Animation Revelation Forum

I've wanted to make this for a while, but discuss the genre, favorites, what makes a good one, and whatnot.

I'll add more later, but I want to hear some of your opinions first on these types of film.

Mostly anything that isn't a Halloween ripoff or a pointless gorefest is something I can sit through, but the best stuff is mostly in the thriller/paranoia vein like Hitchcock's stuff or with an original slant on classic ideas like Raimi's stuff.

It's too bad the genre is totally awful now, though.

Really, just like with any other genre, I like the films that are well-done respective in this genre in regards to what makes them truly scary, which in this case is the atmosphere. Let me just say that aside from some cheese value to be had, all slasher films aside from the first 2 Halloween movies are pretty much garbage, IMO. That doesn't mean that I don't have some fun watching some good old action from Freddy from the Nightmare on Elm Street films, but those are the types of films that I watch with my friends knowing that they are bad (even the original hasn't aged well at all), but my friends and I still enjoy watching them just to point out how hilarious some of those films can be with various problems, such as overacting or some of the death scenes being so bizarre that its nearly just impossible to take it seriously.

Anyways, my favorite types of horror movies are the ones that are very creepy due to a brilliantly-executed atmosphere rather than just simple jump scares. Some of my favorite horror movies that fit the bill are The Shining (my personal favorite horror film of all-time), The Omen (2nd favorite), Alien, and John Carpenter's The Thing; the last 2 are especially great for combining both sci-fi and horror, with the first Alien film being the only one in the series to also be a horror film in many ways, and as far as John Carpenter's take on The Thing goes, I'll be honest and say that the original film, while a classic, wasn't the least bit scary. In John Carpenter's remake, its true that it has a lot of gore (but you have to admit whether you love or hate gore, that the effects done in the movie are simply brilliant, and have aged surprisingly well), but that's not what makes it a good horror film as much as it is the overall execution of the idea of not knowing who can be trusted and who cannot besides yourself.

You know I enjoy all of those greatly. Psycho, The Birds, and the Evil Dead trilogy too, but like those need anymore discussion.

One movie I feel deserves some mention is The Beyond. There is some great visual work in there, as well as some truly terrifying scenes. Brutal shit.

There is absolutely nothing scary about any of the Evil Dead movies, barring perhaps the tree rape scene. (srsly, wtf was that? :shit: )

I find realistic horror to be scarier. Once something like the demon in Jeepers Creepers sprouts wings, I can't care about getting scared anymore.

Or if it's fantasy horror, something like the Moffat episodes (statues, library) in Doctor Who are a nice thrill.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.............. My area of expertise. In life, guys- I'm not kidding. You name something and I suck at, or don't know or care about, it. But I am a walking, talking Encyclopedia of Horror Cinema (at least from the late 60's to the late 1990's).

So, maybe I'll just talk about how that time period really got my gears churning. Classic horror for me is a style that's hard to get into. I told Goliath on UD that horror is a genre that combines every other genre in one. And that was totally true for the first 50 years in horror (1910's to the mid 1960's). But the late 60's added an element in mainstream culture that changed cinema itself forever, as a matter of fact, as much as horror. But it really revitalized horror. George Romero's Night of the Living Dead changed the grindhouse (low budget) half of horror and Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby changed the Hollywood half. Then, of course there's Europe. Trends in European horror were split between Hammer studios and Italy's Mario Bava. Bava's Bay of Blood and a little Spanish zombie film called Tombs of the Blind Dead are the ones who kickstarted the European horror revolution of the 70's (though I'm sure Tombs owed Romero's Living Dead for the inspiration). Oh, there was also Amicus and I don't know very much about them. Except that I suspect they might be to blame for the Dr. Phibes trend (most of its' rip-offs starred the villain of those films, Vincent Price). Them or AIP who were involved in the grindhouse movement of the early 70's.

The most important films of the early-to-mid 70's war years are Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes, and Bob Clark's Deathdream (aka- Dead of Night, or The Night Andy Came Home). The first 3 films are survivalist variations on what would later become the slasher subgenre / formula, and the 3rd is a highly personal and tragic zombie film about the victims of the Vietnam war. The mid-70's is noteworthy because of the invention of the body-horror subgenre - monster films where the monsters were mutated humans. Ensatsu-ken mentioned The Thing remake but that film wouldn't exist without 2 revolutionary directors: Larry Cohen - It's Alive and God Told Me To (which deal with the horrors of the changing times on American parents and families) - and David Cronenberg - They Came from Within / Shivers, Rabid, and The Brood. Romero's The Crazies, a plague film that probably inspired Rabid to some degree, also shares some of those central themes.

The mid-to-late 70's were all about slasher killers, sci-fi monsters, and occult supernatural horror. Bava and Dario Argento were almost competing directors of giallo thrillers until Argento buried Bava forever with the magnificent horror-mystery Deep Red, then later with the definitive film about witches, Suspiria. Both films which inspired John Carpenter on the making of Halloween, as did Bob Clark's essential Black Christmas. Hollywood films about the occult trickled down over the years with The Exorcist, The Omen, and Brian DePalma's Carrie. While religious themed horror was also big, though not always in the form of a film about "the devil"- The Legend of Hell House, Don't Look Now, Romero's Martin, Salem's Lot, and Alice, Sweet Alice. Then, the 50's drive-in creature feature era was reinvented by Alien, Joe Dante's Piranha, Jeff Lieberman's Squirm and Blue Sunshine (another entry in the body-horror sweepstakes), Don Coscarelli's wild Phantasm, and the transformation from a zombie trickle of the early 70's in Europe (Spanish Night of the Living Dead riffs, Tombs again, and 1973's Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, aka- The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue) into a full-blown international phenomenon with Romero's Dawn of the Dead, which inspired Lucio Fulci's rip-offs Zombie and Avaitor's mention, The Beyond.

Desensitized mentioned Halloween rip-offs. The early 80's were sadly populated with a lot of them. Friday the 13th being the most unapologetic and - in my not-so-humble opinion - the best. Its' competition (several of them revolving around holidays and various gimmicks, some of which give off traces of Carrie and Texas Chainsaw Massacre as well): Prom Night, The Burning, My Bloody Valentine, Happy Birthday to Me, Terror Train, Slumber Party Massacre, Hell Night, Sleepaway Camp, Motel Hell, Final Exam, and Graduation Day. To name a few. Perhaps all of which (including Friday) were outdone by Jeff Lieberman's little woodsy survival film, Just Before Dawn, released in 1981 (the year of what I like to call mongoloid horror) and Argento's Tenebre (which at least kicked the asses of Eyes of Laura Mars and Maniac). Meanwhile, the grindhouse era was being kept alive with the odious Maniac, The Prowler, Pieces, The New York Ripper, and the theatrical release of 70's-made I Spit on Your Grave (a worthless rip-off of Craven's superior in-every-way Last House on the Left).

At the same time, ghost horror and zombies / Italian splatter films were all the rage. The former went the way of the occult in the late 70's with boring The Amityville Horror but was reborn in the 80's. In both good - Carpenter's The Fog, Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist - and bad forms - Universal's Ghost Story, both of which frighteningly enough starred John Houseman, who was also in the dark Christmas ghost comedy, Scrooged, at the end of the decade. So we know that ghosts stayed constant throughout most of the decade. Zombies appeared in North America only intermittently, most notably in Romero's Creepshow and Aviator's mention, Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead (and for one awesome scene in The Fog, unless you count the entire brigade of ghost pirates as zombies). Fulci continued to wear this subgenre out / stretch it to its' breaking point with City of the Living Dead and House by the Cemetery. At the same time, cannibal films were drawing a lot of attention with the likes of Cannibal Holocaust and Make Them Die Slowly (aka- Cannibal Ferox) being banned in nearly every country in the "civilized world" due (most likely) to their real-life animal murder and torture scenes (not to mention what - I hope - they simulated with women, the genitalia mutilations).

Body horror continued, although it got an action-thriller outfitting with Cronenberg's Scanners and Carpenter's The Thing. Yawn (especially since Aliens kicked both of them in the seat of their pants a few years later). Then it got back on the right track with Cronenberg's masterpieces Videodrome and his superior remake of The Fly. Also with Universal's worthy (if not superior) remake of Val Lewton's Cat People, and Frank Henenlotter's quirky debut, Basket Case. The monster movie took another turn, this time into werewolf territory in 1981 with Wolfen, John Landis's An American Werewolf in London, Joe Dante's The Howling, and Larry Cohen's awful goofball spoof, Full Moon High. Then I believe it remained pretty silent (save for Michael Jackson's Thriller) until 1984's haunting The Company of Wolves and 1985's Silver Bullet. Probably because the seeds of the vampire's epic return were being sewn with 1983's The Hunger. And the goofball spoof, Saturday the 14th, which focused more on monsters and haunted houses than on what was going on in the slasher subgenre. Slashers pretty much crapped out by 1983, but were again reborn in 1984 with a supernatural impetus in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street (Ensatsu-ken's mention).

Zombies also experienced a very large resurgence after Thriller with 1984's Night of the Comet, 1985's Re-Animator, The Return of the Living Dead, Day of the Dead, and Demons, 1986's Night of the Creeps, 1987's The Video Dead, Zombie High, and Troma's Redneck Zombies, 1988's The Serpent and the Rainbow and Scarecrows, and 1989's Pet Sematary and The Dead Next Door. As well as sequels to Evil Dead, Return, Re-Animator, and Demons. It received stiff competition from the vampire subgenre, which boomed in 1985 with Fright Night, Lifeforce, and the spoof Once Bitten (later spoofs / comedies include 1987's My Best Friend is a Vampire and 1989's Vampire's Kiss), and continued with 1986's Vamp, and 1987's The Lost Boys and Near Dark. Slasher sequels after Nightmare on Elm Street turned supernatural with 1986's Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives and 1987's Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II. As well as into the birth of new franchises, 1987's Hellraiser and 1988's Child's Play. Monster films evolved into a huge variety of forms. Starting with the little creatures in 1984's Gremlins, which spawned rip-offs with 1985's Ghoulies, and 1986's Troll and Critters. As the rip-offs got worse (Hobgoblins and Munchies), the monsters got bigger with 1986's Little Shop of Horrors, 1987's Predator, 1988's Pumpkinhead, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, The Lair of the White Worm, The Blob remake, and 1989's Leviathan. Body horror's final hurrah seemed to be Henenlotter's Brain Damage, although '87 marked the exciting directorial debut of Peter Jackson with Bad Taste.

Horror quantity in the 1990's didn't slow but the fun did drain out of them as the critics (and the Academy Awards) started awarding the ambition of early 90's psychological horror by trying the brand the films as "thrillers" instead. 1990 saw the release of the realistic, groundbreaking Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and Misery. Both were praised highly, and Kathy Bates even snagged an Oscar for Best Actress. Most people were surprised, but that was nothing compared to 1991's The Silence of the Lambs winning best picture (which no doubt still stuns the Disney fans who thought Beauty and the Beast was a shoe-in). Following that film's success, Hollywood went horror-mad! Resulting in both modern-day setting realistic-toned films, 1992's Candyman and 1994's Wolf, a shocking celebrity turn-out on HBO's Tales from the Crypt anthology series, and a huge string of classic themed period pieces: 1992's Bram Stoker's Dracula, 1994's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Interview with the Vampire, and 1996's Mary Reilly. On the lighter side, monster movies turned to near parody in 1990 with Arachnophobia, Tremors, and the pre-Scream self-referencial classic, There's Nothing Out There. This began to affect the slasher genre too with the likes of Dr. Giggles, The Dentist, and the gory slasher-referencing HBO comedy, Serial Mom. Especially as sequels to Child's Play fizzled out. Although this gave birth to a new and very unlikely franchise- Children of the Corn, which along with sequels to Hellraiser starting with Part III: Hell on Earth, were the product of Disney's horror-brother to Miramax, Dimension Films. Troma continued to make a name for themselves with more audacious direct-to-video acquisitions such as Frostbiter, Bugged!, and Decampitated. Although, at the same time, their sequel to The Toxic Avenger and 1990's excellent Def by Temptation were also earning them critical praise.

Though good as the occasional 90's horror film was (let's also not forget Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Tales from the Hood, Cube, Cronons- Guillermo del Toro's debut, and Peter Jackson's immortal Dead Alive)- one too many Wishmaster's, Dentist's, and of course- the unwatchable Leprechaun 4: In Space and Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, are most likely the catalyst(s) that brought about 1996's genre kick-in-the-ass, Scream. Which, for a few months, was a breath of fresh air in the genre. But sadly, brought about its' own ruining with a series of sequels and rip-offs, none of which were worthy of following in Craven and Williamson's footsteps: I Know What You Did Last Summer, Urban Legend, The Faculty, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, Disturbing Behavior, Valentine, Shredder, Lovers Lane, I've Been Waiting for You, Cut, The Clown at Midnight (which astoundingly was able to rope-in none other than The Sound of Music star, Christopher Plummer in a key role!!), etc. It was the 80's reborn- only with a lot less sex and violence. Or, should I say: a lot less made it on the screen? Because I actually hear the original cut of Cherry Falls was loaded with gore. The one true upside was 1998's Bride of Chucky, which not only reinvented an 80's icon, it was also the best film in the series up to that point. What other Part 4 can claim that it bested all 3 films to come previously?

Unfortunately, the combination of Scream-itis that plagued the genre, along with a new breed of stoner-horror that stuck a flag in the genre with 1999's insipid The Blair Witch Project, and a series of utterly boring Hollywood ghost films (The Sixth Sense, Stir of Echoes, What Lies Beneath, The Others, The Ring, Darkness Falls - as well as the silly remakes of The Haunting, House on Haunted Hill, and 13 Ghosts; skip them all and just watch Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow instead!), began to quickly erode the genre. Leading to its' basic death in 2003 with the rise of awful remakes (Texas Chainsaw Massacre '03, Dawn of the Dead '04, The Fog '05, The Hills Have Eyes and Black Christmas '06, Halloween '07, It's Alive '08, Friday the 13th and Last House on the Left '09, and Nightmare on Elm Street '10), French horror (a nation I've never bashed or so much as laughed at a joke at their expense before, but which can't do horror: Irreversible, Calvaire, Haute Tension, Ils/Them, Frontier(s), Inside, Baise-moi), and survival / torture horror. The latter of which became the Scream of the new millennium- with one masterpiece, 2002's 28 Days Later, giving birth to a heap of unworthy (and usually downright awful) followers: Wrong Turn, Saw, Wolf Creek, The Devil's Rejects, The Descent, Chaos, Captivity, Splinter, Dead Snow, etc. Though horror is dead now, the new-millennium did provide a few highlights: the debuts of 2 essential filmmakers (Lucky McKee with May and Sick Girl - for Showtime's Masters of Horror series, and Larry Fessenden with Wendigo, The Last Winter, and the excellent Fear Itself episode, "Skin & Bones"), 2000's Canadian masterpiece Ginger Snaps, the surprisingly inventive Final Destination series, 2001's resourceful and spooky Jeepers Creepers, and 2006's effective Hostel (though the sequel is shit).

As of writing this, I am still in need of seeing 1973's The Wicker Man and 2001's Session 9.

Sorry I didn't respond to this earlier, but this is a great, well-detailed post.

I was hoping you'd be able to list for us some good modern horror films, but that doesn't seem like the case. The industry looks like it's dying out and has been for years.

I hate horror films like Saw and their ilk, as well as the constant bullshit remakes of old or foreign films, which is all we get nowadays. I'd kill for a solid zombie exploitation or splatterhouse film, but those are so far and few in between now.

I actually didn't think that The Blair Witch Project was that bad. Its problem is that its not the least bit original and got insanely over hyped, but there is nothing downright bad about the film either (at least not that I can see).

As for most of the other bad films which you listed, I agree with most of them, but I didn't find The Descent to be that bad, though maybe its because I found all of the characters to be annoying just enough in the right way that I enjoyed seeing them get killed off. I suppose if you go by the fact that you actually want the characters to die in the first place since most of them are downright annoying, then it can be seen as a bad horror film in that regard....but I did still enjoy seeing them get mauled to death. :D

Personally, I thought Jeepers Creepers and Hostel were horrendous, and both by far are among some of the worst horror films that I have seen from this decade (IMO), but then again I never bothered to watch that many horror films this decade to begin with, so maybe there are even worse ones out there.

You had some great insight into the older horror classics over the different time periods of horror films. I haven't had the opportunity to read all of your post yet, but I do like your retrospective of sorts on the evolution of the genre over the years.

Quote from: Avaitor on February 07, 2011, 07:50:15 PMOne movie I feel deserves some mention is The Beyond. There is some great visual work in there, as well as some truly terrifying scenes. Brutal shit.

I have the film on 2 different DVD's and much prefer the PAL version that makes the movie move at a speed where it's eventually 4 minutes shorter than the NTSC version. (No- nothing's cut in the way of gore or dialogue, I checked thoroughly, there is 1 cut and it's just the first shot of the hotel sign at the very beginning, that's it, it only lasts about 3 seconds.) Watching the movie in PAL is really... FUN! I always walk away from that DVD, though it has vastly inferior picture and sound quality to Grindhouse's print of the film, with a greater appreciation of the movie. But, the proper, slower, Grindhouse print isn't fun. Slow, its' intended speed, doesn't work so well with that film. The music plays so much better in the faster version. I wish I could find a YouTube clip but one of my favorite scenes is when Liza comes down the stairs at night to talk with Emily (whom she calls "Emyilee" a couple times).

Here's a great one, though:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdHN7YMfKWM

(Not in English)

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on February 15, 2011, 09:54:38 PMI actually didn't think that The Blair Witch Project was that bad. Its problem is that its not the least bit original and got insanely over hyped, but there is nothing downright bad about the film either (at least not that I can see).

It's a documentary on the word "fuck." That's all that happens. A group of stoners go into the woods and say "fuck" every 10 seconds.

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on February 15, 2011, 09:54:38 PMAs for most of the other bad films which you listed, I agree with most of them, but I didn't find The Descent to be that bad, though maybe its because I found all of the characters to be annoying just enough in the right way that I enjoyed seeing them get killed off. I suppose if you go by the fact that you actually want the characters to die in the first place since most of them are downright annoying, then it can be seen as a bad horror film in that regard....but I did still enjoy seeing them get mauled to death. :D

Yeah, I said it was bad because it was cliched and every single person was annoying.

This review rather nailed the film:

"Liongsgate's plan to hose down Britain's arid, post-Hammer horrorscape begins this summer with the release of Neil Marshall's The Descent, a creepfest that may see more feminist deconstruction than the original Alien—contemplation the film's unthinkingly slick surface invites but doesn't merit. Marshall distills the entire day before a cave expedition in the Appalachian Mountains down to a dumb montage of muscle-stretching scenes and faux soundtrack-enhanced boos, condescending to his audience by lingering for more than two seconds on a book being stuffed into a car's glove compartment, meaning this moment will probably come to haunt his characters later on. What follows is a Camille Paglia field day: Juno (Natalie Mendoza)—the anti-Trojan antagonist from Virgil's The Aeneid?—leads Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) and her four other friends into an uncharted, labyrinthine cave where horror erupts in all sorts of animal and psychological permutations. One of the girls gets stuck in an especially tight passageway, at which point another greases the girl's defenses with talk of orgasms. Giggles ensue, rocks fall, gaps in the ground are traversed, blood is spotted on the wall, possibly period (pre-Halocene or fresh menstrual?), and the freak show commences.

The darkness inside the cave makes sense but it's politically reductive: Marshall fails to create compelling women distinguishable from one another, an anonymity of personality impacted by the low-light situation. (After a while you expect to see that old Scooby Doo gag where one-too-many sets of eyes light up the frame before a candle or flare reveals a boogeyman in the midst.) These women primarily exist as sheep being led to slaughter—an admittedly chilling and gooey slaughter Sarah and Juno resist fiercely with their wits but one that's needlessly interrupted by Marshall's lame bid for emotional gravitas. Sarah and Juno struggle with survivor's guilt but how Sarah's anxiety manifests itself externally and against Juno begs for more suspension of disbelief than the Darwinian nightmare that's chiefly responsible for crippling their lot. Guys will likely take to this hopeless film, but they could service humanity better by staying home and excavating their girlfriends' G spots."

