Any recommendations on horror flicks for my 13 year old daughter?

[Den82]

Let's Scare Jessica to Death and Deathdream are two of my favorite films. I'll take atmospheric and creepy American made 70s films any day over that trendy euro crap any day.

I'd recommend Don't Be Afraid of the Dark and Bad Ronald (both TV movies, so they are tame).

I guess Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things. No nudity or foul language. Just some grave desecration and bargain basement Satanism.

Also Herzog's Nosferatu simply because it's the best film of all time and will set the wheels of good taste into motion for her.

[ctc]

>Curse of the Demon/Night of the Demon (1957)

OH YEAH! That's a great film! How often do you see the leader of an evil cult performing at a birthday party? And he was such a nice guy too! Well, other than the whole "evil cult" thing!

Don C.

[Werewolf]

Curse of the Demon/Night of the Demon (1957)

Watched it tonight on comcast on demand. It is really good! I can't believe I've never managed to see it before.

[Captain_Dan]

Cats Eye, Critters part 1, Brainscan is good but not popular, Dreamscape- 80s classic.

[Adam West]

I allowed my daughter to watch "Poltergeist" a week or so ago. She said it was creepy and made her jump at times but not particularly scary...My first thought was "What in the hell scares you?" I just about jumped out of my skin watching the movie when I was 13. She did say the one movie that really scared her was "Paranormal Activity" which I have never seen nor would I have allowed her to see before I viewed it since it is rated "R". I know the TV version of "The Shining" scared her a bit and I'm sure "It' would probably freak her out but I'm trying to still trying to grasp what she considers truly scary instead of "creepy" in her words...I remember watching "Creature from the Black Lagoon" when I was about 8 or 9, "The Birds"at 10 or 11 and both scared the living s*&^ out of me at the time. Maybe it's just me but it is sad to see that my children have become so desenitized that "Poltergeist" is just considered creepy but not scary to a 13 year old girl.

[jwyblejr]

How about The Mummy remake?

[samurainoir]

I don't think much of Paranormal Activity from a story and filmmaking perspective, but the reason why it works so well (along with Blair Witch) is the fact that it relies completely on your own imagination to project what is going on rather than really showing you anything. That's much more powerful than the torture-porn trend of many contemporary horror films.

Although there are much better examples in low budget shot on video/straight to video productions from Japan like the original Ju-On/Grudge, which also threw in some "Boos" along the way for catharsis. It's Lovecraft style horror to a certain extent... that there is something out there that your mind can't possibly make sense of. The worst parts of Paranormal Activity were when "Exposition Guy" shows up, just like someone explaining the Cat-Child Demon in the Ju-On notes/commentary takes away from it immensely (looks frightening on screen/sounds dumb on paper). Don't underestimate the power of WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? Which I always thought was John Carpenter's greatest strength in his old school stuff.

[Earth 2 Chris]

That bit in Carrie still makes me squirm. Very well done and effective.

The mom in Carrie scares the beejeezus out of me. Brrrr....

Chris

[Adam West]

I allowed my daughter to watch "Poltergeist" last night with some friends. I remember that movie scared the crap out of me when I was her age. I asked her today what she thought of it and she responded that it was creepy and made her jump but not particularly scary. To me, something that has you jumping out of your skin is considered scary but to her...it's just creepy. I asked her to describe scary to me and she said "Paranormal Activity" is the scariest movie she has ever seen. I have never seen it so I don't know what would cause it to be scarier than any other horror movie. Personally, "Carrie" scared the crap out of me when I was her age and I only watched the edited tv version of it. I guess I was always a sucker for the unexpected. When the soft music was playing during the dream sequence and the hand reached out from the grave out of nowhere....I couldn't sleep.

[knight errant00]

Here's another I just thought of -- the original The Thing (The Thing from Another World) -- as old horror movies go, it still holds up pretty well, and it's 1950's-standards content safe.

[Brazoo]

"Frailty" - awesome movie! Great call!

[fallensaviour]

Signs

Frailty

My 14-year-old loved both of those when we watched them, and even mentioned specifically after each how creepy and scary they were without gore or graphic violence.

Frailty, Fantastic film!!!

[knight errant00]

Signs

Frailty

My 14-year-old loved both of those when we watched them, and even mentioned specifically after each how creepy and scary they were without gore or graphic violence.

[mego73]

The Others. The Ring and Carnival Of Souls are pretty good choices.

The Exorcist is one of my favorites but might be inappropriate for 13 year olds (even though the movie is shown on regular TV practically uncut these days)

Others I think are great for just plain horror moodiness without much gore is

Let's Scare Jessica To Death
Lets Scare Jessica to Death (1971)

The Innocents
The Innocents (1961)

Suspiria (this movie actually does have graphic gore but no swearing or nudity and darn good creepiness. The American version with the 20'th Century Fox fanfare has less gore)
Suspiria (1977)

Cat People (original, the 80's remake is also good but not appropriate for 13 year olds. A lot of Val Lewton movies are good like his Cat People)
Cat People (1942)

Dead Of Night/Deathdream
Dead of Night (1974)

I'd say The Universal Monster movies but I don't know how scary they would be to a modern 13 year old.

[Sandman9580]

I thought "The Others" was a good horror movie, and it's rated PG-13.