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The Horror Movie Thread

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  • DrHappyAngryDrHappyAngry Member Posts: 1,577
    Well, I guess we can throw in Anime then. So how about my favorite anime, Higurashi: When They Cry? It's a crazy psychological thriller with a time loop, where somebody will go crazy and kill everyone. Each story arc starts with this kid moving to the small town from the big city and hanging out with this group of girls at his school. As things go on, it becomes clear they're hiding something really horrific from him. Each loop, things play out completely different. Then further on, they'll revisit one of the earlier loops, but from a different character's perspective.

    There's another really good horror anime called Baccano, and it's one of the few I recommend watching dubbed, since it's well done and 1920s American gangsters. There's two storylines a few years apart, one is explaining how these 20s gangsters became immortal, and the other on a train with 2 factions trying to murder their way through the train, one of them trying to capture the governors daughter. The whole while there's also this creepy monster killing people on the train, too. I absolutely adore the way the series handles magic, too. It's super subtle for the most part, apart from people healing and reassembling after dismemberment.

    They're both kind of hard to distill without giving away huge spoilers. I haven't really said anything that's not either general premise of the shows, or shown right in the first episode, so didn't bother with tags.
    JoenSoDev6ThacoBell
  • JoenSoJoenSo Member Posts: 910
    Higurashi has some really good moments, both in the anime and the original visual novel that I checked out once. I think the first arc (four episodes I think?) actually works really well on its own as psychological thriller/horror story. So if you don't feel like watching a whole anime you could always just watch that one.

    One of the few horror movies that I've watched several times is Guillermo del Toro's The Devil's Backbone. You might be more familiar with its spiritual successor, Pan's labyrinth, which I also highly recommend. Pan's labyrinth leans more to the fantasy side, while still being very dark and horrifying. Devil's backbone is closer to a classic horror movie.
    ThacoBellDrHappyAngry
  • Dev6Dev6 Member Posts: 719
    edited July 2018
    I love del Toro's work, but The Devil's Backbone bored me out of my skull... Pan's Labyrinth is superior in every way IMO, though it's more of a dark fantasy than a horror movie.
    Mimic is pretty good too, as is Crimson Peak.


    As for horror anime, I'm a sucker for really bloody gruesome stuff. I've been meaning to watch Higurashi for quite some time now.
    Some of my favourites:
    Genocyber - No other anime stands above Genocyber in the "blood, guts and gore" category. This is nothing short of a masterpiece.
    Lily C.A.T. - Did you enjoy Alien? You'll enjoy this.
    Corpse Party - A bit silly, but a pretty nice watch.

    Aaaaand....

    Gakkougurashi (School Live) - I'm leaving a link here, but I'll ask you not to open it. Don't read the synopsis, don't watch the trailer, don't look at the pictures. Watch the anime, then get back to me. This is amazing, and it deserves to be watched with no spoilers whatsoever. It may seem shallow at first, but it's incredibly psychological and disturbing on a much deeper level.
  • JoenSoJoenSo Member Posts: 910
    I wonder if I would have liked Devil's backbone a lot less if I hadn't seen Pan's labyrinth first. They do tie in with each other in a nice way, even though they have completely different plots. I know that at least two of the characters in Devil's backbone have cameos in Pan's labyrinth. I like both movies for how reality and the supernatural match each other.

    I hardly remember anything about the plot in Genocyber, just that the gore levels are beyond comparison.
  • DrHappyAngryDrHappyAngry Member Posts: 1,577
    So back to comedy horror, did anybody else watch Mary Shelley's Frankenhole? Most of the second season was weak, but the first was so brilliant, especially if you've seen some of the old horror flicks like Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman. The episodes even start with a live action intro with the writer Dino Stamatopoulos doing a Dracula host thing, like those old late night shows from the 80s that would show a horror movie each week. The general premise for the show is Dr Frankenstein has discovered an immortality serum and time travel, so he sent out all these flyers throughout history. Like there's one episode calld LBJFK, where after the Kennedy assassination, LBG wants his brain put in Kennedy's body.
    ThacoBell
  • DragonKingDragonKing Member Posts: 1,977
    I just watched jeepers creepers 3 and it was god awful...