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on February 15, 2011, 09:54:38 PMPersonally, I thought Jeepers Creepers and Hostel were horrendous, and both by far are among some of the worst horror films that I have seen from this decade (IMO)

Well, Jeepers was a bit of a throwback to old-fashioned spooky horror mixed with some Clive Barker-esque imagery. I expected worse than you thought it was and I was very pleasently surprised. The opening dialogue was a little troublesome, but I was thoroughly impressed throughout the film. It kept getting better and better as it went along. I haven't seen it in maybe 7 years but I was just as picky then as I am now. Hostel was merely more intelligent than I expected. You can't take it at face value. It's not glorifying torture or the rude and seemingly hateful depictions of sexuality. Rather, it's subversively using them as a way to hold the loathsome victims accountable for their sexist, homophobic, and disrespectful treatment of everyone they come across. Other than the fact that it kind of breaks one of my cardinal rules of new-millennium horror (no crime films in horror drag), the biggest flaw is that it outright rips off Marathon Man.

This review puts a lot into perspective:

http://slantmagazine.com/film/review/hostel/1903

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on February 15, 2011, 09:54:38 PMbut then again I never bothered to watch that many horror films this decade to begin with, so maybe there are even worse ones out there.

Oh... you have no idea. Horror's been swimming in the sewers since at least late 1998.

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on February 15, 2011, 09:54:38 PMYou had some great insight into the older horror classics over the different time periods of horror films. I haven't had the opportunity to read all of your post yet, but I do like your retrospective of sorts on the evolution of the genre over the years.

Thanks.

Eh, I've seen plenty of my share of other horror movies (and a bunch of movies in general) throwing the word "fuck" out in every other sentence, so I honestly didn't take too much notice to its overuse in The Blair Witch Project. I just thought that the movie was kind of entertaining to watch through once as it tried to set up the story so that the viewer never once really saw anything out of the ordinary but instead it tried to give the hint of weird things going on by strange noises and just one guy disappearing. I thought it was pretty ambitious to try and make a movie scary on atmosphere alone, rather than actually showing weird things happening directly on-screen. I'm not saying that the movie really succeeds at that, but at the same time I don't think it utterly failed at building up an atmosphere either, but whether its good or bad is pretty subjective to the viewer, as the movie got a ton of mixed reviews of people either liking or downright loathing it. At any rate, to me its just a movie, and its not really scary but I was entertained to watch through it once, so personally I've seen plenty of better and also plenty of worse films in that regard.

As for Jeepers Creepers, my problem was that the characters acted way too incompetent with many of their actions throughout the film. I could go into detail about it but that would require me to retrace the entire movie and I don't really feel like thinking about it too much. I don't mind a throwback to the classic style of horror flicks, and it is a trope of classic films for the main characters to somewhat be lacking in common sense, but at the same time I at least found that I kind of cared to see if the characters in the older horror flicks lived or died, whereas by the end of JK I kind of just wanted to the characters to die since a lot of the trouble that they got into seemed to be because of their own idiotic mistakes. But, that's just my personal opinion.

As for Hostel, I wasn't expecting a particularly good or bad film, and in this case I at least got the sense that you weren't really supposed to sympathize with the main characters too much, but I just found that the "villains" of the film in this case acted completely incompetent, that its no surprise that the one character managed to get away after finding out what was going on in that town. Not only that, but a lot of the circumstances that let him get away and get his revenge just felt way too convenient, IMO. For me that kind of kills any potential horror that a horror film can have for me, and I really couldn't stand watching the film from that point.

That's all just my opinion, of course. I can respect your opinion completely if you view it differently. And like I said, I really liked your input on the older decades of horror films. I agree with a lot of what you had to say in that regard, and to be fair since I haven't seen that many horror films from this decade I really have to take your word for it that the genre is complete garbage in this modern generation of films. Its a shame, because the horror genre really used to be one of the most interesting genres in film, IMO (well, it still kind of is when thinking about the classic age of horror films). To me, it hit a drought of sorts within its genre in the late 80's to early 90's, and then and overrated film like Scream came out and just because it was somehow lucky enough to become a hit it spawned a bunch of other films that followed in its footsteps, and to me it just completely downgraded the genre into a pile of shit, which is why I lost interest in newer horror films and stopped watching most of them this decade. I still have a ton of appreciation for the films that are the highlight of the genre, though.

My personal favorite horror film is The Shining, and in this case I'm guessing that it may have more to do with Kubrick than Stephen King, since I'm honestly not much of a fan of Stephen King's work in horror, and I haven't read the book for The Shining, but the film just really stood out to me.

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on February 07, 2011, 03:13:39 PM
Really, just like with any other genre, I like the films that are well-done respective in this genre in regards to what makes them truly scary, which in this case is the atmosphere. Let me just say that aside from some cheese value to be had, all slasher films aside from the first 2 Halloween movies are pretty much garbage, IMO. That doesn't mean that I don't have some fun watching some good old action from Freddy from the Nightmare on Elm Street films, but those are the types of films that I watch with my friends knowing that they are bad (even the original hasn't aged well at all), but my friends and I still enjoy watching them just to point out how hilarious some of those films can be with various problems, such as overacting or some of the death scenes being so bizarre that its nearly just impossible to take it seriously.

Anyways, my favorite types of horror movies are the ones that are very creepy due to a brilliantly-executed atmosphere rather than just simple jump scares. Some of my favorite horror movies that fit the bill are The Shining (my personal favorite horror film of all-time), The Omen (2nd favorite), Alien, and John Carpenter's The Thing; the last 2 are especially great for combining both sci-fi and horror, with the first Alien film being the only one in the series to also be a horror film in many ways, and as far as John Carpenter's take on The Thing goes, I'll be honest and say that the original film, while a classic, wasn't the least bit scary. In John Carpenter's remake, its true that it has a lot of gore (but you have to admit whether you love or hate gore, that the effects done in the movie are simply brilliant, and have aged surprisingly well), but that's not what makes it a good horror film as much as it is the overall execution of the idea of not knowing who can be trusted and who cannot besides yourself.

Good job mentioning John Carpenter's The Thing. That is of course my favorite horror movie and probably the movie I've rewatched the most. Yes, maybe even more than The Lion King.

Anyway, it's the only movie that I think is scary. I mostly like oher horror movies because I find the situations to be interesting but I never expect them to be scary and I'm fine with that. The Thing is scary for  reason you already mentioned. Not knowing who you can trust is pretty much the scariest thing that could happen to anyone. Having a monster that can kill you and make you come back as a monster that does just that to others makes it even worse. Also the thought of being a Thing and not even knowing it is scary to me, as corny as it sounds.

Besides the horror elements, The Thing has a lot that makes it entertaining. Like you said, the makeup effects/gore is great. I don't watch movies just because of the gore but The Thing does it so well. The operating table scene is a classic example. Also the dry hmor is great in the movie. Kurt Russell cussing out his computer and the all too hilarious ending of the couch scene are proof of that.

Quote from: Avaitor on February 07, 2011, 07:50:15 PM
You know I enjoy all of those greatly. Psycho, The Birds, and the Evil Dead trilogy too, but like those need anymore discussion.

One movie I feel deserves some mention is The Beyond. There is some great visual work in there, as well as some truly terrifying scenes. Brutal shit.

Ordering from my library now.

Quote from: Avaitor on February 15, 2011, 09:43:32 PM
Sorry I didn't respond to this earlier, but this is a great, well-detailed post.

I was hoping you'd be able to list for us some good modern horror films, but that doesn't seem like the case. The industry looks like it's dying out and has been for years.

I hate horror films like Saw and their ilk, as well as the constant bullshit remakes of old or foreign films, which is all we get nowadays. I'd kill for a solid zombie exploitation or splatterhouse film, but those are so far and few in between now.

I really like the first Saw. I even thought the foot sawing off scene was a good shock inducing scene. Now the sequels and that Hostel shit is another story

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on February 07, 2011, 03:13:39 PM
That doesn't mean that I don't have some fun watching some good old action from Freddy from the Nightmare on Elm Street films, but those are the types of films that I watch with my friends knowing that they are bad (even the original hasn't aged well at all), but my friends and I still enjoy watching them just to point out how hilarious some of those films can be with various problems, such as overacting or some of the death scenes being so bizarre that its nearly just impossible to take it seriously.

Say what you will about the Elm Street sequels, and I would agree majority of them are crap. Except, Dream Warriors...that one rocked! 8)

But, the original is a classic. Prue, and simple. The second best slasher ever behind the original Halloween.

Halloween 2...pfft.....it's ok. The brother/sister angle was contrived, and it loses much of the tone of the original. I feel Halloween 4 was a better made film than 2. Yes, H4 has it's silly scenes, and logic but I felt the Myers in that particular installment was much closer to being "THE SHAPE" like the original Myers. That, and H4 had more likable characters while, most of the ones in H2 were more cannon fodder if anything.

Friday the 13th is also a slasher series I like. None of them are good films, but their entertaining as hell!  :)

Anyone excited about Scream 4? It seems like Courteney Cox and David Arquette separating in real life would trump whatever horror they'd be acting in that one.

Quote from: No-Personality on February 15, 2011, 01:15:26 AM
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.............. My area of expertise. In life, guys- I'm not kidding. You name something and I suck at, or don't know or care about, it. But I am a walking, talking Encyclopedia of Horror Cinema (at least from the late 60's to the late 1990's).

I think I'm in love with you.  :swoon:


I love horror films! I grew up on this gold and shit! I love discussing the details behind the films, and discussing the canon, continuity and rules of a perspective series.

And two franchsies I hold beyond all is Nightmare on Elm Street and Romero's Dead Series. Constructive  critisism is fine, but be warn that hateful bashing of any of the two won't be good as long as I'm here! :light: ;D

I'm a real Friday the 13th guy- 80's franchise only. Anything after that can take a hike.

As for Nightmare and Romero's Dead series... I obviously avoided the remakes and stopped watching the Dead with Day of, which I just flat-out didn't like (apart from the music score). And I can't believe they screwed up Freddy vs. Jason when they had Ronny Yu, whose other works in horror have been fantastic. Though I haven't seen The Bride with White Hair yet (and everyone says that's his best film anyway).

Freddy vs. Jason was more fun to watch the second time, when you can skip to the part where they start fighting each other.

Last fun one I saw was Paranormal Activity, but ugh those first 20 minutes. Also, The Descent 2 was underwhelming.

I got through maybe 2 minutes of The Descent (part 1) and knew it was rubbish. One of the most overrated movies ever made.

I watched the Descent. To be honest it wasn't nearly as bad as most horror movies in the 2000's, but to me its crime was being more boring than scary. I never even cared about the characters since half of the cast just flat-out annoyed me.

I'd have to say that my most hated horror movies from the last decade would be just about ANYTHING from Platinum Dunes (which shamelessly made cheap cash-in remakes of a lot of older horror series).

I also detested Jeepers Creepers. By far one of the worst attempts at making a horror movie (or a movie in general, for that matter), that I've ever seen. When I think about it, there isn't anything from the past decade in the horror genre (from what I've seen of it, anyways) that I would consider being even close to good. That's really disappointing.

Quote from: No-Personality on May 28, 2011, 10:57:03 AM
I'm a real Friday the 13th guy- 80's franchise only. Anything after that can take a hike.

I like Friday the 13th for what it is. Mindless slashers created to entertain. And they do that well enough!

Quote from: No-Personality on May 28, 2011, 10:57:03 AM
As for Nightmare and Romero's Dead series... I obviously avoided the remakes and stopped watching the Dead with Day of, which I just flat-out didn't like (apart from the music score).

I personally, pick "Day of the Dead" as my favorite of the series. A dank, and dirty film through and through that has a extravagant last 20 minutes that shocks and disgusts. It sure did too me the first time watching it.  :-X

Quote from: Aurora on September 06, 2011, 11:15:42 PMextravagant last 20 minutes that shocks and disgusts.

I did like the ending, I can't lie. Especially the zombie eating montage. I actually think that part was better than Dawn's intestine eating scenes in the mall.

Almost October. Can't wait to watch horror films. Also, I want to get some opinions guys.

The Terminator. Horror film or not?

Nah. It has elements of it in, but it's an action film first and foremost in my eyes.

Didn't James Cameron himself say that he considers it an action film and only just took elements from horror films that he had seen in the past? Maybe I'm just imagining things but I could have sworn I either saw or read him say that in some documentary or article a long time ago. Eitehr way, that's basically how I feel about the film. Well, its not so much a straight-up action film as much as it is a brilliant piece of tech-noir (as it doesn't really become about action until around the last 15-20 minutes or so of the film.

Now, the first Alien is undeniably a straight-up horror flick, though (well, its a sci-fi/horror hybrid, anyways). Aliens, on the otherh and, is a straight-up action movie, so I'm not sure why I used to see that put under the "horror" section at the local Blockbuster that I used to go to before it closed down last year.

I don't know. Maybe it's been too long since I've seen it, but I don't remember much action. It completely followed the slasher formula...

I just see it as a science fiction movie.

It had small bits of slasher film elements but no, its not a slasher film. It didn't have much action, true, but it at least had as much action elements as it did horror elements. What the movie really should be categorized as is sci-fi noir. That's basically what it is.

I just got Halloween (original; obviously) on DVD for $5, as sort of an early birthday present to....myself. :D

I ended up coming across it in a bin of old movies on DVD for $5 or less and upon seeing the classic cover I decided that I was really in the mood to re-watch that film again (especially considering what holiday is coming up), so I decided to just get it at a dirt-cheap price like that. I'll probably end up watching it tomorrow.

My favorite horror films are all comedies. And there's only 4 of them. :P In no particular order:

Cemetery Man
Evil Dead 2
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein
Ichi The Killer (this isn't really a horror movie at all, but some people seem to think it is, so I put it on here)

Of course, I'm also a very big fan of Asian horror films, but most of them tend to blend together for me since I usually watch between 2-4 at a time. :joy:

Heh, Cemetery Man is confusing as fuck, but its also strangely hilarious at the same time. I think that James Rolfe once made a short film that was inspired by the whole "undead rise on every 7th day" concept of that movie.

Speaking of comedic horror movies, I've always wanted to check out Return of the Living Dead ever since James Rolfe talked about it in one episode of Monster Madness. It looks kind of funny from what he showed of it, at least.

Quote from: Foggle on October 22, 2011, 12:13:39 PM
My favorite horror films are all comedies. And there's only 4 of them. :P In no particular order:

Cemetery Man
Evil Dead 2
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein
Ichi The Killer (this isn't really a horror movie at all, but some people seem to think it is, so I put it on here)

Of course, I'm also a very big fan of Asian horror films, but most of them tend to blend together for me since I usually watch between 2-4 at a time. :joy:

I didn't want to count comedies, really. But if I did, Evil Dead II does crush it's predecessor.

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on October 22, 2011, 12:17:56 PM
Heh, Cemetery Man is confusing as fuck, but its also strangely hilarious at the same time. I think that James Rolfe once made a short film that was inspired by the whole "undead rise on every 7th day" concept of that movie.

Wow, I'm surprised someone else here has seen it! Very cool. :joy:

I love that movie because it combines hilarious dark comedy with disturbing surrealism. Almost all of my favorite films contain at least one of those elements. ;)

I don't think I could pull a list out myself, but I'd probably consider the original Nosferatu my personal favorite horror film.

M, Nosferatu, and Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Don't want to come off as some kind of anorak that can only enjoy shit made before my grandparents were born, but I just think those set the standard that horror hasn't managed to top so far. The old and grainy atmosphere, the grey characterization, the macabre direction; all of it was masterfully planned.

Oh, M. I forgot about that for some reason, heh. I think it counts more as a thriller, along with Psycho, though at the same time, they set the groundworks for horror moreso than any other films.

I guess those are my favorites, along with Nosferatu. If I had to pick a more recent film for my fav though... probably Night of the Living Dead.

Quote from: Avaitor on October 22, 2011, 10:59:40 PM
I don't think I could pull a list out myself, but I'd probably consider the original Nosferatu my personal favorite horror film.

That one might have my favorite Dracula, but I go with the remake by a TINY bit.

Quote from: talonmalon333 on October 22, 2011, 05:02:38 PMI didn't want to count comedies, really. But if I did, Evil Dead II does crush it's predecessor.

How so?

Quote from: No-Personality on October 23, 2011, 02:28:02 PM

Quote from: talonmalon333 on October 22, 2011, 05:02:38 PMI didn't want to count comedies, really. But if I did, Evil Dead II does crush it's predecessor.

How so?

I just love the comedy in it.

Quote from: Foggle on October 22, 2011, 12:13:39 PM
My favorite horror films are all comedies. And there's only 4 of them. :P In no particular order:

Cemetery Man
Evil Dead 2
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein
Ichi The Killer (this isn't really a horror movie at all, but some people seem to think it is, so I put it on here)

Of course, I'm also a very big fan of Asian horror films, but most of them tend to blend together for me since I usually watch between 2-4 at a time. :joy:

Watch An American Werewolf In London. It's totally up your alley.

Quote from: Desensitized on October 24, 2011, 09:50:20 PM

Quote from: Foggle on October 22, 2011, 12:13:39 PM
My favorite horror films are all comedies. And there's only 4 of them. :P In no particular order:

Cemetery Man
Evil Dead 2
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein
Ichi The Killer (this isn't really a horror movie at all, but some people seem to think it is, so I put it on here)

Of course, I'm also a very big fan of Asian horror films, but most of them tend to blend together for me since I usually watch between 2-4 at a time. :joy:

Watch An American Werewolf In London. It's totally up your alley.

Will do! I didn't know it was a comedy... :zonk:

Knowing you, Foggle, I'm surprised that you haven't already watched it yet.

And yes, its a brilliant mixture of comedy and horror. Actually I never found it to be all that scary, though on a more serious level it does have the best werewolf transformation scene EVER done in cinema (no crappy CGI, but just good old-fashioned make-up and special effects that look surprisingly convincing, even by today's standards).

Speaking of horror-comedy, how about that Young Frankenstein?

Quote from: Avaitor on October 25, 2011, 12:11:48 AM
Speaking of horror-comedy, how about that Young Frankenstein?

Absolutely love it. Haven't seen it in ages, though.

Quote from: talonmalon333 on October 23, 2011, 04:03:58 PM

Quote from: No-Personality on October 23, 2011, 02:28:02 PM

Quote from: talonmalon333 on October 22, 2011, 05:02:38 PMI didn't want to count comedies, really. But if I did, Evil Dead II does crush it's predecessor.

How so?

I just love the comedy in it.

Oh yeah... (D'uh!)

Actually, when so many people tell me the first movie is funny- I don't have a clue what they're talking about.

Quote from: No-Personality on October 25, 2011, 10:00:32 AM

Quote from: talonmalon333 on October 23, 2011, 04:03:58 PM

Quote from: No-Personality on October 23, 2011, 02:28:02 PM

Quote from: talonmalon333 on October 22, 2011, 05:02:38 PMI didn't want to count comedies, really. But if I did, Evil Dead II does crush it's predecessor.

How so?

I just love the comedy in it.

Oh yeah... (D'uh!)

Actually, when so many people tell me the first movie is funny- I don't have a clue what they're talking about.

Agreed. It's kind of cheesy, sure, but it's actually quite well done overall.

Anybody know any good Japanese horror flicks to recommend? I'm kind of in the mood for that sort of stuff right now. To be specific I don't mind if its gory but I'd rather have one of the more psychological horror films to watch than something that's really just brutal for the sake of being violent, if that's possible.

Have you seen Kairo (the Japanese version of Pulse)? A lot of people have called it "boring" or whatever, but I personally think it's pretty damn good. One of the few films to have actually scared me, though that could have been due to the conditions under which I watched it.

Another J-horror movie I particularly enjoyed is Noroi: The Curse. It might be kind of hard to find, though. (EDIT: It's on YouTube, so you should be good to go there).

I haven't seen either of those films. I'll definitely keep my eye out for both of them now that you've mentioned them, though. I actually heard good things about Kairo before, so maybe not everyone thinks its boring (I remember seeing it somewhere on a list of top 10-20-ish J-Horror films at one point in time, but I can't remember exactly where).

Is Ichi the Killer also a Japanese horror film? I've seen it labeled as such, though some people tell me that its not really a horror movie, though I do generally hear that its good, so I might check that film out as well, regardless of its genre. All that I know is that it has to do with the Yakuza and some psychopathic killer.

Ichi The Killer is one of my favorite movies of all time (feel free to draw whatever conclusions about me you want to from that statement), but I wouldn't call it a horror film at all. It has a couple of fairly disturbing scenes involving torture and rape, but honestly, it's more of a really fucked up Yakuza comedy than anything else. The uncut version is extremely gory; don't bother with the R rated cut.

