Best Horror Film of 1991 (part 17 of a series)

I haven't seen one of these movies...

I have to admit that the only one I remember seeing was The People Under the Stairs.

I guess you don't call The Silence of the Lambs a horror film; to me, it's no less a horror film than some of the Cronenbergs that have been listed. (It's a horror film on the most basic level: it's scary.) If that were here, I'd vote for that. Of the rest, I haven't seen one.

I've seen The People Under the Stairs and Puppet Master II (lol HBO). (flips coin) Wes Craven it is!

Sorry, clemenza - that was an oversight on my part. Silence of the Lambs didn't come up on my IMDB or Wikipedia search, so I assumed it came out in 1990 or 1992.

http://static.boomkat.com/images/157742/333.jpg

ugh yeah terrible year. Rewatched People Under the Stairs recently - pretty enjoyable for the most part, but I think it's horror potential is unnecessarily hampered/squandered by having the protagonist be a pre-teen. it makes the film more toothless. Both Twin Peaks alums are great tho

yeah Silence is horror. altho I think it's really overrated and it contains one of my least favorite/most annoying tropes ever

Actually, '91 was the second season of Twin Peaks, with an emphasis on all the spooky Bob/Windom Earle stuff. I'd cast a vote for that, too, although obviously it's not a movie.

speaking of twin peaks, Ed & Nadine Hurley were the primary antangonists in PUTS!

o i see that was already covered by shakey.

I always liked to think of the PUTS couple as the black lodge doppelgangers of Big Ed & Nadine. If only they could have included some dialog about how the gremlins in the wall were always ruining the drape runners!

Omen IV is pretty damn fun for a straight-to-TV movie!

If there's a better movie about the devil's granddaughter out there, I haven't seen it.

Thanking Darin for unintentionally leaving off the most overrated "scary" movie in history.

an ilx poster tried to test me once..

I fell asleep

I always liked to think of the PUTS couple as the black lodge doppelgangers of Big Ed & Nadine. If only they could have included some dialog about how the gremlins in the wall were always ruining the drape runners!

I gotta see this now. (As long as there are no subplots about high-school wrestling.)

Eric H: A lot of people consider Silence very scary. You can leave off the scary scare quotes and make your point just as well.

Don't you mean "scary" scare quotes?

Was going to write that initially, but just think scare quotes are pretty corny in any context.

"corny"

(is what you should have written, IMO, because I would have lolled)

SOTL end sequence in the cellar w/ Buffalo Bill night-vision goggles is some freaky ass shit generally on par w/ the best of the freaky ass shit out there imho.

We're into the seventh circle of irony now, and I got lost on the third. Go Jays!

Puppet Master 3: Toulon's Revenge is my fave of the Puppet Master flicks, but it's the least "horror" of the bunch.

an ilx poster tried to test me once...

Just noticed this now--great!

If all is right in this world people under the stairs is going to crush in this round

^^^

it's kind of hilarious to me how many horror movies I actually like for someone who can't really watch them

Do you mean you actually get really scared? If so, I have the same problem. Every horror film I've ever liked (and even ones that I didn't) I watched through splayed fingers the first time.

Out of all the films listed, the only one I've actually seen is "People Under the Stairs", which i thought was great.

964 Pinocchio - of Fukui's ero-guro kabuki movies, i'd suggest Rubber's Lover, even if it's not quite as shrill or eyebrow-raising as this one.

976-Evil II - superior sequel. Jim Wynorski's best movie. in my book, neither statement amounts to huge praise.

Afraid of the Dark - a clunky but admirable English giallo about a boy who is losing his sight. like a Mario Bava, Philip Ridley, Ken Russell collab that never quite pays off.

Alligator II: The Mutation - if you're going to make a sequel to the greatest killer-reptile flick of them all, make it good. or at least make it better than this cut-rate dreck.

Black Magic Woman - urban voodoo tale with Skinemax production values.

Body Parts - "The Hands of Orlac," Eric Red style. so, exceedingly violent and dramatically unbalanced by a totally OTT third act.

