Sangre, cuchillos, y tetas --- Horror Film Discussion

[The Mike]

The Evil Dead is the '80s?

I thought it was like '79.

That would be no.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083907/

Filmed in 79, I think.

[Dead & Messed Up]

The Evil Dead is the '80s?

I thought it was like '79.

They started shooting in November of '79, so you weren't far off.

[megladon8]

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I was really pissed off when I saw that, cause that type of zombie (ancient, rail-thin, and fast) is extremely reminiscent of a sequence I wrote in a screenplay back in '05.

]

But once I got over myself, yeah, it was creepy as fuck.

Did you not think that...

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...the whole idea of possession as a virus was really interesting and original? I'd never seen anything like that before, and I thought the film really gave us the perfect balance of answers and questions by the end.

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[Dead & Messed Up]

Horror of the '80s, you say?

1. Gremlins
2. The Evil Dead
3. The Thing
4. Fright Night
5. The Shining
6. The Monster Squad
7. An American Werewolf in London
8. Dead & Buried
9. Re-Animator
10. Evil Dead II

Respectfully:

01. Evil Dead II
02. The Thing
03. Re-Animator
04. The Fly
05. An American Werewolf in London
06. Near Dark
07. Poltergeist
08. The Vanishing
09. Gremlins
10. Hellraiser

[Dead & Messed Up]

Did you not think that...

[

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...the whole idea of possession as a virus was really interesting and original? I'd never seen anything like that before, and I thought the film really gave us the perfect balance of answers and questions by the end.

]

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Oh yeah. In a way, it took me back to how Romero gradually alluded to voodoo zombies more and more in the Dead trilogy. It's a very smart way to allow a scientific disease to have some supernatural resonance. The situations are explicable, but those religious details force you to ask some fundamental questions about the world.

Also, how about that setting? It was like John Doe's apartment as rendered in a Resident Evil game. Terrifying shit.

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[The Mike]

I totally had Poltergeist on my original list, and Hellraiser and Near Dark were fighting for #10.

I'm still confused as to what everyone sees in The Fly, but that's a different story for a different day.

[MadMan]

Horror of the '80s, you say?

1. Gremlins
2. The Evil Dead
3. The Thing
4. Fright Night
5. The Shining
6. The Monster Squad
7. An American Werewolf in London
8. Dead & Buried
9. Re-Animator
10. Evil Dead II

Gremlins as #1? And The Evil Dead was released in 1981, if I remember right. Its great, but Evil Dead II is better. Haven't seen Fright Night, Monster Squad or Dead and Buried yet. The Shinning demands a rewatch.

My list:

1. The Thing (John Carpenter)
2. Re-Animator (Stuart Gordon)
3. Evil Dead II (Sam Rami)
4. An American Werewolf in London (John Landis)
5. Day of the Dead (George A. Romero)
6. The Evil Dead (Sam Rami)
7. Gremlins (Joe Dante)
8. The Return of the Living Dead (Dan O'Bannon)
9. Poltergeist (Tobe Hooper)
10. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick)

HM: Prince of Darkness (John Carpenter), Altered States (Ken Russell), The Howling (Joe Dante), A Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven), Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (Joseph Zito)

[The Mike]

10. The Shinning (Stanley Kubrick)

Are you trying to not get sued?

[MadMan]

Are you trying to not get sued?

Yep :P :lol:

My spell check also said it was correctly spelled, so I didn't bother to look at it again. I'll just blame it on that and move on, heh.

PS: I'm now encouraged to go on and make Top 10 (or Top 5, based on how much I've seen) horror lists for the other decades.

[Dead & Messed Up]

A Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven)

Shit, I knew I forgot one:

01. Evil Dead II
02. The Thing
03. Re-Animator
04. The Fly
05. An American Werewolf in London
06. Near Dark
07. A Nightmare on Elm Street
08. Poltergeist
09. The Vanishing
10. Gremlins

[MadMan]

Well you guys reminded me that I had seen Poltergeist, and thus it made my list. But I think that A Nightmare on Elm Street is a tad overrated, and that Scream is better.

[The Mike]

Yep :P :lol:

My spell check also said it was correctly spelled, so I didn't bother to look at it again. I'll just blame it on that and move on, heh.

PS: I'm now encouraged to go on and make Top 10 (or Top 5, based on how much I've seen) horror lists for the other decades.

