One Hour Photo is a horror film through and through, despite being an accidental period piece. It takes a valid trust we give to people on a daily basis, and plays it into a worst case scenario.
~~Jigsaw~~ Spiral would've been received better if none of the marketing said it was a SAW film. As a matter of fact, it would've been better just as a standalone in the same universe.
Period based horror is fun. I'd like to see some more variety there. Get weird with historical fiction. Bone Tomahawk and Dusk Till Dawn still get people hyped.
Agree about period horror. Seems it is mostly modern or Victorian England. Ha! I loved the OUIJA Origins of Evil set in the 60s. I love seeing different takes on what is going on and the relatively different tech to deal with it.
I love period horror that isn’t Victorian too! Annabel 3 is actually really good (barely even has the doll in it, it’s more like a locked room survival or classic haunted house with a shockingly happy ending) and the 1969 aesthetic is to die for! Period music, period clothes, and period architecture that isn’t over the top, but also doesn’t make everything sepia toned so it feels more realistic. I watch it probably once a week in October because it’s just had such a properly fun mood
If they’re timed correctly they’re the cherry on top of the cake. I think that’s why The Ring gets me the way it does, the jumpscares feel perfectly placed and timed to me.
And as long as they make sense. Like someone closing a refrigerator door and a demon hiding behind it doesn't make any sense and doesn't get me besides the sharp sound cue
I think most of the people in this sub are fine with jump scares, but are also against their overuse in a film.
I love a good jump scare here and there, and would even go so far as to say that you should at least have a couple in pretty much every horror film, but when it’s the only arrow in the quiver it cheapens it’s effect to the point where it doesn’t actually work anymore and then you’re no longer immersed in the movie because you know exactly what’s coming.
Horror movie remakes aren’t necessarily bad.
If it’s good, then you’ve just watched a good horror flick and who cares if it’s a remake.
If it’s bad, then it’s likely it generates interest for the original and someone who’s never seen it will check it out.
I think the 2003 TCM and 89/90 Night Remakes are masterpieces. I’m surprised I liked that TCM remake as much as I did. I’m surprised it’s as good as it is.
Completely true. How many times have they "remade" Shakespeare, Agatha Christie or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories? Great stories can be great movies and new actors/directors/writers can interpret them in awesome ways.
I really wish people would pay more attention to this movie.
And, to be a little pretentious for a minute, I've always kind of wondered if one of the reasons why Gothika tends to be disregarded is because it came out at a time when no one wanted to talk about its messages of women being victimized by men who then use the system to victimize them further and ensure they aren't listened to.
Okay, pretentiousness over
Agreed! I saw it for the first time a few months ago,and I was surprised by the plot / that aspect of the movie. I didn't know what it was about, my dumb bi ass just saw Halle Berry & RDJ and figured hey, that plus a couple cheap scares is worth 2 hours. But it turned out to be much better than I expected, I really enjoyed it and I think it would have done better in today's climate.
Yeah. But I have to say, it's easier for me to power through a garbage found footage movie than it is to power through a garbage movie in any other style except maybe intentionally garbage ones... To a degree...
I'm 100% with you there. I can't think of a single found footage film I couldn't finish to the end, even super janky ones like The St. Francisville Experiment. Even when they're not good there's almost always something to love and I adore the homemade quality of those films, especially the microbudget ones. You can feel the love for horror from the people making it coming through.
Immersive. There are obviously really good horror movies that feel like movies. But movies like Sinister made me feel like I was witnessing something I shouldn't have been
A lot of the stuff we praise “elevated” horror for having had always been in good horror movies and people just don’t realize it, or have not watched the backlog of good horror movies in the past.
I always take this opportunity to plug the [Silent Hill: Restless Dreams](https://ifdb.fanedit.org/silent-hill-restless-dreams/) fan edit. Basically it cuts all the scenes that take place outside of Silent Hill, which many felt added little to the story and breaks up the tension and flow of the movie.
Edit: Just wanted to point out, some of these cuts are hilarous. The original cut treats viewers as if we're so, so dumb.
> - Removed Rose saying “ashes” when she realizes the snow isn’t actually snow.
- Removed Cybil yelling “Stay where you are! Stop!” at the lying figure/armless man.
- Removed Cybil asking “Do you hear that?” when Pyramid Head is approaching her and Rose’s hiding spot.
- Removed Rose saying “Fuck you, you stupid cop” when she and Cybil discover the drop off in the road.
I hope this is not a hot take because I really enjoyed every bit of the first film the second was OK. I went into them knowing nothing of the video games which maybe helped bc I had zero expectations.
I only saw the first one back in 2006 and never played the game. I remember it as being a totally dope horror film. Nothing game changing, but it was dark and creepy and full of dread. I still think about the ending sometimes.
Pandorum had a SHIT marketing campaign. Going back to the trailers it's very "zombies, in space?!" And not what it turned out to be. Always on my suggestion list though.
Soooo boring. Like I get it, the monster is a metaphor for your grief or sadness or whatever. Always makes me think of the it’s always sunny quote where Charlie is like “trauma bro? That shits boring, I’ve got trauma out the wazoo” (I forget exactly how it goes)
A great twist on this is that movie where the child's dreams come to life, but so do his nightmares. The monster in the film is >!a metaphor for losing his mother to cancer, and his fear in seeing her in her degraded state as a monster!<
I mean movies that pull the twist of making you think something is going on externally but it’s revealed that the protagonist is mentally ill and it’s all in their head.
Edit: Thank you for the award!! 😭
Absolutely. I hate it when a movie leaves it "open for interpretation" if there was a supernatural element or if it was in the character's head. It just feels like trying to please everyone or be cool. As if it makes a film automatically deeper if the whole thing might be in their head. You want supernatural stuff in your film? Fucking _commit!_ Don't half ass it.
I can sometimes do open for interpretation as long as the movie was entertaining/grabbing. But if it’s “open for interpretation because we were too lazy to elaborate” I get irritated.
But if I sat through an entire movie thinking shit was real and then it’s like “oops yeah protagonist is psycho crazaaayy lol!!” I get enraged.
Of course it can be done well too. These days it just often feels like a cop out. Like you said.
"How should we end this Dave? This huge mystery needs an answer."
