Hey all! Love the site, love the podcast, love the movies!

I’ve only fairly recently got into horror movies, so here’s a question for all.....yes I know this has been discussed many times, but I need help making a decision....

If you could buy only ONE horror movie on dvd, what ONE would you buy (or recommend)? Please keep in mind the following criteria:

1. Priority criteria: It must be SCARY. Make-me-jump scary. Not just a couple of times in the movie, but several. And creepy atmosphere is an added bonus, but creepy does not necessarily mean SCARY. I want a real “roller-coaster-rideâ€

Well i would add Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Exorcist to your must buy list right away. To my mind two of the finest movies of all time. Texas Chainsaw is simply a primal, brutal, distillation of pure terror and Exorcist presents it's horror in such a unique world of bleak realism it's almost documentary-like.

I'd have to second what Dan said. TCM is absolutely inimitable. THE masterpiece of the genre but probably not as scary, spooky as some others. For fright factor I'd go for:

The Exorcist, The Shining, The Descent, Halloween and I find Amityville to be quite scary.

Two of the scaries films I've ever seen, not necessarily horror classics but scare the bejesus out of me: What Lies Beneath and Pet Semetary.

The Evil Dead
Halloween
The Thing
Black Christmas
The Burning
The Shining

All the classics! I'd recommend getting a hold of an excellent horror film reference guide like Kim Newman's "Nightmare Movies" and working your way through his recommendations.

Modern horrors I would consider scary, gory and - most importantly - good films would include

Dog Soldiers
The Descent
28 Days Later
Wolf Creek
Switchblade Romance
Cube

I personally love Asian horror cinema - films like Ju-on, Tomie, Tell me Something, Audition, Ringu and Kairo would definitely make my top 50 horror films.

Evil Dead 2 is an absolute classic and one of my favourite films of all time but it's not particularly scary or gory.

Having spent most of my 34 years watching horror films, I can't really remember anything that is scary (well for me anyway).

I would still suggest The Exorcist that sends shivers down my spine, Texas Chain Saw Massacre for its unmatched tension and (I know you dont like j-horror but) Ring, for being genuinely unnerving.

Thanks for all the great input, keep it coming.....

I've heard Necromantik (?) is quite gruesome.....but does it fall withing my SCARY criteria...? Is it worth getting?

Thanks!
jrbentley

What part of my user name is unclear

Okay, add "Men Behind the Sun" to my prospect list......what are the general opinions of these two...? (Necromantik and the above mentioned....)

Thanks,
jrbentley

If you wish to see a man in a decompression chamber shit out his guts then....yep.....Men Behind the Sun is the movie for you

Necromantik is a fairly lame attempt to combine shock-horror with an art movie...it's really not that gross, apart from the ending - which would be disgusting if it wasn't so laughably fake....Nekromantik 2 however does have more gore and alot better production values.

I think Andrzej Zulawski's POSSESSION is an oft overlooked psychological horror masterpiece. I don't know if it fits the criteria, but you have to see this thing. It's one of my favorite films. Has anyone else seen it?

[quote="jrbentley"]Hey all! Love the site, love the podcast, love the movies!

I’ve only fairly recently got into horror movies, so here’s a question for all.....yes I know this has been discussed many times, but I need help making a decision....

If you could buy only ONE horror movie on dvd, what ONE would you buy (or recommend)? Please keep in mind the following criteria:

1. Priority criteria: It must be SCARY. Make-me-jump scary. Not just a couple of times in the movie, but several. And creepy atmosphere is an added bonus, but creepy does not necessarily mean SCARY. I want a real “roller-coaster-rideâ€

I have indeed seen it! It's a completely bonkers one-of-a-kind art/horror movie... well worth seeing not least for Isabelle Adjani's insane performance, particularly during the notorious miscarriage sequence! In fact, didn't she win Best Actress at Cannes that year for it? It's also got a Carlo Rambaldi monster in it...

I was thinking about it last night I always find Nightmare on Elm Street 2 and 3 to be quite frightening.

I think part 2 is quite underrated - you never hear it mentioned these days without everyone banging on about the gay subtext, but Sholder has said that was completely unintentional (which of course doesn't mean it's not there). I particularly like the ending - which is very much in the spirit of the original.

Part 3 has some great setpieces (the puppet-on-strings and TV sequences in particular) but it marks the start of the wisecracking Freddy that made the later sequels so bland, IMO.