The Horror Movie Thread

[Dr. Rated-R]

I second the Frailty love. Tremendous movie. Paxton was also awesome as Coconut Pete in horror parody Club Dread.

And the F13 DVD will be worth it if you're a fan. Last I heard it was to be an uncut version of the film, which is always nice to see. I made a bit of a semantic error there, though: the Q&A was filmed for the upcoming documentary about the first film. I'm not totally sure if that will be released on its own like the great Halloween docu that came out a while back or if it's related to the upcoming DVD of the film. Either way, pick up whatever it's on.

I got a signed copy of the 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead from Bill Moseley at the convention, too. It was an impulse purchase at best. I've always wanted to see it but never have, and Bill Moseley is quite a fucking salesman. He sold out of Polish copies of The Devil's Rejects, actually. Anybody got any thoughts on NotLD '90? I'll probably check it out later tonight.

[DaveKOTW]

I second the Frailty love. Tremendous movie. Paxton was also awesome as Coconut Pete in horror parody Club Dread.

And the F13 DVD will be worth it if you're a fan. Last I heard it was to be an uncut version of the film, which is always nice to see. I made a bit of a semantic error there, though: the Q&A was filmed for the upcoming documentary about the first film. I'm not totally sure if that will be released on its own like the great Halloween docu that came out a while back or if it's related to the upcoming DVD of the film. Either way, pick up whatever it's on.

I got a signed copy of the 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead from Bill Moseley at the convention, too. It was an impulse purchase at best. I've always wanted to see it but never have, and Bill Moseley is quite a fucking salesman. He sold out of Polish copies of The Devil's Rejects, actually. Anybody got any thoughts on NotLD '90? I'll probably check it out later tonight.

To be quite honest with you, if I had seen the remake before I saw the original, I may have been more gripped by it. But as I saw the original Romero movie first, when I saw the remake, it was just more of the same so it didnt really make that much of an impression on me. The general premise of being locked up in a house with zombies attacking you in the middle of nowhere is great but it's too much of the same really the remake - especially considering it was after day of the dead had been made (i think thats correct). So while i'd say its decent, it certainly didnt impress me as much as the remake of Dawn of the Dead did but it's certainly not awful. Im actually looking forward to seeing the remake of Land of the Dead actually......

[C-MIL]

I third Frailty, although I wouldn't really call it horror per se.

[RoyWill Rumble]

I'm sorry to say, but the remake of NotLD was absolutely awful.

[TheRyno]

I've been meaning to pick up Frailty since seeing it in the Wal-Mart bargain bin a while back and hearing it was actually good, but now that I want it, it's not there anymore. >_<

By the way, even though it's not horror though I mentioned wanting to see it earlier in this thread, I FINALLY picked up Visitor Q. Holy crap is that movie fucked up. It was probably as uncomfortable to sit through as the first time I saw Ichi The Killer, though not as much as Cannibal Holocaust, meaning I have now found a third movie that made me feel like less of a human being while watching it.

Edited September 15, 2008 by TheRyno

[DaveKOTW]

I've been meaning to pick up Frailty since seeing it in the Wal-Mart bargain bin a while back and hearing it was actually good, but now that I want it, it's not there anymore. >_<

By the way, even though it's not horror though I mentioned wanting to see it earlier in this thread, I FINALLY picked up Visitor Q. Holy crap is that movie fucked up. It was probably as uncomfortable to sit through as the first time I saw Ichi The Killer, though not as much as Cannibal Holocaust, meaning I have now found a third movie that made me feel like less of a human being while watching it.

That film absolutely stunned me in it's cringe worthy value. I mean from the very opening scene, I was like WTF WTF! And then from then, it just got worse......what was worse is that the guy who owned that movie was like bragging about how good a movie it was....i never saw him in the same light after that

[Pleatherface]

So, my ex just MSNed me with a tv shack link to The Audition, she'd been raving about the film since before I'd met her last October (that and Six String Samurai which I'm still waiting to see.) After watching it?

Not really impressed. Perhaps, I just expected too much from it but it let me down quite a bit. Half-way through I had to stop and make sure I was still watchign the same movie. I'll be fair and say it had some moments, but over all it felt way too familiar and like they were just attempting to shock for the sake of shock and somehow failed.

I will say though, I'll never hear 'Kitty Kitty Kitty' the same way again.

[TheRyno]

Totally bumping this, with Halloween being just over a month away.

