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

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.

contenderizer, I'd argue that the two actors with Down's Syndrome in The Kingdom were probably among the most gently-handled and sensitively-portrayed performers in Von Trier's filmography.

"If you ... are thinking ... of seeing ... this film ... alone ... DERN't!"

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7216/7248902344_ae4dda50f6_o.jpg

32. INLAND EMPIRE
David Lynch, USA, 2006
(482 points, 14 votes)

what can Lynch really do after Inland Empire? feels like he's kind of exhausted the repertoire with this. feels like something he's been working towards, a condensed, cumulative piece of work.
love the hell out of it.
― circa1916, Saturday, January 15, 2011 3:24 AM (1 year ago)

i think trying to interpret this film is just a headache i don't want or need.
― by another name (amateurist), Wednesday, February 24, 2010 1:28 PM (2 years ago)

Ok. WTF.
WTF.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, August 14, 2007 6:43 PM (4 years ago)

I remember still being on the fence about it immediately after seeing it the first time.
― Eric H., Tuesday, August 14, 2007 8:49 PM (4 years ago)

I've now re-watched the first ten minutes and, suddenly, IT MAKES SENSE.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, August 14, 2007 8:50 PM (4 years ago)

Well, I wouldn't go that far.
― Eric H., Tuesday, August 14, 2007 8:51 PM (4 years ago)

David Lynch's "Inland Empire"

oh, I guess The Kingdom will count for this jonner, eh

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

― O_o-O_0-o_O (jjjusten), Tuesday, May 22, 2012 12:34 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, I loved the first part. I was an enthusiastic spelunker when I was younger and I suffered from mild claustrophobia. Perfect!

And the transition to cave-dwelling not humans with sonar was great! The plausible lead-up of these spelunkers getting lost somewhere deep in the earth with no orientatation and no hope of finding their way out is the perfect set up for the terror of stumbling into the domain of these undiscovered and unknown monsters.

And what monsters! Some evolutionary offshoot of our acnestors, but totally alien.

I can see nitpicking over sense of smell in a few key moments, but I wasn't thinking about that as I was crawling over the back of my chair.

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.

i may be a jerk for saying this, but i think LVT is playing a cruel joke with the disabled actors in the kingdom. as he says in every episode, this is a place where we must "take the good ... with the evil." in the kingdom, christian good (as portrayed by the actors with downs syndrome) is simplistic and rather dull. evil, especially as portrayed by EH jaregard, is clever, fascinating and clearly the best thing about the show, the reason we watch.

So are we all agreed that Inland Empire is an extended metaphor for expanding consciousness through Transcendental Meditation?

yes

I confess that I have not yet watched Inland Empire.

Love inland empire but really happy to see it place this low.

well, it's gotta be a metaphor for something

seeing Inland Empire at the Castro theater was one of the best/most intense theater-going experiences I've had as an adult

"this low"

well remember, jjj thinks "The Straight Story" is going to be #1

i think trying to interpret deciding whether this film is horror or not is just a headache i don't want or need.

― by another name (amateurist), Wednesday, February 24, 2010 1:28 PM (2 years ago)

xxp - i think the cruel joke he is playing is that the smartest characters in the show (the ones with the most knowledge) have Downs Syndrome. i think it's more about LVT's misanthropy.

inland empire was my first-thought-best-thought #3, and this seems like a pretty reasonable placement for it. scary as hell, but probably not most people's idea of a "horror movie".

Congrats, Eric, for resisting the image that is burned into so many retinas.

lots of mine are showing up today, hoping this doesn't result in a barren top 20. especially happy to see black christmas (too low), possibly the highest rated straight-up unambiguous horror on my ballot(#4).

I don't even like horror movies and yet for some reason this is my favorite movie list thread. Amazing stills, lots of stuff I've never heard of.

oh, I guess The Kingdom will count for this jonner, eh

― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, May 22, 2012 11:06 AM (8 minutes ago)

pretty sure it doesn't count because it was tv show and not a movie.

xxp - i think the cruel joke he is playing is that the smartest characters in the show (the ones with the most knowledge) have Downs Syndrome. i think it's more about LVT's misanthropy.

yeah, i guess the question is how deliberately perverse we think he's being in his choices

Speaking of Kingdom, somebody tell me that Stephen King's remake was shit so I don't have to watch it. Thanks in advance.

it's Lars Von Trier, i'd be surprised if any of his perverse choices weren't deliberate!

Congrats, Eric, for resisting the image that is burned into so many retinas.

I chose one from 3 Pillbox submitted, and none of them were THAT image.