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The Horror Movie Thread

Dev6Dev6 Member Posts: 719
I've loved horror movies since I was a little kid. I remember I started watching them when I was really young, probably too young to even understand what I was watching. My half-sister introduced me to them, probably as a joke, thinking that I was going to be scared shitless. It had quite the opposite effect lol. I remember my favourite movie when I was 4 or 5 years old was A Nightmare on Elm Street (I still love it).
I have fond memories of going to a video rental place that was very close to my home all the time and spending hours just looking at all those beautiful VHS horror tapes before actually choosing which one I wanted to watch. The cover art was beautiful back then. I feel like it's a lost art.
A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Halloween, Alien, The Exorcist, I could probably write down names for hours, both mainstream and B-movies. You name it, I've probably watched it (and if you name one that I haven't, I most definitely will! :) ).
I specially love slasher flicks. There's not a single type of movie in the world that's more entertaining than an 80s slasher full of boobs and blood.

I've been a bit out of touch with the newer horror movies in recent years, mostly because, well... They're all the same. I actually had to start an IMDB list just so I actually know which ones I've watched and which ones I haven't, because trailers and descriptions alone weren't enough anymore. Long gone is the age of original horror movies. Seems like they come in waves... Classical monsters in the 30s and 40s, then aliens in the 50s and 60s, then the supernatural in the 70s, then the slashers in the 80s, then the self-aware horror movies that were barely horror at all of the 90s, then the torture-porn movies of the 00s, aaaand we're back to the supernatural now in the 2010s...

Anyways, friday the 13th is coming soon. It's a personal tradition of mine to (almost) always watch a slasher flick on friday the 13th and on halloween, though I sometimes watch a non-slasher horror movie instead.

Do you guys enjoy horror movies? Tell me about your favourites and share your stories. :)
Any recomendations for the coming friday?
ThacoBellZaghoulOrlonKronsteenAedan
«1345678

Comments

  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    I enjoy many movies that happen to be classed as horror ;)
    I'm not a fan of slahers or "torture porn", being grossed out is not the same as being scared. I LOVE monster movies though. People put out some really creative designs and scenarios in these things. The Thing is easily my favorite horror movie. So many amazing monster designs and convincing practical effetcs, with a good does of psychological manipulation.

    You forgot one "wave" of horror movies by the way. In addition to aliens in the 50's and 60's "Attack of the Giant x". Them, the Black Scorpian, etc. Give me a good campy giant monster movie any day.
    Dev6
  • SethDavisSethDavis Member Posts: 1,812
    I very recently learned that there was a Jeepers Creepers 3 and this got me unreasonably excited. Ordered it off amazon, rewatched the first two back to back, started up the third and... man it's weird. Still plenty of fun... but real weird.
    Dev6
  • FinneousPJFinneousPJ Member Posts: 6,455
    I've heard good things about Hereditary (2018) but haven't seen it yet. Too busy with the world cup 8-)
    Dev6OrlonKronsteen
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Actually I want to take back my previous favorite. I didn't think of it initially because I don't view as horror today, but back when it first came out, was one of the most terrifying movies anyone had seen in America. 1923's King Kong. This movie single handedly created the special effects industry, and was so controversial for its time, that whole sections of the movie were removed and thought lost for decades. Its my econd favorite film of all time. Sorry "The Thing" I still love you.

    @SethDavis Was Jeepers Creepers 3 still made with the same director of 1 and 2? I refuse to support that guy.
    Dev6
  • Dev6Dev6 Member Posts: 719
    @ThacoBell If you love The Thing, give Harbinger Down a try. Disregard the IMDB score, that's the closest thing to The Thing (lol) that's ever been made.
    I love The Thing too. It had amazing monster designs, and the fact it's all practical effects just makes it better. Practical >CGI as far as horror goes, which is one of the reasons The Other Thing isn't nearly as good as the original.

    You're right of course about the giant monsters, I forgot about them because I never thought of those movies as horror, though they can certainly be classified as such. American giant monsters movies aren't really my thing though, I much prefer japanese kaiju movies. Gojira is a masterpiece.

    @SethDavis Funny thing, Jeepers Creepers has been on my to-watch list for years... Haven't got to it yet. I heard the 3rd one is very very weird, like you just said.

