Tales From The ILX Top 100 Horror Movies Poll Discussion/Nominations Thread

I think "scariest" is a bullshit meter for whether something is a GOOD horror movie

Also debating whether to just open up a Google doc for people to post their own nominations. I've set one up here.

Why do we always have to do "nominations"

Why don't you just pull all the movies from that one dude who polled the movies from every year

how do you guys have the time to follow the 6,000-post rollout of these things?

Do we not have jobs?

I don't really know why we do nominations either, other than to come up with a base of candidates.

how about the base of candidates is every horror movie ever made

Nominations allow for people to get great movies on the radar that otherwise would have been forgottten. Things like Repo Man would have totally fallen off a bunch of people's radar without a nom list, and would have placed lower or missed the poll.

Hey voters, keep:

Carrie (1976)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Rosemary's Baby
Shining, The

On your radars!

whiney i don't even vote in these things but i know that's an awful idea

Nominations are also great because there's a bunch of movies that get nommed I haven't seen and will totally check out (like hobo w/a shotgun). I don't need a results thread to search out cool stuff you kids are into.

Just FYI, movies that were not nominated didn't place.

True, but I did still vote for a lot of unnominated movies.

Just FYI, movies that were not nominated didn't place.

― HE HATES THESE CANS (Austerity Ponies), Thursday, April 5, 2012 9:03 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3012/2845438891_a49a6562b2_z.jpg

More nominations/on the radar:

The Excorcist
The Ring
Alien
The Descent (2005)

Combination (i.e., your favourite). Rosemary's Baby will be at or near the top of my list because it's an amazingly rich film (it doesn't scare me much now, although it did the first time I saw it); others will be there just because they scare me silly. I had the same idea for nominations: start by linking to or cutting-and-pasting from Darin's yearly polls, and then supplement any gaps. It seems like a lot to start from scratch.

I'm voting for scariest. I don't judge horror movies on the basis of the cinematography, although obviously a well-crafted scary movie will be on the whole better than a crappily-shot one. (But not always!)

Like, Browning's "Dracula" simply *is not scary,* and I can't imagine it was scary even in 1931. Lugosi's performance aside, nearly everyone else on screen besides Edward Van Sloan and Dwight Frye is a charisma vacuum.

Likewise, Whale's "Frankenstein" and "Bride of" are TERRIFIC movies, but they *aren't scary.*

Murnau's "Nosferatu," OTOH, *is* scary.

OK, later today I'll supplement the Google doc I linked upthread with picks from the year polls.

I've already added titles from this poll I did a couple years ago: Halloween approaches -- Which is the scariest movie in the scary movie canon?

Confession, I've actually been "scared" by about three or four movies ever, so I'm definitely using "best" as a stronger criterion than "scariest."

Please to add one (1) John Carpenter's "Prince of Darkness" to that Google Doc.

Done

Just Plain Top 100 - stuff I'm glad I saw. Some of it was genuinely chilling, but not everything "chilling" I'm actually glad I saw. And some horror movies I love didn't actually scare me, but are definitely horror movies.

Oh, and btw, the google doc can be edited by anyone. So feel free if you want to add stuff.

And if you want to delete stuff, feel not free.

True, but I did still vote for a lot of unnominated movies.

― hot and brothered (Eric H.), Thursday, April 5, 2012 8:05 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not writing this to complain, but FYI your ballot took three times as long to enter, because I had to create new entries for half of your votes due to the fact that they were not on the nom list. This meant that I was entering them into a database for no purpose other than to record some of your preferences. It was like your own personal nom list that no one would see until after the results came in.

Just writing this to warn you that typing in (or copying & pasting) the results as ballots come in will get very tedious without a nom list.

For your consideration:

* 75 ballots were submitted

* 663 movies received votes

* 3,170 votes were cast

* 88,441 points were awarded

Without a nom list, y'all would have waited longer for the results because it would have been a lot more work.

Seriously think a nom list will save you time and effort, but I am on board with how you choose to run it, and will stan for my top pics either way.

oh hey there google doc

Why don't you just pull all the movies from that one dude who polled the movies from every year

Because some people's idea of a horror movie might not coincide with Wikipedia's or whatever source those lists were culled from?

I'm saying 'Just Plain Top 100', mostly because there are maybe two horror movies I consider legit scary and I'm sure some people's top 100 (okay...mine) include movies that are probably not 'good' by any reasonable metric. And we absolutely need a nominations process of some sort!

Sorry about that.

Sorry dude. Process discussions are boring. RELEASE THE HELL HOUNDS

Are there any the descent fans up itt? That movie scarred me more than any movie I've seen in recent memory.

scared too

Also, if you just c+p every entry from the previous year-by-year horror polls, you're gonna have a bunch of garbage that no one will ever vote for in a million years because it will, f'rinstance, include every horror movie released in 1996. I think it'll be more hassle than it's worth, but this is your show, man! I will follow where you lead!

yes, the descent is incredible & terrified me

Maybe what I'll do is just C+P any movie that actually received a vote in those polls. That'll cut out all the hag horror movies in the early '70s, for instance.

