It’s horror movie season in the US and my favorite type is zombies. I also love campy B movies. Watching Dead Snow 2 right now and I think it ranks up there with Shawn of the Dead and Evil Dead 3: Army of Darkness.
What is your top pick for whatever genre?
Noroi - The Curse (2005, Japan) Supernatural first-person video documentary style POV, but with higher image quality than Blair Witch Project for example. No jump scares, just very creepy and unsettling. Slow burn, but good pacing IMHO. No weaknesses IMHO, hence on top of my list. Just a very unsettling and disturbing, almost real-feeling, horror movie.
Also good:
- A Tale of Two Sisters (2003, South Korea): less horror, more artistic, intelligent and original. Great story
- Shutter (2004, Thailand): my favorite jump-scare horror with cool effects
- Incantation (2022, Taiwan): great supernatural slow-burn horror with a cool twist
- Hereditary (2018, USA): great supernatural slow-burn horror, original as well
- Sinister (2012, USA/UK/CAN): great supernatural horror
- Event Horizon (1997, USA/UK/CAN): great sci-fi horror, very unsettling
- REC (2007, Spain): one of the best zombie style movies and also one of the most horror-like ones
- It Follows (2014, USA): kind of a stupid plot but it works. It’s original, well executed and unsettling (supernatural)
- Smile (2022, USA): an even more stupid plot, but also well executed. The ending is bad. But it still terrified me so it works at its core, and that’s all that horror films need to do (supernatural)
- As Above, So Below (2014, USA/France): the weakest one on this list but it’s very original as well, I like it because of that
Alien is my favorite horror movie by far. I really dig Hellraiser too. I watched Pontypool recently and was surprised how good it was. And The Shining is fab.
Pontypool Changes Everything by Tony Burgess was also a NUTS book. Definitely check it out. The scope is much wider than the flick and as a result it’s a lot more uneven. I still really dig it.
I tried really hard to do this book but it beat me. It’s a dnf on my list this year. The radio play is pretty good too.
Did not know there was a radio play. Ta!
The sound design for Pontypool is particularly excellent
*Doug Bradley Hellraiser movies.
I’ve watched Alien as much as any movie excepting Aliens, so I kinda lost appreciation. My wife had never seen it so we watched and I payed close attention for the first time in years. Absolute master class in the genre.
Pontypool pairs well with 30 days of night (and Tusk pairs well with The Substance).
We watched Pontypool when we read Snow Crash. There’s a scene where Snow Crash is placed really obviously if your looking fot it and the themes mesh really nicely.
Forgot about hellraiser! Thanks!
Return of the Living Dead (1985)
Fright Night (1985)
The Reanimator (1985)
Classics!
I like The Blob(1988) too.
Return of the Living Dead (1985)
I watched this recently. Actual not-dumb characters is sooo nice. I’d written this off as just yet another Romero style zombie movie but it has it’s own thing going on. I think given how much I liked Tusk (saw it last night) and Dale and Tucker vs. Evil I have a soft spot for R rated horror comedy.
Have you seen Zombeavers?
Oh baby, time to proselytize the masses of Lemmy and introduce a whole new set of suckers to “Fido”. It’s zombies with big Fallout vibes and is unironically one of the best C to B tier movies I’ve ever seen. It’s the kind of movie where it looks like everyone involved was just having fun with it, ya know? Check it out and make sure to let me know what you think!
Bonus points for Billy Connolly.
I just read the description on IMDB, and good lord what a fever dream. But the real selling point for me is the disembodied head of Billy Connolly being a loyal companion to a family. Consider me signed up.
The shining. I watch it every year at the first snow. I’m afraid I won’t get that chance this year.
Hope you’re okay buddy. I know nothing an internet stranger can say will help, but if you need someone to talk to, let me know.
Maybe he just moved to Florida?
GYO Tokyo Fish Attack. Body horror is a great genre that doesn’t come around very often without looking kind of cheesy so it helps being animation.
The Fly is another great example of the genre. Such an excellent movie with a sad ending to top it off.
Not my favourite but Sleepaway Camp is an absolute classic of so-bad-its-good 80s horror with an unforgettable ending.
Sinister - the home movies and music are so creepy.
Voted the scariest movie of all time! At least by one study.
I also recommend It Follows. It is so different. And the characters don’t act dumb. And everything makes sense in the context. Like why they dont get a car or catch a plane, because they are broke teenagers.
The Blair Witch Project. Terrifying.
day of the dead is fantastic. perfect build up and release. watched it with a lot of friends and damn we went crazy for that ending
picking a favourite is hard, but In The Tall Grass (2019) is definitely up there, and i never see anyone talk about it. also, Malignant (2021). definitely try to go in blind for that one if you can.
I was surprised by how much I liked In the Tall Grass. I think I’ve seen it thrice by now.
100% Nope: A episode from supernatural, where ghouls half way succeed to eat Sam. (I consider it as the most gruesome horror I have ever seen, and I don’t think I have the stomach to see it ever again. The blood draining is a … no.)
Yellow brick road on otherhand hits the weird places spot of SCP, which I can’t get enough. (not horror really, but still)
Try this one.
“Altered States.”
A Harvard neuroscientist is experimenting with sensory deprivation and other hallucinogens.
Society
Mood, man.
…or wait, is that a title? Lol
