Best Fright of 2004

[Bartwald]

Tough choice, really.

Ah, what the hell: Open Water once again. Just because it felt so close to life. Dawn Of The Dead and The Village are damn close, though.

[Phoenix]

I went with my favorite horror movie of the year: Dawn of the Dead. It's images stick with me....

[Bartwald]

Oh, they stick with me, too! Just two days ago I saw it once again - the director's cut this time; it doesn't differ from the theatrical cut as much as the helmer would want us to believe but is still a very chilling movie!

[LivingDeadGirl]

Had to go w/ Dawn of the Dead, being as that & The Village are the only ones I've seen in the poll. The DOTD epilogue got to me more than Ivy in the woods did, but that one was still pretty creepy too.

[Fenril]

I had to go for The Village... not only was it creepy, it was more like horror movies of old (circa 1930), zero special effects and all mood [well, not quite zero].

But Open Water and the Dawn remake were also good choices.

Frankly, that scene in The forgotten made me (and the entire audience in the theater) laugh out loud for about 10 minutes. Definitely not Ruben's finest hour.

Haven't seen the Grudge. Is it as scary as any of the Ju-on films?

Sole complain: those are all the options? Wow, was 2004 a low year for horror or what?

[Phoenix]

Fenril said:

I had to go for The Village... not only was it creepy, it was more like horror movies of old (circa 1930), zero special effects and all mood [well, not quite zero].

Haven't seen the Grudge. Is it as scary as any of the Ju-on films?

Not quite. I thought the original Ju-On was brilliant b/c it left you to your own conclusions. The Grudge ties everything up very neatly...and poorly IMO. It's probably worth the rental when it comes out if you're a fan of Japanese horror - not as good transition to Americanism as The Ring.

[Bartwald]

Fenril said:

Sole complain: those are all the options? Wow, was 2004 a low year for horror or what?

The options are taken from the annual poll made by the Empire magazine - it doesn't mean there weren't any other frights in the 2004 movies, it just means that the scenes above were voted Top Five.

As for The Forgotten: I haven't seen it. I wish it was good (after all, Ruben is the director of the classic The Stepfather) but I'm more and more convinced it just ain't.

[Heineken Skywalker]

I went with DAWN OF THE DEAD as well.
But shouldn't this thread be titled Best Fright of 2004?

[Bartwald]

D'oh!

It surely should! Thanks.

[Termination]

I picked Dawn Of The Dead (2004)

I havn't yet seen the other films mentioned, but they are on my 'wish list'.

Open Water
The Village Jan 11
The Forgotten Jan 18
The Grudge Feb 1

I also have these in my 'wish list' that are not mentioned;

Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Alien vs. Predator Jan 25
SAW Feb 15
Exorcist: The Beginning Mar 1

Any good fright choices above?

[LivingDeadGirl]

Who's seen SAW? The previews looked pretty good, but then I read some bad reviews for it....so I'm on the fence as to whether to watch it or not. Comments?

[Phoenix]

livingdeadgirl said:

Who's seen SAW? The previews looked pretty good, but then I read some bad reviews for it....so I'm on the fence as to whether to watch it or not. Comments?

I hated it. The worst horror movie I saw this year. Terrible make-up and little to none on the gore, even more terrible acting, and a rip off of many horror films (including Seven and any M.Night Shyamalan film). The acting is so bad that at the end I laughed my head off at the pure cheese of it - and then the ending...HORRIBLE! TERRIBLE! The beginning seems promising but it goes downhill fast...be curious to see what you would think of it though.

[LivingDeadGirl]

Sounds like I might better stay away from it. Maybe I'll just wait til it comes on satelite.

[ZapRowsdower]

I think that aside from the acting, Saw was a pretty good horror movie.

I had to go with Dawn of the Dead. All the other movies on the list sucked (except for the Village, which is NOT a horror movie)

[Fenril]

Bartwald said:

As for The Forgotten: I haven't seen it. I wish it was good (after all, Ruben is the director of the classic The Stepfather) but I'm more and more convinced it just ain't.

The thing is, The Stepfather and Dreamscape [The first brilliant IMHO; the second I haven't seen but heard several good things about it] seem to be the best work he's ever done and after that he went downhill
... He directed Sleeping with the enemy and The good son, both very influential but IMHO very average thrillers.

A lot of it has to do with the script: where The stepfather was an example of taking a simple premise and milking it for all its worth, The forgotten is the opposite case: an intriguing premise handled in a very conventional way.

Saw is the only movie mentioned so far that I haven't seen. I think I will check it out when (if) it comes out here, because it seems to be one of those "extreme" movies: as much people love it as hate it.

In The exorcist: the beggining, the only good fright I could think of is the notorious "dead baby" scene. The other two (RE and AvP) were practically comedies.

As for The village --yeah, Shyamalan in fact is much less of a horror director (more like fantasy / suspense), yet that movie had a lot more atmosphere and scary moments than most so-called horror movies of late.