A Bloody Good Time 10.16.08: The 100 Greatest Horror Films Ever Made, Part 3: #60-41
Posted by Joseph Lee on 10.16.2008
We're halfway done, and we've got some classics and some underrated gems.
Welcome to A Bloody Good Time. No sense in big introductions, let's get right into it with some reader comments.
Guest #5067 says: In Nolan, we trust!
Nolan should totally do a horror film. What this has to do with what I said, I have no idea.
Toddo returns with: Anyone remember the myth of two seperate endings for this film? Supposedly in the Japanese version of the film, Godzilla emerged victorious. This is untrue of course, as back then Kong was considered the bigger draw, even in Japan. That is why he was give top billing, and the 'win'.
Yeah, when I was a kid I really thought the alternate endings were out there and wanted to see Godzilla won. Unfortunately, Kong won in all versions.
411's own Trevor Snyder says: By the way, I've never seen the 28 Weeks Later poster that Joseph used for this, but it's pretty kick-ass. I want.
That's a pretty good poster, but my favorite is the one with the biohazard logos talking about quarantine. It was quite an awesome poster.
Another fellow 411-er, Owain J. Brimfield says: I hope Joseph is laughing as heartily as I am at the sight of all the addled muppets raising hell on these articles, who believe they have a better idea of Joseph's favourite horror movies than he does himself..
Oh my, yes. But hey, it's their right.
matrix1004 says: Why is this column nowhere to be found on the main Movies/TV page?! It was up for 1 day, then it disappeared.
I don't control what stays up and what doesn't, but I will help out readers by linking you to Part 1 and Part 2
And now, Part 3, where we count down #60-41!
#60: Slither(2006)
Directed By: James Gunn
Starring: Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, Michael Rooker, Gregg Henry, Tania Saulnier, Don Thompson, Jenna Fischer
Plot: A meteor crashes in a small town and infects Grant, who goes onto become a horrific monster and infects the entire town, leaving a small group in charge of stopping them.
It's hilarious. Slither is a horror-comedy, much like Night of the Creeps that works on multiple levels. It has the gross-out stuff with slugs and generally goo-filled gore. It also has a lot of funny situations (one character's name is GRANT GRANT) and lines (suplied by Gregg Henry) and kept me rolling. It's like a Troma film (which makes sense because James Gunn wrote for them). Slither was the right combination of gore and giggles and it's a shame it didn't find an audience in theatres.
#59: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Directed By: Don Siegel
Starring: Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, King Donovan, Carolyn Jones, Larry Gates
Plot: A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.
This movie has been remade at least four times (possibly more) and with good reason. It's a great story. Everyone you know looks the same, sounds the same, but doesn't act the same. Something about them is off. They have no emotion. Soon you realize that if you go to sleep, you will also be replaced. What happens to the people who are replaced? We never know. But they're never seen again. Anyone who finds out is likely to be hunted and forced to join the mob. The story was very approrpriate due to the political climate when it came out, but it's still quite terrifying on it's own today. The remakes vary from good to bad, but the original is a classic.
#58: Wes Craven's New Nightmare(1994)
Directed By: Wes Craven
Starring: Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund, John Saxon, Miko Hughes, Wes Craven
Plot: A demonic force has chosen Freddy Krueger as its portal to the real world. Can Heather play the part of Nancy one last time and trap the evil trying to enter our world?
Wes Craven, tired of the direction the Nightmare movies were making, decided to write an original story to kill Freddy off once and for all. Two years before Scream, New Nightmare was a self-referential horror film that never tried to poke fun at it's material. However it did turn a spotlight onto Hollywood and the way they tend to gravitate towards these types of tales (even before film). Freddy is at his most menacing and most evil since the original here, threatening to take over the mind of a child. This Freddy is even more mean-spirited and has no problems torturing Heather Langenkamp, the heroine who stopped him in the films. There are some surreal moments and the film also features some nice little scares.
#57: Ôdishon(1999)
Directed By: Takashi Miike
Starring: Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina
Plot: Widower takes an offer to screen girls at a special audition, arranged for him by a friend to find him a new wife. The one he fancies is not who she appears to be after all...
