Movies: Horror Movie Discussion
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The Pit (1981) - 6/10
A psychotic 12-year-old boy enjoys conversations with his teddy bear, checking out naughty books, spying on naked women and throwing townspeople into a pit in the woods to be eaten alive by troglodytes. It's sort of like E.T. if Elliott were a horny pervert who fed people instead of Reese's Pieces to his new friend. It's really low budget and hilariously bad. The acting and dialogue are awful, though I suppose that the lead deserves credit for making me want to ring his little neck so badly. I've seen movies with rotten kids, but this Jamie is special. Jeffrey Dahmer was probably a little angel at 12 years old compared to him. The movie has a dark, demented sense of humor. Jamie pushes little girls, old ladies and everything in between to their deaths and then skips away with a smile on his face. It reminded me of the Sleepaway Camp movies. Like those, it's bad yet self aware and has a memorable ending that I didn't see coming and makes me smile just to think about. Objectively, this movie is the pits, but also so bad it's good. It's free on Roku and Tubi.
Mortuary (1983) - 5/10
An embalmer loves his job so much that he does it without even waiting for people to die first. This is one of those tame 80s horrors that relies more on mystery than scares or gore, but the mystery was lacking for me. The only reason to watch this is if you're a fan of Bill Paxton. He doesn't disappoint in one of his earliest roles and the ending is decent, largely thanks to him, but it's otherwise a rather forgettable movie.
Phenomena (1985) - 5/10
An American student arrives at a Swiss boarding school, learns that she's a bug whisperer and teams up with her insect friends to investigate a string of local murders. Apparently, her famous dad couldn't be there for his daughter, so he sent her away to a boarding school in an area with a loose madman beheading girls her age. A+ parenting. Jennifer Connelly is really young in this and Donald Pleasance is not. It's a strange movie, but it's from the maestro of spaghetti horror, Dario Argento, so that goes without saying.
A psychotic 12-year-old boy enjoys conversations with his teddy bear, checking out naughty books, spying on naked women and throwing townspeople into a pit in the woods to be eaten alive by troglodytes. It's sort of like E.T. if Elliott were a horny pervert who fed people instead of Reese's Pieces to his new friend. It's really low budget and hilariously bad. The acting and dialogue are awful, though I suppose that the lead deserves credit for making me want to ring his little neck so badly. I've seen movies with rotten kids, but this Jamie is special. Jeffrey Dahmer was probably a little angel at 12 years old compared to him. The movie has a dark, demented sense of humor. Jamie pushes little girls, old ladies and everything in between to their deaths and then skips away with a smile on his face. It reminded me of the Sleepaway Camp movies. Like those, it's bad yet self aware and has a memorable ending that I didn't see coming and makes me smile just to think about. Objectively, this movie is the pits, but also so bad it's good. It's free on Roku and Tubi.
Mortuary (1983) - 5/10
An embalmer loves his job so much that he does it without even waiting for people to die first. This is one of those tame 80s horrors that relies more on mystery than scares or gore, but the mystery was lacking for me. The only reason to watch this is if you're a fan of Bill Paxton. He doesn't disappoint in one of his earliest roles and the ending is decent, largely thanks to him, but it's otherwise a rather forgettable movie.
Phenomena (1985) - 5/10
An American student arrives at a Swiss boarding school, learns that she's a bug whisperer and teams up with her insect friends to investigate a string of local murders. Apparently, her famous dad couldn't be there for his daughter, so he sent her away to a boarding school in an area with a loose madman beheading girls her age. A+ parenting. Jennifer Connelly is really young in this and Donald Pleasance is not. It's a strange movie, but it's from the maestro of spaghetti horror, Dario Argento, so that goes without saying.
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Supermassive
HISS, HISS
I watched Barbarian without watching any trailers or reading any reviews, and holy crap what a great movie. It's been a fantastic last few years for horror and this is just another bullseye.
The Kingslayer
Registered User
This is a complete shot in the dark but I been trying to find a fairly recent horror flick (Sometime within the last 8 years) I vaguely remember the trailer but from what I do remember from it there was a metronome and a little kid walking up the stairs and sees a ghost.
