Horror Movie Talk

[TheVintageOne]

I used to like the Jason and Freddy movies till they became parodies of themselves. I think the first and second scream are pretty good. The first I know what you did last summer is pretty good as well. I think still the creepiest and scariest horror movie for me to this day is the original Poltergeist though.

[Mal Hombre]

Another Clive Barker movie,Based on His novella "The Forbidden" with the action transposed from His native Liverpool to Chicago.Tony Todd gives a bravura turn as the titular villain and Virginia Madsen makes a appealing heroine.The movie did start Todd on a career in horror movies of increasingly diminishing quality.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candyman_%28film%29

[scoundrel]

RKO made some really good b/w low budget psychological horror movies in the 1940s. Val Lewton was their in-house producer of low budget B movie horror films and a number of directors honed their skills under his management, including Jacques Tourneur; Robert Wise; Anthony Mann. Some of the ones I particularly remember are:

• Cat People (1942)
• The Curse of the Cat People (1944)
• I Walked With A Zombie (1943)

There was little overt violence or gore. These films relied on the human mind and worked through fear of the unknown. It is more effective when the viewer knows something is badly out of whack but doesn't know just exactly what the problem is.







A typical moment from these films, showing the subtlety of the techniques in play. Taken from I Walked With A Zombie, in this scene nurse Betsy Connell, who is from Canada and newly arrived on San Sebastian to look after a woman who has lost her mind, finds out that she is now the new bone of contention between her employer and his drunkard brother; and that there is something more to her patient's "illness" than anyone on the island wanted to tell her. Calypso singer Sir Lancelot was really good in this passage; I couldn't find a youtube clip with all of his cameo performance on it, sadly. In effect, he is the local black outsider who knows the Holland family's back history and thinks that the pretty young white nurse from Canada deserves fair warning about the danger she is in. Racial tensions are very low key in this movie, but they do have important significance; there are recurring hints that the Holland family is cursed, and that their curse goes back to when they were slaveowners and their brutalised slaves invoked voodoo against them as payback.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQxgPn0RQZE


I have always appreciated the delicious contrast between the extremely courteous and mild demeanour of the singer and the deadly venom of the story and words in his song.

[SanteeFats]

Wow I have read all the posts and I find it rather shocking that one master of horror actor's name is missing!!!
The late, great Vincent Price. The House of Usher, the Raven, other Poe movies plus all the others he did.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Price

[scoundrel]

Originally Posted by SanteeFats

Wow I have read all the posts and I find it rather shocking that one master of horror actor's name is missing!!!
The late, great Vincent Price. The House of Usher, the Raven, other Poe movies plus all the others he did.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Price

The Raven is actually a horror movie spoof and a very good one too. Vincent Price was a man of many talents; for example he was arguably the first ever TV chef...he could cook your last meal and then kill you afterwards. I have fond memories of his performance as Doctor Phibes, but arguably his best outing is as Frederick Loren, the host of a rather dysfunctional house party in The House on Haunted Hill (1959).

[Jake Gittes]

Originally Posted by TheVintageOne

I used to like the Jason and Freddy movies till they became parodies of themselves. I think the first and second Scream are pretty good. The first I know what you did last summer is pretty good as well. I think still the creepiest and scariest horror movie for me to this day is the original Poltergeist though.

I totally agree. One of the things I liked about the Friday the 13th remake was that it proved one of my points about the franchise: That you could take the original movie and all the sequels, combine them, and make one coherent movie. Money talks in Hollywood.

[Jake Gittes]

Originally Posted by scoundrel

The Raven is actually a horror movie spoof and a very good one too. Vincent Price was a man of many talents; for example he was arguably the first ever TV chef...he could cook your last meal and then kill you afterwards. I have fond memories of his performance as Doctor Phibes, but arguably his best outing is as Frederick Loren, the host of a rather dysfunctional house party in The House on Haunted Hill (1959).

Vincent Price is one of my all-time favorite horror actors, along with Peter Cushing. I think that they are both very underrated. Another name to mention is Christopher Lee. He was awesome as Dracula in the 1958 film "Horror of Dracula" and did some other great films in the genre.

Pit and the Pendulum and Horror of Dracula below are two of my favorites with both Cushing and Lee from the Hammer Horror series.

[Wendigo]

Originally Posted by kayparkerlover

Vincent Price is one of my all-time favorite horror actors, along with Peter Cushing. I think that they are both very underrated. Another name to mention is Christopher Lee (RIP). He was awesome as Dracula in the 1958 film "Horror of Dracula" and did some other great films in the genre.

Cushing, Lee and Price were together in just 2 films I am aware of
Scream and Scream Again (1970)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064949/
and
House of the Long Shadows (1983)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085693/

The last one also featured John Carradine

They were the late 20th century horror equivalent of the cast of the Expendables just as Chaney, Karloff and Lugosi were in the early years and it's a shame that although they were friends their paths did not pass more often, although Cushing and Lee made 24 films together most of which I have along with all the Universal greats.

[KingKeigh]

I like horror with some originality. Vampire movies haven't been interesting in a long time. Long before Twilight. Haunted house and possession movies put me to sleep but they're all the rage lately.

This is my top ten in no particular order.



Halloween: Still creeps me out today.

Night of the Living Dead:

Dead of Night (aka Death Dream 1974): Before he made the hormone-driven Porky's and family fare like Baby Geniuses, Karate Dog and the Christmas classic favorite, A Christmas Story, director Bob Clark made some decent classic horror movies in the 70s. Black Christmas, another personal favorite, Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things and Dead of Night about a Vietnam Vet killed in action who finds his way home.

30 Days of Night: Best vamp movie in years. This is how vamps should be. Feral, not trying to pass off as human, hanging out at nightclubs seducing your girlfriend.

Jeepers Creepers: (I know but despite the scumbag director's history, it creeped me out. So did the sequel as silly as some of it was.) Very original creature.

The Night Stalker (1972): Creepiest tv movie ever which spawned the series Kolchak: Night Stalker.

Vampire Circus: Hammer Horror. Yeah!!

Black Sabbath: Boris Karloff in a trilogy of terror.

Splinter: Cool indie flick.

The Thing: The remake with Kurt Russell.

[KingKeigh]

Oh, and I forgot DeadGirl (2008). Refreshingly original story IMO. Check it oot.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0896534/?ref_=fn_al_tt_3
"Deadgirl" on IMDb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU1oTQGRHCw
"Deadgirl" trailer

And Clive Barker's "Lords of Illusions". One of his better adaptations.