Horror Movie & Book Appreciation Thread

Since Halloween is right around the corner, and I didn't want to hijack the movie review thread way off topic, I wanted to create a thread for us to review/compare/suggest/praise good horror flicks.

Personally, I am a big fan of the apocalyptic style horror movies, more than slashers. Slashers have to be inordinately well-done to stand out, although I do enjoy them as well.

By apocalyptic I mean pretty much any scenario where civilization itself is threatened or overrun by some kind of threat. I like that atmosphere of tension and survivalism and how it makes the characters and the audience look at our society in a different light. (Side note, to illuminate what I mean... in a lot of American-setting apocalypse movies, everyone having guns becomes a threat.. other survivors shooting at you, etc. But then in UK flicks the acquisition of guns is typically a theme of the movie, since they're not as easy to come by.)

I will probably write more in-depth comments about these at some point, but a quick list of some of my favorites:

The Stand (novel). Terrific novel, but as usual with King stuff, the screenplay version wasn't up to snuff.

28 Days Later (movie). One of the finest horror movies made since the end of the 80's.

Dawn of the Dead (1979) (movie).

Dawn of the Dead (2004) (movie). I am probably one of the relatively few people who loved both the original and the "re-creation." I thought it adapted as needed to be more realistic in the modern day.

Sunshine (movie). Another Boyle flick like 28 Days Later, but even though the story was very different, the atmosphere felt the same, and the same sort of mass extinction threat was looming. Definitely had some good horror elements, without strictly being a horror movie.

World War Z (novel). One of the most "realistic style" books about an apocalypse scenario out there in the fiction world.

28 Weeks Later (movie.) I put this at the end of the list because I know the common consensus out there was that this movie was "horrid." The thing with me is, I almost NEVER see a movie within a couple months of it being released, so by the time I get around to seeing something, the hype has died down. And after listening to dozens of people saying how bad it was, maybe my expectations got ratcheted downwards, because I really loved this movie when I saw it. I would say it lacked the grit of the original but did an excellent job of continuing the storyline in a way I felt was plausible and close to what I would expect in real life.

I thought "The Ring" movies were pretty creepy. I kept thinking that if I switched it off to go to bed the static would blare on...

I haven't been impressed with very many horror movies, so for now I'll stick to books:

The Book of the Dead (& The Book of the Dead 2) are horror anthologies reflecting on the zombie theme. There are some excellent stories in these books, including a post-apocalypse zombie love story that I fondly recall to this day.

On the anthology kick, the Borderlands series of anthologies are brilliant, 'edgy,' (mostly) horror fiction. Borderlands 2 is by far my favorite, though I think it may be out of print now. The tale about the blow up sex doll serves as a mental guide for me every time I try to write something spare, elegant, and beautiful no matter it's subject. Bentley Little's first significant entry into the horror game is an almost comprehensible and quite horrible story about starting a new job in B2 as well.

The Girl Next Door, by Jack Ketchum is a novel of genuine psychological horror (As opposed to the multitude of claimants to that title which are really just sad little trick 'twists' pulled from the stereotype drawer at the last minute) in which the character you identify with is gradually drawn into tolerating and perhaps even approving of an unimaginable game of torture and sadism without ever fully losing his likability. This novel has some elements in common with Lord of the Flies in that, if you're willing to gently stretch the archetypes, the children in it are all recognizably similar to childhood friends we all had, perhaps even to ourselves, and yet the things they are drawn to do... This is a horrible book that, if you enter unprepared for the realization that it's closely based on real events, might very well poison your mind and perceptions of your friends for a few days before the cloud clears. I recommend it to everyone.

The Damnation Game (Hope that title's okay, mods drop me a line if you want me to * it out) by Clive Barker is, IMHO, his most concise and well paced work. His writing is always very pretty and engaging, but his tendency to extreme wordiness overwhelms the beauty of his writing in later works, even ones I liked (The Great and Secret Show for example). This book, like so many of his, brings an odd sort of old world style to a novel detailing utter depravity in nearly all it's forms.

I also highly recommend every story H.P. Lovecraft wrote. They're free use now so there are places to download them for free if you're willing to read on a monitor. In particular Nyarlathotep and The Doom that Came to Sarnath are two of my favorites.

:egypt:

The Fall of the House of Usher. Short story and the film.

