(Before you read on, make sure you check out Part 1 which was published last year. In that review, my scary movie picks were Trick ‘r Treat, Piranha, Drag Me to Hell, Silent Hill, The Ring, Saw I, House of a Thousand Corpses, The Devil’s Rejects, The Ninth Gate, and Donnie Darko.)
My Favorite Recent Scary Movies:
Sinister:
Sinister was just as scary as I hoped it would be from the previews. The story centers on a young writer (Ethan Hawke) who moves his family into the home where a horrific murder took place years ago. Inside the house he finds old movie recordings that depict a number of graphic murders, and he becomes consumed by their mystique.
Since most of the movie happens at night, this was a perfect movie to freak yourself out with in the wee hours of the night. Definitely a good watch!
Insidious:
Insidious was one of those movies I saw advertised everywhere on the web, Redbox, Netflix, etc but it took me forever to rent. However, after I did, I was kicking myself for not having watched it over other recent scary movies sooner!
This movie has got a real twist to it. It starts off being your typical haunted house movie. But then it starts to take a weird and creative turn into something that you’re not really expecting. I was really pleased with their ending (a rarity of a horror movie). And now I can’t wait to see the recently released Chapter 2.
The Human Centipede:
Disgusting. Pure disgust. This movie is all about the shock value.
In case you’ve never heard of Human Centipede (which now has a cult following and was even parodied on South Park), it goes like this: It’s about a crazy German doctor who surgically connects 3 people together butt-to-mouth like a centipede. He then treats the trio like some kind of house pet for his own sick amusement. Like I told you – its revolting. But you have to watch it at least once!
One surprising fact: The movie was actually recognized for being totally medically accurate. I’m not sure whether to be impressed or disturbed.
Grave Encounters:
You know all the times you’ve ever watched Ghost Adventures on the travel channel and just wished something terrible would happen to Zak Bagans and the crew? Well, that’s THIS movie. Grave Encounters starts off as this cheesy rip-off of Ghost Adventures – a crew of young 20-something’s who decide to lock themselves inside an old asylum for a TV show. Only in this case it goes very, very wrong for all of them. Surprisingly for a free Netflix streaming movie, it was not half bad.
Grave Encounters 2:
So what could be better than a diamond in the rough low budget horror film? How about its sequel!
This time there’s a very creative twist. In Grave Encounters 2, a group of college kids investigates the filming of the original Grave Encounters movie. So all the characters are now playing their real selves in the movie. They of course end up at the same asylum as the first movie, and things go very bad for them as well. But then things start getting very, very weird.
Again, for a free movie on Netflix streaming, it’s worth the watch!
A Haunting in Connecticut:
Even though it came out a few years back, I re-watched this show on TV again recently and I find it to still be relevant among most recent scary movies.
A Haunting in Connecticut takes place when a family moves into a house that used to serve as a funeral home. The longer they are there, the more freakier the things are that start to happen to them. Apparently the old funeral director was not a very good person …
Side-note: The mother in this movie is played by Virginia Madsen from the legendary Candyman movie back in 1992. If you haven’t ever watched that, do so now!
Hatchet II:
Speaking of Candyman, actor Tony Todd (the guy who played Candyman) appears in Hatchet II as a voodoo witch doctor who is trying to rid the southern swamps of an evil monster that haunts the woods. He has one of the best death-scenes (or perhaps the most ridiculous) out of any movie listed in this post.
First of all, this is not a particularly good movie. In fact, it’s pretty much out there as far as the plot and story-line goes. But within that collective disaster, I can tell you that this movie is very entertaining and somewhat silly in parts. If you have any sense of humor, you get at least a laugh out of how dumb some of kill scenes go.
The Woman in Black:
I was very interested to see how young Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) would do with a role in a horror movie. And I can tell you he did pretty well.
The movie is about a young father who recently lost his child and moves to a secluded house in the English country-side. He then starts to encounter some very horrific spirits including that of one of the most frightening looking women I have ever seen. This a big jump out of your seat type of movie with things that lunge out at you and twitchy monsters.