    Also just watched return of the scarecrow and nearly died laughing.

    @semiticgod I actually hated hereditary,brilliant isn't what I would personally call it.
    SethDavis
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Krampus was a pretty fun horror/comedy (leaning a little more towards horror). Not amazing, but I enjoyed the watch, and its kinda become a winter tradition for me to watch it.

    Speaking of traditions, how about Tremors? Possible just the most FUN I've ever had watching a monster movie. I watch the first two Tremors movies about once or twice a year.
    Zaghoul
  • ZaghoulZaghoul Member, Moderator Posts: 3,938
    Spring (2014). One of the best examples of a horror/romance movie that I have seen. Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead are definitely two guys to watch for in the future, as they have some other good works in the horror genre as well, with Resolution and The Endless.
    ThacoBell
  • DrHappyAngryDrHappyAngry Member Posts: 1,577
    JoenSo said:

    Higurashi has some really good moments, both in the anime and the original visual novel that I checked out once. I think the first arc (four episodes I think?) actually works really well on its own as psychological thriller/horror story. So if you don't feel like watching a whole anime you could always just watch that one.

    Wasn't the live action movie just that first story arc, the first 4 episodes?

    Wow, I guess it's already been like 7-8 years, but back when I lived over a Japanese bookstore I picked up a bunch of the manga they had. It was actually really good and had some new story arcs.

    I seriously can't stress how hilarious Bobcat Goldthwait's Misfits and Monsters has been. This week's episode had Michael Ian Black from The State as Satan. The episode was about this youtube style documentarian making a documentary about this pop star that's gone missing (Think Justin Beiber/Justin Timberlake). It turns out that because he thanked God at the end of his shows, Satan took that as reneging on their deal, and revoked the contract. Michael Ian Black is just this hilariously subdued Satan.
    ThacoBell
  • ZaghoulZaghoul Member, Moderator Posts: 3,938
    @ThacoBell I thought Reba was great in Tremors, esp. combined with her accent and talking about the benefits (or not) of their various guns to use vs the graboids. B)
    ThacoBell
  • JoenSoJoenSo Member Posts: 910
    edited July 2018


    Wasn't the live action movie just that first story arc, the first 4 episodes?

    Oh, that's right! I haven't seen it though.

    Häxan ("The witch") from 1922 is a Swedish silent documentary about witchcraft and witch-hunts through history. It's still really creepy and disturbing, with some fascinating imagery and special effects. I see that the whole movie is on Youtube, but it doesn't seem to be translated.

    Bonus fact: if you're in Stockholm you can check out some of the decor they used for this movie at the Museum of science and technology



    jjstraka34FinneousPJThacoBell
  • Dev6Dev6 Member Posts: 719
    @voidofopinion oh man, great choices! Vamp Girl vs Frank Girl is a little weaker compared to the other 3, but they're all great.


    @ThacoBell The first Tremors is awesome and I must've rewatched it a gazillion times by now. Amazingly enough my favourite sequel is in fact... Tremors 4... Yes, the one with the cowboys.
    5 and 6 are godawful.
    The series was alright too.
    ThacoBell
  • jjstraka34jjstraka34 Member Posts: 9,850
    I was actually going to post something about "Häxan" in this thread, because imo it's right up there with "Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"and "Nosferatu" with the great silent horror movies. Throw in "The Golem" from that era as well. Since all of them seem to be in the public domain, they are all available in full on Youtube. And even though it is ostensibly science fiction, throw "Metropolis" in there as well. All 5 of these movies have striking visuals not only for the time they were made, but really in the history of cinema.
    ThacoBellDev6JoenSoZaghoul
  • voidofopinionvoidofopinion Member, Moderator Posts: 1,248
    @Dev6

    Mutant Girl Squad is completely new to me but the rest are old favorites that I haven't seen in a very long time.

