I'm stealing elizabeth's idea for a post pretty brazenly, but I've also been watching lots of movies as of late on account of the useless log of flesh we call a broken leg keeping me weighted to the couch. But it's SpOoKy SzN, so I've been watching a lot of horror movies.
Horror is a genre I've always liked. I'd argue it's one of the most schlocky corners of cinema, with lots of cheap thrills and teenagers being brutally punished for being teenagers. But there's a weird sort of artistry to it - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a slasher, but it's infamously short on gore in service of an environmental message (director Tobe Hooper (a hack, to be sure) famously called it a "Movie about meat"). In contrast, Midsommar lacks a lot of the trappings of a traditional horror movie, but still it uses building tension and shocking imagery to sell the break-up of the main characters. I'm in love with every movie Jordan Peele has directed. Point being, horror movies - even bad ones - make straighforward points in weird and interesting ways, and I enjoy the use of anxiety as entertainment.
And, hell, it's almost Halloween! So, Hubski, what're your favorite spooky movies? Any gems in the rough, or old classics you'd like me to take a second look at?
The horror gold standard is The Exorcist. Noting has come close before or since. One must see Night of the Living Dead in order to appreciate how far and how stupid we've come in zombie culture; NOTLD is very much a social satire about how we have met the enemy and he is us and everything since is a masturbatory exercise of Elevator Effect backlash. Hellraiser is gothic in ways few movies have been. It's also out there, weird, and horrific in a way that a Clive Barker version of Nightmare on Elm Street would be. The Thing (the original) is pretty much what a decent zombie movie should be. All others pale in comparison. Aliens is pretty much what a decent zombie movie would be if the protagonists were heavily-armed soldiers. The Thing From Another World is much closer to John W. Campbell's version of Who Goes There and is very much an early '50s horror. You won't understand it as a conventional horror but it gets the point across. Tetsuo The Iron Man is probably the ultimate body horror film. If you haven't seen Blair Witch Project you should. It's influential. It loses something when you don't see it in theaters. It's still gimmicky. Compare and contrast with Paranormal Activity which is basically BWP without having to go into the woods. Screamers is a surprisingly good "we're all alone out here" sci fi film. It owes a lot to The Thing except the bad guy is robots. You should probably check out The Black Hole not so much because it's a horror film but because it definitely wasn't billed as a horror film. Don't look anything up, just find it, turn it on, and recognize this is the direction Disney was going before Eisner took over. Orfanato and The Devil's Backbone are creepy in ways few movies are. I don't know that they're technically horror movies, but they strike a lot more horror notes than most schlock horror. Most schlock horror is bad special effects. Speaking of, if you'd like to go over the ouvre of the Not a Hypothetical films, PM me. They're terrible. EDIT - I missed your Texas Chainsaw Massacre callout. You should probably watch Poltergeist because it's Spielberg doing Tobe Hooper when Tobe Hooper was too slow and ponderous to make Spielberg adhere to their "codirection" agreement.
NOTLD is a masterpiece, and I agree wholeheartedly. I wouldn't say everything since has been terrible, but I certainly can't think of counterexamples. I feel like the concept is rich enough to explore more than NOTLD did, so I feel like someone must have done it...But maybe you're right. The Thing might be my favorite horror movie. The blood testing scene alone is such a fucking masterclass in tension building, and I've always loved the sound-design of the thing screaming when they get it outdoors. Poltergeist is great, too. I have a hard time crediting Texas Chainsaw Massacre's success to Tobe Hooper's genius because of everything that came after, but I know I love the movie for what it is (even if he never managed to replicate the same feeling). I felt like the set design and camera work kept things feeling grounded...And the fact that the production was such a fucking nightmare to work on! Adding Tetsuo The Iron Man, Screamers, and The Black Hole to my list! I haven't seen Orfanato or The Devil's Backbone either, so I'll slide around to them eventually. I'll PM you if I ever work through the recommendations I've already collected!
