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Just Keep Telling Yourself It's Only a Thread: Talking Time's Top 50 Horror Movies!

Kishi

Little Waves
(They/Them)
Staff member
Moderator
Pondering the ineffable truth in the words "Frightning strikes twice!"

Aliens is one of my favorite films and was on my list at one point, but it was an easy cut for the same reason everyone says.
 

Falselogic

Lapsed Threadcromancer
(they/them)
Aliens is my favorite movie of the franchise. I recognize how important Alien is as a film and as a horror film, but outside of its historical role I find it boring (The Exorcist is also in this area) As Vaeran said though after watching Aliens I'm ready to watch it again.

VVitch might be my fav horror movie of all time.

Also, if you look closely you can catch a continuity error in today's "comic!"
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
I can see where this reading comes from, but I prefer a reading more along the lines of, Thomasin's only escape from the strangulation of a puritan society was to embrace Satan. Becoming a witch represents freedom for her, even if it seems bad and scary. That her culture only gives her this route as an escape says more about a rotten society than about witches being bad, in my opinion.

While a good point, I wasn’t talking about Thomasin, so much as the other witches who were murdering and otherwise victimizing the family. Some of which were hallucinatory, yeah, but there’s also plenty of scenes involving them up to their Witch Mischief without any of the characters high on Corn-shrooms around to see.
 

WildcatJF

Let's Pock (Art @szk_tencho)
(he / his / him)
I have no shame nominating Aliens. Yes, it's an action movie. Yes, the tension and pacing of the first film was replaced with gun-totin marines with pithy one liners. But the part that makes it frightening to me is the firepower was irrelevant, greed-fueled humans are just as cruel and vicious as the aliens, and there's still a few good scares in here. It's definitely borderline but considering I don't care much for horror films, this was one of the few "kindas" I felt would pass muster.
 
I have no shame nominating Aliens. Yes, it's an action movie. Yes, the tension and pacing of the first film was replaced with gun-totin marines with pithy one liners. But the part that makes it frightening to me is the firepower was irrelevant, greed-fueled humans are just as cruel and vicious as the aliens, and there's still a few good scares in here. It's definitely borderline but considering I don't care much for horror films, this was one of the few "kindas" I felt would pass muster.
This is pretty much my take, too.
 

Purple

(She/Her)
I appreciate The VVitch for forcing me to think about it and realizing that yeah, butter IS pretty darn good. And I appreciate Aliens for, among other things, redirecting imitators focus because otherwise I think half the horror genre would still just be people blatantly cloning Alien and I think that well finally ran dry sometime before the release of Life.

This explains so much.

ETA: I have that same double DVD, so I guess I need to watch 'em with commentary!

And side note: We won't be revisiting any films in the House series, so feel free to add your thoughts about the other(s), too.

Well again, they stopped letting Ethan Wiley make movies after House 2 so all that's left to mention is House, which is notable for having like half the really memorable and creative scenes from Evil Dead 2 except it came out over a full year earlier (and also, I believe a full year prior to The Boogie Bass) so... why does it never get the proper credit for that?

And I guess if you squint you could argue that Housebound has a close enough vibe to fit in a marathon with House House and House 2, being a fun horror-comedy set in, well, a house, and doing a lot of unconventional tone shifts.

And also I exaggerate because EVENTUALLY they did let Ethan Wiley out of movie jail, in 2012, whereupon he created this:
Which is... I mean it's a trash PG Christmas movie, but the villains are basically the 2 goons from Home Alone but then also Jeffrey Combs basically playing the same character he did in The Frighteners, so that's... noteworthy.
 

ShakeWell

Slam Master
(he, etc.)
Oh, and I still find it hilarious that Kenner made an action figure line based on this strongly R-rated film in the 1990s. Those are some of the best toys ever, by the way.

This is only half-true! They made an action figure line based on a cartoon that was based on a hard R film. It never got past a pilot, but Kenner made the toys, anyways. Supposedly, the pilot is lost, but I would absolutely LOVE if someone dug it up and included it as a special feature on a future blu-ray.

The VVitch didn't make my list but its a fantastic piece of unnerving art horror. Its very much a slow burn movie so I'm sure it disappointed a lot of a certain kind of horror fan who heard about the "best horror movie of the year".

