| Author | Message | ||
     Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.209.217 |
It's not even Halloween but Yahoo's movies section has put up a nice little article about the best horror movies to come out of our septic isle. It's actually written by someone who seems to know what they're talking about, too: http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/blog/article/21596/greatest-british-horror-films.html Can anyone think of any glaring omissions from the list? Has the reviewer missed out any major classics? | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
The Queen of Spades? Certainly ghostly... | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 213.122.209.76 |
Peeping Tom? | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 82.11.104.243 |
Was Night of the Eagle a British production? | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
List time! Great!! A happy way to fritter away my last morning in work before the Summer Hols...  Top 10 British Horror Films: 1. 'Night Of The Demon' (1957) by Jacques Tourneur 2. 'Don't Look Now' (1973) by Nicholas Roeg 3. 'The Wicker Man' (1973) by Robin Hardy 4. 'The Witchfinder General' (1968) by Michael Reeves 5. 'The Innocents' (1961) by Jack Clayton 6. 'Peeping Tom' (1960) by Michael Powell 7. 'The Devil Rides Out' (1967) by Terence Fisher 8. 'Blood On Satan's Claw' (1970) by Piers Haggard 9. 'House Of Mortal Sin' (1975) by Pete Walker 10. 'Hellraiser' (1987) by Clive Barker ...other British horror films in my Top 100 (yep, it exists, and is constantly changing): 'Frightmare', 'Dead Of Night', 'Repulsion', 'To The Devil A Daughter', 'House Of Whipcord', 'Dracula', 'Theatre Of Blood', 'Death Line', 'Dracula, Prince Of Darkness', 'Frenzy', '10 Rillington Place', 'From Beyond The Grave', 'Shaun Of The Dead', 'The Fearless Vampire Killers', 'Dust Devil' & 'Blood Of The Vampire'. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
Oooo, now I'm getting all nostalgic for those great old Brit horror flicks. Not sure if I mentioned here before but I picked up a great book at the Fantastic Films Weekend last month - "The Shrieking Sixties" ed. Darrell Buxton. It provides great reviews of lots of Brit horrors from the sixties - many I'd never even heard of, and some I'd forgotten but was pleased to be reminded of. I think you can pick it up from the BHF website? Nice list, Stevie. Has everyone forgotten the wonderful Amicus studio productions? | ||
| Paul_finch (Paul_finch) Username: Paul_finch Registered: 11-2009 Posted From: 92.9.132.151 |
What was so great about the 'golden era' from which these movies sprang, is that many American horror movies were also shot over here. Okay, there was the tax break thingy going on that we don't have now, but many US horrors then were unashamedly set in the UK and used loads of UK talent. All the Amicus movies - TALES FROM THE CRYPT, ASYLUM, VAULT OF HORROR etc - even though based on American comics and funded with American money - were shot and set in Britain. No-one had any qualms about this not making them saleable over in the States. American-funded Vincent Price classics like THEATRE OF BLOOD and THE ABOMINABLE DR PHIBES were done the same way. MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH was again an American movie, but though it was set in medieval Italy, it was filmed over here and packed with British talent (and might as well have been set in good old Lancashire given the murky fog and leafless woods. A yearn for a return to that unique British tradition in horror (preferably one where chavs on sink housing estates, or on luxury yachts donkey-punching airheads, only have a peripheral role). | ||
| Patrick Walker (Patrick_walker) Username: Patrick_walker Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 217.171.129.73 |
The BBC's made-for-tv production of The Woman in Black should surely be near the top of anyone's list of British Horror films. Surely! | ||
| Paul_finch (Paul_finch) Username: Paul_finch Registered: 11-2009 Posted From: 92.9.132.151 |
THE WOMAN IN BLACK is an undoubted classic. Infuriates me that it still isn't available on Region 2 DVD. | ||
| Patrick Walker (Patrick_walker) Username: Patrick_walker Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 217.171.129.73 |
It remains, probably, the most purely frightening viewing experience of my life. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
Have you seen The Woman In Black on stage, Patrick? It's damn scary too. If we're including made-for-TV films, then the Lawrence Gordon Clark directed Ghost Stories for Christmas must rate as some of the best. "Lost Hearts" is my particular favourite there. And if we're talking of things directed by LGC, how about Chimera, the adaptation of Stephen Gallagher's novel? Very creepy. Steve's Oktober, adapted by him from his own novel and directed by him too, must surely rate as well? | ||
| Barbara Roden (Nebuly) Username: Nebuly Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 142.179.5.235 |
