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

I'm a sucker for movies about masochism, the nature of pain, and weirdo surrealism, so while watching hellraiser all I could think was, "this is checking all my boxes. why isn't it pushing my buttons?"

the cenobite that shoots CDs was some kind of high point for the series...

Hellraiser III is to the Hellraiser franchise what Michael Keaton's mentally-handicapped third clone was to Multiplicity. And the rest of the Hellraisers are what would have happened if Michael Keaton had just kept cloning his clones.

(I just watched Multiplicity for the first time the other day, so I was also mentally comparing Jeremy Irons' performance in Dead Ringers to Michael Keaton's. I'm sure I'll find some parallel when Human Centipede shows up, as well.)

There are 9 Hellraiser films. NINE. Watching them all would be a Cenobite-level experience in masochism, I suspect.

Andrew Robinson, y'all. Without him Hellraiser would not have worked at all.

Prefer hellraiser 2 to one, but one is def nice to see here. 3 is a terrible abomination.

"You remind me of the BOO! What BOO? BOO with the VOODOO! Who BOO? BOO BOO! BOO what? Remind me of the BOO!"

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77. PAN'S LABYRINTH
Guillermo Del Toro, Spain, 2006
(246 points, 9 votes)

When Tool videos come to life. Or should that be the Brothers Quay?
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, February 23, 2006 6:44 AM (6 years ago)

yes, this film also struck me as being a crudely mechanistic and obvious riff on Spirit of the Beehive
― Ward Fowler (Ward Fowler), Friday, January 5, 2007 9:00 AM (5 years ago)

(2) The audience reaction was quite interesting; I'm not sure if they understood their own feelings. When Mercedes enacted her vengeance on el Capitan, the audience applauded as if it was a Dirty Harry movie; it was cathartic and, for them, necessary. But when they realized that Ofelia was NOT going to live the theater went still. It was the quietest exit I've seen all year.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Saturday, January 13, 2007 4:35 PM (5 years ago)

I can't even figure out how I feel about his movie, but a half hour after watching it last night I had an uncontrollable crying jag–the kind of deep sobs that don't make sounds. I normally like ambiguous endings but this one hurt (not to say I didn't like it). It was kind of like THE PLAGUE DOGS–inability to exist in this certain world coupled with a cruel and sad fantasy of an uncertain nature, just too bittersweet a rescue.
― Abbott (Abbott), Monday, January 15, 2007 4:09 PM (5 years ago)

By my personal estimation it's roughly the 9th-best film in the worst year of commercial cinema since the nickelodeons opened
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, February 6, 2007 1:24 PM (5 years ago)

not a bad movie but blargh

( psst Eric, plz check yr email! )

del toro's appreciation of the horror genre is deep and admirable tho. loved it when he did his top horror movie picks.

I quite liked PL, but I would never have voted for it in this poll. My GDT votes went instead to The Devil's Backbone, which is straight-up one of my favorite movies of the last decade or so (in addition to it being more conventional in terms of horror)

My memories of Pinhead's backstory as sketched out by I & II are fuzzy to me now, but I remember finding them fascinating and original at the time (ie, long ago).

Pinhead has a backstory? I don't recall this being ref'd in I at all tbh

for some reason PL made a much bigger impression on me than the devil's backbone, which I can't remember much from besides an unexploded bomb and thinking it was not a horror movie. still haven't seen cronos.

My reaction to Pan's Labyrinth is visceral. very tangible, and for those who remember what it is like to be a child, emotionally and psychologically on target

I rated devil's backbone higher - dude gets the lonliness, directionlessness, and sometimes terror of being a child

If I recall, Pinhead has a rich & fulfilling backstory (so much so that I've forgotten it), but it must be Hellraiser 2 that dives into it. xpost

bbbut there is a ghost in tdb, so it HAS to be horror, right?

xxp

nooooooooooooooooooo

There are 9 Hellraiser films. NINE. Watching them all would be a Cenobite-level experience in masochism, I suspect.

I have done this. I'm still not sure why.

wait what? NINE hellraiser movies?

From Wikipedia & I'm sure you can attribute this to all the direct-to-video sequels:

When comparing the Hellraiser film series with the other top-grossing horror franchises—A Nightmare on Elm Street, Child's Play, Friday the 13th, Halloween, Saw, Scream, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre—and adjusting for the 2008 inflation,[13] Hellraiser is the lowest grossing horror franchise in the United States, at approximately $84 million.

man if pan's lab places and cronos or devils backbone dont i swear you tweemo lotr fuckers

ok enough with the art films guys can you please let the next one be some shrieking grindhouse nightmare

I've watched up through Hellraiser In Space. After that GTFO. In fact, there isn't another franchise I can think of with more rapidly diminishing returns after the first installment.

ha i'm taking no guff about any movie I voted for if Pan's Labyrinth makes the list. That said, I'm excited how many movies are on this I haven't seen.

if I thought Pan's Labyrinth was a snooze should I still check out Cronos and backbone?

devils backbone would have been my GTD if i had been forced to have one but yeah i dont want to be that guy here but this is shaping up to be a dark fantasy poll and not the horror poll i expected

xpost devils backbone is great, and far more horror than PL, i still havent gotten around to seeing cronos

In a horror poll, it's Cronos > Backbone > Pan's, but they're all top-drawer flicks.

just glanced over my list, and while there could some debate as to whether they're "thrillers" or "horror" all of them have somebody dying violently, usually suddenly and disgustingly

backbone is more horror than dark fantasy imo

still have to check out cronos sometime.

