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

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?

Yes. We spend 47% of the year on movie clips, the rest is divided up between six or seven subject areas.

(I show the Salem's Lot clip once a year. On Halloween.)

Best thing about being a grade-school teacher, unless you're in the wrong place, is that no one's ever looking over your shoulder--you pretty much do whatever you want to do. Obviously, I do show a lot of movie clips; it you were doing this, I bet you would too, Eric.

Unquestionably.

Main point is, I agree: incredible jump-scare, and it requires about three seconds' worth of set-up. "Weird stuff has been happening around town...here's a guy asleep in his jail cell."

While that scene in isolation works wonderfully (I'd unfortunately already seen it before I watched the movie), the general air of protracted, quiet menace in the lead-up made it even more effective.

Tangentially related to the discussion (though not to horror at all): Last week I did an exercise with the (university) Children's Lit class that I work with where I had them anonymously write down what they would like me to keep doing, stop doing and start doing during class time, and they seem to overwhelmingly want me to talk less and show more videos. I've already shown them Little Red Riding Rabbit during our unit on fairy tales, and I sent them an optional link to Apaches (the emotionally scarring "don't play around farm equipment" British PSA from the 70s) for our unit on moralistic literature. This week is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which presents a variety of options, I guess, but I'm not particularly in love with any of the film versions I've seen of it, so idk.

So yeah, movie clips as a teaching tool is fun, but I'm gonna have to get creative.

In keeping with the thread topic, there are a number of early film versions of Alice (including a silent or two?) that are kinda terrifying.

Well there's always the Jan Svankmajer one

Having a couple of people over to watch Larry Cohen's The Stuff and an undecided second film on Saturday...right now the titles in contention are:

Re-Animator
*The Blob (80s remake)
Uzumaki
*Society
Phase IV
Happiness of the Katakuris

* = I haven't seen it yet

Phase IV is probably out unless people express interest; it's an awesome movie and one of the two people coming loved The Hellstrom Chronicle but it's probably not a good followup for something I picked to be fun while extremely drunk.

Dunno how properly "horror" it is but I finally sat down and watched A Field In England the other day and found it really deeply frightening in places. An amazing balancing act with the humor and almost Greenaway-ish detachment and dry humor actually working without undercutting the really horrible stuff (I am thinking specifically of the slow-motion tent/rope scene here, but there were a handful of other moments that managed the same trick of scaring me more with their implications than anything explicit).

The Blob is p good but really if yr having a drunk viewing party Re-Animator is the way to go imo. (Society is also great but takes forever to get to the payoff iirc). Phase IV is more of a stoner/hallucinogen movie imo.

if you want to keep the Larry Cohen theme going, "God Told Me To" would be my other rec. that movie is insane.

God Told Me To is a classic fer sure

Society is required viewing, esp with an oblivious audience.

if you go with Society I'd say watch it first

Yeah, Society is awesome but tbh I've enjoyed it more on re-watches, b/c I know the pay-off is coming and I know it's going to be great, whereas the first time I saw it I was a bit "bleh, this is a bit of a stupid film" most of the way through.

I really want to watch Uzumaki, the comic is amazing.

Blob remake is quite good value and recommended. I'll second all of the stock Cohen recommendations and offer up the dark horse pick of It's Alive 3: Island of the Alive, which is cheesy and terrible and delightful and amazing.

Basically, anything Cohen or Henenlotter makes for excellent drunk viewing.

I haven't seen it since 1990 or so, but I remember really digging the 80s Blob as a kid during its initial cable run.

Saw a screening last year, definitely holds up - my first time seeing it too. Fun all around, great ending set-up.

I had a huge crush on Kevin Dillon bcz of the Blob

The Blob it is. Especially since this lets me use an awesome/terrible idea I've had kicking around for the while and serve strawberry jello shots with boozy whipped cream on top.

Just watched Evil Dead for the first time ever. I was prepared for something like Dead Alive (maybe the second one is more along those lines?) but the effects and makeup and sound design were horrifying and super over the top (they really made the most of their $250 or whatever the movie cost to make!). Surprised the hell out of me. It was great, of course. I'm sure this isn't news to 95% of horror fans. I'm probably going to watch Evil Dead 2 for the first time ever tomorrow (jealous?).

omg 2 is the best, you can't handle how great it is first time around imo

super jelly!!! round it off with Army of Darkness!

just watched Hellraiser for the first time, love those creature effects... and the lustful housewife. plan to go through more of them as they all seem to be on Netflix right now

AoD is oooooook but not a patch on the first two imo

Evil dead and hellraiser are both the rare examples where #2 is the best, but for decidedly different reasons