(The Original) Black Christmas



Plus

American Werewolf in London still holds up surprisingly well. Testament to Rick Baker's FX. Even has some (intentional) humor for those that like a chuckle or two in their horror movies.

The Thing and Alien both come to mind as well.

I saw the original The Evil Dead a few years ago for the first time and I didn't think it was scary at all. The budget was too low and the effects too cheap to maintain any semblance of reality.

That being said, the reboot had all the advantages of modern technology and it wasn't scary either.

The problem with classic horror movies, more so than any other genre, is that if they were originally effective they've long since been strip mined for shocks by 101 knock-offs and re-makes.
Even something like Alien, which initially had been something so damn freaky and unique, has been corporate branded into becoming something rote and common now.

I think in general, the horror material that transcends time the best are the ones where the story puts emphasis on viewing all the events from the perspective of a central character who is likable and extremely sympathetic. That goes for all kinds of movies but is especially true of these, because sympathy and audience identification will have a longer shelf life than something that is initially shocking, but become dulled by shifting values, familiarity and eventually mockery (as has happened to a good extent with Exorcist).

Something like The Changeling might still be effective to a younger person today, partly because specific scenes from it haven't been endlessly cribbed over the years. Also because the central character suffers a huge loss at the beginning (sympathy) and as the story unfolds it is as much a mystery as a jump scare/horror story. The mystery aspect engages you intellectually, which allows the non-rational typical horror elements to be more potent and effective.

I also just watched the original Black Christmas again recently and came away much more impressed and creeped out than I ever have since the first time I saw it. Great movie- but if your kid brother is looking for a peepshow view of gore and sex he's gonna be disappointed.

I would argue that there's actually a very similar problem with action films. Audiences today expect bigger, faster, louder, harder, so many action films are aiming for lightly transgressive shock and utilization of special effects that many have a tendency to become dated by the time sequels and knockoffs come along.

I only saw Rosemary's Baby for the first time a few years ago. I thought it was creepy as hell for a 40 year old movie.

Themes like violation and betrayal (real or imagined) are always going to be potent themes for horror. RB might be the horror film that holds up best for me at this point.

The scariest horror movies are the ones you watched when you were a kid.

There's an age, from about ten to fifteen, when you probably started watching R-rated horror movies, and those are the most effective ones.

During my adolescence, I enjoyed a brew made up of sneaking glimpses of Fangoria magazine at the grocery store, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Night of the Living Dead, Ghost Story, Howling, The Thing, An American Werewolf in London, Hellraiser, and others. No films since have captured that anarchic, nihilistic, something-around-that-dark-corner-is-going-to-jam-a-rusty-blade-into-your-eye as the ones I watched when I was twelve. Now I see kitsch, plot holes, characters who do stupid things, bad acting, bad writing, and dodgy special effects. I mean, I still love the stuff, but it's not the same anymore.

I'm glad I'm not any of you. Every horror film scares me. Love them!

I'll add Psycho in with The Innocents and The Haunting as the horror movies from the early 1960s that stand up best today.

BTW, what does "old" in this thread mean? Because from about the mid-1960s and onward, there are a lot of horror movies that stand the test of time and the best of them would count as "old" horror movies.

...and I have nothing to prove to you. What makes you think I don't scoff at Batman or I don't suspend my disbelief in an action movie? Here's a tip. Never come in with pre conceived notions about anybody. You don't know me. Your questions sound more like statements than questions.

The special effects in Jacob's Ladder have been imitated to death in video games and J-horror, but the film still stands up thanks to an incredibly creepy story about paranoia and one of Tim Robbins' best performances.

Texas Chainsaw was the first I thought of. Halloween would probably still be scary if I hadn't seen it hundreds of times already.

I used an extremely popular movie as an example, it could have been anything, but chances are that you like the Dark Knight. If not, you've certainly allowed for suspension of disbelief if you've ever enjoyed a movie.

There are still tons of old horror movies that are creepy or disturbing enough to make me feel at unease. Here are a few faves.

The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972) ~ One creepy scene in particular, very effective.
Sole Survivor (1983) ~ Creepy with a sense of doom / dread throughout.
Madman (1982) ~ Sure there's unintentional funny cheese, but the blue tinted night shots of the ax-swinging Marz lurking about in a cold late autumn Forrest always provides chills.
Prophecy (1979) ~ Gets points for lots of slow building, edge of your seat suspense.

I recently watched Silent Night, Deadly Night and although it was a pretty dated flick it had the foundation to be really disturbing and demented at times.

This is one movie I wouldn't mind seeing get remade...if a director wanted to put his reputation and career on the line that is

I agree with pretty much all of this. I recently watched The Changeling for the first time and it was very well done. Just a classy, intelligent horror movie that still holds up. I have not seen Black Christmas yet, so I'll put that one on my list.

To me, it only falters at the very end (coming across like something forced on the movie by the Hollywood decency code).

It makes me feel old enough when people are thinking of movies from the 70s and 80s as old (and I was old enough to see them when they were new). But you've got to throw in a movie from 2001?

Though one's concept of old is entirely based on how old you are. To me, 60s and earlier (since that was before I was born). And in particular, mid 50s and earlier since the production code was so strict that it was hard for movies to get away with most of what we currently consider scary now.

Spot on. If I was to compile a list of the movies that scared me the most, you'd get something like: Alien, Halloween, Dawn of the Dead, Friday the 13th, Phantasm, Scanners, Zombie. Pretty easy to figure out the year when I was first able to start watching new horror movies as a kid.

John Carpenter's The Thing worked for me.

But a little more on topic ... what are the movies that even I consider old that could still have the power to frighten modern audiences (or at least give them a little chill)? Some really good ones already mentioned: Night of the Living Dead, Rosemary's Baby, The Innocents, The Haunting, Night of the Hunter.

With the newest Vincent Price Blu-Ray set coming out, he's a guy whose movies can be written off as silly camp. And some of them surely are ... but there are some creepy and scary movies in there as well. Last Man on Earth predates Romero's vision of a zombie apocalypse by several years. Several of the Poe/Corman movies are still effective in their atmosphere: Masque of Red Death, House of Usher, Pit and the Pendulum (man, that final shot! ). And Witchfinder General still packs a punch for its grim nihilistic tone and graphic content.

From the 1940's, Dead of Night seemed way ahead of its time. That final segment with the ventriloquist dummy and the wrap-around head trip are still creepy. The only negative of the movie is that the comic-relief golfing segment otherwise ruins the tone the movie had of gradual creepiness.

Some early 30's pre-code horror is pretty strong stuff. Murders at the Zoo, Kongo, Freaks, The Mummy, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Island of Lost Souls, The Black Cat ... all had stuff that movies couldn't get away with again until the 1960's (and in the case of Freaks, you still couldn't get away with using real disabled people like that).

Foreign cinema was about a decade ahead of the US in the 50s and 60s (at least concerning content that could be shown), so it can be a bit startling to see some horror movies from that era. Some that jump to mind are Diabolique, Jigoku, Onibaba, Eyes Without a Face, Hour of the Wolf, Black Sabbath, Peeping Tom, José Mojica Marins' Coffin Joe movies.

There's tons more I could list but that's about enough for now.

Don't Look Now

Imitated by what games? I haven't seen the film in forever.