The Golden Age of Horror Movies

What do those shows have to do with “the golden age of horror movies”? Also, the Strain was terrible.

Yeah not necessarily "movies," R1.

Basically, it was just a good time for the horror genre.

Words have meanings, OP.

TV is not movies.

Freak Show aired 2014-2015.

Unlike POTUS, the rest of us cannot SHART OUT just any old lying uninformed incorrect string of garbage words.

OP, I hope/trust that you've seen 'Gods and Monsters' with Ian McKellan and Brendan Fraser. It's the story of James Whale, the gay creator of 'Frankenstein',. He was inspired (haunted) by the images of the soldiers he saw killed during WWI. If you watch 'The Bride of Frankenstein', the landscape is very much the landscape of war-torn Europe during WWI. I'm quite old, but I grew up knowing these movies represented a very important genre in American cinema, that were taken seriously by the establishment. Boris Karloff played the Frankenstein monster, but he was hugely loved for generations afterwards, to the point where children now enjoy his narration of 'The Grinch who Stole Christmas' so many years after his first appearance as an animated zombie.

Dracula (1931)

Frankenstein (1931)

The Mummy (1932)

Murders in the Rue Morgue (1931)

White Zombie (1932)

Island of Lost Souls (1932)

The Black Cat (1934)

The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Mark of the Vampire (1935)

The Raven (193

I think the Golden Age of Horror was the early 80's.

I can't decide between the 80s or 90s....🤔

I would say the late '60s through 70s. Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Omen, Carrie, etc.

^^And of course Halloween

What about the horrific Hindu Myth films made in the 1930's in communist Cuba like JIGOKU

There have been a few golden ages for scary films . I'm partial to the movies released from the early 1960s to early 1970s.

80’s and 90’s, hands down. The slasher sub-genre made horror movies what they are today.

The early 90s had some good horror films. Candyman, Exorcist III, Jacob's Ladder.

70s and 80s if your into slashers, 60s if your into gothic horror, 30s and 40s if your into monsters and creature features. 90s wasn't that great for straight horror.

Some people consider Silence of the Lambs a horror film, so I would add that to the handful of good early '90s scary films.

OP, how old are you?

Twelve, apparently.

The idiot can't tell the difference between a movie and a TV series, and knows nothing of cinema earlier than last year.

What a dumb cunt crumb OP is.

Does anybody actually watch those old monster movies from the 1950s and before and actually feel scared?

Universal monster movies from the 30s are very effective and in a number of different registers. Frankenstein and Dracula are built on great "literary" bones with stories that have meanings about man and society. Frankenstein is creepy and touching in the cycle of the monster's need for a friend but too monstrous to be worthy of friendship. Dracula is spooky.

Creepy and spooky are elements of being "scared".

Then there is all the pleasure of the acting, music, set design, nostalgia.

FRIEND

The early 80s had some good ones.

The Golden Age of Horror Movies was Universal Studios' classic monster movies in the 1930s.

The Strain is mediocre and American Horror Story is UTTER SHIT. Boring, unwatchable and frivolous.

I commend r4 and agree with almost everything he wrote.

Except one point. WHITE ZOMBIE was cheap, horse manure. Lame and boring.

What was good in horror from the '90s, r6?

All I can think of is SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and David Fincher's SE7EN, if we want to call that "horror" more than noir. I'd say the '90s were the worst decade for horror. It was a dead genre, especially in theatrical releases.

r12 listed the most boring and lame horror titles ever.

R25, I liked them and they scared or disturbed me and that's enough for me. I'm not going to argue with you -- I had a friend who was a film buff and realized there's no point in arguing with them because it always winds back to their superior taste and I just don't care enough.

Universals' monsters were "gothic horror" movies, too, r13. Frankenstein practically defines "gothic."

Not me, r17.

