Favorite Horror/Thriller/Halloween Movies

[Beldo]

Good call on THE THING, DADDY, but SALEM'S LOT bored me to tears. I guess we can call it even on your anti-Shining/Carrie status.

[DADDY]

Yeah, I get "Salem's Lot" not being for everyone . . . I guess I'm using a shifting standard when I rate these things. Salem's Lot was pretty good for a made for tv movie. I like the Shining as a well made movie with creepy elements . . . but I always found Jack's performance so over the top that it borders on the comedic. "Texas Chainsaw Masacre" is so annoying with the female lead screaming through the whole thing it just gets tedious. Carrie and Halloween are good movies . . . just not as great as everyone thinks.

[Beldo]

I agree none of these are like, best films of all time. Carrie is a huge rip off of Psycho with some truly terrible acting, and the same could be said for Halloween. But both of those movies hold a special place in my heart for being some of the first R-rated horror movies I ever saw. The Shining, yeah, Nicholson is over the top for the character and I know Steve King hates it, but the visuals are just so stunning and nightmarish...that's what gets me. I don't feel like either Salem's Lot came close to the potential of the book. Man, that's a good book.

TCM...I just like that movie because I watched it thinking it would suck and be boring, but it actually managed scared me and get under my skin. I don't think the screaming girl is half as annoying as that wheelchair guy. Fuck that guy.

But thank you for reminding me of THE THING...that one will have to be cracked open for Oct. 31st.

[Blaze]

Session 9 is similar to Twin Peaks in a big way.

i'm a big Twin Peaks nut, but can't see this. please explain.

SESSION 9 SPOILERS

They have a similar villain....I like Session 9 a lot and have seen it a couple of times, so you may have missed it. The key in Session 9 is the tapes and the final line where you know what is up with ol' boy: "I live in the weak and the wounded"....kind of reminds me of this guy:





Basically this whole idea that the evil in the world can be attributed to these spirits that possess you.

[Lloyd]

[Lloyd]

"Do you read Sutter Cane?"

[Lloyd]

[Lloyd]

[Lloyd]

[Lloyd]

"A man's heart is stony Lewis...."

[Lloyd]

A few new favourites:







And one of my all time favourites (It still scares me to death):



(The original, not the directors cut)

Other favourites:

"Return Of The living Dead"
"The Shining"
"The Dark Half"
"Army of Darkness"
"The Fog"
"Legion - The Exorcist III"

[friendof]

I never found the Exorcist scary. Freaky maybe, but not scary. "It" scared the crap out of me, but it's a terrible movie--made me scared of clowns though! Children of the Corn--anything that makes little kids evil (I'll second Pet Cemetery) is going to be scary. Poltergeist, too. The Alien trilogy. More recently the films that actually scare me are the ones that you think could be true. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the original), for example. Where the evil is totally human.

[Blaze]

Picked up this little Aussie gem and was quite pleased. They've made some good horror lately: Wolf Creek, Rogue, and now this: Lake Mungo.

[HighPlainsDrifter]

"A man's heart is stony Lewis...."

"The soil of a man's heart is stonier, Louis." Same idea. I couldn't quite wrap my 7th-grade mind around that when I first read the book and it's still a little cryptic, but what a line. All bets were off once wise old neighborly Judd bit the big one.

One of the better film adaptations of King's horror stuff, though some of the really out-there stuff (i.e. after his son comes back) didn't even make it into the movie. One of King's best in terms of the fucked-upness of the premise. He has said he himself was so scared by it he shelved an early draft, maybe thinking it was unpublishable?

One story King story I'd have liked to have seen a film version of is Sometimes They Come Back, which is I think the lead-off story in The Night Shift. Pretty creepy.

I kinda liked The Mist too.

Pumpkinhead totally seems like it would have come from King's imagination. Creepy, underrated movie. One of the more frightening horror movie monsters too.

This thread goes on much longer I'm gonna have my Netflix work (quote-unquote) cut out for me for the next month.

I have to dissent though and say Don't Look Now disappointed me when I watched it about a year ago. High expectations thanks to the Bowood hype. The 'punchline' moment at the end was genuinely shocking but other than that I wasn't feeling it. Could've been my frame of mind. Maybe also it has a greater impact if you're a parent?

[Beldo]

I think they did have a TV movie adaptation of Sometimes They Come Back. I'm sure it sucks. I wish they'd get on with a Talisman movie already.