Can THE HAUNTING be considered a British film? It was made by Argyle Enterprises and distributed by MGM, filmed in Britain with a mostly British cast and crew. Wikipedia lists it as a British film, for what that's worth. I remember reading somewhere the reason why Jackson's American-set novel was filmed in England - something to do with budget constraints, or not being able to find an American studio willing to make the film - but can't for the life of me recall the details, or find them. | ||
| Paul_finch (Paul_finch) Username: Paul_finch Registered: 11-2009 Posted From: 92.9.132.151 |
I was thinking of mentioning THE HAUNTING, but I'm pretty sure it was American financed. It was of course set in the States too, as per the novel. The house itself is still used as a popular country hotel, and looks almost no different from the way it did in the movie. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.5.0.72 |
Never heard of THE WOMAN IN BLACK, but it's all on youtube, starting here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6jAM-aQLbc Looks like something I'd like to see.... | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.16.9.58 |
Can't believe no one has mentioned Lesbian Vampire Killers yet. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.122.209.76 |
I could contribute to this thread but I'd be here all night and a lot of my favourites have already been listed. Even though it's not exactly a good film I must mention Psychomania Partly because the entirety of 'Profondo Probert' Column 3 in a future issue of Prism is going to be devoted to it, but mainly because there's a new Region 1 DVD on the way with extras, interviews and (oh yes!) John Cameron performing some of his score and (oh yes even more!) Harvey Andrews singing a new version of the immortal classic (for all the wrong reasons) Riding Free!!! And it's going to be out in time for my birthday!!! | ||
| Patrick Walker (Patrick_walker) Username: Patrick_walker Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 217.171.129.73 |
My list would also include Repulsion and, though not a horror film in any conventional sense, Seance on a Wet Afternoon, which is scarier, more creepy, disturbing and atmospheric than a hundred Hostels. It's a wonderful little movie and that inimitable sense of English gloom pervades the whole thing. In fact it's probably my favourite British film full stop. I think it also contains Richard Attenborough's best performance, more so than 10 Rillington Place even. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 220.138.161.140 |
The Asphyx Quatermass and the Pit | ||
| Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 69.236.170.165 |
"Woman in Black" does look good . . . . I'd also count "Vampire Lovers" among my favorite late Hammer productions. | ||
| Patrick Walker (Patrick_walker) Username: Patrick_walker Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 217.171.129.69 |
Please don't watch any of The Woman in Black on YouTube. I'd rather lend someone my dvdr copy than have them watch it "online". | ||
| Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 69.236.170.165 |
Oh, I agree, online transmissions always look grainy and generally bad, but it gave a taste of what the film might be like. I wouldn't watch the whole thing that way. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.229.60 |
Patrick, I liked slices and portions of SEANCE, but I found it, overall, a little tedious, and heavy-handed.... But yes, most certainly definitely positively Huw - QUATERMASS AND THE PIT!!!!!! | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
I have to agree almost entirely with Patrick. 'Seance On A Wet Afternoon', which I saw for the first time last year and raved about on here at the time (look it up), is a criminally underrated classic of 1960s British cinema and contains two of the best acting performances, from the leads, it has ever been my pleasure to watch. I would rank it right alongside '10 Rillington Place' & 'Brighton Rock' as part of an unholy trinity of peerless psychotic nutter roles for Richard Attenborough - but in this one Kim Stanley was even better. Another great British horror in the same vein and equally underrated, in my view, is the Boulting's 'Twisted Nerve' - including possibly my favourite horror soundtrack (it's just outside the Top 100). | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.35.255.146 |
I'm alone in disliking Woman in Black, the film. It's flat as a pancake (I found the book exhilaratingly atmospheric and creepy). | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.35.255.146 |
House that Dripped Blood was great. We watched that last year and I'd forgotten how eerie it was. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.35.255.146 |
With horror it's a bit pick n mix, isn't it? So many are flawed, we have to forgive them and take from them the good things that are there. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.79.125.234 |
You're not alone about Woman in Black. There's one scary scene, but otherwise, it's limp. I saw the play in London a couple of months back - lots of fidgeting, whispering teenagers didn't help the mood. At the interval one said to the other "this is just like a 3D film." | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 61.216.51.33 |