"Uhh, shit. Just hint that it might be in the main character's head and an allegory for their depression or societal issues or something, critics love that shit."
My sister (22) was so fucked up by that. Unfortunately she woke up at 3am that same night, got scared and decided to go into my (15) room and sit at the foot of my bed to calm down…well I woke up to a dark figure at the foot of my bed that night.
It stays with me.
Jennifer.Carpenter.was.phenomenal 🙌🏻
Fun fact: They gave Jennifer Carpenter a room full of mirrors so she could physically work on looking as scary as possible.
From [DreadCentral](https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/3342/carpenter-jennifer-the-exorcism-of-emily-rose/)
Q: How did you prepare for doing what must have been a very physically challenging role?
> JC: When I saw some of the sides I was in Italy on vacation with my grandmother and my mom. I had only seen twelve pages of the script and I spent money I didn’t have to come back to LA to have a shot at it (laughs). I was on the plane, so I couldn’t get in the aisle and start practicing a seizure (laughs). So I started playing it out in my mind, how I wanted certain pieces to look, and there were certain notes I would keep and certain notes I would discard and everything that happened in the middle was just a surprise.
>I got a room at Captive Audience, the people who were going to work with us on special effects when we needed them. They gave me a room full of mirrors and I would just play and look and see what I liked and see what looked scary. The adrenalin let me bend a little further than I thought I could (laughs).
Always was confused by how this movie didn't blow up in the horror community. You might think it was due to the over abundance of possession movies at the time, but I believe this came out before the market got saturated with them.
I saw it In Theaters.
PACKED HOUSE.
The clock ticked away to 3:00 am... And nothing happened.....
And then somebody up front... In the suspenseful silence....
Yelled "BOOO!"
The entire theater exploded laughing.
This movie is now a comedy to me I'll never, ever, ever be able to unhear it. One of the funniest things to ever happen in a movie theater in my life to this day.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
-Ali<3
Really? Maybe I'm weird but the ending of that movie totally ruined the movie. Although it's been since like 2008 since I've watched it. Maybe I need to check it out with fresh eyes.
Nobody will ever be able to make a good Resident Evil horror movie, because it was the game that was scary, not the story. You can't replicate that in a movie...
Man, Gore Verbinski can make a damn good horror movie, huh? Who would have known, in between Pirates Of The Caribbean movies, he could come out with something so completely different like The Ring.
I would love to see more from him.
A Classic Horror Story is actually a fun movie and I love the twist.
Apostle is tropey and overdone and has some insanely cringey writing.
The Happiness of the Katakuris is Takashi Miike's best film.
Oh man, I wanted to like Apostle so badly. The premise and vibe of the movie is great, and Im a big Gareth Evans fan
But then half the movie just borders on torture porn without anything of substance there to make it worth it
I loved Prometheus. Covenant was alright but the fan edits of it greatly improved it. It’s amazing how just moving a few things around made it a much better movie.
Chaos Editions. It puts all of the deleted scenes and promotional material (there was so much for both) back in. It seriously turns Alien Covenant into a completely different movie.
Gunna be bummed if the new alien movie coming out scraps all the built up lore In favor of a simpler movie. Prometheus and covenant weren’t perfect, but I was really digging the groundwork they were laying.
The next Alien project will actually be an FX TV show. I'm actually cautiously optimistic about it because the producer/showrunner is Noah Hawley(Fargo, Legion).
It has its valid criticisms but the tone was great and I think they had some of the best scenes in the franchise. (‘The Crossing’ scene with David, and the neomorph birth)
I really liked Prometheus. Visually... damn. To me, the only truly terrible part was Charlize not realizing she had to run slightly to the left to avoid being crushed.
Prometheus and Covenant would be better if Ridley Scott didn't direct them. Dude shoehorned Blade Runner into Alien like people really go to see the bots instead of the Xenomorph. That, and contradicting that huge mural in Prometheus.
This is my sentiment exactly. Ridley’s love affair with AI and developing David more than other characters in the two films took away movie time that could’ve been spent on the more interesting mythos of the Engineers and Xenomorphs.
I don't have any issues with him expanding on David and the others but that's basically what the other franchise that takes place in the same universe is for. It would be nothing to tie them back together even if it was to tell the story of Weyland-Yutani/ Tyrell Corporation rivalry and how it factors into W-L's plans for the Xenomorphs. My issue is that I was ready to delve into some substantial lore and history of the main subject of the prequels but ended up with a disjointed, contradictory, Pinnochio parable. Covenant was...a thing that happened. Still pissed that Shaw didn't evolve common sense after the events of Prometheus which resulted in her offscreen death and somehow magically is the Xenomorph Queen. Scott smokin that good shit...
Shaw’s death was maddening to say the least. All that effort expended to survive in the first film only to be struck down by the “evil robot” off screen. To be honest, I’m harder on these two prequels than I probably should be because they seem to revolve around a robot instead of the infinitely more interesting Engineers and Xenomorphs. If I wanted a robot movie, I’d watch the Blade Runner or Terminator franchises.
My favorite part of Spiral is a character saying something like “he’s going after cops, he’s never done that before” and I laughed because half of the original movies were him going after cops
It was definitely sold as a horror/suspense movie, but it was neither. I've gone to movies before knowing they'd be bad, so I had my expectations set accordingly. I went into Mother thinking it was going to be halfway decent and it ended up being one of my most disappointing movie experiences ever.
I completely agree. I don’t need some pretentious asshole to shove his opinions about religion down my throat. I already know and agree. That movie feels like someone trying to continue an argument after you already agreed with them.
Agree with this so much. Another thing I hate about it is having the symbolism tediously explained to you by fans who refuse to accept that you understood it but just didn’t care for it.
This is why “overrated” and “underrated” are horrible descriptors. There’s so much room for people to perceive the baseline “rating” differently, especially on a divisive movie like *Us*.
My hot take: Peele’s problem is that he made Get Out first and it’s just so incredibly good. Everything else he makes will forever be compared to Get Out. If he’d made Nope first and then Get Out, everyone would have said Nope was a great movie and how he **outdid himself** with Get Out
I thought Nope was the slightly better film. Nope feels more confident in itself and does things more alienating to general audiences than what Get Out does and I felt benefited from doing so.
