Horror Movie Fans, let's have discussions...

I heard some other people exclaim that the Wicked Witch of the West scared the daylights out of them.

 

I was only joking Alucard.

 

One of you might know:
What exactly would the witch be able to do after the sand ran out that she couldn't do 10 minutes earlier?

 

I don't remember that bit! I remember having the hots for Dorothy though.

 

After the flying monkeys capture Dorothy the witch prepares to take the slippers but says,
"This must be done delicately..." She starts an hour glass and when the sand runs out something is supposed to happen. We never find out because her friends get there first, setting up the climax.
To me, any story, no matter how absurd, should be consistent within itself and it is only at that point that the film fails.

 

Or the anti-climax, as the case may be!

 

As I understand the terms, the death of the witch ends the climax, her getting home is the anticlimax, since if the witch killed her, who cares if she gets buried in Kansas or not?
There are stories in which the anticlimax precedes the climax, but each one I'm tempted to cite fails slightly.
Bond and Hitchcock films come closest because there are a series of problems, some not resolved if the viewer wants full closure.

 

As I understand the term, if something is expected to happen doesn't happen, then it's anti-climax.

 

Hitchcock did that all the time, but usually with small things. (What would Norman Bates have done if that car didn't sink all the way in the swamp?)
In my literature class climax comes at the end of rising action and afterwards there's no more danger.
We worry about Toto first, then Dorothy and finally the other 3. (Toto versus the lion would be an anticlimax for instance.) After the witch dies the rest is relaxed even though the problem of returning home remains. If there were no witches and the Munchkins carried her to the Emerald City in a cushioned chariot the climax would have been the discovery of any successful method of return.

 

I don't remember that bit either.

 

That whole movie was like that. After Dorothy woke up she was still having to deal with the mean woman who was going to take Toto to the pound, yes?

 

Next time you watch the movie pretend you know nothing about the story, the actors or Hitchcock and you'll bounce from confusion to boredom and back to confusion.
I still don't understand why the couple can't just open their romance to the public. The man should have been black or something.
Next we see her steal the money and worry that she'll do something worse. All she has to do is turn around and go back to the safety deposit box. Gavin will probably tell her to do that and proudly announce his love to the world.
That cop causes all the trouble by hounding her, creating a math problem while she ponders her options. She's slightly sympathetic but we can't endorse the theft. no one is worried about Norman at first glance but he's an object of some pity. We don't expect a sickly mother to kill the leading lady.
As we cope with the redirection we see a traumatized young man becoming an accomplice after the fact. No one is sure who to root for at this moment.
Still, even after you know the story, future viewings still make you pause as the car stops sinking and we understand that killers have problems too.
This set up the success of the Columbo tv series where we see the victim and killer interact for several minutes and understand-without endorsing-the killer's behavior.
In later seasons of that show most of the killers later killed a witness who figured it out before Columbo and got caught only then.

 

The most horrific movie ever?

Schindler's List, because it was real

 

To quote Marlon Brando from Apocalypse Now

the horror, the horror

 

I've given up on horror movies for the most part. Last good one I saw was The Babbadook.

Video Games are a much better medium for horror, provided your definition of "horror" doesn't include schlock like Dead Space or Resident Evil.

I'm thinking of playing Layers of Fear on Halloween. It's about an insane artist who finally decides to create his masterwork. Though, the game isn't technically finished yet....enh, maybe I'll wait until it is. Do it all in one go.

Guess I'll just tangle with this (*)(*)(*)(*)er again.


You know the first time I played that game I had a dream afterward where I just endlessly wandered through a maze as I heard the exact footstep sound effect they use in the game get closer and closer and closer and closer but I could never see what was making it, and it was dragged out forever until finally they became very loud, stopped, then I felt like I was grabbed and scared myself awake.

 

Now Invasion of the Body Snatchers creeps me out - the 1978 version...

The whole Donald Sutherland (Matthew) screaming at the end at Elizabeth gives me chills...

I remember when I was a kid it scared the crap out of me - I was checking under the bed for pods lol...

 

The guy who played Leatherface in the first Chainsaw movie died over the weekend.
Will they serve chili at his funeral?

 

I was a kid when the first Amityville Horror came out, accompanied by all the hype about it being a true story. The Lutz's were touring the world, spruiking how it was true and how terrifying it was and how the evil was still following them. Hard to get across the impact that BS had on a kid. I couldn't sleep with the light off. I woke up screaming with nightmares.

Learning it was crap did two things- it enraged me and if I ran into Lutz in the street I'd drop him, to this day and it started me off as a skeptic.

I like horror movies with credible characters, character and plot development and a bit of humour- there's a reason the Poltergeist remake is crud and the original is still a classic.
I like a twist I didn't see coming- like The Sixth Sense and The Others.
I also like horror movies that leave you wondering if it was real, or if something else was going on- like The Innocents, The Babadook and Occulus.
I loved The Shining. I love genuine comedy horror and it's rare, most of them are just funny with no scary moments- Housebound and An American Werewolf In London are the only two I can think of with genuine scares.

I dislike pretty well all of the modern big horror movies. All engineered jump scares created with building the music volume and then the pet dog walks through the door, stuff like that. The second Conjuring was ok, not great, but ok. The Amityville, Carrie and Poltergeist remakes? Please! Though Carrie's mum was done pretty well. Chloe Grace Moretz is just too pretty and the decision to have Carrie cognizant instead of in a fugue state just wrecked it. So did the OTT Chris.

I really like a lot of the indi horror films of the last few years. My Dead Ex Girlfriend was gruesome. Life After Beth was funny but she really did look like a decaying corpse. Occulus and You're Next were well done. Hush was very good.

 

I use to love horror movies. The Babadook was pretty decent. The Grudge was super creepy...Japanese do horror well.

Grave Encounters, Orphan...liked both of those.

Michael Meyers is the best horror villain. Rob Zombies version was the best.
He did another really sick disgusting movie...I cant remember the name right now. same actress.

 

The best "found footage" horror film I've seen was August Underground and August Underground:Mordum. They greatly captured the desire of looking like a snuff film.

 

Nope can't watch them... close my ears at any tense part in a M15+ rated movie... can't possibly watch horror I'd have to close my ears the entire move

 

If this is in response to my post, yeah they're definitely not for everyone. Even for a good portion of horror/gore lovers.

 

Admittedly, I've been down some of the darker roads in horror. Primarily exploitation films like Guinea Pig. Funny story about that one, Charlie Sheen got the director arrested because he called the authorities frantic claiming it was real. Not so funny story, it was found in a video collection of a serial killer who claimed to be inspired by the films too. I really found some of the infamous films to be quite boring, like Cannibal Holocaust and Zombi.

Source for the stories: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea_Pig_(film_series)

Japanese horror, a whole different beast.

 

Quite, one of the more horrifying stories I've seen recently is an anime called Maxim Parasyte. Not all that original a story but it relies upon creating engaging and likable characters who it then kills in the most gruesome and macabre ways imaginable. Another along those lines is Full Metal Alchemist, which is an interesting alternate history tale with a panoply of interesting villains who delight in exploiting every specific fear we have

 

I've not watched Full Metal Alchemist. However, the Guinea Pig series was originally produced to be a live action version of the producer's manga. A lot of Japanese horror is quite good at doing that too, creating likeable characters then killing them horrifically. I also find it fascinating how bleak a lot their universes are in these stories.