Full Length Horror Movies - 8. Few filmmakers are more associated with the horror genre to the extent that George Romero is. Though not as eclectic as Carpenter or as prolific as Craven, Romero's influence has manged to seep its way into contemporary cinema (and popular culture as a whole) to a greater degree than any of the aforementioned contemporaries. On a personal level, Romero's films have always remained dear to me. While horror (and specifically 8. His ability to synthesize the horror genre with relevant political commentary greatly appealed to my distinct interests as both a philosopher and devout horror fan. In reverence of the master, I have decided to provide a personal ranking of his films. The 100 best comedy movies, voted for by more than 200 comedy experts who know what it takes to make a great funny movie. Ask horror-movie buffs to name their favorite decade for the genre, and you’ll likely receive a variety of answers. The ’30s had several of Universal’s classic. More than Pac-Man and shoulder pads, the decade gave us many great movies. George's contributions will never be forgotten and he will indeed live on forever through several of his masterpieces. RIP George Romero. Awesomely Crazy '8. Horror Movies. The 1. Slasher films, inspired by the success of John Carpenter’s 1. Halloween, thrived. In fact, they were all the rage for a while. That led to some very popular works, like the Friday the 1. My Bloody Valentine, Prom Night, and Slumber Party Massacre. The problem with slasher flicks, though, was that a lot of them started to feel more or less the same after a while. There was such a strict formula that it grew difficult to find one with an original angle. In spite of that — or possibly because of it — the ’8. Just think of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, Hellraiser, Videodrome, and Blood Beach (in which an unseen creature sucks beach bunnies down into the sand), to name just a few. Believe it or not, those aren’t even the most extreme examples. This list will look at the most joyfully over- the- top fright films from that era. These are the movies that provide entertainment value simply through their sheer insanity. You literally don’t know what bizarre thing you’re going to see from one minute to the next, and that’s what makes them so much fun to watch. If you’re a true horror buff, these are movies you absolutely can’t afford to miss.
Here are 1. 5 Awesomely Crazy ’8. Horror Movies Every Horror Buff Needs To See. Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn. Sam Raimi’s 1. 98. The Evil Dead put him on the map in the film industry. The low- budget picture was efficient and scary, showing how a little creativity can go a long, long way. The film was so successful that Raimi was able to secure financing for a slightly higher- budgeted sequel, Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn. Star Bruce Campbell returns as Ash, and after a brief recap of the original, we find him continuing to fight an unstoppable demon in a proverbial cabin in the woods. Whereas the first Evil Dead was straight- up horror, the sequel mixed blood and gore with Three Stooges- inspired slapstick. In one of the most famous scenes, Ash’s hand becomes possessed, breaking plates over his head, bashing him into a kitchen sink, and tossing him around the room in comical fashion. To halt this problem, he does the most common sense thing imaginable: he cuts the hand off with a chainsaw. The relentlessly- paced mixture of extreme gore and dark comedy was shockingly different than anything audiences had ever seen before. Evil Dead 2 went out unrated because the MPAA thought it was too intense for an R. It still holds a powerful impact today, eliciting laughs and gasps in equal measure thanks to Campbell’s deliriously wacky performance and Raimi’s inventive camerawork. Sleepaway Camp. Sleepaway Campcouldn’t get made today. The 1. 98. 3 shocker is so politically incorrect that no one would have anything to do with it in the current social climate. For starters, it’s about someone killing children and preteens at a summer camp. They die in some really gruesome ways, too. One character is sexually molested with a hot curling iron, while another gets trapped in a bathroom with a hive full of angry bees that sting him to death. There’s also a scene where the camp cook tries to have his way with a young girl. Like we said, it’s kind of astonishing that somebody actually made this movie. What gives Sleepaway Camp its biggest, craziest kick, though, is the ending. We discover her true gender via a nude scene. This was a jaw- dropper of an ending at the time, and it’s even more of one today. Some viewers feel that the story sends a dangerous message suggesting that transgender people might be mentally unstable or dangerous. But some in the trans community have embraced Angela as a groundbreaking character. Regardless, this is such an insane movie that you’ll want to weigh in for yourself. Killer Klowns From Outer Space. Let’s be honest: clowns are creepy. That’s why they keep popping up in horror fare. This horror- comedy understands that, for many, it’s the aggressive humor that makes them more than a little frightening. In this case, the villains are aliens who come to Earth and take the form of clowns (or klowns). They employ the standard