The Kingslayer
Registered User
Nah not insidious. I dont think the movie got much fanfare. I just remember thinking I was going to watch it when I saw the trailer but never did when it came out. I just remember the metronome and a kid walking up the stairs and then seeing a ghost or spirit or something. Short trailer.
ManwithNoIdentity
Registered User
Curious what your guys opinion on worst horror remake?
Mine is, by far:
Mine is, by far:
I coincidentally watched Candyman 3: Day of the Dead on this year's Day of the Dead.
It moved from it's original Chicago setting to East LA. My opinion, the movie isn't very good, but not terrible either. Pretty true to it's original ideas, etc. There's a funny late 9os Marilyn Mason-esque gang that briefly kidnaps Donna D'errico.
The 19th century flashbacks are probably it's weakest element, they looked really inauthentic and careless.
It moved from it's original Chicago setting to East LA. My opinion, the movie isn't very good, but not terrible either. Pretty true to it's original ideas, etc. There's a funny late 9os Marilyn Mason-esque gang that briefly kidnaps Donna D'errico.
The 19th century flashbacks are probably it's weakest element, they looked really inauthentic and careless.
KallioWeHardlyKnewYe
Hey! We won!
- May 30, 2003
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Hmmmm. Good question. Gonna ponder some more but off the top of my head, I think the assorted reimaginings/reboots of the Texas Chainsaw movies are pretty bad.
My bar for a remake is this -- why? Beyond the obvious answer of "money" is there a creative reason for the movie to exist? You look at Halloween and both Rob Zombie and David Gordon Green have distinct POVs and style. It may be mixed results but they're at least trying to do SOMETHING with the property. Evil Dead and Suspiria -- both pleasantly surprised me largely because again the directors have clearly thought about their approach and execution. Folks mileage may vary on all these examples, but I at least appreciate the effort.
The Chainsaw reboots? Tobe Hooper already gave us sheer brutality in the original. And his part 2 already is a kinda gonzo curveball. The only thing the new ones bring is the ability and willingness to do more gore. Stories are pretty blah and the execution is just MORE. Just not that interesting to me.
Pranzo Oltranzista
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- Oct 18, 2017
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Haven't seen the Black Christmas remake, and yeah, it does look absolutely awful (not necessarily unnecessary though as it's still a pretty relevant film). I think on the other hand that the Nispel remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre was somewhat important in relaunching the splatter film (and guilty of being too successful and the cause for a long series of weaker remakes), and certainly miles better than his Friday the 13th. Most of the stuff that came afterwards was trash though.
From the top of my head, the remake that comes to me right now as the worst is Miner's Day of the Dead. That was terrible and unjustifiable. I suspect ManWithNoIdentity's pick might be even worse though.
Supermassive
HISS, HISS
The Kingslayer
Registered User
ManwithNoIdentity
Registered User
I actually really liked the 2006 one but it really was brought down by the fact it was PG13
According to IMDb, the 2006 one was R. It was the 2019 one that was PG-13. I wasn't kind to the 2006 one when I had only the 1974 version to compare it to, but I've softened on it since seeing the 2019 one. Funny how relativity works.
Buck Naked
Can't-Stand-Ya
- Aug 18, 2016
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Psycho with Vince Vaughn stands out as one of the worst movies of all time in my opinion, while the original is one of the very few 10/10 movies in existence. Strange how you can go so completely different with basically the same script.
I liked it for various reasons but it's gory and graphic to the point where you just cannot be taking it seriously. More of a grotesque than a real horror movie in my opinion. The most gruesome scenes just made me laugh here, while I really had trouble going to sleep after watching Funny Games USA, for instance. Or, talking more mainstream, after something like Sinister. Both of the Terrifiers are just too over the top, the second one even more so.
Terrifier 2 looks more like a real movie compared to the original one, as it has better dialogues and attempts at adding something like a story to all the slaughter. It' 30 minutes longer than it should have been but still, cannot say I didn't enjoy Art's enthusiasm and sadistic playfulness. Both of the movies are far from perfect for many reasons, yet I cannot get them off my mind for quite some time now.