But they did scare people at the time. You have to understand the works were products of their time. People were very square, very Christian and they had never seen anything before. People were terrified at the first projected silent films where a train passed by the camera — they screamed and panicked, thinking they would be run over. People lost their shit when WAR OF THE WORLDS broadcast on the radio. They thought there was a real alien invasion. So Frankenstein, Dracula and Vincent Price did startle their beautiful minds.

They were confined by some very strict censorship standards, too. Filmmakers weren't allowed to show gore, violence, nudity or foul language. Congress was always trying to pass laws against anything indelicate. And gaining true freedom of speech against the Hollywood Hayes Code or Catholic League took many decades, lawsuits and political horror stories before anyone could offer you some really scary shit.

The '50s were certainly the Golden Age of B-movie Camp, r26!

I saw a revival of The Tingler in NYC with the buzzers under the seat. (In college, I was also in a preview audience for Polyester with the Odorama card. Not scary of course. Not as good as his early trash films.)

1971-1981. Classics in all the horror subgenres released then:

Slashers: Last House on the Left, Black Christmas, Bay of Blood, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Friday the 13th 1&2,

Giallo and Italian gore: Suspiria, Deep Red, Fulci’s Gates of Hell trilogy

Occult: The Exorcist, The Omen, The Wicker Man, The Sentinel

Body Horror: Alien, The Brood, Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Psychological: The Shining, Sisters, Don’t Look Now, Carrie, Possession, Dressed to Kill

Zombie: Dawn of the Dead

Nature Gone Berserk: Jaws

Just straight up WTF: Eraserhead, Hausu

Wow, r32. That is some trip.

Is that where Super Mario Brothers comes from?

Late 60s through mid 70s, especially Hammer Studios productions. Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and the fabulous Ingrid Pitt!

Not a Golden Age, per se, but a fabulous eruption of psychological terror during WW2 at RKO, produced by the unit headed by Val Lewton.

I agree with R34. And to that list, I would also include a bunch more:

Videodrome

Don't Torture a Duckling

Phantasm

The Crazies

The Hills Have Eyes & The Last House on the Left

It's Alive

Let's Scare Jessica to Death

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Tales from the Crypt

Alice, Sweet Alice

Tenebrae

^ The Thing (1982)

R34 has it. In addition to what R38 noted, I’d also add The Changeling (1980).

Horror tv series aren't 'horror movies." My guess is that the OP has no real knowledge of horror movies at all.

At any rate, I don't think there ever was a 'Golden Age" of horror movies. Good ones (good horror movies are few and far between; most of them are pure trash) pop up now and then but there was never a "Golden Age" of them.

'The Bride of Frankenstein' is that great rarity: a sequel or flanker that's better than the original work. I still tear up when the Frankenstein monster says, "We belong dead", after being introduced to his so-called bride.

For serious horror films that were actually scary and got under your skin, I'd say the 70's wins hands down. It was a great time for filmmaking in general and so many boundaries were being pushed. A 70's horror film never felt safe which is a quality I think every horror film should have. You should feel like it was made by someone mentally unstable and that any character can be offed at any time. They tended to be a deeper, more socially conscious lot, too.

The 80's horror films were a total blast, though. Very few of them were truly scary, but they still stayed with you if only because of how much fun they were.

The 90's was a dreary period for horror with just a few notable exceptions (Candyman, Misery, Silence of the Lambs, Exorcist III) before Scream came along and made fun slashers a thing again for a year or two (and longer if you could all the direct to video movies).

I'm kind of enjoying this new breed of horror film in the past 5 years where horror is serious again and trying to get under your skin. Some of them work better than others, but at least horror is being taken seriously more often.

"Late 60s through mid 70s, especially Hammer Studios productions. Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and the fabulous Ingrid Pitt!"

There were also some really good Amicus horror movies in the 70s. I like Torture Garden, Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, and Tales From the Crypt

Well hon you sure are a dumbass for acting like tv shows are movies. I fucking hate you op.

I'd pick out two periods. First from the early 1930s to about mid 40s or so, and about mid 1960s to early 80s. Iconic films happened in both periods of time i have isolated. I also think some of the best horror came out during those times.

