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

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

I liked The Descent in spite of the stupid cave monster bits because it was girls in a cave, and one of those girls was Nora-Jane Noone and her fantastic eyebrows. I feel like some of you are missing the point with that movie.

Freaks is so classic that people should hang stills of it in their house instead of American Gothic.

Hostel 2 is better than hostel 1, imo.

only exorcist film i even half like after the first is the third, which isn't great, but does have its moments (plus at least a quarter-hour's worth of brad dourif going full weirdo)

Hopkins recalls, "I read the script and - boom - I knew intuitively how to play him. There were two, maybe three voices that I heard. I thought of Katharine Hepburn, Truman Capote and Hal.

― judas, a homo (elmo argonaut), Tuesday, May 22, 2012 12:32 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is crazy, never had seen this quote before but makes instant total sense

I always wondered what the limbless man holding a knife in his teeth at the end of Freaks was going to actually do with it.

Freaks!! Love it.

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

For me, it can be largely distilled into: was super effective and legit scary for a stretch, then morphed into a fairly boilerplate '(wo)man v. monsters' flick. It ain't hate by any means, just mild disappointment.

The "one of us" scene is so great because we KNOW the freaks are the good guys... and yet you have to feel the villain lady's horror that she could somehow become one of them.

Freaks' signature gabba-gabba scene is phenomenal; I can't remember a whole lot from the build-up.

http://www.ciakhollywood.com/biografie/tbrowning/sulsetdifreaks.jpg

It also made room in the public imagination for freaky carnival ladies in movies like Berserk! and The Jerk and a bunch of others, I'm sure.

I know this is a ship that's long since sailed, and can't remember who the writer was, but I remember reading something about Freaks in which it's pointed out that some of the people in the film could not possibly have comprehended the idea that they were even IN a film, and what that meant in terms of the level of exploitation involved. The whole thing just kinda makes me uncomfortable.

OTOH, this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=25nl9-Z-P6U#t=66s

(ff to 1:06 if it doesn't start there)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25nl9-Z-P6U#t=66s

Hopkins' voice sounds nothing like Hal or Hepburn mind, although maybe a little like Capote.

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

I don't either & will rep for it full-stop (tho I forgot to vote for it) as one of the best of 00s.

If you want to see a slimy grindhouse remake of Freaks, check out She-Freak (1967).

(plus at least a quarter-hour's worth of brad dourif going full weirdo)

SOLD.

only exorcist film i even half like after the first is the third,

First and third are the only ones I'll rep for. Third really only suffers in comparison to the first, imo, which is praise via fairly faint damnation. I liked it enough to vote for it (although that looks to be a wasted vote at this point).

freaks isn't a favorite of mine, but damn it's got moments. prince randian lighting a cigarette is one of the most casually astonishing things i've ever seen on film.

had Freaks 18th. yes, there is some kind of exploitation going on.

Hopkins' attitude is what's Hepburnish, tho maybe his reading her lines from Long Day's Journey wd be enlightening.

lol @ one of PUS

Powell provided the voice of the father btw.

Powell played the father. That's him in the home movies torturing little Mark.

Wow! Had no clue that Bob Clark did the remarkable She Man, highly recommended on an indispensable SWV disc with the equally remarkable Sins of Rachel. Just be careful for butchered copies if you torrent it.

Shaking damn head at love for The Descent. Anyone who voted for this hateful little film, esp. the number oner (!), should be forced to sit through the 2008 remake of The Women three times in a row.

xp mm Hepburns' attitude yes i see that.

The Haunting = way too low. It was my #2. (One of all-time best scores too, which has never been released in any format. The tapes are supposedly lost).

Yay Black Christmas! My #20. The phone calls are straight up virtuoso shit. I love how this movie overturns the Last Girl convention before the Last Girl even BECAME a convention.

SOTL I did not vote for b/c of genre quibbling. But upthread when 7e7e7 placed, I think I mentioned the kinship between Howard Shore's music in the two films. Yesterday I managed to find a 60 minute promo of his 7 score and I can now affirm whole-heartedly that its the blackest, deepest, most unremittingly malevolent thing anyone has ever composed in any genre.

Wow, not a single film has received two first-place votes yet. Some serious bunching coming up soon.

I know this is a ship that's long since sailed, and can't remember who the writer was, but I remember reading something about Freaks in which it's pointed out that some of the people in the film could not possibly have comprehended the idea that they were even IN a film, and what that meant in terms of the level of exploitation involved. The whole thing just kinda makes me uncomfortable.

i often have reservations of one sort or another about films that make use of mentally disabled actors: freaks, jodorowsky's santa sangre (which i should have voted for, goddam it), lars von trier's the kingdom and especially crispin glover's what is it?

then again, i suppose they have as much right to be in a movie as anyone, and who's to say that they don't "really understand" what's going on? seems presumptuous.

I really need to see What Is It?

tbf I don't think anyone understood what was going on in What is It?

lol @ one of PUS

― "horror shirt" (Pillbox), Tuesday, May 22, 2012 1:47 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

LOL LOL

Powell played the father. That's him in the home movies torturing little Mark.

You're right, I forgot the dad is on screen. And the kid is Powell's son.

ugh, can't believe I forgot to vote for Freaks. Definitely would have bumped it up a notch or two.

Hausu is the only thing I watched because of this poll that ended up on my ballot. Kooky and ooky in equal parts.

xxxp given what neuroscience knows about microcephaly today I think we can safely make some assumptions without disappearing down a philosophical rabbit hole.

i often have reservations of one sort or another about films that make use of mentally disabled actors: freaks, jodorowsky's santa sangre (which i should have voted for, goddam it), lars von trier's the kingdom and especially crispin glover's what is it?

there's a big difference between the treatment (cinematic treatment that is) of the mentally disabled actors in the kingdom vs. that crispin glover movie.