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

Re: Opera, I think of it as one of his better attempts outside of the canonical highlights for it's (relative...) coherence. Plus I absolutely dig that [SPOILERS?] totally bonkers tacked-on extratime ending in the Swiss alps. [SPOILERS?]

[ALSO SPOILERS] Haha, I will agree with that - the Alps ending (especially the very very end where she's rolling around in the flowers) is pretty great. [END SPOILERS]

Similarly, I could watch scary movies pretty easily as a preteen, but one of the things that disturbed me more than anything in a movie was in the shitty Chevy Chase comedy Modern Problems, when he uses his newfound telepathic powers to give a romantic rival a nosebleed that gushes everywhere, soaking tablecloths and filling pitchers.

Haha YES omg

I had completely blocked that movie from my memory until you mentioned that scene, which apparently is burned deeply into my memory.

Also, poor Nell Carter in a super thankless role

This is 100% RONG in my opinion; that skit was one of the most horrifying things I remember seeing on television as a child

yeah, lol, i originally had a note in there about how the blood-spurting julia child bit "freaked me out as a kid", but cut it because it seemed like a distracting aside. guess i should have left it in. of course the response to these things varies from person to person, and kids can be pretty sensitive in general.

agree that the depiction of small, ordinary injuries (even something as benign as a hypodermic needle breaking the skin) can be more wince-inducing that ott displays of gore, severed limbs or whatever. i thought that the black swan did a good job exploiting the horror of everyday mutilation.

My window for childhood squeamishness was relatively small but profound. I somehow went from being absolutely terrified of the very idea of Jaws 3 playing on a TV in the same room as me to thinking A Nightmare On Elm Street was the greatest thing ever within a year.

martyrs made me queasy, but i passed out watching the episode of nip/tuck where the patient becomes conscious while under the knife and you hear her thoughts, as well as to a video of a cancerous foot in health class.

Exactly. I mean, I grew up with two physician parents, and whenever I showed them something from, say, "Return of the Living Dead," they'd basically just roll their eyes and point out how fake it looked. So gore has never bugged me. Discomfort, on the other hand, has. Discomfort is more indentifiable than FX. Ergo, "Hostel," with the girl's eye hanging out - it wasn't the sight of it that made me uncomfortable, it was this poor character being put through an incredible degree of pain and agony.

In the course of these bazillion horror threads, I think I've managed to never play the "this is/isn't horror" game. But after watching The Vanishing last night, I'm really having a hard time classifying that as anything besides a mild thriller.

I can't think of the last time I saw gore on its own that made me go, "urgh, enough". It's almost always the psychological/empathetic component that gets to me. Like the description of that Elisha Cuthbert movie upthread. I can imagine that the depiction isn't that awful on its own, but the idea of someone being forcefed pureed body parts makes me want to die a little. Ditto the whole eye thing in Hostel and the entire concept of Human Centipede and lots of other "torture porn"-y (I will be sure to use the scare quotes itt so as not to offend) stuff that I don't really have much desire to see mainly for the mental images they conjure up. And I openly acknowledge that what's shown onscreen probably isn't a tenth as awful as I imagine it to be. Which, in a weird way, is almost the biggest problem: it's unlikely that these extreme ideas are as horrifying on the screen as they've been built up to be in my imagination. But that should be taken as my own personal cross to bear rather than a blanket condemnation or dismissal of stuff I haven't seen.

One of the only horror movies I've actively avoiding seeing is this Korean torture porn flick called "The Butcher," wherein cameras are apparently strapped to the heads of victims for POV torture. Apparently gruesome cutting/slicing sounds abound, plus screaming.

so independently of this poll my 11yo son has been nagging me to watch some horror films. he's a little sensitive to this stuff so I started him out with some training wheels. the sixth sense he liked a lot. yesterday we watched carnival of souls, and at one point I realized he was audibly panting next to me on the couch. I'm like "are you alright?" and he's like "it's so suspenseful!" he loved it so I guess apple/tree etc. he wants to see phase iv and the host next. on the fence about showing him ringu, he might jump out the window.

also while picking through my DVDs I realized psycho is rated R? guess it must've gotten rated during some rerelease but it seems odd when it used to run uncut on TV back in the day. prolly won't show him that, as I don't need to be sitting in the bathroom while he showers for the next 2 years.

