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

Can't remember the thread, but there was a good discussion of religion in The Wicker Man vs. The Exorcist in one of them.

Can it. Your ballot was about .00004 points of deviation from the norm on this one.

"Bates? Baits?"

regretting placing Wicker Man on my ballot at all now

i def dont have a bent towards staunch realism or stylistic consistency, i just think that scene is just absolutely terrible in every way. its ridiculous (not in a good way) and it just yanks me completely out of the movie and i never get back in. and given the people who dig WM, i want to get back in but it is just this awful hippie dippie thing that gets vomited into the middle of the film and i cant get past it.

im really not trying to be insulting or overstate the case here, its been a thing ive kinda wrestled with because i really do want to get the movie more.

regretting placing Wicker Man on my ballot at all now

i don't. though i don't think it's one of the top five horror movies ever made, it's great, and i'm glad people like it.

Nonetheless, I have always thought TWM to be a far more interesting take on the intersection of horror and religion than THE EXORCIST.

You know what's even better? PRINCE OF DARKNESS, which nobody but me voted for. ;_;

― it was a dark and stormy genitals. (Phil D.), Thursday, May 24, 2012 7:35 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh, right on. also voted for prince of darkness! left off the exorcist, which I like alright, but y'know, not as much as house of wax (2005) (which I am getting a little worried is not going to show up).

when this is done i would love to see all the title cards in sequence, all together, because they are amazing. can we get a (locked) thread for that, or something?

TCM was my #1 btw. thought it had a decent shot at #1 for the poll too. oh well.

its ridiculous (not in a good way) and it just yanks me completely out of the movie and i never get back in. and given the people who dig WM, i want to get back in but it is just this awful hippie dippie thing that gets vomited into the middle of the film and i cant get past it.

yeah, i guess i might be bothered by it, but then i remember that she is nude (plus i love the song)

wait, so Rosemary's Baby isn't even going to place?

― Chris S, Thursday, 24 May 2012 20:42 (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

course it is.

whoa crazy according to wikipedia the wicker man opened its us run in...minneapolis? now i have to try and find a way to like it out of hometown pride. plus i really dig anthony schaffer.

with the wicker man there is the sense that the usual movie rules don't apply and anything could happen. this is a key ingredient for horror imo.

i actually rather like Shakey's take on wicker man as a dark comedy -- which it really is. b/c in reality, it would be far more likely for a neopagan/non-believer to stumble across a community of hardcore evangelicals who don't exactly have a reputation for tolerance and peaceful cohabitation w/ heretics, blasphemers, Papists, Christ-killers whatevahs and would be more than happy to burn such miscreants at the stake themselves if they could get away with it.

i mean, it's sort of like a trading places of horror films.

ok so there are 4 spots left and i feel like rosemarys baby makes 5 expected films? also if the thing wins this poll too i swear to god

i think either the shining or rosemary's baby are the most likely to be the #1 pick (hatas be damned).

Um. The Wicker Man actually isn't anything to do with hippies, you guys. You do realise that, right?

I realize there are contexts where The Wicker Man could be eerie, scary, esp if you're religious, British, who the fuck knows, but I mostly enjoyed it as a comedy. Pious dude winds up burning alive because he didn't nail Britt Eklund when he had the chance.

TWM is basically how I imagine Britain viewed the empire. You send your best men out to straighten out the backwards heathens and what do you get in return? And they do it all with a smile. The thick-headed bastards.

personally, the omission that most shocks me the most is the omen ... which freaked me out far more than the exorcist did back in the day (though i think that the exorcist is the better film overall). kinda hard for me to believe that damien et. al. has fallen so out of grace over the years!!

i mean, it's sort of like a trading places of horror films.

lol love this

I sort of love how we're 12 years into a board filled with contrarian-ass motherfuckers and strategy voters and ppl all know this and are still all "OMG WHY AND HOW IS THIS POLL DEVIATING FROM THE CANON?!?!?!?"

"POE-CREATION, not WRECK-REATION!"

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7222/7262715342_1f033f319a_o.gif

04. ROSEMARY'S BABY
Roman Polanski, USA, 1968
(1091 points, 30 votes, 1 first-place vote)

rosemary's baby is one of my favorites of all-time
― Surmounter, Thursday, March 19, 2009 10:21 AM (3 years ago)

Rosemary's Baby. I saw it in June again and, again, I thought it was the funniest, scariest horror film ever. Alarmingly well-cast too.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, September 28, 2008 10:00 AM (3 years ago)

The greatest trick that Anton LaVey ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't play the devil in Rosemary's Baby.
― walter kranz (walterkranz), Monday, August 8, 2005 2:38 PM (6 years ago)

rosemary's baby is great but i can't imagine anyone watching it now and not dying with laughter at the ending.
― J.D., Sunday, October 21, 2007 6:23 AM (4 years ago)