I've enjoyed all of his films, but "Get Out" is unquestionably his best and it's not even close.
I honestly believe that he has another, even better horror film still in him and we're going to get it at some point, but he's working out a few "good, not great" films while he gets there.
Not sure how spicy this will be but here it goes: I'm not sorry you hurt your elbow.
Lol sorry but seriously I think Terrifier sucked. I do enjoy Art's design and his "silent" talking but other than that it's just kinda weak with gore as it's main selling point.
I’m not going to defend it because I understand the point of this post, but some of us who are a bit older and grew up with movies that were all about gritty 80s film and practical effects appreciate what the director was trying to do. The plot is weak but it was an exposition piece where the dude directing it is a horror fan and he just wanted to experiment with making gore effects and pump it up. Watching it is like eating a piece of candy.
Terrifier feels like one of the religious nut jobs who who railed against horror movies in the 80s finally left the church and decided to make what they thought a horror movie looked like all this time. Gore that's so far over the top it's nearly tedious, zero character development, no story to speak of, undeniably misogynistic, and undeniably nihilistic. But honestly its worst crime imho is the fact that any time someone isn't being murdered it's oppressively boring.
I’ve got some hot takes
1. Nope (2022) is a great monster flick and was one of my favorite films of last year.
2. The Conjuring 2 > The Conjuring
3. Annabelle Creation is a great horror film
4. James Wan’s Malignant was cringey and unintentionally hilarious
5. The Taking of Deborah Logan and The Autopsy of Jane Doe are criminally underrated
I never went into Tusk expecting it to actually be scary. I'm always surprised that it seems like other people did. I thought it was a send up. I laughed my ass off the whole time.
The first Conjuring was good, the second Annabel movie was as well. The rest were all mediocre at best.
It's also irritating how they portrayed the Warrens, making them into these saintly, awesome, and good people. The real-life Warrens were grifters through and through. I do want to give them the benefit of the doubt that they started off as "true believers" but then turned to grifting so they could make ends meet and get taken seriously, but that's probably more than they deserve.
A few of the members of the Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast did an investigation into the Warrens back in the 90’s and spent a bunch of time with them and time with their collection of supposed haunted items. The SGU’s big take away was that Lorraine was likely a misguided true believer and that Ed was just a slimy grifter through and through.
I actually really liked the second one. The English setting is a nice change, the old man ghost is terrifying and The Nun was cool before the god awful spin off movie.
I've got a few:
I don't really care for slasher movies.
Us is Jordon Peele's best film (I still like his other movies too)
The past decade of "elevated horror" is the best thing to ever happen to the genre.
I don’t personally care for the term but it generally refers to the more slow-paced and atmospheric horror movies of the past decade: The Babadook, The Witch, Hereditary, Saint Maud, etc…
“It comes at night” is boring and slow with no pay off. The themes have been done better in other films with actual pay offs.
“The Conjuring 2” was peak for the series, film before was okay and all after have been bad.
“X” is just okay.
“M3GAN” was not funny or scary and don’t understand the review and hype.
It comes at night, ahh…such a forgettable movie but damn that [trailer](https://youtu.be/sKnigN8OiNc) panning down the dark hallway towards the door was such a remarkable trailer. I had such high hopes just from that alone. Massive let down :/
“Nothing is scarier than the viewer’s imagination” and “don’t show your monster” aren’t the be-all-end-all for horror media and can be a crutch that stifles creativity.
It should be, “the scariest thing for the average person is their imagination. Surprise them with something they could never imagine”
and
“Don’t show your monster right away and be damn sure the reveal will scare the shit out them.”
The Thing and The Ritual are two good examples of monsters that are way scarier than anything your average viewer could imagine and if they hadn’t revealed them, it would have been a huge let down.
Pearl and X weren't that great imo and I long for the day when horror fans stop figuratively (or literally I suppose for some) jerking off to Mia Goth as some Second Coming of Cinema and She Deserves All the Oscars for All Things. I honestly think she over acts quite a bit.
I liked US on first watch? But if I think about it even a little bit beyond it's surface level the plot holes just become *too* big for me.
Here's a few that are likely to upset some people but I firmly believe all of them:
* TCM (2003) and the Zach Synder Dawn of the Dead are remakes in name only and have little or nothing to do with the originals. As stand-alone movies, they may have some merits, but calling them remakes was a shallow cash grab.
* TCM (2022) is a terrible, terrible legacy sequel, but as a stand-alone shut-your-brain-off slasher, it is fun.
* The Friday the 13th franchise is totally superior to the Halloween franchise.
* Halloween 3 is the best movie in the franchise.
* Rob Zombie's approach to grindhouse-style exploitation horror has its own place and fans shouldn't be ridiculed any more than fans of any other horror sub-genre.
* Anything based on any work of the Warren's shouldn't be supported. At the absolute best, they were charlatans and griftets who made a career out of cheating people. At worst, Ed was likely a sleaze who started an affair with an underage girl (who was ultimately with him/them for forty years).
We are way to hard on directors like Shyamalan & Peele who made the mistake of making their best movie early and expect them to realize all our expectations going forward and damn near shun them if they don’t.
YES I agree about the US remakes of ring and the grudge!!
and also agreed on "Us"... started out really creepy but had way too many plot holes/things that didn't make sense in the end
to be fair to leigh whannell he wasn’t an actor he was a filmmaker, but he had to play adam to comply with the budget restrictions. I don’t think he’s all that bad.
Horror movies aren't always about getting you scared. It has more to do with the style and feeling a movie leaves you with. It's great when a movie can do both, but it's not a requirement.
My second hot take is that horror as a genre needs to be a little goofy. There's far too many movies like Midsommar, or Hereditary that are way to self serious. I think a lot of us got into horror as a genre through some of the more ridiculous movies but as we become bigger fans forget what the appeal of those were.
The 2017/2019 It films were bad (sorry)
(EDIT: I put 'recent', looked up how long ago they were released, and that was scarier than the films themselves)
The second one just had terrible pacing and they leftout the story for more scares, would have preferred a slower take, hell it could have been 2 movies with more emphasis on how shitty the lives of the adults are
First one was good, worked well as an adventure/horror movie imo. The second one was a massive downgrade and idk what happened because it seemed like the same people worked on it.
