Best Fright of 2004

[RIP]

Phoenix said:

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

Same here!!!!

[Quorthon]

Quorthon went with Dawn of the Dead. One of the best films of 2004. And one of the only ones with balls. A note to all of you: Stop supporting crappy, cheesy, weak Hollywood PG-13 horror films! They must be stopped! Why do they ALL have to be PG-13?? Alien Vs Predator, The Grudge, Darkness, White Noise, Anacondas, Anaconda, Darkness Falls, The Ring, Boogyman. We were handed almost no R-rated films at all last year. Even King Arthur & The Alamo were PG-13! Bottom line: Stop going to these damn movies! Supporting a PG-13 Alien/Predator film is one step closer to Hollywood thinking that Terminator, Freddy, or Jason should also be watered down crap!

Robocop 3 sucked too!

(sorry for the rant)

[ZapRowsdower]

They're not all bad. The Ring was excellent IMHO, White Noise was decent, as was King Arthur.

Rating doesn't determine how good a movie is. Hide and Seek was rated R, and that was weak.

[Heineken Skywalker]

While I agree that Alien vs. Predator should've been a Rated R movie, I have to agree with Smitty that an R rating doesn't automatically mean Good and a PG-13 doesn't automatically mean Crap.
We do need more Rated R Horror movies. Too many of them are aimed at teens.

[Quorthon]

That's may be, as Saw was a waste of time, too. But as a real horror fan, Quorthon is getting really goddamn fed up with every movie being so damn weak. PG-13 horror/thrillers simply don't cut it--95% of the time. The Village, Signs, and The Ring were good. But lately, the pacing is always the same, the scares are all done the same, the acting is damn near identical in all these films. Hollywood simply doesn't know how to come up with quality horror, and when they water it down to PG-13 to "get the kiddies in" they just make it worse.

I haven't yet seen Hide and Seek, it looks weak on the commercials. That little girl, I can tell, is already acting exactly like every other kid in every other lately-released Hollywood horror film. Same as the kid in The Ring and Godsend.

The main problem I have is Hollywood's fucking greed and the idea that a PG-13 film will allow for a larger audience to reach the film. Jurassic Park worked quite well, but that doesn't mean PG-13 will always sell. The worst example of this is the "revival of a successful, pre-existing R-rated series with a weak, watered down PG-13 sequel" ala Alien Vs Predator. Alien Resurrection and Predator 2 were bad enough, in fact P2 would be unwatchable without the predators. But to continue the bad writing of these two films (as I have heard), then remove all the violence, gore, cursing, and scariness so a movie studio can make more money?? Fuck that!

I seem to have suddenly dropped my deal of referring to myself only in the 3rd person. Oops. Guess I'm normal again.

[LivingDeadGirl]

My thought on this is that all the really good ideas & themes have been done, redone, RE-redone and so on, so that nothing is fresh anymore. I can't think of the last time that I've seen something that I haven't already seen dozens of times before in one form or another. The answer? I have no idea....someone's just gonna have to come up w/ some new ideas. I'm not gonna hold my breath for that one though...

[Heineken Skywalker]

Quorthon said:

I seem to have suddenly dropped my deal of referring to myself only in the 3rd person. Oops. Guess I'm normal again.

Normal is way overrated. Personally, I hope you go back to referring to yourself in the third person. That shit cracks me up.

Also, I'm in total agreement with you, there are far too many "horror" and "suspense" flicks being aimed at the kiddie market with a PG-13 rating. To this day, I say that THE RING would've been even more effective if it had been Rated R and they had pushed the envelope even further. As it is, it's pretty good. But it could've been great!

[frankenjohn]

Horror was meant to be R. 17 year olds used to grab their dates and go see some scary R rated movie so they'd cuddle up and crap.

Nowadays, 13 year olds grab their friends and go see some unscary PG-13 while talking about sports or how they saw Brad at the mall on Friday.

PG-13 good horror flicks are rare. The Ring and Killer Klowns From Outer Space are two that are.

I'm still thinking on other PG-13 rated goodies.

[Phoenix]

I gotta agree, horror should be R. For me it means and cooler gore and make-up. And I totally agree with Qhorthon that AVP was HORRIBLE as a PG-13 movie. WORST IDEA EVER! I hate when they chop of the action to keep the rating down.

