The Horror Movie Lovers Thread

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scotland
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Re: The Horror Movie Lovers Thread

Postby scotland » October 9th, 2015, 6:42 pm

Thanks Rev:

Coincidentally when I went to the best horror movies site, it had a top 10 classic horror movie video games list. Talk about an easy segue between here and there. I'll check it out.

There was a site I went to that was to classic horror movies what Dave is to classic video games. One guy, ignoring all the ads and spin of the big sites, going on for years, writing short interesting reviews on a basic text heavy webpage, spanning decades of movies. I will have to try to locate the site again. I appreciate sites that are clearly a hobbyist who loves their hobby, like having knowledgeable friend.

Since you mention House of Wax, and I assume its the Vincent Price version, have you seen the 1933 Mystery of the Wax Museum? The House of Wax is actually a remake of this movie. Its pre-Hays code, and shows how movies may have developed without the family values national censorship board that neutered horror. Even the poster of the movie, with a nude bust of star Fay Wray (of King Kong fame) must have been shocking. The movie also stars Lionel Atwill, who was in a number of good 1930s horror movies. Most famously, he is the monster crippled police inspector in the awesome Son of Frankenstein with Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi (and is the inspiration for Young Frankenstein, but you said you don't like comedy in your horror). Actually, Bride of Frankenstein had some humor in it too, and the wonderful character of Doctor Pretorius - the first Doctor Shrinker type of mad scientist I can think of in the movies.

Try Mystery of the Wax museum then for a pre Hays code horror. Keep in mind the horrific injuries some WWI vets carried, and the scarring in both this movie, and the silent Lon Chaney classic Phantom of the Opera probably touched visceral nerves. It acts in much the same way as the blasted landscape of the Frankenstein films must have evoked the war too. Mystery of the Wax Museum has less horror than the Vincent Price movie, but Fay Wray is likely the very first scream queen between this and King Kong. I find I don't rewatch even the best of the silent horrors, but I will rewatch 1930s talkie horror all the time.

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Rev
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Re: The Horror Movie Lovers Thread

Postby Rev » October 14th, 2015, 12:38 am

scotland wrote:Thanks Rev:

Coincidentally when I went to the best horror movies site, it had a top 10 classic horror movie video games list. Talk about an easy segue between here and there. I'll check it out.

There was a site I went to that was to classic horror movies what Dave is to classic video games. One guy, ignoring all the ads and spin of the big sites, going on for years, writing short interesting reviews on a basic text heavy webpage, spanning decades of movies. I will have to try to locate the site again. I appreciate sites that are clearly a hobbyist who loves their hobby, like having knowledgeable friend.

Since you mention House of Wax, and I assume its the Vincent Price version, have you seen the 1933 Mystery of the Wax Museum? The House of Wax is actually a remake of this movie. Its pre-Hays code, and shows how movies may have developed without the family values national censorship board that neutered horror. Even the poster of the movie, with a nude bust of star Fay Wray (of King Kong fame) must have been shocking. The movie also stars Lionel Atwill, who was in a number of good 1930s horror movies. Most famously, he is the monster crippled police inspector in the awesome Son of Frankenstein with Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi (and is the inspiration for Young Frankenstein, but you said you don't like comedy in your horror). Actually, Bride of Frankenstein had some humor in it too, and the wonderful character of Doctor Pretorius - the first Doctor Shrinker type of mad scientist I can think of in the movies.

Try Mystery of the Wax museum then for a pre Hays code horror. Keep in mind the horrific injuries some WWI vets carried, and the scarring in both this movie, and the silent Lon Chaney classic Phantom of the Opera probably touched visceral nerves. It acts in much the same way as the blasted landscape of the Frankenstein films must have evoked the war too. Mystery of the Wax Museum has less horror than the Vincent Price movie, but Fay Wray is likely the very first scream queen between this and King Kong. I find I don't rewatch even the best of the silent horrors, but I will rewatch 1930s talkie horror all the time.


Hey Scotland,

I would like that site if you could find it. I'm always looking for other sites to recommend horror movies. I've been really happy with some of the recent ones I got recommended from other sites.

I haven't seen Mystery of the Wax museum. I'm not usually into movies that far back but 3 years ago I would have said I was definitely in favor of 1970's+ horror movies, but I've recently seen a lot of solid ones from the 50's and 60's. The few that I've seen from that far back tend to be really hit or miss with me but I really liked the 1950's House of Wax, so I'd probably give it a shot. Thanks for the recommendation. I'll see if I can find it used when I go out this weekend.

