Though it's been copied, sequeled, and parodied countless times, when the Exorcist was first released there had never been anything like it. For those of us old enough to remember, it had quite an impact. 
    One of my favorites is an old Black and White haunted house movie; The Haunting of Hillhouse, sometimes called just The Haunting.  Superior directing and acting.  With almost no special effects they put together a real nail biter.  There was a remake in the 90s that totally sucked so don't confuse the two. 
     The Amityville Horror was a very good movie and an even better book.  Good stuff.
     Finally I'll mention The Shining.  Like many of Nicholson's movies, without him The Shining probably would have been nothing.  It was the Shining that made me realize that Nicholson is my favorite actor.  He did crazy soooooo well. 
     So what are your favorites? 

I remember putting on The Ring one night shortly after it had come out on video. It had been awhile since I had watched a scary movie and this one was based on a Japanese movie called Ringu that was like nothing I had seen before. I was totally unprepared for it. For some reason it caught me off guard and really scared me lol. I later watched The Grudge and some other similar movies but none of them had the same effect as watching The Ring that night.

When I was young Disney was going through a strange phase of putting out scary/thrillers movies that were way too scary for their usual market of younger kids. This was back when Disney was almost completely just for kids so I'm not sure exactly why they decided to go in this direction. One movie, The Watcher in the Woods scared the hell out of me. I think I watched that movie like 5 times as a kid and everytime it was through squinted eyes or hands half covering my face lol.

As far as best scary book I really enjoyed IT. Although I like both iterations from the movie/tv they can't do the book justice. Before I read that book I never thought a book could scare me, but it is in fact pretty creepy.

I binge read Cormack McCarthy’s The Road in an airport waiting hours for my flight to Seattle. When I landed, a storm had rolled in along with the worst flooding in Washington state in 70 years. It felt like I had landed in the book even at the airport, but then I spent the next few days at an old decommissioned nuclear power plant. It would have felt extremely post-apocalyptic even without reading the book, but with the dreary rain... I was just waiting for some cannibal to lean out of a broken window and shoot me in the leg with a makeshift sharpened-spoon arrow.

The movie FREAKS made in the 30s. With no special effects. And in that time, totally different.

NooneOfConsequence wrote on Nov 1^st, 2019 at 8:13pm:

I binge read Cormack McCarthy’s The Road in an airport waiting hours for my flight to Seattle. When I landed, a storm had rolled in along with the worst flooding in Washington state in 70 years. It felt like I had landed in the book even at the airport, but then I spent the next few days at an old decommissioned nuclear power plant. It would have felt extremely post-apocalyptic even without reading the book, but with the dreary rain... I was just waiting for some cannibal to lean out of a broken window and shoot me in the leg with a makeshift sharpened-spoon arrow.

The Road is... tough. Both book and film are fantastic but I find them more emotionally devastating rather than scary. I haven't read The Shining but the movie, as well as being one of the greatest movies ever made, is freaking terrifying. I have watched it all the way through once. I'm not sure I could do it again.

One book I really wasn't expecting to get to me is The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson. It's a really weird book. It's hard to explain, but it opens with a man from around the 1700's describing how he met the love of his life and then tragically lost her and then goes on to explain a strange "dream" he has. The whole thing is written in a faux 16th century style so the language is very flowery and old fashioned but the "dream" is set millions of years into the future after the Sun has gone out and the Earth is almost barren, pockets of life existing only in former oceanic trenches being sustained by a strange power emanating from deep within the Earth. The last humans are living in a giant pyramid that shelters them from horrific monsters and mutants and supernatural powers that stalk the Night Land and would like nothing more than tearing the last humans to pieces and utterly annihilating their souls. To avoid spoilers, all I'll say is that the main character has to go on a quest across the Night Land and there is a point where there is an attack by giants. The hairs on the back of my neck are prickling just thinking about it. Even with the old fashioned language, it's visceral.

It's a really long book (so long it's been edited down numerous times) and the language can get tedious (so tedious there has been a fan rewrite that puts it into modern language) but the world of the Night Land is one of my favourite fantasy worlds and boy, is it horrible.

     The Road is the kind of book that stays in  your head long after you finish it.  Very real and disturbing. 
     Steven King's "The Stand" was an excellent book.  I found it more fascinating than scary, but it was a very enjoyable read just the same. The movie was OK I guess but no where near as good as the book. 
     One of my all time favorite horror movies is Motel Hell.  A lot of people don't get that it's a parody.  I'll be laughing my butt off and people will be looking at me like I'm insane.  "Meat's meat and man's gotta eat!" If you've never seen it you have to watch Motel Hell.

