Posted on 11/23/2004 9:31:31 PM PST by John Robertson
What's your favorite horror movie...and why? What fried your hair, and still makes it jump if you get a little too tired and you remember a sequence or two from something that scared the stuff out of you.
I've always dismissed horror movies as a waste of time, but the older I get, the more I realize they must serve some function--some cathartic function--because they are an enduring genre, and each generation likes to find its own favorite scary movies. Heard a commentator saying the other day, the reason the country is so preoccuppied with horror films right now is, it's a horror we can "handle," versus the real, terrorist kind of horror.
My mother jumped in her seat so violently that all the popcorn flew out of the Jumbo Bucket she was holding, and landed all over everyone else.
I love all horror. So hard to choose, so I'll just pick the ones I own:
Phantasm (All of them)
Night of the Living Dead (Both versions)
Dawn of the Dead (Both)
Day of the Dead
Night of the Creeps (Hilarious)
Texas Chainsaw (Both)
The Thing (Carpenter)
The Blob (Remake)
--and my all-time favorite, even though I don't own it:
A Nightmare on Elm Street
We've got an epidemic of Type O flu here this week.
The original Night of the Living Dead in black & white gave me nightmares as a kid. Of course, it didn't help that my father was scaring me throughout the movie.
Others I enjoy:
"Hellraiser," disturbing subject.
"Halloween," the original was well done and set you up to scare you rather than gross you out with gore like the later versions and the "Friday the 13th" or "Nightmare on Elm Street" movies.
"Alien." My favorite scene is when you first see the alien ship. It was just so "alien" in its design.
"Jaws," I still hear the music when I'm diving.
"The Birds." I still go fishing at Bodega and get a chuckle when all the birds arrive.
Special mention to a little known film from the late 90s,
"Habit." Low budget film in which it is left up to the viewer to decide if the main character is becoming an alcoholic or a vampire.
Yeah, we bought it too, but my hubby tends to buy a lot of DVDs - it was an exceptionally well done movie, and Hopkins couldn't have been better cast.
I agree. "Signs" was really well done.
I'm not a horror movie guy at all. Can't really stand the stupid plots.
The first "Jeepers Creepers" was actually scary. John Carpenter's "The Thing" is a classic.
"Underworld" has great effects. And Kate Beckinsale. Oh, and Kate Beckinsale.
There's a classy actress.
"Yes, I am a rocket scientist."
Another one that I try to never even think of is "IT". Talk about making yer skin crawl...
I refuse to consider any movie with Kate Beckinsale a horror film.
Dawn of the Dead 1978. it rules. need I say more?
Most modern horror movies that throw guts and blood at me make me more angry than scared. It enrages me to see suffering trivialized (talk to my therapist ;) ). I usually walk away or turn them off (like the Ring was a total bore). If they involve creatures or animals I am usually rooting for them and not interested in the people surviving.
And like others have said, I can't suspend my disbelief long enough to get into the movie if it has stupid people doing stupid things (like all I could think during Blair Witch was "YOU IDIOTS!")
Scariest movie ever for me was Psycho (or anything Hitchcock). Or Nosferatu. Or the orginal Frankenstein or Dracula. OR the true story of Count Vlad or Elizabeth Bathery. :)
I rented the Darko DVD and was glad to see all the additional commentaries and deleted scenes. I rent this movie about 3 or 4 times per year. I may was well buy it.
It seemed the director had a couple of different ideas about the direction of the movie but chose to hold back on revealing too much of his interpretation so that the audience could decide on their own. For instance, the scene wherein Donnie first meets Frank on the golf course. The deleted script reveals more about Frank's purpose, which the director chose to exclude in the final cut.
That reminds me of a joke I heard about Vlad, it goes something like this-
So this bar goes into a guy...
The original Dracula, Frankenstein & Wolf Man scared the heck out of me when I was little. Always watched them alone in the dark. Bought them on DVD at Walmart not long ago. And the Exorcist is a favorite.
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