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

Wow @ It Follows, deserved all the hype.

Spoilidad: at the end, when they're at the pool, the monster appears as her dad, yeah?

If that's correct, I totally missed that!

I had a few issues with the film--mainly in line with the criticisms Tarantino had re: the inconsistent parameters around which the "monster" is defined--but yeah, the plaudits are mainly justified.

I didn't think it worked as a horror movie but I liked it a lot as a doomed coming-of-age movie.

Dad only shown in photos but thats what it looked like to me - also would explain why she didnt want to tell the others what she saw.

Yeah. Also fits in the other kid being killed by his mother, the Evangelion-style parentless town, etc.

Curse of Chucky was fine, if a bit of a letdown after Bride and Seed. It's still better than the first three. Probably the closest the series has come to a straight horror film, competently directed, pretty decent cast (Brad Dourif's daughter is solid as the lead actress). It feels very contemporary and almost seems like a reboot until the ending makes it clear that it's a continuation from previous installments. If you go in with zero in the way of expectations, it's a fun and forgettably-middling horror flick.

trying to decide whether or not it's advisable to watch it with one's significant other

would lean no, but obv depends

just a few days ago I was nearly going to suggest to my gf we watch "Going Places" ('74 Bertrand blier) cuz I knew it was expiring from Netflix and that it was French and she knows a bit of the language -- dodged a bullet there lmao, its not horror but it is like extreme nasty French misogyny/nihilism. its hard to be convincing and be like I swear I had no idea this was the subject matter! even when that is 100% true ~

watched Demon Seed (1977) last night, man that is not a good film. There are decent ideas and elements in it but it just doesn't cohere or have the tension required to really make it work. Too much exposition, too many sub-2001/Star Trek TMP visual interludes (which are amusing at first but become tiresome the more they are used). Watched it because I find Cammell kind of a fascinating figure and Fritz Weaver is always reliably creepy but it just doesn't work. Big "reveal" at the end is also sadly comical. Whole thing feels sub-Cronenberg even if it's before Cronenberg was a thing, but while watching it I couldn't help thinking how much better a film it would've been if Cronenberg had done it.

Huh, I never posted a top 10 in this thread.

Pretty sure my horror poll ballot still holds, more or less.

I watched the entire 1931 Dracula for the first time last night. What a weirdly-paced and disjointed affair that was. It gets a ton of leeway, though, as it's maybe, what, the second?? talkie horror film ever made. I get that there were still some kinks to work out and formulae to codify at that point.

Bela Lugosi and Dwight Frye are total weirdoes, in completely different ways. The latter's laugh is one for the ages. The hissy ambient noise and absence of a score was effectively creepy. The set design was pretty great. The movie was borderline incoherent but I'll give it points as a mood piece.

(After accidentally posting this in the 2015 politics thread.)

Was paging through this book and (spoiler alert):

http://www.brendanhalpin.com/.a/6a00d8341cae6453ef0133f2cd4900970b-pi

They picked as their #1 horror movie the Hammer Horror of Dracula ('58), which seems not only unorthodox but downright bizarre. I know Hammer has a devoted following, but I wasn't aware that any one of their films stood out from the pack enough to merit a #1 placement on an overall list.

While I still don't think I've actually seen any of the Hammer films (partially because their DVD slate in the US is super patchy), reviews and commentary I've read suggest that Horror Of Dracula (followed by their first two Frankenstein movies) is at the head of the pack, and many seem to think it's the best film version of Dracula. It is a strange choice for all-time greatest, though, for sure.

I've tried to sit through some Hammer stuff before and they're just too boring for me, sorry.

very curious about Horror Express though, really wanna see that one

I think the book's reasoning was that vampires are the #1 greatest horror characters, Dracula is the #1 greatest vampire, and this movie is the #1 greatest Dracula movie, so this has to be #1. They also mentioned the library scene being second only to the shower scene from Psycho which, again, news to me.

I've been reading M.R. James on the train. When he isn't engaged in exposition diarrhea, he's effectively creepy for his era. But seriously: the exposition. He expounded for two pages about every nook and cranny of a church's interior before describing the ostensible antagonist of the story as "an almost phenomenally ugly man". Come on, M.R.

While I wouldn't place Hammer Dracula anywhere near #1, it's a good one

read that as "when he isn't engaged in explosive diarrhea..."

I guess that's "Count Magnus"? I love that one.
There is a bunch of annoyances in classic quiet horror fiction, like lots of mannered blathering, far too many antiquarian loners and detective uncovering of mysteries and not enough payoff but it's preferable to the mass market tropes (mostly 70s onwards) like family orientated sentimentality, ridiculous bloat and constant shoehorned in dominating focus on characters who aren't nearly interesting enough.

I don't like Hammer's Dracula much. The best Hammer film I've seen by a long way is Curse Of The Werewolf (Oliver Reed). Gorgon, Reptile, Brides Of Dracula and Curse Of Frankenstein are fairly enjoyable in places.

