Wednesday, October 23, 2013

The Many Days of Horror! - Ten Things I Feel I Should Mention That Everyone Already Knows About

There are some films, books and games I've mentioned that I know are popular but for various reasons I had a lot to say about them anyway (i.e. The Thing). And then there are things I feel like I ought to include in these reviews, but realize that just about anyone reading a blog like this has probably already seen and formed an opinion about....so would I really, ultimately, be contributing much by babbling on about them?

To get these off my chest, here's a "Nutshell Countdown!" in which I give said demons a just banishment with a one sentence commentary. Here goes!


#10. Zombieland
   Great movie, can't imagine any fan of road trip films or zombie apocalyptica hasn't seen it.


#9. 28 Days Later
   A great movie that does have zombies in it (unless you prefer to restrict your definition of zombies exclusively to the obviously reanimated) and reserves all its really disturbing horror bits for the human element. (I have not seen 28 Weeks Later, so maybe I'll review that later on)


#8. Silent Hill 2
   The best sequel to the franchise and a morbid tale of a man torn by the sickness that killed his wife, while wandering a haunted town; out in a remastered HD version for those who missed it the first time.


#7. Predators
   I liked it, but the movie still didn't have the thing which made the original so great (namely that it was new and a surprise).


#6. Dawn of the Dead
   Doesn't matter if we're talking remake or original, this one's got to be at the heart of all zombie fans regardless of which version you prefer.


#5. Day of the Dead
   Same deal, with the exception being that the sequel was an okay zombie flick that had nothing to do with the original in any reasonable way, and the original still stands on its own as one of the great zombie films of all time.


#4. Shaun of the Dead
   Sort of like Zombieland, it's a contemporary undead epic for our time, and sort of defines the satirical horror comedy (though to perfectly honest I always felt this one was a bit over-rated).


#3. Anything by Guillermo del Toro
   First, if there was something he did which I didn't like I don't know about it...and second, if there is someone out there who doesn't know about him then truly that fellow must be some sort of deceptive poser masquerading as a geek. (Exception: I'll recant this ban if he resumes making At the Mountains of Madness into a film!)


#2. Hellraiser
   If you haven't seen Hellraiser then...why....I don't suppose you'd like to see the basis from which a great many future horror films ripped off the concept of the evil BDSM demon, would you? I pity the soul who watched Cabin in the Woods yet has never seen Hellraiser! If you saw CinW and caught the boomer cameo but missed the Cenobite visitation then...oh man, just go see this one, please. For Frank! (okay that was more than one sentence)


#1. Night of the Living Dead (the original)
   I can refer to it endlessly, but to directly address this one would be a tedious waste of time; it's a movie that has served as the frame and context for forty four years of an entire subgenre...'nuff said! (sequels and remakes are fair game)


4 comments:

  1. Good list! I think I would swap some of these out and include the Kurt Russell Thing, Return of the Living Dead, any of the Evil Dead flicks (with Bruce Campbell of course), and the original Halloween.

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    1. Those would all definitely qualify....maybe I'll do another list!

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  2. I'm confused by your entry for Silent Hill 2... I liked the movie, but it's based on the Silent Hill 3 video game... while your blurb seems to be describing the SH2 video game (which I agree was the best of the series).

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    1. Sorry...I can see how that would be confusing. I am indeed talking about SH2 the game, which was almost universally regarded as excellent. The movies...not so mcuh (reviewed the second one last year around this time actually).

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