Stevie's Horror Oscars Log Out | Topics | Search
Moderators | Edit Profile

RAMSEY CAMPBELL » Discussion » Stevie's Horror Oscars « Previous Next »

Author Message
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 81.149.182.62
Posted on Thursday, May 09, 2013 - 08:28 pm:   

A little game I play with myself is to imagine an Oscar category for Best Horror Film going right back to the dawn of cinema. Yes, I have my own choice picked for each year, irrespective of country of origin, but would like to broaden the idea out to include other informed horror fans opinions.

Ask me what horror film won the SHO for whichever year you care to pick and I'll tell you and be open to change my mind if you can make a sound case for any other film. Bear in mind this is a fun work in progress that does not include any films I haven't seen.

As a guide I consider 1973 to be the year when serious horror cinema reached its peak and the long 1970s to be the golden era of the genre.

So ask away and have your arguments prepared...
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 81.149.182.62
Posted on Thursday, May 09, 2013 - 08:52 pm:   

No prizes for guessing what won in 1973, btw, but when you realise the films it beat you'll understand what a difficult and great game this is.

I consider 1968 to be the year in which horror cinema came of age. Everything up till then was fairly neutered by censorship but stil resulted in some of the greatest classics of the genre because they had to use their imagination to scare us. There was a glorious period, up until the mid 80s, when horror cinema (like rock music and television) knew no bounds and then political correctness took its awful toll. Since then horror filmmakers have been clawing their way back to some kind of relevance and I do believe that the last 15 years has seen a second golden era spring into full hideous bloom. Where we go from here is anyone's guess.

Challenge my knowledge. I dare ya!
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, May 10, 2013 - 11:42 am:   

It's a quiet Friday and I'm bored so here goes with the year of my birth, 1965.

Nominated:

'Die, Monster, Die' by Daniel Haller - a great adaptation of Lovecraft's "The Colour Out Of Space" starring Boris Karloff in one of his best horror roles.

'Dr Terror's House Of Horrors' by Freddie Francis - the iconic portmanteau horror from Amicus Productions. A star studded horror joy that is almost ridiculously entertaining.

'Planet Of The Vampires' by Mario Bava - one of the most successful and influential sci-fi/horror films ever made and one of the major inspirations for 'Alien' (1979).

'Repulsion' by Roman Polanski - his first horror film and still one of the finest and most convincing psycho thrillers ever made with a stunning performance by Catherine Deneuve.


And Stevie's Horror Oscar for 1965 goes to... ...
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, May 10, 2013 - 12:45 pm:   

REPULSION
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 92.13.82.154
Posted on Friday, May 10, 2013 - 02:35 pm:   

Not The Bloody Pit of Horror? No, I agree with your choice, Stevie.
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, May 10, 2013 - 03:32 pm:   

Haven't even heard of that one, Ramsey!

Thanks. Now someone give me a year to get me through this afternoon. Watching the clock here till pub time.

For the record, I compiled my list from a mixture of the 'Aurum Horror Encyclopedia' and Wikipedia, to be sure of the years.
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, May 10, 2013 - 05:00 pm:   

Okay, here goes for 1973.

Nominated:

'Don't Look Now' by Nicholas Roeg - one of the most hypnotically beautiful hallucinatory head-trips of a horror movie ever made with everyone involved at the very peak of their powers. Atmosphere and empathy for the tragic protagonists is everything in this stunning masterpiece of pure cinema. Beyond sublime, it gives a whole new meaning to the word "haunting"!

'The Exorcist' by William Friedkin - perhaps the most groundbreaking, startingly intelligent and still shit yourself scary horror film ever made. A masterpiece that reveals more hidden depths of meaning and subliminal chills with every stunnned repeat viewing. I've still to see the restored Director's Cut version and I'm keeping it for a very special occasion.

'Theatre Of Blood' by Douglas Hickox - Vincent Price gives his most memorably OTT performance in this flawless and insanely entertaining horror comedy masterpiece. The cast of British comedy greats is to die for! If Price had made nothing else he would still be remembered as a horror legend for his "Edward Lionheart". Beyond glorious!

'The Wicker Man' by Robin Hardy - the finest "small town with a dark secret" horror film ever made. Edward Woodward gives the performance of his life as the initially irritating and unsympathetic protagonist who attains levels of common heroic decency that still raise the hairs on the back of my neck and have me screaming for him to be saved no matter how many times I've seen this. A real one-off masterpiece of fortuitous filmmaking.