This movie is very slow starting out. A man is really lonely and holds an audition for girls to be his new wife. He meets someone that he adores. They laugh, they love, they have fun. Then she tells him she will wait for his call. And she does...and we get a look into the type of person she really is. Audition is an extremely unnerving, disturbing film, it's very surreal and the final scene will be stuck in your memory for days after watching it. Lots of people like to throw this movie in with the torture films, but outside of one scene it doesn't have any. It's a slow building film with lots of bizarre scenes and a climax that rivals some of the very best for how off-putting it is.
#56: Seven(1995)
Directed By: David Fincher
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey, R. Lee Ermey
Plot: Two cops, one new and one about to retire, are after a serial killer using the seven deadly sins as his MO.
Is it a straight-up horror movie? No, not at all. That's why it doesn't rank higher. But Seven is a great murder-mystery thriller, with an unnerving performance from Kevin Spacey that's up there with other killers such as Hannial Lecter. In fact, if you say Seven isn't horror, then you might as well say that Silence of the Lambs isn't horror too. In addition to Spacey's performance, it's a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as an M.O. So we get rather grotesque depictions of these sins. The scene when they discover "sloth", is a very very freaky scene. Also the final scene is classic suspense that most horror films (especially today) wish they could come up with.
#55: El Orfanato(2007)
Directed By: Juan Antonio Bayona
Starring: Belen Rueda, Geraldine Chaplin, Fernando Cayo, Mabel Rivera, Roger Princep, Montserrat Carulla, Edgar Vivar
Plot: A woman brings her family back to her childhood home, where she opens an orphanage for handicapped children. Before long, her son starts to communicate with an invisible new friend.
Produced by Guillermo del Toro, I wasn't expecting much when I sat down to watch this recent horror film. Then I was blown away. It's a ghost story, it's a family story, it's a story about a lost child. It has a very strong sense of dread attached to it and that builds and builds through the movie until the audience was jumping at anything. This movie really knows how to get under your skin and stay there throughout it's duration. The movie is also very heartbreaking, as you'll learn as it goes on. I didn't think I would love it as much as I did, but The Orphanage is a great horror film.
#54: Friday the 13th(1980)
Directed By: Sean S. Cunningham
Starring: Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Harry Crosby, Jeannine Taylor, Robbi Morgan, Kevin Bacon
Plot: Camp counselors are hunted down one by one by a mysterious killer at Camp Crystal Lake.
It's the one that started it all. It gave rise to many slashers just like it and eventually gave birth to Jason Voorhees. It's also highly regarded for the surprise of Betsy Palmer as Mrs. Voorhees. She hadn't been seen as anything close to the role, and it shocked a lot of people. This movie is also memorable for killing Kevin Bacon with an arrow through the throat, in one of his earliest film roles. I feel that this film tends to be overrated, and credited with a slasher boom that it was merely a part of, as opposed to creating. It may be just like any other slasher, but it gave birth to one of the greatest movie monsters of all time and for that it deserves placement here.
#53: The Ring(2002)
Directed By: Gore Verbinski
Starring: Naomi Watts, Daveigh Chase, Martin Henderson, David Dorfman, Brian Cox, Jane Alexander, Lindsay Frost, Amber Tamblyn, Rachael Bella
Plot: A young journalist must investigate a mysterious videotape which seems to cause the death of anyone in a week of viewing it.
Another remake that surpasses the original (mostly by removing the psychic subplot that I hated), The Ring was responsible for the Asian remake boom. While other Asian remakes tend to be mediocre or very bad, this one is superb. From start to finish, you'll be on the edge of your seat. This manages to take everything that a horror movie is supposed to have, and make it good. You care about the characters, you're caught up in the story, and you get scared when you're supposed to. Plus there's this aura of death floating about the entire thing that is especially creepy. Finally, the climax of Samara coming out of the TV, made me jump out of my seat the first time I saw it. That was the only time I've ever done that in a theater.
