Horror Movies and general limits on what you'll accept

I'm really new to horror films. Really, really new. I've seen some classics of the genre like Kwaidan, A Nightmare On Elm Street 1-3, Cannibal Holocaust and Army Of Darkness, but given that Cannibal Holocaust is the most extreme out of that list I'll put up with for various, baffling personal reasons that would make most people say "Evel Kinevel couldn't make those leaps" (the soundtrack is amazing and Robert Kerman plays the greatest anthropologist in cinema) - I'm not much a fan of when cinema goes waaaaaay too extreme without a major point apart from "This movie has a whole lot of rape in it, to make a point about something, but the director admits nothing".

Most baffling of all in fact is my constant defending of Cannibal Holocaust when other movies like A Serbian Film sound repulsive and not very fun to watch at all, because there's no Riz Ortolani or Robert Kerman humanity in there to be found.

I'd like to take baby steps towards approaching the best horror cinema has to offer without going too far into rapey territory or torture porn subgenres. If you have any recommendations as to entry level ones to check out, I'd like to hear them.

This post was provoked in me by this ebook I read called Beyond The Darkness where it seems as much as I think I have an iron stomach, there's always limits to what my brain will accept and there's something utterly terrifying about the phrase "The director is possibly wanted for extradition, this film has no official home video release". That's the kind of shit Videodrome is like, in book form (I forgot I saw that one too, which I liked for various reasons, one it's actually about something other than jump scares).

I intended to start a similar, but much simpler thread...generally revolving around the bloodshed that one can stomach and what not.

I will accept any amount of sadism and depravity.

However, I am terrible with recommendations. There are very few films I actually hate, and I can recommend most films I don't hate.

Watch the Universal monster movies. Watch The Golem for an even-earlier Frankenstein-esque story.

Watch Maniac if you want to see a day in the life of a Maniac, with a moderate dose of exploitation and a high dose of grisly, graphic violence...and a great villain performance. If it ends up being to your liking, Nightmare (in a Damaged Brain) is likely its closest relative, but it's much sleazier.

Watch Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer for a less exploitative but more disturbing and effective take on similar themes.

Check out A Bay of Blood. It's one of the most secretly ripped-off films around...or so it seems to me. As long as I'm thinking of the Italians, Dario Argento is always worth checking out. His early giallo films are terrific, and Suspiria is a great movie, even if I'm not as wild about it as some people.

See The Thing From Another World, and then if you watch John Carpenter films(and his early output is awesome), you could see how he was inspired by it in a few ways.

Psycho is a must-see. Psycho II is also pretty good. Psycho III is...uh...well, as a CHUD.com writer put it, "As a quality piece of cinema Psycho III is decidedly stupid. But as a stupid piece of cinema it is decidedly appealing."

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is fantastically nightmarish in my opinion. Another '70s piece that I would call nightmarish is Phantasm, though I don't know what some genre newbies would think.

Oh, and David Cronenberg was certainly one of the best in the horror genre back in the day.

"Psycho is a must-see."

Make sure you see he original and not the remake staring Vince Vaughn.

The Exorcist and The Exorcist III are pretty good horror movies

It's not a film per se, but I'd recommend going on You Tube and checking out Marble Hornets. The first 26 Entries are some of the creepiest stuff I've ever watched, despite having almost no violence.

I just watch whatever random horror films (usually slasher, monster or exploitation) that catch my interest, no matter how repulsive, vile or possibly illegal they're said to be.

Or shitty. Can't forget that.

I'm not very easily shocked by movie violence, which is why I don't have much tolerance for gratuitous movie violence. When something has no merits other than shock value, it's impossible to take it seriously if you're not even shocked by it. Pile on all the blood and gore you want, as long as you give me some likable characters, imaginative plots and good writing to back it up.

See, I like horror when filmmakers actually take it seriously, and don't just see it as an excuse to unleash their inner sadist. You could make a serious argument that horror is the oldest genre of fiction in existence (and there are writers like H. P. Lovecraft who have argued just that) for the simple reason that fear is the oldest, most universal emotion there is.

Some of the oldest oral folktales that we know about are cautionary tales told to warn children about the dangers of the world, and some of the earliest pagan religions were developed so that early humans could put faces on those menacing, unknown forces that they were afraid of. All creatures feel fear, so it's natural that we should have a genre of fiction that's all about coming to terms with our fear and learning not to let it hold us back. That's fear, though. Fear and sadism are entirely different things.

That said, I also have no patience or tolerance for Torture Porn. I can handle blood and gore, but that's because death is an unavoidable fact of life that everyone has to deal with. Torture, on the other hand, is a serious human rights issue that needs to be stamped out by any means necessary. And, in my opinion, it's the most disgusting act that a human being can ever commit.

But that's just me.

edited 8th Sep '12 9:07:35 AM by TheMightyHeptagon

Well, murder, like torture, is a heinous act that constantly plays out in horror, and should not be an unavoidable fact of life...not death in itself.

I don't mind a splash of gratuitous gore...or several.

Murder is a terrible crime, but its only result is death, which everyone has to face at some point.

