Severance - More along the lines of a comedy horror like Slither, but with a Saw type feel. A company retreat in the backwoods for team building exercise that is accidentally sent to a camp full of psychos? Simply Awesome.
Poltergeist rocked my world when I was a kid. It never takes a breath, a PG rated movie that just plain scared the living shit out of me. It's 27 years old, but the special effects are still top notch, the family is very likable, and closets, clowns, fried chicken, scarey-white-dog-things, backyard pools, chairs, trees, and especially static televisions became our enemy until puberty.
Session 9 (2001) is worth a watch. Creepy as fuck, and has David Caruso before he sold his soul to the devil to become Horatio Kane. While were on that topic, fuck Horatio Cane and all his tired bullshit. Fuckin' prick. Martyrs (2008) is by far the most perverse and fucked up movie I have ever watched. I won't lie, it's tough to sit through at some points, but well worth it when you reach the conclusion. The Children (2008) takes things in a slightly different direction with kids. Jacob's Ladder (1990) is one of my all time favorite movies for two reasons. First, it's a great horror film, with a solid story that can be taken many ways. Second, Spoiler you get to see Elizabeth Pena in the nude, which scores major points. Additionally, shortly after you see her in the buck, she will proceed to scare the ever-loving shit out of you. The Changeling (1980) simply must be seen. For those of you who are inspired to watch it, I'd like to hear what you thought about it. Lord of Illusions (1995) was directed by the immortal Clive Barker, and much like Hellraiser is a great film. I'd even go so far as to say that it's better than Hellraiser. Dead Alive (1992) is the goriest horror film of all time. The early brainchild of Peter Jackson, and it's fuckin' hilarious. Have fun! EDIT: Removed/tagged possible spoilers
MAINSTREAM: The Thing--Already mentioned, but worth repeating. To me it's one of Carpenter's best works (better than Halloween). The Shining--Fantastic at creating such a creepy atmosphere and a sense of pure isolation. Great to see some Hollywood talent (Nicholson, Kubrick) take on a horror project and really do it well. The Exorcist--Need I say more? This one should be a starting point for anyone who's looking to get into the horror genre. Night of the Living Dead (1968)--After the Exorcist, check this one out. There is something about the way this movie is shot that just makes it extremely creepy. It does a great job of not always showing the zombies (or at least the horde outside), so when you do see them, you internally start to become tense. Important movie for it's time, great movie overall. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre--This one may be the litmus to see if you're a horror fan. I know so many people that think this movie is absolutely brilliant, and so many others that think it is absolute garbage. Unlike the hype, it isn't particularly gory (well... except for one scene with a meathook... but hey, it's horror, right?), but just has a neverending sense of dread and futility throughout the entire movie. NOT AS MAINSTREAM: The Last House on the Left(1972)--I'm torn on this movie. I love it as a classic, but I realize it's not very good. Parts of it are just a low-budget crappy movie, but there are times in this movie where it is just chilling. It deserves the controversy it created--there are parts that are just downright disturbing--and when the movie is over you kinda just think to yourself: "jesus christ..."... but overall a classic in the genre. Martyrs--This movie had potential, but then turned into a torture porn gornography movie. I'm sure it makes me a hypocrite at some level, but when movies start to have violence for the sake of violence with no tension or suspense, it becomes boring. Eden Lake--For those who don't know this one, this is a "picture-perfect moment goes horribly awry" movie. One thing leads to another, and the whole thing falls into complete brutality. This one leaves you with a sense of dread after you watch it, much like Last House and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It certainly isn't as good as those other movies, but worth a watch for horror fans. Funny Games--There are two versions, the Austrian original and the American Remake. Unlike other movies, this remake is actually just about as good as the original (shocking... I know). This movie is a disturbing mindfuck. It is not gory at all, in fact it only shows minimal violence--but the situation and the dialog are just downright disturbing. Walking out of this movie, I felt like I had just been punched in the stomach--a sensation many horror fans are probably familiar with. It's worth watching, but be ready for a movie that is not pleasant. DISTURBING: Cannibal Holocaust--This one is really disturbing, but all-in-all it is a great movie. Almost the whole movie is supposed to look like a documentary, so it gives many of the scenes an ultra-realistic feel. On top of that, they show actual human executions and they actually slaughter animals in front of the camera in certain scenes. Coupled with the documentary style, this makes the whole thing feel like it actually happened (which is pretty amazing because much of the acting is terrible). On top of it, the movie has an awesome original soundtrack with a main theme that is just chilling when they play it in the end. This is a hardcore horror classic. Salo: or the 120 Days of Sodom--I hesitate to put this up here, because it isn't really a horror movie at all. However, it is easily the most disturbing and unpleasant thing I've watched. There's all sorts of sexual, fecal, brutal, and just plain abnormal shit happening in this one. At one point they have some kind of twisted marriage ritual, and I won't really get into it, but even though there is no blood, no nudity, and nothing that would trigger any censors, it is just utterly and completely disturbing. When the movie ends, you can't help but just sit there for a second and think to yourself: "what...the....fuck?!?" Easily the most disturbing movie I have ever seen. All that said, I actually liked this movie. I'm not rushing out to see it again anytime soon, but in the end you can tell that it had a powerful message to it.
