Martyrs Everyone who sees this becomes an honorary hermaphrodite because it feels like getting kicked in the balls and the twat at the same time. It starts with a girl and her shotgun going into the house of a family that abused her and then the story unpredictably mutates every 15 minutes until you realize you've just witnessed a full-on French shit-storm and are a better person for it.
Night of the Creeps Director Fred Dekker's precursor to The Monster Squad is an unheralded gem of totally 80's fun. It has aliens, zombies, reckless use of a flame-thrower, and a nerdy sidekick with two crutches for some reason. Probably the best character is the obligatory been-there-done-that veteran cop with a mustache whose catch phrase, "Thrill me," is used repeatedly and is never funny.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) Would you ever allow yourself to be alone in a room with Donald Sutherland, Leonard Nimoy, or Jeff Goldblum? Of course not, but if you like to be scared in the safety of your own home, you can watch a movie with all three of them. Have you ever felt like everyone you knew was being systematically replaced by doppelgangers grown overnight by space-pods? They probably are, and this is what will happen. (Warning: The 50's black & white version is cool too, but the recent adaptation with Nicole Kidman HAS NICOLE KIDMAN. Sick.)
30 Days of Night Any horror movie that takes place in arctic conditions reminds me of The Thing and is automatically slightly cool. Add in the fact that the vampires in this movie drink human blood without permission in a very forward and impolite manner, and none of them caress, gently kiss, or have long, brooding talks with anyone else in the movie, and you've got a winner.

The Poughkeepsie Tapes Maybe the best of the "mockumentary" style, featuring snippets from hundreds of self-shot videotapes of a fictitious serial killer, as well as interviews with the surrounding cast of investigators, victims' families, etc. So realistic you'll think there really are random murderers out there!
Severance Imagine an episode of the British version of "The Office" where they go on a retreat and get killed. Now imagine a full-length feature film of "Who's the Boss?" starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Katy Perry where they go to Hawaii. Which would you rather see? Severance is good because you think you know what's going on but then it turns out you're wrong and you realize how bad you really suck.
Pitch Black Before Vin Diesel made car-porn for 4th grade boys who find the WWE too realistic, he was in a really sweet sci-fi romp with giant carnivorous bugs and a blue-grey filter over the camera lens the entire time.
Orphan I went into this thinking it would be a rehash of The Bad Seed or The Good Son (the title The Mediocre Child is still up for grabs), but it was surprisingly brutal and had some twists and turns I didn't see coming. Also, the fact that the evil girl was Russian pissed off like two overseas adoption agencies or something, which just goes to prove that if you don't have a cause to defend, you can just make one up.

Let the Right One In Kind of like "Casper the Friendly Ghost" but with copious amounts of blood and Swedish kids. If you like your vampires subtitled, violent, and heart-warming, give it a shot.
Quarantine/[REC] "Found footage" from a news team whose ride-along with a firetruck soon becomes more of a die-along in an apartment building of disease and carnage. Old ideas+good execution+Dexter's sister's weird Picasso face=party.
Anti-Christ This starts off depressing, and then it's boring for an hour, but later it almost made me puke a couple times and I had to pause it and go in the other room to watch "Family Guy" for a little while to clear my brain's palate. If the very idea of Willem Dafoe gives you the willies, you don't even have to watch it.
The Ruins Not quite as gripping as the book, but still an original "man vs. environment" idea that really "takes you there, bro." It also proves that the entire world outside of the continental United States is totally backward and you will die if you vacation there.
Paranormal Activity This season's buzz movie has been analyzed to death, but when it comes down to it, if you have an imagination and see in in the right conditions (not in a crowded theater full of people talking to their stock broker on the phone), you could easily come down with a severe case of the heebie-jeebies.

House on Haunted Hill (1959) Vincent Price, a haunted house, a scary old lady, a walking skeleton, what more do you want, you greedy bastard?

Previous entries in this glorious series:

Scary Movie Picks '05 Part 1
Scary Movie Picks '05 Part 2
Scary Movie Picks '06 Part 1
Scary Movie Picks '06 Part 2
Scary Movie Picks '08