I think the film is very good (better than the book). There are many creepy moments. I would love to see the play version. | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.158.238.131 |
I love Stephen Gallaghers' books but I don't think either Chimera or Oktobers' adaptations came near to matching the books.. gcw | ||
| Paul_finch (Paul_finch) Username: Paul_finch Registered: 11-2009 Posted From: 92.9.132.151 |
Speaking of which, I'm delighted to say that one of my favourite Hammer films ever will be released on DVD for the first time in a couple of months. THE GORGON, starring Cushing, Lee, the luscious Barbara Shelley and the wonderful Patrick Troughton. Been waiting for this one for yonks. Though there are all kinds of technical problems with it, I'm fond of any movie that terrified me as much (as a child) as this one did. I think that probably owes more to the Gorgon being, for me at least, the most frightening monster in all of mythology, but who cares ... I've already got my order in. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.79.6.141 |
The original CLASH OF THE TITANS stands up very well, particularly inside Medusa's temple - Harryhausen's best work - one of the great horror scenes. Perhaps listing the best horror film is a mistake - best horror moments might be more apposite. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.247.89 |
I don't think anyone's mentioned Plague of the Zombies, not a great film but strong both in its underlying social metaphor and its ground-breaking (er, literally) graveyard scene. A favourite of mine. I'd also like to put in a mention for The Monster Club, a horror comedy that riffs (again, literally) on rock/horror films like Phantom of the Paradise as well as on the atmospheric likes of Dead of Night. It's based on a very fine R. Chetwynd-Hayes novel, and its has production values and pitch-black humour poured over it from above the sky. One of the three embedded narratives is shot in colour on a totally grey set! There's a sour final message about the monstrosity of humans! There's a sentimental bit with a humgoo (human-ghoul hybrid)! And a road sign pointing to a village called Loughville! And a monster who whistles... and does nothing else abnormal! As much fun as you can have this side of the law (and the grave). | ||
| Patrick Walker (Patrick_walker) Username: Patrick_walker Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 217.171.129.70 |
As terrifying as the film of The Woman in Black is to my mind, nothing could compare with the hideously abrupt ending of Hill's novel. By Crom, that really shook me. Very, very disturbing. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
'Twisted Nerve', 'Plague Of The Zombies', 'And Now The Screaming Starts', 'Carry On Screaming' (sublime!), 'The Sorcerers', 'The Curse Of Frankenstein', 'The Mummy', 'Curse Of The Werewolf', 'The Reptile', 'Dr Terror's House Of Horrors', 'Dog Soldiers', 'The Abominable Doctor Phibes', 'The Witches', 'The Flesh And The Fiends', 'The Descent', '28 Days Later', 'Torture Garden', 'The Hound Of The Baskervilles', 'The Gorgon', 'The Monster Club', 'Terror', 'Eye Of The Devil', 'The Mummy's Shroud', 'The Gorgon', are all in the... yeah, you guessed it. I haven't read or seen 'The Woman In Black' (film or play) and wonder which of the three media it comes across best in? A three-way treat in store. | ||
| Patrick Walker (Patrick_walker) Username: Patrick_walker Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 217.171.129.70 |
The book for sure. Then the Film. The play is great theatre but its "scares" rely on "boo tactics" if you ask me. The creeping dread of the film is hard to beat. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
Ah, The Monster Club! Thanks for reminding me of that one, Joel. I always include it in my top ten, but my brain's pretty scrambled at the moment so it had popped out of my mind. You've summed the film up perfectly. I love it! | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.234.38 |
Quatermass and the Pit, definitely. It's full of great ideas and the climax is incredible. | ||
| Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.209.217 |
Still not seen that, although of course 'Tales From Beyond The Grave' was based on a bunch of Chetwynd-Hayes stories. A very underrated writer, IMHO. Also a really lovely performance from Peter Cushing, playing decidedly against type. | ||
| Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.209.217 |
Sorry, Hubert, crossed posts there- I was referring to 'The Monster Club'. Although 'Quatermass And The Pit' is a joy as well... | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.122.209.76 |
