The Haunt Of Fear: ILX Top 100 HORROR Movies Poll Results Thread

"Welcome to the ILX ASYLUM of MENTAL UNWELL, KIDDIES! Over 54 and not quite 56 of you ILL INMATES sent in a ballot listing off the things that CORRUPT you and fill you with REVULSION! Our MORBID MENU is SHOCK full of things that go KILL in the night, so ..."

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7264/7021490993_b9abb9e13c_o.jpg

"... and let's BOO this!"

For DEATHerence:

Tales From The ILX Top 100 Horror Movies Poll Discussion/Nominations Thread
THE VAULT OF ILX Top 100 HORROR Movies Poll Voting Thread (voting closes May 9)

yay!

"The first film in our countdown really GRABS you by the BALLS!"

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100. PHANTASM
Don Coscorelli, USA, 1979
(175 points, 8 votes)

The first Phantasm broke my brain into eight pieces. Do the sequels just, like, dance on the pieces or something?
― I HEART CREEPY MENS (Deric W. Haircare), Tuesday, December 1, 2009 5:56 PM

S/D: Horror film sequels

(clears work calendar for rest of day)

Oh, man, that graphic looks great. If that's what we're in for . . . BEST POLL RESULTS EVER.

I've still never seen this...was thinking it might be pretty high.

I've watched it a few times. nice atmosphere, tall man is unique, but I find it a little... boring, I guess?

how are the sequels, anyway?

I re-watched it again recently and it's still pretty good, if a little bonkers. The sequels are mostly crap, in my view. Still, it may be the only horror movie whose resolution relies on a character knowing how to tune a guitar.

My favorite little detail, which most directors would never think of: When the dude in the funeral home is killed by the flying silver sphere, he voids his bladder when he dies.

lots of great stuff in Phantasm. didn't vote for it as it's a bit nonsensical.

"Our next SINISTER selection is sure to send jjjusten off the DEEP END!"

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5031/7209114006_61b8546e6c_b.jpg

99. PONTYPOOL
Bruce McDonald, Canada, 2009
(176 points, 7 votes)

I think pontypool is rampagingly adequate.
― Rango Unchained (jjjusten), Sunday, April 15, 2012 1:19 PM

im sorry but theres a million miles more legit depth to martyrs than pontypool, pontypool just wears "look at me i am thinking" right on its surface but thats all there is.
― blurgh (jjjusten), Thursday, January 26, 2012 4:15 PM

"According to McDonald, the writer hashed out a script in 48 hours."
gee i would never have guessed
― blurgh (jjjusten), Thursday, January 26, 2012 5:14 PM (3 months ago)

ok lets all shit our pants to something new: post 2005 horror film thread

hahaha YES

^poll results thread

<3 the screencaps

I always liked the scene where the kid stumbles b/w the prongs of a gigantic tuning fork into some Martian negative-world where zombie dwarves attempt very slowly to harm him or make out w/ him or something.

http://brettratnerourfavoritedirector.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/phantasm2_13.jpg

Phantasm is a weird movie.

The best part about pontypool was the running gag with the chopper reporter.

Also some good jokes around the mechanism the language virus. I liked it when the studio assistant kept running forehead-first into the recording booth window. Mostly though, the script was a mess, and about 15 minutes of solid movie maybe 30-40 minutes in.

Also one of the two heroes of Phantasm is a prematurely balding ice cream-truck driver who plays crappy folk rock. <3 that movie.

"Before I reveal the next title, I have to double check the CLAWS in my CONTRACT!"

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7080/7209112968_38cc5399f5_o.jpg

98. BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW [a.k.a. SATAN'S SKIN]
Piers Haggard, UK, 1971
(177 points, 8 votes)

di wrote this on thread who has the best job in the world? on board I Love Everything on Oct 10, 2001
Satan

Ned Raggett (Ned) wrote this on thread Which film critics do you trust (if any?) on board I Love Everything on Feb 3, 2004
SATAN!

Larry wrote this on thread Cornicelli on board I Love Everything on Nov 15, 2002
Satan?

Chris V. (Chris V) wrote this on thread How come I always got red eyes? on board I Love Everything on Mar 10, 2003
Satan

chrisco (chrisco) wrote this on thread Funniest possible things to say during moment of climax. on board I Love Everything on Sep 2, 2004
"SATAN"

NA (Nick A.) wrote this on thread Carnies vs. Circus Folk on board I Love Everything on Sep 15, 2003
Satan.

Nicolars (Nicole) wrote this on thread Charisma on board I Love Everything on Nov 11, 2003
Satan.

Also one of the two heroes of Phantasm is a prematurely balding ice cream-truck driver who plays crappy folk rock.

What the world needs now, is another folk singer, like I need a hole in my head

^SPOILER

yeah but then in Phantasm 2 bald ponytail dude trades up for a shotgun which has FOUR BARRELS, so I think he learned his lesson about trying to combat the forces of evil w/ his shitty hippy songs.

This is already the best ILX film poll ever!

Wow, the screen caps are amazing! "Screen caps" do it do them justice. This is some next level shit.

I've watched it a few times. nice atmosphere, tall man is unique, but I find it a little... boring, I guess?

Me, too. Phatasm is one of those movies where I understand all the love, but just can't love it myself.

xxp "And that's how, with a few simple modifications, you can turn a regular gun into five guns. Thank you."

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_le6zc8LVw01qbrkr9o1_500.png

man, I am lolin' hard at the cryptkeeper lead-ins to each entry

"Be kind! Re-DIE-nd!"

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5341/7209113912_2a3f181d61_o.jpg

97. [rec]
Jaume Balaguerò & Paco Plaza, 2007
(178 points, 7 votes)

the skinny zombie was freaky as fuck.
― Ømår Littel (Jordan), Monday, October 12, 2009 12:01 PM (2 years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1nv6W4sRus

you're welcome
― cankles, Friday, October 10, 2008 2:01 PM (3 years ago)

http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=40&threadid=60114

I think I saw Phantasm. I certainly remember long boring chunks of the movie. Plus the molesting satan dwarves and pants pissing. I was probably drunk, so maybe that was me.

I didn't vote for rec, but it way exceeded the nonexistent expectations I had when I watched it.

I need to rewatch Phantasm. The best word I can think of to sum up my memory of it is 'unmoored'.

holy cats, the internets are pretty much stanning for rec. adding this to my must-see list

It's not a gamechanger or anything, but it's pretty damn fun. Best enjoyed in a packed theater w/ skittish young women sitting behind you.

[rec] and Blood on Satan's Claw -- Both were movies i voted for so HOORAY!

also this is just about the best possible way to pass time while proctoring an exam

enjoying these results so far.

phantasm was on the shortlist but just missed my ballot. a great, great b-movie, the ideas and scope are way beyond what they had the budget to pull off but they still went for it with a madness.

I like pontypool, maybe for the reasons jjjusten hates it, tho I think it's more effective in creating a creepy mood than he's giving it credit for. recency handicap kept it off my ballot.

blood on satan's claw was my #45. this and witchfinder general did bloody battle for the tigon spot on my ballot. I guess the fact that satan is actually afoot won the day, even though it looks like they spent about 10 quid on his costume. entire thing's on youtube btw.

[rec] has been in the to-watch pile on my shelf for a while.

[rec] set the bar embarrassingly high for other pretenders to the whole 00s shakey-cam/found footage thing

So far Blood on Satan's Claw the only one I voted for. Haven't even seen the others.

Only saw the American remake of [REC]. (shameface)

They're practically identical.

Yeah, Wikipedia says it's a shot-for-shot remake.

In that case, that movie sucked.

"You know what they say about MAY-DECEMBER romances: half plus seven ... FEET UNDER!"

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7090/7209113102_f2a5606258_o.jpg

96. MAY
Lucky McKee, 2002
(186 points, 8 votes)

so i suppose its too late for Lucky McKee to have any auteur left in him huh?
― O_o-O_0-o_O (jjjusten), Friday, October 22, 2010 4:58 PM (1 year ago)

ok lets all shit our pants to something new: post 2005 horror film thread

also pillbox's screengrabs are some pro-level shit

^^ I want these as a series of trading cards

Yeah, no kidding!

Collectible lobby cards.

I think despite its flaws The Woman bests May a 'lil bit through sheer intensity. But they're both good and distinct.

yay, may! another late cut from my ballot, glad to see it made it. angela bettis is to may what de niro is to taxi driver.

May! Next time you hear a girl is "super into crafting" you might want to inquire further before you pursue...

creating a creepy mood

Yes! Which was built up and then lost in last half of the movie. I was distracted by a lot of awkward scripting and clunky, unnatural dialogue. I really wanted to enjoy the word-association bit, but was coming down and feeling less engaged by that point. Felt like a promising first draft, but flawed in its execution.

"You know what they say about MAY-DECEMBER romances: half plus seven ... FEET UNDER!"

ahahaha genius

Can't believe I still haven't seen MAY. McKee's episode of "Masters of Horror" w/Bettis was just o_O.

The images are amazing, my god.

Bit sad that Blood on Satan's Claw is so low - didn't it do quite well in one of the year polls? I guess it's different when you have the whole history of horror to choose from.

Phantasm was a fair way from making my final list, but it is enjoyable and a bit odd at times. But yeah, I remember it as something that doesn't quite hang together.

People repping for May on the other thread, and now it appearing here, hmm. MAYbe I should see this film.

MAYbe you should

april showers bring MAY HORRORS

May has a strong late 90s/early 00s vibe to it, which smells a little ripe these days, but I think it will age better than most.

blood on satan's claw still a bit obscure, especially in the US. I'm pleasantly surprised that it placed at all and I think bodes well for the poll results. BOSC didn't even make the timeout london list, which was pretty good as far as non-canon and offbeat picks go.

figuring around #84 you'll get to something I've seen

already jonesing for more crypt-keeper style puns

"When the system is PURGING, you best be a VIRGIN!"