I say Plain Top 100 because there are really not many truly scary horror movies and most of the best are not that scary, IMO. There are also scary movies that are not horror.

Not to mention that jjjusten is gonna be apoplectic when some obscure masterpiece gets overlooked because everyone missed it amongst the list of every Leprechaun sequel.

I added "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" to that Google doc.

Confession, I've actually been "scared" by about three or four movies ever, so I'm definitely using "best" as a stronger criterion than "scariest."

― hot and brothered (Eric H.), Thursday, April 5, 2012 2:16 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, me too. I just don't scare easily. But I love love love horror movies.

So anyone can add to that doc?

Yeah. I'll keep a separate .xls for myself in case people try to throw tricks.

Also, what makes me like a horror movie or think it's good is not how much it scares me.

For anyone that wants nothing to do with a google doc, this is what I currently have in the nomination pool:

Alien
Audition
Birds, The
Black Sunday
Blair Witch Project, The
Bride of Frankenstein, The
Brood, The
Candyman
Cannibal Holocaust
Carnival Of Souls
Carrie (1976)
Cat People (1942)
Dawn Of The Dead
Descent, The
Devil's Rejects, The
Devils, The
Don't Look Now
Dressed To Kill
Evil Dead, The
Exorcist, The
Eyes Without A Face
Fly, The (1986)
Freaks
Halloween
Haunting, The
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
Hills Have Eyes, The (1977)
I Walked With A Zombie
Inland Empire
Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978)
Irreversible
Jaws
Last House on the Left (1972)
Martin
Night of the Demon
Night of the Hunter, The
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Nightmare On Elm Street, A
Nosferatu
Old Dark House, The
Omen, The
Outer Space
Peeping Tom
Poltergeist
Possession
Prince of Darkness
Psycho
Pulse
Repulsion
Ring, The (2001)
Rosemary's Baby
Seven
Shining, The
Silence of the Lambs, The
Sleepaway Camp
Suspiria
Tenant, The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The (1974)
Thing, The (1982)
Vampyr
Vanishing, The (1988)
Videodrome
Wait Until Dark
Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?
Wicker Man, The
Witchfinder General/The Conqueror Worm

Drag Me To Hell
Paranormal Activity
Planet Terror

Teeth
Brain Dead/Dead Alive
28 Days Later

Does Threads count?

TV movie? Sure why not.

I just added Hausu into the spreadsheet, but I feel like doing it that way may confuse me as I'll have no record of it here.

Just Plain Top 100

^ this

Friday The 13th Part II
Rabid
Shivers
Ringu
The Haunting Of Hell House

Dead of Night (1974) - aka "Deathdream", "Whispers"
Deranged: Confessions of a Necrophile (1974) - aka "Deranged"

two weird and creepy horror films from the mid 70s. both written by alan ormsby and featuring some of tom savini's earliest gore effects work. dead of night is a vietnam-themed variation on "the monkey's paw", while deranged is a fairly closely based on the life and crimes of ed gein. i especially like the latter, which teeters on the borderline between black comedy and extremely grim horror like few others films i can think of.

I don't. (Draw the line on horror at Dead Ringers.) It may not be a true to type genre effort (Cronenberg's films rarely are) but the final act is macabre as fuck!

Will give this some thought before submitting my ballot. If I can talk myself into agreeing, it'll definitely be on there.

i'd be more likely to include dead ringers that a lot of other not-quite-horror thrillers & dramas. mostly for the atmosphere, constant suspense and general creepiness.

Dead Ringers isn't even in my top 10 list of Cronenberg films

so 2 more dumb questions: when are the ballots due, and to whom should they be emailed?!?

voting hasn't opened yet. eric's extended nominations through the weekend (i think) and (i think) he said that he'd start the voting thread on monday. assume it will contain instructions whenever it does appear.

Yep. Letting everyone take the chance to see Cabin in the Woods this weekend before opening voting period.

I've got a provisional list of 27 or 28. I have realized that, as I struggle to finish watching Martin--I started last weekend, and have interrupted it with three other films--this ship has sailed for me, and I'm going to mostly vote for things I liked 30 years ago. I can't stand gore anymore, and that's just too central to much of the genre going forward from the late '60s.

I for one have no problem with you voting for older gore-less films if that's what you like in the genre. I do think you're doing a disservice to a number of later films that bypass the gore, but at the same time, it's fairly indisputable that horror films have become more explicit as a rule.

You're right--I'm sure I've missed some stuff the past couple of decades I'd like. The older films I'll be voting for won't be entirely goreless, although by today's standards, Night of the Living Dead and Texas Chainsaw Massacre are pretty mild (though not in terms of psychological intensity, I'd argue).

Tourneur, Whale ftw

I will be thrilled to see Tourneur alongside Inside alongside Dreyer alongside The Brood.

I'm gonna exercise some futility here and nominate Hopital Brut despite its obscurity and the fact that the few people who've actually seen it probably wouldn't label it a horror film.

Is that the crazy French animation by Le Dernier Cri collective?

