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

as classic as the scene of the frankenstein monster w/ the little girl by the lake is, what's truly devastating is the later scene of her father carrying her dead body through the village: the dumbstruck expression on his face, her arms limply swinging with the rhythm of his automaton gait, the way the sounds of joy and music drain away as the revelers realize what's going past them. just amazing.

sorry still talking about F instead of M

Really would like M's first-place voter to drop in and drop some knowledge. I know he's capable.

as others have said, it makes more sense to look at these results as an idiosyncratic snapshot of ILX tastes challopery run amok than as any kind of definitive genre summary.

Did we really play this "does this count as _______" game with each and every movie in the comedy poll?

― Count-Dracula-Down (Eric H.), Friday, May 18, 2012 2:01 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It happened, but not on the comedy thread as much on the action thread.

seriously you guys had a nomination thread and a voting thread and you're still having this incredibly tiresome discussion of WHAT IS HORROR OH THIS MOVIE ISNT HORROR?

as others have said, it makes more sense to look at these results as an idiosyncratic snapshot of ILX tastes challopery run amok than as any kind of definitive genre summary.

i really think its wimpery more than challopery

Actually, I'm being disingenuous. Fighting over the boundaries of genre is what makes these polls/threads a SCREAM.

Heh.

I didn't vote for M and a few of other great films on this list, but I've yet to see a movie on it where I'm actually incapable of understanding why an ILXor would vote for it.

Basically the way I feel. It looks like every film on here got a minimum of 6 or 7 votes. So even though something might not feel like a horror film to me, it's not one person disagreeing with me, it's a number of people. So I have to assume there's something there that's legitimate. (Which is why I let voter define documentary when I did that poll--it was going to require that at least three or four people agreed that something was a documentary for it to make the Top 40. And here, and in the comedy poll, you're looking at a much larger sample of voters.)

I was not the #1 voter btw. M was towards the bottom of my ballot but I included it because it is a great movie and ticks enough genre boxes (serial killer, creepy as hell, etc.) to qualify as horror. dunno why this wouldn't qualify and something like Night of the Hunter (which I KNOW a bunch of the rest of you voted for) would

M was pretty much the IT of its day, et al.

If you mean the King potboiler, that's kind of vile.

I'd call it a proto-noir, among other things.

xp Shakey's clip makes a pretty decent case for M.

why i think M qualifies as horror (note my standards are mine and admittedly a bit arbitrary but hey testament and mulholland dr made it so suck it up):

1. a leading character is compelled to commit atrocious crimes that shock the conscience of his community by forces beyond his control (in this case, mental illness which as far as everyone in M is concerned might as well be demon possession).
2. the community is outraged and disgusted by these crimes, and hunts down the perpetrator of same like a wild animal (common psycho-killer trope, but also common horror-film trope).
3. expressionist sets/tropes/camera tricks are canonical in horror films -- and Fritz Lang was, you know, one of the guys WHO CREATED THESE TROPES in the first place.

whether or not this convinces anyone, is not my problem. it was on the poll as an acceptable choice, and that should end that.

agree with Morbz - it's in some twilight zone between noir and horror and social commentary

I don't even know if it was received initially as a big popular hit or an art film.

see if i hadn't moaned then we wouldn't have had that lucid and almost ;-) convincing defence from Eisbaer

i'm pretty sure it was a big popular hit, got Lorre his Hollywood call up didn't it?

via Hitchcock in England maybe

and Fritz Lang was, you know, one of the guys WHO CREATED THESE TROPES in the first place.

somehow I don't think the Mabuse films are coming up.

well, Lorre FLED!

M was too much of a mild serial killer movie

M was a serial-killer movie before term 'serial-killer' had even been coined & imo the 'horror' classification, while not all-encompassing by any means, is well-earned in the first third of the film by the scenes depicting the predatorial mannerisms of Peter Lorre's character & the haunted aftermath of the community and its neighborhoods.

as did Fritz soon after

xp

for the record, i also think that the testament of dr. mabuse would qualify as a horror movie for similar reasons as to why i would consider M to be a horror movie. since mabuse wasn't a poll choice, though, i didn't bother voting for it.

didn't realise Lorre fled. it's odd, you'd think he'd have took it and liked it.

realised Lang did, as I say I think there's a Nazi-baiting subtext in M as well as Mabuse

dunno why this wouldn't qualify and something like Night of the Hunter (which I KNOW a bunch of the rest of you voted for) would.

shakey otm

pillbox, I love M and don't have a problem with it on the list, was just calling out what seemed to be consensus complaint.

"Only PYRRH-ICK victories when art CREEPS into this genre of ILL re-PUKE!"