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95. THE CABIN IN THE WOODS
Drew Goddard, 2012
(189 points, 6 votes)

a musical number wouldn't have been that out of place in this
― humba (NZA), Sunday, April 15, 2012 1:48 AM (1 month ago)

Kiko's spirit will live in the happy frog
― Ò (Ówen P.), Monday, April 16, 2012 9:57 AM (1 month ago)

felt a bit weird watching it after the hunger games which tbh "did" reality tv much more creatively.
― liberté, égalité, beyoncé (lex pretend), Sunday, April 15, 2012 5:35 PM (1 month ago)

are you even listening to me? THE CABIN IN THE WOODS thread (WARNING: SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILEROS! SPOILIDAD!)

it came out a month before polling closed, are we really ready to call it one of the all-time greats

apparently 6 of us are

Wow, really? That's nuts.

I was not one of them. Whoever voted for it must have voted it really high too for it to place with 6 votes.

god that sentence was an abomination but you know what i mean

Who were they, and what will be left of them?

pontypool almost but not quite low enough

Wait until you see the movies that JUST missed the top 100, jjjusten.

rec is really surprisingly good, and ive already stanned for May. phantasm is one of those indelible early childhood horror films for me.

true story: i saw it when i was a kid and then had (largely inaccurate) dreams about it for years afterwards so i was very disappointed when i saw it and there was no laser maze or underground catacomb any more. prefer the inside my fucked up head directors cut.

xpost oh noooo that is not something i want to hear

Scream put me off self-reflexive horror forever; not that it was bad, but why bother?

Hate to be a pooper, but Drew Goddard directed Cabin In The Woods.

i knee jerkingly top 10ed CITW, it blew me away. will i regret that, who knows? i still stand by it a week or two after.

You think that's bad, I just watched Scream 4. It disappears right up its own asshole.

cinematic centipede

also i have no problem with recent stuff making it into the countdown (wait until you see my ballot) but yeah cabin in the woods is not probably going to age as well as some might hope i think. gotta see it again before i go all in with that pronouncement, but as much as i enjoyed it i found it a little bit slight, also joss whedon should stop doing interviews abt it that irritate me

RE: SCREAM 4

The first five minutes are silly metastupid fun, though. The rest, bleh.

I need to rewatch Phantasm. The best word I can think of to sum up my memory of it is 'unmoored'.

― Bob Bop Perano (Deric W. Haircare), Wednesday, May 16, 2012 7:20 AM (47 minutes ago)

phantasm was on the shortlist but just missed my ballot. a great, great b-movie, the ideas and scope are way beyond what they had the budget to pull off but they still went for it with a madness.

― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Wednesday, May 16, 2012 7:25 AM (42 minutes ago)

describes pretty well what i like about phantasm. also has a strange, psychedelic, deeply 70s look and vibe that reminds me in a weird way of stuff like valerie and her week of wonders.

liked cabin in the woods a lot, but i dunno that it'll go down as one of my all time favorites. fun, but a little glib. we'll see in a couple years.

"PARANORMAL? In my day, they used to call it VERYNORMAL!"

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7234/7209113388_acc6256413_o.jpg

94. PARANORMAL ACTIVITY
Oren Peli, 2012
(189 points, 7 votes)

Problem w/ Paranormal Activity gag: required having seen Paranormal Activity.
― Fusty Moralizer (Dr Morbius), Monday, March 8, 2010 12:52 AM (2 years ago)

those dudes are always dicks in these movies, not antiheroes. Dude in paranormal activity is a total jerk.
― cant believe you sb'd me for that (darraghmac), Saturday, November 13, 2010 7:26 PM (1 year ago)

hmmmmm

also joss whedon should stop doing interviews abt it that irritate me

geting dangerously close torture porn discussion. we need some sort of early warning system

Didn't vote, but loving the images and having fun watching the results.

When I was little I used to wake up super early on Saturdays to anticipate cartoons. My parents encouraged this because I could handle breakfast and turning on the TV myself, allowing them a few more hours of precious sleep. I often woke up early enough to turn on the TV before the farm report. One morning I caught the last twenty minutes or so of Phantasm. I'm pretty sure those twenty minutes still inform my fucked up dreams, more than 26 years later.

very happy to see phantasm, pontypool and may show, even if at the very bottom of the list.

not a big fan of paranormal activity or [rec]. both okay, but kind of empty.

never seen blood on satan's claw. (adds to list)

hay guys, thanks for the big ups, kind words and what not regarding the screencaps. I've wanted for some time to handle such duties for an ilx movie poll, and the fact that I was able to do so for the ALL TIME HORROR poll, of all things, was just too awesome and challenging an opportunity to take lightly. And, you know, there are going to be 100 of these things all told, so if you have any requests, suggestions or would like to collaborate on something for a movie you suspect might be making an appearance later down the line, plz holla @ me and/or Eric via email: s t g e r t z @ gee male.

Paranormal Activity? Really? I don't like where this is going.

guys these polls are never going anywhere unless by anywhere you mean everywhere

I voted for Cabin in the Woods, top ten. It is pretty much everything I want a horror movie to be. Supernatural, smart, funny, fun, holds up to multiple viewings, the right kind of gore, not teeth-grindingly sexist, no rape-as-central-metaphor for anything. Will I like it less in a few years? Maybe, but my guiding voting principle was "guy instinct," so there it placed.

Voted for Paranormal Activity as well. I am kind of fascinated by those movies and sometimes just think about how effective and dirty cheap they are. Ultimately though I voted for it because the two hour (four? whatever, a long time) stretch of the girlfriend standing stock still and staring at her sleeping husband gives me the creeps on a lizard brain level, and jacks right into one of my oldest fears - that the people I love and trust are actually horrible monsters just biding their time until they get me.

LOL "GUT instinct," not guy instinct. Voting on guy instinct would result in a much different ballot.

lol @ morbs on paranormal activity

jacks right into one of my oldest fears - that the people I love and trust are actually horrible monsters just biding their time until they get me.

no worries. the people you love trust are *very* patient

bulletin from the pedant bureau: paranormal activity is 2009

FUCK! Did I forget to vote for Paranormal Activity?

Also, if you have ever shared a bed with someone who sleepwalks or has night terrors, you know how brain-stem terrifying it is to wake up in the middle of the night and find the person you sleep with doing something super weird and creepy and wrong and omg.

do tell

bulletin from the pedant bureau: paranormal activity is 2009

Every time someone points out a CUT and PASTE error on my part, I'll CUT off one of their fingers and PASTE it to their knee.

I sleepwalk/talk/laugh and also suffer from a fear of intruders, so Paranormal Activity was grade-A SCARY AS SHIT for me. No shame in that vote.

That CUTTING comment has certainly put us in our PIECES

xp no i didn't nvm this movie rulz

jeepers this thread is giving me the chills

i thought paranormal activity was very, very scary. i watched it alone at night in the dark, and it gave me the creeps. didn't upset me in any lasting way, but i can see why people responded to it, and it must have been a blast in a packed theater. problem is that there wasn't anything else to it. bad script and performances, dull photography, no subtext or ideas, no personality, just a wasteland.

hmm don't know anything about May or Blood on Satan's Claw

xp

do tell

Not putting that business out on the street other than to say it's pretty f'n creepy.

Also, I appreciated Paranormal Activity more after I watched the sequels. My vote for it was honestly more a vote for the entire franchise.

liked cabin in the woods a lot, but i dunno that it'll go down as one of my all time favorites. fun, but a little glib. we'll see in a couple years.

― The term or title antichrist, in Christian theology, refers to (contenderizer), Wednesday, May 16, 2012 11:21 AM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark

^ this, basically. I was quite entertained, but self-awareness played for farce in horror movies doesn't often age well.

oh ha see i was going to put something negative on here abt paranormal activity but then realized that i had liked the first one ok but that the second one had ruined the whole thing for me retrospectively xpost

I terrify easily, but I look forward to reading the wiki plot summary for most of these.

Ultimately, though, I think Paranormal Activity would work better as three short films that you watch in a row than three full-length features. There's a lot of filler in there. But I also think they have to be separate movies to work as well as they do. I told you I think about these movies a lot!

guys these polls are never going anywhere unless by anywhere you mean everywhere

This X 1,000,000. I mean, it's not like you can even tell from this vantage point that the rest of the results are going to consist mostly of '90s Halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequels and installments from the Scary Movie franchise.

and just fyi now that pontypool is sinking into the dregs of shameful memory, i really intend not to bag on anybodies personal voting choices here (reserving the right to go back on that if theres a Space Jam Soundtrack moment obv). I'm down w/anybody geeking out abt whatever horror!

I'm glad James Whale's entire oeuvre is finishing above these

I have seen the future of this poll and I tell you it is rife with Children of the Corn sequels.

"All SEVEN and we'll watch them fall ... down DEAD!"

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7240/7209113536_6075ea20e6_o.jpg

93. SE7EN
David Fincher, 1995
(189 points, 10 votes)

Se7en (1995) -- Is ther anybody who didn't get the gag in this about ten minutes in?
― ex-jeremy (x Jeremy), Friday, September 17, 2004 7:34 PM (7 years ago)

I mean Zodiac has a couple of flaws, but comparing it to a piece of hackwork garbage like Seven (fuck putting the 7 in the middle) does it a grave disservice.
― Alex in SF, Wednesday, July 23, 2008 4:21 PM (3 years ago)

seven was gross and rainy, but okay for a laff. [fincher's] a moody motherfucker. probably fancies himself a bit of a tough guy and a rebel. i dunno if this means he has a small weewee or not. his blues are pretty blue alright. would like to see him work some red in. trent and him play d&d at sharon tate's house i think. which is cool. i can't remember which one is the troll.
― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, September 17, 2004 7:39 PM (7 years ago)

David Fincher -- c/d?

Circling back to May (only one of these so far that I voted for), I'd put Angela Bettis on that list of great horror performances.

