Halloween! What are some movies you like to watch during this time?

[kyuuei]

I too watch sleepy hollow!

Hocus Pocus

The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966) Part 1 - YouTube The Ghost and Mr. Chicken

Old scary movies--The original Friday the 13th, the Exorcism, Nosferatu YouTube A classic!

Arachnophobia as well! That one's on Youtube too..

Oh! and the Interview with a Vampire series!

I can't believe I forgot my faithful every year here: Addams family. I watch values each thanksgiving.

I saw ouija this year. Pretty good.

 

[Totenkindly]

I can't believe I forgot my faithful every year here: Addams family. I watch values each thanksgiving.

I saw ouija this year. Pretty good.

Do you mean the Ouija 2 that just came out recently?
It seems to have gotten unexpectedly great reviews -- surpassing the original.
So it's now on my "check it out" list.

 

[1487610420]

dr strange

 

[Thalassa]

Last House on the Left (original) was clearly influenced by the culture and that era so has dated poorly in some ways. Like Kong 76 which wallowed in the apathy of the post hippie dream

Jason and Freddy hold up because they deal with timeless themes. Boogeymen and Nightmares. Transcends any one era or culture. I could go all Joseph Campbell on those films. There is a sense of an anti-hero's journey with a lot of the great horror icons.

Mmmmm....are they really timeless themes, or did you just love them when you were a kid? I at least have the humility to admit that my love of Freddy Kruger has more to do with nostalgia than film quality, I mean yes the theme of being haunted by inner demons or dreams is timeless...but Freddy Kruger was a child molester who made sexual jokes, those films are fucking sick, and I just marvel at how popular they were in the 80's-90's...but people honestly think society has gone down hill? That eleven year old girls are more in danger now? I do love NoES though.

I have always hated Jason, I think the Friday the 13th movies are absolutely boring and stupid after the first one, and I like slasher films like Black Christmas 1974 and made sure to watch the reboot, as well as both versions of My Bloody Valentine, and some of the lesser known or less popular ones like Happy Birthday to Me, April Fool's Day and The House on Sorority Row...a lot of that stuff is about atmosphere, if you like the style of say, Dario Argento or Tobe Hooper, or Brian DePalma, you might just continue watching films in that style for nostalgic reasons.

The Exorcist did scare me and I still think it's one of the better written horror films. I agree Last House on the Left is era specific, but most horror movies are (our generation is obsessed with disease/HIV in sublimated forms and "zombies" in the various mindless forms that can take) ...my ex loved that one, it was one of his favorites, though I never liked it.

Horror movies are pretty subjective, I almost wonder if it has anything to do with MBTI preference. Some people can't watch them at all, or can only watch "horror lite" like Donnie Darko, Frankenstein, or kids movies like pretty much anything directed by Tim Burton.

The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a work of art to me, but I find the original Halloween films so-so, and I think Rob Zombie gave them an intensity and character development they previously lacked. I think he's a hyperreality artist, like Park-Chan Wook's Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, that sort of style, either you like it or you don't.

Alice Sweet Alice from the 70's is a great cult film, and so is Night of the Demons from the 80's - though they have completely different feel. Alice Sweet Alice is like an Italian giallo, and Night of the Demons is almost pure cheezball fun. There's something about that "self-conscious" horror that I love though, like Night of the Demons, Rob Zombie does that too.

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I saw ouija this year. Pretty good.

The little girl is a good actress, I enjoyed it. I thought it was a better sequel than Conjuring 2.

 

[1487610420]

 

[Cellmold]

Dead Alive:

 

[Lark]

I think that was also released with the title Brain Dead.

I personally like The Halloween Tree, an animated adaptation of a Ray Bradbury tale, though I havent gotten around to watching it this year.

 

[Totenkindly]

I think that was also released with the title Brain Dead.

yeah, it was...

ahhh Peter Jackson in his good ol' spatter-hound g(l)ory days....

 

[Totenkindly]

So far as Argento goes, I've only seen Suspiria (last week). I do have to say, it was beautifully done in total art-house fashion -- the scenes were beautifully framed, great use of bold areas of color to set tone and mood, great look and feel, wonderful vaulted architecture and sweeping staircases, and it was so dramatically over the top I had to enjoy it for what it was.

About the only shocking part was the use of the frame to obscure something from one of the characters (and the viewer), so it catches one off-guard, but that was pretty brilliant -- if it were shot today, I'm pretty sure the blood content would have been a lot higher in that scene. Altogether I enjoyed it more on an "artsy" level than a horror level per se.

