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

Phantom of the Paradise, hoooooooly shit. Just watched it for the first time and I want to rewatch it like now. With a group and some drinks.

i would like to write the same post as old lunch, but about DEATH SPA

I really like Phantom Of Paradise, don't know how if stayed relatively hidden for so long.

If I ever make a movie, I will negotiate away my right to final cut in exchange for a guarantee that Paul Williams can vamp over the end credits a la Phantom and The Muppet Movie. Having seen it done a second time now, I genuinely can't think of a type of film ending I enjoy more.

Paul Williams needs to be in twin peaks s3 imho

Wow, you are so right. He's almost too normal-looking now, though. He'd need to bring back his look from that era.

Phantom of the Paradise has a huge cult following in Canada, apparently. still on my list
I saw a (perhaps the only existing!) 35mm print of DEATH SPA last year. it was pretty entertaining!

I think it was pretty big in a few countries but I've only known about it for about 6 or 7 years or something like that.

oh man i loved blue sunshine. the scene where the lady is babysitting the kids and starts to wig will always be with me.

RING
RING 2
RING 0

Hadn't seen the first two since I was a teenager and a lot of my memories were mixed up so I got the Japanese trilogy box set. They aren't really the originals because there was an earlier television version and a non-Nakata sequel that didn't do well before he did his own sequel.

The first Nakata film is still great and quite scary. I totally forgot about all the psychic stuff.
2 complaints: the "thwak" sound when Sadako gets hit by her father is totally unnecessary and the end credits has dance music that feels a tad out of place (the other two have some odd choices too).

Ring 2 is pretty solid and has some spooky moments but I'm not sure how to feel about the direction the story goes in. Most people (including myself) probably approach the story as a more or less old fashioned ghost story but the Koji Suzuki books are supposed to go in a nutty science fiction direction and this film just slightly veers toward that. I find it kind of difficult to let go of the initial set-up of the first Nakata film.

Ring 0 was okay, but again I feel like it doesn't add much that I like to the story, sometimes it seems a bit fannish towards the end and there's a scene that I think was lifted from Audition.
But the scene with Sadako's mother at the mirror is really creepy, especially for a slight variation of a scene we've seen repeatedly before. That woman has a brilliant face.

Just this minute finished House/Hausu (1977)...OMG...this was one of the most astounding things I've ever seen. Endlessly inventive, unceasingly inspired. I've owned this thing for years and feel like an idiot for never watching it before now, but all things in their time, I suppose. Just...watch it, for the love of everything. My jaw dropped about ten minutes in and was slack for the remainder of the runtime.

After feeling as if I may have encountered two of my favorite movies ever (between this and Phantom of the Paradise) on two consecutive nights, the next film I watch is either going to disappoint me massively or blow my brains out the back of my skull.

RAG, if you haven't already seen this, add it to the top of your Japanese ghost story list.

hausu is the greatest movie ever made

I saw Bava's A Bay of Blood in 35mm last night. :/ Invented the worst genre ever, I guess (the slasher by the lake).

My chief impediment to 98% of non-Cronenberg horror is the idiotic plotting.

Plot is about as important to the horror film as it is to the musical.

yeah, but I (usually) prefer songs to skewerings.

I saw Hausu when it was first released on disc and I like it a lot.

I like Bava a lot too but never cared for Bay Of Blood.

I don't know if slasher, jumpy ghost films and Saw films put more asses in seats but I think plot heavy detective horror might be the most enduringly popular type. There are great detective horror stories but personally I'm really tired of it.

Another fantasy interlude.

Second Run are releasing Karel Zeman's The Fabulous Baron Munchausen on disc but it's also on iTunes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na1h7ozW9VQ

i had no idea the Gilliam movie had a precursor! looks cool

CITY OF THE DEAD/HORROR HOTEL

Black and white film about a witch cult. Christopher Lee is in it but he doesn't get anything exciting to do. It's a bit slight, not much happens but I've always liked this one because it looks really nice. A lot of fog and darkness in a quiet little village. I saw the slightly shorter Horror Hotel version originally but I really don't remember it being different aside from the intro.

In the extras Christopher Lee mostly rants about the decline of the British film industry and British newspapers.

Love this one. It's gorgeous to look at.

I'd like to stay in that hotel, beautiful textured wood.

LIFEFORCE

This isn't nearly as bad as I was led to believe. In fact its main crime is just being too long and a bit boring, like the way lots of blockbusters are. Some special effects look pretty goofy but some of them look great. Mathilda May doesn't only look glorious, she's kind of a cool villain. The part where the blood is being drained to form her body and then she disappears with a splatter is great.