Paranormal Activity had a couple of decent scares, but nothing in it would make me vote for it as one of the 100 GOAT, nor lead me to want to watch Paranormal Activity N.

I dont think Show Boat is going to make it morbs sorry

Love Se7en. Not horror.

would've voted for this if I considered it horror.

was gonna make that joke, thx jjj.

may kinda reminds me of secretary (both came out in 2002 incidentally). quirky damaged girl seeks love in the modern world, except secretary is a comedy which means it ends in a wedding (of sorts), and may is a tragedy which means, well, you know. la lechera otm about it being very late 90s/early 00s indie, there are some cheesy music video editing choices, but bettis' performance was on my alltime great list.

"All SEVEN and we'll watch them fall ... down DEAD!"

roflz

kinda resent this movie for foisting Kevin Spacey on us all

Even if I had liked Se7en enough to vote for it (I didn't), I wouldn't have voted because I wouldn't call it horror, either. However, scott seward's comment there is so great that I can't gin up any irritation at its appearance on these results.

really, we'd be fine if Kevin Spacey had been limited to this amount of screentime in everything.

thought cabin in the woods was pretty weak as satire and didn't work at all as horror. some fun, chaotic times in last act but give me something sincere over ironic meta lols.

this review (which I found via the ilx citw thread) really nails everything that's wrong with it imo:
http://outlawvern.com/2012/04/17/the-cabin-in-the-woods/

se7en dances on that crime procedural/thriller/serial killer line. it's so gothy and grand guignol I can see why ppl would consider it horror. its lack of a sense of humor is prolly its greatest crime.

ehh seven (not doing that 7 thing sorry) has definite elements of horror - gasping thought he was dead dude on the bed rivals the better moments of most horror films actually

Much like the comedy poll, movies wound up closer to the bottom of my ballot either because I favored them less or because I felt their status as 'horror' was a little more tenuous. Seven (yeah, fuck a number in the middle of the title, indeed) fell victim to the latter rationale, but I'm glad it made it. It is creepy as fuck, horror or no.

really, we'd be fine if Kevin Spacey had been limited to this amount of screentime was asked about masturbating in his own feces in everything.

and the uh lust gauntlet or w/e it was

xps

Seven is appropriately grim, but it didn't hold up to a second viewing for me.

One strike against it, it gave us Leland Orser as "Twitchy Dude" in like EVERY MOVIE for a couple of years. (cf. Alien: Resurrection)

we'd be fine if Kevin Spacey was asked about masturbating in his own feces in everything.

woulda perked up his Bobby Darin biopic

I find Se7en embarrassing for some reason, probably because it reeks of 1995 and also what Scott said.

I anticipate silence of the lambs placing fairly high here, and it'd be tough to pinpoint much differentiation between that and se7en tbh

Like this could be a still from ANY of his roles from 1995-2000.

http://www.actionmoviefreak.com/images/Alien/alien-resurrection-leland-orser.jpg

was pretty impressed by seven when I was 13. especially by the credits scrolling UP instead of down.

and by that I mean in formal mechanics, silence of the lambs >>> se7en obv

xps

The difference is Jodie Foster and that is a huge difference!

xxp Wait until your seven-year-old self sees Irreversible.

I put Se7en toward the back of my ballot b/c, even though it is mostly a police procedural in form, there is also plenty of awesome grotesquery in the unveiling of its many dark corners & the nasties who inhabit them .

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMjIzMDA3NTE1OV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMzE1MDk5NA@@._V1._SX640_SY424_.jpg

Bobby, when you're just sitting around, reading "Guns and Ammo", masturbating in your own feces, do you just stop and go, "Wow! It is amazing how fucking crazy I really am!"?

I have not seen irreversible but do the end credits scroll sideways? because that's just crazy! xxp

Don't most credits scroll up?

Good point about Silence of the Lambs. I don't think it's properly horror, either, but I placed it on my ballot in accordance with its place in my heart.

I also told myself I wasn't going to care about whether something was horror or not, so pretend I didn't post what I posted about Se7ven.

Ebert on Bettis in May:

Bettis makes May peculiar but fully human. There are scenes here of such close observation, of such control of body language, voice and behavior, evoking such ferocity and obsession, that we are reminded of Lady Macbeth. It is as hard to be excellent in a horror film as in Shakespeare. Harder, maybe, because the audience isn't expecting it.

probably because it reeks of 1995

Things that aren't new suck so much!

Seven is the dark fairytale of the '90s that has some actual menace. So much better than that squishy Welshman hissing about the lambs.

i like seven more than silence of the lambs

Sesevenen, call it by its name.

The difference is Jodie Foster and that is a huge difference!

Agree with that--I think she's so affecting in Silence. (Also much prefer Hopkins to Spacey.)

I'm beginning to think that I overestimated the awesomeness of the ilx horror fan contingent.

Don't make me go Morbs on you all.

the only really great performance in silence of the lambs is Ted Levine.

Was he a great big fat person?

i know it seems insane to say this at this point but i think that my plucky little ballot is not going to place very many more things. which is ok! i just think that like 90% of mine only had a shot in the bottom rungs - we'll see tho.

(I made a promise to myself that I would avoid all editorializing that didn't involve puns until the results were entirely unveiled. It's KILLING me!)

hahahahaaa

you can just email me a running log of them if you like

Don't love seeing Cabin in the Woods here. Liked it a lot, but it's not a horror movie, right? There's nothing scary in it. Just icons of scare used for action & laughs & general smartness.

Love seeing Paranormal Activity here, though. The entire series is, to my constant surprise, top-notch. Interestingly, they are video-cam movies but work WAY better in a theater where you can hear every little tense whisper of white noise. Loses a lot of that through home viewing.

The opening credits of 7eve7 looked like what would happen if you tried to make a flipbook animation using nothing but old copies of Raygun magazine.

huh, thats interesting, because i never saw any of them in the theater, so maybe thats part of my sorta eh reaction to them. altho i stand by not liking 2, which felt a lot like those touchscreen bar games where you have to scan the screen to find whats different (oh shit did that chandelier just mov...oh nope) over and over again xpost

kinda surprised you put se7en above silence of the lambs, morbs. I find the latter to be a pretty charming and human film (has a lot to do w/ jodie foster's presence I guess), while se7en feels like a tale told by someone who listened to one too many NiN records.

plus silence of the lambs features the fall on the soundtrack so

I didn't vote for either of them but SOTL at least made the shortlist

Let's give 7e7e7 some credit: not a lot of us saw that box at the end coming. & Brad Pitt was never better than with that crew cut wrestling around with his dogs on the apartment floor.

Seven is the dark fairytale of the '90s that has some actual menace.

This movie totally belongs on this poll. I didn't think to vote for it, but it has as much or more horror in it than most serial killer movies. Very solid and well crafted. I never went back for a rewatch, though, because I felt that the droning unease seven evoked, which is it's strongest quality, would be lost in a repeat.

seven is the only one of these that made my ballot so far ... i had my doubts about it being horror, though.

tbh I don't remember much of anything about 777en aside from the overwhelming dudeliness of it

"Our next movie comes from the FAR EEK-ST, where at least SE7EN SAMURAI get ONIBBQ'ed!"

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7224/7209113624_c39f33965c_o.jpg

92. ONIBABA
Kaneto Shindo, Japan, 1964
(191 points, 7 votes)

“I’ve never seen anything really beautiful since the day I was born” is probably the only indispensable bit of dialogue in Kaneto Shindô’s 1964 horror classic Onibaba.

Not Coming To A Theater Near You

I don't think I could argue too strenuously that se7en is not a horror film. obv it's a police procedural but the crimes are designed to horrify, general feeling of unease and dread permeates, doesn't shy away from gory details, evil wins, etc. it ain't dirty harry.

silence of the lambs is great, so's se7en. i'd vote for both in thriller poll, but like most responding here, i don't personally consider either "my kind of horror film".

that said, i agree that se7en belongs here, mostly due to it its massive and obvious influence on the saw franchise, "torture porn" and the cinematic vocabulary of 90s/00s horror in general. it's the godfather of distressed fonts & scratchy noises, grim and gritty filth pit mise-en-scene, and elaborate yet rusty torture implements.

agree w scott seward about the sensibility on display in fincher's early films, but i think se7en pulls it off. and SOTL is full of great performances.

yay for art-snobbery i voted for onibaba.

oniwhatwho

Yay Onibaba!

jjjusten it's good you should see it

onibaba my #40

I've told this story a couple times on ilx, but my first viewing of onibaba is colored by the memory of my wife walking in during the conclusion and observing "you watch some weird shit, man"

oh ha i just looked it up and i have walked past that film like 1000 times at my local library because i just assumed it was another 8 hour samurai epic

that said, i agree that se7en belongs here, mostly due to it its massive and obvious influence on the saw franchise, "torture porn" and the cinematic vocabulary of 90s/00s horror in general. it's the godfather of distressed fonts & scratchy noises, grim and gritty filth pit mise-en-scene, and elaborate yet rusty torture implements.

I never traced Saw et al back to 77777, but this seems pretty otm

first thing I voted for that has placed. my #45. it's very grim. xp

itt thread a david fincher movie becomes a boredoms song

Now hoping that having filled the word, stray 7s will start appear7ng in other posts throughout this t7read...

my queue grows

onibaba is a fairy tale told in a savagely brutal way, with beautiful cinematography. desperately in need of a blu-ray release.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/ink_prod/photos/0232/5254/n1208885751_30710694_785503.jpg

I never understood why ppl started writing the title as Se7en, fuck the credits.

Will endeavor to watch Onibaba when I have time (mebbe 3 years).

i have never seen onibaba. get it confused w kwaidan, which is lo7ely but rather dull.

it's almost a given that art-house Japanese films from the early/mid 1960s have stunning cinematography ... the woman in the dunes (which i debated including on my ballot) is also stunning in that regard.

i always confuse onibaba/kwaidan/jigoku. I've seen none of them.

i have never seen onibaba. get it confused w kwaidan, which is lo7ely but rather dull.

