Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

It’s a doggy dog world.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

It’s a new day. Light all those Biden polls of young people on fire and throw away the ashes.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Medium Cool with BGinCHI – Oh, the Horror

Medium Cool with BGinCHI – Oh, the Horror

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In case you’re new to Medium Cool, BGinCHI is here once a week to offer a thread on culture, mainly film & books, with some TV thrown in.  We’re here at 7 pm on Sunday nights.

Medium Cool with BGinCHI – Oh, the Horror 1

In this Special Halloween Edition of Medium Cool, let’s talk about horror.

I don’t think we’ve ever done one on this subject, mostly because I’m a fraidy cat and don’t care for the genre. For those who do, what’s your favorite scary film, or book, or TV series?

Reader Interactions

201Comments

  1. 1.

    Elizabelle

    The Omen.  Still have never been able to give it a second viewing.

    And I hear that “Don’t Look Now” is incredible, too.

  2. 2.

    WaterGirl

    I am pairing Medium Cool with the open thread / debate thread / Obama events.  Go back one thread if you prefer the horror of the Republican candidates to horror in popular culture.

  5. 5.

    Ken

    Schindler’s List.  Or, for something more usually classified as horror, The Mist, with my usual disclaimer that the Lovecraftian monsters outside the building aren’t half as scary as the people inside, once they start looking for someone to blame.

  6. 6.

    mrmoshpotato

    🎶All of my bones have a Nosferatu jones! (the 1922 silent classic) Boo baby!  Boo boo boo!🎶

    I should watch one of my 4 editions tonight.

  7. 7.

    eddie blake

    @Comrade Scrutinizer:  that’s a great film. kathryn bigelow. wouldn’t say it’s too scary though.

    the film that terrified me as a child was alien. the body horror aspects of the chestburster just filled me with dread. i understand that dan o’bannon, the writer of alien had crohn’s disease and that makes things make more sense

    nothing’s ever scared me like that.

  8. 8.

    eclare

    I will never watch the original (Netherlands) The Vanishing again.  I could not shake that film for weeks.  Hollywood remade it, and that version was horrible.

  9. 9.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Elizabelle: Don’t Look Now is a great movie, can’t recommend it enough…great performances by Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland, Nicholas Roeg’s direction is excellent.

    I don’t do much scary anymore but I still like oldies like The Haunting and Ghost Story. 

  11. 11.

    Dan B

    Day of the Triffids, or Carrie

    Both had interesting beginning sequences and twists.  And there were allegories as well.

  14. 14.

    Scout211

    Like BGinCHI, a big nope to horror movies for me.

    However, I really enjoyed Scary Movie 3. It was the best one of the series and parodied so many horror movies so well that I thought it was really good.

  16. 16.

    BGinCHI

    I liked “Midsommar” and “The Witch” (Robert Eggers). Those I can get through, but there aren’t many I can watch.

    I hear “Hereditary” is very good. Can I stand it? Hmmm.

  19. 19.

    Yutsano

    Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. It’s basically normal Japanese middle schoolers who go completely homicidal during a local festival. It’s a psychological mindwarp that still has one character that still scares the fuck out of me.

  22. 22.

    Cacti

    The horror movie that absolutely scared the crap out of me as a kid was the original Poltergeist.

  25. 25.

    frosty

    @WaterGirl: Thank you!  I prefer the horror of real life. Like you I’m not a fan of the genre.

    ETA I walked out of The Conqueror Worm (Vincent Price) as a kid. Also, Pinocchio scared the crap out of me.

  26. 26.

    James E Powell

    The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson was the scariest thing I read growing up. I didn’t get the same intensity from any of the film adaptations. I should re-read it to see if it still has the power to scare me.

  35. 35.

    Cameron

    A Page of Madness, which I saw many years ago and found again recently on YouTube.  Not exactly horror, but freaky as hell.

  37. 37.

    MattF

    @eclare: Oooo. I somehow forgot that I saw that one. Not so pleased that you just reminded me. Not ‘horror’, exactly, but… a horrible, bad dream.

  41. 41.

    Brachiator

    The Omen.  Still have never been able to give it a second viewing.

    And I hear that “Don’t Look Now” is incredible, too.

    Oh yes. The Omen was quite chilling. I think what added to its effectiveness was that it starred A list actors Gregory Peck and Lee Remick as the parents of the Devil child.
    Harvey Spencer Stephens, who played the kid, had very little dialog, but had pretty good screen presence and was filmed well to suggest innocence and menace.