#52: Candyman(1992)
Directed By: Bernard Rose
Starring: Virginia Madsen, Tony Todd, Xander Berkeley, Vanessa A. Williams
Plot: An old tale says that if you say "candyman" five time whilst looking into a mirror, then "he" will appear behind you and cut you in two. The heroine of this story is writing a thesis on such tales. During her investigations, she encounters the "candyman".
Taking the "Bloody Mary" urban legend to a whole new level, Candyman adapts Clive Barker's story "The Forbidden" into a terrifying tale. Tony Todd owns this one as the titular character. Like other great horror films, Candyman makes great use of atmosphere. It's a slasher, but it doesn't really play like one. The Candyman, like other great movie monsters, is a tragic character. He didn't choose to be what he is, but yet if you say his name five times, he will destroy you. Soon he targets one woman whom he wants to be his bride and begins killing anyone in his way. Candyman is a little like the Universal monsters, updated for the 90's.
#51: The Others(2001)
Directed By: Alejandro Amenabar
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Alakina Mann, Christopher Eccleston, Fionnula Flanagan, Elaine Cassidy, James Bentley
Plot: A woman who lives in a darkened old house with her two photosensitive children becomes convinced that her family home is haunted.
Ghost stories tend to be much better overall than many other horror films. The Others is no exception. Like The Orphanage above, it's a slow moving film. The sense of dread is present throughout in this house, surrounded by fog, in the middle of nowhere, they may or may not be haunted. Is there a twist ending? Yes. However I think it's a good one because it comes out of left field. The Others is creepy, spooky, and best of all, extremely well-acted. Nicole Kidman puts on a one-woman show here investigating the things that go bump in the night.
#50: Pet Semetary(1989)
Directed By: Mary Lambert
Starring: Dale Midkiff, Fred Gwynne, Denise Crosby, Brad Greenquist, Miko Hughes, Blaze Berdahl, Susan Blommaert
Plot: The Creed family's cat is killed after wondering onto the highway. An elderly neighbor shows the father to an isolated hill behind the local Pet Cemetery and instructs him to bury the deceased feline there. Soon other deaths occur and the Creeds learn that sometimes dead is better.
This is probably one of my personal favorite horror films as I feel it works even today as a creepy movie. It was about a man who discover a burial ground that brings the dead back to life, with terrible results. It was considered a moderate hit in the box office, and received favorable reviews from critics. Miko Hughes is very creepy here, something he tried to emulate with New Nightmare but didn't always pull off. However, in this movie, when he tells his daddy that he wants to "play" with him, does it ever turn up the creepiness level. It just goes to show the lengths a man will go to, just to make sure that his family stays together.
Plot: A mysterious and vengeful spirit marks and pursues anybody who dares enter the house in which it resides.
Ignore the remake and sequels. This is the definitive version, and the best version of The Grudge. The ending is very different, it clears a lot of things up and provides enough shock value to send you away happy. This one has a couple of creepy chill-inducing scenes that it's American counterpart didn't. There's the scene in the bathroom, the added story of Izumi was one of the scariest parts of the entire movie, and the scene of the two ghosts hovering over the bed of Rika was enough to bring shudders as well. The director does a good job of taking common fears and twisting them. For example, instead of the monster being under your bed, it's hovering above it, it's on the end, it's under your covers where you're supposed to be safe. There's some twists you dont' see coming and I loved sitting there for it. Ju-On is a worthy horror film if you can get past the crazy narrative.
#48: Dawn of the Dead(2004)
Directed By: Zack Snyder
Starring: Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, Kevin Zegers, Mekhi Phifer, Kim Poirier
Plot: A nurse, a policeman, a young married couple, a salesman, and other survivors of a worldwide plague that is producing aggressive, flesh-eating zombies, take refuge in a mega Midwestern shopping mall.
