Re: horror film recs?
 

thanks for everything so far

i found a good website for Asian extreme cinema reviews:
http://www.mandiapple.com/snowblood/index.html

lot of good stuff to check, esp. for Ring fans ... this is more along the lines of what i'm excited about, marginal & surreal ... also, Italian giallo / horror films

Re: horror film recs?
 

I'm jazzed that you liked Suspiria, kid cue. Have you checked out much Lucio Fulci? (City of the Living Dead, The Beyond, Zombie). He's a bit gorier than Argento and also more surreal and dreamlike. Sergio Martino's Torso is also a pretty decent giallo with one incredible scene that's worth watching the whole movie for.

Mario Bava should also be on your list. Bay of Blood AKA Twitch of the Death Nerve is basically the first giallo... he's also got some solid gothic euro-horror titles as well like Kill, Baby kill! and Baron of Blood.

Another good euro-horror if you're going for dreamlike qualities is Amando de Ossorio's Tombs of the Blind Dead. There's some striking visuals there if you don't mind the more cheesy aspects that come along with it.

Demons is great. Demons 2 is also good but basically the same exact film. Also worth checking out is Lamberto Bava's first film Macabre.

On the North American side, I heartily recomend the original Black Christmas. You can't go wrong with Poltergeist or some others that people here have mentioned... I'd also add Cabin Fever and all the 70s films that it's a throwback to (Last House on the Left, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the Donald Sutherland version although the original is also good), I Spit on your grave (ok cabin fever doesn't throw back to that, but it should)). Also remember David Cronenberg! Videodrome, The Fly, Shivers... you really can't go wrong with his any of his earlier work.

Re: horror film recs?
 

Return of the Living Dead
The Entity (I read somewhere there's a remake tentatively planned by a Japanese director)
Warning Sign
C.H.U.D.
Manitou

Re: horror film recs?
 

have tons of Fulci on my to-see list, but haven't gotten around to it yet. i wanted to view more Argento first. also, have you seen Cannibal Holocaust? i don't know how "horror" that is, but it's one of the most disquieting films i've seen.

thanks for the other recs -- totally forgot about Cronenberg, he's a given (Videodrome and Scanners and even eXistenZ are all personal favs). still have to see The Fly and Shivers, etc. Dead Ringers is in the mail :D

Re: horror film recs?
 

Cronenberg's early stuff is all very interesting. Shivers, The Brood, Rabid... very Canadian horror at its best.

I have seen Cannibal Holocaust. The impalement and the rape scenes are particularly horrific but mostly i found the movie like... yeah, not so much scary as just uncomfortable. The animal scenes probably have a lot to do with that. Still though... I'm still not quite sure how they pulled off the impalement... looks pretty damn real. A friend of mine once showed the movie and made up these little statuettes for anyone that stayed through the whole thing. I wish i had one.

That same guy made a knock-off of Last House on the Left called The House on the Edge of the Park which is fantastic. It even stars the same guy but it has that raw italian edge and much less emphasis on the plot making actual sense. pretty uncomfortable viewing.

i still haven't seen Deep Red (which I hear rivals Suspiria) but other Argento flicks I can vouch for are The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Tenebrae, and Inferno. The beginning of Opera was great but I felt it got pretty weak by the end.

I'd say it was a good idea to see more Argento before diving into Fulci though. To me he was an even more acquired taste. I'm still not a giant fan but some of his imagery is amazing.

It's not so much horror but an amazing movie that blends giallo structure with gritty crime is Strange Shadows in an Empty Room (AKA Blazing Magnums). if you can track it down it's well worth seeing. Again, not really scary but it's great to see the giallo formula played with a little bit.

Re: horror film recs?
 

Oh man Dead Ringers is great, The Fly is great too. Videodrome I really don't like though, it crosses the limit of absurdity for me. Or maybe it was cause I watched it somwhat recently. The funny thing about Cannibal Holocaust as a kid I thought the whole thing was real (my parents told me it was..bastards)

Re: horror film recs?
 

the thing that scared me about Cannibal Holocaust was that a lot of it really does seem real, even after reading all the 'myths debunked' stuff on the net, and knowing the year it was made. and the animal stuff, the way it played into the film, it wasn't even presented in a shocking or sensationalistic way, it was just there to keep sucking you into the jungle. which i found really really dark, for some reason :(

i was thinking about suggesting it for the Dirty Movie Club but then i thought against it -_-

Re: horror film recs?
 

hahahahaha ohhhhh man. now THAT would be an interesting thread.

Re: horror film recs?
 

I was going to recommend this as one of the all time best horror movies ever made. Turn out the lights, put this dvd in, turn up the sound, and try not to have nightmares.

Re: horror film recs?
 

not quite horror, but a good thriller/horror-esque flick is Session 9. I'd recommend it highly if you wanna have a constant creeped-out feeling.

Skeleton Key - better than I thought it would be