I'm watching Pet Sematary (1989) on AMC, and it's much campier than I remember.

In fact, all Stephen King "horror" movies are campy.

The OP is a very sweet, dear friend of mine. There's no need to attack him. We should just share the works that scared us, or moved us, He's a smart gent. The best thing an elder gay (like me) can do is to raise the curtain on the other pleasures that were previously unknown. I like the classic movies from the 30s, And yes, I enjoy watching them now. I don't get scared, but I can enjoy their poetry.

The 70s. All that Boomer angst: radiation; pollution; devil babies; aliens; witches/Satanists. And the drive-in goers needed scurry double features to watch after she blew him.

By the 80s, it was all just slasher flicks and sequels.

R24 Misery, Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Craft, The Faculty, Candyman, Wishmaster, Demon Knight, Leprechaun, Auditon, Event Horizon, The Ring (Japanese version), Urban Legend and Sleepy Hollow

yhtuuuuuuuuuu

The horror genre was big in 1990's.

The "Scream" franchise kicked it off, and launched a ton of horror(ish) movies.

The 1990's what, R52?

I saw "Scream." I thought it was nothing. I can't believe it became a franchise.

It runs parallel to the Golden Age of comedy in American film, like 2 1/2 Men and How I Met Your Mother.

I don’t like slasher films and don’t find them scary in the least, so the late ‘70s-early ‘90s endless series of Freddy-Michael-Jason movies bored me. For me, the late ‘90s and 2000s, even into the 2010s were a golden age of psychological horror movies – the kind I like best:

J-horror, K-horror and their American remakes … especially The Ring, one of the scariest movies ever made. Session 9, ditto. REC and its sequels, Spanish and American.

Blair Witch Project and the Paranormal Activity series – these were terrifying movies when they were released, and are still scary on subsequent viewers.

The Insidious series. The Conjuring series.

The Others.

A little-known but excellent ghost-on-a-submarine film, Below.

The Final Destination series and 28 Days Later - a little slasher-y, but a great premise.

There are really too many to list. This era, which as of now seems to have paused or ended, is far and away the best era ever for psychological horror.

Meanwhile, I also enjoy some of the early horror movies that others on this thread are waxing poetic about - especially the Val Lewton films from the '40s. I love with a passion '50s and early '60s black-and-white sci fi and horror. But these movies are not scary to me. I can enjoy their artistic quality, the way they show us a slice of life at the time (mostly because the low budgets precluded fancy costumes and sets), and of course the men, who are typically much more attractive to me than modern actors - but I don't think of them as frightening in the same way modern horror movies are frightening.

Very few slashers have actually scared me (Halloween, Black Christmas, and A Nightmare on Elm Street might be the only major exceptions), but they're fun if you turn off your brain and have a few drinks or tokes before you watch them. Supernatural or cosmic kinda horror usually freaks me out the most. I remember thinking the first 45 minutes of Candyman were especially scary, because it was all about urban legends and it seemed like something that could actually happen. Once he showed up in his pimp coat, it kinda becomes something else (though still enjoyable).

R56 the early 00s also had some torture porn like the Saw and Hostel franchise.

Right now it feels like Blumhouse has got the horror market covered. I think he's had more hits than misses for the most part.

A24 is doing great stuff, too. It's smarter than the usual horror stuff.

r50 = exactly my point as to why horror sucked in the '90s.

He listed a bunch of MTV-style, glamorous imitations of better slashers along with cheap, silly garbage like LEPRECHAUN. There's nothing good or scary about that. And you forgot Chucky — who was never good until he turned postmodern and comic in SEED and BRIDE of CHUCKY. Even then, he wasn't scary. SLEEPY HOLLOW was a children's film and THE RING was neither scary nor gory, nor did it have any cool fights.

Dismal decade. I recently re-watched SCREAM. It was novel at the time, but it doesn't hold up. I think it's too easy to just analyze old slashers and go through the motions.

