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Do you like Horror movies?

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johnson1010
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Do you like Horror movies?

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Not the new torture-porn garbage.

Real, scare you silly stuff...

http://www.slashfilm.com/the-thing-trailer-poster/

The thing was a masterpeice. This is looking like it may be a worthy addition.
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Re: Do you like Horror movies?

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I used to love horror movies. When I was thirteen or fourteen, I went on a horror movie binge at my local family-operated video rental store. Hurray for the old vhs tapes in their huge blue-plastic boxes!

Anyway, I worked my way down the rows of horror movies, sometimes have to go back a few places depending on who was working the checkout counter that day. After all, I wasn't SUPPOSED to be able to take out R-rated stuff yet....

The past decade has been pretty limp as far as horror goes, in my opinion. Hollywood has moved from psychological frightners to graphically disturbing gore-fests. That's not horror. It's not even visceral any more. Plus, they are remaking most of the classics because Hollywood is run by a bunch of bean counters terrified of the prospect of uncharted territory. To my mind, the first "Alien" and "Flatliners" are much more impressive than the endless string of "Final Destination" script recyclers. "Hellraiser" was terrifying, and "In The Mouth of Madness" mind-bendingly provocative. Only "Mirrors" was worth watching of the new crop.

So why isn't it scary any more? Am I just too jaded? Perhaps. But look at this:
1.) A group of idiots wanders into an old house/creepy town/ruins/jungle/camp/local make-out spot.
2.) Usually one white attractive guy with issues, one white attractive chick with more boob than brain, and even ditzier female, another less attractive male, some other tag-along, and the black guy.
3.) One by one, the less attractive people get killed off in a series of unlikely tragedies. Usually the black guy goes first.
4.) The attractive male and female find some even more unlikely way to purge the horrors, which is pretty good for non-ordained amateurs who used to wash their armpits with the holy water.
5.) Having survived, the attractive pair go off to enjoy a life together of wild hot monkey sex. Good thing they let the ditz give it up first 40 minutes ago, which everyone knows is the horror movie albatross of doom.

Very few horror movies have surprised me in the last decade. With only one or two rare exceptions, I have been able to predict them all by the halfway point. I wish it weren't so, since it's a genre with so much potential.
Last edited by DamianLake on Sat Aug 13, 2011 11:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Do you like Horror movies?

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I love horror movies. "Nightmare on Elm Street" was awesome. The concept of being attacked in your sleep is scary as hell. But the ultimate horror movie was The Exorcist.
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Re: Do you like Horror movies?

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There is a new "Thing" coming out. I saw the trailer, and my first impression is that it looks pretty much the same as the Kurt Russel version from thirty years ago. If I had been the scriptwriter, I would have made one tiny change from the lines shown in the trailer.

It sounds like some scientists are being called to the antarctic because they discovered evidence of a crashed ufo, and not surprisingly they are in for several nasty shocks. I would have written it so instead of saying "We've discovered evidence of a structure under the ice,", I would have worked it out like, "Thirty years ago, two exploration camps vanished in a blizzard and were never heard from again. We've recently rediscovered what we think are the remains of the camps, and from the look, they might have never radioed for help because they had begun fighting each other. Further evidence makes us think we know what they discovered that they thought worth fighting over."

Anyone who saw the Kurt Russel movie would know they did not actually kill each other, but it would be easy to see why the new people studying the ruins would think so. From that point on, you could write EXACTLY the same script, but still have it be better than a simple remake. You'd never even need to mention the first movie every again.

It's a hobbyhorse of mine. I am growing mightily weary of how 50% of Hollywood's output in the past two decades has been little more than remakes. And now they are only waiting a few years to do remakes and reboots now, instead of at least a decade. Sheeesh.......
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Re: Do you like Horror movies?

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DamianLake wrote:To my mind, the first "Alien" and "Flatliners" are much more impressive than the endless string of "Final Destination" script recyclers.

Very few horror movies have surprised me in the last decade. With only one or two rare exceptions, I have been able to predict them all by the halfway point.
I agree completely. With the exception of the first "Alien" and a few other breakthrough-type films, there have been few that interested me lately. I do like many of the classics, however, sometimes just for a laugh, but often because they were really well written, acted and directed. One of these I just saw recently was called "The Haunting." It was the original one from 1963, starring Julie Harris, who gives an incredible performance. I haven't seen the remake, and I don't really know if I want to because they are usually so bad. One thing I can say about the original is that there were a couple of scenes that literally scared me to death; jump-out-of-my-seat scared. And there are very few movies that have ever done that to me.
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Re: Do you like Horror movies?

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If you are into the classics, I would recommend looking up the old Vincent Price movie, "Theater of Blood". Cheesy title, yes, and I admit it isn't a scare-you-out-of-your-seat movie, but it's always been a favorite of mine. Price plays a Shakespearian stage actor who believes he has been screwed out of his award for best portrayal of the bard's work for the last time, so he sets out to kill the various critics one by one. The funny part about it is he decides to kill each one in the manner of a specific Shakespeare play. The bard was a pretty bloody and gruesome guy, if you've never noticed before. If you are a Vincent Price fan, you really shouldn't miss this one.

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Re: Do you like Horror movies?

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DamianLake wrote:old Vincent Price movie, "Theater of Blood".

Seen 'em all, including this one. Price was corny, but really classic in his mannerisms and delivery. I loved him, especially in the old Poe stories, and The Fly.
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Re: Do you like Horror movies?

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Do I like horrors? LOVE them :)
Since I grew up watching "Are you afraid of the dark", "Goosebumps" and stuff like that, it's only natural I guess.

At the moment I'm reading "The haunting of the Hill House" and am looking forward to comparing this to this movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAo6WwpV3jk

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Re: Do you like Horror movies?

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All in all, I have to I am a big cowardly wimp and do not care for horror movies, with one exception. As a former catalog copy writer, Herschell Gordon Lewis was a big influence on my career. I find it absolutely fascinating that is he is both the Godfather of Direct Marketing and also the Godfather of Gore. It amazes me to watch his movies like Blood Feast or Wizard of Gore (for those of you who don't know him, he is the king of gorey B-movies) To think that a man who taught me the elements of sales copy created such disgusting horrible movies is really fascinating.
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Re: Do you like Horror movies?

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Ehh, sometimes. I saw the new "The Thing" today. Think I'm going to have nightmares. :x


Some movies I'm okay with, like Saw.
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