"Do YOU have eight kinds of jelly donuts?"People, people, gather 'round and listen to my tale of...
Gah, I have no idea where I was going with that. I'm not completely awake yet. But regardless, heed my words! There's a new column by Yours Truly over at AMC, and it's all about...uh, people gettin' ugly when they get possessed. Or something like that. It's noble work that I do, for sure.
It's also Ghostella day, huzzah! Behold three terrifying trailers! Finally, FINALLY I SAY, Don't Look in the Bureau! is almost a reality. Also, I say, Ghostella is going bi-weekly. While I hate to do it, the more relaxed schedule will ensure I can maintain my *cough* standards of (B-grade) quality as well as my sanity; it may also leave me some time to do other things, like watch some fucking movies.
Speaking of movies, Shock Till You Drop has posted the honorees for AFI's "Top 10 Films in 10 Classic Genres" and yes, I'm dropping from the shock because horror ain't listed amongst the honored genres. Yeah, horror has always been filmdom's bastard child, but come on. Grow some fucking sac, AFI. It would've been nice to see the scary stuff get some props; I mean, some horror movies are actually good, you know?
I'll open up the floor here as they did at Shock...which 10 horror films would YOU honor?
AFI
Psycho
Night of the Living Dead
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
The Exorcist
Halloween
Nosferatu
The Haunting
The Silence of the Lambs
The Shining
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
FGFI
Shark Attack 3: Megalodon
Killer Workout
Dangerous Seductress
Creepshow
The Food of the Gods
Friday the 13th Part 2
April Fool's Day
[REC]
The Convent
The Descent
Both lists equally valid!
Baghead Jason - good enough to be in any top 10.
ReplyDeleteOMG... is that photo of the Dunkin Donut's dude autographed to you!? If so, that's a treasure.
ReplyDeleteAs for what I would honor (in no order, except most likely Psycho at # 1.):
*Psycho
*Duel
*Basket Case
*Re-Animator
*Christine
*Dawn Of The Dead
*Deathdream
*Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
*Bloody Beach
*Shocker
The British Film Institute (BFI) is far superior to the AFI, I think. They put out books and they've had quite a few out on individual classic horror films. I think they have a new one on Night of the Living Dead coming out in August.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'd set ye olde DVR to record the AFI Top Ten thingy last night, and once I found out that there was no Horror category, the bloom was off the rose at that point. And, then, when they chose Big for one of the Top Ten Fantasy movies of all time, that was it. Delete.
ReplyDeleteMy personal honors would probably go something like this:
01. Night of the Living Dead
and then...
Psycho
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre ('74)
Evil Dead 2
The Thing ('82)
The Beyond
High Tension
Rabid
Alien
Halloween ('78)
Hmmm....
ReplyDeleteI would boot "Psycho" and "Silence of the Lambs". Although Silence is one of my faves, it's not really a horror movie. It's kind of in the 'scary police thriller' category, like "Seven" (another one of my faves).
I would boot Psycho because:
1. It's not scary
2. It never has been scary
3. Not even one of its director's best movies.
3. Much like the Beatles or Nirvana, its importance to the genre far exceeds its own worthiness, talent, scariness, etc...
Ok, let the hating begin....
Not quite relevant to the question at hand, but the "time to make the donuts" guy lived in the same part of Western Mass. that I did growing up and he always marched in our parades (4th of July, etc.) in costume.
ReplyDeleteKind of weird, kind of neat.
Thanks a lot! Now I have the Shock until you drop - dance until your dick falls off song that they do on Deadpit horror radio stuck in my head all day! Top tens are always a bad idea because they leave too much out. For example, the first thing I want to say is the original Night of the Living Dead and yet I can't put that one without also adding the original Dawn of the Dead. And there shouldn't be 2 by the same director. So already it doesn't work. Which would you put, Evil Dead or Evil Dead 2? Many like 2 better, but 2 is kind of just part 1 with more neat stuff. Also, I like Friday the 13th parts 1-7 equally, each exactly the same, and they should be on their somewhere, so already the list is ruined! Ruined, I say!