Yeah, that's the one.

I took part in a live soundtracking of it once, I remember nothing of the film as I was too busy trying to work out what to play.

Anyway, if we can have Apaches as a nomination then we can have The Finishing Line too :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slJyhOEo-SY

Late to the upthread discussion of David Lynch, but in thinking about it it's hard for me to figure out how many of his movies I'd consider "horror" in some way. Definitely Inland Empire, which seems to be all about different varieties of fear and dread. Certainly as much a horror film as, say, Repulsion. Eraserhead is a kind of parental-horror monster movie, in the same way The Brood is (if less easily categorized as a genre work). Beyond that I think it's more slippery. There's terrifying moments in Mulholland Drive, FWWM, and Lost Highway, but I wouldn't call them "horror movies." (And wouldn't vote for Lost Highway anyway because I don't like it much.)

Anyway, I'll save slots for Inland Empire and Eraserhead on my ballot (maybe -- depends how many votes we get). Wouldn't vote for the others, but I won't argue with anyone who does. For all the ridiculousness and namecalling they often entail, I like the arguments in these polls over what counts (as comedy, or spec fic, or whatever). I prefer looser boundaries to more puritanical ones, I think it opens up the conversation.

Yeah, that pretty well sums up my feelings on Lynch w/r/t this poll. Except that I would also like to nominate:

The Grandmother

Letting everyone take the chance to see Cabin in the Woods this weekend before opening voting period.

hoping to see it today!

I would nominate the Godzilla-esque Cthulu movie which probably only exists in my head but which has no good reason to not exist.

this is not that movie, but...

The Call of Cthulhu (2005)

Anyone seen 'A Quiet Place in the Country'? Ramdomly came across:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Quiet_Place_in_the_Country

I am also planning on seeing the cabin in the woods tonight.

I have a serious soft spot for that call of Cthulhu movie

I kind of want to see Cabin in the Woods even though it would probably fuck me up

it's good! go see it. scary enough, kinda gory in places, but nothing that'll scar you for life.

Earlier today I looked over at my DVDs and noticed one on top, still shrink-wrapped. At some point in the last 6 months, I bought two-movie DVD of Frirestarter and Firestarter 2, but I have no memory of it at all.

Firestarter isn't that good, but it holds enormous sentimental value for me. I had a huge, huge crush on Drew Barrymore (???) and I also wanted to be her in that movie (and later when she became a wild child). It might make my ballot for that reason alone.

Firestarter had a pretty good soundtrack by Tangerine Dream too

Wow, lots of names in it, too.

Why doesn't he just push the taxi driver to make him go to the airport instead of pushing him to make him believe he's given him a $500 bill? Makes no sense.

easier to push someone to believe something pleasant than to do something against their will? iirc pushing ppl takes a lot out of him so it makes sense for him to take the path of least resistance.

It's funny that he pushed a pay phone into giving up its quarters. Ha.

Anyone seen 'A Quiet Place in the Country'? Ramdomly came across:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Quiet_Place_in_the_Country

― xyzzzz__, Saturday, April 14, 2012 4:37 PM (Yesterday)

lol this is on my list of 50 films to watch, along with popular classics like symptoms, killer's moon, don't go in the house, and the '81 nightmare.

yeah, who exactly is he pushing there, ma bell?

xp

ties into maximum overdrive, right? king treating inanimate mechanical devices as things with minds of a sort.

Edward - lol, it is on youtube no subs but a cracking score from Morricone (from the excerpts).

ok if you guys nommed thundercrack in the comedy poll I'm nomming the devil inside her (1977) here

el dia de la bestia aka the day of the beast (1995)

i nominated Thundercrack! but have never seen The Devil Inside Her. Any good?

love Day of the Beast though. might even vote for it.

devil inside her is horrifying on a couple diff levels, def more horrifying than erotic. the marc loi in you might object tho? (no shots fired)

think I'll save my dark horse agitating for the voting thread

the marc loi in you might object tho? (no shots fired)

lol, no worries. i've avoided the shaun costello & zebedy colt 70s roughies, mostly due to presumed rapeyness.

OK, last call for nominations. Will open the poll for ballots a little later today.

Wtf, this wasn't nominated yet?

Troll 2

I didn't want to vote for it in the comedy poll, because I decided to exclude unintentional comedies, but it certainly was intended to be a horror movie.

It's either a great comedy or a rotten horror movie.

I may just give Troll 2 one point on every poll.

turner classic movies held a film festival last weekend in hollywood with a midnight screening of phase iv on friday, kinda funny to see it positioned among the likes of singing in the rain, the searchers, and vertigo...

http://www.tcm.com/festival/programs/481842/index.html

tbh it's been years and years since I've seen devil inside her, iirc there's one troubling sequence but the rest is pretty standard stuff for the time, albeit dressed up in disturbing facepaint

xp to contendo

last wave, the (1977)

^ weird that classics like this are still getting nommed, down to the wire and we're still missing good stuff but ah well

THE VAULT OF ILX Top 100 HORROR Movies Poll Voting Thread (voting closes May 7)