And Stevie's Horror Oscar for 1973 goes to... ...
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, May 10, 2013 - 05:15 pm:   

Obviously it's... THE EXORCIST
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.165.252.76
Posted on Friday, May 10, 2013 - 05:44 pm:   

A disappointment, as far as I'm concerned. I remember seeing it in a huge cinema back in 1974 and asking myself what all the fuss and bother was about. Poor Linda's head turning 360 degrees I found plain ludicrous. The worst of the Hammers is better than this. I suspect the film's success stems from the fact it was done by Friedkin, right after The French Connection, too.
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.212.231.47
Posted on Friday, May 10, 2013 - 05:54 pm:   

Couldn't disagree more hubert. 1984 stevie
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.165.252.76
Posted on Friday, May 10, 2013 - 05:59 pm:   

1979.
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 92.8.20.166
Posted on Friday, May 10, 2013 - 11:19 pm:   

Hubert, do you not think we've been alerted to the possibility that the turning head is an illusion? After all, Karras has already seen Regan turn into his dead mother.
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.134.106.37
Posted on Saturday, May 11, 2013 - 01:10 am:   

The success of the Exorcist is down to the sheer quality of the filmmaking. I'll admit that first time I saw it I wasn't entirely convinced, thought it was a bit slow and not as gruesome as its reputation implied. Second time I saw it, it scared the crap out of me. I picked up on all the subtleties that I'd missed out on.

It's easily one of the greatest horror movies of all time. No contest.
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.134.106.37
Posted on Saturday, May 11, 2013 - 01:10 am:   

Scratch that... Make that "one of the greatest movies" forget about limiting to one genre.
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.118.77.133
Posted on Saturday, May 11, 2013 - 10:30 am:   

Ramsey, strangely enough I've never thought of it as an illusion, though verily it cannot have been intended as anything else. Imho the bit that was deleted, the spider-Regan descending the stairs, should have been used instead, because it's genuinely scary. Generally speaking it all boils down to our suspension of disbelief, doesn't it? In this respect it probably helps if you believe in the devil, too. I didn't at the time and still don't.

No argument about Friedkin's mastery of his craft, Weber - The French Connection is in my top ten, if not top five, and was instrumental in my wish to see New York with my own eyes.
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Saturday, May 11, 2013 - 11:49 am:   

1984

Nominated:

'Body Double' by Brian De Palma - the director's most virtuosic and violent ode to Hitchcock and one of his finest and most bafflingly underrated films from a time when he was at the absolute peak of his powers. A hallucinatory tour-de-force of shock imagery.

'The Company Of Wolves' by Neil Jordan - perhaps the finest and most original distillation of gothic horror and fairy-tale imagery ever made. It stands alongside 'An American Werewolf In London' (1981) and 'The Howling' (1981) as one of the greatest werewolf films ever made!

'Gremlins' by Joe Dante - inspired black comedy horror that started the 80s boom in such films. See 'Ghoulies', 'Critters', etc. This one, and its equally inspired 1990 sequel, remain the finest and most riotously entertaining of the crop.

'A Nightmare On Elm Street' by Wes Craven - the defining horror film of the 1980s that presented us with one of the most original and scary bogeymen cinema had then produced. Ignore all the crap that came after. This film still kicks ass and has a genuinely nightmarish, anything is possible, tone that came as a breath of fresh air at the time.

And Stevie's Horror Oscar goes to...
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.31.14.87
Posted on Saturday, May 11, 2013 - 12:00 pm:   

Oh dear, the four best 84 films are pale shadows beside the 73 stuff.
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.31.14.87
Posted on Saturday, May 11, 2013 - 12:01 pm:   

What about 1971, the year of my birth?
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Saturday, May 11, 2013 - 12:06 pm:   

I agree, Gary.

But Freddy takes the prize... A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 92.8.17.194
Posted on Saturday, May 11, 2013 - 12:39 pm:   

I protest! No consideration of Purana Mandir?
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Saturday, May 11, 2013 - 12:50 pm:   

I'm not familiar with it, Ramsey. Another one for the must see list or were you joking?
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 92.8.17.194
Posted on Saturday, May 11, 2013 - 01:10 pm:   

No indeed, Stevie! It's pretty astounding in an extravagant way. The trailer should help you decide if it's for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60QQXdQLdFw
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Saturday, May 11, 2013 - 01:57 pm:   

Dear God! It certainly looks different, Ramsey!!

I'd watch it but whether it deserves an SHO is another matter.
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, May 12, 2013 - 01:33 pm:   

1979

Nominated:

'Alien' by Ridley Scott - hands down the scariest sci-fi/horror film ever made with fantastically nightmarish and influential production design by H.R. Giger, inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft. The alien itself is arguably the most terrifying cinema monster of them all and, for once, led to one of the most artistically successful franchises in motion picture history. An unqualified masterpiece of claustrophobic deep space terror to be enjoyed over and over again!

'The Brood' by David Cronenberg - the most original and frightening of the director's early shock horror pictures with an insidiously nightmarish quality all its own. Elements of 'Village Of The Damned' and 'Don't Look Now' are brilliantly integrated with Cronenberg's own disturbingly sexual body horror obsessions. A bona-fide masterpiece that is all too often overlooked in his filmography.

