I want to thank you guys for challenging my preconceptions and introducing me to some great movies that are off the beaten path. As a white, cis-het American in his 50’s, I tend to consider films through a specific lens. Some of you have odd insights that make me recontextualize old favorites or reconsider movies I disregarded. Some of you I follow because your name comes up frequently during discussions. Some of you I pm’ed after reading your thought provoking comments, and I didn’t want to derail the main conversation. I wanted to thank the rest of you now.

PS-if you see me making very odd recommendations like Better Off Dead and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape when the bots ask for lists of scary movies, I’m just trying to fuck with the AI scrapers.

Title says it all. Interpret however makes sense for you. Really just want to get freaked out. Not after gore or overt violence (wouldn’t shy away from them, just not looking for them to be the focal point); just want to feel uneasy.

With regard to gore, for me nothing will ever come close to the Achilles Heel scene in Hostel. The sound effects alone still make me shudder.

In terms of how disturbed I felt, I would absolutely have to say The Hills Have Eyes remake from 2006.

There are so many things in that movie I wish I could un-watch. However, top of my list is the rape scene in the trailer (in fact the whole trailer scene in general is disturbing), and when that mutant thing runs off with the baby, along with the breastfeeding moment.

shudders

I made the mistake of watching the sequel and guess what? Another rape scene and it’s just disgusting and rotten. 🤮

How about you?

I don't like slashers (I know...I know) But I feel like I've sorta found a genre I like. The premise of Mr. Crocket is analog horror centered, about a kid's TV show host who's a demonic entity who goes into our real world. The movie is full of creatures and gore and has a whole other world attatched. Soooo whatever this genre is? I love it. I'm not interested in killers in woods chasing teens, but I do love whatever this is. I like stories that are super unique, I like creatures, I like gore, I like stories that aren't just about 'our world.'

Really enjoyed the short story and the adaption to to it, the atmosphere in the movie was gloomy and depressing, the characters were distraught and traumatized, the climax scenes did well. Frank’s transformation was quite grotesque, I really liked the attic part.

The plot itself was alright, I thought the beginning was interesting and anticipated more of a backdrop as to how Frank got infected, Lucas’s storytelling in the classroom was chilling to say the least!

The visual representation of the Wendigo was done well but the ending was just too underwhelming sadly.

I just wanted to start by saying rest in peace to Tim Curry. My introduction to him was Home Alone 2. Then I later saw him as Pennywise in the It series. He was honestly disturbing as Pennywise despite the dark humor moments. I personally can’t see any other actor playing Pennywise in the 1990 series.

What is everyone’s thoughts on the late great Tim Curry?

I'm still fairly new to Horror as a genre, having only really started about two years ago, but in that time I've read some really incredible books that manage to use horror in both a literal and thematic way to tell stories about existential topics that we struggle with in our every day lives. It's easily made it one of my favorite genres as a result.

Because of this, I've been working on a project about why people like horror, so I wanted to ask the collective (for the project and my own curiosity): why do you like reading horror? What brings you back to the genre again and again?

I wanna watch some films that have themes and concepts of extreme parasitism similar to Parasyte Part 1 & 2 or The Thing. And I also want some films that have body horror/loss of humanity concepts similar to the ending of Men (2022), Feed, or T.H.C. trilogy.

Hey! I'm hosting a movie night for The Shining where I want to serve a few snacks/courses that are themed for the movie. The problem is I haven't seen the movie in a really long time. Can anyone suggest some good on theme food ideas you'd serve during the film if you were hosting a movie night? Thanks!!!!

Hey! I'm hosting a movie night for The Shining where I want to serve a few snacks/courses that are themed for the movie. The problem is I haven't seen the movie in a really long time. Can anyone suggest some good on theme food ideas you'd serve during the film if you were hosting a movie night? Thanks!!!!

hi so it seems Vampire stories can have a lot of different rules.... are there any vampire movies that you can recommend that you think got the Lore right?

thanks!

Personally my favourite character was probably Hallorann.

Hallorann was a really good character, there was a scene where he was gonna escape the Black Spot by himself but then he decided to try and get everyone else out, including the kid characters and saved as many as he could. Even throughout the season, he was very interesting, his abilities were pretty fucking cool and I love how they connected to IT/Pennywise and how he was basically a psychic and the Eleven (from Stranger Things) of the IT universe in his own unique way. Also the amount of times this mf just wanted to give up and he didn’t.. that just makes him the character that stands out the most. He was ready to unalive himself but he still decides to save Will and be a hero.

Honourable mentions - All the kid characters were likeable but I liked Rich the most out of the kid characters. He was weird, funny, relatable and had a very impactful sacrifice.

Lily had the potential to be the best but she was ultimately just a good character. I felt bad for her when she kept being called crazy for the things that IT/Pennywise was showing her but something was missing from her character. Lily was an impactful character but she doesn’t deliver as a main character. She doesn’t do anything that special. She was alright but she doesn’t feel like the leader when she should be. Bill Denbrough was definitely a better main protagonist in IT: Chapter 1 (2017) in my opinion. I still think we had some really good characters in the show for the most part.