I feel like that might be me, except I usually love slow-burns? (House of the Devil is a personal favorite, and almost every time I mention it, someone is bound to tell me how boring it is.) The performances in The Witch are fantastic, but the plot was just... kind of a snooze? I liked Midsommar a lot more, but I'll save my thoughts on that.
 

Adrenaline

Post Reader
(He/Him)
It's not that Aliens doesn't have horror elements. But if it wasn't a sequel to Alien, would you put it on this list?
 

Dracula

Plastic Vampire
(He/His)
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No. 30 Night of the Comet (1984)
Points: 91 | Lists: Dracula (#8); Falselogic (#17); Kishi (#11); Torzelbaum (#21)
“You may as well face the facts, Samantha. The whole burden of civilization has fallen upon us.”


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Night of the Comet is a 1984 American science fiction comedy horror film written and directed by Thom Eberhardt. It stars Catherine Mary Stewart, Robert Beltran, and Kelli Maroney as survivors of a comet that has turned most people into either dust or zombies.

Drac’s Notes: Y’all, I can’t tell you how pleased I am that we managed to get this little movie on the big list. I first saw this one night while I was combing through horror B-flicks on Netflix, and I’ve enjoyed frequent rewatches of it in the years since. It’s a simple concept: like Ultrapedia says, everyone in the world gets vaporized or zombified overnight. Two women in LA then have to pick through the ruins of civilization and figure out their place. Having two women as dynamic leads in a non-slasher is super rare for the time period, and I adore Stewart and Maroney in their roles. Stewart plays a straightforward badass who opens the film trying to break a high score on Tempest; Maroney is her airheaded cheerleader sister. In a lesser movie, Maroney would be written out in the first ten minutes, killed to make way for the more “valuable” characters. But instead, we get to see her grow into a badass survivor and in a way that’s totally distinct from her sister.

There’s lots of good stuff in this movie. One of my favorite little factoids was that they needed to film a number of exterior shots in Los Angeles, but this was a B-movie, so they didn’t have a budget to clear the streets. So what they did was film on Christmas morning. Now that’s creativity!

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So...is that all for today?

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Today's is not a double feature, correct.


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Would you like another?


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No. 29 Ring (1998)
Points: 93 | Lists: Sabrecat (#6); Zef (#6); Teg (#6)
“Four people died from watching this videotape!”


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Ring (リング, Ringu) is a 1998 Japanese horror film directed by Hideo Nakata, based on the 1991 novel by Kôji Suzuki. The film stars Nanako Matsushima, Hiroyuki Sanada and Rikiya Ōtaka, and follows a reporter who is racing to investigate the mystery behind a cursed videotape that kills the viewer seven days after watching it.

Drac’s Notes: Consider this a “save this space,” because I haven’t seen the Japanese version of this film, but I’d very much like to. It’s next on my watchlist. Tell me what you like about this movie! But don't tell me what you like about the American version. This is only for the Japanese one.
 

Kishi

Little Waves
(They/Them)
Staff member
Moderator
My records tell me it's been nearly six years since I've watched Night of the Comet. I must rectify this. It's truly a hidden gem.
 

Beta Metroid

At peace
(he/him)
It's not that Aliens doesn't have horror elements. But if it wasn't a sequel to Alien, would you put it on this list?

Yep. I feel like it occupies the same horror/sci-fi/action overlap as Predator and Terminator, which also made my list. The whole premise is suspenseful, and as soon as the question of what state the colony is in is answered, it's shortly replaced by the suspense of "who's laying the eggs?" And on top of these macro-level horror elements, each individual encounter has innate horror elements. Each one has some combination of a suspenseful buildup, horrific imagery ("kill me"), ambushes, and/or the protagonists' advantages being compromised. In fact, from the perspective of someone who has only recently seen any of the Alien movies, I feel kind of the opposite of what you're suggesting: Aliens is largely considered "action, not horror" in contrast to Alien, and if it was a standalone movie, it would much more readily be considered a hybrid of genres.

I certainly understand the position of not including it on this list. It contains elements of several genres, and it's such a muddy, subjective, personal distinction as to when "movie with horror elements" becomes "horror movie." I cast no judgment on anyone who left it off.

I'm a weirdo who's only seen the Japanese Ring. Until college, I pretty much avoided any "real" horror movies like the plague, but this was shown in a dialogue class I was taking. I thought it was very effectively unsettling and creepy while avoiding the excessive gore and jump scares that turned me off to the genre. It also builds to its climactic moment extremely well. It just barely missed my list, and probably should have made it in hindsight. Oh well, it wouldn't be a top 50 without repeated bouts of lister's remorse!
 

