My problem with The Strangers is that is presented as a "this could happen to you" kind of horror film, and of course, that's what would make it scary....I can laugh at horror movies when someone does something stupid in a movie that is already kind of ridiculous. Most horror movies have an element of the absurd (and I enjoy that about them) but when it aims higher than that I think the characters have to be genuine to make it work. Trying not to be too spoilerish here, but I don't know a single person that wouldn't have caught on to something being really off about some things that happened at 3 in the morning when they first arrived home. It just felt wrong to me.....and there would have been easy ways around that. But sometimes I am nitpicky and sometimes I am not. So I should probably give it another watch. Because what is good about the movie is REALLY good. I had the same issues with Eden Lake though, another movie I know a lot of horror fans really love.
I watch lots of horror movies and i would have to say one of my favorites was the childs play series, it's not scary, its actually quit funny, one of my favorite scene is this one.
Seconding Alien and Aliens, Event Horizon, Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, Red Dragon, and Cabin in the Woods. The original Hellraiser will always be a favorite of mine. Not a horror movie, but the series American Horror Show has been really excellent.
I still think that Poltergeist and The Exorcist are among the scariest movies I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot. Fright Night is good for cheesy horror, and we can't possibly forget Evil Dead. There was also a horror comedy I saw under the title Dead Alive, which was gory and hilarious.