The Horror Movie Lovers Thread

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Rev
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The Horror Movie Lovers Thread

Postby Rev » May 7th, 2015, 11:05 pm

I figured that a dedicated forum to those of us that like horror movies might be a nice addition to this forum. Feel free to talk about any horror movie that you like a lot, questions you had, or even just recommendations to fellow fans.

For starters, what do you guys think have been some of the better horror movies in the last few years. Here are some of the ones that I've liked a lot 2010+.

1. Your Next- I thought this was an excellent horror film. I've always been a fan of rooting for the victims and this was just an awesome movie. To see a strong woman literally fighting off the killers of this movie was great. I also loved all the over the top action, gory death scenes, and just how awesome she was. This movie was excellent.

2. Sinister- I liked this movie a lot as well. The first time I saw this movie I was blown away and was really freaked out by those 5 film clips. The ending of the movie kind of dragged but I've found that as I watched the movie multiple times I've liked the ending more and more.

3. The Babadook- Excellent horror film, probably the best of 2014 IMO. A great traditional horror film and I really thought the Babadook book was awesome and I would love to buy a copy of the book but I heard it costs like $80.

4. It Follows- mentioned it in the It Follows thread. Awesome movie.

5. American Mary- I don't think this movie has had much press but it was a really interesting horror film. It is one of the few movies that my partner actually enjoyed. Worth looking into- I can go into why I thought it's worth a look if anyone's interested.

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ptdebate
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Re: The Horror Movie Lovers Thread

Postby ptdebate » May 8th, 2015, 12:26 pm

1) Babadook- This movie was so great for me because of how deftly it resisted concluding whether or not the Babadook was actually real or just a symptom of the protagonist's creeping paranoia and insomnia.

2) It Follows- see the dedicated thread :P

3) Prometheus- Not as good as Alien but certainly better than Alien: Resurrection, Prometheus was a welcome return of the Horror/Scifi subgenre that lay dormant for some time. Its greatest failure lay in deciding upon a consistent and menacing threat and giving that threat a scary face, which is essential for body horror. I also don't like Fassbender as a villain and the special effects negate what I loved most about the original Alien films--100% real, physical sets.

4) Paranormal Activity- The sequels do little to add to the original concept but I appreciate how much this movie accomplishes with such spartan minimalism. The budget was only $35,000!

Movie I want to see:

Unfriended. This looks like a great silly horror movie with a well-engineered and topical hook based on social media.

Tron
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Re: The Horror Movie Lovers Thread

Postby Tron » May 9th, 2015, 1:40 am

Magic (1978) one of my faves. Fats reminds me of Rudy from the pinball machine Funhouse, my favorite Pin.

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velcrozombie
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Re: The Horror Movie Lovers Thread

Postby velcrozombie » May 9th, 2015, 9:21 am

Unfortunately, I haven't seen any new horror films in the last few years. I'm looking forward to The Babadook and It Follows. I rented You're Next recently but never got around to watching it. I'm pretty sure the most recent horror movie I've seen was Cabin in the Woods, which was really more of a comedic deconstruction of horror movies than anything else (although I enjoyed it a great deal).

I did watch a couple of older horror movies during the last few weeks, though:

The Brood (1979) - An early David Cronenberg movie, before Scanners and Videodrome put him on the map. The movie deals a type of psychological therapy that takes negative emotions and attempts to rid the patient of them by transforming them into physical manifestations on the patient's body. Low-budget, offbeat, somewhat slow-moving, but I never lost interest and the movie had a couple of great performances from Oliver Reed and Samantha Eggar. The movie turns into a pretty bizarre, disturbing bit of body horror (previewing some of the concepts that Cronenberg would work more with on The Fly) and ends on a down note. Worth it if you're already a Cronenberg fan or if the description sounds interesting to you.

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)
- Extremely low-budget horror movie featuring the first appearance of Michael Rooker as the title character. Henry (loosely based on killer Henry Lee Lucas) and Otis are a couple of ex-convicts living in urban squalor. Henry (who's already a hardened killer) introduces Otis to murder, and soon the two are prowling the streets of Chicago and filming their exploits. The movie portraits Henry and Otis less like cartoons or evil geniuses and more like a couple of bored, uneducated sociopaths with compulsions they can't control. There are some awkward scenes (it was the director's first film), the music is terrible throughout and a few exploitive bits feel more like a Troma movie than anything else, but the two lead performances are scarily convincing and there are some genuinely disturbing scenes and even some effective black comedy. If you ignore the "scariest movie of all-time" accolades this movie gets from time-to-time and just take it for what it is, it's absolutely worth a watch.

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Rev
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Re: The Horror Movie Lovers Thread

Postby Rev » May 9th, 2015, 1:52 pm

ptdebate wrote:4) Paranormal Activity- The sequels do little to add to the original concept but I appreciate how much this movie accomplishes with such spartan minimalism. The budget was only $35,000!


I really like Paranormal Activity as well. I've seen all 4 movies, plus the side movie PA: The Marked Ones. I thought the first was obviously the best of the bunch and it was amazing how the movie managed to deliver scares with such a small budget. I thought it was probably the most effective small budget horror film since The Blair Witch Project. These types of movies are excellent at making you feel uneasy with such simple things, such as doors opening and closing, hearing noises, etc. All things that you can experience at your own home. I do like the first 3 original movies as they kind of continue the story. The 4th one was utter trash. The Marked Ones was also pretty good and I like how it sort of connected to the other films (especially towards the end).

velcrozombie wrote:Cabin in the Woods, which was really more of a comedic deconstruction of horror movies than anything else (although I enjoyed it a great deal)


I liked this one as well. It was a very fun horror movie to watch and I'd throw it in the same kind of category as Your Next. The Cabin in the Woods was also really great at having the audience root for the underdog, similar to Your Next in that way as well.

