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

Is Zombie the one where the girl has her eyeball impaled on a jutting wooden splinter in super slow-motion,

Yeah! It's great!

Zombi's the only Fulci film i rate that highly, although Lizard In A Woman's Skin is better from a technical perspective.

xpost In a horror movie poll.

also as eric pointed out on the nom thread, "scary" is a terrible barometer for what is a horror film, since he's only ever been frightened by a handful of films

maybe wikipedia can help

Horror films are a movie genre seeking to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus they may overlap with the fantasy and supernatural genre. Horrors frequently overlap with the thriller genre.[1]

Horror films deal with the viewer's nightmares, hidden worst fears, revulsions and terror of the unknown. Although a good deal of it is about the supernatural, if some films contain a plot about morbidity, serial killers, a disease/virus outbreak and surrealism, they may be termed "horror".[1]

Plots written within the horror genre often involve the intrusion of an evil force, event, or personage, commonly of supernatural origin, into the everyday world. Themes or elements often prevalent in typical horror films include ghosts, torture, gore, werewolves, ancient curses, satanism, demons, vicious animals, vampires, cannibals, haunted houses, zombies, sadism and serial killers. Conversely, stories of the supernatural are not necessarily always a horror movie as well.

I'd recommend you to vote, then, WmC! Do it for Testament's sake!

― Harried Ice Craw (Deric W. Haircare), Monday, April 16, 2012 1:10 PM (32 seconds ago)

Nah, it would feel dishonest. I haven't looked at the whole noms list, but I'd be surprised if I've even seen 20 of them.

Horror films are a movie genre seeking to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural

ergo, patch adams, i accidentally domed your son and the john-travolta-in-drag hairspray should've been nominated as well ...

I'm gonna limit my hardcore nominee stumping to Testament and Possession. If at least some of y'all made a point of seeing those two before voting, I'd be over the moon.

enthusiastically second possession. one of the few films i really think more people need to see before voting. pontypool too!

I thought Testament was a very powerful movie and all, but am a little weirded out at how many people are calling it one of their likely top vote-getters.

In the stew of elements that I feel make for an effective horror film, 'dread' is probably the most prominent. Testament is one of the most dread-full films I've ever seen. It's not a boilerplate horror film and probably all the more effective because it was never intended as such and because it doesn't use any tired formulae in its pursuit to make you feel dread.

lastly, there are 734 movies in the nom list, maybe a dozen of them are not horror movies, that still leaves over 700 real live horror movies for you to choose from

It is pretty horrible how dark the sky gets by the end.

If I did 50, The Sixth Sense wd certainly make ballot

however, I have a Big Poll project due 2 days after this one, so even 20 will be hard.

people can vote for whatever they want on the list ... and i haven't seen testament so i can't judge. it just seemed a bit odd to be included on a horror film poll, and i was curious as to why it was so included!

at least come and see isn't on our list

the beyond is kind of like suspiria's slow brother, it tries to leap over yr aesthetic concerns by going for a similar pervasive atmosphere of terror, which translates to an almost poetic surrealism in some scenes, and a final sequence that is truly haunting. but it is a deeply stupid movie.

Yes, joining in the OTM fest on this. I love The Beyond, particularly the ending, but overall it is silly silly silly. Also gonna OTM carl agatha on the ludicrousness of the dub in The House by the Cemetery.

Please, please, anyone who is thinking of voting for Testament, make sure you watch Threads before you vote. It is far superior, and far far far scarier.

also as eric pointed out on the nom thread, "scary" is a terrible barometer for what is a horror film, since he's only ever been frightened by a handful of films

I wish scary movies scared me more. I LOVE being frightened in a controlled context, but the emotional callouses one can develop indulging in such things have long since dulled any actual sense of visceral fear I once got from horror. Every once in a while, though. something will genuinely give me the heebie-jeebies. I've found that it usually has just as much to do w/ the context in which something is seen as it does the film (or book etc.) itself.

i don't mind the inclusion of films that have almost no relationship to horror as a genre, hell i nominated a bunch of them, but i'll be disappointed if they dominate the results. can't imagine they will, though, so no need to worry about it.

Exactly, if enough people think they're horror films for them to feature in the countdown, they're probably going to be horror films.

Please, please, anyone who is thinking of voting for Testament, make sure you watch Threads before you vote. It is far superior, and far far far scarier.

I do intend to see Threads before I vote. I somehow doubt, though, that British nuclear panic could possibly compare to good ol' American nuke-yoo-lar panic.</arrogantpatriotism>

another film that everyone should see before voting: ingmar bergman's hour of the wolf (vargtimmen). it's a real-deal horror movie in every respect: atmospheric, imaginative, dread-ful and haunted. plus lots of fun, intellectually rewarding and beautiful to look at. the perfect after-dark movie.

So out of curiosity I checked the list and have seen 73 of them, almost exactly 10%. I'm surprised!

Having only just watched it, I enthusiastically second that recommendation. xpost

however, I have a Big Poll project due 2 days after this one, so even 20 will be hard.

Odds I'll extend the ballot window another week are pretty high.

