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

cronenberg really the king of the melt

"I'll take a Cronenberg melt with a side of Hooper slaw"

Yuzna's SOCIETY is pretty melty.

thanks for that link emil.y

Somebody let me know when this thread is safe to click on again, it somehow just became my version of the trypophobia one.

That clip was great! The whole 'melt' thing is kind of a perfect underexplored subgenre for me, inasmuch as the idea of melting is sufficiently horrifying but it's also kind of inherently ridiculous and removed enough from reality that I don't find it off-putting in the way that some ott gore stuff can be.

I wanna know where the clip of the screaming guy ripping his face off came from! Totally one-ups the infamous Poltergeist scene.

Society is essential viewing, despite its non-ending

some of my favorite body melt scenes that aren't in that youtube compilation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCoT6zE2mWk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeT9EtpZxzc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dmFtsmvEPQ

at 26:00 - reverse melt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jriXA6pIFak

This thread just got so gross.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu5f3mADUA4

anyone seen The Mask (1961)? Canadian, 3D, etc. Showing in NYC on Saturday.

http://tiff.net/festivals/festival15/tiffcinematheque/the-mask-eyes-of-hell

That's completely new to me. Trailer looks interesting.

Was just thinking of the trend of low-budget filmmakers releasing belated and slightly bigger budget sequels to their breakthroughs in the late '80s. Have we talked about this? Thinking of "Phantasm II," "Evil Dead II," "Texas Chainsaw Massacre II." (Does three constitute a trend?) Are there more than just those three?

Just saw Messiah of Evil and was absolutely blown away. It definitely helped that I was lucky enough to get the blu-ray during the five minutes a year Code Red's online store is up and the owner isn't behaving like a complete fucking sociopath- I can't imagine seeing it without the right color balance, especially in the beach house, which has to be one of the greatest horror movie sets I've ever seen in a non-giallo movie.

Also, I've seen it described as Lovecraftian, but aside from the crumbling beachside town, it isn't. The closest it comes to Lovecraft is its resemblance to the (much) later In the Mouth of Madness, really. What blew me away about it is that barring one ill-judged but easily ignored flashback that comes perilously close to overexplaining things, it's closer to a Thomas Ligotti film than anything else out there.

Do you like... Wagner?

xxpost Henenlotter's Basket Case 2 might count (although I don't know how much the budget really increased). Interestingly, two of the three you mention have even more belated recent updates of same (assuming that the late great Coscarelli's new Phantasm actually gets released). Along those lines, I just read yesterday that Joe Chiodo is apparently trying to get a Killer Klowns TV series off the ground.

Wait, isn't Coscarelli still alive?

Anyway, just realized that Evil Dead 2, Chainsaw 2 and Phantasm 2 also all have chainsaw fights! And of course all three lean comedy as well.

Emily- What about Wagner?

xpost Oh jeez, you're absolutely right. I confused Angus Scrimm's death with his.

R.A.G.:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09KvvlVholY

Meridian (1990) - Bad Full Moon movie in which Sherilyn Fenn gets horizontal with a werewolf. I remembered liking this for wrong reasons, but no. Despite a gorgeous Italian locations and a decent Pino Donaggio score, it's kind of impressively horrid.

Shadowzone (1990) - Weirdly good-bad Full Moon movie in which dreams conjured by hot naked people wreak bloody havoc in a near-deserted military base. Scary as hell, with fun performances from Louise Fletcher and James Hong - plus some amazing Mark Shostrom gore effects. Recommended.

Laughing at the new Count Yorga cover art because he looks like he's daydreaming or distracted.

Or telling us a sad story while looking off to the side.

It's an Arrow edition including both films.

have we really never polled the big 70-80s horror franchises (Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Child's Play, Hellraiser, Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, etc.)? I can't find a poll thread about them.

Probably not, possibly because all of those series feature seriously diminishing returns with very few exceptions.

In short, the first three Nightmare sequels (roughly 4>3>2, in my estimation), the not exactly good but totally batshit Jason Goes To Hell, Seed of Chucky (and to a slightly lesser extent the direct-to-DVD Curse of Chucky from a year or so ago), Hellraiser 2 and Halloween 3: Season of the Witch are the only sequels from this lot that are worth your time (people rep for Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 but I wasn't impressed). And I say this as a pretty big fan of crap '80s and '90s horror movies.

I watched all of the Halloweens (including the Rob Zombie ones but excluding the Busta Rhymes one) last year. I don't think I can honestly say that I legitimately like any of them but 3.

I agree w that in general, just figured people would have opinions about which franchise was the all-around best or, er, least terrible in terms of diminishing returns.

fwiw I didn't mean polling the individual films, I meant polling the franchises in their entirety

old lunch generally otm, though i'm one of those who reps (hard) for texas chainsaw massacre 2. and it's bride of chucky that's the keeper, imo, not seed.

xpost Oh, okay. I imagine that NOES would pretty handily win that one, seeing as how almost half of that series is pretty good.

Bride wasn't bad but Seed was off the rails.

I can't deal with any TCM but the original. Can't be replicated, can't be improved upon.

is there interest in such a poll? My thinking is anything with more than three films released in theaters, with a cutoff that the first film had to be prior to 1990 or so...

I'm always down for a horror poll.

or between 1970 and 1990 or so (I don't want to get into earlier series, Hammer stuff etc.)

xp

I can't deal with any TCM but the original. Can't be replicated, can't be improved upon.

true, but that's what's so great about TCM2. it doesn't try in any way to replicate or improve on the original. it blasts off without apology in its own, utterly batshit direction. one of the funniest and weirdest genre films of the 80s, and that's saying something.

A side thing that would be interesting to me would be sequels to random horror franchises that actually wound up being good. Seed of Chucky, for instance, was such a revelation because I watched all of the Child's Play movies last year and was totally prepared for more total garbage when it actually turned out to be manic, self-aware trash. But also, like, I keep reading positive things about Wrong Turn 2, of all things? That's the kind of thing I'm thinking about.

I think my favorite underrated horror movie series are It's Alive and Basket Case.

so preliminary list would include:

Nightmare on Elm Street
Friday the 13th
Child's Play
Hellraiser
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Halloween
Basket Case

what other biggies are there?

fwiw I rate both Bride and Seed of Chucky - good fun

There's a lot of total garbage with eight million direct-to-video sequels (Puppet Master, Children of the Corn) that I assume you'd rather avoid?

I want to say there's a pretty solid late Howling sequel that's pretty good, one that's very Ten Little Indians. Howling V: The Rebirth?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOYA3rz0WDo

Curiously, the Howling may be the rare horror franchise where none of the sequels (6? 7?) have afaict any relationship to the original, beyond werewolves.

Evil Dead? Too clear a winner?

am I allowed to write in "the national news since Trayvon Martin's death"

like I said, my criteria is basically first film between 1970-1990, with 2 sequels released to theaters. not interested in all the direct-to-video franchises

(xps)

I think Texas Chainsaw 2 stumbles badly by being increasingly too similar to the original. It starts off so promisingly with the great road scene, cartoony makeup, the music and more trashy fun sensibility, nutty Dennis Hopper gearing up for some fantastic revenge showdown then completely squanders it all by being so drawn out and appearing like a fannish homage by the end.

The Omen counts here, surely?

Not entirely convinced I would want to make up a whole ballot as most of these aren't really my preferred horrors, but would certainly vote in a button poll.

yeah I'm talking about a button poll, just want to make sure I don't overlook any poll options before I start it