Horror is always a very hit-or-miss genre. For every one I love, I have to sit through ten so-so or crap ones. Many of the big budget ones are reasonably watchable, but I'm skewed by favoritism for the genre and even I get bored by the lack of ideas in most of them. We fans need more cerebral horror, stuff that doesn't just gross you out but rather more disturbing ideas explored. I'm all for gore but there's only so many ways you can abuse, mutilate and mangle the human body. Horror should emphasize the whys and whos more, and show how the dark side intersects with the light. I would love to see the director's equivalent of a Chuck Palahniuk or Clive Barker, a director who steps past all those stale horror conventions and just does his/her own thing.
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#31 on SC's Top 100 Mofos list!!
What one website thinks are the top scariest films of the 00s, thought it would be interesting to share what appears on their list because there are some nice choices:
Session 9
Let The Right One In
Ginger Snaps
Trick 'r Treat
Shutter(original film from Thailand, not the remake)
The Descent
The Mist
Martyrs
[REC]
Inside
Some others they mentioned that just missed their list:
They have a really odd definition of fear. The Host was hilarious, Let the Right One In is more of a drama with horror in it, and the usual French horrors from the last decade that always make these lists seems like a muscle reaction than a real response. I still don't get why The Descent is considered scary. It's hard to say what I would add to the "fear list" because I've never been scared by a film before. I have heard that Session 9 is the scariest movie ever though.
Shutter is definitely frightening. The others are a little too cinematic to genuinely scare me. I'll add two more- Cure and Pulse. Kiyoshi Kurosawa is the master of horror, I wonder if people realise this.
I don't get Session 9 but plenty of folk here and elsewhere do.
I still think The Innocents is probably the most-disturbing film I've ever seen, no matter if you think it's real or all in the mind. It's also damn scary because I saw it at a packed theatre at LACMA, and they screamed their asses off at least three times.
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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden My IMDb page
Any you would take off the list or films you can't believe they have missed out and so on?
Poor list in my opinion.
The obvious glaring omission to me is The Orphanage which is a beautifully acted masterclass in suspense.
I also rate Ti West's The House Of The Devil, and would certainly place it above some of the other titles.
Now you know I think a lot of the French new extemeism is overrated.
With the exception of Martyrs I don't believe any of the other French films belong anywhere near that list.
Frontier(s) is a beyond derivative backwoods cannibal variant, and Inside is gobsmackingly dumb and shallow in my opinion. Neither moved me in any way whatsoever, and I believe their popularity stems solely from the makers desire to push the envelope. Good gore yes, but if I want that I'll wheel out my Fulci films and get in some cool-ass music at the same time.
I wouldn't class Ils aka Them as extreme, but I was shocked at how unremarkable it is. True story or not, I was amazed at the lack of effective suspense and tension. I really don't understand all the plaudits on that one.
Martyrs transcends these films because it has a clever narrative that keeps things close to it's chest, and turns out to be about something. Even though I'm not a fan per se; I concede It's a genuinely disturbing piece of work that deserves to be seen at least once by all horror fans.
The Host is another film that had me scratching my head wondering what all the fuss was about. It's more of a tongue-in-cheek pastiche/homage to old skool creature features than a straight up horror. I didn't find it funny though, and can't think why it ever got close.
Finally there's 28 Days Later and [REC]. The first is borderline plagiarism of John Wyndham's The Day Of The Triffids. How Garland got away with that one I don't know. [REC] is a passable, but derivative mish-mash of the zombie and hand held mock-doc genres. It's good, but not one of the best of the last ten years in my opinion.
The rest I can live with even though I think Paxton's Frailty is all kinds of goofy.
Some of these are cool. Descent, Martyrs and Shutter the original to name a few. But to me, the scariest film I've seen [and I've seen an insane load] is Blair Witch Project. THAT ONE gave me the creeps after I got off the cinema. Just walking in the street was freaky. lol
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•••[[[And the blood has left a stain]]]•••
Crazy Horror night on TV now.
They showed EVIL DEAD ARMY OF DARKNESS and now it's DESCENT.
What a great movie. They have AMAZING shots in this. I don't recommend this film to a claustrophobic person. LOL
Shutter was the first horror movie that I really got frightened. It's making me nervous when I saw her face, much worse when I learn she's riding on his back... so uneasy...