 

[Thalassa]

Archetypes was probably a better word than themes, and yes, I do think archetypes are timeless and appear throughout history. The boogeyman is not a creation of the 80s. Freddy and Jason are no different than boogeymen in old folk stories. I think the early Jason films are rife with atmosphere, if not original in their execution, but the first, Jasonless entry deserves credit for reinvigorating the slasher subgenre--inspiring a number of copycat films such as The Burning (check out a young Jason Alexander)--now if you compare a lot of the mainstream slasher flicks that flooded the market after friday the 13th, I still find most to be inferior to the second and fourth friday the 13th, but I admit this is a matter of taste. I am aware that Carpenter and Cunningham owe A LOT to earlier directors like Argento. Carpenter bordered on plagiarism with his Halloween theme--it was heavily influenced by the theme from Profondo Rosso, although it could be argued Profondo Rosso's theme was ripped off from Mike Oldfield's "tubular bells."

If you really want to discuss atmosphere in films from the 70s-80s, I think Fulci trumps both Argento and his American counterparts. However, his films often lacked in the department of logic and storytelling. I think it's an acceptable tradeoff though. I'd also take Lenzi over Argento. Dario is the go-to name drop for film people who want to sound intellectual. "Oh you like Jason movies? Pffff...Argento"

You remind me of a film minor we used to hang out with. We stopped inviting her on camping trips.

Re:last sentence....I'm guessing it's because you didn't like the same films?

In the NOES films I identified I think with all of the female protagonists, and the Friday the 13th series just didn't interest me.

I'm not trying to sound intellectual, I actually have these feelings, whether you agree or not. I also like Fulci, and I have seen Profondo Rosso (you mean Deep Red) but most people are familiar with Hooper, DiPalma, and Argento, so I'm not name dropping, I'm listing directors that people who aren't complete horror nerds recognize.

You honestly seem defensive. I don't think I'd express my worship for Rob Zombie if I were a pseudo-intellectual film snob...they tend to implicitly trash Rob Zombie, in my observation, and hold up Carpenter as the blue print...I genuinely observe more character development which I think should be obvious to anyone paying attention, that Zombie made Michael Myers human, and pulled a stunt in Halloween 2 that actually brought tears to my eyes for one of the characters. I also appreciate his humor and aesthetic.

Oh well.

 

[Yama]

hocus pocus is my halloween jam

 

[Frosty]

Horror ones. Ones I havent seen.

I generally like to watch charlie brown durig the holidays- but the halloween special is my least favorite because... I find it sad. The great pumpkin- the rocks- all... blegh.

Id rather watch someones face violently ripped off than watch a face drop when they waste their whole halloween waiting for the damn great pumpkin!

Anyways. Netflix was my halloween friend this season.

 

[Totenkindly]

Horror ones. Ones I havent seen.

I generally like to watch charlie brown durig the holidays- but the halloween special is my least favorite because... I find it sad. The great pumpkin- the rocks- all... blegh.

Id rather watch someones face violently ripped off than watch a face drop when they waste their whole halloween waiting for the damn great pumpkin!

Anyways. Netflix was my halloween friend this season.

I'd like to see "It's the Great Pumpkin" reenvisioned as a slasher Asian-ghost werewolf film.

You know, where the Great Pumpkin comes out making glottal noises in its throat ("tock-tock-tock") and swarming all over its victims when it rises from the pumpkin patch, turning Linus and his pals into pod-person-pumpkins that then are smashed unwittingly by Franklin and Pigpen on Nov 1, the vandals that they are.

And Charlie Brown with his sheet with all the holes in it goes batshit crazy screaming "Let me kick the ball! Kick the ball!" and stalks Lucy around the house with a kitchen knife until he finally corners her in the closet while Shroeder is playing freaky organ music with half of his face burned off by acid.

Meanwhile, Snoopy can go all feral, growing fangs and a spiky hoary hide and tear Sally apart while she's sobbing over Linus getting turned into a pod person.

.,.. And then the Little Red Hair Girl wakes up in bed and says, "Thank God it was just a dream," and gets on the bus.... and then this big-clawed hand comes through the front window and drags her mother through it screaming as the bus bursts into flames and she realizes she is the new star of "DRIVE ME TO HELL."



EDIT: haha, who knows what art is on the 'net

 

[Thalassa]

No, that wasn't the reason.



I honestly can't remember much from the Zombie versions. They tried to humanize Myers which I disagreed with, but that's a difference of visions between Zombie and Carpenter.

