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

Oh, man, I'd forgotten about Outer Space. I was super into that when I first saw it. I don't know how seriously I'd take it as a horror film nomination, though (similar to my half-serious nomination for Hopital Brut inasmuch as they're more senses-battering experimental films than horror per se).

I would, however, like to suggest a very last moment write-in candidate which I'm surprised no one nominated:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S03Aw5HULU

NAKED BLOOD (aka "Splatter: Naked Blood", originally Nekeddo burâddo: Megyaku) - 1996, d. Hisayu Sato

I'd intended to rep this film early on, but kept putting it off. Now it's probably too late to change anyone's mind, especially as it's not the easiest thing to get a hold of - or endure. Still, it's one of my favorite horror films of the last couple decades, and this seems as good a place as any to discuss it. Basically, Naked Blood tells the simple story of a gifted but profoundly alienated young man who invents a drug (called "myson" or perhaps "my son") that causes people to experience pain as pleasure. His fond but distant mother is a medical researcher, and he tests his new drug on her hapless patients, with predictably gruesome results.

Naked Blood earned some cult notoriety in its day due to the grisly "self pleasurings" that result from the drug's application, but it's anything but a grim & gritty torture show. Though the idea of self-mutilation is ghastly and the gore is plentiful, what we see on screen is often more campy than stomach-churning (keep an eye out for the one truly unforgettable exception to this rule). More troubling to some may be the fact that, since the patients are all attractive young women and the "protagonist" spies on them voyeuristically in order to track the progress of his experiment, the result is at least arguably misogynist.

Moral reservations aside, this is a far stranger and more challenging film than its cartoonish American title might suggest. It combines a careful and understated look at the point where depressive disassociation slides over into something like psychosis - a common theme in Japanese horror and drama - with absurdist art-experimentation realized on a shoestring budget. Though it definitely delivers the "splatter" its American title promises, it's ultimately more concerned with symbolic transcendence and the possibility of love in a seemingly loveless world than with gore for gore's sake. Plus telepathic cactii. Bizarre, anguished and even moving, it deserves a much wider audience.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gdLoL6h5MFM/S1ucQdbu3jI/AAAAAAAAAJU/kjG3xBxjnmU/s1600/snapshot20100124014855.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gdLoL6h5MFM/S1ucR7ueFHI/AAAAAAAAAJc/Y01NUS5Pu_Y/s1600/snapshot20100124014922.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gdLoL6h5MFM/S1ucTHTSo1I/AAAAAAAAAJk/lYBw5RoMZFI/s1600/snapshot20100124014952.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gdLoL6h5MFM/S1ucnd6jchI/AAAAAAAAAKk/xkkSdm5S-hc/s1600/snapshot20100124015315.jpg

xp yeah, i feel like a dummy for never even considering meshes of the afternoon. it's not as aggressively horrorific as outer space, but seems at least as worthy a candidate as lot of other stuff that got nominated. amer seems to borrow more than a little from it.

OK, 15 ballots now.

Weird anomaly: Two films are currently tied for the most votes overall. One of the two is ranked #2 overall, whereas the other one is all the way down at #25. Token votes anyone?

Also, only one movie has more than one #1 vote. It has three.

HMMM. Interesting. I had no idea Wishmaster was so well-regarded.

lol

i will probably cast the lone vote for wishmaster 2 though

Hey guys, I just watched Outer Space at work with the sound off. I think I remembered to breathe (?) because I didn't pass out. This is going p high on my list. The sound track will determine how high, but I could never see it w/the sound on and be v happy with what just happened to me.

The sound is more than half the terror imo.

Guys, if people are voting Maya Deren, then I'm on board. There's a lot of experimental film out there that's unsettling that maybe could be considered horror but probably isn't, but Meshes of the Afternoon has enough elements of horror that I will vote for it comfortably.

If you haven't seen Meshes, do! (and then vote for it)

I'm looking forward to watching Outer Space again, with sound.

