paranoid horror/scifi of the 80's/90's

Jacob's Ladder
House (if you like a little comedy with yr horror)

John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness

Dark City.

Return of the Living Dead

(which i thought was awrite tbh)

12 Monkeys.

Oh, and Existenz, though it's not a particularly good movie.

It's one of my fave Cronenburgs! The fact that it plays out like a bad videogame cutscene is exactly why it's awesome.

I didn't much like it, because around that time there were several different movies with the "what if our world is just virtual reality" theme (Dark City, Matrix), and Cronenberg didn't really bring anything new or original to an already tired idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNzXFUCZ7D0&NR=1

^Great sequence from "they live" starting from when he puts the special glasses on and SEES THINGS AS THEY REALLY ARE and ennding with the "all out of bubblegum" line.

OBEY
CONSUME
NO INDEPENDENT THOUGHT
MARRY AND REPRODUCE
THIS IS YOUR GOD
WATCH T.V.
NO IMAGINATION
DO NOT QUESTION AUTHORITY
HONOR APATHY

(lolz @ conspiracy theorist youtube comments.)

Some suggestions from Google sets... Nightbreed, The Thirteenth floor. And a load of other less useful stuff.
http://labs.google.com/sets?hl=en&q1=jacob%27s+ladder&q2=they+live&q3=prince+of+darkness&q4=dark+city&q5=&btn=Large+Set

I really enjoyed Existenz, apart from the last bit where the security guard questions whether they're still in a game. Which I thought was one of the worst endings ever.

Can we include Predator?

Not particularly paranoid, except at the start where they can't see it. Up until "If it bleeds ve can kill it".

The Net !

Struggling to imagine the usefulness of any taxonomy which would group together Society and The Net.

The Faculty

The Hidden

Scanners

(which has an embeardend and crotchety Patrick McGoohan!)

Cronenburg and Carpenter RULE this era, especially The Thing and Videodrome, but I'll add some more...

Looker: models turn up dead - linked to evil corporation with mind-control television. good: Albert Finney & James Coburn. bad: Michael Crichton

Wolfen: urban anxiety and redevelopment as undertaken by Indian wolf spirits. Albert Finney again.

Halloween III: Ignore ignore ignore that it's called Halloween III. More evil corporation bullshit, but Dan O'Herlihy is great.

The Arrival

Looker: models turn up dead - linked to evil corporation with mind-control television. good: Albert Finney & James Coburn. bad: Michael Crichton

First of these kind of movies I ever saw, HBO ran it all the time back in 1981 or so.

what was that sci-fi flick with tom selleck and the little robo-spiders?

Runaway. With Gene Simmons!

!!! didn't know he was in it, was he the villain?

it's been a loooong time since i've seen it

He was indeed.

I didn't much like it, because around that time there were several different movies with the "what if our world is just virtual reality" theme (Dark City, Matrix), and Cronenberg didn't really bring anything new or original to an already tired idea.

Really? A sci-fi/virtual reality movie with almost no "hardware" aside from fleshy little pods that takes place out in the country? A movie that features a gun made out of bones that shoots teeth?

Granted, it's not Cronenberg's best and it's basically an update of Videodrome, but it's hardly like those other movies you mentioned.

with almost no "hardware" aside from fleshy little pods that takes place out in the country? A movie that features a gun made out of bones that shoots teeth?

I was gonna add that the flesh technology is the one original thing Cronenberg brought to it, but other than thay the film doesn't have anything that wouldn't have been done a thousand times in sci-fi.

And like Ste pointed out, the ending was incredibly corny.

I think Dark City was a much more interesting and idiosyncratic take on the subject, but it too was marred by a lame final act.

strange days