Recommend a scary movie that others might not have seen
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Nice try though!
Carnival of a Souls is the other one I was going to suggest. My friends and I use to watch these two call the time growing up. In fact, we saw both in theaters at revival houses a few times.Thank you one and all for your replies! This is a fascinating discussion, and I am really enjoying hearing about some new films to give me a good scare.I can't reply to every message, so I'll limit my comments to the one or two where I actually have something substantial to add - but rest assured that I appreciate every reply and I'm glad that you're all joining in.
Yes, Spoorloos is incredible, isn't it? If you're looking for a film to give you Silence of the Lambs-level horror, you really owe it to yourself to check it out.
Don't Look Now is a beautiful film! Visually beautiful, well-constructed dramatically, acted by Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie at the top of their game... An absolute treat. It is years since I last saw it, and you've put me in the mood to order a pizza and pop in the DVD.
Sigh... I miss the days when horror movies were aimed at adults instead of teenage boys!
This looks tempting! I love a good old black-and-white horror - which reminds me, I must recommend Carnival of Souls to any of you good people who have not seen it yet! Don't delay - supreme fun to be found therein!
That's a great shirt!As a somewhat top-heavy woman, I need that shirt
The Manitou (1978) - IMDb
I doubt it would hold up after all this time, but this movie scared the B-freaking-Jeebus out of my 9 year old self.
I doubt it would hold up after all this time, but this movie scared the B-freaking-Jeebus out of my 9 year old self.
Good idea for a thread. Talking about horrorfilms often the same classics come up, but there are a lot of little known gems. The only problem with little known films is their availability - so if you recommend one, if you can, also name where you found it/saw it. Obviously then there is still the problem of different tv-channels, region codes etc., but it might help to find it.
Dark Waters (1993) Temnye vody (1993) - IMDb
I often heard about it and thought it was Italian. It IS by an Italian director - Mariano Baino - but it's shot in Ukraine and Moscow (and some in Rome as well). Too bad this is his only long film as this is a joy if you love the type of (Italian) horrorfilms almost entirely built on atmosphere. It's essentially a Lovecraftian story, but you can also see it as nunsploitation, I suppose. After a long atmospheric build-up I feel you need an ending that pays all that off, and the finale does feel a little abrupt.
It's on Youtube (for now).
Dead of Winter (1987) Dead of Winter (1987) - IMDb
I was surprised this was from 1987, because it feels more (late) seventies to me. I don't think I've ever seen it before, and it doesn't seem to have made the cinemas here at the time. It does have that feeling of a classic thriller both in the way it is filmed and the solid acting (Mary Steenburgen in a double role, Roddy McDowall and Jan Rubes). I guess it didn't become a classic everyone knows, because the plot is a bit on the thin side - it could have been more worked out, but it's a totally excellent exercise in mood and tension.
It was on AMC.
Dark Waters (1993) Temnye vody (1993) - IMDb
I often heard about it and thought it was Italian. It IS by an Italian director - Mariano Baino - but it's shot in Ukraine and Moscow (and some in Rome as well). Too bad this is his only long film as this is a joy if you love the type of (Italian) horrorfilms almost entirely built on atmosphere. It's essentially a Lovecraftian story, but you can also see it as nunsploitation, I suppose. After a long atmospheric build-up I feel you need an ending that pays all that off, and the finale does feel a little abrupt.
It's on Youtube (for now).
Dead of Winter (1987) Dead of Winter (1987) - IMDb
I was surprised this was from 1987, because it feels more (late) seventies to me. I don't think I've ever seen it before, and it doesn't seem to have made the cinemas here at the time. It does have that feeling of a classic thriller both in the way it is filmed and the solid acting (Mary Steenburgen in a double role, Roddy McDowall and Jan Rubes). I guess it didn't become a classic everyone knows, because the plot is a bit on the thin side - it could have been more worked out, but it's a totally excellent exercise in mood and tension.
It was on AMC.
Oh, that sounds lovely! Watching Carnival of Souls at a beautiful old theatre, surrounded by other people who are there because they know and love the film... That would make a really wonderful evening out!
