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Author Topic: Building the Horror/Thriller 1000  (Read 63083 times)

1SO

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Horror: A New Beginning
« Reply #310 on: August 04, 2018, 10:42:47 PM »
When They Shoot Zombies posted an update, it left me with 86 new films to watch for 100% completion.

Here is the ranked list. Everything after 86 is for Shocktober.

philip918

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Re: Horror: The Final Chapter
« Reply #311 on: August 06, 2018, 01:24:08 PM »
Oooh, you haven't seen Martyrs. I've thought about that film a lot even years after seeing it.

1SO

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Re: Horror: The Final Chapter
« Reply #312 on: August 06, 2018, 01:54:02 PM »
I saw Martyrs 10 years ago and it’s stayed with me. I recently listened to The Canon ep about it where the guest knew he was fighting an uphill battle. It made me want to revisit the film to see how I felt about it 10 years later. Shocktober seemed like a good time to watch it again.

oldkid

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Re: Horror: The Final Chapter
« Reply #313 on: August 06, 2018, 06:04:25 PM »
Martyrs is amazing.  I saw it because of The Canon recently.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

1SO

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Re: Horror: A New Beginning
« Reply #314 on: August 07, 2018, 12:59:14 AM »

The Monster (1925)
★ ★ ★ – Okay
I wasn’t into this one at first, with an amateur detective trying to solve a disappearance. The tone is more comedy than horror and it’s all played pretty broadly. However, after about 20 minutes the amateur is literally dropped into an underground haunted house, along with the girl he’s sweet on and a rival. What follows still is more comic than scary, but it’s a fast-paced run through the usual haunted house tricks of secret doors, shadows, surprises, a lightning storm outside and a mad doctor (Lon Chaney) pulling the strings.


West of Zanzibar (1928)
★ ★
I still have a good memory of Kongo from 2 years ago, so I immediately recognized the story. That remake is better because the story works better as a Sound film and good as Lon Chaney may be, he’s not in the same league as Walter Huston.


La Llorona (1933)
aka. The Crying Woman
★ ★
Early Mexican horror is culturally important and based on a famous folktale. It looks like even with optimal picture and sound the quality would still be low and the story isn’t well-told anyways. The presentation is static, there’s no atmosphere and the dialogue is pedestrian. By that, I don’t mean that I speak the original Spanish, but that much of the dialogue are small, simple phrases repeated, like calling out names or asking “Where is ___?”


Murders in the Zoo (1933)
★ ★ ½
Creepy Lionel Atwill (Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon) is very effective as a cold-blooded zoologist. The opening and closing scenes are shockingly sadistic for the time. Randolph Scott is a decent but bland lead. However, the comic relief of Charles Ruggles is embarrassing, which is especially surprising considering I’ve recently watched him in two comedies where he was a highlight.


The Vampire Bat (1933)
★ ★
This is a mess. Lionel Atwill is on hand again, aided by Melvyn Douglas and Fay Wray, but the script… well now it all makes sense. I was looking up the writers name only to discover there is no credited screenplay. That’s why everyone is looking for a vampire, or a killer bat, or a madman, but really just an evil scientist. The film looks like it was shot in less than a week, with all the logic of the dumbest Summer studio blockbuster.
« Last Edit: August 07, 2018, 11:00:29 PM by 1SO »

1SO

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Horror: A New Beginning
« Reply #315 on: August 09, 2018, 10:09:53 PM »

These new entries are getting me to question the calculations in creating the TSZDT list, especially with many new titles appearing so high on the list. (Invisible Ray is #298, Mummy's Hand is #445 and Human Monster is #555.) I’ll give you there may not be 1000 good Horror movies in existence. I’ve only seen 1200 myself, but I can report that at least 500 of those are better and more interesting than this recent batch.
 

The Invisible Ray (1936)
★ ★
A special meteor lands in Africa and I immediately think “Wakanda!” Boris Karloff leads an expedition to study the radiation, which has magical healing powers but curses the doctor with glowing skin and a touch that kills instantly. He looks for help from scientist Bela Lugosi, who sees the radiation is also poisioning Karloff’s mind. There are some nice glowing effects and the destruction of a cliffside that disintegrates with a liquid center, but it’s all painfully average. Karloff and Lugosi are subdued and even together they seem disinterested.


