Best Horror Movies

[RegularKarate]

I can't quite figure out which thread to put this in (Mod, if you feel it should be moved, I'm fine with that).
I had seen most of these, but sat through them again... which was kind of rough at times:

Halloween: The Loomis Years

Donald Pleasence passed before the release of the sixth Halloween film, thus ending the original life of the Halloween films... after that, most of the plot-lines established after the first film were dropped and everything was reset for Halloween: 20 Years Later (or H20).  This is focusing on the Donald Pleasant era and especially focusing on films 4,5, and 6
since I figure most people gave up after 2 or 3 and might be curious.



Halloween (1978)

Clearly, this is the best of the series.  This movie started it all... blah blah blah... read any other review of it and you'll see that this movie was the best/worst thing to happen for horror films.

Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is chased around by Michael Meyers, a psychopath in a Captain Kirk mask who escaped from a mental institution.  Dr. Loomis is hot on Myers' tale because he's the only one who really understands him.



Halloween II (1981)

This takes place right after the first film... check out Mod's review, I pretty much agree... it starts out like we're going to see something different, but then just turns into a kill count and not much else.  

Laurie is taken to Haddonfield Hospital while Loomis tries to find out why Myers wants to kill Laurie so bad, eventually, we find out that Laurie is Michael's sister.

note: skipping Halloween III: Season of the witch because it is in almost no way connected to the rest of the series



Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)

We return the original storyline ten years after the first two Halloween movies took place.
We discover that not only was Laurie Mike's sister, but he also happens to have a niece (Laurie's daughter... Laurie's MIA:Presumed dead at this point, but she shows up later in H20).

Surprise surprise, Mike busts out during an inmate transfer and Loomis catches wind of it and decides to follow Myers all the way back to Halloweenville where Jamie (the daughter's name) lives with her foster parents and foster sister.

This one is better than the second in my opinion, but still pretty ridiculous.  There are lots of scenes of characters being stupid, but that's expected.  Logic defies itself when somehow the characters are locked INSIDE a house (the explanation for being trapped?  The door is made of metal!).

I could go on and on about the ridiculousness of this movie, but when you compare it to how bad Friday the 13th had gotten by the late eighties, it's a pretty enjoyable sequel.  Watch it with friends and drink (or not).



Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)

In the words of the producer on the only DVD extra for this movie:  
"We had just revived the series, Michael Myers was back and we spent two weeks number one at the box office, so drunk on success, we decided to shoot another movie"... interestingly enough, he's cut off after that point.  I'm assuming what followed was an apology of some sort.

A year later, we find out that Senor Myers was brought back to health after being shot perhaps twenty times and falling down a mine shaft (or something).  He kills the farmer that was nice enough to help him and goes after his niece again.  We know now that she's got a semi-psychic link to Myers so Lumis (completely bonkers by this
point) uses her to get Michael.

Definitely the worst of the original batch.  There are so many things that are incredibly wrong with this movie.. teenagers are somehow lured to an abandoned barn by some kittens, a ten year old is able to outrun a car, and Michael Myers often forgets what he's doing and just sits there while people run.. but the main issue with this movie is that it's boring.

There's no nudity and few kills.  The stalking, which is a major draw for this franchise isn't even good.  Unless you just need closure on the "Uncle Boogieman" storyline set up with part 4, this is a very skippable chapter.



Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)

This one opens with a frightening cult leader-type character basically telling us what has happened so far... oddly enough, it doesn't take him very long.  

Jamie is older now and has been kidnapped and impregnated by the evil cult that has been following Myers around for a long time (and set him free at the end of part 5).  She had the baby and the cult is about to fulfill some kind of prophecy that I don't quite understand (it involves DNA research and Myers having to kill the last of his bloodline).  With the help of some random crazy lady, Jamie escapes with the baby, hides him in a bus station then gets killed by Myers (who I guess has been sleeping for 6 years).

Tommy, the kid that Laurie was babysitting in the first movie is played by Paul Rudd and he's almost as obsessed with Myers as Loomis.  He finds Loomis (who's heard about Jamie's death) and together (with the help of the daughter of Laurie Strode's non-blood-related aunt and uncle who are now living in the house from the first film?) decide to rescue the baby and try to kill Myers.

I actually found that this movie was a lot more like the original (if you take away the convoluted supernatural cult subplot) than most of the other sequels.  It suffered from some ninetiesisms, but not so much that it was unbearable.  There are some cheap scares that involve normal stuff happening with loud music to wake you up, but there are actually some kind of suspenseful scenes as well and the murders are pretty brutal.

