Kim,

Let me be the first to recommend the Gothic and Giallo horrors of Mario Bava, who makes everyone who comes after him seem unimaginative and derivative. Brace yourself: there is plenty of graphic violence against women, but mitigated by the fact that nowhere else in horror are the female protoganists such complex and complicated characters - they may look like bosomy bodice-ripping Hammer Studios damsels in distress, but they possess much more psychological depth, believe me.

And, the films are gorgeous to look at. The quality of filmmaking with such tiny Italian budgets is breathtaking. I haven't seen them all, but the ones I have seen I can recommend:

Black Sunday (Mask of the Demon/Mask of Satan)
Black Sabbath
Kill, Baby, Kill
The Whip and the Body
Blood and Black Lace

And, for fun:
Planet of the Vampires

Technically SciFi, but Ridley Scott stole entire scenes from it shot-for-shot for Alien.

My favorite has always been HALLOWEEN. It was the first of it's kind and is still by far the best. The slasher flicks that came after it never came close...it always surprises me that you never see blood in the film, it makes most of its scares off of atmosphere and a genuine sense of creeping dread. It earns its scares.

Also, classic horror films like THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI and VAMPYR are more my cup of tea than modern horror. Also, I would recommend THE EXORCIST and ALIEN (which is more horror than sci-fi), NOSFERATU, THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, and PSYCHO.

Matthew, we have similar taste in horror films -- I've seen and liked all of those films except for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Vampyr. I'll add those to my need-to-see list.

N-D-B, thanks for your recommendations as well, I've not seen any of those, but they sound worth checking out!

My favorite recent horror movie is Session 9, which is really quite underrated. I liked last year's The Mist too and the recent remake of The Hills Have Eyes is actually pretty decent. The Fly is pretty great...any Cronenberg film really (Scanners and Dead Ringers especially), Misery is probably one of the better Stephen King adaptations, Audition is pretty messed up but kind of boring, Suspiria is okay, the recent French film Inside is kind of okay, I'm sure I'm leaving out lots of obvious ones...

I think films that aren't classified as horror films can be pretty scary sometimes like Sunset Blvd. or M or Shadow of a Doubt.

All-time, though, The Shining has always been my favorite. And Jaws might be the most effective horror film of all-time that usually gets overlooked in the "horror" genre because its impact is so huge that people take it for granted. Just think of how many people are afraid to go in the ocean for fear of shark attacks based on the ominous notes in the score!

DIABOLIQUE. Doesn't get any scarier.

Ulmer's THE BLACK CAT is also great, creepy fun.

I can't believe more people aren't posting their recommendations so close to Halloween!

Following Kathleen Murphy's genre list, here are my picks:

Psychos and Slashers: Hammer Studios' Paranoiac (featuring a young Oliver Reed); Bride of Chucky (gory, but glorious — maybe Jennifer Tilly's best-ever performance, with a young, zaftig Katherine Heigl to boot)

Things that go bump in the dark: David Fincher's much-maligned Alien installment. To be watched immediately after Ridley Scott's original.

Vampires: Roman Polanski's Fearless Vampire Killers; Countess Dracula (Hammer again!); Fright Night (Chris Sarandon is terrifying as the vampire, and Roddy McDowell as a washed-up Peter Cushing type is fabu)

Ghosts: Robert Wise's The Haunting; Nicholas Roeg's Don't Look Now; and the little-known Haunted (starring Aidan Quinn and Kate Beckinsale)

Zombies: Kathleen's recommendations for this genre are bizarre. Shaun of the Dead, 28 Days Later, and even Diary of the Dead are all lightyears ahead of Land of the Dead. Even Romero has admitted that it wasn't the film he wanted to make.

And no love for Werewolves? Check out Oliver Reed in Hammer's Curse of the Werewolf, or Paul Naschy in his Italian werewolf movies.

I could go on, but as an initiate to the genre(s), you'll find plenty here.

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