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

That and she's depicted as being perpetually at the mercy of men (and post-menopausal women).

Yeah, for sure. Her only act of autonomy is cutting her hair short. She doesn't even get to have agency in her own sex life. (insert terrible Polanski joke here)

Maypoles and morris men and animal costumes and fertility dances are real, and they tap into a sense of England that is both pastoral and primal, bucolic and highly dangerous... We're a strange people in an ancient land.

I had this reaction for a bit when watching TWM until I remembered that you could make any religious culture/ritual look creepy in this way

(actually don't insert Polanski's anything into anything)

(insert terrible Polanski joke here)

Mostly took care of that when posting quotes, ftr. (That thread still pisses me off.)

I guess what I'm saying is that TWM is only frightening if you identify with the puritan. I do not, never have and never will and am kind of suspicious of people that do.

my sense of what's scary has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not i rationally believe in the source of threat, and my ability to identify with characters isn't wholly determined by the extent to which i like and/or agree with them. i fault the anti-hero protagonist of the wicker man for his christian priggishness, but that doesn't make me any more happy to see him burned alive. he's not the greatest guy around, but i don't really hate him.

Most religious culture/ritual is creepy. That's why it features so strongly in horror films. I just don't see why people are discounting paganism when they accept Catholicism.

xposts

still pissed about return of the living dead tbrr

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

I don't accept Catholicism thank u very much

i think of Morris dancers as being more dorky than creepy (much less dangerous). obviously, Morris dancing and spinning round the maypole would be REALLY weird anywhere in the USA but it's not as organic over here as in the UK.

Her only act of autonomy is cutting her hair short.

yeah but she def looks better with the bob tho.

there's actually quite a bit of paganism in Catholic rituals, traditions, etc.

Per my previous commentary, the scariest part of Rosemary's Baby is when she goes to see the regular OB/GYN and tells him her concerns, and you think that she's going to get some help... but nope. He calls the Demon Doctor and her dumb husband and it's back to Satan's High Rise with you. It's like the scene in TCM when the one woman almost gets away but gets pulled back into the house. Ugh.

its late enough in the game now that even i think ive got this figured out but if i could design this ranking it would def be alien>the shining>the thing

im not forgetting anything right

It's like the scene in TCM when the one woman almost gets away but gets pulled back into the house.

Oh yeah, at the roadside gas station/sausage market! Totally.

i remember never having heard of The Wicker Man before coming to ilx and seeing it just referenced constantly

by la lechera

by everyone!

hate to break it to you but we're all la lechera socks

i never watched the OG wicker man until after the Nicolas Cage lol-fest had come out.

when she goes to see the regular OB/GYN and tells him her concerns, and you think that she's going to get some help... but nope. He calls the Demon Doctor and her dumb husband

ugh i remember first seeing this scene and feeling absolutely sickened by the betrayal

maybe Nicolas Cage should be involved in a Rosemary's Baby/Night of the Hunter remake!

there's actually quite a bit of paganism in Catholic rituals, traditions, etc.

I was gonna say - Catholicism is totally pagan!

you eat jesus for fuck's sake!

i haven't seen the remake, but nicholas cage can pierce the actorly veil and be truly frightening in a way that nobody in the original wicker man could be (out of propriety? dignity?)

xp to elmo - God, me, too. Honestly writing about it makes my chest kind of ache.

And the birth - she's sedated during the birth of the baby that she was sedated during the conception of, and they take it away, and tell her it died. Oh, I guess her decision to be a mother to her baby is the other thing she does on her own, but then again, how much choice did she have.

never have Charles Grodin as your OB/GYN

I think Nic Cage should remake every movie on this list

What's gonna be in the top 3? The Shining, The Thing, what else? Has The Exorcist placed?

Nic Cage IS... Carrie

hey guys, all of these movies are good

what nonsense, next thing you're gonna tell me xmas trees and presents are pagan

xp to shakey

you eat jesus for fuck's sake!

love this

imagine Nic Cage scraping his face off in a remake of "Poltergeist"

MY FACE MY FACE MY FACE MY FACE MY FACE

What's gonna be in the top 3? The Shining, The Thing, what else? Has The Exorcist placed?

― a parker full of poseys (Stevie D(eux)), Thursday, May 24, 2012 8:33 PM (1 minute ago)

Alien. and hostel 2.

sounds like it woulda been a cool snappy comeback in grade school

oh yeah? well you eat JESUS

i haven't seen the remake, but nicholas cage can pierce the actorly veil and be truly frightening in a way that nobody in the original wicker man could be (out of propriety? dignity?)

well in the original you can be sacrificed by pagan partiers for being a pious dude, in the remake you can be sacrificed by a man-hating cult led by Ellen Burstyn just for being a nice guy trying to help out an ex. So I guess it's scarier since so many of us are nice guys who just want to know how it got burned, how it got burned, how it got burned.

Maybe this poll will surprise all of us and Return of the Living Dead will be #1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS23CWl4lUE

also rosemary's baby has one of those scenes where the protagonist plays with scrabble tiles to glimpse the horrible truth -- via anagrams! i know it's a played out trope by now but here, it really gets across the pitch of paranoia and grasping helplessness

More scared by the notion that there are people who refuse themselves pleasure their whole lives. And then they die.

And I'm one of them.

i think of rosemary's baby as being, thematically, less about the helplessness of a woman to determine her fate, as by the inability of the present to escape the past. the threat is the old world, old people, "expert wisdom" and secretive tradition. the building symbolizes this as much as its residents. it's ultimately about corrupt age consuming naive youth.

"...as about the inability of the present to escape the past."

dangit

this may be because you are a dude

hahahahahaha!
hate to break it to you but we're all la lechera socks

― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Thursday, May 24, 2012 3:30 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

Seriously though, emil.y TOTALLY 100% OTM -- she said everything I would have said if I hadn't been riding my bike home from work (only she said it much better and with fewer irritating exclamation points than I would have)

Hellraiser and Wicker Man are like the far ends of the pleasure spectrum.

omg lol Eric I misread that as 'people who refuse to pleasure themselves their whole lives'

xp to contenderizer - Maybe, but it speaks to me way more specifically on the level of "nobody believes something horrible is happening to you, little lady, let me call an abusive dude to come pick you up." I'm not even trying to argue that this is the theme of the movie (I don't think it's purposeful at all, actually) but that for me, that's where the horror originates.

I have similar things to say about The Shining.

carl agatha otm

this may be because you are a dude

yeah, lol, that's a good point. carl agatha otm, too. i do relate to the film that way, the frustration of the protagonist in not being taken seriously, and i suppose that it doesn't have to be one theme or the other. they reinforce each other, really.