Horror films

[Raqudu]

My favorite for Halloween is "Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein."

Dracula, Wolfman, Frankenstein, and a cameo by the Invisible Man - who could ask for anything more?

[untamed]

Hey, I started a thread about this over at BF (if I remember right) last year!

I sort of grew up watching horror films because of an uncle who was ravenous about them. Zombie-blood-and-gore don't really scare me, they put me off. Not too fond of special FX as well as they should only enhance the story and not be the center piece. I'm more for the psychological element.

Off the top of my head the true scary ones

1. Ringu - Original Japanese version of The Ring. The only film I could remember to actually been taken aback (the last scene where Sadako emerges)

2. Prince of Darkness - This John Carpenter classic did it for me when I was a kid, prob'ly during 5ht or 6th grade I think.

3. The Exorcist - Of course! Disturbing to say the least. Like in most cases however, the film fails to capture W.P. Blatty's imagination from the book. BTW, I read somewhere a long time ago that Blatty did "work for the US Government during the Viet Nam War in the area of psychological operations???" Hmmmm, don't know how true this is, but if it is, he sure did apply the knowledge well in the plot development.

[*Cho*]

Paranormal Activity was a scarey movie for me. BUT..I've had some experiences of my own and it's kinda freaky to see it on film and think THATS HAPPENED TO ME.

Paranormal Activity was a great movie, except it was so freaking slow in parts. But when it got going it was really really creepy. It was more of a psychological scary movie than a BOO HERE I AM scary movie. Parts had me growing goosebumps on my arms cause it was so scary.

[MountainManJim]

Currently,

Saw - the first one only.
From **** - not some much horror, but graphic and a good story.
Sleepy Hallow - Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, one can't go wrong.

Also, most Tim Burton movies, expect maybe Sweeny Tody.

Jim

[dete]

ok, my Halloween movie ended up being,

The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire (Sherlock Holmes tale)

I still need to see 28 days later.

[fret]

Night of the Living Dead. I like zombie films. But Alien is great too. Saw is aweful. :eek: Too gorey for me. :)

[Lost Jaguar]

My wife and I watched horror films every night for the entire month. We both felt that the scariest, and probably the best made, was Kubrick's "The Shining."

[Lost Jaguar]

My favorite for Halloween is "Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein."

Dracula, Wolfman, Frankenstein, and a cameo by the Invisible Man - who could ask for anything more?

We saw this one as well. Not very scary, but a wonderful movie. The DVD's commentary track was superb. I loved Lawrence "Wolfman" Talbot's kamikaze exit with Dracula at the film's climax.

[asfaltpiloot]

Last night i saw "Drag me to ****"
Had goose bumps a few times.

[sarguy]

I've never been a fan of the satanic horror stuff. Movies like Pitch Black, Dreamcatcher. and Alien I enjoy, but when it comes to the evil and the human element, I have no taste for gore. I've seen enough of it as an EMT and Coroner. To be honest, the real thing is much less disturbing to me. One of my favorite moves is Shaun of the Dead, but the gore is counterpoint to the dry humour (It's British, so it's gotta have the "u").

[dete]

My wife and I watched horror films every night for the entire month. We both felt that the scariest, and probably the best made, was Kubrick's "The Shining."

I gotta agree, Stanley has a way of getting to your nerves...
even Full Metal Jacket, it's like a worm crawling on a razor's edge...
just makes you want to shiver it out of your system.

as far as scary scary,
I find movies to be the least scariest form of medium.

[JD Spydo]

Night of the Living Dead. I like zombie films. But Alien is great too. Saw is aweful. :eek: Too gorey for me. :)

If you like Zombie type films there were 2 big time classics from the early 70s. One was entitled "Children Mustn't Play With Dead Things" and the other great one was simply called "Asylum". I saw those both on a film festival about a year ago and I couldn't believe how good both of them were for early 70s movies. There was another early 70s flick called "The Other" which was a very eerrie show.

Also from the early 70s was a real mind bender entitled "Clockwork Orange". It seems like a golden era for those type of films to be sure. Gotta go I think I hear Gage calling me :D

[Agent Starling]

Also from the early 70s was a real mind bender entitled "Clockwork Orange".

The movie & book are both awesome...and here's a little tidbit...the huge caretaker guy named Julian was played by none other than David Prowse, the guy who played Darth Vader in Star Wars! :eek: :cool: :D

Agent Starling

[JD Spydo]

The movie & book are both awesome...and here's a little tidbit...the huge caretaker guy named Julian was played by none other than David Prowse, the guy who played Darth Vader in Star Wars! :eek: :cool: :D

Agent Starling

That's interesting AGent STarling :) I wasn't aware of that. And I'm kind of a Stanley Kubrick fan too. But Kubrick did some movies that were truly visionary aside from being entertaining. The sad thing about Clockwork Orange is that our society has become what is depicted in that movie .

