JUNKFILM

#26 was a successful merging of scifi and horror.

Phantasm - 1979

Forget your chainsaws, your machettes, your butcher knives, your bladed gloves, and even your Scanner-like head ’splodings. There is nothing scarier than a shiney, metal flying sphere that holds more drills and razors in it than a demented dentist, and it’s zooming at your face at 100 miles and hour!

The film was directed, written, photographed, co-produced and edited by Don Coscarelli, which is usually unheard of, but makes sense when you hear that the film was started in 1977 and released in 1979. Phantasm was a creepy scifi/horror that starred a local news man as the villian, The Tall Man (who was portrayed in the film and its sequels by Angus Scrimm), a supernatural and sadistic undertaker who turns the dead into dwarf zombies to do his bidding and take over the world.

Fun Facts:
There is a blantant reference to Frank Herbert’s “Dune” book. There is a bar named Dune. One of the scenes is a near word for word copy from Dune, with “fear is the killer” rather than “fear is the mind killer”.

#25 is more of a plead for originals over the American remakes.

Ring - 1998 / Pulse (Kairo) - 2001

These are two films that freaked me right the fuck out of my shoes when I first watched them. I remember watching Ring (and just for clarification it is spelled Ring, not Ringu (the only reason they changed the phonetic pronunciation is to keep idiots from renting the original as opposed to the remake)) in the middle of the day on a VHS my friend Jeff made for me waaaaay before it was remade into the movie everyone has seen. Middle of the day. Not that scary of a time to be freaked out. When the little girl crawled out of the well and the camera never cut away from her, I felt myself pushing back in my couch and not wanting to see what came next. I was poopy pants scared.

When the movie was remade, I’ll give it that it makes more sense in the American, but there is little to be scared about. Specially in the crawling out of the TV part. The American cuts too much during this scene and it makes it far less scary and more aggravating to watch.

The other movie, Pulse, is a slow paced ghost story that creeps your soul out. There is one scene that is just scary as all hell when a ghost SLOOOOOOOWLY walks toward the camera and trips a little and it makes it looks so unnatural and bizarre you can’t help but push yourself farther away. The American remake is much faster in story and scary scenes ultimately destroying the entire point of the building fear.

Fun Facts:
There are two sequels to the Ring shot in Japan: Rasen (also from 1998, aka Spiral) and Ring 2 (from 1999, and which was not based on Suzuki’s works), as well as a prequel, Ring 0: Birthday (2000). There was also a Korean remake (called Ring in Korea and The Ring Virus abroad). A video game, known as The Ring: Terror’s Realm in the U.S., was also released in 2000 for the Dreamcast. Plus a one-season TV show that in my opinion was…veeerry bad.

#25, still one of the scariest things I have ever seen. Besides my credit card bill.

The Exorcist - 1973

I saw this when I was a kid, mainly because the reason we all watch scary movies: someone said it freaked them out and that we, the kid, were not allowed to watch it until we were older. My mom was really strict about that. But I had an ongoing obsession with waking up late at night, creeping downstairs, and watching some blood-curdling movies. Most I would smile and laugh at and go back to bed happy that I thought I had tricked my parents and done something, at that point in my life, illegal in my house. Little did I know how parents really work. They know everything. Everything. But I digress…

After watching this, I went to bed and could not sleep. I was terrified. I was lividly upset. Years later, when the director’s cut came out, I jumped all over it, and was so happy that it was still just as scary. Seeing the girl walk down the stairs on her hands and feet, in reverse body-like crab fashion still makes my skin crawl. And my old co-worker can’t look at that scary devil face without pissing himself.

#23 is no less a scary movie as it is a good film. This is pretty rare in the horror world.

Psycho - 1960

Just one of Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece cinema. It was a toss up for me to put this or the Birds on the 31 Days list, but I think Psycho is a much better film, as well as a scary flick to boot. Loosing based on the life og Wisconsin legend, Ed Gein (same guy that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is based off of), the movie revolves around a woman in a motel, hiding from her boss because she in embezzling money from him, and the motel owner/operator, Norman Bates.

Bates made this movie exceedingly creepy as he is the perfect onscreen example of mental collapsing and sacrifice. Not to mention that one of the most famous scenes in film history is in this flick.

It took me a long time to get around to watching this movie. I think the fact that it was older kind of turned me off. But once I watched it… man, it blew me away how good it was. Just the cine-theory in each scene is breath-taking.

