NationStates Jolt Archive

Seriously. This guy and Christopher Lee are basically the best horror movie stars of all time.

Lets talk about old horror movies. Say...nothing after the 80s is allowed (especially when you consider that 99.9% of all 'horror' movies made after that are garbage). Im a big fan of The Wicker Man (the real one, not the awful Nicolas Cage remake), Psycho (again, the original Hitchcock one), and Witchfinder General or The Conquerer Worm for thoe of you familiar with its original title.

Anyway NSG, what are your favorite classic horror movies and actors/actresses?

I can't go past the Shining, but I guess that doesn't count as it was made during the 80s.

Romero's original 'Dead' series creeped me out no end (bet you're surprised to read that!).

Wicker Man with Edward Woodward and Lee is a great movie. Ending's soooo creepy.

The Exorcist and Omen (original of course) were both excellent.

Freaks (1932) is a great bit of movie making and pretty creepy.

And of course, pretty much anything with Vicent Price or Bela Lugosi* in it.

*Other than Plan 9 of course.

I can't go past the Shining, but I guess that doesn't count as it was made during the 80s.

80s is fair game. I never liked Shining, but thats because I read the book, and the turned the main character from a sympathetic one into a raving loon.

The Exorcist and Omen (original of course) were both excellent.

These are also great.

Exorcist and Omen are a must.
I would also have to add Night of the Living Dead (the original, not return).
And for my own personal choices Alien and The Thing.

(the real one, not the awful Nicolas Cage remake)

Please. You just don't understand the subtleties to Cage's performance. "THE BEES!!! ARGH!!! THEY'RE STINGING ME!!!" Pure genius, I say.

Please. You just don't understand the subtleties to Cage's performance. "THE BEES!!! ARGH!!! THEY'RE STINGING ME!!!" Pure genius, I say.

Want to hear a fun tidbit?

The reason they changed the location in the remark from an island off the coast of Scotland to some Island off the coast of...Washington?... was because Nicolas Cage couldnt do a Scotish accent.

I shit you not.

How dare you not mention Bela Lugosi

I think it goes without saying, The Evil Dead (as well as its sequels) and its star Bruce Campbell.

80s is fair game. I never liked Shining, but thats because I read the book, and the turned the main character from a sympathetic one into a raving loon.

I read the book as well. It's definitely one of King's better books, but I thought it went a bit silly with the topiary coming to life to attack them.

I enjoy how atmospheric Kubrick made the movie. Every scene is creepy in some way.

Horror Movies since the 80s have become dull, slasher bodycount affairs. I can't understand how anyone can like the Saw series. It's just a series of, 'let's see how disgustingly we can kill this guy off' scenes tenously linked together with a 'omgIdidnotseethatcoming!' plot twist at the end. Where's the tension, the atmosphere, the feeling?

Here's a movie I want to see (and book I want to read):
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1139797/
Came across it on IMDB recently. Looks good, and has a high rating. Swedes are good at making creepy movies (Riget was great).

Wonder if Fass has seen it...


Also looking forward to this movie:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0870984/
Lars von Trier is a genius when it comes to film. This should be well eerie.

Horror Movies since the 80s have become dull, slasher bodycount affairs. I can't understand how anyone can like the Saw series. It's just a series of, 'let's see how disgustingly we can kill this guy off' scenes tenously linked together with a 'omgIdidnotseethatcoming!' plot twist at the end. Where's the tension, the atmosphere, the feeling?

See, I dont think theyve made a real slasher movie since the 80s. All the horror movies now try and have some sort of messege or philosophic undertone. Few horror movies can pull it off. Even fewer since the 70s.

But I agree. Saw is an abomination. The first one had some potential. But it was squandered.

Here's a movie I want to see (and book I want to read):
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1139797/
Came across it on IMDB recently. Looks good, and has a high rating.

My foreign horror movie buff friend loves that movie.

Swedes are good at making creepy movies (Riget was great).


Haxan anyone? Great movie.