    @FinneousPJ I hadn't heard about Hereditary before. I just watched the trailer and it, hmm... Well it looks exactly like every other horror movie made in the past 10 years.
    I'll watch it eventually but I won't expect much.
    SethDavisThacoBellZaghoul
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    I've seen Hereditary. It was a brilliant movie, very unique, and deeply, deeply distressing to watch. On the surface, it's a creepy child movie, but underneath, it is very different from most horror movies--the horror is more psychological than physical or even supernatural, and the few physical horror scenes are very grim indeed.

    I think a lot of it is because the characters are so vivid and real. They're not disposable teenagers who get slashed up just to splatter some blood on the camera; they're people you like and care about. It makes the horror feel much more immediate and meaningful.

    My brother is a huge fan of horror movies (he's seen basically everything), but I have some complicated feelings about the genre. I don't like being scared--that part of the genre doesn't appeal to me--but the cinematography is so much better in horror movies than in other genres, even fantasy. Horror directors invest heavily in visuals and audio quality, and the result is a macabre kind of beauty. It's cooler to look at and more immersive than most movies. Annihilation is a good example of a science fiction/horror movie that manages to be both incredibly beautiful and incredibly disturbing.

    I've been anxious for the next IT movie to come out. As a fan of the original movies, I waited over 10 years for the remake, and I was not disappointed by the new version. Pennywise has an overwhelming presence all through the movie, and he comes off as much more dangerous than in the original movie.
    FinneousPJThacoBellOrlonKronsteen
  • FinneousPJFinneousPJ Member Posts: 6,455

    I've seen Hereditary. It was a brilliant movie, very unique, and deeply, deeply distressing to watch. On the surface, it's a creepy child movie, but underneath, it is very different from most horror movies--the horror is more psychological than physical or even supernatural, and the few physical horror scenes are very grim indeed.

    I think a lot of it is because the characters are so vivid and real. They're not disposable teenagers who get slashed up just to splatter some blood on the camera; they're people you like and care about. It makes the horror feel much more immediate and meaningful.

    Pretty much what I heard from other ppl as well.
  • JoenSoJoenSo Member Posts: 910
    edited July 2018
    It's not often I find a modern horror movie that interests me, even though I like (really) old classics like The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and Onibaba. I usually prefer movies that aren't straight up horror, but that have this disturbing and distressing atmosphere.

    And if you want an original horror movie, there's always House. This trailer is actually a very accurate preview of a movie that made me wonder if it was all just a weird fever dream.
    ThacoBellDev6
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    The House on Haunted Hill (with VIncent freaking Price!) is a great classic. It starts off as a standard cheesy black and white haunted house movie with crappy special effects. But thats a blind. I won't spoil whats really up, but its very clever and makes great use of available technology of the time and audience expectation.
    Dev6SethDavisOrlonKronsteen
  • lefreutlefreut Member Posts: 1,462
    I no longer watch a lot of horror movies, but I used to watch them. Mostly the old classics A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Halloween, Hellraiser.

    But also more recent like Scream or Saw (I like the first two or three, the ones after are too gore).
    Dev6 said:

    Any recomendations for the coming friday?

    One from the Friday the 13th franchise :p I still remember the first time I watched the first one. It gave me nightmare.
    Dev6
  • Dev6Dev6 Member Posts: 719
    @JoenSo I love J-Horror, so House has been on my to-watch list for quite some time.


    @lefreut I did a Friday the 13th marathon a year or two ago where I watched them all, so they're still fresh in my mind. :tongue:
    If you like the franchise, give Never Hike Alone a try. It's a fan movie, but don't let that scare you away. It has great production value and could easily be an official movie.
    JoenSoThacoBell
  • JoenSoJoenSo Member Posts: 910
    The amazing podcast Imaginary Worlds has a really interesting episode about horror movies and how people can use them to cope with personal loss. Highly recommended! https://www.imaginaryworldspodcast.org/healing-through-horror.html
  • DrHappyAngryDrHappyAngry Member Posts: 1,577
    I watched Willow Creek recently, and kind of regretted it
    https://imdb.com/title/tt2885364/?ref_=nv_sr_1
    I had high hopes for a big foot movie written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, but it turned out to just be the the Blair Bigfoot project.

