Chills, Thrills and Spills: A Horror Thread

Just finished watching Host on shudder, and it was better than I thought it would be. Some friends get together on a zoom (?) call to do a seance and it goes horribly wrong.

 

Oh hey, I watched Host a couple days ago, too! Like you, I wasn't blown away, but it pleasantly surprised me. I think it executed the videochat thing best out of the films I've seen that use that kind of framing. Without giving too much of the ending away, though... don't phones usually have flashlights nowadays?

Edit: typos

 

Today is the first day of Shudder's 61 days of Halloween!
https://news.avclub.com/shudder-to-stretch-out-spooky-season-with-its-61-days-o-1844801549

 

Watched The Color Out Of Space remake with Nic Cage, and it was ok. The acting wasn't very good, but I did like the special/practical effects and the music was very good.

 

Does anyone have any horror documentary recommendations? I watched In Search of Darkness and Cursed Films on Shudder, but I need more.

 

Horror Noire is required doc watching I feel like. It's on Shudder.

 

I'm going to try to keep track of what I watch for the 61 days of Halloween. I'll update the days as I go along.

Spoiler: Long

Day 1: Cold Skin
Day 2: The Color Out of Space
Day 3: In Search of Darkness
Day 4: Cursed Films
Day 5: Horror Noire
Day 6: Most Beautiful Island
Day 7: Stake Land
Day 8: A Bluebird In My Heart
Day 9: The House of the Devil
Day 10: Why Horror?
Day 11: The Changeling
Day 12: Downrange
Day 13: The Beach House
Day 14: Blood Quantum
Day 15: The Beyond
Day 16: Revenge
Day 17: The Room
Day 18: Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street
Day 19: Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy
Day 20: Tourist Trap
Day 21: Rabbit
Day 22: The Taking of Deborah Logan
Day 23: Haunt
Day 24: Voice From the Stone
Day 25: Starfish
Day 26: Nina Forever
Day 27: Next of Kin
Day 28: Sam Was Here
Day 29: Still/Born
Day 30: The Siren
Day 31: Daniel Isn't Real
Day 32: Scare Me
Day 33: The Masque of the Red Death
Day 34: The Nightshifter
Day 35: The Deeper You Dig
Day 36: From the Dark
Day 37: Z
Day 38: The Cleansing Hour
Day 39: From Beyond
Day 40: Warning: Do Not Play
Day 41: Metamorphosis
Day 42: Satan's Slaves
Day 43: Incident In A Ghostland
Day 44: The Awakening
Day 45: The Mortuary Collection
Day 46: WNUF Halloween Special
Day 47: The Witch in the Window
Day 48: Tales of Halloween
Day 49: One Cut of the Dead
Day 50: Theater of Blood
Day 51: The Boulet Brothers' Dragula: Resurrection
Day 52: 32 Malasana Street
Day 53: 0.0 Mhz
Day 54: A Tale of Two Sisters
Day 55: Noroi: The Curse
Day 56: Ring
Day 57: Ginger Snaps
Day 58: The Mimic
Day 59: A Creepshow Animated Special
Day 60: May the Devil Take You Too
Day 61: Terrified

 

Just finished watching Spiral on shudder. It's the shudder original and not the Saw movie. God this movie filled me with so much dread.

 

Yo, my fellow creepy crawlsters! I need some recs for scary movies for someone who hasn't seen any, specifically supernatural in genre.

We started in the saw series yesterday for the classic serial killer gore fest, and next Sunday we're moving into spoopy. Problem is those types of movies tend to fall flat for me and knowing my friend's tastes it'll be a hard job to scare him as well.

I kinda need one that hits all the tropes; jumpscares, otherworldly origins, unexplainable happenings, paranoia, the works! Age of film doesn't matter, just as long as it showcases the classics and still is Very Scary. Can I get some help? :0c

 

I don't have any recs myself sadly, but Ima summon @strictly quadrilateral because he's been watching a FUCKTON of horror movies and might have some great thoughts!

 

Supernatural if you want ghosts. I'd suggest maybe the Thai film Shutter. It's a clever done ghost film that works well enough even if you're not in the know about the specific cultural things. A lot of it is very tense paranoia and guilt.

If you are fine with the supernatural that ain't ghosts then The Witch is really good. Again very tense film and often just kind of. Uncomfortable.

The Insidious films aren't art by any stretch but they're fun watches. I mean their casts involve things like bumbling Ghost Adventures type assholes and a ghost hunting grandma who is one of the most competent horror film characters I've seen.

