The Horror List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

An ongoing project to survey the best films of individual decades, genres, and filmmakers.
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swo17
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Re: The Horror List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#1951 Post by swo17 » Thu Mar 05, 2020 7:45 pm

Just make sure you wear a seatbelt while sitting in the safety of your pentagram

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Re: The Horror List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#1952 Post by DarkImbecile » Thu Mar 05, 2020 7:49 pm

Don't worry, there are plenty of restraints

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Re: The Horror List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#1953 Post by Rayon Vert » Thu Mar 05, 2020 8:30 pm

DarkImbecile wrote:
Thu Mar 05, 2020 6:08 pm
The pinnacle of my beloved satanic cult genre, with Hereditary, House of the Devil, and The Omen likely also making my list
Just curious, did you see Race with the Devil that I wrote up earlier? As a trashy, action version of.

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Re: The Horror List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#1954 Post by Rayon Vert » Thu Mar 05, 2020 8:34 pm

Rosemary's Baby will make my list of course, but I've got two other Polanskis higher up*, neither of which is Repulsion (and, obviously from what I wrote up thread, The Tenant).

Count me in the art illiterate team along with Domino that doesn't see much in The Curse of the Cat People.

*EDIT: Actually I'm making a mistake here. Looking at my list again I've got one Polanski above RB, but another one very close behind it.

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Re: The Horror List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#1955 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Mar 05, 2020 8:37 pm

The Ninth Gate?!

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Re: The Horror List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#1956 Post by Rayon Vert » Thu Mar 05, 2020 8:43 pm

8-[

(that's the one close below)

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domino harvey
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Re: The Horror List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#1957 Post by domino harvey » Thu Mar 05, 2020 8:45 pm

The only thing I remember about the Ninth Gate is that rich satanist dude’s security code was “6-6-6,” at which point I realized “Oh okay, no one who made this movie even sort of tried”

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Re: The Horror List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#1958 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Mar 05, 2020 8:53 pm

I actually really like it a lot, even if it’s got some on-the-nose cheesy stuff the narrative is very engaging. In a way it’s the North By Northwest of horror turning into more of an adventure mystery. I won’t profess it to be a great film in all respects, but it’s a lot of fun and I didn’t even think to include it in my list, but on the considerations it goes - thanks RV

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Re: The Horror List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#1959 Post by Rayon Vert » Thu Mar 05, 2020 8:59 pm

I was delighted by it the first time I saw it and I've never tired of it. More of an occult neo-noir mystery thriller than an actual horror film, but it's got enough of the trappings to count. As Polanski says in the commentary for it, it’s an enjoyable film for book-lovers since that’s what the mystery is about and it's a big reason why I love it. It’s quite a lot of fun following the assembling of clues and the exotic locales and characters we travel to throughout the way, made that more enjoyable by Polanski’s characteristically masterful stagings and framings. Along said way, there are resonances to all kinds of things from Polanski’s oeuvre. Perhaps a minor film in its ambition, but for me always very pleasurable.

North By Northwest is an apt comparison in many ways, I never thought of that.

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Re: The Horror List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#1960 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Mar 05, 2020 9:08 pm

I had the benefit of seeing it reluctantly with very low expectations in college after reading a lot of negative reviews and shrugging it off for years, and so I was even more impressed by all the genre ideas and setpieces than I would’ve likely already been on its merits. One of those wonderful surprise watches that serve as a reminder not to judge a book by its cover.

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Re: The Horror List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#1961 Post by DarkImbecile » Thu Mar 05, 2020 9:42 pm

I saw the first two-thirds of The Ninth Gate in a 24-screen multiplex the weekend of its release. There was a brush fire nearby that spread into a generating station, and mid-movie all power to that entire quadrant of the city blacked out. Everyone streamed into the lobby — hundreds of people milling around in what was usually a bright, colorful space turned dim and shadowy — and then were herded outside to see plumes of black smoke against a blazing orange and purple twilight, along with sirens and helicopters and other apocalyptic signifiers.

I finally caught the whole thing years later, and it failed to improve on the first ending.

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Re: The Horror List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#1962 Post by Rayon Vert » Thu Mar 05, 2020 10:19 pm

Image

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Re: The Horror List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#1963 Post by DarkImbecile » Fri Mar 06, 2020 12:03 am

Just checking in to note that I am exactly one minute and fifty-five seconds into The Brotherhood of Satan and am entirely sold.

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Re: The Horror List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#1964 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Mar 06, 2020 12:17 am

I just found my copy and queued it up, so I'm approx fifteen minutes and fifty five seconds behind you

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Re: The Horror List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#1965 Post by DarkImbecile » Fri Mar 06, 2020 2:22 am

Well, that was a hell of a lot of fun; I guess my list will just be all satan worship with a ghost or two mixed in for variety’s sake.

Domino, did you know that Brotherhood was filmed in Central New Mexico (where I grew up and live now), or was that just a happy coincidence?

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Re: The Horror List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#1966 Post by domino harvey » Fri Mar 06, 2020 3:20 am

There are no coincidences when it comes to Our Dark Lord

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Re: The Horror List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#1967 Post by barryconvex » Fri Mar 06, 2020 5:04 am

therewillbeblus wrote:
Thu Mar 05, 2020 5:11 pm
Hausu: This one doesn't really get old for me upon rewatches, and it's maybe the wildest horror comedy because of just how creatively insane it all is, from a style that threatens death on epileptics to hilariously exaggerated expressions of female sexual development to people turning into fruit, this is just bananas (yes, and a guy actually transforms into a bunch of bananas). I love the stories behind this (to think it was a response to Jaws is funnier than anything in the movie), even if in the end it only works as an embrace on camp. Definitely not a list contender, but highly recommended anyways for its audacity in outperforming the idea of the horror comedy with no restraint in confident stimuli flooding. This is my girlfriend’s favorite movie, which is ridiculous, but so is the movie and if you can appreciate the weird this is worth seeing.
There are days when House is my favorite movie too. Top ten on my list, as is RB.