Speaking of clown movies, I would say that Clown (2014) is also rather disturbing and underrated at the same time.
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Ace
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- Oct 29, 2015
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I went through the year and did a top ten horror movies for 2022. This was an incredibly deep year for horror movies. No list is perfect but I ended up happy with it because it kind of naturally ended up representing how much variety there was this year. Theatrical, streaming and on demand releases. Comedy horror and Gory horror. Foreign Language, sequels and prequels. There was so much stuff that I genuinely loved some of the movies that didn’t make it. I counted anything that became widely available in he US this year. If it was available overseas or at a festival before then it still counted.
So let’s debate it out. What is everyone else’s best of the year?
The Top Ten Horror Movies of 2022
Top Ten Horror movies of 2022. The Scare Value 10 best horror movies of the year. Which ten movies broke through in a great year for horror?
scarevalue.com
So let’s debate it out. What is everyone else’s best of the year?
Movies that didn't make your honorable mentions but at minimum probably should have include Mad God and Men.
Violent Night (2022) - 4/10
Santa (David Harbour) falls asleep on the job and spends Christmas Eve rescuing naughty rich folk from naughty criminals. It's as if the writers threw Bad Santa, Die Hard 1 & 2 and Home Alone into a blender and poured out this script. It felt unoriginal, the characters were mostly unlikable (some intensely so) and there's an odd mix of tones. One moment, Santa is decapitating bad guys to upbeat Christmas music and, the next, our heartstrings are pulled as a sweet little girl tells him that she believes in him. It's like it's trying to be a Deadpool movie and a Hallmark Christmas movie at the same time. I sort of respect wanting to add some heart and Christmas spirit to the ultra violent murder spree, but the execution didn't work for me and, in general, I just didn't find the movie nearly as fun, funny or sentimental as it was meant to be. In fact, it often just felt stupid, no better example than the ending, when the dad unselfishly burns bundles of cash to keep Santa warm even though there's a destroyed cabin with all of the wood that he could possibly need just 15 feet away. It's very Christmas-y, though, even more so than the movies that it copied from (especially Die Hard), I'll give it that.
Terrifier 2 (2022) - 4/10
Art the Clown stalks grown women pretending to be teenage girls. The first Terrifier was fairly decent for what it was. It had a really low budget, but effectively used it and had a demented villain. It had several faults, like shallow characters and little plot, but at least it was only 84 minutes long. Writer/director Damien Leone attempted to address those faults with this sequel, but did so by adding nearly an hour to the runtime. It just made the movie obnoxiously long. A lot more time is spent on the characters and plot, but the writing, directing and acting are mostly subpar. It became clear to me that Leone and several of the actors were well past the limits of their abilities. Thankfully, the lead actress is OK, but even her character isn't well fleshed out, despite so much screen time. Besides not being good, the plot is full of clichés and a little too obviously inspired by Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street. The movie really drags whenever Art isn't on screen, and even though it picks up in the final 30 minutes, when he's on screen a lot, I had already been watching for an hour and 45 minutes and was getting tired of it. Also, just when I was glad that the movie was over, there was a 4.5-minute-long mid-credits sequence. I was looking forward to this movie and ended up being very disappointed, almost entirely because of the awful pacing and length for this kind of movie.
Santa (David Harbour) falls asleep on the job and spends Christmas Eve rescuing naughty rich folk from naughty criminals. It's as if the writers threw Bad Santa, Die Hard 1 & 2 and Home Alone into a blender and poured out this script. It felt unoriginal, the characters were mostly unlikable (some intensely so) and there's an odd mix of tones. One moment, Santa is decapitating bad guys to upbeat Christmas music and, the next, our heartstrings are pulled as a sweet little girl tells him that she believes in him. It's like it's trying to be a Deadpool movie and a Hallmark Christmas movie at the same time. I sort of respect wanting to add some heart and Christmas spirit to the ultra violent murder spree, but the execution didn't work for me and, in general, I just didn't find the movie nearly as fun, funny or sentimental as it was meant to be. In fact, it often just felt stupid, no better example than the ending, when the dad unselfishly burns bundles of cash to keep Santa warm even though there's a destroyed cabin with all of the wood that he could possibly need just 15 feet away. It's very Christmas-y, though, even more so than the movies that it copied from (especially Die Hard), I'll give it that.
