Do you like horror movies?

[yoda313]

So with Halloween coming up here in the US it's time to ask:

Are you a horror movie fan?

I have to say I am not into horror. I just don't like it too dark....

How about you?

[gadgetguy]

In general, no. I'm not a fan of most horror films. Or rather, I'm not a fan of blood and gore which is what most horror films are all about now.

[Noahtuck]

I love psychological horror movies, the darker the better!! 8)

Some that are just scary with a little gore are fun, but one's that are basically just hack and slash are stupid and nothing but a bunch of gore, i don't like those.

[disturbed1]

I find most of them entertaining. The older ones, Halloween, Friday the 13th, Evil Dead .... are some of my picks. Though horror is not my favorite genre, I tend to like dramas better.

[libiec]

My favourite genre of entertainment. Especially like the older classis horror movies out of the '30s to '50s. Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolfman, Invisible Man, etc...... I recently ran across a really entertaining oldie call The Old Dark House that starred Boris Karloff as a deaf and dumb creapy old butler. That movie had everything, stormy night, lightning, creapy cobwebbed house full of oddballs.

Another favourite of mine is The Haunting. The original version. No blood, guts or gore, just lots of ghostly knocks in the night and strange writings on the wall.

Then there's the Rob Zombie creations. I can watch those a few times without getting bored.

[Soopafresh]

FulciLives is going to be depressed by these numbers....

[Midzuki]

FulciLives is going to be depressed by these numbers....

Me too thinks the "classic" ones still deserve to be watched now and then.
I don't like the most recent examples of the genre only because they clearly
have been created by hollow-headed pseudo-adults for the hollow-headed
teenagers of today.

[Epicurus8a]

I prefer thrillers and psycho-dramas over horror films. (Like Cape Fear or Alien.)
The films where stupid teenagers die are a waste of time and money - but the studio execs love 'em because of the box office numbers.

[Marvingj]

I love horror movies, but not the new ones just the oldies...

[gll99]

I've never liked gore.

[raffie]

I've been into horror movies quite some time, different subgenres too. All of them oldies though. I would say 60's 70's and 80's.
I've picked the first option, having said that, Cannibal Holocaust is certainly the goriest film I ever saw and I think I would like to keep it that way

[sambat]

They should make a movie about my mutual fund statement.

[FulciLives]

Well I suppose it is of no surprise that I voted, "Yes - the more gore the better"

Although there really is more to it than gore. Let us consider the definition which according to the Merriam-Webster website is (they disable copy n' paste so you get an image):



However the genre covers a bit more than this particular definition includes. There are movies that fit into the horror genre that may not necessarily fit this description 100%.

For instance the old Universal Monster movies such as the Béla Lugosi DRACULA or the Brois Karloff FRANKENSTEIN owe a lot to German Expressionism as seen in films like Robert Wiene's THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI or F.W. Murnau’s NOSFERATU etc. thus it is the atmosphere created through cinematography that helps to make such films so "creepy" more so than any on screen violence.

All that changed in the late 1950's when HAMMER FILMS released CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and then HORROR OF DRACULA. Both films starred Christopher Lee (Frankenstein's monster/Dracula) and Peter Cushing (Frankenstein/Van Helsing). These color "updates" of the Universal films are often called "Gothic Horror" but Hammer was not afraid to show some blood and gore with these films (and subsequent films).

Roger Corman made a string of low budget horror movies the best of which were the Vincent Price Edgar Allan Poe movies such as PIT AND THE PENDULUM and MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH etc.

Herschell Gordon Lewis made a string of low budget movies that predominately featured blood and gore.

Mario Bava kicked off the sub genre known as the giallo with his seminal film BLOOD AND BLACK LACE.

Which brings us to who can be called the godfather of the modern horror film ---> George A. Romero. His classic film NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD pushed the limits further than perhaps any film up to that point. You can also partially blame Romero (along with Tom Savini) for kicking off the modern wave or 1980's wave of gore films which really started with DAWN OF THE DEAD. I once read an article that went something like this, "God created gore and he saw that it was good. He decided to make it in color and saw that it was even better."

In fact things have been rather interesting ever since NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. The 1970's providing perhaps some of the best horror genre films of all times. Films like THE EXORCIST, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, SUSPIRIA, TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE, PHANTASM, BLACK CHRISTMAS, HALLOWEEN ... the list goes on and on.

We saw the swan song of HAMMER in films like VAMPIRE CIRCUS, TWINS OF EVIL and FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL. We saw new blood in AMICUS PRODUCTIONS who made the horror anthology popular with films like THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD and FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE not to mention their adaptations of EC Comics with TALES FROM THE CRYPT and VAULT OF HORROR. The giallo fuled in Italy with Mario Bava still working while new comer Dario Argento dazzled with films like PROFONDO ROSSO and SUSPIRIA along with others working in giallo like Lucio Fulci and Umberto Lenzi and Aldo Lada etc. and we can't forget the werewolf films of Paul Naschy in Spain or the thousand and one films turned out by Jess Franco.

