What is your favorite horror-thriller movie? Why?

I also like The Ninth Gate and Eyes Wide Shut (the Sydney Pollack-Tom Cruise billiard scene this the best scene in the movie).

Halloween, Black Christmas, Texas Chain Saw... Those always make me smile

The gold standard

The Innocents. The Conjuring (first one). The Exorcist for its exquisite production values and incredible performances. Alien. For the same reasons. Onibaba. Not a conventional horror- thriller but it is pure visual poetry and creepy af. Carrie. Heartbreaking, gothic, sickening, cathartic - and sorta just perfect from the opening frame to the last. Salems Lot. Scared the fuck out of me as a kid. Psycho for all of the obvious reasons.

Others: Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Host, The Birds, The Vanishing (dutch version), A Nightmare on Elm Street (original)...

Oh christ, I could go on...

The Sixth Sense was very well done.

Possibly the original The Vanishing (like r6). To me, it has the most disturbing movie ending ever -- I still have a visceral reaction whenever I think about it

At r7, I meant to write "like r5"

It's tough to choose, but my perennial favorite is probably 𝐃𝐚𝐰𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐝 (1978), with its prior, 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐝 (1968) running a close second.

Some more favorites would be

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐦𝐞𝐠𝐚 𝐌𝐚𝐧 (1971)

𝐋𝐞𝐭'𝐬 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐉𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚 𝐭𝐨 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 (1971)

𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐁𝐞 𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤 (1973)

𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐒𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬 (1978)

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 (1982)

Angel Heart - possibly for the elevator sequence alone.

Another vote for the original The Vanishing.

Jeepers Creepers II

Thread closed.

The Shining

Alien is really good, too. I remember the first time I saw it. The Tom Skerritt-air vent scene scared the hell out of me!

PoisonedDragon....LOVE your selections! (Don't Be Afraid of the Dark scarred me for life)

Polanski's REPULSION (65).

So many favorites listed here already: the original The Haunting, The Innocents, Psycho, Night of the Living Dead, The Shining.

Let me add:

The Leopard Man. (1943)

Night of the Demon. (1957)

Night of the Eagle (aka Burn, Witch, Burn!). (1962)

Rosemary's Baby (probably my single favorite of all, 1968)

Daughters of Darkness. (1971)

Suspiria. (The original, from 1977)

Let the Right One In. (The original Swedish version, 2008)

The Witch. (2015)

Hereditary. (My second favorite, 2018)

I must have been in a coma to never have seen "Coma" (1978). Quite chilling! Watched it on Tuesday.

The Wicker Man (the original—the remake was horrific in entirely different ways).

Not yet mentioned but one of my favorites: The Sentinel

OP knows the answer to this, because he’s been participating on DLhorror threads for over a decade now, telling us how much he prefers thrill to gore and how great THE OMEN is.

Sucks to be a broken record.

And here.

And here.

And here:

OP also got his answers here:

And here:

And here:

Especially when the OP asked for “psychological horror only.”

Scraping hard for more!

Another vote for the original Dutch version of The Vanishing. The only time I have screamed in a theater.

The Japanese horror film Cold Fish by Sion Sono is a great one.

Ginger Snaps!

Disturbing Behavior and The Faculty are good throwbacks from childhood.

The Exorcist

Dod Sno

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

And a bunch of classics. I just can't watch the classics when I have these philistine head steers, who lack an appreciation for black-and-white films.

I love the Hellraiser series, Candyman, The Exorcist, Phantasm and The Poltergeist

I hit reply by accident. those are my favorite supernatural horror.

I also love The Silence of the Lambs, Jaws and Zombieland which technically fall into one type of horror rating or another.

Pretty Woman

Albert Nobbs

Theatre of Blood is quite good. I cannot believed I left it off!

The Silence of the Lambs is a perfect film. Candyman The Thing (1982) Dead Alive Killer Klowns From Outer Space Jacob's Ladder (1990) Halloween (1978) Chopping Mall Night of the Demons (1988) Jeepers Creepers

I noticed on one of the linked related threads that someone suggested "Ills" but not "Them". "Them" isn't a remake of "Ills" - they're the same movie, it was just retitled to "Them" when it was released in the US. Definitely worth a watch if you haven't seen it yet though. Super tense bare bones thriller/horror that concludes with a biting and sobering social commentary.