Plus I just got back from the video rental place, who were doing a sweet sale. I was able to get out with Diary of the Dead, the Day of the Dead "remake", Hostel 2 and Wrestlemaniac for slightly more than $20 TOTAL. And a few days ago, I got The Monster Squad from Wal-Mart for $7.

I'm pretty psyched for Halloween this year...and I don't know what I'm gonna be yet!

[Gabriel]

Wrestlemaniac was all kinds of fun. I have avoided the new Day of the Dead like the plague. I'm just not interested in what it looks like it's offering. Plus, the DVD cover is lame.

I watched Dark Harvest a week ago. Awful movie. When you don't have the budget to make things look good, the motto of "less is more" really should apply. I started to get over the fact that it looked like something I would have been involved with in high school, but as soon as I started enjoying myself, they showed the Scarecrows at work, and I died a little. I should have known though, as soon as the movie started in 1932, Southern United States or whatever, with a farmer who looked like a god damn bloody Ivan.

Mirrors, I saw on Thursday. It was enjoyable all the way through to the end, where I was left sitting on the couch trying to make sense of the ending, without being able to. Normally, especially with horror films, I can connect dots and make sense out of things that even the writers of the film couldn't make sense of... but here, I couldn't figure out a single explanation that would satisfy. It was just a really bad fucking ending.

The Repo: The Genetic Opera soundtrack comes out on Tuesday. Everybody should buy that.

[MalaCloudy Black]

Wrestlemaniac? I'm jealous.

[TheRyno]

Wrestlemaniac was all kinds of fun. I have avoided the new Day of the Dead like the plague. I'm just not interested in what it looks like it's offering. Plus, the DVD cover is lame.

I probably wouldn't get it if it weren't $5 or so. But it has Nick Cannon in it and Nick Cannon is heelarious. Also, if some of the spoilers are correct...

Spoiler: Click here to view

VEGETARIAN ZOMBIE!

[HailtotheYo]

Anyone else seen R-Point ? I quite liked it.

Going through this thread I'm seeing great opinions on movies I've seen/not seen and shall be going through and putting together a list of ones that my wife and I haven't seen. Yes, my wife shares my fucked up love for fucked up, shit your pants, wtf, gonna puke movies. It makes for a great Friday night after the kid goes down for the count.

I do have to say about Cannibal Holocaust. I see why it has attained the status that it has, but watching it I just felt as though there was going to be more to it. What was there was disturbing and pretty screwed, but I was just thinking it was really going to be something that I viewed in a completely different light. Instead, it sits on my shelf as just another fucked up movie.

[The One True Version]

I actually watched Diary of the Dead and was hesitant to do so at first. I was impressed with it once I watched it though and am glad to see not everybody just wants to crap on what Romero does now.

[Gabriel]

I just watched The Midnight Meat Train, and I have to say... much better than I expected it to be.

Looking at people's comments about the film though, it seems like maybe there's a couple different versions floating around... because I've seen people complain that something wasn't in the movie, even though it was...

It was bloody, it was brutal in places, it had Brooke Shields being sexy, and a cameo by the loveable Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.

As a huge fan of Clive Barker's work, I can honestly say that this is the best adaptation to film that anyone has managed to put together, and if what I'm hearing about deleted scenes is true, if they make it onto the DVD release, then it will be that much better of an adaptation, as the main creepy piece of the puzzle was relegated to background mumbles and cutscenes in the version I saw.

Sam Raimi's eye exploding out of his head is the greatest thing I have ever seen.

[RoyWill Rumble]

I know I just mentioned it in the 'What Did You Watch Today?' thread, but I'll re-mention 'The Strangers'. Anyone who likes suspense or horror needs to watch this. It's unique in its subtlety and... how do I put it? It doesn't go over the top, far from it. In fact, for gore, or horror, or anything of that nature it's underwhelming. It's incredibly unsettling, though. It's also leaves you with this really empty feeling, which in a way is kind of good. I like watching a movie every once in a while and just feeling floored that no one saved the day, no one was brought to justice, all of that shit.

For gore and blood it's definitely underwhelming, for "HOLY SHIT!" moments it's underwhelming, but for an uneasy feeling, suspense, anticipation, and tension it's superb. Funny how the initial build-up of a 85 minute movie is 20 minutes, and you don't get the first real feeling of doom until about 30 minutes in I think. The first real act of violence on someone isn't until probably 40 minutes in.

