Horror Show

[Scorpio]

For werewolf fans: have you seen Ginger Snaps? Excellent low-budget werewolf flick that uses a young girls first period as the trigger to become a werewolf.

There were a couple of sequels but I haven't seen them yet.

As if her life wasn't complicated enough.
Teenagers get some wicked abuse in horror.

[RivkahChaya]

Remember those films you saw in the fifth grade about getting your period? "You may feel some slight cramping." "After a while, you will experience your period as normal, and 'that time of the month' won't feel different from any other time."

The people who make those films are the first people I'd maul.

[Magpie]

I like 'The company of Wolves '. It is to easy to make a bad werewolf movie because Werewolves are more obviously monsters than Vampires are. A human who loses his humanity and becomes dominated by the id is a scary concept to many people but very attractive to others. To teenage boys who are suddenly expected to have wealth,status, good looks or social skills but do not have any of theses things, the werewolf with the power to satisfy their frustrations with such simplicity must seem a desirable thing.

For werewolf fans: have you seen Ginger Snaps? Excellent low-budget werewolf flick that uses a young girls first period as the trigger to become a werewolf.

There were a couple of sequels but I haven't seen them yet.

[Scorpio]

Has anyone seen the new Evil Dead movie?. The reviews have been moderately positive.I hope the special edition CD shows up soon.

[RivkahChaya]

Does anyone remember when Twin Peaks was first on US TV? that show scared me. It's not the scariest thing I ever saw, but was an adult (albeit, pretty young-- still in college), and it had me checking locks on the doors an windows (and I didn't even live on the ground floor), checking closets, and such, before I went to bed. I think the first time I had a boyfriend just sleep over, without having sex, was after an especially creepy episode of the show. The one where Laura's mother sees the vision of the killer at the foot of Laura's bed.

I saw the 2-hr. movie that aired in the UK called Twin Peaks, with footage from the first season of the show cobbled together, with some ending that was stuck on by someone in sales and marketing, I don't know why. It's not the same thing at all as the two-season show in the US, just so you know.

[Scorpio]

On slasher films-

I love John Carpenter's original "Halloween"! It is simplicity at its finest as far as I'm concerned, the classic "Escaped Mental Patient" theme from urban legend treated with just the right dose of dark storytelling. It's helped strongly by the talents of Donald Pleasance and Jaimie Leigh Curtiss. Pleasance has several moments where his words deliver dramatic pronouncements that just hang ominously in the air. "Michael Meyers is the most dangerous patient I have ever seen." "You've fooled them, haven't you Michael? But not me." And so on. And the fact that Curtiss' mother Janet Leigh was the shower victim in "Psycho" is kind of a fun in-joke, but hardly just a novelty. "Halloween" was her first film but she turned out to have real solid acting chops. Her exchange with Pleasance at the end of the film, after they've both done violent battle with Michael, is heart wrenching. She sobs, "It WAS the Boogie Man." And he nods, "As a matter of fact, it was." When he then goes to the balcony from which Michael has fallen after having taken six bullets and sees that the body is gone, I'm perfectly willing to see that as the end of the story. Let's just conclude that there really was something supernatural about the guy and that he vanished upon death. But no, a whole series of inevitable sequels followed. And they all sucked.

As an exception, I reccomend Rob Zombie's remake of the original. I thought it was fascinating. Whereas the original took five minutes to tell Michael's backstory, Zombie took close to half an hour to really explain the psychology of what turned this little kid into a monster. Brutal, frightening stuff. I haven't seen his "Halloween 2" remake yet but it's on my list.

And then, let's give honorable mention to our old friend Jason Voorhees of the many, many "Friday the 13th" films. Let's face it, they are B-movies that lack real quality or class, across the board. But you know, they were a fun part of my teenage years and I remember them fondly. Every time one of them would come out it was a big event for all my friends to go to, enjoying the screams in the theater as the hockey masked freak slashed his way through victim after victim and endured punishment after punishment- machete to the heart, ax to the head, electrocution, whatever it was. And then finally, the inevitable happened- "Freddie Vs. Jason," bringing together Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street. I think I read somewhere that it set a record for the most blood ever spilled in one movie. And it ended with Jason triumphant, carrying Freddie's severed head- but then the head winks at the camera as if Freddie's still in the game! Aaaah, schlock cinema.

Talking of lunatic movies, memories of 'Nightmares in a damaged brain'
have bubbled to the surface of my warped mind. It was a video nasty 1st class; It was up there with ' The Evil dead ' and had Daily Mail readers fulminating.

[louisa]

Hitchcock may be the master of suspense, but as far as terrifying movies go then I agree that Halloween was scary - a lot more frightening than Psycho, for instance.

[kensei]

Dammit, isn't there a way of deleting a post when your computer does a backflip and ends up posting twice? Not that I can tell. Sorry about that.