Wonder if Fass has seen it...

Doesnt strike me as the horror movie type.


Also looking forward to this movie:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0870984/
Lars von Trier is a genius when it comes to film. This should be well eerie.

Looks solid. Looking foward to it.

Anything done by Alfred Hitchcock, the man is a genius!

Horror Movies since the 80s have become dull, slasher bodycount affairs. I can't understand how anyone can like the Saw series. It's just a series of, 'let's see how disgustingly we can kill this guy off' scenes tenously linked together with a 'omgIdidnotseethatcoming!' plot twist at the end. Where's the tension, the atmosphere, the feeling?.

So true; they have become such Tn'A affairs. The last good horror movie I saw was...

Here's a movie I want to see (and book I want to read):
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1139797/
Came across it on IMDB recently. Looks good, and has a high rating. Swedes are good at making creepy movies (Riget was great).

Ruthless Reviews (http://www.ruthlessreviews.com/reviews.cfm/id/1547/page/let_the_right_one_in.html) has it reviewed. Believe they like it as well.

Anything done by Alfred Hitchcock, the man is a genius!

Psycho and Vertigo are made of win.

Rope is excellent too, just for all the Nietzsche references.

Yea I get to tell my story again. My wife had a coworker who had this amazing picture! It was him as a little boy wearing that old style skeleton costumes. He is standing in a BOO position and in the "ahh" position are Bela Lugosi, Vincent Price, Basil Rathbone, and Peter Lorre.

It's a cool picture. Funny thing is that Peter and Vincent are into it. Basil looks slightly irritated and Bela looked like he was out of it.

Yea I get to tell my story again. My wife had a coworker who had this amazing picture! It was him as a little boy wearing that old style skeleton costumes. He is standing in a BOO position and in the "ahh" position are Bela Lugosi, Vincent Price, Basil Rathbone, and Peter Lorre.

It's a cool picture. Funny thing is that Peter and Vincent are into it. Basil looks slightly irritated and Bela looked like he was out of it.

That is so AWESOME.
I'm not surprised that Bela was out of it, the old junkie that he was.
"Now, no one gives two fucks for Bela."

Ah, crap, where to start? More to the point, where to end?

Anything by Tod Browning, of course.

Anything by Val Lewton, of course, especially Catpeople and Curse of the Catpeople.

Anything with Vincent Price, especially House of Wax, The Abominable Dr Phibes, and my favorite, Theater of Blood (which is more of a crime movie, but still, it's Vincent plus Diana Rigg).

Karloff's Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, and Son of Frankenstein.

Lugosi's Dracula.

Karloff's The Mummy.

There's a great 1944 movie The Uninvited, totally different from the new one coming out.

The Wolfman, with Lon Chaney Jr, just because it's so fucking nutty. Yay, Maria Ouspenskaya!!! :D

The Wicker Man, of course.

The 1931 Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde, with Frederic March, is my favorite version of that story. Although the make-up is some of the worst, the script and March's amazing performance most perfectly and terrifyingly capture a realistic abusive personality and abusive relationships.

I have a soft spot for craptastic exploitation horror flicks, especially the classic Susperia, which doesn't make one fucking bit of sense, but is great both for the super creepy last 15 minutes of it and for the black comedy of the scene with the maggots in the ceiling (which even the evil witches didn't know were there), as well as for the nightmarish razorwire scene.

I also love the bizarrely loopy movies of Bill Castle -- House on Haunted Hill, The Tingler, 13 Ghosts -- once I was in a high-tone cocktail bar in Cambridge, MA, and they were playing cool Caribbean jazz and had a black and white movie on the tv with the sound turned down, and I could have sworn it was a Luis Bunuel movie, until suddenly I realized, it was 13 Ghosts, amazingly transformed by silence and jazz. My friend and I with our martinis realized it simultaneously and exclaimed, "Oh my god, I think that's 13 Ghosts!" "Oh my god, I think you're right!"

