Horror Show

[Scorpio]

Has anone else read Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, the book The Haunting is based on? That book scared me silly, and I read most of it on a nice, sunny day, with lots of other people around. I know people who have lost sleep by reading, for example, Helter Skelter, alone, at night, while housesitting in a strange house. I have learned not to read any book about Jack the Ripper after dark, even when I'm not alone. I had to swear off true crime altogether the year my husband was in Iraq. But there were no outside forces conspiring to make The Haunting of Hill House extra creepy, it just was-- it was that unnerving.

The movie disappointed me, because it didn't live up to the book, but I don't think anything could have.

The movie that scared me the most when I was an adult was The Blair Witch Project, in that I was checking my closets, and making sure all my doors and windows were locked before I went to bed.

Something else that used to creep the hell out of me on a weekly basis, in a "check the closets, and all the locks" way, was the TV show Twin Peaks [IMDb link for UKers who don't know it]. I was only 23 when it was on, and living in a sort of crummy 3rd floor walk-up, but I knew all my neighbors, and we used to watch it together. Still creeped me out. I haven't seen it since it was first on, so I don't know how much it would scare me now, 23 years (which is to say, half my life) later.

I must admit that my first viewing of the Blair Witch project did get under my skin. I was living in a rural locale at that time and had a three mile walk to work
at six AM along some desolate unlit roads; this resulted in looking over my shoulder for a week afterwards and paying more attention to shadows than i normally would. I have not suffered such a reaction to a piece of fiction since childhood after watching A nightmare on Elm St on video when my parents were away.

[RivkahChaya]

We lived in a small house in the woods for several years, and I could watch other horror movies and be just fine, and yet, BWP still managed to creep me out when I lived in a major city.

My husband still teases me every so often, by quoting the movie, and his favorite is when we take a wrong turn some place, to point to something, and say "It's the same [effing] 'McDonald's' (or whatever)." It's more a comment on how ubiquitous whatever "it" is, is, like McDonald's, and I guess you have to be there, but I still laugh, after 14 years, or whatever.

They should have been folklore students, instead of film students, though. The filming is too amateurish for real film students.

[Cogidubnus]

I'm sorry, but to many right-ponders the "Blair Witch" reference can only relate to the horrific Cherie Booth...ugh...

Sorry

Dave

[Magpie]

Speaking of horror classics, I just started a "Phantasm" marathon. I picked up all four movies. From what I remember, the first one scared the living bejeezus out of everyone I knew when it can out. I also remember that number 4 was so monumentally lame that it took me about 3 days to watch it, just so I could say I'd seen them all.

[Ayailla]

I really enjoy horror movies, but I've become disenchanted with western ones. They annoy me. Too many jump scares, relying too much on the gore, and once the movie is over, you forget it. I like horror movies that get you psychologically and stick with you. Films that don't scare you at the time but, when you wake up in the middle of the night, it suddenly hits you. That's why I prefer Asian horror movies.

Films like Ju-On (The Grudge) and Ringu (The Ring) are good ones to go for if you're a first time J-horror watcher. There's also Chakushin Ari (One Missed Call) which is good. The Korean film Pon (Phone) is very good too. The problem with a lot of asian horror is that America takes them and messes them up. With The Ring and The Grudge, they relied too much on special effects to get the 'scare' factor they wanted.

If you watch the American clip of the ghost crawling down the stairs in The Grudge, they use weird camera angles, loud music, and the main characters are screaming. It's too over the top. Compare that to the Japanese clip of the ghost crawling down the stairs. The girl is sat at the bottom, making barely any sound. All you can hear for most of the clip is the thump of her coming down, the horrible noise she is making, and a little bit of music in the background (which is creepy, not dramatic). Not too many shot switches as she crawls down towards the girl. In the American one, it doesn't register as real. In the Japanese one, you can tell that the actress playing the ghost is actually doing that. It makes it much more scary. The most annoying part is that they used the same actress for the ghost in both movies.

In case anybody is interested:

American clip - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WWdim-OLok
Japanese clip - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJpooPuCUT0

[RivkahChaya]

I agree that Japanese horror movies over the last couple of decades have been great, and I'd say in general, Japanese films are underrated, because for a long time, the only ones Americans ever saw were badly dubbed giant monsters (Mothra, Rodan, etc.) and badly dubbed kung-fu movies. The last couple of decades, we've had the opportunity to see subtitled films. Also, in college, I got to see things like Akira Kurusawa's films, and those are fantastic.

This may sound crazy, but if you ever get a chance to see Godzilla (a big clue is that it will be called "Gojira") in the original Japanese release edit, without the Perry Mason scenes, and subtitled, not dubbed, you'll be surprised, because it's a very good movie. I cried at the end. It's not even really a horror movie in the conventional sense, it's about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and how, for the Japanese civilians who survived the attack, it was like being attacked out of nowhere by a huge monster. Yeah, it sounds goofy when I put it that way, in 2012, but the film came out in Japan in 1954, and a lot of the audience knew exactly what they were watching.

