Question.

I'd agree with you except for one thing, the ending. It was the worst one I've seen since the last Jan De Bont film. The doctor guy roaming the halls at weird speeds WAS truly creepy, however, as was the video camera scene. If only they coulda used more of him, especially at the ending. I mean, really, what is scary about floating ink?

The Thing

I could watch it over and over.....

The Thing is key. It is prime. It is the Alpha and the Omega. It is a blameless holy being akin to the Boddhisatva.

Mr. Frost, a bizarre little Jeff Goldblum movie from (I think) 1990, was worth watching.

And on the topic of horror, my wife first decided that she was in love with me when I said the following after we had seen Scream: "It was a good movie and all, but not really scary."

Her: "Why not?"

Me: (Laugh) "Well, bottom line, it was just some guy with a knife. Not really hard to kill a guy with a knife."

She thought that was romantic. Don't ask me, I don't know.

But a dog with a knife ... now that would be hard to kill....

Regarding "IT".

I'd bet it's folks who read the book and are nostalgic because of it. The book was so engrossing and rich, it was really hard to dislike the mini-series.

Lemme tell y'all a little something about It, both the book and the movie: Senor King had a GREAT idea in It, but his problem arose when he got to around page 650 and said..."Huh. What was I saying?...(Scratch head)...Well, looks like this story needs a thousand-years dead floating space turtle!"


Now, make a good movie out of that!

Terry Pratchett meets Stephen King. Hmmm.

I loved Mr. Frost.

Last one I saw was Angelheart, though.

PS: I got Hastur a Tales From The Crypt doll for Christmas, and she thought THAT was romantic, so I understand, grendel

Ah yes, The Thing. Ah yes and oh my...Super Gore Freak Out

The House on Haunted Hill was outstanding, but they should have had more balls and given Jeffrey Combs the honors of being the climactic foe. He deserves it. He has a rich history in the horror genre, and he due all the accolades that can be afforded him. Period.

The last good horror film that I saw was Killer Tongue, and that was on New Years Eve. Exploding Transvestite Poodles, a 12 foot talking tongue, and Melinda Clarke, I'll take it

PS: My girlfriend feels, shall we say "friendly," after watching Evil Dead 2. I'd buy that for a dollar!!!

------------------
Look upon me, for I am the beast

'IT' was terrible, and I'm so sorry that there are some people that actually thought it was SCARY! The book was fantastic, as are most of his books, and they day he stops letting bad directors make bad movies out of his good books, I will then die a happy man.

Damn straight. Unless it's a straight story (i.e. Shawshank, The Body, Green Mile...) it's just another Hollywood crap factory. Besides, 'IT' had John Fuckin' Ritter!

The Last decent "horror" flick I saw
was The Last Broadcast. It was the
flick the Blair Witch kids ripped
off. It's much more detailed and
controlled, however. It plays like a
documentarian's attack on the media,
then veers on you in a way that you
see coming if you pay attention. I
love movies like that-you don't see
the twist coming because it's
formulaic, you see it coming because
you're engrossed in a character, and
he's leaving you subtle hints along
the way.
This may be a bad example, but-
I remember sitting in a theater with
a few friends watching Die Hard WITH
A VENGEANCE, and when the cops found
the bomb in the school, and said it
had 2500 lbs of the explosive in it,
I yelled "Bullshit!" My friends
asked me why, and I told them, "The
police mention earlier that only 2000
pounds of the stuff was swiped, then
you factor in that the terrorists
have already used some-there can't be
that much left. The bomb in the
school is a decoy."

And sure enough...

I like when a character is fleshed
out enough that his motivations are
clear when his evil secret is
revealed. It's so lame when they
make a guy the bad guy just because
it's time to do the "bad guy
reveal"-Cary Elwes in Kiss the Girls
aka Kiss my Ass-I Can't Believe I
Bought This Ticket-the only reason
he's the killer is because there's no
one else tied to the story. You want
shocking-Ashley Judd is the killer,
and she wants to be caught-at least
that would have given her something
interesting to play.

It just occured to me that I am
rambling. My apologies, DJ-The last
Broadcast is good, check it out.

[This message has been edited by Hot Animal Machine (edited 01-11-2000).]

I nearly cried when that happened-and not because I like Drew Barrymore-'cause I don't-but the way the scene was done was simultaneously the reverse of everything you know about the slasher genre, and reminiscent of a John Woo film. I'l explain-

Slasher flicks usually escalate the fear factor, then release the tension with humor. The opening scene of Scream reverses it. The stalking of Drew is funny. The killer cracks wise. When he catches her, there is no release, and no humor washes it away-your left with what you felt, "I can't believe they killed her so soon." Everything you thought you knew about the movie and it's genre has been turned on it's head. Okay, the John Woo thing-Woo is known for putting powerful sentiment behind his violence. Bullets kill, lives are ruined-Woo takes the point home.
Likewise, Craven forces us to watch, point blank, this completely innocent little girl get killed. She's sobbing, bleeding, still trying to fight. Her parents are so close-maybe they can save her-The music, the camerawork, the editing, and Drew's performance added up to something that I remember being profoundly saddened by, in a way that made me think of the end of The Killer. It was sad. Not fun. I think that is why Scream transcends genre and becomes a great film. There has never been anything emotionally driven in a slasher flick-but there was here.


[This message has been edited by Hot Animal Machine (edited 01-14-2000).]

You have a lot of great points (although I don't understand why people like John Woo). You really nailed the feeling at the beginning of that film on the head. I think that's the main reason 'Scream 2' didn't work so well. There was really no feeling in it, just a continuation of the story.

One flick I saw recently (for the second time) that did a job on me was Scarecrows.
Anyone see this? A bunch of well-armed robbers in a plane land in a field with a buncha scarecrows, and the fun begins?

Matt

I may be thrown out of CHUD for saying this, but I don't really care about action movies. I really would rather have a good story than 30 thousand slow motion shots, followed by terrible dialouge. I guess I shouldn't say too much, since the only Woo film I remember hating a lot was Face/Off, but boy did I hate that movie.

You wont get thrown out of Chud for that, you might get thrown around Chud for a while, but never thrown out. Every one has a right to their opinion, even if we don't like it. Just don't be a jerk about your opinion, ya know, like somebody over in the X-men costume discusiion.

And please don't piss on my shoes. I hate that.

Hypothetically speaking, is it possible to wee-wee on someone's shoes on the message boards? How does one do that? I'm new here, and these kinds of things are important, you know...

Matt