YangusKhan

does the Underpants Dance
(He/Him/His)
It looks like Night of the Comet isn't streaming anywhere? Not even Amazon Prime has it!
 

ShakeWell

Slam Master
(he, etc.)
Unpopular opinion: the American version of The Ring is better than the Japanese version.

Also, Night of the Comet is very fun, but I'm shaken to my core that as a group we've decided it's better than The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
 

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
On the other hand, Shockwave cameo.

Holy carp! How did I not know this delightful bit of nerd ephemera?


Meanwhile, I haven't seen the JP original Ring, but I did vote for another JP original of the same era which probably won't make the list at this point, but who knows.
 

SabreCat

Sabe, Inattentive Type
(he "Sabe" / she "Kali")
Unpopular opinion: the American version of The Ring is better than the Japanese version.
Possibly if I watched the two back to back, I'd end up agreeing with you! I was working from dim memory, and seemed to recall that the American version was more explain-y? Focused on the backstory of the tape and how it all works, that sort of thing--which I often find American horror loves to do, to the detriment of the actual creepiness. But maybe that was in the original too and my brain lost it.
 

Zef

Find Your Reason
(He/Him)
I love both versions of [The] Ring, but today is Hideo Nakata's version that gets to shine.

Like so many others, Ring was my introduction to J-horror, and, appropriately enough, I first watched it on a VHS bootlegged from the UK release because there was no US equivalent (I've since collected at least three different official disc versions, including the one that came out this year, so hey.) Nakata's direction was already dark and moody, then there's the Japanese style of filmmaking in the late 90s, then there was the graininess of the VHS to add further grit to the supernatural goings on, so there was no way I couldn't completely fall for it.

I'm both intrigued by, and wary of, the change from Kazuyuki Asakawa, male protagonist and distant husband/father in the original novel, to Reiko Asakawa, divorced mother. Wary, because filmmakers (especially horror ones) often deliberately try to make their female characters "vulnerable" or "weaker" than a male counterpart in order to elicit sympathy--particularly evident here, where Asakawa's ex-husband, Ryuji, is in constant competition with her to take over the lead role--but also intrigued because Reiko is so much more likeable, and more of an actual protagonist, than Kazuyuki ever achieves. She's a deeper, better-developed character with a stronger connection to her son (the family in the novel are basically just plot devices) and she has a more human response to the situation than Ryuji does.

And speaking of more likeable characters, Ryuji himself (played by the legendary Hiroyuki Sanada) is just... such a welcome change from the novel version, who's just an asshole to play opposite Kazuyiki's featureless mannequin. You can tell he views the curse not just as something to save his family from, but as a personal challenge he's eager to solve. I'm really not sure why Nakata decided to add a further supernatural angle to him (film Ryuji is basically an ESPer, a trait inherited by his son and expanded upon in the sequel) since it makes Sadako a little less unique, and allows Nakata to push some curse-solving exposition through him without having him do the same kind of research or investigation Asakawa does. But considering this is a universe where people can project their thoughts into visual media and ghosts can impart their memories on you by grabbing you, I suppose having more psychics around doesn't break disbelief too much.

Sadako is... well... yeah. Even though she's a fairly generic onryō loosely inspired by Okiku-san of the Plate Mansion, she's had monumental impact on horror in general. I don't think there's any modern white-garbed, long-haired ghost in Japanese media that isn't directly descended from her. Neither the book nor the original film delve too much into her character, just the circumstances of her death (putting the meaty, cartoony thwack! from the film aside) nor do they ever stop to study the themes surrounding her, but there's whole essays to be written about the misogyny and transphobia that turned Sadako into the unstoppable, viral force of vengeance she is. Here, again, Nakata muddles the issue further by hinting at a demonic, intrinsically evil origin, in a "she was always bad" kind of way, which I think was just his way to sidestep the deeper social issues surrounding her tragedy.

I'm also deeply amused that Kenji Kawai, whom I know best for his whimsical Ranma and anime scores, was in charge of this film's soundtrack. The American version may have more memorable themes, but Kawai's atmospheric sounds are way creepier.
 

Torzelbaum

????? LV 13 HP 292/ 292
(he, him, his)
Batting .500 today.