I've gotten into some pretty deep, pretty intellectual discussions about zombie movies. As a screenwriter, there's a point where you feel like shitting out a zombie movie. Probably because zombies are so fun - they play right into our anxiety in crowds, our road rage while commuting, and our general displeasure with "humanity" as a gestalt, regardless of how we feel about humans. The thing is? "zombies" are basically Alzheimer's patients. They're slow, they're shambling, and they pose a physical threat only if there are a lot of them. So all of a sudden we have "running" zombies at which point it's basically just "fear of crowds". except they always have to be idiots, too. You can't write a zombie anything without it turning into "the zombies are handled, what shall we fight about for the other 2/3rds of the movie" because as movie antagonists go the only adversary worse than zombies is trees (lookin' at you, M Night). Best zombie movie ever made is Aliens. Because the zombies are an actual threat. George Romero (who wrote "ghouls", not zombies) had ghouls as stand-ins for our hatred of humanity and our tendency to fuck each other over from the get-go. Since not enough people got it the first time, he set Dayn of the Dead in a goddamn mall. That dead horse was beaten in '78. Even that is a bad reading of a 1954 Matheson novel. If I had any input I would put Orfanato at the top of your list, followed by The Devil's Backbone. The stuff I worked on is terrible in every possible sense and you will grow stupider by watcing it. And I say that as the only person paid to work on Birdemic 2 (who was also smart enough to leave his name off it).
I'm always more into sci-fi horror than straight horror, so here's my list Alien - Needs no explanation. Preferably binged watched with the other Alien movies, and possibly Alien Versus Predator #1 Pandorum - A fun, neatly contained, spooky lil deep space horror piece. A giant, decrepit colony ship adrift in deep space. Event Horizon 30 Days of Night The Descent (The book is WAAAAAY better) The Oats Studios short films by Neil Blomkamp. I think they are a nice palate cleanser.
I'd toss Evil Dead 2 on there. It's a remake of Evil Dead 1 for the most part but the better of the two. It's rough around the edges but Bruce Campbell is a great physical comedian and makes the film a good time. I really like Brain Dead. It's a screwy psychological horror movie that wasn't very well received but I think it's worth a watch. Lots of great picks on everyone others lists. My eight year old loved NOTLD, she declared it the best movie ever and wanted to show it to all her friends, I nixed that idea in the bud.
So, from the previous one my horror selections were: - - The Conjuring The VVitch Alien Get Out It Follows Pan's Labyrinth Bone Tomahawk The Descent 10 Cloverfield Lane Split Ghost Stories The Mist A Quiet Place Event Horizon Insidious (Or at least, the first half of it) [REC] (Spanish version much better than the remake) VHS (1 and 2) - However I'd also like to chuck in Killer Klowns from Outer Space cause it's delightfully over the top. Another has mentioned Pandorum which I wholeheartedly recommend. - As Above, So Below Paranormal Activity - they didn't need to make any more, the 1st was interesting in it's own right and terrifying in the theatre. Gerald's Game Sinister Devil - Takes place primarily in a single elevator, not like a great movie, but I enjoyed it for what it was. Legion - Takes place in a small gas station in bumfuck nowhere, put it on thinking it was something else entirely but enjoyed it anyway. Oculus - Siblings reunite to take down an evil presence from their childhood Triangle - Don't look anything up about it. Lake Mungo - Possibly my favourite slow-burner. There's this unreal creepy and unsettling vibe throughout the entire film and it just grows over time. - While it's not a movie, if you have Netflix; The Haunting of Hill House was pretty awesome. I haven't read the book (but I will) so I can't compare the two, but the series was fantastic. We were sucked right in, and had to watched a second round with my other flat mates to spot things we all missed the first time around.
+1 for 10 Cloverfield Lane. John Goodman is freaking great in that film. The horror is extremely subtle throughout. It's also set in the Cloverfield universe and that is a another rabbit hole you can immerse yourself in. Have you seen the Cloverfield Paradox?
Agreed, Goodman was so eerie. Left me completely unsure what he was going to do next, and wondering how much truth he was sharing with everyone. I have! I watched it last year - it was interesting, not enough for me to go back for a second viewing but I am glad I got through it. Did you enjoy it?
Holy macaroni, let's go. I've seen most of these in theatres. Insidious, the first one. The second one wasn't as good imo. Don't Breathe, this movie is beyond fucked, but I enjoyed it. :) The Shining, classic Kubrick. Buried, psychological horror about a US marine who gets trapped. And +1 for Alien as Applewood mentioned. I love how gritty it is. Sci-fi realism, aka capitalism in space.
I really don't watch much of horror movie because I'm easily scared however with those few movie I saw I really can't forget the feeling about the movie "lights out" until now , even I saw this movie years ago. I'm still really scared when light is off at night.
