What we love about horror, combined into one film, the creature makes for a convincing villain.
- DirectorDan O'BannonStarsClu GulagerJames KarenDon CalfaWhen two bumbling employees at a medical supply warehouse accidentally release a deadly gas into the air, the vapors cause the dead to rise again as zombies.Hilarious throughout, and food for gore-hounds, this schlocky exploit just sells itself.