Dawn of the Dead. A classic movie. Should never have been remade right? Right. Does it matter when it comes to this remake? No. This movie tries hard to be, and in some ways succeeds, a tribute to the Romero zombie films. That's where it works. The story is pretty much the same. Survivors of an epidemic of zombies hide out in a mall until help arrives. But as with the people before them, they couldn't stay and do nothing or there would be no movie. They try to escape and more zombies get in and all hell breaks loose. The zombies run this time, which pissed a lot of people off, but it adds an unpredictability factor to this remake. There are some very disturbing scenes (like the zombie baby) and lots of gore for any fans of these types of films.
#47: Cube(1997)
Directed By: Vincenzo Natali
Starring: Nicole de Boer, Nicky Guadagni, David Hewlett, Andrew Miller
Plot: 7 complete strangers of widely varying personality characteristics are involuntarily placed in an endless kafkaesque maze containing deadly traps.
Before Saw, there was Cube. Cube is almost the same story. Take a group of random people, throw them into a situation where there is a lot of traps, tell them to escape. This movie relies on character development, and there will be scenes of a bunch of people stuck in one room talking. This may seem boring to you, but it soon reveals exactly who is who. There are no stereotypes here, and everyone is not what they appear to be. The traps themselves are a little unrealistic, but so is a giant cube with hundreds of rooms. The movie flows great and the traps are deadly enough, with some gore here and there. The death count is actually kind of low but the movie is good enough to make up for that.
#46: The Devil's Rejects(2005)
Directed By: Rob Zombie
Starring: Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Sheri Moon, William Forsythe
Plot: A family of serial killers are on the run and being hunted by a vengeful sherrif.
Not everyone likes Rob Zombie. Say what you will about his Halloween remake (I actually enjoyed it) or House of 1000 Corpses (it's okay), but Devil's Rejects is a very effective horror film. The first thing it does is get right under your skin as these sick, depraved people torture everyone they can, even while on the run. This film is not for everyone. It's very relentless, it does not let up and it's very sadistic. There's a lot of gore, but that's not really what matters. What matters is the fact you will feel like you need a shower afterwards. It actually attempts, at one point, to make the sherrif just as twisted as the killers. There are no innocents here, and everyone is evil. Rob Zombie gets a lot of crap for his movies, but this one is just an epic journey into depravity.
#45: Child's Play(1988)
Directed By: Tom Holland
Starring: Catherine Hicks, Chris Sarandon, Brad Dourif, Alex Vincent, Dinah Manoff, Tommy Swerdlow, Jack Colvin, Neil Giuntoli
Plot:Young Andy Barclay gets the doll he wanted. However, he did not know it was alive!
What can I say about Child's Play that hasn't already been said? It's the movie that gave us Chucky. However before he was making jokes and being the anti-hero, this movie tried to make him scary. If, in fact, it was even Chucky that was doing the killing. While I knew who was the villian (his face is plastered on the VHS case), this movie is built in a way that it attempts to make you believe that Andy is in fact the killer. This makes the reveal of Chucky actually being able to talk all the more effective. They try everything to take him down, but he just won't die. This draws out the final battle and makes it more chilling.
#44: Funny Games(1997)
Directed By: Michael Haneke
Starring: Susanne Lothar, Ulrich Muhe, Arno Frisch, Frank Giering
Plot: Two psychotic young men take a mother, father, and son hostage in their vacation cabin and force them to play sadistic "games" with one another for their own amusement.
I considered throwing the remake up in this spot, but since they're the same movie and same level of quality I'll stick with the original. This film is not for the weak of heart. It's all about torture. Some of its' implied, most of it is psychological, but it's still torture. These two guys just lay waste to this family and are very relentless in doing so. All in the pursuit of fun for them. That's the worst part. They think it's funny. They think it's just a game. They will not stop playing until the family is dead, then they move on. This film starts out slow, but once it gets going it does not let up.
#43: Day of the Dead(1985)
Directed By: George A. Romero
Starring: Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander, Joseph Pilato, Jarlath Conroy, Antoine Dileo, Richard Liberty, Sherman Howard
Plot: A small group of military officers and scientists dwell in an underground bunker as the world above is overrun by zombies.