I liked the trailer... I want to watch it too, did you go to the movie house on this or just downloaded it?
In a cinema theater. After seeing the trailer, I HAD to see it on big screen. lol
And woah yeah, the Shutter ghost was wild. Loved the serie of photos of her crawling, nice.
Came across a new article talking about what they thought were the top 10 utterly underrated horror films from Britain during the 00s so far and thought I'd share the results because there are some fantastic films in the 10 mentioned, it does not include films that were straight to dvd sequels or more mainstream like The Woman in Black(2012) for an example they used.
1. For haters of Danny Dyer(I know the mere mention of his name puts people off a film completely) and what he usually puts his name to(he actually fine in this film) ignore the fact he is in it and take a look at Severance:
It's definitely an underrated horror comedy and really recommend this film that's made it into the ten films. From the director of Triangle.
Trailer:
2. Tony
Trailer:
I've yet to see Tony but heard good things about Peter Ferdinando's lead performance in the film. The story is definitely influenced by the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer going by the trailer.
Anyone seen this film? would you call it one of the best to come out of Britain?
3. Another from director Christopher Smith(Severance) that I didn't think much of, I remember that I couldn't stand the lead character played by Franka Potente(I usually like her roles). Creep:
Trailer:
4. I think the creator of the list really likes the director Christopher Smith because a third film of his has made it into the 10 films... Triangle:
I didn't add a trailer because I couldn't find one where it doesn't spoil anything, it's the type of film that you really need to go into it not knowing much to really get something out of it.
5. The Last Great Wilderness:
From the look of the film it looks like it's similar to Kill List in some ways.
6. Definitely one that needs to be seen, fantastic film more on the thriller side called A Lonely Place To Die:
I recommend the blu-ray if you can because the scenery shots of the Scottish highlands are astonishing.
Trailer:
7. I wouldn't put this film on any list, really don't get the big deal about this mediocre film... One reason I was drawn to it was for the free running, it was hyped up in advertising in some places and was interested in seeing them mix a slasher style film with free running, was very disappointed, the 'free running' was terrible. F:
Trailer:
8. Hush. The director of this has his second film getting a release soon, another horror film with Jennifer Lawrence called The House at the End of the Street.
Trailer:
9. Another excellent film that has made it onto the list is Eden Lake, directed by James Watkins who went on to make The Woman in Black for Hammer. This is one that definitely freaked me out, especially with the ending.
Trailer:
10. This next film got a lot of praise from the horror community but even though I thought it was a decent film I just didn't get what all the fuss was about really, people claiming it's one of the best horror films ever, a horror 'classic' and so on. Kill List:
Trailer:
Fans of the films above? any other recommendations for underrated/little known British horror films you think are a must watch that you would put onto the list.
I agree that F is poor. I've only seen it once, but, after a good few months now, I'm still not sure if I wasted an hour and a half or saw something a bit special. I went into it completely cold and hadn't even heard the buzz. It was merely a film I thought sounded interesting.
Eden Lake and A Lonely Place To Die are both films I have, but have yet to watch.
I loved Triangle, which I only saw because of my Melissa George fixation, but would recommend it to most people. I also agree with Nausicaa, that the less you know, the better.
Like someone above said, maybe one out of ten horror films is halfway decent. Ive found that to be true. To me the ones that are the most frightening are the ones that suggest the horror. A couple good ones were The Innocents and the original Haunting. Another one was The Changeling. A good scary film dosent need all the blood and guts to scare the pants off of you.
I also think Triangle works best as a deterministic nightmare in which free will simply doesn't exist. It makes the most sense for the film's structure and emphasizes the hopelessness of the situation. The point isn't to question how it could have gone differently, if only, but to take the ride at face value as you say while recognizing the enormity of how awful it would be. The believable performances help tremendously in selling its fatalistic premise.
Creep had great atmosphere, I thought, but relied on that too much at the expense of ideas and strong characterization. I enjoyed it but didn't particularly care about what happened to who and why. Still worth a watch.
I liked Severance a lot, but it's been awhile since viewing and my recall of it is vague. Need to re-watch before I commit to any substantial criticism/praise.
I recommend all of Christopher Smith's horror movies to genre fans and I keep an eye out for his name.
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