I rewatched C.H.U.D. last night. It was mildly diverting. Reading up afterwards, I was surprised to learn that it was a one-off film for both the director and the screenwriter, so not bad as a first-and-only effort. It would work well as the middle on a 'grungy NYC horror' triple bill with, say, Q The Winged Serpent and Brain Damage. This, however, is the only scene that you really need to see from the film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvZN9t5HDAw

Always mix that one up in my mind with C.H.O.M.P.S.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDKNZmwm6hI

lol @ CHUD scene wtf is that

It makes roughly the same amount of sense within the context of the movie.

I know I've seen CHUD w/in the past decade too

I've started watching the first season of the Friday the 13th series, which I'm sure I saw when it originally aired but barely remember. It's already waaaaay better than the first season of Tales From The Darkside and feels a bit like a low-budget proto-X-Files or Buffy. The special effects are maybe among the least special I've ever seen, but it's surprisingly watchable overall.

I just finished reading Danse Macabre. It was interesting inasmuch as I like King pontificating about horror. Less interesting in terms of his recommendations, as his tastes have historically been a little...uneven? I'd really love for him to write a follow-up someday, particularly since I realized this probably written during the same blackout drunk period as Cujo.

I watched Tourist Trap last night, partially based on the book's recommendation. So-so as a movie but there's a lot of effectively creepy shit in there. All of the mannequin/animatronic stuff is skin-crawling, and the killer is pretty inspired (with a mask that's a ripoff of Leatherface but which is somehow even creepier). I think it could be terrifying in the right/wrong state of mind. And it's rated PG, somehow (I guess the absence of nudity and cursing and much in the way of blood is how)!

Oh, I also just saw Salem's Lot for the first time. I think I actually liked it a lot. The relaxed miniseries pace worked really well with the slow dissolution of the town. Lots of good scares that were handled just right. Kinda puts paid to notions of Hooper as a hack. That poor guy.

Barlow's reveal in the jail cell is probably the most epic jump scare in TV horror history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcHmWLYmwgo

Oh, yeah. My girlfriend flipped out.

I dearly hope something in a book or film scares me as much as that vampire scared me when I was in early high school. I felt like I was losing my mind.

Been wanting to see Tourist Trap a while now.

Tourist Trap is fantastic. It's creepy from the get-go and the final freeze-frame still gives me the serious shivers.

Going to watch Phantasm for the first time this Halloween.

And possibly Burnt Offerings.

wait wait what

*awkward silence*

Still haven't seen the latter but you've made a very wise choice with the former, VG.

Burnt Offerings is great

Going to watch Phantasm for the first time this Halloween.

^^ i envy you. still, it's one of those movies that always looks a little different every time i see it.

recently came across this new anthology called 'tales of halloween' on VOD and i'll give a try. great cast overall and if paul solet, lucky mckee, neil marshall and dave parker hit the right notes it will prob be worth.

I've been looking forward to that one. I'm a sucker for anthologies.

Watched The Funhouse tonight. Kinda meh overall as a horror movie. Or as a movie where anything of consequence happens. But I'm realizing overall that Hooper is (or at least was) the master of the slow and unassuming horror shot set-up. A must-see if you ever wanted to see Frankenstein get a handie.

Well duh

I find anyone who didn't grow up with The Funhouse generally finds it offputtingly slow.

I was referring to even the idea that people don't want to see a Frankenstein handie. My grandpappy didn't die in the mud and muck etc

I seen Funhouse about 5 years ago and I'm quite fond of it. I consider it kind of a mood piece. The ending drags out but I really love the dingy beauty of the early Hooper films. Elizabeth Berridge too.

I have seen the Funhouse far more than most run-of-the-mill horror movies, almost inexplicably so. Like My Bloody Valentine, although I really like that one. To my mind it is one of the few Hooper movies that are competently made.

I agree that it worked more as a mood piece than as a coherent horror film. It didn't seem to know what it wanted to be. It started off with the fake-out Halloween/Psycho pastiche, threw out hints of supernatural doings that ultimately went nowhere, morphed into a grimy carny noir, and wrapped up with the characters being menaced and picked off by a shrieking, reluctantly-murderous mutant. It was just a bunch of disparate and disconnected horror elements jumping out at the viewer...almost as if we were in a funhouse. Whoa.

The first third (or maybe almost half!) of the movie, which only had an eerie air to it and absolutely zero violence or overt horror, was the best, imo.

Slowness in horror movies is hugely underrated.

The grimy carny noir aspects sort of act as template for Rob Zombie. Isn't his next movie about killer clowns or something?

The "Meet Mr. Barlow" is my go-to clip for Halloween now. It's hard to find a great scare clip that doesn't involve stuff you can't show to a grade 6 class, or that can stand alone and doesn't require a lot of introductory explanation. Reactions vary quite a bit. I had one class that went nuts (screaming, etc.), one class that laughed, another that had hardly any reaction at all. No explanation.

Do you open every class with a movie clip?