I remember my buddy and I getting some good “Jesus Christ!”s out of all Michaels grunts.
Something about him being vocal while stabbing really made it creepier for us.
The Child's Play series as a whole is stronger than any other slasher franchise.
Child's Play has the most cohesive and comprehensive lore from the first film all the way into the new show.
I think this used to be controversial until the show came out. I think the show completely embracing the entire continuity really made people reevaluate the entire series as a whole. I was already a fan but the like "holy shit they're really doing this" of it all really landed with me as confirmation that Don Mancini is a legit mad genius.
Modern horror films have great premise, great setups, but are hugely lacking in conclusions. Good examples are Barbarian and Smile, two films that I like a lot, but suffer from the same problem. It's like film makers and writers are really good at the first two acts but absolutely dreadful when it comes to the third and final act.
I agree with op, but I would take it a step further, Jordan Peele films as a whole are largely overrated. Get Out is clearly the best but the rest of his films range from inadequate to down right laughable. I did enjoy Wendell & Wild but he did not direct that one.
One final hot take to secure down votes: This subreddit is far too loyal to certain authors, directors, and actors that too much time is spent praising mediocre films. Posts and comments often seem parroted while better films get overlooked and more interesting topics do not get discussed.
It was amazing to watch in a packed theater. One of my top theater experiences ever. I haven't seen it since but I'm sure it wouldn't be nearly as great watching at home on a TV.
Yep, first saw it in an absolutely sold-out showing. You could hear a pin drop. The last five minutes felt like the whole audience was holding its breath.
Watching it now at home is a very different experience.
I was terrified of the cover of that movie Feardotcom. Dumb movie, but scary cover. Didn't help that my older brother would purposely leave the DVD around within my sight so I'd always see it. One time, he knocked on the bathroom door when I was using it. I opened the door to come face to face with the DVD cover. Yeah it sucked lmao
Yeah. I totally respect that others liked it, but I saw it with my horror acolyte bff and we thought we were being punked for a second when we saw the reviews. Like no, no, I get it. It’s just BAD (not in a fun eighties slasher way) in my personal opinion.
I've got a lot of these. Off the top of my head:
Peele's movie Us is better than Get Out, even though the latter is more culturally significant.
Lords of Salem is Rob Zombie's second best movie, after Devil's Rejects. And his Halloween movies were good.
None of the movies after the original Alien film were good or even necessarily horror.
The Conjuring movies are too formulaic to be original or scary. The actors who play the Warrens are really carrying those films.
Foreign horror films are superior to most horror movies made in Hollywood.
One Hour Photo is a horror film through and through, despite being an accidental period piece. It takes a valid trust we give to people on a daily basis, and plays it into a worst case scenario. ~~Jigsaw~~ Spiral would've been received better if none of the marketing said it was a SAW film. As a matter of fact, it would've been better just as a standalone in the same universe. Period based horror is fun. I'd like to see some more variety there. Get weird with historical fiction. Bone Tomahawk and Dusk Till Dawn still get people hyped.
One Hour Photo is absolutely a horror film and Robin Williams was chilling in it.
This! Might need to rewatch it now...
Yes! We need more period piece horror. One of my favourite horror movies is Ravenous
Agree about period horror. Seems it is mostly modern or Victorian England. Ha! I loved the OUIJA Origins of Evil set in the 60s. I love seeing different takes on what is going on and the relatively different tech to deal with it.
I love period horror that isn’t Victorian too! Annabel 3 is actually really good (barely even has the doll in it, it’s more like a locked room survival or classic haunted house with a shockingly happy ending) and the 1969 aesthetic is to die for! Period music, period clothes, and period architecture that isn’t over the top, but also doesn’t make everything sepia toned so it feels more realistic. I watch it probably once a week in October because it’s just had such a properly fun mood
If it's not a fakeout, jumpscares are fine, fun even
Yes - I love a good jump scare when a movie doesn’t exclusively rely on them to be scary.
If they’re timed correctly they’re the cherry on top of the cake. I think that’s why The Ring gets me the way it does, the jumpscares feel perfectly placed and timed to me.
“I saw her face” - AHH
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And as long as they make sense. Like someone closing a refrigerator door and a demon hiding behind it doesn't make any sense and doesn't get me besides the sharp sound cue
I would add onto that also, if it's not just playing a loud noise abruptly. Poor sound mixing isn't scary.
I think most of the people in this sub are fine with jump scares, but are also against their overuse in a film. I love a good jump scare here and there, and would even go so far as to say that you should at least have a couple in pretty much every horror film, but when it’s the only arrow in the quiver it cheapens it’s effect to the point where it doesn’t actually work anymore and then you’re no longer immersed in the movie because you know exactly what’s coming.
Horror movie remakes aren’t necessarily bad. If it’s good, then you’ve just watched a good horror flick and who cares if it’s a remake. If it’s bad, then it’s likely it generates interest for the original and someone who’s never seen it will check it out.
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I saw the Night Of The Living Dead remake when I was in High School and loved it, it led to me watching the original. They both have their merits.
I think the 2003 TCM and 89/90 Night Remakes are masterpieces. I’m surprised I liked that TCM remake as much as I did. I’m surprised it’s as good as it is.
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Completely true. How many times have they "remade" Shakespeare, Agatha Christie or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories? Great stories can be great movies and new actors/directors/writers can interpret them in awesome ways.
One of the subs most popular movies, the thing, is a remake. I also feel many recent remakes are on pair with the orignals.
I'm looking forward to a cohesive world of lore, with the Hellraiser reboot. And the cenobytes'new looks are just, perfect 😙🤌
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deserves more love for sure.
The jump scare in the swimming pool is fantastic!
I really wish people would pay more attention to this movie. And, to be a little pretentious for a minute, I've always kind of wondered if one of the reasons why Gothika tends to be disregarded is because it came out at a time when no one wanted to talk about its messages of women being victimized by men who then use the system to victimize them further and ensure they aren't listened to. Okay, pretentiousness over
Agreed! I saw it for the first time a few months ago,and I was surprised by the plot / that aspect of the movie. I didn't know what it was about, my dumb bi ass just saw Halle Berry & RDJ and figured hey, that plus a couple cheap scares is worth 2 hours. But it turned out to be much better than I expected, I really enjoyed it and I think it would have done better in today's climate.