I must warn you that most of Miike's "horror" films are similarly mislabeled. Gozu is more of a David Lynch tribute piece than anything, Audition is basically a romantic drama with a grotesque twist near the end, and anyone who refers to Happiness Of The Katakuris as a horror film has clearly never seen it. All three of these titles are brilliant, though, and I highly recommend them. His Masters of Horror episode, Imprint, is an amazing accomplishment on the horror front, though. Check it out.

I actually have seen Audition, though it was a long time ago. The ending is definitely a shocker but other than that its not really a horror film at all. In fact what makes the ending shocking is how the movie plays out like a romance up until the last 10-20 minutes. Though, I will say that those last 10-20 minutes are some of the most disturbing that I've personally ever seen in a film, and its usually really hard to make me ever find anything disturbing.

I'll definitely keep an eye out for the other films that you mentioned, though. I guess part of my sudden interest in J-Horror is how dry the horror genre well is here for modern American horror flicks, and while there are some good and classic ones that I haven't seen yet, I've already seen a number of good ones so I was running out of stuff to watch.

Our very own No-Personality is making a top 100 horror list of his own,

Check it out so far. (http://www.dvdizzy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=615281#615281) Some interesting choices already.

So I thought I'd try to list my top 10 favorite horror films. I chose not to count certain ones (for example, Jaws and Rosemary's Baby are more thrillers, though both could've easily topped this list, and then there's the Evil Dead movies which are heavily comedies). But anyway...

1. The Exorcist
2. Nosferatu (1979 remake)
3. Dawn of the Dead
4. Nosferatu (1922 original)
5. An American Werewolf in London
6. Night of the Living Dead
7. The Bride of Frankenstein
8. Frankenstein
9. Halloween
10. Ring

Subject to change.

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on February 07, 2011, 03:13:39 PM
Really, just like with any other genre, I like the films that are well-done respective in this genre in regards to what makes them truly scary, which in this case is the atmosphere. Let me just say that aside from some cheese value to be had, all slasher films aside from the first 2 Halloween movies are pretty much garbage, IMO. That doesn't mean that I don't have some fun watching some good old action from Freddy from the Nightmare on Elm Street films, but those are the types of films that I watch with my friends knowing that they are bad (even the original hasn't aged well at all), but my friends and I still enjoy watching them just to point out how hilarious some of those films can be with various problems, such as overacting or some of the death scenes being so bizarre that its nearly just impossible to take it seriously.

Anyways, my favorite types of horror movies are the ones that are very creepy due to a brilliantly-executed atmosphere rather than just simple jump scares. Some of my favorite horror movies that fit the bill are The Shining (my personal favorite horror film of all-time), The Omen (2nd favorite), Alien, and John Carpenter's The Thing; the last 2 are especially great for combining both sci-fi and horror, with the first Alien film being the only one in the series to also be a horror film in many ways, and as far as John Carpenter's take on The Thing goes, I'll be honest and say that the original film, while a classic, wasn't the least bit scary. In John Carpenter's remake, its true that it has a lot of gore (but you have to admit whether you love or hate gore, that the effects done in the movie are simply brilliant, and have aged surprisingly well), but that's not what makes it a good horror film as much as it is the overall execution of the idea of not knowing who can be trusted and who cannot besides yourself.

:thumbup: Yeah, I know, I'm late on this quote but it ties in with why I peeked at this thread. I want some horror recs for Halloween, horror movies where there's creatures of some sort who are disguised as humans being my favorite kind. John Carpenter's The Thing and Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (original and the Sutherland/Nimoy/Goldblum remake) being my favorites. I'm not specifically asking for scifi horror, it;s just those happen to be my favorite of this kind. Also, any other kind of horror movie recommendation is welcome.

I'm not sure if that post is accurate to your views anymore, EK. But if so...

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on February 07, 2011, 03:13:39 PM
Let me just say that aside from some cheese value to be had, all slasher films aside from the first 2 Halloween movies are pretty much garbage, IMO.

Why list Halloween II as an exception? I thought it was lame and was really no different than all the cheap sequels/ripoffs of its predecessor. Actually, maybe it wasn't bad, but it was far from good. I would rather watch Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, Black Christmas, all of which were superior films. And I think Black Christmas is on par with the original Halloween.

Quote from: talonmalon333 on October 10, 2012, 12:05:48 PM
Why list Halloween II as an exception? I thought it was lame and was really no different than all the cheap sequels/ripoffs of its predecessor. Actually, maybe it wasn't bad, but it was far from good. I would rather watch Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, Black Christmas, all of which were superior films. And I think Black Christmas is on par with the original Halloween.

Halloween II is a far stretch from great, but it still has a creepy atmosphere about it and it does an interesting job of fleshing out the back-story of both Michael and Laurie.

Why list Friday the 13th as a film that you'd rather watch? Its a piece of crap film that only has a fan-base due to nostalgia. Honestly, there is nothing original about the movie, the characters are all crap (I mean, you don't even have one that you can single out as the protagonist unless you just count the one that lives at the end), the atmosphere is not built up at all (which is a shame because the camp setting is perfect, but it feels so underutilized throughout the entire movie in terms of building up effective scares), and the killer just looks fucking lame with a sack over her head. The movie just doesn't manage to build up any tension, and I have always found it highly overrated. I believe that people like to convince themselves that its good just because its the original movie in a long-running series, one which was never any good to begin with.

Frankly, I find it laughable that you would consider the original Friday the 13th a superior film. As for A Nightmare on Elm Street, I respect the film well enough, but I never really enjoyed it that much myself. I haven't seen Black Christmas, so I can't comment on that one.

Overall, though, I'd say that I easily enjoyed Halloween II more than any of the films from the other 2 big slasher franchises of the 80's. It is indeed a very flawed film, I'd never deny that, but I at least enjoy it for what it is. If that's a problem for you (since you clearly think your opinion is fact based on the usual obnoxious tone of your post), then just go watch those other films that you like so much more.

**AHEM**

OK, so I probably overreacted there, but really you might as well have made your post say: Why do you have a different opinion than mine when mine is clearly right and yours is clearly wrong?

That's just the way it came off to me, anyways, and to be fair that's usually how you seem to think of things. :P

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on October 10, 2012, 12:28:55 PM

Quote from: talonmalon333 on October 10, 2012, 12:05:48 PM
Why list Halloween II as an exception? I thought it was lame and was really no different than all the cheap sequels/ripoffs of its predecessor. Actually, maybe it wasn't bad, but it was far from good. I would rather watch Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, Black Christmas, all of which were superior films. And I think Black Christmas is on par with the original Halloween.

Halloween II is a far stretch from great, but it still has a creepy atmosphere about it and it does an interesting job of fleshing out the back-story of both Michael and Laurie.

Why list Friday the 13th as a film that you'd rather watch? Its a piece of crap film that only has a fan-base due to nostalgia. Honestly, there is nothing original about the movie, the characters are all crap (I mean, you don't even have one that you can single out as the protagonist unless you just count the one that lives at the end), the atmosphere is not built up at all (which is a shame because the camp setting is perfect, but it feels so underutilized throughout the entire movie in terms of building up effective scares), and the killer just looks fucking lame with a sack over her head. The movie just doesn't manage to build up any tension, and I have always found it highly overrated. I believe that people like to convince themselves that its good just because its the original movie in a long-running series, one which was never any good to begin with.

Frankly, I find it laughable that you would consider the original Friday the 13th a superior film. As for A Nightmare on Elm Street, I respect the film well enough, but I never really enjoyed it that much myself. I haven't seen Black Christmas, so I can't comment on that one.

Overall, though, I'd say that I easily enjoyed Halloween II more than any of the films from the other 2 big slasher franchises of the 80's. It is indeed a very flawed film, I'd never deny that, but I at least enjoy it for what it is. If that's a problem for you (since you clearly think your opinion is fact based on the usual obnoxious tone of your post), then just go watch those other films like like so much more.

I was just asking a question looking for some reasoning, and I hoped you'd know it's all entirely opinion-based. No harm meant. :sweat:

Having said that, I do agree with you that Friday the 13th isn't a good movie, by any standards. But like Halloween II, it had its moments. I just think it had a few more of those. I also kind of think it would've been more interesting to leave the fate of Michael Myers as a mystery, like they did at the end of the 1st film. You're definitely right that Halloween II wins at atmosphere. No contest there.

I'll also mention that I don't think the difference in quality is much. On another site I recently linked here, I gave Halloween II a 60%, and Friday the 13th a 65%. Both are just slasher fun, not necessarily great movies.

EDIT:

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on October 10, 2012, 12:36:53 PM
**AHEM**

OK, so I probably overreacted there, but really you might as well have made your post say: Why do you have a different opinion than mine when mine is clearly right and yours is clearly wrong?

That's just the way it came off to me, anyways, and to be fair that's usually how you seem to think of things. :P

I do apologize, then. That's not how I meant for my post to sound, or any of my previous ones. I have a tendency to bash things I don't like, but I try to keep it in good fun. But I do think that I've become far less hot-headed here than I was a few years ago. :P

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on October 10, 2012, 12:28:55 PMHalloween II is a far stretch from great, but it still has a creepy atmosphere about it and it does an interesting job of fleshing out the back-story of both Michael and Laurie.

Ha... only at the expense of who the characters were in the first film and what Michael Myers represented. There was never supposed to be a sequel. John Carpenter did it for the money. Universal paid Compass International for the rights to produce a sequel and they were going to do it whether Carpenter was given any say in what they actually did with the story or not. They offered him money, he took it and has described the entire process with an extreme amount of cynicism and outright disdain. And so... he wrote in a backstory that has nothing to do with the characters, and more to do with how popular soap operas were at the time (since this just wreaks of a tv drama twist), and literally flies in the face of everything he was trying to do in the first film. Note the presence of graphic violence and the high bodycount. These elements weren't in the first film. They were from Friday the 13th. He knew why Universal bothered to try and make this a franchise. Because Friday the 13th was raking it in and producing a sequel - which also made a ton in comparison to how much it cost - for next to nothing.

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on October 10, 2012, 12:28:55 PMWhy list Friday the 13th as a film that you'd rather watch?

Well, I don't plan to rewatch the Friday the 13th films this October season and yet will be rewatching as many Halloweens (up to H20) as I can. This year. So, that's a matter of random planning.

But... let's say: why do I have the Friday the 13th franchise on my Top 100 list while (there are 62 movies left to countdown, but I'm going to spoil the ending for a second) there isn't a single Halloween sequel to be found? Easily. In the world of franchises, studios ruin everything if there's something sacred in the original to ruin. For the first 6 films in this particular, very unique (and of course I'll tell you why in a second), franchise- Paramount kept their hands off the creative people they hired to helm this thing. They bought the first film, had nothing to do with its' production. And for the first five sequels, they basically just signed checks to whoever would make sure there was a script, actors, some place to shoot it- etc. This means, the filmmakers could run the show their way. This is why Part IV is so unbelievably sleazy, because screenwriter Barney Cohen writes his movies that way, and the murders were all sexually invasive and exploitative- because that's the way Joe Zito does his movies. Steve Miner made his 2 sequels extremely technically flashy, that was his thing. Tom McLoughlin likes gothic style and wanted to make his dopey and humorous. Paramount said: fine. Danny Steinmann wanted to make a surreal film where you couldn't tell whether characters were awake or asleep. Paramount said: fine.

This is not the same way New Line ran Nightmare on Elm Street. New Line loved to give their employees the opportunity to take Craven's ideas and characters and let them do whatever the hell they wanted with it. But you'll notice the original film had a vision behind it. And a few of the sequels had good ideas but... do you think anyone asked Craven: what would Freddy do? How could he be revived 5 times after Nancy destroyed him in the first film? (The ending to the film you see now was a form of studio interference- it's not Craven's original ending.) Why does this take place here? Etc. An idea that remains potent and brilliant in one film likely does not stretch for a franchise in the horror genre. This is why you'll note the trend of good sequels by directors of seminal horror films being considered remakes. Evil Dead II, Dawn of the Dead, etc. They re-write the entire concept, abandon characters or start over with the old ones, etc(.) because they know what worked for one film can't just repeat in a sequel. That the first was a completely self-contained concept and wasn't made to stretch. With that in mind, the only smart thing New Line did with character continuity in the Nightmare franchise is bring Nancy back once. Her father back once. And they died. Their stories between films are kept relevant to the 3rd film and don't affect the original. They don't change it. Halloween II fucks up bigtime because it leads people to believe Michael and Laurie were related in the first film. Carpenter wrote it but he didn't want to. It goes against the entire idea that Michael wasn't human. That he was somehow a force of evil. His name, after all, was: The Shape.

Friday the 13th, on the other hand, was totally made to stretch. And the character writing got smarter (then dumber, then smarter again occasionally) over the course of so many sequels. Even with huge gaps in logic, the franchise evolved. Every movie had something the previous films did not. Even if I can't respect Part IV because I can't wrap my head around why they would seemingly demonize sexuality and being young, the film was consistent. The death scenes were compelling, you couldn't take your ideas off them, and they had a theme / motif to them which was that they were all connected to sex. Technically, even with that film, the franchise wasn't being raped. Craven and Carpenter could certainly argue that what New Line and Universal / Trancas / Miramax were doing to them was raping or making a mockery out of their creations. Friday the 13th was much more communal in its' creativity. In fact, the real mastermind behind it was producer Frank Mancuso Jr. and he stayed on every sequel made at Paramount. So... they did retain a cohesion. Someone was responsible for making sure every new idea fit within the franchise somehow.

I learned so much just from that one post. I was wondering if Michael and Laurie were actually related in the original Halloween. Is there any DVDs available that has the original ending to Nightmare On Elm Street?

I never liked that backstory to Michael Myers and Laurie, anyway. The first movie gave us all we need to know about the character. Though, this revelation was something I could live with.

Now that druid story, on the other hand... ugh.

Quote from: gunswordfist on October 10, 2012, 05:15:33 PMI learned so much just from that one post. I was wondering if Michael and Laurie were actually related in the original Halloween. Is there any DVDs available that has the original ending to Nightmare On Elm Street?

Yep. In great quality too.

It's on the 2-Disc Infinifilm Edition. You have to click "Play Infinifilm," then go to the End Credits chapter. You will see a Blue Highlit Bar with an option to see Unusued Footage from the ending. Click the Down Arrow and another Blue Highlit Bar will appear and say "See Three Alternate Endings." Wes Craven's original ending is the 2nd out of the 3.


Goofy video I made showing you how to do it (1:32):
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Y5CMhikzPhU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Thanks. Also, you got some extra html or whatever crap around your link. The link works, just pointing that out.

Quote from: No-Personality on October 10, 2012, 03:15:48 PM
Ha... only at the expense of who the characters were in the first film and what Michael Myers represented. There was never supposed to be a sequel. John Carpenter did it for the money. Universal paid Compass International for the rights to produce a sequel and they were going to do it whether Carpenter was given any say in what they actually did with the story or not. They offered him money, he took it and has described the entire process with an extreme amount of cynicism and outright disdain. And so... he wrote in a backstory that has nothing to do with the characters, and more to do with how popular soap operas were at the time (since this just wreaks of a tv drama twist), and literally flies in the face of everything he was trying to do in the first film. Note the presence of graphic violence and the high bodycount. These elements weren't in the first film. They were from Friday the 13th. He knew why Universal bothered to try and make this a franchise. Because Friday the 13th was raking it in and producing a sequel - which also made a ton in comparison to how much it cost - for next to nothing.

I'm fully aware that the sequel was nothing but a cash-in on the huge and unexpected success of the first film, but in that regard so were all of the sequels to all of the major horror franchises of that era. I never even really implied that Halloween II was actually a good film, but rather that relative to the other horror slasher franchises I personally found this sequel to be more enjoyable than the plethora of other 80's slasher movies that I have seen. I don't disagree that its a complete "fuck you" to the original film and what that was all about, but I can at least say that I enjoy the movie for what it is.

That's just a personal opinion, though. I don't necessarily expect anyone else to agree with me, but that's about as far as I can explain why I like the movie when viewing it on its own terms.

As for Friday the 13th, I was probably being too harsh on that franchise (though I honestly could never develop an appreciation for it, but that's just me). You clearly know far more about this subject material in general than I do, so I won't waste time trying to argue with you on something that I'm quite frankly more naive about. I do see the validity in your points and don't necessarily disagree with them, but in this case I do still stand by my own personal opinion that the first 2 Halloween films are probably the only 2 that I find to be enjoyable among the 80's slasher movies. I probably should have worded that part of my original post better.

Since we're on the topic of Halloween, I'm curious what you guys think of their original intent for making a series out of it. You know, making an anthology series out of it. I think James Rolfe already said this, but as far as the Michael Myers story arc goes, all we need is the original film. And if you just have to know what happens to him after that, well, then the second movie is there for you. And from there, they were come up with new plots with each movie. I have a feeling this'll be the common opinion, but I think that idea would've been much better. I've only seen bits and pieces of Season of the Witch, but from what I've seen of it, it looks like a standard horror flick, which puts it above the movies they slapped together afterward.

Alright, I'm in the mood for some horror flicks, and am open to any recommendations besides just the obvious ones. The catch is that it kind of has to be something that is currently available for streaming on Netflix, so I'm not sure how much that limits my options. Also, if possible, I kind of prefer pre-80's horror films, but I'm not going to be too picky, here.

I do think I recall seeing that "Don't Look Now" was available on Netflix so I definitely want to give that film a watch sometime soon.

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on August 17, 2013, 04:57:13 PMAlright, I'm in the mood for some horror flicks, and am open to any recommendations besides just the obvious ones. The catch is that it kind of has to be something that is currently available for streaming on Netflix, so I'm not sure how much that limits my options. Also, if possible, I kind of prefer pre-80's horror films, but I'm not going to be too picky, here.

Have you seen any of the German Expressionist films?

No. No I have not.

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on August 17, 2013, 06:04:47 PMNo. No I have not.

Then I highly recommend The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. It's streaming on Netflix and it's the most artistically gorgeous horror film I've ever seen. :swoon:

I've always wanted to check that film out, myself, so I'll definitely give it a look sometime soon.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is simply great. I can't really put it into words, but I definitely second Daikun's recommendation.

Also, if Don't Look Now is indeed on Netflix, I definitely recommend that one, too. I saw it for the first time about a year ago, and I've been meaning to give it a rewatch.

EDIT:

I'm already looking forward to Halloween season. I might even start early this year (as in, early September) so I can get through as many horror movies as possible before the end of October.

Quote from: talonmalon333 on August 18, 2013, 02:52:38 PMAlso, if Don't Look Now is indeed on Netflix, I definitely recommend that one, too. I saw it for the first time about a year ago, and I've been meaning to give it a rewatch.

*checks Netflix* Yep, it's on there!

Also, thanks for reminding me about this movie. I totally forgot about it until you brought it up. This movie was actually a required viewing when I was in college.

For some reason I decided to watch House Of 1000 Corpses last night. It's even worse than I remembered it from approx. five years ago. I want to say it's too.. schlocky? But what's interesting about that is how much better the sequel turned out to be, The Devil's Rejects. It's as though Rob Zombie reinvented the characters just enough to make them seem more believable. This family of characters is truly frightening with their disregard for human life. Morals are thrown right out the window. Very effective writing and directing in Rejects, IMO.

House Of 1000 Corpses is just forgettable. But if anyone is into schlocky horror, go for it.

I actually own copies of House of 1,000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects. I tried to watch the latter but I flat-out just turned it off 40-something mins in. It is so full of... I still can't identify it. It's definitely bullshit. Of some festering variety. The characters aren't characters. The dialogue isn't dialogue. The writing isn't writing. Rob Zombie is not pretentious. Except in his influences: he couldn't touch Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Last House on the Left with everything he has now and he'll never be that good a director. He's also not original in the slightest, nor is he the slightest bit deft at pastiche. He takes his influences, wrings them completely dry of all the substance they used to have in the hope that invoking / incorporating them into his film will make up for the idiocy he writes. He sort of wants to be a White Trash David Lynch and a horror fanboy who is treated with respect at the same time. Meanwhile... after Corpses, I cannot sit through one of his films all the way through. I feel like I'm being pissed on, like this is all a ploy to enhance his reputation- not a film. Not a story. Not a series of images worth a damn.

