October Movie Mixtape

In the vein of musicals, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street straddles the line between black comedy, straight-up horror and tragedy, and is for my money the greatest American musical of the last forty years. Burton's version is fantastic, and with the exception of Helena Bonham Carter everyone from Depp to Rickman to Baron Cohen sings beautifully well. Listening to the OST right now, in fact.

Last edited by Abbie (2014-09-15 14:51:55)

She's all right. Really, it's less that her voice isn't up to it (though IMO she's far too weak and breathy) and more that she's trying to step into shoes previously filled by Angela Lansbury and Patti LuPone, and of course she's going to lose that contest.

Parents, Randy Quaid movie from the eighties.  I watched this one at a very young age and never went back because it was so unsettling and confusing to me at the time, but I think it's a horror comedy.  Ugh...weird.

The original Toolbox Murders is good retro slasher trash, my friends and I would laugh our ass off during the bath tub scene.

Caught the french flick Inside recently, really solid gore effects and horrible baby cgi.

Deadgirl is a really solid alt-horror movie, great fx, solid soundtrack and ultimately a pretty sweet story.  Different.
P.s. There is penetration to an oozing wound. 

Others that probably have been seen by all, but worth checking out in case you missed em': Slither, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, Return of the Living Dead, Drag Me To Hell, and two franchise documentaries that are better than almost all entries in the series; Never Sleep Again: Nightmare on Elm Street doc and Crystal Lake Memories: Friday the 13th doc, both excellent.

I spent most of my life not watching much in the way of horror, because it wasn't a genre I found really interesting. The past couple of years have been a horror period for me, but I can't put my finger on why I keep coming back. Horror films are never successful. I can laugh at a comedy, I can get emotionally invested in a drama... I can't get scared by a horror movie. I really like the idea of a scary movie but I haven't found one yet.

Anyway, I don't know what you have and haven't seen, so this is just a random sampling of stuff I've seen fairly recently, mostly ignoring the obvious staple-type things, especially when DiF has done them. Like The Shining or The Fly. These are not in any particular order.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - Goes well with Nosferatu.
Re-Animator - Super fun horror-comedy. Jeffrey Combs at his best.
We Are What We Are - Super pretentious and will have you in hysterics during the climax.
The Wicker Man - The Christopher Lee one, not the fucking Nic Cage one. Really bizarre, atmospheric film that's genuinely unsettling.
The Innkeepers - Slow burn haunted house that does a lot right and an equal amount wrong. Sara Paxton is charming and almost enough to carry the film.
The Conjuring - Nice subtle poltergeist movie for most of the run-time. Not perfect, but well-crafted with a strong cast.
Black Death - Interesting for being a medieval horror movie. Not entirely successful, but pretty engrossing.
Pumpkinhead - Full-on eighties monster movie. Great creature, directed by Stan Winston himself. Stars Lance Henriksen, who does anything but phone it in.
The Others - Well-acted, well-shot, solidly twisty plot.
Any Evil Dead movie - 2 is the best for comedy value. 1 is interesting for the way it overcomes budgetary issues. Remake is fascinating to watch when you have the context of the other two, even if it isn't the strongest example of the genre. Avoid Army of Darkness at all costs.
The Perfect Host - Watch it for David Hyde Pierce. He's incredible in this movie.
Nightmare on Elm Street - The first one, the remake, and Wes Craven's weird meta commentary on the franchise, New Nightmare, are all worth checking out. I can't vouch for the sequels, I only saw the second one and it was miserable.
Spider - More Cronenberg for you. Ralph Fiennes is phenomenal in this.
Below - Trey recommended this on Pitch Black, and it is really good. Haunted house in a submarine directed by David Twohy. Starring Olivia Williams, who I have such a crush on.

Guess that's probably enough for now. Also, Manhunter doesn't really count as horror, I don't think. It's more of a thriller.

One of my all-time favorite movies.

The uncut version, preferably, but I don't know how available it is now. The normal version was sliced to hell by distributors who just wanted the movie to go away, but Roger Corman turned out to have a deteriorating copy of the original in storage. The new scenes improve things immensely.

Lady, I'm afraid I'm gunna have to ask you to leave the store!

I can still get into AoD, but I know what you mean.  Never liked it as much as other cohorts, really just the marketable climax of Ash.  However, I do give him much credit for not attempting to remake the original Evil Dead again!  Although now that I type it, fuck, that would be an awesome trilogy made of the same movie.  Just to throw Raimi a bone or two, Darkman and A Simple Plan are truly great movies, director not withstanding entirely.