The Haunting, the real one, not the shitty remake.

The Legend of Hell House, with Roddy McDowell.

The great Black Sunday.

The Beast with Five Fingers, with Peter Lorre.

The Invisible Man, with Claude Rains.

I Walked with a Zombie, remarkably better than its title.

There was a whole series of crazy Edgar Allen Poe adaptations in the 60s with Price, Lorre and sometimes Karloff. They were insane and great.

There was another bizarre series of very loose Poe adaptations in the 40s, of which my favorite is The Black Cat, which is set in a modernist Bauhaus "castle" and in which everybody walks around in the most luxe robes and pajamas, and Karloff and Lugosi play chess and get irritated with everyone interrupting them through the whole movie until they decide to torture each other to death. It's a fun one.

Burnt Offerings, with Karen Black.

Trilogy of Terror, with Karen Black.

Oh, gods, they're all coming back to me...

The Eyes of Laura Mars, with Faye Dunaway and Tommy Lee Jones.

Shit, man, there were a lot of really good horror movies once upon a time. What happened?

And finally, because I have to stop eventually, every horror movie ever made by Hammer Studios!!! Especially all the Peter Cushing Frankensteins -- my favorites: Curse of Frankenstein, Frankenstein's Revenge, and Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed -- and all the Christopher Lee Draculas -- I've seen all 21; my favorites include Taste the Blood of Dracula and Dracula AD 1972 (way better than Dracula 2000) as well as the first two, Horror of Dracula, and Dracula, Prince of Darkness. I also liked their Mummy movie. And their version of Hound of the Baskervilles, with Cushing as Holmes and Lee as the targeted client, is the best I've ever seen (and Cushing was the best Holmes until Jeremy Brett). Hammer Red is one of my favorite colors. :D

I'm not even going to touch the great golden age of 1950s monster movies. Not yet, at least.

You didn't mention Bela Legosi or Boris Karloff?

You didn't mention Bela Legosi or Boris Karloff?
Um...several people have mentioned them, actually, including me...

Um...several people have mentioned them, actually, including me...

I was referring to the OP.

Please. You just don't understand the subtleties to Cage's performance. "THE BEES!!! ARGH!!! THEY'RE STINGING ME!!!" Pure genius, I say.

Forsooth. See this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6i2WRreARo) for the highlights of Nicholas Cage's inimitable role.

But I agree. Saw is an abomination. The first one had some potential. But it was squandered.
That's how I felt. Had good potential right up til the end, when they went for the corny stupid twist ending that made no sense at all when you thought about it. Just can across as a desperate attempt to outdo se7en and Sixth Sense, which failed miserably.



My foreign horror movie buff friend loves that movie.
Ruthless Reviews (http://www.ruthlessreviews.com/reviews.cfm/id/1547/page/let_the_right_one_in.html) has it reviewed. Believe they like it as well.
Good enough reason to look out for it then. Another good reason is that Hollywood is planning on a remake. *shudder*


Doesnt strike me as the horror movie type.
me neither, but I figured he's nationalistic enough to attend any and every Swedish film production. It's not like they make a helluva lot of them.

Forsooth. See this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6i2WRreARo) for the highlights of Nicholas Cage's inimitable role.
as a comedy it almost works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_mW8mBzmHo

Not Nicholas Cage's best moment, though perhaps one of his most memorable:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOpsbAUEe90

How far must you fall and how low must you sink when your acting career comes to punching a woman while dressed in a bear suit?

This me likey this review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QqgIzlmdBc

Haxan anyone? Great movie.


The old lady in that wasn't even a professional actress but I think she gave one of the best performances I have ever seen in a film

Snip.

Good choices
I love Val Lewton films to add to the one you have mentioned The Seventh Victim is one of my favourites, as is the Leopard Man.

I am also fond of things like White Zombie, some of the early Mummy films are great too.

Nosferatu

Vampyr

Cabinet of Doctor Caligari

In my pile of DVDs to watch I have The Phantom Carriage and one of the Golem films to go through.

