Horror Films (General Discussion) - Movies & TV

CA Dreamin

Gender: Male
Location: LA

badseed wrote:

One thing I think we haven't taken into account is the surrealism of the movie. Surreal films can be borderline because they're basically just confusing art movies...Basically you take these kind of movies, imagine if they were a dream. If it's more like a nightmare than a dream, it's horror. If it were hard sci-fi I might argue differently but with that lack of certainty and familiarity, you basically have either sci-fi adventure or sci-fi horror. It's not an adventure film, thus it fits the genre to me.

I agree Under the Skin isn't hard sci-fi, but that doesn't automatically make it part-horror. I get what you're saying how surrealism suggests horror. But there were only a handful of surrealist scenes in the film, not enough to be horror. Those scenes weren't really "horror" anyway.

badseed

Gender: Male
Age: 35
Location: FL

StreetSpirit wrote:

I agree Under the Skin isn't hard sci-fi, but that doesn't automatically make it part-horror. I get what you're saying how surrealism suggests horror. But there were only a handful of surrealist scenes in the film, not enough to be horror. Those scenes weren't really "horror" anyway.

Just because there were only a couple really weird scenes doesn't mean that's all that was surreal. Surrealism isn't all about smoke and shadows and strangely uncomfortable object placement. If the entire concept of this film isn't surrealism I guess I interpreted it differently but almost nothing in that movie seems natural to me. It all felt like one long nightmare. Shit maybe I was on heavy hallucinogens watching it. Timeline seems right. I watched it like 3 times the first week I saw it. Whatever though, I'm not trying hard to convince anyone how I feel, I'm just reasoning my own logic against yours to convince myself whose side I'm on more than anything else.
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badseed

Gender: Male
Age: 35
Location: FL

Alright guys, I'm gonna start the poll up on Monday. Why Monday? Because that's 100 days until Halloween eve. Nobody else seems interested in starting up a poll before then anyway, so why not start it as soon as possible to maximize interest? I want most of you to take your time and not feel rushed, but I'm gonna have my list ready and made public immediately after I start the poll so you guys can check it out for recommendations if you like. May even make it a top 200 or 250 since I have so many films at an 8 out of 10. I've been tinkering with my ratings on and off. Might be whittled down to just four 10 out 10s. Anyhow yeah just thought I'd mention that. Hope all is well. Go out to the movies if you can. Lots of big movies out now or coming in the fall. But try to check out the classics too. If you're a paying streamer scope out all the best stuff on what you've got, and if you can afford an extra 4.99 a month, Shudder has a wide variety of horror from all around the world. I believe they offer a free 7 day trial as well. Again, I can't stress how good their library is for such a low price; many of their titles are licensed by top notch releasing companies that sell many of those movies for $25-35 a pop (a lot of which I own which is why I don't currently have shudder but there's still a lot of good stuff even I need to see on there).
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PurpleHazel

badseed wrote:

Alright guys, I'm gonna start the poll up on Monday. Nobody else seems interested in starting up a poll before then anyway, so why not start it as soon as possible to maximize interest?

Sure, the more time to watch the merrier!

I was interested in hosting a poll. But I didn't come up with any ideas that would both generate enough interest and compel me. I considered doing a gangster movie one, but that's probably a bit too specific. After catching a few war movies on TCM during their D-Day Anniversary festival I considered a war one, but that's a genre that never seemed to arouse much interest here (and I felt the same way till I looked into it and saw the variety of films that could be eligible).

Will post more tomorrow.

badseed

Gender: Male
Age: 35
Location: FL

PurpleHazel wrote:

Sure, the more time to watch the merrier!

I was interested in hosting a poll. But I didn't come up with any ideas that would both generate enough interest and compel me. I considered doing a gangster movie one, but that's probably a bit too specific. After catching a few war movies on TCM during their D-Day Anniversary festival I considered a war one, but that's a genre that never seemed to arouse much interest here (and I felt the same way till I looked into it and saw the variety of films that could be eligible).

Will post more tomorrow.