I do intend to see Threads before I vote. I somehow doubt, though, that British nuclear panic could possibly compare to good ol' American nuke-yoo-lar panic.</arrogantpatriotism>

Threads is easily one of the most harrowing movies I've ever seen.

Actually, I believe I was thinking of The Day After, not Testament when I posted that, don't think I've seen the latter one. TDA is also a good film, but totally doesn't compare to Threads.

threads > testament > the day after

Day After is practically a joke next to Testament imho

i will also stan for hour of the wolf. good news, it's available on Netflix Instant and it's only 90 minutes so if y'all have nothing else to do y'all should watch it.

i've only seen a few parts of threads -- the parts immediately before, during and immediately after Sheffield gets nuked. the day after doesn't hold a candle to those scenes.

add some more >>>>>'s then

xp

on the subject of Ingmar-horror, i'll also stan for the virgin spring ... you get to see a young, buff Max von Sydow uproot a birch tree, rip off its branches and flog himself before doing his ass-whuppin'. it's also available on HuluPlus.

The Day After was like a soap opera with some mild sadness in it.

With Threads, I felt like some of the actors actually died making the movie

the day after shook up RonaldRreagan to the point where he thanked the director after he signed a missile treaty with the Soviets. but not even threads could melt Margaret Thatcher's cold reptilian heart.

i thought that the day after, while soapy, eventually managed to be quite powerful. haven't seen threads for comparison.

threads really is in a class by itself, not sure if I'd vote for it in a horror poll tho

I mean it is trying to disturb and horrify, and is wildly successful in doing so, but there's a social conscience aspect to its intent that doesn't really jive w/ my conception of horror

that said SEE THREADS

repeat if you have not seen threads SEE THREADS

this will be your final warning

The Day After is like having your mom give you a long lecture about being careful when walking through the park by yourself at night

Threads is like walking through the park at night and being jumped by three muggers who kick you in the face until all of your teeth are knocked out, jump up and down on each of your limbs until they shatter, then strip you naked, drag you out to the sidewalk and throw your battered body in front of a speeding bus

that makes me never want to see threads. it's a fitting description of stuff like funny games and kidnapped, my single least favorite approach to "horror".

xpost I'd vote for a movie that actually depicted that, provided the muggers were backwoods, incestuous triplets.

i mean, threads is supposed to be more moving that just brutal and despairing, right?

do plan to watch it no matter what

There's a heavy Italian bias to the things i nominated. Along with the big names like Argento, Bava, Fulci and Martino, i'd definitely recommend catching something by Aldo Lado. A lot of his films (Night Train Murders, for example) aren't all that good but the first two he directed, Who Saw Her Die? and The Short Night Of Glass Dolls, are excellent.

Who Saw Her Die? is an obvious riff on Don't Look Now, as George Lazenby rushes around Venice trying to work out who murdered his daughter, but i prefer it in a lot of ways. The Morricone score is one of his best too.

The Short Night Of Glass Dolls is arguably even better. Jean Sorel is found "dead" in the street and carted off to a mortuary. He's actually only paraylsed and has to work out, from his mortician's slab, what happened to him. It has one of the most memorable endings in the genre.

Testament is like discovering that your dog just finished eating an entire box of D-Con.

Except instead of your dog IT'S YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY.

that makes me never want to see threads. it's a fitting description of stuff like funny games and kidnapped, my single least favorite approach to "horror".

see, this is partly why I'd never rep threads as a horror film. it's drama, or maybe heavy dystopian sci-fi. it takes the concept of nuclear winter and extends it out to its logical conclusion in a very matter of fact way. it's harrowing in the same way holocaust films are harrowing. there's nothing gothic or grand guignol about it.

A lot of straight horror films could stand to be more 'matter of fact' and less 'grand guignol'.

I'd actually argue that, in a lot of cases, the extent that a horror film veers away from 'matter of fact' is the extent to which it pulls its punches. I enjoy a great deal of stylistic variation within the genre, but the pulled punches are the reason I find very little of the genre legitimately scary.

see, this is partly why I'd never rep threads as a horror film. it's drama, or maybe heavy dystopian sci-fi. it takes the concept of nuclear winter and extends it out to its logical conclusion in a very matter of fact way. it's harrowing in the same way holocaust films are harrowing. there's nothing gothic or grand guignol about it.

I sort of agree with that, though I do think the ending takes it close to horror. But I am making an exception for its inclusion by voting for it on how much it makes me TERRIFIED, which I'm not going to judge many of the other films by.

Also, I know what DJP's getting at with his analogy (it's brutally intense) but I find it is more the deep dark futility of all action that gets to me, rather than any overt display of brutality.

Oh, I want to second ShariVari's recommendation of Short Night of Glass Dolls, too. Probably won't be high up on my ballot, but is pretty likely to make it in.

Given that The Day After more or less ruined my childhood, I don't think I'm going to watch Threads.

On my first pass through the nominations list, I've already got 53 yeses, 56 maybes, 22 movies to revisit, and 36 that I want to watch before voting.

lolsob

I just culled it down to the 60 I'd actually seen and plan to weed out from there

OH BTW y'all really need to watch Apaches, too

it will ruin your life

Now Apaches has the bluntness and random, wonton death I've come to expect from great horror.