also, I watched return of the living dead when I was 10. noting that I had also just been exposed to Frankenchrist by dead kennedys and a void album my homies older brother let me borrow and also the screamers o_O ..since then it’s been genre film, classics, contemporary greats, blast beats and running kitchens (with lots a gore stories and profanity). TREAT YOUR CHILDREN THE WAY YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE TREATED. WITH A SENSE OF HUMOR AND REALIZATION

Absolutely terrifying every time.

I 100% agree about A Serbian Film. I know a lot of people that abhor it, but the second time I saw it, I just couldn’t help but be really affected by it on a deeper level.

Well said, and I’m in total agreement. Godzilla started me off followed by the classic Universal Monster movies which led to the wonderful Hammer films.

But it was Godzilla movies that put me on the path….

each to their own.

I like most of Flanagan’s works but Absentia is BAD! like seriously

Amen brother, sure do miss those days.

1. Child’s Play-When I was a little kid I had a fascination with Rugrats(as did most of my generation)so I’m sitting on my parents bed with my Dad who poses the question”Wanna watch some Chucky?” My little brain had no idea what was coming. I answered “YES!!!” and little ole me was ready for a Rugrats marathon with my good ole red headed buddy Chucky to make me laugh…nope wrong Chucky son! The moment I saw the real Chucky everything in my life changed. It took me until I was at least 16 to fully get over my fear of dolls. Now I own every single Chucky film and watch them regularly. Thanks Dad! Now if only someone would get me a life size Chucky for my birthday 🙂
2. Halloween-My mother and I had a tradition while I was growing up of going to the movie store on Halloween and renting as many horror films as we could. This is how I discovered Freddy, Jason and Michael. But the first time I saw Myers in his Shatner mask it elicited a feeling of dread for days. I remember feeling like I was being watched every second of every day for weeks. To this day Halloween is my favorite slasher film of all time. No offense Freddy…you’ll get your time soon enough.
3.The Blair Witch Project-The first film to truly wreck every part of me. I wasn’t supposed to see this movie…but I did anyways. I remember the marketing campaign, the news reports made to make the film feel real and then the film itself. I found a vhs copy of this at my Grammys house(my dads mom)and while everyone was outside enjoying each others company and swimming I popped this into the vcr and watched what would become one of the most influential films in my life. It was the first time I felt like I was watching someone go truly insane. The first time I felt I was watching something real. The first time I felt like I was watching something I shouldn’t. I still can’t look at the woods the same because of this movie. Timeout as a kid took on a whole new meaning when I was told to go put my face in the corner after watching Blairs final scene. Say what you will about this movie but it messed me up as a kid and still to this day holds a high place for me.
4. Anaconda-I have always had an outright fascination when it comes to reptiles(snakes mostly)and I remember getting Anaconda for Christmas when we still lived in our old house in Eau Claire. You may not call Anaconda a horror film but to a little kid who visited the zoo almost weekly for the sole person of seeing the Anaconda…this film made those trips so much more exciting. Looking back on this film now it has a lot of flaws but it still helped shape me into the outlandish creature feature loving idiot I am today. Plus let’s not act like the scene Sarone gets swallowed whole my the mother of all Anacondas isn’t uber satisfying!
5. Freddy vs Jason-Once again courtesy of my father this bad boy makes the list. This was the first outright horror film I ever saw in a theater at the tender age of 12. I had recently concluded the Nightmare franchise after many years of watching the films during my Halloween horrorthons. So I posed the question to my Dad as to whether we could go see Freddy vs Jason at the movies. He said yes and I still to this day believe he said yes in an attempt to see if the film would break me….oh how wrong you were father…how wrong you were. The slapstick comedy stitched into it, the over the top kills and the final scene all left me saying the same thing. THIS…RIGHT HERE….IS MY……SHIT!!!!! Sure a lot of people can’t stand this movie but it holds a very special nostalgic place in my heart. I still to this day watch this film almost once a month and its easily one of my favorite movies of all time.
