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Ghost Busters (1984)

If you weren't old enough to see it in the theatre, you many not be able to appreciate just how original & huge it was. It's a 5-star fantastic film! It's no less a horror film than Son of Frankenstein & Little Shop of Horrors; packed with Horror elements. The ghost scene in the library gave me a fright! - Sculpt

It's the movie that got me into horror!
Many of you older members have defended some of the classics from your youth - movies that left a great impression on you and got you interested in the genre. Well, Ghostbusters might not mean much to YOU, but it was a BIG deal for a lot of us 80s kids, and I know for a fact that quite a lot of horror fans my age started with Ghostbusters. It's not just any movie, it was and still is a pop culture phenomenon.
Personally, I actually find the movie rather creepy in places, especially that library ghost which has been haunting my nightmares for 30 years now!
Each generation has it's classics, and I think it's something that many people tend to overlook or forget applies to the "younger" generations too - and their experiences of being blown away by a movie are just as valid. After all - that's what's keeping the genre alive. - Kandarian Demon

Phenomena (aka) Creepers (1985)

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Street of Crocodiles (1986, Short)

This is an amazing animated short from The Quay brothers. Its hard to really give a synopsis and the plot is secondary to the experience. This movie really is visual cinema at its best, dripping with bizarre nightmarish imagery it really is a surreal masterpiece. This is a world of decayed porcelain dolls and unknown mechanical contraptions that really needs to be seen to be appreciated. The beautiful stop motion just adds to the surreal nature of the movie. I think its the sort of movie that every fan of surreal cinema needs to see, but equally that so many horror fans will adore. - Straker

Predator (1987)

It has some really brilliant performances, especially by Schwarzenegger. The premise is pretty interesting. Additionally, I find the atmosphere to be perfect. This movie, for some reason, still creeps me out. Of course, one can not forget the brilliant score by Alan Silvestri. Not to mention the fact that the Predator has become a pop culture icon. Some may argue that it is a sci-fi, that is true, but the horror themes are strong, so, unless someone is a horror movie purist, they can not deny that this film is definitely a horror movie at it's core. - metternich1815

Prince of Darkness (1987)

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The Lost Boys (1987)

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They Live (1988)

Very original script. IMO, the ending didn't meet the high standards of the rest of film, but it's still a classic by John Carpenter. - Sculpt

The Vanishing (aka) Spoorloos (1988)

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The Woman in Black (1989, TV) [Full Movie]

It's an intriguing well made horror movie that is very scary despite being a made for TV movie. It doesn't resort to cheap jump scares or have to use gore or other tricks to scare the audience. It pulls you into it's terrifying atmosphere and chills you to the bone. - The Villain

Arachnophobia (1990)

Consider this: director Frank Marshall expertly shot scenes to fully exploit fear of spiders - recall the scene of spiders coming out of the faucets; the spider on the table that keeps facing and moving with every move of the actor; spiders bursting from the pulsating spider sac. Very effective creepiness! - Sculpt

Arachnophobia was a surprisingly good horror film that gave me the "creepy crawlies" after I finished it. I thought the performances especially by Daniels and Goodman were excellent. It was humorous, even silly, but that was the point. - metternich1815

Hiruko the Goblin (aka) Yôkai hantâ: Hiruko (1991)

Its one of the best foreign horrors I've seen. Its very different, creepy, weird, entertaining and bizarre in a good way. - The Villain

Natural Born Killers (1994)

I think it's a perfect representation of how the 90s was not a horror decade -- the genre's theatrics and "simplicity" -- were completely out of fashion, just like new wave and hair metal were replaced by alternative rock. Horror was either satired (Scream) or embedded in other genres, like crime mysteries (Se7en, Silence of the Lambs), drama (Sixth Sense) and comedy (Army of Darkness, the Frighteners). Natural Born Killers is a lot of things, most notably a social commentary, while also being an effective horror movie, especially the scene with the Indian hallucination ritual.

There are two groups of victims in NBK: 1) All the people that get killed (obviously), and 2) Mickey and Mallory themselves, victims of their own degrading psychological conditions.

First, the obvious, random victims. Do we care about them, and are we as viewers supposed to be scared or shocked when they are pursued? I'll just use one scene as an example, but there are plenty of others to choose from: The scene in the cafe, where Mickey and Mallory go on a killing rampage. The feeling I got while watching that scene was almost identical to the billards bar scene in Near Dark, and in both cases, I found it scary. Why? It's not just because people got violently killed. It's due to Oliver Stone's (and Kathryn Bigelow's) direction -- we learn just enough about these characters to relate to them and care for their well being. We've all been those people -- the waitress putting up with snotty customers, the guy playing pool wanting to protect his girlfriend. Watching those scenes, we know that each one of those people is doomed, and we can only hope that someone can get away or be spared. It doesn't hurt the case that each was killed in such violent fashion.

Secondly, Mickey and Mallory as victims of their own minds. Do we care about them? Yes, because they're the protagonists. This movie happens to have villain protagonists, but they're protagonists nonetheless.

So then are we supposed to be scared? Let me start by saying, psychological horror, I believe, is perhaps the most misunderstood of the horror genres. ("If there's no blood, it's not horror.") By my definition, a film is psychological horror if the "deadly force" is the characters' own minds, and the film is scary because we fear for the well-being of either the psychologically-affected characters themselves. In the Indian ritual scene, we see the horrors inside Mickey's mind. Forget what does and does not scare you, personally; this scene is clearly intended to be scary. At multiple points, we see Mallory's flashbacks to her abusive family and the continuing deterioration of her mental state. At the same time, we fear for those around them -- the Indians, who are there to help, but we fear are at risk in doing so. Also, the guy who is seduced by Mallory on the car hood while she experiences her flashbacks, causing her to lose control. In my book, this is psychological horror at its best. The tension is built, not due to something creeping around in the dark, but due to the building chaos in the mind of someone capable of inflicting harm.

Bottom line, I think there are a lot of reasons why it's easy to miss the horror in Natural Born Killers -- either due to the wide variety of styles, including black humor, action and drama, or because of the non-horror social themes, both overt and subtle. But if you peel away some of the complexity and diversion, IMO the film is horror, even at its core. - Giganticface

The Cell (2000)

Ambitious and magnificent display of psychological and subconscious horror. - Sculpt