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

Nah, it's a classic, but I'm not that surprised that people didn't think of it when compiling.

The image for Peeping Tom is really oog-inducing, but lovely in color!

On Ringu vs. Pulse, I voted for both of them, but Ringu was top 10 for me because it unnerved me in a way that very few movies have in my adult viewing life. The odd tone and pacing mentioned above is a big part of that, it has this lyrical, tragic side, plus also the tag-team investigator dynamics of the reporter and ex-husband. Its warmth makes its horror more horrific. (Whereas the chilliness -- emotional and meteorological -- of the remake blunts the scares, imo.)

nosferatu too low, in my top 10, still unnerving almost 100 years after the fact

I should see Ringu at some point, given how much I liked The Ring

OMG we need someone to make a Japanese version of The Thing called Thingu.

lol

Alright.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FCruS_0arjY/TGHCwHzUAGI/AAAAAAAACr0/s5WtUUf5Zo0/s320/top_40_logo.gif

"I think Meredith KILLSON had it right -- "Pick a little, STALK a little!"

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8142/7248900790_c386e12860_o.jpg

40. THE BIRDS
Alfred Hitchcock, USA, 1963
(431 points, 17 votes)

The greatest thing about "The Birds" is the way it starts out like it's going to be a romantic drama, but the birds keep butting in until they just take over the whole movie.
― Dan Perry, Sunday, September 9, 2001 7:00 PM (10 years ago)

Some things I like in The Birds:
The discussion in the Coffee Shop across from the gas station before the explosion.
The cameo by Hitchcock's Sealyhams.
iconic image of birds on monkey bars
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Friday, February 8, 2008 3:19 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lovebirds leaning during the car ride
― Eric H., Friday, February 8, 2008 4:40 PM (4 years ago)

'the birds' is kind of boring + height of "lame process shots" period yo.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Friday, February 8, 2008 6:54 PM (4 years ago)

sorry, I like the CHARACTERS in The Birds, and the way the fantastic menace comes out of their interpersonal tensions. (It took me awhile to look at the film this way, I guess Robin Wood gets the credit.)
I mean, you don't think it's ABOUT birds massing and attacking people, do you?
― your generation appalls me (Dr Morbius), Monday, April 4, 2011 1:38 PM (1 year ago)

Just fell off the bottom of my ballot, but a good pick. Glad to see it here!

wtf HOW DID I FORGET TO VOTE FOR THIS MOVIE

Yeah, I like The Birds but didn't pick it. Never found it scary but most of my ballot wasn't based on scares, anyway, so...

I still stand by that quote btw

I am really fucking pissed at myself

"Pick a little, STALK a little!"
<3 loooool

I voted for this purely for the scare scenes. I have all the usual complaints about everything in between.

"GHOULY Harris has been sleeping on her left side to wear out my heart! Worth a TRY!"

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8010/7248900900_e8a201cd2a_o.jpg

39. THE HAUNTING
Robert Wise, USA, 1963
(434 points, 14 votes)

The Haunting (1963) is unbelievable. I found the book as a kid and it's really disturbing, then saw it on TV. I love movies about people cracking up AND I love horror movies and this gives you both! And lesbianism! And really great photography. Eleanor's voice-over thoughts are deliciously sick. I didn't bother seeing the remake.
― Sean (Sean), Wednesday, January 21, 2004 7:02 PM (8 years ago)

Yay, another one of my votes! Great atmosphere, great shots, just great.

I have objective reasons for voting for The Birds, but this movie also terrified me as a child. The gathering of the birds was scary, but the tension in the house and the sense that the adults are getting weird--oh my god the adults don't know what to do--is what put it over the top for me.

Great lead actresses!

This thread thread isn't even REMOTELY pacing the comedy results thread. So I hereby vow to not reveal any new title until at least 100 posts have passed.

Oh, lovely. I didn't vote for The Haunting but it's a great movie (and the book is a delight).

I do not encourage people to comment.

anyone seen the trailer for The Birds? one of the best i've ever seen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZjaVdJt59U

The Haunting gets extra bonus points for having not one but TWO female leads, both of whom are genuinely weird in their own unique and wonderful way.

Ah, crap, these are coming fast!

Peeping Tom: Always felt to me like a movie for students. Fascinating, but leaves me cold every time.

