Knights & Knaves Alehouse

So Halloween will be here in less than two months and the horror bug has bit me. Thing is I don't have a very extensive collection of movies in general, much less horror movies. And my mind is starving for some good horror.

But I'm a really picky eater, so I have some guidelines:

1. MUST have a paranormal element. I don't want to watch a two-hour flick about a mundane, everyday serial killer or a stupid machine. That's boring.

2. No gore-fests. I don't mind if a movie has a lot of blood, but I like more mysterious/suspenseful horror.

3. It MUST be from the 70s, 80s, 90s, or 2000s.

4. No Japanese Horror, not unless you can name something that DOES NOT follow the "Ring/Grudge" formula (you know, the "# people experience Y event and they all die soon after" formula).

5. Almost forgot... NO ZOMBIE MOVIES! Zombies are so freaking overused and they weren't that good to begin with. While we're at it, no "large army of evil things" movies like Gremlins or Critters.

I had more, but I think that pretty much covers it.

For a movie, try Angel Heart. More horror noir, but I enjoyed it very much. Also try The Others with Nichole Kidman, John Carpenter's The Thing, and for a really good "halloweeny vibe" Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow. This covers quite a few different fields in the genre that fit your parameters.

- Wheggi

How about scifi horror? Try The Omega Man, with Charlton Heston.

You may also want to stretch your timeline back to pre-70s films. Hammer Productions from the UK put out some really good stuff back in the 60s with Peter Cushing & Christopher Lee. Roger Corbin's collaborations with Vincent Price in several Poe stories (loosely based) during the 50s and 60s also produced some good flicks.

Omen trilogy. Classic!

Lisa and the Devil, directed by Mario Bava, starring Elke Sommer (as Lisa) and Telly Savalas (as the Devil).

If I were at home with my collection in front of me I could probably come up with a couple more, but the combination of supernatural, non-gory, no zombies, and made since 1970 cuts a huge swath out of my horror-movie library.

EDIT: ooh, thought of another good one: Don't Look Now, directed by Nicolas Roeg, starring Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland. Absolutely brilliant movie -- don't read any plot synopses before watching this!

I assume you've already seen De Palma's Carrie and Kubrick's The Shining. If not, both of those are obvious choices.

The original of The Fog ... the 1980 one by John Carpenter, with Adrienne Barbeau!

Still one of my all-time favorites.

And no, they are NOT zombies, they are ghosts!

T.Foster's Lisa and The Devil reminded me of another one, Race With The Devil. It's one of the ultimate paranoia flicks of the 70s, starring Warren Oates, Peter Fonda, Loretta Swit and Lara Parker.

1,000XP to whoever can identify Lara Parker's original claim to TV fame. (yeah, you could cheat and do an internet search, but why? It's not like the XP are real. )

Also, if you want to watch some stuff that's just batshit crazy, checkout Warhol's Dracula and Frankenstein.

Event Horizon
Alien


Darkness
13 Ghosts (Tony Shaloub version)
Hellraiser
Session 9


I can come up with more later...

DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK should scare the poop out of ya without a gorefest if you've never seen it. Although its still rare, I've seen it pop up from time to time on the internet as a VHS to DVD transfer. I have it on VHS. P.S. don't let any kids watch it.

Wheggi wrote:For a movie, try Angel Heart. More horror noir, but I enjoyed it very much. Also try The Others with Nichole Kidman, John Carpenter's The Thing, and for a really good "halloweeny vibe" Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow. This covers quite a few different fields in the genre that fit your parameters.

- Wheggi

Angel Heart the directors cut if you can but either will do! Very dark, good movie!

Hey its been so long since I saw it but does the orginal The Hills have Eyes have a paranormal element to it?

The Thing

Reason I limited myself to 70s or later is because most of the stuff I've seen from the 60s or before seems to be in a particular camp of horror that isn't to my liking, the "its got a monster so we'll call it a horror movie" camp. A lot of those are more like action-adventure movies than actual horror, honestly.

I've only seen one Hammer Horror film--The Satanic Rites of Dracula--and honestly I couldn't finish watching it. It just didn't interest me.

John Carpenter's "In the Mouth of Madness" sounds very good if you are Lovecraft addict...

MLT

JamesEightBitStar wrote:I've only seen one Hammer Horror film--The Satanic Rites of Dracula--and honestly I couldn't finish watching it. It just didn't interest me.

What no Hammer?!? What are you? One of these "no TV til I'm 45" Mormons or something?



SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA is like "part 12". You have to at least see some of the period Hammer vampires before you build up to the "modern times" finale. Lee is ,in my opinion, the definitive scary Dracula in the period pieces. And I love Lugosi. However there was an early 70's film called BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA that was low production with Lee that is lacking.

moumine le troll wrote:John Carpenter's "In the Mouth of Madness" sounds very good if you are Lovecraft addict...

MLT

Good call. On a completely different wavelength, if you want a fun little horror/comedy movie, check out Fright Night. An oft overlooked gem.

- Wheggi