tools of the trade to kill human beings. That includes, but is very much not limited to, wrapping their victims up in cotton candy and staging deadly puppet shows. The juxtaposition of using benign circus- related items for nefarious purposes is enough to get under the skin of any clown- phobic viewer. We’re not saying this is a “good” movie, but its unnerving costume design and intentionally zany streak of mayhem make it hard to look away from. Evilspeak. Technology changed rapidly in the ’8. As intriguing as this advanced tech was, it also clearly harnessed a power that most people couldn’t fully wrap their heads around. Evilspeak combined that uneasiness with the good old- fashioned fear of Satan. The result was a film so effective that it got banned in Britain, had to be cut down to secure an R rating in the United States, and reportedly earned the admiration of Anton Le. Vey, the founder of the Church of Satan. Clint Howard plays Stanley Coopersmith, a military school cadet who uses his computer to translate the entries in a Satanic priest’s ancient diary. The priest, it turns out, has somehow inhabited the computer, and he uses his dark powers to influence Stanley. Before long, the cadet is exacting bloody revenge against the school bullies. Evilspeak starts off a little slow, but once it hits Crazytown, it puts the pedal to the floor with some startlingly grisly killings. Everything builds to a no- holds- barred climax involving severed limbs, levitation, and Satanic pigs. How many horror movies can make that claim? Pumpkinhead. One of the greatest movie monsters of all time came out of the 1. That’s because Pumpkinhead wasn’t exactly a box- office blockbuster. He begs a local witch to help him exact revenge. She does by unleashing a gigantic demon known as Pumpkinhead. Things do not end well for those biking enthusiasts. Given Winston’s involvement, it comes as no surprise that the best thing about Pumpkinhead is the creature itself. While the movie may be low- budget, it’s clear that no expense was spared in making this thing look as convincing and horrifying as possible. The monster is strong, too. In one scene, he picks up a dirtbike and its rider, then throws them both against a tree. Perhaps what makes him scariest, though, is that he represents pure, grief- fueled rage. Pumpkinhead brings a ton of mind- blowing gore scenes to the table, but it’s the human element running underneath it all that makes this so much more than your average monster movie. Without Warning. Without Warning (also known as It Came Without Warning) was a cable staple back in the day. Then it kind of fell off the map, failing to procure a DVD/Blu- ray release until just recently. It’s now thankfully available on both formats thanks to Scream Factory. The movie starts with a group of teens, including a young David Caruso, heading to the lake for some fun and sun. A creepy gas station owner (Jack Palance) warns them to stay away. Of course, they don’t listen, leading to catastrophic results. Pretty standard stuff, right? Not entirely. The menace at the lake isn’t some masked psycho. Instead, it’s an alien creature who throws man- eating discs at them. Imagine Frisbees with sharp teeth and you’ll start to get the idea. The disgusting little suckers lay their claws into people and slurp the blood right out. Parts of Without Warning are admittedly a bit cheesy, but not these sections. Director Greydon Clark makes sure to get tight closeups of their teeth sinking into flesh, complete with colored ooze dripping out as they do. Couple that with an awesomely gonzo performance from Jack Palance in full cranky- old- man mode, and you’ve got yourself an insanely good time. This is old- school ickiness at its finest. Phantasm IIDon Coscarelli’s Phantasm movies are all impressively out- there. The original was a super low- budget effort that managed to do some decent business thanks to its trippy visuals and an undeniably creepy performance from Angus Scrimm as a sinister mortician known as the Tall Man. Because of that success, a major studio — Universal Pictures — distributed the first sequel, Phantasm II. Their marketing department came up with one of the most well- known advertising taglines in horror history: “This summer, the ball is back!”The ball refers to the Tall Man’s special orbs that come equipped with drills, spikes, little bone saws, and other things designed to cut, impale, or slice their victims. He hurls them at anyone who comes snooping around his mausoleum. An old man throwing silver balls at people? Horror concepts don’t come much crazier than that. One poor guy gets nailed in the mouth with a ball, which then proceeds to do to the inside of his body what a garbage disposal does to food. There is an intentionally disjointed, nightmare- like quality to Phantasm II that helps make the strangeness of its premise even more palpable. The Tall Man and his weapons are really original, guaranteeing that you will never know what’s coming around the corner. They Live. John Carpenter has made many amazing horror/thriller movies over the decades: Halloween, The Fog, Escape from New York, and The Thing to name a few. By far, though, his wildest and most ambitious idea was the one at the center of 1. They Live. Former professional wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper plays a drifter who stumbles upon a special set of sunglasses. When he puts them on, he is able to see hidden messages such as “OBEY” and “CONFORM” in billboards and other printed material. Even more distressing is that he can see aliens disguised as people. Through investigation, he discovers that they are conducting a large- scale mind control experiment. The story works as a dark satire of mass media, pop culture, and politics. The concept of subliminal messages being embedded into everyday life in order to control the citizenry is biting. That said, perhaps the biggest stroke of genius in They Live is the design. The 2. 