Jan 13, 2015

Someone needs to actually turn this into a movie. I'd pay to see it just for leo's hair/beard.

 

Jan 13, 2015

There's a screening of ' The 400 Blows' at my downtown cinema.. I was thinking about going, I should though.

 

Jan 13, 2015

Rough list... ordering would most likely change if I thought about it some more.

1.) The Shining (1980)
2.) Martyrs (2008)
3.) Videodrome (1982)
4.) Kairo (2001)
5.) The Thing (1982)
6.) Let the Right One In (2008)
7.) The Descent UK Cut (2005)
8.) Audition (1999)
9.) A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)
10.) Antichrist (2009)
11.) Frontière(s) (2007)
12.) Ringu (1998)
13.) An American Werewolf In London (1981)
14.) The Orphanage (2007)
15.) The Devil's Backbone (2001)
16.) Scream (1996)
17.) k--- List (2011)
18.) Trick 'r Treat (2007)
19.) The Host (2006)
20.) Eden Lake (2008)
21.) The Ring (2002)
22.) [REC] 2
23.) Maniac (2012)
24.) The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
25.) Haute tension (2003)
26.) Dog Soldiers (2002)
27.) [REC] (2007)
28.) Wolf Creek (2005)
29.) À l'intérieur (2007)
30.) The House of the Devil (2009)

Honorable mentions: Re-Animator, The Return of the Living Dead, Evil Dead II, The Fly, Day of the Dead, The Evil Dead, Hellraiser, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Lake Mungo, The Devil's Rejects, Dawn of the Dead 04, Saw, Triangle, The Poughkeepsie Tapes.

Films that other people call horror that might be on the list if I did too: Oldboy, I Saw the Devil, Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway, Manhunter, Dead Ringers, Angst, Jacob's Ladder, Silence of the Lambs, Confessions.

 

Jan 13, 2015

@Pinhead Excellent list. Thoughts on The Babadook? And do you not consider a film like Rosemary's Baby to be horror?

 

Jan 13, 2015

That list is only for horror including and after 1980 so I had to exclude Rosemary's Baby and a bunch of other cliche favorites. My top 10 horror in general is pretty set in stone.

1.) Halloween (what originally got me interested in film)
2.) The Shining
3.) Alien
4.) Martyrs
5.) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
6.) Rosemary's Baby
7.) Suspiria
8.) The Thing
9.) The Wicker Man
10.) Night of the Living Dead

As for The Babadook, I throw that in the same category as The Conjuring, Sinister, Poltergeist, and most other paranormal films to come out since The Exorcist. There's only so far you can go with the haunted house story, and for the most part it just seems to be recycling what countless other films have done in the past. I love Essie Davis, and the multiple layers it throws onto typical genre cliches with the mental health subtext is more than admirable, but for the most part The Babadook is pretty standard stuff. I completely understand the love it has gotten because everything from the atmosphere to the Babadook itself is executed at an extremely high level, I've just seen it done countless times and I'm becoming completely burnt out on these types of films.

EDIT: Still a fan tho

 

Jan 13, 2015

I thought the mental health issues were what really pushed the film over the edge for me. I was content to say it was an expertly crafted horror film with a great performance, but the subtext makes it much more thoughtful than something like Poltergeist or Amityville Horror.

Also, on a bit of a controversial note, I'm not a big Halloween fan. I think it's good, and respect the innovation and impact the film had, but it may not even be in my top 5 for Carpenter.

 

Jan 13, 2015

Come on man.. that's blasphemy..lol

 

Jan 13, 2015

spoilers for those who haven't seen The Babadook

My sole problem with the mental health stuff is that it isn't explored as much as I would have liked. Where something like Polanski's Repulsion may deal with the downward spiral into insanity with overbearing heavy-handedness (not a complaint!), I found that Kent went about it with too much subtlety. By the end of the film where The Babadook is pretty much confirmed to be real, we're left with only a few small scenes and dialogue intricacies to make our decision about whether or not we should take what we saw with the monster itself literally. That internal, mental manifestation type of horror is 1000x more scary to me than a ghost in a children's book so I wish we could have gotten more out of that side of the film.

