Classic Horror

As a Bruce Campbell fan the Evil Dead series was comedy, not horror. The "hack em ups" sucked as far as Horror went, that includes the 13th series. I saw Saw this week, man, that sucked. Makes me want to see the sequel and The Decent.

That being said, in the day Jaws scared the living # out of people, myself included. Trilogy of Terror too. Hellraiser 1-3 was just too damn cool to be horror. They Live, um, no. The original It's Alive Right from the operating room out was completely scary, at the time.

Loved House of a Thousand Corpses, some didn't.

You want classic horror? Check out the Dr. Phibes movies. Who better than Vincent Price? As he tries to resurect his bride, Vulnavia. Not really gory BUT very inventive.

Dead Alive, GREAT movie, more comedy than horror though.

Vincent Price as Dr Phibes was just classic and dont forget The Pit and the Pendulum, that was an incredible film with a great looking set and great characters.
My Mom was a big horror fan and would let watch all these old horror classics while I was growing up, it was great fun and I think todays horror even though still good isn't a patch on these old movies!!

I remember watching Jaws for the first time and jumping three feet in the air when that head drops out the hole in the bottom of the boat!!!

[edit on 5-8-2006 by Kurokage]

I never saw why people were so afraid of Jaws. By the time I watched Jaws I had already learned a lot about sharks and wasn't afraid of them.

Now, to House of a Thousand Corpses.
I loved it. I thaught it was a great take on the classic, kids driving through the boonies get murdered by crazy family genre. It had to be one of the funniest horror/comedies i've seen.

Originally posted by Rasobasi420
I never saw why people were so afraid of Jaws. By the time I watched Jaws I had already learned a lot about sharks and wasn't afraid of them.

I don't know that "Jaws" was about fear of sharks as much as it was about the fear of being in an alien place, i.e. deep water. And the dark. And the dark deep water.

After seeing it (on the big screen in 1975 with a theater full of screaming people,) I actually got scared swimming in a three-foot pool at night. Certainly I had no rational fear of being attacked by a great white shark in my backyard, but as soon as my head went under the water I got a massive case of the heebie-jeebies and had to get out immediately. Sounds funny now, but it's seriously wasn't then.

Nice job, Steven Spielberg!

Now, to House of a Thousand Corpses.
I loved it. I thaught it was a great take on the classic, kids driving through the boonies get murdered by crazy family genre. It had to be one of the funniest horror/comedies i've seen.

I'm not sure if it was designed to be a horror/comedy, but it certainly was scary and funny and just overall a total blast. IMHO, one of the best horror movies of the decade -- so far.

Nice job, Rob Zombie!

Baack

Well...I don't know about anyone else but I saw this movie called the Suicide Club and thought it was pretty. It's Japanese (Japan is the only place putting out good horror flicks right now) and I'm not sure if it's horror or more of a psychological thriller type thing.

Its definatly got elements of Se7en in it, but a ton of blood and gore too, more than your typical phsychological thriller does. I mean buckets of blood and gore.

Anyway, it's worth checking out. Still a big fna of Ringu, which is far better than The Ring was.

There's a Korean movie called H that's pretty good too. Along the same lines of Suicide Club.

-O

Originally posted by Baack

But scariest?

Wizard of Oz. Tornado takes your house, flying monkeys, evil witch. How much worse can it get?

100% correct! Those damn flying monkeys were the scariest thing I saw for about the first 11 years of my life.

I'm 49 years old now, and they still give me the willies!

Baack

Yeah!, those damn monkeys are scaaarrry!. My ex-wife was so frightened by them as a child that she has refused to ever watch the film again. Now, that' scary.

Originally posted by intrepid
That being said, in the day Jaws scared the living # out of people, myself included. Trilogy of Terror too. Hellraiser 1-3 was just too damn cool to be horro

You want classic horror? Check out the Dr. Phibes movies. Who better than Vincent Price? As he tries to resurect his bride, Vulnavia. Not really gory BUT very inventive.

Dead Alive, GREAT movie, more comedy than horror though.

Intrepid, you got it right on both points: The Hellraiser series was great and I love the old Vinnie movies as well; check out The Oblong Box and The Conquerer Worm for some spine-chilling scenes. On a different note, I have two other movies to recommend: the Original version of Village of the Damned and a little known film from the late fifties called Macabre. Also, I haven't reviewed the entire thread, but, did anyone mention Rosemary's Baby or The Exorcist? Some scary stuff there, for sure.

Lightseeker, I loved the old B&W Village of the damned, it reminds me of some villages in the cotswolds. lol


[edit on 6-8-2006 by Kurokage]

As long as we're talking about black-and-white flicks, I'd highly recommend to anyone here Jacques Tourneur's "Knight of the Demon" (aka "Curse of the Demon" in the US, as a badly reedited version of the British original.) It's based on the famous short story by M R James, "Casting the Runes," and is concerned with matters of the occult, witchcraft, and black magick.

Very creepy movie; the Demon itself looks kinda cheesy now (I'm sure the SFX were state-of-the-art back in 1957,) but the plot, dialogue, and acting are sufficient to send a chill or two up your spine.

It's available on DVD with both above-mentioned titles on on a single disk. I recommend skipping "Curse" and going right to "Night." I think y'all would like it.

Speaking of Jacques Tourneur, no horror film education is complete without having seen his Val Lewton-produced films from RKO Studios: "Cat People," "The Leopard Man," and especially "I Walked with a Zombie." Classics, all of 'em, and works of complete genius. And pretty darned spooky, to boot. I can't recommend these highly enough.


Baack