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

I don't disagree that it was influential, I just don't understand why that's a criteria for placement in the poll

yeah i found large portions of blair witch to be kinda grating but the teeth in a rag thing was a pretty effective moment

I will say that being lost in the woods and hunted by an unknown predator AND RUNNING OUT OF CIGARETTES has to tap into some ur-level human fear

(I don't even smoke anymore.)

I admit to a full on belly laugh in the theater when that one dude was all "I got mad so I kicked the map into a stream"

A woman asked me after BWP "What happened in the end?" and I said "They got our $11."

The US Ring was good but it is not one of the 30 best horror films.

..it may be the last good Naomi Watts film tho.

IIRC, they find the teeth at a moment when they think he might still be alive, but then there are his teeth, and they are freshly bloody, and then the fact that he might still be alive suddenly seems like it could possibly be a bad thing. That was a good part.

xp Dan, yes, that was hilarious.

Saw Blair Witch recently. It is riveting. It's pure terror, and like Ed3 says, must tap into some primordial predator/prey/woods switch in our brains. However, it would seem that some of us are more sensitive to that switch than others.

X was good but it is not one of the 30 best horror films.

^ just preparing this for near-future c&p purposes

I don't disagree that it was influential, I just don't understand why that's a criteria for placement in the poll

i doubt that anyone voted for it simply because it's been influential. i expect that people voted for it because it was scary and they liked it.

Who goes into the woods? There are bugs.

^ dr. morbius would like to announce that he lives in the city

And morbs and I find our common ground.

little primitive crafty manikins in the trees, tho, maybe not as scary?

I love going into the woods, but we didn't spend 200,000 years building civilization so we could sleep in bags

you know what comes in bags? tasty treats

I'm pretty thoroughly unsurprised that Blair Witch has stirred up the most "NO FUCKING WAY!" sentiment in this thread. The most for now, anyway...

..it may be the last good Naomi Watts film tho.

Dude. Huckabees.

do you know why dr pepper comes in a bottle? because his wife died

I'll be here all week

OK, but one. xp

I guess all the summercamp horror taps into the dread of spending weeks when you should be lazying alone with morons your own age, amirite?

bugs post open to being read in Mel Brooks OR Woody Allen voice btw

man, lots of stuff I voted for placing today. hausu, the descent, inland empire, evil dead, body snatchers '78, and audition. all but the first two in my top 20.

evil dead basically made me a horror fan. I think that I saw part 2 first but I watched all three in quick succession around when army of darkness came out.

I'd say 1 > 2 these days for offering more low budget gonzo horror kicks but preferred 2 for a long time. it's hilarious.

but then there are his teeth, and they are freshly bloody - I know there are teeth included in the bundle, but my favorite part about that whole sequence is how the sum total of contents is left ambiguous, even when the close-up is shown. It's like some teeth, a little hair, and like some extracted glands or tonsils or something. Whatever the case, and then the fact that he might still be alive suddenly seems like it could possibly be a bad thing is otm!

american ring bored me, haven't seen japanese ringu.

Around the time, I saw a poster at a film festival that advertised "From the art director the Blair Witch Project." And I was like, "The guy who tied together a few sticks??"

Couldn't we take Blair Witch to be an antidote to the endless killer-in-the-woods, F13 type movies?

got out of work early a couple weeks ago and decided to kick back and watch audition. around when the puke part happens (which, btw, is REAL VOMIT? yuck.), I was like "wtf, why am I 'relaxing' by watching this at 4pm!"

horror is weird. it's my #14.

what if the cure is worse than the disease

xp

or as an antidote to movies.

The viewers did all the heavy lifting for Blair Witch.

I saw it the day after the initial release. Dude in line was all, "I heard it's actual found footage. Is that true?" And I played along, becasuse that was the fun in what we were doing and I wasn't going to be the dick who contradicted the delusion that everyone in line was toying with.

And I enjoyed the movie because I engaged in the story-making like an adolescent. In fact, the film reminded me of what we would have done with a video camera as adolescents, but tbf probably much better. It was fun!

But of course I was always aware of the fact that I was pretending really hard that this was real.

I watched the movie a second time with some friends and it was tedious, like trying to relive the telling of a spooky story around a campfire.

The ending was OK.

