Your favorite horror film of all time

[Viki63]

The Faculty, with Josh Hartnett and Elijah Wood.
I don’t know how terrifying it is, but I love the actors. Warning: bad language.

 

[DakiniArtist]

Oh my! Huge horror fan (all genres) here. So hard to choose…

Rosemary’s Baby is at the very top for me, but…

The Exorcist, The Changeling (1980), The Black Cat, any Universal or Hammer Horror, I have a taste for slasher franchises, especially Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Friday the 13th, any Polanski horror, Don’t Look Now, Dario Argento’s films, The Cottage with Shearsmith and Serkis, *Shaun of the Dead, Dog Soldiers, [Rec], Let the Right One In, Cronos, Cemetery Man, The Conjuring, Nightbreed, … *

So looking forward to seeing The Babadook, It Follows, As Above So Below, and The Quiet Ones.

What We Do in the Shadows is so very good and hilarious. It is up there with Young Frankenstein, Army of Darkness, Love at First Bite, Shaun of the Dead, Fido, Tucker & Dale, Zombieland, Cabin the Woods, Fearless Vampire Killers, House…

 

[meltzerboy]

Oh my! Huge horror fan (all genres) here. So hard to choose…

Rosemary’s Baby is at the very top for me, but…

The Exorcist, The Changeling (1980), The Black Cat, any Universal or Hammer Horror, I have a taste for slasher franchises, especially Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Friday the 13th, any Polanski horror, Don’t Look Now, Dario Argento’s films, The Cottage with Shearsmith and Serkis, *Shaun of the Dead, Dog Soldiers, [Rec], Let the Right One In, Cronos, Cemetery Man, The Conjuring, Nightbreed, … *

So looking forward to seeing The Babadook, It Follows, As Above So Below, and The Quiet Ones.

What We Do in the Shadows is so very good and hilarious. It is up there with Young Frankenstein, Army of Darkness, Love at First Bite, Shaun of the Dead, Fido, Tucker & Dale, Zombieland, Cabin the Woods, Fearless Vampire Killers, House…

How could I have forgotten Rosemary’s Baby? A great horror film indeed!

 

[DakiniArtist]

How could I have forgotten Rosemary’s Baby? A great horror film indeed!

I read the book in the '80s before seeing the film. Love Ira Levin. I think Polanski succeeded so well with his adaptation because he understood Levin was shooting for a wry, black commentary on society. I saw some of the remake (new adaptation?) by NBC and I think that’s why it failed miserably; they made it as a straight horror.

The best part of the book, which rings true for me as a sibling, is the part in which Rosemary’s estranged sister calls her, her sister intuition telling her something just isn’t right.

The book and the film are just perfect and filled with so many terrific nuances.

I also love Mia Farrow in the adaptation of Peter Straub’s Julia, Full Circle/The Haunting of Julia.

 

[7_Sorrows]

How could I have forgotten Rosemary’s Baby? A great horror film indeed!

That was an excellent horror film. Good cast. I read the book too.

I liked The Others with Nicole Kidman.

 

[Mary_Gail_36]

One time I was flipping the channel and found “Rosemary’s Baby” was on, about 20 minutes into the film. I hadn’t seen it before. I started watching, and got up to the point where Rosemary goes to the “good” obstetrician, and he doesn’t believe her he thinks she is mentally ill. I had to turn it off

I was about 7 months pregnant at the time.

It always disturbed me that Roman Polanski’s baby with Sharon Tate would have been my age about. My mom was very disturbed about the news reports when she was around the same month of pregnancy.

For that reason, I’d rather avoid that film…

 

[7_Sorrows]

One time I was flipping the channel and found “Rosemary’s Baby” was on, about 20 minutes into the film. I hadn’t seen it before. I started watching, and got up to the point where Rosemary goes to the “good” obstetrician, and he doesn’t believe her he thinks she is mentally ill. I had to turn it off

I was about 7 months pregnant at the time.

It always disturbed me that Roman Polanski’s baby with Sharon Tate would have been my age about. My mom was very disturbed about the news reports when she was around the same month of pregnancy.

For that reason, I’d rather avoid that film…

I can see how that would be disconcerting if you were pregnant.

 

[Mary_Gail_36]

Would Suddenly Last Summer be considered a horror?

It’s the film of the Tennessee Williams play.

It features a creepy garden, a mother as possessive of her son as Mrs Bates was of Norman, an insane asylum, a threat of a lobotomy, and possible cannibalism.

Starring Montgomery Clift and Liz Taylor

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Would Suddenly Last Summer be considered a horror?

It’s the film of the Tennessee Williams play.

It features a creepy garden, a mother as possessive of her son as Mrs Bates was of Norman, an insane asylum, a threat of a lobotomy, and possible cannibalism.