    Anybody else been enjoying the Evil Dead TV series? It's as much comedy and poking fun at the genre.

    Are there any Hitchcock fans here? My avatar's Christopher Lee from the episode of the Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Sign of Satan, where he plays a high priest of Satan, recruited by a Hollywood studio to make a movie. There's some really random actors in those old shows, like Leslie Nielson even shows up in one ep. My favorite episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents was The Blessington Method, starring Dick York, who's charming and smiling the whole time he's murdering old people.
    Dev6Balrog99
  • deltagodeltago Member Posts: 7,811
    OoOoOo shameless plug time!

    Wild Surge got @Nonnahswriter to review a horror movie recently, Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead (2006), for our Chicken Issue. She abhorred it, but a well written review none the less.


    Last horror movie I watched was the aforementioned Jeepers Creepers 3. It was on Netflix. It mas meh. Didn't see the first two or hear about the underage, sex offending director.


    I think, one of my most favourite horror/thriller movies is What Lies Beneath starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer. I remember watching it in the theatre and falling for a lot of the jump scares. My girlfriend at the time had bruises on her leg from where I grabbed her so hard that it took a while to get out of the dog house.
    Dev6ThacoBellOrlonKronsteen
  • Dev6Dev6 Member Posts: 719
    @DrHappyAngry The Evil Dead tv series was great, a shame season 3 will be the last. :(
    Balrog99DrHappyAngry
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Great, now I want to watch Evil Dead 2 AGAIN.
    Balrog99DrHappyAngry
  • jjstraka34jjstraka34 Member Posts: 9,850
    The most effective horror movies I have ever seen are "Night of the Living Dead" and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", where the low budget feel lends them a sense of realism that may or may not have been intentional, but is there nonetheless. For modern movies, there is a movie called "May" that for 90% of the run-time feels like a dark comedy, but whose ending literally left me feeling physically ill.
    DrHappyAngryFinneousPJThacoBell
  • DrHappyAngryDrHappyAngry Member Posts: 1,577

    The most effective horror movies I have ever seen are "Night of the Living Dead" and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", where the low budget feel lends them a sense of realism that may or may not have been intentional, but is there nonetheless. For modern movies, there is a movie called "May" that for 90% of the run-time feels like a dark comedy, but whose ending literally left me feeling physically ill.

    The original night of the living dead was so brilliant, and controversial. Just the fact that a black guy was leading around a white woman by the hand offended a lot of people at the time. At this point, though, I have two subjects I refuse to watch movies on because nobody has anything unique to say about them. They're World War 2 and zombies. There were some old school zombie flicks that were cool, like Return of The Living Dead, the punk rock zombie movie. I can do the comedy stuff, since it makes fun of the genre, but every zombie flick is humans are the real monsters. It's just played out, the original night of the living dead did that 50 years ago, move onto something else. I did adore the zombie episode of Space Dandy, though, it was brilliant and directed by George Romero. The halfway point is where most zombie flicks would end, but it keeps going and follows it to the logical hilarious conclusion. I did enjoy Sean of the Dead and Zombieland, but like I said, making fun of the genre. I definitely don't think Zombieland needs a sequel, which they're apparently doing.

    I'll check out May, it sounds like it could be interesting.
    ThacoBellDev6
  • FinneousPJFinneousPJ Member Posts: 6,455

    The most effective horror movies I have ever seen are "Night of the Living Dead" and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", where the low budget feel lends them a sense of realism that may or may not have been intentional, but is there nonetheless. For modern movies, there is a movie called "May" that for 90% of the run-time feels like a dark comedy, but whose ending literally left me feeling physically ill.

    May was really really good.
    jjstraka34
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Not really a scary movie, but the Black Scorpion is ostensibly a "horror" movie. Movies like that were my childhood. But one moment from it manages to creep me out still. There is a moment where the main characters are exploring an underground "lost world" and a this giant tick thing comes out of a tunnel while chasing a kid. Its desing and presentation are just a narmy as the rest of the movie, but this thing LAUGHS MANIACALLY while chasing this poor kid down. Image a tick the size of a car chasing you while laughing like some kind of deranged clown!
  • OrlonKronsteenOrlonKronsteen Member Posts: 905
    I highly recommend "A Quiet Place," if you haven't seen it.

