Oh, the Horror!

[lovecraft68]

Strictly speaking not quite horror, but I love Crimson Peak. The costumes, the gothic sets, the ghosts, and the heroine. It's not an accident that her surname is "Cushing".

The Babadook was great. Some classic horror elements, but it also drew on some RL fears that don't often show up in horror movies - a lot of the tension comes from seeing a mother who's exhausted and not coping and afraid that social services will notice it.

Dagon. There are so many terrible HPL adaptations out there, this one's not Oscar material but it's pretty good, and it preserves what to me is the heart of the original story (Shadow over Innsmouth).

Lair of the White Worm. This is cheesy as hell but it's fun.

And since LC didn't link to this, I have to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFPI9b9N6CQ

What did you think of the recent Color out of Space with Cage?

They really took some liberties with the story, but I liked it in general. It was a movie where Cages over the top crazy fit the premise.

 

[jaF0]

Vinnie was cool enough to get on The Coop's Nightmare album.

 

[lovecraft68]

Not Billed as horror, but season one of True Detective was creepy AF and the killer was influenced by Robert Chambers King In Yellow.

As an aside, Harrelson's character who was the ultimate womanizing, jealous, arrogant possessive overall asshole and cop with a god complex was the inspiration behind Josh Wilson, the detective in my erotic horror novel Every Dog Has its Day.

There's a few trailers but I went with this one because of the opening line in it is epic

"You're a bad man"

"The world needs bad men. We keep other bad men from the door"

By far my favorite McConaughey role

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVQUcaO4AvE

 

[lovecraft68]

Vinnie was cool enough to get on The Coop's Nightmare album.

Plus he was on the Muppets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoP9x11VZK0

 

[jaF0]

We had Creature Double feature on good old UHF channel 56 in the 70's. They showed some hammer stuff and a lot of cheesy 50's flicks,

We had this guy hosting the cheeseist of the cheesy:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_MqY00N0wpDI/TIun6-lKxtI/AAAAAAAAAIU/OPbHQW4eIK0/s1600/Sir_Graves_Ghastly.jpg

 

[lovecraft68]

We had this guy hosting the cheeseist of the cheesy:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_MqY00N0wpDI/TIun6-lKxtI/AAAAAAAAAIU/OPbHQW4eIK0/s1600/Sir_Graves_Ghastly.jpg

There was an old Charlton comic the Many Ghosts of Dr Graves. I wonder if that's who he is supposed to be or the inspiration of?

I enjoy all the late night horror hosts.

Course Elvira is probably the most famous, but Svengoolie and Joe Bob's Drive in have big followings. I can't think of the name of it, but the guy who played Grandpa on The Munsters used to host one.

I met Cassandra Peterson-Elvira-at Comic con last year. It was before the start of the con and she was her normal red haired self and not in costume. She has stood the test of time, a very attractive woman, and still happy to stop and chat with the fans.

 

[lovecraft68]

The Walking Dead. Robert Kirkman created the most successful horror comic in the modern age of comics. Blending a zombie apocalypse with good old fashioned human evil and stupidity.

s graphic as some of the show is, the comic is far more violent with more despair.

The Walking Dead was my fifteen seconds of fame as a Comic shop owner when one of my customers made the letters page of #10

 

[Bramblethorn]

What did you think of the recent Color out of Space with Cage?

They really took some liberties with the story, but I liked it in general. It was a movie where Cages over the top crazy fit the premise.

Crap, I meant to see that one and clean forgot. Looks like it came out here around the start of February and I got sidetracked by... everything. I'll see if it's on any of the streamers that I have access to.

 

[lovecraft68]

Crap, I meant to see that one and clean forgot. Looks like it came out here around the start of February and I got sidetracked by... everything. I'll see if it's on any of the streamers that I have access to.

Netflix has it I believe.

 

[jaF0]

I can't think of the name of it, but the guy who played Grandpa on The Munsters used to host one.

The Duck quacks 'Super Scary Saturday' with Al Lewis on TBS.

 

[PoisonPen33]

I love horror movies. Doesn't matter the kind - from the black-and-white Universal monsters to Hammer Horror to slashers to meta-commentary. Unless it's yet another fucking sequel or torture porn, I'll give any horror movie a legitimate shot.

Even fan films. With the "Friday the 13th" series in legal limbo due to rights issues, a group of enthusiasts made an hour-long movie that a number of fans consider "quasi-canon." It's called "Never Hike Alone," and I've linked both the trailer to the film (the full film is available on YouTube for free) and its upcoming sequel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZZzRf3JPSU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuCY-G-hVB0

 

[jaF0]

I never did slasher flicks and I wasn't really into 'horror' as such. Some of the SciFi monster flicks were OK. I had to have something besides the goo and gore. Comedic interludes were best like 'Abbott and Costello Meet (whatever)'. Suspense was fine like 'The Birds', even 'On The Beach' which wasn't a horror flick at all. I got my fix from 'Night Gallery' though.

 

[SimonDoom]

Although they were way before my time, I grew up watching the old 1950s horror and sci fi movies on TV shows like Creature Features. There were some good ones, like The Thing, which was pretty good and scary for its time, and was also one of the movies that used the iconic sound of the theremin, a staple of 1950s sci fi/horror.