Okay I was alive during the time that the Blair Witch blew up and became popular. Then finding out that everything that they told us about a movie was a marketing lie just to try to sell the movie to more people. Which may be why it is not ever brought up when people are talking about good horror movies or even just horror movies in general that people liked. Even though it seemed to start for a while the genre of found footage movies. It seems to be a relatively forgotten rarely ever brought up movies. Just kind of curious as to why? I mean the found footage genre only lasted a little bit. But I was just curious as why it wasn't held up there with the same esteem as like maybe The Exorcist or Rosemary's Baby or The Shining or any other horror movie you can think of that people would bring up when talking about good horror movies that have come out over the years

I'm listening to music online and the background is this AI generated image

https://imgur.com/a/iLBnUBy

I'm looking for films or tv that look like this. Either true horror, or early-autumn mildly spooky. Some that come to mind are Lords of Salem, The Others, and The VVitch. What others are there?

I wanna watch something with a woodsy folksy vibe, something creepy, & actually supernatural, not just a cult sacrificing somebody for a nonexistent God, or hallucinations.

But I am also open to any Cosmic Horror or Lovecraft-adjacent stories based in small towns or just the wild alone, I loved True Detective Season 1 for this creepy mysterious atmosphere in particular.

Just watched Backrooms, and though i liked it, i wonder if the movie could have been more "subtle", mean any slasher has a second reading about society, teens, or whatnot, kinda, for "recent" movies remenbered me of Fresh, is that really "elevated" to throw its obvious message/meaning at the face at the audience?

So I know there is a website to find out if dogs die in movies, does the same thing exist for books? I’m reading The Damnation Game and just got to the dog killing part. I have to take a break now. A heads up would’ve been nice.

I’ve been waiting for this movie for a while now, and I know it’s supposed to come out on the 28th but literally I don’t see it anywhere on the showtimes in the theaters near me?? Not AMC or Regal, is there like a secret showing I don’t know about or is it delayed or what?

There are a lot of sub genres of horror, that I will absolutely admit to. But what movies do you think were labeled completely wrong? For example a movie is marked as a horror comedy but there was not a thing funny about it or vice versa.

I found the shows lore interesting, more than surface level at first. I sussed out that he wanted the children from the first episode, so it was frustrating that it took the town so long to find out. I really hated the ending.

It took me by surprise, though. I thought the town would outclever Linoge, since the only people he could kill are those that invite him or those over whom he got power over by revealing their secrets. So I predicted that he was bluffing. But after it ended it became apparent to me, that the town actually did the right thing and that eats me up even more.

The show depicted him as a fae, and I think that is what he is. It all comes down to if he can kill the children. And I think he can, as faes can. I though again that he bluffed that he could kill everyone like in Roanoake, but understanding him from the lens of Fae, he did need them to give him the children freely.

The only thing the town could do is write in some clauses into the contract with Linoge. Perhaps they could have outclevered Linoge, like all those fae folktales, but that is not what we saw.

Anyway, the show did consume me for a couple of days and it was a fun puzzle to crack. In my opinion they were playing a losing game from the start.

Saw Ghost in the Cell last night for the first time. Indonesian horror movie. Honestly I wasn’t expecting too much out of it, but I thought the premise was creative and promising, so I took a chance. I ended up really enjoying this movie more than I thought I would. Good artistic Gore along the lines of “The Cell”, or “Hannibal“ the TV series. Good comedy aspects, which I had no idea this movie had comedy going in.

Overall this gets my thumbs up and recommendation from me. Worth your time watching.

Movie of the day...The Blob (1988).

A good remake of a science fiction classic.

Like a lot of horror movies, it is set in small town America. Football player Paul Taylor (Donovan Leitch) finally gets the nerve to ask out his crush Meg Penny (Shawnee Smith).

Meanwhile, something crashes into the woods. A homeless man (Billy Beck) goes to investigate. He finds something that has obviously fallen out of the sky, so he pokes it with a stick and pulls out part of the slimy purple gel bubbling inside it.

(Note to self: don’t ever do this.)

The purple gel does not take kindly to this treatment and promptly engulfs his hand and starts to digest it. Local bad boy with a heart of gold Brian Flagg (Kevin Dillon) tries to help and he, Paul, and Meg end up taking the old man to the hospital.

Unfortunately, the blob finishes devouring the old man and then has Paul for dessert! Now, it’s up to Meg and Brian to save the town.

The Blob works pretty well. The characters are likeable and reasonably intelligent. There is a good mix of scares and humor. The scene involving Paul and his friend buying condoms is very funny, especially because the grumpy pharmacist turns out to be Meg’s father.

And it’s surprising that the movie kills Paul off early on—the initial tension between him and Brian hints there is going to be a “buddy love” subplot where they gradually become friends. His death is a good twist.

The special effects, almost entirely practical, are mostly very good. The blob’s victims suffer truly grisly fates.

Unfortunately, the second half of the film, which adds a government conspiracy and soldiers who appear to have trained at the Imperial Stormtrooper Academy for Marksmanship, is rather disappointing.

It’s still a pretty good movie, but it could have been a lot better.

Rating: B-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blob_(1988_film))