THE VAULT OF ILX Top 100 HORROR Movies Poll Voting Thread (voting closes May 9 *~*~*~*2012*~*~*~*)

Re Watcher in the Woods, it was an earlyish scary movie for me, too -- I guess I was 10 or so. Remember it being spooky but not much else about it. The movie that did scare the living hell out of me at that age (or maybe a year earlier?) was the Body Snatchers remake, which is definitely going on my ballot. I think I literally didn't sleep for a few nights afterward. (Actually, the original Body Snatchers might make the ballot, too.)

I still feel the terror when I see Mitch McConnell

http://images.politico.com/global/news/100913_mitch_mcconnell_ap_328.jpg

Dementia / Daughter Of Horror seconded, the DVD I have actually has 2 versions, one with narration and one (the original I think) without.

Weird retro art horror fans, check out Jigoku! It's very strange.

http://nicolasheller.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/jigoku-screenshot-15.jpg
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReviews24/a%20jigoku%20criterion%20dvd/a%20jogoku%20JIGOKU-19.jpg
http://subwaycinemanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Jigoku1-759562.jpg

http://srv14.movie-list.net/sexmaniac/img/jigoku2.jpg

yeah jigoku is rad. dementia's been on my to-watch list for years.

putting together my ballot is reconfirming my love of downbeat 70s b-movies: let's scare jessica to death, shock waves, shivers, homebodies, lemora, messiah of evil, deathdream, the other. try to creep me out while employing glacial pacing, a burbling electronic score, and lots of film grain, apparently I will love you forever.

in some weird way I consider the evil dead to be part of this tradition except everything's turned up to 11.

one of the charms of marebito is that shimizu shot it in 8 days and basically was using it as a palate cleanser between ju-on and the usa grudge, which obv doesnt add merit to the film inherently but does make the result kind of amazing. it def doesnt feel like a speed run film at all.

― Badu and a sax run hand-in-hand (jjjusten), Thursday, April 19, 2012 10:05 AM (28 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It does and doesn't, imo. I'm not surprised that it was shot in a hurry, but it never feels rushed or thrown together. It often has a distinctly improvisational feel, like I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Shimizu just told Tsuakamoto to react silently to situations and characters about which he knew little in advance. I love how fragmentary and loosely connected it all is, though nothing feels unfinished or unanswered in the end.

Obviously this is Eric's and Pillbox's call, but my own feeling on stills: atmospheric/moody rather than bloody corpses/exploding heads. I know many would strongly disagree.

― clemenza, Thursday, April 19, 2012 3:45 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't know, I think the stills should either be representative or intriguing images, and I imagine there'll be a fair few placers that would need bloody corpses/exploding heads to fulfil the 'representative requirement'.

Also, crap, Dementia is going on my to-watch list.

I want to strongly campaign for 964 Pinocchio but I know next to no one has seen it :'(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SHlSJIw99o

Also am ashamed w/ how many films on this list I haven't even seen (Jigoku, Kwaidan, Onibaba, The Thing, Phantasm, etc...)

more ppl have seen pinocchio 764 than you think, ilxors have repped for it before. don't think rubber's lover was nommed.

Wd also rep for Lord of Illusions but everyone seems to hate that one too

I like 964 Pinocchio and Rubber's Lover quite a bit, but probably not enough to push either into my top 50. Would like to see the former again, as it's been at least 15 years.

Hey, for anyone curious about Dementia but unable to a hold of a proper copy (it's available through Netflix), it can be viewed in criminally low quality on YouTube. Not recommended, but might do in a pinch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMeSo_4aIBU

Stevie D, you must see Kwaidan.... it is available in a beautiful Criterion edition. AND Eric hates it!

I like onibaba more than kwaidan... but I would

surprised ugetsu wasn't nommed tho maybe that's more fantasy than horror? been a long time since I've seen it and don't remember much about it.

Not a big Kwaidan fan. Lovely but rather inert, imo.

According to DVDBeaver the Criterion DVD has fucked-up colors and 20 minutes of missing footage :(

Not enough missing imo. (just kidding. I don't hate that movie. I just think its no ugetsu. Or creepshow.)

Creepshow otm

Yes, inert is a good word.

I LOVE Ugetsu-it is one of my favorite movies-but it never would have occured to me to nominate it in a horror poll.

re Kwaidan:

•A 163 minute version is now available on Region 1 DVD as a part of the Criterion Collection. The (Region 2) Masters of Cinema DVD is the first video release to contain the full 183 minutes of the original Japanese cut of the film.

•Originally a four-episode anthology released in Japan at 183 minutes. The USA version removes the second episode, starring Keiko Kishi and Tatsuya Nakadai, in order to shorten the running time to 125 minutes.

So really, at the time the CC was released I guess they couldn't get their hands on the original material. It was enough that they restored the fourth episode that had been completely excised from the US release.

well Ugetsu is nominally a ghost story, like The Uninvited.