[kensei]

On slasher films-

I love John Carpenter's original "Halloween"! It is simplicity at its finest as far as I'm concerned, the classic "Escaped Mental Patient" theme from urban legend treated with just the right dose of dark storytelling. It's helped strongly by the talents of Donald Pleasance and Jaimie Leigh Curtiss. Pleasance has several moments where his words deliver dramatic pronouncements that just hang ominously in the air. "Michael Meyers is the most dangerous patient I have ever seen." "You've fooled them, haven't you Michael? But not me." And so on. And the fact that Curtiss' mother Janet Leigh was the shower victim in "Psycho" is kind of a fun in-joke, but hardly just a novelty. "Halloween" was her first film but she turned out to have real solid acting chops. Her exchange with Pleasance at the end of the film, after they've both done violent battle with Michael, is heart wrenching. She sobs, "It WAS the Boogie Man." And he nods, "As a matter of fact, it was." When he then goes to the balcony from which Michael has fallen after having taken six bullets and sees that the body is gone, I'm perfectly willing to see that as the end of the story. Let's just conclude that there really was something supernatural about the guy and that he vanished upon death. But no, a whole series of inevitable sequels followed. And they all sucked.

As an exception, I reccomend Rob Zombie's remake of the original. I thought it was fascinating. Whereas the original took five minutes to tell Michael's backstory, Zombie took close to half an hour to really explain the psychology of what turned this little kid into a monster. Brutal, frightening stuff. I haven't seen his "Halloween 2" remake yet but it's on my list.

And then, let's give honorable mention to our old friend Jason Voorhees of the many, many "Friday the 13th" films. Let's face it, they are B-movies that lack real quality or class, across the board. But you know, they were a fun part of my teenage years and I remember them fondly. Every time one of them would come out it was a big event for all my friends to go to, enjoying the screams in the theater as the hockey masked freak slashed his way through victim after victim and endured punishment after punishment- machete to the heart, ax to the head, electrocution, whatever it was. And then finally, the inevitable happened- "Freddie Vs. Jason," bringing together Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street. I think I read somewhere that it set a record for the most blood ever spilled in one movie. And it ended with Jason triumphant, carrying Freddie's severed head- but then the head winks at the camera as if Freddie's still in the game! Aaaah, schlock cinema.

[kensei]

On slasher films-

I love John Carpenter's original "Halloween"! It is simplicity at its finest as far as I'm concerned, the classic "Escaped Mental Patient" theme from urban legend treated with just the right dose of dark storytelling. It's helped strongly by the talents of Donald Pleasance and Jaimie Leigh Curtiss. Pleasance has several moments where his words deliver dramatic pronouncements that just hang ominously in the air. "Michael Meyers is the most dangerous patient I have ever seen." "You've fooled them, haven't you Michael? But not me." And so on. And the fact that Curtiss' mother Janet Leigh was the shower victim in "Psycho" is kind of a fun in-joke, but hardly just a novelty. "Halloween" was her first film but she turned out to have real solid acting chops. Her exchange with Pleasance at the end of the film, after they've both done violent battle with Michael, is heart wrenching. She sobs, "It WAS the Boogie Man." And he nods, "As a matter of fact, it was." When he then goes to the balcony from which Michael has fallen after having taken six bullets and sees that the body is gone, I'm perfectly willing to see that as the end of the story. Let's just conclude that there really was something supernatural about the guy and that he vanished upon death. But no, a whole series of inevitable sequels followed. And they all sucked.

As an exception, I reccomend Rob Zombie's remake of the original. I thought it was fascinating. Whereas the original took five minutes to tell Michael's backstory, Zombie took close to half an hour to really explain the psychology of what turned this little kid into a monster. Brutal, frightening stuff. I haven't seen his "Halloween 2" remake yet but it's on my list.

And then, let's give honorable mention to our old friend Jason Voorhees of the many, many "Friday the 13th" films. Let's face it, they are B-movies that lack real quality or class, across the board. But you know, they were a fun part of my teenage years and I remember them fondly. Every time one of them would come out it was a big event for all my friends to go to, enjoying the screams in the theater as the hockey masked freak slashed his way through victim after victim and endured punishment after punishment- machete to the heart, ax to the head, electrocution, whatever it was. And then finally, the inevitable happened- "Freddie Vs. Jason," bringing together Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street. I think I read somewhere that it set a record for the most blood ever spilled in one movie. And it ended with Jason triumphant, carrying Freddie's severed head- but then the head winks at the camera as if Freddie's still in the game! Aaaah, schlock cinema.

[Abby Normal]

I am not a big fan of Halloween. John Carpenters The Thing and Assault on Precinct 13 are superior to me. I am a fan of the original Slasher movie Psycho, and the first half of A nightmare on Elm St did scare me when i watched it as a twelve year old.

I have never seen asualt on precinct 13. The thing to this day still scares the living crP out of me. I am afraid I am a victim of hype ough when it comes to psycho. I had heard so much about it, including from my parents that saw it when it first came out that when I finally saw it and still see it it is a bit of a let down although I still like it very much. My favorite Hitchcock horror is of course the birds. Maybe because I saw it when I was still young.

[kensei]

I just realized I dont have any classic ghost story type movies! If anyone could recommend any I would greatly appreciate it!

In my opinion the best ghost movie of all time is "The Sixth Sense," though its greatest emotional impact is in its sad scenes rather than its scary ones.

