Horror

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

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:

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)

-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!

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

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

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!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

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.

[talonmalon333]

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

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

The Vanishing
Ginger Snaps
The Invisible Man

[gunswordfist]

Wait, which Invisible Man movie?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

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

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

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

The Vanishing
Ginger Snaps
The Invisible Man

Any specific dates?

[talonmalon333]

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.

Wait, which Invisible Man movie?

The Invisible Man

[Avaitor]

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.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

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.

[LumRanmaYasha]

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.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

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

[Avaitor]

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.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Shaye: 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.

[talonmalon333]

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

[Rynnec]

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