    I went through a big exploitation period in 2005. I started with Canibal Holocaust. Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS. Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and I Spit on Your Grave.

    Which led me to discover Ichi the Killer, Audition and Suicide Club. I have been a fan of Japanese exploitation films ever since!

    When I was around 5 my dad made a living by selling bootleg films out of a suitcase on the side of the road in Camden market. He would smuggle films in from the US, get them transcoded and then just make copy after copy after copy.

    By the time I turned 6 I had seen A Clockwork Orange (without exaggeration) one or two thousand times and it was banned in the U.K at the time.

    He was also really big into John Waters and David Lynch around that same period so my introduction media, in general, was not normative.

    While other kids were mesmerized by Fantasia I had Rocky Horror Picture Show on repeat. I knew all of the lines, all of the songs, all of the dances from the time I could stand by my own two legs and press my face against the screen.

    I love all horror films. Well with the exception of Italian cinema in the 70's where it all went a bit up its own arse. But aside from that, I am happy to watch the campiest of schlock (Stuart Gordon) to the masters who ply their trade and elevate the genre into an art form (Andrei Tarkovsky).

    But my heart will always be sitting in an uncomfortable seat in the back of the Grindhouse.

    :)
    FinneousPJDev6
  • JoenSoJoenSo Member Posts: 910

    I was actually going to post something about "Häxan" in this thread, because imo it's right up there with "Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"and "Nosferatu" with the great silent horror movies. Throw in "The Golem" from that era as well. Since all of them seem to be in the public domain, they are all available in full on Youtube. And even though it is ostensibly science fiction, throw "Metropolis" in there as well. All 5 of these movies have striking visuals not only for the time they were made, but really in the history of cinema.

    All of those are great movies! The Golem is the only one of these that I haven't seen. I thought The Golem was a lost movie, but I see now on Wikipedia that it's the version from 1915 that is lost while the one from 1920 is still around. So I'll have to see that one.
    Dev6ThacoBell
  • Dev6Dev6 Member Posts: 719
    edited July 2018
    Nosferatu was... An experience. Not something I would ever rewatch, but I don't regret watching it either. Very very important and influential in horror movies history.
    Haven't watched those other ones you guys mentioned, will probably do so eventually.

    Since we're talking oldies, I have to mention one though it's not a silent movie. I'm a sucker for the first Dracula with Bela Lugosi. He's the person I always imagine when someone mentions the name Dracula.



    Great classical actor and a beautiful and charismatic man.
    ThacoBellvoidofopinionZaghoul
  • ZaghoulZaghoul Member, Moderator Posts: 3,938
    edited July 2018
    Oh yeah, Lugosi was definitely good. Lon Chaney (Sn &Jr) playing werewolves, mummies, phantoms, etc.)I've really enjoyed going back and looking at earlier silent and B&W films. Nosferatu still has one of the creepiest looking vampires I've seen in a movie, even now. I think it was a combination of the B&W and also the camera used at the time,
    Freaks is good one as well, a little controversial at the time due to the use of real people with deformities, but that's what made the film. Carnival of Souls is another good one, as well as The Birds by AHitchcock.
    A little later we have The Mole People that I enjoyed. I always remember that one when playing a gnome C/T of Urdlen.
    More up to date basics that I saw when or right after they came out would be Jaws, The Shining, Alien, Event Horizon, In the Mouth of Madness, The Thing, and Carpenter's 1st Halloween with Jamie Lee Curtis.

    More recent surprises were Absentia (the movie), The Mist (one heck of an ending, lawd),The Banshee Chapter (Ted Levine is great in this), Dagon (a good HPL adaptation), The Europa Report, Midnight Meat Train, Pontypool, The Last Shift, Pickman's Muse (HPL) and The Ritual. Blair Witch Project was great I thought as it was one of the first and best 'found footage types(just the 1st one though)
    I'm a big fan of Carpenter of course, but Gulliermo del Toro is bcoming a favorite for his horror/fantasy films. I was hoping he would get the greenlight on HPLovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness but the studios turned him down at the time.
    In general I enjoy the 'less is better' when it comes to horror most of the time, or even horror/scifi. The right sounds, atmosphere, and editing can really make a movie shine, even low budget pieces, of which the best make liberal and effective use of that over high dollar special effects.
    The last I just watched was Don't be Afraid in the Dark, produced by del Toro. Some delightfully creepy mean as all get out little fairies in that one).

