HF's top-10 horror films of all time: #4

[Trap Jesus]

I've never understood the hype behind Halloween. It's just way too minimalist for my taste. I think the horror behind Michael just being the definition of evil or "pure evil" gets overblown as a horror concept.

 

[Tkachuk4MVP]

Partially agree, Halloween wouldn't make my top-50. In fact, I even prefer Halloween II. On the other hand, Rosemary's Baby is to me everything a horror film should be: it uses both the uncanny and abjection to be effective, but in very controlled and subtle doses, and it stays a long time within the ephemeral conditions of the fantastic. Few films do better at that (in fact, maybe only one: Don't Look Now).

I saw Rosemary's for the first time about six months ago and I don't think it's aged well. The main issue I had was with Rosemary herself, who was a complete non-entity. It was frustrating watching her wander through this story aimlessly and get used and manipulated by everyone around her, almost like a child. Maybe that's what Polanski was going for, but I found it difficult to comprehend and it made me less interested and invested in her character. And I know not every movie is sunshine and rainbows, but this one was so aggressively depressing, with a story that gradually gets worse and worse for its protagonist, and that only exacerbated the problems I had with it and made it even less enjoyable to sit through.

And Don't Look Now was a little overhyped for me as well, but I saw it in college and need to give it a rewatch.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

I've never understood the hype behind Halloween. It's just way too minimalist for my taste. I think the horror behind Michael just being the definition of evil or "pure evil" gets overblown as a horror concept.

I think the music did it. Everything else screams "I had no money / didn't know what I was doing". It looks ridiculous compared to its giallo ancestors, and as an early slasher, Black Christmas should have got the hype (and is just a better film too).

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

It was frustrating watching her wander through this story aimlessly and get used and manipulated by everyone around her, almost like a child.

You've got your finger on one of the important themes of the film, and the fact that it was frustrating only shows how effective it still is. I agree that it's not necessarily a pleasant experience, but it's a meaningful one - you might want to look into gender studies and the film's cultural significance to the late 60s. A lot of it has to do with Levin's novel (of which the film is an impressively close adaptation, especially the sleepy rape scene), which was a cultural marvel - and it's not often you see a film coming out so soon after the novel's publication.

Not sure what you meant by technically not perfect, I guess it might not be, it's still a horror film signed by a true cineast, most often a rarity.

 

[Tkachuk4MVP]

You've got your finger on one of the important themes of the film, and the fact that it was frustrating only shows how effective it still is. I agree that it's not necessarily a pleasant experience, but it's a meaningful one - you might want to look into gender studies and the film's cultural significance to the late 60s. A lot of it has to do with Levin's novel (of which the film is an impressively close adaptation, especially the sleepy rape scene), which was a cultural marvel - and it's not often you see a film coming out so soon after the novel's publication.

Not sure what you meant by technically not perfect, I guess it might not be, it's still a horror film signed by a true cineast, most often a rarity.

I actually edited my initial post, as I enjoyed the film overall on a technical level (I don't hate it, just think it's overrated). I know abortion was a hot topic in the late 1960s and continues to be, but again, it's the Rosemary character that's more problematic for me as opposed to the overarching themes.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

It's borderline for me as i think of it more as a psychological thriller, but its gotta be Silence of the Lambs

 

[WetcoastOrca]

I go by the ones that scare me the most and usually those aren’t the goriest with lots of slashing but the more suspenseful ones.
Rosemary’s Baby and Black Christmas scared the bejeesus out of me!
Silence of the Lambs was another one.
Actually Jaws probably scared me more than any other film but I don’t really consider it horror. The scene at the beginning with the young lady swimming was just so suspenseful. I was afraid to swim at night in our swimming pool months after watching that movie!

 

[the squared circle]

Rosemary and Halloween for me.
I REALLY wanted to pick Jaws. That was the first movie I saw at a drive in when I was four! Thanks mom and dad haha.

 

[the squared circle]

Also I meant to comment and forgot. I know I will be in the minority, but I’ve never agreed with the praise for The Thing. Do I like it? Yes. I actually watch it every five years or so, but it never hits me as it does others. I like the original waaaay better.

 

[Langdon Alger]

I've never understood the hype behind Halloween. It's just way too minimalist for my taste. I think the horror behind Michael just being the definition of evil or "pure evil" gets overblown as a horror concept.

There are too many close calls in the movie. Scenes where Michael Myers is standing there and you think something will happen, but then it doesn’t. Maybe they did that to build tension, but honestly I was expecting a scarier movie.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Also I meant to comment and forgot. I know I will be in the minority, but I’ve never agreed with the praise for The Thing. Do I like it? Yes. I actually watch it every five years or so, but it never hits me as it does others. I like the original waaaay better.

I think you're in a very small minority, yes! Especially for liking the original that much better. I think The Thing achieved something very special at creating a unique atmosphere (that's probably the most important talent Carpenter has - his films have very distinct atmosphere and tone, be it Escape from New York, Big Trouble In Little China, In the Mouth of Madness, They Live, even lesser films like Prince of Darkness or The Fog, most of everything he's done have some uniqueness). In The Thing, it really matches well with the characters isolation and paranoïd suspicion of one another, and then you have Rob Bottin's fabulous monster effects, that memorable suspensful blood test scene, and an ambiguous enough ending to get people extrapolate. I think it's easily Carpenter's best film, and a great horror film, but I wouldn't fight over it, especially if you're going to bring in the mix some of the older classics.

(for the record, The Thing is not one of my two choices at #4, and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be in my personal top-10)

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Still 24h to vote!

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

While we are at it, VD, are you familiar with Paul Almond's Isabel with Genevieve Bujold? Saw in the late '60s, but it has seemed to have disappeared. Might be my second favourite horror film and among my favourite Quebec films.

Got it. You want it? It's a capricious mp4 that only VLC will open on my computer, but quality is fine considering how rare it is. I think I can have a few other Almond films with Bujold too.

 

[Osprey]

Got it. You want it? It's a capricious mp4 that only VLC will open on my computer, but quality is fine considering how rare it is. I think I can have a few other Almond films with Bujold too.

Try opening it in Avidemux and re-saving it. That'll re-write the file (aka the "container") without re-encoding the video, which often solves playback issues. If it doesn't, try changing the output format to MKV, which I always save to because it's better and tends to have fewer playback issues.

In fact, speaking of MKV, you might be interested in another free app that I use frequently: MKVToolnix. That, too, is able to re-write video file containers, but just for MKV and with a lot more options. For example, with it, you can add subtitles to be embedded with the video in the file. That's one of the advantages that MKV has over MP4. I imagine that you probably have a lot of foreign films saved on your hard drives, presumably in MP4 format with separate subtitle files to go along with them. If so, you might care to do away with those subtitle files by re-saving the videos with them included. It makes things tidier and more portable.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

There's ONE HOUR LEFT

 

[Langdon Alger]

There's ONE HOUR LEFT

in the world?

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

in the world?

Ahahah, sure felt like it for a while now

 

[Fixxer]

This should be pretty good!