Some of the best horror writers pick their five favorite scary films.
Carnival of Souls
It's got a great "Twilight Zone" feel, about a woman out of place in a world that is just slightly skewed from how it ought to be, and the cinematography is gorgeous. Holds up even better than Freaks, I think.
Repulsion
Nothing supernatural happens, but beautiful Catherine Deneuve's schizophrenia has a claustrophobic quality that breeds a contagious madness in the viewer. The entire film takes place through her paranoid perspective, and it's both enlightening and horrifying, especially for that poor rabbit.
The Exorcist
I'm a Catholic, and was told in the fifth grade that Satan especially liked to possess the good kids, since he wanted to illustrate the point that life isn't fair. The nuns also told me that The Exorcist was a true story, about a little boy in Canada. So I spent about a year looking under the bed for Captain Howdy. I can't judge this movie clearly. All I know is that it scared the crap out of me, and that nuns are crazy.
The Fly
I'm a big Cronenberg fan, and I think this movie is a perfect blend of studio slickness and artistic idiosyncrasy. Seth Brundle and Veronica Quaife are two madly-in-love, larger-than-life characters who would sell each other out in a heartbeat if it meant a Pulitzer/Nobel. So it's only logical that they'd spawn an insect.
The Ring (2002)
It's pretty much a perfect movie, and I was so frightened by it that I saw it three times in the theater, in a masochistic effort to overcome my fear. Didn't work. I still hate that black-haired b***h!
Sarah Langan's first novel, The Keeper (2006), was a New York Times Editor's Pick. Her second novel, The Missing (2007), won the Bram Stoker Award for outstanding novel, was a Publishers Weekly favorite book of the year, and an IHG outstanding novel nominee. Her third and best novel so far, Audrey's Door, about a woman living in a haunted apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side, was just released, and everyone should go out and buy it immediately. Like, right now! She's currently at work on her fourth novel, Empty Houses, has published a dozen short stories and several essays, and is working on a Master's in Environmental Toxicology from New York University. Langan lives in a quasi-haunted house in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, screenwriter/director/children's book author JT Petty, and their daughter, Clementine.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Pariah
Being Flynn
ParaNorman
The Debt
The Broken Tower
Flashback Feb 12, 2010 
Inside Our Movies 
