Best Horror Film of 1989 (part 11 of a series)

La chiesa in a walk.

Wow, lots of bad movies in this. gonna have to think

have to go w/ the only one I saw

Baxter

wtf is The Laughing Dead?

and there's a third Black Sunday?

how many dead permutations are there, ie, is there a Farting Dead too?

jeez, this must be the point at which either the bottom finally dropped out of the horror boom, or else i just stopped paying attention. cuz i've seen very few of these films, and even the big, popular ones (pet sematary, shocker) kind of suck.

The Nightmare on Elm Street entry is awful. I didn't even finish it cuz of how bad it was

Well there is Tideland, that should count

xxpost

Hated Halloween 5 too. I may need to rent some of these

^^^ yeah this. i haven't ever heard of half these films, which is bizarre, cuz i've known most on the previous lists.

p terrible year tbh

What contenderizer said. Of the few I've seen, I'll go w/Pet Sematary, which at least boasts an amusing Fred Gwynne performance and a killer toddler.

Although Clownhouse, for unleashing pedo Victor Salva on the cinema world, is a fair vote, too.

Baxter (my dog's name is Baxter, too!) sounds pretty cool - just added to Netflix.

This year is indeed terrible, though. I had to go over the list several times to make sure I wasn't missing all the good stuff somehow.

Oh my god, this list is total shit. This "Friday the 13th" in particular was a wreck, with the backstreets of Canada serving as the worst substitute for Manhattan this side of Jackie Chan's "Rumble in the Bronx" (filmed in Vancouver!).

Wow, I've seen exactly one of these films: Pet Sematary. All I can say is that that gets the prize for best Ramones song, a brilliant meditation on the state of their own career at the time. The film, not so brilliant.

Never heard of Jason Takes Manhattan. Why isn't this at bad-movie Halloween screenings?

b/c it sucks and is boring.

a potentially entertaining premise wasted, really - 2/3 of the movie takes place on the yacht that is somehow en route to NYC from Camp Crystal Lake.

but then there is this scene..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBnlPBQwmc0

wow I haven't seen more than a couple of these. wha happen

Was expecting both Parents and Society to be on this list. Not that either of them are works of genius, but at least the latter is worth a vote over most of these options.

Celia looks quite interesting, mind you. And I, Madman is by the same director as The Gate!

i'm voting psycho cop for pure hilarity reasons when i watched it. don't generally prefer any from this list.

Pet Sematary! Milking tragic degenerative illnesses for horror value wins every time.

I totally missed Society when assembling the list.

Always thought Parents was more of a black comedy.

I guess I'd have to vote for Pet Sematary by default, more because of the fact that it's not actively awful, even though I don't really care about it one way or the other. To parrot everyone else: bad year for horror. The Dream Child was where the NOES series started sucking, so I can't even give that one any props.

contenders:
Baxter - great film. dark, but ... horror?
Beyond Dream's Door - Jay Woelfel's Lovecraftian student film. does amazing things with what must have been pocket change. worth a watch, but not BHF1989
The Bite - i assume this is Curse 2: The Bite? Screaming Mad George unchained in service of an idiotic plot. icky, tho.
Black Rainbow - not-bad psychic thriller, made for cable. this qualifies, but Parents does not?
Celia - very good Aussie evil-child chiller. low key and memorable.
La chiesa - file under C, for 'The Church' (or Chiesa, la). steadily improving Argento acolyte Michele Soavi's would-be 'Demons'-franchise entry. C+ for results - some stunning visuals, sound; middling story, pace. he takes the title in 1994, then abandons his congregation
The Dead Next Door - first and best of the backyard zom epics, from budding auteur J.R. Bookwalter, with considerable assist of Sam Raimi and friends
The Dead Pit - Brett Leonard's stylish but stupid calling-card film. and yet, no CGI!
Edge of Sanity - Tony Perkins' Dr. Jeckyll goes bugnuts as pale, twitchy, coke-crazed Mr. Hyde the Ripper. stylish sex-soaked trash.
The Forgotten One - good dead-girl ghost chiller. feat. Terry O'Quinn, IIRC.
The Fly II - looks better than it is in this company. one of the grisliest films of its era, thanks to FX man at helm. but... no. despite game Eric Stoltz performance.
Grandma's House - Psycho variant with gobs of atmosphere.
I, Madman - curious and fairly original Canadian pulp horror from 'The Gate' (and SyFy's 'Ice Spiders') FX master. half-baked but very likable. a personal favorite, though admittedly not a very good movie.
Intruder - my favorite slasher film. visually inventive, viscerally replete. KNB FX Group's first gleaming, and they went for broke...n bones, bodies, etc.
Night Life - would love to see this Scott Grimes/John Astin funeral-home horror again. i remember it delivering the goods.
Pet Sematary - not a fan. sometimes the book is better, Louis. but it's well made and has its adherents, so i'll bump it up.
Puppet Master - love 2, 3, first is ok as an intro but not a good movie. gets a pass for Dave Allen's great old-school puppetronics.
Shocker - has its moments.
Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland - i can't hate on these sequels. they got me through adolescence.
Stepfather II - less-than-necesary sequel. but at least it's still O'Quinn. and the premise is still good for a few jolts.
The Terror Within - vicious $1.99 'Alien' clone from the Corman schlock factory. like an American 'Inseminoid' with even more rape and scanty panties.
Warlock - a little gem, crossing The Terminator time-travel with Witchfinder antics. great sense of humor.

