Any horror fanatics in the house?

[Clueless Morgan]

Most horror films are - no offense - contrived and rather stupid (exceptions are rare, but include 'Psycho' and 'Schindler's List').

For horror fiction, I'm of the unshakeable conviction that Harlan Ellison is the best in the field.

Boru

Though my horror introduction came from novels, I can't bring myself to go back to them even though I kind of want to for the same reason that I don't watch new horror movies.

Also, I tend to read right before I go to bed and I would never, ever sleep if I read horror books at that time.

Good movie.  It's more suspense to me, than horror, tho, personally.

That's the thing about horror. It's really a more nebulously defined genre than you think. In my list, I actually admitted that some of the entries might not count as horror to others.

For instance, Thena323 just put Se7en as one of her favourite horror films, and, while I do love it, I am honestly inclined to think that, as gruesome as the crimes they describe (notice we hardly see the aftermath of the crime, let alone the crime itself) and John Doe's mind are, it's far too dominated by the police procedural format to really feel like a horror film to me. It would be like putting Reservoir Dogs on the list.

I agree about se7en being more of a police procedural that "true" horror to me, though it does tick off some of the "horror movie" characteristics. For a movie to be "horror" to me I have to have long periods of time where I'm hiding my face behind my hands, pervasive jump-scares (not just one or two), and graphic death scenes, not just graphic after-the-fact crime scenes but the viewer has to be present for the death. Some suspense movies tick off some of these characteristics, but there's the magical je nai se quoi thing to horror movies that make categorizing them sometimes rather personal.