77. Pan's Labyrinth
76. Cannibal Holocaust
75. Antropophagus
74. The Others

man i just reread a bunch of my posts from today and apologize, i am not a dick i promise! and i actually liked pans labyrinth, i just get way too wound out about horror stuff because i spend so much time thinking abt/consuming it and so this poll is prob more important to me than it should be.

i would like a good palate cleansing human centipedeish placement moment here soon tho for the good of humanity

phrases that have never been uttered before for good reason vol 1. "good palate cleansing human centipede"

I just checked and something like 3/4 of my ballot is composed of straight-up, unambiguously-horror horror films. I think a lot of the oddball, not-quite-horror films are gonna show up near the bottom of the results, so no fear, jjj.

yo i heard that human feces was good as a palate cleanser

Bring on fear.com!

Yo, I heard that human feces was good as a plate cleaner.

Cronos is the only del Toro I voted, and if Pan's is placing this low I doubt if it'll make the top hunnert. Good movie, tho.

i voted for pan's labyrinth (though it wasn't high on my ballot). more b/c it was a good movie overall than because it was oooooooh scary -- though i kept thinking that that faun thing would snap and commit some really vile act of ultra-violence but never did.

Surely our fave Cronenberg cameo is as the surgeon who delivers the maggot-baby in The Fly

Sorry--think I got the two confused.

Pan's Labyrinth is most interesting for trying to embed horror in a key historical event; in Hollywood we only are getting that, it appears, with this Lincoln Vampire Hunter bullshit.

this is shaping up to be a dark fantasy poll and not the horror poll i expected

i'm okay with that, as at least half my ballot arguably falls into the "dark fantasy" category. i like what i like, what can i say? i also like moody, arty, atmospheric shit. and gore, but i'm weird that way. the idea that horror fandom isn't legit if it isn't sufficiently bloodthirsty and nihilistic is bullshit, imo. those are exploitation aesthetics, and they're not precisely the same as horror aesthetics. i'm kind of bummed by the tendency to confuse the two, tbh. i like grindhouse/exploitation/sleazy dirtbag movies, but i also like horror movies that have nothing (or just a little) to do with that.

rant rant rant

xxpost

Yeah, but I think it'll actually be pretty interesting to see a filmed account of the vampire battles he fought around the time he signed the Declaration of Independence.

i'm okay with that

i'm not okay with that.

oh just to be clear i am not calling anyones fandom into question here or questioning their legit horror cred, these last ten or so have just been kind of a rough patch to my particular brand of horror interests

we have 76 more films to go!

plenty of time left for corpse grinding and buckets of blood and disturbingly mutilated bodies etc.

Just to infuriate everyone, one of the films I found most unnerving in the past year or two was Harmony Korine's Trash Humpers.

"Ooh, check it out, KIDDIES! A DIE, er, tie ranking!"

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75. (tie) CREEPSHOW
George A. Romero, USA, 1982
(250 points, 10 votes)

75. (tie) INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS
Don Siegel, USA, 1956
(250 points, 10 votes)

I can't get enough of Ed Harris' disco dance moves in the first Creepshow segment.
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, June 23, 2004 10:58 PM (7 years ago)

man the cover of creepshow freaked me out so much as a kid
just watched it... it's adorable!
― ksha (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, March 26, 2010 12:57 AM (2 years ago)

Ooh. Creepshow. I don't know what it is about that movie, but it gets me a little. It's very overtly cartoonish for long stretches, and then there are these very vivid moments of horror that offset the cartoonishness in an unsettling way. And the Creep, just soundlessly standing outside of that kid's window. I love it.
― Deric W. Haircare, Wednesday, August 22, 2007 6:11 PM (4 years ago)

I tried to watch Creepshow last night; I got through the one where Patsy Stone's dad crawls out of the grave and kills her while she lies there immobile for 30 seconds, and about 10 minutes into the one with the green moss, and just couldn't do it anymore. OTT dumbed-down shit grates on me so hardcore.
― Time, a group with Jam and Lewis (Stevie D(eux)), Monday, April 23, 2012 10:13 AM (3 weeks ago)

The '78 version is about New Ageism. '56 is better especially without the wraparound they imposed on it.
YOU'RE NEXT!
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, January 18, 2005 12:11 PM (7 years ago)

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