Even one of the weaker Romero zombie films is better than a lot of other horror films. Day of the Dead may be considered the lesser of the Dead saga, but it's still a very bleak look at society. The world this movie takes place in is almost post-apocalyptic. Zombies have overrun almost everything and survivors are taking refuge wherever they can. In this military base, they even perform experiments on the zombies to see how they work. This gives the horror genre Bub. Bub is not your average zombie. This movie has the traditional zombie elements and the standard Romero commentary which, as I've said, puts it about most horror fare.
#42: Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn(1987)
Directed By: Sam Raimi
Starring: Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry, Danny Hicks, Kassie DePaiva, Ted Raimi
Plot: Picking up where the first left off, Ash is all alone against the forces of the Deadites. Just as they take his hand and start to drive him insane, a new group of people come to the cabin and are trapped.
I loved the original Evil Dead and expected to be just as happy with this one. This lacks some things that the original has. For example, it doesn't have as many scares. But it does make up for that with an overflow of over-the-top, slapstick humor. Where else can you see a man cut off his own hand, go to war with it, and trap it with a copy of "A Farewell to Arms"? Bruce Campbell effectively turns into the ass-kicking hero we all know him ass, and for the first half hour or so he leads a one-man show of comedy. Ted Raimi also deserves some praise for his role as the mother in the basement, Henrietta. He somehow manages to be creepy and funny at the same time, which I didn't even think was possible. Evil Dead 2 isn't as funny as Army of Darkness and it's not as scary as The Evil Dead. It's an amalgamation of the two, taking the best parts of each and combining them into a gory, scary, hilarious concoction.
#41: Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon(2007)
Directed By: Scott Glosserman
Starring: Nathan Baesel, Robert Englund, Angela Goethals, Kate Lang Johnson
Plot: The next great psycho horror slasher has given a documentary crew exclusive access to his life as he plans his reign of terror over the sleepy town of Glen Echo, all the while deconstructing the conventions and archetypes of the horror genre for them.
I guarantee you that you will leave this film feeling satisfied. Behind the Mask takes everything you love about slashers and turns them on their head, while at the same time providing an obvious love of the genre with it's homages and cameos. As Leslie begins his quest to become a great serial killer, the tricks of the trade are revealed and true fans of a good slasher film will laugh to themselves knowingly and applaud this movie for what it's doing. This is probably one of the smartest slasher films you'll ever see. It's very much like Scream in the way that it makes fun of horror conventions but ends up playing to them. It even features a twist that works and the bizarre turn of Robert Englund as...the good guy? Englund plays a Dr. Loomis to Leslie's Michael Myers. It's something I didn't see coming, but loved the direction they went with it. This movie has a lot of love of it's roots, and I have a lot of love for this movie. I can't even begin to give away the many things that go so well for it, because it has so many little touches and lines that it would be a crime to do so. You just have to see it for yourself.
That's it for this week. As you can see we are halfway done. There are only two parts left and next week we break into the top 40.
Posted By: Guest#2504 (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 12:42 AM
Thanks for the constructive feedback, 2504.
Posted By: Guest#0630 (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 01:23 AM
Ah, man, I want that Child's Play poster.
I'll have to check out "The Orphan." I had no idea what it was, but I heard it was really good.
Posted By: Guest#3632 (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 02:45 AM
pretty good list thusfar, but the Ring should be ranked much higher, in my humble opinion. 52 horror flicks that are better? no way man.
Posted By: Neuce6 (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 03:01 AM
Gee whiz Mister!! You sure did shoot a pretty big, sticky wad during this installation. My paw says that anyone who ranks the Evil Dead sequel at 42 better have a damned good reason for it.. or I'm getting grounded!
Posted By: Butters (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 05:31 AM
The fact that you have Evil Dead II so low has ruined this list for me. SHAME!!!
Posted By: Peter (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 06:07 AM
Damn you sir for not including Event Horizon somewhere on this list. That movie gets no respect. It's my personal favorite sci-fi horror movie. That or Aliens. However, just when this list couldn't get any dumber, I go over last week again and notice that you TOTALLY REDEEMED YOURSELF by including In The Mouth Of Madness, Session 9, and Nightmare 3. Good call on Pet Sematary ,New Nightmare, and Cube too. Also thanks again my friend for introducing me to Behind The Mask a while back over on our "other" internet hangout. That flick rocked.
