Edit: The winners have been selected, but feel free to keep posting your horror movie recommendations!

Greetings, GOGlins! Here's the deal: I love horror movies. I love watching them, I love discussing them, I love listening to other people gush about them, and I love getting recommendations for new movies to check out.

So to enter this giveaway, here's what you need to do: name a horror movie you love, and then review it and explain to me why it is so awesome! I'm not looking for balanced criticism here; I want unchecked hyperbole and shameless enthusiasm. Convince me that I need to see this thing! Feel free to use visual aids where appropriate.

There are three prizes up for grabs:

First, everyone who meets the above requirements will be entered in a random draw for a copy of a horror-adventure game I'm quite fond of, Dark Fall: The Journal. (I would be giving away Barrow Hill, but sadly, it ain't on Gog yet. So if you want to do me a favour, go vote for it on the wishlist.)

Second, I will be giving a free GOG horror game of the winner's choice ($9.99 or less) to the person who gets me the most excited to watch a horror movie I haven't seen; or failing that, to the person who gets me most excited to re-watch a horror movie I have seen.

Third, I will be giving a free GOG horror game of the winner's choice ($9.99 or less) to the person who, in my entirely subjective opinion, does the best job of talking up their movie! So put some effort into those reviews!

I will pick the winning entries at some point on Friday, October 26, which will give the winners an entire weekend to get into the Halloween spirit with their new games. (And give me an entire weekend to try to track down some of these movies. :p)

What are you waiting for? Get recommendin'!

***

QNHABCM (Questions Nobody Has Asked, But Conceivably Might)

Can I win more than one of the prizes?
Absolutely!

What if GOG does a Halloween sale that weekend, and the game I want is discounted?
If a bunch of horror games go on sale (and I sincerely hope they do), then you can pick as many as you want, as long as they're all horror titles and the total comes to $9.99 or less.

Can I review more than one movie?
By all means, please do! It will only count as one entry for purposes of the random draw, but each review will be considered separately for purposes of the other two prizes.

Someone else already reviewed the movie I was going to review!
Review it again, and better!

Does "X" count as horror movie?
I don't want to get into a film-school argument here; I want a celebration of all things horror! Atmospheric horror, shock horror, schlock horror, horror-comedy, short films, all are welcome - if you can make a reasonable case that it's a horror movie, then go for it! Just use your common sense.

Does "X" count as a horror game?
Again, I'm not going to be too picky here; if you can make a reasonable case that the game you want should count as horror, then I'm not likely to argue. Just don't pick something silly like "Botanicula", or I shall frown at you disapprovingly. If you're really in an agony of doubt, PM me and I'll tell you what I think.

What horror movies have you seen/do you like?
That would be telling! All I'll say is that I've seen thousands of them, including many that you've probably never heard of, but I also haven't seen all of the mainstream classics, so don't ignore those either.

not entering, i don't do horror movies lmao :)

+1 :D

I am just going to put a place holder for "Let the right one in" (swedish horror film) or Nosferatu (not sure which one yet, heck maybe both). I will edit this with my review tomorrow night or so. I like the idea of the giveaway that is for sure.

Evil Dead 2

As a person who doesn't like a lot of horror films, I can easily say this is one of the best movies I have ever seen. There's a good chance you have seen this one, but in case you haven't, it's a cross between 80s action movies, grindhouse horror, and Three Stooges slapstick, and is a lot better than it sounds.

It stars B-Movie icon Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams, who goes on a camping trip with his girlfriend to an abandoned cabin which holds the Necronomicon. He reads it and it unleashes demons that possess his girlfriend and his right hand. He then runs into two rednecks and two archaeologists, and they have to find the remaining pages of the Necronomicon which explain how to stop the curse

You know Duke Nukem? A lot of his quotes originated from Evil Dead 2, and Duke Nukem never cut off his hand and replaced it with a chainsaw. That's an actual scene from Evil Dead 2


Best of all, you don't have to have seen Evil Dead 1 to understand Evil Dead 2

SPOILER ALERT

The Last House on the Left(1972)


This is one of my favorite movies. It's about a gang of psychos who kidnap,rape and torture two 17-year old girls. The movie was banned in a lot of countries, and even today finding a truly uncut version of it is difficult, because even some of the DVDs that are labeled as "uncut" still have the lesbian rape scene missing. The movie is really gruesome, and it gives me a hard-on.