6. Evil Dead 2-My first step into the world of “extreme” films was the Evil Dead franchise. I finally got around to seeing them when I was in middle school. Evil Dead holds a very special place in my heart but Evil Dead 2 was where it all clicked for me in all the right ways. The horror, the comedy, THE BLOOD!!!! It just sang to me like a chainsaw through a Deadite. Don’t believe Evil Dead had a lasting impact on me as a person then look no further than my life size Ash Williams who guards over my living room. Groovy!
7.House of 1000 Corpses-I saw this gem when I was still in middle school in the most unlikeliest of places….my Memaw’s(my moms mom.) She always let me watch essentially whatever I wanted as long as it wasn’t well…you know. We watched this together once it came out on dvd and this film opened a door for me that never closed. I immediately fell in love with grindhouse cinema. That gritty and grimy way of film making that makes everything look absolutely vicious. Bill Moseley and Sid Haig remain to this day 2 of my favorite actors because of that film. The title track for this movie is still one of my wake up alarms on my phone to this day. Well tooty fucking fruity!
8. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre-Let’s slip into something a bit more…excessive shall we? By the time I got around to finally seeing TCM I was a freshman in highschool and thought I was an outright horror vet and nothing…..NOTHING! could phase me. Then I put a dvd of Tobe Hooper’s timeless classic in and watched in sheer horror for the entire runtime. No other movie outside of 1 more on this list scared me as much as TCM did. TCM felt like it violated me viscerally and emotionally. I loved it! No other film for years came close to what TCM made me feel. Granted I am in the minority when I say the remake might actually be a better overall film but the original will always be one of the most terrifying films I have ever seen. LET GRANDPA DO IT!
9. The Orphanage-While not strictly a horror film this still shaped me as much if not more than any other film on this list. I rented this in high school not knowing a damn thing about it other than the fact that Guillermo Del Toro produced it. I watched in awe, terror, happiness and sadness. To this very day the final scenes of this film and the twist cause me to cry like a baby. I never realized just how beautiful a film that’s so tragic could be. This isn’t just one of the films that shaped me as a horror fan…its one of my favorite films of all time.
10.Pan’s Labyrinth-While The Orphanage opened a door for me to more psychological horror this film took that door off the hinges and threw it in a fire. This is my favorite movie of all time. There is no second guessing that. No other film elicit’s as much emotion from me as this one. Every last ounce of this movie is pure cinematic bliss. I’ve never even come close to finding a movie that changed me quite the way this did. This film not only helped mold me into the horror fan I am today…it helped fully open my mind to the world of cinema and it created the cinephile I am today.
Honorable mentions:
Alien-I saw Aliens first as a kid and I immediately fell in love with Xenomorphs. It wasn’t until years later I saw the original Alien and I was already a full on horror fan by then. Xenomorphs are still my favorite movie monsters to this day. However Alien does rank on my all time favorite films list even if it didn’t outright mold me.
Inside-Won’t watch it again….ever. One of the most violently disturbing films I have ever seen which is also the most recent of the bunch. I watched this earlier this year and you can ask my roommate and my fiance just how I feel about this film. I sat outside questioning what I had just done to myself and had nightmares about Beatrice Dalle for days. I absolutely love this movie but I still refuse to rewatch it until I have a horror newbie to watch it with 🙂

Aliens in theaters is a glorious experience!

This was definitely Hoopers Eaten Alive and The Evil Dead for me. They kept me up many nights, wondering whether it would be the Deadites, or the crazy old fucker who would chase me with his scythe into the swamp where his huge alligator(s) were waiting to dispose of me.

“Hi…………………..mynameisgeorge!” The dubbing and the terrifying areolas are my favorite part of the first movie.

Right?? Such an excessive and bizarre, but super entertaining set of films. I feel like most non-horror folks just aren’t ready for those.

Very nice idea! For me it was probably Demons 2 for a while and then the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre. The latter fucked me up for a while as a kid. Admittedly though, the first filmed sequence that made me straight up cry as a kid was Michael Jackson transforming into a werewolf in the “Thriller” music video.