Posted By: R8DR cWo (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 06:44 AM
This list gets better and better, and it's nice to see that it's not just "pure" horror being included. 'Day of the Dead' remains one of the three scariest films I've seen.
Posted By: Owain J. Brimfield (Registered) on October 16, 2008 at 08:23 AM
I like the list. Good work.
Posted By: Doucas (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 08:23 AM
You have some really good pics here, but I thought behind the mask was very disappointing. It was so damn pretentious.
Posted By: Jeremy (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 08:44 AM
FRAILTY should be in the top 20 if youve seen it!!!!
nice list so far brother
Posted By: L I A M (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 08:52 AM
You should have made the top #50, obviously putting Se7en in the list is evidence you couldn't think of 100 good horror movies. Se7en is drama, not horror.
Posted By: guest (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 09:07 AM
Don't really buy The Cube or The Others being higher than Saw or Jaws. However, I suppose horror is such a wide genre that it'd be hard to properly rate them
Posted By: mr_wishart (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 09:15 AM
Audition should be in the top 10. You have it too far down, it was a great flick.
Where is Ghost Story? Hopefully in the next segment.
Posted By: Jim (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 10:03 AM
Cube is a great movie. I watched a double header of Cube and then The Cell, I didnt sleep well. I wonder if the cell is on the list. I always saw behind the mask and dismissed it I'll check it out. Damn no 28days later thats a good thing I hope.
Posted By: Adam (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 10:30 AM
Reading this list is like strolling down memory lane. I have stopped and added more than a few on my NetFlix que. And for the record, Devils Rejects kick major, MAJOR ass!
Posted By: APrince66 (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 11:13 AM
Recently Caught Behind the Mask on Starz on Demand... I was thouroughly suprised by the flick. The way it played off of slasher flick killers being real, and killing is just a "business" they are in.. Great flick, and a good, even if somewhat predictable, twist about 'survivor girl'.
I remember watching Pet Cemetary as a kid, and that one dude scared the crap out of me... Not the kid, or the creepy sister, but that Pascow guy scared the crap out of me.
But was also pretty sad at the end when Gage was walking away from his dad talking about "no fair, no fair". breaks my heart..
I just noticed that Semetary is spelled differently than the traditional Cemetery... Anyone know why that was?
Posted By: Toddo (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 12:10 PM
Toddo, it was spelled like that on the sign as the characters in the book & movie were walking into the 'Semetary.' It's how the kids who started the cemetary spelled it.
Posted By: Peter (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 12:55 PM
First off, I'm glad that I'm not the only person to actually admit to jumping when that chick pops out of the TV from The Ring. Very, very good picks for this round. Looking forward to the next installment.
Posted By: Dwayne W. (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 01:06 PM
Evil Dead 2 needs to be higher.
I doubt we will see love for Clive Barker's less known films like Lord of Illusions or Nightbreed, but I'm a fan of both.
In The Mouth of Madness needs good placement, as that's one of the mind-fuckiest movies out there
Posted By: M:-X (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 02:06 PM
First let me preface my comments by saying I get that this is Joseph's list and there are no "right" or "wrong" answers.
After so many winners on the prior two batches, only three of these twenty are films I've both seen and enojoyed: Friday the 13th, Child's Play and Seven.
Audition? AAAAHHH!!! A friend lent me Audition last year and insisted I watch, saying nothing of its content or genre. It was playing back in my head for a week and I thought I'd never get it out. It wasn't scary but was very disturbing in a way that makes me never want to see it again. Torture is different than horror and not to my liking.
I didn't like Wes Craven's New Nightmare despite being a Freddy fan. The whole premise was just too hokey for me.
The Ring had me rolling my eyes after maybe 15 minutes and I just quit on it, so take that for what it's worth.
Pet Semetary was awful to me, just an icky movie I didn't enjoy. Scary? Sure, but not the good kind for my taste.
