Horror For Beginners

My first post was a short post I wrote shortly after finally seeing The Descent on the big screen. I had been meaning to publish it for a while but never had the guts to do it until yesterday. Finally publishing that post got me thinking about other good 'entry level' horror films - movies for those people, like so many of my friends and family, who don't enjoy spending their free time witnessing bloody violence and being scared shitless, for some reason. There is most definitely some perverted sense of joy in that feeling you get when you have watched a successful horror film, and you know it's been successful because you don't want to move from the living room for fear of what might, just might, be lurking around the corner. And you sure as shit don't want to go into your bathroom when it's dark and look in a mirror then turn on the light, or walk past a darkened window with no curtains, or leave a foot dangling out of the bed, or take a shower, or...you get the picture. I most recently had this experience after watching Hellraiser, an interesting throwback to 1987 which probably merits it's own post here. I left my laptop downstairs feeling completely fine about it, but when I headed up to my bedroom later that evening, inexplicably decided that it was quite likely a sinewy and skinless Frank would be waiting for me, so took my sweet time and watched Parks and Recreation for a while to bring myself back to reality. And that is the mark of a successful horror film.

Anyway I digress, so horror for beginners. I think there are a couple of ways to persuade your loved ones to join you in your filthy horror habits, and this really depends on the type of person. *Unless specified the films listed below as suggested viewing are all the original titles, not remakes.

1. "Horror is too gory"
Start with older movies. Whilst cliche (and not totally true) you are slightly safer gore-wise with older films, particularly pre-slasher era. It is also possible to gear this more towards psychological horror films which do not usually have much violence/gore.
Suggested films:
Psycho
The Birds
El Orphanato
Rosemary's Baby
Get Out
The Blair Witch Project
Carrie

2. "Horror is too scary"
Start with humour. Also, zombie and sci-fi films for whatever reason seem easier for most people to stomach initially.
Suggested films:
Scream
What We Do in the Shadows
The Cabin in the Woods
Shaun of the Dead
Zombieland
(TV Series) The Walking Dead
Finally, if these are all fine I would probably go for The Shining next, as a segue into the horror genre proper.

3. They like cinema and quality movies, can appreciate good cinematography and narrative, but dislike the genre itself.
If you are like my husband, you love good films and are always open to broadening your horizons but have a pre-disposition about horror films, it could be that the issue is merely one of a misconception about what horror films are. Sometimes understandably so, he hates jump scares, but not all horror movies resort to the use of those. He is, however, a fan of good movies, so if I am able to successfully explain why, for example, Cannibal Holocaust is worth seeing (it isn't), he will usually give the film I suggest a chance.
Suggested films:
The Descent (of course)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The Babadook
Alien
A Quiet Place
Se7en
Halloween
The Conjuring
Train to Busan
Get Out
Pan's Labyrinth (if someone likes this film they are probably quite open to some elements of horror films)

If you have any suggestions to add to any of these let me know in the comments below.