Anyway, this year, I may just pick a random group of between 5 - 7 horror movies and give them full, formal reviews here on the blog. First off, what would you guys think of me giving full reviews to non-BOOK films?
Secondly, I am open to suggestions of which horror movies to actually watch. I already have a few ideas and I can't guarantee I'll take your suggestions, but I'm definitely all ears and if you plead your case good enough, I'm easily persuadable. My only criteria is that it has to be stuff I've never seen. Why? Just because I'd rather use the opportunity to see some things I haven't seen, as opposed to seeing horror movies I've already seen.
Some ideas so far:
Romero's Day of the Dead
Snyder's Dawn of the Dead
The original "The Omen"
What say you?
September 23, 2013 5:45pm
Andrew.. who would deny you the right to do a minor detour from the straight road to 1001>
ReplyDeleteAnd if any would be so mean.. Well. just swear that "Ah, these are in another edition"
You take a risk inviting suggestions..
I start by resisting the temptation to say 'Curse of the cat people'.. as even i say it's only so-so.!
OK.. but bear in mind I think we differ on horror films.
A very tentative start, as I know you did not enjoy any of the vampire films in THE BOOK, but have you tried either Let the right one in (original Swedish version, or 'Let me in' (American remake.
From the person who dislikes films with kids in, and from someone who frequently dislikes American remakes .. I'd say both are good.
Reluctantly staying with vampires.. a bit of a campy cult..'Vamp' 1986.. with Grace Jones.
You mentioned 'The Omen'.. A big yes to that. Very good indeed.
Next to that in my idiosyncratic filing system, in a sub genre I call 'My baby is the spawn of the devil & other creepy kids'... The Bad seed is OK (and I think is in your 3rd new list)..and certainly 'Village of the Damned'1960, with George Sanders. The film definition of creepy kids- and referenced in The Simpsons. 'The Innocents', 1961, Deborah Kerr.. Film rendition of Henry James 'Turn of the screw'.
Moving on to supernatural/Ghosts.. very strongly recommended.. Night of the Demon' Jacques Tourneur, 1937 with Dana Andrews and Peggy Cummins. Maybe a bit too much in the way of 'Cat people' type atmosphere for you, but at the moment, my own personal fave on this list so far.
Very early films.. 'Island of Lost Souls'.. err.. 1930's, with Charles Laughton - a version of Island of Dr. Morau.
A sort of horror.. much neglected, and a swine to get hold of..Michael Mann's 1987 cult (flawed) masterpiece 'The Keep'. Set in Romania, WWII, a group of German soldiers sent to occupy an old castle in a remote mountain village find something is amiss after two of them try to leaver off one of the silver crosses embedded in the wall. As they then start dying, high command send Gabriel Byrne with a detachment of SS troops to get tough with the locals.. and things get worse. Enter Ian mcKellen as a crippled professor of ancient scripts (strange markings are found on the wall after some more deaths).
Much more fun, but not as 'good'.. I have always held a soft spot for almost any of the Amicus 'portmanteau' films of 1970's.. Vault of horror, Dr. Terror's house of horrors, Asylum etc.
Which sort of leads on to one last one.. also a portmanteau.. but from 1945 'Dead of Night'.. a variety of directors and featuring a slew of Brit actors such as Michael Redgrave. An architect arrives at a house to do a survey, and gets detained by other guests telling ghost/creepy stories.
OK, more than enough there...Most are reliant on slowly building creepy atmosphere rather than shocks.. and, taken as a whole, a very low blood & gore content.
I look forward to seeing if anyone else comes up with much.
Ray
WOW, thank you very much for those Ray. The one that really sticks out to me, from those listed is "Village of the Damned". I always forget that this was originally released in the 60s and tend to remember the awful looking 90s remake, which I never actually saw. So, yeah, I'll peruse those and make final decisions once we get some more ideas....Thanks again.
Delete+1 for The Innocents. and House of the Devil(d. Ti West)
ReplyDeleteGonna have to decline The Innocents, because it's on my next 1000 list, so it will get a formal review someday anyway and can probably be a part of a future Frightfest.