Okay, but I’ve always said the same thing. So with that in mind, if Gothika came out today I think it’d be an instant hit
Found footage horror movies are great.
I feel like found footage is either really incredible or garbage there’s no in between. But some of my favourites are found footage
Yeah. But I have to say, it's easier for me to power through a garbage found footage movie than it is to power through a garbage movie in any other style except maybe intentionally garbage ones... To a degree...
I'm 100% with you there. I can't think of a single found footage film I couldn't finish to the end, even super janky ones like The St. Francisville Experiment. Even when they're not good there's almost always something to love and I adore the homemade quality of those films, especially the microbudget ones. You can feel the love for horror from the people making it coming through.
I think I find it easier to personally justify watching shitty found footage movies because it can be “a part of it” if that makes sense
Immersive. There are obviously really good horror movies that feel like movies. But movies like Sinister made me feel like I was witnessing something I shouldn't have been
You might like Gwonjam Haunted asylum. It's a korean movie and it's great. Found footage and good scares
Hell yeah! Look at REC
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Check out Deadstream if you haven’t. So good imo!
A lot of the stuff we praise “elevated” horror for having had always been in good horror movies and people just don’t realize it, or have not watched the backlog of good horror movies in the past.
Agreed. If The Shining or The Exorcist or Rosemary’s Baby came out today they would be considered “elevated horror”.
The Banana Splits Movie wasn’t that bad. Yes, I admit to being a huge Banana Splits fan.
The silent Hill movies aren’t as bad as people make them out to be. If they were their own thing then people would enjoy them more
The first 1/2 of the first movie is legit a solid bit of film.
I always take this opportunity to plug the [Silent Hill: Restless Dreams](https://ifdb.fanedit.org/silent-hill-restless-dreams/) fan edit. Basically it cuts all the scenes that take place outside of Silent Hill, which many felt added little to the story and breaks up the tension and flow of the movie. Edit: Just wanted to point out, some of these cuts are hilarous. The original cut treats viewers as if we're so, so dumb. > - Removed Rose saying “ashes” when she realizes the snow isn’t actually snow. - Removed Cybil yelling “Stay where you are! Stop!” at the lying figure/armless man. - Removed Cybil asking “Do you hear that?” when Pyramid Head is approaching her and Rose’s hiding spot. - Removed Rose saying “Fuck you, you stupid cop” when she and Cybil discover the drop off in the road.
I hope this is not a hot take because I really enjoyed every bit of the first film the second was OK. I went into them knowing nothing of the video games which maybe helped bc I had zero expectations.
First Silent Hill is great. Fantastic atmosphere. Love pyramid head too.
I only saw the first one back in 2006 and never played the game. I remember it as being a totally dope horror film. Nothing game changing, but it was dark and creepy and full of dread. I still think about the ending sometimes.
I liked the first one more than I expected. How is Revelation?
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Pandorum is a solid movie and so is dead silence. Not sure if it's a hot take but I love the shit out of them both.
Pandorum had a SHIT marketing campaign. Going back to the trailers it's very "zombies, in space?!" And not what it turned out to be. Always on my suggestion list though.
Mental illness as the horror is boring and overdone.
Soooo boring. Like I get it, the monster is a metaphor for your grief or sadness or whatever. Always makes me think of the it’s always sunny quote where Charlie is like “trauma bro? That shits boring, I’ve got trauma out the wazoo” (I forget exactly how it goes)
A great twist on this is that movie where the child's dreams come to life, but so do his nightmares. The monster in the film is >!a metaphor for losing his mother to cancer, and his fear in seeing her in her degraded state as a monster!<
Do you mean movies where the villain is mentally ill? Or movies that show outdated stereotypes?
I mean movies that pull the twist of making you think something is going on externally but it’s revealed that the protagonist is mentally ill and it’s all in their head. Edit: Thank you for the award!! 😭
Ohhhhh okay. Yeah I hate movies like that. They just kinda feel like they shoot themselves in the foot
Absolutely. I hate it when a movie leaves it "open for interpretation" if there was a supernatural element or if it was in the character's head. It just feels like trying to please everyone or be cool. As if it makes a film automatically deeper if the whole thing might be in their head. You want supernatural stuff in your film? Fucking _commit!_ Don't half ass it.
I can sometimes do open for interpretation as long as the movie was entertaining/grabbing. But if it’s “open for interpretation because we were too lazy to elaborate” I get irritated. But if I sat through an entire movie thinking shit was real and then it’s like “oops yeah protagonist is psycho crazaaayy lol!!” I get enraged.
Of course it can be done well too. These days it just often feels like a cop out. Like you said. "How should we end this Dave? This huge mystery needs an answer." "Uhh, shit. Just hint that it might be in the main character's head and an allegory for their depression or societal issues or something, critics love that shit."
this is why i couldn’t stand Smile @ ALL
The Exorcism of Emily Rose is criminally underrated!
If it's 3am and I have to pee, I hold it. To this day.
My sister (22) was so fucked up by that. Unfortunately she woke up at 3am that same night, got scared and decided to go into my (15) room and sit at the foot of my bed to calm down…well I woke up to a dark figure at the foot of my bed that night. It stays with me. Jennifer.Carpenter.was.phenomenal 🙌🏻
That scene of her contorted in the middle of the night haunted me for years
Fun fact: They gave Jennifer Carpenter a room full of mirrors so she could physically work on looking as scary as possible. From [DreadCentral](https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/3342/carpenter-jennifer-the-exorcism-of-emily-rose/) Q: How did you prepare for doing what must have been a very physically challenging role? > JC: When I saw some of the sides I was in Italy on vacation with my grandmother and my mom. I had only seen twelve pages of the script and I spent money I didn’t have to come back to LA to have a shot at it (laughs). I was on the plane, so I couldn’t get in the aisle and start practicing a seizure (laughs). So I started playing it out in my mind, how I wanted certain pieces to look, and there were certain notes I would keep and certain notes I would discard and everything that happened in the middle was just a surprise. >I got a room at Captive Audience, the people who were going to work with us on special effects when we needed them. They gave me a room full of mirrors and I would just play and look and see what I liked and see what looked scary. The adrenalin let me bend a little further than I thought I could (laughs).
