31 Movies That Give Me The Willies

My Own Selections

Head over to Ed's excellent Shoot The Projectionist blog and peruse a list of classic chillers before making your own list of 31 movies.
Inspired by Jeremy's choices in his wonderful Moon In The Gutter blog, I've decided to add my own initial list here, in no particular order.

1/ SESSION 9
2/ EXORCIST III
3/ KILL, BABY....KILL!
4/ SPIRITS OF THE DEAD
5/ THE HAUNTING
6/ THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE
7/ THE PERFUME OF THE LADY IN BLACK
8/ THE CHANGELING
9/ SUSPIRIA
10/ AN URBAN GHOST STORY
11/ HORROR HOTEL
12/ NIGHT OF THE DEMON
13/ CAT PEOPLE (original)
14/ SHIVERS
15/ HALLOWEEN III
16/ MARTIN
17/DEATHLINE
18/ RINGU
19/ A TALE OF TWO SISTERS
20/ NO END
21/ THE ADDICTION
22/ PET SEMETARY
23/ THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE
24/ THE CURSE OF THE CRYING WOMAN
25/ THE TENANT
26/ CREEP
27/ CARNIVAL OF SOULS
28/ TOMB OF LIGEIA
29/ OPEN WATER
30/ CASTLE OF BLOOD
31/ THE OTHERS

Within this list, there are a couple of haunted house movies where I'm not convinced there really was a haunting, two set-in-London chillers that I'm always reminded of whenever I set foot on the London underground tube system and representatives from some of my favourite directors including Cronenberg, Kieslowski, Bava, Argento, Ferrara and Polanski.
As for some of the others... CASTLE OF BLOOD is the perfect film for Halloween, and would make for a beautifully dark opening movie in that all-night session some of you may well be planning. It's probably a toss-up between SESSION 9 and RING for my number one chiller; the former really does deliver the goosebumps and that eerie voice on the tapes reminded me of passages from that phone call in BLACK CHRISTMAS. RING was a terrifically inspirational film, doing very good box office in the UK which led to a less-than satisfying DVD release. RING and RING 2 have spawned a couple of (in my view) poor remakes, and kick started a glut of Jhorror movies, and many imitators. Indeed, images of a girl in white with black hair covering her face keep popping up in much the same fashion as the black-gloved killer of the giallo following the exploits of Bava and Argento. As is so often the case, the original is the best here and RING never fails to instill a feeling of dread in this particular viewer.
I'd also recommend the Scottish chiller AN URBAN GHOST STORY (make up your own mind as to whether there really was a poltergeist) and THE PERFUME OF THE LADY IN BLACK contains one of the most frightening images I've seen on film, along with a possible career best from Mimsy Farmer. One film I'd love to have included but couldn't is THE STONE TAPE. It was made for TV and I'll be reviewing it here in time for Halloween.
Thanks to Ed for giving us the chance to take part in this poll. I await the final results with great interest. Come back next year, and I'm sure my own list will have changed. That's what makes movie watching such a great experience.