1. Ring - I really didn't know anything about this film going into it, which is the best way to see a horror film. All I'd heard was it was a scary Japanese film, which seemed extremely exotic at that time, when DVDs were just starting to leak out from other countries. I had to seek out the DVD at Scarecrow Video (one of the best video stores in the world), because at that time, nobody else was carrying it.

#3. Blair Witch Project - I saw this at a sneak-peak screening before all the hype began. It was still in that phase where people weren't sure if it was real or not. After that it got a bit too hyped-up and had the inevitable backlash against it. But it was still an incredibly powerful film.

#4. Squirm - I believe this is the first horror movie I ever saw. I must have been around 5-6 years old when I caught it on TV. I didn't even see the whole thing, but what I saw was enough to terrify me for years. There's a scene where some worms drop out of a tree on somebody... I couldn't walk under a tree for months. At one point a guy's face gets infested by worms and he goes understandably nuts and starts stalking the hero, trying to kill him. I swear one night my brother was snoring and it sounded exactly like this guy breathing and I got so freaked out that I puked. Needless to say, I still love this now cheesy film to this day.

#5. - Return of the Living Dead - This is the movie that began my zombie obsession. Another movie that my mom let me watch way too young. I think what freaked me out most was that there was absolutely no way to kill them. You could chop them up into the tiniest little pieces and they'd still come after you. I had a recurring nightmare about a zombie with no legs crawling into my room and grabbing me from the floor after seeing this movie. The simple line: "Brainnnsss!!" always gave me chills. The movie holds up extremely well today, still my all time favorite zombie film. It's also the original running-zombie film. Now I can appreciate it for how funny it is, it's got an extremely dark sense of humor. A must see for any horror fan!

#6. Aliens - I really can't believe my mom let me watch this when I was about 11 years old. I hadn't seen Alien yet, so this was my first exposure. The first time I saw the chest-burster scene, that absolutely freaked me out of my mind. When Ripley is trapped in the room with the baby alien, that scared me so much that I couldn't be in a room alone for a while. The whole movie really got to me, I had recurring nightmares about those alien. But I also loved every minute of it and went back and re-watched this film so many times as a kid. Easily one of my most watched films of all time and it still holds up beautifully as an incredibly well made sci-fi/action film.

#8. Pet Sematary - Another movie that I saw way too young thanks to my mom. I couldn't even make it all the way through the first time. The guy who dies in the car accident and actually ends up being kind of a good guy, his bloody face freaked me out and I couldn't make it to the end. But I became obsessed with knowing had happened and a few days later I watched the rest and was terrified for months afterwards.

There were so many things about this film that bugged me. When Gage comes back to life and he slashes his Grandpa's Achilles tendon from under the bed, I couldn't walk by a bed without thinking about it. But what got to me the most was one shot in the film, where the sister who's dying from spinal meningitis and looks just creepy as hell, runs at the camera after she opens a door. Every time I opened a door for years after this, I had to brace myself for her running at me. It's also kind of a zombie film and for whatever reason, the idea of somebody coming back to life after death, is what creeps me out the most in the whole world. ”

#8. Alone in the Dark - This is how funny parents can be about violence and nudity. There are quite a few gruesome kills in this film, somebody gets cut in half by a cleaver while hanging upside down at the very opening of the film. An image which haunted me for years, but my friends parents, who's house I was spending the night at, had no problem with us kids watching that part. But when a girl take her shirt off later in the movie, they made us cover our eyes, I of course peaked through my fingers. The boobs didn't scare me in the least, it was everybody getting killed in horrible ways, it was a family's house being attacked by a group of psychos. That scared me... but of course I loved it.

This movie actually still holds up pretty well. It's a mostly forgotten 80's slasher flick that's full of tension and pretty well made. I'd love to remake it someday.

#9. The Thing - I remember seeing the trailer on TV when I was really young. I don't remember exactly what I saw, but just that alone gave me nightmares for days. I probably didn't see the film till years later, but it freaked me out pretty good at that time too, although I think the real damage had already been done by the trailer.

Today, it's still one of my personal favorites. I love the arctic setting, it's got some very memorable characters and one of the greatest "villains" of all time. I love that it can infect anyone, they themselves may not even realize it and after that, they're pretty much indestructible and the old school make-up effects are still wonderful. Just a kick-ass film all around, John Carpenter's best.

#10. Poltergeist - I don't really remember seeing this movie for the first time. It didn't haunt me for years like many of the others on this list. I mostly remember it for the imagery. Toy clowns scared me for years after this. The guy ripping his face off in the mirror freaked me out, every time I looked in the mirror, that came to mind. The maggots on the chicken grossed me out, I couldn't eat chicken without checking it first. A TV with static on it... yikes! Actually, that one still kind of gets me, almost nothing creepier than a dark room, lit up by nothing but TV static.


This movie holds up incredibly well, even the effects still look good. American ghost movies have never scared me, this is still easily my favorite one and the only one I ever remember having any effect on me.

#11. Nightmare on Elm Street - This is another film that my friends told me about a few years before I actually saw it. The idea of a monster being able to attack you and kill you in your dreams was an awful one. I already had enough trouble falling asleep as a kid, but the idea of falling asleep being what could kill me was destructive. I remember many nights where not even knowing, just the speculation of what happened in the movie, kept me from sleeping.

When I finally saw it, it mostly lived up to all the horrible ideas that I had about it. But somehow at the end, when Nancy dismisses Freddy with by simply saying "You're not real" saved me from many more sleepless nights. So this was a rare case, where actually seeing the movie was less scary than the idea of the movie. ”

12. Invasion of the Body Snatchers - This is an absolute classic! There weren't really many scary scenes, nothing that made me jump. But the overall idea of it all really got under my skin. That I could wake up and my mom and dad, wouldn't really be my mom and dad anymore, that scared me. I think it was also the first movie I ever saw that didn't have a happy ending, that the characters didn't save the day, that stuck with me too. ”

13. Friday the 13th - Here's one of my examples where just the poster of the film scared me. This one hung in my neighbor's house and I just had to know what happened at that summer camp! Why was that knife so bloody?! The neighbor kids told me about some of the death scenes in the film, which made me want to see it all that much more.

When I finally saw the film, it didn't disappoint in the least. The stalker POV was really effective on me as a kid, I loved the whole Friday the 13th series, a lot of it had to do simply with that POV. The classic musical stinger "Ch, ch, ch, ha, ha, ha..." would run chills up my spine no matter how many times I'd seen whichever version I was watching. I still love this series. The original is far and away the best and still holds up well. The rest are mostly fun for the 80's filmmaking and all the inventive ways they come up with how to kill the camp counselors. ”