Nosferatu is brilliantly shot, and genuinely creepy.

How far must you fall and how low must you sink when your acting career comes to punching a woman while dressed in a bear suit?


I know these things look very different when they're being shot.......but for fucks sake.....

I always had a soft spot for Psycho.

Hellraiser. I just loved that sense of inevitability with all the Cenobites moving so slowly and calmly because they know they've already won the battle (an attitude best expressed by the line, "The Box. You opened it. We came."). Sure, they lost, but it was a good show regardless.
The twisted fairytale (wicked stepmother, etc) vibe was good too.
The second one, I liked too. But it was all spectacle and fantasy, and probably not what the OP is looking for.

Otherwise, there's the obvious (Birds, Psycho, The Shining, The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby, Lugosi's Dracula, Frankenstein, Invisible Man, etc).

I believe someone already mentioned the deliciously vile Suspiria, the movie with razor wire in the attic (why is there a room filled with razor wire in the attic of a ballet school?) and Udo Kier. There's also a reference to a school of Ballet and Satan Worship, or something like that. I remember laughing my head off.

Another great one was Spider Baby. It was pretty bad (in a funny way) for the most part, but Lon Cheney's scenes add a certain gravity and despair to the movie. Otherwise, the very hot Jill Banner (aka Virginia) dances around in a nightgown and stabs men to death with a pair of butcher's knives. There's also rape, cannibalism, incest, insanity, gross-out dinner scenes, spiders and dead bodies, all of it done with the sort of style and class you'd expect from the 1960's. What's not to love?

I was referring to the OP.
Oh. Never mind. :)

Good choices
I love Val Lewton films to add to the one you have mentioned The Seventh Victim is one of my favourites, as is the Leopard Man.

I am also fond of things like White Zombie, some of the early Mummy films are great too.

Nosferatu

Vampyr

Cabinet of Doctor Caligari


"Yes, please" to all of these. Also "M" is great -- another one that's really a crime movie but shot with a feel of dreamlike horror.


Otherwise, there's the obvious (Birds, Psycho, The Shining, The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby,
A problematical list for me:

I hate "The Shining" with a passion because I, perhaps alone in the world, think it totally sucked as a movie. Boring as shit. Simplistic. Over-the-top fake performances by both Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall. Maybe I'm not fair to it because I hate the book, too, but even comparing it to the book, I think it sucked because Nicholson and Duvall's characters were already so fucked up before they started, it took out all the horror of their "decline" into madness. They brought their madness with them, leaving the poor ghosts little to do but stand back and watch them implode.

I cannot bring myself to watch "The Exorcist" again because, to me, it is just an exercise in child abuse, but I have seen it and I think it sucks, too. Beyond the abuse of Linda Blair, it is a shallow script filled with trite cliches. It relies on cheap shock value for all its impact.

"Rosemary's Baby", on the other hand, was a brilliant devil movie that achieved real horror, less from the devily parts and more from the claustrophobic interpersonal parts.

"The Omen" was also a better devil movie than The Exorcist, imo.

And of course, "The Birds" and "Psycho" are two great movies. I kind of have a problem putting Hitchcock in the horror category. To me, he is his own category. Almost all his movies are horror movies, in the way he tells the story and the emotions of his scenes and plots, but his subject matter is generally crime, not horror. He blurs the genres. "The Birds" is a full-on horror movie (basically a monster movie) and a brilliant one. "Psycho", on the other hand, is a crime movie but one utterly dripping with feelings of horror. Same with "Frenzy", both of his versions of "The Lodger", and many others.

I believe someone already mentioned the deliciously vile Suspiria, the movie with razor wire in the attic (why is there a room filled with razor wire in the attic of a ballet school?)
Where else were they going to keep it? In the hall closet?

and Udo Kier.
I think Udo Kier needs to be his own horror category, too. He just adds to or spins the horror-quotient of anything he appears in.