Just drive a steak through r55's heart right now.

r56 is right in that the aughts were a great flourishing of horror movies that churned out more quality horror films than ever before perhaps. But it's odd that you mention some of the lesser rip-offs from that era rather than the best stuff.

PARANORMAL ACTIVITIES were just ripoffs of THE BLAIR WITCH. THE OTHERS was just a ripoff of THE SIXTH SENSE. The FINAL DESTINATIONS were just snuff films because the victims couldn't fight back or see their fates coming. Pretty cheap and static, IMO.

You may not like slashers, but the aughts gave us the awesomeness of the SAW franchise, the dawn of Eli Roth, the gorgeously scary DESCENT films, a wonderful, zombie Renaissance with 28 DAYS LATER, DAWN OF THE DEAD, SHAUN OF THE DEAD, etc.

If you like "psychological horror," which is what I'm guessing you call mild ghost stories because you don't like fights and gore, then I would have expected you to mention M. Night Shyamalan (SIXTH SENSE and SIGNS were good) as well as the beginning of Guillermo Del Toro's career (DEVIL'S BACKBONE, PAN'S LABYRINTH; THE ORPHANAGE).

The danger is that of a Blumhouse monopoly, r60.

I'm glad that Jason Blum crafts horror movies well and invests a production quality better than horror movies in the past have had. He certainly does "spooky spirits" well, if you can't enjoy slashers.

But should one guy be controlling pretty much all the horror movies available at the multiplex? Too much product.

The Universal films of the 30s, particularly James Whale's and Tod Browning's, gave the world an endless source of camp sensibility ("Freaks"! Colin Clive and Ernest Thesiger! The Bride of Frankenstein and her hair!). They also served as a direct bridge from German Expressionist film to the later "Film Noir" style. The best of them could be read as either Expressionist or pre-Noir.

J'adore R37. That cycle of RKO films that straddled horror and film noir was great. (I find it so weird that The Seventh Victim is rarely mentioned when film noir comes up. It's about as noir as it gets; dreamlike, cruel, ambivalent, strange.) Some of them gave Boris Karloff a chance to remind the world he could act, which was a plus.

The 80s was certainly a boom time for horror, but I'm not sure it was a golden age. There was a lot of dreck. Mind you, I was a kid in the 80s and I loved all of it.

Another interesting period was the swell of interest in Asian horror that started in the late 90s. Ringu, Tale of Two Sisters, The Eye, Kairo, Uzumaki, etc. Some great movies. I've heard good things about the more recent Train to Busan but I haven't seen it yet. I don't watch much horror these days, so hoping to get some recs from this thread.

Every decade has had good stuff and bad stuff. Unfortunately, some of the good ones fall through the cracks because it's not what's hot at the time. I caught the remake of House of Wax with Paris Hilton on TV recently and was surprised by what a fun, suspenseful, nasty slasher flick that is. I'd skipped it in theaters and it seemed like a lot of other people did, too, since that was the "torture porn" and Asian ghost girl era, but I thought it was a fun little movie. I don't remember The Descent doing that well at the time either and it came with that awful ending they changed from the UK version. It's become a big cult movie now and most people agree it's one of the stronger and most legitimately scary films from that time.

That's what I hate about these stupid trends. So many great movies fall through the cracks because they're not what people think they want to see at that time. Jennifer's Body and Sorority Row were like that. They were both more comic horror films that my friends and I went to see and loved, but most people stayed away in droves. I can't even remember what other horror movies were big then. That was past the torture porn thing, but right before found footage got big due to Paranormal Activity.

I wish Hammer type films would start being made again. They were so beautiful to look at, in contrast to today's spate of dreary and visually unappealing "found footage " films.

One thing that drives me nuts is how many horror films have adapted that grey, washed out look. It's so ugly.