Meanwhile, Corpses was a bit more of a genuine pastiche. And a very specific one at that: it's a love letter to Tobe Hooper's The Funhouse and Eaten Alive. In fact, Funhouse itself was a sleazy backwoods type slasher which took influences from old Universal monster movies. And this was of course all over Zombie's Corpses. So, in a way, this was like a remake. Not a well-focused remake but it appropriated Zombie's style in a way that didn't make me want to see him fall over a cliff. It's what you would expect if you knew his music and it wasn't too insane a digression from Bride of Chucky. He didn't take it too seriously, the Firefly Family characters were not fucking tragic figures or these weary, "wartorn"-esque survivors like they were in Rejects (what in the flying FUCK was that shit about? IRONY? Oh hell no!), and it looked great. Much as I still have genuine fondness or fascination (it's a case by case basis thing) for the Scream-era slashers, they were sucking the style out of horror. If we don't have noteworthy films which value atmosphere, horror loses a lot of its identity. So, there are scenes in Corpses that made me feel like we were on the verge of a renaissance. Too bad that began and then died with May and 28 Days Later.

Of course, the trick to the film is that it's 2 movies in 1. The second movie begins when the "teenagers" (they exist to be labeled and I'm too lazy to think of something better than this) go outside in the rain and the car is attacked. The first movie is okay, the second movie is terrible.

It's kind of scary when Michael Myers looks like Mike Myers.

I watched v/h/s the other day. A bunch of horror movie short stories from a first person camcorder perspective, which is like Paranormal Activity in that each story starts off fairly boring and then gets supernaturally ridiculous later.

Happy Halloween folks. For today, I think I'm going to rank my top 10 favorite horror films.

1. Rosemary's Baby
2. Nosferatu the Vampyre
3. Psycho
4. The Exorcist
5. Dawn of the Dead
6. Halloween
7. Nosferatu
8. The Bride of Frankenstein
9. Black Christmas
10. An American Werewolf in London

I don't count certain movies (Jaws, etc.). I wasn't even sure if I should count Rosemary's Baby or Psycho, but I did just because I wasn't sure what else to rank on that list. If I excluded them, I would've put Night of the Living Dead at #9 probably, and then I wouldn't know what to rank next.

I'll take a stab at it, but honestly I need to watch a lot more of the genre:

1. John Carpenter's The Thing (I respect the original, but this version is superior, IMO)
2. Psycho (More of a suspense thriller, but it still counts)
3. The Shining ( The Stanely Kubrick version, obviously)
4. An American Werewolf in London (The only horror comedy on my list, because it works as both)
5. The Omen (This one gets more overlooked these days, but I think it's one of the best in the genre)
6. The Exorcist (More intriguing than scary, but a great film, either way)
7. Dawn of the Dead (The original, obviously)
8. The Children of the Corn (the only other Stephen King movie that I like)
9. The Conjuring (It may be recent, but it was a damn well-made horror film)
10. Alien (The best science-fiction horror movie that I have ever seen)

Honorable mentions:

Halloween- It was the main influence for the teen slasher genre, and still the best in the genre, IMO; That said, it does come off as a bit too cliche, these days

Poltergeist- Mostly for nostalgia, but I consider it to be the perfect horror movie for kids; as an adult, its simply just entertaining

Keep in mind that I still have yet to see a lot of the classics, so my list is just based on my personal taste from the relatively limited amount of horror flicks that I have seen.

When you say those are the only Stephen King adaptations you like, does that mean you haven't seen Carrie yet, or are you not a fan?

Whoops, I forgot about Carrie. I do like the movie, actually (the original; I haven't seen the remake), but I don't really consider it a horror film in the same way that I don't consider Don't Look Now to be a horror film. It's really only the last 10-15 minutes of those movies that make that transition into being horror movies, but the vast majority of those films are more about characterization and suspense.

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on October 31, 2013, 07:49:24 PM
6. The Exorcist (More intriguing than scary, but a great film, either way)

Put me in the camp that finds The Exorcist to be terrifying. :P

Good list. I haven't yet seen Children of the Corn or The Conjuring, but I like every other movie you mentioned.

I also think it should be noted that my lists don't accurately show which movies I can rewatch the most. For example, every October I make an attempt to rewatch American Werewolf in London, Dawn of the Dead, Nosferatu the Vampyre, and Halloween (with the sad exception of this year, where I didn't get around to all of them). However, I haven't been able to go back to The Exorcist in years, despite liking it more than the majority of my list. I guess sometimes, the most rewatchable movie isn't necessarily my favorite.

Anyway, here's some of my honorable mentions.

Night of the Living Dead (just barely missed my list, as I indicated earlier)
The Haunting
Frankenstein
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (a perfect example to what I was saying above, because I don't know if I can bring myself to rewatch this one)
Alien

As far as Stephen King movies, I really enjoyed 1408 and The Mist would have been better had the ending not been stupid.

Though for Frankenstein, I just can't enjoy any of the movies. The monster in the book is far more frightening than any movie version because it is nothing like any of the depictions and quite disturbing to think about. That and Frankenstein himself is actually sympathetic.

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on November 01, 2013, 03:37:45 PMAs far as Stephen King movies, I really enjoyed 1408 and The Mist would have been better had the ending not been stupid.

I hated 1408, personally. I don't mind that it wasn't scary, but as something that seemed to be taking itself seriously, a lot of the horror elements came off as too goofy to me, and the characters just didn't interest me that much. To be fair, though, that's kind of how I feel about most Stephen King stories, so it's not really a fault of this movie as much as it is me not caring for the types of stories from this author (though to be fair, I haven't read any of his books, so I can only really apply that to adaptations of his work).

The original ending of The Mist was ambiguous, the movie version is just stupid.

But yeah, I'm not a big Stephen King fan myself. I only really like a handful of stories (The Shining, Salem's Lot, and The Stand, mainly) and find that most of his stories are him trying too hard to be scary. Then there's stuff like Christine.

:whuh:

Though I don't actually read a lot of horror. Mostly just the classics and stuff like the above.

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on November 01, 2013, 03:37:45 PM
As far as Stephen King movies, I really enjoyed 1408 and The Mist would have been better had the ending not been stupid.

Though for Frankenstein, I just can't enjoy any of the movies. The monster in the book is far more frightening than any movie version because it is nothing like any of the depictions and quite disturbing to think about. That and Frankenstein himself is actually sympathetic.

The novel was excellent. But I do still very much enjoy the movies, most notably Bride of Frankenstein which I find to be the best of the old Universal horror films.

Quote from: talonmalon333 on November 01, 2013, 07:07:10 PM

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on November 01, 2013, 03:37:45 PM
As far as Stephen King movies, I really enjoyed 1408 and The Mist would have been better had the ending not been stupid.

Though for Frankenstein, I just can't enjoy any of the movies. The monster in the book is far more frightening than any movie version because it is nothing like any of the depictions and quite disturbing to think about. That and Frankenstein himself is actually sympathetic.

The novel was excellent. But I do still very much enjoy the movies, most notably Bride of Frankenstein which I find to be the best of the old Universal horror films.

The movies are fine for what they are, but the novel is just so different which makes it hard for me to see them in the same light.

For my personal interests, Dracula>Frankenstein in any given instance, but I do find the Frankenstein story very fascinating.

So ever since the summer, my brother and I had been going through the Friday the 13th franchise and just finished it about a week ago (we actually took a break from the franchise in October to see other horror films). These are still cheap exploitative, low class trash. But I still can't help but enjoy them. Haven't gone through the movies (and having seen some that I hadn't seen previously), I feel like giving my thoughts on them quickly.

The original is certainly not a great movie by any stretch, with the exception of Tom Savini's effects. But it's definitely a slasher classic. And the ending is something that has stuck with me ever since I first saw this movie 10 years ago. Part of me still prefers Jason as a concept (a driving plot point, as he is in this movie), rather than the primary killer. I also like when Jason's mother is about to imply that he had mental problems, but then catches herself and simply says "He wasn't a very good swimmer". It's nice getting some subtlety from a Friday the 13th film. That rarely happens.

Part 2 very closely follows the first movie, almost step for step. Only this is the introduction of Jason. I find it really interesting how one of the biggest horror icons wasn't even really in his first film (and what makes this even more interesting is that he didn't get his famous hockey mask until Part III, a look that's now synonymous with him and it's practically impossible imagining him without it). I think Part 2 is a worthy sequel (remember to put that in perspective though :P).

As for Part III, when I first saw this movie, I couldn't help but think about the fact that it's not up to par with the first two movies. Some of the characters in this movie are ridiculous (yeah yeah I know all F13 characters are kind of bad, but many of the ones in this movie feel like they can just be cut) and it's a bit too indulgent on the 3D gimmick (gee, I wonder why they decided to make that eye pop out at the screen). So I wasn't particularly a fan of this movie at first. However, after I saw every movie this franchise has to offer, this one started to grow on me. Plus, it's nice seeing Jason finally don his mask. It's just not as good as Part 2.

Part IV: The Final Chapter is, in many ways, the "perfect Friday the 13th film" (once again, you really need to put that description into perspective). The deaths are great, particularly thanks to Tom Savini being back. He's also to thank for the phenomenal look of the unmasked Jason in this movie. I was so-so on the unmasked Jason in Part 2, and I disliked how he looked in Part III (he looked like some weird goblin with a goofy grin). But in this movie, Tom Savini really nailed it, perfectly taking the child Jason of Part 1 into adult form. Also, this movie has some likeable characters, mainly Corey Feldman and Crispin Glover.

Then you have Part V: A New Beginning. After they killed off Jason in IV, they tried to introduce a new killer to follow Jason's footsteps. But unfortunately, this movie is where the franchise begins to really wear down. This movie, in my opinion, is certainly the worst in the franchise and is the one I would truly call bad. The characters suck more than ever, and they don't even get an introduction. The movie isn't trying to hide the fact that they exist to die. Plus, the acting is bad. And by that, I mean bad, even for F13 standards. Plus, the ending is just predictable and so simple minded.

I assume they realized the franchise needed some changes. Because Part VI: Jason Lives marked a new direction for the series. They brought back Jason in this movie, finally as the unstoppable zombie. This is the movie with the tongue-in-cheek tone. Instead of trying to be really scary, this movie just portrays Jason as seriously badass. And it's hilarious. There's few things funnier than a woman trying to bribe Jason with money. And once those guys playing paintball in the woods showed up, I was praying that they would try to shoot Jason with paint balls. My prayers were answered. The characters in this movie are weak. But I could care less because Jason is the star here. He steals the show, and he even gets his own enjoyable theme song in the credits ("He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)").

Jason Lives definitely brought new life to the franchise and has rightfully become a fan favorite. So it really should've been the template for the future of the series. Just looking at later movies, storylines involving Jason battling a psychic, and Jason "taking Manhattan" just beg for some silliness. But sadly, they do not continue in this direction. Part VII: A New Blood tries to take the franchise back to being scary, but it's not strong enough to be taken seriously. The idea of Jason fighting a psychic girl, as I said earlier, could've really worked if they made it in the same vein as Jason Lives, but they play it totally straight, and it fails because of that. How are we supposed to be scared if the girl Jason is trying to kill can vastly overpower him? Part VII is a major missed opportunity, but on the bright side, Kane Hodder plays a really good, angry, and aggressive Jason. He plays the role for the rest of the series, but this is his best appearance. In this movie, you really get the feeling that he is someone who just has to kill, unlike Part VII where it just seems like a hobby of his. Speaking of... Oh God, here we go. :huh:

Part VII: Jason takes Manhattan is one of the most mind-boggling movies I have ever seen. First of all, the title just leads to so much disappointment. You want to see Jason actually taking Manhattan, but ultimately he only spends like 30-45 minutes in Manhattan. And of that time, only 2-5 minutes take place in the lively part of the city and leave any impression (I was looking forward to seeing that kid try to beat up Jason, but it ended up being such a letdown). Instead the movie mainly takes place on a boat, which is a good setting, but come on, what about Manhattan? What about the freaking title of the movie? Plus, the bits of the movie that revolve around child Jason are just frustrating abysmal and are easily the absolute worst parts of the whole series. They make no sense are fly in the face of what we know about Jason (like how Jason suddenly looks like a normal kid in this movie). Plus, the look of unmasked Jason is awful, and his weakness of water makes no sense when you consider that, in this movie, he swam all the way to New York. Shit don't make sense, bro. But on the upside, the movie has some funny moments, both intentional and unintentional (I love the part where Jason starts blatantly teleporting all over that music room of the boat, they aren't even trying to hide this fact anymore). Still, those moments don't save this movie. The characters all suck, too.

Then you have Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. Technically speaking, I'd say this is the most poorly made film of the franchise. The vibe of it is so incredibly cheap. I think that might be because the budget is much bigger and many things have improved, while most other things haven't and so they stand out more. But man, I'd be lying if I said this movie wasn't so bad it's good. It's really the absolute bottom of the barrel, but it succeeds at bringing more entertainment than VII and VIII. The self-aware opening of the hot chick getting undressed to lore out Jason, and lead him out to a fire squad to be shot down, is great. And I love how over the top it is. You have an entire army just open fire blowing him away, and then sending bombs on top of him, it's so overdone that I couldn't stop laughing when I first say it (it's now one of my favorite moments of the series). Some of the characters are fun as well (especially Vicki the badass waitress who fights on practically an equal level to Jason, don't make sense but it's funny). There's just so much stupidity in this movie (and not the terrible kind like child Jason from Part VIII) to be fun, so that at least keeps it from being the worst in the series.

Finally, we reach Jason X. And in my mind, this movie absolutely "gets it". After I saw Part VI: Jason Lives, I was just let down by the sequels. However, Jason X was my long awaited successor to Part VI. It goes back to the tongue-in-cheek nature of that movie and just has fun with itself. And at that, the movie succeeds The dialogue is funny, and the situations the characters get into are really funny (the part where Jason is sent to a simulation of Crystal Lake is great, where those girls chanted "We love premarital sex!", the writers clearly knew what they were doing with that part). I also love the fact that there's an android in a Friday movie. She fights Jason and whoops him, but this doesn't fail (unlike when that girl beat Jason using her psychic powers in Part VII) because this movie is meant to be funny. Also, the moment where that giant simulated monster appeared, I nearly died of laughter. I actually had to take a moment to register that I saw it. There are now monsters in Friday the 13th (I might call it the funniest moment in the series). When I saw this movie, I was surprised to realize that, after all the failures of the recent few movies, that I was getting a satisfying movie to end the Friday the 13th franchise. And it was nice. Jason X isn't as good as Part VI, but it ended the series on a good note.

Now to rank the films...
IV > I > II > VI > III > X > IX > VII > VIII > V

Quote from: Avaitor on November 01, 2013, 07:26:44 PMFor my personal interests, Dracula>Frankenstein in any given instance, but I do find the Frankenstein story very fascinating.

If only that opinion were shared by more people but it's not. My main reservation is against James Whale in general. His movies are quite terrible. I think I gave Bride of Frankenstein a 3/5 passing grade earlier this year when I watched it but there are moments when I really wanted to shut it off. I don't remember the original Frankenstein well but... I saw The Invisible Man. And that is a bad movie. I gave it 2.5/5 to reflect the fact that you can tell the bad decisions were made intentionally and are not meant to irritate you. Or maybe they are.

By the way, all... my list in my Top 100 thread is undergoing some huge changes at the present time. At least 4 movies which weren't there before are there now, which means of course that 4 of my original choices have been booted. And dozens of numbers are different- some choices moved forward, others moved back.

I very much want to reboot that project.

Steven Spielberg's early directorial work from 1971: Duel

A business man on his way to an important meeting finds himself with his life in danger after innocently passing a slow, creepy looking semi tanker truck..

Yeah, the plot is ridiculously thin, but I like this movie. Not sure if I'd call this an actual horror flick, but it definitely has good suspense and is loaded with tension. It's also neat to see where Spielberg came from before becoming the household name in entertainment of today. I want to find a copy of this on DVD.

If anyone is interested in checking it out, it's as easy as browsing YouTube for the full movie.

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on October 31, 2013, 07:49:24 PM
I'll take a stab at it, but honestly I need to watch a lot more of the genre:

1. John Carpenter's The Thing (I respect the original, but this version is superior, IMO)
10. Alien (The best science-fiction horror movie that I have ever seen)

Honorable mentions:

Halloween- It was the main influence for the teen slasher genre, and still the best in the genre, IMO; That said, it does come off as a bit too cliche, these days

;D :thumbup:

I just heard about it's PS1 sequel. But that was a long time ago and I'm not even sure what genre it is.

So recently, I have gotten around to watching all the Nightmare on Elm Street movies (some of which I had previously seen, some of which I hadn't). I figure I'll just quickly post my thoughts on them.

The original is still a classic and a great horror film. One of the best slasher films ever made. Of course Freddy Krueger is great here and works very well at being scary, but I think Nancy doesn't get as much respect as she deserves for being the lead. She's overall a better and more cunning character than someone like Laurie from the Halloween series.

Nightmare 2: Freddy's Revenge isn't nearly as bad as people made it out to be, but at the same time, it has faded into the realms of forgettable-ness ever since I saw it. It has some interesting ideas, but it also lacks great dream segments, and the method of overcoming Freddy is pretty bad.

Nightmare 3: Dream Warriors is certainly the best of the "sequels" (at least, as far as the movie continuity sequels go). And that can be attributed to Wes Craven back as the director and Nancy back as the lead, as well as some nice special effects and comedic touches. The concept of dream powers is also a nice idea for a change, though it's not nearly as interesting as Nancy's careful planning and traps from the first movie. They really could have ended the movie continuity here.

Nightmare 4: Dream Master is where the series starts to truly go downhill. The characters and acting are weaker (with the exception of the lead, Alice), the pacing is too rushed, the creativity is dumbed down, and the movie as a whole feels more like a formulaic slasher.

Nightmare 5: Dream Child takes it lower. The movie has some nice gothic and creepy sets, and it manages to surprisingly build up atmosphere at times. But the story is too ridiculous, and the comedy is incredibly overdone.

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare is the last in the movie continuity, and it's by far the worst. I knew it would be bad when I went into it a week ago, but it ended up being worse than I expected. Nothing about this movie works. The story makes no sense and is hard to follow, the acting is bad, the characters are bad, the movie is very predictable, and the comedy is so overdone to the point of making Nightmare 5 look like a serious film. Plus, it's honestly shocking how forced and gimmicky the 3D effects are (lead female literally puts on a pair of 3D glasses). However, the movie is so bad that it can be entertaining, so it's not unwatchable. Plus, I have to admit Freddy has some really funny lines.

Wes Craven's New Nightmare is the last of them, though it's not actually part of the movie continuity. I always thought this and the original movie were the best, and I stand by that. It puts a great spin on the series' concept which was already unique and interesting. And it's great to see Nancy's actress back. I also think this might be the movie where Freddy is at his best. His makeup is great, and I really like the coat he wears (though I wish the hat wasn't such a bright green, but at least he doesn't wear it often). It's also nice seeing him be serious again. Really, it's almost surprising seeing how quickly this movie redeems the franchise, after it spent multiple movies simply deteriorating.

Overall, I'm glad I finally got around to watching every movie. However, I think that the original movie, 3, and New Nightmare are the only ones I'll ever have a desire to go back to.

So upon rewatching it, Alien is still one of the greatest horror movies of all time. Feel free to discuss this fact.

Alien = greatest sci-fi/horror film of all time

Aliens = greatest sci-fi/action film of all time

There were no other films in the franchise after that. No video games were made, either.

This is all indisputable fact.

I will say that John Carpenter's The Thing is actually a match for Alien in the sci-fi/horror department, so to take back my previous statement, it's a tie between those 2 films.

I've watched all the Elm Street movies years ago and I largely agree with talonmalon.

What I find surprising is that this franchise has some pretty decent sequels. When I watch other horror movie franchises, they usually just have the original good first movie and a bunch of unwatchable garbage that they try to pass off as sequels. Robert Englund has a lot of fun as Freddy and his kills are enjoyable and sometimes even creative.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on July 01, 2014, 05:14:23 PM
I will say that John Carpenter's The Thing is actually a match for Alien in the sci-fi/horror department, so to take back my previous statement, it's a tie between those 2 films.

While I prefer Aliens, I recently rewatched The Thing and it was much better than I originally gave it credit for. In addition to those phenomenal special effects, it's also very suspenseful and dripping with atmosphere.

Quote from: Daikun on July 01, 2014, 05:24:26 PM
I've watched all the Elm Street movies years ago and I largely agree with talonmalon.

What I find surprising is that this franchise has some pretty decent sequels. When I watch other horror movie franchises, they usually just have the original good first movie and a bunch of unwatchable garbage that they try to pass off as sequels. Robert Englund has a lot of fun as Freddy and his kills are enjoyable and sometimes even creative.