Looking through my ballot, I don't see much that I'd let a wary 11-year-old watch, besides maybe Gremlins and The Tingler (hopefully not a ballot spoiler, as I doubt it's gonna show up at this point). If you watch the latter, though, good luck explaining the scene where Vincent Price drops acid.

(I watched an awful lot of inappropriate stuff by 11, though. Including, like, Hellraiser and several Elm Streets. So I may be playing it a bit safe in my attempts to recommend less visceral stuff.)

xpost Recall one of the most controversial elements of "Psycho" at the time was the flushing toilet, I believe a movie first!

hey, i saw shining, tcm, first nightmare on elm street, freaks, silence of the lambs, halloween, etc etc all before or by age 12, and i turned out...yeah, well.

Did any of them ever give you nightmares and stuff? I watched a hella lot of horror as a kid, but none of it did for me in their respective horrors what "Jaws" did for me (and everyone else) and getting in the water.

Like, some people post-"Psycho" claimed to be afraid of showers, but I don't believe it. Now, giant sharks in the deep end of the swimming pool, that I believe!

I've said it before but I will say it over and over until it's purged from my brain: Sybil MESSED ME UP when I was a kid. Sybil. Nightmares for weeks and weeks, major league nightmares and lifelong aversion to a certain type of old fashioned kitchen.

I watched all that shit as a kid and I just loved it. Never gave me any nightmares that I recall. A lot of that was probably thanks to my fascination with that making of "Thriller" behind the scenes thing and subsequently watching as much stuff about, like, Tom Savini as I could get my hands on. I was totally into all that special effects stuff. But I saw some documentary about JFK's assassination around the same time where they showed that awful autopsy photo, and I swear I spent months terrified by the thought of JFK's blank-eyed corpse sitting up next to my bed and staring at me.

(And, oh yeah, for the fiftieth time: Testament. Horrifying.)

oh i had nightmares all the time! but i also had gotten the horror addiction in me, so i took nightmares as the ugly comedown after the high.

speaking of nightmares and the "threads" talk earlier in the thread, catching the money shot in "the day after" when it originally aired (aged five or so) pretty much fucked me up for the rest of the 80s.

I guess back in the preteen years I preferred scary books -- I remember reading The Shining and being paralyzed with fear on the couch. The movie had some scary moments, but not that haunting lingering fear that the book gave me. I also had access to scary books whereas scary movies were...where would I have seen them? We didn't have cable, we didn't have a VCR; I had a library card. That's how I watched Sybil (once we finally got a VCR).

Oh, yeah, discovering Stephen King around age 11 was revelatory.

And Clive Barker's Books Of Blood not too terribly long thereafter.

Also, finding these things at the library! They were AWESOME.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51K7KYK4G0L._SL500_AA300_.jpg
http://cdn100.iofferphoto.com/img/item/141/689/801/ha0D8AJHfqpVh4v.jpg

my mom had to hide her stephen king books from me because i was trying to read the stand and it when i was like 10.

i found em though.

books of blood definitely fucked me eight ways from sunday around age 12 too.

yeah he's been gobbling up king books, what he reads doesn't affect him as much as what he sees.

I was exposed to all kinda inappropriate shit as a kid - I saw last house on the left and dawn of the dead when I was 8yo - it's made me a little sensitive to what the kids see I guess. morbs posted on the voting thread about some parent's talking about showing their kid the shining. all kids are different in their ability to process stuff but showing your kid a super intense film about a guy trying to kill his entire family with an ax doesn't strike me as a capital idea.

Yeaaahhh, I probably saw The Shining when I was maybe 8 or something. I have trouble even processing it as a horror movie anymore.

we've avoided gremlins because the younger one is dying to see it and she'll lose her mind if her big brother sees it without her. problem there is actually the santa stuff.

stuff that freaked me out as a kid tended to be sudden realistic deaths - the landlady/basement door scene in the little girl who lives down the lane, and some ron howard TV movie where a cow gets electrocuted, those inexplicably sent me around the bend in that TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF! way...

