THE VAULT OF ILX Top 100 HORROR Movies Poll Voting Thread (voting closes May 9 *~*~*~*2012*~*~*~*)

So as if to sanctify the end of the horror poll, I went into a pawn shop tonight and they had an unopened copy of the 4 disc ultimate edition of dawn of the dead that was unpriced, and when I brought it up to the counter the kid just looked up "dawn of the dead" and charged me 99 cents.

― O_o-O_0-o_O (jjjusten), Tuesday, May 8, 2012 3:47 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

DO NOT WATCH THIS. IT IS CURSED.

I mean, what are you thinking?

http://horrornews.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Friday_the_13th_TV_Series_3.jpg

If these people show up and ask for the movie back, GIVE IT TO THEM.

Instead and of all possible stuff lying around I watched The Mephisto Waltz some days ago, oddball satanist/pianist thriller in the wake of Rosemary's Baby, with an incredibly (in a good way) corny Curd Jürgens and an almost equally (but in a bad way) corny Alan Alda.

hah, just queued this and netflix recommended death bed: the bed that eats

hey eric, can you just confirm that you got the two addendums to my ballot last night?

I did. Thanks.

OK so my complete decade count goes as follows:

'20s: 1
'30s: 5
'40s: 2
'50s: 1
'60s: 9
'70s: 12
'80s: 12
'90s: 4
'00s: 4

Non-American: 21, of which 12 aren't in English

(Three directors got 2 entries, other than that it's all one-offs.)

Pretty sure my full country list would be a tad spoilery, so just gonna say:

UK: 16
US: 12
Non UK/US: 22

I saw Mephisto Waltz some years ago and it was kind of hilarious! I put that in the same category as Race with the Devil only the latter is way better on account of dirt bikes, "mobile home parks" and rituals. Neither of them appeal to me as much as Psychomania.

Noooooooo! I forgot Psychomania! Bums...

I have ten on my list that could be considered non-US, I think. A couple of possible US/other country co-productions in there.

They all feature people with non-US accents and/or inept dubbing, so I'll say they count.

As I've indicated before, I was expected to read a lot of Robin Wood when I did a course on horror films in university. As I remember it, he only valued those films that questioned/undermined/subverted the dominant culture (the nuclear family, patriarchy, Christianity, etc.)...I hate writing this way; I managed to get it out of my system 25 years ago...and hated anything that reinforced/celebrated those things. With that in mind:

Films on my list Wood approved of, or I think he'd approve of: 23
Films he disapproved of, or I think he'd disapprove of: 8
Films that confound/blur his litmus test: 4

I just made those numbers up. I actually did start tabulating, but there was way too much thinking involved so I gave up.

I feel like there should be a separate thread for soundtracks to these movies because so many of them are SO GOOD.

Not the least of which Wicker Man, obvs, but Blood on Satan's Claw, Carrie, Nosferatu...how could I possibly choose?!

Valerie! That soundtrack is awesome.
Also why was Beyond the Valley of the Dolls not on here? Is that not horror enough? I should have written that one in just to have done it.

Haha, I suppose it does have some horror tropes, but I'd consider it melodrama rather than horror, really. But then if it'd been nominated I'd have torn myself apart trying to decide whether to include it.

(Oh, yeah, I should point out my country list was worked out by imdb - I'd take the first country listed if there was more than one, and obviously some non-UK directors would be listed as UK and vice-versa depending on production etc...)

I think i have sixteen or seventeen Italian films on my list.

Vampyros Lesbos, Suspiria and The Wicker Man would be the predictable soundtrack picks from me but there are so many great ones that don't get enough love (Fabio Frizzi's Zombi 2 theme, Morricone's score for Who Saw Her Die?, etc).

I think some of you are going to judge the shit out of my ballot. That's okay, though. I like what I like.

I love the Creepshow soundtrack too, and Carnival of Souls, and The Shining, and I'm listening to Children of the Corn right now and guess what -- it's great.

This seems like an unusual spread:

20s: 4
30s: 6
40s: 1
50s: 2
60s: 5
70s: 8
80s: 5
90s: 4
00s: 15

I think i have sixteen or seventeen Italian films on my list.

I was surprised by how few Italian films I had. I guess I was relatively ruthless about going 'nah, that's a giallo, I'll leave it off my ballot' (aside from when it came to Argento).

I don't know that I would've voted for it, but I definitely would've nominated Martha Marcy May Marlene if I'd seen it in time. It's very close to my ideal with respect to a very specific type of oblique not-quite-horror, wherein very little (or nothing) is shown but much is implied. As I mentioned before, I love the sort of "horror" (scare quotes due to this type of movie hardly ever being marketed as such) that strives to ease the viewer into the same off kilter headspace as the protagonist. The tension of the movie was driven by paranoia and implications of threat, and I wish more horror movies would go that route.

