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

Shining def. better in theaters. Exorcists less so because people are compelled to nervously/self-consciously deride the film.

Absolutely OTM. It's why I'd just about refuse seeing it in the company of anyone who wasn't a fan.

There is no way I would call the restored "Touch of Evil" a director's cut. It's an approximation, a la "Once Upon a Time in America" or "The Big Red One," based on what so-called experts have assume the director intended. Not a bad thing, necessarily, but not the same as a director's cut.

(By the way, to his credit Ridley Scott dismisses his purported director's cuts of "Alien" and "Gladiator" (at least) on their commentary tracks, claiming the studio was planning to do alternate cuts whether he was involved or not, but that he preferred the theatrical cuts).

The Exorcist has been dealing with all sorts of Blatty nonsense for years.

Now we get these iterations which are one step beyond the rough cut, ie, the "director's cut" that is the INITIAL complete version assembled, which is MEANT to be trimmed and refined. But now these usually inferior versions are foisted on the public to create extra revenue.

Yes! This is very frustrating! I'm always interested in seeing what ended up on the editing room floor, but I have no interest in buying into these marketing schemes. I don't need your boxed set with the crap recordings the band wanted burned.

OTOH jonathan rosenbaum had a point when he wrote, somewhere, that every kubrick film is scary and creepy to some degree. '2001' is still the only movie i've seen that captures how terrifying outer space really is, and i think 'strangelove' cranks up the tension in an impressive way (espec if you see it in a theater).

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, May 23, 2012 2:15 AM (8 hours ago)

most of 2001 plays like a horror film, if it wasn't bookended the way it was it'd probably be on this list somewhere

I can't conceive of ppl voting for Snatchers78 and not '56, tho.

I considered voting for '56, but then I remembered that weird rule I self-imposed about not voting for movies I haven't seen. But I absolutely agree: inconceivable.

2001 isn't a horror movie in any way, shape or form; I don't care how murderous HAL got

why dont all you ltroi voters just watch a movie about feelings and leave the rest of us out of it

missed this thread somehow. great presentation eric

"dignify"

sorry, but it's pretty tragic seeing all the eberty "what did lynch mean?" ponderances about mulholland dr when the director himself admits it was an open-ended intro he slammed a cop-out ending onto. If you still enjoy it, great, but when people are like BEST MOVIE EVER...idgi, sorry

― da croupier, Friday, May 18, 2012 2:18 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark

damn, just gonna take a second to marvel at how bad this post is

Let the Right One In did nothing for me, does not belong here

the swedish title for LTROI always cracks me up. Let the rat come in

yeah, director's cut is purely a marketing term nowadays. like criterion's andrei rublev, which is a couple steps away from a workprint. it's my favorite movie but there is no perfect version.

the thing that drives me nuts about apocalypse now redux is that coppola chopped up THE ORIGINAL NEGATIVE to make it. what a maroon.

let the right one in, very good movie but almost a drama. I didn't vote for it and think it's kinda high - but it's recent, popular, and well regarded so no surprise there.

"Can't decide whether to ride the Roller GHOSTER, the SCARY-Go-Round or the SCARE-US Wheel!"

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7218/7255248024_4fef922731_o.jpg

24. CARNIVAL OF SOULS
Herk Harvey, USA, 1962
(560 points, 20 votes, 1 first-place vote)

carnival of souls will place v high on my ballot and it looks like it was made for $5
― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Thursday, April 5, 2012 9:59 AM (1 month ago)

The American midwest in the late 50s/early 60s never looked more terrifying. (Yes, I know it takes place in Utah or whatever, but it was made by a Kansas team.)
― Eric H., Sunday, January 4, 2009 12:36 AM (3 years ago)

There's something deeply unsettling about Carnival of Souls which has stayed with me. It got under my skin in the same way David Lynch does. I can see how it wouldn't work for everybody - the major special effect is black eyeshadow, and there are long stretches of not much happening, but still . .
― Soukesian, Saturday, October 11, 2008 12:01 PM (3 years ago)

Carnival of Souls bores me to tears. don't get the love for it.
― Jilly Boel and the Eltones (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, April 17, 2012 3:39 PM (1 month ago)

i wonder if LTROI is just one of those movies where a bunch of people stuck it in the middle of their list? i don't think i voted for it, it's pretty good but not one of the best horror movies ever.