Birds: I actually think the FX hold up pretty damn well. And daaaaaaaamn that's a helluva ending.

The Haunting: Two moments in the movie (you know the two) I was genuinely scared, and that's so incredibly freakin rare.

Ah, crap, these are coming fast!

They were.

http://www.brandonconnell.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/694850_427046352.jpg

As I dance around in that quote, the bird attacks of The Birds get Jessica Tandy to accept Tippi Hedren.

I don't remember The Haunting very well.

Peeping Tom was my #1.

it didnt look like england at all.
― charltonlido (gareth), Wednesday, February 2, 2005

so, pretty? ;)

btw Ghoulardi, your recurring obnoxious sign is NSFW.

the thnig otm re: peeping tom. it's a great looking movie and creepy as hell, but i've never found it terribly involving. the best i can do is to appreciate it from a distance.

The father/son stuff in Peeping Tom is so disturbing, and comes from so out of left field at first, it makes me want a shower.

I know it makes me an apostate but I consider The Birds pretty minor Hitchcock.

from a distance? perhaps we should come in for a closeup...

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_5pcCnjGT5sE/TGCHs_OSLjI/AAAAAAAAAEE/0pU75kjDEGE/s1600/rialto-british-noir-film-festival2010_peeping-tom_ban.jpg

So often in horror movies, people do stupid things and get killed. So it's always great when you have characters who do everything right & STILL get fucked. (Best example: Ben in Night of the Living Dead.) But I think Birds has some of that, too. Especially when all the kids leave the school, so quietly and orderly but it doesn't matter -- they get the shit pecked out of them. Plus, there's just not enough movie scenes with small children being swarmed by killer birds.

I think that Peeping Tom still qualifies as a spoiler.

peeping tom is so good, that's my "should have been higher!" pick so far

btw The Birds plays sooooooo much better in a theater than on TV.

and not just bcz WPIX in NY would always cut the farmer's corpse.

Series of still shots of Tippi's face following the gas fire's path toward the station always gets big laughs in the theater.

that peeping tom still comes from quite early on in the move iirc.

Good choice of #1, Morbs!

Peeping Tom: Always felt to me like a movie for students. Fascinating, but leaves me cold every time.

Does not leave me cold at all. The central conceit is just perfect, as far as I'm concerned, and the artistry of design and direction isn't just there to be deferred to as a technical meisterwork, but adds up to the awkwardness, the chills (hmm, okay, maybe it is cold, but in a GOOD way), the menace, the horror it's all there, it's all eating at me.

I love Anna Massey's jumper in that Peeping Tom still.
Since I voted for it I should probably say something more intelligent, but I can't help feeling every film studies course ever got there before me.

I find 'coldness' charge at PT as mystifying as when it's thrown at Hitchcock.

Powell provided the voice of the father btw. It was an intensely personal film for him I'd say.

I love the lack of explanation in The Birds. So spooky. So is The Haunting.

Powell was way ahead of his time with meta-horror-movie shenanigans, implicating the viewer, etc., etc. Eat your heart out, Kevin Williamson.

Eat your heart out, Kevin Williamson Michael Haneke.

Murnau's Nosferatu was my #29.

Scorsese:

"I have always felt that Peeping Tom and 8½ say everything that can be said about film-making, about the process of dealing with film, the objectivity and subjectivity of it and the confusion between the two. 8½ captures the glamour and enjoyment of film-making, while Peeping Tom shows the aggression of it, how the camera violates... From studying them you can discover everything about people who make films, or at least people who express themselves through films."

Yeah, Peeping Tom was so ahead of its time it destroyed the career of one of the most beloved filmmakers or all time. That says something. It blew minds.

Yep, was gonna mention that thing too, Josh. I think when I first saw Peeping Tom I'd only seen A Matter of Life and Death, and it totally blew my mind that the same dude could have made them (I love both, of course, and they are both aesthetically awesome, but... so so different in tone).

* I'd only seen A Matter of Life and Death out of the P&P films. It wasn't the only film I had ever seen.

Peeping Tom is shooting ot the top of my must-see list. I knew not of this film. V excited.

well, PT was entirely Powell's and Leo Marks' vision, as opposed to an Archers collaboration.

interesting bio for a screenwriter:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Marks