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

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

hard to talk about without getting spoiler-y but alice sweet alice's antagonist is pretty clear-cut

wr2 the shining: Scatman Crothers/Dick Halloran might've been of some use -- he knew what the deal was wr2 the hotel and was coming to help after Danny called out to him telepathically -- but he got axe-murdered by Jack Nicholson/Jack Torrance before he could really do anything.

though halloran was a cook and neither a scientist nor a clergyman.

xpost It was all a set-up for one of the better Simpsons gags.

xp really? I got the sense with Alice Sweet Alice that SPOILERS there's a hint - after the reveal of the murderer's identity - that Alice was the one somehow orchestrating it all

BTW, like the results so far, more or less. And for the record, "Blair Witch" deserves to place, but "Paranormal Activity" is much scarier. I know lots of folks who had trouble sleeping the night they saw it, ridiculous or no. Less so with "Blair Witch." Though both were A+ audience experiences. But of course we'll talk about this later.

xpost "Paranormal Activity" features one of the all-time best useless experts! The dude walks into the room then goes, basically, whoa, this is out of my league, you're on your own, see ya!

Scatman Crothers/Dick Halloran might've been of some use -- he knew what the deal was wr2 the hotel and was coming to help after Danny called out to him telepathically -- but he got axe-murdered by Jack Nicholson/Jack Torrance before he could really do anything.

the book is fairly clear about the nature of the overlook's evil and its relationship to the "shining" shared by halloran and danny, but i'm inclined to treat the movie as a separate text. it's much more vague, absent much indication of a larger context in which things might be understood.

This "unexplained and unexplainable malignant force unabatedly fucking up the lives of the protagonists" is at least part of what I love about films like Possession and Inland Empire and The Tenant. Yes, in each of those instances, there is some discrete rationale alluded to, but those rationales are vague and illogical and it's never made clear whether those films aren't just about the protagonists losing their minds.