    Post edited by Zaghoul on
    JoenSoThacoBellDev6
  • JoenSoJoenSo Member Posts: 910
    I was also hoping that del Toro would get to do At the Mountains of Madness. At least there's this interesting indie animated version:
    ZaghoulFinneousPJThacoBellDev6
  • ZaghoulZaghoul Member, Moderator Posts: 3,938
    @JoenSo Ain't that the truth. At the Mountains of Madness was the first HPL story I read and loved. Some of the animated shorts are interesting and about all we have to go on so far, darnit. Prop Nomicon came out with a couple of mock trailers that showed the promise of this as a film I thought. This one is my favorite so far:
    ThacoBellDev6
  • voidofopinionvoidofopinion Member, Moderator Posts: 1,248
    There is also the amazing read by Ian Gordon.



    It would have been so nice to see this on the big screen.

    My personal favorite adaptation to screen is "Dagon" from 2001. While the cheese factor is high abd the budget low they also hit a lot of the right story beats.
    ZaghoulThacoBellDev6
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    "At the Mountains of Madness" and "The Music of Eric Zahn" are my two all time favorite horror stories.
    ZaghoulvoidofopinionBalrog99Dev6
  • ZaghoulZaghoul Member, Moderator Posts: 3,938
    edited July 2018
    I think it pretty interesting how a guy like HPL, who died early and pretty much broke had such an influence on later writers and film makers. Carpenter, King, del Toro to name a few. I read something by Robert Holm that mentioned a quote from Asimov: Sir Arthur C. Clarke once said, “There are things that are better left to the imagination – which is why so many ‘horror’ movies collapse when some pathetic papier-mache monster is finally revealed.”. HPL was like that in his stories. The hack n slash movies got a bit boring to me over time (not to say they are not still entertaining at times-Sid Haig cracks me up in Rob Zombie's stuff). I enjoy more of the subtle horror movies in which the characters mind takes a turn for the worse over time. For a while I was kinduv off on the 'downer endings' in movies, but done when done well, they do make sense and really hit hard. an example would be Gladiator (still a great movie) at the end- the walking off into the field of wheat into paradise (not horror I know), vs. a movie like The Mist (2007) where the ending hits ya like a ton a bricks, right upside the head. B)
    Post edited by Zaghoul on
    ThacoBellDev6
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    I actually loved the ending of The Mist.
    The pointlessness of the family suicide didn't even hit me--I was just relieved to see that humanity was actually fighting back against the monsters and apparently winning. It was a ray of hope for me, more than anything else.

    Event Horizon freaked me out. I have a thing about the concept of eternal hells and irreversible changes. For most horror movies, I have a positive reaction after the fact: it's a "Wow, that's so creepy and cool!" thing. But for movies like Event Horizon or the remake of Nightmare on Elm Street, where the prospect is unending torture instead of death, the reaction is more of a "I really don't want this horrible thought in my head" kind of a thing.

    I actually have a recurring dream where I'm trapped in some a hellish dimension of some sort and I'm trying to escape without attracting the attention of the immortal, godlike warden of the place. If I get out, I'm free, but if I get caught or fail, it means eternal torment. Often, suicide is the only escape.