Terrifier 2 (2022) - 4/10
Art the Clown stalks grown women pretending to be teenage girls. The first Terrifier was fairly decent for what it was. It had a really low budget, but effectively used it and had a demented villain. It had several faults, like shallow characters and little plot, but at least it was only 84 minutes long. Writer/director Damien Leone attempted to address those faults with this sequel, but did so by adding nearly an hour to the runtime. It just made the movie obnoxiously long. A lot more time is spent on the characters and plot, but the writing, directing and acting are mostly subpar. It became clear to me that Leone and several of the actors were well past the limits of their abilities. Thankfully, the lead actress is OK, but even her character isn't well fleshed out, despite so much screen time. Besides not being good, the plot is full of clichés and a little too obviously inspired by Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street. The movie really drags whenever Art isn't on screen, and even though it picks up in the final 30 minutes, when he's on screen a lot, I had already been watching for an hour and 45 minutes and was getting tired of it. Also, just when I was glad that the movie was over, there was a 4.5-minute-long mid-credits sequence. I was looking forward to this movie and ended up being very disappointed, almost entirely because of the awful pacing and length for this kind of movie.
Crosby2010
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- Mar 4, 2023
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For me, the usuals.
Always thought Halloween was a masterpiece.
Psycho was the standard that was set.
The first three of the Scream movies. After that...........meh
Let me throw a movie out there that doesn't get a lot of press. "Strangers on a Train." Hitchcock's brilliant movie from 1951 I believe it was.
Always thought Halloween was a masterpiece.
Psycho was the standard that was set.
The first three of the Scream movies. After that...........meh
Let me throw a movie out there that doesn't get a lot of press. "Strangers on a Train." Hitchcock's brilliant movie from 1951 I believe it was.
Ace
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- Oct 29, 2015
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It’s officially Scream week. Time to avoid spoilers and do a series rewatch.
The first is my favorite movie of all time. I don’t think it’s the best movie…or even the best slasher movie…but it’s pretty unlikely that anything will ever top it for me in importance or the love I have for it. I was 17 when it came out…and I grew up watching slasher movies. It’s about 17 year olds who grew up watching slasher movies. I wrote a review for my site but had to try to keep it down to article length since I could, and probably one day will, write a book on it. I stuck to why the timing of the movie gives it a secret weapon. From coming out 18 years after Halloween, to the new technology that was cell phones, to the generation it is aimed at and commenting on…it had to come out exactly when it did. And how it uses cliches to entertain and ultimately misdirect you. It knows what you know…but you don’t know that it’s got a different plan than what it’s setting you up for.
I like the sequels…I even love most of them. But nothing can touch the original because the timing of its arrival is a once in a lifetime convergence of events.
The first is my favorite movie of all time. I don’t think it’s the best movie…or even the best slasher movie…but it’s pretty unlikely that anything will ever top it for me in importance or the love I have for it. I was 17 when it came out…and I grew up watching slasher movies. It’s about 17 year olds who grew up watching slasher movies. I wrote a review for my site but had to try to keep it down to article length since I could, and probably one day will, write a book on it. I stuck to why the timing of the movie gives it a secret weapon. From coming out 18 years after Halloween, to the new technology that was cell phones, to the generation it is aimed at and commenting on…it had to come out exactly when it did. And how it uses cliches to entertain and ultimately misdirect you. It knows what you know…but you don’t know that it’s got a different plan than what it’s setting you up for.
I like the sequels…I even love most of them. But nothing can touch the original because the timing of its arrival is a once in a lifetime convergence of events.
PK Cronin
Bailey Fan Club Prez
- Feb 11, 2013
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I find Scream 2,5, and 6 to be pretty close to one another. I also think 4 is better than people give it credit for. 3 is the only dud in the franchise and it's understandable given what was going on behind the scenes.
It's my yearly ritual and personal duty to bump this thread every October 1st. I have a number of horror films that I've put off until now. Let scary month commence!