I'm sure I've mentioned this before but 'The Monster Club' is interesting for all sorts of reasons, not least because it was the final death knell for a particular type of British horror cinema. The fact that the bookshop window at the beginning actually has a fine collection of Chetwynd-Hayes books on display just as his work was becoming less popular and led to him being dropped from Fontana and taken up by William Kimber as pretty much a 'library lending only' writer gives that scene an added poignancy too. The music is an eclectic mess, to be charitable, but Douglas Gamley's last orchestral score for Subotsky comes across as all the more poignant and melancholy in the Shadmock segment, and you can't help but feel that Roy Ward Baker was all at sea with the nightclub scenes and the awful sub-Generation Game 'funny' episode in the middle. Did I also mention that I love it? | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
'Quatermass And The Pit' is the second best film Hammer Studios ever produced, after 'The Devil Rides Out, imho. BUT it is more of a sci-fi movie than horror, though brilliantly reinventing some of horror's great themes. Much as Richard Matheson did in 'I Am Legend' and the various film adaptations. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 61.216.44.83 |
I've always seen Quatermass and the Pit as a horror film with SF elements, myself. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.131.109.205 |
I've got Monster Club but not watched it yet! Excellent. I watched The Mist last night, in many ways a well crafted horror film. But will I ever love it? I think sadly not. It's great if horror scares or upsets, but to generate 'love' in you is something else altogether. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.15.37 |
One film which is not strictly a horror film but which shares the structure and intensity of one is NOTES ON A SCANDAL. The relationship between Blanchett and Dench is menacing, and the 'epilogue' reminescent of those of CARRIE and MISERY, etc. Great film. | ||
| Patrick Walker (Patrick_walker) Username: Patrick_walker Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 217.171.129.68 |
I like this idea. It reminds me of The Secret Horror Writers thread a while back. And I agree with regards to Notes on a Scandal. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.5.0.121 |
Your mentionings of NOTES ON A SCANDAL has reminded me for some reason of A PASSAGE TO INDIA - beautiful film, and one that might qualify, selected portions of it at least, as horror.... | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.5.0.121 |
There you go. You mentioned THE MIST, Tony. Now I must gather up my bent-and-rusty-nails-poking-out giant club, and go hurt yet another innocent bystander... why must you make me do these things, Tony?... | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
'A Passage To India' is the one David Lean film I haven't seen. I had no idea it was in any way macabre or menacing! | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.15.37 |
Well, there's this scene with monkeys . . . | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.15.37 |
A lot of Forster is subtly ghostly. I recall that wonderfully mysterious line from Howards End: "I feel that we're all part of that woman's mind . . . " | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.5.13.178 |
It's not a horror movie, Stevie, by any means. But, it has a core of something very mysterious, and eerie, and menacing... with an emphasis on mysterious, I think.... And the flavor of this mysteriousness is the same flavor you find in PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK, the closest analogy, imho.... A beautiful film containing my all-time favorite female actress: Judy Davis. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
I'm going to make a point of seeking out 'A Passage To India' post haste. The only reason I haven't seen it is because the opportunity never arose all these years. I love David Lean's epic sense of pure cinema, going right back to his, never bettered, Dickens adaptations. Right, as my next project, a list of all the GREAT movies I really should have seen but still haven't... Haven't read any Forster. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.235.250 |
What I've heard are great movies I really should have seen, but haven't yet? Top five greatest?... Good idea, Stevie... um, I'd say at this moment in time, mine are GREED (1924) NAPOLEON (1927) CITY LIGHTS (1931) SHANE (1953) GIANT (1956) (This is actually an embarrassing list - now everyone knows a bit of what basic basics I lack!... can we list our five favorite sex acts, instead?...)  | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
I've only seen two of those myself, Craig, 'City Lights' & 'Shane' - both, yes, masterpieces. My favourite Chaplin is 'Modern Times' but 'City Lights' is the one that most chokes me up, as too does 'Shane'... wonderful cinema at its most unashamedly melodramatic! | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
Craig, at the moment the problem with Napoleon seems to be that the only available version is projected at sound speed - it's so awful that the British DVD distributor withdrew it from release as soon as the review copies had gone out. Films I hope to see but haven't yet: M (Losey) Out One: Spectre (Rivette) Douglas Sirk's German films (four of which are available on French DVD but, alas, subtitled only in French), including the post-Hollywood work Pleins Feux sur L'Assassin (Franju) the various Feuillade serials yet to be released on DVD | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.245.119 |
