The Horror Thread

I am opening this thread with the hope to attract fans of horror fiction in general, in order to discuss books, movies, music or other media.

To start things off, I watched The Descent a couple of weeks ago at a local theater. I was excited because of the positive reviews I had seen online, and they were centainly right. The movie is really good, it's about a group of adrenaline-addict women that are planning to go explore a cave system. It starts off really slow (justifiably so, because we have to get to know the characters) but once it switches gears, it never looks back. At first, they have "typical" spelonging problems but things get progressively worse (in the good way) as the movie advances, and it avoids horror movie clichés. The ending was particularly satisfying too.

On the other hand, I just came back from the theater after watching Marebito. I really wanted to like this movie, but I just couldn't enjoy it. In traditional asian horror style, explanations are not handed to you on a silver plate, and I am normally not bothered by movies that compel the audience to think a little, but in this movie I was really not caring enough to do it.

The movie is about a cameraman who becomes obsessed with fear after watching a frightened man stab himself in the eye. He wonders what it was that scared this man so much, and decides that he just has to see what that man saw, no matter what. He goes on a little journey to the city's subway, and then to deeper and older underground constructions, until he finally arrives to the ruins of a city. In the ruins, he finds a young woman held to a wall by a chain on her ankle, and he decides to free her and take her home, thinking that he's saving her life. Yeah, mistake.

The atmosphere of the movie is adequate and the sound is eerie, but the plot doesn't seem to make much sense, and I found myself listening to creepy and ominous music when nothing was really happening. I just didn't get the movie at all.

Any of you guys have seen these movies? what did you think of them?

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Of the ones you mentioned I've only seen The Descent, which I wasn't too impressed with. More recently I've watched The Hills Have Eyes and Hostel, which were both OK. I'm quite happy that horror films are returning to their more gory roots, they sort of died off in the late eighties/early nineties. This was followed by over a decade of teen tripe like Scream and a million other carbon copy teen slashers. What is there to look forward to this year? Silent Hill is looking quite good, as is Slither. I guess there's the Omen remake as well, but I have a feeling it will end up being excrement.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I've watched The Descent, and it was pretty decent. The ending was horrible though. For me, I prefer asian horrors. They're much more effective in the scare factor. American horrors are either A) Softcore porn horrors or B) Psychological horror.

I'm still a fan of the Ju-on Trilogy. Ju-on The Prequel was my fav. Stuff like The Ring, Dark Water, Shutter are all pretty cool. Not the American counterpart of course. I do like psychological thrillers though, looking forward to Silent Hill.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Casual_Otaku

Of the ones you mentioned I've only seen The Descent, which I wasn't too impressed with. More recently I've watched The Hills Have Eyes and Hostel, which were both OK. I'm quite happy that horror films are returning to their more gory roots, they sort of died off in the late eighties/early nineties. This was followed by over a decade of teen tripe like Scream and a million other carbon copy teen slashers. What is there to look forward to this year? Silent Hill is looking quite good, as is Slither. I guess there's the Omen remake as well, but I have a feeling it will end up being excrement.

Looking forward to those movies as well, Hostel will premiere soon here in my city and I plan to goo see it. Silent Hill is my most anticipated movie right now! It looks like it will not disappoint. They seem to have nailed the look and feel of the game.
Besides the mindless teen slashers we were also having unnecessary remakes (come on, remaking Texas Chainsaw Massacre? Please) and movies ruined by marketing and/or censorship in an attempt to attact a younger audience. At least you can expect an uncensored version on DVD.

Originally Posted by Scarletdeath

I've watched The Descent, and it was pretty decent. The ending was horrible though. For me, I prefer asian horrors. They're much more effective in the scare factor. American horrors are either A) Softcore porn horrors or B) Psychological horror.

I'm still a fan of the Ju-on Trilogy. Ju-on The Prequel was my fav. Stuff like The Ring, Dark Water, Shutter are all pretty cool. Not the American counterpart of course. I do like psychological thrillers though, looking forward to Silent Hill.

I heard they were going to cut the very last part in order to leave it with a more traditional ending. The ending I'm referring to is

Spoiler:

the one where no one escapes.

Is it the same that you watched?
Oh, and Shutter is the scariest shit I've seen in ages. Intense!

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

My favorite horror movie as of late has been Wolf Creek. Everyone complains about how slow it is, but all that does is help make you appreciate the characters when the shit hits the fan. They're the first horror characters I've ever cared about. They nail this in 2 ways - 1, we get to know them very well, and 2, they don't deserve it.