The sequels I mainly like are 3 and New Nightmare. With the exception of Freddy's Dead, none of the other sequels are downright horrible, but they also aren't memorable. I didn't especially mind 2 at first, but now, it just feels all wrong. As far as horror sequels go, which ones are you referring to? I tend to compare the Nightmare series with Halloween and Friday the 13th, because those are the horror slasher franchises that directly competed with each other. The Halloween sequels are bad but they were kind of doomed by merely existing (I've talked before about how making a sequel to Halloween doesn't work with its themes). Friday the 13th's sequels are bad but at the same time the original was bad, too. They consist of pieces of garbage that are fun, and pieces of garbage that are just pieces of garbage.

Yeah, pretty much Halloween. The original was great and I surprisingly liked H20. The fourth movie was okay. The rest are awful.

I don't think any of the Friday the 13th movies are good.

Quote from: Daikun on July 01, 2014, 06:12:00 PM
Yeah, pretty much Halloween. The original was great and I surprisingly liked H20. The fourth movie was okay. The rest are awful.

I don't think any of the Friday the 13th movies are good.

Looking them on their own, I actually didn't dislike II. I do think it's the "best" of the sequels and is better than 99% of cheap slashers.

New top 10 horror movie list.

1. Psycho
2. Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979 remake)
3. Rosemary's Baby
4. The Exorcist
5. Nosferatu (1922 original)
6. Dawn of the Dead
7. Alien
8. Halloween
9. The Bride of Frankenstein
10. An American Werewolf in London

No Jaws?

In no order, except the first: 1. The Thing, Halloween, Jaws, Dawn Of The Dead, Alien, Aliens, Night Of The Living Dead, DOTD Remake

Quote from: gunswordfist on July 08, 2014, 03:28:37 PM
No Jaws?

In no order, except the first: 1. The Thing, Halloween, Jaws, Dawn Of The Dead, Alien, Aliens, Night Of The Living Dead, DOTD Remake

I can't bring myself to call Jaws a horror movie.

Also, from what I hear, Aliens isn't much of a horror movie, either. Haven't seen it yet, but that might end up changing tonight.

Why not? Also, DOTD remake probably doesn't count but I had spots to fill. Also, I forgot to add Predator.

Because Jaws is too much of a suspense thriller in my mind.

DOTD remake refers to Dawn of the Dead remake, right? Why wouldn't that count?

Also, if you're the type to count Alien as a slasher movie, Ripley is the best final girl in any slasher film (or, at the very least, she's tied with Nancy Thompson).

I don't even get the difference between those genres.

I think Dawn Of The Dead remake could be considered an action movie with zombies.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on July 01, 2014, 05:11:32 PMAlien = greatest sci-fi/horror film of all time

Aliens = greatest sci-fi/action film of all time

There were no other films in the franchise after that. No video games were made, either.

This is all indisputable fact.

I'm with you on Aliens, but... have you seen Videodrome?

One of the reasons I always argue Jaws isn't a horror film is because Spielberg is a big "movie magic" guy. I absolutely adore Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the majority of that movie is scenes that take you out of any human story going on. So, he's actively abusing his power as a storyteller to play the Awesome Director game. Like Michael Bay does all the time, and I friggin' hate him for. Alien might be pulling a Gremlins and slyly luring audiences in by impressing them with post-Star Wars spaceship visuals, making them think this will be less intense than it winds up being, but it's an extremely slow buildup which I'm not sure adequately serves the film's atmosphere first.

Videodrome has a far tighter grip on story, character, acting, tone, etc. And is every bit as intense, shocking, and thought-provoking.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on October 31, 2013, 08:05:47 PMWhoops, I forgot about Carrie. I do like the movie, actually (the original; I haven't seen the remake), but I don't really consider it a horror film in the same way that I don't consider Don't Look Now to be a horror film. It's really only the last 10-15 minutes of those movies that make that transition into being horror movies, but the vast majority of those films are more about characterization and suspense.

Don't Look Now is a British horror movie, first and foremost. One of the reasons I limited my Top 100 list to films made after 1967 was that I am wildly ignorant when it comes to Hammer horror. They made so many damn movies and too many studios have a few pieces of their whole puzzle that it's difficult to actually see them all unless you invested in them at least a decade ago. Unlike Roger Corman's AIP (American International Pictures) Vincent Price / Edgar Allen Poe period costume-horror output, which MGM / 20th Century Fox co-own the entirety of outright (except for one single film- The Terror with Jack Nicholson and Boris Karloff). To me, Don't Look Now fits in the 1973 class-curve of horror very well, thanks to the influence of The Wicker Man. Which is another slow-burner that relies more on the horror of observation. And works thanks to gritty camerawork and a dark worldview.

De Palma's Carrie is a full-blooded horror film in my book, start to finish. First of all, it maintains a consistently permeating creepiness. Thanks in no small part to Piper Laurie and, of all people, John Travolta. I don't know if I'm alone here but some characters in a horror story (especially if they're teenagers) naturally remind you that the horror story focused on teenagers is often about how unforgiving life is on people who live like there's no tomorrow. That there are no exceptions for teenagers; if you're in a 70's or 70's-styled (i.e.: Tobe Hooper's The Funhouse, anything directed by Rob Zombie) horror movie- chances are already against you. The Grim Reaper is practically jealous of your youth and is just itching to make an example out of you. And as the Prom Massacre scene makes plainly obvious: no one in this movie goes down alone. When Carrie opens fire, you'd better already be in another town (this goes back to the book, if I'm not mistaken). Secondly, Carrie is one of the few horror movies that I give points to for trying to make commonplace everyday events a compelling source of horror. Horror today is all about "bad things happen" without any genuine creepiness, atmosphere, or visual flare that isn't in the big-budget slick cinematography. Today: any bad thing happens, it's horror. Any grave subject matter makes a movie horror these days. Which kind of means that war movies, documentaries, and some grossout comedies are now viable horror pics (I've heard some make this case with Freddy Got Fingered... I am not kidding).

Those are fair points. I think you can interpret them as horror films. It's just that both of those films felt like completely different movies until their last 15-20 minutes or so. Having re-watched Carrie recently, though, it does feel effectively more somber to watch when you know how it ends.

I've seen plenty of movies that left me feeling the same way, but then they almost never get to the point where they feel like horror. I.E.: Possession - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxVdtYAs8-w / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTB15PPtMyA - the greatest example of false advertising you'll ever see. All because it can't find home in a genre. But it's mostly either 10-minute long dialogue scenes or absurd scenes of people behaving strangely. Another ace example is Santa Sangre - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ3x6YgsacY . Ironically, this trailer doesn't show the amazing scene of horror that happens 59-minutes into the film. You couldn't wring 5 whole minutes of horror out of either film.

Plus, I don't feel Jaws, The Tenant, Dead Ringers, Naked Lunch, Aliens, Psycho, Freaks, The Invisible Man, Cat's Eye, What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice, Private Parts (1972), The Wraith, Scream 2 and 3, most giallos, or anything David Lynch has ever made (Eraserhead, Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Dr., Inland Empire, Lost Highway) are horror films. Though several could be considered examples of very ahead-of-their-time filmmaking.

So, has anyone seen any recent horror films that were actually any good? While the genre has been dead for a while, I've seen some that I enjoyed to varying degrees over the past year.

I saw MaMa, the other day (which starred the guy who plays Jaime Lannister on Game of Thrones). It was a mixed bag, and had a script that didn't really explain things all that well, but I kind of enjoyed it.

I also saw Insidious, which I thought was solid until the last 20-minutes, where there's a twist that makes it go from being a standard but entertaining paranormal type movie to being borderline Tim. Burton shenanigans, but even the it oddly enough didn't kill the film for me, but it did feel less scary at that point.

I saw a Sinister, which got mixed reviews, but honestly I really enjoyed it, and personally I loved the twist at the end.

Finally, I saw The Conjuring at least three times since it came out, and I really love it. It's not original in the slightest, so let's be clear on that, but I just love the execution so much. It manages to build an effectively creepy atmosphere without having to rely on gore or a body count. It's the best horror film that I've seen in a long time, personally, and felt just like a classic haunted house movie.

I plan to see the Evil Dead remake, eventually, which I've heard mixed things about. It's worth mentioning that, after 3 viewings, I don't really think that the original film is necessarily all that great, even if it's a classic, but even so, I can't deny how good it was at building a really disturbing atmosphere, and I loved the special effects, as cheesy and outdated as some of them are. I do respect it a lot as a film and like it well enough, bit hour holding it in any sacred light that would make me biased against the remake whether it was a quality product or not.

Have you seen Army of Darkness yet, E-K? For some reason, I remember you saying at some point that you still hadn't seen that one.

I think I did see it a few years back, but oddly enough, I can't remember for sure. :P

Either ways if I did see it, I barely remember it, so I really need to either watch or re-watch it. I did see Evil Dead 2, for sure, but that's another film that I need to re-watch.

On another note, though, does nobody have any good horror movies to recommend from what has come out in recent years?  I know it's been a dry market, but there should surely be some gems. I mean, I've at least heard of some foreign films that are worth looking into, like Let the Right One in.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on September 04, 2014, 03:14:44 PM
I think I did see it a few years back, but oddly enough, I can't remember for sure. :P

Either ways if I did see it, I barely remember it, so I really need to either watch or re-watch it. I did see Evil Dead 2, for sure, but that's another film that I need to re-watch.

On another note, though, does nobody have any good horror movies to recommend from what has come out in recent years?  I know it's been a dry market, but there should surely be some gems. I mean, I've at least heard of some foreign films that are worth looking into, like Let the Right One in.

Army of Darkness is my favorite of the three. I recently saw the Evil Dead musical. What's funny is that the story of the musical is based on the first two movies. However, the quotes are mostly taken from Army of Darkness, as that's the one with the most gold in it. :D

As for recent years... sadly, I can't think of anything. The Others was a solid movie, but looking at Wikipedia, it came out in 2001, which makes it less recent than I believed. I wish I could recommend something from this genre I love, but there's nothing I can come up with. Hopefully someone else here can recommend what I can't.

I heard good things about "Deliver Us From Evil", but I haven't seen it, so I dunno. Good exorcism movies are so very rare after all.

Oh yeah, and apparently the director for that will be doing the Doctor Strange movie. So I'm guessing he did at least a decent job.

Will that be part of Marvel Movie Universe?

Quote from: gunswordfist on September 04, 2014, 06:43:12 PM
Will that be part of Marvel Movie Universe?

Yes.

I was afraid it might have been apart of the "We don't speak on the rest of Marvel" Universe. :D

So in preparation for the horror season (since my schedule doesn't allow for constantly watching horror movies as I could when I was younger, so I have to start as early as September), tonight I saw the Canadian movie Ginger Snaps. I don't think I'd even heard of this movie before tonight. It comes highly recommended.

I still haven't seen that, but I know that Ginger from those movies is also Margot Verger in Hannibal. She is great on the show, which raised my interest a little.

I still need to see more than the first few episodes of Hannibal, but she's great in Ginger Snaps.

Oh wait, I forgot the other reason I need to see these movies: Tatiana Maslany is in the second.

It seems really weird to me that they made a sequel to this movie.

So, I thought of a neat little discussion idea. Let's compile a list of 31 great horror films for each day of the month of October, and if there are any on the list that you haven't seen, try to make it a goal to view those by Halloween. If not, then it could still at least be interesting to generate a decent discussion for the films that you have seen on their respective day.

If not that, then I'll just select a random film each day of the month myself, and see if anyone else wants to discuss it with me.

And if not even that, then I'll just haunt you all in your sleep....:humhumhum:

I really only know horror comedies, unfortunately. :blush: Unless those count. I never really got into horror cinema like I did horror video games.

I nominate Scream for October 1st! I just finished watching it again with my girlfriend. Hilarious film.

I nominate An American Werewolf in London.

Quote from: Foggle on September 26, 2014, 12:27:33 AM
I really only know horror comedies, unfortunately. :blush: Unless those count. I never really got into horror cinema like I did horror video games.

They do count. My favorite horror movie of all time is a horror comedy called An American Werewolf in London. A film that some of us have practically been begging you to watch for ages. ;)

QuoteI nominate Scream for October 1st! I just finished watching it again with my girlfriend. Hilarious film.

Done! And I agree!

1st: Scream
2nd: An American Werewolf in London
3rd: The Thing (1982)
4th: The Shining
5th: The Evil Dead Trilogy
6th: Return of the Living Dead
7th: American Psycho
8th: Cemetery Man
9th: Happiness of the Katakuris
10th: Shaun of the Dead

Keep 'em coming people!

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on September 26, 2014, 12:36:11 AM
They do count. My favorite horror movie of all time is a horror comedy called An American Werewolf in London. A film that some of us have practically been begging you to watch for ages. ;)

Fuuuuck, I keep forgetting. It's actually rare for me to watch films these days except with my friends. I WILL TRY TO REMEMBER TO DO SO THIS WEEKEND

So should we aim to nominate movies people haven't seen?

I'd actually prefer mostly more recognizable entries to encourage more discussion, but I also encourage a few more obscure ones in there just to expose people to some new stuff.

For now I'm limiting nominations to 4 per person, but depending on how many people nominate, I may extend that if we don't have enough entries.

Good choices so far! I would like to also nominate

American Psycho
Cemetery Man
Happiness of the Katakuris

Hopefully someone else will pick Shaun of the Dead for me. ;)

I went ahead and threw you a bone because I figured it was a worthy entry, regardless. I'm still sticking to my 4 per person rule for everything else, though. ;)

1st: Scream
2nd: An American Werewolf in London
3rd: The Thing (1982)
4th: The Shining
5th: The Evil Dead Trilogy
6th: Return of the Living Dead
7th: American Psycho
8th: Cemetery Man
9th: Happiness of the Katakuris
10th: Shaun of the Dead

Also, feel free to nominate an entire series if you have more than one entry from it that you want to talk about it, hence The Evil Dead trilogy that I nominated.

In other words, I'm counting on one of you guys to remember to nominate Night, Dawn, and Day. :humhumhum:

::EDIT::

Oh, and Alien. Somebody please remember that one!

The Exorcist
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (original)
Poltergeist

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on September 26, 2014, 12:49:14 AM
10th: Shaun of the Dead

:joy:

1st: Scream
2nd: An American Werewolf in London
3rd: The Thing (1982)
4th: The Shining
5th: The Evil Dead Trilogy
6th: Return of the Living Dead
7th: American Psycho
8th: Cemetery Man
9th: Happiness of the Katakuris
10th: Shaun of the Dead
11th: The Exorcist
12th: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (original)
13th: Poltergeist

I'm picking a few that I'm a fan enough that should be known at least to a certain extent (but not necessarily the most recognizable, and my first choice is a bit more obscure than the rest).

Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979 remake)
Ring
Bride of Frankenstein
Alien

I was going to list Black Christmas to encourage more people to watch it. However, that's a required December watching, not an October one. So you guys should get around to watching that movie in the Christmas season. :P

Man, that's a really good list of films. Shame I probably won't get around to watching all of them.

If more channels had Halloween marathons of classic horror movies it would be a heck of a lot easier. Last year I couldn't even find one good marathon. So I just watched The Stand miniseries.  :P

1st: Scream
2nd: An American Werewolf in London
3rd: The Thing (1982)
4th: The Shining
5th: The Evil Dead Trilogy
6th: Return of the Living Dead
7th: American Psycho
8th: Cemetery Man
9th: Happiness of the Katakuris
10th: Shaun of the Dead
11th: The Exorcist
12th: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (original)
13th: Poltergeist
14th: Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979 remake)
15th: Ring
16th: Bride of Frankenstein
17th: Alien
18th: Night, Dawn, and Day Trilogy (George Romero)

Good man, Talon!

Also, I cheated by including an extra entry, but I defend this by saying that these are essential horror films. If you guys are against that, though, then I'll remove it.

Another suggestion on my part is Psycho.

Of course, don't forget guys, there's also always next year (assuming that this idea generates enough discussion this year). So don't worry too much if your nominees don't make it in this time.

I really wanted to nominate The Conjuring, myself, but since nobody else here has seen it except for me, there was really no point, especially since I'm not sure if anyone else would enjoy it as much as I personally did.

On another note, I just watched Fright Night (the original). Admittedly, it wasn't quite what I expected. I was thinking that it would be a horror comedy, but it played it pretty straight outside if the Vincent Price character, who was easily the best thing about the movie. Still, I feel a tad disappointed, but it was still a worthwhile film.

I have no objection. Other than 28 Days Later, Return, and Shaun, the first Romero ones are the only zombie movies I can stomach.

I nominate The Fog (1980), From Dusk Til Dawn, Dracula/Horror of Dracula, and...that's all I can think of. I'd nominate Predator, but I personally don't really consider that a horror movie.

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on September 26, 2014, 01:00:30 AM
Man, that's a really good list of films. Shame I probably won't get around to watching all of them.

If more channels had Halloween marathons of classic horror movies it would be a heck of a lot easier. Last year I couldn't even find one good marathon. So I just watched The Stand miniseries.  :P

TCM and El Rey would be your best bets for a good classic horror marathon, assuming you get either of them.

Can we put the original Wicker Man on the 19th, please? A local theater here is playing it at midnight then, so that would be perfect!

Anyway

Witchfinder General
City of the Living Dead
The Innocents

1st: Scream
2nd: An American Werewolf in London
3rd: The Thing (1982)
4th: The Shining
5th: The Evil Dead Trilogy
6th: Return of the Living Dead
7th: American Psycho
8th: Cemetery Man
9th: Re-Animator
10th: Shaun of the Dead
11th: The Exorcist
12th: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (original)
13th: Poltergeist
14th: Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979 remake)
15th: Ring
16th: Bride of Frankenstein
17th: Alien
18th: Night, Dawn, and Day Trilogy (George Romero)
19th: The Wicker Man (1973)
20th: Witchfinder General
21st: City of the Living Dead
22nd: The Innocents
23rd: Psycho
24th: Wes Craven's New Nightmare
25th: Drag Me To Hell
26th: Slither
27th: The Fog (1980)
28th: From Dusk Till Dawn
29th: Horror of Dracula
30th: The Omen (1976)
31st: Halloween (1978)

Great nominations, everyone!

Since there were only 2 spots remaining, I decided to fill them in with what I consider to be 2 of the most iconic horror films of all time. With that, we have our list, so come October 1st, I will create a separate discussion thread for this. If anyone wants to replace any of their own nominations with something else, then you have until then to let me know (or at least before the day that the entry is scheduled for discussion). ;)

Quote from: Rynnec on September 26, 2014, 02:50:35 AMI'd nominate Predator, but I personally don't really consider that a horror movie.

I agree. It has horror elements with the Predator stalking and killing its victims with stealth, much like in a classic slasher film, but I have always considered it to be an action film, first and foremost, much like Aliens.

Can you replace Happiness of the Katakuris with Re-Animator, please? :)

Quote from: Foggle on September 26, 2014, 12:34:44 PMCan you replace Happiness of the Katakuris with Re-Animator, please? :)

I was literally JUST thinking that we forgot to include Re-Animator. :lol:

Done.

Thankfully I either own most of them or they're on Netflix. I should be able to see most of these.

Also went to amazon and got physical copies of a few of them. It's been a long time coming.

Nosferstu the Vampyre is probably my all time favorite horror film alongside Psycho, Rosemary's Baby, and The Exorcist.

Also, while I didn't nominate it for this topic, I do recommend Ginger Snaps to you guys. It's probably my favorite werewolf movie after An American Werewolf in London.

I have actually seen a good portion of these films. That said, I do really need to re-watch some, and for others that I haven't seen, while most of those aren't streaming on Netflix or HBO, I'm sure that I can still find them for dirt cheap if I look hard enough.

Oh, and They Live is another one that I almost nominated, but ultimately had to leave off of the lists if we do this again next year, though, then I'll definitely nominate it. I recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it. It's one of the best horror comedies ever, IMO. The Host is another great horror comedy, though some may argue that it's more of a giant monster movie, however I disagree with this sentiment as the Monster in the film isn't really that big, and it captures much of its human prey in the dead of night and stores them in its lair for later meals, which definitely goes more along the lines of horror in my book.

I also would have nominated 28 Days Later. Though the second half is not quite as good as the first, it's still a pretty good one overall. One of the few zombie movies I enjoy. I liked the ending, too.

Do not see the sequel.

I wanted to do The Haunting, but The Innocents, which is similar in some ways, is a little lesser known and just got a Criterion release, so I went for that instead.

But one I just thought about was the Korean film, Time, which was a heck of a shock for me when I first saw it. Maybe next year!

The Others is what I consider to be a really underrated horror flick from a little over a decade ago. It may take a few of these Halloween lists before I had room to nominate it, but I definitely think that it holds up as a good contemporary horror film.

