I'm surprised no one has mentioned John Carpenter's The Thing. Practical effects are still out of this world and Kurt Russell's glorious hair can make any man feel lesser...
The Thing is a fantastic film and a perfect example of how 80's movies (for the most part) trump modern cinema in terms of pure substance.
Scream 1 is still dope. Ghost face was my go to Halloween costume as a kid.
Scream is a class slasher series, however, just too damn funny to be in the least bit suspenseful or frightening.
The most horrifying slasher-horror film series to this day is
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (although, that's kind of funny too; but in good measure, while still being disturbing as f*ck).
Honestly
@ZFire, the only kids who ever wore those Ghost Face masks at Halloween here in London, were the delinquents looking for
real trouble. They were the reason people wouldn't open their doors to me and my friends, because they were replicating the outfit so well, they even remembered to include the damn knife!
You letting us in on something here? Were you a gangbangin' thug
@ZFire?
Just watched The Fly (1986) last night. I forgot how grotesque it is! Highly recommend.
While I know it is, I've never really classed
The Fly as a "horror"; it's just too goddamn sad.
The story draws it' inspiration from
Kafka's "Metamorphosis" I believe; a story which all of us here, can unfortunately relate to, all too easily.
I've always liked the beginning, when just after his incorporation of the Fly's DNA, he essentially develops superpowers, and becomes
FLY MAN. It parallels the whole Super-Hero trope of some medical accident (usually involving radiation) making the subject superior to how they once were, but then makes a sharp deviation by showcasing the negative consequence of screwing around with the genetic blueprint.
If you read much MARVEL, you'll see they
have touched on this, but only briefly. In Spider-Man, there's a saga where his spider DNA starts becoming dominant and eventually he mutates into "Man-Spider". But the writers gloss over this issue by making everything repairable, so that he can go back to being
your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. The reason why this is, is because MARVEL I suspect, were effectively lobbying for Nuclear Power at a time when there was a strong suspicion of and opposition to, it. Kind of like how Super-Man is now a bi-sexual vaccine that can fly, and people who don't want to be saved by him are stupid, homophobic "anti-savers".
But yeah, the final third of
The Fly always breaks my heart. I can hardly bear to watch it anymore when it's on.
I rewatched The Thing a few times and each time it still gets better, and it was a phenomenal film to begin with. Probably the closest thing we ever get to a The Mountains of Madness film...
@Deamon22, this is
so true, and I had never thought of it this way before; but you're absolutely right.
The Thing is a very "Lovecraftian" misadventure.
I've never seen any film adaptation of
At the Mountains of Madness, but if there is one and it's anything like every other movie based on a Lovecraft story written, then I'm sure it's a disappointment.
Also, had no idea you were a Lovecraft fan (?) One of my favourite writers (top 3, for sure).