I'd go further than simply calling it "not very good"; this film flat-out fucking sucks, and I've never understood why people refer to it as a classic. It's a primitive, boring revenge film, no different than any number of run-of-the-mill early 70's slashers, and in fact, inferior to many of them.
Technically inept and very sick. That's how I describe it. You'd be hard pressed to find ANY talent in Wes Craven here, a man who directed very imaginative horror flicks.A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Serpent And The Rainbow, and Deadly Friend. This film was his debut, and he shot it like a drunken one-armed midget standing on an office chair. The clumsy chainsaw climax is so terribly done I didn't even bother finishing the movie. A complete and total bomb. Roger Ebert gave this movie three and a half stars?!!?!?0
I thought about this and I can't exactly figure it out either. One of my first thoughts was that it was controversial/banned. Banning a movie gives it a taboo that only means it can become more popular. I think the mentality has a few elements: Curiosity--"What could they possibly have put in the movie to cause so much outrage?" Ego--"They banned this movie, but I'm going to see it because nothing phases me." Quality--movies that push boundaries often only cause outrage/controversy when they are good; there isn't as much fuss when a shitty movie pushes boundaries since nobody will see it because it's shitty. Free and Unique Press--movies that are controversial often get news headlines. These only elevate interest. But then again, controversy alone certainly wouldn't make it a classic. It'd be a pretty shallow and shitty genre if that was all it took. In addition, a movie like "Silent Night, Deadly Night" had tons of controversy, but it certainly is not a "classic". So while "Last House's" controversy probably had an element to it's popularity, it didn't really make it a classic. The gore or disturbing content cannot be what makes it a classic either. Sure, there's some stuff there that's downright nasty, but if that is all it took, Hostel would be a classic. As I said before, I don't think it's a very good movie. But there's something in it that's just intangible that saves it from being just another 70's horror movie. There's a theme of "innocence lost" that seems to resonate (and I'm sure it was much more powerful in 1972 when Vietnam war footage was controversially entering the average American's house on the 6pm news--the setting of the most horrific scenes somewhat resemble "the bush"). I guess in the end, it's a classic because fans of the genre say so. It's a classic because it is widely recognized as a classic (kind of a stupid criteria... but what else could it be?). Though it isn't very good, horror fans tend to point to this as a noteworthy and monumental title in the genre. I guess the fact that a crappy movie can become a classic speaks to the strange nature of horror movies in general.
Silent Night Deadly Night was picketed at theatres not because of its violence. Yes, it WAS violent, but there are tonnes of movies that are much more violent. It was controversial becasue it's about a department store Santa commiting brutal axe murders. Cannibal Holocaust was banned because it was utterly repulsive. They slaughter animals, impale people and chop off a guy's cock in full view of the camera. Also Make Them Die Slowly was equally disgusting, and even more banned than C.H. I think the single most repulsive movie I've ever seen was a well-known and absolutely wretched false-snuff garbage film called I Spit On Your Grave. It's about an innocent girl who gets ravaged by degenerates over and over and OVER again in a 25+ minute rape scene then gets brutal revenge on her attackers. I have never hated myself more in my life than sitting though this flick. If anybody ever tries to remake this travesty they should be shot and pissed on.