That brutal combination provides a very chilling horror movie.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Scarletdeath

I've watched The Descent, and it was pretty decent. The ending was horrible though. For me, I prefer asian horrors. They're much more effective in the scare factor. American horrors are either A) Softcore porn horrors or B) Psychological horror.

I'm still a fan of the Ju-on Trilogy. Ju-on The Prequel was my fav. Stuff like The Ring, Dark Water, Shutter are all pretty cool. Not the American counterpart of course. I do like psychological thrillers though, looking forward to Silent Hill.

I'm quite into Asian horror as well. Ju-on (the original), Ringu, Audition... it's all good. I'm currently looking into this Shutter you speak of.

Originally Posted by Nintendonomicon

Besides the mindless teen slashers we were also having unnecessary remakes (come on, remaking Texas Chainsaw Massacre? Please)

I've refused to watch the remake, seeing as the original is my all time favourite horror film. Some things are just best left alone, especially if you're gonna try and explain certain things which are better left unexplained (Leatherface bullied at school? Give me a break).

Originally Posted by sprouticus

My favorite horror movie as of late has been Wolf Creek. Everyone complains about how slow it is, but all that does is help make you appreciate the characters when the shit hits the fan. They're the first horror characters I've ever cared about. They nail this in 2 ways - 1, we get to know them very well, and 2, they don't deserve it.

That brutal combination provides a very chilling horror movie.

I watched Wolf Creek a while ago, I thought it was OK on the whole. There were a few problems with the film which I thought stopped it from being great:

Spoiler:

The killer was way too talkative to be taken seriously, he seemed to be cracking jokes every two minutes. Silent would have been a lot creepier IMO. Also, the ending would have been waaaay better if the surviving guy (can't remember his name) got accused of their murders and was locked up in a mental institution. That would have been a very, very dark ending.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Casual_Otaku

I've refused to watch the remake, seeing as the original is my all time favourite horror film. Some things are just best left alone, especially if you're gonna try and explain certain things which are better left unexplained (Leatherface bullied at school? Give me a break).

This is the same reason I haven't seen the remake, as well as the same reason I was refusing to see The Hills Have Eyes, with which I was rather dissapointed. I actually wanted that kid to die, the annoying jackass.

FELIPE NO

Anybody stoked about Guillermo del Toro's (Hellboy) efforts to film HP Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness"?

I'm foaming at the mouth for this every since I read the story, and I implore anyone who is even a little fan of horror to read this book and possibly Lovecraft works in general. Quite a riveting story.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Nintendonomicon

Is it the same that you watched?

What do you mean? All the Ju-on ending [spoiler]leaves everyone in it dead. ALL Ju-on endings.[/quote]

You should look for Ju-on the prequel. You'll recognize that's the one when you see the ending where

Spoiler:

everyone dies, as usual, but there's also a scene where there are tens of those Ju-on creatures standing at the basketball court.

Freaky as heck.

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Originally Posted by Talbain

Anybody stoked about Guillermo del Toro's (Hellboy) efforts to film HP Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness"?

I'm foaming at the mouth for this every since I read the story, and I implore anyone who is even a little fan of horror to read this book and possibly Lovecraft works in general. Quite a riveting story.

I hadn't even heard about this till now, but hells yes I am excited.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Scarletdeath

What do you mean? All the Ju-on ending

Spoiler:

leaves everyone in it dead. ALL Ju-on endings.

You should look for Ju-on the prequel. You'll recognize that's the one when you see the ending where

Spoiler:

everyone dies, as usual, but there's also a scene where there are tens of those Ju-on creatures standing at the basketball court.

Freaky as heck.

I was referring to The Descent's ending. Sorry about the misunderstading.
In the "regular" ending...

Spoiler:

the last woman alive sees an exit and runs towards it, thus escaping the cave, she continues running until she finds a vehicle; seconds later we realize the woman is still inside the cave and hallucinated her escape, she sees her little daughter by her side with a birthday cake (also a hallucination) and as she smiles lovingly, we can hear the sound of several 'crawlers' quickly coming to her location.

I read somewhere that in the US release...

Spoiler:

the movie would be edited to make it end in the part where she finds the vehicle and escapes, in order to give the movie a more traditional or ''happy'' ending.

That's why I wondered if you had seen the edited ending (which kinda sucks), because I just loved the normal one.

As for Del Toro, I read he was busy trying to get Hellboy 2 made, supposedly he turned down directing Halo because of this, but I don't know if that was just a rumor.
Can't wait to see Pan's Labyrinth, by the way

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Talbain

Anybody stoked about Guillermo del Toro's (Hellboy) efforts to film HP Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness"?