What's kinda fucked up is:
Amazon.com Sales Rank: #482 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV) for Rosemary's Baby.
The highest ranking for Chinatown is in the 1,000s, but there are 4 or 5 different versions of that you can buy.
― kingkongvsgodzilla, Wednesday, September 30, 2009 6:27 AM (2 years ago)

maybe they're assuming rosemary's baby is an erotic study of said infant.
― Brewer's Bitch (darraghmac), Wednesday, September 30, 2009 6:29 AM (2 years ago)

Sorry dude: Rosemary's Baby > Rock n Roll Pt. 2
― Fox Force Five Punchline (sexyDancer), Friday, October 2, 2009 3:49 PM (2 years ago)

Um. The Wicker Man actually isn't anything to do with hippies, you guys. You do realise that, right?

murder druids symbolize libbers & hippies

I don't take Wicker Man as a comedy. But even if you do, you're laughing at the chaste, straight-laced protagonist as much as the villagers are, having fun with him, which seems a more sly, complicit kind of comedy than, say, TCM when we're laughing cuz fucked-up Grandpa can't quite pound the hammer on the innocence girl's head hard enough. You almost want to join the Wicker Man islanders--they're having a blast and have a pretty sweet, song-filled life.

One more thing on The Wicker Man - is everyone just ignoring that half of its creepiness... well, we actually did that shit (still do, in some cases/places)? Maypoles and morris men and animal costumes and fertility dances are real, and they tap into a sense of England that is both pastoral and primal, bucolic and highly dangerous... We're a strange people in an ancient land.

You almost want to join the Wicker Man islanders--they're having a blast and have a pretty sweet, song-filled life.

exactly! how are these people scary at all? the only people they're a threat to are uptight assholes

evangelical Jesus Freaks don't distinguish b/w hippies and Wiccans/neopagans. and for once, their world view actually does have some basis in reality.

Maypoles and morris men and animal costumes and fertility dances are real, and they tap into a sense of England that is both pastoral and primal, bucolic and highly dangerous.

this kind of shit happens all over the world and still does today. most of it isn't even remotely dangerous.

Most people in the world are uptight assholes, Shakey.

Seeing La Lechera's love for TWM makes me want to like it so much more than I do. It's fine, it's eerie and weird and whatnot but it isn't better than Psycho or TCM.

Also TWM feels like a well-made version of The Butterfly Ball with added creepiness and less singing.

and xposts to Stevie: yes but imagine how boring it would be if all that was left out though, lol

how are these people scary at all? the only people they're a threat to are uptight assholes

― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, May 24, 2012 9:11 PM (33 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well, then I know some people on this thread who should be *really* scared.

that may be so Eric, but not to many want to actively identify that way

xp

lol emil.y :D

lol emily

anyway

so Butterfly Effect at #1, right?

xp

exactly! how are these people scary at all? the only people they're a threat to are uptight assholes

Well, they're scary cuz there's an undertone of darkness to their songs & their deeds & their swapping of corpses with rabbits & burning of humans, which you may not notice if you've lived there all of your life or if you're swept away the fun-time singing. Buuuuuut if it don't scare you, it don't scare you, obvs.

and xposts to Stevie: yes but imagine how boring it would be if all that was left out though, lol

touché

I guess what I'm saying is that TWM is only frightening if you identify with the puritan. I do not, never have and never will and am kind of suspicious of people that do.

xp

lol emil.y

All I'm saying is: I wouldn't have been able to have sex with Britt Eklund either.

puritans who live in suburbs, eh

the thing well on its way to potentially becoming the most overrated ilx movie of all time. and i like the thing! but jesus it cant win all the polls

And I'm guessing they wouldn't have accepted Christopher Lee being her substitute.

Hey look, Rosemary's Baby!

I see Rosemary's Baby as an inadvertently feminist movie (lol Polanski amirite?), where a good portion of the horror of it isn't that Ro is having the devil's baby, but that something bad is happening and nobody will believe her. And not because she's not credible or there's anything wrong with her - just because a lot of the time, people just don't believe women.* That, more than any concept of evil or Satan or whatever, is what makes the movie so effectively frightening to me.

*It's such a common horror trope as to be almost invisible now, but in the vast majority of horror movies, the first person to notice that something is amiss is a woman, and her concerns are always initially dismissed. Moral to dudes: shut up and listen to women and you'll live longer.

I guess what I'm saying is that TWM is only frightening if you identify with the puritan. I do not, never have and never will and am kind of suspicious of people that do.

It's true, you have to be a pious virgin police offer to enjoy this film.

TWM is also the fear of being the stranger in a group and everyone being in on it but you.

I've only seen like 30 min of this film :(

Anyway, obvious zingitude aside, the whole point to me is that there's a real tension about who to root for, and what that says about us and our impulses and our potential for cruelty. In a sense, the islanders are the good guys, but they have to sacrifice something for their bucolic world to continue. Is it worth that sacrifice? Well, maybe. But that loss of 'civilisation' for the greater good, it is still a scary thought.

It's true, you have to be a pious virgin police offer to enjoy this film.

way to not read

Watch Carrie first, then watch the rest of Rosemary's Baby. xp