I much prefer onibaba to kwaidan

"The CURSE of the CAT PEOPLE was the CURSE of BLOOD!"

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7243/7209113742_f5a95f25eb_o.jpg

91. CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE
Gunther von Fritsch & Robert Wise, USA, 1944
(200 points, 5 votes)

did any other film of its era deal with a child's POV so effectively?
― J.D., Friday, January 18, 2008 1:26 AM (4 years ago)

I love Curse for many of the same reasons I love Night of the Hunter. It doesn't read as "horror" as well to those who didn't enjoy the thrill of horror as kids.
― michael assbender (Eric H.), Thursday, October 13, 2011 1:40 PM (7 months ago)

I really find it hard to believe that anyone prefers Curse to the original Cat People film.
― The New Dirty Vicar, Thursday, October 20, 2011 11:40 AM (6 months ago)

i'm the opposite ... i prefer kwaidan to onibaba.

Hip hip hooray for Onibaba. Great great film. The rustling grasses, the thundering storm, the cautionary tale of lust, the deep dark depths of the pit of despair.

curse is a very good film, but i see it as more of a ghost-story than a horror film.

Got Onibaba around 2005, viewings since: 0. Places highly on my phantom list of "Sure favorites if i'd only come around to actually watch them".
I feel a bit awkward having voted for (most probably) far inferior stuff in the lower ranks of my ballot for the sake of "not cheating".

onibaba goatse

I had never even heard of Onibaba until I went looking for source images for screencaps & found that literally every image I came across was some combination of beautiful, unnerving and haunted as fuck. It has since rocketed to the top of my list.

Haha, grauschleier, I made sure to get around to a bunch of films on my similar list just before voting closed. Many of them make an appearance on my ballot.

plus silence of the lambs features the fall on the soundtrack so

And SOTL and 7 both have Howard Shore scores which are very akin to one another. Shore's 7 music is perhaps even more amazingly black than his SOTL but unfortunately has never had a decent CD.

(abandoned my horror ballot early on bc I realized I hadn't seen enough horror movies to warrant voting so now I'm just along for the ride...however this results thread is awesome and Eric H your PUNgent humour is CUTTING me up)

curse is a very good film, but i see it as more of a ghost-story than a horror film.

― Boris Kutyurkokhov (Eisbaer), Wednesday, May 16, 2012 5:54 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Wait, how are ghost stories not horror?

i do regret that i only had one Val Lewton on my ballot ... and i am sure that the one i voted for will make it.

Both orig cat ppl movies remain HUGE gaps in my watching history. God I need to remedy that.

Wait, how are ghost stories not horror?

― emil.y, Wednesday, May 16, 2012 12:56 PM (29 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

b/c this is also a ghost story (and it's not a horror film):

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMjAxNzk3NDQ3OV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwODU3MjE0MQ@@._V1._SY317_CR5,0,214,317_.jpg

The Ghost and Mrs Muir

Topper

xxxp

A broken image link? Chilling...

I had two Val Lewtons on my ballot -- I'm pretty sure at least one will show up later. Also def need to see Onibaba now. I did no studying whatsoever before voting, just went with my cold dead heart.

then again, it may be a meaningful definition to myself only.

Ghost

it is not a horror movie.

Wait, how are ghost stories not horror?

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-glwTnsFe0QA/Tp0JzXfA0AI/AAAAAAAACLM/YrAginokzzw/s1600/ghost_chase.jpg

e.mily ... it was a .gif from patrick swayze's ghost.

But neither are they mutually exclusive (ghost story/horror film)

Ghost is pretty horrifying

My memories of Onibaba are really smeary. I think I must have been falling asleep while watching it. Remember it being hella freaky

But no, point taken, I guess. Though maybe I'm more picky on the semantics... I wouldn't call the Ghost & Mrs Muir a 'ghost story', really. And I definitely wouldn't call Ghost a ghost story. More a romance that happens to feature a ghost...

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_NEW9asMBG6Q/S7FjuBbJaoI/AAAAAAAAAFw/0asmrF_O69U/s320/ghostdad.jpg

The prosecution rests, yer honor.

Ghost will have a new life someday as a comedy.

Again, not a 'ghost story'. A comedy that features a ghost.

xpost

So saying "it's a ghost story, not horror" doesn't really explain why something isn't horror. It's not the presense of ghosts in Topper, Ghost, etc that makes them not horror.

Ghost Dad was a comedy which involved a dad who was also a ghost.

patrick swayze's mullet was pretty frigthening.

I saw Onibaba years ago, don't remember much. Glad to see Curse of the Cat People; I voted for the first one, but thought they were both really good when I watched them back-to-back recently. Found the old lady's daughter (she only has one scene in the original) especially creepy.

Wait, how are ghost stories not horror?

it's been argued in the nominations thread that ghost stories can belong to the fantasy/"dark fantasy" genre just easily as they can to horror. suppose this is true, but it's equally true of just about every kind of supernatural being (werewolves, vampires, demons, etc). most of my favorite horror films take place at the intersection of fantasy and horror, so i'm inclined to count any at least moderately scary ghost story as horror.

and comical or romantic ghost stories are still ghost stories, just not scary ones.

i regret not voting for the original cat people.

the casper the friendly ghost movie was scary b/c it was so bad:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_h327jbSGoh0/R_6YUJP0lFI/AAAAAAAADRs/p0dKjjcFC6g/s400/casper_screen001.jpg

lotsa ghost stories that are horror (plz see every japanese film with a young girl with long black hair plz), lots that arent

haven't seen Curse in eons, liked it but preferred to include the original.

Love Curse, can't remember if I voted for it. (Agree that it's only sorta kinda horror, but w/e.)

whoa average curse of the cat people vote was 40 points

oh hey eric are you listing first place votes when they occur

I think I voted for Cat People but not Curse of the Cat People.

i can see someone voting for curse b/c it is a very good movie, but i didn't really think it was scary or creepy. maybe Simone Simon was too much a "good" ghost.

I read or heard somewhere that Lewton really pushed back against the studio on Curse; the more they tried to get him to make it just like the first one but scarier, the more he veered towards fantasy.

who was running RKO then?

oh hey eric are you listing first place votes when they occur

"One thing I'll say about Angie Dickenson and Michael Caine ... they sure are SHARP dressers!"

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7095/7209113838_64ff843f5d_o.jpg

90. DRESSED TO KILL
Brian De Palma, USA, 1980
(202 points, 8 votes, 1 first-place vote)

dressed to kill is a better movie than 90% of this list
― buzza, Thursday, July 28, 2011 4:09 PM (9 months ago)

I don't buy there are 5 movies on this list better than dressed to kill.
― third-generation stripper (Eric H.), Thursday, July 28, 2011 4:24 PM (9 months ago)
WORST of the Best Picture Oscar Noms (Only The '80s Edition)

Dressed to Kill was 't dus die al op de lijst stond. deze kan er ook best bij.
― Ludo, Tuesday, June 16, 2009 6:43 AM (2 years ago)

what's unique about onibaba is that it captures the desolation and seedy desperation of life in ancient times. the entire thing takes place in a swamp, where a mother and daughter feed off the chaos and disorder caused by the samurai armies ravaging the countryside. there's this primitive peasantry angle that gets exploited, almost akin to andrei rublev? but with a vengeful demon mask.

voted for cat people, but not curse.

yay another one that i voted for! dressed to kill is still surprisingly effective.

angie dickinson is aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawesome in dressed to kill and i forgot to vote for it :(

what's unique about onibaba is that it captures the desolation and seedy desperation of life in ancient times.

well, so does monty python & the holy grail but that one certainly isn't a horror film ...

XD

dressed to kill, really? why not blow out and body double too? never thought of it as a horror film, more like hitchcockian suspense thriller. the final scene does use some horror movie trappings but that doesn't make it a horror movie.

blow out was more of a political thriller ... though Lithgow was pretty creepy, as was the final scene w/ Travolta listening to Nancy Allen's final screams on a walkman.

watched Dressed to Kill earlier this year actually (after seeing it on TV as a kid lol) - really fun, Dickinson is awesome, Caine is good, the elevator attack is nightmarish.

Yeah it's a joyride. Almost as much a send-up of Hitchcock as an homage.

whoa average curse of the cat people vote was 40 points

― O_o-O_0-o_O (jjjusten), Wednesday, May 16, 2012 1:07 PM (16 minutes ago)

yeah, high passion score there

vacillated endlessly on dressed to kill. i really wanted to vote for more than one de palma film, but it wound up being one of my last two cuts. like the silence of the lambs and se7en, i just feel that it's more a dark, erotic mystery thriller than a horror film.

i'm not sure why i exclude DTK when i made room for the likes of repulsion and psycho though. perhaps because those films really pushed at the boundaries of what a "scary movie" could do in their day, and focus so intently on ghoulishness and creepy atmosphere. a line so fine it vanishes on close examination, but i'm nevertheless happy with my decision.

blow out is a straight political thriller, without even DTK's black-gloved, stalk-and-slash giallo trappings, and body double is a romantic, melodramatic thriller that owes a huge debt to vertigo. it's only got one real horror-style moment (but what a moment it is).

just perused my ballot, but it looks like i left off onibaba ... i thought that i had voted for it, but apparently not.

huh, dressed to kill? really? i am thinking that i am operating on a very different definition of horror here than lots of other people

My fave things in DtK are the museum sequence, the wacky but relevant STD thing, and maybe Keith Gordon. You can p much have the rest of it.

whoa average curse of the cat people vote was 40 points
― O_o-O_0-o_O (jjjusten), Wednesday, May 16, 2012 1:07 PM (16 minutes ago)

yeah, high passion score there
― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Wednesday, May 16, 2012 12:27 PM (6 minutes ago)

Don't have the numbers in front of me atm, so I'm not sure if COTCP wins the Passiondex for the whole top 100 or not. I will say that it's the only movie in the whole list that got in with less than six votes.