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Atariboy
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Re: The Horror Movie Lovers Thread

Postby Atariboy » May 11th, 2015, 2:25 am

The best scary movie as far as I see it, is 1944's 'The Uninvited' from Paramount Pictures (No relation, I believe, to the modern movie of the same name). It stars Ray Milland (Best known for The Lost Weekend and Dial M for Murder) and Ruth Hussey (The Philadelphia Story).

The setting is perfect, it's well written, and the cast were some of the best in their field. And the appearance of a convincing looking ghost is quite an effect that manages to hold up well despite being produced many decades before CGI effects made such a thing all but trivial to accomplish.

Was very happy when this film, shamefully absent for far too many years on DVD, finally made it to Blu-Ray with a beautiful restoration from the original 35mm negatives and a 2K digital HD transfer that prepares it for hopefully another 70 years of airings.

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JustLikeHeaven
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Re: The Horror Movie Lovers Thread

Postby JustLikeHeaven » May 11th, 2015, 11:20 am

I'm a HUGE horror movie lover. Though I can't say that I really enjoy too much new stuff. The horror genre has been in a rut for a while especially with films that make it theater. There is some quality stuff making it out on the Direct to DVD and streaming services. I need to watch the Babadook and It Follows.

My tastes in horror heavily favors stuff from the 70s and 80s. I feel like the practical special effects of that era really make some of those movies shine. I'm also a huge fan of the classic Universal Monster films as well as Hammer. To be honest, I love a great schlocky horror film...you know the kind. So bad it's amazing. I will routinely invite friends over with the promise of excellent food and drink...then hit them with some piece of cinematic garbage. I'm always on the hunt for some gigantic piece of crap that will make me howl with laughter.

Though expensive to collect, Scream Factory (a horror imprint of Shout Factory), has been releasing high quality Blu-Rays of cult classic horror films. The collection is full of films that range from trash to treasures...but totally worth checking out for any horror fan.

As for recent horror films that I've dug:

Cabin in the Woods - This film was such a breathe of fresh air. It's a shame that it didn't really find an audience in theaters...but it seems to be having decent success in home video market. It was directed by Drew Goddard who recently killed it with the amazing Daredevil TV show. The guy has talent and he made the most of his directing debut with Cabin. It's a fun film, that defies expectation and is very re-watchable.

Drag Me to Hell - Sam Raimi's return to horror after a 15 year hiatus or so was worth the wait. A great roller coaster of a film, that was filled with scares, laughs and gross out gags. The film is pretty basic and plays out more like a EC comics Tales From the Crypt episode (that's a compliment). The simple plot is executed flawlessly and when it's over you're like damn...Raimi make another Evil Dead! As an aside, I can't wait for the new Starz TV Evil Dead series!!!

Piranha 3D - Pure schlock! This film is an absolute riot. It's not for the easily offended or anyone that is above things done in bad taste. It's got a crazy amount of T&A, fun cameos, hammy acting, excellent pacing and gore galore. Ever since I saw Jaws as a kid I've been semi obsessed with aquatic creature run amok films. This one is a hilarious 90 minutes of insanity.

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velcrozombie
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Re: The Horror Movie Lovers Thread

Postby velcrozombie » May 12th, 2015, 10:18 am

JustLikeHeaven wrote:Drag Me to Hell - Sam Raimi's return to horror after a 15 year hiatus or so was worth the wait. A great roller coaster of a film, that was filled with scares, laughs and gross out gags. The film is pretty basic and plays out more like a EC comics Tales From the Crypt episode (that's a compliment). The simple plot is executed flawlessly and when it's over you're like damn...Raimi make another Evil Dead! As an aside, I can't wait for the new Starz TV Evil Dead series!!!


I saw this by myself in an empty theater and had a blast! It was enhanced by the fact that the air-conditioning was still set ridiculously high despite it only being in the 60s that day. It really was an Evil Dead movie in all but name, although occasionally I think the balance of between horror and comedy would tip a little bit out of balance into straight-up silliness (the bit in the garage with anvil and the ice skate, for instance). I'm actually afraid to watch it again, since I don't know how well it would hold up to another viewing.

I'm going to be stretching the definition of "recent" here, but Neil Marshall's The Descent (2005) is pretty great. The setting you choose for your horror movie is important, and it's hard to pick a scarier setting than a bunch of unexplored, pitch-black caverns with passages that you can barely squeeze through. It's also interesting for the cast, which is populated entirely by athletic young women. There are creatures, but the caverns and the mistrust and paranoia among the characters themselves end up being the bigger dangers. I don't know how I feel about the twist ending, but this is a really solid movie otherwise.

Also, while not really a horror movie, I enjoyed Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd (2007) way more than anything else he's done in more than a decade - probably because the source material is so good and it plays so well to Burton's strengths.

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Rev
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Re: The Horror Movie Lovers Thread

Postby Rev » May 12th, 2015, 12:19 pm

The descent was an awesome horror movie. I love how the whole movie was done. The sequel was pretty good as well. I hated the ending though (of the second one).

Drag me to hell was also another really good film. Some scenes were kind of gross (like the old woman sinking her teeth into the girl) but it seemed like a movie that just celebrated the genre. The movie was over the top but that's what made it so good.

Tron
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Re: The Horror Movie Lovers Thread

Postby Tron » May 13th, 2015, 9:43 pm

Dementia 13 (1963). One of my favorites.


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