5 best horror movies since 2. Ask horror- movie buffs to name their favorite decade for the genre, and you’ll likely receive a variety of answers. The ’3. 0s had several of Universal’s classic roster of monsters. The ’4. 0s had Val Lewton. The ’7. 0s had zombies, and giant sharks, and Texas chain saw massacres. Classics take time to solidify, reputations take a minute to build, and hindsight is 2. Plus, you know, Uwe Boll. But looking over the 2. United States sometime before today and after January 1, 2. Perhaps more than any other genre, horror operates as a mirror of our anxieties—a warped reflection of everything that’s eating away at us as a culture or keeping us all up at night. And there’s been plenty to lose sleep over these past 1. SARS. The list below could easily double as a guide to the fears and phobias of modern life. Its eclecticism is a testament to just how many different ways we’ve been freaked out since Y2. K. Sixteen contributors submitted ranked ballots of their favorite horror movies released in the United States since the year 2. These are not the scariest films of our new millennium, but simply the greatest that happen to occupy the horror genre. As such, we tried to be fairly strict with the definition; films that feel like horror but wouldn’t necessarily be classified as such by IMDB or Netflix—like David Lynch’s two post- 2. Pan’s Labyrinth, or Requiem For A Dream—were excluded. What would your ballot look like? Did we miss anything crucial? Sound off in the comments below. There are those who find Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs to be one of the most unsettling and provocative horror films ever made, and then there are those who haven’t seen it yet. But unlike other extreme horror that relies on shock value and repugnance for its notoriety (A Serbian Film, Human Centipede II), Martyrs isn’t particularly grisly, nor does it wallow in depravity for exploitative button- pushing. The film is almost two movies in one. Depicting a fragile young woman’s efforts to support her friend, who seeks revenge for her abuse as a child, the first half is horror at its simplest and most frightening. But a late and unexpected turn in the story pushes things into utterly new territory, at which point the film becomes horrifying for wholly different reasons. It’s difficult, transcendent, riveting, and never anything but nerve- shredding. And the ending is one for the ages. The genre can be very regressive in its gender politics, if not grotesque and loathsome in its sexism, but the sly Canadian horror- comedy Ginger Snaps cleverly subverts that tradition by positing lycanthropy as an allegory for a girl’s sexual and physical maturation. The film is empowering in its depiction of a world where female sexuality is a potent, violent, and righteous force. And the film inspired a slew of feminist- leaning horror films that addressed gender forthrightly and smartly, including a memorable segment in the horror anthology Trick ’R Treat. The masked assailants trying to gain entry into the vacation home of an unhappy couple (Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler) aren’t particularly memorable; the film’s bare- bones narrative insists upon that anonymity. No, what makes Bryan Bertino’s film seethe with nail- biting tension is the masterful use of space and silence. The home becomes a sieve, a place where a threatening presence can intrude upon the frame from any angle. There are no fancy camera tricks or complicated plot twists, just a slowly building sense of dreadful inevitability. Always hanging back, Bertino lets his two leads stand exposed, the large open spaces behind them always promising to release more terrors. It’s a perfect rejoinder to those who value originality over everything. Going back to basics can reap petrifying rewards, too. Nicole Kidman gives one of her best performances as a widowed mother named Grace, who lives with her two sickly children in an elegant European country house in the mid- 1. WWII. The arrival of eccentric new servants coincides with the family’s increased awareness of some kind of inexplicable presence in the manor, which Grace tries her best to ignore until she’s eventually forced by circumstance to investigate. Writer- director Alejandro Amenabar teases out the mystery and uses old- fashioned effects to give viewers the creeps; but his best asset is Kidman, whose dawning awareness of what’s happening around her helps turn The Others into a poetic portrait of soul- sick grief. Although most of the U. K.’s monsters have now starved to (re)death, and despite the fact that part of London has been successfully turned into a militarized safe zone overseen