Candyman? Silly and nonsensical to me, I hated it start to finish. I mean really, bees???
The Grudge? Gadzooks, I HATED that film. If you have played the Fatal Frame video games this was completely tame by comparison. Add a lack of speech from the monster and no inventive kills and it was a snoozefest.
Zombies and body snatching have never done it for me, so I leave those to personal taste.
I won't say "bad list" or anything, but it's puzzling how these 20 diverge from my taste after I agreed with so many of the prior 40 films.
And again, PLEASE don't make Psycho #1. A film that was only scary for a total of about one minute can't possibly be the best horror film ever, it just can't. Opinions can't be wrong, but some can be very questionable.
Posted By: Shockmaster (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 02:31 PM
Here's my take on some of the films listed:
Slither - Oh, totally. Best line? "I'm soooo hungry...toss me some o' that possum over there..."
Body Snatchers - Dug the remake with Donald Sutherland much more than the original. Not to say the original is bad or outdated, but the paranoia and suspense is greater in the 2nd movie I think.
New Nightmare - It's usually a toss-up between this and Dream Warriors (thanks for including this last week, btw) as my fave in the Elm Street series.
Audition - Currently the top of the Netflix queue.
The Orphanage - Meh...kinda boring. Decent flick, just not very engaging.
Candyman - Yeah. Urban horror at its finest.
Ju-On - I guess I'll have to give this a try. I absolutely hated the Grudge, but I'll take your word on this one.
Dawn of the Dead - Completely agree.
Devil's Rejects - I prefer House of 1000 Corpses. The characters make this fun, though.
Funny Games - Another one I may have to try someday. Sounds like a tough movie to watch plus I understand it was made as a sort of social commentary on the desensitization of viewing graphic violence. So I don't know if I'm comfortable watching something that is setup to make me feel like a bad person for watching it.
Evil Dead 2 - Every time I've shown this to others, I always get the same eyeball-rolling and huffing and puffing at the beginning. By the end of the movie, those same folks are begging to watch it again.
Behind the Mask - Okay, I'm convinced now. This also goes in the Netflix queue.
Looking forward to next week's column!
Posted By: JMAC (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 02:35 PM
Se7en is not a horror flick, neither is Silence of the Lambs... they are unnerving and atmospheric but not horror flicks. Cube isn't a horror flick either, its a sci fi movie.
Posted By: Eddie Chicago (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 03:13 PM
lol 3 movies in this part that were spoofed by south park: dawn of the dead, candyman, and pet semetary
Posted By: Ryan (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 03:47 PM
make that 4. invasion of the body snatchers
Posted By: Ryan (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 03:48 PM
I just don't get why alot of people like New Nightmare. I liked the idea behind it, but Craven failed to take it to it's full extent for me (aka it needed more Freddy), so I found the movie boring.
I figured out The Others ending pretty easily. It's ok, but I wouldn't put it on any best list.
Slither was cute, but forgettable.
I just don't care for Rings or Grudges.
Devils Rejects was surprisgly good, and you're talking to someone who didn't care for Corpses. I also kinda liked the Halloween remake.
But you get MAJOR points for Cube. Cube 2 was equally awesome. Never really thought of it as horror, but you do make some compelling points.
Posted By: JLAJRC (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 03:56 PM
I haven't seen the original Ju-On but the American version was terrible
Posted By: Guest#9362 (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 04:09 PM
Behind the Mask! Hell yeah, I called that one last week. Really cool movie. I wonder if Henry:Portrait of a Serial Killer is gonna be anywhere on this list. Not really horror but pretty disturbing.
Audition was boring as shit.
Posted By: Jimbo (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 05:44 PM
The ring?????! Oh no a wet lil girl is going to get me? NO!!!!!!!!!!!! 2 hours of my life i'll never get back
Posted By: scotty231 (Registered) on October 16, 2008 at 05:52 PM
Behind the Mask is one of my favorite movies to come out in a long times. Leslie is just so damn likeable.
And Pet Semetary? Little scared me more than Victor Pascow and Zelda's twisted backed sister.