As far as recent films go, I really liked 2 of James Wan's films from this decade. One was the first Insidious, which to me had a really unique concept going for it, and while I don't consider it that scary, I do think that it had a surprisingly engaging story going for it, which is what kept me interested. The Conjuring, from last year, is the opposite case. She you think about it, the movie is as cliche as a set-up for a haunted house movie can be, but it's what Wan does with the set-up that I found to be so brilliant, and apparently many critics as well considering the surprisingly positive review that this movie got. What I liked is that the film was far more about creating an atmosphere that was scary as opposed to riddling the film with cheap jump scares, of which there are only a few, and they are all the more effective for the fact that they don't happen nearly often enough for you to actually get used to them or even see them coming (except for one, which even I felt was a bit too obvious). Combine this with the fact that the movie pays homage to so many classic horror films in general, and I personally consider it to be the best horror film that I've seen from the past 5-10 years.

The Fly (1986) is another great one, and also arguably one of the best remakes ever. With all due respect to the original, this one was far better written and directed, and as a special effects piece, it still holds up remarkably well today (it's as good as  John Carpenter's The Thing, which just goes to show you how truly amazing it really is).

Looking over the list, I'm going to need Talon to clarify which version of Ring he's nominating. The original Japanese version or the American remake. I'm pretty sure I know which version it is, but I just need to clarify that.

The original. ;)

Though the remake wasn't bad, and once we reach the day when we discuss that movie, I imagine the remake will find its way into the discussion anyway.

IMO, the remake of The Ring is slightly inferior to the original, but it's actually still pretty good. Perhaps the only time Hollywood didn't completely fuck up an awesome Japanese horror film.

Yeah, I have good memories of the remake, but the original is ultimately superior.

Slightly inferior? Ehh, it kind of talked down to the viewer and over explained things in a way that the original knew not to.

I wouldn't say it was as good as the original by any means, but it was still a fairly decent horror film in its own right. I found the original to be far creepier, though, whereas the remake kind of lost the scariness of it all, but still retained a fairly interesting story.

Quote from: talonmalon333 on September 26, 2014, 09:44:23 PM
Slightly inferior? Ehh, it kind of talked down to the viewer and over explained things in a way that the original knew not to.

I mean, it's Hollywood.

Quote from: Avaitor on September 26, 2014, 10:30:59 PM

Quote from: talonmalon333 on September 26, 2014, 09:44:23 PM
Slightly inferior? Ehh, it kind of talked down to the viewer and over explained things in a way that the original knew not to.

I mean, it's Hollywood.

My point is that it's significantly weaker than the original. :P

But I'll talk more about this movie and its remake on the 15th.

I just watched both the 1956 and 1978 versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which are both available on Netflix, in preparation for our Halloween discussion. I really enjoyed both versions, and each had its own strengths and weaknesses. I'll save more detailed discussion for later, during it's assigned Halloween date, though.

This movie also had a 1993 remake (which I plan to watch soon, as it's available on HBO GO), and had yet another version in 2007 with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. It's very telling how relevant the themes of this story are for it to get remade so many times.

The first two are pretty good, though I do prefer the original.

Unfortunately, I don't have either on Netflix.  :-[

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on September 26, 2014, 02:43:26 PM
The Others is what I consider to be a really underrated horror flick from a little over a decade ago. It may take a few of these Halloween lists before I had room to nominate it, but I definitely think that it holds up as a good contemporary horror film.

Glad you like that one. Nicole Kidman is great in it. The movie kind of reminds me of The Haunting, if you've seen that one. I know some have their problems with it but I liked it.

Quote from: talonmalon333 on September 27, 2014, 12:45:07 AMGlad you like that one. Nicole Kidman is great in it. The movie kind of reminds me of The Haunting, if you've seen that one. I know some have their problems with it but I liked it.

Yeah, it was a really well done movie that I remember people liking at the time, but it seems largely forgotten about, now. I saw it on my dad's recommendation a few years after it had come out, and was pleasantly surprised. It's also one of those movies that has a clever twist ending that isn't up its own ass, as evidenced by the fact that it still holds up to re-watches even if you already know how it ends.

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on September 27, 2014, 12:43:23 AMThe first two are pretty good, though I do prefer the original.

Unfortunately, I don't have either on Netflix.  :-[

I think I may slightly prefer the '78 version for the character dynamics, but overall I came out really enjoying each one for different reasons. The original was great for leaving more to the imagination, but at the same time, you've got to give credit to the '78 version for its effects. Those still hold up incredibly well, even today.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on September 27, 2014, 12:51:52 AM

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on September 27, 2014, 12:43:23 AMThe first two are pretty good, though I do prefer the original.

Unfortunately, I don't have either on Netflix.  :-[

I think I may slightly prefer the '78 version for the character dynamics, but overall I came out really enjoying each one for different reasons. The original was great for leaving more to the imagination, but at the same time, you've got to give credit to the '78 version for its effects, though. Those still hold up incredibly well, even today.

I really enjoyed them both when I first saw them. It's such a good universal theme that it can really be remade a hundred times. I haven't seen the latter two versions, though I heard they're not anywhere as good as the first two versions. Which would be a shame, because it's a concept that lends itself well to multiple executions.

I remember that the 1993 version got decent reviews (Roger Ebert was pretty positive about it, himself), but the general consensus was that it wasn't quite as good as the first 2 versions. The 2007 one got really mixed reviews, and I remember watching about half of it a few years ago and not really being able to get into it.

I've read the original book and have seen the 56 version, and I quite like both. I can't wait to get to the 76 version when we hit it.

Oh, I've been thinking about picking up the book. I might look into it after I finally catch up with ASOIAF. I also want to read the "Who Goes There?" novella.

Also, while we're on the subject of invasion movies, who else here has seen They Live? Now would be a perfect time to discuss films that didn't make the list this year.

I feel that it's one of Carpenters more forgotten and underrated films, but it's another one of my favorite horror comedies.

I just re-watched The Thing (1982). Man, what a classic film. Not only is it both one of the best Horror AND Science-Fiction movies of all time (rivaled only by the likes of Alien, and maybe 1 or 2 other films, IMO), but it's also one of the very best films that I have seen, period. If I ever redid my top 30 favorite films list, this would certainly be among them. I can't wait to talk more about it during 31 Nights of Halloween.

I'll probably re-watch Scream (which is available on Netflix, along with its sequels) tomorrow, in preparation of October 1st, and I already re-watched AAWIL a few months ago, so it doesn't matter that I can't find that one streaming on Netflix or HBO GO, currently.

Okay, so I'm trying to choose my favorite horror movies for individual categories (vampire, zombie, etc.). So far I have these categories.

Vampire/Dracula
1. Nosferatu the Vampyre
2. Nosferatu
3. Dracula (Spanish Version)

Frankenstein
1. Bride of Frankenstein
2. Frankenstein
3. The Curse of Frankenstein

Werewolf
1. An American Werewolf in London
2. Ginger Snaps
3. The Wolf Man

Zombie
1. Dawn of the Dead
2. Night of the Living Dead
3. The Evil Dead

Science-Fiction
1. Alien
2. Aliens
3. The Thing

Slasher
1. Halloween
2. A Nightmare on Elm Street
3. Black Christmas

Comedy
1. Bride of Frankenstein
2. An American Werewolf in London
3. Return of the Living Dead

Demonic
1. Rosemary's Baby
2. The Exorcist
3. The Shining

Ghost
1. The Haunting
2. The Blair Witch Project
3. The Others

I'm trying to think of other horror movie categories. If you have any ideas, let me know. And of course, feel free to comment on my picks.

Quote from: talonmalon333 on October 03, 2014, 06:54:13 PMI'm trying to think of other horror movie categories. If you have any ideas, let me know.

Horror comedies, maybe?

Quote from: Daikun on October 03, 2014, 06:56:13 PM

Quote from: talonmalon333 on October 03, 2014, 06:54:13 PMI'm trying to think of other horror movie categories. If you have any ideas, let me know.

Horror comedies, maybe?

1. Bride of Frankenstein
2. An American Werewolf in London
3. Return of the Living Dead

I remember E-K recently saying that he doesn't feel movies such as Shaun of the Dead count as horror comedies, and that they are more like pure comedies that just parody horror movies (correct me if I'm wrong, E-K). That's a viewpoint I agree with. Though admittedly, Shaun of the Dead probably wouldn't make this list.

Yeah, that's about what I said. And don't get me wrong, SotD is a brilliant comedy, but I just don't consider it to be an actual horror movie based on it's dominantly comedic tone. It's the same with the films like Dead Alive (Brain Dead) and Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn.

As for my favorite horror comedies:

1. An American Werewolf in London
2. Return of the Living Dead
3. The Host
4. Re-Animator
5. They Live

Also, as far as Sci-Fi/Horror goes, I don't really consider Aliens to be a horror movie. By that point it was a full-on action series, IMO. As far as that genre goes, though, I'd argue that you could consider the original Terminator to be a horror movie. James Rolfe already pointed it out, but the film has many similarities to a slasher film, with the villain coming after it's victims in the night, and the film even has a fair amount of jump-scare style moments. Hell, by the end of the film it's like a classic slasher film chase scene with the fully exposed Terminator metal skeleton moving around as if it were Michael Meyers, except as a robot it's even more inhuman, especially with the use of that creepy stop motion. It really doesn't have enough action to be considered an action movie, so personally I'd put that third as one of my favorite Sci-Fi/Horror movies. At the very least I'd say that it counts as horror more than Aliens does.

Evil Dead 2 is most certainly a horror film. I've met people who thought it was legitimately scary (yeah, I know) and didn't realize it was supposed to be humorous. I would agree if you had said Army of Darkness, though.

Though I personally think that any movie which has heavy horror elements, even if they're only used for laughs, counts as a horror-comedy. They may not be horror movies that are also comedies, but they are comedies that base themselves around horror.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on October 03, 2014, 07:27:06 PM
Yeah, that's about what I said. And don't get me wrong, SotD is a brilliant comedy, but I just don't consider it to be an actual horror movie based on it's dominantly comedic tone. It's the same with the films like Dead Alive (Brain Dead) and Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn.

As for my favorite horror comedies:

1. An American Werewolf in London
2. Return of the Living Dead
3. The Host
4. Re-Animator
5. They Live

I completely forgot about the Evil Dead movies. I'll have to include them in my lists in some form. Well, Army of Darkness might not really count since, by its point, the horror was practically drained from the franchise. But at the very least, Evil Dead II could be a candidate for my horror comedy list.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on October 03, 2014, 07:27:06 PMAlso, as far as Sci-Fi/Horror goes, I don't really consider Aliens to be a horror movie. By that point it was a full-on action series, IMO. As far as that genre goes, though, I'd argue that you could consider the original Terminator to be a horror movie. James Rolfe already pointed it out, but the film has many similarities to a slasher film, with the villain coming after it's victims in the night, and the film even has a fair amount of jump-scare style moments. Hell, by the end of the film it's like a classic slasher film chase scene with the fully exposed Terminator metal skeleton moving around as if it were Michael Meyers, except as a robot it's even more inhuman, especially with the use of that creepy stop motion. It really doesn't have enough action to be considered an action movie, so personally I'd put that third as one of my favorite Sci-Fi/Horror movies. At the very least I'd say that it counts as horror more than Aliens does.

In that case, replace Aliens with The Terminator as my #2 science-fiction list, as that's probably exactly where it would go anyway. :P

Also, I'd argue that both The Terminator and the original Alien are similar to slasher films. If I were to include them on my slasher list, they'd take the #1 and #2 spots.

EDIT: Updated my original post with the lists.

Army of Darkness is as much of a horror as Aliens. That said, it's still my favorite Evil Dead movie.

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on October 03, 2014, 07:36:29 PM
Army of Darkness is as much of a horror as Aliens. That said, it's still my favorite Evil Dead movie.

Mine too. I just feel bad about including Army of Darkness on my comedy list because then I'd have to cut Return of the Living Dead.

Quote from: Foggle on October 03, 2014, 07:32:32 PM
Evil Dead 2 is most certainly a horror film. I've met people who thought it was legitimately scary (yeah, I know) and didn't realize it was supposed to be humorous. I would agree if you had said Army of Darkness, though.

Though I personally think that any movie which has heavy horror elements, even if they're only used for laughs, counts as a horror-comedy. They may not be horror movies that are also comedies, but they are comedies that base themselves around horror.

It's not so much that I think they don't count, but more that I just don't really get that much of a horror vibe from them. The comedic tone dominates any horror elements. That's personally how I felt about ED2, which had a horror atmosphere and some jump scares and lots of gore, but the comedic tone felt present throughout the whole thing outside of the first 10-20 minutes, IMO. It's still a kick-ass film, though, and would certainly make my list if I were to extend it to include my top 10, though to be honest I haven't seen all that many horror comedies in the first place.

Ah, okay, now I understand. :)

Here's another category:

Supernatural/Demonic/Haunting/Possessions:

1. The Shining
2. The Omen
3. The Exorcist
4. The Conjuring
5. Poltergeist

Two honorable mentions would be The Others and The Children of the Corn.

And yeah, I know that it seems like a hodgepodge of different genres, but the binding theme is the supernatural, in that all of these movies feature evil spirits of some sort as their main focal points of antagonism.

I knew I was forgetting something big.

Supernatural/Demonic
1. Rosemary's Baby
2. The Exorcist
3. The Shining

I forgot about RB, but consider it another honorable mention from me.

Also, here's my favorite Sci-Fi/Horror:

1. The Thing (1982)
2. Alien
3. The Fly (1986)
4. The Terminator
5. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

Ghost Movies
1. The Haunting
2. The Blair Witch Project
3. The Others

Hmmm....I can't say that I consider the Blair Witch Project to be a host movie, by any means. It's a found footage film, but the beauty of it (IMO), is that it's never explicitly revealed or not whether the Blair Witch really exists in that story, though of course it's heavily implied by the ending.

Also, your list reminds me that I really do need to watch the original The Haunting, someday, but for now my favorite ghost movie is probably The Shining, followed by The Conjuring and The Others.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on October 03, 2014, 08:43:05 PM
Hmmm....I can't say that I consider the Blair Witch Project to be a host movie, by any means. It's a found footage film, but the beauty of it (IMO), is that it's never explicitly revealed or not whether the Blair Witch really exists in that story, though of course it's heavily implied by the ending.

Also, your list reminds me that I really do need to watch the original The Haunting, someday, but for now my favorite ghost movie is probably The Shining, followed by The Conjuring and The Others.

I'd like to address this topic, but I want to wait until after you get to seeing The Haunting. ;)

Also, as for Rosemary's Baby, that's actually one of my favorite movies in general, not just horror movies. Seeing it on my list though, side by side with The Exorcist, is funny since they are such polar opposites. One is incredibly subtle, the other is in-your-face horrifying, both successful in their own way.

What do you guys think is the best Universal monster film?

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

or the original lon chaney phantom of the opera, if you prefer

Quote from: Avaitor on October 09, 2014, 09:39:51 PM
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

Fuck yes. That movie never fails to make me laugh uncontrollably.

Abbott and Costello is just great stuff.

Talkies, I meant.

And not comedies. :thinkin:

Abbott and Costello is a talkie though.

Quote from: talonmalon333 on October 09, 2014, 09:56:17 PM

And not comedies. :thinkin:

:thinkin:

But Abbott & Costello isn't a comedy. It's an exploration of 20th century culture through two people.

No explorations of 20th century culture through two people.

But that's most of the movies made from 1900-2000. Even including period pieces because they are influenced by the time they were made in.

Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on October 09, 2014, 10:23:50 PM
But that's most of the movies made from 1900-2000. Even including period pieces because they are influenced by the time they were made in.

Then no movie is qualified for this topic anymore.

I was thinking about Alien. I've heard some people call this a slasher movie. Now, it's certainly a horror film, I don't think anyone would argue that. But I'm not sure if I'd personally call it a slasher film. However, if I were to, I have to say that it'd certainly take the crown as the best slasher movie of all time. In fact, I compare it to the real best slasher flick, Halloween. And when doing so, I feel that Halloween's flaws begin to stick out. It's great but it's certainly cliched by now. And I love Laurie Strode as a leading lady, but you just don't beat Ellen Ripley. I actually can't think of any female leads in film that are as good as Ripley, except for Sarah Connor from The Terminator movies.

Quote from: talonmalon333 on October 20, 2014, 03:47:13 PMI was thinking about Alien. I've heard some people call this a slasher movie. Now, it's certainly a horror film, I don't think anyone would argue that. But I'm not sure if I'd personally call it a slasher film.

Quote from: talonmalon333 on October 03, 2014, 07:33:57 PMAlso, I'd argue that both The Terminator and the original Alien are similar to slasher films.

You didn't seem to have a hard time thinking of it in the vein of a slasher film just a couple of weeks ago. Anyone ever tell you that you contradict yourself way too often, Talon? :P

Anyways I agree that Alien is a better film than Halloween, overall, but Halloween is still the more revolutionary film in the slasher sub-genre of horror, IMO. It started many of the conventions that you now see done to death in modern horror films. The things that you call cliche about it (and to be fair, Alien also succumbs to a TON of horror cliches, in its own right), weren't as cliche back then. Mind you, it did borrow a lot from earlier horror films itself, including previous slashers, but the way it went about presenting those tropes was very unique and innovative for its time. It's just hard to see that today when countless horror films have ripped off its formula to death.

If I had one major problem with it, I'd say that it has got horribly shallow characters outside of Laurie and Dr. Loomis, but once again, to be fair, so does Alien, outside of just Ripley and Ash.

Also, as far as Carpenter goes, I'd say that he managed to match (and arguably even surpass) Alien when he did his own Sci-Fi Horror film, The Thing, which actually has a more well-rounded cast, IMO, in that nobody is incredibly deep, but everyone is just layered enough and has enough memorable personality to be interesting, which is something that the very plot of the movie hinges on. The film is also less reliant on cliches, though it still has a fair share of its own. And of course, I'm saying this as a MASSIVE fan of Alien.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on October 20, 2014, 04:06:16 PM
You didn't seem to have a hard time thinking of it in the vein of a slasher film just a couple of weeks ago. Anyone ever tell you that you contradict yourself way too often, Talon? :P

I wasn't necessarily saying that I considered it a slasher, though. I was mostly saying that it's similar. One could argue it's a slasher. Besides, I didn't list it in my slasher movie list during that discussion. I don't contradict myself anymore than anyone else. :P

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on October 20, 2014, 04:06:16 PMAnyways I agree that Alien is a better film than Halloween, overall, but Halloween is still the more revolutionary film in the slasher sub-genre of horror, IMO. It started many of the conventions that you now see done to death in modern horror films. The things that you call cliche about it (and to be fair, Alien also succumbs to a TON of horror cliches, in its own right), weren't as cliche back then. Mind you, it did borrow a lot from earlier horror films itself, including previous slashers, but the way it went about presenting those tropes was very unique and innovative for its time. It's just hard to see that today when countless horror films have ripped off its formula to death.

If I had one major problem with it, I'd say that it has got horribly shallow characters outside of Laurie and Dr. Loomis, but once again, to be fair, so does Alien, outside of just Ripley and Ash.

Right, it wasn't cliched back then. I was mostly saying it is now. With Halloween, I'm thinking of little things like the final girl scrambling around in her house, hiding in closets, when she should be running for the front door (though I can get behind that she wasn't in the thinking state of mind in that time, given the situation she was in). Though for the most part, I was thinking of the side characters. I'd say ones in Alien were fairly likable. A lot of the teenagers in Halloween were "totally" silly and who's purpose was just to be killed off.

With all that said, keep in mind that I love Halloween. I do consider it by far the best true slasher film. ;)

EDIT:

Also, I think I should mention that I also don't consider Psycho to be a slasher film. I know it inspired the genre, but I feel that it itself isn't one.

Well, it's a psychological thriller at heart, but you can't deny that it carries MANY of the tropes of the slasher genre, including the body count, and even some of cinema's earlier attempts at jump scares on two occasions.

I just realized that Psycho is one of our 31 horror movies of the month. Once we reach its day, I'll talk more about this movie. But for now I'll just end with saying that I do agree with your post.

I just learned this fact. It concerns the creation of Halloween 4.

QuoteSeries creator John Carpenter wrote a treatment for this film, that was a more ghostly psychological approach to the Michael Myers mythos. It concerned the town of Haddonfield and what effect the events of the first two films have had on its citizens. This concept was later rejected by the producers in favor of the typical slasher fare, at which point in time John Carpernter bailed out of the film, making this the first film in the series to have no participation from him.