carnival of souls my #1

Director's Cuts better than the original = Blade Runner, Almost Famous, Big. see also that 80s tv version of The Godfather (the 'saga' or whtaver it was called) where there are loads of extra brilliant bits back in like Don and Micheal having a bit of an argument in the hospital (their ONLY dialogue together in the entire damn film aside from the bit in the garden). although the rest of that cut has some crazy shit (all the De Niro footage lumped together wtf).

anyway as you were..

xp - 25 is I think the high-water mark for number of voters

another one of my rare pre2000s. love it to death

looking forward to viewing Carnival of Souls

and yeah the directors cut thing irritates me to no end, as mentioned in discussion somewhere around here abt the dawn of the dead box set. altho i still havent gotten around to watching argentos nutzoid european cut where he gutted all the social commentary and added more goblin to the soundtrack.

xpost oh shit you havent seen that yet? i have copies of it on about 8 different crappy public domain compilations around my house i think. also might be streaming.

we should do a Skype/Face Time viewing party if it's streaming

Was making the lead character of CoS explicitly an atheist as daring as I think it was for 1962?

Yaaaaay!Carnival of Souls is my best friend. In some ways, it reminds me of what I said about Blair Witch: I feel like no way could these amateur industrial filmmakers have any clue what they were doing, really, and yet even their missteps (like how the lead woman's running feet never match up to the foley sounds of feet) add to the spooky atmosphere. Best of all, though, is how Candace Hilligoss is just about the strangest female lead ever: gruff, peevish, and just plain weird. LOVE.

xposts - some time this fall I will actually have time to watch movies at home and that's when we need to do this. Maybe around Halloween.

i wonder if LTROI is just one of those movies where a bunch of people stuck it in the middle of their list? i don't think i voted for it, it's pretty good but not one of the best horror movies ever.

― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, May 23, 2012 11:12 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

its not even one of the horror movies ever

The allotted function of art is not, as is often assumed, to put across ideas, to propagate thoughts, to serve as example. The aim of art is to prepare a person for death. - Tarkovsky

carnival of souls is not just a great scary movie, it's one of the most effective confrontations of mortality ever filmed. a greased chute of modern alienation, crippling loneliness, existential madness, and the inescapable nature of death. go with it and it'll take you all the way.

Re: CoS streaming - Also:
http://archive.org/details/CarnivalofSouls

some time this fall I will actually have time to watch movies at home and that's when we need to do this. Maybe around Halloween.

suddenly I see a point to the Google+ circles

MOVIE PARTY, Y'ALL

Hurrah for Carnival of Souls! Definitely has some weird not-quite-working elements, but it keeps up a feeling of creepiness in a way that a lot of films just can't seem to do.

CoS also on Hulu/Criterion.

also, if anyone is considering watching carnival of souls please please please watch the criterion DVD (or I guess the hulu stream). stay away from the public domain prints and especially the colorized version, bleccch.

even though I'm constantly talking about how cheap carnival of souls looks, there are moments of b&w cinematography on display that give bergman/nykvist a run for their money. no joke.

i feel like seeing so many b horrors on mst3k kind of ruined carnival of souls for me. Could definitely see some novel qualities and effects but it just didn't take hold.

2001 isn't a horror movie in any way, shape or form; I don't care how murderous HAL got

See, maaan, it's like a horror movie where man is both victim and victimizer. And HAL, see, HAL is like the innoculation for the disease that is our species, bro, so he's like the HERO. Do you get it, maaaaan?! (tooooooooke)

i wonder if LTROI is just one of those movies where a bunch of people stuck it in the middle of their list? i don't think i voted for it, it's pretty good but not one of the best horror movies ever.

― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, May 23, 2012 11:12 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

its not even one of the horror movies ever

I think any movie with an ostensibly "happy" ending but which, when considered, makes you realize the kid is probably going to die 50 years later in a hospital room with his face burned off by acid qualifies as "horror."

Yeah, I'm a MST3K stan for life, but I do kind of hate that their ethos puts an extra burden on movies like Carnival (which is hardly a Coleman Francis joint, but still).

