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Topic: Horror films that make you think.
DBR70 Joined Sun 12/20/09 Posts: 50	Fri 04/02/10 10:51 AM Edited by DBR70 on Fri 04/02/10 10:54 AM
I love horror/scifi. ive got some scifi favs, but i want to focus on horror. At least one. here's a list of my top 5 "Jaws" (best film PEROID) "The Omen" (both versions) "Halloween"(both versions) "The Shining" (1980 Kubrick) "The Blair Witch Project" I want to focus on the fifth film...because it, sorta, in a way, led me to a real-life horror story, that's been disturbing me for quite some time now. There's just something about documenry style horror that put the realism on a whole new disturbing level. It really disturbed me the first time i saw it back in Nov. 1999. It was as though i was watching people who were actualy going to die. Of course not, but it has an uncanny feeling of snuff. It looks like snuff, feels like snuff, even sounds and acts like snuff........but it's far from snuff, Nothing can be further. Thats why TBWP scared me in the first place. Later on the shock wore off, it just become one of my classic fav horror flick. Years later, i just bought "Quarantine", and it seemed to be a little closer to the TBWP tradition than "Cloverfield", for some reason that movie didnt really disturb me in a way TBWP did, but "Quarantine" was alot closer to TBWP mark, but TBWP is still #1 out of the best documentry style horror. After i watched "Quarantine", i watched TBWP. Then i went to Google, cause it just made me think, my mind acts like falling dominoes. put in a key words like "death", "documentry", "media, cant remember all the words, it mightve been a phrase, cant really remember. I looked at the results, and my eyes seemed to have locked on "American television news reporter who committed suicide during a live television broadcast." I wished i havent found that. If you read her story, Her name was Christine Chubbuck, she had her own news show in Sarasorta Florida. She committed suicide on live TV during the first 10 minutes of her show on July 15, 1974. Imagine, watching Foxnews or CNN, or your local news (which this was) and all of a sudden he/she pulls out a gun, points it to his/her head and fires (which was exactly what she did.) This was not one of those documentery style horror/thriller movies made to look real....this actaully WAS real. And then i read a story about this Pennsyvania Treasurerer, Bud Dwyer who, during a press conference in January 1987, put a gun in his mouth. again REAL...and on TV. This was not a story i wanted to hear, thank you very much. but the most disturbing part...it happened on TV..on the local news! OK! THAT'S IT! This is waaaay too much reality..im going back into the woods with the Blair Witch, thank you very much! Now, TBWP, is a comfort to me. that is the last time i'm letting movies lead me to contemplate.

Etrain Joined Wed 11/21/07 Posts: 19684	Fri 04/02/10 10:54 AM


newarkjw Joined Sun 05/25/08 Posts: 17172	Fri 04/02/10 10:57 AM
I'm not going to contemplate anything but there are 2 flicks that scared the bejeezers out of me. "Carrie" and "Magic" will never be viewed again with these 2 eyes.......

Dancere Joined Sun 04/06/08 Posts: 14561	Fri 04/02/10 11:01 AM
I just hate anything but the horror being alluded to ... Love Shining and Silence of Lambs ... I far more than loathed and detested Hannibal ... and the injury it forever did to my psyche; I'm still VERY angry about that! I had nightmares and sleep issues stemming from it, for a couple of months afterwords ... I fail to get a hit or thrill, and that others do is completely lost on me shudder!!! I went to the cinema last night and there was such a plethora of horror previews, I was absolutely sickened by it ... Same bodes for all the dvds' previews I see also! MAD world ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N3N1MlvVc4 And, yes, psychology says our psyche's do not sort out visuals as being from fantasy; it is all recorded as real ... Murder is murder to our mind's lens ... Snuff films indeed!

giocluedart Joined Fri 11/16/07 Posts: 696	Fri 04/02/10 11:26 AM
I LOVE horror flicks; I don't ever really find them scary though...that's the sucky part. I don't understand what freaks you out about someone killing themself on TV though...yeah, that's pretty messed up and who the hell would want to see it? Poor little kids who were watching the news with mommy and daddy huh. I don't see it as a scary thing though; I think it's just something totally unpleasant to have to view and for that person to be feeling that way...there's a reason they did it publically.

msharmony Joined Mon 08/31/09 Posts: 61041	Fri 04/02/10 11:32 AM
I'm not going to contemplate anything but there are 2 flicks that scared the bejeezers out of me. "Carrie" and "Magic" will never be viewed again with these 2 eyes....... classic spookie,, definitely would put those in the top four with the exorcist and the omen,,,

