General Horror Films & TV Discussion Thread

[Valeyard]

Freddy's Dead just needed Lisa Zane to get naked for no reason and it would've been so much better. It'd at least counter Tom and Roseanne.

Everything that got cut from New Nightmare would've made it incredible. I like it but there's so clearly a LOT missing to make the concept work properly. I know it's one of those "lol she played herself" things but Heather Langenkamp brought it, too.

I love the Nightmare movies but holy shit there's just missed creative potential all over the place. They're very frustrating.

 

[Super Leather]

Chances are that I would think differently about the Nightmare on Elm Street movies had I seen them when I was younger. Starting with them now is admittedly difficult since I've seen a ton of horror movies that came out before and after each sequel.

That said, I went through virtually the entire Friday the 13th series (no Jason X for me) last year. I was anticipating a similar reaction to the sequels; that I should have tried watching them earlier in life. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that they were mostly solid, fun slasher fare. Freddy Krueger seemed so much cooler until now. I may have to declare myself on Team Voorhees after all.

 

[Valeyard]

I legit think Jason is a way more interesting character than Freddy, which doesn't seem like should be the case. There's a weird feeling of depth and a weight to him. That and to be fair assholes keep provoking him, so it isn't like I can hate him. Freddy should be a really interesting character but the ball just always seems to get dropped to me. The Nightmare movies feel like they should be incredible psychological horror instead of a slasher, really.

Freddy never resonated with me because his introduction in the first movie fucks up.
"Oh my god!"
"This...is god!"
[Freddy chases her like a gorilla in a man costume]

 

[Gary]

Just watched Eaten Alive on Plex. I enjoyed it more this time and attribute it entirely to the transfer quality. Agreed that the weirdness is maxed out, probably to make up for the crocodile lacking in its presence. I kept thinking of Alligator and how well the gator was used in that movie.

Speaking of Alligator, when is that movie ever going to be reissued again? I should've bought the DVD when I had the chance years ago. What a cast!

Of the big four of American horror (the others being Carpenter, Romero), Hooper's films are often the strangest. When you look at other films in his filmography (Texas Chainsaw 1 & 2, The Funhouse, Lifeforce, even less talked about films like Spontaneous Combustion (underrated IMO), The Mangler and Night Terrors (which-are movies) are either really weird or have really weird elements or moments. I can't imagine any major studio-in or outside of America-financing something like "Lifeforce" today. That's one of the most insane blockbusters of the 80s, if not of all time.

re: Alligator-I don't know if Lonsgate still has the rights to it in the US, but I doubt it. I do know that Studio Canal has most of the rights, so I figure someone else (Shout! Factory, Kino Lorber, Severin or-crossing my fingers-Arrow) will release it in the future.

 

[RedJed]

Revisited Tobe Hooper's "Eaten Alive" last night, and hey, it's still something else. Whereas "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" stuck out because of how realistic it feels, this movie is him stretching out the weirdness to the max. It may not be as good has his prior movie (that ones the greatest independent horror film of all time IMO), but it is beautifully fucked up. Plus, Wiliam Finley delivering one of the oddest monologues of all time, as Robert Englund as a horny redneck (whose opening line was "borrowed" by Tarantino for "Kill Bill")

I haven't seen it in forever, but the one take I had from it was how astetically this was so grimy and dirty with the sets and general tone of the film. Really uniquely kind of fucked up.

 

[Super Leather]

I've been watching more than one movie per day for October. This is what it's been so far; movies marked with an asterisk are ones I haven't seen before.

• The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
• Horror of Dracula (1958)
• House on Haunted Hill (1959)*
• Black Sunday (1960)
• The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960)*
• A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
• Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988)
• Scream of Fear (1961)*
• City of the Dead, aka Horror Hotel (1962)*
• Cape Fear (1962)
• A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)
• The Gorgon (1964)*
• Strait-Jacket (1964)
• Stop Me Before I Kill! (1964)*
• Razorback (1984)*
• The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb (1964)*
• Night of the Living Dead (1968)
• Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1969)
• A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)*
• Play Misty for Me (1971)
• Dracula AD 1972 (1972)
• The Car (1977)

This past week's watchlist:

• Malignant (2021)*
• A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)*
• Patrick (1978)*
• Boar (2018)*
• The Evil Dead (1981)
• Eaten Alive (1976)
• Dracula (1979)*
• VFW (2020)*
• Firestarter (1984)*
• Population 436 (2006)*
• The Eyes of Laura Mars (1978)*
• Ms. 45 (1981)
• House (1985)
• Terror, Sisters (2019)*
• Halloween Kills (2021)*
• A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)*
• The Little Shop of Horrors (1960)
• Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
• Alligator (1980)

Gotta admit that I didn't mind the two Elm Street sequels I watched. I'm in it until the end regardless. Caught Malignant right before HBO Max took it down and thought it was pretty good. Not necessarily Halloween watchlist fare though, at least not in my mind.