The Man Who Changed His Mind (1936)
aka. The Man Who Lived Again
aka. Doctor Maniac Who Lived Again
★ ★ ½
Body swap horror with Karloff again. The early stage of this Marathon is starting to feel like a Netflix binge, with one-hour tales about mad scientists meddling in God’s domain amongst sparking lab equipment. The only thing to note here is director Robert Stevenson would go on to helm Mary Poppins.


The Human Monster (1939)
aka. The Dark Eyes of London
aka. Dead Eyes of London
★ ½
Bela Lugosi stars – and by now I know I am definitely more of a Karloff fan – as an insurance agent running a very obvious scheme involving murdered clients and a large disfigured, blind man who might be insulting if he were the least bit realistic. I appreciate the brief running time of these films, though with a few more minutes they might make more sense. This revised list has put too much importance into these cheap B-movies, and I have many more to watch.


Before I Hang (1940)
★ ★ ½
Back to Karloff, who makes this film as good as it is. Stupid (and oft used) plot about a good person injected with the blood of a killer that turns him into a killer too. Karloff’s explanations about science’s ability to stop aging would just be weird and campy coming from Lugosi, but Karloff has Vincent Price’s ability to sell anything. It’s a fairly layered performance, having to swing between various degrees of sweet and homicidal. Better than the dumb story deserves.


The Mummy’s Hand (1940)
★ ★
My favorite Mummy movie is the 1999 Stephen Sommers film. (Well, what would you choose?) This has the exact same prologue and is also more Action/Adventure than Horror. It has George Zucco, who played the first Moriority against Rathbone in The Adv. Of Sherlock Holmes and Wallace Ford is a familiar face, though I don’t recall him ever trying so hard to be funny. That is all I might remember a month from now because there’s so little effort put into making these classic monster movies distinct from one another.

1SO

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Re: Horror: A New Beginning
« Reply #316 on: August 10, 2018, 08:28:02 PM »
I’ll give you there may not be 1000 good Horror movies in existence. I’ve only seen 1200 myself, but I can report that at least 500 of those are better and more interesting than this recent batch.

I've got a new itch.
Since posting this, I've looked at my Letterboxd and IMDB Ratings, my ICM checks, Essentials and an outdated personal list I have on my computer. It seems there are at least 600, possibly even 800 Horror movies I could put into a master list. I'm curious to see that list realized, but am already having difficulty splitting hairs with a ranking of so many titles.

philip918

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Re: Horror: A New Beginning
« Reply #317 on: August 11, 2018, 01:00:20 AM »
I’ll give you there may not be 1000 good Horror movies in existence. I’ve only seen 1200 myself, but I can report that at least 500 of those are better and more interesting than this recent batch.

I've got a new itch.
Since posting this, I've looked at my Letterboxd and IMDB Ratings, my ICM checks, Essentials and an outdated personal list I have on my computer. It seems there are at least 600, possibly even 800 Horror movies I could put into a master list. I'm curious to see that list realized, but am already having difficulty splitting hairs with a ranking of so many titles.

Excited to see the final list. The splitting hairs does start to feel arbitrary a few films in.

1SO

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Re: Horror: The Final Chapter
« Reply #318 on: August 11, 2018, 12:21:42 PM »
There's also the issue of films that are debatably Horror. According to Letterboxd, Manhunter is Horror but The Silence of the Lambs is not. I disagree. I'm saying 'no' to They Live and The Seventh Victim, but 'yes' to Duel, The Devil's Advocate and Arsenic and Old Lace.

It's difficult to leave out The Nightmare Before Christmas, which is full of Horror imagery, but it's a movie about Halloween (and Christmas), not a Horror movie.

oldkid

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Re: Horror: The Final Chapter
« Reply #319 on: August 11, 2018, 02:07:06 PM »
I just want to say "yes" to all of them, because for me horror includes that which is frightening, as well as that which may not be frightening at all but is centered around classic horror imagery.

And I wouldn't try to rank all of them, but put them in categories.  600 is just too hard.  Have a top 100 ranked and the rest in groupings.  You really need a bottom 10 as well.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

 

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