From what I remember, Ugetsu was mildly freakier than Kwaidan.

But I'll stop, since it's bad manners for the poll host to engage in politicking.

A ghost story may or may not be horror, I would say.

I never found Ugetsu horrifying or freaky, maybe in part because I identify with the ghost.

Just previewed the first couple minutes of "Dementia." Wow, that does look amazing. Soprano in the credits music is Marni Nixon!

Not that you can't be horrified while identifying with the source of horror...or even because you identify with the source of horror...
(xpost)

I don't think netflix has Dementia on disc does it? I really don't want to watch it on youtube. I think the half hour, public service film Apaches is about as far as I'm willing to go down that route.

Have been thinking about the relationship of "ghost story" to "horror" ever since I first saw The Devil's Backbone (which I will be seriously voting for, btw). It's in many respects a straight drama, and the ghost is more a figure of sympathetic pity than fear, but I nonetheless consider it one of the best horror movies of the last decade or so. The combination of supernatural elements, gothic atmosphere, creepy suspense and occasional jolts of real terror are enough to convince me that it belongs on my ballot.

The ghost story is one of the most basic and essential "scary story" models, and tbh, I'm inclined to consider almost any at least moderately creepy movie featuring ghosts part of the horror genre.

I don't think netflix has Dementia on disc does it? I really don't want to watch it on youtube. I think the half hour, public service film Apaches is about as far as I'm willing to go down that route.

It had copies of the Kino edition a few years back. Haven't checked recently. And yeah, it's gonna suffer for the low tube quality a lot more than Apaches.

there are plenty of movies with ghosts I wouldn't consider horror, anything from ghost to fanny and alexander

harry potter

etc

Speaking of things that are on youtube in fairly poor quality, I would like to rep once more for The Signalman. It's a 40-minute film, so possibly bearable in this format, but I haven't watched it through myself. Almost certainly my favourite Ghost Story for Christmas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmBkK7N3Hhc

I think "fantasy" is a suitable label for non-horror films featuring ghosts

there are plenty of movies with ghosts I wouldn't consider horror, anything from ghost to fanny and alexander

...harry potter

yeah, that's why i threw in "almost" and "moderately creepy" as qualifiers. like if creepiness and scariness seems to be a substantial part of the point, and if it's got non-comedy ghosts, then i'll probably a horror movie. of course it's arguable that creepiness and scariness are "a substantial part of the point" in the later harry potter films, so it's a judgement call more than a hard-and-fast rule.

"seems"

ugh

"...then i'll probably consider it a horror movie"

I did cut Pan's Labyrinth cuz it feels more like "dark fantasy" than horror to me, so the distinction I'm observing is obviously vanishingly thin.

Courtesy of my lurker, these movies were ;_; missing from the nom list (I take responsibility for not participating, just answering the question from like a zillion posts ago)

Wicked, Wicked
I Can See You
From a Whisper to a Scream
Just Before Dawn
Who Can Kill a Child?
Wendigo

never seen any of those, and three of the first four are completely unfamiliar to me. i'm curious, though.

Ugetsu, along with a few things on the nomination list that I also excluded because I don't really consider them horror, would probably, if I were to include them, displace items in my current top 5-10. I would probably be more willing to consider them if they would occupy lower positions. I guess I don't want to have my top horror movies to be things I don't strongly feel are horror. But I will think about it some more.
The stuff that is at the top of my list is not all stuff that is unambiguously considered horror either so I am also not sure what distinction I am using exactly. It's just intuitive I suppose.

ok who can kill a child? is a big oversight. crap.

Who Can Kill a Child?

Damn it! That's such a good film and totally didn't occur to me.

Also missing, and not really obscure at all: Dementia 13.

^ was on my late nom list

wendigo's the fessenden film? I did nom his habit but I doubt it will make my ballot.

I thought of Who Can Kill a Child? but I didn't nominate it because I don't really like it. I guess I should have nominated it anyway. Oh well.

I stopped compiling this list once the voting thread opened, but I would've nommed these in addition to some ones already mentioned above

awakening of the beast (1970)
baby blood (1990)
willard (1971)
beware! the blob (1972)
body snatchers (1993)
castle of blood aka danza macabra (1964)
children of the damned (1964)
crawlspace (1986)
curse of frankenstein, the (1957)
dracula aka horror of dracula (1958)
frakenstein created woman (1967)
revenge of frankenstein, the (1958)

Children of the Damned is the only of the not-nominees mentioned so far that I'd have seriously considered, but I would have wound up cutting it anyway. I've avoided Who Can Kill a Child? because it doesn't sound like the sort of thing I'd like. Is it really all that great? Murderous moppets is a great idea, but I figure that Village of the Damned is hard to top on that score.