Oct 13, 2010

SHOCKtober: 432-408



Another day, another list of ONE VOTErs. Soon, my pets, soon! Soon we'll get to the movies loved by more than one person. I promise! But not today. Give it up for the onesies!

432. White Zombie -- 1932, Victor Halperin
431. Vertigo -- 1958, Alfred Hitchcock
430. The Mummy -- 1999, Stephen Sommers
429. The People Under the Stairs -- 1991, Wes Craven
428. Planet of the Vampires -- 1965, Mario Bava
427. Perfume of the Lady in Black -- 1974, Francesco Barilli
426. Hands of the Ripper -- 1971, Peter Sasdy
425. Blood and Lace -- 1971, Philip S. Gilbert
424. Deadgirl -- 2008, Marcel Sarmiento, Gadi Harel
423. 2001 Maniacs -- 2005, Tim Sullivan
422. Tales from the Darkside -- 1990, John Harrison
421. Return of the Living Dead III -- 1993, Brian Yuzna
420. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers -- 1988, Dwight H. Little
419. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master -- 1988, Renny Harlin
418. Interview with the Vampire -- 1994, Neil Jordan
417. Cat's Eye -- 1985, Lewis Teague
416. Tales of Terror from Tokyo -- 2004, Keita Amemiya, Shun'ichi Hirano, Ryuta Miyake, Hirohisa Sasaki, Kosuke Suzuki, Keisuke Toyoshima, Akio Yoshida
415. Curse of the Werewolf -- 1961, Terence Fisher
414. I Sell the Dead -- 2008, Glenn McQuaid
413. Constantine -- 2005, Francis Lawrence
412. The New York Ripper -- 1982, Lucio Fulci
411. The Cell -- 2000, Tarsem Singh
410. The Car -- 1977, Elliot Silverstein
409. Brotherhood of the Wolf -- 2001, Christophe Gans
408. Subject Two -- 2006, Philip Chidel

  • "Cat pooooooo!"
  • I don't believe I've ever seen NoES 4. Or if I did, I don't remember it. In fact, I'm not well-versed in the latter films of the Nightmare series at all.
  • Is The People Under the Stairs the film that contains the immortal line "No vegetables...no dessert. That's the rule!", which is followed by someone getting stabbed with a corn cob? Or was that the best dream ever?
  • The appearance of Perfume of the Lady in Black got me thinking about ways to incorporate a "gialli good time" joke somewhere, but it wasn't meant to be. TODAY. Please note, I am filing it away for future reference.

27 comments:

  1. The corncob thing is from Sleepwalkers (1992).
    ..and it probably would be the best dream ever as well.

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  2. A lot of people like Nightmare on Elm Street 4, but I thought it was boring. (I don't see how "directed by Renny Harlin" is supposed to make me optimistic, anyway.) NoES 5 is silly, but fun. Freddy's Dead is awful. New Nightmare, however, is really good.

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  3. Perfume of the Lady in Black is fantastic, although it's a Polanski-esque ghost story and not a giallo. I'm glad someone included it, it's one of my favorite Italian horrors (although didn't quite make my list).

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  4. How have you seen and loved NoES 3 but not 4 or 5? They're their own mini-trilogy. I mean I can understand not wanting to sully the memories of Pt.3, but how have you not given in to curiosity?

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  5. If I remember correctly, that quote is from Sleepwalkers.

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  6. SLEEPWALKERS! That's it. I always get those two movies confused. Whether the confusion is warranted or not, who can say?

    Perfume... is sure a gialli-ish title, that's for sure.

    I have all the Nightmare films sitting here and I'll get to them one of these days, but the general consensus is that New Nightmare aside, post-3 is crap. I'm not the biggest Freddy fan, so putting those two things together means the films are always on the back burner. There's always something I'd rather watch, and plenty more out there I'm curious about.

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  7. That line is from "Sleepwalkers", but I can totally hear Wendy Robie's PUtS character delivering that line with scene-chewing gusto.

    "Planet of the Vampires" is an oldie, but do check it out if you haven't seen it. Very eerie, violent, and rather astonishing special effects.

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  8. I love Brotherhood of the Wolf. I don't know why I didn't consider it when making my list. I guess it crosses so many genres that I probably decided that it wasn't horror in the end. Now I'm not so sure. Either way...great film.

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  9. What's that video still from?

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  10. The still and the quote are both from The Car.

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  11. @Stacy, oh post NoES 3 is definitely crap. But for me, the desire to see these characters through to their conclusions, even if they weren't played by the same people as in Arquette/Kristen's case, was too strong. I just needed resolution, even if it was one that I knew I probably wasn't going to be satisfied with.

