Serious Horror Films

[HugoDeVries]

The whole Val Lewton boxset is pretty worthy of a mention and not just the Cat People trilogy a total value for money bargin.

Any David Lynch film usually gets me going (remember the first part of Lost Highway as being pretty creepy going for me, Lynch is a real master of the linger on a long still dark corridoor creep out, possible a trick taken from Lewton as he pulls it off just as well in the Seventh Victim!)

Nice to see the BBC M R James adaptions mentioned as they are well worth seeking out, id like to add the Michael J Bird programmes, more supernatural thrillers, yet The Malestrom series really burned itself into my young mind (those dolls!)

As for more movies, heres a few i havent seen mentioned,

Magic - very underrated and if the movies doesnt scare you the trailer will!
Paper House - very fantasy/dreamlike but found this very unnerving
Them - ok its the couple in peril in their large deserted house but of its like its rather well done, especially like the last shot.

[colinr0380]

Love Paperhouse and Exorcist III (though that may be because I never really liked the first Exorcist so in a way I feel that the third film 'saves' the series from complete awfulness!)

Blood On Satan's Claw makes a fun double bill with Witchfinder General!

And I'd like to put in a mention for Pete Walker's Frightmare and House Of Whipcord. Surprisingly powerful and bleak 'state of 70s Britain' films.

[Michael]

Exorcist III (though that may be because I never really liked the first Exorcist so in a way I feel that the third film 'saves' the series from complete awfulness!)

Wow that's the first. Is the first Exorcist really that awful?

[colinr0380]

Exorcist III (though that may be because I never really liked the first Exorcist so in a way I feel that the third film 'saves' the series from complete awfulness!)

Wow that's the first. Is the first Exorcist really that awful?

Not exactly, it probably has more to do with my perception of it. It's a well made film but I've never really liked the literalism of the possession - the exact opposite of an Innocents-style of approach to what could be disturbing material. I can see how it would play to people who may believe in all that stuff but once we get to the head spinning and pea souping I've tuned out! And even the earlier 'is she possessed or just acting out?' stuff gets completely diluted by the move to a concrete answer.

Perhaps the most frightening thing about the whole film is the way Linda Blair was treated afterwards by people unable to separate the film from reality.

I don't want to be entirely negative so I will say that I thought the performances were very good (too good for the material in my opinion) - I suppose a better word would be 'committed'! - and that I've always liked Tubular Bells!

[Michael]

Very valid points, colin. Thanks. I've always loved the parts with Father Damien in conflict with himself, his faith, his guilt, his mom, etc. Very heavy stuff. Because of that, the part when Father Damien discovers his mom on Regan's bed in the sudden dead silence after a very operatic exorcism, that creeps the fuck out of me every time. Dimmie, why do you do this to me?

[rs98762001]

The original Exorcist still holds up as one of the best and most intense horror films ever made. Its very literalness is what makes it so effective.

[Cold Bishop]

While not exactly a "horror" film, after finally seeing Mother Joan of the Angels, a film that either Blatty or Friedkin must have surely seen, I have to recommend it to both detractors and fans as an alternative to the first "Exorcist".

[jesus the mexican boi]

I'd never heard of Mother Joan until this very moment. Can you recommend the (eek!) Facets DVD? Or should I spring for the Second Run?

(Edit: Nevermind. Just found your post on the Facets page of this forum. Absolutely GORGEOUS screencaps. Ordering now.]

[Mr Sausage]

The original Exorcist still holds up as one of the best and most intense horror films ever made. Its very literalness is what makes it so effective.

Yes, I never found its literalness a problem, especially because the movie is powerful enough to overcome skepticism. You start out like Regan's mother, looking for a scientific or plausible explanation, and end up accepting the possession as entirely as she does. I cannot fault a movie for believing that evil really does exist.

Colin, tho', is right on about Exorcist III, an astonishing movie. I can't believe how derided and overlooked it is. Inventive chills (the floating sheet of paper), very skilled dialogue and acting, spot on music. Horror films rarely get better.

[Cold Bishop]

I'd never heard of Mother Joan until this very moment. Can you recommend the (eek!) Facets DVD? Or should I spring for the Second Run?

I of course always recommend The Devils, seeing it ends right where Mother Joan begins. Stylistically and thematically the opposite of the Kawalerowicz film, but a great double bill nonetheless. If anything, it'll help you figure out the backstory behind the convent and Father Grandier in Joan. Certainly makes better viewing than Final Destination or a Guinea Pig film.

Bootlegs are probably still floating around, although I recommend just finding it online. At least until Warner grows a pair.

[rs98762001]

I'd never heard of Mother Joan until this very moment. Can you recommend the (eek!) Facets DVD? Or should I spring for the Second Run?

(Edit: Nevermind. Just found your post on the Facets page of this forum. Absolutely GORGEOUS screencaps. Ordering now.]