The Cabin in the Woods:
Even though this was more a “big-box” blockbuster type of movie (it had Chris Hemsworth from Thor), I still give it a ton of credit for creativity. The movie starts off as your typical “Evil Dead” type scenario where a group of friends take an ill-fated trip to a cabin in the woods. But parallel to that, there is also this whole mission control story that is going on where a group of scientists are doing what appears to be save the world from disaster. At first the two stories don’t really seem to blend and you are very confused about what it happening. But as the movie goes on, it all comes together and starts to make sense. Because I can’t think of one other movie that I would compare it to, I’ll endorse it here and tell you that it’s worth the watch.
Readers – What good recent scary movies have you seen that you could recommend to others?
Images courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net and Amazon
I’m not a big scary movie guy (I usually think they’re pretty dumb), but World War Z was an interesting one. The movie as a whole was just okay, but the first few minutes are pretty awesome.
World War Z was okay, but I didn’t care for their “solution” at the end. Plus why are all zombie movies just people with an advanced form rabies now?
We love both scary and seriously effed up movies. We haven’t seen The Woman In Black or Hatchet II, but we loved Grave Encounters and the new The Cabin In The Woods. I’d love to share some of the better ones we’ve seen with you, but I’ll have to go home and actually look at the titles. Off the top of my head, if you like zombie movies, there is a trilogy (Rec 1, 2, & 3) that is fairly new that we were rather impressed with – each movie was pretty awesome. Only, we watched them out of order and if you are interested, I would recommend watching them 3, then 1, then 2. It seems that the storyline/mystery/movement of the trilogy works a lot better this way. I’ll have to get back to you with some of the others!
I have not seen any of the REC movies but I have seen the title in Netflix. So that one was pretty good? Perhaps I’ll have to check it out and then watch all 3. Thanks for the suggestion of order to watch.
I love scary movies but have only seen a handful on your list. I watched The Conjuring last night – very good and based on a true story. When I woke up by myself this morning I was looking over my shoulder. Thought demons were out to get me! 🙂
The Conjuring was pretty good, but it made me mad because it was not as good as the previews made it out to be. The first time I saw a trailer for it, I actually went to the movies alone to watch it. But then it ended up being just a regular scary movie. It reminded me a lot of A Haunting in Connecticut.
I love a good scary movie every now and then, but my wife refuses to watch them. As a matter of fact, she finds movies that aren’t even scary/horror movies to be scary! She wouldn’t even watch Walking Dead…but did somehow get into it since I watch(she still turns away sometimes though). So I haven’t watched any on your list.
You’ve got to check out this list!! My wife hates them also, so a lot of my scary movies happen when I rent one and watch it late at night alone.
I’ve heard good things about Insidious but have’t seen it myself either. I’m a big fan of the classics like The Exorcist (still one of the scariest movies I have ever seen), Friday the 13th, Halloween, etc. That music from Halloween still creeps me out.
Insidious is really good! I’d highly suggest renting it and watching it soon if you’re in the mood for a really decent scare.
Have you seen the updated Rob Zombie version of Halloween?
I haven’t seen any scary movies yet this year but really need to. I’m such a chicken, though. I always scream!
NONE?? You’ve got to see at least one every now and again. Start with Sinister. It was by far the creepiest!
The Fifty Shades of Horror!
Alright, when it comes to horror movies, I do like ones with a bit of reality…zombies out. More in the lines of SAW (watched every single one) the Hannibal Lecter ones…awesome.
I’ll certainly check out The Human Centipede…I have watched the trailer and I have the goosebumps already 🙂
There was something really great about the Saw series. Some of them got pretty out there, but I did like the consistency of the story throughout the entire series.
Make sure you don’t eat anything you want to throw up later when watching The Human Centipede 🙂
I am the biggest wuss when it comes to scary movies. I wouldn’t be able to stay alone in the house or go to bed at night if I watched them. Last horror movie I ever saw was at a friend’s sleepover in grade school: Pet Semetary. I had nightmares for days. :S
I remember I was so freaked out by Pet Cemetery for years after I watched it. I really hated that little boy who came back to life and killed everyone.