That clip of Brion James flapping his arms in Blue Sunshine is hilarious and scary. He's been so unnerving in so many films.

I like LIFEFORCE! Yeah it is a bit long and slow but it's got lots of cool stuff in it

Lifeforce has such a terrific Mancini score, I actually go around humming his main title all the time

There will be no resuscitation of Lifeforce's reputation. Yeah, it's better than some have made it out to be, but it's really not a good movie. Good idea, maybe!

I'd take it over many many things. I gathered this garbage reputation it had from horror fans who love way worse films.

There's always the Colin Wilson novel which I haven't read. He hated the film adaptation and joked about it. I'm a little wary of the novel too because it's often said to be 70% philosophical meandering.

Re: that second Video Nasties documentary. Keep thinking of a hilarious clip from a British shoestring budget VHS gore film. Two guys, one says..

"Fuck you arsehole"
"No, fuck your arsehole"

..then that second guy shoves a chainsaw up the first guy's ass.

Recently saw the original Gojira/Godzilla and sorry to say it didn't do much for me. I love giant monsters but the problem is the characters who get involved in these films. Nothing kills my boner like government and military getting involved with monsters/supernatural threats.

Ha ha, you're talking about Godzilla! That's practically its bread and butter.

lol you'd HATE the new Shin Godzilla, which is basically a government satire

I've seen some Godzilla comics where he goes to other planets and wild islands full of monsters, which seems way cooler. Never been big on King Kong films either but I'm sure there's some giant monster films I'd like out there.

I always wonder what Shinya Tsukamoto would do. His company is called Kaiju Theatre but he does relatively low budget films exclusively.

Huh, never realized that Roger Ebert gave "The Hitcher" zero stars. Same year as his (in)famous "Blue Velvet" pan, maybe he was in a bit of moral panic?

heh probably. Ebert's a good critic overall but he's had a lot of misfires in his many decades

Ebert is bizarre, I can't figure him out. It's been said that when Night Of The Living Dead came out he used all the language of moral panic people utilized in the 50s for horror comics. But he loved Last House On The Left and Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer.

I really don't understand his take on I Spit On Your Grave. I've never seen the whole film but I don't know how it could be taken as a rape fantasy. Maybe the fact that rape fetishists might still enjoy it was bad enough for him? Just like some will relish the violence in Funny Games, regardless of what Haneke intended.

It seemed more often than not that Ebert reported his gut-level reactions to horror rather than engaging with it in a meaningful way.

That Ebert NOTLD review was about the questionability of screening that particular movie for audiences primarily made up of children, not about the movie itself.

Every child needs to see NOTLD, imo.

10 out of 10 Barbaras know they're coming to get them

There's a guy on youtube with a bunch of kaiju and stop motion monster trailer reels. One of them is nearly 5 hours! Been watching a bunch of clips and I like the wilderness fights better. Also when it has characters like Ultraman and Kamen Rider.

Someone referred to the 90s American Godzilla as the Jay Leno Godzilla. The designer said the big chin was inspired by Shere Khan from Jungle Book.

RAG, have you seen WOLF GUY?

No, the trailer didn't look that monstery so I didn't bother. Is it good? I still haven't seen the Street Fighter series.

WOLF GUY is amazing IMO, but I love trash
I mean it's utterly ridiculous, thrown together seemingly by some coked-up dudes who didn't even want to make it, so it's a sexploitation/crime/horror/American '70s scifi TV mishmash. Sonny Chiba is great as always.
Also, he never actually appears as a wolf, because they apparently didn't know how to do it / didn't care about the monster make-up. this thing is a riot. We do get a few pounces between his standard rough-housing.

Should I see the Street Fighter films first?

I haven't actually seen those movies, but there's no real connection. I've seen some other Chibas like KIBA THE BODYGUARD

Plus Chiba did like dozens of movies we'll never have access to

Anyone interested in the history of martial arts movies should see the Street Fighter films ... they are cheap, bad, and gruesome in true 70s exploitation style, but there are some good performances and fights and it's interesting to see Japanese culture and fantasy karate in place of Chinese culture and fantasy kung fu.

I'm taking the Friday the 13th plunge, having bought the recently released set of the first 8 films. The first two are honestly not as bad as I remembered them being. The 3-D on the third is kinda garbage (pausing in the middle to post this and to stave off the headache of extended 3-D glasses usage). Like, the red in the film doesn't even match the red shade of the lens, so everything looks shitty and double exposed.

Also watched Paranormal Activity for the first time last night, alone and in the dark, hoping that I'd created an ambience for maximum effectiveness but nope. It was fine but not in the least bit scary (although I appreciated the attempt). I have the first three on DVD so here's hoping at least one of them is able to induce a minimal wigout.