You know what might be great for kids? Amazing Stories. I might just be saying that because I was way into that show as a kid (in the '80s, natch, so it may be kinda outdated or even more actively awful than I remember). But I remember it being pretty good at maintaining a light touch with relatively scary stuff. Along with some other stuff that came out right around the same time (Ray Bradbury Theater and the rehashed Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents), it totally turned me on to horror/suspense anthology television, as well.

actually both my kids are way into the twilight zone. ever seen the action figure of the gremlin from nightmare at 20000 feet? that's what my daughter got for her last birthday. and a 3d bluray of coraline.

your kids sound kinda awesome. i worry that if i ever had kids they'd be into like sports and shit.

Thaaaat's awesome.

xpost

Yeah, no kidding. I have no idea what to do with a football.

ha, when my boy was younger he was super into sports and didn't like scary movies, I was like how am I gonna relate to this child lol

THREADS got jipped. by Christ that film..

actually he's growing out of sports naturally, kids his age are starting to take things very seriously and he gets turned off when they get all butthurt about what are, to him, just games that are supposed to be, like, fun

oops sorry for turning horror poll into daddyblog, please resume getting butthurt over what is and isn't a horror film

One year I took a chance and showed my grade 6 class Cujo for Halloween. I didn't screen it ahead of time, and I winced when some language I'd forgotten about popped up. Sure enough, a parent called the principal the next day. I thought I'd really messed up, but it turned out the parent (who was well known in our community for adopting numerous stray pets) objected to the negative portrayal of St. Bernards in the movie. I've been a lot more careful since then. Basically I tell them, "If it's something you'd want to see, I can't show it; if I can show it, you wouldn't want to see it." Last year we watched The Others, which was pretty mild.

sure sign that a film is rubbish; no dialogue from it in the trailer. this makes it look more like Phanton Of Paradise or something

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

I've never seen it, so I can't say for sure, but I'm going to hazard a guess that Kael's preference for the sequel captures her at her loopiest:

Directed by John Boorman, this picture has a visionary crazy grandeur (like that of Fritz Lang's loony METROPOLIS). Some of its telepathic sequences are golden-toned and lyrical, and the film has a swirling, hallucinogenic, apocalyptic quality; it might have been a horror classic if it had had a simpler, less ritzy script...it's winged camp--a horror fairy tale gone wild, another in the long history of moviemakers' king-size follies. There's enough visual magic in it for a dozen good movies; what it lacks is judgment--the first casualty of the moviemaking obsession...

yeah the others is a good choice for kids. unless pictures of dead victorian children freak them out.

A lot of that was probably thanks to my fascination with that making of "Thriller" behind the scenes thing and subsequently watching as much stuff about, like, Tom Savini as I could get my hands on. I was totally into all that special effects stuff.

Me, too!!! Also my cool aunt was really into pulpy horror paperbacks so I read some awful stuff starting early. I did a fifth grade book report on Christine and the teacher called my mom. Hmph.

it turned out the parent (who was well known in our community for adopting numerous stray pets) objected to the negative portrayal of St. Bernards in the movie.

This is just beyond hilarious.

"It's not so much that I'm bothered with you showing my child a movie where teenagers get murdered in a number of gruesome ways. It's just...I coach a youth hockey team, so hopefully you can understand my concern that these kids might somehow get the wrong idea about hockey masks."

Re: Exorcist II, I will rep to some extent for every Exorcist film I've seen (which includes Dominion but not The Beginning), but I will not rep for Exorcist II. I agree that the trailer and a number of clips I saw made it seem like it would at least be an interesting failure or pretty to look at, but it is an almost irredeemably terrible movie.

yeah that kael review of exorcist ii always struck me as an excellent pre-internet troll job.

Yes, I read Kael's review before watching it. And then I re-read it after I watched it to make sure that the portion of my brain which interprets written words had not died at some point without my realizing it.

Finally had a chance to re-check my ballot and I'm doing pretty well: The Vanishing, Seven, Duel, OG Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Hellraiser, Henry and Phantasm all on my ballot.