The truly most horrifying occurrence in this film is implied rather than shown but this film is still frightening enough just by showing the smaller scale horrors that occur in the aftermath.

Maybe the real horror was the friends we made along the way.

...

Wait. That doesn't sound right.

I have a lot of gripes with Aliens; I think it assassinates a lot of the mystique of the first movie by turning Xenomorphs into "basically termites" and showing how easily they can be killed en masse; plus it's got that classic "white people playing POC" element that was in bad taste at the time and has only gotten worse with age.
In case you don't know what Tegan is talking about - Private Vasquez in Aliens was portrayed by an actress named Jenette Goldstein. If you don't want to make assumptions based on her name just check out this picture of her potraying John Connor's adoptive mother in Terminator 2 to see how white she is.
 
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Dracula

Plastic Vampire
(He/His)
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No. 28 Night of the Living Dead (1967)
Points: 94 | Lists: YangusKhan (#24); Kishi (#14); Patrick (#7); Shakewell (#9)
“They’re coming to get you, Barbara!”

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Night of the Living Dead is a 1968 American independent horror film written, directed, photographed and edited by George A. Romero, co-written by John Russo, and starring Duane Jones and Judith O'Dea. The story follows seven people who are trapped in a rural farmhouse in western Pennsylvania, which is under assault by an enlarging group of cannibalistic, undead corpses.

Drac’s Notes: We owe a lot to George Romero. In this, we have the first real zombie film, at least as zombies are understood nowadays, leading to dozens or hundreds of movies, TV shows, video games, and other media that feature hordes of lurching, leering, groaning undead with a hunger for human flesh. Sometimes, the groundbreaking entries are notable mostly for breaking ground. But in the case of this film, it’s a legitimate horror classic, doing a hell of a lot with not much and still managing to be disturbing even 53 years after its debut.

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Aw c'mon, what happens next? Why did it end like that? How does humanity overcome the zombie plague?

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"Next?" There's no overcoming it. Humanity is doomed.

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Well, I wanna see them try, anyway!

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You'll just have to imagine it. We have no idea what movie is coming next.

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Actually...

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No. 27 Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Points: 100 | Lists: YangusKhan (#10); Falselogic (#21); Patrick (#4); Johnny Unusual (#13)
“Something my granddad used to tell us. You know Macumba? Voodoo. My granddad was a priest in Trinidad. He used to tell us, ‘When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the Earth.’”

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Dawn of the Dead is a 1978 independent horror film directed and edited by George A. Romero. It is the second film in Romero's Night of the Living Dead series of zombie films, and though it contains no characters or settings from the preceding film Night of the Living Dead (1968), it shows in a larger scale the effects of a zombie apocalypse on society. In the film, a phenomenon of unidentified origin has caused the reanimation of the dead, who prey on human flesh.

Drac’s Notes: If Night of the Living Dead was gold, then Dawn of the Dead is certified platinum. It’s royalty in zombie movies. The simple concept of “survive a zombie invasion in a shopping mall” has spawned more imitators than I can count. If you’re going to see just one zombie movie, this is definitely the one (though my personal favorite did not end up on the big list). It’s interesting to revisit now, after so many decades of derivative zombies, to see just how understated the zombie makeup was in these days. Modern zombies tend to be as gross as possible, with rotting flesh, mutilated limbs, and dragging entrails. The zombies in this film are basically just normal-looking people in dark, bluish makeup. And it really works!

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Okay, but then what?

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Well, there are more films, but spoiler alert, humanity never fixes the problem.

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Do we at least get to watch them? Video Knight???


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This list is cancelled!!!
 

Kishi

Little Waves
(They/Them)
Staff member
Moderator
I watched Night of the Living Dead for the first time a couple of Halloweens ago. It's amazing how much of modern zombie lore is all right here (even the "not wanting to kill a child who has turned" twist), and it's a compelling story unto itself. It also infamously slipped into the public domain, so it couldn't be more accessible; the whole thing's on YouTube in multiple places (below is just a choice clip).


 

ShakeWell

Slam Master
(he, etc.)
It is in the public domain, but I would still recommend the Criterion blu-ray. It's full of great stuff and the transfer is a million times better than, well... most others.
 

Zef

Find Your Reason
(He/Him)
Augh, I can't believe I forgot to include Night of the Living Dead in my list :( It transcends its genre as a classic of film as a medium.

I do still need to see Dawn, though. I've only seen Snyder's execrable remake and... yikes.
 
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