ok lets all shit our pants to something old: pre-2006 horror film thread

I never made it as far as 3, 2 was so bad. I kinda love Jason Goes To Hell, though. It's not really a good movie by any metric but it at least has the courage to be completely batshit.

I could never even make it far into the first one. 6th film is atrocious but in an occasionally funny way, you wonder what they were thinking.

Jason X is pretty (intentionally) funny in places.

Yes, the Arrow Poe/Corman/Price set is Region 2 only - irrc, Kino/Lorber are producing similar discs for Region 1 (the Corman commentary tracks were recorded some years ago for Region 1 DVDs). Masque of the Red Death is available as a Region 2 bare bones disc from StudioCanal/Optimum; Masque is easily the most visually ravishing of all this series - Nic Roeg cinematography - and cries out for a fully restored Blu-Ray set.

Friday the 13th IV - aka Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter - is directed by versatile genre hack Joseph Zito, who made one of my favourite slashers, The Prowler. IV is probably the 'best' after 1 - it opens with a useful flashback recap of ALL the previous murders. Agree that 2 is very boring, but it was the most heavily censored, fwiw.

Dunno why Arrow has done a lot of lesser Bava films but not Kill Baby Kill yet. It's my second favourite Bava.

Scream Factory included most of the Corman pics in their two Vincent Price BD boxes.
Arrow Films just launched an Arrow US, with crowd-funded assistance. so that should help negate region coding.
Rumor has it that Arrow's OOP Stray Cat Rock box will be coming back in some form. fingers crossed that the same is true for the Boro box.

KBK is a rights nightmare. i'm impressed that Arrow was able to sort out (and restore) Blood and Black Lace.

best friday the 13th is def "jason lives"

in 'jason lives' jason looks too slight and he walks wrong imo. but it has probably the most iconic shot of jason besides the ending of the first one:
http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/a-m/f136/f136_shot8l.jpg

i also like those movies the most when they're grimy gory serious horror like the first one or total schlock like jason x. 'jason lives' is too torn between the two for me.

"Friday IV" has the best Savini FX, for sure. "Jason Lives" is pretty by the numbers except for all the hilarious one-liners (which I'm sure I've quoted before). But just in case:

Camper one to camper two: "So, what were you going to be when you grew up?'

Also, I read the novelization when I was younger!

4 > 2 > 1 > 3 > pretty much anything that followed except the one with the telekinetic girl b/c it seems to piss off fans so much

And 4 wins almost by default because of Crispin's crazy dancing and shaved boy Feldman.

Has anyone seen Nosferatu with the original score? Is it particularly good?

This Shinoda version of Demon Pond sounds brilliant.
http://www.fright.com/edge/DemonPond79.htm

Tried to watch Kaidan Yukijoro (a female snow ghost film) on youtube but it disappeared.

Should probably get my hands on Illusion Of Blood because it's one of the few DVD period Japanese horrors I haven't seen.

Actually there's Portrait Of Hell too.

Very weird to see Eaten Alive get a release with such extensive features.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
Brand new 2K transfer from the original camera negative
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Audio commentary with co-writer and producer Mardi Rustam, make-up artist Craig Reardon and stars Roberta Collins, William Finley and Kyle Richards
New introduction to the film by director Tobe Hooper
Brand new interview with Hooper
My Name is Buck: Star Robert Englund discusses his acting career
The Butcher of Elmendorf: The Legend of Joe Ball – The story of the South Texas bar owner on whom Eaten Alive is loosely based
5ive Minutes with Marilyn Burns – The star of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre talks about working on Eaten Alive
The Gator Creator: archival interview with Hooper
Original theatrical trailers for the film under its various titles Eaten Alive, Death Trap, Starlight Slaughter and Horror Hotel
US TV and Radio Spots
Alternate credits sequence
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gary Pullin
Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film, illustrated with original archive stills and posters
More to be announced!

DR JEKYLL AND MISS OSBOURNE

I was first interested in this because I had heard it was a particularly good looking film. Some of it definitely is but I wouldn't say it was overall ravishing. The opening with Hyde chasing the small girl indeed looks great, the scene of Miss Osbourne watching Jekyll in the bath and the ending scenes are pretty good too, all aided by an ominous soundtrack.