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Re: The Horror List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#1968 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Mar 06, 2020 9:17 am

Thanks domino, I really liked The Brotherhood of Satan too which was pretty relentless in keeping me on a shaky beam. The eerie obscurities at the start were disorienting to the point where only about twenty minutes in did I feel we were on a more standard track, which was then itself an illusion. The film works so well by doubling down on its intriguing premise with real stakes rather than self-parody; it takes a common trope of the opposition to a helpless family trying to seek human support in the wake of mystical troubles and amplifies it, raising the anxiety around achieving salvation, and at the same time we are presented with a fervent worship group who take their devotion to intensities that actually match their threat level.

For a film that seems to roughly follow the mold of many footsteps before and after it, there’s a considerable amount of acute eccentric horror, thanks in part to a wild narrative balanced with meticulously grounded attention to detail, which is taken seriously enough to stabilize against a topple into an absurdist joke, remaining instead as an absurdist provocateur. This film also gets the threat of satanic cults so right because, at least for me, the idea is not primarily scary because of the reality that other people are unknowable as demonstrated by their anti-humanist practices, but rather because their behavior fits with ours only tweaked to places we don’t dare to dream venturing. To feel human camaraderie with this group, including those taken in the coven, in appearance and subtle identification in their calmness and confidence, is uncomfortable enough knowing what they are and what they’re doing (this happens during the banal parts of the ritual, rather than in disguise in public re:Rosemary’s Baby so the similarities with other religious practices give one ironic security..); but then to be upended with drastic disturbing behavior is something else entirely once we have that familiar baseline - within the same setting! -to become exceptionally jarring. I love how the ending signifies that
SpoilerShow
either the rituals we see were over by the time the adults arrived; were all in the adults’ minds, concocted from their own fears, revealing a sense of invalidated paranoia; or most likely (at least how I interpreted it), that these thoughts were summoned into their minds by the children playing their game with some kind of satanic voodoo. How scary of an implication: that our intrusive thoughts are actually being planted there from alien forces!
I’m curious to how others read the ending

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Re: The Horror List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#1969 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Mar 06, 2020 3:58 pm

Rayon Vert wrote:
Thu Mar 05, 2020 8:34 pm
Rosemary's Baby will make my list of course, but I've got two other Polanskis higher up*, neither of which is Repulsion (and, obviously from what I wrote up thread, The Tenant).
Unless I'm forgetting something, that would only leave (the original) The Fearless Vampire Killers qualifying by your metric (and mine too, even if his Macbeth does include some extreme moments of horror imagery)

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Re: The Horror List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#1970 Post by Rayon Vert » Fri Mar 06, 2020 8:16 pm

I don't want to spoil all my list so I'll have to leave you guessing there. However I will say I have no problem considering his take on Macbeth as a horror film!

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Re: The Horror List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#1971 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Mar 06, 2020 8:25 pm

Interesting! We finally align on an oddball pick

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Re: The Horror List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#1972 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Mar 06, 2020 9:12 pm

Re: The Brotherhood of Satan
therewillbeblus wrote:
Fri Mar 06, 2020 9:17 am
I love how the ending signifies that
SpoilerShow
either the rituals we see were over by the time the adults arrived; were all in the adults’ minds, concocted from their own fears, revealing a sense of invalidated paranoia; or most likely (at least how I interpreted it), that these thoughts were summoned into their minds by the children playing their game with some kind of satanic voodoo. How scary of an implication: that our intrusive thoughts are actually being planted there from alien forces!
I’m curious to how others read the ending
SpoilerShow
Or are the kids simply the vessels that the older cult members have sacrificed themselves into, making it a bit of a simpler “too late” scenario? But if so, why are they playing with figurines of the events we just saw?

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Re: The Horror List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#1973 Post by domino harvey » Fri Mar 06, 2020 9:31 pm

It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but I recall thinking it was your second spoiler box. Rule number one for seventies horror movies is let loose ends / inconsistencies go, so it didn’t bother me, but I’ll keep your read in mind when I rewatch to see if I remembered wrong / changed my mind

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Re: The Horror List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#1974 Post by DarkImbecile » Fri Mar 06, 2020 10:05 pm

It’s definitely spoiler box #2, though there’s just enough ambiguity to stretch toward other interpretations if you like them better.

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Re: The Horror List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#1975 Post by therewillbeblus » Sat Mar 07, 2020 12:05 am

domino harvey wrote:
Thu Mar 05, 2020 6:52 pm
Spellbinder, actually, might be up your alley— more of a witch cult than satanic, as I recall, but pretty much the same thing in practice and it has a great finale. It’s an excellent horror film directed by a woman that addresses head-on certain tendencies in men in a rather merciless fashion
This was thoroughly enjoyable, and a film that takes on a completely new meaning knowing it was directed by a woman.
SpoilerShow
What could have otherwise been a “can’t trust a woman” blunt reading instead becomes a “this is what you get for being a dumb, blind masculine persona.” Yeah it shames men who define themselves by normative gender roles, namely the strong ‘saviors,’ but it also takes on a feminist attitude in allowing the women to be the strong intelligent figures reversing the roles and revealing a truth about sexual politics rather than push for any deficit in empowerment.

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