I would avoid the trailer though, not necessarily due to spoilers, but because whomever made it tacked on a bunch of stupid visual effects that aren't even in the movie at all - making it look cheap.

R38, my mistake, it's "Ils"

The Trick Who Turned Out to be Old and Fat

(Friday, 3am, worldwide)

Another vote for The Exorcist; the DVD extra on the making of the movie is worth a watch too

I liked Salem's Lot (though the movie & David Soul's bulge do not hold up well) and I read that pre-pandemic, they were remaking the movie. I hope they do, because the Rob Lowe version is *terrible*

The Haunting - the 1963 version with delicious Claire Bloom playing a scientist of some sort with a crush on our victim Julie Harris - and handsome Richard Johnson hulking about. Also Russ Tamblyn, if you like all-American curls.

That door knob changing shape as Julie lies terrified in bed, only to be comforted by Claire in a bit... great stuff!

I like the early Dracula movies with Christopher Lee; they were total camp classics (though not as campy & ridiculous as the later movies), but entertaining for a Saturday afternoon

r41, yes, it'll be made in the Boston area this fall. I watched all versions of it, and read the novel, and was surprised that the first tv series totally omitted the "locus attracts evil" storyline. The 2nd series seemed to be marginally more faithful, but told in flashback with a voiceover ruined it.

R7 same. Great film! The European version, not the remake. Classic ending.

The original Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Zodiac is my absolute favorite. That movie is perfect.

Psycho

Misery

Silence of the Lambs

Seven

Parasite

Let Me In was one of the few remakes I liked better.

Another good one is Stake Land.

This documentary is really good.

"Angel Heart". Why? I would have to say the moody, creepy atmosphere, the old look of the film, the plot twist (which knocked me out when I first realized what was happening), the performances of Mickey Rourke and Robert De Niro, the New Orleans settings, the numerous foreshadows which made perfect sense upon subsequent viewings and the film's score. The only sour note was the baby's devil eyes.

R50 agreed! Great film! The baby’s eyes were the worst. It looks like they were drawn in with a crayon.

Dressed to Kill still holds up. The art museum cruising scene is so well done.

"The Changeling" (1980) is very creepy.

The Seventh Sign. I like the religious themed horror aspect and it has a young Michael Beihn.

Angel Heart and Dressed to Kill are both superb movies.

Now I know I'm old cuz I'm going to say this: they don't make movies like that anymore. Aside from one or two outliers (Hereditary) I havent seen a great horror-thriller in many years.

I find that most horror movies today are either slasher violence porn—or some arty noir film with a bunch of creepy or scary scenes, lashed together at the end with some flimsy narrative that explains them and draws them together.

Village of the Damned.

I loved the original Sleuth myself. I like that Netflix appears to be embracing retro ghost stories. They successfully spook me more than the gross horror trend that doesn’t chill so much as make you feel icky for watching.

Another vote for the original Dutch The Vanishing. I can remember sitting in the Uptown Theater in Minneapolis as a teenager watching it and feeling absolutely horrified at the ending of the film. It stuck with me for a very long time.

Rosemary's Baby is the greatest psychological horror film ever made. It makes me squirm.

Too many to list, I couldn't narrow it down to just one. Mainly Giallo era films, in particular Argento and Bava. Bay of Blood, Deep Red, The Bird With The Crystal Plumage....

In more recent years, the late Bill Paxton's Frailty was really good too, and I kind of feel like it's been overlooked in general. Especially considering it's ending which throws you for a loop.

Cape Fear 1962, The Shadow on The Wall 1950. Robert Mitchum and Zachary Scott..l

I really enjoyed "The Skeleton Key" (2005). Maybe because of the Louisiana plantation setting.

It's not a horror movie per se, but it is certainly a thriller with horrific elements, also won Grand Prix at Cannes

the 2 TV movies with Darren Mcgavin from the early 1970's... "the night stalker" and "the night strangler"....

and barbara stanwyck's last feature film appearance the 1964 movie "the night walker"....

all 3 movies creep me out if i was alone in the dark watching....

Audition, most people can't handle it

Alien