In general, I am not a horror movie fan and 1408 left me somewhat cold except for the very fine performance of John Cusak, who seems able to take on the "everyman" role better than anyone. "Everyman" but with a small questionmark. I don't want to give much of the plot away, but it is one of those horror films that put you inside the horror early on and you never can escape.I prefer those movies that allow retreats when you/protagonist gets to mull over the circumstances and investigate them.
What are you five favorite horror films? Mine are 1) The Shining (although it breaks my rule) 2) The Exorcist 3) Jaws 4)Don't Look Now 5)Alien
I could think of many more but in general, it's not my favorite genre because of the startling factor in most of them.
7 comments:
I don't have a list, but if I did, the first version of The Haunting would be at the top of it.
Few horror movies have made me jump in my sticky, ill-padded theater seat, but The Town That Dreaded Sundown (original version) is one of them. Gore doesn't do it, but that moment an unexpected hand falls on a shoulder or that sudden knock at the driver's side window as the couple talks quietly in the car parked (where else?) in the middle of nowhere. What about Hitchcock? The Birds and Psycho. And then the horrible, zz-rated Motel Hell...
Bill-Do you mean The Haunting of Hill House based on the Shirley Jakcson story? I loved that movie. Claire Bloom and Julie Harris right? Nothing ever happens and yet it's chilling.
DOrene-Psycho and The Birds would have been in the top ten. I never heard of The Town That Dreaded Sundown. Have to check it out.
I didn't like The Shining because I thought it was miscast. It was like casting Robin Williams as an out of control comedian. With Nicholson in the main role there was nowhere to go. Someone like Robert Redford should have been cast, IMO.
So Patti, if you don't like horror movies why do you go to them?
I think it's called a husband.
You are right about Nicholson though I don't think I realized it at the time. Little did I know he would give that performance again and again. When I think back on actors of that generation, few of them were subtle. De Niro, Pacino, Caan all would have been over the top. What I liked was the atmosphere, Shelley Duval, the child, the look of it, the idea that the history of the hotel was still walking the halls. Plus I was really, really scared.
As a Kubrick fan (and already a pretty confirmed non-fan of King, though I had liked CARRIE the novel and "Children of the Corn" the novelet, not the film), I was pretty disappointed by THE SHINING...the kid talking to his finger Really Really Didn't Work for me, except as ?unintentional humor...and since I first saw THE SHINING at a drive-in with the superior, more modest Canadian suspense film THE SILENT PARTNER as the second feature, that really smacked it down for me.
Over at the Horror List at Indiana University we recently polled ourselves, and THE HAUNTING as directed by Robert Wise was either the top citation or one of the top three. I certainly cited it. The insult to Jackson's novel and the first film that was released a year after the PSYCHO insult to Robert Bloch and Alfred Hitchcock stand as two of the worst "remakes" ever vomited up.
Best horror (not suspense like PSYCHO, not surreal like REPULSION, not black comedy like THE LOVED ONE) five at the moment: CAT PEOPLE (1942), HOUR OF THE WOLF (certainly verges on surreal, I admit), THE HAUNTING (1963), ONIBABA (best horror film ending I've seen...one of the best film endings of any kind I've seen), and from the no-budget column, CARNIVAL OF SOULS. Such multi-story films as BLACK SABBATH and THREE CASES OF MURDER were on my ten-list, as was the ringer of Robert Bloch's adaptaton of his WEIRD TALES story "The Weird Tailor" for the Boris Karloff-hosted THRILLER series. DON'T LOOK NOW would be pretty high on my list, too, though perhaps not quite in the top ten...Roeg sure knows what to do with a camera, maybe not quite so good at coherence in the editing suite. Du Maurier's story a stronger one than he usually had.
Oh, Todd, you will keep us on our toes with these more scholary selections. I guess I should have thought about it more because you make excellent points here. Carnival of Souls is terrifying.
I need to revisit the whole subject.
On Crimespace, we are discussing the best heixg flicks. Maybe you'd enjoy that discussion too.
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