    Don’t Look Now came out around the same time as The Exorcist, but really got under my skin far more than the more noted movie. It is director Nicholas Roeg’s best film.

    I really loved the 1963 version of The Haunting. The horror was muted and understated, and I really felt sad for the characters in the film. They were not just blank targets served up to monsters.

    Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 were the most fun “over the top” horror movies I have ever seen. Sometimes you just want a good cheap thrill.

    Honorable mention to the original Ghostbusters. I think that this could have worked very well as a straight up dramatic horror movie.

    ETA. Agree that Get Out is one of the best horror films of this modern era. And the racial dynamics are very well blended into the film. Great stuff.

  42. 42.

    Kelly

    @Cacti: My brother and I went to Alien together. It was a full house and a couple ladies our age sat next to him. He’s always been smooth with ladies and maintains we could have dated them except for the way I screamed at the chest bursting scene.

  47. 47.

    kalakal

    The original The Wicker Man not, I repeat not, the remake.

    Night of the Demon is good, it’s an adaptation of M R James’ The Casting of the Runes. 

    I remember having the crap scared out of me by The Exorcist 

    For spoofs Young Fronkensteen Frankenstein and The Addams family TV show and films.

    As a kid I loved the Hammer Horror movies with Christopher Lee & Peter Cushing and the Roger Corman Poe adaptations with Vincent Price having the time of his life hamming it up

    I don’t go for graphic gore

  49. 49.

    C Nelson Reilly

    A 1970 ABC Movie of the Week – Crowhaven Farm. Hope Lange. Scared me to death as a 12 year old

  50. 50.

    japa21

    The original The Haunting was the most psychologically terrifying thing I have ever seen. There were no monsters, no special effects (except one thing), no shocking scenes… But the overall effect was gripping.

    Poltergeist was a strong second. Both that and E.T.came out the same year, IIRC, and E.T. got all the publicity.

  53. 53.

    TheflipPsyd

    I’m not a horror fan either but I did enjoy April Fool’s Day for a surprise ending with a helping of cheesy 80s teen film as well

  54. 54.

    SpaceUnit

    I have a weakness for zombie movies like the original Night of the Living Dead.  I find the genre to be profoundly political in a sort of Jungian way.

  55. 55.

    Josie

    I’m not into horror, but my middle son is. He told me last week that his all time favorite is The Shining. I’ve never been able to bring myself to watch it. I was in my early teens when I saw Psycho and I never recovered.

  57. 57.

    Martin

    The scene in the original War of the Worlds inside the house. The sound work was really well done there as well.

    I don’t find conventional horror to be that frightening because my suspension of disbelief doesn’t kick in for terrestrial things. But I can find extraterrestrial things pretty frightening. I think the Borg is one of the best conceived villains in fiction because it’s plausible described.

  58. 58.

    zhena gogolia

    I saw lots of bad horror movies in the 1970s. And probably all the Universal classics. Don’t watch much now. The Birds may be the scariest ever.

  62. 62.

    Mike in NC

    Netflix recently added “Guillerimo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiousities”. We watched the first three of eight episodes and they were creepy as hell.

  63. 63.

    Cameron

    @SpaceUnit: It is actually political (at least partially) – the idea of being totally controlled owed a lot to the life enslaved Africans in Haiti were forced into by the French.

  69. 69.

    nclurker

    i remember going on a date with a girl who really wanted see to ALIEN 1.

    thought it was going to be a starwars ripoff,so i smoked a big ole bob marley before hand.

    big mistake.

  70. 70.

    the antibob

    The Ring. I prefer the US version for the horse related dread.

    Us (Jordan Peele isn’t playing by our rules).

    Let the Right One In.

  71. 71.

    Cameron

    There are a fair number of horror movies among the freebies offered over at the Open Culture website.

  72. 72.

    Miss Bianca

    @Elizabelle: Don’t Look Now *is* incredible.

    I’m not much a one for horror (especially of the gory slasher flick type), but horror comedy, on the other hand, I find I have quite a taste for. Army of Darkness is a particular fave,  perhaps because I have a connection through old Detroit theater acquaintance with the Raimi Brothers. (Or perhaps it’s just because I have a thing for Bruce Campbell.)

    Looking forward to finally seeing Shaun of the Dead, after watching some of the director’s other films.

  73. 73.