It's the buried alive motif mainly, but also the concept of hearing every tiny scratch of the entombed.

"Shutter" the original Thai version

I had my eyes close most of the time :shame:

Love the we are so screwed genre. Yay for zombie apocalypse or any. My favorite horror movie is probably Jacob's Ladder, so disturbing. As for books, not really my genre, I like these short stories but only when on a trip. But if I can recommend something really unique, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Leaves

For some reason, I really enjoy horror flicks from other countries. For instance, I had a blast with Rec (since remade shot-for-shot and released in the U.S. as Quarantine). And I can't wait for the Swedish vampire flick, Let the Right One In. Any of our Euro Orgahs seen that one yet?

Salem's Lot: By Stephen King, a truly terrifying and magnificent work about vampires in modern (well, when he wrote it) America. Books don't often make me afraid of the dark, even temporarily. This one did.

CR

A couple favorite movies:

Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Night of the Living Dead (1990)
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Event Horizon
The Blair Witch Project
Meet the Spartans
Jacob's Ladder (sadly, I saw the ending from a mile away)
The Ring
Ringu
The Ring 2
The Grudge
The Grudge 2
House on Haunted Hill (1999)
The Shining
Alien
Shaun of the Dead (technically not horror, since it's hard to be scared when you are laughing)


The only two horror novels/stories I need:

World War Z
Masque of the Red Death

Alright, here is my list of viewed movies. I am sure I will miss some.

28 Days & Weeks Later
Diary of the Dead
Dawn of the Dead 79/04
Night of the Living Dead
Return of the Living Dead & Sequels
Day of the Dead (and the two awful "remakes")
Zombies: The dead are among us
Friday the 13th 1 - Jason goes to Hell
Halloween 1 - H20
The Ring 1/2 & Japanese version
Death of a Ghost Hunter (excellent indie movie)
Blair Witch 1 & 2
Pumpkinhead (don't ask)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre, originals & remake (alternate title: Strike for the South on a Saturday Night)
The Quiet Earth
Land of the Dead
Walked with a Zombie
Cabin Fever


So uh, Halloween's coming up. Can anyone recommend any good, underrated horror flicks not in my list?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Koga No Goshi

So uh, Halloween's coming up. Can anyone recommend any good, underrated horror flicks not in my list?

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That's easy enough. Two real killers are coming out this month or next:

Let the Right One In
Timecrimes

I also enjoy Brit horror at times. Two recent examples that rocked:

The Descent
Severance

South Korea turned out a real gem a couple of years ago:

The Host

Definitely worth a watch if you haven't caught it. That link is to an entire scene, one watch and you'll know if you want to see the flick. Speaking of which, you should be able to rent Rec soon, or watch its shot-for-shot remake, Quarantine ...

Rec

How's your experience with J-horror? I see you've got Ringu listed, but have you checked out some of the sterner stuff? Audition pretty much scared the daylights out of me.

Last but not least, there was a cool little horror film made for close to nothing in Atlanta last year, and I had a chance to see it. Not a perfect film, but definitely more original and strange and fun than anything coming out of the studios.

The Signal

I'm willing to bet that there are at least four good films on this list that you haven't seen or heard of.

No mention of the resi series... ?

Granted the first and second are more action than horror films but the last one, resident evil extermination (or it might be extreme something beginning with e...) is similar to the type of films you mention in the op, apoclyptic ones, and is a decent bit better than the first 2 imo....

28 weeks later was amazing in my opinion, i didn't know there where alot of people who didn't like it... as far as i am concerned its one of the best horror/apoclyptic type films ive seen, i saw 28 days after seeing 28 weeks which probably made 28 weeks alot better for me....

Seen the ring's... watched the first one in the cinema and its the only time i have been peaking through the cracks in my fingers at the sreen... went a bit downhill after the first one.... The grudge was also a pretty good watch... quite similar to the ring...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Koga No Goshi

So uh, Halloween's coming up. Can anyone recommend any good, underrated horror flicks not in my list?

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If you've not seen The Shining, you should. Also, Dog Soldiers.

CR

The orphange is probably one of the best horror movies I've seen in a while. Its in Spanish with english subtitles and is made by the same guy who did Pan's Labrynth. Highly recomended.

I completely forgot The Shining. Original Kubrick of course, the King remake was kinda crappy even though it was truer to the book. Great movie.