It doesn't come to some amazingly gruesome or cringe-worthy climax, but instead something still effective because it's just so damned realistic. This is what's so fucked about this movie, is that this story could easily happen and seemingly has since it's based off real events. Everything about this just leaves you feeling uneasy because it's not so hard to believe.

The end is just as effective, if not more so than seeing someone get their torso ripped open or being torn in half or any of that shit. Kinda makes you re-think shit when the killing of these people was so simple, and throughout the movie I just kept expecting something absolutely horrible to happen. Nope. The only thing horrible was that these people were murdered, not how. When it comes to movies, it's all about how people are murdered, but the fact that they were, especially for no reason is ten times worse than someone being ripped in two and stored in a fridge or some shit.

When you horror movies, all you can think of is how these people are going to die, and I found myself just wondering what the fuck these people were going to do the couple once they finally had them. That's just proof of how horror movies have become so predictably cliche and so just... the same. Yet, here's a movie that makes no promises. It's simple. If you're waiting for the payoff of torture like Hostel or Saw or something, it's not coming and it's never promised, yet you expect it just because of what has more or less become a staple of the horror genre and movies in general. It's all over-the-top. If someone's going to get killed, they're gonna fucking suffer. These people suffered, but the only suffered mentally and that was it. Their actual deaths were incredibly underwhelming from a 'gore' or 'torture' or 'movie' stand-point, but they were just as effective as any death in recent horror/slasher/suspense movies.

It's something to think about and for that fact alone the movie needs to be seen.

And people in masks are creepy in the first place.

Watch it.

Edited October 4, 2008 by Will.

[Essa]

I have a HUGE rebuttal about the Strangers, but I'm a little short on time right now so I'll post it later.

But as far as the "true events" thing goes, the director himself has admitted that the only true events this was based off was him getting a strange knock at his door one night at three or four in the morning.

[HailtotheYo]

watched 'Diary of the Dead' last night. Wasnt' too bad. There were minor things throughout (such as the wait, is it the 'original' outbreak or one just for this story ?) but nothing that really put me off. The biggest thing for me was the lack of continuity with the time of the movie. All we saw were outdated computers but then they had amazing hand helds and laptops ? But yeah, that's a minor gripe considering the rest of the movie. It was less on the gruesome side and more on the WTF is going on side. All in all it was a nice take on Romero's classic movies.

I'm wanting to see Strangers really badly so thanks for that review Will. Also, what's the deal behind THEM ?

[TheRyno]

Of the 4 horror movies I bought last weekend, I've only watched Wrestlemaniac. It's actually pretty good for a low-budget straight-to-video movie and doesn't mess with a tried and true formula. Basically, instead of Jason stalking someone through the woods, it's Rey Mysterio Sr. stalking people through a deserted Mexican ghost town. All the prerequisites are there: a sex hungry gang getting axed, damsels in distress, the nerdy know-it-all that knows how to stop the killer, etc. I'm not gonna overhype it and say it's great but you could do much worse as it's got something for horror fans and wrestling fans alike. A little more money and I'd like to see a sequel.

So that leaves me with Diary of the Dead, Hostel 2 or Day of the Dead 2008. I'm tempted to put in Day just to see how bad it is.

[EndOfAnEra]

I have a HUGE rebuttal about the Strangers, but I'm a little short on time right now so I'll post it later.

But as far as the "true events" thing goes, the director himself has admitted that the only true events this was based off was him getting a strange knock at his door one night at three or four in the morning.

See: Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Wolf Creek. That's common place in Hollywood now, no matter how frustrating it is. I went camping in Australia and some idiot tried telling me Wolf Creek was 100% true. When I pointed out the director himself said it wasn't based on anything, she said I was wrong because she lived there and knew.

[HailtotheYo]

Actually, to be fair to TCM ... there were plenty of real life events that contributed to Leatherface. It wasn't just one single event, rather a few rolled into one.

I actually know/have met/took a class taught by Tobe Hooper, the man that did TCM. He's an associate professor at Texas A&M Corpus Christi. During our class we talked extensively about it. He drew the inspiration from the stories of cannabalistic West Virginian mountain families (see Wrong Turn) and Ed Gein himself. He coupled those incidents' with true events from the backwoods in East Texas. If you ever pay attention, the movie claims only to be "based on real events." It never states what events, or any specific ones.