I think it's a shame that they didn't go with the anthology route. Halloween III was surprisingly enjoyable (if a little hammy), and they could have kept coming up with potential brand new and interesting storylines. Instead we got a series of rehashes that just degenerated. Maybe if they announced their anthology idea to the public, and made it clear that III wouldn't be a slasher, it would have been more critically and commercially successful and they wouldn't have felt the need to throw away their vision in favor of making the same, safe Michael Myers movie over and over.

That would have been a far better and more interesting film. I also agree that the anthology idea was one I would have liked seen pursued instead of rehashing the same formula over and over.

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on October 22, 2014, 09:06:05 PM
That would have been a far better and more interesting film. I also agree that the anthology idea was one I would have liked seen pursued instead of rehashing the same formula over and over.

Agreed. I do like Danielle Harris in 4... but, they could have still had her in this version as Laurie's daughter if they wanted to. Though, I imagine Laurie was in this draft and Loomis wasn't, unlike the Halloween 4 we ended up with where she is dead for some reason and he's still alive by some D rate horror writing miracle.

If they never made Halloween II and instead made Halloween III into Halloween II in terms of the title, I have a feeling that people would've been more accepting of the anthology idea since they wouldn't have necessarily associated the series with the Michael Meyers character since it wasn't a series yet, at that point. And don't get me wrong, I actually like Halloween II, which isn't a great horror movie by any means, but as far as horror sequels go, I always felt that it was one of the stronger ones compared to the other shit that we usually get. Having said that, in terms of what was better for the series, I think the anthology format would have really worked had people been willing to give it more of a chance.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on October 22, 2014, 10:09:39 PM
If they never made Halloween II and instead made Halloween III into Halloween II in terms of the title, I have a feeling that people would've been more accepting of the anthology idea since they wouldn't have necessarily associated the series with the Michael Meyers character since it wasn't a series yet, at that point. And don't get me wrong, I actually like Halloween II, which isn't a great horror movie by any means, but as far as horror sequels go, I always felt that it was one of the stronger ones compared to the other shit that we usually get. Having said that, in terms of what was better for the series, I think the anthology format would have really worked had people been willing to give it more of a chance.

Yeah, Halloween II is pretty good and is certainly better than 99% of slasher movies in existence. But it did possibly mess up the perception people would end up having about the franchise in later sequels. I actually heard rumors that Carpenter wanted to go with the anthology route immediately after the original, but they pushed him to make one more Michael Myers sequel.

So tonight I saw The Babadook, and have to call it one of the better horror films released in years.

Mrs. Voorhees is dead. (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/02/arts/television/betsy-palmer-friday-the-13th-villainess-dies-at-88.html)

QuoteAs she often told the story, Ms. Palmer took the part only because she needed $10,000 to buy a new car, a Volkswagen Scirocco.

"So the script came and I read it, and I said, 'What a piece of ... ' "

:D Rest in peace, Ms. Betsy Palmer.

P.S. Did the Friday The 13th movies always played on having Jason come in since the start?

In honor of Christopher Lee. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BefliMlEzZ8)

Trailer to check out: The Final Girls (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zreNh78kTjg)

R.I.P. Wes Craven (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/wes-craven-horror-maestro-dies-818806)

R.I.P. :'(

He was one of the few genuinely great contributors to modern horror, with films like A Nightmare On Elm Street, New Nightmare, and Scream. He will be missed.

We totally have to do The Hills Have Eyes and Last House on the Left for October.

RIP

Quote from: Avaitor on August 30, 2015, 11:18:28 PMWe totally have to do The Hills Have Eyes and Last House on the Left for October.

Those two inclusions along with They Live have automatic spots reserved for this year's thread.

We did the Scream trilogy too, right? I can't recall if we just did the first, or the first three.

We definitely did both the original and New Nightmare, though.

RIP :'(

Quote from: Avaitor on August 31, 2015, 12:50:28 AMWe did the Scream trilogy too, right? I can't recall if we just did the first, or the first three.

We definitely did both the original and New Nightmare, though.

Just those two, yeah. We could do Scream 2, since I always enjoyed at least that sequel (I didn't like 3, and haven't seen 4), as well as the original Nightmare movie.

Heard about this last night. We lost a great horror movie director.

RIP Wes Craven.

Quote from: Daikun on August 30, 2015, 09:19:26 PM
R.I.P. Wes Craven (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/wes-craven-horror-maestro-dies-818806)

OMG, I had no clue. R.I.P. Craven.

The Curse of Frankenstein

I'll come up with 2 more later. :P

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on September 04, 2015, 03:40:13 PM

Quote from: Avaitor on September 04, 2015, 03:38:34 PM
The Curse of Frankenstein

I'll come up with 2 more later. :P

Any particular date you had in mind?

To quote Anton Ego, surprise me!

Same with my next choice- the original 1980 Maniac.

Alright, everyone!

That time of year is coming upon us again, and given the success of last year's Halloween thread, I figured why not make an annual site tradition out of this? So, once again we will pick some of our favorite horror movies to watch and discuss for each night of the month, and we are starting nominations early to give people more time to watch more movies and to consider their options.

Now, there are a few ground rules:

-Firstly, films that were already nominated last year cannot be re-nominated this year. As a refresher for your memory, here is a list of all of those films:

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on September 26, 2014, 12:01:20 PM1st: Scream
2nd: An American Werewolf in London
3rd: The Thing (1982)
4th: The Shining
5th: The Evil Dead Trilogy
6th: Return of the Living Dead
7th: American Psycho
8th: Cemetery Man
9th: Re-Animator
10th: Shaun of the Dead
11th: The Exorcist
12th: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (original)
13th: Poltergeist
14th: Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979 remake)
15th: Ring
16th: Bride of Frankenstein
17th: Alien
18th: Night, Dawn, and Day Trilogy (George Romero)
19th: The Wicker Man (1973)
20th: Witchfinder General
21st: City of the Living Dead
22nd: The Innocents
23rd: Psycho
24th: Wes Craven's New Nightmare
25th: Drag Me To Hell
26th: Slither
27th: The Fog (1980)
28th: From Dusk Till Dawn
29th: Horror of Dracula
30th: The Omen (1976)
31st: Halloween (1978)

-Originally I was going to give a bunch of honorary spots to Wes Craven in tribute to the passing of a horror legend, but with only 31 nights to select movies for, I realized that I didn't want to limit everyone's creative freedom to pick what they wanted to pick. So instead I'll reserve Halloween Night itself for Mr. Craven's most iconic contribution to the horror genre, and that leaves 30 Nights left for everyone else, including myself.

-To give everyone a chance to pick, I'm allowing for three film nominations per person for now, including myself, one of which I'm going to use to nominate They Live in tribute to Rowdy Roddy Piper who also sadly passed away this year. Furthermore, I'm giving that movie the first night as a clever little reversal of last year, in which we started off with a Craven film and ended with a Carpenter movie, both masters of the genre. This time we're starting with Carpenter and closing the month with Craven. I also feel like we should pay yet another horror icon, Christopher Lee, tribute this year due to his passing as well. Sadly, the only two horror movies which he has a prominent role in and that I've seen were already nominated last year, so I'll have to leave it up to someone else to come up with something if they want to.

-As an added feature for this year, each of you can pick the specific day that you want to have each of your movie picks discussed, at your convenience, but on a first come, first serve basis. Just attach a date next to the title of your film. If you don't, then I'll just put your nomination to the side and stick it on whatever random day might be left once all of the other nomination slots are filled.

-If we don't manage to get in 31 movies on the list after a certain amount of time, then I'll lift the nomination cap for everyone.

-Lastly, let's try and come up with a cool sequel title for this month, like "31 Nights of Halloween II: Revenge of the Unpicked" or something like that, except less lame and more creative.

With all of that exposition out of the way, let's get to pick'n! :joy:

1st: They Live
2nd:
3rd:
4th:
5th:
6th:
7th:
8th: The Others
9th:
10th:
11th:
12th:
13th:
14th:
15th: The Host (2006)
16th:
17th:
18th:
19th:
20th:
21st:
22nd:
23rd: The Babadook
24th: Coraline
25th:
26th:
27th:
28th:
29th: Mario Bava's Black Sabbath
30th: Over The Garden Wall
31st: A Nightmare On Elm Street

Undated Picks:

The Curse of Frankenstein
Maniac (1980)
Rosemary's Baby
Ginger Snaps
The Invisible Man
The City of the Dead/Horror Hotel
The Devil Rides Out
Deliver Us From Evil (2014)
Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil
The Happiness of the Katakuris
Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein
Blade I/II

My Picks:

They Live (October 1st)
The Host 2006 (October 15th)
The Babadook (October 23rd)

My first two are not scary movies, but rather satirical films that just happen to be set in the horror genre or sub-genre. I'm excited to talk about both of them, but even more so to discuss The Babadook (on my birthday, no less), which is one of the best and legitimately scariest horror films that I've seen in ages, and it's not even a full year old, yet!

So are you just stopping at two noms, Avaitor, or are you thinking of a third one to add later on?

Also, I know that you're there, Talon. Get yo' ass in here and start pick'n some movies. :unimpressed:

Sorry. I keep meaning to post in here, but forget to. :P

Since we can go up to three for now...

The Vanishing
Ginger Snaps
The Invisible Man

Wait, which Invisible Man movie? :srs:

I also want to nominate The Others, which I will if we don't get in enough nominations closer to October.

Quote from: talonmalon333 on September 06, 2015, 08:20:38 PMSorry. I keep meaning to post in here, but forget to. :P

Since we can go up to three for now...

The Vanishing
Ginger Snaps
The Invisible Man

Any specific dates?

Nah, those movies can just go anywhere. And I'd rather not take up any dates that someone else might want to put another specific movie on.

Quote from: gunswordfist on September 06, 2015, 08:44:59 PM
Wait, which Invisible Man movie? :srs:

The Invisible Man

Do we have to stick exclusively to horror, or can I add in a Halloween-themed suggestion to fit into the mix?

Because if so, I'd like to add Over the Garden Wall for the 30th.

Well, to be perfectly honest I'd prefer to stick to films since the idea is that people could watch a movie as opposed to a whole series to be in on that discussion, but if that's really what you want to use your third slot for, I'll just make this one exception.

However, if other people try to nominate shows as well then I won't, because like I said, I'd rather keep the focus of this month on movies.

On that subject, though, I'm certainly not opposed to horror or Halloween themed shorts or animated movies.

The entire runtime of Over the Garden Wall is just under 2 hours, so you could watch the whole series in a night just like any of the movies being nominated.

Well, I did allow that nomination for Avaitor, so it's all good.

Well to be fair, it's only a mini-series, one that equates to about 5 half-hours of entertainment. It's basically a movie in and of itself.

To me, OTGW encapsulates all of autumn into one whole package, with a particular section handling Halloween in particular wonderfully, which is why I'd like to try it here. There is also some nice nightmare fuel imagery used in the series, so it shouldn't be too bad of a fit.

QuoteShaye: Wes had written an ending where Heather vanquishes Freddy and goes off to school the next day. It's beautiful sunshine, and that's the end. I'd seen Friday the 13th and some other films, and there's always a zinger at the end. There was no zinger here.

Craven: Bob wanted a hook for a sequel. I felt that the film should end when Nancy turns her back on Freddy and his violence — that's the one thing that kills him. Bob wanted to have Freddy pick up the kids in a car and drive off, which reversed everything I was trying to say — it suddenly presented Freddy as triumphant. I came up with a compromise, which was to have the kids get in the convertible, and when the roof comes down, we'd have Freddy's red and green stripes on it. Do I regret changing the ending? I do, because it's the one part of the film that isn't me.

I've always hated those zingers at the end of those movies. I like complete stories and those zingers imply that nothing the main characters did mattered which cheapens the film. Kind of annoying.

It especially doesn't work with this movie because the ending we got is a huge plothole that contradicts the means he was defeated.

I'll nominate Mario Bava's Black Sabbath. Preferably on a date closer to Halloween.

Quote from: Rynnec on September 08, 2015, 07:58:18 PMI'll nominate Mario Bava's Black Sabbath. Preferably on a date closer to Halloween.

Noted. Let me know if you can think of two more movies. ;)

And get your ass to picking some movies, Desensitized/Spark!

Problem is the ones I want to list aren't easily available. Like The Devil Rides Out.

Quote from: talonmalon333 on September 08, 2015, 07:53:24 PM
It especially doesn't work with this movie because the ending we got is a huge plothole that contradicts the means he was defeated.

Sort of like how they went out of their way to kill the Dream Warriors in part 4.

So, what was the point of part 3, then?

Well, not easy to watch legally, anyways. :sly:

But there aren't any other more commonly available Halloween-appropriate movies that you had in mind? Remember, you don't strictly have to stick to pure horror.

I can still think of a bunch that I like, myself, that qualify:

David Cronenberg's The Fly (more Sci-Fi than horror, but it still fits)
Night of the Creeps
The Others
Beetlejuice (Fits the Halloween theme)
28 Days Later
The Conjuring
Insidious
Sinister
The Sixth Sense
Signs
Gremlins/New Batch (once again, it fits the theme)
Rosemary's Baby

And that's just off the top of my head.

I'm sure that you could think of a few still not nominated that are easier to find, though I'd still accept your more obscure picks, as well.

Picked this one on a whim, but in honor of Christopher Lee, I'll nominate City of the Dead/Horror Hotel.

And if Spark has nothing, and if we're going with "Halloween appropriate" rather than full on horror, then I'll nominate Blade and Blade II.

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on September 08, 2015, 08:25:36 PM

Quote from: talonmalon333 on September 08, 2015, 07:53:24 PM
It especially doesn't work with this movie because the ending we got is a huge plothole that contradicts the means he was defeated.

Sort of like how they went out of their way to kill the Dream Warriors in part 4.

So, what was the point of part 3, then?

According to the producers, the point of it was money. But I like that Craven legitimately tried to being back dignity to the series and end it with 3. That was one of two sequels in this series that was actually good.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on September 08, 2015, 08:40:19 PM
Rosemary's Baby

How on earth did I not nominate this movie last year?

The Devil Rides Out
Deliver Us From Evil (2014)
Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed
The Mummy (1959)
Abbott & Costello Meet the Invisible Man

That should be enough, I think.

I almost said An American Werewolf in Paris, but I decided not to be a jerk.

Well, actually there us a 3 film per person limit in place for right now. :sweat:

Could you pick the three out of those that you want to be included the most? If not enough people pick anymore movies within a week of October, then I'll include anyone else's extra picks, including yours. ;)

Quote from: talonmalon333 on September 08, 2015, 07:53:24 PM

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on September 08, 2015, 08:40:19 PMRosemary's Baby

How on earth did I not nominate this movie last year?

You didn't nominate it this year, either. :>

Alright, I'll pick the first three, then.

BTW, Rynnec, I forgot to mention the three film limit to you as well. You picked two horror films and two Blade films. I can include all of those except for one (at the moment). Which three do you prefer?

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil
The Happiness of the Katakuris
Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein

:)

Quote from: Foggle on September 09, 2015, 12:54:51 AM
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil
The Happiness of the Katakuris
Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein

:)

Good choices! :thumbup:

I love AACMF. It reminds me that I need to see more of their stuff as well, including AAMTIM, which Spark brought up earlier.

Thanks! AACMF is one of my all-time favorite films. I used to watch it over and over when I was little. :joy:

It was one of my first introductions to the fine art of horror spoofs, as well as parodies in general.

I'm glad to have an excuse to re-watch it, soon.

Actually, Rynnec, now that I think about it, I CAN count the first two Blade films as a single entry if you're OK with that.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on September 09, 2015, 01:09:54 AM
Actually, Rynnec, now that I think about it, I CAN count the first two Blade films as a single entry if you're OK with that.

Sounds good to me.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on September 08, 2015, 09:40:31 PM

Quote from: talonmalon333 on September 08, 2015, 07:53:24 PM

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on September 08, 2015, 08:40:19 PMRosemary's Baby

How on earth did I not nominate this movie last year?

You didn't nominate it this year, either. :>

:oo:

Replace The Vanishing with Rosemary's Baby for my picks. That's not to say I like The Vanishing less than my other choices. But one of them has to go. And actually, the more I think about it, I'm starting to think that I shouldn't have considered it a horror movie anyway. In terms of quality, it likely wouldn't be the first of those three movies that I'd eliminate. But I now realize that I kind of have to, especially in the face of what might be my favorite horror movie of all time.

Well, we still have a bunch of open spots, so if not enough other people pick some movies to fill them up with closer to October, then you'll have the opportunity to add The Vanishing back in.

Perhaps, but like I said, I'm starting to think I shouldn't have considered it a horror in the first place. It's more of a mystery thriller.

However, if you lift the limit, I'll have plenty of other potential horror movies to add in. :P

Alright, anyone else who would've wanted to participate has had more than enough time to do so, by now. For everyone else, I'm raising the nomination limit from 3 to 5, so that gives you 2 extra movies to pick. Mine are:

The Others (October 8th)
Coraline (October 24th)

The Mummy (1959)
Abbott & Costello Meet the Invisible Man

The Innocents (1961 film)
The Haunting

Quote from: talonmalon333 on September 18, 2015, 01:31:27 PM
The Innocents (1961 film)
The Haunting

I picked The Innocents last year.

I nominate-

The Bird With the Crystal Plummage
The Burning

Pick random dates, EK :p

OK. Good choices, guys. I actually haven't seen most of these outside of AAC, which is great, but I do hope that I have time to watch them all.

Quote from: Avaitor on September 18, 2015, 10:01:14 PM

Quote from: talonmalon333 on September 18, 2015, 01:31:27 PM
The Innocents (1961 film)
The Haunting

I picked The Innocents last year.

Sorry. :P

I'll replace it with Sisters (1973 film).

Here's what we have so far. We have 27 films nominated by my calculation. I'll leave those spots open for anyone who hasn't picked any movies yet, first come first serve. If we still aren't full by the 30th, then I'll open it up to anyone to nominate.

1st: They Live
2nd: Rosemary's Baby
3rd: Ju-On: The Grudge
4th: The Happiness of the Katkuris
5th: Alice, Sweet Alice
6th: The Burning
7th: A Nightmare on Elm Street III: Dream Warriors
8th: The Others
9th: The Bird with the Crystal Plummage
10th: The Mummy (1959)
11th: Ginger Snaps
12th: The Haunting
13th: The InvInvisible Man
14th: Abbott & Costello Meet The Invisible Man
15th: The Host (2006)
16th: The Curse of Frankenstein
17th: Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed
18th: Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein
19th: The City of the Dead/Horror Hotel
20th: The Devil Rides Out
21st: Sisters (1973)
22nd: Blade I/II
23rd: The Babadook
24th: Coraline
25th: Deliver Us From Evil (2014)
26th: Tucker & Dale vs. Evil
27th: Peeping Tom
28th: The Hills Have Eyes
29th: Mario Bava's Black Sabbath
30th: Trick r' Treat
31st: A Nightmare On Elm Street

How about the Dream Warriors? Would anyone object to that addition?

Otherwise I'm good with what I've nominated.

EK, can you switch Maniac for Alice, Sweet Alice?

I actually just saw Maniac and it's not very good.

Sure.

I could have sworn I nominated Alice, Sweet Alice.

Well, I'm just glad it's in there now.

So E-K, assuming my math is right, we have three spots open, right? Will you be lifting the limit? :P

Did you read my earlier post? :>

Did I read it? Of course I did. Did I read it thoroughly? That's another question. :sly:

 :D :D

September 30. Finally. :P

I could nominate three movies, but for now, I'll just pick one and then see if anyone else has any picks today.

Peeping Tom

Actually, there were four remaining picks, but since you used one, and I'm going to use one right now, that leaves one each for Avaitor and Desensitized if they want it, but if Talon or someone else comes up with something first, then I'll just have to go with that.

My last pick:

Night of the Creeps

The Hills Have Eyes

I think that we have one more Craven tribute.

I'll give it to talon. He's so excited, after all.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on September 30, 2015, 10:11:34 AM
Actually, there were four remaining picks, but since you used one, and I'm going to use one right now, that leaves one each for Avaitor and Desensitized if they want it, but if Talon or someone else comes up with something first, then I'll just have to go with that.

My last pick:

Night of the Creeps

I counted twenty-seven in your post, but then in the post afterward I saw Spark nominate Dream Warriors.

It seemed like a suggestion rather than a confirmed pick since he asked it as a question, but I'll save a spot for him regardless, to let him confirm it. That leaves one spot open for anyone to take, though I'd prefer that it was either saved for Avaitor, Foggle, Rynnec, or anyone who hasn't picked yet (you, me, and presumably Spark already got in an extra choice).