BTW, this is one of Wes Craven's early work, so you know it's good ;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_House_on_the_Left_%281972_film%29

SPOILER ALERT

Have you seen Noroi? It is a fantastic Japanese found footage film about a camera crew investigating some strange events that all come together in a fantastically disturbing way. I don't believe it's licensed in America, but you can find it online. The online copy I found was split in two parts. The tension was so thick that when the first part stopped, I jumped. Eventually, I liked it so much that I ended up buying an import copy from Hong Kong and hacking my portable DVD player to be region free just so I could watch the DVD. And you know what? I don't regret it at all. The movie is just that good. Go find yourself a copy, seriously.

Few days ago, I just re-watched <span class="bold">The Stuff</span>, It was one of my favorite movies on childhood, about a delicious Ice Cream eating people from inside... Now I was amazed by how many continuity errors a single movie can have...




Also, <span class="bold">Braindead</span>!
The best Horror-Trash-Comedy ever! And by Peter Jackson (maybe his best Movie yet... :P)
"Come to mummy Lionel!" =D

Dead Alive (AKA Brain Dead). The movie speaks for itself. I watched this when I was younger and it totally gave me creeps. It's pretty cheesy how the movie plays itself out, but wasn't all old 80s/early 90s movies? It's a twisted movie where this guy's mom gets bitten by a rat monkey and turns into a zombie, then she goes on a killing rampage which turns others into zombies.

I don't want to give the movie away, but it is a must see if you like cheesy, crazy zombie horrors!

Thanks for the giveaway!

The Exorcist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDGw1MTEe9k

if you do not like this horror masterpiece.....

Also The Woman in Black it feels like a homage to old-schcool horror movies and its made well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lReemWmO5o

I kinda hope I win at second or third place because I have been eyeing on Alone in the Dark A new nightmare

MOVIE: The Woman in Black

REVIEW: This movie is not so much gore as it is terror. It is an exemplary example of a tasteful horror movie, and the star is none other than everyone's favorite child-wizard-turned-grownup, Daniel Radcliff!

Do you enjoy having to think? Do you enjoy piecing things together and then shortly later in the movie you find out you're right? Do you enoy slow-to-start-epic-to-end horror films that really make you relieved at the end of the film after multiple "WTF" moments? THEN THIS FILM IS FOR YOU!

I watched this film in a dark room late in the evening, and jumped multiple times, so the thrill factor is there. I enjoyed this movie so much that I'm planning on getting a copy when I upgrade my CRT tv to an LCD/LED so it's the first one I watch. This movie has everything you're looking for in a good horror film, with some gore if you cannot be without that sort of thing, but more mind tricks than anything.

Do yourself a favor and watch The Woman in Black this Hallowe'en season. You will be glad you did so.

SPOILERS INTENTIONALLY LEFT OUT.

Thanks for your consideration, +1 for the giveaway!
~Cym

Event Horizon

I have a friend who constantly serves me horror movies. Most of them land in the trash can of my brain, but this one did not. Its different, there is no horrible beast that can be fought, there are no people acting stupid as hell, it just works. This is one of the few movies that could actually scare me, along with Silent Hill, but Silent Hill got boring the second time. I could write about the story, but its boring to spoiler. I will just tell you it plays in Space.
Apparently the movie has been massively cut. I can't imagine where. Maybe you get your hands on a DVD Version, many of them made it there, some have been lost.
Some other interesting facts: Only 3 months after its initial release short scenes from it made it into Star Trek, also developers of Doom worked on it.

So don't miss this often overseen gem.

Very well.
I have a thing for The thing! The Carpenter's one from 1982. I recently watched the new prequel Thing and day after that i had to rewatch the 1982 version because it's simply an undying classic and one of the most haunting movies ever. Firstly there's the setting of Antarctica which is pretty much the most isolated place on Earth and on top of that even though it's still on our planet its extreme temperature, day/night and landscape conditions make it an alien place for mankind. But still you have a group of tough guys dwelling in there in a science post who suddenly get into a real pinch caused by the title thing, THE thing.
The group consist mainly of people who know what they're doing and they're good at it without unnecessary bullshit, but mainly there's Kurt Russell there, one of the elite movie badasses of the eighties, who makes the main character perfect. But the thing is nobody can be sure about the other guys anymore and since it's antarctica the paranoia and fear becomes unbearable which is portraited very believably and intesively by all of the actors in this movie.
And they have a lot to fear because The thing is one of the most memorable, dangerous and haunting monsters in movie history mainly because of its bizzare appearance and abilities. The portrayal of this monster is an example of a brilliant use of stop motion, mechanical dolls, latex masks and lots of fake blood and other liquids that can never be surpassed by digital monsters. Lovecraft spoke about the "unspeakable" a lot, but he'd be surprised by The thing, i trust, and it would definitely scare the living shit out of him.
On top of it all the movie has one of the best horror movie endings that even increases the thrilling, chilling and desperate atmosphere of this movie making it an absolute horror masterpiece.