    SpaceUnit

    @Cameron:

    Very good point.  What I was suggesting is that those movies tap somewhat subconsciously into the simmering social and political paranoia of post WWII America.  The zombie is a perfect metaphor for those around us, family, friends, neighbors, whose political outlook and intentions have become monstrous.

    Just like America in 2022.

  75. 75.

    Urban Suburbanite

    I loved the Hellraiser movies – some of them. There were some really bad ones. But the makeup on the Cenobites was always neat. And the new one on Hulu is great.

  76. 76.

    Delk

    All of the Abbott and Costello meet… movies for comedy.
    Trilogy of Terror (esp the doll!) for TV shows
    Just watched Hellhole on Netflix. Some good scares and in Polish (bonus because I’m studying the language).
    Halfway through The Midnight Club. Some real good scares.
    The Barbarian is getting raves. On the list to watch.

  77. 77.

    zhena gogolia

    @Miss Bianca: it’s great but quite gory. Last Night in Soho is kind of a horror movie. And Hot Fuzz references The Omen and The Wicker Man, especially via casting

  82. 82.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Late to the party as usual. I highly recommend Stephen King’s nonfiction book Danse Macabre to all horror fans. It’s just a wonderful tour through horror books, movies, and comics from a guy who is an obvious fanboy of all of it.

    He goes on for pages about The Haunting of Hill House and gives a writers detailed analysis of why it’s so well-written.

    But as to the topic: Nosferatu is surprisingly creepy, and The Ring really scared me. The only movie I know where the American remake is better (in my opinion) than the original.

    Two books really gave me the creeps and I don’t even really know why: Stephen King’s Christine, and Peter Straub’s Ghost Story. Something about both of those that just really chilled me. And in both cases the movie was OK, but kind of meh. Loved the casting of Ghost Story, though, all those big stars from an earlier era. Was Fred Astaire really that short?

  83. 83.

    delphinium

    Not quite horror but disturbing and psyscological:

    Pan’s Labyrinth

    Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

    28 Days Later

  84. 84.

    suzanne

    @nclurker: I saw Alien for the first time as the “Director’s Cut” in the movie theater, while seven months pregnant. Not a fabulous decision.

  86. 86.

    Kristine

    @Mike in NC: I’ve been meaning to check that out. Del Toro excels at creepy.

    I found the Penny Dreadful series eerie and riveting. As for movies, of late I’ve avoided the one-offs and stuck mostly with series: Resident Evil (zombies), Underworld (vampires and werewolves at war). I loved Keanu Reeves’ Constantine, though I know fans of the comics pretty much hated it.

    Written stories? “The Autopsy” by Michael Shea. “Sticks” by Karl Edward Wagner. “Dread” by Clive Barker.

  87. 87.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @kalakal: The original The Wicker Man not, I repeat not, the remake.

    As I knew Edward Woodward from the American TV show “The Equalizer”, I found his use in that movie a real hoot.

    As was the use of a perfectly good song I used to sing with Renaissance singing groups, “Sumer is icumin in”. Totally changed that song for me.

  89. 89.

    suzanne

    Mr. Suzanne is the horror fan around here. “Se7en” freaked me right the fuck out as a young teenager.

  90. 90.

    SpaceUnit

    @Cameron:

    I’ve also always assumed that vampire stories are sexual in nature.  Thirst for blood becomes a metaphor for carnal desire.  Bram Stoker was channeling social unease with the industrial revolution, when young people were leaving their farms and small towns to take jobs in the big cities where there was likely to be insufficient sexual chaperonage.

  92. 92.

    S cerevisiae

    Rod Serling’s Night Gallery creeped me out as a kid, particularly the earwig one. I was so bummed when Kolchak The Night Stalker was cancelled.

    Supernatural had an excellent 15 year run.

    A guilty pleasure is Motel Hell – it takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent fritters…

  94. 94.

    Miss Bianca

    I don’t know whether I would call it horror or suspense, but it sure scared the crap out of me and I remember it to this day although I only ever saw it on TV once, nearly 50 years ago: Steven Spielberg’s first movie, Duel. Man versus literal Monster Truck.

    It’s out on DVD now, I think, I wonder if I can muster up the nerve to watch it again!

  96. 96.

    piratedan

    I always kind of felt that Apocalypse Now was a horror film watching the thin veneer of civilization stripped away.

  97. 97.