I did find an online youtube-ish site that had NAPOLEON, Ramsey - Japanese site, I can't understand any of it, but the fact that you can see the film there, with the Coppolla score - is that the one you're talking about? I'd heard it's been tied up in some legal issues for a long time, and the chances of us getting it in the States before you did in in the U.K. were slim.... Ah, I know where to score a copy of Losey's M, so give me a little time, I'll secure you one. Pretty good film, reminded me of He Walked By Night in its structure and pacing... a sort of main protagonist-less film.... | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.131.109.71 |
Shane is great, and the little I've seen of Giant was like a big weird dream. It even had a horrifying Hanging Rock moment with a crazy woman going off on a horse and not coming back on it. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
There are still loads of great movies I have yet to see. From the silent era alone I can think of: 'Intolerance', 'The Spiders', 'The Golem', 'Haxan', 'The Phantom Carriage', 'The Iron Horse' & all the silent Hitchcock's apart from 'The Lodger' as well as many, many Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd and Laurel & Hardy shorts. I wouldn't know where to start in the sound era... | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
The only sound Hitchcock I've never seen is 'Topaz'. Also I've only seen the silent Mabuse movie but neither of Lang's two sound follow-ups! 'Island Of Lost Souls' remains a tantalising mystery. Polanski's 'Macbeth', Peckinpah's 'Junior Bonner', Bertolucci's 'The Conformist', Bava's 'Baron Blood', Argento's 'Four Flies On Grey Velvet', and more recently Fincher's 'Zodiac' or Cronenberg's 'Eastern Promises', amongst many, many more... | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
I've never seen the Godfather (or any of the sequels) or Citizen Kane. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.228.134 |
Yes, Shane is a great movie. "So you're Jack Wilson." "What does that mean to you, Shane?" "I've heard about you." "What have you heard, Shane?" And James Dean is simply unforgettable in Giant. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
How I envy you, Weber... you lucky man! I've seen all four many times with a never decreasing joy - even 'The Godfather Part III' gets better with each viewing imo. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
I know it's a cliché but the ending of 'Shane' gets me every time... it's just so wonderfully understated and heartbreaking. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
Shane's another one I've never seen. Come to think of it, it's not just Citizen Kane, I've never seen anything by Orson Wells - that I know of. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.228.134 |
Pacino is excellent in The Godfather, but in the sequel he's simply stunning. The Godfather II may well be his finest hour. Seek them out, weber, you won't be disappointed. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.242.232 |
Of those you mention that I've seen, Stevie.... THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE - a truly bizarre film, uneven, but worth seeing (I loved those silent Mabuses!) Polanski's MACBETH - must see! right now! BARON BLOOD and FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET - both big disappointments, for such great directors ZODIAC - a wonderful film, maybe Fincher's second best (next to SE7EN) EASTERN PROMISES - I'm in the minority on this, but - meh. Hugely overrated, and flawed. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.173.82.150 |
I like Topaz a lot. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
Come to think of it, I've never seen Welles version of 'Macbeth' either! If it's anything like his sublime adaptation of 'Othello' it must be something to behold. Also yet to see 'Mr Arkadin' and 'Chimes At Midnight'. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.173.82.150 |
Giant is superb. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
Haven't seen it or 'East Of Eden'! | ||
| Patrick Walker (Patrick_walker) Username: Patrick_walker Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 91.103.168.21 |
Personally I think Se7en isn't a patch on Zodiac. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
About to watch another recent, highly thought of, movie I've never seen before. Had it on DVD for a while but now seems the right time: 'Them' (2005) directed by David Moreau & Xavier Palud. Thoughts to follow... | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.244.89 |
Orson Welles' OTHELLO is a strange, strange version - it's like an avante-garde version of the play. The better ones are: the Olivier version, though it's not comparable to the three he directed earlier - still great though. But the best filmed OTHELLO I've seen...? The BBC one, with Anthony Hopkins as Othello and Bob Hoskins as Iago - not only is it mind-blowing, but it's the best of all the Shakespeare plays that the BBC did in that series. Maybe I'm waxing too greatly, but what Hopkins did with that Othello role, is like, you could say, what Beethoven did with a symphony. Though not often seen and less referred to, it is (imho) the greatest role Hopkins has ever done, in anything, ever. | ||
