Just saw the scariest 20 minutes in cinema history.

[zakkrusz]

Well, if you want to creep the hell out of me it has to be something with clowns or insects.

I'd suggest something that has both, but that might be a spoiler. Plus the insect part was more of a big joke than anything that could be taken seriously.

If you're thinking of the mini series adaption of

Spoiler: Steven King's

It, then I've already seen it and yeah it creeped the hell out of me. On the other hand it was surprisingly good. Although technically a spider isn't an insect I guess.

 

[Goliath]

Just watched Sorry, Wrong Number.

GREAT movie!

Yeah, that's a classic.

I wonder if the radio play on which it was based is available anywhere?

 

[Broccoli]

Goddamn it...I hope no one ever stages another Shakespeare play! I mean, after the brilliance of Olivier's performances, all these remakes are just talentless bullshit! When will the theater community regain its originality!?!

Win!

 

[Darth_Pazuzu]

I really like both The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby, though more as dramas than as horror films. The Omen is pretty good, too.

But I really disliked The Exorcism of Emily Rose.

Not because it was religious propaganda--The Exorcist is conservative-religious propaganda to its core, but it's a brilliant film.

What I disliked about The Exorcism of Emily Rose is that, first, it just wasn't a very good movie, and second, I thought it was dishonest propaganda.

It pretended to be "fair and balanced," but it wasn't.

The Exorcist, by contrast, makes no hypocritical pretence of giving the liberal-secular view a "fair hearing." Its intent was to scare people back to church.

I don't care for that message--but then, I don't care for the message of Triumph of the Will, either. And I have a copy of that movie in my DVD collection as well.

Actually, it was very important for author William Peter Blatty that the person who directed the film version of The Exorcist be objective and agnostic on the subject, not necessarily a believer, the better to ensure that the results would be more credible. (BTW, director William Friedkin happens to be Jewish and not a Catholic.) I think that the objectivity that Friedkin brings to the film contributes to the film's disturbing nature.

I honestly didn't get the feeling from The Exorcist that anybody was really trying to "scare people back to church" (although I can certainly imagine that as a side-effect!) In Friedkin's own words, The Exorcist is a story about inexplicable events. And God (or who/whatever) only knows that life is full of them...

 

[Goliath]

^That's not what I've read. I can't speak for Friedkin, but Blatty's intentions were clear, and have been fully explored by film historians.

IMO, if Friedkin truly thought he was making a film about "inexplicable events," he was kidding himself.

 

[msbae]

When The Exorcist was re-released into theaters, the younger people in the audience laughed at it.

I laughed out loud for a good 15 minutes when I first saw The Exorcist back in 2003 when the 'crucifix scene' played. How did that movie ever scare anyone?

A good horror story doesn't need any blood-just a ratcheting up of the tension to the point where your head feels like its going to explode. This was a good example, IMO. Another that got to me was Ghost Story with Fred Astaire. By the last scene I was crawling out of my skin. I don't even bother watching Saw or the Jason movies, etc. It's not really horror, IMO, just some graphic killing. Where's the entertainment in that?

I saw Ghost Story not too long ago. It bored the Hell out of me. Seeing Alice Krige buck naked and fooling around was pretty nice, though.

Well, if you want to creep the hell out of me it has to be something with clowns or insects.

It, Killer Klowns from Outer Space (a lost classic, IMO), Them, perhaps a few others.

 

[Cutter John]

Ghost and slasher flicks put me to sleep. And I don't even bother with religious horror. Lovecraftian horror is really about the only thing that does anything for me. So I'm pretty much left out in the cold.

Really, I think 'The Descent' is the last proper horror film I really enjoyed.

Two decent examples.

http://j-button.deviantart.com/art/Behind-Closed-Doors-124711761

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4s9V8aQu4c

isn't bad either.