It's cool. I'll do anything to make a Simpsons joke. :lol:

[The Mike]

I considered ANOES 3, but not the original. :twisted:

[megladon8]

1.) The Changeling
2.) The Evil Dead
3.) Videodrome
4.) The Thing
5.) An American Werewolf in London
6.) Evil Dead II
7.) The Shining
8.) A Nightmare on Elm Street
9.) From Beyond
10.) Return of the Living Dead

[MadMan]

It's cool. I'll do anything to make a Simpsons joke. :lol:

I'm down with that ritch:

[Dead & Messed Up]

I considered ANOES 3, but not the original. :twisted:

Speaking of which, how's your brain damage treatment going?

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Seriously, how is it going?

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ritch:

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[The Mike]

Speaking of which, how's your brain damage treatment going?

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Seriously, how is it going?

[

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ritch:

]

]

It makes me make this face a lot.

Also, drool.

[The Mike]

Honorable Mentions no one's mentioned yet (because I'm the only one that loves them, no doubt): Waxwork and Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Also, Videodrome rules. Shoulda had that on mine.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Something Wicked This Way Comes.

I actually saw this for the first time this year, and although it was hardly perfect, Jonathan Pryce makes it something special. He is evil.

[Raiders]

1980s horror:

1. Dead Ringers (1988)
2. The Thing (1982)
3. Near Dark (1987)
4. Opera (1987)
5. The Fly (1986)
6. Paperhouse (1988)
7. Santa sangre (1989)
8. Prince of Darkness (1987)
9. Videodrome (1983)
10. Day of the Dead (1985)
11. The Company of Wolves (1984)
12. The Shining (1980)
13. The Stepfather (1987)
14. Return of the Living Dead (1985)
15. The Vanishing (1988)

[Ezee E]

Yeah, that final sequence in [REC] is what confirmed it for me. I thought that it would end with everyone becoming a zombie, no real explanation, simple as that. Would've been fine, but that final sequence basically answers any question you may have had, as well as being the scariest moment of the movie, which shocked me.

I also loved the use of lighting here. While it was all shot on handy-cam, the use of backlighting, or the arrival of the doctor, the narrow hallways with darkened rooms. Pretty much perfect.

[Rowland]

and I do love Hooper's oeuvre.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre - 85
The Funhouse - 68
Poltergeist - 62
Lifeforce - 60
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 - 36
Toolbox Murders - 53

So yeah, I'm mixed. It's interesting how the two polar opposites are his TCM pictures. How is Eaten Alive?

Escape from L.A. - Hahaha, now that was a cool movie. Not particularly art house cinematic excellence, yes, but a damn cool, smart, and exciting film that sets out with very ambitious, far-reaching social sights. Outrageously inspired, reaching its heights with Pam Grier as a SPOiLER transsexual gangster, and the rockin' resolution.

Indeed. Your score is too low. Even the often-tacky special effects work in a meta way

[Rowland]

'70s horror >>> '80s horror

[Bosco B Thug]

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre - 85
The Funhouse - 68
Poltergeist - 62
Lifeforce - 60
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 - 36
Toolbox Murders - 53

So yeah, I'm mixed. It's interesting how the two polar opposites are his TCM pictures. How is Eaten Alive?

Like each and every one of Hooper's films, terribly uneven. Eaten Alive is even more so because the film essentially consists of nothing but mood - it's plotless, arc-less, and mean-spirited, without an emotional or thematic through-line outside of presenting a varied tableau of perversity... which fails to cohere into a film with a singular statement, very much like TCM 2.

But it has the exquisite visuals and cinematography of a Hooper film, and I dubbed it the most Robert Altman-esque horror film I ever saw when I finished it. So I think it's very worth watching.

My thing with Hooper is that, with the possible exception of Romero, I feel as if he is the only Golden Age American horror auteur who approaches directing like a poet.

Indeed. Your score is too low. Even the often-tacky special effects work in a meta way

Yeah, maybe it deserves a six because I'd watch this again in a second over Escape From New York. It's just EfNY is more artsy and refined, and I just need some artsy refinement.

'70s horror >>> '80s horror

I don't think anyone's gonna argue with you there.

[megladon8]

Dead Ringers would be my #1 as well (Cronenberg's best) but I really have a hard time calling it a horror.