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Recommended Horror Films for Offshore(or anyone)

Offshore wanted some recommendations for horror flicks from me, since it was once my favorite genre-they've lost their way, and for the most part, they really suck anyomre, other than an occasional moment of brightness. Here are some to start with-most are 1980's vintage, which I thought was the last great moment of horror in cinema, a feware recent. If any more pop into my head, I'll post them.
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I would assume you've seen both HALLOWEEN and the original NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET a thousand times on TV, cut of course. Those two and a few of their sequels are ok-notably HALLOWEEN 2 and NIGHTMARE 2 and 3. Pretty much all else sucketh, except-Wes Craven's THE NEW NIGHTMARE was a strange vision of Fred Krueger trying to bridge the gap from the movie world to the real world, and though weird in spots, they played it completely straight, which makes it more unsettling than most of the series after the first two.

THE FOG-John Carpenter's atmospheric masterpiece was muddled a bit, but with the cast he had, you couldn't really dislike it. AVOID THE REMAKE at all costs!! Just plain stupid.

FROM BEYOND-Played deadly serious by the folks who brought you RE-ANIMATOR, this Lovecraftian type tale gave new blood to the genre.

As did Clive Barker's HELLRAISER franchise-the first two are excellent, three and four are decent, everything else is low-budget direct-to-video drivel not worth watching.

CHRISTINE and THE THING (John Carpenter's remake)were Carp's zenith and everything since has been mediocre to absolute trash. A left-open ending killed the thing in theatres,(although a series of comic novels continued the story where it left off) and some complained about CHRISTINE moving too slowly, but I thought that was what made it good, particulary the transformation of the car owner's personality. Great acting, effects, direction,photography, and acting in both.

CHILD'S PLAY slowly turns into parody, but up until the scene where the doll 'outs' himself , I thought it was creepy as hell. All sequels suck.

HE KNOWS YOU'RE ALONE-Tom Hanks in his first bit part acting stupid. A killer is stalking women who are about to be married.

C.H.U.D. (the tagline at the time said "You don't want to know what it means", but I'll tell you anyway-Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers) The sequel blows.

SCARED TO DEATH-great low-budget entry. Starring the Syngenor (synthetic genetic organism)

created by Darkseid on Sep 29, 2008 at 06:53:39 am
updated by Darkseid on Sep 29, 2008 at 06:55:40 am     Comments: 17

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Comments ... #

Some more.....

THE FUNHOUSE-one of Tobe Hooper's better directorial efforts. Group of kids get stuck in an amusement park overnight with a nasty mutant.

posted by Darkseid on Sep 29, 2008 at 06:58:07 am     #



Thanks! I'll turn down the lights and the subwoofer up! Thanks again Darkseid.

posted by Offshore on Sep 29, 2008 at 06:59:46 am     #



Tobe's best , of course, was POLTERGEIST, although the British film LIFEFORCE was decent also and gave a new explanation to the history of vampires.

DREAMSCAPE was creepy. Sort of a Freddy Krueger spinoff, professional assassins go into your dreams to kill you.

THE BOOGENS was low-budget and all, but had atmosphere up the ass and was creepy as hell up until the very end, which by then was somewhat of a letdown, but give it a chance.

The REMAKE of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR was better than the first one-highly unusual. Has an absolutely stunning woman in the mother role , and good direction. Another remake that was better than the first was WHEN A STRANGER CALLS-the original ran out of gas after the first 15-20 minutes, but this one keeps it going. The director of the remake wisely chose to make the house itself a character in the movie. It works. "Have You Checked The Children?"

CURTAINS-a group of actors are invited to a producer's creepy estate for the choosing of a role.

BLACK CHRISTMAS-not for everyone, especially the 'ending', but it was creepy, especially worked for me during the end credits. AVOID the remake!! Nothing but disgust and gore.

posted by Darkseid on Sep 29, 2008 at 07:10:51 am     #



WITCHBOARD-one of the best low-budget horror films I've ever seen.

The guy who plays the ghost is hardly on screen, but you'll remember him forever.

DRESSED TO KILL and BODY DOUBLE, both by De Palma.

HELL NIGHT (Linda Blair).