Starring Montgomery Clift and Liz Taylor

As I said before, I have very wide parameters for what a “horror” film is, so sure.

I’ve always thought of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD as in the horror genre. There is a sense of a dangerous world that isn’t clearly understood by the viewpoint kids, and the scenes where they are watching Boo Radley deposit something in the tree, or the attack on Scout at the end, really scared me as a kid. Someone once wrote that the film captures Ray Bradbury’s perceptions of childhood better than any Ray Bradbury adaptation ever did.

Some of Flannery O’Connor’s works have that spooky vibe as well, like the adaptation of WISE BLOOD that John Huston did.

 

[KevinAK]

What We Do in the Shadows is so very good and hilarious. It is up there with Young Frankenstein, Army of Darkness, Love at First Bite, Shaun of the Dead, Fido, Tucker & Dale, Zombieland, Cabin the Woods, Fearless Vampire Killers, House…

Don’t forget Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein.

 

[Della]

Don’t forget Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein.

My favorite of the A&C comedy/horror films was Abbot and Costello Meet the Mummy. Not scary, but funny. I loved the dance scene in the temple–my favorite part of the film.

 

[meltzerboy]

Would Suddenly Last Summer be considered a horror?

It’s the film of the Tennessee Williams play.

It features a creepy garden, a mother as possessive of her son as Mrs Bates was of Norman, an insane asylum, a threat of a lobotomy, and possible cannibalism.

Starring Montgomery Clift and Liz Taylor

If so, it is certainly a more sophisticated, higher-order horror film. Besides Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor, it also stars Katharine Hepburn as the mother.

Have you ever seen the film Summer and Smoke, also a Tennessee Williams adaptation, featuring Geraldine Page and Laurence Harvey? Not a horror movie, but a truly great one.

 

[7_Sorrows]

If so, it is certainly a more sophisticated, higher-order horror film. Besides Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor, it also stars Katharine Hepburn as the mother.

Have you ever seen the film Summer and Smoke, also a Tennessee Williams adaptation, featuring Geraldine Page and Laurence Harvey? Not a horror movie, but a truly great one.

No I have never seen Summer and Smoke. What is it about?
I like Laurence Harvey who I remember once in a horror episode of Alfred Hitchcock or Twilight Zone where he lived in a tropical place and he had a bug or worm that had crawled into his ear and it would eventualburrow into his brain. It was black and white episode. I was so afraid after that of a bug crawling into my ear when I slept.
Anyone remember that?

 

[meltzerboy]

No I have never seen Summer and Smoke. What is it about?
I like Laurence Harvey who I remember once in a horror episode of Alfred Hitchcock or Twilight Zone where he lived in a tropical place and he had a bug or worm that had crawled into his ear and it would eventualburrow into his brain. It was black and white episode. I was so afraid after that of a bug crawling into my ear when I slept.
Anyone remember that?

Summer and Smoke involves a relationship between a prim and proper woman, played by Geraldine Page, who is attracted to a hedonist, played by Laurence Harvey. She refuses to give in to his advances even though she cares for him, and he leaves her. However, at the end of the movie, she finally frees herself of her inhibitions and succumbs to the first man she meets, not really having any love for him.

I do remember that episode, which, I think, was on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The punchline (not funny, however) is that the bug finally comes out of his other ear after his suffering excruciating pain, but it is found the bug is female and has laid eggs in his brain. A soothing tale!

 

[7_Sorrows]

Summer and Smoke involves a relationship between a prim and proper woman, played by Geraldine Page, who is attracted to a hedonist, played by Laurence Harvey. She refuses to give in to his advances even though she cares for him, and he leaves her. However, at the end of the movie, she finally frees herself of her inhibitions and succumbs to the first man she meets, not really having any love for him.

I do remember that episode, which, I think, was on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The punchline (not funny, however) is that the bug finally comes out of his other ear after his suffering excruciating pain, but it is found the bug is female and has laid eggs in his brain. A soothing tale!

Regarding the Alfred Hitchcock episode - that is the one! I forgot the part about the bug being a female and laying eggs!! That was the horror! Thanks for reminding me of that. I wonder what the name of the episode was. It really made an impression on me. I am surprised I haven’t gone to sleep with cottonballs in both ears since then every night.

No. I am sure I have not seen Summer and Smoke. Geraldine Page was a good actress.

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Summer and Smoke involves a relationship between a prim and proper woman, played by Geraldine Page, who is attracted to a hedonist, played by Laurence Harvey. She refuses to give in to his advances even though she cares for him, and he leaves her. However, at the end of the movie, she finally frees herself of her inhibitions and succumbs to the first man she meets, not really having any love for him.

I do remember that episode, which, I think, was on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The punchline (not funny, however) is that the bug finally comes out of his other ear after his suffering excruciating pain, but it is found the bug is female and has laid eggs in his brain. A soothing tale!