The tail end of the 70's and the early 80's dominated with slasher films and gore films. A new slasher flick was playing almost every week thanks to the success of HALLOWEEN and FRIDAY THE 13th. The Italians were making a name with gore films as well with Lucio Fulci approaching legendary status with films like ZOMBIE and THE GATE OF HELL.

The VHS VCR made it possible to catch up on movies you never saw or saw once in a movie theater or had to stay up late on a Friday/Saturday to watch on some late night horror film host type show.

Then something went wrong and around the mid to late 80's horror films started to suck. Big time. By the 1990's good horror was RIP for the most part. Unfortunately it has been that way ever since. Sure there is a film here or there that is good but *sigh* it seems modern filmmakers have forgotten what horror films can and should be.

I'm sure I've left out a lot of good stuff. For instance it just dawned on me that I didn't mention Alfred Hitchcock at all (PSYCHO being the obvious example as well as THE BIRDS). I managed to also leave out THE EVIL DEAD and somehow I missed making a reference to the films of David Cronenburg. Let us not forget that the 70's and 80's saw many Stephen King books made into movies nor can we forget Clive Barker's own adaptation of his short novel HELLBOUND HEART which became the popular HELLRAISER movie (I'm loathe to saw movie series since outside of the first two the rest are rather dismal).

However there is one movie I haven't mentioned until now and that is because it brings everything I've said to a head. I'm talking about the Ridley Scott film ALIEN. Some might be thinking "wait isn't that Sci-Fi?" but a wise man once said that ALIEN is really a "horror film set in space" with the Nostromo space ship being more akin to a haunted house than something from 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY.

Which brings me I suppose to the point of all this ... the horror genre tends to have more variety and I dare say creativity than most any other genre out there. In short the imagination can run rampent within the horror genre making it something very special and to be cherished.

Also horror films tend to make the most out of the cinematic experience. Setting the mood through cinematography and doing so creatively is something that (the best) horror films tend to excel in. Alfred Hitchcock said that cinema has a language all unto itself and when used properly you can do things you cannot do in another medium even one that seems similar like the stage. I defy anyone to find a movie more beautifully haunting than Dario Argento's SUSPIRIA (perhaps the greatest use of 3 strip technocolor ever) or a scene more satisfying in it's use of the cinematic language than the shower scene in PYSCHO or a movie with images that are more complexly disturbing than David Lynch's ERASERHEAD (a cult film ... perhaps THE cult film ... that nonetheless fits rather nicely into the horror genre).

I submit that the horror genre is the greatest genre of all and that some of the greatest films of all times come from this genre or at least have roots in it.

For the record my favorite horror film is George A. Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD (mention the unsanctioned remake to me and prepare to die) although I will say that the greatest horror film is probably William Fredkin's THE EXORCIST.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[disturbed1]

although I will say that the greatest horror film is probably William Fredkin's THE EXORCIST.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

Every time I see her do the upside down spider walk down the stairs, it still gives me chills. I think I'll have to watch this again tonight.

[yoda313]

Well I knew we'd get a response from Fulcilives here I just didn't know we'd get a SENIOR level thesis on the subject matter

Way to go fulci!

I can't believe Roger Corman actually did any work with Vincent Price. He did all those cheasy b movies that ended up on MST3k!!! Viking Women vs the sea serpent anyone??????

[FulciLives]

Well I knew we'd get a response from Fulcilives here I just didn't know we'd get a SENIOR level thesis on the subject matter

Way to go fulci!

I can't believe Roger Corman actually did any work with Vincent Price. He did all those cheasy b movies that ended up on MST3k!!! Viking Women vs the sea serpent anyone??????

Yes yes I know what you mean but many regard the Roger Corman / Vincent Price / Edgar Allan Poe films as classics and they really are. In short they are NOT "cheesy" like (most) other Roger Corman films.

For a sample HOUSE OF USHER is airing on TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES (TCM) this month (October 19th and again on the 30th). Check it out!

BUT WAIT !!! ... THERE IS MORE !!!

TCM plays THE TOMB OF LIGEIA on October 31st and again this is another Corman/Price Edgar Allan Poe movie!

Also playing on TCM this month (October 31st) is the Roger Corman film THE HAUNTED PALACE starring (you guessed it) Vincent Price! The poster for this claims it is based on an Edgar Allan Poe story but this was merely to capitalize on the success of the other films done by Corman and Price. This time around the movie is actually in reality based on a story by H.P. LOVECRAFT called The Case of Charles Dexter Ward which was also made into a movie again in 1992 under the title THE RESURRECTED which was directed by Dan O'Bannon.