The problem with Asian horror, R67, is that the monsters are just mysterious spirits with mysterious powers that the victims don’t develop a struggle against. You just have helpless victims sitting around falling prey to who knows what or how to defeat it.

I prefer my horror flicks to have a true fight between the victims and monsters, where the victims stand a fighting chance. Some Asian horrors have the mystery-solving aspect that I like — but it doesn’t include how to defeat the spirit/monster.

I don’t like static snuff films or the completely unknowable.

Hammer DID start making horror flicks again.

Did you see the remake of LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, or hottie Sam Claflin in THE QUIET ONES?

Yes, r67, Train to Busan is awesome with a good message.

I only saw the original version with the trippy ending at the Sundance Film Festival, r68. Ditto with alll the people I know who love the movie.

I heard about the theatrical cut and consider it cheesey and crass. But those people still would have seen the wonderful cinematography and art direction that The Descent does better than 97% of horror movies.

[Quote] SLEEPY HOLLOW was a children's film

You and I must have watched 2 completely different versions because there's nothing in there that would be appropriate for children to watch.

[Quote] He certainly does "spooky spirits" well, if you can't enjoy slashers.

I think my favourite so far is Happy Death Day but I also liked Unfriended. I wasn't overly impressed with the latest Halloween movie.

[Quote] I caught the remake of House of Wax with Paris Hilton on TV recently and was surprised by what a fun, suspenseful, nasty slasher flick that is.

I enjoyed it too. But i'd be lying if part of that was getting to see Paris Hilton die 😄 Which I remember was a part of her promoting HOW.

[Quote] Jennifer's Body and Sorority Row were like that. They were both more comic horror films that my friends and I went to see and loved, but most people stayed away in droves.

Love both of those movies and I wish Jennifer's Body had done better at the box office. I was bummed when they didn't even bother releasing it here in Australia.

R73 Yes, I actually have seen and enjoyed both films. I was surprised that The Quiet Ones didn't receive a better reception from critics. I liked it because it was such a throwback in terms of style and setting. I had no idea they were released through Hammer.

I loved Jennifer’s Body, r69!

Remember The Cabin in the Woods?

LOL

Another endorsement of the Happy Death Days. They’re more of the hilarious horror comedies I like.

But these movies aren’t scary.

R71 I agree. Unfortunately it's not just scary films that have that blah grey color now. The trend has spread to drama and thrillers as well and it drives me up the wall. David Fincher is one of the worst offenders. The lack of color doesn't drive home to me how "dark and gritty " the films themes are (as I assume the directors intend). It just puts me to sleep! 60s and 70s films could tell the darkest story but still use beautiful and striking colors. Now, every other modern drama /thriller looks like the before image in a commercial for antidepressants.

R78 yes! I have Cabin In The Woods on blu-ray. Bradley Whitford was awesome in it.

Too bad they never did the prequel for Cabin in the Woods.

R82 were they really going to do a prequel??

[quote] PARANORMAL ACTIVITIES were just ripoffs of THE BLAIR WITCH.

R64, they’re all found footage horror (a jandra one either loves or hates. I love it, but I know many do not); other than that, the plots are completely different. BWP has been much imitated, but the PA movies (also much imitated) are not examples.

Similarly, The Others is not a rip-off of Sixth Sense unless SS is a rip-off of Jacob’s Ladder. Having the same basic underlying premise =/= rip-off.

As for Eli Roth and gore, I did like Cabin Fever quite a bit, so there’s that. I don’t like torture porn, not because it’s torture or gory but because it’s not interesting to me.

The Final Destination movies are not classics, but the setup for each is great. I’m not the only person who refuses to drive behind logging trucks because of FD2. I liked Sixth Sense and Signs, too, as well as Devil’s Backbone. I did say there were too many to mention. 😊

Psychological horror is not just “mild ghost stories”. It refers to movies that rely more on tension, suspense, distortion of reality and extreme creepiness rather than fights and gore.