I just cant appreciate black and white movies. I get immediate ADD and it loses my attention. (the only exception is The Twilight Zone)

I just cant appreciate black and white movies. I get immediate ADD and it loses my attention. (the only exception is The Twilight Zone)

And the Outer Limits. I liked that one too...

and all the Christopher Lee Draculas -- I've seen all 21; my favorites include Taste the Blood of Dracula and Dracula AD 1972 (way better than Dracula 2000) as well as the first two, Horror of Dracula, and Dracula, Prince of Darkness.

Christopher Lee has played the role of Dracula more times then any other actor.

I am personally partial to The Satanic Rites of Dracula just because of that creepy shit they do with his eyes.

Fuckin' awesome.

Vampyr (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7559089296688839249) was awesome. I really liked the camera positions in it also...

Christopher Lee has played the role of Dracula more times then any other actor.

I am personally partial to The Satanic Rites of Dracula just because of that creepy shit they do with his eyes.

Fuckin' awesome.
Yeah, "Satanic Rites" was a good one, too.

I think Udo Kier needs to be his own horror category, too. He just adds to or spins the horror-quotient of anything he appears in.
I think you're giving him a little too much credit. When Udo is well used, he is creepy as Hell, but his willingness to act in any film that offers catering has lead to some unfortunate places (Dr. Jekyll and His Women, Feardotcom, Dracula 3000, just look at his IMDB profile (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001424/)).

I think you're giving him a little too much credit. When Udo is well used, he is creepy as Hell, but his willingness to act in any film that offers catering has lead to some unfortunate places (Dr. Jekyll and His Women, Feardotcom, Dracula 3000, just look at his IMDB profile (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001424/)).
Did I say he makes movies good? No, I didn't. He neither makes good movies nor makes movies good. He just makes them more Udo-y. You just look at that head on the screen, and it just...adds something. Something...Udo...

My dream in life is for someone to make an Alien Udo Vs Predator Walken movie.

My dream in life is for someone to make an Alien Udo Vs Predator Walken movie.
You'd better hurry up with abducting them to your super secret underground sound stage, then, because they're not getting any younger.

PS: If you need any help, contact me. I am willing to do anything in the service of great art.

Those old Universal monster pictures.

The Hammer films.

Anything by Val Lewton

Freaks by Tod Browning

The Exorcist. I saw that movie when I was eight and it fried my brain.

Saw and it's various hangers-on and me-too's aren't scary, they're just disgusting. I saw a Clive Barker movie recently, Midnight Meat Train, that was a good one, and also Deathwatch was good.

I just cant appreciate black and white movies. I get immediate ADD and it loses my attention. (the only exception is The Twilight Zone)

I prefer horror films in black and white - I think it adds to the atmosphere.

I know these things look very different when they're being shot.......but for fucks sake.....
quite right.
On the other hand, it's such a powerful, moving scene that I think Nick Cage wearing a bear suit and running up to punch a woman should be mandatory in every movie from now on.

That remake opens itself up to sooooo much parody. Here's another one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyXl2RMZ0Po&NR=1


compare the endings of both:
1973
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEOQqnHMSMc

2006:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gZfUoWZW6A&NR=1

One of these things is not like the other, one of these things doesn't belong. One of these things features a Ham getting roasted and is total shite.
Can you children guess which one?
"The Ham must die! The Ham must die!"

btw: don't watch either if you haven't seen the 1973 version, else it'll spoil it for you. But for the love of God, get a copy and watch it! Hell, it's even on Youtube in 10 minute segments, so there's no reason why you haven't seen it yet.

While I'm making comparisons, here's Charlton Heston in 'Omega Man':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t9A5pWkMnY

vs Wil Smith in 'I am Legend'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tK0e4DT8uE

who's cooler? Let's be honest here, Smith has nothing on Heston!

And let's not forget Vicent Price's "Last man on Earth" which wins for creepiness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4mYireNvcg

Whole movie available on youtube to watch (if you dare!)