I'm foaming at the mouth for this every since I read the story, and I implore anyone who is even a little fan of horror to read this book and possibly Lovecraft works in general. Quite a riveting story.

I just don't know how much I trust Del Toro's ability to handle the material. In general H.P. Lovecrafts work tends to be pretty badly represented in movies. And I've found that I either outright dislike or find mediocre everything I've seen him direct. I also honestly think that The Dream Quest for Unknown Kadath would be more suited to his style as it was it has a lot more plotline to work with and would have many more parts that wouldn't require great handling of creepiness.


I think Ridley Scott wouldn't be a half bad pick to do some of his stuff though he's got the oppressive atmosphere down pat and could handle the material with the correct tone. Admittedly he hasn't doen anythign even close in while but I think if could channel some of the feel he had in say Blade Runner and Alien there could be something to it.

I am looking forward to Slither and Silent Hill though. I haven't played any of the games but most of what I've seen of it so far looks good. And I haven't gotten to see a good evil killer space slug movie in a long time.


Oh god I just realised I posted this while having a cthulhu avatar and signature I should go to the fanboy hall of shame.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Nintendonomicon

That's why I wondered if you had seen the edited ending (which kinda sucks), because I just loved the normal one.

Oh! I've seen the regular ending. I like how

Spoiler:

she eventually went nuts and would potentially become those crawler things herself. The part where she was in the car, then that asian woman's "ghost" suddenly appeared beside her and they show her still in the cave was just brilliant.

Kinda remind me of The Cave, don't you think? The Cave seems to have a good potential for a sequel since everything has a logical explaination. No sudden monster appearance crap.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Casual_Otaku

I'm quite into Asian horror as well. Ju-on (the original), Ringu, Audition... it's all good. I'm currently looking into this Shutter you speak of.

Yus AZN horror affects me more than Western Horror. How scary are girls with long, black hair covering their faces?

Originally Posted by Casual_Otaku

Spoiler:

The killer was way too talkative to be taken seriously, he seemed to be cracking jokes every two minutes. Silent would have been a lot creepier IMO. Also, the ending would have been waaaay better if the surviving guy (can't remember his name) got accused of their murders and was locked up in a mental institution. That would have been a very, very dark ending.

It ended that way cause these were based on actual events. In real life, it didn't happen that way you would like it to end. Yeh, based on actual events... although not the characters (probably due to them wanting privacy). There is some crazy guy over here in Australia that actually does this stuff (google search: Peter Falconio case)!

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Originally Posted by chaofan

Yus AZN horror affects me more than Western Horror. How scary are girls with long, black hair covering their faces?



It ended that way cause these were based on actual events. In real life, it didn't happen that way you would like it to end. Yeh, based on actual events... although not the characters (probably due to them wanting privacy). There is some crazy guy over here in Australia that actually does this stuff (google search: Peter Falconio case)!

Dude, I've known about that case for about 5 or 6 years now, the woman involved in it is from my home town (Huddersfield)! Since they took so many liberties with the real life events anyway (e.g. three backpackers instead of two, absence of any dog), what harm would altering the ending have made to make it a better film? When I watched it I was never interested in how accurately it recreates real life events, all I wanted was a good horror flick.

FELIPE NO

I'm a pretty big fan of horror films, though I haven't sat down and watched many, I plan too. Probably my favorites are the Romero Dead series, the Exorcist and Saw (if that can be classified as horror). I sometimes cheesy gore flicks as well.

Has anyone seen Dog Soldiers? Not really scary, just fucking cool. It starts off meh, but after a while you see how cool it begins with some really neat low budget werewolves, better than many high budget films, great catch phrases and likeable characters.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Talbain

I'm foaming at the mouth for this every since I read the story, and I implore anyone who is even a little fan of horror to read this book and possibly Lovecraft works in general. Quite a riveting story.

That awful "Masters Of Horror" series recently did one of Lovecraft's best stories "Dreams In The Witch House". I'm curious to see how it is given that it's one of the biggest fuck-all horrors I've read - mathmatics and a strangely angled corner of a house give way to transportation to demon realms.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I haven't seen the Masters of Horror series, but I just found out that Clive Barker would be doing an episode. I really love the Hellraiser mythology (which has been completely destroyed by the movies since III, the comicbook stories, I'd say, are better) and I've read some of the stories from the Books of Blood, which I found very entertaining, so it's really exciting to know that this man is trying to produce more stuff. There's also The Scarlet Gospels, which will include a story set in Hell featuring Pinhead.

Of course it will be awesome.

How ya doing, buddy?