I am one of those guys who can get hung up on distracting technical details and on that level BWP completely failed to engage me it was such a mess. For ex: multiple shots where someone is far away (ie, 50 ft or so) from the camera but can still be heard clear as day on the audio track - completely violates the "found footage" conceit. And the lead was so irritating, constantly found myself wondering why anyone was taking directions from her. was hoping her friends were either going to ditch her or turn on her and murder her but instead they just wander around being lost in the dark. so stupid.

xp

― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, May 22, 2012 3:53 PM (28 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

iirc it was made very clear throughout the movie that the audio microphones were not on/in the camera

agggh I'm so behind I hope I don't get eaten by a scary monster in the woods haaaalp

- Evil Dead -- commentaries are GOLD everyone should check these out, master classes in budget horror making, esp Bruce's solo commentary for EDII

- Invasion 78 -- in college Mr Veg and his best friend got kicked out of a local bar after they decided that every time they took a drink they would point and scream at each other a la Invasion :D

- Audition: RULES

- Blair: watched this on VHS with my little brother, turned all the lights out and it was awesome. Little bro got so scared he made me turn the lights back ON lol. Haven't seen it since then, don't think I would ever watch it again. But it was fun the one time.

"I always get this movie mixed up with SCHINDLER'S LIST!"

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7074/7248903684_dc6cb101f5_o.jpg

26. DON'T LOOK NOW
Nicholas Roeg, UK-Italy, 1973
(547 points, 19 votes)

A question about "Don't Look Now" (do not read if you hate spoilers)

little primitive crafty manikins in the trees, tho, maybe not as scary?

But I loved those!!!

young fuckwads in BWP were such convincing young fuckwads too. Their annoyingness was a real asset to the movie.

My favorite line is when the guy with the shitty beard says:

'It was a total cackling'.

i have a friend who saw the blair witch project believing that it really was really real, and when he found out that it wasn't, he got super pissed about the betrayal. the memory of it still infuriates him.

Don't Look Now was rad.

I liked the invented mythology behind TBWP and thought that was easily the scariest thing about it, moreso than the actual filmmaking on display by a considerable margin. At the time, I recall being curious about what more they might be able to build from the backstory, and then that awful quickie sequel came out & so much for that..

don't look now first movie w/ more than 1 first place vote?

The viewers did all the heavy lifting for Blair Witch.

I don't disagree with this. I don't think the filmmakers were especially talented (notice the subsequent lack of projects) and their methods were messy and their ideas simplistic. I think it was almost by accident that it happened to all click--the improv, the shots, the noises--into something that legitimately scared a shitload of Americans. Like I said, lightning in bottle.

oh come on now - 26?!?

great screencap for don't look now, pillbox!

love that movie. was one of my top 10, and though i knew it'd do pretty well in this poll, i'm still glad to see it show. top 25 would have been nice, but 26 is just fine, imo.

don't look now first movie w/ more than 1 first place vote?

yes

thanks!

xp

i fell asleep the one time i tried to watch don't look now

should probably try again

The viewers did all the heavy lifting for Blair Witch.

I don't disagree with this. I don't think the filmmakers were especially talented (notice the subsequent lack of projects) and their methods were messy and their ideas simplistic. I think it was almost by accident that it happened to all click--the improv, the shots, the noises--into something that legitimately scared a shitload of Americans. Like I said, lightning in bottle.

Yeah-- all of the above affects my opinion of the filmmakers but not at all my opinion of the film.

The red-coat from Don't Look Now should get together with the yellow-coat from Alice Sweet Alice and the snowsuits from The Brood and that right there would be a party.

scary, stylish, and donald sutherland got to bone a hot young Julie Christie ... HOW COULD YOU NOT LOVE THAT SHIT?!?

I didn't fall asleep during Don't Look Now, but wish I had. I just don't get it.

iirc it was made very clear throughout the movie that the audio microphones were not on/in the camera

I don't recall this at all. They had a DAT machine and the camcorder mic but my memory is that it was obvious a bunch of shit was added in post, like people shouting dialogue across a river, etc.

xp

i was one of the #1s here. the bit that freaked me out almost as much as the ending was the midnight phone call where it takes a while to connect "hello... hello?". it's a beautiful film and unsettling. amazed not top 20.

we've entered the sutherland portion of the poll, a landscape of lip hairs and beige corduroy