Oh man, Silent House was pretty good! Elizabeth Olsen is making a name for herself in that one role she keeps playing.

And she might as well -- she's really good at it.

i would kill all of you for a copy of the score to the original tcm.

A relatively homogeneous decade split for me, apart from '70s peak and '90s dip:

30s: 8
40s: 5
50s: 5
60s: 6
70s: 14
80s: 6
90s: 1
00s: 5

20s: 2
30s: 1
60s: 6
70s: 12
80s: 14
90s: 3
00s: 10
10s: 2

I won't do a country count because that will be a dead giveaway on a couple, but my list skews heavily American.

yeah i only wound up voting for three 90s films, and two of them were big budget slick mainstream some-might-argue-its-not-horror movies, and the other was an arty foreign thing by a noe hugely successful mainstream director. i dont remember it as a great decade for the genre, even tho its when i was consuming this stuff most rabidly.

I had no idea I supported so many movies in the aughts. This has been a good millenia for horror movies.

More of the stats porn everybody loves: with the exception of '75, every year from '73 to '86 is represented in my top 25. '78-'82 seems to be a hot stretch, with ten of my top 25 falling in that range. There's a five year span ('87-'91) with no representatives in my top 25. Which is funny, because that was probably the time in my life (jr. high-ish) when I was most into horror. Although, yeah, I guess a lot of the stuff from that era was pretty shit.

funniest statlet about my ballot is that my top [number] are from the same year, but nothing else on my ballot is from that decade

the other was an arty foreign thing by a noe

irreversible?

Speaking of which - oh man, I forgot Innocence by Lucile Hadzihalilovic. Sorta horror? Eerie, nonetheless.

I feel like there should be a separate thread for soundtracks to these movies because so many of them are SO GOOD.

― former personal denim advisor to the mayor, (La Lechera), Tuesday, May 8, 2012 9:53 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Seriously! I was already thinking the same thing... (I may have only seen like 20% of these movies but I've probably listened to 50% of their scores)

one I've been hunting for years is shock waves. great electronic score by richard einhorn, it turns up on blogs once every couple of years but I always seem to miss out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKgD0I-2PZg

also strongo no need to hulk out here

http://www.mediafire.com/?dqs6t4yauqu68zu

Edward, his score for Dead Of Winter got a CD release last year on the Kritzerland label but yeah Shock Waves seems to remain orphaned...

You guys need to check out La La Land records too -- they have good sales and a lot of oop horror sdtks. That's where I got Creepshow and May (which is really good btw!) among others.

CDs, but better than nothing.

I would wig out if someone could provide me with David Munrow's music from The Devils -- I don't think it's commercially available, is it? I've never found it.

I don't know of any of Munrow's soundtrack work being available. I would really, really like his music for Zardoz too.

La La Land the record label also does tons of great reissues xpost.

I was wondering if I voted for any '90s films and then remembered I forgot to vote for Scream.

Speaking of La La Land, their latest 2 releases are pertinent to thread:

Coming Tuesday May 8, 2012 at 1 pm pst:

MOMMIE DEAREST
Music by Henry Mancini

La-La Land Records and Paramount Pictures present the world premiere release of Henry Mancini’s score to the cult classic MOMMIE DEAREST. This 51 minute presentation features the score as heard in the film, cues cut from the film, source cues and alternate tracks. With it’s grand sweeping themes and lush melodies that only Mancini can dish up this is a must buy Mother’s Day gift for all you Mother’s and “mutha’s” out there. wink Jeff Bond’s notes capture all the behind scenes antics of this Razzie Award winning classic! The movie might be one of those “it’s so bad it’s GOOD!” flicks but the one thing that is undeniably great is Mr. Mancini’s incredible score!

Continuing with our Mother’s Day theme. . .

ROSEMARY’S BABY
Music by Christopher Komeda

This definitive presentation of the Rosemary’s Baby score comes to you courtesy of La-La Land Records, Paramount Pictures and Universal Music Enterprises. Jam-packed with over 70 minutes of music this fantastic cd features the original soundtrack album, the film score, source music and a few bonus tracks. Neil Bulk and Chris Malone have performed miracles with their brilliant audio restoration of the film’s original mono tracks. In depth liners by Scott Bettencourt and John Takis take the listener behind the scenes of the film and the chilling score by one of cinema’s most underrated composers.

OMG!!

I want/need both of those!

I like these La-La Land Records people

I have made many nonregrettable impulse purchases from their website.

Think Creepshow is the only purchase I've made from them so far, but it was incredibly worth it. (The only other horror site I've delved into so far is Fright Rags, but I didn't like the quality of the shirts they print on, unfor.)