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

I am a huuuge NOES fanatic. Craven was way anti-sequels but they made them anyway, and 2 was so campy and hilarious and bad (and also totally gay) that he was all "omg stop ok I'll work on 3", which he wrote the script for and is imo the second-best sequel (behind New Nightmare). 3 was the first film in which Freddy showed any humor and it p much went all downhill from there and by 6 he was a cartoon character without any wit or scariness. 6 is beyond abysmal btw. But yeah they all have really gnarly kill sequences (except for 6)

I've watched ringu many times, the ring only once. the latter is good but iirc too slick and wants to make sure everything is explained.

^ i'm not sure that those things are faults, but i do like (not necessarily prefer, but enjoy) the rough and cryptic qualities of the original

So, this day's reveal has my #3 (The Tenant), my #4 (Ringu), my #7 (Deep Red) and my #10 (Kairo/Pulse) and of all days that I follow this thread now, it was chock-full of all work no play for me, what a letdown.

Would have loved to repped for them as curiously enough they also seem to be one the least talked about entries yet. Wonder what that makes me (guy who destroys the natural order of your canon, i guess).

Add me to the liked the ring better than ringu camp as well

Not going to have time for the last 2 on today's agenda until well after most people's bedtime (mine included), so tomorrow will be a 17-movie day.

So, this day's reveal has my #3 (The Tenant)

Welcome to the club!

So wait, people are discussing it as sosodark because it's a kid rather than because of the genderswap? NB all I know of the film is it's Wikipedia page.

Nope, I'm saying it's dark because it's a semi-slapstick camp film that is actually all about terrible violence being perpetrated against children, and not post teen camp counselers but pre-teens. Also good lord people stop basing your movie interpretations off of Wikipedia plot summaries!

on my ballot: the tenant, re-animator, the brood, an american werewolf in london and deep red

should have been: eyes without a face and a nightmare on elm street

Re: Edward, I was just writing the same, I think of The Ring as a film entirely on rails in the scary spectrum, which equals to complete ennui for me. Although I can see why that would appeal to many, but on the contrast I absolutely love the melancholic matter-of-fact happenings in the original. It's gloomy, mournful atmosphere and especially the fact that the film seems to be out of pace sometime, for which is the thing that unsettles me the right way when done competent.

Only one or two films on here so far that I don't like, and even they I can defend, so I'd say good voting so far! Except jaws should have been top ten.

Also, if anyone wants to talk about The Tenant anymore, feel free to do so.
Perhaps the only film on this list I would happily look forward to seeing it ten times and upwards in a row.
So many (not necessarily frightening) great scenes, endless potential to discuss its ambiguities and Isabelle Adjani in a charming role diametrically opposed to that batshit one in Possession.

there are these weird little touches in ringu that I adore. like when the boy and his father encounter each on the rainy street and just stand there with their umbrellas staring at each other. the relationship between them hasn't been established by the film at this point, so it makes for this odd moment that becomes melancholic once you understand what's going on.

and the change from the pitiful, victimized sadako to the evil rage monster samara lessened the impact.

btw anyone seen the girl who played samara lately?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Daveigh_Chase_LF_adjusted.jpg

*feels old*

interesting tidbit this IMO that i'll post while it's quiet. in a late 1990's docu on Channel 4 (UK) Mark Kermode goes on an anti censorship rant and makes the usual fair and valid points, but to elaborate on why 'horror films can't be made safe for everyone' and how we're not all scared by the same things etc, he shows a still from a Rupert The Bear annual. Ramsey Campbell ('Britain's most respected horror writer' - Oxford Companion To Horror) said the still was 'the most frightening thing (he'd) ever seen' and it had given him 'months of nightmares' as a child.

this is the picture (sorry its so small!)

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/579499_10150932792719273_813524272_9870125_1209256195_n.jpg

also, where's m.eily?!?

― Boris Kutyurkokhov (Eisbaer), Monday, May 21, 2012 8:28 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hello! I was off in London at a show, so missed most of today. Voted for Eyes Without a Face, The Tenant and Ringu... think that's all, though I'm working off skimming this thread while drunk.

We done for today?

Ok just scrolled upn so nevermind. Sorry bout that.

"All that stabby equipment, you'd think he was a TOM-inatrix!"

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7077/7242856764_e6d4196c55_o.jpg

42. PEEPING TOM
Michael Powell, UK, 1960
(392 points, 12 votes, 1 first-place vote)

it didnt look like england at all.
― charltonlido (gareth), Wednesday, February 2, 2005 7:24 AM (7 years ago)

There is something about Peeping Tom that seems to me to be much more advanced, much more modern - the student half of me is wanting to say something about how it is at least partially because its psychology is more Lacanian than straight Freudian, but I think I may get beaten on for that.
― emil.y, Saturday, June 5, 2010 10:38 AM (1 year ago)

Splendid companion piece to Psycho. I saw it circa '88 at American Museum of the Moving Image, with Powell in attendance, and he was visibly moved at the ovation he received. There were also walkouts.
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, February 2, 2005 11:07 AM (7 years ago)

aw that morbs anecdote about powell is so touching

"To Max SHRIEK I say: FANGS for the memories!"

