Films you've seen recently and would unreservedly recommend:

[IdleRich]

"Branded To Kill (as mention above)...had it half-watched for months and only dragged myself back to it seeing it mentioned here...read so many great things about it but...found it unwatchable...no wonder they sacked him!"

Well certainly don't bother with Tokyo Drifter then, that's the same but more so and without the stylish black and white. Although in fairness it does look pretty good, for the first five minutes (before the singing I guess) I thought it was gonna be ace. Not so.

"anyone watch History of Horror with Mark Gatiss (BBC4)? far from complete, but decent TV i thought. i'm hoping Texas Chainsaw Massacre will be a good as the clip featured. obviously i have a great deal of catching up to do. so what are the greatest horror films? is there anything better than Coffin Joe or Carnival of Souls?"

I wish I'd seen that, oh well. TCM is really good I reckon, dunno what it is that makes it stand out from other similar films but it's got that certain indefinable something for me. A real creepiness and a deranged quality that is hard to capture except possibly by luck.
As for "better" horror, I guess it depends on what you mean. I think that the film that scared me most - at least since I reached what is laughably called adulthood - was Blair Witch but there are other films that are probably better and fall into the horror category eg Onibaba. I've never seen that adaptation of A Turn of the Screw but it's supposed to be very good - the name escapes me though.

 

[bandshell]

TCM is really good I reckon, dunno what it is that makes it stand out from other similar films but it's got that certain indefinable something for me. A real creepiness and a deranged quality that is hard to capture except possibly by luck.

I think it's the rawness of it. It almost feels like some sort of dated documentary. The lack of music gives it an odd feel too.

 

[IdleRich]

Yeah, that's definitely a big part of it. But how to achieve that rawness without it seeming contrived is the trick I guess.

 

[nochexxx]

I wish I'd seen that, oh well.

still available via iplayer

TCM is really good I reckon, dunno what it is that makes it stand out from other similar films but it's got that certain indefinable something for me.

judging by the clip i watched, i've got a pretty good idea why i think it will be so damn good. i'll refrain from mentioning why until i've seen it. put my hubristic self to the test!

 

[nochexxx]

Suspiria

not one of my favs, but pretty cool nonetheless.

 

[empty mirror]

TCM and Suspiria are stone cold classics
i can think of few horror movies that stand up to repeated viewings
and that resonate so long

TCM doesn't seem like a film, that is to say, it doesn't seem like it was intended to be watched by an audience - it is like --- access to some horrifying event that in not mediated by say, filmstock, or like, actors - and yet it is totally familiar. a collective memory or something.

Suspiria feels familiar too. it might be the filmstock, actually. technicolor evoking childhood memories of those disney movies that worked their way into your dreams, only now they are refracting off the inside of your skull, splattering blood on the inside of your eyelids (i'm no anatomist but i think this is a likely scenario), and yeah, a very cinematic experience compared to TCM, great soundtrack that you can't ignore, wonderfully stagey acting, just a beautiful picture.

 

[empty mirror]

oh, and i finally saw HAUSU
twice
in two nights

 

[IdleRich]

"not one of my favs, but pretty cool nonetheless."

Pretty much my thoughts too - I mean the music is good and there are some great set-pieces and stuff but that was all. Maybe it had been built up too much, maybe I need to watch it again, I don't know.

 

[craner]

I will defend Suspiria -- it's a hollow edifice, but what an edifice! The spellbinding cinematic architecture has nothing inside it -- there is no "meaning" or subtext. It's about the sheer kinaesthetics of the thing, or atmosphere -- shocks and thrills. I've always been ok with films like this as long as they have a certain purity or high style -- like, I don't know, Duel. (For real Argento meat you'd go further with Deep Red, Inferno, Tenebrae, even Phenomena.)

The thing with Suspiria is that it's usually the first Euro-horror film people watch (if it's not Zombie Flesh Eaters or Cannibal Holocaust) and tends to have extra impact because of this -- and the impact resonates. I was already in love with Hammer, The Wickerman and Spaghetti Westerns by the time I saw Suspiria, so I was ripe for it. I still get excited like a little kid when I watch it but I think the film's claim to being even the best Italian horror movie of all time is slight, and would only rest on sound and vision. Black Sabbath, Kill, Baby...Kill!, The Whip and The Body, Don't Torture a Duckling, The House With laughing Windows and Deep Red are all better films.

 

[slowtrain]

Oh, I remember the first time I watched Suspiria... It is very good, I remember it made me feel a bit sick from all the shifting lights and sounds and everything just always in some sort of motion... My girlfriend at the time couldn't watch it till the end, which is a good sign (I suppose) for horror films...

I wouldn't really rate the latest one in the trilogy though, its a bit dated. The Marilyn Manson video his daugther directed is great too though

 

[slim jenkins]

Scorsese's favourites. His no1 happens to be one of my favourites, although I scare too easily to really explore the genre. TCM? Not for me. The Shining, though, yes. Hate slasher films...all that ketchup'n'guts...much prefer the ones that had to rely on atmosphere and the unseen, the pre anything goes era.

