Hey it's halloween, everybody should shit their pants - ilx horror crew top tens.

at the time (pre-Scream) the meta-commentary aspects of it maybe made it seem more clever than it is. cuz yeah I don't love it so much anymore either.

Perhaps u would like it better if it starred Colin Farrell, and if so I have good news 4 u.

u r incorrect

last night's Halloween pick was JAWS, which my wife had never seen before. It's on streaming in what i assume was the most recent clean-up version and it looks amazing. I enjoyed her reaction to some of the choice moments: Ben Gardner's face popping down into the open hole in the hull, the actually horrifying moment the shark attacks the boy on the raft behind the other people in the water (something in this version made it even more shocking), the buildup of suspense before the shark attack in the "pond" with the kids and the fake fin, and the girl on the shore who spots it. It's all just as good as I remembered.

And also it's an extremely amusing film in a very naturalistic way that seems to have been replaced in current films w/more meta humor, the latter really irrationally embarrassing me bc i can see the snarky effort from the writers. Compare that to Jaws w/Brody's little asides and replies and the timing in those moments, Hooper's perpetual bemusement mixed with shock at the ignorance of the people he's dealing with, and also the very easy, low-key funny way Brody and his wife deal with each other.

my wife noted correctly that it's not a horror film, it's more a seafaring adventure thriller, but it does show a knack for horror moments that a lot of more mediocre directors of horror aren't very skilled at.

I love all the moments w Sherriff Brody & Mrs Brody

the makeup effects are really unpleasant. Especially evil ed’s janky teeth & chris sarandon’s weird red gekko eyes

― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, November 1, 2018 4:06 PM (two days ago)

Wrong type of unpleasant? Or do you mean they were low quality? I always quite liked the scary faces in the first two films.

unpleasant as in, idk - they look like they are REALLY uncomfortable to wear? like those contact lenses are so big, too big for Sarandon’s eye, and almost completely opaque, and they look really thick. i just look and think OW. and Ed’s vampire teeth are way bigger than his mouth & he can’t really talk... like that set of teeth would be comically oversized on an adult & with the added saliva effect it’s just kinda hard for me to look at him

the visuals were cool when i first watched the movie though, no real diss against them as effects.

but the practical aspect stands out to me more now

Somebody should write a history of sharp teeth on film actors. So many years of vampire teeth looking a bit silly and concept artists cant really go crazy with the teeth because it probably wont work.

i looked up the wikipedia & jfc @ this:

The most excruciating part of the makeup process for the cast were the contact lenses. In those days the lenses were hard plastic, which Steve Johnson hand-painted (throwing some glitter into the mix), lacquered and sanded.[22] The cast could only wear them for a maximum of 20 minutes because they were virtually blind in them, and they were thick, painful and dried out their eyes. A set was made for Stark to wear when he's in his final pursuit of Peter and Charley, but he kept tripping on the stairs. Holland told him to take one out, and he was then able to perform the scene.[9][22] Three sets were made for Amanda Bearse, but one of them caused her agonizing pain which she initially tried to endure. When it finally became too much to bear, she took the contacts out and the crew realized they'd forgotten to buff them.[22] For the scene in Mrs. Brewster's bedroom, Geoffreys kept his contacts in for nearly 40 minutes, resulting in scratches on his eyeballs for months afterward.[22]

and this is nightmare fuel O_o

The makeup for Evil Ed's wolf transformation took 18 hours.[22] While he had the wolf head on, the crew began pouring what they thought was Methylcellulose into his mouth to create the illusion of saliva, but when Geoffreys began to complain about the taste, Mark Bryan Wilson realized they'd been using prosthetic adhesive, which was gluing his mouth shut.[22]

there are awful stories from back in the day too...the shit that karloff went through for the Mummy, Frankenstein etc sounds godawful (and painful)

I first heard about those lenses on the commentary to Evil Dead, but I don't recall there being any mishaps like those examples above.

I recently acquired a trove of unseen (by me) classics. But which do I watch on this All Hallows' Eve?! Which!?!?

Dead of Night
Trilogy of Terror
The Night Stalker
The Girl Who Knew Too Much
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1931)

considering when it was released, Dead of Night is damned scary

I haven't seen Trilogy of Terror since it came out but Karen Black vs. devil doll is classic

I saw The Night Stalker again recently; the comic elements haven't aged well, but Barry Atwater as the non-speaking vampire is better than 98% of all other vampires

The Girl Who Knew Too Much aka The Evil Eye is an entertaining proto-giallo, if you can get past the silliness of the protagonist; extra points for John Saxon as her romantic interest

The 1931 Jekyll & Hyde is the best J&H if you like the property, but none of the film versions do much for me

so I'd recommend watching them all in the order listed

is dead of night aka deathdream? watch that immediately

No, it's the '40s Dead of Night. Too damn many Dead of Nights out there.

Deathdream by any title is creepy as hell, even though it looks like they spent about $500 making it

Bob Clark's career was weird as hell.