Fun Facts:
The film spawned two sequels, a prequel, a remake, and an unsuccessful television spin-off.

Since the film was shot like most films of this era in Black & White, using a red substitute for blood was kind of useless. But to keep the consistancy of blood, chocolate syrup was used instead. This became a fad in Hollywodd B&W films. Later on a film was made called Not Just For IceCream Anymore, which is a direct reference to the usage of Chocolate Syrup in horror films.

#22 brings the dead back to life in this creepy re-imagining of an HP Lovecraft story.

The Re-Animator - 1985

Stuart Gordon’s The Re-Animator is the living shit. One of the few movies that still creeps me out to watch it, even after all these years. A doctor is set upon the task to bring the dead back to life. A dog, a man, same thing. The movie is based off of an HP Lovecraft story which automatically means it’s fucking scary as hell. And if you have yet to read any HP Lovecraft, you are in for a treat.

While there have been sequels, I have to put my foot down and stress that they are not worth watching. They remind me of the Leprechaun series, just kinda pitiful and pushing too much too far. Re-Animator, In The Hood. We’re not too far off.

Anyone else see a trend that 1985 was the shit for horror movies?

#20 is one of the most innovative and creative of the 31 films.

Ginger Snaps - 2000

Werewolves and lycanthropes have been around in history for as long as the page has held ink, but like The Howling before it, Ginger Snaps adds a new twist and a new flavor to a very old story. The Fitzgerald sisters, 15 and 16, Ginger and Brigitte, have never been what the world might think of as social. So when Ginger is brutally attacked by a wild animal the fact that something strange is happening to her in the aftermath is nothing out of the ordinary. And the film rocks because of it.

The theory behind the transformation of poor, young Ginger is obviously a puberty issue that is kind of overhandedly pushed through out the film, but it’s never negatively deemed upon us. The film was shot over 6 weeks in Toronto and edited in 8 weeks, which is almost unheard of for a more professional film.

Film Munkey’s latest episode is a doozy, all about my favorite time of year, Halloween. I even have a little segment in it talking about my favorites ghoulies of horror: zombies.

Part 1 of 2

Part 2 of 2

Dave’s Top 5 Horror Films, full edit

#18 is one you might not have heard of, but it’s on the 31 films.

Series 7 - 2001

While this movie might not technically be a horror or scary movie, the sheer fact that if this movie depicted reality, it would be a scary as fuck world to live in. An interesting one, and one that I would happily be in, but still, scary as fuck.

The movie is presented as a marathon of the seventh series of an American reality television show called The Contenders, where six people, picked at random from a national lottery, are each given a gun and forced to hunt and kill each other for the cameras. The film is a dark satire of the reality television genre.

While it’s not a new concept, it’s a beautiful way of presenting satire of a medium that is quickly spinning out of control. If you can find this gem, I highly recommend picking it up.

Say what you will about Kubrick’s directing style, #17 of the 31 films will stay with you for a very long time.

The Shining - 1980

While the film might start off slow and a nice building character momentum, this movie is the ultimate “man in big house goes crazy.” Writer an family go to the middle of no where to hotel-sit for the winter season, kid tears ass around house in his suped up big wheel from hell running into bloody twin girls, mom can’t seem to find an acting coach, and writer snaps and grabs an axe to introduce to his family’s face.

Awesome. And my good friend, Jon, has informed me that the Blu Ray transfer is worth the money to buy a copy.

After yesterday, I might as well drop #15 of the 31.

Dawn of the Dead (remake) - 2004

Junk!? What are you doing? Why not the original? Why not the classic? Well, as I have said many times before, this is one of the very few remakes I actually highly enjoyed. Do I think it’s better than the original, and that’s why I put this one up instead of the original? Not so much. I like both, but I like them for different reasons.

While the first is truly a dream of what could we do in a fantasy type area of survival horror, the new one, Zak’s remake, is much more time oriented. The first has very little urgency for time concerns. I’m not saying the movie isn’t tense, it’s just slow in some parts that make the viewer say, “Uh, why aren’t the living people sprinting their brains out to get away from these monsters?”

While the remake takes the lore one step farther and allows the Zeds to run, this isn’t that much of a concern with me as it is with so many other people and fans. The first running zombie was in Romero’s Night anyway, and let’s be honest, aside from the fact of rigormortis and tightening of joints and muscles, the running zombie is a HELL of a lot scarier and the one you would rather not have chasing your tasty ass.