The 1982 remake of The Thing was good, too, and more faithful to the original story. It also took advantage of advances in special effects, to create a much scarier and more alien looking monster.

It would be interesting to take a look at horror films and books through the years and chronicle how horror tastes, or what scares people, has changed. Consider the genre of horror movies where people are not what they seem. In the 1950s there was Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which played on Cold War paranoia. Then in the early 1970s there was The Stepford Wives, a parable about sexism and oppression of women, and more recently there was Get Out, a horror movie about racism.

 

[lovecraft68]

I love horror movies. Doesn't matter the kind - from the black-and-white Universal monsters to Hammer Horror to slashers to meta-commentary. Unless it's yet another fucking sequel or torture porn, I'll give any horror movie a legitimate shot.

Even fan films. With the "Friday the 13th" series in legal limbo due to rights issues, a group of enthusiasts made an hour-long movie that a number of fans consider "quasi-canon." It's called "Never Hike Alone," and I've linked both the trailer to the film (the full film is available on YouTube for free) and its upcoming sequel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZZzRf3JPSU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuCY-G-hVB0

I'm with you on torture porn. Hostel and the Saw type stuff I have no use for. Even the slashers have lost their charm for me as I get older.

I've seen a lot of Jason and Mike Meyers fan fics, theirs some great stuff.

Alter is a great you tube channel that has some phenomenal work. Most movies are in the 8-20 minute range. I call them ADD horror.

I love this one. short, not so sweet and has one of those classic EC Tales from the Crypt getting what you deserve style endings. The jumpy buffering cuts are pat of the movie not a video issue...added to the realism The creepy guy was in Centipede 2...talk about torture porn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5FiQeeHVcU

This is their playlist...I have lost entire afternoons to this channel.

https://www.youtube.com/c/WatchALTER/videos

 

[jaF0]

Although they were way before my time, I grew up watching the old 1950s horror and sci fi movies on TV shows like Creature Features. There were some good ones, like The Thing, which was pretty good and scary for its time, and was also one of the movies that used the iconic sound of the theremin, a staple of 1950s sci fi/horror.

The 1982 remake of The Thing was good, too, and more faithful to the original story.

There was a creature remake flick with Heather Locklear that was as much camp as anything else.

Then in the early 1970s there was The Stepford Wives, a parable about sexism and oppression of women, ...

From there, you go into stuff like Westworld.

 

[lovecraft68]

Although they were way before my time, I grew up watching the old 1950s horror and sci fi movies on TV shows like Creature Features. There were some good ones, like The Thing, which was pretty good and scary for its time, and was also one of the movies that used the iconic sound of the theremin, a staple of 1950s sci fi/horror.

The 1982 remake of The Thing was good, too, and more faithful to the original story. It also took advantage of advances in special effects, to create a much scarier and more alien looking monster.

It would be interesting to take a look at horror films and books through the years and chronicle how horror tastes, or what scares people, has changed. Consider the genre of horror movies where people are not what they seem. In the 1950s there was Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which played on Cold War paranoia. Then in the early 1970s there was The Stepford Wives, a parable about sexism and oppression of women, and more recently there was Get Out, a horror movie about racism.

Each generation is harder to scare, with this one being the hardest I'd imagine because of tech and we know so much. Not that it can't be done, but we will never see the reactions we did in the past

what I mean is

in 1973 The Exorcist has people fainting in the theater, running out of it, being seriously frightened and disturbed.

The first Frankenstein movie with Karloff had people running out of the theaters because it was so hideous (in the sixties Herman Munster was Frankenstein as comedy)

Going further the first film (supposedly) ever made was just footage of a train coming down a tunnel at the audience. It caused fainting and panic, people really thought it was coming for them

Sometimes I think it would be nice to live in a time where the net and science and etc hadn't tried to put light in all the cool dark corners and as a society we weren't so dulled to violence and everything else.

 

[lovecraft68]

Although they were way before my time, I grew up watching the old 1950s horror and sci fi movies on TV shows like Creature Features. There were some good ones, like The Thing, which was pretty good and scary for its time, and was also one of the movies that used the iconic sound of the theremin, a staple of 1950s sci fi/horror.

The 1982 remake of The Thing was good, too, and more faithful to the original story. It also took advantage of advances in special effects, to create a much scarier and more alien looking monster.

It would be interesting to take a look at horror films and books through the years and chronicle how horror tastes, or what scares people, has changed. Consider the genre of horror movies where people are not what they seem. In the 1950s there was Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which played on Cold War paranoia. Then in the early 1970s there was The Stepford Wives, a parable about sexism and oppression of women, and more recently there was Get Out, a horror movie about racism.

The 1982 version of the Thing is also the closest look we've gotten to date of a Mountains of Madness movie. The team of explorers, finding the murdered crew, bringing he alien back...that was the first few chapters of HPL's classic novella. From there it becomes its own movie. But Carpenter is a massive Lovecraft fan so you know it was a homage.