[Ayailla]

I'll have to keep an eye out for the original, for sure. It's one of the movies I've never actually seen. I love Subtitled movies.

Akira was an excellent film. A lot of Asian films are brilliant works. Maybe I should start a new thread for the Asian Film Appreciation Society.

[louisa]

I haven't read the Haunting of Hill House but yes, I can well believe it would be scarey. I've seen the movie and it was quite scarey the first time I saw it (I was just a teenager then).

The first horror movie I think I ever saw was on TV. It was 'The Devil Rides Out' (from the book by Dennis Wheatley). The part where the Angel of Death turns out scared the wotsit out of me! I watched the film again recently and all I could see was the terrible acting and a poor attempt at an early form of computer graphics.

Regarding Silence of the Lambs I think there must be something wrong with me. Far from finding it scarey I found it very funny. All I could see was Anthony Hopkins in a stupid mask making silly noises. I'd say it was one of the least frightening movies that I've ever seen.

[RivkahChaya]

Regarding Silence of the Lambs I think there must be something wrong with me. Far from finding it scarey I found it very funny. All I could see was Anthony Hopkins in a stupid mask making silly noises. I'd say it was one of the least frightening movies that I've ever seen.

I agree that it wasn't especially scary. I thought of it more as a mystery with some gross parts, than a horror film. I thought it was pretty insulting to transgendered people, as well. I enjoyed the interviews the director gave after it came out, about how the murderer [SPOILER ALERT] wasn't really transgendered, he only thought he was, because he was crazy, and that's why he killed people, which a genuinely transgendered person would, of course, never do.

[Robert]

"The Devil Rides Out" is one of my all time favourites, along with "Dead of Night," "Night of the Demon" and the first Frankenstein film.

[Scorpio]

Speaking of horror classics, I just started a "Phantasm" marathon. I picked up all four movies. From what I remember, the first one scared the living bejeezus out of everyone I knew when it can out. I also remember that number 4 was so monumentally lame that it took me about 3 days to watch it, just so I could say I'd seen them all.

I have vague memories of number one. Flying metal spheres which drill through peoples heads, chopped of fingers which become large house flies,hooded dwarfs ( possibly extraterrestrials ), and the tall man. The screenwriter made a real effort it seems on the originality front.

[RivkahChaya]

I have vague memories of number one. Flying metal spheres which drill through peoples heads, chopped of fingers which become large house flies,hooded dwarfs ( possibly extraterrestrials ), and the tall man. The screenwriter made a real effort it seems on the originality front.

I saw Phantasm on a double-bill at a drive-in with The Manitou, the latter of which is one of those "so bad it's good" movies. It seriously has to be seen to be believed.

I was only about 12 or 13-- a friend's older sister took us, and some other neighborhood kids in a pick-up truck. It was really fun. But I didn't follow the plot of Phantasm very well, so I didn't find it scary. I didn't find The Manitou scary either, but I enjoyed it, the same way I enjoyed all those Universal horror sequels, like Dracula meets the Wolf Man, and House of Frankenstein.

[Magpie]

In a morass of slasher flicks, Phantasm stood out as been very original and creative, of not always comprehensible. It also relied on a lot of dream sequences and surreal imagery, before such things became a total cliche.

Pt 2 tonight, hopefully

[RivkahChaya]

In a morass of slasher flicks, Phantasm stood out as been very original and creative, of not always comprehensible. It also relied on a lot of dream sequences and surreal imagery, before such things became a total cliche.

Pt 2 tonight, hopefully

It also looks like a film that was conceptualized as a 3D film, but not made that way-- or even filmed with 3D sequences, but not released that way; that's why the excess of objects flying around, especially the scenes where they fly at the screen, then the perspective shifts, and they are sticking out of someone's head. Those are what you go to 3D films to see; in fact, lots of people would pay the matinee price for two hours of just flying objects, with no story line, in 3D.

The film was made in the late 70s, when there was a bizarre 50s nostalgia craze, and an attempt to revive 3D filming, accompanied by theatrical re-releases of some 50s 3D successes, like Vincent Price's House of Wax, and The Creature from the Black Lagoon (which rocks in 3D).

If anyone is interested, the shots of things getting stuck in people's heads were done by filming the sequence backwards, and slower, then reversing and speeding up the film.

[Magpie]

If anyone is interested, the shots of things getting stuck in people's heads were done by filming the sequence backwards, and slower, then reversing and speeding up the film.

The funny part is when they have the ball stuck in their foreheads for the blood pumping, they simply use a ball with the end of the blades cut off and the actors are just literally holding them up to their foreheads.