Hostel: I had faith Eli Roth was going to do well on this one. Unlike everybody I've talked to, I actually enjoyed Cabin Fever and thought it was a fairly well-done horror flick. Going into Hostel, I had high hopes and the first part of the movie delivered. In about the first half of the movie, Roth does a pretty good job of creating a tense scene. Like many horror movies, he takes a situation where people would feel vulnerable (isolated while traveling), and lays hints down that something is going to go very very wrong. It does a good job of making tension and suspense for this part. The second half is basically torture porn. I don't know why, but he completely changed styles. It went from a promising horror movie to "Let's gross out the audience!!" The violence and sickness of the scenes could've been used as a tool to make them more tense and suspenseful, but instead he just seems to show everything. When you see everything, it starts loses its edge. It can still be gross and nasty, but there is no more tension or suspense. It starts to become boring. It had a lot of potential, with a great premise, but completely failed to deliver. Audition: Where Hostel fails, Audition greatly succeeds. This is a fantastic horror movie, but not for people with short attention spans. Horror often uses a sort of whiplash effect. It'll be slow and pretty dull for a while, with maybe some slight scares put in to keep you on your toes. But once this pace has settled in, BAM! All the slow parts paid off in one spectacular scene where everything came together. Audition is exactly this type of movie. The first 45 minutes or so are really slow, but paint a great picture of the main character as a pretty decent average guy who's lonely. They also paint a tone that's fairly upscale and elegant. Though slow, there is an entire subliminal message: "something here is not right... something is going to go wrong." After all that lull, there's the telephone scene... and I nearly fucking lost it. If you saw the scene alone, it wouldn't be all that scary. The images themselves just aren't all that scary. BUT, coupled with the first portion of the whole movie, it is the huge payoff of a well orchestrated scene/scare. The movie continues in a similiar pace (lull then whoa!) and culminates in a great final scene (but then again, if a horror movie doesn't culminate in a great final scene, it really hasn't done it's job. It's easily my favorite Takashi Miike movie, as many of the others fall into torture porn movies IMO.
I completely agree. It's simply a bad movie. Sadly, it seems to have earned itself a space among the "classics" of the genre. I wouldn't be surprised to see it remade, even though there is zero reason to remake it (well... except hollywood greed).
Thanks for the confirmation about "I Spit on Your Grave", guys. I thought about downloading it a few years ago, but decided not to. Turns out it was a good call. It's definitely his best horror film, but Imprint, One Missed Call, and Visitor Q were also excellent. And while they're more in the action genre, his other "torture porn" movies like the Dead or Alive trilogy, and Ichi the Killer (my favorite) are even better in some ways. (He has a wicked sense of dark humor and fight choreography) Oddly enough, his most recent film was an adaptation of a Japanese cartoon into a children's/family super-hero comedy. Amazingly enough, it was also pretty good.
Alt-Focus What were the single scariest movie scenes (in your opinion)? When I was a kid, I saw Twilight Zone: The movie. It was really hit and miss, but the opening sequence between Albert Brooks and Dan Akroyd built up and built up and the final shock practically gave me a heart attack, even as a kid. I was petrified with fear from it: And who could forget the shock to end all shocks? It's a bit tired now over the years, but admit it: the first time you saw this scene, you wet 'em! And with the popularity on this thread, I couldn't possibly post without showing this scene. HAve your palms ever sweat so much (And the last line is a classic.)?
It seems your worst movie fears are coming true: I spit on your grave remake http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Spit_on_Your_Grave_(film)
What sick fucks desire to remake this film, and what sick fucks desire to STAR in this film? Why not just make a porno starring Adolph Hitler and Leona Helmsley as the main characters while you're at it? I have a better idea: start coming up with NEW FUCKING IDEAS. Hearing this, it's just plain obvious that eventually EVERY SINGLE horror movie will be remade because fuck being original, right? What's next, Plan 9 From Outer Space? We had three very original and very good horror movies in the last year: Drag Me To Hell, Paranormal Activity and of course the genre-jumping Zombieland. Drag Me To Hell in particular demonstrated that you don't need an original idea to make a great horror film: you just need to entertain (see: scare). Instead, you get this: ... and guess who's behind it? Michael Cocksucking Bay. Thank you for already trampling Friday the 13th and Texas Chainsaw Massacre into shit chowder, ass-hat. Now you get to ruin the very horror film that was the genre's first offical blockbuster. "Throw money at it and they will come". I look forward to you eventually ruining Evil Dead as well (it'll happen, and you KNOW it).