Anyway, great thread. I forgot about The Quiet Ones. That was fun. I moved it up on my Amazon watchlist, which is now so long that I never manage to get to the end of it when looking for movies to watch. I wish Amazon would let users sort the list into categories.

R84 Categories would be nice but at least they don't regularly remove the entire watchlist like Netflix does. Drives me crazy.

Plots, schmotts. PARANORMAL and THE OTHERS stole their basic concepts from BLAIR WITCH and SIXTH SENSE. They got greenlit because studios wanted to capitalize on trends / jump on the bandwagon. And think of how cheap the PARANORMALS thrills remained, like BLAIR WITCH.

My favorite "found footage" knockoff was a zombie flick called QUARANTINE. Solid action, legitimately scary and at least they invested in some cool sets, makeup and effects.

And at least Shyamalan ripped off the concept of THE SIXTH SENSE from CARNIVAL OF SOULS decades later and much farther afield.

[Quote] As for Eli Roth and gore, I did like Cabin Fever quite a bit, so there’s that. I don’t like torture porn, not because it’s torture or gory but because it’s not interesting to me.

I like the original but didn't really care for the reboot and there was like 3 of those.

[Quote] My favorite "found footage" knockoff was a zombie flick called QUARANTINE. Solid action, legitimately scary and at least they invested in some cool sets, makeup and effects.

Quarantine was good. I didn't understand the complaints about the lead character screaming too much. I think i would've been worse than her in that situation.

R86, there aren't really all that many unique premises, so most movies are a reworking of an existing premise. In any case, I'm not sure what basic concept you're suggesting BW and PA share, other than the villains being malign paranormal entities and the found footage format. The underlying premise and entire plot of the PA movies is demonic possession; no one becomes possessed in BW.

Interesting sets and effects are nice but not necessary in horror - in fact, the lack of SFX in PA and BW increase the horror because everything outwardly seems so ordinary. This is especially true in PA, where all the action takes place in a bland suburban house.

I'm sure you know that Quarantine is a remake of the Spanish film [REC], which is also great.

Nice point about Sixth Sense and Carnival of Souls. CoS is also source material - deliberate or otherwise - for Jacob's Ladder, which is another good one (although not from the period we're discussing).

I am not a fan of horror. Aside from the grotesquery at the end of the original "Freaks," the most disturbing scares have been in movies not advertised as such or I thought too code-controlled to be frightening: the original versions of "Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" and "Blood Feast," "Uncle Silas" on PBS's Masterpiece Theater (alternately promoted as an erotic (!!?) thriller under the title of "Dark Angel"), and "The Conqueror Worm."

The last is the worst: Ian Ogilvy--at his most beautiful--driven to monstrous acts by torture; couldn't watch him in anything for over a decade after my brother punked me by saying "C'mon, Elvira (L.A.'s Mistress of the Dark creature feature host) never shows anything scary."

Dear r88,

The basic concepts PARANORMAL ACTIVITIES copied from BLAIR WITCH is the found-footage "documentary" style horror — which BLAIR WITCH succeeded at the best long before. Also, employing the cheapest possible scare gimmicks rather than earned and developed effects (simple objects appearing and moving by themselves). In both franchises, the monster is never shown — save for one cheap picture of a demon or his footprints at the end of the PARANORMAL ACTIVITIES. No, "most movies" are not reworkings of found-footage "documentary" style horror.

Yes, there is an impressive artistry to creating suspense without showing the monster. But when you've seen that done several times before, and the PARANORMALS copy BLAIR WITCH's approach so nearly identically, it's just crass, derivative commercialism from a cheapskate studio (Paramount Pictures).

And you have to appreciate the effort of crafstmanship and design provided by directors like Kubrick, Carpenter, Craven, IT CHAPTER 2, etc. versus just pots and pans falling off the shelf by themselves in PARANORMAL ACTIVITY.

I couldn't stand the Cabin Fever movies.

They are just complete GROSS OUTS.

Horror shouldn't have to be gross. It's more psychological.