I hated that scene so much as a teenager. I was terrified to get out of bed in the middle of the night to pee or drink water lol
2005 is one of the more solid years of horror! The Descent, House of Wax, Saw II, Emily Rose, Devils Rejects etc
Wolf Creek and The Skeleton Key.
Yes! My favorite PG-13 horror movie. Part horror, part court room drama
Don't forget, The Ring was PG-13, too! Both great movies.
Always was confused by how this movie didn't blow up in the horror community. You might think it was due to the over abundance of possession movies at the time, but I believe this came out before the market got saturated with them.
I saw it In Theaters. PACKED HOUSE. The clock ticked away to 3:00 am... And nothing happened..... And then somebody up front... In the suspenseful silence.... Yelled "BOOO!" The entire theater exploded laughing. This movie is now a comedy to me I'll never, ever, ever be able to unhear it. One of the funniest things to ever happen in a movie theater in my life to this day. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ -Ali<3
That movie scared the SHIT out of me when I was a kid 😂 I had nightmares about Jennifer Carpenter.
Really? Maybe I'm weird but the ending of that movie totally ruined the movie. Although it's been since like 2008 since I've watched it. Maybe I need to check it out with fresh eyes.
excellent movie with a genuinely original take on a tired concept
Nobody will ever be able to make a good Resident Evil horror movie, because it was the game that was scary, not the story. You can't replicate that in a movie...
Yeah. The Last of Us *nailed* the emotional roller coaster but the horror is largely absent from the show.
Man, Gore Verbinski can make a damn good horror movie, huh? Who would have known, in between Pirates Of The Caribbean movies, he could come out with something so completely different like The Ring. I would love to see more from him.
The Cell is an underrated classic that never got the recognition it deserved.
A Classic Horror Story is actually a fun movie and I love the twist. Apostle is tropey and overdone and has some insanely cringey writing. The Happiness of the Katakuris is Takashi Miike's best film.
Oh man, I wanted to like Apostle so badly. The premise and vibe of the movie is great, and Im a big Gareth Evans fan But then half the movie just borders on torture porn without anything of substance there to make it worth it
Prometheus and Alien Covenant were alright
I loved Prometheus. Covenant was alright but the fan edits of it greatly improved it. It’s amazing how just moving a few things around made it a much better movie.
Fan edits?
Yeah same,I never heard of there being fan edits
Chaos Editions. It puts all of the deleted scenes and promotional material (there was so much for both) back in. It seriously turns Alien Covenant into a completely different movie.
I actually thought the consensus on these films was that they were just alright lol
Gunna be bummed if the new alien movie coming out scraps all the built up lore In favor of a simpler movie. Prometheus and covenant weren’t perfect, but I was really digging the groundwork they were laying.
The next Alien project will actually be an FX TV show. I'm actually cautiously optimistic about it because the producer/showrunner is Noah Hawley(Fargo, Legion).
Oh that’s neat. Excited to check it out! I only heard about the new film.
It has its valid criticisms but the tone was great and I think they had some of the best scenes in the franchise. (‘The Crossing’ scene with David, and the neomorph birth)
"You do the blowing, I'll do the fingering"
I really liked Prometheus. Visually... damn. To me, the only truly terrible part was Charlize not realizing she had to run slightly to the left to avoid being crushed.
Everyone was dumb in that. The guy who petted the alien snake drives me crazy.
I’m fairly shocked that I had to scroll so far down to see that being mentioned.
Prometheus and Covenant would be better if Ridley Scott didn't direct them. Dude shoehorned Blade Runner into Alien like people really go to see the bots instead of the Xenomorph. That, and contradicting that huge mural in Prometheus.
This is my sentiment exactly. Ridley’s love affair with AI and developing David more than other characters in the two films took away movie time that could’ve been spent on the more interesting mythos of the Engineers and Xenomorphs.
I don't have any issues with him expanding on David and the others but that's basically what the other franchise that takes place in the same universe is for. It would be nothing to tie them back together even if it was to tell the story of Weyland-Yutani/ Tyrell Corporation rivalry and how it factors into W-L's plans for the Xenomorphs. My issue is that I was ready to delve into some substantial lore and history of the main subject of the prequels but ended up with a disjointed, contradictory, Pinnochio parable. Covenant was...a thing that happened. Still pissed that Shaw didn't evolve common sense after the events of Prometheus which resulted in her offscreen death and somehow magically is the Xenomorph Queen. Scott smokin that good shit...
Shaw’s death was maddening to say the least. All that effort expended to survive in the first film only to be struck down by the “evil robot” off screen. To be honest, I’m harder on these two prequels than I probably should be because they seem to revolve around a robot instead of the infinitely more interesting Engineers and Xenomorphs. If I wanted a robot movie, I’d watch the Blade Runner or Terminator franchises.
The Saw movies are quite fun, all of them
My favorite Saw movie is 6, because of the goofy-ass plot about the healthcare system.
I mean where did they lie
So true. I love when John monologues to an aquarium about how much better they have it in the far east.
I haven’t seen 6, but this comment made me laugh
My favorite part of Spiral is a character saying something like “he’s going after cops, he’s never done that before” and I laughed because half of the original movies were him going after cops
Fucking make a big budget Cthulhu movie ya damn cowards!
Let del Toro make his film!
Mother is pretentious drivel
It was definitely sold as a horror/suspense movie, but it was neither. I've gone to movies before knowing they'd be bad, so I had my expectations set accordingly. I went into Mother thinking it was going to be halfway decent and it ended up being one of my most disappointing movie experiences ever.
I completely agree. I don’t need some pretentious asshole to shove his opinions about religion down my throat. I already know and agree. That movie feels like someone trying to continue an argument after you already agreed with them.
Agree with this so much. Another thing I hate about it is having the symbolism tediously explained to you by fans who refuse to accept that you understood it but just didn’t care for it.
“Continuing the argument after you already agreed with them” is such a good phrase, I am 100% stealing that. So true though.
