Simple question
 

What horror film has been most important to the genre?

probably the halloween series

The Shining. A masterpiece of modern horror.

Pyscho spawned a lot of slasher films.

Tough to say, At first I was going to say Nosferatu, the silent film but I think Killer Clown is right it would have to be Psycho.

Most recently 28 Days Later, and House of a 1,000 Corpses.

I feel they are important to the success of horror in the near-future.

Beacuse 28 Days was so commercial and it wasn't a typical mass marketed horror flick.

And for House of 1,000 Corpses beacuse it was pretty disturbing for the attention that it recieved. With Rob Zombie using an old-school approach maybe more horror will be brought out with an old-school approach as-well. I don't think that would be such a bad idea.

To answer my own question, I'm going to say The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. After all, it was essentially the first horror film....and German Expressionism at its finest.

Hot shit that thread is gone!! I think it blew up!!!

You are very right.

omg how the hell do u know all this shit about horror

Caligari is the bomb! :D

George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" introduced us to the reanimated corpse ( I don't mean like Frankenstein, I mean en masse, chasing people down to eat their brains)...What would we have done without that?

If I'm wrong about that, I know that Avenger will correct me...:)

Cuz I'm Avenger.

Nah, I really don't know. It's just something that has always interested me. Do you remember that show Beat The Geeks? Well, the horror geek was a pussy.

DIFFERENT DIRECTION
 

I'm going with studio on this one, all those Universal monster movies they (Bela, Lon, and Boris) did in the 30's really set things off (eg Dracula,Bride Of Frankenstein, Creature from the Black Lagoon) for years after. Not the first but definately a milestone.

yeah the word Guru comes to mind.

Great answer Aylmer. Actually, everone has given pretty solid answers. I was thinking someone was going to say Urban Legend or something. Good answers all around though. Of course, there's not one right answer though.

What about Last House On The Left? It gave us the maker of Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th, Wes Craven and Sean Cunningham.

nosferatu... 1922, still love that movie.

The Extorsist

both freddy and jason managed to spawn a whole army of diffrent teen slasher movies.

Im gonna say the scream movies i really enjoy them.

i agree freddy and jason both single handedly started the slaher flick craze we see now in horror flicks but i would also have to a agree w/ nosferatu starting the horror genre but waht baout other classics like the creature from the black lagoon and the mummy??

other then agreeing with you agreeing with me i must admit i havent seen to many classics, among them the mummy and creature from the black lagoon... but hey if you look at the rest of it the bottom part just cant be wrong.

F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu is a fucking classic...did anyone enjoy the remake by Werner Herzog in 1979?
Nosferatu laid the blueprint for all horror movies to follow..shit think about it most vampire movies take something from it.:)

Aylmer brought these up earlier when he mentioned Universal Studios.

Ahhh, but is this a good thing or a bad thing?:D

you didnt say we had to post good things did you?

Agreed, it's like looking for the most significant painting in the history of visual art.

Significant horror film milestones, off the top of my head... roughly chronologically... and borrowed liberally from what everyone else has said.

Grand Guignol (French slasher theater, pre-film... too bad it wasn't filmed)
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Nosferatu
The Cat and the Canary
Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein
Cat People
the Haunting
Black Sunday
Night of the Living Dead
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
the Exorcist
The Shining
Halloween
Scream (for better or worse)
Blair Witch Project

I'm missing a lot, I am fairly sure... I don't like all of those films but it's safe to say that they were all very influential.

That is some list! But I agree with you on Nosferatu, Night of the Living Dead, Scream, Halloween and the Blair Witch Project..

Re: DIFFERENT DIRECTION
 

I have to agree with Aylmer.

You guys might be too young, but does anyone remember when they tried to redo Creature from the Black lagoon in 3-D and then showed it on TV?

Probably not... Im guessing Im probably older than most of the people here.

halloween, simple as that
in the slasher genre that is, spawned jason and freddy and the scream movies (sadly)

psycho to, was more of the psychologic serial killer thing

and of course, the original night of the living dead by romero
zombiemovies rules