The main problem with this movie is that it's so obvious that the end was recut.  It's clear that the original intention was to have Loomis battle Myers in a final fight to the death, but instead he just says he has to "finish something" then goes inside and we just the mask and hear his scream... I guess they did this after Pleasence died.

[w/o horse]

I think you have to be off your rocker to call The Fly Cronenberg's best film.

[modage]

i will fight you.

[SiliasRuby]

I think you have to be off your rocker to call The Fly Cronenberg's best film.

i will fight you.

....
Okay now this picture has been played out as a joke for good

[w/o horse]

I don't want to fight you man, because you're crazy.

[Pubrick]

Okay now this picture has been played out as a joke for good

it was only marginally amusing when polkablues did it.. without the text

leave the comedy to the professionals, kiddo.

[modage]

The Wolf Man (1941)
"Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright."

WHATS IT ABOUT? Universal's second try at a werewolf film, after 1935's Werewolf Of London, yields a classic.

IS IT SCARY? No.  65 years after its release, it retains little of its bite.



WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT IT? The makeup, Lon Chaneys performance, and the story which is actually quite sad.  A guy comes home because his brothers dead, falls in love with a girl who is engaged to someone else, gets bitten by a werewolf, and beaten to death by his own dad!  Bring a hankie.

SCARIEST MOMENT: n/a



WHY SHOULD I WATCH IT? Because every good werewolf film made since owes something to this one.

[modage]

The Mummy (1932)
"He went for a little walk! You should have seen his face!"

WHATS IT ABOUT? Boris Karloff, fresh from his huge and uncredited success with Frankenstein, portrays another classic Universal Monster as a Mummy searching for his reincarnated lover.

IS IT SCARY? No.  Though it's likely audiences in 1932 would disagree with me.



WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT IT? It's another tale of obsession and love disguised as a Monster movie, Boris Karloff is great as Im-Ho-Tep and Jack Pierces makeup is still unbelievable.

SCARIEST MOMENT: When the mummy awakens.



WHY SHOULD I WATCH IT? Because it's one of the Universal Big 5 with Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man & Creature From The Black Lagoon.  And because even though The Mummy itself is only onscreen for about 30 seconds it's still one of the most unforgettable images in cinema history.

[Pubrick]

WHY SHOULD I WATCH IT? Because every good werewolf film made since owes something to this one.

all two of them.

[RegularKarate]

WHY SHOULD I WATCH IT? Because every good werewolf film made since owes something to this one.

all two of them.

American Werewolf in London aaaaaaaand...  Teen Wolf?

[Pubrick]

WHY SHOULD I WATCH IT? Because every good werewolf film made since owes something to this one.

all two of them.

American Werewolf in London aaaaaaaand...  Teen Wolf?

i knew that was an overstatement. i think i was counting the bit at the end of the Shining where jack pretends to be the big bad wolf..

[MacGuffin]

WHY SHOULD I WATCH IT? Because every good werewolf film made since owes something to this one.

all two of them.

American Werewolf in London aaaaaaaand...  Teen Wolf?

i knew that was an overstatement. i think i was counting the bit at the end of the Shining where jack pretends to be the big bad wolf..

Not to be confused with Jack in Wolf:

[Brazoliange]

WHY SHOULD I WATCH IT? Because every good werewolf film made since owes something to this one.

all two of them.

American Werewolf in London aaaaaaaand...  Teen Wolf?

Wolfen?

[diggler]

the fly is obviously cronenbergs best film

unless you count shivers...... scanners..... naked lunch..... history of violence..... spider...... and videodrome


other than those nothing can touch it. not demeaning the film at all. but shit... exploding head......

[modage]

well, thats it.  another Halloween season come and gone.  i watched 35 horror films: 11 were reviewed here in Best Horror and 21 new ones in the Horror thread, (a few were re-watched and will be reviewed next year).  it wasnt a marathon 30 reviews like last year but it was actually the same number from 2 years ago. 

1. 28 Days Later
2. Candyman
3. Demon Knight
4. The Fly
5. Friday The 13th
6. Hostel
7. The Howling
8. The Mummy
9. Psycho
10. The Wolf Man
11. Young Frankenstein

thanks to anyone for participating especially RK for reviewing 20 films of his own!  it's been fun, see you next year where i'm confident i'll find a few 10's.