| Patrick Walker (Patrick_walker) Username: Patrick_walker Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 217.171.129.70 |
I think the BBC Othello is great. My only beef with it is that the soliloquys weren't played to camera. My personal favourite screen adaptation of Othello is the RSC/BBC production starring Ian McKellan. His Iago is one of the two greatest televised Shakespearean performances I've seen, the other being Antony Sher's Macbeth. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
Enjoyed that! I'd call 'Them' a superior exercise in sustained suspense, very good indeed. A memorable one for the "evil children" list. | ||
| John (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.1.217 |
Most of my choices for a top ten have been mentioned above, although it's a shame there isn't more love for THE SHOUT, which was always a favourite of mine. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.122.209.76 |
I quite like THE SHOUT John! Alan Bates is always worth watching, and I especially like the setting of the rain-drenched cricket match for the story. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
Yep, I've always thought 'The Shout' was sadly underrated and a really interesting movie. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.122.209.76 |
The Robert Graves short story on which it's based is worth a read too, as are the rest of the tales in his 'Collected Short Stories' | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
Did Graves write much genre material, John? I remember reading one of his stories called 'Earth To Earth' (1956) in the 6th Fontana Horror Book. It was a rather good macabre black comedy about a couple of over-zealous gardening enthusiasts. | ||
| Giancarlo (Giancarlo) Username: Giancarlo Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 85.116.228.5 |
What about Wolf Rilla's "VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED" (phosphorescent eyes FX forgiving?). It was sci-fi/horror but I, as an adolescent (so maybe my evaluation is biased) got infected by the horror side of the story (from J. Wyndham's novel of course) as something still lingering down my backbone. Great performances from George Sanders and, soon to be the most accomplished Hammer Horror Lady, Barbara Shelley. | ||
| Giancarlo (Giancarlo) Username: Giancarlo Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 85.116.228.5 |
By the way, as a post-thought, Wyndham's novel was a favourite one to none less than Carl Gustav Jung (understandably, I'd add...) | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
VOTD is one of those films that frightened the bejesus out of me as a child and will always remain a favourite - I listed it 3rd in my scary children Top 10. But I'd rank it along with 'Invasion Of The Body Snatchers' or Heinlein's 'The Puppet Masters' as scary sci-fi rather than pure horror. | ||
| Giancarlo (Giancarlo) Username: Giancarlo Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 85.116.228.5 |
J. Moxey's HORROR HOTEL (though quite not a very good one, as I see it now) scared me to sleeplessness a few nights in a row. It's from there I decided Horror would be my turf beside sci-fi. I dove later into Horror entirely after watching D. Siegel's BODY SNATCHERS, W. Rilla's VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (as said above, sci-fi being a mere context to plots), the same as with V. Guest's QUATERMASS II, then R. Wise's THE HAUNTING, J. Tourneur's NIGHT OF THE DEMON, S. Hayers's NIGHT OF THE EAGLE and, last but not least (but I am not even following a chronological order), M. Bava's BLACK SUNDAY. Beside watching movies, I was actually reading sci-fi (the Urania news-stand serial, the sci-fi equivalent of giallos), but I soon abandoned Urania because of the novels becoming too techno/sociological, futurity turning to futurism, even mysticism: as an instance, J. Finney and J. Williamson delivered just as R. Heinlein's did too, but I. Asimov was boring, and so many with him. Sci-fi was becoming "serious", even respectable, after years of rejection as sordid writing which could only appeal to the unhealthy-minded, or make one so. There was a time I had to hide my books. When at last sci-fi became a literary subject for university papers, I changed my tack to pure Horror, I did not want to become respectable: I needed something appealing to my spine, beside my cerebrum. That was in Italy, at least. I'm wondering if even Horror is now undergoing the same process of becoming tame. Maybe yes in the general but there are Authors and Works keeping their battle station in Horror even in the face of being morally damned to the stake. That's what's great in Horror. By the way, heretic monk Giordano Bruno underwent such fate in Rome (year 1600) for opposing the authority of the Church. Immense man! | ||