Alright, its been long enough. Talon, you can take the last spot if you want to.

Let's see, how about Ju-On: The Grudge?

Cool. We're set.

31NOH starts tomorrow, guys! :thumbup:

October, the Halloween season, is finally here. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFHZS6yH5YQ)

Has anyone seen The Orphanage?

I feel like ranking the movies in the three big slasher franchises. This is something I wanted to do for a while, but now I have the motivation for it.

1. Halloween
2. Halloween III: Season of the Witch
3. Halloween II
4. Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
5. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
6. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
7. Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
8. Halloween: Resurrection

Halloween is a horror classic. There's no doubt about that. Halloween III slowly seems to be shedding its initial negative reception, and rightfully so. The movie is very different and fun, and you can't help but watch it thinking about the original anthology idea. Halloween II isn't awful, especially after seeing how bad the genre got. But it's tired and pointless, and 4 onward is brutally unnecessary. Curse ruined the series, and then Resurrection ruined it even worse after H20 salvaged it a little bit.

1. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
2. Friday the 13th
3. Friday the 13th Part II
4. Friday the 13th Part VI
5. Friday the 13th Part III
6. Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday
7. Jason X
8. Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
9. Friday the 13th: A New Beginning
10. Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan

Not sure if there's a lot to say about these ones. They are just movies about a guy in a hockey mask slicing people up. Probably the most consistent series of the three in quality, but then again, the original movie didn't have much of a pedestal to stand on, anyway. Final Chapter probably does the formula the best, though. Manhattan is just abysmal, and even the director knows it.

1. A Nightmare on Elm Street
2. Wes Craven's New Nightmare
3. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
4. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
5. A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
6. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
7. Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

I'd say this is the best series of the three if only because it has three legitimately good movies, which is more than I can say for the other two. Nightmare on Elm Street is a classic, Dream Warriors is energetic and fun, and New Nightmare is a great different take. That being said, Freddy's Dead is horrible and is quite possibly worse than anything Halloween and Friday has to offer.

I like the second Friday the 13th better than the first. The kids are a little more bearable than in the first, with the final girl in particular actually giving Jason a fight and made for a fun to watch ending sequence.

I've only seen the first 3, so I can't really rank the series. But that's more than Halloween or Nightmare on Elm Street, where I've only seen the first of each.

How many of the Hellraisers have you seen, btw?

You only need to see the third one and New Nightmare in the Elm Street series. The rest might as well be non-canon since only the stuff with Nancy matters.

Quote from: Avaitor on October 27, 2015, 03:07:04 PM
I like the second Friday the 13th better than the first. The kids are a little more bearable than in the first, with the final girl in particular actually giving Jason a fight and made for a fun to watch ending sequence.

I do remember liking the final girl in Part II, especially when she gets into Jason's mind. Other than leads, though, the characters in these movies are weak in general. I mostly like them for their atmosphere and special effects. And as far as special effects go, Part II lacked Tom Savini, which keeps it a bit below the original for me.

Quote from: Avaitor on October 27, 2015, 03:07:04 PMI've only seen the first 3, so I can't really rank the series. But that's more than Halloween or Nightmare on Elm Street, where I've only seen the first of each.

You should check out Dream Warriors and New Nightmare. They are the only Nightmare sequels that Wes Craven directed. Dream Warriors is flashy and fun and serves as a good conclusion to the series, and New Nightmare is just a great new take on Freddy.

Quote from: Avaitor on October 27, 2015, 03:07:04 PMHow many of the Hellraisers have you seen, btw?

Actually, I'm really behind on that series. I only remember the first movie, and even then, not the whole thing.

I think Nancy is my favorite lead out of these slasher franchises. I like Laurie a lot, and she's the classic final girl archetype. But Nancy is a bit more fleshed out and takes action more.

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on October 27, 2015, 03:45:11 PM
You only need to see the third one and New Nightmare in the Elm Street series. The rest might as well be non-canon since only the stuff with Nancy matters.

I'd also say only the first Halloween is canon, since everything starting with II completely contradicts the point of it. Even Carpenter himself hated II and made it as less of a story continuation and more as just something to please the producers so he could move on. The movies from 4 onward are basically fan fiction.

I am planning on watching Dream Warriors and New Nightmare at some point, and I also have Halloween II in my queue for some reason. I also want to get to Season of the Witch as well.

Quote from: Avaitor on October 27, 2015, 04:00:58 PM
I am planning on watching Dream Warriors and New Nightmare at some point, and I also have Halloween II in my queue for some reason. I also want to get to Season of the Witch as well.

Halloween II isn't bad. It's certainly better than most other cheap slashers. I'd even argue it's better now than it was when it was first released, because now we're comparing it to even worse slashers and later sequels, and not just comparing it to the classic it serves as a follow up to. I don't recommend it much, but you can do worse.

Halloween III is such a sad case. It's a fun science fiction horror flick that's drenched in Halloween atmosphere. I really wish the audiences accepted it more back when it was in theaters. It's possible that maybe Universal Pictures should have done a better job at establishing Halloween as an anthology series, because that might have conditioned the fans to accept the idea that this isn't just a Michael Myers slasher series and, thus, they would go in not expecting him. I've even heard the director, Tommy Lee Wallace, apparently felt Universal did a lousy job of promoting it as its own thing. It's just so easy to watch Halloween III and think "what if."

Halloween III would have worked if they didn't make Halloween II first. Then it would have been obvious this was meant to be an anthology series. But of course they needed to milk the first one since it was such a hit.

Carpenter admitted he only got through writing Halloween II by going through a six pack of beer. :D

I think he also wanted to do Season of the Witch after making the first movie. Of course, the producers wanted another Michael Myers movie, and when you look at II, you can see he made it with the intention of ending the killer.

Avaitor, you said you also saw the third Friday the 13th movie, right? I'm curious what you thought of that one.

Bleh.

It becomes better if you see the rest of the sequels. :P

Aside from IV which is the best in the series, and VI which is a fun tongue-in-cheek take on the series. But I think III is special in that it's the movie where Jason first puts on the hockey mask. Funny how it took so long. He's a horror icon, and yet not only is he not even in the first movie, but when he finally debuts in the second movie, he doesn't even have the mask.

R.I.P. Leatherface (http://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/gunnar-hansen-killer-of-texas-chain-saw-massacre-dies/ar-CC6bl0)

R.I.P. Hansen

I recently read The Exorcist (the original novel) and re-watched the movie for the first time in over a decade. It still holds up really well. It's easy to take popular movies for granted, especially one so extremely ingrained in pop-culture as this one, but it doesn't hurt to remind yourself of why that status is justified every once in a while.

I'm also thinking of checking out The Exorcist III, since it seems to have a pretty strong cult following these days.

Scream Factory is on a roll for announcing Collectors Edition releases. First they've announced The Thing, then Carrie, and then they pull out Exorcist III and Child's Play on the same day!

I don't have The Thing yet, so I'm glad to pick that up. Carrie, however, I do own, so I'd probably wait until I can find this for pretty cheap. I haven't seen Exorcist III, but it sounds like something I would enjoy, as it looks like a welcomely different spiritual successor, ala Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and Halloween III. Child's Play, though, I'm not very interested in.

Are we still doing the 31 Days of Horror thing this year?

I've been internally debating on it. Since I have a job now my time is short on weekdays. That said I still want to do one, so I'll let you know what I decide by the end of the week.

If it's going to be tough for you to update every day, maybe we can collaborate on posting the day's movies together.

I do feel like we have at least one more good year of this series in us, if not more.

Sure, if you or anyone is willing to help then I'm all for it. I have a lot more films that I would like to talk about, so I could presumably keep this going for a few more years, myself.

In that case just let me know if you want the set-up and rules to be the same as last year or if there is anything that you would like to tweak.

So, Avaitor, do you think that you'll be up for helping out with the project this year?

Also, I just watched Blair Witch. Why? Well, out of curiosity more than anything else. I wanted to see how they would update it. Say what you want about the original, but personally I found it to be genuinely well-done for what it set out to do, and its commitment to not trying to feel like an actual film but rather a loosely scrapped together string of amateur footage, in addition to it leaving any actual "horrific" imagery completely up to your imagination. That's something that most found footage movies that have come since seem to forget, and IMO retroactively give the first Blair Witch movie a much worse image than it really deserves.

As for this movie, people were hyping it up simply because it had Adam Wingard's name attached to it. In all honesty, I find him to be a tad overrated. While his two feature-films are certainly entertaining on a base level, they are riddled with pretty predictable plots and bafflingly stupid characters. And, as I expected, this movie was just that, but without any of the entertainment value. It's literally just a retread of the first movie but with way too much over acting and production value put into it to the point of feeling unintentionally silly.

Yeah, I can! Does anyone want to start nominating stuff now?

Same rules as before. Nominate any horror movie that you want, so long as it hasn't already been featured in a previous year (I'm too lazy to put up a list, but I'll let you know if something has been used before). Max of 6 nominations per person for right now. I'll increase it if we don't have enough spots filled by the end of the week. Here are my choices:

1. The Conjuring 1/2
2. Sinister
3. The Crow
4. ParaNorman
5. Bone Tomahawk
6. The Descent

Part of me wants to nominate Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in honor of Gene Wilder. You could argue with me that it's not a horror movie, but I could just argue back that it's clearly a horror movie in disguise as a family picture....

But, I ultimately decided on ParaNorman as my family movie pick instead.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on September 18, 2016, 02:26:23 PM
3. The Crow

Huh, I was just about to nominate that movie myself (and specifically on Devil's Night). Great minds think alike I suppose.

I'll nominate the two Hellboy movies and Event Horizon. The former are a loose fit but they do have some horror elements to them, but feel free to disqualify them if they don't meet the criteria. The latter I've been meaning to see for some time now after seeing it compared to Warhammer 40k and Doom, so this'll be a great opportunity for me to watch it.

Both Hellboy movies are A-OK with me! :thumbup:

Do you want them featured as separate entries or would you rather mash them up to be on the same day like we did with the first two Blade movies last year?

I recently rediscovered The Crow when I re-watched it on Netflix earlier this year, for the first time in over a decade. For an early comic book movie, it holds up astoundingly well, IMO. It's easily one of my top ten favorites of all time in the genre, along with Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. ;)

It depends on how many entries we get this year. If we're hurting for nominations, then yeah, separate them, otherwise keep them on the same date.

Green Room
The Witch
Murders in the Rue Morgue (32)
Dracula's Daughter
Halloween II

Pretty basic reasons for my choices. Two recent, very well-received horror flicks that I've been meaning to get to, two overlooked Universal classics, and one of the Halloween Horror Nights house choices, which has some points that I want to get to.

Alright, no limits to nominations. Let's just fill this month up. It looks like only three of us on here actually give a shit about horror movies, anyways. :humhumhum:

Let The Right One In
We Are Still Here
Insidious
Young Frankenstein

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

I wanted to put this in earlier, but I forgot. I'll come up with more later.

Fright Night (1985)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1979)
Sweet Home
Seven
Carrie
Ghostbusters I/II
The Fly (1986)
Gremlins 2: The New Batch

The Loved Ones
Puppet Master
The Purge: Election Year

Sweet Home?  :o

Quote from: gunswordfist on September 25, 2016, 08:33:58 AMSweet Home?  :o

It's probably better to experience it through the video game, but the movie is rather entertaining for what it is. Some parts are cheesy in an amusing way, while other parts are legitimately well done with some great practical effects. It's not a terribly above average horror movie, but it is worth watching and worth talking about.

Yes, the effects are the movie's real sell and the game is much much better. Thankfulky, I played the game first.

George A. Romero has passed away. (http://variety.com/2017/film/news/george-romero-dead-dies-night-of-the-living-dead-director-1202497068)

We also lost Martin Landau.

Two legends in one day.

So, Stephen King's It is coming out fairly soon and I've been cautiously optimistic about it all year long. I read the book about two years ago and found it to be incredibly engrossing. It has some....questionable bits to be sure, but don't let naysayers who hate Stephen King fool you, it's an incredibly well-written novel and is equal parts emotionally enthralling and creepy. Putting nostalgia for the Tim Curry mini-series aside, it doesn't really adapt the source material very well and doesn't really hold up in its own right either. It's still a guilty pleasure of mine, though, if only for how absurdly fun it is to watch Tim Curry go nuts.

That said, this reboot seems like a far more faithful and interesting attempt at adapting the source material. I was initially interested when I heard that Carry Fukunaga would be involved, but quickly lost interest when he stepped down from the project. However, the promotional material that surfaced for this movie over the course of this year really caught my attention, and the closer we've gotten to the release of the movie the more hopeful I have become that it's as good as it looks. Hearing early positive buzz for the film has almost completely sold me on it, but I still do have some reservations. Even so, if the movie can capture the spirit of the book as well as it looks like it can, it'll easily be one of my favorites of the year.

Rest in peace, Tobe Hooper.

So, IT basically smashed all records to become the highest grossing horror movie of all time, the second highest grossing rated R film of all time (following closely behind Deadpool), and the third highest grossing film of the year (so far), even beating out comic book giants like Spider-Man and Wonder Woman.

And I'm really glad. IT genuinely deserves the success (pun obviously intended). As an adaptation it manages to take the best parts of the source material while cutting out the crappier parts, resulting in an overall superior adaptation, IMO. The movie isn't necessarily scary, but that doesn't bother me as describing it as a darker version of The Goonies or Stand By Me with a Killer Clown are strong enough selling points for me.

I honestly want to go back and see it in theaters again this coming weekend to catch all of the hidden stuff that I missed. But man, even on a first viewing I just couldn't help but love this film's attention to detail. There are two scenes in particular (there may be more, but I only noticed the two on my first viewing) in which you see an "extra" in the background staring at one of the children, one being a Librarian with their sights directly on Ben Hanscom from behind and the other as a circus performer on stilts in direct sight of all of the kids in a group at a carnival. Both scenes eventually lead to a related scare, but what I love is that careful viewers will notice that this is clearly Pennywise marking his prey from a distance, but he's taken the form of an unassuming person that blends in with their environment, so his presence is subtle enough for most people (including the audience) to miss it. Surely enough, though, I looked it up and as I suspected, both "extras" were actually Bill Skarsgard in a different costume and makeup. That level of dedication to such minor details really goes a long way for me.

Another little Easter Egg that I noticed is during the scene in which Mike Hanlon first encounters IT, you can see a painting on the alley wall depicting a shoot-out from the 1930's in which various members of the mob were gunned down, and later on in the film when the kids briefly return to that alley, you get a better look at the picture and can actually make out Pennywise's face well hidden within a dark portion of the painting, alluding to his influence over the violence in Derry. All over the film you can actually find visual clues as to the history of the town over the years (as elaborated on extensively in the novel) without any of the characters spending countless minutes of exposition on any of it.

It's clear that a ton of effort went into this production by people passionate about the material, and it really is one of my favorite films of the year so far.

Anyone check out Mom and Dad, the one with Nic Cage? Was wondering how it is. Not into most horror, but I like some with certain gimmicks or interesting plots like this looked to me.

Platinum Dunes gives up on horror remakes. (http://www.darkhorizons.com/platinum-dunes-ditching-horror-remakes)

Since Universal's attempt at a "Dark Universe" wound up in shambles, they're now giving Blumhouse a chance to reboot their classic monsters, starting with The Invisible Man.

https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3543599/blumhouse-reviving-universal-monsters-starting-leigh-whannells-invisible-man

I'm still not sure how the Dark Universe could have worked. Were they going to be individual horror movies that would have culminated in a monster mash? If I wanted that, I would have watched Van Helsing movie. It would have made as much sense.

I guess that the monsters would have teamed up to fight aliens or something? Either that or it would have culminated in a Monster Squad remake, which I would be cool with if you got the original director back.

Best way to have done the Dark Universe was just to make it like the old Universal Monster verse but with more tighter, consistent plotting and world building. Judging from reviews of the Tom Cruise Mummy and Dracula Untold, however, that's not what they were going for. Horror's not really something you'd need to bill upfront as a shared Universe, but done right it would enhance the bleakness. I'm all for the concept, and seeing remakes of Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman and House of Dracula would be cool, but Universal went about it the wrong way.

A Child's Play reboot is coming to theaters later this year. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFy8ZgLd574)

Brad Dourif isn't reprising his iconic role as Chucky, but you know who's taking his place instead?
MARK FREAKING HAMILL! :swoon:

Doctor Sleep trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2msJTFvhkU4)

The Friday the 13th rights have reverted to its original author. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvbSYHsLOC8)

Jacob's Ladder (The original 1990 movie, not the throwaway 2019 visual trash masquerading as a remake!), anyone?

Watched Us a couple days ago and liked that. Didn't like it as much as Get Out, but it had its moments.

I knew the Friday the 13th rights were in in a tangle, but I didn't realize it was this bad. (https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3714782/friday-the-13th-heres-what-victor-miller-can-and-might-do-with-his-part-of-the-franchise/) So one guy owns ideas from the first movie like Pamela, Jason, Camp Crystal Lake, while another guy owns the hockey mask and the concept of Jason growing up to become a serial killer, which means any attempt to bring back Jason can't use anything that mainstream audiences associate with Jason.

So for the first time in over 25 years, we're getting a Hellraiser movie that's sparking conversation other than "This is just an ashcan copy". (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUlgwJNdu2I) Cautiously hyped for it, especially since Barker's on board unlike that string of DTV films.

I don't know if it'd be cool or if it'll suck if we get a good Predator AND Hellraiser film this year that are both stuck on Hulu. I only just got around to Prey, but I wish I could have seen this on the big screen like it deserves to be seen.

Well, if Halloween Ends sucks or not, at least Laurie remembered her other daughter.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fe5UnwzWYAAxWgd?format=jpg&name=medium)

I finally got around to Halloween Kills, and yeah, it's pretty damn dumb.

But it's funny, I come from a pretty small town like Haddonfield, and I can tell you right away that if we had a similar event like that one night 40 years ago, it wouldn't be something that defines the town like they allow it to over here. Yes, small towns love to gossip, but serial killer travesties are a line most people know to not cross. Weirdo fangirls aside.

Curious to see your thoughts on Ends if you ever decide to bite on that one. It's pretty universally panned, but it is interestingly bad due to making some really bizarre story decisions.

Though I did see that the RedLetterMedia guys really enjoyed the film much to their shock, they hated Kills last year and their prior opinions on other Halloween films mostly align with fan consensus, and I've witnessed a bizarre amount of Corey fans spawn from the film's release, so I guess the movie's found its followers.

Watched Summer of 84 and absolutely loved it. Can't believe this one flew under my radar for so long. It's essentially a much darker take on the 80's nostalgia kick that we've seen so much in TV and movies in the last several years, but still with enough of a wholesome aspect to the core friendship of the main characters to make you care about them. It's intense in the second half since they don't feel "safe" or guarded by plot armor like you expect in much lighter fare.

I saw Halloween Ends last night, maybe one of the worst in the series?

Spoiler

Did the Cory storyline feel a bit pointless, once it all ended with Lauren vs Michael, anyway? His storyline was weird anyway, but you could almost cut it out and the last 20 minutes would be the same

Also, I could've done without someone's tongue get chopped off. I'll always appreciate how minimal the violence was a in the original Halloween.

[close]

So what's with the phrase "elevated horror"? I've seen that come up in film discourse lately, and all the annoyance that comes from people trying to come up with a term for "genre movies, but genre movies that critics like". Like how for a while, a fantasy that was critically acclaimed was reclassified as "magical realism". Or back when horror movies like Silence of the Lambs and Se7en were winning awards, but instead of being seen as horror, they were called "psychological thrillers". And now we have guys going "Sure, Get Out, Midsommar, and The Lighthouse are horror... but they're more than that! They're about something!" And sure, there's an obvious difference between an A24 film and a Friday the 13th movie, but it comes off as a major insecurity in some people. Like whenever someone gets mad when you say "sci-fi" and insists the proper term is "speculative fiction".

Well for what it's worth, Carpenter liked Ends. (https://www.moviemaker.com/john-carpenter-on-halloween-ends-music-v-movies-and-a-thing-sequel/) And he's usually pretty apathetic about any of the sequels beyond "I like it when they pay me royalties".

It's finally come to this... an A24 adaptation of Friday the 13th with Bryan Fuller in the helm. (https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/31/23433548/friday-the-13th-a24-bryan-fuller-crystal-lake-peacock-prequel?utm_campaign=theverge&utm_content=chorus&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter)

Blumhouse and Atomic Monster have merged. (https://deadline.com/2024/01/blumhouse-atomic-monster-merger-complete-1235694037)

A slasher movie shot from the perspective of the killer.