Because with the proliferation of gang violence and increased government corruption our world has become a "Clockwork Orange" reality which to me is worse than a horror movie in many aspects.

and Stanley Kubrick died by a very strange set of circumstances... It makes you wonder :confused:

[JaM]

"Event Horizon", although sci-fi, still makes me wish I did not see it.

Love the "28 ... later" stuff. :)

[clovisc]

the way i see it, it's pretty hard to beat the exorcist. it does such a great job with mood, atmosphere, and building suspense... and manages to negate and pervert the pillars of mainstream american life (religion, childhood innocence, "the home") in such a sickeningly disturbing fashion that after the film, you will not feel safe anywhere! at least not for a little while. :D the autumnal late 1970s atmosphere in the film brings back a lot of childhood memories for me... which is, i think, why i find it the most disturbing horror film of all time.

i don't really care for the fancy-schmancy CGI-driven horror movies, and don't find "special effects" captivating in-and-of themselves... nor do i find outrageous amounts of gore frightening or interesting -- just gross and unpleasant. to me, "horror" needs to manipulate mood and atmosphere, engage the viewer on a psychological level, and slowly build tension and momentum towards huge shocks and releases. it's that slow build of tension that makes "horror" interesting to me... and gorefests, unsatisfying.

[clovisc]

i'm also a big fan of "the shining"... i think, because of its effectiveness in taking something that we draw comfort and security from ("the family"), and turning it on its head. instead of the father being the protector, he turns his strength inwards to become the predator, and childhood's innocence is polluted by unknown sources. the results tap into lots of anxiety about relationships... and interestingly, creates a sense of tension similar to that faced by people in abusive relationships.

horror is an interesting vehicle for social criticism, and psychological exploration, because it's a medium in which the author can manipulate the things our society holds sacred and draws comfort from, and destabilize or negate them. i think the psychological consequences / value of this process go a lot beyond creating something that is simply "scary" -- it unhinges how we look at the world, and ourselves.

[nuubee]

I can't handle special-effects gore, myself, so I don't watch modern horror films, but there are some older ones that I enjoy.
IMHO, 'The Island of Lost Souls', made in the early 1930's, is just as good as the originals of 'Frankenstein' and 'Dracula', but it tends not to be as well known. It was remade several times as 'The Island of Doctor Moreau', but I don't think any of the remakes can hold a candle to the original. Charles Laughton is superb as a mad scientist, and Bela Lugosi, as a strange 'islander', is barely visible under his makeup. Because it is 'pre-Hays code', there are certain slightly risque elements, which add to the film.
Also, it is extremely low-budget, but 'Carnival of Souls' kind of creeped me out the first time I saw it. The abandoned amusement park in the film was finally torn down shortly after this film was made.
The French b&w 1950's film, 'Eyes without a face', is creepy.

[JD Spydo]

That's interesting that so many of you like Stanley Kubrick's movies. Because "CLOCKWORK ORANGE" was one of his movies too. One brother mentioned a Kubrick movie "FULL METAL JACKET">> that's interesting because my brother was in the Marine Corp when it was at it's most difficult and he told me that the movie FULL METAL JACKET disturbed him somewhat because it was so close to the reality he experienced during his stint in the Corps.

I'm somewhat surprised that none of you seemed to like Stephen King's work. I just saw the "Langolier's" on a late night show here about a week ago and it was truly a mind bender. His one movie with James Caan entitled "Misery" was truly disturbing. It kind of got to me because I know that there are people out there that are indeed that evil and it would be so easy to be victimized like that. People who think that torture should be legalized like some sickos seem to think now a days should have to be forced to watch that movie.

James Caan was also in one of my very favorite movies ever. The original ROLLERBALL. I've gotten people to rent that movie here in the last year and I still have people telling me how good it is.

[yablanowitz]

Pretty hard to define what horror is anymore. It used to simply be something that set the viewer off... malevolent beings, indistinct noises, a feeling of unease looking at a scene, making you shiver thinking about it. When there is far scarier out there on TV and the news it's hard to scare my generation.

I know my father can't get through more than about 20min of Hostel, yet I see nothing wrong with it.

I enjoyed The Cave, The Ruins, Amityville Horror. Though I spent more time laughing than anything.

I grew up watching The Outer Limits, X-Files, Hitchcock, Terminator and Alien series. I had watched Alien & Aliens a few times by the time I was about 9. I won't deny that it scared me the first time.

Kids :rolleyes:
The first time I saw Alien was in a theater in Honolulu. I had just returned from a three month deployment on a ballistic missle submarine. I had never seen a trailer or commercial for the movie, hadn't heard an ad on the radio, nothing. All I knew was what it said on the poster: "In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream." I don't mind saying that movie made me jump a few times. :eek:

By and large, I don't really enjoy horror flicks.