 

[PoisonPen33]

Going further the first film (supposedly) ever made was just footage of a train coming down a tunnel at the audience. It caused fainting and panic, people really thought it was coming for them

Something like that happened during a silent movie about a train robbery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-msJB4ZEcP4

 

[SimonDoom]

Lovecraft, I'm curious if you're familiar with the 1950s horror comics like Tales from the Crypt. Seems like it would up your alley. They were way before my time but I got hold of them decades later and read them and they're really excellent -- good writing and superb artwork. And I think they helped create the modern horror sensibility. Part of the appeal for young readers of them at the time is that all the Arbiters of Good Morals at the time were shocked by them and wanted them banned. They blended horror with a spirit of playful subversiveness, something that's continued to this day.

 

[jaF0]

Lovecraft, I'm curious if you're familiar with the 1950s horror comics like Tales from the Crypt. Seems like it would up your alley. They were way before my time but I got hold of them decades later and read them and they're really excellent -- good writing and superb artwork.

There have been several TV and movie adaptations and it may have been the basis of other works like Twilight Zone and Amazing Stories.

Writing and presentation is where Hitchcock, Serling and Spielberg among others had it all over the Craven type nonsense. They proved you didn't need gore and visual/graphical shock to create tension and fear.

 

[lovecraft68]

Lovecraft, I'm curious if you're familiar with the 1950s horror comics like Tales from the Crypt. Seems like it would up your alley. They were way before my time but I got hold of them decades later and read them and they're really excellent -- good writing and superb artwork. And I think they helped create the modern horror sensibility. Part of the appeal for young readers of them at the time is that all the Arbiters of Good Morals at the time were shocked by them and wanted them banned. They blended horror with a spirit of playful subversiveness, something that's continued to this day.

They did get banned Look up Wertham and his book seduction of the innocent which targeted comics, mostly horror, as corrupting the youth of America and tied commie crap into it as well.

The Government forced a comics code, but Marvel(atlas at the time) and DC were okay with it, because the new rules would put EC who was killing them in every genre, out of business.

Now a little history on EC's last laugh. It was a comics code. So William Gaines of EC gathered all his artists and writers that he could and launched a black and white Horror MAGAZINE called Creepy under the name of Warren, which was essentially the new EC, they'd later add Eerie and the iconic Vampirella.

The best thing about the EC comics is-as witnessed in the HBO tales from the crypt series-they were karma comics with a moral to the story, those who did bad, always got theirs.

But pre code horror is a niche collectible of its own and the books cost a lot of money and due to age and the fact no one took care of their comics back then(and kids had to fold up and hide the horror comics) they are hard to get in any condition that doesn't look like they were run over.

The last edition I made to my personal collection was Mister Mystery #12 from 1953 featuring a graphic needle to the eye cover that was featured in SOTI. It was in mid grade condition and I ponied up $1100 for it.

 

[Abbafan]

Strictly speaking not quite horror, but I love Crimson Peak. The costumes, the gothic sets, the ghosts, and the heroine. It's not an accident that her surname is "Cushing".

The Babadook was great. Some classic horror elements, but it also drew on some RL fears that don't often show up in horror movies - a lot of the tension comes from seeing a mother who's exhausted and not coping and afraid that social services will notice it.

Dagon. There are so many terrible HPL adaptations out there, this one's not Oscar material but it's pretty good, and it preserves what to me is the heart of the original story (Shadow over Innsmouth).

Lair of the White Worm. This is cheesy as hell but it's fun.

And since LC didn't link to this, I have to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFPI9b9N6CQ

I agree on all of those. Nice to see Dagon getting some love. I think it captures the spirit of Lovecraft better than maybe any other movie I've seen, though it doesn't closely follow the plot of any of his stories, just takes some inspiration.

 

[lovecraft68]

I agree on all of those. Nice to see Dagon getting some love. I think it captures the spirit of Lovecraft better than maybe any other movie I've seen, though it doesn't closely follow the plot of any of his stories, just takes some inspiration.

As much as I enjoy his stories, movies have to take a lot of liberty with his work or as you said use the core as inspiration because...nothing ever really happens in HPL's stories in the way of action or confrontation.

 

[lovecraft68]

Pet Sematary-original version. According to King this is the book he wrote that disturbed him the most. If you read it, its hard to argue.

The character that stole the book and the movie was the back story of Zelda, Rachel's sister who was disfigured and probably made insane by spinal meningitis.

They did her justice in the movie. Here is her 'greatest hits'
2:50 and on is nightmare fuel that had everyone cringing back into their seats when I saw this and I admit freaked me the fuck out. The male actor who played this character was on point for damn sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxWMMul5-i4

 

[Bramblethorn]

I agree on all of those. Nice to see Dagon getting some love. I think it captures the spirit of Lovecraft better than maybe any other movie I've seen, though it doesn't closely follow the plot of any of his stories, just takes some inspiration.

Hmm, I'd have said the basic plot is pretty close to "Shadow over Innsmouth". Change in setting and expanded cast to allow for some more gruesome deaths and T&A, but the key elements are still there. Even the town's name "Imboca" - "boca" is Spanish for "mouth".