'Phantasm' by Don Coscarelli - a true one-off of freewheeling nightmare imagery and breathlessly entertaining pulp horror action that is one of the defining and most startlingly original horror masterpieces of its era. What they managed to conjure up on the budget is nothing short of miraculous. Sadly the rest of the franchise is best avoided.

'Zombie Flesh Eaters' by Lucio Fulci - his imagination fired like never before by Romero's great zombie masterpiece of the previous year the king of Italian shock horror produced what is arguably his masterpiece. This is the most successful and truly frightening merging of the two strands of zombie mythology in cinema history. Rather than slavishly copying 'Dawn Of The Dead' (1978) Fulci returns to the voodoo roots of 'White Zombie' (1932) and 'I Walked With A Zombie' (1943) and updates the black magic theme with the idea of a ravening plague of the undead being spat out of Hell to consume the living with eye-poppingly gory abandon. For all the splatter it's the overriding weirdness and sense of dread that makes this one so special!

And Stevie's Horror Oscar goes to...
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, May 12, 2013 - 01:58 pm:   

No prizes for guessing... ALIEN
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Monday, May 13, 2013 - 05:20 pm:   

1971

Nominated:

'The Abominable Dr Phibes' by Robert Fuest - another stone cold classic and darkly comic role for Vincent Price, who camps it up to high heaven as only he could. The series of murders based on the biblical plagues of Egypt are ingeniously macabre. The sequel wasn’t bad either but this one is one of the finest horrors of its era and the star’s career.

'A Bay Of Blood' by Mario Bava – possibly the most influential film of its director’s illustrious career this proto-slasher, that has been much imitated but rarely matched, is up there with ‘Psycho’ as one of the most perfectly controlled and groundbreaking shock horror masterpieces ever made. Everything from ‘Halloween’ to ‘Friday The 13th’ and ‘Scream’ to ‘Cold Prey’ was spawned here by the great Italian maestro of terror and the groundbreaking gore effects of Carlo Rambaldi.

'Let's Scare Jessica To Death' by John D. Hancock – a real one-off this unassuming low budget essay in encroaching madness and hallucinatory terror is one of the most nightmarishly effective horror films of the 1970s. The overwhelming sense of dread and dislocation it communicates to the viewer perfectly mirrors the dreadful plight of the persecuted – and possibly insane - heroine. Once seen never forgotten!

'Tombs Of The Blind Dead' by Amando de Ossorio – one of those trashy Euro horrors that proves to be far more than the sum of its parts due to a palpable aura of evil and the genuinely scary image of those skeletal undead Knights Templar stalking their prey purely by sound. Pure OTT hokum but done with great style and originality. This is the way I like my horror films!

There's a load of horror classics from 1971 - including a few legendary giallos - that I haven't seen so those nominations are bound to change.

But, for now, the award goes to...
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Monday, May 13, 2013 - 05:23 pm:   

A BAY OF BLOOD
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.134.105.61
Posted on Saturday, May 18, 2013 - 01:35 pm:   

1977
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Saturday, May 18, 2013 - 05:58 pm:   

1977

Nominated:

'The Hills Have Eyes' by Wes Craven - much more professional than his notorious debut this built on the peril in the wilderness/inbred hillbilly theme of 'Deliverance' to give us one of the most extreme and influential ordeal horror films of the 70s. Its entertainment value lies in the gripping unpredictability of the action and the no holds barred intensity of the acting. Still one of the best horror thrillers of its kind.

'Rabid' by David Cronenberg - one of the great man's best orchestrated and most nightmarishly brutal apocalyptic sci-fi/horror masterpieces that gave us deviant sex, disease, cannibalism and the breakdown of society in an astonishingly influential (see 'Dawn Of The Dead') and prescient (given AIDS) stew of cerebral sensationalist splatter/body horror repulsiveness to die for!!

'Ruby' by Curtis Harrington - a wonderfully atmospheric and truly creepy tale of possession and revenge from beyond the grave set in and around a drive in movie theatre that specialises in horror films and plays with the idea to great effect. Harrington's marvellously spooky imagery and Piper Laurie's reprisal of the mad mother role from 'Carrie' make this a memorably odd one off frightener to cherish.

'Suspiria' by Dario Argento - hands down his great supernatural horror masterpiece and one of the most genuinely terrifying horror films ever to come out of Italy!! A dizzying nightmare of brilliantly choreographed suspense set pieces and disorienting shock imagery that marries old style gothic atmospherics with modern horror pyrotechnics to truly startling and surreal effect!!

The award goes to...
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Saturday, May 18, 2013 - 06:09 pm:   

SUSPIRIA

Add Your Message Here
Post:
Bold text Italics Underline Create a hyperlink Insert a clipart image

Username: Posting Information:
This is a private posting area. Only registered users and moderators may post messages here.
Password:
Options: Enable HTML code in message
Automatically activate URLs in message
Action:

Topics | Last Day | Last Week | Tree View | Search | Help/Instructions | Program Credits Administration