| Giancarlo (Giancarlo) Username: Giancarlo Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 85.116.228.5 |
It's my impression nobody cares. Well, understandably so! I was not meaning to become a cynosure of all attention! Joking, of course! | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.122.107.152 |
Sorry Giancarlo! I used to love Horror Hotel (City of the Dead) but have been saddened to find that every dvd of it is awful. My old vcr recording was better than the ones I've bought. It's funny, but one time I showed a friend of mine four of the films you mention; Eagle, Haunting, Demon (and Hotel); I told him they were my outright favourites (at the time). They just had a mood nothing else seemed to have. He really liked them. Can I say, where are the eerie films of today? The Don't Look Now's and the like? I don't think we have any. All we do is keep trying to be nasty but seem incapable of anything else. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
Sticking in Britain they're difficult to find but Richard Kelly is very good at the eerie. He just needs to keep a bit more ambuiguity - compare Donnie Darko directors cut with so much more exposition to the original... The original is so much better. the biggest flaw with the Box is the amount of top level information he tries to shovel through. the film could have been a classic with more ambiguity to it. It was one of the most eerie films I saw last year. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
Tony, the VCI Region 1 DVD of City of the Dead is a beautiful transfer - the only one to have. Recent British eeriness - I'd certainly say Triangle, though it has a few moderately gory deaths as well. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
I found 'Antichrist' indescribably eerie and compared it to 'Don't Look Now' when I first saw it. The few notoriously nasty scenes really aren't representative of the rest of the film with its unsettling beauty. Also Michael Haneke's 'The White Ribbon' is possibly the most eerie film I have ever seen - certainly in the Top 10. Many of the subtler Asian horrors also have that genuine eerie quality imo e.g. 'A Tale Of Two Sisters'. | ||
| Giancarlo (Giancarlo) Username: Giancarlo Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 85.116.228.5 |
I hope I'm not forcing the thread. On the reading side, there were no newsstand Horror publications in Italy (it was around 1970 and me aged 20) comparable to the Giallos or Urania sci-fi. There were the odious serials "KKK Classics of Horror" (why the three Ks?) and "The Tales of Dracula" which, despite assumed foreign authorship, held the neighbourhood smell of local scribblers trying their pen for a barely survivalist reward. Before soon disappearing, the novels turned to soft-porn in the vain attempt to summon more buyers. Then my eyes focussed on a big white hardback in a bookshop window: "Ghost Stories: the Anglo-Saxon Tradition". The book was from an Italian publisher, the tales were Italian translations, of course. My meagre income did not allow me to buy the book, so I sarted saving. I had the book at last and within those pages I met Lovecraft, Blackwood, Machen, M.R. James, Onions and many others. I was transfixed: Eros had had a bull's-eye upon my Heart. I was in love with those Authors. I am becoming longish. Suffice to say I started studying English for the Love of Horror/Ghost Stories, not for business, working reasons, academic choice, or the chance to befriend nice tourist-girls. I put English to such uses but learning the language, even if a second language (still in a stuttering way, then) was fired up by my Love for the genre Literature. I'll leave it here now, lest I'm mistaken for a Space-Eater! If I have bothered you, I assure it was not done on purpose (like the final line of "The Betrothed", A. Manzoni's masterpiece.) | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 61.216.49.14 |
"I am becoming longish." I'm surprised Joel hasn't commented on this yet.  | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.122.107.152 |
No, Giancarlo, though I must admit your plaintive plea made me feel sorry for you! We've all been there. Someone just told me Daniel Radcliffe is going to be in a Hammer version of Woman in Black. He's WAY too young. | ||
| Giancarlo (Giancarlo) Username: Giancarlo Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 85.116.228.5 |
Hi, Tony! Why should you be sorry for me? My "plaintive plea" was just a probably miscalculated way to shape the message. That's why I called up the spirit of the great Italian writer, Alessandro Manzoni. I was trying to "make culture". It's possible we Italians are inclined to verbal superfluity, especially when dealing with a non-mother tongue. By the way, where does David Radcliffe's age come in with my message? Something is eluding me. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.122.107.152 |
Ha! Oh, i worry about stuff like that too much, read far too much into people's words. Um, it was about brit horror films, the Dan Radcliffe (Harry Potter)thing, tying in with what we've been talking about. | ||