    Cameron

    @Kristine: Penny Dreadful was a lot of fun – and what an outstanding cast they assembled!  It was my introduction to Rory Kinnear, who is an amazing actor.

  98. 98.

    Citizen Alan

    Not a horror movie, but I but I will not rewatch tre watch the David Tennant Doctor Who episode Midnight because it is too unsettling for me.

  99. 99.

    the antibob

    The Fear Street trilogy is a very rich, layered and thoroughly charming slasher tale, which reaches well beyond its teen fiction roots.

  100. 100.

    Spanky

    I developed a distaste for horror when the evil stepmother in Snow White turned into a witch. I was five. I may still be scarred.

  101. 101.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Nobody’s mentioned Jaws because probably nobody is scared by it any more. But back in the day during the theatrical release, when you didn’t know anything that was coming, it was pretty damned effective. And that jump scare literally knocked people out of their seats.

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: I highly recommend Stephen King’s nonfiction book Danse Macabre

    One of the scariest-sounding movies he mentions in that book is Freaks. I’ve been curious about it since reading that chapter, but not sure if it would scar me for life.

  104. 104.

    oatler

    Simon King of the Witches from 1971. No horror, but a good sample of 1970  occult LA. Andrew Prine and Brenda Scott (who gets naked with two colored balls).

    “Now during this ceremony, do not get high. Not even grass.”

  110. 110.

    prostratedragon

    @Elizabelle:

    “And I hear that “Don’t Look Now” is incredible, too.”

    I discovered that one several months ago and highly recommend  it.  Haven’t read the thread yet but suspect I’m not alone in preferring suspense and psychological genres. This movie fills the bill.

  111. 111.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    I’m with @Sheila in nc, Wait Until Dark scared me.

    Alien, I recall thinking as I watched that even though every scary moment was telegraphed it still made me jump.

    Oh yes, Duel.

  117. 117.

    Kristine

    @Citizen Alan:

    Not a horror movie, but I but I will not rewatch tre watch the David Tennant Doctor Who episode Midnight because it is too unsettling for me.

    I can’t watch it, either.

    What about “Blink?”

  120. 120.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @kalakal: I also loved when the villagers said something like “we stick to the old religion” and eventually you find out that oh, it’s THAT old religion.

    I think there are these clever little jokes and surprises throughout.

  124. 124.

    prostratedragon

    @Yutsano: Early Zhang Yimou movie Ju Dou has a character maybe like that. The story is a tragic romance, but there’s this child … [shudder]

  127. 127.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    Død Kalm

    The crew of a U.S. military ship that disappeared in the Norwegian Sea is found dead from what seems to be rapid aging. Thinking it’s another Philadelphia Experiment, Mulder boards the ghost ship along with Scully and a local skipper.

  128. 128.

    thruppence

    Trick ‘r Treat is a fun Halloween anthology flick – some scares, some surprises, some laughs. I try to catch it at this time of year.

  131. 131.

    cope

    The invisible Monster Of The Id and the score of “Forbidden Planet” scarred the living shit out of 12 year old me when it came on as a midnight movie one night when I was babysitting. That was the most scared a movie had ever made me.

  135. 135.

    Layer8Problem

    @kalakal:  I’ve already expressed in this venue my extreme like of M. R. James’ work.  The first story I read was “The Ash Tree” as a pre-teen and the thought of it creeps me out to this day.   I’d love to see someone adapt “Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook.”

    Oh, and Edward Woodward’s penultimate film was . . . Hot Fuzz.

  138. 138.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    Herman Munster, in a spooky resemblance to Aaron Judge, joins the Los Angeles Dodgers (clip)

  140. 140.

    jobeth

    There’s a 1944 film named “The Uninvited” starring Ray Milland that’s a really scary ghost story.  It shows up occasionally on tv and it still scares me as much as it did when I was a kid.   Jean Cocteau’s 1946 adaptation of Beauty and the Beast always creeped me out.

    For some reason current movies just don’t scare me as much.

  142. 142.

    NotMax

    Using a very broad definition of scary, far from an exhaustive movie listing and also not necessarily best so much as memorable (sometimes for a single standout performance rather than for the whole). In cases when exists a remake, this list always refers to the original.