Trailer ---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9JtHcIZogs



Trailer ---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPjngneSoiI



Trailer ---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_13zq-q--Y


All of these were released in the USA on DVD thanks to MGM. They are beautiful 2.35:1 16x9 anamorphic remastered prints.

Although my two favorites of the Roger Corman / Vincent Price / Edgar Allan Poe movies are THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM (which is double billed with HOUSE OF USHER) and THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (which is double billed with another Roger Corman / Edgar Allan Poe movie THE PREMATURE BURIAL which stars not Vincent Price but Ray Milland).

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[redwudz]

I've collected as many of the old Hammer films as I could find. There were quite a few in the Dracula series. I really like most of the 50's horror films. But I don't like the newer 'blood and gore' realistic movies.

One of my favorites is still the B+W 'Psycho'. Although that could really be classified as a mystery as much as a horror film.

[guns1inger]

I am happy to throw in the remake of Dawn of the Dead as a worth re-interpretation. It was certainly far better than Romero's own Land of the Dead, and was reverential yet original at the same time. Romero's Diary of the Dead is also pretty good - sort of Cloverfield of the Dead.

I have everything from the German silents through to the Italian insanity of the 80's (Fulci, Argento) and beyond. I too have an extensive Hammer collection. Some of those are as gory as anything done today, but generally done with more flare and/or humour (black as it may be).

Films like Re-Animator and Dead and Buried are as fun to watch as they are gory, and new that a little tongue in cheek could temper their excesses. Films like Michael Powell's under-rated Peeping Tom mine the vein of psychological horror with almost no on-screen gore at all.

Too many of today's horror films are more content to simply push the gore factor as far as they can to see if the audience will stay with them, but without adding any character or fun. They are more acts of documented sadism than works of narrative or character (not that films like Friday the 13th pushed character all that hard).

I suspect that in the next couple of years we will see a repeat of the cycle of the late 70's/early 80's. Horror pushed the boundaries to the extent that it could get away with it until plot and fun became extinct and we were left with films like The Prowler (aka. Rosemary's Killer) and Maniac. In some ways these excesses were also in response to the conservatism of the government at the time. However eventually they were quashed, and by the mid to late 80's American production of this type of films was almost extinct, replaced instead by limp monster movies. We had to watch the action genre to get blood and mayhem instead.

Similarly, the worst excesses of the current crop of American produced horror have come under an ultra conservative government. The longer this government has been in power, the further the gore and sadism have been pushed. This is not just an American phenomena either. If you look at the various periods of German and Italian horror you will see similar trends. I suspect that if the US Government changes hands at the next election, we will see a swift drop in the production of this type of film by the film makers themselves. If we don't. we will see the production of this type of film quietly crushed by censorship and political pressure as we did in the 80's. It is harder to do now, as unrated films can easily be released direct to DVD if the cinema's stop showing them, which was how it was controlled in the 80's. Don't give it an R, and don't let it be advertised or shown in mainstream theatres with an NC17 or unrated, and people will stop making them - and they did. Romero lost half his funding for Day of the Dead simply because he would not make it for an R rating.

And many thanks to John for listing off some many of my favourites so I didn't have to

[yoda313]

fyi at guns1inger and the rest - remember to keep politics out of the fray ok? (I know its not directed specifically at anyone but just a reminder ).

[SingSing]

The best Horror movies don't contain much gore at all. They just make you pissed in your pants, and cause many sleepness nights.

I love psychological horror movies, the darker the better!! Some that are just scary with a little gore are fun, but not just hack and slash.

The best of the horror movies has to be "The ring" : http://www.ring-themovie.com/

[DereX888]

I generally *hate* horrors.
99% of this genre flicks are so stupid and dumb that even any crappy propaganda flicks from 60's are masterpieces compare to this garbage.
Having said that I must add that of course i.e. Dawn of the Dead (original and even latest remake) are very entertaining movies which I proudly added to my collection
Unfortunately there are maybe handful of such movies in this genre.


