Best horror movie of all time?

[Anthony Beal]

Which film deserves a crown of laurels? The Exorcist? A Nightmare on Elm Street? Hellraiser? The Skeleton Key? Cast your vote and tell us why.

[Stafford Battle]

My vote has to go to Alien, the original film. Great cast! Strong female character (also a black actor who survives for a little while) which is unusual in traditional horror or spect. Good plot twist (the "company" wants to use the monster as a weapon! Don't tell McCain!!). Also, like any haunted house (spaceship or whatever), there were plenty of dark creepy places for our luckless characters to tiptoe through. Don't open the door!!!

The best scene: The crew sitting in the gallery having dinner. Peaceful. Happy. And, oh my heavens! The Alien rips through the guy's chest. Bood and surprize.

I judge a great piece of art by how many times it has been duplicated or ripped off. Alien is strong and a fascinating film that in my humble opinion, opened new vistas and thoraxes.

[Bryan Tann]

I would have to give my vote to the original "A Nightmare On Elm Street". Where else would we feel safest but in our sleep? It's sleep where we escape the world for a few hours to simply recharge. To know that there is someone in our dreams that is killing indescriminately is extremely frightening.

Jason, I can handle. I just won't go into the woods.
Chucky, I can kick down the steps, he's a friggin doll!
Zombies, while extremely scary, and numerous, you put a bullet in their brains, and you run. Find someplace to go and hope you can secure it.

But you ALWAYS have to sleep, always, no matter what you do. And Freddy took the security away from sleep.

[Yamajasti]

The Exorcist is by far the best Horror film of all time... It goes far past the gross out gimmicks of today's horror films. We can watch news reels and see the blood and gore stuff, or any anime cartoon (sorry all you SAW fans). The Exorcist exposes our soft underbellies by attacking our spiritual, psychological, and supernatural reserves. What can be more horrific than some thing that goes against and spits in the face of our Almighty and then, just laughs? Imagine an entity that battles God for your soul and appears to be winning at every turn. How can we reckon with some thing that commandeers our bodies and makes us prisoners within our own skin. I still haven't seen this movie in it's entirety. Maybe that's due to my baptist upbringing, but I have seen enough of that movie to hold tight to my badly creased Bible and sleep with the covers over my head.

[Mark G Melvin]

The Zodiac, because it showed that you can kill someone and get away with it. The Sadist was the bomb as well.

[Diane]

I still cannot watch "The Hitcher". The original with Rutger Hauer was scary in a 'it-could-happen-to-you' sort of way. The remake was not as believable, but still a freak out.

And I will never pick up a stranger . . .

[D K Gaston]

The Legend of Hell House

It's what you don't see that scares me more than what you do see. Used to scare me as a kid. I still think it's one of the best ghost movies that was done.

Description:
A team consisting of a physicist, his wife, a young female psychic and the only survivor of the previous visit are sent to the notorious Hell House to prove/disprove survival after death. Previous visitors have either been killed or gone mad, and it is up to the team to survive a full week in isolation, and solve the mystery of the Hell House.

[Oshun Zari]

There are two that still give me chills when I think of them, Candyman and of course, the Exorcist. Scarey stuff. Nothing has really been as frightening for me as these two films.

Candyman introduced a African-American spiritual monster. He was unmerciful, but quite peaceful while being so.Lol While I had seen Blacula, I was not impressed by the film in the least. The male character in Candyman thrilled me and I wanted to see more characters like that.

And the Exorcist was just plain terrifying. The book was even more so. The Exorcist inspired me to want to write horror. I wanted to create a story that was frightening, but that also held a moral message.