ReplyDeleteI still don't consider "Silence of the Lambs" to be a proper horror film.
ReplyDeleteI was pretty pissed they overlooked Horror yet suddenly decided to call "Courtroom Dramas" a genre.
ReplyDeleteBUT MY TOP TEN...
Dead Alive
The Mummy (Karloff only)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
I Drink Your Blood
The Burning
From a Whisper to a Scream
The Devil's Rejects (Okay, maybe not straight-up Horror but I love it so it's on the list)
Day of the Dead (Romero's BEST Zombie film)
Street Trash
and Troll 2
At least the AFI did a sci-fi list.
ReplyDeleteYour FGFI list made my whole week.
Looking over the other lists, I'm sorta glad they didn't touch horror.
ReplyDeleteI've got better ways to have my day suddenly go to shit, and I can do that on my own.
In no particular order:
ReplyDeleteThe Thing
The Shining
Night of the Living Dead
The Descent
Psycho
Halloween
Alien
The Exorcist
Silence of the Lambs
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
I gotta say, I Drink Your Blood is definitely one of my favorite horror movies I've seen in the past couple of years. It hits this perfect sweet spot between truly ghastly (starting the with the oodles of actual dead rats - alarmingly plump dead rats, I might add - which are even more flesh-crawlingly icky) and frequently hilarious, in a demented, gallows-humor kinda way. It's a pretty exhilarating kick in the piehole.
ReplyDeleteJoseph, re. Psycho: without it, I can't imagine something like Halloween having ever been born, really, and without that, well..it's too terrible a vision to conjure up (yes, in other words, there would then be no Sleepaway Camp, and where would we be then?) Perhaps it isn't so "scary" now, to audiences who've seen it all, but think about what it must've been like seeing it in 1960 upon it's release? Lead/"star" actress is brutally, unexpectedly slaughtered in first 25 minutes, Bernard Hermann's score slices your nerves to ribbons, the "killer", while a raving lunatic, looks as sweet and nervous as the boy next door, etc. etc. It's importance to the genre isn't overrated, it's pretty much the entire reason the genre exists.
Loved the Ghostella trailers. I am slightly disturbed by the fact I've got a bag of those candy worms lying in the kitchen...
ReplyDeleteIn no particular order...
ReplyDeleteNight of the Living Dead
Stir of Echos
Psycho
The Thing (1982)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Seven
Wicker Man (1973)
The Serpent and the Rainbow
Rosemary's Baby
1. The Descent
ReplyDelete2. Halloween
3. Night of the Living Dead
4. People Under the Stairs
5. Village of the Damned (original version)
6. Nightmare on Elm Street
7. Child's Play
8. Rosemary's Baby
9. Psycho
10. Cube
It HURTS me that I'm the first to nominate the first Nightmare On Elm Street.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, people.
AFI
ReplyDeletePsycho
Dawn of the Dead
Halloween
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Scream
The Exorcist
The Omen
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1954)
Frankenstein (1931)
The Silence of the Lambs
FGFI
The Burning
April Fool’s Day
Just Before Dawn
Sleepaway Camp
House on Haunted Hill (1999)
Popcorn
Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn
Motel Hell
The Crow
Chopping Mall
Here's mine:
ReplyDelete1.The Evil Dead
2.Texas Chainsaw Massacre
3.John Carpenter's The Thing
4.Dawn of the Dead
5.Suspiria
6.Alien
7.Videodrome
8.Night of the Living Dead
9.Las House on Dead End Street
10.Haxan
Special mention of Spirit of the Beehive for taking horror genre tropes and recasting them for one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen and one of my favorite movies period.
Also, David Lynch's Inland Empire and Alain Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad scared me just as much, possibly more, than any of the films on my list.