TERROR TRAIN-sorority rents an old train for a costume ball. Somebody isn't who they appear to be.(Jamie Lee Curtis)

PROM NIGHT-the ORIGINAL only, avoid the 'remake'. Group of young kids are responsible for a tragedy, years later they're stalked on the night of their senior prom.

posted by Darkseid on Sep 29, 2008 at 07:19:42 am     #



SILVER BULLET-quite simply, the best werewolf movie I've ever seen. Gary Busey in one of his best roles.

SLEEPWALKERS-like Silver Bullet, another Steven King adaptation, and I was never able to listen to Santo & Johnny's guitar instrumentals in the same way again.

THE HITCHER-(original) Rutger Hauer is the mysterious title character who forms some sort of weird bond with a kid who picks him up.
"Where are you from?"

"Disneyland."

THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW-tale about voodoo from Was Craven.

THE STEPFATHER-but- avoid all sequels like the plague. Terry O'Quinn deserved at least an oscar nomination for this.

THE GATE (pray it's not too late). Group of kids find the doorway to Hell is in the back yard. Sequel sucked.

Good Luck on locating some of these, but IMO, the hunt would be worth it. Let me know what you think, at any rate.

posted by Darkseid on Sep 29, 2008 at 07:29:54 am     #



Another one-THE EVIL. You've never seen Richard Crenna in a part like this. Victor Buono in one of the best portrayals of The Devil I've ever seen.

posted by Darkseid on Sep 29, 2008 at 07:39:46 am     #



Tagline for THE NEW NIGHTMARE-"This Time, Staying Awake Won't Save You."

posted by Darkseid on Sep 29, 2008 at 07:41:09 am     #



Darkseid: ever seen Killer Clowns from Outer Space?

It's very very cheesy but if you have a clown phobia from a childhood IT trauma, it'll re-spook you and maybe give you a laugh.

posted by jshriver on Sep 29, 2008 at 12:44:56 pm     #



Ironically I have about half of those movies in my movie collection. Good list :)

posted by jshriver on Sep 29, 2008 at 12:46:33 pm     #



Funny, kinda have to see at least once if you're a horror buff "Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things".

It's not really a great movie, but has a good making of storyline.

Bob Clark, the guy who directed it, got a bunch of his buddies together and pulled their money together to make this movie during their college days. This was his first movie before going on to make Porkies and "A Christmas Story".

Yup the guy who made that started out making a horror flick.

posted by jshriver on Sep 29, 2008 at 12:54:24 pm     #



I think I saw that years ago in the theatre, but not sure. Yeah, KILLER CLOWNS was weird-but if you were afraid of clowns, ...Hey, you just jogged my memory-CLOWNHOUSE will get to you if you have a clown phobia, maybe even if you don't. It ain't no comedy, that's for sure.Check it out, too. 80s again, I believe.

posted by Darkseid on Sep 29, 2008 at 01:14:33 pm     #



And for the king of evil clowns, it'd be hard to beat Pennywise in King's IT.

posted by Darkseid on Sep 29, 2008 at 01:27:37 pm     #



The Dark Knight is horrorble. That's why Ledger looks good in it.

Horror movies require a suspension of disbelief/self-delusion for them to work.
I recommend walking through a neighborhood you're uncomfortable in the day at night.

This is so bad, it's good.

posted by charlatan on Sep 29, 2008 at 07:15:32 pm     #



darkseid: want to hand out sometime and watch horror movies? haven't had a movie friend in a long time.. msg me at jshriver gmail.com :) my main email account.

posted by jshriver on Sep 29, 2008 at 07:29:27 pm     #



charlatan: lol nice pic, never seen that flic. Though I was suprised to see a huge "Troma collection" for sell at Best Buy a while back.

Those movies define cheese and I love'em hehe

posted by jshriver on Sep 29, 2008 at 07:30:27 pm     #



Since I mentioned in the last post, I am anxious to get the 50 classic horror movie collection at BB as well. Think it's only about $40 but you get 50 movies.

After looking at them, I'm guessing they're B'movies from the 50's but really those are the most fun.

Once I get it I'll send a post :)

posted by jshriver on Sep 29, 2008 at 07:32:47 pm     #



BTW I've never seen the original CHUD movie. It seems kinda rare but I was able to catch Chud 2 on HBO a while back when I had the cheap package and liked it. Yes it was cheesy, lacked real plot, but was horrorific cheese :)

Now that it's almost Oct I'm tempted to get my BB online pass again just to rent obscure horror movies you can't find local.

BBL off to BB :)

posted by jshriver on Sep 29, 2008 at 07:57:13 pm     #