Alfred

Jackhammer,

I have never watched a horror movie before but me and a friend of mine are planning on getting together some night and putting one on.

What would be a good entry-level horror movie? I want one that isn't too confusing, but still delivers good acting and a good plot, and will of course, scare me shitless?

Is Halloween my best option?

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Roygbiv

I know you asked Lee, but I don't care : D

You shouldn't start with an old horror movie like Halloween. It's a classic, but its low budget and age make it more funny than scary. And the remake isn't worthwhile. Plus you'll see all the deaths coming.

You should start with The Descent. Very psychological, but not confusing. And its newer, so the effects are better - you'll be more interested.

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Astronomer

I thought the Descent was such rubbish! There was only one scary bit in the whole film.

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Captain Awesome

agrees with this^

how can someone recommend the descent over a classic horror movie like halloween (unmatched by any other movie in it's genre imo - but i am incredibly biased lol).

Truth is there's very few good horror movies made these days. Plenty of horror comedies and torture porn, movies filled with gore ect.



Personally this is the only horror movie made in the last few years that has managed to scare me.

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"If we're all merely players in a play on this great stage,
the problem is the script writers ain't on the same page,
I echo through the mountain when I'm singing in the air,
from my lab a lad with lavish lyrics living in his lair."


"Wake up and listen, hear what's not for the public's ears
Pinocchio poets played by profiting puppeteers"

Guybrush

I realise this is a bit late, but I think you should watch something like Evil Dead. I loved it when I was a teenager .. and if you like it, perhaps you'll like the second and the third movies too! The story in the first is about a bunch of young people who go on a cabin trip - but not just any cabin. This one belonged to a researcher working on the necronomicon, book of the dead. Of course they unwittingly awaken the malign forest spirits living in the woods around them and they come to possess them and kill them all. It's budgety, gory and sometimes spooky. The trilogy eventually turns into comedy with the second movie being a sort of horror-comedy.

I saw the original Halloween not too long ago. It didn't exactly scare me, but I was quite impressed with how John Carpenter did it. Normally in these kind of movies, you don't see the murderer much, but Michael Myers gets quite a lot of screen time. Also, John Carpenter's quite good with building suspension with all kinds of camera use and plot twists (f.ex when Michael has hidden in the car). It's also fun to see that Jamie Lee Curtis was such a cute girl back then.

The movie on the whole stands out because of Carpenter's somewhat unique style, but it's not completely fresh either since this formula (slasher movies) has been done an amazing number of times since then, but it's a piece of horror history and very good for a slasher so watch it to get a lesson in movie history if not for the scares.

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