by the U. S., no one is secure in this horror show. That’s apparent from the film’s masterful intro, wherein a terrified husband (Robert Carlyle) is forced to flee his rural enclave—and abandon his loved ones in order to save himself—and continues once the action shifts to those living under American armed- forces protection, which falters after another undead outbreak. Frantic blasts of cannibalistic action set to squealing guitars generate adrenalized terror, though more chilling still is the overarching allegorical portrait of a United States failing to maintain control over a rabid, rampaging horde of infected- by- madness enemies. May (Angela Bettis) navigates her lonely world with her mother’s voice in her head—“If you can’t find a friend, make one”—assuring her that ending her isolation is simply a matter of will. But finding a friend is easier said than done for a mousy, awkward woman with a misaligned eye, an obsession with antique dolls, and too much enthusiasm for the bloodier aspects of her veterinary gig. By the time May takes her quest for human connection to gory extremes, writer- director Lucky Mc. Kee has already laid a sound foundation of empathy. May is a slasher flick with an inverted perspective, as if Friday The 1. Wolf Creek comes alarmingly close. Greg Mc. Lean’s pitiless Aussie shocker sends a trio of attractive, uncommonly likable twentysomethings into the outer reaches of the Outback, where they’re set upon by a smiling psychopath in a Crocodile Dundee hat. One of a small handful of films to ever earn a straight “F” from Cinema. Score voters, Wolf Creek has proven just a little too sadistic for plenty of viewers. But there’s an unlikely elegance to its construction, Mc. Lean engendering affection for his sacrificial lambs in the long, tension- building hour before they’re led to the slaughter. Unfairly lumped in with the likes of Saw and Hostel, this backwoods gauntlet owes its nightmarish power not just to the “charms” of its cackling human monster (John Jarratt), but also to the unforgiving sprawl of the Australian wilderness. This is the second of three contract killings that form the black heart of British director Ben Wheatley’s one- of- a- kind feature, so of course there’s no shortage of blood here. But this chimera of a film—part naturalistic marital scream- fest, part on- assignment buddy movie, and, most important for our purposes here, part sticks- and- stones conclave in the Wicker Man mode—is most remarkable for its atmosphere of slow- building menace. Paring down the exposition, Wheatley keeps the audience aligned with his in- the- dark hired guns, though every dread- filled frame cries that something’s amiss. Lo and behold, it emerges that what they’ve taken on is, almost literally, the job from hell. In some respects, The Host is Bong’s version of a Godzilla movie; in particular, it boasts a similar origin story, with the monster accidentally created by an American military advisor who cuts corners by pouring 2. In lieu of the lumbering beasts familiar from Japanese monster movies, however, Bong and his effects team fashioned a slimy, fast- moving fish with legs, able to wreak havoc on a smaller, more thrilling scale. And yet it’s arguably the least of the hero’s problems, given the outrageous institutional negligence and incompetence on display throughout the movie. Come for the virtuosic mayhem, stay for the bitter political commentary. Here was an emerging auteur seemingly turning from a serene arthouse aesthetic to make a blood- soaked tale of quasi- cannibals in Paris. Trouble, however, fits neatly into Denis’ preoccupations with examining the limits of human relations. She takes a honeymoon story and plunges it into depravity, uncannily capturing the beauty of dark corners. The film is at times appalling (an act of cuniligus turns carnivorous) but it’s no shock- and- awe ploy. The discomfort that lingers at the end doesn’t just stem from what’s seen on screen but from the all- too human question the film poses: What does it mean to be consumed by desire? Set in an orphanage during the Spanish Civil War, the story ostensibly revolves around a young boy’s attempts to uncover the mystery of the ghost of another child. But even without the specter of a drowned boy skulking the hallways, the whole movie is permeated with dread and the potential for violence. The orphanage is remote and isolated, appearing more as a mausoleum than a refuge. An arid wind blows through every scene, hinting at the inevitable arrival of the war. And despite the Catholic idols that dot the compound, none can overshadow the place’s true patron saint: a massive, diffused bomb that sits in the middle of the courtyard. Del Toro continued his wartime exploration of the tension between fantasy and reality in Pan’s Labyrinth. But the intimacy and fatalistic sadness of The Devil’s Backbone remains unique. The Cabin In The Woods lands closer to the Scream end of the spectrum in that it’s both of and about its genre. Director/co- writer Drew Goddard and co- writer Joss Whedon call out plenty of horror- movie tropes (threatened characters inexplicably splitting up; stereotypical teenagers; a creepy gas station attendant) without subjecting them to snide derision. The movie accumulates clich.
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