As far as re-makes I agree with everyone, except for Rob Zombie's Halloween, I enjoyed that. It's funny that movies that scared the shit out of you when you were younger are now almost laughable now. A month ago I bought Children of the Corn, when I was twelve I was scared of cornfields for about three years because of that film, now I was disappointed with it. Another movie that really creeped me out was Wes Craven's "The People Under The Stairs" <a class="postlink" href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105121/-" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105121/-</a> I was actually going to rent it/download it but I got nervous that I may hate it seeing it twenty some years later! As much as I loved horror, I liked the movies that were a little more creepy than gory. A film many people overlooked was "Frailty" not a blood and gut's film but had a anxious feel to it as well as a pretty cool twist. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/frailty/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/frailty/</a> Great Thread! Quick P.S-- The two character's that creeped me out the most in scary movies were The Rev. Kane (pictured in my Avatar) and Zelda from Pet Cemetery. ******chills thinkin about them both******
I hated Pet Sematary. It's rare to see a horror film this ugly with more contempt for its audience than this one. However, the final scene as well as Zelda were skin-crawling. The funny thing is, I actually LIKED Pet Sematary Two (WAAAAAAY more mean spirited and violent) in the form of Clancy Brown's undead sheriff, who was one of the funniest characters in movie history. Trust me on this if you haven't seen it, he'll have you pissing your pants. My favourite part of Pet Sematary Two, a light-hearted scene. Start at around 3:00:
When I was a kid, Horror movies scared the hell out of me. I just had an overactive imagination and I pictured horror movie monsters coming to get me from everywhere. The one that freaked me out the most was the first Alien movie. Just the situation they were in, and the look of the monster.....I had nightmares for a long time after seeing that movie. After I hit my teens though, these movies just stopped scaring me. The gore made them more ridiculous than anything, and most of the scenes were more comical than scary. I love the horror genre, but I haven't been legitmately scared in a long time. I guess I have to be able to genuinely imagine myself in the situation to be scared by it, and given the plots of most movies, that's hard to do. I love Sam Raimi's horror films, because they are just so over the top. Another movie that didn't get a lot of hype, but I thought was great, was May. It was just delightfully weird, and of course Anna Faris is always awesome.
I was much more excited than I should of been to hear that scream 4 is coming out in 2010. It's a cheesy horror film and fills every horror cliche in the book. But the Scream series remains my favorite because it brings back childhood memories.
Perhaps this is more along the lines of "suspense" than horror, but the original "When a Stranger Calls" creeped the fuck out of me. It's probably one of the first "scary" movies that I watched and I can remember having nightmares for months. The opening scene still bugs me every time I watch it. They also made a crappy sequel in the early 90's called "When a Stranger Calls Back". Definitely a weak encore film, but the scene at the end where the stalker paints his body to blend in with Julia's brick wall was pretty money. When he opened his eyes, it sent chills up my spine. Three other "scary" movies that have always stuck out in my mind are "Silence of the Lambs", "Sleeping with the Enemy"**, and Stephen King's "It". All three came out between 1990 and 1991, and I think my age at that time played a big role in how I reacted to them. Man I wish I could go back to being 12-13. What an awesome age to watch creepy movies. ** Don't ask me why I listed this. It scared me. It just did.
The Hills Have Eyes--1977 Plot: This family on vacation gets stranded in the desert, which turns out to be an Air Force bombing site. They get attacked by a family of "mutants." I was pretty disappointed in this. Ok, first of all, the "mutants" just look like extras from a Mad Max movie with nothing physically wrong with them. Second, there is no real closure in the movie; yeah, the family members that aren't killed eventually kill the members of the mutant family, BUT THEY ARE STILL STUCK OUT IN THE DESERT WITH NO MEANS OF ESCAPE. What happens to the guy and his baby, and his hot sister? WE NEVER KNOW! Speaking of the hot sister (Susan Lanier), in my opinion she was the best part of the whole show, what with her running around in tight hip-hugger jeans and an equally tight red T-shirt. Actually, she looks uncannily similar to this girl I used to date...Man, remembering those perky D-cups bouncing while I railed her just makes me wanna.... Um, anyway, one cool part was where she and her brother set up a trap for one of the mutants using their dead grandmother as bait. From a technical standpoint, it seems like a pretty good design that would work in real life. I haven't seen the remake, so I don't know if this is better or worse; I'll check in with y'all on that soon.