Dancere Joined Sun 04/06/08 Posts: 14561	Fri 04/02/10 11:39 AM Edited by Dancere on Fri 04/02/10 11:41 AM
Yeah ... The guy that stalked Bjork forever, and filmed his entire process, up to and including his suicide ...??? It was all on the www ... uggghhh! I saw everything but his head blown off, didn't look! Now, it is on youtube still, I believe, sans the shot ... He had mailed her a bomb; it was meant to be a lover's act of suicide/homicide ... His body led them to the film documentation in time, and the bomb was intercepted instead! The Bjork cover of this old song obsessed him: Gloomy Sunday ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCEJtUNe90A Called 'The Hungarian Suicide Song', here is the original, covered by many, even Billie Holiday (my fav version) ... Gloomy Sunday by Rezso Seress http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiOyvxgcob4&feature=related Billie Holiday's cover http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48cTUnUtzx4&feature=related

OrangeCat Joined Tue 10/23/07 Posts: 76874	Fri 04/02/10 11:44 AM
horror,scary love but I have yet to find any movie that scares me. I got paranormal activity cause people said it was truly scary,it ended up being stupid. the shining was good,both the newer version and the original. I have well over 900 dvds of all kinds

Torgo70 Joined Fri 06/27/08 Posts: 27387	Sat 04/03/10 05:43 AM
I liked The Blair Witch Project, but it didn't scare me on the "this is real snuff" level(I never understood how some people actually thought it was real snuff, snuff films aren't going to be played at cineplexes- not to mention the fact that SciFi Channel aired Curse of the Blair Witch before BW was released, and right in the credits it says "Filmed In Florida") ....Cannibal Holocaust '80 did it first and did it better- Plot: Film crew goes down into South American jungle and vanishes, footage is discovered, we then see the footage of what happens to them...and what happens to them is far more effective than anything in Blair Witch...but because Cannibal Holocaust has real animal cruelty I've never watched the film more than once. I have yet to have any film effect my "psyche"- yes maybe when I was a kid- but even then I never was effected for days after wards. Some films do creep me out like Session 9, or gross me out(watching Divine eat dog poop in Pink Flamingos) but mostly I watch them the same reason people watch any other genre, they entertain me.

Gossipmpm Joined Tue 03/03/09 Posts: 19414	Sat 04/03/10 05:47 AM
Love the whole horror thing when I was younger The Exorsist scared the living chizz out of me got one from netflix "Mum And Dad". A British film still disturbed by it!!!

Torgo70 Joined Fri 06/27/08 Posts: 27387	Sat 04/03/10 05:51 AM
Love the whole horror thing when I was younger The Exorsist scared the living chizz out of me got one from netflix "Mum And Dad". A British film still disturbed by it!!! Mum and Dad is excellent, have you seen The Children? Another excellent recent British horror film.

Gossipmpm Joined Tue 03/03/09 Posts: 19414	Sat 04/03/10 05:56 AM
Love the whole horror thing when I was younger The Exorsist scared the living chizz out of me got one from netflix "Mum And Dad". A British film still disturbed by it!!! Mum and Dad is excellent, have you seen The Children? Another excellent recent British horror film. no!!! Gonna look on netflix I kept mum and dad for two weeks making everyone watch it! Some couldn't finish it!! I was thinking for days after that one!!

Torgo70 Joined Fri 06/27/08 Posts: 27387	Sat 04/03/10 07:39 AM
Some of my all time favorites: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre '74 (The remake was ok, though like most modern remakes you get useless background info like having Leatherface where his masks because of a skin condition) Night of the Living Dead '68(I enjoyed the '90 remake, but the '06 3D remake with Sid Haig was horrible) Dawn of the Dead '78 (The '04 remake was better than I expected) Peeping Tom '60 (Maybe if Psycho hadn't been released the same year, Peeping Tom might have been more well known than it is) Black Christmas '74 (Still one of the creepiest killers on film- and you never even see him...the remake on the other hand ) Eyes Of Fire '83 (A sadly overlooked horror film, a group of people in the 1700's looking for a new home find themselves in a valley where even the Native Americans are afraid to go) Martin '77 (Romero's twist on the vampire lore)

plastic_pancakes Joined Sun 10/18/09 Posts: 7399	Sat 04/03/10 09:09 AM
The original "The Stepfather" was freaky. And I must admit... I thought the re-make of The Shining was absolutely atrocious. That's like someone taking your delicious ice cream cone, taking out the ice cream, putting a hedge-carving monster in it and going, "Boo!"