ReplyDeleteI also recommend William Wyler's The Collector. Pretty shocking material from a classic director.
ReplyDeleteHmm well it certainly SOUNDS interesting. Definite possibility...
DeleteI'd certainly back up the above recommendation of 'The collector'. I'd never thought of it as a Horror movie before, but I guess it fulfills most requirements to be classed as one.
ReplyDeleteRay
As good as The Collector looks, it seems to fall under the category of thriller and I'm really looking for straight up horror films. We'll see what happens...
DeleteErrrmmm.. Whilst I did sort of agree about the thriller tag... the above commentator has made me look at things and re-assess.. There are lots of chills and horrifying aspects. And the end is decidedly scary.
ReplyDeleteRay
I'll definitely think about it.
DeleteFrom your suggestions Ray, I'm leaning towards Village of the Damned. I had a second for The Island of Lost Souls (below) , which I'll look into. However, my wife and brother are also throwing suggestions at me and I only need a total of six. So we may have to save a few ideas for next year.
I'd definitely second The Island of Lost Souls (try to see the Criterion Collection edition - the public domain prints are dire). For a good time, Evil Dead II can't be beat. But I'm mostly popping in to say that I can't BELIEVE Dawn of the Dead is not on the List.
ReplyDeleteThe original Dawn of the Dead IS on the list. Snyder's 2004 remake is NOT, however.
DeleteI will be more than chuffed if I helped lead you to 'Village of the damned'.
ReplyDeleteThanks marie for seconding 'Island of lost souls'. I'm getting the impression that Criterion - which is purely in the USA, must be either the same company or the equivalent to 'Masters of Cinema' which we have for R2.. Good stuff, but they have this seriously annoying policy of selling duel format versions.. so you have to buy 2 discs.. one Dvd, one bluray. As someone who has not moved on yet, I object to paying bluray prices for a disc I cannot use.
Ray
The Criterion Collection is a well respected DVD/blu-ray distributor in the U.S. They release DVDs separately from blu-rays and usually release hard to find/obscure/artsy titles. They have a website I believe, which shows their catalog. I've watched MANY Criterion DVDs during my road to 1001...
DeleteStill on the fence about whether or not to do Village of the Damned, Island of Lost Souls or both. The final picks for Frightfest should be ready soon.
This is beginning to feel a bit like election night.. "Will it be the previous front runner 'Village of the Damned', or will 'Island of lost Souls', make a breakthrough and defy the opinion polls.."
ReplyDeleteMind you, with a month still to go, maybe it's more like the whole campaign, so we could still see the emergence of some last minute candidate.. a filmic Ralph Nader or Ross Perot suddenly being seen as a viable choice.
We should arrange a US style Presidential debate.. George Sanders v Charles Laughton.
I think in this case, the best answer is a European style coalition...
Ray
Actually I intend to watch these throughout the month of October, so I plan to post the final six (or seven) films soon.
DeleteThe Collector is on TCM tonight. worth seeing even if you don't want to review it. Carnival of Souls is on Friday. lots of horror this month on TCM(many with Vincent Price)
ReplyDeleteI'll definitely check it out eventually. Thanks for the heads up...
DeleteI've recently seen 'Carnival of Souls'.. and if (as I believe you do), like the original 'dawn of the Dead' you should like 'carnival..' It has that same washed out moody effect.
ReplyDeleteAs it is on Tv (if you have access to it), please do try 'The collector'.. and, as our friend above says, you don't have to watch it all or even mention it.
Many thanks again to other Annon for thoughts allong the same lines, glad to see you in here.
Ray
List of the final entrants in the September 2013 Recap (Ray, I know you already saw it). For everyone else, don't hesitate to comment on the final inclusions.
DeletePS...Ray, I know you had mentioned something about "Day of the Dead". I only included it, because I really like Dawn of and Night of and have always wanted to see Day of and just never got around to it. Figured this was as good a time as any. Ditto for the new Dawn of...