Horror supposed to be somewhat scary to viewers. By this definition this genre is long dead, as no one believes in ghosts or vampires nowadays (I hope no one does in the XXI century!) so there is nothing scary in any of them. As such they are just more or less funny flicks showing major characters die in more or less gore ways, and I'd say they are just subgenre of action flicks (mostly).
I have think very hard to find any film that I ever thought of being scary - and I can't think of any LOL
/edit:
You know what movies are actually scary (IMHO)?
Well, I saw some old tv flick "The Day After" and *that* was scary.
Ghosts, vampires and such fantastic creatures are funny - not scary

The best of the horror movies has to be "The ring" : http://www.ring-themovie.com/

Sorry SingSing, but IMHO it wasn't worth the plastic used for the DVD (thank God I haven't bought it )
I saw japanese version too, and although it was better than US remake, it still sucked

[FulciLives]

I just wanted to say that I pretty much agreed with everything that guns1inger said although I just cannot "make peace" with the fact that DAWN OF THE DEAD was remade (which was done without Romero's approval due to how the rights are owned although they did have to pay him something for doing it). To me his original film is such a masterpiece that remaking it is akin to remaking CITIZEN KANE or GONE WITH THE WIND or even PSYCHO ... oh wait I guess nothing is sacred these days *sigh*

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[ROBERT BLACK]

Well I suppose it is of no surprise that I voted, "Yes - the more gore the better"

Feckin right Fulcihead!

Horror is my favourite film genre and Halloween is my favourite holiday. Pagan trappings and all.

[ROBERT BLACK]

Just an addendum and the flipside to Fulci's TV listings of classic Corman/Poe films, TCM is also airing HG Lewis's Blood Feast and 2000 Maniacs at the end of October.

I never thought I'd see those two films on American Television although they did air in Canada on a specialty channel.

[Xylob the Destroyer]

"Other".
Not anymore...
I watched so many when I was a kid (probably too young to be watching what I was) that they've lost all appeal now.
They are ALL so horribly predictable, that I can see the "scary" part coming a mile away.

[guns1inger]

The best Horror movies don't contain much gore at all. They just make you pissed in your pants, and cause many sleepness nights.

I love psychological horror movies, the darker the better!! Some that are just scary with a little gore are fun, but not just hack and slash.

The best of the horror movies has to be "The ring" : http://www.ring-themovie.com/

Liked the original (spooky, not scary), didn't think much of the remake. Like the Vanishing before it, it just seemed to be a dumbed down version for the mass market. Subsequent Americanisations of Japanese horror films have got limper and limper. I also find it interesting just how many Japanese and asian horror films get hyped in western countries (and eventually remade there), yet they are rubbish. Pulse comes to mind.

If you want really scary Japanese horror, watch audition instead.

[guns1inger]

fyi at guns1inger and the rest - remember to keep politics out of the fray ok? (I know its not directed specifically at anyone but just a reminder ).

I knew I was sailing close to the wind, but I was looking at it from a sociological standpoint, not a political one. It is interesting to me that the more extreme horror tends to grow in the more conservative environments. There are always exceptions, of course. Hershell Gordon Lewis's gore films were a purely commercial decision. Hollywood had caught up to his exploitation business in Nudie films, and gore was the next frontier. If it hadn't made him money, he would have moved on to something else. He also put gore into his non-horror exploitation product - biker films etc.

The other thing to consider is that many of the people behind all the remakes of the last few years grew up watching the films they are now remaking. TCM, Dawn, halloween etc. They are reinterpretting them for a new audience. They know that just as there are many people who wont watch black and white films, or subtitled films, there are many who won't watch the older horros because they simply don't look as technically slick as today's product. Some of these remakes are Ok for what they are, even if they don't match up to the originals. Some are just godamn awful - The Hitcher, 2001 Maniacs, The Wizard of Gore, Halloween. But there are plenty of youngsters who will tell you that these are far better because they look prettier and have more realistic gore.

Personally, rather than blow 10 million on a remake of The Wizard of Gore, spend 2 million on a proper restoration and set of extras for the original.

[videobread]

I'm a big fan of the Hammer Horror Films with Peter Cushing. A lot are in color and widescreen. They have well thought out plots. I don't much like the new kids blood and guts movies out there now. In my opinion, the worst one is "House of a 1,000 corpses". It is the only movie I have ever seen that I think should be banned. It's like a training film for the mass murderer's of tomorrow.

[guns1inger]

I'm a big fan of the Hammer Horror Films with Peter Cushing. A lot are in color and widescreen. They have well thought out plots. I don't much like the new kids blood and guts movies out there now. In my opinion, the worst one is "House of a 1,000 corpses". It is the only movie I have ever seen that I think should be banned. It's like a training film for the mass murderer's of tomorrow.

You should see "Bloodsucking Freaks" then . . .

The irony is that when Hammer released their first Cushing/Lee Frankenstein ("The Curse of") in 1957, then followed it shortly after with Dracula (aka "Horror of Dracula" ,1958), the critics were aghast at the amount of gore and blood (and in colour !). One of them apologised to all Americans on behalf of the English people for releasing such vile filth upon them. Now the violence is considered quaint, and the movies hold together more because of the quality of acting, and in the case of Terrence Fisher's work, direction. Every generation pushes the envelope a little bit further, and the generation that came before them tuts and says it is too much, forgetting how they had done the same when they were young.

[nwo]

The end of good horror films started the day Scream was released .