Torgo70 Joined Fri 06/27/08 Posts: 27387	Sat 04/03/10 10:02 AM
And I must admit... I thought the re-make of The Shining was absolutely atrocious. That's like someone taking your delicious ice cream cone, taking out the ice cream, putting a hedge-carving monster in it and going, "Boo!" Kubrick originally wanted to put the topiary animals in his version- but because they wouldn't have been able to pull it off effects-wise they came up with the hedge maze...which ends up being one of the most memorable locations in a horror movie. Some things work better in a book than they do in a film. The CGI topiary animals in the mini-series version were anything but scary, but they are one of the creepier elements of the book.

plastic_pancakes Joined Sun 10/18/09 Posts: 7399	Sat 04/03/10 10:19 AM Edited by plastic_pancakes on Sat 04/03/10 10:20 AM
Agreed, Torgo - sometimes a movie just can't encapsulate the horror portrayed in words. I call the hedge maze a happy accident, then. I've been pretty desensitized to violence and all that. I'll never forget going up to the rich side of town where my friend lived at the time and there was this weird video store that literally had a "Snuff" section. Like... there was a wall labeled "Snuff." So, naturally, we rented everything they had in stock. Most of it was just hilarious. Snuff isn't real! Especially "Faces of Death". Over 2/3 is fake, but still interesting. Anybody who's seen "Unknown Russian Soldier" (who is now known, and regarded as a hero) will have to really question the border between realism and imagination. Is a fake beheading more disturbing than a real beheading? Does it twinge on the heartstrings because I know this guy was executed on camera in real life because some Czech guy stood on his head and carved it off with a knife? Anyway. Desensitization has become pretty normal. Blair Witch was... okay... and unbelievably anti-climactic. No, I didn't want to see the witch... I just wanted to see something I gave a damn about. Still, better than the sequel! "Session 9" Really good psychological horror. And it has that red-headed dude from CSI. I hate the show, but lots of people dig it. Check it out sometime. Oh - don't look up "Unknown Russian Soldier." It is rather disturbing to most people. SERIOUSLY. Don't.

Goofball73 Joined Mon 11/05/07 Posts: 33913	Sat 04/03/10 12:00 PM
The last horror movie that made me "think" was The Descent, which I feel is the last (great) horror film that has been made in awhile. I know it has the mutant zombies in it (or whatever the hell they were), but the point of the movie is the story that goes with it, and the transformation of the lead character. I mean, when she comes out of that pool of blood, you see how she is transformed into an animal herself, with her only desire being to kill those things and live. But it isn't about just the beasts that drive her to it. It is the story between her and the other characters that make it so good. And the ending just really makes you think. You wonder was it all real? Did the lead character just imagine all of it? Did she die? I mean, you are left to draw your own conclusion, and I liked that.

Torgo70 Joined Fri 06/27/08 Posts: 27387	Sat 04/03/10 12:15 PM Edited by Torgo70 on Sat 04/03/10 12:17 PM
I saw Faces of Death the first time when I was 13 or 14 back in the 80's, back then I couldn't go on the Internet and look up all of the info on it- so I did think it was all real, but then a few years later there was a big article in the news paper talking about how most of it was staged. I never did bother with the sequels, or the "Faces of Gore" films, or the Italian mondo films, except one- Mondo cane '62, which was interesting. Probably the weirdest remake to come- Faces of Death (2011)- from JT Petty who also directed The Burrowers and Soft For Digging.

Dancere Joined Sun 04/06/08 Posts: 14561	Mon 04/05/10 09:59 AM
Thriller for some of you, Horror for me: Wolf Creek ... ... Gebeezus! That makes ya think long and hard about travel, the road, kindness of strangers, the boonies ... Esp. as it is based on fact as a staring foundational guess ... Sorta an Australian Deliverance ... CCCccccccrrrrrreeeeeeepy times infinity!!!

Torgo70 Joined Fri 06/27/08 Posts: 27387	Mon 04/05/10 11:39 AM
Thriller for some of you, Horror for me: Wolf Creek ... ... Gebeezus! That makes ya think long and hard about travel, the road, kindness of strangers, the boonies ... Esp. as it is based on fact as a staring foundational guess ... Sorta an Australian Deliverance ... CCCccccccrrrrrreeeeeeepy times infinity!!! Wolf Creek is most definitely horror.