As a 13-year-old boy I had teh major hots for Nancy Allen.

That STD thing is one of cinema's great punchlines.

Morbius--not sure about RKO. The same people who mucked around with Ambersons, probably.

Fantastic image choice for Dressed to Kill.

Also in look7ng back at my ballot I actually voted for Se7en, so. At least two weeks ago I though7 it was horror.

just an aside, but if paranormal activity makes it in this countdown and blair witch doesnt i am going to shake my head at yall so hard that its going to fall off

Fantastic image choice for Dressed to Kill.

There really was no other choice imo. It's such an instantly iconic image.

Morbz OTM about the museum sequence

just an aside, but if paranormal activity makes it in this countdown and blair witch doesnt i am going to shake my head at yall so hard that its going to fall off

― O_o-O_0-o_O (jjjusten), Wednesday, May 16, 2012 1:38 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM. Doubt that'll happen tho

oh btw i will join in the chorus abt how awesome the stills are, but lets not forget the cryptkeeper business that eric is doing here which is also a+++

btw has Michael Caine ever been worse?

btw has Michael Caine ever been worse?

Talk about releasing the Kraken.

It's such an instantly iconic image.

I can almost tangibly remember my sense of awe when I saw the film for the first time and that image materialized--it really is a thing of beauty.

Michael Caine was also in Stallone's remake of get carter, which was awful.

My memory of Curse of the Cat People is of a fairly gentle film with a lot of wonder. Seeing its placement here, I'm going to assume The Seventh Victim is coming up, or else you're all gonna get it.

ha the fact that the top three known for results wrt michael caine on imdb are the dark knight, batman begins, and the prestige is just so painful to me

i did not vote for any lewton (more on that later) but if i had 7th victim would have been my choice for sure

some people just want to watch the world burn, and all that

obv michael caines finest moments are either in austin powers goldmember or as a voice in gnomeo and juliet or cars 2. looking at this list, jesus the man sure likes a paycheck

scotch costs money

blame it on rio bro

he's a higher-rent Christopher Walken in that regard, then!

Also, I like how your image card notes that DTK had a first-place vote. Nice touch.

"Keep an EYE on that rear-VIEW mirror! ... Oh shit, I'm thinking of HOSTEL. Um ... I'm sure contenderizer will HOWL over our next gristly selection!"

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7243/7209114088_50ba006009_o.jpg

89. WOLF CREEK
Greg McLean, Australia, 2005
(205 points, 7 votes)

Wolf Creek was a steaming pile of shit. Boring, badly made, not even remotely shocking. (nb: I quit watching the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre right after the first murders because it was boring me to tears)
― Erick Dampier is better than Shaq (miloaukerman), Tuesday, January 10, 2006 7:51 PM (6 years ago)

then your opinion is invalid.
― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, January 10, 2006 7:51 PM (6 years ago)

Wolf Creek was like Hostel only it replaced the National Lampoon's Amsterdam Vacation with Slow Arty Indie Film With Stunning Cinematography/low-brow comedy with beautiful landscapes. FWIW I loved both of them.
― baron kickass von awesomehausen (nickalicious), Thursday, January 11, 2007 3:55 PM (5 years ago)

have somehow managed to avoid seeing wolf creek

it's really well done, just not my kinda thing

will take this opportunity to join the choir of thanks and praise to pillbox for these badass illustrations ("screencaps" seems insufficient)

every time I scroll past wolf creek screengrab I think killer say hi to me

wolf creek = another one that i haven't even heard of, much less watched.

Wolf Creek is fantastic, rises above lots of the modern gritty stuff with a real legit core-hitting menace.

Bitch, you made me vote in this for the express purpose of olding things up and you didn't vote any Lewton?

I had my reasons! I swear!

Never seen it, always heard it was solid. Has me wondering how high The Strangers will place.

Wolf Creek is the epitome of the kind of movie I hate to admire. I guess that means it is performing a time-honored and vital role in the genre. OK, yes, I think I just convinced myself it belongs on this list in spite/because of my objections to it. I mean, it's horror!

How long are you going to keep your ballot's secret a secret, jjjusten?

it certainly belongs on this list. i didn't vote for it cuz i don't like it much (though i do admire it).

eleven down, and not one that made it onto my ballot. screen-cap cards are truly gorgeous, Pillbox. running SCARE-ation is sidesplitting, E.

thanks contenderizer, but w/ few exceptions, the images are all legit screencaps. I formatted them against a template for reasons of consistency, info display & such, but I've actually been fairly particular about not using anything for the central imagery other than actual film stills, screengrabs and what not.

Wolf Creek was a steaming pile of shit. Boring, badly made, not even remotely shocking. (nb: I quit watching the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre right after the first murders because it was boring me to tears)
― Erick Dampier is better than Shaq (miloaukerman), Tuesday, January 10, 2006 7:51 PM (6 years ago)

this quote is interesting to me because i think it gets at a lot of where i go wrt modern horror (in a very reverso backwards way) - the stuff that tries to hit that TCM mix of dread and hopelessness is where its at. wolf creek is very very much a TCM for now.

would agree w that. not as punk/lo-fi, but similar in spirit. prefer TCM though.

I like Wolf Creek, btw, and I voted for it here, but I'm not sure I could explain WHY I like it w/o sounding like a depraved sociopath. Then again, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is my favorite of all time & I'm hard pressed to explain that half of the time even.

think wolf creek is the first thing here to make my ballot

eric this is wonderful so far btw, thank you

ok fine i'll spill my ballot thing - because of my worry that modern horror was going to get unfairly snubbed in favor of 70s 80s and 90s stuff, i only allowed myself 10 spots from before the year 2000. recruiting kjb to vote was largely because i knew i could hedge my bets on all of the older stuff i love that way. also because i greedily want to pillage his ballot for all the awesome stuff i havent seen yet.

roll out the hate!

http://techblog.dallasnews.com/mob.jpg

ha, you are the anti-me

xp

that said, i have no reservations at all abt my ballot. and i still had to cut it down from like 200+ movies on my first run through

you voted for rubber didn't you

"You can lead a country girl to city water, but you can't make her SINK INTO DEPRESSION!"

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8014/7209114164_326cf42a2a_o.jpg

88. THE SE7ENTH VICTIM
Mark Robson, USA, 1943
(206 points, 6 votes)

Opting for Seventh Victim, just 'cuz there ain't that many films as uniquely depressing.
― Emile Zola predicts World War I and then he dies. (R Baez), Thursday, October 20, 2011 11:21 AM (6 months ago)

Apparently when someone asked Lewton what the 7th Victim was about, he said "death is good"!
― Zelda Zonk, Monday, December 1, 2008 4:26 AM (3 years ago)

Some people share wine or weed; I share The Seventh Victim...countless times, esp. with students ("here! look at all the shit you can pack into 70 mins.!!"). I'm genuinely stunned it's not as notorious as Psycho. After all, it includes a shower sequence almost as scary and invasive. I cannot think of a single second in this masterpiece that doesn't thrill me or needs to be cut. The dipsomania discussion. The fucked-up kiddie song. The floating trademark. Most of all, the deep, deep sadness conveyed in the scene where Mary gets her hair done. It just keep pinning your back to the wall.
― Kevin John Bozelka, Monday, December 1, 2008 5:34 PM (3 years ago)

Looooooove this movie. KJB super otm as usual.

*stares at all these 21st century voting fools*

xpost - ooh, not seen that one, sounds good.

its amazing, and from what i know abt your tastes emil.y you would love it

not familiar w/this one but it sounds great.

lol at "the se7enth victim"

If I can get the interminable Public Enemies over and done with, I think I'll watch (for the first time) The Seventh Victim tonight.

I def saw Kim Hunter do a Q&A at Film Forum, I think it was for this!

Apparently when someone asked Lewton what the 7th Victim was about, he said "death is good"!

*adds to list*

lol ditto

One of the most satisfying endings I've ever seen too.

every positive review I've read of the seventh victim seems to be tempered with some kind of hedging, that lewton line sells it tho

Hmm. Literally do not think I've ever seen/heard discussion of that movie prior to this poll. Intrigued.

still haven't seen the seventh victim. with onibaba, one of the films these results have convinced me i need to see.

jjjjjj, you are a silly. much love to la lechera. school's done so i can outloud it more often. xo

i support justen's ballot as a political choice but given these results so far if you're the reason like tcm places outside the top ten or something i swear to god man

love jjj's voting strategy. admirably odd, but also just crazy pyrrhic.

it's all but guaranteed that most of his choices won't place

Somebody had the good sense to choose this as their #1! Not me, though.

thats ok! although i am glad that i got rec in here prob, and gave a boost to wolf creek xpost

anybody who's seen my ballot reveals on the ilm year end polls is prob familiar w/my general vote vs place ratio. in fact i'm sure i'll do better here than i do usually!

"Charlotte Bloodë's PAIN EYRE is classic of proto-feminist SICKERATURE!"

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7244/7209114312_0b0d4d6c9f_o.jpg

87. I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE
Jacques Tourneur, USA, 1944
(208 points, 8 votes)

The ending of The Seventh Victim is so [SPOLIER] depressing.
― Eric H: not a troll, with one exception (Eric H.), Tuesday, June 21, 2005 9:36 PM (6 years ago)

why did you have to go and tell us that it was DEPRESSING, now it's ruined!
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Tuesday, June 21, 2005 9:59 PM (6 years ago)

I couldn't believe it when [SPOLIER] she walked with a zombie!
― Eric H: not a troll, with one exception (Eric H.), Tuesday, June 21, 2005 10:35 PM (6 years ago)

aargh I guess that's about a bazillion movies I have to see now

being remade btw

Mr Thnig and I watched this movie at like 6am iirc?

