Horror Films

I have to be careful what I watch as scary things stay with me forever; it took me years to get over my fear of the dark after watching the Charlton Heston version of The Omega Man and I’ve never got over seeing The Exorcist, a film that my kids thing is funny! Which is sad because I do like horror films. I stopped watching The Descent half way through because I was so scared but think I will try to watch it again one day. I’ve realised it’s things I can relate to that scare me, so I should have been ok with The Descent given that I will never ever go pot holing! I stuck with The Living and the Dead series a few years back because it was so good but even had to turn off Ghosts once because I was watching late at night and the little plague girl appeared! When I first knew my ex he sometimes used to pretend to be a zombie when we were walking back from the pub and couldn’t understand why it terrified me ‘but you know it’s me’ he used to say. Mind you, we did used to walk back through a churchyard! Mark Gatiss makes some good programmes about horror stories, too. At least I can watch programmes about horror I suppose because they do interest me!

As it's Halloween this month we've just started watching a horror film each night (or most nights anyway). We started with Salem's Lot, tonight is Christine, then Alien, Fiend Without a Face and a bunch Hammer House of Horrors. At the end of the month will be Black Christmas, which we usually watch over the Christmas period.

I can watch Alien because I’m never going to be in a spacecraft!

I had forgotten about Mark Gatiss. He is a great MR James fan.

I am pleased he is reviving the Christmas Ghost Story on TV.

The Lost Hearts story terrified me when I was about 12

Like Maybee70 I enjoy Mark Gatiss's gothic spookiness. I don't watch any other horror though I found reading The Woman in Black really scary. Whistle and I'll come to you!

PinkCosmos

I had forgotten about Mark Gatiss. He is a great MR James fan.

I am pleased he is reviving the Christmas Ghost Story on TV.

The Lost Hearts story terrified me when I was about 12

I was just about to mention that. Tales of Mystery and Imagination? Also had The Fall of the House of Usher in that series. But Lost Hearts really freaked me out. There’s a temple like building on the road to Loughborough that always makes me think of it and a similar one near Durham! I have an internet chum on another forum that always mentions Lost Hearts.

As a teenager I was a big horror fan but it was mostly Hammer horror in the 1960s, perfectly fine and I still love them. But whooaah! When the 1970s arrived everything went crazy.

In 1973 along came The Exorcist and my friend and I were so freaked out we took weeks to recover. I was literally looking behind doors. Nothing was the same again for me. I did watch numerous horror films after that, but never anything about possession. I think it all depends on whether you believe that evil actually exists. People who have no spiritual side will probably not be scared by films with demons and ghosts.

For those who like it The Exorcist is on TV tonight and there have been follow up films I believe. Also, The Exorcist: Believer is coming out at cinemas this month. I shall keep well clear.

There have been some great Dracula films.

My earliest memory was seeing Dracula Prince of Darkness at the cinema, after which I became a big Dracula fan. I loved Christopher Lee/Peter Cushing and all the Hammer films. I couldn't imagine anyone doing Dracula better, but there are two others I love:

Count Dracula (1977) with Louis Jourdan.

Dracula (1979) with Frank Langella. He was absolutely mesmerising and this was an artistic and visually beautiful version. I love it.

I did try watching the 2020 Dracula series with Claes Bang but it was too revolting and gory for me. If you've seen Frank Langella you'll understand the difference. Yuk.

I absolutely love Horror films if they are about terror, not gore etc. I've never watched The Exorcist because I read the book and that was scary enough. The Others is a good scary film, as is The Turning of the Screw, as well as the others mentioned here. There are a number of science fiction scary films but the master is Stephen King adaptations. Salem's Lot, etc. I also find The Fog quite scary too

I just find them funny or boring.

Chestnut

As a teenager I was a big horror fan but it was mostly Hammer horror in the 1960s, perfectly fine and I still love them. But whooaah! When the 1970s arrived everything went crazy.

In 1973 along came The Exorcist and my friend and I were so freaked out we took weeks to recover. I was literally looking behind doors. Nothing was the same again for me. I did watch numerous horror films after that, but never anything about possession. I think it all depends on whether you believe that evil actually exists. People who have no spiritual side will probably not be scared by films with demons and ghosts.

For those who like it The Exorcist is on TV tonight and there have been follow up films I believe. Also, The Exorcist: Believer is coming out at cinemas this month. I shall keep well clear.

What channel is it on? I really must have the telly off. It was once on on the telly in the living room. I turned it off but then realised the tv was on in the kitchen! Panic! After I’d seen the film at a cinema I spent a weekend at a remote farmhouse in Wales. My husband went to visit friends in the Saturday night; a window started rattling upstairs and I was terrified.

PinkCosmos you have brought back so many memories of The Haunting. It was filmed at Ettington Manor just outside Stratford upon Avon. My sister was a stand in for Clare Bloom, all she had to do was stand in different places so the cameramen could get it right and then the stars too over.

I remember seeing the film and being terrified when I saw someone lying in bed asleep with their arm over the edge of the bed, then the felt a hand clamp onto theirs and it was dismembered 😳🤪

Robert Wise was the Director and Producer. He directed Westside Story too.