| Giancarlo (Giancarlo) Username: Giancarlo Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 85.116.228.5 |
It's OK, Tony! | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
Interesting... so there's now a book, play, TV adaptation and about to be cinema version of 'The Woman In Black' and I still know next to nothing about it! I keep being drawn to want to see the play first and must do so the next time it's here. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
I met Lovecraft, Blackwood, Machen, M.R. James, Onions and many others. I was transfixed: Eros had had a bull's-eye upon my Heart. I was in love with those Authors. My sentiments exactly, Giancarlo. You've nailed the golden era, one might even say fulmination, of the entire horror genre in literature, 1890s-1930s imo. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 61.216.49.14 |
I think many of us here have had this kind of experience. I certainly have - I was given an anonymously-edited anthology of supernatural fiction as a young man which introduced me to most of the writers I consider the best in the field (Machen, Lovecraft, James, LeFanu, Blackwood, etc.), and there was no turning back. It's quite an epiphany, taking in all those incredibly powerful stories and realising just how much power and depth the genre has to offer in the right hands, and its capacity for inspiring awe and fear. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.122.107.152 |
However we must acknowlegde it has no effect on us at all, that our lives would be no different at all without it. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
Tony, my life would certainly be a great deal poorer, more boring and unfulfilled without the Art that I love. Why I'm particularly drawn to the dark side is something I've often wondered but never worried about... | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
Tony, stop stropping. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.231.77 |
I was given an anonymously-edited anthology of supernatural fiction as a young man which introduced me to most of the writers I consider the best in the field (Machen, Lovecraft, James, LeFanu, Blackwood, etc.), and there was no turning back. That's remarkable. Exactly the same thing happened to me. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.122.107.152 |
Sorry, Zed. One of those days at home where I intended to write all day but ended up pissing it all away on the net.  | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.176.184 |
Hot news: The Monster Club is being remade as a spin-off from The A-Team. The new version is called I Pity the Ghoul. I'll get me shroud. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.122.209.76 |
I had heard The A-Team people were actually remaking a different Subotsky picture - the one made in 1966, directed by Freddie Francis & written by Robert Bloch about the insane hymenoptera expert, to be called There is No Plan Bee That was an awful lot of typing for a very poor punchline, wasn't it? | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.228.3 |
And wasn't there a lost episode of the series too, where villian Boris Karloff reprises his wheelchair-bound role as Nahum Witley from Die, Monster, Die, using his irradiated, now-mobile army of writhing greenhouse-giants to kidnap the daughter of a wealthy billionaire for ransom to further fund his evil experiments? I think the episode was titled "I Love It When A Plant Comes To Get Her" ... Yes! Longer than John's! And less punch to it! | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
I love that film, Craig! For me it is still the finest Lovecraft adaptation that has yet been made (The Colour Out Of Space). A sadly neglected gem of horror cinema. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.252.194 |
It is a good one, isn't it, Stevie? Has that icky-creepy atmosphere to it.... You know, it was smart for those guys to do those recent Lovecraft imitations in silent b&w, like the Call of Cthulhu one I saw; but somehow, they're still too slick. Someone should make a real horror movie, in real old lost b&w-ish sound or film stock film: scratchy, faded, unclear and jumpy, sometimes the whites too white and the darks too dark, sound quality low... plot descending into madness, things happening that defy logic or consistency... as if the very film-stock itself were going mad, like a Lovecraftian character... a film canister retrieved from Hell itself, originally filmed in the 20's or 30's maybe, documenting some lost expedition or whatnot, and finally uncovered... to the horror of mankind, for what it reveals.... | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.179.157 |
Yes. Hey, is it me or does shakey cam seem to have died? | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
I'd like to see Lovecraft filmed in the style of David Lynch's 'Eraserhead' with the stark B&W, off-kilter camera angles and amplified sound effects... | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
"Hey, is it me or does shakey cam seem to have died?" It wasn't looking well. |