The lower-100s glut of Lewton seems to suggest what? Maybe voters felt obligated to honor Lewton even though true maniac love isn't there?

well he's got a higher hit rate than anybody else in the poll

I voted for it. I have no maniac love for the genre.

vote splitting prob as well

this one barely missed making it onto my ballot.

digging the possibility that lewton might be the most represented figure on this poll

The lower-100s glut of Lewton seems to suggest what? Maybe voters felt obligated to honor Lewton even though true maniac love isn't there?

that's sort of how i feel, tbh, and i do feel sort of bad about it, but i had to go with my heart here

I should watch I walked with a zombie again. was kinda turned off by the racist subtext when I was in lol college, but after all, it was lol college.

when I was all about SUBTEXT

Tourneur also directed what, for my money, is the scariest ep of Twilight Zone, "Night Call."

my #38. a beautiful, modest tone-poem of a film. not as easy to pull off as it sounds. see an interesting failure like Neither the Sea, Nor the Sand.

The Seventh Victim wasn't my #1 fwiw but I have true maniac love for it and other Lewtons including The Ghost Ship which wasn't nommed iirc.

jj, not sure my ballot will have any films you don't already know about. But I do keep a list of serial killer films (most stolen from Bill Krohn and most pre-Halloween) that I like so I can share those during the reveal if you want.

Are cat people, seventh victim & walked w/a zombie the best films produced by lewton? What should I see first?

The Seventh (lol "Se7enth") Victim is the only one w/ a #1 vote so far, right?

scarier than Mirror Image? Or the After Hours? or Five Characters in Search of an Exit? or Talkie Tina? gtfo

xp

I cut I Walked With a Zombie, I think - it's been a long time since I saw it, so couldn't remember many details, but what I do remember is very good.

I'm sure this list will, re Lewton, deliver the parallel to the comedy poll's "Wet Hot American Summer > all of Buster Keaton"

Yes! All those TZs are established classics, but the lesser-known Night Call is the only one to give me the oh-fucks.

xpost

things I didn't know about lewton: responsible for my favorite scene in gone with the wind

Lewton also worked as an uncredited writer for Selznick’s Gone with the Wind, including writing the scene where the camera pulls back to reveal hundreds of wounded soldiers at the Atlanta depot.

The Seventh (lol "Se7enth") Victim is the only one w/ a #1 vote so far, right?

Dressed To Kill, also.

lol yeah that is a great scene in GWtW

I'm sure this list will, re Lewton, deliver the parallel to the comedy poll's "Wet Hot American Summer > all of Buster Keaton"

Morbs, I believe the phenomenon you describe is referred to colloquially as a "truth bomb".

you're the kind of low-rent komik who shd be doing Ghoulardi intros for these

Oh, what a BITING retort!

"night call" TZ-episode is the one where this dead guy calls his now-elderly girlfriend from the grave amirite?!?

A+

xp

Boris, yeah, that's it. Oh, Christ, the noises he makes over the phone...

i always reply to Haircare in VEIN!

you're the kind of low-rent komik who shd be doing Ghoulardi intros for these

Morbs, that's the sweetest thing anyone's said to me all week.

http://www.junkdrawerblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/fart.jpg

eric how many are you rolling out today?

One more today. It's going to go 15-15-15-15-15-15-Top 10.

ok let's get this next lewton out of the way then

lol ed

"Nothing restarts my heart as much as watching Vincent PRISS camp it up! He can CONQUER my WORM any day of the DEAD! Work those cute long locks, Miss THE THING!"

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7229/7209114476_fe4a9abdce_o.jpg

86. WITCHFINDER GENERAL [a.k.a. THE CONQUEROR WORM]
Michael Reeves, UK, 1968
(209 points, 10 votes)

i like Witchfinder General a fair bit but i'm not sure it has the mechanics of a horror film really. lots of cool cinematography. Reeves' film of the year before, The Sorcerers is better I think. weirder anyway.
― aka best bum of the o_O's (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, June 8, 2011 5:57 PM (11 months ago)

I generally find Price too campy for my taste (Witchfinder General being the other exception)
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, April 6, 2006 9:42 AM (6 years ago)

witchfinder general: another one that's been in my Netflix Instant queue since forever. is it like the masque of the red death (which i liked a lot but didn't vote for).

so far a fine mix of camp, kitsch, shlock, gore, crud, old people movies, and that's-not-really-horror

i mean this as a compliment. i think.

WG is nothing like the masque of the red death

I mean aside from vincent price

so far a fine mix of camp, kitsch, shlock, gore, crud, old people movies, and that's-not-really-horror

and some of these films are a mix of any or all of these categories!

subliminal/accidental Wishmaster ref there? http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/21/Wishmaster.jpg/225px-Wishmaster.jpg

lol @ witchmaster general

budget cuts forced merge w/ the postal service

we deliver the mail, and take away yr witches

i liked vincent price's i am legend/omega man flick more than either the Charlton Heston or Will Smith ones, so that's something in his favor.

I generally prefer things-that-can-happen horror.

(not always by any means)

the reason witchfinder general didn't make my ballot was that it's difficult to justify as a horror film, aside from the proto-torture porn trappings

To recap:

086. Witchfinder General aka The Conqueror Worm [1968, 209 points, 10 votes]
087. I Walked with a Zombie [1943, 208 points, 8 votes]
088. The Seventh Victim [1943, 206 points, 6 votes, 1 first-place vote]
089. Wolf Creek [2005, 205 points, 7 votes]
090. Dressed To Kill [1980, 202 points, 8 votes, 1 first-place vote]
091. Curse of the Cat People [1944, 200 points, 5 votes]
092. Onibaba [1964, 191 points, 7 votes]
093. Se7en [1995, 189 points, 10 votes]
094. Paranormal Activity [2007, 189 points, 7 votes]
095. The Cabin in the Woods [2012, 189 points, 6 votes]
096. May [2002, 186 points, 8 votes]
097. [rec] [2007, 178 points, 7 votes]
098. Blood on Satan's Claw aka Satan's Skin [1971, 177 points, 8 votes]
099. Pontypool [2008, 176 points, 7 votes]
100. Phantasm [1979, 175 points, 8 votes]

34 point spread from 100 to 86 is pretty tightly packed!

2-for-15 so far ... i feel like a Phillies slugger this season ;_;

wow, 9/15 from the 20th century.

Really strong opening 15, though still a little ?huh? to see Cabin in the Woods in there.

3/15 for me (rec, seven, wolf creek)

well now what do i do with the rest of my supposed work day

lol @ the battles between price and reeves on the set of WG

The production went relatively smoothly except for the unrelentingly antagonistic relationship that developed between Reeves and Price. Reeves kept it no secret from everyone associated with the production that the American actor was not his choice for the role, and the director's comments had reached the actor back in the U.S. Reeves refused the courtesy of meeting Price at London Heathrow Airport when he arrived in England, a "deliberate snub calculated to offend both Price and AIP."[6] "Take me to your goddamn young genius," Price reportedly said to co-producer Philip Waddilove, who greeted the actor at the airport instead of Reeves.[13] When Price went on location and met Reeves for the first time, the young director told the actor, "I didn't want you, and I still don't want you, but I'm stuck with you!"[6]

According to Kim Newman in his book, Nightmare Movies, when Reeves made a suggestion on the set, Price objected and told the director: "I've made 87 [sic] films. What have you done?" And Reeves responded: "I've made three good ones."[14] "Reeves hated me," Price later recalled. "He didn't want me at all for the part. I didn't like him, either. It was one of the first times in my life that I've been in a picture where the director and I just clashed."[15] Price felt that all the actors on the set had a difficult time with the director, explaining: "Michael Reeves could not communicate with actors. He would stop me and say, 'Don't move your head like that.' And I would say, 'Like what? What do you mean?' He'd say, 'There — you're doing it again. Don't do that'." Price reportedly became so upset with Reeves that he refused to watch the film's dailies.[13]

In one scene, Reeves needed Price to shoot his flintlock between the ears of the horse he was riding. When Price realized that Reeves had ordered that an actual blank charge was to be used so the weapon's puff of smoke would be visible, he immediately shouted, "What? You want the gun to go bang between the ears of this fucking nag? How do you think he's going to react?" However, Reeves insisted and, when the gun went off, the horse reared and sent Price tumbling onto the ground. Price was not hurt but he was extremely angered by the incident.[6]

On the final day of shooting, Price showed up on the set visibly drunk. Reeves seethed to Waddilove, "He's drunk–how dare he be drunk on my set! I'll kill the bastard." Waddilove soon discovered that Reeves planned to inflict painful revenge on the actor. During preparations for Price's violent death scene, the director was overheard instructing Ogilvy to "really lay into Vincent" with the stage axe. Although when the scene was filmed Ogilvy indeed responded with blows that were not faked, Waddilove had earlier found some foam padding and fitted Price's costume with it, protecting the actor from any injury.[6]

Two I voted for, three I've seen, and a whole lot that I've heard little-to-nothing about (if I've even heard of them at all). Just the sort of interesting, non-canonical results I was hoping for!

donald pleasence was reeves' original pick for vincent price's role, man what a different movie that would've been

and yeah thats a pretty good list so far, only a few things i cant get behind entirely, and another thing that well we all know by now my thoughts on it so why bother

4/15 for me-Blood on Satan's Claw, Onibaba, The Seventh Victim, I Walked with a Zombie (which I THINK I voted for, anyway)

but how do you feel about pontypool

xp

Vincent Price is a class act.

I wonder if he saw the finished film?

I detect no puns in that sentence, Eric H

price apparently forgave reeves for all his bad behavior and admitted it was one of his best performances

Vincent Price is a CLAWS ACK!

that's better

nothing I voted for has placed yet and I've only seen a few of what's placed so far. bunch of things I've never even heard of. Putting May in the queue tho

I'd be more surprised to see, say, Silent House - The Cabin in The Woods does one thing really well, it's not going to be for everyone, but it is really going to be for those it's for. Is the surprise that people who love it are expected to not be 'real' horror fans?

we won't find out for sure until tomorrow, but my guess is that the next 15 will be a similar "a fine mix of camp, kitsch, shlock, gore, crud, old people movies, and that's-not-really-horror" (quoting Strongo) as today's batch. i wonder precisely when the likely suspects (OG texas chain saw massacre, dracula, exorcist, friday the 13th, etc.) will start showing up.