Horror films, remember being a fan of Hammer, since reading all of Dennis Wheatley, and Edgar Allan Poe as a teenager. As nursing cadets, we went to see the Mummy ,with Boris Karloff, getting back to rooms after, we got our mattresses and we all slept in one room, as too scared. Laugh about it now. Enjoy Mark Gatiss, a modern master, scared to death at Whistle and I'll come to you with John Hurt, scary ones for me, The Others, IT, and more, but even thinking about them now gives me the shivers. Guess it's light on tonight!!

I used to be a fan of horror films - ‘Carrie’ being the only one I can remember. But these days I’m more into ‘Crime and Investigation’.

My first ever horror film was The Trollenberg Terror, it was absolutely laughable!
The 2 films that really scared me, still do, were The Night of the Hunter, starring Robert Mitchum, and Psycho, I still can`t watch it again.

Would Reptilicus count as a horror film?

I always loved the Hammer Films and also the Edgar Allen Poe films. The Raven with Vincent Price is so funny. I remember being terrified by Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte.

I agree that The Haunting was really scary at the time. I was very susceptible to ghostly things and the banging on that huge wooden door terrified me, even more so when it started slowly creaking and bending. That just proves you do not have to see horrible things, the real terror is in your mind, just imagining what was behind that door, what it was, and what it could do.

I used to like them, too but most of them now are just over the top with the special effects and not subtle. The loud music in the ‘scary’ bits annoys me,too. The Exorcist was really scary but once you have seen it you know what happens and wouldn’t want to watch it a second time. I used to love The Wicker Man and still have an old copy. Years ago we had an evening meal with friends and sat round and watched it. It was a good ‘un.

I saw The Exorcist on Honeymoon [very Romantic} and when we got back I would not stay in the rented flat we had so slept every other night with DH at work.
Damien and Jack Nicholson in The Shining.The other I cannot remember the name starred Kathy Bates and James Cairn she had him locked up in her house with broken legs.
My DD when teenagers persuaded me to let them watch Nightmare on Elm Street when DH was away with work. We ended up all sleeping together in the same bed!!!
I still find any adaption of Wilkie Collins, the Woman in White unsettling as it was based on a myth and a house near where I lived.

We saw The Trollenberg Terror on Talking Pictures TV a while ago - really funny 😁 Last night we watched It (Stephen King) which we've seen a number of times but is one of the few horror films that can still make me hide behind my fingers 😁

One of the scariest films I’ve ever seen remains Don’t Look Now. It was made in 1973. Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland play a couple visiting Venice while mourning the death of their daughter. They meet two elderly sisters who are psychic and things descend slowly into horror. It’s based on the book by Daphne DuMaurier, which I’ve read and I can recommend that too.

The other one that stays with me is an old black and white film from the 1940s called Dead Of Night. It’s a very rare British horror film because they were banned during WW11. An architect arrives at a country cottage - invited by the owner to consult on some renovations. On going into the cottage, he is introduced to other guests and tells them that, despite never having met any of them, he has seen them all in a recurring dream, and proves able to predict events in the house before they happen. He tells them that in the dream something dreadful happens later on. One by one, the guests then attempt to test his foresight with individual stories of strange events they experienced or were told about.

It’s one of the creepiest films I’ve ever seen with a twist at the end, which I won’t reveal. If you can find it anywhere I thoroughly recommend it.

Pammie1

One of the scariest films I’ve ever seen remains Don’t Look Now. It was made in 1973. Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland play a couple visiting Venice while mourning the death of their daughter. They meet two elderly sisters who are psychic and things descend slowly into horror. It’s based on the book by Daphne DuMaurier, which I’ve read and I can recommend that too.

The other one that stays with me is an old black and white film from the 1940s called Dead Of Night. It’s a very rare British horror film because they were banned during WW11. An architect arrives at a country cottage - invited by the owner to consult on some renovations. On going into the cottage, he is introduced to other guests and tells them that, despite never having met any of them, he has seen them all in a recurring dream, and proves able to predict events in the house before they happen. He tells them that in the dream something dreadful happens later on. One by one, the guests then attempt to test his foresight with individual stories of strange events they experienced or were told about.

It’s one of the creepiest films I’ve ever seen with a twist at the end, which I won’t reveal. If you can find it anywhere I thoroughly recommend it.

That sounds fascinating! I’ll look our for it!

Bella23

I saw The Exorcist on Honeymoon [very Romantic} and when we got back I would not stay in the rented flat we had so slept every other night with DH at work.
Damien and Jack Nicholson in The Shining.The other I cannot remember the name starred Kathy Bates and James Cairn she had him locked up in her house with broken legs.
My DD when teenagers persuaded me to let them watch Nightmare on Elm Street when DH was away with work. We ended up all sleeping together in the same bed!!!
I still find any adaption of Wilkie Collins, the Woman in White unsettling as it was based on a myth and a house near where I lived.

The Kathy Bates and James Caan film was called Misery. I’ve not seen the film but I’ve read the book - it’s by Stephen King. It’s about a writer who is injured in a car accident and ends up being taken home and looked after by one of his fans who is a former nurse. She finds out he’s planning to kill off one of her favourite characters, it unhinges her and she decides to make him pay.