Patrick and Boar were the Australian entries this week. Patrick was pretty interesting; I dig telekinesis tales from time to time. Boar was another giant killer wild pig story like Razorback. Not as good, but I enjoyed the Aussie blue collar characters a bit more here. Apparently a couple guys from Mad Max are somewhere in the cast, but I wouldn't have recognized them. I need to see more movies about giant killer wild pigs terrorizing the Outback.

Frank Langella's hair was often a distraction during Dracula '79, but it was decent otherwise. I hated the "punks" in VFW, but the older actors playing the war vets carried it to a fairly good movie. Drew Barrymore blowing everything up to avenge her dad in Firestarter was cool. I can't remember the last time I read the book, so I have no idea how faithful the movie is as an adaptation. Population 436 was a pleasant surprise. I wasn't expecting it to be good given that dumbass Fred Durst is in the cast, but it worked as kind of a lighter take on the plots driving movies like Wicker Man or Midsommar.

Don't sleep on Ms. 45. Although it's not as gory as The Driller Killer or as depraved as Bad Lieutenant, I think it's Abel Ferrara's more interesting portrayal of an individual living with their flaws. Terror, Sisters is a French short film in which a group of trans women imagine what it would be like to get even with the straight cis-male world that discriminates against them. Two perfectly fine revenge fantasy films here.

Found Alligator on YouTube with subtitles and had a blast. I love this movie and wish it wasn't so damn expensive on DVD. Robert Forster is his usual awesome self. Also great to see Henry Silva, Sidney Lassick, and Michael Gazzo in character roles.

 

[RedJed]

Watched a few random horrors over the weekend after a Halloween Kills viewing in the theater and a second viewing on Peacock....

Q the Winged Serpent: Holy shitballs this was a wonky and wild one. The acting was atrocious and over the top but magnificantly fucked up in low budget madness. The effects were terrible in modern day terms (but for the time, probably pretty awesome) and the kills were hilarious. What a glorious and cheesy mess this was. The starpower in this was random as well.

Cat's Eye: Fun to revisit this one after decades. This film didn't necessarily freak me out as a kid, but I do remember it having some strange effect on me with the stories, I think it certainly was a more engaging anthology film than others in its' time.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Watched a few random horrors over the weekend after a Halloween Kills viewing in the theater and a second viewing on Peacock....

Q the Winged Serpent: Holy shitballs this was a wonky and wild one. The acting was atrocious and over the top but magnificantly fucked up in low budget madness. The effects were terrible in modern day terms (but for the time, probably pretty awesome) and the kills were hilarious. What a glorious and cheesy mess this was. The starpower in this was random as well.

Cat's Eye: Fun to revisit this one after decades. This film didn't necessarily freak me out as a kid, but I do remember it having some strange effect on me with the stories, I think it certainly was a more engaging anthology film than others in its' time.

Cat's Eye is one of my favorite 80s horror movies, period nevermind anthologies. The little goblin creature legit scared me as a kid and I still find it pretty unnerving.

 

[RedJed]

So I saw a photo from the set of Zombie's Munsters....the house looks tremendous but his choice in casting as usual.....his wife playing the Lily role. Same ole shit from Rob! We will see how this goes but I dont have much hope for it with Sheri in the role. Grandpa Munster looks odd with the casting choice also.

 

[Super Leather]

Watched a few random horrors over the weekend after a Halloween Kills viewing in the theater and a second viewing on Peacock....

Q the Winged Serpent: Holy shitballs this was a wonky and wild one. The acting was atrocious and over the top but magnificantly fucked up in low budget madness. The effects were terrible in modern day terms (but for the time, probably pretty awesome) and the kills were hilarious. What a glorious and cheesy mess this was. The starpower in this was random as well.

I love Q and basically try to make sure everyone I know who likes horror and monster movies watches it at least once. My favorite Larry Cohen movie. Michael Moriarty's acting choices are interesting to say the least, but he's never boring.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Watched Night Teeth on Netflix. It's a film about a younger brother who takes a job from his older brother (who's part of a vampire hunting group after his GF was killed) driving two women (vampires) around town who are killing off the bosses of other areas so their boss can take over California essentially. It's decent stuff with one vampire falling for the younger brother, the other vampire being the crazy/psychotic one who made the younger one, etc. Nothing that hasn't been done before.