This fuckin' poll is actually making me want to watch horror movies. DAMN YOU ALL TO THE FIERY PITS

I think you guys all watched a different Carnival of Souls than I did or something

I watched CoS the other day, and the frame pillbox used was the exact same one I thought would make a good screengrab

saw Carnival of Souls on TCM a few years ago, and it was... OK.

I cannot recommend the Carnival of Souls soundtrack highly enough. Not only is it full of that menacing organ music, but the short sound clips from Hilligoss really press home just aggressively weird is every single piece of dialogue that comes out of her mouth.

carnival of souls works like music, if you're not feeling it, it's hard to describe the appeal

dialogue is fantastic, the whole exchange between mary and her neighbor john during their "date" is on some hell-is-other-ppl level

http://mfleisig.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/carnival2.jpg
http://www.stephenjoneseditor.com/media/stills-carnival03.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/139/335648653_c1c3e87947_o.jpg
http://charlottesvillearts.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/carnival-of-souls-1962.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3278/2970314313_0230bb267d.jpg
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_liqbj3SImt1qcay1ao1_500.gif

Some people find a dirty mattress skidding itself down a giant slide at an abandoned amusement park from the turn of the century incredibly unnerving. Some don't. C'est la mort.

Advice to budding filmmakers: When you have a practical location like a pipe organ factory easily and cheaply available to you, use the shit out of it in your movie.

Carnival of Souls uses sound (and/or lack of) so well.

"Can't think of many performances that rival Isabelle Ad-HAMMY's!"

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7092/7255248130_edd2323b61_o.jpg

23. POSSESSION
Andrzej Żuławski, France, 1981
(565 points, 17 votes, 2 first-place votes)

is the best movie ever. because it involves:
- crazy ass overactign by everyone.
- isabelle adjani.
- a tentaceld monster.
- isabelle adjani having sexual intercourse with said monster.
- isabelle adjani goign hysterical in the subway, vomiting blood and pus.
- isabelle adjani torturign a little balerina for her own good.
- isabelle adjani. (its a double role ok?)
- self mutilation with electric knife.
- a mysterious villain that is known by his pink socks.
- a bum that very nonchalatnly nicks a banana off adjani.
- a private eye who is flamboyantly gay in a prussian way.
- heinz benent who is more kinski than kinski, more robbins than robbins in 'high fidelity'. and does kung fu. and beats sam neil to a pulp. and gets drowned in a toilet in return.
- the only portrayal of berlin on film i can thikn of that actualy looks and feels like berlin.
- and lots and lots of moments of crystal clear madness i cant put into words because theyre lightign and editing related.
im not quite sure if i dreamt this movie. if i didnt: please discuss.
― :| (....), Monday, November 1, 2004 6:16 PM (7 years ago)

Okay. Shit. Wow. This movie is one of the most intense and amazing artistic headfucks I've ever experienced. I have no idea how its flown so far under the radar, unless the majority of people who've seen it just want to forget that they've seen it. Which I can understand. I can safely say that Adjani's subway scene is now permanently burned into my brain. And also: of course she won best actress at Cannes. Most other actors should be shamed by her level of commitment in this film.
Is there a comparable yin to this movie's yang? It's very of a piece with The Tenant and Inland Empire in that it very effectively immerses the viewer in the characters' descent into madness/fragmentation/loss of identity. The deep, dank, dark stuff. I'm just wracking my brain trying to come up with examples of films that present a similarly immersive approach in presenting a more joyful or ecstatic madness. Something of a palate cleanser in a theoretical double bill with Possession, if you will.
― SNEEZED GOING DOWN STEPS, PAIN WHEN PUTTING SOCKS ON (Deric W. Haircare), Friday, April 15, 2011 10:31 AM (1 year ago)

even more than The Brood, it's the most descriptive divorce film about being in love with an impossibly beautiful, genuinely insane woman you could hope to see.
― Milton Parker, Tuesday, October 14, 2008 2:36 PM (3 years ago)

I just remember a lot of screaming.
― MrDasher, Thursday, May 26, 2011 10:51 AM (11 months ago)

never heard of this

I've had a copy of this sitting in my hose for a year and shamefully have yet to watch it.

er, house.

saw the trailer; suspect I'd hate it