[DrLenera]

Out of the choices above I would go with The Grudge, maybe not nessesarily the bit mentioned but maybe one of the other scenes in the film, it was crammed full of scares. That's what I liked about it. I haven't seen any of the Japanese versions, [unlike The Ring when I saw Ringu a day before I saw The Ring and my enjoyment of The Ring really suffered I think], and I actually liked the way that the film concentrated on giving you frights more than anything else. Yes, the plot was VERY hard to follow. The acting was average. But I found it satisfyingly scary. Many people apparently laugh at the film, though.........

I agree with people here about there being too much PG-13 horror [or 12 and 15 if you live in the UK like me!]. I love a subtle horror film sometimes, such as The Others, but I heard even The Grudge was originally an R and was cut down. Aliens Vs Predator would certainly have been better as an R , if not much better. It used to be that horror filmmakers aimed for and wanted the highest rating [R, X, 18 ,whatever]. Now horror films are almost being marketed as being aimed at kids and definately teenagers probably more than any other age group.

Still, Creep is out over here tomorrow and looks good and grisly. And I liked Saw, not really that well made, but with a good premise and great tension IMO, and some real nastiness.

[Termination]

Just don't label these 'PG-13' movies as 'Horror' & all is well.

The Ring Suspence
Darkness Falls Suspence
The Village Suspence
Anaconda suspense

Dawn of the Dead Horror
Texas Chainsaw Massacre Horror
Final Destination Horror

You don't have to accept how studio's pitch their films for genre's, I don't.

AvP, the title alone makes me think 'G' rated.

I do agree, there is a lack of 'R' rated Horror pictures lately, but when I do see one, I usually think of some other 'studio marketed' Horror films which are rated PG-13 & are better. Translation - I base the film for content/quality over the judgement of the MPAA's choice of rating.

[frankenjohn]

Can we still even call "The Village" a horror flick. No, we cant.

[Quorthon]

Termination said:

Just don't label these 'PG-13' movies as 'Horror' & all is well.

The Ring Suspence
Darkness Falls Suspence
The Village Suspence
Anaconda suspense

Dawn of the Dead Horror
Texas Chainsaw Massacre Horror
Final Destination Horror

I think Darkness Falls was meant to be percieved as Horror, it just fell way short. I agree with the rest of those, though, where do you draw the line between suspense and thriller?? I thought of The Ring as more of a thriller.

And mind you all I was thrilled to see so many people agreeing that horror films should generally be R-rated. I (and a friend of mine who hates PG-13 horror) have had more than a few occasions of damn near little kids almost ruining movies from the noise and talking during it. R-ratings keep most of these kids out. Though, growing up, it never kept my brother and me out of those movies. We went to Total Recall by ourselves and we were 10 and 11 years old! Small town theaters just need the money! Hell, I went to Exorcist: The Beginning just because it was ballsy enough to be R--the wife and I made a point of it! Turned out to be a really good movie I think, too.

I would like to add finally, just for fun, that Poltergeist is the best PG-rated horror film ever made.

[frankenjohn]

I would've said Jaws was the best PG horror film ever.

[spacer]

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've seen it recently and I have to disagree with most of the folk who commented that flick ;D
To me it was great, I enjoyed it very much.

Many said that it just a compilation of already used horror concepts and ideas. Maybe. But tell me about a horror movie that is not using characteristic recipe of that brand.
The Scream focused in some dialogues on that horror regularities.
I think not the concept or idea is the most important but how it is explored.
I hate schematic flicks and for the horror movies it is very tough to avoid it.
The surprise and uncommon are the most precious quality for me in the flick. Also very crucial is for the movie to have a satisfying ending which is not lame and pathetic like in most Hollywood films. When the ending is utterly nontypical and again is a surprise and leaves some room for further intrerpratation it is really appealing to me.
I claim almost all these good qualities you can find in this movie.

Livingdeadgirl wrote on: Jan 12th, 2005, 02:15am » <br>
Sounds like I might better stay away from it. Maybe I'll just wait til it comes on satelite.

Not at all, L D Girl

By the way, I agree with the numerous comments on PG-13 ratings.