    The Phantom of the Opera
    Carnival of Souls
    The Old Dark House
    Island of Lost Souls
    Psycho
    The Fly
    Invasion of the Body Snatchers
    Planet of the Vampires
    I Walked with a Zombie
    The Blob
    Suspiria
    L’Inferno
    The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
    Cat People
    Bedlam
    The Green Goddess
    I Was a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
    Danny’s Doomsday
    An American Werewolf in London
    They Live
    The Beast with Five Fingers
    Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
    Das Totenschiff
         .

  144. 144.

    SpaceUnit

    Does anyone know if there are any good Lovecraft movies out there?  (Yes, I know he was a terrible person). The Necronomicon pops up her and there, but the only real cinematic adaptations of his stories that I’ve seen have been very low-budget and disappointing.  Seems strange that no studio ever went big on a Cthulu movie.

    Maybe it’s because he was, in fact, an awful person.

  149. 149.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Manhunter– Best movie of the Hannibal Lector series

    The Shining– Probably my fave all-time horror flick

    Carrie– Amazing 70’s feel and Sissy Spacek was incredibly good and creepy

    Halloween– Best slasher flick ever.  JLC was great.  Bonus points for being shot in Pasadena, so I know where most of the locations are, nearby.

    Poltergeist– Probably my favorite Spielberg movie (tied with JAWS)

    Blair Witch Project–  Brilliant in my opinion because it captured the feeling of being lost in the woods in a creepy area.

    The Village– Not as great as The Sixth Sense but I so loved the vibe/setting.

  150. 150.

    Miss Bianca

    @Kristine: I’m guessing you mean there’s a Doctor Who episode called “Blink”, but there’s a movie from the 90s called Blink starring Madeleine Stowe and Aidan Quinn, about a serial killer stalking a blind woman who’s just received a corneal transplant, that’s one of my favorite suspense/horror guilty pleasures. Partly because I love those two actors, but also partly because it’s set in Chicago (where I lived at the time) and features one of my favorite Chicago folk/rock bands from the period, The Drovers.

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: I remember taking a folklore class back when I was in college and the professor, one of my favorite teachers, snickering about how many British folky traditions got mashed up willy-nilly in that movie.

    Mashup or not, I still found it riveting when I finally saw it.

  152. 152.

    UncleEbeneezer

    The Descent: spelunking trip goes horribly wrong.  Really terrifying, especially if you have claustrophobia.

  153. 153.

    SpaceUnit

    @Comrade Scrutinizer:

    I love Let the right One In. I prefer the original to the American remake, in part because I’m not terribly keen on Matt Reeves as a director.  But also it’s because the not-so-great English dubs add a perfect element of awkwardness to an awkward adolescent story.

    Thanks for mentioning it.  Think I might watch it again tonight.

  155. 155.

    Miss Bianca

    @jobeth: I just watched The Uninvited not too long ago, in fact, probably because some jackal or other recommended it here. A very stylish ghost story, and from what I understand, it sort of kick-started the “serious ghost story” trend in Hollywood movies – prior to that one, ghosts were mostly played for laughs, a la Abbott and Costello or The Three Stooges.

  157. 157.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Train To Busan: absolutely crazy Korean, zombie movie.

    28 Days Later: post-apacolyptic zombie movie.  Moody and dark.

  160. 160.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    @SpaceUnit: Lovecraft’s personal awfulness aside, I don’t know that there’s enough material for a feature length film.  There was a terrible attempt in 2007 (Cthulhu) and an meh attempt in 1970 (The Dunwich Horror) (the 2008 TV movie of the same name is execrable), but I’m not aware of any close adaptations that have done well.

  163. 163.

    trollhattan

    @Marmot: ​Buddy and I were holed up in the family cabin during winter. With nothing better to do in the evening we did a double bill of “The Thing” and “Gandhi.” Because Gandhi was spread between two tapes, we did what any thinking person would do and watched The Thing between parts 1 and 2.

    Has there ever been a more perfect movie night? I think not.

  164. 164.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    @SpaceUnit: I just picked up the Kindle of Let the Right One In by Lindqvist, and it’s in my TBR pile. I understand that it fills in a lot of the (grim and uncomfortable) backstory of Eli.

  166. 166.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @SpaceUnit:  not a movie, but you might enjoy N. K. Jemisin’s the City We Became.  Lovecraft plays an important role in the narrative.

  167. 167.

    Cameron

    @SpaceUnit: I doubt that he shares Lovecraft’s prejudices, but I think del Toro would be the kind of director to capture the Lovecraftian universe.

