Last Movie Watched

I totally get folks not being into giallo / 20th century Euro-horror. It’s a very weird genre.
I will admit that my primary love for Suspiria comes from the score (my old band used to play the opening theme at the top of our gigs to ā€œset the moodā€) and the general ambience of it all. The plot? Doesn’t really exist. The acting? Hard to tell with the heavy dubbing. But the atmosphere? Amazing.
Giallo in general will never be my favorite horror sub-genre, but I do prefer it to the American ā€œslasherā€ genre. But what I *really* like are the more gothic euro-horrors like Tombs of the Blind Dead or basically anything starring Barbara Steele. Mario Bava is a big favorite director of mine.

Also I love to point out the influences of giallo on American films. I’m always shouting ā€œBLACK GLOVES AND ARGENTO LIGHTING!!!ā€ at the TV screen when those elements pop up in other films. I feel like those movies are like Lovecraft stories: better having read/seen than while actually reading/watching.
 
Yep, original Fright Night. After seeing that and Child's Play, I spent the night wondering why Chris Sarandon didn't have a better career.
YES!!

I was just doing one of my regular re-watches of Fright Night (an absolute favorite since I was a kid) and remarked to my wife how awesome Sarandon is, and how he unabashedly uses amazing theatre-voice elocution to get around the fangs and prosthetics.

Also Roddy McDowell is heart-breakingly lovely as Peter Vincent. I honestly credit that character with getting me excited about Hammer Films, sparking a lifelong love affair.
 
Another Sarandon Horror fav of mine is The Resurrected, though, it's an admittedly odd film.
He’s also great as shitty TV preacher Jimmy Currant in the fun-to-watch-but-not-good Tales From the Crypt Presents Bordello of Blood, also notable for being Dennis Miller’s last non-monstrous contribution to popular culture.
 
Giallo in general will never be my favorite horror sub-genre, but I do prefer it to the American ā€œslasherā€ genre. But what I *really* like are the more gothic euro-horrors like Tombs of the Blind Dead or basically anything starring Barbara Steele. Mario Bava is a big favorite director of mine.
Between this, Hammer films, and Tales from the Crypt Presents, I just added a bunch of stuff to my watchlist. Thank you!

Nothing is more exciting to me than discovering a hidden corner of the movie world that I didn't know existed.
 
Horror is a goofy-ass genre. I'll take a little slapstick on the side.

My Halloween-season watches:
  • The Devils (1971)
  • The Crow
  • The Innocents
  • The 'Burbs
  • A Tale of Two Sisters
  • Blade
  • Ravenous
  • House (1977)
  • Ginger Snaps
  • In the Mouth of Madness
  • X
  • Fright Night
  • Child's Play
All first-time watches except Blade and The Crow. Child's Play was probably the worst of them, but there wasn't a bad movie in the group.

Fright Night, House, In the Mouth of Madness, The 'Burbs, and The Devils were the standouts.

I have a similar list for this time of year. I'm not a huge horror fan, so I go with horror adjacent. I've slacked a lot this year for some reason.

Blade x
Blade 2 x
Blade 3 x
The Crow x
Ghosts of Mars
Army of Darkness x
Underworld
Deep Blue Sea
Hellboy 1&2 1x
Pitch Black
WWZ
Vampires
Van Helsing
30 Days of Night

The "x" are ones I've watched so far (it's a copied list from my phone).
 
Nothing is more exciting to me than discovering a hidden corner of the movie world that I didn't know existed.
Mario Bava’s Black Sunday, specifically!
One of thee greatest gothic films of all time, also a great (non-conventional) vampire film.

As for Hammer: start at the ā€œbeginningā€ (Curse of Frankenstein that is, as opposed to The Quatermass Experiment, which is technically ā€œfirstā€), and at least check out Curse and then Horror of Dracula. Those are the ones that started it all. Personal faves beyond that are Dracula Prince of Darkness, Curse of the Werewolf, The Vampire Lovers, Twins of Evil, The Gorgon, Brides of Dracula, and The Two Faces of Doctor Jekyll. I could go on and on. Also the Hammer Frankenstein films are an important bridge to Del Toro’s latest film, which is basically an adaptation of Curse for the first hour or so.

As for Tales from the Crypt presents: Bordello of Blood is really fun but bad, while Demon Knight is legitimately a good movie with a FANTASTIC cast. Just CCH Pounder alone is worth it, but we are talking Thomas Hayden Church, Jada Pinkett, Dick Miller in one of his best roles, and Billy Zane in easily his greatest performance ever.
 
This year, so far, we've watched some Conjurings, I think the first Annabelle, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Exorcist, American Werewolf in London, Poltergeist, some Haunting of Hill House (the show), a bunch of Stranger Things, and Tremors. My wife and middle daughter are the big horror fans in the house and I believe they watched a bunch without the rest of us.
 
My wife and I are currently watching The First Power (her first time) while she relaxes before her shift and I work out before my one client of the day.
It’s . . . not great, but Lou Diamond Phillips is always awesome, and the underrated Jeff Kober gives a great performance as the body-hopping Satanic serial killer. Kind of a precursor to Denzel Washington’s Fallen, same basic premise, very atmospheric with empty shots of lonely places in LA, including the creepy zoo I still love to hang out at.
 
Ravenous slaps so hard! Great wendigo movie. Fantastic performances, even with the ick of Jeffrey Jones.

In the Mouth of Madness is arguably Carpenter’s second-best film after The Thing. Soooo good and very Lovecraftian.

Ginger Snaps is a huge favorite of mine, I love female-led horror and this is one of the best. This is also the movie that led my mom to ask ā€œdon’t you think you’d have more girlfriends if you didn’t watch movies like this?ā€ Mom, this is a date movie, made FOR WOMEN. Jeeeezus.
 
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