 

seconding shutter, though a trigger warning for rape. i also love Ghostwatch, which is a british film that polite takes the spooky knob and breaks it in two. hmmmm as above so below is also v tense and good and considered a classique

and judge me if you want, but the first conjuring movie scared the shit out of me.

 

Oh. Oh. If you want fairytale supernatural then The Babadook maybe? Its concept basically is that the monster in a children's book appears to be real.

 

Hereditary (2018) is scary as all hell, but also seriously dark and bloody.

Suspiria (1977, not the remake which I haven't same) is the same--not in terms of plot, but in terms of being an incredibly frightening, incredibly troubling, incredibly shot horror movie. it's giallo perfected

the Insidious movies (first 3 at least) are also unexpectedly good. they're made by james wan, who's the same guy who did Saw. don't know if a james wan film festival is what you're going for lol, but it could be interesting to see how he does different genres. i've also heard that Oculus (2014) is good, despite its goofy marketing.

The Shining (1980) is a classic for a reason. It is a great movie, and has some imo genuinely frightening moments.

Mulholland Drive (2001) might not fit the brief to a tee--it's probably more of a psychological thriller, but there is definitely a sense of fucked-up supernatural shit going on, because it's david lynch. but the diner scene is the tensest, most horrifying thing i've ever seen in my life. i creeped myself out just referring to it in type

Persona (1966) is similar in that it's psychological horror, but everything about it is so tense and sinister and deeply weird that it feels otherworldly and supernatural.



anyway i creeped myself out writing this post!!! gonna have to listen to a silly audio book before i can sleep!!

i seriously cannot do horror movies they ruin my life. watched most of these with a friend who does film and media studies, hoping the critical lens would somehow make them less spoopy and nope!!!!

 

The Ring? Maybe it's a bit too well-known, Most people have osmosed how it ends by now, even if they haven't seen it, but it's a classic, and both the original and the Hollywood remake are good.

I haven't seen it all the way through, but The Haunting (the one from 1963) is pretty well-regarded.

Seconding Ghostwatch, it's great, even if the acting is stilted, and it's worth reading about the reception it got on first airing.

 

Thanks so much! I'm seeing lots of variety and opinions, so it'll make it much easier to look into things with a lot of trusted points of view

 

oh i totally missed this!

i'm doing a RESEARCH PROJECT right now, which basically boils down to "i made a list of ~150 movies and i'm watching those". it's not 100% horror but it's mostly horror.

the birds (1963) is a classic for good reason and while it's slow to start it's definitely worth a watch if you haven't seen it already. similar for the wicker man (1973). seconding the rec for the shining. one of my absolute favorite movies so far was dark night of the scarecrow (1981) which i guess was where the animate scarecrow subgenre started? but ive seen some other scarecrow horror content and this is head and shoulders above it so don't judge it by its imitators. i also really enjoyed children of the corn (1984), house (1986, though the unrelated 1977 movie is also a delight), nightbreed (1990), and house on haunted hill (1999).

in addition to those, there's the hellraiser movies, which are fantastic supernatural horror and i recommend them wholeheartedly.

i have other recs but theyre worse fits for what you're asking about.

 

If you're still looking for recommendations and you have Shudder, The Witch in the Window is good.

 

Out of all the movies I watched this month, this one is my favorite.

Spoiler: One Cut of the Dead

I was not expecting this movie to be as funny as it was. It's a movie within a movie about a film crew having to film a short horror film in one shot. The first part is the horror film live broadcast, and the rest of it is showing what went on behind the scenes. So many things go wrong, from one of the actors being too drunk to act and having to be moved around physically by the film's director, to the director wife (who's now playing the makeup artist after the other actress got into a car accident with the actor playing the director, because they were having an affair?) going overboard in her role.

I really felt bad for the director, he's trying his best and almost everything with this film goes wrong despite his best efforts. Everything worked out in the end though, and even some of the improvised moments in the film made the first part scarier than following the script would have. When one of the actors ran off because of um... stomach problems and one of the crew tries to drag him back, the fear in his voice (not because he's being attacked by zombies, but because he might shit himself) made his screaming out of frame in the first part sound more realistic.

If you're looking for a good horror comedy I recommend this movie.

 

2020 was such a good year for horror movies. I rewatched Host, and then moved onto His House, The Block Island Sound, The Dark and the Wicked, and The Night.