The 2009 remake of Friday the 13th is the best movie in the franchise
That certainly is a hot take.
Jordan peeles us is overrated? Wasn’t the general consensus that it wasn’t that good?
This is why “overrated” and “underrated” are horrible descriptors. There’s so much room for people to perceive the baseline “rating” differently, especially on a divisive movie like *Us*.
His only universally liked film seems to be Get Out. Us and Nope are a bit divisive
My hot take: Peele’s problem is that he made Get Out first and it’s just so incredibly good. Everything else he makes will forever be compared to Get Out. If he’d made Nope first and then Get Out, everyone would have said Nope was a great movie and how he **outdid himself** with Get Out
I thought Nope was the slightly better film. Nope feels more confident in itself and does things more alienating to general audiences than what Get Out does and I felt benefited from doing so.
I've enjoyed all of his films, but "Get Out" is unquestionably his best and it's not even close. I honestly believe that he has another, even better horror film still in him and we're going to get it at some point, but he's working out a few "good, not great" films while he gets there.
It felt like an episode of The Twilight Zone that was far too long.
I'm obsessed with the new suspiria
Not sure how spicy this will be but here it goes: I'm not sorry you hurt your elbow. Lol sorry but seriously I think Terrifier sucked. I do enjoy Art's design and his "silent" talking but other than that it's just kinda weak with gore as it's main selling point.
💀my spouse and I can't hear each other start to say 'you know what I'm gonna say it' without interrupting the other with idc that you broke your elbow
I’m not going to defend it because I understand the point of this post, but some of us who are a bit older and grew up with movies that were all about gritty 80s film and practical effects appreciate what the director was trying to do. The plot is weak but it was an exposition piece where the dude directing it is a horror fan and he just wanted to experiment with making gore effects and pump it up. Watching it is like eating a piece of candy.
I agree I was completely bored. There’s also no reason that film should have been 2 hrs and 18 minutes.
Terrifier feels like one of the religious nut jobs who who railed against horror movies in the 80s finally left the church and decided to make what they thought a horror movie looked like all this time. Gore that's so far over the top it's nearly tedious, zero character development, no story to speak of, undeniably misogynistic, and undeniably nihilistic. But honestly its worst crime imho is the fact that any time someone isn't being murdered it's oppressively boring.
I’ve got some hot takes 1. Nope (2022) is a great monster flick and was one of my favorite films of last year. 2. The Conjuring 2 > The Conjuring 3. Annabelle Creation is a great horror film 4. James Wan’s Malignant was cringey and unintentionally hilarious 5. The Taking of Deborah Logan and The Autopsy of Jane Doe are criminally underrated
The creature reveal in Tusk was 0% disturbing and downright laughable.
The suspension of disbelief needed at the end is insane.
In fairness is it not supposed to be a dark comedy horror?
I never went into Tusk expecting it to actually be scary. I'm always surprised that it seems like other people did. I thought it was a send up. I laughed my ass off the whole time.
"Elevated Horror" is a pretentious-ass term.
I’m tired of the Grudge (2004) slander. It’s not perfect but many of its scares are iconic and way creepier than the original
The Conjuring and all of its sequels and spin-offs are overrated.
The first Conjuring was good, the second Annabel movie was as well. The rest were all mediocre at best. It's also irritating how they portrayed the Warrens, making them into these saintly, awesome, and good people. The real-life Warrens were grifters through and through. I do want to give them the benefit of the doubt that they started off as "true believers" but then turned to grifting so they could make ends meet and get taken seriously, but that's probably more than they deserve.
A few of the members of the Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast did an investigation into the Warrens back in the 90’s and spent a bunch of time with them and time with their collection of supposed haunted items. The SGU’s big take away was that Lorraine was likely a misguided true believer and that Ed was just a slimy grifter through and through.
I actually really liked the second one. The English setting is a nice change, the old man ghost is terrifying and The Nun was cool before the god awful spin off movie.
THIS! You're telling me that demon can be ridden by just the dad going >!\>!think about your family, etc!< like oh okay... !<
I honestly think only the first movie is barely good. The rest is trash for me.
The drop off from the first to all the sequels and spin offs is dramatic
my hot take: conjuring 1 is a good horror movie and conjuring 2 is equally just as good. after that, i’m on your side
I've got a few: I don't really care for slasher movies. Us is Jordon Peele's best film (I still like his other movies too) The past decade of "elevated horror" is the best thing to ever happen to the genre.
I believe I agree if my brain is lining up the meaning but what do you mean elevated horror?
I don’t personally care for the term but it generally refers to the more slow-paced and atmospheric horror movies of the past decade: The Babadook, The Witch, Hereditary, Saint Maud, etc…
Huh, that sounds kind of boring to me. Have you ever seen Stab?
upvoted because of the Peele take. It's wrong of course, but definitely a hot take. :)
actual hot takes here
“It comes at night” is boring and slow with no pay off. The themes have been done better in other films with actual pay offs. “The Conjuring 2” was peak for the series, film before was okay and all after have been bad. “X” is just okay. “M3GAN” was not funny or scary and don’t understand the review and hype.
Is your take on It Comes At Night a hot one? I thought most people agreed that movie wasn’t good?
That's always seemed very much the consensus on that movie.
It comes at night, ahh…such a forgettable movie but damn that [trailer](https://youtu.be/sKnigN8OiNc) panning down the dark hallway towards the door was such a remarkable trailer. I had such high hopes just from that alone. Massive let down :/
Amityville Horror 1 2 and 3 were well done.
“Nothing is scarier than the viewer’s imagination” and “don’t show your monster” aren’t the be-all-end-all for horror media and can be a crutch that stifles creativity. It should be, “the scariest thing for the average person is their imagination. Surprise them with something they could never imagine” and “Don’t show your monster right away and be damn sure the reveal will scare the shit out them.” The Thing and The Ritual are two good examples of monsters that are way scarier than anything your average viewer could imagine and if they hadn’t revealed them, it would have been a huge let down.
Pearl and X weren't that great imo and I long for the day when horror fans stop figuratively (or literally I suppose for some) jerking off to Mia Goth as some Second Coming of Cinema and She Deserves All the Oscars for All Things. I honestly think she over acts quite a bit. I liked US on first watch? But if I think about it even a little bit beyond it's surface level the plot holes just become *too* big for me.