Posted By: Twitch (Registered) on October 16, 2008 at 06:10 PM
The Ring should be wayyyyyyyyyyyy higher. It was so goddam creepy and I swear I got paranoid answering the phone for about a week.
I actually preferd the Japanese version, sure it has some annoying non sensical plot but the whole atmosphere was so goddam creepy, plus the final scene with Sadako coming out the TV is 1000 times better than the hollywood version.
I hope IT (1st part not 2nd) makes it into the top lot, for me that film is totally underrated.
Look at me I'm just rambling now
Posted By: Andrew Barbarash (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 06:12 PM
The list is a blast so far. I don't agree with everything, but I see a lot of movies I like (and a few I've forgotten about) here.
Child's Play scared the hell out of me as a kid. I think if I were older when I saw it (and if they hadn't stuck Chucky holding a knife right on the VHS box, as was said), I might've gone in for the whole "Andy's the killer" plot they were going for. I guess in the theaters, that must've been a hell of a nice twist.
All Romero's Dead movies kick ass (yes, even Diary, which I deem a good movie with horrible actors). I always saw each one as excelling at a different aspect of horror...Night was great in it's boldness and building of suspense. Dawn had great characters that you cared about (something nobody does anymore). Day was great splatter stuff and showed how far Savini had come.
I absolutely dispised the American version of Funny Games. It's infuriatingly manipulative, pretentious, and the worst kind of shallow: Shallow that pretends to be deep. If the original is identical to it, I have no desire to see it. Pure garbage.
I just saw Candyman for the first time in a while and I actually think it's improved with time. Having grown up in a big, and at the time dangerous city, there were moments in the first half of the film where the housing project itself was creepier than the Candyman.
I'm early guessing either Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Psycho, or Halloween for #1, by the way.
Posted By: BJC (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 06:36 PM
I think the dead movies should be higher on the list personally. That's a great series of movies. I've seen most of these and and dawn the dead should have been ranked higher to me but I'm also a zombie fan. Seven I don't consider that horror at all I would put that in suspense file. Great list though.
Posted By: halloween (Guest) on October 16, 2008 at 08:13 PM
Nice list so far, Joseph. Despite my saying that I've never really that interested in J-Horror stuff, you may be inspiring me to check some out...as long as Hellraiser is Number One.
Posted By: Lucas Huddleston (Registered) on October 16, 2008 at 11:44 PM
Dammit, once again I had to go searching for this to finish reading it the next day! Seriously man, stand up for yourself and tell 411 not to bury this after 24 hours. How long did it take you to write all this? And they can't even give you a link on the TV/Movies page! Why is this not under "columns" on the main page? BS!
Posted By: matrix1004 (Guest) on October 17, 2008 at 09:02 AM
Are you all serious about The Ring?! I liked the movie and thought it was good, until the ending. EVERYBODY I know hated when she came out of the TV! I was so dumb & cheesy. I can't tell you how many times I've heard, "The movie would've been great if it had ending 5 minutes sooner". And you people liked that part?!
Posted By: matrix1004 (Guest) on October 17, 2008 at 10:25 AM
I'm actually quite surprised to see the ring up there.
I thought it would go right under your "Over-rated" category.
Maybe it's a Canadian thing. Either way, i agree completely that its one hell of a scary movie.
Looking forward to "The Orphanage"
Posted By: samish (Guest) on October 19, 2008 at 12:26 PM
Not a bad list this time around.
The one thing I'd disagree with is the twist in The Others was not left field at all, really. It was a good movie, and superbly acted on all accounts, but it came just two years after The Sixth Sense was released(meaning only a year and a half after the major buzz from The Sixth Sense was wearing off) with the same exact ending. Myself and everyone I was with knew they were dead the moment the fog surrounded the house.
Posted By: DJN838@hotmail.com (Guest) on October 19, 2008 at 04:11 PM
I LOVE that Behind the mask got noticed. It is my favorite of all the horror movies I've seen, and while the classics are awesome, this movie just has everything work.
Great list
Posted By: Tony (Guest) on October 29, 2008 at 11:48 PM
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