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?
It Follows
I like that it’s such a simple concept for a horror movie, but it’s still highly engaging for the audience.
spoiler
Early on in the movie, it (quite literally) teaches you a set of rules that the monster operates by, and the rest of the film feels almost like an interactive game.
- the monster is a shapeshifter
- it has stack (as in the data structure) of targets
- it’s always walking straight towards the target at the top of the stack (peek())
- the target can have sex with someone else to make them the new target (push())
- if the target at the top of the stack dies, the previous target is the target again (pop())
Beyond that, the writing and cinematography just let the audience play along. The characters are deliberating their plans on how they would deal with the monster, letting you also think about what you would do in their situation. And the camera likes to slowly pan around the people talking so that all the while, the audience is scanning the background looking for the monster. It can look like anyone, and they constantly, and deliberately put extras in the background walking directly toward the camera just to make you go “oh shit! Is that it right there? Hey, pay attention, we need to move!”
It’s just such a fun, unique experience. I don’t know of another horror movie experience quite like it.
I also loved It Follows. I was already hearing the soundtrack, before i saw the Movie. It made the movie feel so familiar, while at the same time experiencing something completely new.
The score composer, Disasterpeace, otherwise makes game music. This may have added to the game feeling.
Cool, thanks I’ll have to spend more time with the soundtrack too.
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)
The Platform https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Platform_(film)
Haha I still have to try this one some time, but my first thought is always “Ah, Snow Piercer but an elevator.” :p
It’s the same idea, but I found The Platform was much better done.
Alright I can think of a few that strangely haven’t been mentioned yet!
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Barbarian - Woman checks in to an AirBnB. But beneath it lies a horrible secret. This one’s pretty disturbing in subject matter, actually. But it’s solidly eery.
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Tremors - It’s bright daylight! In a small desert town! What’s so spooky about that? Vibration-sensitive, man-eating sandworms maybe. This movie is just solidly fun all around. Legendary B-movie monster film.
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The Descent - Always thought caves were creepy? Want to experience claustrophobia from the safety of your own home? Wanna see how an all-woman horror film cast is done correctly? This one’s a treat.
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Dog Soldiers - The Scottish Highlands are gorgeous for a hike. Less appealing though if you’re a squad of British soldiers doing a training exercise in a monster movie. Features reasonably smart cast of soldiers doing their best, but cleverly using the training scenario premise to take away their live ammo so they can’t just shoot away their problems. Also, I remember it being very “B movie” in a good way. A well-placed cheesy joke or two had me laughing out loud without it being Marvel-grade snark, but it was still tense and exciting.
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Pandorum - Guy wakes up from hypersleep on a giant ship where things have gone horribly wrong. His only other awake crewmate is uh…a bit off, maybe? This one feels VERY Deadspace. If you like “Creepy massive cathedral-like dungeon ships” flavored sci-fi horror, this one’s pretty good. I’d say maybe much tamer than Event Horizon, but clearly took some inspiration there.
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30 Days of Night - You know how in Alaska they get really long periods where the sun is just gone? You know how certain classic horror antagonists hate sunlight? Uh oh.
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Overlord - A World War 2 horror film. I mean, WWII was full of horror but…like… unbelievable horror. No, like, pulpy mad scientist supervillains and secret experiments horror–No, like stuff that DIDN’T actually happen. It’s the closest to a Wolfenstein movie as we’re gonna get. (And very “Weird Wars 2” if you’ve played a good Savage Worlds TTRPG or two)
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Resident Evil - I liked maybe two or three sequels too, before it got utterly ridiculous to farm cash, but the original is always cited as a horror classic, even among people who aren’t fans of the games. (Almost entirely unrelated characters and plot.)
Wish I could upvote this more.
Barbarian was written by Zach Cregger of Whitest Kids You Know fame, it’s a solid movie with unsettlingly comedic chops.
As for Pandorum, I am obsessed with that movie. Here’s a FanTheory I wrote a few years ago that delves into much of intrigue hinted at in that incredible movie:
https://www.reddit.com/r/FanTheories/comments/gmlo53/pandorum_earth_took_serious_countermeasures/
Barbarian was wild. I had no idea what I was in for, my cousin just said “Check this one out” last Halloween. That movie had so many good moments. The sheer tonal whiplash once the tapemeasure gets broken out. 😂 And we were all in the living room screaming “That would TOTALLY HAPPEN TOO!”
I love when scary movies know how to manage and pace their tone. They can be scary without drowning the viewer in so much grimdark it becomes a comedy accidentally.
That’s so crazy cool that of all those movies I listed, I meet a Pandorum fan! It’s been ages since I’ve seen it, but it left an impression. I really liked your FanTheories writeup! But also I should really give it another watch with my matured brain and see what I missed the last couple times. I almost kinda like how…the plot is REALLY grim, but only when you really connect all the breadcrumbs.
The movie itself I remember being rather straightforward and exciting, (even with that Act 2 expo-dump), where the plot doesn’t completely screw you up and abandon all hope unless you really start analyzing it lol.
That’s why I liken it to Deadspace…That’s a grim and awful world to inhabit…but wow is it still such a WILD ride that I’m willing to do it again.
With Barbarian it was just seeing the WKUKisms that I’ve grown accustomed to take life in a whole new genre - it was disconcertingly familiar and horrifically new at the same time!
Deadspace is a great description of Pandorum, but I’d argue that Pandorum has a far better story filled more with what people do when burdened by unwanted knowledge, rather than what people do when they are no longer themselves
Haha so I’m only familiar with WKUK by title, so I’ll have to check it out. :p
what people do when burdened by unwanted knowledge,
I like this point a lot. A friend of mine once told me something like: horror as a genre is easily defined as “What happens to those who look?”
I loved that quote.
Forbidden knowledge is so scary. It’s like reading spoilers. Just a glance, and it’s in your mind. It’s a part of you. How do you cope? You can’t just drop it like some cursed object or outrun it like some monster.
We want to know lots of things, I know I always love to learn…but the scariest things are those you don’t want to know… But how can you know what these are? You don’t know what you don’t know yet…
Pardon my ramble. Midnight contemplative brain kicked in. 😂
… Yeah I need to watch Pandorum again haha. Introduce some new people to it. :D
Me too hehe
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Small shout out to !horrormovies@lemm.ee
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
I really enjoy Event Horizon, especially with the 40K theory in mind.
Let The Right One In
I remember enjoying this. I need to re watch it because I can’t remember most of the highlights.
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?
Sinister - the home movies and music are so creepy.
Difficult to pick one, but Annihilation is up there.
The books are fantastic as well.
Mileage may vary; I read the first one and found it to be an absolute slog and a snooze. No interest in reading on.
Completely different experience here, I was hooked immediately and chewed through the whole series right away.
As I said, mileage may vary 😄
lol indeed
I’ve only read the first so far. I was so disappointed in the movie because I loved the book so much!
I find that’s books almost always tell a better story as well. I tend to watch shows first if both a show and a book are available for that reason.
Midsommer is my favorite. A slow, realistic slide into horror.
Army of Darkness.
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.
The sound design for Pontypool is particularly excellent
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.
Return of the Living Dead (1985)
Fright Night (1985)
The Reanimator (1985)
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.
