Probably depends on how one defines "Horror". Scary, Gory, Etc... I like The Exorcist, Psycho, and Freaks.
Me too. But the original is the only one that I think was true 'horror.' Aliens, 3 and Cov were spectactular, just not very 'horrory' imo. Res and w/e the most recent one was were kinda meh, as were the PredVs ones.
The Shining was one of the best, even though it ripped the heart out of the book. Devil's Advocate was better on a philosophical level, though I'm not sure it qualifies as a horror movie. Lifeforce and The Hidden also come to mind.
You know what though, I remember seeing just the end of an old ( circa mid 50's ?) film on tv when I was a kid which climaxed w/ the hero discovering to his utter shock that he was, in fact, a machine. At the time, it really made an impression on me; if anyone recognizes that movie, I'd love to know the title so I might finally watch it ( even if I already know the ending ).
The remake of, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," w/ Donald Sutherland, Leonard Nimoy, etc, deserves a place on the list.
Not meant to fit the Horror genre, but has some attributes that could argue for its inclusion, loosely speaking, & it's a GREAT film, in my view, anyway, is THE BEGUILED ( the original version). This was the 1st teaming of director Don Siegel w/ actor Clint Eastwood ( who went on together to make the acclaimed, though I think ho- hum, Dirty Harry movies ). I've seen it twice & both times was left for a good while afterward inundated by its ideas, trying to digest the themes washing over my mind; and my impression of its story was decidedly different each time ( the viewings were about a decade apart ).
Original Dracula with the best Reinfield ever. Original Mummy and uncut Frankenstein. Invasion of the Body Snatchers remake and the Thing. I'm going to add I, Frankenstein the creature is truer to the novel. Lastly Shadow of the Vampire.
You certainly seem to have old-school tastes. I must admit I haven't seen a lot of those-- only, "Freaks" , "Nosferato (which, despite its interesting backstage stories, I found totally underwhelming)", "The Fly," & various Vincent Price vehicles come to mind, initially. Who played that 1st Renfield ( & what made him the best )? Though, as I'd said in my post just prior to yours, it wasn't specifically a horror film, did you ever see THE BEGUILED? And what did ROSEMARY'S BABY leave to be desired ( too modern )? I'd like to add, from my post to the other Horror thread ( not, "Best..."), the film LET ME IN, which I find to have a real hypnotic quality-- & I don't generally re-watch films (w/ only a handful of exceptions like The Graduate, It's a Wonderful Life, & Fight Club [ besides my childhood's weekly Abbott & Costello fix] ); not BEST, but well worth watching. While I could name other horror-like favs, if they'd all be either too recent or objectionably inadherent to Horror Classicism to interest you, I'll put then in a different post.
1984's "The Thing", Exorcist, The Ring and most recently, *gulp* "Hereditary" which is streaming on Amazon Prime.
Yeah The Ring and The Grudge (similar) were really the only ones that ever freaked me out at all. Haven't checked out Hereditary yet.
Hereditary truly is a horror movie. Not a jump scare kind of thing but the amount of time I spent watching that movie with my mouth dropped wide open... glad there were no bugs flying around.