It’s horror movie season in the US and my favorite type is zombies. I also love campy B movies. Watching Dead Snow 2 right now and I think it ranks up there with Shawn of the Dead and Evil Dead 3: Army of Darkness.
What is your top pick for whatever genre?
The Thing (1982) has basically consistently been my favorite horror movie
To this day, in response to something awful / revolting I like to shout “Childs, get the flamethrower!!!”
Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010) and The Cabin in the Woods (2012) (go in spoiler-free with this one) are both good comedy horror.
I was not prepared for how good Tucker and Dale vs. Evil is!
“Well uh, howdy do, Officer! We’ve had a doozy of a day!”
Signs (2002) is my favorite horror movie to watch during spooky season. While it was mocked so perfectly in Scary Movie 3, I feel like the atmosphere it creates is still so unnerving. The humor in the movie adds an element of B movie campiness to an otherwise serious movie.
Cabin in the Woods (2011) disassembles the horror tropes in a hilarious way. Inspired by the Evil Dead movies.
After I saw Signs the first time, I started carrying a steel mop handle around my apartment and next to my bed at night.
Aliens really get to me from when I watched X-files as a kid, and this movie did it nicely.
Aliens fucked me up as a kid. I watched the first half of Independence Day with my parents when I was 7 and I couldn’t sleep for weeks lmao
Lmao, we have a small pet snake now, and when she curls around my neck sometimes I do a bit where I mime pressing against glass and hoarsely say “Releeeasse meee”
It gets a laugh.
Freaking love that movie lol
Cabin in the Woods is top tier. Everytime I watch it I see something new. It’s a blast to watch with people who have never seen it, and even more fun if they’re going in blind.
Alien is my favorite horror movie by far. I really dig Hellraiser too. I watched Pontypool recently and was surprised how good it was. And The Shining is fab.
I’ve watched Alien as much as any movie excepting Aliens, so I kinda lost appreciation. My wife had never seen it so we watched and I payed close attention for the first time in years. Absolute master class in the genre.
*Doug Bradley Hellraiser movies.
Pontypool Changes Everything by Tony Burgess was also a NUTS book. Definitely check it out. The scope is much wider than the flick and as a result it’s a lot more uneven. I still really dig it.
I tried really hard to do this book but it beat me. It’s a dnf on my list this year. The radio play is pretty good too.
Did not know there was a radio play. Ta!
The sound design for Pontypool is particularly excellent
Pontypool pairs well with 30 days of night (and Tusk pairs well with The Substance).
We watched Pontypool when we read Snow Crash. There’s a scene where Snow Crash is placed really obviously if your looking fot it and the themes mesh really nicely.
Forgot about hellraiser! Thanks!
The Witch (2015)
Since you asked the favorite, i will have to describe it, trying to avoid the spoilers.
It is a masterpiece on many aspects at the same time. It is a historical movie, focusing on an isolated devout settler family living on the frontiers in the beginnings of US history. It is a dramatic and heavy movie with believable people, showing their realistic hardships in everyday living, how they really live and think the world through their strict religion, and how they react realistically to the supernatural events that unfold. It is a Horror movie that gradually builds the mystery, tense and fear thorough the relatively long stretch of time it takes (months i guess), and the actual terror moments felt deserved (i.e. not a cheap scary gag).
For all that, it is considered one of the more ‘artful’ horror films out there, and i’m sure it will (or already is?) considered one of the Greats in the genre with Dracula 1932 and The Exorcist 1973. It however leans on being slow and heavy, not good if you seek a lighthearted film.
The language is brilliant. At first you have to pay very close attention to understand them, but as the movie progresses you quickly get in the groove. And Anya Taylor-Joy, my god.
Wasn’t she like 17 at the time
18 during filming.
One way I like to describe it is that They took one this witch trials account/documents, took it at face value and just recreated it as an historical movie.
That was a great movie. I also really liked “Get Out.”
I randomly get the Black Phillip song in my head and then feel that I need to watch the movie again.
Event Horizon
The shining. I watch it every year at the first snow. I’m afraid I won’t get that chance this year.
Hope you’re okay buddy. I know nothing an internet stranger can say will help, but if you need someone to talk to, let me know.
Maybe he just moved to Florida?