 

[nochexxx]

His no1 happens to be one of my favourites

very much looking forward to seeing The Haunting, looks brilliant.

 

[BSquires]

anyone watch History of Horror with Mark Gatiss (BBC4)? far from complete, but decent TV i thought. i'm hoping Texas Chainsaw Massacre will be a good as the clip featured. obviously i have a great deal of catching up to do. so what are the greatest horror films? is there anything better than Coffin Joe or Carnival of Souls?

I thought it was decent but far too anglophone in its coverage. No mention of German pre-sound work, only one mention of Mario Bava, nothing on Argento although he used the music from Suspira, etc. Far too much time on 'The Omen' as well and no mention of Wes Craven, surely a key touchstone of 70's horror and beyond even if you don't like his movies... Genuinely not sure about his thesis that the 70's American stuff was the last great horror cycle... what about the recent Japanese stuff or the current French resurgence?

As for the greatest - here's some of mine:

Vampyr
Cat People (original)
Night of the Demon
Carnival of Souls
The Exorcist
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Salo
Cannibal Holocaust
Halloween
Deep Red
Alien
Tenebrae
The Thing
Videodrome
Henry: Portait of a Serial Killer
Audtion
Calvaire
Martyrs

Mind you there's loads I've never seen, such as The Haunting, Night of the Eagle, some Hammer, some AIP, most Fulci, most Franco, most Larry Cohen, no 'Torture Porn', etc

Suspira is great - but does fall apart at the end so what... I seem to remember the tagline admitting as much... something like 'The only thing more terrifying than the last twenty minutes of this movie is the first twelve!'.... Inferno also great, Mother of Tears less so...

 

[craner]

That's a nice list.

I enjoyed the Gatiss documentary too, although I don't really like horror movies all that much and I would've been happier watching all three episodes devoted entirely to the Brits and Italians.

Gatiss did make me want to go and watch TCSM and also confirmed my total loathing of David Cronernberg -- a similar and perculiar distaste I have for Talking Heads (they go together in my head for some reason).

I was delighted to see Barbara Steele so well preserved.

 

[BSquires]

I've never seen that adaptation of A Turn of the Screw but it's supposed to be very good - the name escapes me though.

The Innocents - never seen it either...

 

[IdleRich]

That's the one, cheers.
Really underwhelmed by The Shining - after a fantastic start it turns into a kind of comedy chase thing with no tension and not much else. Again, not seen it for years though.
Not sure about this New French stuff either; shocking but how much more is there to it than that? Martyrs had a good start but I felt that the ridiculousness of the explanation at the end sort of undermined everything that had gone before.
What's Calvaire?

 

[slim jenkins]

Ah, Rich...how dare you? It may be a 'populist' choice but to my mind that doesn't lessen it's power and impact of such enduring imagery as the boy on his tricyle, the blood flooding the corridor, Jacko typing, his encounter with the past in the ballroom and the young/old lady, 'Redrum' and the overall brilliance of Kubrick's direction. So there.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Ah, Rich...how dare you? It may be a 'populist' choice but to my mind that doesn't lessen it's power and impact of such enduring imagery as the boy on his tricyle, the blood flooding the corridor, Jacko typing, his encounter with the past in the ballroom and the young/old lady, 'Redrum' and the overall brilliance of Kubrick's direction. So there.

I saw a programme about this film a few years ago, and someone on it said that for them, the scariest part is where the woman is walking past an open door to one of the rooms and inside she sees this old guy giving head to someone in a bear costume, and that it's scary purely because it makes no sense at all, it's just there to compound the sense of insanity and horror. Which I think it does, rather well. Along with the creepy little girls, the blood (as you mention), the various other appiritions, and the soundtrack - including the inchoate murmur that never quite resolves itself into human voices but is always there, bubbling away just under the surface, a nameless Presence.

I think it's an amazing film, as so well cast. Has Nicholson ever looked more demented? Great turns from the disturbed little boy (when was the last time you saw a kid actor that good, or even a kid actor you didn't want to punch?) and the protective, terrified mother.

 

[BSquires]

That's the one, cheers.
Really underwhelmed by The Shining - after a fantastic start it turns into a kind of comedy chase thing with no tension and not much else. Again, not seen it for years though.
Not sure about this New French stuff either; shocking but how much more is there to it than that? Martyrs had a good start but I felt that the ridiculousness of the explanation at the end sort of undermined everything that had gone before.
What's Calvaire?

Not that it matters much but I'm with you on The Shining - but I also haven't seen it for many years...

Calvaire is bizarre Deliverance-style Belgium piece starting Laurent Lucas as the crooner victom... It's got a touch of the The League of Gentleman about and is very well made... Also features Philippe Nahon of the early Noe films... that probably doesn't help... well worth a watch I reckon...

As for Martyrs - I loved the matter of fact nature of some of it combined with the unexpected nature of the plot... the ending may not work for everybody I can see that though... Ils is another good one I reckon....

 

[bandshell]

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) is a good film. I remember being terrified by it when I watched it as a kid.