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  12. Hard to believe, but Brendan Fraser and Erik Avari both shared the screen in "The Mummy" and my personal favorite, "Encino Man"-

    http://tinyurl.com/9y5z5q

    Anyhoo, I loved the first two "Mummy" films, but I was really ticked off that the idiots Universal hired to carry on had no concept of why those movies fascinated people. It was the mix of history and folklore that Sommers put into them that were great, and hopefully if they do wise up and make a "Van Helsing" sequel, they'll choose someone that put more care into their work like he did. (Perhaps that guy who wrote and directed "A Knight's Tale" would be a good choice...)

    Although those idiots that wrote a mistake filled script were hired to do the script for "Monster High" (Not a remake of the '80s film, but a musical comedy about daughters of famous monsters in high school) and that leaves me very conflicted...

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  13. Faith said... New Nightmare is really good.

    Agreed. I'm quietly confident it's on the Schocktober list with more than 1 vote too.

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  14. "...the desire to see these characters through to their conclusions..."

    Halloween: Resurrection taught me to abandon those desires the moment I feel them, lest I regret following them through!

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  15. If it helps, I like NoES 4, thought 5 was a mess, LOVED Freddy's Dead, and would wholeheartedly recommend New Nightmare except it really falls apart badly- story, effects, direction- in the last 15 minutes.

    But Jason X is my fav Friday flick, so whadooIknow?

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  16. Although I didn't really care for the movie "Interview with a Vampire". I have to admit, it has one hell of a soundtrack.

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  17. Am I the only one who thinks that Halloween 4 was a very subtle parody disguised as a straight forward horror film? There's a scene where a bunch of rednecks open fire on Michael Myers only to end up killing one of their own instead. One of the guys shouts out something like "We just killed Hank!" and I just cracked up.

    Either way, the ending is truly heartbreaking.

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  18. Nightmare 4, though a flawed and okay, not very good film, does boast one of my favorite death scenes of all time. The slutty sister from Just the Ten of Us is an obsessed weight lifter who somehow falls asleep when lifting weights (of course), lifts up a weight as Freddy pops by to break off her arms and let her whole body slowly metamophisize (yup, just like Gregor Samson) into a cockroach (because of course, she also revealed early on that she hates bugs). It's beautiful.

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  19. "Halloween: Resurrection taught me to abandon those desires the moment I feel them...."


    What is that? Laurie Strode, dead? Hah, you joke and/or lie. Laurie's story is told in Halloween, Halloween Part II (technically, though I'll pass) and H20 and then it ends happily ever after. And, that is that.

    I have spoken.

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  20. Am I the only one shocked and a bit saddened that People Under the Stairs only got one vote?! Especially when that one vote came from me :(

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  21. VERTIGO is that far down?

    That makes me a sad panda.

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  22. I feel bad now about not giving Return of the Living Dead III one of my votes. It just fell short of my Top 20. Amazing film: moving, romantic, and extremely gory (but don't watch the R-rated cut).

    Elm Street 4 is mucho fun, but strays into Stupidsville with the invisible ninjitsu scene.

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  23. Clearly, the best part of People under the Stairs is when that woman screams "Caca!!!" (That's how you spell that, right?)

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  24. The invisible fight scene in ANOES4 was great, not as good as the fight scene in 'Pieces' but then what is. I think I'm one of the few who prefers ANOES4 & Freddy's Dead over part3 & New Nightmare, part5 has some good bits but the 'escher' scene with the kid was too much for me.

    The Car has some of the best quotes, "If I hear another sound out of that thing, I'll ram it so far up your ass you'll be farting music for a year."

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  25. Oh, I prefer Freddy's Dead to New Nightmare, deffo. In order:

    1st: Freddy's Revenge
    2nd: the original
    3rd: Dream Warriors
    4th: The Dream Master
    5th: Freddy's Dead
    6th: New Nightmare
    7th: The Dream Child
    8th: Freddy vs Jason

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  26. Two great scenes from films in this list: The ending of Halloween 4, shamefully dropped by the series, and the moment in Interview with the Vampire where Louis attends a movie to see the sun rise. He's not watching just any movie - he's enrapt by Superman, a film about as far divorced from Interview's bleak and hopeless world as possible. It's an eloquent image that speaks to the power of movies to transport us to other places and mindsets totally alien to our own, and it's one of my favorites in cinema.

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  27. I actually hated NOES 2 so much that I had zero interest in the later sequels. To this day, New Nightmare is the only NOES sequel that I've sat down and watched, though I've seen bits and pieces of some that have wound up on TV.

    The only thing more interesting than some of these choices is the fact that they got exactly one vote.

    As far as The Car being quotable, did you know that it's impossible to brush your teeth without shaking your ass? That line's stuck with me for 30+ years.

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