I really enjoy Event Horizon, especially with the 40K theory in mind.
It Follows
I like that it’s such a simple concept for a horror movie, but it’s still highly engaging for the audience.
spoiler
Early on in the movie, it (quite literally) teaches you a set of rules that the monster operates by, and the rest of the film feels almost like an interactive game.
- the monster is a shapeshifter
- it has stack (as in the data structure) of targets
- it’s always walking straight towards the target at the top of the stack (peek())
- the target can have sex with someone else to make them the new target (push())
- if the target at the top of the stack dies, the previous target is the target again (pop())
Beyond that, the writing and cinematography just let the audience play along. The characters are deliberating their plans on how they would deal with the monster, letting you also think about what you would do in their situation. And the camera likes to slowly pan around the people talking so that all the while, the audience is scanning the background looking for the monster. It can look like anyone, and they constantly, and deliberately put extras in the background walking directly toward the camera just to make you go “oh shit! Is that it right there? Hey, pay attention, we need to move!”
It’s just such a fun, unique experience. I don’t know of another horror movie experience quite like it.
I also loved It Follows. I was already hearing the soundtrack, before i saw the Movie. It made the movie feel so familiar, while at the same time experiencing something completely new.
The score composer, Disasterpeace, otherwise makes game music. This may have added to the game feeling.
Cool, thanks I’ll have to spend more time with the soundtrack too.
Rec (2007) . A slow night where a novice news reporter shows a day in the life of the local firestation turns into so much more.
I think there’s something about the intersection between found footage and a foreign (to me) film that makes it so much more believable and enjoyable. This is miles beyond the US remake, quarantine. No big name actors here to ruin the found footage vibe. Just a small town news reporter meandering through a slow night at a local fire station.
I vividly remember the night we turned out the lights to try this one out. That was one of the very few horror movies that had me so freaked out and unsettled but also gripped me so much I couldn’t wait to see what happened.
What a wild ride.
It wasn’t contrived or anything, everyone felt real.
I just watched it based on the recommendations here, and it’s not bad. It does suffer from the same trope as a lot of horror movies, which is this, by the time it ended i wanted the main character to die because they were getting on my nerves.
Hereditary is my favourite supernatural horror film
The thing is my favourite Sci fi horror film
Ufff Toni Colette was great in it! It is one of my favorite movies too.
Difficult to pick one, but Annihilation is up there.
The books are fantastic as well.
I’ve only read the first so far. I was so disappointed in the movie because I loved the book so much!
I find that’s books almost always tell a better story as well. I tend to watch shows first if both a show and a book are available for that reason.
Mileage may vary; I read the first one and found it to be an absolute slog and a snooze. No interest in reading on.
Completely different experience here, I was hooked immediately and chewed through the whole series right away.
As I said, mileage may vary 😄
lol indeed
True that. I loved how the sci-fi made it seem so fascinating to explore. The environment was so cool!
But also there was constant tension in anticipation of what they’d find next, and you’re asking yourself whether you’d just nope right out if you could.
There was a scene that had my jaw dropped for 5 minutes straight
The ending definitely made my jaw drop for an extended period of time.
It’s also just a beautiful movie
Sinister - the home movies and music are so creepy.
Voted the scariest movie of all time! At least by one study.
Yeah, that one screwed me up for a week keeping the lights bright in the house LOL.
Sure I’m a rational adult but I sure do hate that gimmick where “If you know about / think about the thing, you’re on its radar now.” Eeesh! All I did was watch a movie!
super tiny synopsis detail
…just like the protagonist. 😨
Alright I can think of a few that strangely haven’t been mentioned yet!
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Barbarian - Woman checks in to an AirBnB. But beneath it lies a horrible secret. This one’s pretty disturbing in subject matter, actually. But it’s solidly eery.
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Tremors - It’s bright daylight! In a small desert town! What’s so spooky about that? Vibration-sensitive, man-eating sandworms maybe. This movie is just solidly fun all around. Legendary B-movie monster film.
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The Descent - Always thought caves were creepy? Want to experience claustrophobia from the safety of your own home? Wanna see how an all-woman horror film cast is done correctly? This one’s a treat.