There's a lot of very scary and disturbing horror movies out there, old ones and new ones, but if there was a real golden hall of fame of horror fiction altogether then it couldn't call itself a golden hall of fame without The thing.



And since it's halloween soon, i'm going to throw in a little bonus that i watch every year on halloween, Halloween :).
Carpenter's halloween was no doubt another of the most scary slasher movies, but i really do like the Rob Zombie revision of the story which is something quite different than the Carpenter's original. The original was a bit "supernatural" in portrayal of Michael Myers who was more of an abstract impersonation of evil than a real person, he was "the shape" as credited in the movie, and Rob Zombie's Michael Myers is a person who still is an evil incarnate but nevertheless he is a real person and therefore his appearances are very physical, violent and disturbing.
I'd say that his real nature makes it even more haunting as well as his relationship with the main female character of the movie which wasn't as deep in the Carpenter's movie as it is in the Zombie's remake. And it is this relationship that makes the movie's story and its ending quite disturbing and even tragically sad, which isn't all that common in horror movies.
It's a slasher movie that isn't a popcorn spooky fun but a serious tragic and violent nightmare that seems disturbingly real and that in my opinion makes it quite unique and really worth watching without prejudice even though it got a bit mixed reception especially from Carpenter's fans.

Troll 2 (1990), one of my favourite movies, and one that I try to recommend any chance I get. If you're thinking 'well, gee I dunno, I've never even seen Troll 1,' don't worry, it doesn't have anything to do with that horrible movie. In fact, there aren't even any trolls in the movie. If you must know the plot, it's about a family who visits a small town inhabited by man-eating goblins. Oh and here's the kicker - they're vegetarians. 'How does that make sense,' you ask? Simple - the goblins turn people into plants first before they eat them. Genius. It's such a cult-classic that a documentary on it was recently made about it in 2010.


If you're looking for something newer, try Cabin in the Woods, a legitimately good movie that is half horror and half comedy. I honestly didn't know anything about it going in and thought it was just another cliched mindless horror flick, but oh boy was I wrong. Don't get me wrong, it's cliched alright, but only because it's a satire and is actively making fun of all the other generic movies in the horror genre. It was totally different than what I was expecting and I was literally laughing out loud during many parts of this movie. I'm looking forward to seeing it again, that's for sure.

Others that you should consider watching:
The Orphanage (Spanish) - not really a horror movie, but it's still a ghost story, one that might just make you cry.
Event Horizon - couldn't sleep at all for 2 or 3 straight nights after watching it alone in the dark when I was a kid.
[REC] (Spanish) - really well done zombie movie and one of the scariest I've seen in a couple of years.

Mother (2009), from S. Korea.

Not quite "horror", more of a "psychological thriller" genre, but I found it disturbing, much more so than a ghost story. It's the kind of story than will creep you out while you're watching it and keep creeping you out long after you're done. Like when you're in the shower. Or just before you fall asleep.

Unlike the typical asian horror/thriller film, Mother does not rely on "extreme" gore or violence to shock the senses. It has a much more artistic, subtle aesthetic.

Don't read up about the plot, don't go to wikipedia, don't look for reviews. Just watch it. Spoiler free description: It's about a mentally disabled adult man who is accused of murdering a girl in a small, rural town.

95% on Rotten Tomatoes. Available on netflix instant.

Thanks and +1 for this original giveaway, Azilut!

Also, a little promotion to it:
http://www.gog.com/en/forum/general/how_does_one_make_a_gift_aka_gifting_on_gog_for_dummies/post397

I'll edit my entry with the requested review soon.

EDIT: My choice is Screamers (1995 film) *flame shield activated*

For me, this title (based on the short story "Second Variety", by Philip K. Dick) is a cult film (despite their poor critics and box office reception).

I'll try not to make spoilers, but I have to mention some general ideas about the film, so read at your own risk. ;)

First I have to make it clear that to enjoy this movie you have to be able to overlook his glaring weaknesses (it's a B-movie, after all). But if you can do it, you will find a number of wonderful underlying themes:

- The ability of the human race to create technology capable of destroying the species
- The fear and helplessness of being killed by something that you created when your means of control on it fail.
- The uncertainty of not knowing if any of your partners is an ally, or an enemy who will end your life at the first chance.
- The innocence and the trust used as a means to kill the enemy.
- The possibility that a non-conscious life-form evolve to become not only much more than what its creators had thought possible, but can compete with them in all aspects.
- The self-sacrifice for something you value more than your own existence.

All these issues have been addressed by a film or another, but I loved to see them together in a single title.

Also, the lead character is Peter Weller (Robocop).

What more do you want? You should see it ASAP! :D