Tis the season as you know... and though I have not yet seen the latest buzz movie Paranormal Activity, I present a list of movies that I find genuinely scary and disturbing. Keep in mind, that I have based this ranking on the first time I watched these, since some films tend to lose their edge after a while.
1. The Exorcist
2. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
3. Alien
4. The Shining
5. Halloween
6. Psycho
7. Rosemary's Baby
8. The Omen
9. Jacob's Ladder
10. Silence of the Lambs
11. Blair Witch Project
12. The Entity
13. The Exorcist 3
14. Hellraiser
15. Suspiria
16. The Changeling
17. When a Stranger Calls
18. Nightmare on Elm Street
19. Night of the Living Dead
20. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
21. Phantasm
22. The Evil Dead
23. The Brood
24. Altered States
25. Last House on the Left
Honorable Mention - The Ring
Overrated - The Sixth Sense
Movie I'm ashamed I haven't seen yet - The Grudge
I guess I've dated myself a little bit with these picks and of course I'm always referring to the original versions, as I'm not a big fan of trying to recreate genius for the sake of making more $. Note there are some decent director's on the list - Hitchcock, Kubrick, Polanski, Argento, Cronenberg, Carpenter, Raimi, Craven and Ridley Scott. I guess that's no accident.