I'm not sure what screencaps you're referring to, but the SR Mother Joan is unquestionably preferable to the Facets version. Slightly better quality, much better subtitles. And, yes, Mother Joan makes an incredible companion piece to The Exorcist, and is highly recommended.

[Cold Bishop]

See here.

[rs98762001]

Thanks. I stand corrected. I hadn't given the Facets version more than a cursory look, but their caps look to be vastly superior to SR's. Just shows how I'm automatically conditioned to believe that anything from Facets must look terrible!

[moviscop]

I was never raised on horror films so I find myself fairly new to the genre, just beginning to discover.
However, a modern horror film that I really enjoyed was "Session 9".
Some feel they can fault it for being too close to Kubricks "The Shining", but I find it original in its own way, a definite watch.

[colinr0380]

The original Exorcist still holds up as one of the best and most intense horror films ever made. Its very literalness is what makes it so effective.

Yes, I never found its literalness a problem, especially because the movie is powerful enough to overcome skepticism. You start out like Regan's mother, looking for a scientific or plausible explanation, and end up accepting the possession as entirely as she does. I cannot fault a movie for believing that evil really does exist.

That is an interesting argument, though I'm still not entirely convinced - I personally never really go through that journey with the mother as I feel she disappears from the film (in a narratively understandable manner though) when the professional exorcists take over, and as Michael says the film then picks up the strand to do with Father Karras's mother.

I personally lean much more towards considering The Devils to be the ultimate 'possession' film - the way entire communities can whip themselves up into a hysterical frenzy that can be manipulated by various elements and from where scapegoating becomes necessary as the only way to save face! That's a horror film I can believe in!

The Devils often strikes me as being a film which is made infinitely more powerful by the context in which the film is placed in but which is left to the viewer's imagination to consider. Beginning with Loudon celebrating its survival from the disease and war that has destroyed the rest of the country and ending with one of the most devastating sustained shots over the end credits, the film always makes me consider the self contained cycle of action it shows is a horrific, minature version of the even more shocking events that surround it.

[Finch]

Watched Legion for the first time last night. It reminds me of Alien 3 in that the film has great individual scenes but ultimately ends up with unfulfilled potential, mainly due to studio interference. It's a shame that we may never get to see Blatty's original ending (Morgan Creek said they *lost* the footage) because the exorcism clearly feels shoehorned in, as if from another film. Studio interference apart, I found the score immensely distracting to the point of annoyance since the film contains moments of wonderful subtlety. It's a shame because Blatty wisely chose to do without splatter and gore, and to let his writing, Dourif's performance and our imagination do the rest - for two-thirds, it's in its own way as chilling as Friedkin's original. Two scenes that stood out for different reasons: Kinderman's dream of heaven which is presented in a way that feels both cheesy and somehow truthful, and the killing of the nurse which, I agree, is one of the best jump scares ever. Anyone know what Blatty's lost footage included?

[maxbelmont]

I think Clive Barker's Rawhead Rex and Nightbreed are two of his more underappreciated films. A couple of Argento's films of note are Trauma and The Stendahl Syndrome.

[Mr Sausage]

A couple of Argento's films of note are Trauma and The Stendahl Syndrome.

Really? I thought Trauma was a very poor film. It seems to have all the Argento elements (mostly cobbled from his previous films wholesale), yet everything is limp and lifeless. It makes a very weird contrast to his last feature film, Opera, which is as baroque and astonishing as any of his movies. Tho' I must admit to finding the motivation for the killer kind of cool.

[King Prendergast]

High Tension (Aja, 2005) does some "serious" gender-bending.

[knives]

I really wouldn't call Haute gender bending, at least if we look at Aja's original intention. Also one of my favorite horrors, even though I wouldn't call it a straight horror, is The Flesh and the Fiends. Has Cushing as a Frankenstein type and Pleasance as a murderous land lord. Just great all around. Also, from the top of the page, I don't think the original Exorcist holds up that well. It's great as a drama with about three good boo scares but really no longer should carry the title Scariest film ever. Hell the head turn around thing was some what funny.

[King Prendergast]

I really wouldn't call Haute gender bending, at least if we look at Aja's original intention.

Really? Even though it features a male-coded lesbian that is seen, through unreliable narration, as a middle-age fat man for much of the the film?

[knives]

That's actually it. Aja meant for French's character to be a ig fat liar and that's the best excuse she could come up with. Lesbian stands though.

[King Prendergast]

What distinguishes a serious horror film from a frivolous one?

[domino harvey]

Blue filters

[aox]

My only problem with the original Exorcist is the 10 minutes they put back into the film a few years ago. There is a reason why those scenes were taken out. It turns the movie into a cartoon and even those 10 minutes completely ruin the film for me. When she goes down the stairs on her hands and feet backwards, I break out in laughter. I remember the original cut being more subtle and much more terrifying and therefore, effective.