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7094/7221145716_84c6425aac_o.jpg

60. VAMPYR
Carl Theodor Dreyer, Germany, 1932
(314 points, 8 votes)

some of the most inventive and strangest long takes are in dreyer's vampyr
― amateur!!st, Thursday, September 2, 2004 1:09 PM (7 years ago)

I watched Dreyer's Vampyr last night, and it's the first of his that seemed like Guy Maddin without jokes.
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, March 3, 2006 10:10 AM (6 years ago)

I spent gay pride at the pool, swimming with straight boys and drinking gin and tonic. Will watch Vampyr tonight.
― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, June 11, 2011 7:08 PM (11 months ago)

Aside from the fleeing the Nazis factor, actors often have made big impressions in the Hollywood industry via "small" films in their homeland that are little seen in the US. eg, Russell Crowe in Australia.

frankly, the grumbling about arty and effete borderline horror stuff is starting to make me wish i'd voted for nothing but lang, lynch and tourneur movies.

I guess we're getting the '30s outta the way.

now Vampyr is a proper non-horror Horror flick

amazing film, #3 on my ballot. unfortunately there are a lot of really really bad prints of this one (like the OG Nosferatu). y'all owe it to yerselves to get the Criterion print of Vampyr.

i think it's probably a better film than Nosferatu too. just doesn't have a Schreck

I guess we're getting the '30s outta the way.

i guess this also means that (except for Nosferatu) there won't be even a token 1920s silent film here, either.

personally pleased with the era-spanning results we've had so far, this is a really broad range of stuff.

frankly, the grumbling about arty and effete borderline horror stuff is starting to make me wish i'd voted for nothing but lang, lynch and tourneur movies.

naw, we're just getting those outta the way fast and early ... the buckets o' blood & gore stuff will probably predominate the Top 50 of this list.

xxp You don't think Caligari will show up?

The only time I saw Vampyr was a print where they'd just bunged a symphony over it, so the music would peak at all the wrong moments. Does the Criterion release have a proper soundtrack?

xxp You don't think Caligari will show up?

yeah, that one may show up. i don't think lon chaney sr. phantom of the opera will place at this point, though.

The only time I saw Vampyr was a print where they'd just bunged a symphony over it, so the music would peak at all the wrong moments. Does the Criterion release have a proper soundtrack?

as far as i remember ... though Vampyr was in many ways really a silent film in spirit. i liked the Criterion release b/c they cleaned up a lot of the visuals (some of which couldn't be completely fixed b/c of how the original versions had been butchered).

Xpost Enfeebled, crazy lorre is a weird sort of pitiful villain. Versus preacher in hunter, who is totally scary and evil and not in a banal way.

Bride hasn't placed yet. Dracula hasn't placed yet. Nosferatu hasn't placed yet.

I suppose I shouldn't hold my breath for Golum, Cabinet or Faust, but who knows. Experience from previous polls indicates that these kinds of declarations are often premature.

i figure bride, dracula and nosferatu are guaranteed, cabinet is all but guaranteed, and the other two are long shots at this point

Basically the way I feel. It looks like every film on here got a minimum of 6 or 7 votes. So even though something might not feel like a horror film to me, it's not one person disagreeing with me, it's a number of people. So I have to assume there's something there that's legitimate.

I agree with this, to be honest. Would prefer to complain about people liking rubbish than whether or not they're correct in their assumption that said rubbish is horror.

Vampyr is great - first caught it at an ATP, probably the only time I've headed back to the chalet through tiredness and turned on ATPTV, and man, am I glad I did.

amazed vampyr isn't top 50.

starting to lose hope that Haxan will place

I've given up hope on the 1924 hands of orlac placing, wish it were more well known

there are a couple versions up on youtube, one with the classic score and another with a crazy ass electronic score

I think haxan still has a chance

"Some of your CATTINESS on this thread today makes me want to SCRATCH your EYES OUT!"

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5071/7221145868_0c7d562901_o.jpg

59. CAT PEOPLE
Jacques Tourneur, USA, 1942
(316 points, 12 votes)

What is not ludicrous about Cat People?
― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, May 13, 2003 5:36 PM (9 years ago)

Cat people have less body hair than dog people.
― kenan, Wednesday, April 25, 2007 2:29 PM (5 years ago)

http://www.petsinuniform.com/images/christmas_tree.jpg
― Markelby (Mark C), Friday, April 7, 2006 3:16 AM (6 years ago)

too low!

I dunno, I'm with Darin. Much as I'd like it to, I can't see Haxan making it above Frankenstein and Vampyr.