Well, if somebody who loves Carnival of Souls recommends Horror Hotel, I will definitely watch it!
I haven't heard of this one, Gerald, but your mention of Italian directors immediately reminded me of Suspiria, by Dario Argenta. Not too obscure perhaps, but well worth mentioning. Are there any other fans of this gorgeous old film here?
The story is wonderful, and apparently true (well, apart from the more fantastic elements, obviously
). It is about a young woman who joins a boarding school for ballet students deep in a spooky forest in Germany. She arrives there and slowly discovers that the staff of the school are all devil worshippers, and sinister things are happening. This is (allegedly) based on the real-life experiences of the grandmother of the scriptwriter (minus the sinister happenings).Dario Argenta was a very visual director. His films are beautiful washes of rich colour with a very deep and sensuous feel to them, and I can recommend them highly!
It's a very different type of movie but it has Christopher Lee and witches. Can't go wrong!
Christopher Lee, 1922 - 2015. A true one-off. We will not see his like again.
Miss you this much, big guy.
Miss you this much, big guy.
I haven't heard of this one, Gerald, but your mention of Italian directors immediately reminded me of Suspiria, by Dario Argenta. Not too obscure perhaps, but well worth mentioning. Are there any other fans of this gorgeous old film here?
The story is wonderful, and apparently true (well, apart from the more fantastic elements, obviously
Dario Argenta was a very visual director. His films are beautiful washes of rich colour with a very deep and sensuous feel to them, and I can recommend them highly!
Yes, he's my favourite director essentially (along with Carpenter and Hitchcock most closely) and he's pretty much the leader of the field, no-one comes close to him (also, most of his Italian colleagues simply didn't have his budgets, as his father was influential in the industry already he could work with substantial money).
He built on the legacy of Mario Bava, Sergio Leone, Michelangelo Antonioni and Hitchcock (he himself credits Riccardo Freda too), and he both made the giallo-genre (which Bava initiated) popular in the early seventies, but also was the most experimental with it. You can watch as many giallo-films as you like and there are many good ones (by Sergio Martino for example, and Lucio Fulci's seventies films before he made the more famous zombie-films), but none ever match that specific feel of his films (which is mostly because of his camera use and is helped a lot by Goblin, a band who were his Bernard Herrmann) or have the amazing production design his best films have.
Even now when they compare films to his films (like, say, the Neon Demon), it simply never lives up to his name (that is probably typical fan-talk to an extent, but also probably because what you love about a director is finely tuned to your own taste - the person you admire essentially has the same taste as you do, or must have).
But that's why a film like Dark Waters is quite amazing. And it's made quite late in the day as this kind of filmmaking basically is from the late seventies, when Italian horror completely sacrificed story to dreamlike visuals (not only Suspiria, but also follow-up Inferno and Fulci's The Beyond for example). Even Argento went back to a more realistic approach from the nineties on and even the late sequel and closer of the trilogy, Mother of Tears, lacks that dreamlike feel (which essentially I think owes a lot to filming in a studio rather than on real locations - although Dark Waters looks like it's shot on location a lot) or the lavish production design of its predecessors - either because Argento won't go for that style anymore - he may think it's had its time (also Inferno which is in the same style, flopped, due in part to bad handling by Fox, the studio who made it), or he simply has lost his feel for that, or he doesn't have the finance anymore (or a mix of any of those).
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Actually there's a lot I coud recommend, there are just so many and sometimes they're only slightly flawed, with a few changes they might have been classics.
For now I'm just sticking with what I recently saw - I saw these two in the last weeks. Unless I think of a REAL good one.
I already mentioned Burnt Offerings (1976) in the other thread, which is of special interest to King-fans. I do think that one IS a bona fide classic without flaws I could think of, still only gets a 6.5 on IMDb. So it's quite hard to say why some get this total classic status and others don't: Suspiria is a unique (looking and sounding) film, but still it has flaws (mainly the writing) - but it DOES have that total classic status, so for that status flaws don't really matter.
I supose that classic status often also comes from a movie being really good, but also doing something totally NEW - you can apply that to most of the classic horrormovies, that it was something totally new (at the time) - and then soon the impact of the 'new' gets dilluted by all its imitators.
