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

I really need to rep for the Cronenberg short, "Camera," which is included on the "Videodrome" DVD. I think it's a masterpiece.

I'm no doubt in the minority, but I think it's a great film until all the new-flesh mumbo jumbo and the gross-out ending.

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

I think the ending and all the gross-out stuff is perfect. The idea of insidious technology literally altering humanity is an ingenious idea.

Not Videodrome, but I once had a course in French film with a guy who had his head exploded in Scanners.

"Watch out for the Hare CRUSH-YA!"

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7087/7256881274_c88627238f_o.jpg

16. DAWN OF THE DEAD
George A. Romero, USA, 1978
(728 points, 22 votes, 1 first-place vote)

saw Dawn recently, and have to say, it doesn't hold up very well...part of it is the wooden acting (a staple of Romero flicks, it pains to say), but the vaunted make-up/special effects seemed cheap and obvious...(the undead all had blue skin, but red lips...they couldn't have used blue lipstick?)...
― henry s, Friday, September 7, 2007 12:06 PM (4 years ago)

Dawn is still a great swashbuckling zombie movie, with some great memorable scenes. But Day is underated by a truck load and should come a close second.
― Ste, Wednesday, September 12, 2007 6:53 PM (4 years ago)

wow, shockingly low

my no. 1 pick

Awesome Criterion packaging, too. - totally

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/5049/7videodromeccfront.jpg

http://androidhighschool.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/videodrome-beta-reproduction-criterion-dvd.jpg

^ sleeve insert graphic

yeah, love that. videodrome was my #3.

...I also love it as a period piece--it conjures up the late '70s as immediately for me as Saturday Night Fever or anything else.

― clemenza, Wednesday, May 23, 2012 12:06 PM

#18) HALLOWEEN - i'm not a hater, but it's never been one of "those" movies for me. i like it, have seen it a bunch of times, respect the hell out of carpenter, appreciate the film's creativity and influence, but that's about it. clemenza otm about its evocation of not just time & place, but a feeling unique to that intersection. enjoy phantasm more on that level, though.

#17) VIDEODROME - had it at #14, but like possession, now regret pushing it so far down my ballot. should have been top 10. by far my favorite cronenberg film. phil d. otm about the convex death scene, though. incredibly disturbing, was equally fascinated and repelled by it as a teen. i think what makes it so awful is the way the spreading of barry's skull deforms his face even before it bursts apart. i once saw a photo of a man who'd been shot in the head, and his face was similarly distorted (and similarly horrifying). a right thing becoming wrong before our eyes in a way that's hard to immediately grasp.

#16) DAWN OF THE DEAD - i guess you can blame me (among others) for the "shockingly low" placement. i love it, but figured it'd let other people vote for it. this seems like the right placement for it anyway. great movie, but it does drag a bit, overindulging in both the slo-mo zombie slapstick and the motorcycle gang attack.

I would wager that I prefer at least 7-10 john carpenter movies to halloween

lol, just watched the convex death scene from videodrome. i guess i only imagined that his face distorts before it bursts. it clearly does both at the same time. still, it's the former that disturbs me more than the latter: the fact that it's still recognizably a human face, even when broken apart.

had Videodrome 26th. Dawn is pretty good for a silly li'l horror movie.

"silly" being synonymous with "horror" iyo?

Videodrome was my no.7. would've voted for Dawn but I knew it was gonna make it and wanted to throw some weight behind some longshots

My irrational complaint about Videodrome is I CANNOT ABIDE JAMES WOODS. I will accept no rebuttals.

woah dawn is crazy low

Love love love Halloween, Carpenter rules and I cannot BELIEVE Dawn is not top 10. geez ilx

also jjj I'm riding with you on Eli Roth, I dug the hell out of Cabin Fever and I actually liked both Hostel movies too

one of the things I love about Convex is that the actor nails that patronizingly avuncular brand of evil. very WS Burroughs-ish.

God I wish Eli Roth would make more fucking movies already

Was totally expecting Dawn to be top ten. Didn't vote for any of the ...Dead movies, mind you. Not that I dislike them, just didn't make the room for them. I did, however, vote for Videodrome. Great film.

woah dawn is crazy low

eh, night of the living dead deserves to go top 10, maybe even top 5. somewhere in the lower half of the top 20 is fine for dawn.

re: roth: looks like he's directing the first ep of a tv show due out this year called Hemlock Grove? will watch imo...and something called Green Inferno due out in 2014

Does this mean Day of the Dead could place ahead of Dawn?

Love this film to bits. And it has tense moments. But certainly not a scary film overall, and the make-up is hilariously lousy and low-budget. Doesn't matter: the concept is genius, and it's the only possible sequel that could have so successfully followed Night.

I love that whole stretch where they're just living in the mall, going out to dinner in the empty restaurant, walking around in fur coats...

"Here's a movie I imagine jjjusten would like to ERASE from the HEAD of these results!"

