Since Halloween is right around the corner, and I didn't want to hijack the movie review thread way off topic, I wanted to create a thread for us to review/compare/suggest/praise good horror flicks.

Personally, I am a big fan of the apocalyptic style horror movies, more than slashers. Slashers have to be inordinately well-done to stand out, although I do enjoy them as well.

By apocalyptic I mean pretty much any scenario where civilization itself is threatened or overrun by some kind of threat. I like that atmosphere of tension and survivalism and how it makes the characters and the audience look at our society in a different light. (Side note, to illuminate what I mean... in a lot of American-setting apocalypse movies, everyone having guns becomes a threat.. other survivors shooting at you, etc. But then in UK flicks the acquisition of guns is typically a theme of the movie, since they're not as easy to come by.)

I will probably write more in-depth comments about these at some point, but a quick list of some of my favorites:

The Stand (novel). Terrific novel, but as usual with King stuff, the screenplay version wasn't up to snuff.

28 Days Later (movie). One of the finest horror movies made since the end of the 80's.

Dawn of the Dead (1979) (movie).

Dawn of the Dead (2004) (movie). I am probably one of the relatively few people who loved both the original and the "re-creation." I thought it adapted as needed to be more realistic in the modern day.

Sunshine (movie). Another Boyle flick like 28 Days Later, but even though the story was very different, the atmosphere felt the same, and the same sort of mass extinction threat was looming. Definitely had some good horror elements, without strictly being a horror movie.

World War Z (novel). One of the most "realistic style" books about an apocalypse scenario out there in the fiction world.

28 Weeks Later (movie.) I put this at the end of the list because I know the common consensus out there was that this movie was "horrid." The thing with me is, I almost NEVER see a movie within a couple months of it being released, so by the time I get around to seeing something, the hype has died down. And after listening to dozens of people saying how bad it was, maybe my expectations got ratcheted downwards, because I really loved this movie when I saw it. I would say it lacked the grit of the original but did an excellent job of continuing the storyline in a way I felt was plausible and close to what I would expect in real life.