The Horror Movie Thread

[Gabriel]

So I'm currently on leave from work and bored as shit. I started watching horror movies on Netflix to kill the time. Just watched Cabin Fever 2 with my old lady today. I'd seen it, but she hadn't.

Definitely not as good as the first one, but I like campy horror-comedies, and this one worked well for me.

We don't really have a topic for the general discussion of horror movies, and we already have topics with people asking for suggestions on what to watch, so I thought it would be best to make a general thread for horror film discussion, and just use it as a point of reference for what to watch.

That being said, Evil Dead comes out on the fifth of April. I am so looking forward to it and have very high hopes that it will bring the horror. My girlfriend will go see it with me, but she thinks it's going to be shit in comparison to the old one. We both know that this is a very different movie to the original. The original wasn't supposed to be funny, but it became a horror-comedy classic. This is the Evil Dead as was intended, with the budget there to allow for the artistic vision to be displayed as imagined.

Anybody else looking forward to, or dreading the idea of, the remake of The Evil Dead?

[Your Mom]

I'm looking forward to Army of Darkness 2 with Bruce Campbell. Also I'll throw in that "The Stuff" is a fun 80's cheesy Horror movie

[Gabriel]

I'm not sold on Evil Dead 4/Army of Darkness 2.

Sam Raimi has been way too non-commital about the whole thing. The last thing I read, was that he was only writing it because the fans have been bothering him about it.

The whole point of the remake was to re-launch the series with Raimi's intended vision for it. More than that, a sequel has already been green-lit. To try and run both properties simultaneously would be interesting, but I highly doubt it would happen. If The Evil Dead is successful at the box office, I fully expect that any script that gets turned in for ED4/AOD2 is shelved until the studio loses faith in the new Evil Dead property.

The reviews that have hit the net have all been non-spoiler as far as I know, but they've all praised the new film highly.

All that being said, Conan the Barbarian with Jason Momoa was a good way to kick off a new franchise. It wasn't fantastic by any stretch of the imagination, but it was good. They've already forgotten about it and are going ahead with a new Arnold movie, so anything is possible.

I may have to watch The Stuff. It's on Netflix, so I don't have to go order it or procure it by other, more nefarious, means. I'm not sure what it's about, but I like cheesy horror, and a few different people have brought it up to me over the years.

[King Ellis]

I actually bought The Stuff from my local CEX (second hand games/CD/DVD type place) for like 50p as a spur of the moment type thing based purely on the premise.

[Gabriel]

I watched The Stuff this afternoon.

Not bad. The acting was terribly fun, especially Mo, who camped it up fantastically. Some good one liners and a lot of cheese. I don't see it as a repeat view though. I'm glad I watched it, but I probably won't watch it again.

Anybody else have any other suggestions?

I love that I can find all kinds of stuff to watch on Netflix, but it's always easier when someone suggests something.

I'm thinking about watching Hellraiser 3, but as I have the first two on bluray, I may just wait out in the hopes that the third gets the release treatment sometime soon.

I also hate that Netflix has sequels to franchises without having the original movie. I got all excited yesterday thinking I could watch the original Hills Have Eyes, but they only have the sequel.

[Damian WayLNKe]

If you haven't seen them yet, The Innkeepers and Grave Encounters are both pretty good.

[Baddar]

Grave Encounters was good - the sequel didn't really live up to the first though, and wasn't spooky at all.

[Gabriel]

I really loved Grave Encounters. Right up to the end, it was tense and spooky. Probably the most intense film I've seen in the horror genre in awhile. The ending was a bit hokey, but I understood what they were going for, and it suffered mostly from lack of funds to do it properly.

The sequel wasn't bad, but it went in a direction that poked fun at itself far too much for me. The first movie, like I said, was intense. The second just felt like it was made in a rush. Actually more or less how I felt about the Human Centipede. Loved the first one, but the second one felt like they just decided to make one, rushed a script and became too self-aware.

The Innkeepers is something I haven't seen yet. I heard extremely mixed things about it from my trusted horror sources, and if I recall correctly, there were a few other movies that came out around the same time that took precedence. I'll probably give that a shot though.

[ndqw]

If this still happens

in the new Evil Dead I'll be pretty happy.

But yeah, if I hear from anyone the new one is scarier it'll probably be years before I finally see it. I am still terrified of the first one and now that I'm making a post about it I will probably have to masticate pretty hard to get all the gore out of my head so I can sleep without nightmares.

[Gabriel]

I watched Innkeepers. While it was good, it wasn't something I think I'd watch again unless it was with someone who hadn't seen it. I felt unfulfilled by what I saw after finishing the movie, so I hit up IMDB to see what people were saying, and someone had brought up all the little things in the movie that made it so much better after the fact. Upon my viewing, I enjoyed it, but wasn't thrilled. The stuff that was brought to my attention though, made it so much better.