HELL NO
After Midnight - lame "what is fear?" anthology with one good story
Beware: Children at Play - awful. bottom of the Troma barrel, if you can imagine.
C.H.U.D. II - Bud the Chud - one of the worst horror sequels of all time
Clownhouse - tepid. no one would care if not for director's fiddlin' about - and young Sam Rockwell.
Demonstone - horror-tinged Pino action pic. supernatural element seems shoehorned in. barely qualifies
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan - (...)
Halloween 5 - 90 minutes of voyeuristic child abuse. how did this get green-lit?
Hell High - deservedly forgotten dead-teen junk with a nasty edge of sexual aggression
Howling V: The Rebirth - ok 'who's the werewolf?' dark castle shenanigans. but series doesn't qualify as good again until charmingly rinkydink VI: The Freaks
The Laughing Dead - rare movie. author/dilettante director S.P. Somtow tries to do it all. odd cameos, gooey, goofy, goony Aztec zombie mishmash.a real mess, overall.
Night Visitor - whiny suburban Satanic panic potboiler.
Nightwish - sci-fi/horror. attempt at something different. FAIL.
Psycho Cop - stick with Maniac Cop. dud, dud, dud.
Rush Week - tame campus-slasher dreck. but best of its type to feature an Allman brother (Gregg).
Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out! - Monte Helleman returned ... for this?!
The Vineyard - cinematic everyChinaman James Hong's incomprehensible vanity project - zombies, killer acupuncture, spiders, blood wine, amulets, but no plot.

got me:
Angel: Black Angel
Attack of the Hideopoid
Black Sunday - is this the McDonald's Massacre one?
Bloodbath in Psycho Town
Dark Heritage
Family Reunion
The Vampire Is Still Alive
Laurin
Rock-A-Die Baby
Scary Movie
Sexbomb

Intruder or Warlock, then. probably Warlock. FLTM.

hello, pet semetary obv

the scariest part to me, though, was ZELDA

fucking terrified me as a kid

Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out! - Monte Helleman returned ... for this?!

lol hellman has the weirdest filmography

At a screening at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas in July 2008, Hellman introduced the film, saying he thought it was his best work (though not his best film).

^ and yes he was talking about SNDN3

baffling. just baffling. his new one looks promising.

babytown frolics you are incredible! i laughed at this:

tame campus-slasher dreck. but best of its type to feature an Allman brother (Gregg)

I wasn't happy with Society when I saw it. I read way too much hype about it ahead of time, and didn't think that the ending was WTF enough to redeem the 90 minutes of tepid Full Moon Entertainment movie I had to sit through to get there.

Don't think I'm voting for anything this year. Maybe if Parents had been on the list.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

woohoo!

oh man I so would have voted for Society. love that movie

oh shit i totally forgot to vote in this - prob would have voted for baxter altho it isnt a horror film sorta kinda maybe it is idk

C.H.U.D. II - Bud the Chud 1

ok, what joker voted for this?

okay, so the other night, i saw one of the worst (BEST) worst horror movies of 1989. out of the dark. it's amazing, and i'm bummed that it never even stood a chance, wasn't included on the list for this or any other year. basic deal is that it's an american giallo-style mystery/slasher flick about a group of "phone fantasy" call center workers and the maniacal clown-masked killer stalking them. incredible cast of oddball 80s z-listers: bud cort, karen black, geoffrey lewis, tracey walter and paul bartel. with special guest appearances by divine and tab hunter! it's cheap and almost absurdly sleazy, giving ken russell's crimes of passion a serious run for its money, and though obviously shot on a very low budget, quite atmospheric and visually inventive, especially when it comes to the suspense scenes. the dialogue and most of the lead performances are jaw-droppingly bad, one embarrassing, wooden clunker after another, but at its best, the visual style resembles (and sometimes even holds its own with) dario argento and brian depalma. and some of those clunkers are awful damn funny.

it's an odd movie, garishly awful, but perversely charming. closest companion piece i can think of is verhoeven's showgirls. out of the dark has the same combination of comically ridiculous dialog, cardboard performance and tongue-in-cheek (?) titillation. even features similar "naive new girl learns the ropes of a dirty business" scenes. and like that movie, it works far better as camp comedy than as a steamy thriller. not saying it doesn't lag from time to time, but any movie where you get karen black purring witheringly unsexy pillow talk and divine chewing scenery in a cop moustache is okay in my book. deserves rediscovery, at least on a midnight/cult level.

* meant but forgot to mention that it feels like a paul bartel movie, not only because he appears in it, like a slicker version of his early private parts. and the cast shares several faces with lust in the dust (divine and tab hunter most notably, though neither gets much screen time here). bartel recieeves an executive production credit, perhaps indicating his financial support, but out of the dark was directed by michael schroeder, who's gone on to ... well, not very much.

um, "receives"