  168. 168.

    delphinium

    Another dark, comedic horror movie: The Lost Boys, about two brothers who discover that their new town is a haven for vampires. Starred Dianne Wiest as the mom and a very young Kiefer Sutherland as a vampire.

  171. 171.

    MagdaInBlack

    I saw the first ” Halloween” in the theater, at the ripe old age of 20 and it scared me so much my husband would later tell people ” Never again, we had to sleep with the hall light on for 2 years.”

  173. 173.

    SpaceUnit

    @Comrade Scrutinizer:

    Yeah, I haven’t read it but I’m sort of aware of what that backstory is.

    The Swedish production mostly sidesteps all that.  Personally I find that the result is one of the most tender, beautiful and heartbreaking movies I’ve ever seen.  It’s a marvel.

  175. 175.

    prostratedragon

    After Hours sort of works as a horror comedy, and among my favorites of both. Never could figure out why he didn’t just hoof it home since things fell soart before the weird hour, but then I wouldn’t have anything to yell at him about.

  176. 176.

    Glidwrith

    Haven’t thought of it in years, movie called Ssssss. Guy gets turned into a snake, watched it as a kid, scared the hell out of me

  177. 177.

    prostratedragon

    Carnival of Souls is a gem. I read somewhere that the director, who was an experienced maker of industrial movies, was inspired by the miragelike sight of the Saltaire Pavillion.
    Around the same time I found this one I also discovered Eyes without a Face and Lewton’s The Seventh Victim . These are some of my favorites.

  179. 179.

    artem1s

    There is an old Betty Davis film called Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte that I first saw on late night TV in the 70’s. Scared the crap out of me. Don’t remember when I was actually made. Olivia de Havilland and Joseph Cotten are both in it too. Lovely thriller and mystery. Wonderful twisted ending too.

    The original Halloween scared me well after I was out of the theater. Still admire Jamie Lee’s performance. She was the perfect nerdy high school girl. I like that she was willing to keep the series alive despite how campy it became later.

  181. 181.

    StringOnAStick

    Young Frankenstein is in my top 10 movies of any kind; so glad I got to see it in a big theatre as a kid.

    Since I am a person who loves humour and can’t do horror films (I think I remember every second of Alien still), this isn’t my genre however I absolutely love all the Christopher Moore satires of the vampire craze, the supernatural send ups he does, and I’m warming to his current two book Noir series.  My all time favourite of his is A Dirty Job, excellent supernatural fun with some fear and foreboding.  He’s a strong liberal too who would fit in perfectly here based on following him on the twit thing.

  184. 184.

    Citizen Alan

    @Kristine: “Blink” isn’t too bad for me. Basically, what makes it work is extensive use of jump cuts. 1. Show scared face. 2. Show person blink. 3. Show close-up of angel making a monster face and now much closer. I actually found them scarier in “Time of Angels”/”Flesh and Bone” because of the way they terrorized everyone using the voice of Bob the Soldier after they’d already killed him. In “Blink,” we never got a glimpse of the Angels’ interiority, but ToA/F&B revealed the extent to which they were sadists as well as inherently scary.

  185. 185.

    caphilldcne

    Does Night of the Hunter count?  Robert Mitchum scared the bejesus out of me the first time I watched it.

  187. 187.

    Citizen Alan

    @SpaceUnit: There was a Spanish produced version of Dagon that I saw years ago on Syfy, and I was utterly shocked at both its quality and creepiness. Although titled Dagon, the plot was closer to Shadow over Innsmouth.

  188. 188.

    Kristine

    @Citizen Alan: I liked those episodes for a number of reasons, and I agree that the use of Bob the soldier was cold. For me, “Blink” possessed a poignancy that made the Angels’ actions all the more cruel. Billy and Sally in the hospital.

    “It was raining on the day we met.”

    “It’s the same rain.”

  196. 196.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Just finished watching The Barbarian on Netflix and holy shit it was scary as f….

    And goes in a very different direction than it appears, at first.  Well done.  Recommend it to fans of horror.  I was on edge the whole time watching it.

  201. 201.

    JBWoodford

    Ursula Vernon (writing as T Kingfisher) has turned out three very good horror novels recently: “The Twisted Ones,” “The Hollow Places,” and “What Moves the Dead.” They’re inspired by, respectively, Arthur Machen’s “The White People,” Algernon Blackwood’s “The Willows,” and Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher.” She’s got another one coming out early next year: “A House with Good Bones,” though I haven’t heard what inspired that one.

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