If it's chills you want, less tends to be more- films in which the antagonist is invisible or for whatever other reason just never actually seen. Though they are much lampooned now, "The Blair Witch Project" and "Paranormal Activity" are terrifying if you've never seen them before.

[Scorpio]

My favorites:
King Kong (original)
The Invisable Man (original)
This Island Earth(the best 50s SF/horror movie of its Genre)
Dracula (coppolla)
The Blob (total B grade cheesey brilliance)
The Thing (Kurt Russel)
Jaws
American Werewolf in London(best comedy/horror of all time)
Company of Wolves(a litle known hallucenigetic fever dream of a werewolf movie that combines different folklore of the werewolf legend including little red riding hood.)
Amittyville Horror(the opening scene of the actual murder of the family just Fs me up every time.)
Alien
Sante Sangre
Angel Heart (a masterpiece and one of my favorite movies of all time. Micky Rourke deserved best actor)
Pans Labyrinth
Dead Again
I prefer Hannibal and the original Manhunter to Silence of the Lambs(which is also very good howver)
A nightmare on Elm Street
Videodrome
Gothic
Jacobs Ladder
The Other (not to be confused with Nicloe kidman movie the Others)

and of course.... FROM HELL

I was never a fan of Zombie or slasher flicks. I know Im gonna get nailed for this but I think Night of the living Dead and Halloween are two of the most overated movies of all time. I know they are considered classics but they just dont do anything for me-I find them neither scary nor even interesting. I have tried to watch them a million times and I swear to God I fall asleep every time.

I just realized I dont have any classic ghost story type movies! If anyone could recommend any I would greatly appreciate it!

I am not a big fan of Halloween. John Carpenters The Thing and Assault on Precinct 13 are superior to me. I am a fan of the original Slasher movie Psycho, and the first half of A nightmare on Elm St did scare me when i watched it as a twelve year old.

[Abby Normal]

My favorites:
King Kong (original)
The Invisable Man (original)
This Island Earth(the best 50s SF/horror movie of its Genre)
Dracula (coppolla)
The Blob (total B grade cheesey brilliance)
The Thing (Kurt Russel)
Jaws
American Werewolf in London(best comedy/horror of all time)
Company of Wolves(a litle known hallucenigetic fever dream of a werewolf movie that combines different folklore of the werewolf legend including little red riding hood.)
Amittyville Horror(the opening scene of the actual murder of the family just Fs me up every time.)
Alien
Sante Sangre
Angel Heart (a masterpiece and one of my favorite movies of all time. Micky Rourke deserved best actor)
Pans Labyrinth
Dead Again
I prefer Hannibal and the original Manhunter to Silence of the Lambs(which is also very good howver)
A nightmare on Elm Street
Videodrome
Gothic
Jacobs Ladder
The Other (not to be confused with Nicloe kidman movie the Others)

and of course.... FROM HELL

I was never a fan of Zombie or slasher flicks. I know Im gonna get nailed for this but I think Night of the living Dead and Halloween are two of the most overated movies of all time. I know they are considered classics but they just dont do anything for me-I find them neither scary nor even interesting. I have tried to watch them a million times and I swear to God I fall asleep every time.

I just realized I dont have any classic ghost story type movies! If anyone could recommend any I would greatly appreciate it!

[Abby Normal]

I saw "The Company of Wolves" once, long ago. I know I enjoyed it but what I most remember about it was that it was a very "artsy" film. I think I would disagree somewhat about how werewolves are more obviously monsters than vampires because if a vampire movie was ever made that depicted them the way they were in folklore they would be pretty obviously monstrous, whereas a werewolf when in human form can pass for normal.

Bad werewolf movies. Hmmm... Well, all of the "Howling" sequels would certainly qualify. There was a CGI-fest called "Cursed" a decade or so ago starring Christina Ricci, who is an actress I like but the fact that I don't remember much about the movie must mean it was fairly forgettable. Then there was "Bad Moon" (I think it was called), starring Marielle Hemmingway, from the 90s. The hero of the piece is a German Shepherd, the only character who can tell there's something not right about the guy who is the werewolf, who in turn can tell he's been made and schemes to get the dog sent to the pound. Critics hated it and tore it to shreds. But I don't know, I found it quite exciting when the final battle took place and dog and werewolf were ripping the crap out of each other. Finally, the werewolf episode of tv's "The Night Stalker," which took place aboard a cruise ship, was fairly silly, though it is a chance to see Eric Braeden of the soap opera "The Young and the Restless" and John Jacob Astor in "Titanic" as a young man playing the werewolf.

The concept of the werewolf as a source of power- yes, that would be very appealing in cases where someone disenfranchised was able to harness that power and use it at will, transforming only when he wanted to, and there are stories like that. But in the ones where the change comes on when IT wants to, completely against the person's will, and he doesn't want it-- I can't imagine a more horrible existence. Any semblance of a normal life would be completely destroyed.

Company of Wolves is a great movie-one of my favorites. I thought I was the only one who ever saw it beause everyone I talked to had never even heard of it. A very strange fever dream of a movie! And yes it is kind of artsy-in a hallucinagenic kind of way.