    Sometimes it ends with freedom; sometimes it ends with being trapped forever. But every single time, the nature of the hell and the warden is completely different. It's never the same place.
    ZaghoulBalrog99ThacoBellDev6
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,367
    Salem's Lot freaked me out when I was a kid. The concept of vampires and losing my free will and becoming evil was really terrifying to me. I'm an individualist by nature and nothing scared me more than losing what makes me 'me'. That's probably why I tend towards Libertarian in my politics too.
    ZaghoulThacoBellDev6
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,367
    Zaghoul said:

    @JoenSo Ain't that the truth. At the Mountains of Madness was the first HPL story I read and loved. Some of the animated shorts are interesting and about all we have to go on so far, darnit. Prop Nomicon came out with a couple of mock trailers that showed the promise of this as a film I thought. This one is my favorite so far:

    I love HPL but I haven't checked out any of the movies that are attributed to him personally. I loved 'The Thing' but have been reluctant to view the many 'B' movies that have invoked his name directly. I do want to see 'Reanimator' though, especially if any of you folks recommend it.
    ZaghoulThacoBellDev6
  • voidofopinionvoidofopinion Member, Moderator Posts: 1,248
    They have Re-Animator up on Shudder at the moment.

    https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/re-animator

    :)
    Balrog99
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Downer endings have to be done REALLY WELL for me to be okay with them. I cannot abide Diabolus Ex Machina.
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    Balrog99 said:

    Salem's Lot freaked me out when I was a kid. The concept of vampires and losing my free will and becoming evil was really terrifying to me. I'm an individualist by nature and nothing scared me more than losing what makes me 'me'. That's probably why I tend towards Libertarian in my politics too.

    My mom watched Salem's Lot when she was a kid and it freaked her out, too. She used to tell me about the window scene, where the vampire was hovering outside the kid's window and gently scratch the glass with his fingernails, asking the kid to let him in. It terrified her.

    The funny thing is, the scene terrified me as a kid, too... even though I didn't see it until I was an adult. Why?

    Because my mom described it in very, very vivid detail, when I was a kid, late at night, in my bedroom which had a big window just like the one in Salem's lot... and when I was lying down in my bunkbed, trying to get to sleep, I could see the big window, partly illuminated by the light from outside, and imagine a vampire floating down and scratching on the glass, whispering to me to let him in.

    It's kind of like when my mom told me about a horror movie she saw as a kid in which an evil doll hiding under the bed slashed a girl's Achilles tendon when she stepped out of bed--which made my mom petrified of getting her ankle slashed by some monster under the bed.

    My mom's great at telling horror stories. Even when she's not trying to.
    ZaghoulBalrog99ThacoBell
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,367
    edited July 2018

    Balrog99 said:

    Salem's Lot freaked me out when I was a kid. The concept of vampires and losing my free will and becoming evil was really terrifying to me. I'm an individualist by nature and nothing scared me more than losing what makes me 'me'. That's probably why I tend towards Libertarian in my politics too.

    My mom watched Salem's Lot when she was a kid and it freaked her out, too. She used to tell me about the window scene, where the vampire was hovering outside the kid's window and gently scratch the glass with his fingernails, asking the kid to let him in. It terrified her.

    The funny thing is, the scene terrified me as a kid, too... even though I didn't see it until I was an adult. Why?

    Because my mom described it in very, very vivid detail, when I was a kid, late at night, in my bedroom which had a big window just like the one in Salem's lot... and when I was lying down in my bunkbed, trying to get to sleep, I could see the big window, partly illuminated by the light from outside, and imagine a vampire floating down and scratching on the glass, whispering to me to let him in.

    It's kind of like when my mom told me about a horror movie she saw as a kid in which an evil doll hiding under the bed slashed a girl's Achilles tendon when she stepped out of bed--which made my mom petrified of getting her ankle slashed by some monster under the bed.

    My mom's great at telling horror stories. Even when she's not trying to.
    That scratching the window scene is the exact thing that scared the Bejesus out if me! I actually sucked up my fear and snuck out of my house to scratch on the window of my best friend the same night I watched the movie with him. It literally scared the crap out of him (and me to a lesser degree - it was worth it but it's still one of the braver things I've ever done). He's probably still traumatized to this day!
    ThacoBellsemiticgoddess
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