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Dog Soldiers - The Scottish Highlands are gorgeous for a hike. Less appealing though if you’re a squad of British soldiers doing a training exercise in a monster movie. Features reasonably smart cast of soldiers doing their best, but cleverly using the training scenario premise to take away their live ammo so they can’t just shoot away their problems. Also, I remember it being very “B movie” in a good way. A well-placed cheesy joke or two had me laughing out loud without it being Marvel-grade snark, but it was still tense and exciting.
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Pandorum - Guy wakes up from hypersleep on a giant ship where things have gone horribly wrong. His only other awake crewmate is uh…a bit off, maybe? This one feels VERY Deadspace. If you like “Creepy massive cathedral-like dungeon ships” flavored sci-fi horror, this one’s pretty good. I’d say maybe much tamer than Event Horizon, but clearly took some inspiration there.
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30 Days of Night - You know how in Alaska they get really long periods where the sun is just gone? You know how certain classic horror antagonists hate sunlight? Uh oh.
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Overlord - A World War 2 horror film. I mean, WWII was full of horror but…like… unbelievable horror. No, like, pulpy mad scientist supervillains and secret experiments horror–No, like stuff that DIDN’T actually happen. It’s the closest to a Wolfenstein movie as we’re gonna get. (And very “Weird Wars 2” if you’ve played a good Savage Worlds TTRPG or two)
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Resident Evil - I liked maybe two or three sequels too, before it got utterly ridiculous to farm cash, but the original is always cited as a horror classic, even among people who aren’t fans of the games. (Almost entirely unrelated characters and plot.)
Wish I could upvote this more.
Barbarian was written by Zach Cregger of Whitest Kids You Know fame, it’s a solid movie with unsettlingly comedic chops.
As for Pandorum, I am obsessed with that movie. Here’s a FanTheory I wrote a few years ago that delves into much of intrigue hinted at in that incredible movie:
https://www.reddit.com/r/FanTheories/comments/gmlo53/pandorum_earth_took_serious_countermeasures/
Barbarian was wild. I had no idea what I was in for, my cousin just said “Check this one out” last Halloween. That movie had so many good moments. The sheer tonal whiplash once the tapemeasure gets broken out. 😂 And we were all in the living room screaming “That would TOTALLY HAPPEN TOO!”
I love when scary movies know how to manage and pace their tone. They can be scary without drowning the viewer in so much grimdark it becomes a comedy accidentally.
That’s so crazy cool that of all those movies I listed, I meet a Pandorum fan! It’s been ages since I’ve seen it, but it left an impression. I really liked your FanTheories writeup! But also I should really give it another watch with my matured brain and see what I missed the last couple times. I almost kinda like how…the plot is REALLY grim, but only when you really connect all the breadcrumbs.
The movie itself I remember being rather straightforward and exciting, (even with that Act 2 expo-dump), where the plot doesn’t completely screw you up and abandon all hope unless you really start analyzing it lol.
That’s why I liken it to Deadspace…That’s a grim and awful world to inhabit…but wow is it still such a WILD ride that I’m willing to do it again.
With Barbarian it was just seeing the WKUKisms that I’ve grown accustomed to take life in a whole new genre - it was disconcertingly familiar and horrifically new at the same time!
Deadspace is a great description of Pandorum, but I’d argue that Pandorum has a far better story filled more with what people do when burdened by unwanted knowledge, rather than what people do when they are no longer themselves
Haha so I’m only familiar with WKUK by title, so I’ll have to check it out. :p
what people do when burdened by unwanted knowledge,
I like this point a lot. A friend of mine once told me something like: horror as a genre is easily defined as “What happens to those who look?”
I loved that quote.
Forbidden knowledge is so scary. It’s like reading spoilers. Just a glance, and it’s in your mind. It’s a part of you. How do you cope? You can’t just drop it like some cursed object or outrun it like some monster.
We want to know lots of things, I know I always love to learn…but the scariest things are those you don’t want to know… But how can you know what these are? You don’t know what you don’t know yet…
Pardon my ramble. Midnight contemplative brain kicked in. 😂
… Yeah I need to watch Pandorum again haha. Introduce some new people to it. :D
Me too hehe
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I also recommend It Follows. It is so different. And the characters don’t act dumb. And everything makes sense in the context. Like why they dont get a car or catch a plane, because they are broke teenagers.
