The best films for a group don't flatten the experience - they create one. You want something that generates opinions, debates, a reason to stay up later than planned.
Horror works best when it earns the dread before deploying it. The best films in the genre build something you care about, then threaten it.
When larcenous real estate clerk Marion Crane goes on the lam with a wad of cash and hopes of starting a new life, she ends up at the notorious Bates Motel, where manager Norman Bates cares for his housebound mother.
A night at the movies turns terrifying when Michael and his date are attacked by zombies. Released at the height of Thriller's success, the short film redefined the music video, broke racial barriers, and became the first inducted into the U.S. National Film Registry.
Jack Torrance accepts a caretaker job at the Overlook Hotel, where he, along with his wife Wendy and their son Danny, must live isolated from the rest of the world for the winter. But they aren't prepared for the madness that lurks within.
During its return to the earth, commercial spaceship Nostromo intercepts a distress signal from a distant planet. When a three-member team of the crew discovers a chamber containing thousands of eggs on the planet, a creature inside one of the eggs attacks an explorer. The entire crew is unaware of the impending nightmare set to descend upon them when the alien parasite planted inside its unfortunate host is birthed.
A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.
What separates great horror from cheap horror is craft. These films use silence, anticipation, and image with the precision of a surgeon.
Francis, a young man, recalls in his memory the horrible experiences he and his fiancée Jane recently went through. Francis and his friend Alan visit The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, an exhibit where the mysterious doctor shows the somnambulist Cesare, and awakens him for some moments from his death-like sleep.
A former vaudeville child star viciously torments her paraplegic sister in their decaying Hollywood mansion.
A young couple, Rosemary and Guy, moves into an infamous New York apartment building, known by frightening legends and mysterious events, with the purpose of starting a family.
Kyung-chul is a dangerous psychopath who kills for pleasure. Soo-hyeon, a top-secret agent, decides to track down the murderer himself. He promises himself that he will do everything in his power to take vengeance against the killer, even if it means that he must become a monster himself.
A circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.
A twist only works if the film has earned it. These films plant their revelations early, play fair, and still manage to blindside you.
A great horror film doesn't leave you frightened. It leaves you thinking. These films earn that distinction.