1. Ghostbusters (84)/ Real Ghostbusters (86): I was a teenager before I realized this wasn’t an actual career I could follow.
2. Trilogy of Terror (75): The first movie I ever watched that kept me up and gave me nightmares.
3. Doctor Who (80s credits/theme song): Never got into the show but to this day find that song terrifying. From an early age on PBS I carefully avoided it, until I started craving that scared feeling.
4. Motel Hell (80): Thank you Joe Bob Briggs.
5. It (90): I remember almost pissing myself because I was afraid to leave my friends living room to go to the bathroom.
6. Make Them Die Slowly (81): My favorite oversized VHS box/ no one under 18 experience. I felt like we were doing something wrong watching it in my friends basement.
7. Night of The Living Dead (68): When I realized how powerful horror could be.
8. Profondo Rosso/Suspiria/The Beyond: When I realized how beautiful horror could be.
9. The Walking Dead (Season 1): When the undead finally died for me. It was heartbreaking. They finally mainstreamed what I thought would forever be underground.

Nothing like it!

Hey man, I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s too. I don’t know about u but I sure do miss those warm summer nights at the drive in

That’s cool, thanks u for the kind words my fellow horror brother

So many favorites of mine. Love seeing mentions of The Good Son and The Faculty!

Great list! Glad to see people having fun with this. Reminiscing while writing this was a great experience.

Thank you so much! Truly appreciate a warm welcome online in this day and age.

I grew up in the 70’s & 80’s and saw most of these at the Drive in or theatre with my mother, lol. I still watch most of these every chance I get and even their more modern incarnations. Honorable mention to The Ring remake, as that got me into the Asian genre and I would agree that Audition is the among the best.

Spend less time worrying about that, and more time concentrating on personal hygiene.

Oh Jimmy! You are I were on parallel tracks! I watched The Thing in theatres in ’82…worked as an usher in 1984 (my first job!). I also got a taste of The Omen by Richard Donner when I was young! Oh SOOOO many great horror films! But my older brother really turned me on to the classics while watching Project Terror on Friday nights. Great memories!!

– Scream and Scream 2 (Tatum’s death and Gale’s chase were my favorites scenes)
– Dante’s Peak (the scene when the grandma jumps inside the boiling lake was my favorite alongside the horrible death of the protagonist’s wife in the beggining) ;
– Titanic (Rose hanging off the back of the ship thinking about suicide and Jack’s description of what feels like falling in icy waters was fantastic for me);
– Final Destination 1, 2 and 3;
– Twister;
– The Faculty;

Other movies:
– The Ghost and The Darkness;
– The Craft;
– Interview with the Vampire;
– Anaconda;
– The Blob (remake)
– Starship Troopers;
– The Good Son (with Macaulay Culkin and Elijah Wood);
– Wolf Creek;
– The Devil’s Rejects;
– The Hills Have Eyes (remake);
– 30 Days of Night;

Sounds like a badass grandma to me. Mine were very similar!

Child’s Play 2 was inexplicably a big one for me, too!

A couple of decades later, I cannot say I disagree.

However I can do a list of some films that shaped me as horror fan, here it goes.

– A Nightmare on Elm Street 4
– Halloween 4
– Child’s Play 2
– Scream
– The Others
– Resident Evil
– Final Destination 2
– Jeepers Creepers 2
– Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake
– Dawn of the Dead
– The Grudge
– House of Wax
– Saw 2
– The Hills Have Eyes remake

Okay, a lot of them aren’t good pictures and they are not on my favorite movies list, but they helped to shape my tastes as fan of horror films.

good point. seriously creepy moments. great story. fine acting.

I completely agree. It’s one I stayed absolutely swept up in. Katia Winter did a great job as our protagonist and I believed her journey. Ted Levine’s appearance is a gem and I started to feel some serious dread when everything was coming to a head. What a freaky movie.