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7223/7242925640_020415b0cc_o.jpg

41. NOSFERATU
F.W. Murnau, Germany, 1922
(417 points, 16 votes)

I think (Murnau's) better than Lang... his films have better plots, better dream sequences, lots of doors, shadows and so on. And Nosferatu is my favourite film ever, apart from Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
― DV, Wednesday, January 30, 2002 7:00 PM (10 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I like the idea of Who Framed Nosferatu?
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, January 30, 2002 7:00 PM (10 years ago)

in nosferatu check how the count ALWAYS emerges into the frame from an unexpected place
― mark s (mark s), Monday, December 9, 2002 7:25 AM (9 years ago)

So great that the unauthorized "Dracula" adaptation is better/more "faithful"/scarier than the actual Dracula movie.

Ach, totally forgot Peeping Tom. Would have definitely placed it at least mid-ballot.

Voted for both of these - yes, my ballot is looking very canon indeed.

Thought Peeping Tom had an outside shot at the Top 10.

Nah, it's a classic, but I'm not that surprised that people didn't think of it when compiling.

The image for Peeping Tom is really oog-inducing, but lovely in color!

On Ringu vs. Pulse, I voted for both of them, but Ringu was top 10 for me because it unnerved me in a way that very few movies have in my adult viewing life. The odd tone and pacing mentioned above is a big part of that, it has this lyrical, tragic side, plus also the tag-team investigator dynamics of the reporter and ex-husband. Its warmth makes its horror more horrific. (Whereas the chilliness -- emotional and meteorological -- of the remake blunts the scares, imo.)

nosferatu too low, in my top 10, still unnerving almost 100 years after the fact

I should see Ringu at some point, given how much I liked The Ring

OMG we need someone to make a Japanese version of The Thing called Thingu.

lol

Alright.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FCruS_0arjY/TGHCwHzUAGI/AAAAAAAACr0/s5WtUUf5Zo0/s320/top_40_logo.gif

"I think Meredith KILLSON had it right -- "Pick a little, STALK a little!"

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8142/7248900790_c386e12860_o.jpg

40. THE BIRDS
Alfred Hitchcock, USA, 1963
(431 points, 17 votes)

The greatest thing about "The Birds" is the way it starts out like it's going to be a romantic drama, but the birds keep butting in until they just take over the whole movie.
― Dan Perry, Sunday, September 9, 2001 7:00 PM (10 years ago)

Some things I like in The Birds:
The discussion in the Coffee Shop across from the gas station before the explosion.
The cameo by Hitchcock's Sealyhams.
iconic image of birds on monkey bars
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Friday, February 8, 2008 3:19 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lovebirds leaning during the car ride
― Eric H., Friday, February 8, 2008 4:40 PM (4 years ago)

'the birds' is kind of boring + height of "lame process shots" period yo.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Friday, February 8, 2008 6:54 PM (4 years ago)

sorry, I like the CHARACTERS in The Birds, and the way the fantastic menace comes out of their interpersonal tensions. (It took me awhile to look at the film this way, I guess Robin Wood gets the credit.)
I mean, you don't think it's ABOUT birds massing and attacking people, do you?
― your generation appalls me (Dr Morbius), Monday, April 4, 2011 1:38 PM (1 year ago)

Just fell off the bottom of my ballot, but a good pick. Glad to see it here!

wtf HOW DID I FORGET TO VOTE FOR THIS MOVIE

Yeah, I like The Birds but didn't pick it. Never found it scary but most of my ballot wasn't based on scares, anyway, so...

I still stand by that quote btw

I am really fucking pissed at myself

"Pick a little, STALK a little!"
<3 loooool

I voted for this purely for the scare scenes. I have all the usual complaints about everything in between.

"GHOULY Harris has been sleeping on her left side to wear out my heart! Worth a TRY!"

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8010/7248900900_e8a201cd2a_o.jpg

39. THE HAUNTING
Robert Wise, USA, 1963
(434 points, 14 votes)

The Haunting (1963) is unbelievable. I found the book as a kid and it's really disturbing, then saw it on TV. I love movies about people cracking up AND I love horror movies and this gives you both! And lesbianism! And really great photography. Eleanor's voice-over thoughts are deliciously sick. I didn't bother seeing the remake.
― Sean (Sean), Wednesday, January 21, 2004 7:02 PM (8 years ago)

Yay, another one of my votes! Great atmosphere, great shots, just great.

I have objective reasons for voting for The Birds, but this movie also terrified me as a child. The gathering of the birds was scary, but the tension in the house and the sense that the adults are getting weird--oh my god the adults don't know what to do--is what put it over the top for me.

Great lead actresses!

This thread thread isn't even REMOTELY pacing the comedy results thread. So I hereby vow to not reveal any new title until at least 100 posts have passed.

Oh, lovely. I didn't vote for The Haunting but it's a great movie (and the book is a delight).

I do not encourage people to comment.

anyone seen the trailer for The Birds? one of the best i've ever seen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZjaVdJt59U

The Haunting gets extra bonus points for having not one but TWO female leads, both of whom are genuinely weird in their own unique and wonderful way.

Ah, crap, these are coming fast!

Peeping Tom: Always felt to me like a movie for students. Fascinating, but leaves me cold every time.

Birds: I actually think the FX hold up pretty damn well. And daaaaaaaamn that's a helluva ending.

The Haunting: Two moments in the movie (you know the two) I was genuinely scared, and that's so incredibly freakin rare.