I finished watching Frozen and Honeymoon this last week. Both were excellent and offered different takes on the horror genre. Frozen had no "evil" in it, it was just three people put into a really bad situation, being stuck on a ski lift, all alone, for days. The movie doesn't really feel like a horror movie at all until they get stuck up on the ski lift and are all alone. Definitely a good watch if you like your horror movies more realistic (although why they didn't just undress themselves and make rope out of their clothes is beyond me).

Honeymoon was a very slow burning horror film and also played on a very realistic fear, what would happen if your partner went missing and came back different then before. Like the title suggests, the movie takes place during a couple's honeymoon and when the man's wife goes missing one night, he later finds her in the woods, different then before. The movie took inspirations off movies like Body Snatchers but did a good job bringing something new to the table. As the tension slowly builds, the movie takes a much darker tone during the last 30 minutes (the movie is only 84 minutes, so perfect for a slow burning horror film). I'm sad I missed this one when it first came out, as it was definitely one of the best horror movies in 2014 /2015.

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Re: The Horror Movie Lovers Thread

Postby VideoGameCritic » October 21st, 2015, 9:02 pm

Saw The Badadook last night, mainly because I saw you guys discussing it. I found it on Netflix streaming.
My wife and I loved it. Very scary and very original. Couldn't go into my basement after watching that one.

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Rev
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Re: The Horror Movie Lovers Thread

Postby Rev » October 22nd, 2015, 1:29 am

VideoGameCritic wrote:Saw The Badadook last night, mainly because I saw you guys discussing it. I found it on Netflix streaming.
My wife and I loved it. Very scary and very original. Couldn't go into my basement after watching that one.


I'm glad you liked it! I thought it was an awesome film. Between that movie, and a few others that came out in the last year, it seems like modern horror can still make good movies. I've been really impressed with a lot of the movies I've seen recently. I watched We Are Still Here over the weekend and it was one of the better "house haunting" type of movies. A good watch if you can find it under $10.

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Re: The Horror Movie Lovers Thread

Postby Voor » October 22nd, 2015, 5:53 am

FYI: James Rolfe (aka Angry Video Game Nerd) does a horror movie review everyday during the month of October called "Monster Maddness". This is the 9th year. I don't like horror movies and I still enjoy this. They are brief, informative, and usually humorous.

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Re: The Horror Movie Lovers Thread

Postby VideoGameCritic » October 27th, 2015, 11:43 pm

Just watch Insidious and it scared the crap out of my wife and I. Wow.

Saw one called Haunter the other day which I would not recommend. Too confusing and not very scary.

MooTheKow2
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Re: The Horror Movie Lovers Thread

Postby MooTheKow2 » October 28th, 2015, 2:23 pm

VideoGameCritic wrote:Just watch Insidious and it scared the crap out of my wife and I. Wow.

Saw one called Haunter the other day which I would not recommend. Too confusing and not very scary.


Try 'Sinister' if you haven't seen it -- just as frightening. The Conjuring is also creepy as heck (another movie by James Wan - who directed Insidious). Both are of the 'scares the crap out of you with atmosphere and suspense instead of blood and gore'.

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BlasteroidAli
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Re: The Horror Movie Lovers Thread

Postby BlasteroidAli » October 30th, 2015, 9:04 pm

MooTheKow2 wrote:
VideoGameCritic wrote:Just watch Insidious and it scared the crap out of my wife and I. Wow.

Saw one called Haunter the other day which I would not recommend. Too confusing and not very scary.


Try 'Sinister' if you haven't seen it -- just as frightening. The Conjuring is also creepy as heck (another movie by James Wan - who directed Insidious). Both are of the 'scares the crap out of you with atmosphere and suspense instead of blood and gore'.

I found them pretty tame and guessed the endings.

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Re: The Horror Movie Lovers Thread

Postby VideoGameCritic » October 31st, 2015, 10:16 am

I think I mentioned before that Pumpkinhead is an all-time favorite of mine - especially around Halloween. Recently I picked up the special edition Blu Ray and I'm thrilled with it. Not only does the sharper picture expose a lot more detail (including mistakes) but there are tons of extras on the disc. It's really cool to see the actors (in present day) discuss the making of the film. Highly recommended.

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Rev
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Re: The Horror Movie Lovers Thread

Postby Rev » December 6th, 2015, 8:34 pm

To celebrate Christmas, I decided to go see Krampus in theaters. I really wasn't sure what to expect with this movie but I have to say the first 5 minutes of the movie are worth the price of the tickets. If you've ever gotten joy out of watching stupid people go black friday shopping, then you'll laugh. The movie turned out to be more of a comedy than a horror film, with silly monsters, not many scares, and lots of silly moments. The movie felt longer than it was (never a good sign) but held up okay throughout the whole film. It's worth a watch if you like silly holiday movies.


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