When you have to resort to excessive blood, gore, and violence, then you have crossed the line from "horror" in to "gross out porn."

I love horror, because it's such a broad genre. Some like the slashers, torture porn, ghost movies, psychological horror, creature features, etc. Horror can be so many things unlike a lot of genres. It doesn't always have to be scary, either. I've never been scared by a Friday the 13th movie, but I've certainly enjoyed a few of them.

My favorite horror movies are the ones with a "horror ambiance."

I like movies which are super dark, in cold weather, lots of fog or thunderstorms, involving a creepy old house, and lots of mystery.

I could watch those kinds of movies all day long.

EYES WITHOUT A FACE (Franju-59) seemed to come out of nowhere (there was no tradition of horror in French cinema), but kickstarted the vast repertoire of Eurotrash horror flicks of the 60s and 70s.

It's my absolute favorite movie of the "jandra."

Black Sabbath is my favorite horror movie

Since reading this thread I've been on a horror movie kick. Unfortunately I haven't seen anything very good yet (why did people make such a fuss about Insidious and The Conjuring?) but I wanted OP to know all her hard work ain't been in vain for nothing.

I'll probably watch Busan tonight.

[Quote] When you have to resort to excessive blood, gore, and violence, then you have crossed the line from "horror" in to "gross out porn."

Which is a popular type of horror film otherwise Saw and Hostel wouldn't have done so well.

[Quote] Since reading this thread I've been on a horror movie kick. Unfortunately I haven't seen anything very good yet (why did people make such a fuss about Insidious and The Conjuring?) but I wanted OP to know all her hard work ain't been in vain for nothing.

I really enjoyed the first Conjuring/Annabelle movie but it was all downhill after that. It's like they didn't even try with The Nun or Annabelle Comes Home.

John Carpenter’s The Fog is a wonderfully creepy and atmospheric film. It just seeps dread and the score by Carpenter is phenomenal. There’s a whole genre of electronic/ambient retrowave music that is informed by synth scores from genre movies of the 70s and 80s and The Fog soundtrack is an obvious inspiration. Bands like Makeup and Vanity Set, and The Quiet Earth.

To be fair, there was nothing wrong with The Conjuring. I just thought it was forgettable. I doubt I'll watch any of the sequels. But I do see why James Wan's career is blowing up, he is a very good director. He just needs to pick better scripts.

I love that there's a band named after The Quiet Earth.

Hostel is one of the most awful series of movies ever made.

Fucking disgusting, and torturous in a pornographic sort of way.

I hate those movies.

[Quote] Fucking disgusting, and torturous in a pornographic sort of way.

That's why they call those types of movies torture porn.

The first HOSTEL was one of the Top 20 Best Horror Movies of All time.

All its sequels were garbage, however.

R102 how many are there?? I thought Hostel had 2??

Yes, two sequels that I've seen and not impressed with.

[quote]That's what I hate about these stupid trends. So many great movies fall through the cracks because they're not what people think they want to see at that time. Jennifer's Body and Sorority Row were like that. They were both more comic horror films that my friends and I went to see and loved, but most people stayed away in droves.

I really enjoyed Jennifer's Body and Sorority Row. I remember critics hating Sorority Row and I think critics were mixed on Jennifer's Body.

Did anyone else love the 2001 slasher Valentine?

R106, I saw it in the theater when it first came out

R106 yes! But I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that David Boreanaz was in it lol

R105 Jessica would have fit in very well at the DL 😄

I did see SORORITY ROW. But it was so bad I don't remember being anything but embarrassed for Carrie Fisher that she was in it.

What did you like about it, r105? It was nowhere near as good as JENNIFER'S BODY. I remember it trying to be funny but failing miserably.

You're nowhere near a "Golden Age of Horror."

I vaguely remember watching VALENTINE and not caring, either. I remember the remake of MY BLOODY VALENTINE because it was in stereoscopic 3-D -- the first one I'd ever seen.