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

Boo on not retaining the weiner.

ha

didn't vote for it, but can support silence of the lambs as a horror film, in part because of stuff like this

http://www.visualsoc.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/SilenceOfTheLambs_1_20_03_RachaelG1.png

he said retaining the weiner

As much as I unabashedly love the film version of Hannibal, it's also one of the most vastly-improved adaptations I've ever seen. Because the book is insultingly abysmal.

(Although I do wish they'd kept the original ending, as little sense as it made.)

That still reminded me that Demme gets away with the double-switch twice in that movie - the scene VG mentioned above, and this one, with the whole "body on the elevator/body in the ambulance" switch.

Probably goes w/o saying, but this is a master class in intercutting, not only in the wrong-house switcheroo preceding the climax, but also in the face-switching scene.

"When you need little PIECES of MIND, come on over in my HAUSU! -- SCARY Jane Girls"

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7085/7248901652_25cde3af4e_o.jpg

35. HOUSE [aka HAUSU]
Nobuhiko Obayashi, Japan, 1977
(467 points, 19 votes)

you could say it's a Japanese analog to Suspiria in that it's got the same second-by-second total freedom in the plot twists, the colors & backgrounds are surreal and gorgeous, pause any frame of the film and just try to figure out what you're seeing, and that even though it's not overtly pretentious, the details & non sequiturs & stylistic quirks do tip the scales towards art film as much as horror, but in the best and most entertaining way possible. I also liked it as much as I like Suspiria and that movie's one of my favorites (though Hausu is more about the c-c-cute than the slashing)
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, February 10, 2010 3:20 AM (2 years ago)

Completely crackers.
― Hinklepicker, Friday, February 12, 2010 3:52 AM (2 years ago)

Four weeks ago, I'd never heard of the film. Now every day brings eight new breathless blog posts. I'm sure it's great and batshit and all, but I'm kinda sick of hearing about it tbh.
― queen frostine (Eric H.), Friday, February 5, 2010 1:03 AM (2 years ago)

Me and my friend got in a hueg argument because i dragged him to see this in the theater on the last day of ATP. He felt duped because I described it as a "horror movie" which he claims it isn't.
― #yolo contendere (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, April 2, 2012 7:57 AM (1 month ago)

It's totally a horror movie! It just happens to be a lot of other things as well, but it's horror at the core no question.
― light dipping assholes (jjjusten), Monday, April 2, 2012 12:19 PM (1 month ago)

i dunno, i've gotten in like screaming matches with people who think the sole purpose of horror movies is to be scary
― #yolo contendere (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, April 2, 2012 1:45 PM (1 month ago)

well, xpost. xpost, indeed.

Poor Charles Napier. (xpost)

I thought House was fun for a while.

"When you need little PIECES of MIND, come on over in my HAUSU! -- SCARY Jane Girls"

A+++

Wow, great to see Hausu place so high! Wonderful and strange. Also (I think) the only one to feature in both my comedy and horror ballots (not to give too much away, but I went for ED rather than EDII in this poll).

Hausu revival is the latest phenomenon that points to why I bet that whatever genre nerds rave about -- esp if it's "wild" -- will do absolutely nothing for me.

love the cabinet of dr. caligari, first of my votes to show up today. the kino video dvd also includes a substantial chunk of footage from genuine, wiene's partially lost vampire film. i like genuine quite a bit, though it's clearly inferior to the cabinet and more romantic fantasy than horror.

xpost I'll refrain from "posts very much in character"ing that one

100 Stupid Movies About Ridiculously Improbable Serial Killers

Hausu placing this high might be the impetus I need to make me finally watch the damn thing after sitting on the DVD for over a year.

this is poll is kinda wacky, I like that. non-US and pre-70s films having a pretty good showing.

I've never seen House. can someone explain wtf is going on in that still

oh many xposts --

I was obsessed with the song "Crush Story" from Cereal Killers in 9th grade! OBSESSED.
Everything you've ever said is brilliant! I am the smallest giant ever. I never had the album though.

thought for a minute that meant..

http://www.impawards.com/1986/posters/house.jpg

i fucking heart Hausu.

"Watching those SPEW-lunking ladies had me feeling positively in-DESCENT!"

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8009/7248901908_e4191732c1_o.jpg

34. THE DESCENT
Neil Marshall, UK, 2005
(471 points, 20 votes, 1 first-place vote)

i wen't along to see this last night and it is, in parts, just UNBELIEVABLY SCARY- i jumped a foot in the air about 4 or 5 times.
― jed_ (jed), Thursday, July 21, 2005 4:02 AM (6 years ago)

I saw this last summer without any prior knowledge of the movie. Arrived about 10 minutes late at the theatre, so the first scenes I saw were just women drinking and chatting and being big-girly-pamper-party etc. I thought it was gonna be a total tampon advert of a movie, but then it gets seriously gorey porey. Seriously thrilling stuff.
― ZOT! (davidcorp), Saturday, August 5, 2006 3:33 PM (5 years ago)

A couple of the ladies really disabused me of the notion that all English accents are teh hott.
― milo z (mlp), Monday, August 7, 2006 9:06 PM (5 years ago)

The basic outline is pretty much what you expect: the Sisterhood of Travelling Pants (including one who was struck by grisly, onscreen tragedy in the first reel) goes spelunking and shortly find themselves at war with blind mutant cannibals.
― 100% CHAMPS with a Yes! Attitude. (Austin, Still), Thursday, August 10, 2006 8:10 PM (5 years ago)

Watching the interviews on the Hausu DVD, it turns out the whole idea came from the directors teenage daughter, which kind of makes sense.

