The following films are all streamable on Netflix and are worth a look.
Hour of the Wolf (1968) – On a desolate island, an artist reveals his most disturbing memories to his wife in Ingmar Bergman’s only horror film.
Daughters of Darkness (1971) – Two lesbian vampires seduce a newlywed couple at a seaside resort.
Theatre of Blood (1973) – Vincent Price gives the performance of a lifetime in this tale of a washed-up, Shakespearian actor’s revenge on the critics who panned him.
The Exorcist (1973) – William Friedkin’s horror classic about the demonic possession of a twelve year old girl.
Deep Red (1975) – Dario Argento’s stylish and bloody murder mystery about psychics and psychosis.
Inferno (1980) – Argento’s sequel to his greatest film, “Susperia”, is an exercise in style and color, mostly red.
The Evil Dead (1981) – The original “Cabin in the Woods” movie, Sam Rami’s low budget, calling card film is a crazy, gory ride.
The Fly (1986) – David Cronenberg directed this remake of the 1958 film with a genetic twist and a much more disturbing vision.
Hellraiser (1987) – British horror author Clive Barker’s directing debut about returning from the grave through S&M rituals and sacrificial rites.
If you watch one of these, write a post about it.
I was obsessed with the Evil Dead series when I was young...maybe a little too young. In sixth grade I dressed as the main character for Halloween.Chainsaw-hand and all. The best thing about remaking the first film into a horror quasi-comedy was realizing that it was worth remaking in that manner. Usually when film makers finally recognize (and admit) that they made a bad movie and try to make a "funny" sequel or remake, it ends up failing in it's attempt at making fun of itself. Evil Dead and the subsequent remake were succesful in this endeavor. The first one is entertaining because, while it is a good core story, the acting and cinematogrophy is so bad that it's good. The remake is good for the same reason but the funnier scenes let you know the film makers are in on the joke this time-without killing it. Army of Darkness (the sequel considering Evil Dead 1987 is a remake and not a really sequel) almost goes a little too far in this respect by making the irony too clear. The point is if you TRY to make a bad movie, it will be bad, but not in an endearing way(example: Toxic Avenger VS Toxic Avenger 2). But if try to to make a good movie and it ends up being fantastically terrible it can be considered, ironically, a classic (example:Troll 2).
ReplyDeleteFrom Jake's obsession to my confession: Next to Alfred Hitchcock's, The Birds, The Fly always captured my imagination; the 1958 film reduced the man to a fly sized, human faced creature. The Fly as portrayed by Jeff Goldblum reduced a man to a human sized man-fly. Photos to follow on a separate post - pretty scary at the time - horror - because I watched from the outside.
ReplyDeleteHorror has turned to terror!
Genetically modified foods and two headed fish(to follow in separate post entitled "Hightower") are looking right at us!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_tomato
http://www.biotechnologyonline.gov.au/foodag/timeline.html