Seeing a character in a movie get murdered can, if done right, be a good vehicle for confronting your fears about death, and your feelings about what you're willing to die for.

But the amount of degradation, suffering and psychological trauma that comes with torture is something that no one should ever have to face. Ever.

edited 8th Sep '12 12:49:35 PM by TheMightyHeptagon

I haven't seen Army of Darkness, but to my knowledge, it's much more action-comedy than it is horror. What you want to see is Evil Dead 2, which is horror-comedy instead, and is amazing. Seriously, I don't think I've ever laughed so hard at so much blood.

You do realize most methods of murder inflict a great deal of pain on the victim first, right?

"Seeing a character in a movie get murdered can, if done right, be a good vehicle for confronting your fears about death, and your feelings about what you're willing to die for."

The problem with that is that Horror Movies are not made to confront fears, but rather to create and exploit them. If the Director/Producer thinks torture will scare the audience, then there gonna use it.

The Evil Dead series became less focused on horror as it went along.

The first Evil Dead was pretty much a Horror Movie with some focus on Black Comedy.

The second Evil Dead Movie (my personal favorite) was also a Horror Movie but enough focus was given on the comedy part for it to be labeled a Comedy-horror.

Army of Darkness... was really not much of a Horror Movie. Unless your the type that scares easily, it really is more of an action-comedy movie (with the occasional scare and a somewhat dark atmosphere).

edited 8th Sep '12 11:12:55 PM by DeviantBraeburn

As for my views on Horror Movies, I generally agree with "Less is More", but there are exceptions.

One of the biggest problems (in my opinion) with most modern horror films is that they usually fill there entire cast with unlikable douchebags. This often leads to the entire audience hoping for there deaths which decreases the horror of the movie. To make matters worse most movies try to compensate for that by adding over the top deaths, shock scares, and torture porn, which usually makes things worse

That's not to say that over the top deaths, shock scares, and torture porn make for a bad movie, but they do usually make for a bad HORROR movie.

edited 8th Sep '12 11:11:28 PM by DeviantBraeburn

That's not just a flaw of modern horror, though. EC Comics was doing that way back in The '50s.

edited 8th Sep '12 11:05:43 PM by RavenWilder

True, but I would say that the practice has become more mainstream in modern times.

edited 8th Sep '12 11:09:05 PM by DeviantBraeburn

Is the old "Twenty minutes with jerks" deliberate, so you'll end up rooting for them to die horribly?

Yeah, I guess. But it's worth noting that some of the most acclaimed horror movies out there (The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby, The Ring, Paranormal Activity, and many more) often get a lot of praise specifically because they manage to avert that cliche.

edited 9th Sep '12 9:39:32 PM by TheMightyHeptagon

Paranormal Activity? Half the reviews I read talked about what a massive asshole Micah was.

Yeah Micah is a bit of an asshole or douchebag, but the Paranormal Activity films are surpisingly good.

It has its own story and mythology. Each sequel and character seems to get progressively better. Even if notably each film seems to have a dumbass male who makes mistakes (Especially with number 2 when the dad has the demon transferred to Katie) but number 3 gave a good male protagonist and number 4 promises to be a sequel that will finally explain what happened to Possessed!Katie and baby Hunter from number 2.

edited 9th Sep '12 10:50:56 PM by JRPictures

I saw that in a few reviews, but a lot of the ones that I saw also said that the movie worked because it was relatable, and because it captured the insecurities of life as a newlywed couple surprisingly well.

One review that I read mentioned that it plays off of the audience's fears about the pitfalls of marriage in the same way that The Exorcist played off of insecurities about parenthood and Rosemary's Baby played off of insecurities about childbirth. I think I'd agree with that.

The male lead might not have been 100% likable, but I still think the marriage subtext worked really well. For me, the movie's less about demons and more about the fear of having to face the emotional baggage that comes with getting close to another person. Even if you didn't like Micah that much, that's a very relatable fear, and its hard not to feel for the couple when the haunting in their house gradually causes their marriage to break down because of the broken trust between them.

edited 10th Sep '12 11:16:44 AM by TheMightyHeptagon

All of that I can agree with, and I thought the movie worked pretty well(though I was never crazy about it like some people).

Weird, I never knew of that interpretation. It certainly makes sense and works for the film.

OP: I usually like my horror with a science-fiction bent. If you haven't seen Alien, do so at the earliest opportunity.

What I will accept? Well I will not watch a movie with any scene of teeth pulling/bloody toothless mouths implying teeth were ripped out. Or any kind of dental horror.

It scares the fuck out of me because I've lived it.

I usually don't watch horror unless it contains comedy. Zombieland and the Scream series are quite good.

I generally prefer my horror films to be stylish or with a dash of fantasy which is why I like to watch European horror films from the 70s. I cannot stand a lot of horror films today because they are too violent and bloody (especially those French ones) or recycle demonic possession (which has become pretty redundant). I also don't like to see overtly sadistic cruelty on screen be it on animals or humans.

As for recommendations, I highly recommend Messiah of Evil. It's pretty low-budget and doesn't make a lot of sense but I found it really unsettling due to its Lovecraftian influences and the nightmarish atmosphere. The finale will chill you immensely.