Jorge Lendeborg Jr's Benny (Bumblee, Alita: Battle Angel, Spider-Man: Far From Home), Debby Ryan's Blaire (Jessie, Insatiable), and Lucy Fry's Zoe (Vampire Academy, Godfather of Harlem) are all solid but the script isn't written that in-depth, and the fact the story takes place over a single night kind of hampers the scope and makes the love aspect very rushed especially. The script struggles in trying to flesh out the characters with giving the "plot" a big enough focus and it shows. There was a lot of good gore in this but at times it felt more Underworld/John Wick influenced, with big fight scenes going on, and less real Vampire influence like a Near Dark or even The Lost Boys. The few times we got to see Blaire/Lucy actually being vampires was a highlight.

5/10 Serviceable vamp flick if you're looking for decent gory fight scenes and a one night = eternal love story.

 

[Super Leather]

This past week's watchlist:

• The Monster Club (1981)*
• Ghoulies (1985)
• Burial Ground (1981)*
• White Girl (2019)*
• The Stuff (1985)*
• Brain Damage (1988)*
• Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn (1987)
• The Toolbox Murders (1978)*
• Children of the Corn (1984)*
• Misery (1990)
• Bad Taste (1987)
• Critters (1986)
• Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)*
• Stephen King’s Cat’s Eye (1985)*
• Prom Night (1980)

Hadn't seen Ghoulies since I was a little kid. Didn't like it then and nothing has changed in that regard. Critters is a much better Gremlins ripoff.

Does a better transfer of Burial Ground exist? I’d probably enjoy it more on a better quality DVD, but mine barely looks better than a VHS dub. I did like the zombies though. They looked pretty gnarly.

Wasn’t sure what to make of White Girl, which was a short film about a young lady walking the streets of London as her evening becomes progressively darker. I kinda liked it until I realized that literally everyone she has a run-in with is a BIPOC—that made me wonder what I’d just watched.

Although they're entertaining at times, I can't help but agree that the Nightmare on Elm Street has so much potential for fucked up psychological horror...but the lowest possible common denominator is what we get instead. I'm on Team Voorhees after seeing what these franchises had to offer.

 

[Gary]

Here a list of every horror movie I watched this month. 50 movies ain’t bad.

 

[RedJed]

I didn't nearly get through what I wanted to for the month, so once again taking the month of November to continue to binge through horror stuff.

However, I did get into a few main things over the weekend.....

Childs Play/Chucky Marathon: Ended up rewatching all of the films and then started up into the TV series. Man, Childs Play 3 still sucks SO BAD. This was such a rushed production and a mess of a narrative that just disappointed on many fronts. Found Curse and Cult of Chucky a much better back to back effort now on a rewatch, I'm guessing a ton of things from these two particular films roll into the events of the TV series a bit. My personal fav of them all is still part 2, I just really never get sick of rewatching that one. Seed of Chucky and Childs Play 3 were certainly on the lower end of things. Bride still holds up great though.

As for the TV series, I just watched the first episode and in a dozing off capacity, I lost alot of stuff out of it, so I will need to watch this again later. I wasn't super impressed by the first episode, ultimately. Might have been just because I was exhausted from the weekend by the time I got to it late last night.

Also caught the film ANTERS on Friday....this was one of those that has been on the shelf for awhile during covid. Had a bit of anticipation going into it because of that fact. Really not too bad of an effort here, a really dark creature feature worth a look at. Del Toro felt like he has a significant amount of influence here as this had that same feel as Mimic in alot of ways. Really enjoyed this one.

 

[Angle-plex]

I thought the second and third episodes of Chucky were much better than the first.

 

[Super Leather]

Final week of Halloween movie watching:

• Castle Freak (1995)*
• Color Out of Space (2019)
• Dawn of the Dead (1978)
• Army of Darkness (1992)
• The Amityville Horror (1979)
• Dead End Drive-In (1986)*
• Knife + Heart (2019)*
• Nightbreed (1990)
• Frankenhooker (1990)
• Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)*
• The Howling (1981)
• Halloween (1978)
• Pumpkinhead (1988)*
• The Exorcist (1973)
• The Omen (1976)
• Ghostbusters (1984)
• The Fly (1986)
• Trick ‘r Treat (2008)
• The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
• Day of the Dead (1985)

I actually managed to watch a whopping 77 movies for this year's Halloween watchlist.