I thought it was a mistake to only have Udo Kier play Jekyll and have a stony faced guy with terrible hair play Hyde. Kier looks so much more impressive with the burning eyes and the way he expresses his passions. The story would have to had played out quite differently if Kier also played Hyde though.
Quite a number of scenes could have been cut shorter too.

Not bad, not really satisfying but quite a few of the images and sounds linger pleasantly.

The restoration is very impressive and the Arrow edition bonus features extensive and obviously had a lot of care put in.
Not sure if I want to see more Borowczyk. It is nice that he's having this revival of interest because it seems so unlikely someone as odd as him should be getting all these great reissues but I fear I'd be bored by most. The Beast is one of the dullest films I've seen, despite the striking (if not good) horse and beast sex scenes.

Another complaint, there's an incredibly unconvincing scene of Hyde stamping on someone and it looks more like he's jokingly pretending to stamp on someone. Don't know why they kept that in.

THE CROW

Didn't realise David J Schow and John Shirley written this.

A bit odd how quickly the villains figure out that the weakness of Eric is hurting the crow bird.

The clock tower climbing scene looks a lot like the one in the first Burton Batman film, I'm sure the main villain even says "I like him already" like Joker does.

I don't generally pay close attention to these things but it seems like an unusually ethnically diverse cast.

Perhaps this is due to Brandon Lee dying during the making but some of the action scenes look a tad awkward as if they weren't finished or maybe just weren't edited as well as they could be.

It's even way cheesier than I remembered but it's pretty good looking and I can't help but like it a bit.
Even though I think of myself as a 90s kid and I remember all these styles, films like this and Gregg Araki's make the time seem more foreign and strange to me than anything in the rest of the previous century.

MONSTER SQUAD

Trashy 80s kids film; but how is this a kids film with the violence and all the curse words bringing it up to an older age rating? The bullies say "fa**ot" a few times and I'm sure the heroes complain about "homos".

Kim Newman warmly recommended this in Nightmare Movies but I think it's got next to nothing going for it apart from fairly good looking monsters. Really don't see the charm everyone talked about.

You're a curious one, Mr. RAG.

If so I'd hope it was for something more interesting than thinking Monster Squad was a waste of time.

IZO

Afterlife of a sinner travelling back and forth in time and killing people, but the travelling for the most part seems more random than any sort of deliberate journey.
Mostly sword fights, some of them pretty good. Lots of prolonged stabbing scenes. The main character looks increasingly demonic and starts wearing a superhero mask. A large cast, including Bob Sapp. Songs on acoustic guitar. Becomes a comedy film occasionally. Undead soldiers and two vampires. Incest with thick legged mother. Experimental looking bits thrown in.

This isn't quite as fun as it sounds, it's pretty slow and spends most of the time being philosophical but I'm really not sure how invested Miike was in making it deep in that way. Cheap looking special effects become a hindrance. It's okay.

Since Mad Men reminded me of Carnival Of Souls in one of the last episodes, it just made me realise that I haven't seen it in the shops for ages. If you haven't seen it, you really should. I think it should be one of the basics.

find me another family friendly horror film with as genuine a sense of affection for the Universal monsters. or one containing even a single scene as poignantly played as Leonardo Cimino's reveal of his concentration-camp tattoo while confessing to "some experience with monsters." Dekker's film is anything but a waste of time.

If I had to pick out moments I liked, it would be when Dracula is sent into the portal and excited Van Helsing gives the boys a thumbs up. The dog and the little girl were cute. But I thought the dialogue was very weak and everything about the boys was so rote.

GANJA & HESS

Vampirism, sex and Christianity; gospel music in church scenes almost like documentary footage; weird idyllic scenes like dreams or memories. Early on it's a little confusing but things gradually make a bit more sense but nothing is ever completely clear. It's a really eclectic soundtrack, with recurring music and a heavy buzzing sound representing the torment of the bloodlust.
Most unusual vampire film I've ever seen.

I don't frequent this thread much, so this is the first I'm hearing of the Eaten Alive re-release. That is indeed rather surprising. I have a fascination with that film that I'm sure exceeds its actual merits, so I'll probably check that out.

I kind of want to see Ganja & Hess for the William Gaddis cameo alone.

e.g.:
http://williamgaddis.org/imagesother/filmganja3a.jpg

Eaten Alive felt post-apocalyptic to me the one time I saw it. Like the featured cast were among the last humans alive and they were all just fucking crazy because the world was basically over. I feel like there was a weird lighting/color scheme that backed up my particular reading of the film, but I may have just been watching a shitty, washed-out VHS copy of the thing.