I would be surprised if Friday the 13th places very highly. Excorcist and TCM are gonna be top 10.

To help tide us over until tomorrow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-e8ATuFpIc

i know i always underrate it but i would be surprised to see exorcist in the top ten

xpost way to circumvent all the material I'm stealing!

i dont think that the cabin in the woods head scratching has anything to do with real horror fans or whatever, it just seems a little slight in a lot of ways, and also (and im saying this even w/my weird recent only rule) way too recent to have really gotten a handle on yet.

I would be surprised if Friday the 13th places very highly.

i wouldn't ... for better or worse, it's canonical at this point. then again, so is Korn's first album so YMMV.

Well, to be precise, TCITW was actually filmed something like two or three years ago, right?

i know i always underrate it but i would be surprised to see exorcist in the top ten

I don't really like it, but I know folks around here that REAAAALLLY like it.

I know F13th is canon but people don't seem to stan for it much and it's really a pretty shitty film.

F13 is canonical but also not a very good film

the exorcist is like the godfather in that there's usually a lot of consensus around it being GOAT

unless horror ilxors are feeling particularly challopsy I'd expect to see it in the top 10

lol xpost

in fact I'm gonna make my top 10 prediction list right now (won't post it till after tho)

xpost to cryptkeeper video

videad sassoon cRIPt

you know how jjjusten is about pontypool? that's gonna be me if black swan places

reading contemporaneous reports of people watching the exorcist when it first came out is like reading contemporaneous reports of when people first saw, e.g., birth of a nation or phantom of the opera ... it's a glimpse into a very different time with different mindsets. nowadays certain scenes from the exorcist are more noteworthy for being unintentionally comical (though Richard Pryor realized its comic potential right from the start, apparently) than for being scary.

Pryor's bit is better than the movie imho

i mean, people in 1973 (or whenever it came out) were really scared shitless by the thing!

ha theres no chance of that is there? re black swan placing

I wouldn't think F13 would even make the list! Just re-watched it and boy that's an unimpressive little film.

Cabin in the Woods is a very fine satire, and catnip for horror fans casual or serious. The lab half is smart and fun. The zombie half is forgettable and limp. None of it is scary, but surely we agree on that (and with no complaints). Overall, I can't imagine we'll be talking about it in 5 years.

(i voted for black swan)

i think to be fair part of the problem w/me seeing the greatness of the exorcist was that growing up in a godless heathen household it just wasnt really scary because posession seemed way less likely than getting eaten by a werewolf or w/e. obv thats not a general rule, but for me, frankly, the omen was way better

ha theres no chance of that is there? re black swan placing

I would've said the same about a movie that came out a month ago but forget it jake it's chinatown

I honestly hope Friday the 13th fails to place. That thing is coasting on little more than name recognition, and even that's a little baffling. It's the only one of the big '80s franchises without a single installment I'd rep for.

you know how jjjusten is about pontypool? that's gonna be me if black swan places

Black Swan will have a shot at my ballot in the Unintentional Comedy poll.

i'd be surprised if F13 makes the countdown, unless people around here are a lot more nostalgically fond of it than i realized. exorcist i figure will definitely make top 20, but i'm not convinced that it'll be top 10.

considered voting for black swan, but nah

i though black swan was supposed to be funny, though, so maybe i didn't really "get it"

only one for me (wolf creek) but a couple that might have made a top 100.

guys the crypt keeper has a christmas album and there is a rap song

I was raised catholic so I am the exorcist's built-in audience, but I have to imagine that no matter what yr upbringing, a 12 year old girl stabbing herself in the crotch until bloody is a pretty shocking image for most

i will totally rep for the first friday the 13th! i think the weariness from endless sequels watered it down but its def among the better mainstream slasher films

can someone please add WARNING: EXORCIST CROTCH SPOILERS to thread title? thnx.

also youve got to hand a lot of credit to that and carrie for permanently establishing the double ending gotcha moment xpost

friday the 13th is kinda gack and im on record as not entirely hating some of the late halloween sequels

i was raised Catholic ... and my parents were pretty hardcore religious, too ... but even so the whole "this is why the exorcist is really scary to Catholics!" had to be explained to me. then again, i've always had a sick sense of humor (though a 12 year-old stabbing herself in her crotch was admittedly shocking) and when i 1st watched it as a teenager my honest reaction was "lol 12 year old cussing up a storm and spitting green pea soup COMEDY GOLD".

i think to be fair part of the problem w/me seeing the greatness of the exorcist was that growing up in a godless heathen household it just wasnt really scary because posession seemed way less likely than getting eaten by a werewolf or w/e.

I grew up the same way, jjj, but I always counter the position you've taken by asking, "What makes you (or the characters in the film) so sure that the 'possession' was caused by anything as easily-definable as a demon or that there was any theological solution to the problem?". It's a question that I think the film leaves open to interpretation (assuming you ignore the additional backstory supplied by subsequent installments).

The OG F13 killed an actual snake on screen. Can Val Lewton say that?

huh deric thats actually kind of an interesting question

I'll give F13 credit for the double-shock ending. And, oh, how well that has served us.

also, i saw the Richard Pryor Exorcist/SNL skit long before i'd actually seen the exorcist (lol my parents having less trouble having less problems w/ a teenaged me watching/listening to Richard Pryor even at his raunchiest than they had w/ me watching stuff like the exorcist or top secret! or playing dungeons and dragons, but that's another topic). so that probably irrevocably predisposed me to seeing the comedy in the exorcist.

I agree that as a non-Catholic the "horror" element of the Exorcist totally eludes me. like OMG the devil can levitate a bed. stop the presses.

I wasn't a huge stan for black swan, but I think it would be fair play for a horror poll - it certainly has enough hat-tips to Repulsion to reveal that Aranofksy was totally going for the Polanski model of woman-in-distress.

never cared for the exorcist honestly and i could only be more catholic if i was wearing a pope hat.

I think the extremity of the exorcist leads ppl to be either really into it or totally out of it. if you think the proceedings are goofy I guess you're just going to check out? what lends the craziness of the final sequence its power is the patient buildup, that 70s verite style contrasted with totally outlandish happenings. there's a great use of sound design - a lot of sudden cutting between loud jarring scenes and complete silence. and some of my favorite moments from it are the early ones - the mysterious prologue in iraq, karras' dream, his first meeting with regan etc. and all the scenes between karras and the detective are golden.

also the stories about friedkin making the exorcist are kinda hilar, like him slapping an actual priest to get him to cry onscreen which scandalized the catholic crew.

i was more disturbed by the discovery that high-ranking Catholic clergy during the late 20th century still took the concepts of demon possession and exorcisms of same seriously than by what i saw on the screen while watching the exorcist. it was as if they also disclosed that they still believed in witch-burning or torturing heretics.

I don't understand most of the religeous references in supernatural j-horror (and they're in there), but that hasn't stopped these movies from freaking me out.

Yeah Friedkin's kind of a maniac and the movie seems genuinely unhinged, which I think is more what's scary about it than anything theological. It's incoherent and objectively ridiculous, but the whole thing feels out of control.

I agree that as a non-Catholic the "horror" element of the Exorcist totally eludes me. like OMG the devil can levitate a bed. stop the presses.

i think it's that more that unknown forces can force you out of your own body, replacing you with some kind of hideous monster

also think the horror is more about the torture of an innocent girl and the helplessness of her family to stop it - the possession functions in part as a metaphor for debilitating illness, there's a reason there are so many sequences of medical procedures in the film

see, now I would say almost the exact opposite. I find the 'big, scary evil ol' Satan' thing to be one of the least-engaging horror tropes.

maybe i should watch it again. it's been eons.

it's body horror as much as any early cronenberg flick

xxp - in saying that, though, I'm not referring so much to The Exorcist as I am to something like The Omen, or the concluding sequences of Rosemary's Baby.

also think the horror is more about the torture of an innocent girl and the helplessness of her family to stop it - the possession functions in part as a metaphor for debilitating illness, there's a reason there are so many sequences of medical procedures in the film

that's an interesting point. to the extent that regan is the "monster", we're not supposed to be afraid of her, but rather afraid for her. she's an innocent little girl caught in this terrible situation from which the people who care for her cannot protect her. we're supposed to empathize with their torment in this failure, not just be freaked the fuck out by scary devil powers. but that too.

Dude, do you ever get tired of restating what people have just said?

prior to seeing it, I remember the Exorcist being built up as this unbelievably terrifying thing - I knew that it involved the devil posessing a teenage girl, but I figured there was more to it than that, that it was like an epidemic, or a sign of the apocalypse, or the Devil was using her to murder people or something. And then I saw it and all she does is hurt herself, vomit guacamole, and make a priest throw himself out a window. I was like "that's IT?!? lol catholics"

xp

the movie seems genuinely unhinged, which I think is more what's scary about it than anything theological. It's incoherent and objectively ridiculous, but the whole thing feels out of control.

This could just as easily be a description of Poltergeist. Which, to me, works almost as well on a lot of the same levels as The Exorcist (minus the whole "losing control of one's body" horror thing).

it would be scary if it was YOUR kid or YOUR priest.

def prefer Rosemary's Baby and the Omen
xxxp

Bah sorry, that was pretty rude, you do just seem to be acting as ILX's commentary track at the moment, which I know, it's a free country and all.

as an aside wr2 the omen -- it was only a year ago when i realized that the 2nd Doctor (from Doctor Who) was one of the priests who got snuffed. from that point on, i was wondering when Jon Pertwee (the 3d Doctor) would show up.