For now I'm just sticking with what I recently saw - I saw these two in the last weeks. Unless I think of a REAL good one.
I already mentioned Burnt Offerings (1976) in the other thread, which is of special interest to King-fans. I do think that one IS a bona fide classic without flaws I could think of, still only gets a 6.5 on IMDb. So it's quite hard to say why some get this total classic status and others don't: Suspiria is a unique (looking and sounding) film, but still it has flaws (mainly the writing) - but it DOES have that total classic status, so for that status flaws don't really matter.
I supose that classic status often also comes from a movie being really good, but also doing something totally NEW - you can apply that to most of the classic horrormovies, that it was something totally new (at the time) - and then soon the impact of the 'new' gets dilluted by all its imitators.
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Mr. Sardonicus scared me so much as a kid. I recorded it several years ago during the Halloween season, and I still cannot bring myself to watch it. I just remember certain parts that terrified me.
Session 9. It's the only movie I've watched in a very long time that creeped me out to the core. I will warn that it's a psychological horror movie, and if you're looking for cheap thrills and blood and guts, this isn't the movie for you. If you're of the school that you believe the worst things out there rarely are 'out there', instead of in your own head, you might love it as much as I.
Totally didn't see fushingfeef had mentioned it before, but all my yes!
Totally didn't see fushingfeef had mentioned it before, but all my yes!
One of the most underrated movies I've ever seen. Creepy from start to finish.
Sounds like Session 9 comes highly recommended! I will add it to my "must watch" list.
Has anyone here seen the German black-and-white film, M, from 1931? One of the first ever films to tackle the subject of serial killers (and a killer of children to boot), and very few serial killer films have been as chilling or as skilfully executed.
The murder scene is one of the most moving screen deaths I have ever seen, precisely because it is handled with such subtlety and understatement. There is no gore, no violence, just
Any fan of horror/thriller films really has to see this one, like a sci-fi fan has to see Star Wars. But don't go into it lightly, because it is truly heartbreaking.
M (1931 film) - Wikipedia
Has anyone here seen the German black-and-white film, M, from 1931? One of the first ever films to tackle the subject of serial killers (and a killer of children to boot), and very few serial killer films have been as chilling or as skilfully executed.
The murder scene is one of the most moving screen deaths I have ever seen, precisely because it is handled with such subtlety and understatement. There is no gore, no violence, just
the balloon that the little girl was playing with drifting away silently as she loses her grip on it.
Any fan of horror/thriller films really has to see this one, like a sci-fi fan has to see Star Wars. But don't go into it lightly, because it is truly heartbreaking.
M (1931 film) - Wikipedia
Several Ti West flicks that I have found to be on the creepy side:
InnKeepers
House of the Devil
The Sacrament.
They're all slow burns but the suspense builds up much tension.
Clive Barker's Dread
Some foreign flicks that I highly recommend are High Tension, Martyrs, and Inside.
Funny Games
The Strangers
I could go on and on but I'll stop here in case you have already seen these that I've mentioned
InnKeepers
House of the Devil
The Sacrament.
They're all slow burns but the suspense builds up much tension.
Clive Barker's Dread
Some foreign flicks that I highly recommend are High Tension, Martyrs, and Inside.
Funny Games
The Strangers
I could go on and on but I'll stop here in case you have already seen these that I've mentioned
Please keep them coming, Misery Chastain! Even if I've seen them, there will be plenty of other people who haven't, and I'm sure they would be glad of your suggestions.
I haven't seen any of the Ti West films you mention, but I love slow burners with plenty of tension! I'll be sure to check them out.
I haven't seen any of the Ti West films you mention, but I love slow burners with plenty of tension! I'll be sure to check them out.
I only saw this movie for the first time a few years ago and it totally creeped me out. Not just the way he looks but the whole idea behind why. Yikes!Mr. Sardonicus scared me so much as a kid. I recorded it several years ago during the Halloween season, and I still cannot bring myself to watch it. I just remember certain parts that terrified me.
Verrrrry creepy. Scarred my young brain.