Horror Genre

A few post ago, you were discussing found footage movies. So, one found footage film that I actually highly recommend is "Troll Hunter". I thought it was a great Norwegian film. It has an interesting protagonist and the the film crew aren't bad either. I honestly can't fault the film on characters, and the shaky-cam that most people hate about the genre is almost absent. For a found footage film, it is one of the best.

Wendell Parker wrote:

A few post ago, you were discussing found footage movies. So, one found footage film that I actually highly recommend is "Troll Hunter". I thought it was a great Norwegian film. It has an interesting protagonist and the the film crew aren't bad either. I honestly can't fault the film on characters, and the shaky-cam that most people hate about the genre is almost absent. For a found footage film, it is one of the best.

Trollhunter is awesome, but the way it's shot is almost like a pseudo-documentary, so I have a hard time lumping it into the found footage genre (yes, I know, the ending..., but still!). I think it's still streaming on Netflix if anybody hasn't seen it. It's a lot of fun.

There are many different styles and sub-genres to the Horror Genre. What are your favorites?
Zombies? Asian Horror? Silent Films? There are so many but what are your favorites?

I'd have to say that mine is Supernatural Horror. Specifically things that involve either ghosts and hauntings. Some films I like in this genre would be Paranormal Activity, Evil Dead, Insidious, The Grudge, The Shining (Which is also psychological horror), and many more.

A close second would be action horror.

Well I hate zombies. So sick of zombies these days. I hate modern slasher movies because they all look the same. The problem with genre labels is that too many times a movie sets out to be a part of that genre and becomes too cliche. "Well, we're making a slasher movie, so we HAVE to put in all these scenes people have seen a million times before." If I have to see more college kids driving into the woods for the weekend....

I like a good ghost story. A lot of the Asian horror I've liked in the past have been fantastic ghost stories. Genre labels aside though, a good movie is a good movie. A horror film should have the potential to be great regardless of its type.

I can still get behind a good zombie movie, but nothing that takes itself too serious. Something like good old Shaun of the Dead or the more recent Cockneys vs. Zombies are right up my alley.
Totally agree with Jowsky on the whole Asian Horror Genre. Even movies that aren't particularly good make up for it most of the time with a really great atmosphere. Most of the time they are japanese...never got much out of China or South Korea in that matter...if you count out Fantasy like Chinese Ghost Story or the good south korean Ring-Version called The Ring Virus. Maybe Alex knows some good ones from those countries and would be nice enough to post them

Of the many, many horror franchises, sequels, remakes, etc. What do you consider the High points and Low points of your favorite franchises?
For instance: One of my favorite franchises is Friday the 13th. I consider the best of that franchise to be Part 6: Jason Lives, and the low point to be Jason Goes to Hell.

Here are a few of my opinions on many franchises.

Nightmare on Elm Street: Favorite- Part 2 Freddy's Revenge. Because the main character is one of the best of the series, Freddy's motives and actions are some of the most original and interesting, and it is a good sequel in that it expands the universe and gives the villain a deeper backstory.

Low Point- Freddy's Dead. I hated the slapstick comedy of the later films and the 6th one has that cranked up to the max. For apparently the last film in the franchise it gives the title villain a horrible death.


Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Favorite- The First One. The Grittiness of the first film makes the later sequels look like high budget Hollywood Productions. The absolute brutality of certain scenes of that film still disturb me to this day.

Low Point- The Next Generation. A lot of people hated the remake and the prequel, but at least those films stuck to the backstory and mythology created within the TCM universe. This movie just takes all that and ruins it with alien subplots and government conspiracies, and, one if the worst: a dragqueen Leatherface.


Leprechaun: Favorite- The First. I know a lot of people dislike this series for it's overly slapstick comedy and goofy characters/acting. But I LOVE the first three films of this franchise. I find them so much fun and this movie is the best in my opinion. All of the actors look like they might as well play up the goofiness (Except for Jennifer Anniston who looks like she's taking the movie way to seriously).

Low Point- Leprechaun 4: In Space. It's been awhile since I've seen this movie and I havent seen the "To 'Da Hood" Movies (Thank God), but I remember hating the 4th film when I saw it.


Frankenstein: Favorite- Frankenstein Vs. The Wolf Man- So, there are the first few Frankenstein films that are legitimately good and well made, but I love this one because of the nostalgia of watching this when I was young, and the fact of how fun of a concept it was at this early point for Horror cinema to just have fun with the genre. In that sense, these early "fun" horror films like Abbott And Costello and are kind of innovative.

Low Point: Ghost of Frankenstein. It is very hard to pick my least favorite Frankenstein film because all of them are great. But, I pick Ghost of Frankenstein mainly because it was in the middle of that transitional period where the franchise went from being solo, to the later films where the monster crossed over with other franchises. Seeing Bela Lugosi act over the top in Lon Chaney Jr's body was really great, though.

You really don't want to know the abomination that is the Leprechaun "In Da Hood" movies.
Incidentally, there is a terrible movie called "Zombie Vampires In Da Hood" that is much worse.

Yeah, just the concept and title of those later Leprechaun movies are enough to keep me from seeing them.

Wendell Parker wrote:

Of the many, many horror franchises, sequels, remakes, etc. What do you consider the High points and Low points of your favorite franchises?
For instance: One of my favorite franchises is Friday the 13th. I consider the best of that franchise to be Part 6: Jason Lives, and the low point to be Jason Goes to Hell.

^That.

I hereby contend that Frank Langella is the greatest Dracula.



Discuss.

The Horror genre has thousands of films the mainstream that everyone has heard of. Friday the 13th, Halloween, The Exorcist, Saw, etc... The list goes on forever. But what are some more obscure horror films that any of you have seen that not many people talk about, and you would like to see being discussed more online than the obvious Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies. Maybe an obscurity that is considered rare like Black Devil Doll from Hell or Warlock Moon. Maybe a foreign horror film that many casual-viewing Americans may not have heard of. Just, any movie that you love (or hate), that you wished was talked about more and not many people have heard of.