I'm a firm believer that the best movies are the ones you have to watch several times to catch on to everything that the writer intended. I also believe, however, that I shouldn't have to catch everything on first viewing to really enjoy the film. Which is what happened here. It was good, and the writing was absolutely fantastic, but I didn't really feel that way until I read more into what was going on.

I watched Bitten last night. Starring Jason Mewes. The premise is fantastic and there were bits of the film where I found myself enjoying it, but I spent a lot of time in-between just hoping that it would get better.

ndqw, the new Evil Dead film is supposed to be gorier and way more intense than the original. I'm not sure how you handle current horror films, but if the original unnerves you, you may want to avoid the remake.

[zero]

Very excited for Evil Dead, seems like the right way to do a remake.

We had a horror convention here last weekend that turned into a complete mess, but I did get to meet John Carpenter and Tony Todd. Most of The Walking Dead cast was there too, hence how it turned into a mess: 5000 women thinking they were gonna bang Norman Reedus. I'll post pics when I'm not on my tablet.

My Netflix recommendation of the day is Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet. It's not great by any stretch of the means, but it was a fun slasher. If you're looking for shit-your-pants scary though, watch Lake Mungo.

[GhostMachine]

One thing I find interesting about the Evil Dead remake:

No Ash. That's what lets them go on with this as a possible new franchise.

[TKz]

Very excited for Evil Dead, seems like the right way to do a remake.

We had a horror convention here last weekend that turned into a complete mess, but I did get to meet John Carpenter and Tony Todd. Most of The Walking Dead cast was there too, hence how it turned into a mess: 5000 women thinking they were gonna bang Norman Reedus. I'll post pics when I'm not on my tablet.

My Netflix recommendation of the day is Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet. It's not great by any stretch of the means, but it was a fun slasher. If you're looking for shit-your-pants scary though, watch Lake Mungo.

But Zero got there first! You dog, you. I bet he's a great spooner.

[Gabriel]

I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, so I won't.

All I'm going to say is that The Evil Dead was awesome. There are most definitely a few things that could have been better, but nothing worth crying over. My big criticism is that I didn't feel uncomfortable enough, but I smiled through the whole movie. I was so stoked going into it, and that feeling never left me.

Big time winner, and I can't wait for the sequel.

[Gabriel]

Anybody get a chance to see The Lords of Salem yet?

For some reason, it doesn't seem to be getting a Canadian theatrical run.

[Dr. Rated-R]

Anybody get a chance to see The Lords of Salem yet?

For some reason, it doesn't seem to be getting a Canadian theatrical run.

Saw it today and thought it was great. It's sort of like Rosemary's Baby meets Suspiria meets Devil's Rejects and I reeeeally dig it. Shame it kind of got thrown to the wolves with that limited release because it's one of the better post-2000 horror films. Definitely the best thing Zombie's done since Devil's Rejects, if not just the best thing he's done outright.

If anybody's interested, it came out on DVD in the UK a few days ago so you can totally legally and not nefariously at all watch it if it's not playing anywhere near you.

[Gabriel]

I found it to be very "art-horror", but I really dug The Lords of Salem. For me, it almost felt like watching a series of Rob Zombie music videos cut together with a narrative.

I'm hoping for an extended release for some better Michael Berryman action though.

Watched one of my favorite horror flicks from when I was a kid, Pumpkinhead. Definitely looks aged, but it's just such a fun movie.

I also powered through the entire Hellraiser series. After Bloodlines, it just kind of turns into a mess because the studios just attached the characters to previously written screenplays, but there were a couple gems in there. The big one for me though, was Revelations, because I'd heard such terrible things about it. The movie itself isn't as bad as it was said to be. The new Pinhead was pitiful in comparison to Doug Bradley, and they should have just made a new character, but whatever. The story was the closest that any of the sequels has come to feeling like the original, and I can't help but think that with a less rushed production, more money and Doug Bradley, it could easily have been the best of the sequels.

They only made it to keep the rights to the franchise, though. The remake is still apparently on the way, although I'm uneasy about it due to the flip-flopping that continues to happen. From all the news I've read in regards to the remake, they can't decide if they want a hard, visceral experience and an R rating, or if they want to skew away from Clive Barker's vision and do what most remakes do, aiming them toward the teenage demographic.

On the topic of Clive Barker, fans of Nightbreed should rejoice because The Cabal Cut is supposedly seeing blu-ray release in the fall. I hope that this means that they found the negatives and can remaster it properly, but I will just be happy to see the film the way it was supposed to be seen. Clive is easily my favorite horror writer, and I find his works to be extremely cinematic. It surprises me that there aren't more horror directors/companies out there throwing money at him for the rights to some of his stories.