Huh, really? Found The Descent pretty boring.

(xpost)

Another one of my pre-2000 picks

The Descent is much more tense when it's a crawling-through-small-holes thriller than when it turns into a ropey monster movie.

The Descent features the actress I nominate for the Barbara Steele Inheritance Award, Nora-Jane Noone
http://images.tvrage.com/people_galleries/37/110543/58925.jpg

I thought it was fine if forgettable. But it reminds me I should've nominated another buzz film from around the same time, Open Water.

I've heard decent things about the sequel. Anyone want to rep for it?

Uh Hausu is one of my pre-2000 obv. Totally voted for the descent, think its great. For the love of god do not watch the mega shitty sequel.

The Descent made it onto the tail-end of my ballot, based solely on the strength of the first half (which, taken on its own, would rival just about any horror movie I've seen). Unfortunately, the directors couldn't decide which of two vastly different movies they wanted to make and thusly made the unfortunate decision to splice them together. Which is a shame, because even the back half could've been expanded into a solid little horror film on its own.

Ha tht was an xpost but I guess you know my opinion.

yeah, don't get the descent love. well-constructed, well-executed, wasn't thinking about it 5 minutes after it was over. admire marshall's desire to put characterization first, noble impulse, I just wish he cared about the mutants as much.

For the love of god do not watch the mega shitty sequel

Holds true for almost everything, apart from The Exorcist of course

I hope everyone repping for exorcist II realizes that anyone who watches the film will never trust anything you say ever again

truly 2 hours you can't get back

I guess you could get those 2 hrs back by not watching The Descent 2 like you were planning to do.

Has anyone seen Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist?

Watching The Descent is not unlike those occasions when a headlining band has to follow a vastly-superior opening act.

"We accept you, one of PUS!"

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8008/7248902146_b01d48675d_o.jpg

33. FREAKS
Tod Browning, USA, 1932
(475 points, 18 votes)

I often wonder, with it being made in 1932, if the guy without legs is a war casualty, or if he was born that way, or some other kind of accident. Freaks unfortunately seems to be known by people because of infamy - the usual effect of banning a film increasing interest is in play here, but perhaps tempered by the fact that it is in black and white, so who can be bothered? I've never really understood the banning (it was banned in the UK, I believe - I don't know about the US) is it because looking at the actors is so offensive the audience should be protected? Is it the (mostly implied) violence at the end? The themes of the film seem quite moral and normal for drama, it just seems odd. The whole 'Oh, but who are the real freaks?' thing may seem trite, but it's a very effective film, I thought. The suspence is brilliantly maintained, and the images at the end are stunning.
― Kevin Gilchrist (Mr Fusion), Sunday, October 10, 2004 4:14 PM (7 years ago)

eh, it's okay. The ending is way too trumped, but yes, it works on the level of implied violence. Strangely didn't feel the need to see this film until watching The Dreamers, but whateveh. The midgets just can't act worth a damn, even on 1930's standards. It's really sad in that respect, but again, whatevah. It's worth a look.
― Girolamo Savonarola, Sunday, October 10, 2004 5:14 PM (7 years ago)

I guess the nearest contemporary of "Freaks" that's cultish would be the Universal monster movies or the WB Busby Berkeley musicals?
― Mildred Dixon (Pashmina), Thursday, September 11, 2008 9:30 AM (3 years ago)

I really don't get all the hate for the shift in the descent

there's some interesting debate going on over here about how generally useless sequels are, but with folk repping for ones they love

The long overdue _Blade Runner_ thread

i never got the love for the descent, either. agree that the first half is pretty great, but it goes so so badly off the rails after that. it's not the introduction of the cave monsters that bothers me, but how badly they're handled. what, they're not only blind, but deaf and devoid of a sense of smell? ending's a nice gut-punch, but too little, too late.

i like The Descent and voted for it but woah after it didn't make the bottom half of the list i kind of assumed it wouldn't get that high

Has anyone seen Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist?

Yeah. The worst I can say about it is that it's kinda plodding and not terribly concerned with being a horror film.

Never seen all of "Freaks" and don't know if I ever will.

I hope everyone repping for exorcist II realizes that anyone who watches the film will never trust anything you say ever again

Most OTM statement in this thread.

Not if you rep it to a fan of films maudits