    I've been a horror fan since I was a kid, both as a reader and a movie viewer. A lot of the older movies I loved don't hold up anymore, IMO, but I have fond memories of them (Haunting of Hill House, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, etc.). Of more modern movies, "The Ring" stands out as one of my favourites. Genuinely creepy...

    The most impact, though, was Dawn of the Dead. I was a teenager when I first saw it in 1985. I went to a party and while the drinking and shenanigans were going on upstairs, the host was playing movies down in the basement. My friends and I had just discovered cannabis so we went down there to lay low. We had just smoked up and were toasted out of our eyeballs when he put on Dawn of the Dead. Man, oh man that was fantastic. Not only did I dig the whole zombie thing, but the protagonists' escape from society and holing up in that mall. As a teenager who, like most teenagers, was desperately seeking freedom and independence, it was like watching my fantasy revealed before my eyes. To this day, if I'm in a mall I look around and imagine what I'd do with the place, should it ever come to that...
    ThacoBellDev6
  • SharGuidesMyHandSharGuidesMyHand Member Posts: 2,579

    For me, John Carpenter's version of The Thing is the scariest movie I've seen. It still gives me creeps and shivers even on repeated replays.

    ThacoBellZaghoulDev6OrlonKronsteen
  • Dev6Dev6 Member Posts: 719
    A somewhat (completely) off-topic post, but...

    @ThacoBell Do you also enjoy modern giant monster movies?
    Because the new Godzilla trailer is freaking beautiful and I'm ridiculously hyped.



    Now back to horror y'all. :tongue:
    ThacoBellOrlonKronsteen
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    @Dev6 I guess it depends on the movie. Some "monster" movies these days play out like slashers and I'm not a fan of those. But I really enjoyed Shin Godzilla from a year or two ago.
    Okay, that trailer was pretty great. Its about time a modern Godzilla movie had some of the classic monsters in it. Though I miss Gigan. Hilariously, the plot sounds like something straight out of the endgame of FFVII. Its pretty sweet to see 11's actress from Stranger Things. I thought she was great in that.
    Balrog99Dev6
  • DrHappyAngryDrHappyAngry Member Posts: 1,577
    So not a movie, and it's definitely more comedy horror, but I really enjoyed the second episode of Bobcat Goldthwait's Misfits and Monsters, where Dave Foley tries to get a werewolf elected president. Bobcat Goldthwait described the first episode as Cape Fear meets Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
    ThacoBell
  • JoenSoJoenSo Member Posts: 910
    The Night on Bald Mountain segment from Disney's Fantasia. It both scared and fascinated me as a kid. These days, I appreciate it both for the horror, the music and the outstanding animation (made back in 1940). Seriously, look at the clouds, the warped ghosts, the shadow hands. They must have used every single animation trick that was available at the time.
    ThacoBellOrlonKronsteen
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    FAntasia was INCREDIBLY ahead of its time. Its a shame it was so hated in its day. Wasn't this the first instance of putting visuals to music?
    JoenSoOrlonKronsteen
  • JoenSoJoenSo Member Posts: 910
    ThacoBell said:

    FAntasia was INCREDIBLY ahead of its time. Its a shame it was so hated in its day. Wasn't this the first instance of putting visuals to music?

    It was innovative in so many ways, and I think WW2 was the only thing that stopped it from being a total success. I think Fantasia was just a natural continuation of the Silly Symphonies that did similar stuff but on a much more basic level. For a horror example there's always the classic Skeleton dance (and if you don't find this scary, just take a look at that freaking abomination at 5:05):


    Disney really did some nightmare fuel back in the day. Like The Mad Doctor from 1933. I have at least one friend who found this short so disturbing that she refuses to watch it again.
    semiticgoddessThacoBellOrlonKronsteen
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    You want early cartoon abominations? May I present "Swing You Sinners"




    @Dev6 If horror shorts are too far off the intent of this thread, let me know.
    JoenSo
  • Dev6Dev6 Member Posts: 719
    As long as the conversation keeps going it's alright with me. :)
    ThacoBellJoenSo
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