If I could have any movie redone for the big screen it would be "The Stand". I loved the miniseries but being truthful it is still a little unpolished. With the recent success of IT. I'm hoping they make a triology out of The Stand.

Ah the great Stephen King... if only I could forget I ever watched The Langoliers.  It’s only saving grace was that Balki Bartokomous got eaten by really bad CGI.

I never did see Langoliers. I think Stephen King is only capable of making instant classics or instant crap. Not much room for in between with him. There was a miniseries on TV awhile back I think with James Franco about going back in time to the Kennedy assassination called 11.22.63 that is really interesting. If you are looking for good Stephen King stuff it's worth a watch. I also liked the first and second IT that came out. Pretty good movies all things considered.

Anything by the Master, H.P Lovecraft.

Talking of Stephen King, The Mist is a fantastic film. Everyone talks about the ending but the whole thing is just incredible. Love that film. Haven't read the book.


slingbadger wrote on Nov 9^th, 2019 at 6:38am:

Anything by the Master, H.P Lovecraft.

My favourite writer. I can't believe I forgot to mention him. In my opinion, his best is The Rats in The Walls. Along with The Night Land, it's the only written friction I've read that's sent a shiver down my spine. A lot of what he wrote was... problematic as the kids say these days (the name of the cat in The Rats in The Walls for instance...), but it's also undeniable that he was a twisted genius of horror and it's a shame he died so young and unknown.

     I love Lovecraft.  I wish he had been more widely accepted/acclaimed in his time so there would be more of his writing around today.  Of course he was a blatant racist but somehow that doesn't detract from his stories.  Every few years I'll go on a Lovecraft binge and reread everything.  I'm about due for that now. 

Robert A. Heinlein is an author I've enjoyed over the years.  His genre is mainly Science Fiction. Good stuff.

I think in a lot of ways his racism is very much tied to his idea of horror. He said it was the fear of the unknown that was the oldest and strongest fear of man and he was a reclusive, sickly child that was scared of the outside world intruding on his idea of New England. It's one thing that makes him interesting and so difficult. If he wasn't so incredibly, horribly racist I don't know if he would have been twisted into such a great horror writer. He was very strange, an anti-Semite that married a Jewish woman, a racist that lived in the poor quarters surrounded by immigrants.

https://i.imgur.com/oH3jZmG.jpg

kings best stuff was done in his early days under the name richard bachman.
The bachman books are excellent.
He aso wrote an excellent book: the talisman, with peter straub.
Thoroughly recommend that.

As far as horror goes - never really been a fan. It's just too easy to write, and none of it ever really horrifies me.

I did read one book that sort of stuck in my mind. No idea who wrote it or what it was called  - but a couple went round scrambling peoples frontal lobes with a cheese wire inserted under the eyebone.
That was pretty scary.

But the undead, ghosts, zombies, monsters - none of these things scare me in any way.

Filmwise pretty much the only horror film that sticks in my mind was the second hellraiser film.
Can't remember why.

Morphy wrote on Nov 10^th, 2019 at 2:50pm:

https://i.imgur.com/oH3jZmG.jpg

Awesome!

    Movies or books that I find the scariest are generally movies about hauntings, which is odd since I live in a totally haunted house and that doesn't scare me at all.
    Movies that have never scared me even a little are slasher movies. I find them all comical.  Or just plain stupid.  Nightmare on Elm Street movies crack me up.  I love Freddy's sense of humor. Shark movies don't scare  me at all either.  I respect what sharks can do but I'm just not afraid of them. 

Rat Man wrote on Nov 13^th, 2019 at 10:25pm:

Movies or books that I find the scariest are generally movies about hauntings, which is odd since I live in a totally haunted house and that doesn't scare me at all.     Movies that have never scared me even a little are slasher movies. I find them all comical.  Or just plain stupid.  Nightmare on Elm Street movies crack me up.  I love Freddy's sense of humor. Shark movies don't scare  me at all either.  I respect what sharks can do but I'm just not afraid of them.

I wouldn't mind experiencing a benign haunting. Seems like the majority of paranormal stuff I've experienced was more of a demonic flavor so I guess I'm in the same boat as you. I'm really only scared of haunting type movies.

Another good movie if you haven't seen it is "It Follows". Sort of a mix between haunting and slasher movie. Very interesting concept. I liked it al ot.