"Cat People" (1942)

From the infamous Val Lewton wheel house at RKO came this monster hit, which, as did many of its contemporaries, inspired a sequel and remake. But in recent years, it's become little more than a cult product. Irena fears all forms of intimacy because she believes it will turn her into an actual wild animal. The really scary thing is the total lack of budget and director Jacques Tourneur's ability to frighten us with the dark. "Cat People" proves just how terrifying a panther's growl can be in a pandemonium shadow show.

BLAKE GOBLE

"Ravenous" (1999)

If you thought two years after bearing it all in "The Full Monty" a grizzled Robert Carlyle would be chowing down on fellow western pioneers in "Ravenous," you must be pretty sick. So is this movie. Quirky, dark and disturbing comedy bookends this tale of cannibalism in an isolated Manifest Destiny fort. Possibly Guy Pearce's ("Factory Girl") most underrated and under-publicized role despite his convincing and infectious fright.

ELIE ZWIEBEL

"The Last Winter" (2007)

Remember when those self-conscious critics called "An Inconvenient Truth" the scariest movie of last year? They obviously hadn't gotten wind of "The Last Winter." From director Larry Fessenden ("Wendigo"), the movie depicts a thinly populated Alaskan drilling post whose members lose their minds as the long-frozen tundra begins to melt because of climate change. What's under the ice? The wild, it seems, wants its revenge. (The movie is still in theaters, but it's available on Comcast OnDemand.)

JEFFREY BLOOMER

"Motel Hell" (1980)

Just because "Grindhouse" went nowhere last April doesn't mean crappy exploitation flicks don't work. With the slogan "It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent's fritters," the word "butcher" takes on new meaning as people discover Vincent's secret ingredient: us. Horror-comedy got its foot in the drive-in with this sleeper. A remake is in the works, so better to see it now before everyone wants to rent it. Razor-sharp laughs - ha! - alongside violent bravura make this a nasty treat.

BLAKE GOBLE

"The Brood" (1979)

This is a weird one. David Cronenberg made arguably one of his scariest and most bizarre horror films with "The Brood," a sort of horror version of "Kramer vs. Kramer." The already-troubled relationship between a man (Art Hindle, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers") and his lunatic ex-wife becomes even more complicated when everyone around him starts getting killed by a bunch of deranged mutant dwarves. Truly unsettling social panic.

BRANDON CONRADIS

"One Hour Photo" (2002)

When you think of someone who would play a pathological stalker, you probably don't think of Robin Williams. Proving his best work is in drama rather than comedy, Williams's discount warehouse voyeur lives a fantasy life. He gets to know a family through the pictures it develops at his booth, and when pictures aren't enough, his delusions escalate into a finale involving a hunting knife and a sort of sex tape. Not what you'd expect from Patch Adams.

PAUL TASSI

"The Fly" (1986)

In David Cronenberg's 1986 remake of "The Fly," Jeff Goldblum portrays an eccentric scientist who begins to change into a fly after one of his experiments goes awry - actually, it's more of a gruesome morphing that takes place. As scary as it is to see body parts melting off, the real terror lies in the story of a man slowly losing his mind and his body.

SHERI JANKELOVITZ

"PEEPING TOM" (1960)

Featuring a serial killer who films his murders and then watches footage of the crimes, this psychological thriller provides more than the modern flick's quota of gore and extreme violence. In a similar yet twisted vein of Hitchcock's masterpiece "Rear Window," which turned the audience into the protagonist's willing accomplice, "Peeping Tom" forces the viewer to become the murderer. In the film, the method of killing is as secretive as the origins of the man's emotional pain.

MITCHELL AKSELRAD

"Screamers" (1995)

Philip K. Dick's work produced "Blade Runner" and "Total Recall." But in 1995, his short story "Second Variety" was the source material for what would become one of the dumbest-sounding - though scary in its own right - movies of the '90s: "Screamers." A blend of sci-fi and horror, the movie is the story of an American military crew on an abandoned planet threatened by man-made machines that have evolved beyond the control of their creators. You'll scream . ers.