But that's more of a personal gripe than an actual complaint about the quality of the film.

Ehhh, not so controversial. By today's standards, Halloween is nothing special. It was just the first horror film I saw that made me realize the genre could be more than sex and gore, and completely opened the cinematic door for me. I'll always love it for that, even if some of the little stuff (Michael driving a car?) is incredibly stupid.

Nostalgia aside, I do still think it remains a very effective horror film. Out of curiosity, what would your top five Carpenter be?

The ending which basically rips off The Blair Witch Project takes the first Rec down a few pegs. Still dope!

 

Jan 13, 2015

Interesting point of view.. I didn't really think that though. Speaking of Blair Witch, that is one boring film.. and I had to fast foward to the ending..lol

 

Jan 13, 2015

Don't have much of an opinion on the Blair Witch right now. Like I said a page or two ago, I loved it when I was younger. Have no idea if it holds up and I really don't have any interest in watching it again anytime soon.

 

Jan 13, 2015

Smart man

 

Jan 13, 2015

Definitely excited after reading this..
http://insidemovies.ew.com/2015/01/13/strangers-david-fincher-ben-affleck/

 

Jan 14, 2015

Probably..
1. The Thing
2. Assault on Precinct 13
3. They Live
4. In The Mouth of Madness
5. Escape From N.Y.

The Fog/Halloween would be up for 6th.

I wish I could rank Prince of Darkness higher. I love so much about that film, but he let it devolve into a sub-par zombie flick for no reason.

Could've been a classic.

Eh, I think the ending was better than blair witch. Blair witch frustrates me honestly. It was fairly good at establishing an unsettling vibe and placing you in the moment, but the lack of any actual plot or resolution, or h--- just understanding what's going on frustrates me. I know it's an intentional creative choice (we're supposed to see this through these people's eyes and they were terrified and confused), but it doesn't make me like the film more. Particularly on repeat viewings, it doesn't hold up very well.

 

Jan 14, 2015

Don't disagree that the ending was better in Rec, it's just such a blatant ripoff of what the Blair Witch did that it can't be excused. Soooo many FF films have done that same finish to the point where I just expect it now.

That's found-footage for you.

 

Jan 14, 2015

So I've written an essay on how culture affects literary adaptations. It's a s-----y one but yeah I've chosen Dracula because there are a thousand of adaptation of that one. The movies I've chosen are Nosferatu, Drakula in Istanbul and Bram Stoker's Dracula. I've watched them all last night.

Nosferatu: 7/10 right now. Will probably change when I see it again.

Dracula in Istanbul: Turkish movie. Did a couple of things first like giving Dracula his iconic fangs. Not good enough. 4.5/10

Bram Stoker's Dracula: Loved this one. Besides Keanu Reeves the acting was great. The score was fantastic and it has enough energy to not to bore me while watching the same story for the third time. Gary Oldman's Dracula is deliciously creepy and sometimes downright disgusting. Even though the movie amped the eroticism of the book and made the innocent girls almost vixens, the movie does the eroticism justice. I'm not that much of a fan of the love story part but I will live. 8/10

These are the only movies I've seen in 2015. I've lost my glasses, so I can't go to the theater while Birdman is playing.

 

Jan 14, 2015

@irbis, I'd be interested in reading that essay, if you feel like sharing.

 

Jan 14, 2015

It's gonna be a short film also starring Brad Pitt. http://www.missinfo.tv/index.php/ro...-star-in-martin-scorsese-directed-short-film/

 

Jan 14, 2015

 

Jan 14, 2015

Funny you selected Dracula for this topic. I wrote on on Phantom of the Opera a few years ago: http://theinclusive.net/article.php?id=323

Sorry about your glasses