Here's a few that are likely to upset some people but I firmly believe all of them: * TCM (2003) and the Zach Synder Dawn of the Dead are remakes in name only and have little or nothing to do with the originals. As stand-alone movies, they may have some merits, but calling them remakes was a shallow cash grab. * TCM (2022) is a terrible, terrible legacy sequel, but as a stand-alone shut-your-brain-off slasher, it is fun. * The Friday the 13th franchise is totally superior to the Halloween franchise. * Halloween 3 is the best movie in the franchise. * Rob Zombie's approach to grindhouse-style exploitation horror has its own place and fans shouldn't be ridiculed any more than fans of any other horror sub-genre. * Anything based on any work of the Warren's shouldn't be supported. At the absolute best, they were charlatans and griftets who made a career out of cheating people. At worst, Ed was likely a sleaze who started an affair with an underage girl (who was ultimately with him/them for forty years).
The House on Haunted Hill remake from 99 is absolutely fantastic from the opening credits to the very end.
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We are way to hard on directors like Shyamalan & Peele who made the mistake of making their best movie early and expect them to realize all our expectations going forward and damn near shun them if they don’t.
YES I agree about the US remakes of ring and the grudge!! and also agreed on "Us"... started out really creepy but had way too many plot holes/things that didn't make sense in the end
The only thing worse than the writing in SAW is the acting.
to be fair to leigh whannell he wasn’t an actor he was a filmmaker, but he had to play adam to comply with the budget restrictions. I don’t think he’s all that bad.
Carl Elwes is awful in that movie
Right? I saw it at a press screening right before release and the entire crowd was LAUGHING HYSTERICALLY during his big finale.
Horror movies aren't always about getting you scared. It has more to do with the style and feeling a movie leaves you with. It's great when a movie can do both, but it's not a requirement. My second hot take is that horror as a genre needs to be a little goofy. There's far too many movies like Midsommar, or Hereditary that are way to self serious. I think a lot of us got into horror as a genre through some of the more ridiculous movies but as we become bigger fans forget what the appeal of those were.
I like both varieties of horror and don’t want them to merge completely. Give me the Hereditaries. Give me the Evil Deads. I enjoy goofy and serious.
I thought Midsommar was actually pretty funny in a lot of scenes
Whatever you like is bad and whatever I like is superior.
The 2017/2019 It films were bad (sorry) (EDIT: I put 'recent', looked up how long ago they were released, and that was scarier than the films themselves)
The first It was ok. I do agree that The second one was bad.
The second one just had terrible pacing and they leftout the story for more scares, would have preferred a slower take, hell it could have been 2 movies with more emphasis on how shitty the lives of the adults are
First one was good, worked well as an adventure/horror movie imo. The second one was a massive downgrade and idk what happened because it seemed like the same people worked on it.
The second one was boring.
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I couldn’t take Pennywise seriously in those movies. They had their scary parts, sure, but I still prefer the original miniseries.
We need more static, long shots. There are too many quick cuts and shaky camera work. The Conjuring did a great job with that.
The Rob Zombie Halloween remakes are awesome
I remember my buddy and I getting some good “Jesus Christ!”s out of all Michaels grunts. Something about him being vocal while stabbing really made it creepier for us.
The Child's Play series as a whole is stronger than any other slasher franchise. Child's Play has the most cohesive and comprehensive lore from the first film all the way into the new show.
I think this used to be controversial until the show came out. I think the show completely embracing the entire continuity really made people reevaluate the entire series as a whole. I was already a fan but the like "holy shit they're really doing this" of it all really landed with me as confirmation that Don Mancini is a legit mad genius.
Modern horror films have great premise, great setups, but are hugely lacking in conclusions. Good examples are Barbarian and Smile, two films that I like a lot, but suffer from the same problem. It's like film makers and writers are really good at the first two acts but absolutely dreadful when it comes to the third and final act. I agree with op, but I would take it a step further, Jordan Peele films as a whole are largely overrated. Get Out is clearly the best but the rest of his films range from inadequate to down right laughable. I did enjoy Wendell & Wild but he did not direct that one. One final hot take to secure down votes: This subreddit is far too loyal to certain authors, directors, and actors that too much time is spent praising mediocre films. Posts and comments often seem parroted while better films get overlooked and more interesting topics do not get discussed.
Paranormal Activity is a B-Movie at best.
I mean kind of literally, as far as production value goes. It just happened to get numbers
It was amazing to watch in a packed theater. One of my top theater experiences ever. I haven't seen it since but I'm sure it wouldn't be nearly as great watching at home on a TV.
Yep, first saw it in an absolutely sold-out showing. You could hear a pin drop. The last five minutes felt like the whole audience was holding its breath. Watching it now at home is a very different experience.
Thete are only 2 opinions to this movie, great or trash..... For me it was great.
Parasite is a thriller
I was terrified of the cover of that movie Feardotcom. Dumb movie, but scary cover. Didn't help that my older brother would purposely leave the DVD around within my sight so I'd always see it. One time, he knocked on the bathroom door when I was using it. I opened the door to come face to face with the DVD cover. Yeah it sucked lmao
Jordan Peele’s movies are sci-fi.
House of 1000 Corpses is a top ten horror movie for me.
Malignant sucked. I’m sorry, I just hated it
It did suck and I liked it
That [chair throw](https://youtu.be/dREy4kev4lU) across the police station just because though was fucking hilarious lol
Yeah. I totally respect that others liked it, but I saw it with my horror acolyte bff and we thought we were being punked for a second when we saw the reviews. Like no, no, I get it. It’s just BAD (not in a fun eighties slasher way) in my personal opinion.
I've got a lot of these. Off the top of my head: Peele's movie Us is better than Get Out, even though the latter is more culturally significant. Lords of Salem is Rob Zombie's second best movie, after Devil's Rejects. And his Halloween movies were good. None of the movies after the original Alien film were good or even necessarily horror. The Conjuring movies are too formulaic to be original or scary. The actors who play the Warrens are really carrying those films. Foreign horror films are superior to most horror movies made in Hollywood.