It’s horror movie season in the US and my favorite type is zombies. I also love campy B movies. Watching Dead Snow 2 right now and I think it ranks up there with Shawn of the Dead and Evil Dead 3: Army of Darkness.
What is your top pick for whatever genre?
The shining. I watch it every year at the first snow. I’m afraid I won’t get that chance this year.
GYO Tokyo Fish Attack. Body horror is a great genre that doesn’t come around very often without looking kind of cheesy so it helps being animation.
The Fly is another great example of the genre. Such an excellent movie with a sad ending to top it off.
Try this one.
“Altered States.”
A Harvard neuroscientist is experimenting with sensory deprivation and other hallucinogens.
Haven’t yall seen The Conjuring II, The Nun, or am I an idiot to call these horror 😒
That nun is something else. Goosebumps every time! And I’ve rewatched it dozens of times
It Follows
I like that it’s such a simple concept for a horror movie, but it’s still highly engaging for the audience.
spoiler
Early on in the movie, it (quite literally) teaches you a set of rules that the monster operates by, and the rest of the film feels almost like an interactive game.
- the monster is a shapeshifter
- it has stack (as in the data structure) of targets
- it’s always walking straight towards the target at the top of the stack (peek())
- the target can have sex with someone else to make them the new target (push())
- if the target at the top of the stack dies, the previous target is the target again (pop())
Beyond that, the writing and cinematography just let the audience play along. The characters are deliberating their plans on how they would deal with the monster, letting you also think about what you would do in their situation. And the camera likes to slowly pan around the people talking so that all the while, the audience is scanning the background looking for the monster. It can look like anyone, and they constantly, and deliberately put extras in the background walking directly toward the camera just to make you go “oh shit! Is that it right there? Hey, pay attention, we need to move!”
It’s just such a fun, unique experience. I don’t know of another horror movie experience quite like it.
The Thing (1982) has basically consistently been my favorite horror movie
Signs (2002) is my favorite horror movie to watch during spooky season. While it was mocked so perfectly in Scary Movie 3, I feel like the atmosphere it creates is still so unnerving. The humor in the movie adds an element of B movie campiness to an otherwise serious movie.
Cabin in the Woods (2011) disassembles the horror tropes in a hilarious way. Inspired by the Evil Dead movies.
After I saw Signs the first time, I started carrying a steel mop handle around my apartment and next to my bed at night.
Aliens really get to me from when I watched X-files as a kid, and this movie did it nicely.
The Witch (2015)
Since you asked the favorite, i will have to describe it, trying to avoid the spoilers.
It is a masterpiece on many aspects at the same time. It is a historical movie, focusing on an isolated devout settler family living on the frontiers in the beginnings of US history. It is a dramatic and heavy movie with believable people, showing their realistic hardships in everyday living, how they really live and think the world through their strict religion, and how they react realistically to the supernatural events that unfold. It is a Horror movie that gradually builds the mystery, tense and fear thorough the relatively long stretch of time it takes (months i guess), and the actual terror moments felt deserved (i.e. not a cheap scary gag).
For all that, it is considered one of the more ‘artful’ horror films out there, and i’m sure it will (or already is?) considered one of the Greats in the genre with Dracula 1932 and The Exorcist 1973. It however leans on being slow and heavy, not good if you seek a lighthearted film.
One way I like to describe it is that They took one this witch trials account/documents, took it at face value and just recreated it as an historical movie.
Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010) and The Cabin in the Woods (2012) (go in spoiler-free with this one) are both good comedy horror.
Difficult to pick one, but Annihilation is up there.
Not my favourite but Sleepaway Camp is an absolute classic of so-bad-its-good 80s horror with an unforgettable ending.
John Dies at the End is a good b/c/campy movie. It is absolutely not 1:1 to the books (which are good) but its a weird fun movie.
‘This door can NOT be opened!’
One of my favourite books ever! So funny!
Alien is my favorite horror movie by far. I really dig Hellraiser too. I watched Pontypool recently and was surprised how good it was. And The Shining is fab.
Pontypool Changes Everything by Tony Burgess was also a NUTS book. Definitely check it out. The scope is much wider than the flick and as a result it’s a lot more uneven. I still really dig it.
I tried really hard to do this book but it beat me. It’s a dnf on my list this year. The radio play is pretty good too.
Did not know there was a radio play. Ta!
*Doug Bradley Hellraiser movies.
Forgot about hellraiser! Thanks!
Pontypool pairs well with 30 days of night (and Tusk pairs well with The Substance).
We watched Pontypool when we read Snow Crash. There’s a scene where Snow Crash is placed really obviously if your looking fot it and the themes mesh really nicely.
It’s not a movie, rather a game: Layers of Fear
We played it at a friend (well, he played and we watched) back in… 2018? Or maybe 19?
Long story short, I try to forget it to experience it again later in 2030.
I really enjoy Event Horizon, especially with the 40K theory in mind.