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7244/7256881420_56cee61d41_o.jpg

15. ERASERHEAD
David Lynch, USA, 1977
(790 points, 22 votes)

My Dad honestly thought that my sister's Eraserhead video was a tape head cleaner...
― Jez, Friday, September 20, 2002 6:08 AM (9 years ago)

I always get frightened by the part where Eraserhead runs around the house wearing a hockey mask.
― jeff, Wednesday, August 22, 2007 3:20 PM (4 years ago)

I think my favorite story from that doc is how lynch had a paper route while making eraserhead and iirc he solicited money to finish the film from the ppl he delivered to
― the manarchist cookbook (Edward III), Tuesday, June 14, 2011 12:32 PM (11 months ago)

the only Dead entry I voted for was Return of the Living Dead as it is my sentimental favorite. I assume it's not going to place now.

Not Videodrome, but I once had a course in French film with a guy who had his head exploded in Scanners.

went to a cronenberg q&a session recently and he told a story about filming that iconic head explosion scene from the beginning of scanners. effect just was just not working out at first and the head was just fizzling and not exploding in a very satisfactory way at all. this happens a couple times and the head effects guy (who's from nyc) eventually gets frustrated, says, "WE'RE GONNA DO THIS LIKE WE DO IN NEW YAWK!" and grabs a shotgun. they use that instead and they get the take we all know and love.

eraserhead is the other genuinely frightening movie i can think of. i tried to watch it by myself at night and had to turn it off after the mutant baby scene.

AWESOME, i had legit fears that would like place in the top 5 or worse win this whole thing

I would imagine that Night and Dawn would have taken the votes; would be surprised if Day makes it at all.

Eraserhead IS TOO HORROR. Also wonderful, of course.

lol @ jez's quote

it's so weird to me that Eraserhead came out in the 70s. it seems like such an 80s (or even early 90s) film

Question for Pillbox -- is that a single typeface you used for the film titles, with the serifed lowercase characters and sans-serif capitals?

"Here's a movie I imagine jjjusten would like to ERASE from the HEAD of these results!"

LOL

i tried to watch it by myself at night and had to turn it off after the mutant baby scene.

Did you finish it? Cuz the mutant baby scenes get a whole lot worse.

this happens a couple times and the head effects guy (who's from nyc) eventually gets frustrated, says, "WE'RE GONNA DO THIS LIKE WE DO IN NEW YAWK!" and grabs a shotgun. they use that instead and they get the take we all know and love.

not to be the jerk i clearly am, but is this true? can it possibly be true? i ask cuz i spent a lot of time still-framing through that head explosion as a kid, and it looks like an inflation effect. the guy's head swells up like a balloon before it bursts. maybe they did both, air pump and shotgun blast?

Did you finish it? Cuz the mutant baby scenes get a whole lot worse.

yeah, eraserhead goes on a very short list as one of the most distressing and depressing films i've ever seen. the first two-thirds are sort of grotesquely, blackly funny, but the last act is soul-crushing.

I think I've told this story before but my college roommate has a super obsessive mother who rented Eraserhead one weekend and made the entire family watch it 10 times in quick succession. She also painted Disintegration-inspired murals all over their bathroom after my roommate brought home copies of my Cure albums.

good lord!

I think his youngest brother was 12 at the time...?

I had one of those crazy mid-80s Guild Asbury basses which was the size of a ukelele and had the big fat silicone strings, and we always called it 'the Eraserhead Baby Bass'

xp whoaaa

i never finished eraserhead, no

Question for Pillbox -- is that a single typeface you used for the film titles, with the serifed lowercase characters and sans-serif capitals?

in response to an early incration of the template design for these, Eric likened certain elements to a "silent movie title card," which I thought was cool and just sort of ran with. So I used a mashup of trad Art Nouveau & Deco fonts for the titles & numbering (Fletcher Gothic for #s, Cassanet for large caps, & Arlt for smaller type). The rest of the info is a German sans font called DIN, which is pretty similar to Futura.

wait ..it's behind the jump and the thread's too big to open on my phone...halloween wasn't top ten?

also now that I think about it it might have been 13 times (7 on Saturday, 6 on Sunday)

basically it was a super insane story that made every other story seem normal, like of COURSE she made the entire family camp out overnight for Cure tickets, this was the woman who made her kids watch Eraserhead a dozen times in a row

after the first couple viewings, i think i would have just gone outside

this happens a couple times and the head effects guy (who's from nyc) eventually gets frustrated, says, "WE'RE GONNA DO THIS LIKE WE DO IN NEW YAWK!" and grabs a shotgun. they use that instead and they get the take we all know and love.

not to be the jerk i clearly am, but is this true? can it possibly be true? i ask cuz i spent a lot of time still-framing through that head explosion as a kid, and it looks like an inflation effect. the guy's head swells up like a balloon before it bursts. maybe they did both, air pump and shotgun blast?

― spextor vs bextor (contenderizer), Wednesday, May 23, 2012 8:19 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

maybe I'm fudging some of the details due to my faulty brain but that's the gist of what cronenberg said. not sure if that makes it true or not, I suppose he could have been messing with us.