the artist formerly known as oneangrykate (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
riseupwithfists) wrote2009-10-24 10:58 am
riseupwithfists) wrote2009-10-24 10:58 am
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Scary movie recs for Halloween!
As Halloween approaches, I have suddenly experienced a resurgence of love for good horror movies. In this post, I will share a few of my favorite non-obvious films (meaning no major Hollywood productions or horror classics, as much as I love them) that are a good fit for the season, with the hopes that people will share theirs in the comments.
I'm not promising that this is the most obscure shit ever (as I'm praising [REC] to the high heavens under the cut and it's pretty well known these days), but I love unearthing scary movies that I might not have heard of before. If I see anything good between now and Halloween, I'll add it to the list.
Ghostwatch: The BBC special that freaked out the whole of England when it aired. I would have *loved* to have seen this without any context on television (and gotten scarred for life, I'm sure). There are some amazing hidden moments in this, almost subliminal. It's a little cheesy now but hey, it was the early 90's, and I think that it's still largely effective. There's a DVD out in the UK now, which leaves many of us out of luck when it comes to seeing this by legal means. cough cough.
Trick R' Treat: This is just coming out on DVD, apparently, but I saw it on the big screen a few months ago, and it is a total treat of a Halloween-set anthology film. It has a great 80's aesthetic, and some great scares (And Anna Paquin, if you like that sort of thing). There isn't a lot of blood, but things are definitely gruesome (and children aren't spared, if this sort of thing bothers you). My GF and I disagreed over the effectiveness/necessity of the intertwined narratives, but overall it's a classic throwback that's really fun to watch.
House/Hausu: Trailer. I saw this at a festival over the summer, complete with a taped message from the director and his daughter (who contributed to the story when she was eleven), and this is hopefully getting a Criterion/Janus release next year. This shit is crazy. No synopsis would do it justice.
Epitaph: a recent South Korean horror that's received very little attention since the Asian horror market bottomed out. Which is a shame, because this is a worthy successor to Tale of Two Sisters. The ending is a little botched and a few jump scares are unnecessary, but this one is all about the atmosphere.
Noroi: So there's a lot of fakeumentaries on my list! Whups. What gives Noroi its edge is that it's presented not as raw found footage but as a completed documentary (albeit with a few "this just in" bits added on). Several plot points slowly converge into a frightening clusterfuck, and the ending. Oh man, the ending. This one is also pretty hard to find.
[REC]: ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES. NONE OF THIS REMAKE SHIT. LIGHTS OUT, SOUND UP, DISBELIEF SUSPENDED. It's a haunted house thrill ride with a surprisingly high rewatch value. I am not joking or exaggerating when I say that I made myself stay awake all night in a well-lit room the night I saw it for the first time because I couldn't handle it. Which never happens to me! I've got a screener of the sequel all set to watch Halloween night in a [REC] double header and I. cannot. wait.
Please feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments! Older movies, foreign movies, indie movies, anything that isn't incredibly well known is welcomed. I'm planning on watching a lot of scary films through the end of the month, so this post will probably be updated until Halloween night. I'm currently checking out some of the great Hammer vampire classics.
I'm not promising that this is the most obscure shit ever (as I'm praising [REC] to the high heavens under the cut and it's pretty well known these days), but I love unearthing scary movies that I might not have heard of before. If I see anything good between now and Halloween, I'll add it to the list.
Ghostwatch: The BBC special that freaked out the whole of England when it aired. I would have *loved* to have seen this without any context on television (and gotten scarred for life, I'm sure). There are some amazing hidden moments in this, almost subliminal. It's a little cheesy now but hey, it was the early 90's, and I think that it's still largely effective. There's a DVD out in the UK now, which leaves many of us out of luck when it comes to seeing this by legal means. cough cough.
Trick R' Treat: This is just coming out on DVD, apparently, but I saw it on the big screen a few months ago, and it is a total treat of a Halloween-set anthology film. It has a great 80's aesthetic, and some great scares (And Anna Paquin, if you like that sort of thing). There isn't a lot of blood, but things are definitely gruesome (and children aren't spared, if this sort of thing bothers you). My GF and I disagreed over the effectiveness/necessity of the intertwined narratives, but overall it's a classic throwback that's really fun to watch.
House/Hausu: Trailer. I saw this at a festival over the summer, complete with a taped message from the director and his daughter (who contributed to the story when she was eleven), and this is hopefully getting a Criterion/Janus release next year. This shit is crazy. No synopsis would do it justice.
Epitaph: a recent South Korean horror that's received very little attention since the Asian horror market bottomed out. Which is a shame, because this is a worthy successor to Tale of Two Sisters. The ending is a little botched and a few jump scares are unnecessary, but this one is all about the atmosphere.
Noroi: So there's a lot of fakeumentaries on my list! Whups. What gives Noroi its edge is that it's presented not as raw found footage but as a completed documentary (albeit with a few "this just in" bits added on). Several plot points slowly converge into a frightening clusterfuck, and the ending. Oh man, the ending. This one is also pretty hard to find.
[REC]: ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES. NONE OF THIS REMAKE SHIT. LIGHTS OUT, SOUND UP, DISBELIEF SUSPENDED. It's a haunted house thrill ride with a surprisingly high rewatch value. I am not joking or exaggerating when I say that I made myself stay awake all night in a well-lit room the night I saw it for the first time because I couldn't handle it. Which never happens to me! I've got a screener of the sequel all set to watch Halloween night in a [REC] double header and I. cannot. wait.
Please feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments! Older movies, foreign movies, indie movies, anything that isn't incredibly well known is welcomed. I'm planning on watching a lot of scary films through the end of the month, so this post will probably be updated until Halloween night. I'm currently checking out some of the great Hammer vampire classics.