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

omg so i haven't seen hellraiser
is this something i have to do???? i've looked into it before....

i have to tell you that i just watched friday the 13th part 2 for the first time and was FLOORED. dunno how it took me so long.

I chose Part 2 for last Friday, as well. It's got two of the hottest guys in the entire franchise.

Any horror movie fan should watch the first two Hellraisers at least once, see if they're your thing. I don't think any of the other sequels are anyone's thing so you can stop there.

I know I've beat this drum before, but most of the Friday the 13ths (like most of the Halloweens) are a dull slog. The fourth one at least has this going for it, though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocgj9tewHso

I want to say like the first 20 minutes of Friday 2 is a recap of the first.

I think first is fine, but I like part 6 and 4. And I like the sneaky way the reboot begins, which (like the My Bloody Valentine reboot) is the only thing it has going for it.

I tend to most enjoy those horror sequels which aren't afraid to be utterly batshit (Halloween 3, Seed of Chucky, Basket Case 3) so my fave 13th (and no one else's) is Jason Goes to Hell.

Hell is a mess, but Space and Vs. Freddy are pretty wacky, too. New York is stunningly bad and dull.

most of the friday the 13ths may be a dull slog but i still think they’re fun to watch

part five is one of the creepiest least functional movies i’ve ever seen

I wish contemporary neverending horror franchises went as weird and silly with their umpteeth iterations as F13 / Elm St did

Elm Street is still my favorite of the big franchises but it started strong and most definitely petered out on the back half. Anyone who's still stumping for New Nightmare on the basis of its clever conceit should force themselves to sit through the thing again, because it's not so hot.

(True heads know that Child's Play is the franchise which most successfully revitalized itself with weird silliness.)

(Jennifer Tilly has now played herself as inhabited by the soul of an evil doll in three installments of said franchise. Nuff said.)

child's play and phantasm are the best horror franchises imo

Anyone who's still stumping for New Nightmare on the basis of its clever conceit should force themselves to sit through the thing again, because it's not so hot.

this is incredibly wrong though

new nightmare and jason goes to hell feel intimately related to me prob bc of that early/mid '90s new line feel. they're also both slight reinventions of their franchises, where one is really effective and creepy and the other is one bad idea after another in a dizzying (and, imo, charming) progression

New Nightmare was so bad, iirc. The third and fourth ones both offer innovations without blowing out the basic concept.

nightmare 4 is genuinely underrated

It's my favorite in the series aside from 2, for gay reasons.

Yes, 2 and 4 are the best. We have found a point of accord.

The room-cleaning scene from 2 might be in my all-time top 10 non-horror scenes from horror movies (see also: non-sequitur karate attack in Pieces, others I will need to think long and hard about).

New nightmare is as bad as all the other Wes Craven films I've seen

Except I saw the original nightmare for the first time two nights ago (having seen a bunch of the sequels on tv) and liked it. The audience were laughing throughout

idk i find nightmare 2 kinda whatever (besides the homoeroticism ofc, which accounts for too little of the movie imo)

I chose Part 2 for last Friday, as well. It's got two of the hottest guys in the entire franchise.

― Uppercase (Eric H.), Friday, April 20, 2018 2:36 AM (thirteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

omg yes!

nightmare 2 has my favorite horror film score of the entire decade

It's kinda shocking when the series hits its height with 4 and then drops off a cliff with the next installment, especially since 5 is the only Elm Street sequel that didn't really mess with the formula of the previous film.

also i really don't find the first 2 13s dull! i love how rhythmic the pacing is, almost like the water; the still cinematography, the lens. love love love.

roger that RE: hellraiser. the weekend is my oyster!

If the Friday the 13th movies floored you, you might want to already be lying down for Hellraiser. The last time I saw it, I felt duty-bound to travel back in time and chastise my parents for letting me watch it countless times as a youth.

omg i'm totally pumped y'all.

also i really don't find the first 2 13s dull! i love how rhythmic the pacing is, almost like the water; the still cinematography, the lens. love love love.

agreed! friday 1 is so eerie, the scenes of uninterrupted darkness are so long

i feel like i've participated in a conversation exactly like this at least five times before on this board and i'm just saying the same things over and over again

haha that's life buddy
glad you see the film the same way!
so beautifully shot

I'm glad y'all enjoy it. Keep in mind that I'm that one dude who thinks Halloween is super overrated, so who even knows what my opinion is worth.

First two have a real shot on film for theatres look, misty and atmospheric. Third and beyond look mostly like shit, brightly lit, like a sitcom, ready for cable and VHS.

So...Suspiria.

Is it just the production design and the music that people respond to? I watched the recent upgrade last night and I'll give major props on those elements, and while it's certainly been elevated in my esteem from the muddy VHS copy I watched twenty years ago, that and Jessica Harper are pretty much all the movie has going for it. There are long stretches which, if Goblin weren't going ham on the soundtrack, wouldn't be out of place in some '80s direct-to-video schlockfest.

I dunno, it was gorgeous and mildly unnerving but mostly just fine. I think it might just suffer from overhype as one of the greatest horror films ever when I can't even say for sure that it cracks my top five for 1977.

Is it just the production design and the music that people respond to?

Ha, like that's not enough in this case! In fact, that's really all there is. I don't remember much about the plot or acting or anything. It's just an almost oppressively lurid mood piece.

yeah for me suspiria (and most giallo, i guess) primarily succeeds re: the balance of overwrought set design and dreaminess with overt shlockiness and incompetence

FTR, I have a very high tolerance for schlock and incompetence. On a similar front, I was primed for this somewhat by watching Cozzi's Starcrash last weekend, which is basically a Star Wars porn film with all of the porn cut out but which has similarly gorgeous production design and lighting, and Suspiria def delivered on that front. I'm very keen on seeing anything with a similar visual style right now (also watched Flash Gordon recently for I guess the first time ever, surprisingly, and it's so dumb but I'm just in love with all the color).

I think Suspriria has quite a lot of good scenes and the pin eyed girl and the invisible witch used to really scare me. Maybe it was just too much hype for you, but I really do think it's one of the best.

Cozzi did the special effects for Phenomena so that might have to be my next Argento. I know they worked together in other capacities but a visual collaboration between the two seems like it could really be something.

I don't recall that one being visually that impressive. That's Jennifer Connelly controlling bugs with her brain right?

Phenomena is amazing!!
I just saw it (see above) and LOVED the insects, the monkey, JC, everything
she is a modern girl who can communicate with insects, sign me up please
wish i had seen it when i was a kid

Donald Pleasance said the script was so daft he had to go for the role.

y'all there's a post-2006 thread isn't there? i really need to like say something about a recent movie

Post-2005. Scroll down a little in SNA. It's been updated today.

RIGHT thank you :)

Anyone seen De dødes tjern/Lake Of The Dead (1958)? Once voted the 4th best Norwegian film. Used to be a subtitled dvd but it's hard to find now.

Yes! It's quite good (although revealed to be more psychological thriller than the supernatural horror it appeared to be). I discovered this and a pair of 1952 Finnish horror films (The White Reindeer and The Witch/Noita palaa elämään) around the same time. Dunno why '50s Nordic horror is so sparse but it turned out some good stuff. Arrow should put out a box of these three.

Lake of the Dead is on YouTube, btw.

I think it's only Spanish subtitles and a fraud version. I found Witch though.

Luckily White Reindeer has good disc options. There's a restored bluray.