I'm totally down for doing both of those polls. Both can be a bit confusing though. Lots of movies that aren't really considered gangster movies have more gangster activity than a lot of actual gangster movies. Pineapple Express for example. Then for war, are we doing just like modern wars or are old fashioned pre-artillery wars also included? What about movies that, while completely related to war, don't feature scenes of war (like a war trial film)? What about documentaries on war? What about fictional wars including but not limited to superhero wars?
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PurpleHazel

badseed wrote:

Both can be a bit confusing though. Lots of movies that aren't really considered gangster movies have more gangster activity than a lot of actual gangster movies. Pineapple Express for example. Then for war, are we doing just like modern wars or are old fashioned pre-artillery wars also included? What about movies that, while completely related to war, don't feature scenes of war (like a war trial film)? What about documentaries on war? What about fictional wars including but not limited to superhero wars?

Doesn't this just prove that all genres are confusing? Smile

Neo-noir was super-confusing. Horror is proving to be way more ambiguous than I expected before I started thinking about a list.

Sounds like you're into me doing one of the polls. Which one do you prefer? Of course, I'm throwing this question out to anyone who's interested in either a gangster or war poll.

Then we can discuss Pineapple Express. Laughing

badseed

Gender: Male
Age: 35
Location: FL

PurpleHazel wrote:

Doesn't this just prove that all genres are confusing? Smile

Neo-noir was super-confusing. Horror is proving to be way more ambiguous than I expected before I started thinking about a list.

Sounds like you're into me doing one of the polls. Which one do you prefer? Of course, I'm throwing this question out to anyone who's interested in either a gangster or war poll.

Then we can discuss Pineapple Express. Laughing

I feel like they're both relatively equal in my eyes when it comes to how bad I'd like to do them. Both seem like lists that I wouldn't initially think I can make a strong top 100 with, but the more I think about it the more I think it is possible. I will say that a Coppola film would no doubt be my #1 on both lists.
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PurpleHazel

Fooling around with making lists, I found that 50 worked better with both genres. But I wouldn't discourage more. All right, if you're down with holding off on the horror poll, I guess I'll post a gangster movie poll early next week, unless someone voices a strong preference for war.

badseed wrote:

I will say that a Coppola film would no doubt be my #1 on both lists.

Yeah, a Coppola film is pretty much a lock for the #1 spot of either poll, with Goodfellas perhaps being the dark horse.

badseed

Gender: Male
Age: 35
Location: FL

PurpleHazel wrote:

Fooling around with making lists, I found that 50 worked better with both genres. But I wouldn't discourage more. All right, if you're down with holding off on the horror poll, I guess I'll post a gangster movie poll early next week, unless someone voices a strong preference for war.

Yeah, a Coppola film is pretty much a lock for the #1 spot of either poll, with Goodfellas perhaps being the dark horse.

Well no, I wasn't planning to hold the horror one off. I don't know where or how it came across that I might do that. I was hoping someone would start one two months ago. We've reached the point where if I wait until yours is done there won't be much time if I want to post it on Halloween. I'm not opposed to running them simultaneously but that would interfere with those who like to watch a lot of stuff for their lists. That is if people like that are still around.

I watched Goodfellas the other day and it really just doesnt hold up that well for me. I don't get the hype. If a 90s movie is gonna spoil let it be Pulp Fiction, Boyz n tha Hood or Miller's Crossing (I understand only the first has even a chance).
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PurpleHazel

badseed wrote:

Well no, I wasn't planning to hold the horror one off. I don't know where or how it came across that I might do that.

Because you seemed to want me to do the poll, and I didn't think you'd want them to run 100% concurrently:

badseed wrote:

PurpleHazel wrote:

Sounds like you're into me doing one of the polls. Which one do you prefer?

I feel like they're both relatively equal in my eyes when it comes to how bad I'd like to do them.

I wasn't actually completely assuming you'd delay the poll, but thought it likely that if I did a poll you'd want to delay at least a few weeks. But no worries.

Quote:

I was hoping someone would start one two months ago.

I was planning to do the gangster one, but when the time came, I talked myself out of it because I was concerned it would be too narrow a category to get enough lists.

Late July's not the greatest time to start a (month or 2-month) poll anyway.

Quote:

I watched Goodfellas the other day and it really just doesnt hold up that well for me. I don't get the hype.

Goodfellas is probably my favorite gangster movie. A textbook on how to adapt a true story. I've never gotten the hype for Miller's Crossing -- but I've only seen it once, so maybe it's not fair for me to judge it.