Although I'm a huge horror-lover, I stayed out of this thread simply because there's just too many films to mention. Personally, horror movies never really frighten me, but I do enjoy them still for their dark settings and campy silliness. I just thought about this, though:
Jodo Kast wrote:avatar! wrote:BTW, would you consider anything by Ingmar Bergman "horror"? What about The Seventh Seal?
The only Bergman movie I've seen is The Seventh Seal and it did not seem like horror although it did take place during the plague and had a few disturbing scenes. It was definitely more philosophical than scary.
I definitely think avatar! brings up an interesting point here. Ingmar Bergman's movies are most often not considered conventional "horror", but still I'd say that they are way more disturbing than most horror movies. Its a different type of horror: an exposition to and contemplation on your own mortality, that frankly makes you realize that most horror movies where you have some guy in a hockey-mask going around chopping up people or some supernatural shit going on are just plain silly and childish (although these silly movies also have a lot of charm). I guess different people find different subjects "scary" or "disturbing". The Seventh Seal definitely disturbed the hell out of me more profoundly than any horror movie I've seen (since I'm a philosophical person and thus very open to/able to identify with it's particular kind of dread). But other people might be able to relate to and prefer to be frightened by stuff like this instead, if that's their cup of tea.
On the subject of the more "existential dread"-side of horror (as opposed to the serial killer/zombie/alien/possession/etc. sides), I've always found dystopian tales very disturbing, you know like 1984, Brave New World, and the like. Definitely scarier than some dumb monster running around. And while we're on the topic of different and atypical horror, how about the surreal stuff? I've always found David Lynch's work full of disturbing scenes: Twin Peaks, Fire Walk With Me, Blue Velvet, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, and Inland Empire definitely have their share of nightmare moments, many of them far more earthshattering than the cheap jabs of the "slasher"-films. Again, a different type of horror. Not to mention the TV news, that stuff really turns my stomach so much that I purposely avoid it for the sake of my own mental well-being.... Oops, getting somewhat off-track here.
Anyway, what I bumped the thread for (if anyone cares) is that I suddenly remembered the mention of Ingmar Bergman in here, and the discussion about whether or not to classify him as "horror". It turns out Bergman actually made one conventional horror movie apart from his existential stuff: Hour of the Wolf. Its quite good with a very well-crafted chilly atmosphere, about a painter who thinks he sees demons. Gets quite unsettling and freaky towards the end (in the "psychological horror"-way).