And I don't know why Carpenter is held in such high esteem with the film nerds. I love his films but they're really not that groundbreaking; he just knew what worked and didn't work.

Although I think Big Trouble in Little China is actually a lot more clever and well executed than it's given credit and was ahead of its time in some respects...I don't think 1986 audiences were ready for that type of self-reference and satire/parody in action/adventure and it was marketed by 20th Century Fox as a straight action film, which it wasn't. There was no way it could compete with the type of action films audiences wanted in '86. It's not a film that neatly fits into any one genre, even if it began its life as little more than an updated western.

Well you also missed the point of my original post and that was horror films are largely subjective preferences, and I agreed to say that NOES is questionable in its "timelessness" just like 13th, so I didn't insult you or hold myself up. I just challenged you to not make your personal preference an objective standard, because I did major in literature for three years, and I do question timelessness in even my own favorite films.

Also, you may be unfairly judging people who don't like Jason and prefer Argento films. ..in many cases they may not be trying to sound smart or superior, but just really hate the Jason films and like their horror to have atmospheric nuance AND THAT'S OK. More people know Argento, like I mentioned previously, especially since his daughter became a Gen X sensation briefly.

My ex was a hard core horror film collector and had seen films you probably have never heard of, and he would rattle on about giallo directors, and try to educate me on the background of each one. But dude, some of those films are bad too, it's not like all of the early European directors were superior, though they were certainly influential.

I think it was unfair of you to personally attack me without clarifying what I meant or my intention. I'm not the individual you stopped inviting on camping trips. I was attempting to have a conversation about horror, which I mistakenly assumed you could be more detached, since you said LHOTL was purely confined to its time.

I don't hate John Carpenter, he's just not one of my favorites.

 

[kyuuei]

Do you mean the Ouija 2 that just came out recently?
It seems to have gotten unexpectedly great reviews -- surpassing the original.
So it's now on my "check it out" list.

Yes that one! It was worth it, most def. A little corny at times, mostly awesome and a few creepy parts. Not the best, but not bad at all.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Well you also missed the point of my original post and that was horror films are largely subjective preferences, and I agreed to say that NOES is questionable in its "timelessness" just like 13th, so I didn't insult you or hold myself up. I just challenged you to not make your personal preference an objective standard, because I did major in literature for three years, and I do question timelessness in even my own favorite films.

Also, you may be unfairly judging people who don't like Jason and prefer Argento films. ..in many cases they may not be trying to sound smart or superior, but just really hate the Jason films and like their horror to have atmospheric nuance AND THAT'S OK. More people know Argento, like I mentioned previously, especially since his daughter became a Gen X sensation briefly.

My ex was a hard core horror film collector and had seen films you probably have never heard of, and he would rattle on about giallo directors, and try to educate me on the background of each one. But dude, some of those films are bad too, it's not like all of the early European directors were superior, though they were certainly influential.

I think it was unfair of you to personally attack me without clarifying what I meant or my intention. I'm not the individual you stopped inviting on camping trips. I was attempting to have a conversation about horror, which I mistakenly assumed you could be more detached, since you said LHOTL was purely confined to its time.

I don't hate John Carpenter, he's just not one of my favorites.

Sorry. That was rude. I am deleting that post.

 

[Totenkindly]

Um, so, what... are we deleting all of our posts now? it's making the thread harder to track, plus the discussion had actually been worthwhile in terms of the films being discussed.

 

[Flâneuse]

The Wicker Man (original version from 1973) didn't just scare me - it mindfucked me about as badly as any movie ever has, for various reasons. The fact that I knew absolutely nothing about it the first time I watched it and was completely unprepared for that ending didn't help.

 

[LEGERdeMAIN]

Grizzly Man
Salo
Enter the Void
The Proposition

 

[Totenkindly]

The Wicker Man didn't just scare me - it mindfucked me about as badly as any movie ever has, for various reasons. The fact that I knew absolutely nothing about it the first time I watched it and was completely unprepared for that ending didn't help.

The original Wicker Man? (vs the Nick Cage 2006 version?)

Yes, it's a slow build, but boy is that ending intense.

Grizzly Man
Salo
Enter the Void
The Proposition

I was surprised to see there was a Criterion edition of Salo. Is it worth a watch? I've suffered through other movies that are considered controversial or disturbing (like A Serbian Film), so....

Herzog did a decent job with Grizzly Man (it felt like a fair treatment), and there's a lot of Treadwell footage in there. A pretty chilling narrative...