Help Me Induct a Horror Noob
 

Ok guys - I think I can manage this on my own, but I thought you guys might enjoy giving me a hand anyway.

My girlfriend is about as far as you can get from a horror fan. She has great taste in movies otherwise, but she's never really given horror it's day in court, aside from a couple semi-horror flicks that we watched together: Sleepy Hollow and Burton's Sweeney Todd, both of which she enjoyed.

Well, she is reluctantly willing to give horror a chance, because she knows how much I love it. Only I'm having some trouble deciding where I should start in order to really get her hooked...

I'm thinking I might go for some Universal stuff to start - maybe the big three: Dracula, Frankenstein + The Wolf Man.

She's a HUGE Phantom of the Opera fan, so maybe I'll try the Herbert Lom Hammer version...doubt she'd be ready for the Robert Englund one just yet.

Basically what I'm asking for is help suggesting some fairly light horror flicks that a new-commer to the genre might like. Some basic criteria:

- She's a HUGE romantic, so it would be nice if there were some kind of romantic aspect involved. Nothing major, but it'd be nice to have a bit of mushy stuff hanging around.

- Little-to-no gore. I'm sure she'd be fine with it eventually, but I'd rather ease her into it.

- Not overly heavy on plot....atmosphere is more important. I hope I don't need to explain why ;)


Anyway, thanks in advance! :)

Rosemary's Baby?

If you really wanna induct her to horror you should kidnap her,lock her in your basment and torture her Hostel style.

The Hunger - sexy-time will follow, it's super romantic and sexy
Night of the Living Dead - low on gore high on mood
Hammer's version of The Mummy - really atmospheric and cool
Them (Ils) - very little gore or real violence, just lots of tension

Young Frankenstein.




I bet she would enjoy that.:)

Fido! :)

Shaun of the Dead. Really depends on what you consider gore, the only part I can think of with major gore is the intestines when one of the characters is ripped apart at the bar. And there's the little love story between Shaun and Liz. And it's funny.

I would do as you planned and start with the Universal monsters. Frankenstein in particular, then Dracula. Go from that to maybe Interview with a Vampire. Good segwey, I figure, and it's nice and romantic. Then a zombie movie. Rod mentioned NOTLD and I second that one. A great classic.

Then Massacre Man's suggestion of Shaun of the Dead is a good segwey into gorier movies. It's a comedy so nothing too frightentingly gorey, but it should get her used to the stuff she'll see in most slashers.

Can't go wrong with The Haunting ('63)...

I was thinking that myself...