That was actually a Night Gallery episode, entitled “The Caterpillar” - although the bug in question was an earwig. Originally aired in the 2nd season on March 1, 1972. Gave bad dreams to a whole generation of kids.

I checked out the DVD sets for Night Gallery from the library and watched most of the 3 seasons a little while ago. They hold up pretty well. Some, like that and “The Doll” (about a hideous, sharp-toothed porcelain doll that is given to the niece of a British Army officer that committed a war crime in colonial India, or the Lovecraft adaptations “Cold Air” and “Pickman’s Model,” or the Conrad Aiken adaptation of “The Silent Snow,” still gave me the chills. Some of the more quiet, reflective ones, like William Windom in the elegiac “They’re Tearing Down Tim Riley’s Bar” or the Hannukah/Christmas episode “The Messiah is Due on Mott Street” with Edward G. Robinson also held up well. There was a lot of great acting talent in that series!

 

[Arizona_Mike]

(For the sake of those with arachnophobia reading this, earwigs don’t actually do that, BTW!)

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

(For the sake of those with arachnophobia reading this, earwigs don’t actually do that, BTW!)

Right, they were named for the ears of corn they seem to like to be in.

Edit: Apparently the above is not true. BTW DO NOT I repeat DO NOT google image earwig in ear…

But one scene that was not in a horror movie continues to haunt me to this day. The scene from Star Trek Wrath of Kahn. It is the only Star Trek I have ever seen but in it Kahn has these pet bugs that look like little croissants They go into your ear and eat your brain. Torturing you. To this day I cannot even look at a croissant. I am dead serious. And i don’t really have any phobias…

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Right, they were named for the ears of corn they seem to like to be in.

But one scene that was not in a horror movie continues to haunt me to this day. The scene from Star Trek Wrath of Kahn. It is the only Star Trek I have ever seen but in it Kahn has these pet bugs that look like little croissants They go into your ear and eat your brain. Torturing you. To this day I cannot even look at a croissant. I am dead serious. And i don’t really have any phobias…

Would it help to know that croissants are a symbol of Christianity?

Croissant. This flaky and buttery pastry commemorates one of the most crucial battles in European history.

The Battle of Vienna in 1683 pitted a beleaguered city, at the time the eastern outpost of Western Christendom, against a much larger and superior army from the Ottoman Empire led by the formidable strategist, Kara Mustapha.

If Vienna had fallen, the Turks would have quite possibly taken the rest of Western Europe. However, the king of Poland, John Sobieski, staged a spectacular counterattack with a coalition of troops from various Catholic countries, thus saving Europe from Ottoman rule and essentially ending Ottoman aggression in the region.

According to one legend, the Turks had also tried to tunnel under the city’s walls in the early morning. A baker heard them and notified the Viennese troops, who staged a counterattack of their own. After the battle, the baker was rewarded with a patent to produce a bread commemorating the victory over the Turks, whose flag bore a crescent, the symbol of Islam.

The result: the croissant, which is French for crescent. 3 Regardless of whether the baker’s story is true, culinary historians generally agree that the croissant symbolizes the defeat of the Islamic forces at Vienna in 1683.

From Foley, Michael P. (2014-12-09). Why Do Catholics Eat Fish on Friday?: The Catholic Origin to Just About Everything (p. 29). St. Martin’s Press. Kindle Edition.

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

Would it help to know that croissants are a symbol of Christianity?

Croissant. This flaky and buttery pastry commemorates one of the most crucial battles in European history.

The Battle of Vienna in 1683 pitted a beleaguered city, at the time the eastern outpost of Western Christendom, against a much larger and superior army from the Ottoman Empire led by the formidable strategist, Kara Mustapha.

If Vienna had fallen, the Turks would have quite possibly taken the rest of Western Europe. However, the king of Poland, John Sobieski, staged a spectacular counterattack with a coalition of troops from various Catholic countries, thus saving Europe from Ottoman rule and essentially ending Ottoman aggression in the region.

According to one legend, the Turks had also tried to tunnel under the city’s walls in the early morning. A baker heard them and notified the Viennese troops, who staged a counterattack of their own. After the battle, the baker was rewarded with a patent to produce a bread commemorating the victory over the Turks, whose flag bore a crescent, the symbol of Islam.

The result: the croissant, which is French for crescent. 3 Regardless of whether the baker’s story is true, culinary historians generally agree that the croissant symbolizes the defeat of the Islamic forces at Vienna in 1683.

From Foley, Michael P. (2014-12-09). Why Do Catholics Eat Fish on Friday?: The Catholic Origin to Just About Everything (p. 29). St. Martin’s Press. Kindle Edition.

Very interesting and impressive. But no, It does not help.

The damage is done… Thanks to Shatner!