Watch anabelle creation. This is the most horror movie that I have seen. It is a must watch movie if you are not scared in night. THe most preferrred time to watch a scary movie is in the night when you are alone. So keep watching and get scared!!!
Entertaining horror is pretty easy to find, but really good horror could take years to find. I think it takes much longer now, with all those fcking zombie movies still under the 'horror' banner, when there are enough of them these days to be their own genre. I love psychological horror. If anyone has any recommendations, please do let me know. In exchange, I'll share one or two with you. Yknow what, I'll even give you possibly the best pure horror film Ive ever seen - and since watching horror films to take my mind off my exams, Ive seen a lot. I am looking at a list of my Top 12 horror films. But Im giving you the very best one, so I'll save the others for further requests. The best horror films, for some reason, are named after shapes. (or tools, but youve seen Saw right?) The shape youre looking for here is a splendid little beast, with three sides and a lot of interest from some ancient Greek boffins. It's a very smart British film, with American characters, and it has possibly the best last line in the genre. The film is simply called Triangle. by Christopher Smith, 2009. Youll thank me later. So, any psychological horror recommendations people?
I watched Creepshow and Monster Squad quite recently, and I recommend them both. Creepshow is an excellent homage to horror comics and has a few shudder-worthy, gross-out moments scattered through the anthology (note: they're more gross conceptually than they are gross-bc-of-well-played-out-special-effects; cut some slack, Creepshow came out in '82. Monster Squad is more of a feel-good tween-ish horror movie; think Lost Boys over Hocus Pocus. Either way, between those two that should give you an accurate flavor for this genuinely-underappreciated '80s masterpiece. Complete with montage sequence and all. I'll throw one more into the mix; Carnival of Souls. The original, not the remake. Creepy for its time, perhaps the twist might be a little predictable to a modern audience but if realizing the twist to a movie nullifies your ability to enjoy it, then boy you're missing out on all the fun and art of "how it's done." Carnival of Souls is a named influence, and when watched a clear predecessor of, several masters of horror who produced a number of the movies named here, by multiple posters -- George Romero, David Lynch, Wes Craven, etc.
No film has ever freaked me out as much as The Shining
Since nobody else has gone there, I gotta put in a HUGE upvote for Tucker and Dale vs Evil. This is a comedy that takes the "college kids on a camping trip are murdered horrifically one-by-one by rednecks" trope, and tells it from the redneck's perspective. But the rednecks aren't killers, and the college kids are... unlucky. And unfamiliar with the terrain. It's freakin' hilarious, and Alan Tudyk (yes, "Wash" from Serenity/Firefly) is absolutely priceless as one of the rednecks. If you love horror movies, you will laugh your ass off at this, and be able to name the movie where every murder is taken from...
I am not much of a horror aficionado, but Hereditary was almost a perfect movie for me. The acting performances were stellar, the pacing and management of tension were masterful, and Colin Stetson put out one of my favorite movie soundtracks, period.
I've watched a lot of horror movies, which means that most "classic" horror tropes doesn't work on me. The only two movies that has genuinely scared me as an adult are A Tale Of Two Sisters and The Babadook. What these two movies share is that there aren't any jumpscares and that we never ever really get to see the monster, my mind seems to make up way scarier stuff when it doesn't get to see the monster. ---- A Tale Of Two Sisters: This movie scared me so bad that I had to pause in the middle of it and relax, the tension is so high all the time and there's never any release, really. Plot from IMDB: Two sisters who, after spending time in a mental institution, return to the home of their father and cruel stepmother. Once there, in addition to dealing with their stepmother's obsessive and unbalanced ways, an interfering ghost also affects their recovery. --- The Babadook: Same here, not many jumpscares, just masterfully crafted tension, the whole movie felt like sitting on needles. Plot from IMDB: A single mother and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when an eerie children's book titled "Mister Babadook" manifests in their home.
Quick list since I'm working. - Dead Space 1 & 2 - Resident Evil 7 - PT - only a demo but good - Outlast - Amenesia The Dark Decent - Until Dawn - Faith - creepy as hell 8 bit game - Alan Wake - Eternal Darkness - great lovecraftian horror game. Made me question what was real or not. To make it fun let the insanity meter get really high.