The Boneyard - a morgue full of Chinese zombies; a 400 lb forensic psychic; mutant Phyllis Diller and her mutant poodle as the unlikely but formidable climactic menaces . something different, to say the least. not great, but fairly inspired.

The Borrower - James McNaughton followed up Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer with this gory sci-fi lark about an alien convict, exiled on Earth, who must steal human heads to replace his own (which keeps exploding. something about our atmosphere). inconsequential, but i've always enjoyed it.

Child's Play 3 - the sort of movie that seems awesome - until you grow up.

Children of the Night - Fangoria-financed vampire film. watched it again a few weeks ago and still enjoyed it. could have been a little less jokey. the cornball humor negates some of the stronger Hammer-esque touches.

Dead Space - Fred Olen Ray remakes one of his own warehouse-set remakes of Aliens. nice blood-soaked chainsaw demise.

Dead Dudes in the House - i love this terrible, terrible movie (aka: The House on Tombstone Hill), and i am not ashamed to say so.

A Demon in My View - Anthony Perkins plays a psycho, just not that one. mature, somewhat interesting low-key horror.

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare - bleh.

Haunting Fear - Edgar Allan Poe and a naked, possessed Brinke Stevens. two great tastes that taste really, really weird together. Fred Olen Ray strikes again.

Immortal Sins - a succubus, a haunted castle. an out-of-time Spanish curiosity that nobody remembers. for good reason.

La setta - Michele Soavi's baffling, occasionally brilliant The Devil's Daughter. there's a phenomenal film buried somewhere in here. i've never found it.

The Lost Platoon - WWII vamps. an action film in horror clothing, as you'd expect from director David Prior.

No Telling - the arrival of Larry Fessenden. alas, his "Frankenstein" isn't as good as his Dracula (Habit)

The People Under the Stairs - one of Craven's more interesting sociological horror yarns.

Omen IV: The Awakening - as good as it could have been. so, not very.

Popcorn - ungainly semi-anthology. the vintage FX look too modern; the modern FX looks awful. always dug the reggae band that plays during the intermission.

Puppet Master II - Puppet Master puppetmaster David Allen (R.I.P.) takes over. light-weight entry, fun enough.

Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge - best Puppet Master. die, Nazis, die!

Prom Night IV: Deliver Us from Evil - back to the series' roots, after two supernatural diversions. very Canadian paint-by-numbers slasher.

Rush Week - wasn't this already on a poll. someone LOLed at my comment about it being the best slasher to star Gregg Allman.

Servants of Twilight - Exhibit B in "why Dean R. Koontz movies make lousy movies." better than Watchers and Whispers, FWIW.

Son of Darkness: To Die for II - a sequel nobody requested.

The Terror Within II - i'll defend the first, but not this one.

The Unborn - DING DING DING! we have our winner! inexplicably good Corman Factory eugenics shocker. 10 kinds of awesome, and it hasn't dated AT ALL.

Voices from Beyond - late Fulci "who put ground glass in grandpa's ice cubes?" family melodrama. nothing to see here.

*bows*

oh, gosh. that was just dashed off, so i apologize if i missed something. letting someone else tackle Poison, because i have no idea what to say about Todd Haynes' confounding, genre-and-gender-bending anthology. other than that, i guess.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I remember trying to figure out what I was going to have for dinner during the SOTL end sequence in the cellar w/ Buffalo Bill night-vision goggles.

(w/ fava beans obv)

i like silence alot even if it killed demme's career in a way but don't mind not seeing it here, even though it seems an obv qualifier - movie about serial killers - it seems pretty definitely a thriller to me, much less a horror flick than blue velvet never mind the various cronenbergs. i always wonder if demme is still happy he put 'goodbye horses' in this ie. yay everybody finally knows this song that he clearly (understandably) loves vs. everybody knows it as that song.

have not seen any of the above movies.

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

Mr. Hal Jam's commentary >>> all of these films (and, indeed, many, many horror films, in my book)

oh, KJB, you charmer! you certainly know how to make a girl feel good. even when she's a guy.

would read Mr. Hal Jam horror movie guide.

i concur