Just going through my 4 and 5 star “horror” ratings on Netflix the following stick out to me:

Near Dark
Brotherhood of the Wolf
Slither
The People Under the Stairs
Fright Night
The Serpent and the Rainbow

I’m sure you’ve seen all of those. Some of them aren’t “great” movies, just favorites of mine for one reason or another.

If you can get your hands on The Last Winter, [REC], or Dance of the Dead, at least one of these might do the trick.

Movies,
The Exorcist 3
In the Mouth of Madness
Lord of Illusions
Lost Boys
Fright Night
Nightmare on Elm Street 3
The Changeling
The Original version of The Haunting
The Original Childs Play
The Entire 1st and 2nd Seasons of Millennium
The complete series of Twin Peaks

Books,
Jay’s Journal
Dracula
The Books of Blood
The Exorcist

just a few faves, maybe some you’ve missed.

i second pretty much everything that’s already been recommended on here (except Brotherhood of the Wolf which i think is a rancid, half-assed piece of shit).

but here’s a few others that are maybe a bit more obscure:

The Funhouse - dir. Tobe Hooper(just saw it at the New Bev after not seeing it for sixteen years and… wow).
Night of the Creeps - dir. Fred Dekker
Hell Night - starring Linda Blair
The Beyond - dir. Lucio Fulci
The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (aka: Let Sleeping Corpses Lie).
Bad Dreams - starring Jennifer Rubin
anything directed by Larry Cohen, but most notably, Q: The Winged Serpent.
Targets - dir. Peter Bogdanovich (not really horror but close enough for comfort and stars Boris Karloff).
The Prowler - dir. Joseph Zito
Razorback - dir. Russell Mulcahy (if you can find a copy).
Ghost Story - starring John Houseman and Fred Astaire.
Baby Blood (aka: The Evil Within)
House - dir. Steve Miner
The Uninvited - starring Ray Milland
Day of the Beast - dir. Alex de la Iglesia (again, not technically horror, but pretty close and damn entertaining).

if i think of any more i’ll come back.

also, i highly recommend tracking down a copy of Sorceror. it’s not horror. but it’s directed by Friedkin, stars Roy Scheider, and features an awesome score by Tangerine Dream. also, it’s tense and suspenseful as all hell.

as for reading… i’d suggest ANYTHING written by Jack Ketchum, but especially Off Season and its sequel, Offspring. The Long Last Call by John Skipp is also pretty awesome. i just started The Missing by Sarah Langan which is pretty damn good so far.

but FAR AND AWAY, two of the greatest horror novels i’ve ever had the pleasure to read are the recently released in paperback, Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge, and the not-so-recent Summer of Night by Dan Simmons. track them down and devour them IMMEDIATELY (if you haven’t already).

oh, also, i just watched Trigger Man, Ti West’s follow up to The Roost, and i thorougly enjoyed it.

oh, and Peter, while conducting an ultimately futile search for an audio file of the Houdini Seance, i stumbled across this AMAZING blog full of audio files of out-of-print vinyl featuring ghost stories, halloween sound effects, and spooky music… check it out, i’ve already spent way too much time on it:

scarstuff.blogspot.com

Good call on Razorback, RJ. I haven’t seen that one since I was a kid, but I remember being terrified.

Check out this list:
http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20187007,00.html?xid=rss-CNNHome-20080331-20+scariest+movies+ever

It’s pretty awful. I swear, these “scariest” movie lists always look like they were written by someone who hasn’t seen half of the movies. A movie isn’t “scary” based on its fucking reputation. Has anyone in the last 30 years found Night of Living Dead to be scary? Carrie? And I thought American Werewolf in London and Evil Dead were comedies.

Brian- yeah, Razorback is one of my all-time favorites. but, i actually still find Night of the Living Dead to be scary. same for certain scenes in American Werewolf. Evil Dead and Carrie disturb me on a certain level that i’m not sure i would describe as “scary” but… it’s there. i think it’s a matter of individual experience. i think those lists are stupid and more often than not, seem like they’ve been written by people who need to see more horror movies.

Peter - i’d recommend the recently released adaptaion of The Lost only if you’ve read the Ketchum book already. and you watch Sci Fi so you must know that almost once-a-week they do a big ol’ Tales From the Darkside marathon. that’s always a treat.

some more recommendations:

The Company of Wolves - dir. Neil Jordan
Next of Kin (1982) - dir. Tony Williams, starring John Jarrat
Dead of Night (1945) - anthology.
Peeping Tom - dir. Michael Powell
The Burning (1981) - dir. Tony Maylam
Alligator - starring Robert Forster
any William Castle film you may have missed (my personal favorites being The House on Haunted Hill and Mr. Sardonicus).

oh, and if you’ve never seen the Tales From the Darkside movie (though i don’t see how you could’ve avoided that one to this day), now sounds like the right time to me.

and you’re welcome buddy. anytime.

I recommend Brainscan with Eddie Furlong.

uhm… surely, not THE Andrew Kevin Walker?

Sorry, that was me. That movie popped into my head and I thought, “Hell, not even the writer, Andrew Kevin Walker, would recommend that.” And then I thought, “What if AKW did recommend it?.” And then I giggled.

Nice.

is Lost Boys even a horror movie? the lines between ‘horror’ and ‘popcorn 80’s movie’ are very blurred for me.

and for the record, Lost Boys is one of my favorites.

I noticed something funny on Netflix…Peter queued Next of Kin with Patrick Swayze instead of the Jarrat one.

haha. i guess i probably should’ve mentioned that THIS Next of Kin isn’t available on Region 1 DVD.

Alligator is sweet, hope you enjoy it as much as i do.