 

[Valeyard]

Trick 'r Treat is a perfect movie.

 

[Gary]

Knife + Heart is one of the better Neo Giallo films out there, and has the funniest use of a typewriter I’ve ever seen.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

I didn't watch a whole lot but I did re-watch Nightmare Before Christmas and I forgot how many great little set piece design things are sprinkled throughout.

Also Child's Play 2, IMO, still has one of the best final act set pieces with the gigantic warehouse and stacks upon stacks of Good Guy dolls plus the conveyor, etc.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

 

[BruiserBrody]

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/qsf1am

 

[Valeyard]

Wasn't sure if this warranted a thread or not but The Exorcist is a perfect movie. Some of the best sound design in history.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

I railed against that movie for years and years because of how overrated it was, how it only scares you if you're religious...

...but yeah. Fucking amazing movie. Virtually flawless.

 

[Valeyard]

It's so much more than just a horror movie, too. Masterful performances everywhere and effects that hold up, but I love most of the actors as it is. Damien Karras is a really interesting character to me. It ticks every box for a great movie let alone a horror movie.

Is Exorcist 3 worth a look and if so which version? I'm very curious because it sounds very interesting and George C. Scott and Brad Dourif are always incredible.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Exorcist 3 is great until the very obviously tacked-on ending. Amazing performance by Brad Dourif, one of the greatest jump scares in the history of cinema, and a very good offering from George C. Scott.

 

[Angle-plex]

Chucky show was good stuff if you are a fan of that series. If you aren't you might get kind of lost towards the end. Season two coming next year

 

[Gary]

"The Exorcist" also has one of the most haunting openings in film history. The mere image of the statue itself sends chills down my spine every time.

The first sequel isn't good, and I think the biggest problem is that it takes what was essentially a minimalist drama and amps it up as a blockbuster. That's just wrong on so many levels. It's also a movie that fascinates me, as it's the kind of really weird but psychedelic and ambitious blockbuster film that could never be made today, especially with it's various spiritual themes. It being so odd actually makes since once you remember John Boorman previously did "Zardoz" and went on to make "Excalibur" (which is probably the best serious take on Arthurian legend ever made, unless I'm forgetting something.)

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Yeah, Exorcist II: The Heretic is incredibly interesting as an experiment, but falls short in just near every way. At least they tried something different with it.

 

[RedJed]

I really loved the Chucky series as it went on. Took a few episodes to get going, but when it did, it was tremendous. Was this the most brazenly gorey and full of language horror series ever on cable TV? Possibly, they sure didn't pull any punches with most of the content and kills.

I really particularly got into the second half of the first season with the inclusion of Kyle and Andy returning and how things went with that storyline. The stuff with Brad Dourif's daughter had its moments but felt like the payoff at the end of the season with her was a bit wtf, where do they go next with all that?!! Also, one of the main older characters got maybe killed off very prematurely, but thinking perhaps that wasn't the case (there was a mystery glove at a cemetary near the end that signaled that person may still be alive),

I'm still waiting to see if they can ever get Catherine Hicks and Chris Sarandon back into the mix of things finally, maybe the success of season one may bring them back for season two. Sarandon was penciled in for appearances in a few of the sequels that ended up getting scrapped for one reason or another, so you would think that's an inevitable thing eventually. Especially since there was a plot point at the last episode that Tiffany played a part in Chucky (still in human form) being caught by Sarandon in the toy store in the original Child's Play.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

I really loved the Chucky series as it went on. Took a few episodes to get going, but when it did, it was tremendous. Was this the most brazenly gorey and full of language horror series ever on cable TV? Possibly, they sure didn't pull any punches with most of the content and kills.

Really enjoyed it and there's definitely been stuff that was as gorey, even on the SyFy channel itself but maybe not as profane since SyFy is still relatively new in allowing the F Word a lot. With that said, there also were SyFy shows prior to this that allowed full language so again, Chucky isn't really doing anything radically new or edgy. Can't say how it was shown on the USA Network though (that'd be interesting if they kept all the gore & language).

I really enjoyed the main cast of teen characters as they helped carry the series for most of it even with the inclusion of past characters from the movies. Their chemistry was all pretty solid although I think the acting/character of Junior was the weakest so

Spoiler

I'm not that sorry he got killed off

. Big props to have a gay teen romance with two of the leads by the way as it's usually female characters thrown into lesbian relationships.