There was a Tscherkassky season on Mubi in Europe recently. The films are probably still there if anyone has access.

I will probably vote for Meshes, now that I've remembered it long after the nomination period has ended.

i just sent in my ballot -- i'll defend everything on my list, but i don't expect about 40%-50% of them to show up in the final tally.

watched Frankenheimer's Seconds last night, will be placing it pretty high i think. ticks a lot of my boxes.

really not a horror film unless '60s orgies give you the willies.

well i'd better not vote for it then. remind me which of the films nominated for Top 100 horror films aren't actually horror films then otherwise this is gonna be one big waste of time for everyone.

those scenes in cali are p horrifying, at least in part b/c the movie would be a lot better w/o them

no way, it wouldn't be half as interesting w/out them.

Pretty sure Seconds ends with a drill kill or something close to it, right? I think that's horror enough.

genuinely don't see how it could be considered not, paranoid and with a weird, uncanny feel.

plus the drill kill obv.

I want to put a ballot in but feel like there's huge blind spots (mostly in the last decade) that I feel remiss about

no one's ever going to see everything, just send a ballot

plus I like handicapping recent films, as good as horror has been in the past decade there are only 2 movies on my ballot from that period

Oh crap nobody nominated The Asphyx either!

― i love the large auns pictures! (Phil D.), Sunday, April 22, 2012 7:17 PM

I thought about it, not sure why i didn't. I wouldn't vote for it but it's a good flick. kind of obscure I guess? super-unique premise.

― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Sunday, April 22, 2012 7:43 PM (1 week ago)

by the way, a remastered asphyx was just released on blu-ray. would like to see it again in widescreen as I have a fond but dim memory of a decades-ago viewing.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Asphyx-Remastered-Edition-Blu-ray/dp/B0074V61KG

voted

awesome xpost

Anyone within driving distance of Chicago? There's gonna be a free showing of GOD TOLD ME TO and Cohen's new movie tomorrow, w/ Q & A session.

wow, would love to see that, but i am not within anything like driving distance, sadly. can't find any info on what his "new movie" might be, either. kind of excited to find out.

Ohhh, man. Of course that happens after I've left Chicago.

if I had know y'all were gonna start repping experimental films I would've nommed olivier de sagazan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-S862p69B0

So awes.

Wow.

It's good to see that Mummenschanz is still going strong.

transfiguration, by olivier de sagazan

^^^OOOOOOOOOOOH

huh, that's really good. never heard of him

only scary part is wondering if he'll poke an eye out

wow, that was great! wouldn't make my top 50 list, but damn cool.

ok i swear i will get my ballot in before the deadline eric but i have strange circus showing up on friday and i need to see if it places

lol, that is a fucked-up movie

well then given my tastes i better see it first

it's probably gonna be on my list fwiw

Ballot submitted! It's more mainstream than I expected, once all was said and done, but I threw a few decent curveballs in there that will hopefully have some effect. Also, I never really considered just how many Puppet Master movies there are, but it thankfully made the top quarter of my ballot pretty much a no-brainer.

working on compiling mine and it is tough!

^ same here, plan to get it in tonight though. tomorrow maybe...

my ballot is definitely mainstream/"classical" horror (e.g., i have a few silents in there) b/c that's about as far into the horror genre as i'm normally willing to go. so there's very little of the buckets-of-blood-and-gore stuff on my ballot.

20 ballots in now. A movie I presumed would be in the top 10 finally managed to get there with the most recent batch of ballots, after languishing in the 40s or 50s for awhile now.

Still plenty of room to push your favorites into the top 100. Right now there are eight movies in there on the strength of a mere 2 ballots.

I'm going to try to get it together tonight or tomorrow -- I treat deadlines like due dates, unfortunately.

Hey Eric, did you say there might be a short extension to the voting deadline? I'm working my ass off at the moment, and don't see me whittling down my incredibly long shortlist at any time before the actual deadline day...