I'm sure I've related this elsewhere, but I first saw Eaten Alive the way I think it's best experienced: third on a drive-in bill in 1978. In the pre-VHS/internet era, I went to several other drive-ins just to see it again over the next few years, and read what few reviews I could find at the library. The lighting in it is indeed key to the whole crazy atmosphere, and Neville Brand's muttering performance is one of my alltime favorites.

Glad to see more people like it.

DON'T LOOK NOW

I had seen this a few times on television without ever giving it my full attention, so I decided to buy it. It is very good. Seems like House Of Laughing Windows must have been inspired by it.

JACOB'S LADDER

First saw this just over a decade ago and the military/drugs part really spoiled it for me, but it really is central to the film and it is a very good film. Lots of good images, atmospheric moments and Elizabeth Pena looks amazing.
I mostly bought this to see the deleted scenes, which were so highly recommend that I've been meaning to see them for years. There really is a large chunk of story in those scenes and its kind of baffling that they cut out so much good stuff. But I'm not really sure whether it's a weaker film without those scenes. Maybe they could have worked some of them in elegantly but I don't know.

One of the areas of horror films I've seen least of is 50s science fiction b-movies. I wasn't that into Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, Day The Earth Stood Still or Thing From Another World so I never went much further. I seen Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman when I was very young but my memory of it is quite hazy.

I recently seen strong recommendations of Them! and Forbidden Planet, is there any other essentials? Preferably with more horror.

The Fly (1958)

The Leech Woman (1960) is a good low budget one with an almost unheard of feminist slant (ignore its dismal imdb rating which is due to the Mystery Science Theater effect), but if you didn't care for the first three movies you mentioned which are probably the cream of the '50s crop, I hesitate to recommend anything else.

Tarantula (1955) and the original Godzilla (1954) you might like.

This Island Earth (1955) also

Thanks. I know I seen some Godzilla films in my earliest years but they all blur together, so it'd be good to see some again. It's possible I've never seen the original.
Same for the Harryhausen films, they all blur together in memory. It still amazes me that Clash Of The Titans and the Sinbad films aren't from 50s-60s.

I've also seen Mesa Of Lost Women, which wasn't great but it was still enjoyably different and quite odd. The narration probably had a lot to do with that.

This happened to be on the streaming service I use.

THE FLY (1958)

Very good. The ending was so strange. But it's too hard to accept even such a desperate person would think they could still find a fly that has went outdoors. And everybody seems so calmly accepting of the killing at the start. But yes, I liked it.

TCM is doing an insect monster marathon on June 18 with The Fly, Mothra, Them, The Wasp Woman, The Swarm and The Cosmic Monster
http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/1096952%7C1096953/Bugging-Out.html

One of my childhood favorites, Fiend Without a Face, is surprisingly gory for 1958, with an unforgettable finale. I haven't seen it in ages though, so not sure how the whole film holds up.

Doesn't seem to be a proper disc version of Whip And The Body (which I've never seen). Reviews of the Odeon and Kino versions are pretty scathing.
Some say there's a good German DVD and that Arrow couldn't get the rights to this film.

Also some people hated the Kino version of Black Sunday but were pleased by the Arrow version.

Watched a little of Kaidan Yukijoro online but the picture quality was incredibly blurry and I stopped but it seemed cool.

http://www.fright.com/edge/DuchessOfAvila.htm

A French tv obscure oddity.

Personally I've never been able to make it through the Saragossa Manuscript film.

Not exactly a horror, but chilling and interesting to horror fans all the same - The Nightmare - Rodney Ascher's documentary about sleep paralysis and night terrors. Started watching it late at night, in bed of all places, and kind of had to switch it off. Not the scariest thing, but IRL dream phenomenon tends to freak me out. Also, people coming in your room at night brrrr!

That sounds interesting but I think you meant that for the thread for newer horror films.

oh

https://youtube.com/watch?v=wIzQ2sC1hr4

A short documentary on Mexican horror films. I'm not familiar with Curse Of The Crying Woman. A lot of these films are on youtube now.

Just watched Stephen King's It. Was ok.