Dude, do you ever get tired of restating what people have just said?

uh, i just did that (clearly), but i don't think it's something i make a habit of. gather that this is "take shots at contenderizer" day, though, so have ats.

will dial it down a notch, as the message is getting too loud to ignore

prior to seeing it, I remember the Exorcist being built up as this unbelievably terrifying thing - I knew that it involved the devil posessing a teenage girl, but I figured there was more to it than that, that it was like an epidemic, or a sign of the apocalypse, or the Devil was using her to murder people or something. And then I saw it and all she does is hurt herself, vomit guacamole, and make a priest throw himself out a window. I was like "that's IT?!? lol catholics"

xp

― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, May 16, 2012 5:08 PM (3 minutes ago)

see, I don't get that. why does something have to be apocalyptic and over the top to be terrifying?

burstyn acts as a stand-in for the non-believing audience (and by that I mean the entire audience, regardless of faith - I certainly don't believe in demonic possession). she's a modern, rational woman whose daughter is suddenly attacked by forces beyond her control, forces she doesn't even believe in. that's the starting point of all horror. and the realness of her fatigue is another thing the movie does a great job of portraying.

I find the 'big, scary evil ol' Satan' thing to be one of the least-engaging horror tropes.

― Troll 3 (Pillbox), Wednesday, May 16, 2012 5:00 PM (1 minute ago)

so no evil dead for you?

i think that using the fear of something turning you into something monstrous is the lynchpin of idk over half of horror movies tho so i dont see that as some sorta big talking point in favor of the exorcist or other possession based films really

basically its kind of like a zombie film except no one else seems to catch the virus which is prob the real root of the problem for me

p sure Evil Dead is on some Lovecraftian pagan demons of the ancient world type thing, which is frankly much cooler & far more badass & scary than lame old Satan.

one devil many forms

Actually, now that I've just realized the ways in which Poltergeist and The Exorcist are similar, this brings up a really fascinating topic in horror movies (which is barely ever even implied in horror films, to the extent that it's explored at all): this idea of taking a completely fucked-up situation over which the protagonists have no control and attempting to throw a net of order (however supernatural in origin) over it. "Shit's going crazy in my house! Must be poltergeists!" "My daughter has turned into a monster! Must be a demon!" And then an expert is brought in and the situation is handled. But my question in these situations is always, "Who says this person is any more of an expert with unexplainable stuff than, say, John Edwards or the Ghost Hunters douchebags? Who says they have any real grasp on or control over this completely bugfuck situation?" It's rare that a horror movie has the courage to say, "Y'know what? None of these people have a clue, and this horrible stuff is just gonna keep happening until it stops." So I often just choose to interpret those films as if that were the case.

plus satan is always badass

like if you met a kid named satan, you'd be like badass! I don't know how I'd feel about a kid named yog-sothoth

something is in your child and scientists are baffled. it knows your weaknesses and has spooky powers.

plus there is some vague scary shit out in the desert and man this thing is OLD

this thing claims to be an all-time bad guy (actually a multitude of bad guys) from another dimension

some priest from an old religeon walks into your house and starts chanting in a dead language AND SHIT GETS REAL

PS your kid's head is turning around 360 and she is stabbing herself in the crotch with some weird sacrificial symbol derived from an execution device

religion

why does something have to be apocalyptic and over the top to be terrifying?

bear in mind that was teenaged-me's reaction I was describing. but yeah, my conception of the Devil - the Ultimate All Powerful Force of Evil - was on the grand end of the scale. I was not expecting a gritty 70s realist sort of approach. I was expecting something mind-meltingly diabolical.

xxp

Man, contenderizer, don't pay any attention to people being dickish. You bring good value to threads.

I don't know how I'd feel about a kid named yog-sothoth

u racist

the omen kind of perpetually ruined the viability of the first name Damien. just sayin'

well, i wouldn't say that the possession-fear that makes the exorcist scary on the "it could happen to you" level is unique, just that it seems like legitimate scariness fodder.

the idea that a zombie would have to be some sort of plague creature to be scary is odd to me. i think you could build and excellent horror story around just one. w.w. jacobs did just that in "the monkey's paw", still the scariest zombie story i can think of.

^ that in response to jjj

i mean, i grew up friendly w/ a kid whose first name was Damien (he was born just before the omen was released) and yes he caught lotsa shit for his name.

man when the exorcist places we are gonna have nothing to say

How about "Exorcist II: The Heretic was robbed"?

have no fear there will always be something to say about the exorcist.

wish it had been murdered

xp

But my question in these situations is always, "Who says this person is any more of an expert with unexplainable stuff than, say, John Edwards or the Ghost Hunters douchebags? Who says they have any real grasp on or control over this completely bugfuck situation?" It's rare that a horror movie has the courage to say, "Y'know what? None of these people have a clue, and this horrible stuff is just gonna keep happening until it stops."

can anyone suggest good examples of movies that work like this? would love to see an entity/poltergeist/paranormal activity/insidious-type movie where the scientific and spiritual "experts" are completely useless.

it's body horror as much as any early cronenberg flick

― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Wednesday, May 16, 2012 4:02 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark

one devil many forms

― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Wednesday, May 16, 2012 4:20 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

...this is why "body horror" is one of my favorites -- it's the horror we CAN'T ESCAPE because it is inside the slowly rotting vessel that we have no choice but to call home if we want to keep living. Being stuck inside the same decaying body for ~ 7 decades is a horrifying concept to me. Compound that by whatever our brains tell us to do and who needs monsters?

can anyone suggest good examples of movies that work like this? would love to see an entity/poltergeist/paranormal activity/insidious-type movie where the scientific and spiritual "experts" are completely useless.

well, that is the situation for the romero night of the living dead franchise ...

aside from telling non-zombified folks to shoot the zombies in the head and burn the corpses, the zombies just keep comin' and shit.

tru, i meant specifically wr2 haunting/possession type tales

My own sense is that The Exorcist is a cinch for Top 10, and that Friday the 13th would never make it. That admittedly reflects my own preference, but still, I'd bet money on it. I'm going to do the same thing, make a predicted-Top-10 list and hold off posting till Eric's finished. I might be way off, but I suspect this is one instance where my own list will fall squarely in the middle of whatever amounts to consensus (give or take the occasional recent film).

like one of the things i liked about ju-on was that there wasn't much attempt to explain this curse. it just existed. people would get caught up in it and then die, and that was that. same goes for the spiral curse in uzumaki.

It wasn't Satan in The Excorist. It was an ancient Babylonian demon named Pazuzu.

Austerity Ponies OTM. Also this:

i think it's that more that unknown forces can force you out of your own body, replacing you with some kind of hideous monster

― The term or title antichrist, in Christian theology, refers to (contenderizer), Wednesday, May 16, 2012 8:58 PM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Actually, now that I've just realized the ways in which Poltergeist and The Exorcist are similar, this brings up a really fascinating topic in horror movies (which is barely ever even implied in horror films, to the extent that it's explored at all): this idea of taking a completely fucked-up situation over which the protagonists have no control and attempting to throw a net of order (however supernatural in origin) over it. "Shit's going crazy in my house! Must be poltergeists!" "My daughter has turned into a monster! Must be a demon!" And then an expert is brought in and the situation is handled. But my question in these situations is always, "Who says this person is any more of an expert with unexplainable stuff than, say, John Edwards or the Ghost Hunters douchebags? Who says they have any real grasp on or control over this completely bugfuck situation?" It's rare that a horror movie has the courage to say, "Y'know what? None of these people have a clue, and this horrible stuff is just gonna keep happening until it stops." So I often just choose to interpret those films as if that were the case.

― Bob Bop Perano (Deric W. Haircare), Wednesday, May 16, 2012 5:20 PM (8 minutes ago)

things don't end well for the exorcists themselves, plus the demon is ultimately defeated through a battle of wits rather than any verse from a prayer book or authority from the church

also iirc the experts in poltergeist didn't provide a long term solution to their ghost infestation, hope they got a refund

Yeah the first round of Poltergeist scientists were useless, except for knowing the little lady.

"this house is clean"

pffffft

yeah, but poltergeist is still ultimately a film about an evil that can be named and understood, about which things can be known. curious about the existence of movies in which that isn't allowed.

Man, contenderizer, don't pay any attention to people being dickish. You bring good value to threads.

― Bob Bop Perano (Deric W. Haircare), Wednesday, May 16, 2012 2:23 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^

thanks deric & chris, needed a little support there

a horror movie with no naming or understanding would be pretty boring, it would just be like an hour and a half of people dying and other people saying "why do they keep dying aaaaaaaagh!"

contenderizer, honestly you're the only person making any sense on that Kitty Pryde thread as far as I'm concerned

yeah, it's an odd idea, i admit. there are some recent-ish japanese films that tend in that direction, but it's not common in american cinema.

yeah, but poltergeist is still ultimately a film about an evil that can be named and understood, about which things can be known. curious about the existence of movies in which that isn't allowed.

― The term or title antichrist, in Christian theology, refers to (contenderizer), Wednesday, May 16, 2012 5:44 PM (1 minute ago)

carnival of souls

Alice Sweet Alice doesn't quite explain the uncanny nature of the evil at work iirc

which makes it much more disturbing

yeah, good point (re carnival of souls). arguably the shining, too.

Isn't The Evil Dead and the sequel more or less irrational? It's been a while since I saw them, but what I most remember is some unnamed, unseen something swooping through the forest.

xp (spoilers) I mean, obv it's something to do with Alice but you have to completely fill in the blanks, nothing is ever spelled out

well, the evil dead movies open with the reading of a spell that's said to summon demons, and they close with the (failed) reading of a counterspell, so i'd say they exist in a well-mapped universe, even if the protagonists remain largely ignorant about the lay of the land.

I thought of the shining as well

xp

alice sweet alice is a straight up slasher flick, not sure what supernatural mystery is supposed to be at work there