Oh, the horror!

[angra]

What's your favourite horror film?

I think film-makers nearly a century ago discovered the public's fascination with horror (Nosferatu, Caligari).

In the '30's/'40's great directors like Hitchcock realised that it was the psychological anticipation of horror which was the most powerful emotion (Vertigo, NbyNW).

In the '50s/'70s directors forgot this and went over the top with slash/gore/splatter detail. And added some topical political analogies (Living Dead, Forgotten Planet, Invasion of the Body Snatchers) - products of the political climate of the times.

Later directors rediscovered Hitchcock's fundamental truth, but realised the public liked a bit of gory detail as well (Alien, The Thing, Exorcist, Blair Witch, Poltergeist)

What's your most frightening film experience, and why? Is it anticipation, or actualization?

Is it great film-making, or crass pandering to base emotions?

My scariest moment was first seeing Alien.

[Matthew Of Canberra]

"favourite horror film"

I can't do "favorites". I've only seen a few horror films. Return of the living dead is hilarious, in a very dark way. Dawn of the dead is awesome for the spectacle, particularly the opening scenes. And it crosses a few taboos, too - a zombie baby, for goodness sake! "28 days layer" starts well (but gets worse) - like DotD it has zombies (or at least bad guys) who RUN! Seriously - zombies are menacingly hilarious when they shuffle, but a running zombie, that's terrifying. And there's no discussion of zombie flicks without shaun, obviously.

Away from the zombies ... I do like jason vs freddy, again for its black humor ("why won't you DIE!"). I quite liked The Fog (The Thing is on the to-watch list). "The Cube" is probably one of the most ridiculous films I've ever seen. I saw some of the pinhead films many years ago, but they mostly seem to be about spectacle. I don't recall plot being very important.

I found Blair Witch fairly irritating first time, because the characters were idiots. A scriptwriter can only rely on "no - don't go in there!" so many times before I think "yeah, whatever - open the door, it's a miracle you've survived this long". I re-watched it at christmas and I was more charitable - I could just relax and pay more attention to the smaller points and the pretty forest scenery and think about the way it was made. Also, I didn't have to care about the characters because I knew what was going to happen.

That film would be harder to make in australia, because anyone camping who hears bangs and growls at night would just think "yeah, possums"

Paranormal activity is really good. Scared the pants off me. I haven't watched the sequels yet.

The ring also scared me silly first time. I've watched it a couple of times since and I actually find it sad now. It's quite a sad story.

The Mummy is better than I expected (I assume it's probably been remade, but I mean the original B&W)

I seem to recall "shadow of the vampire" being a bit silly.

Then of course there are the action horrors - van helsing, blade, etc. They're pretty.

But you really can't go past Army Of Darkness for corny horror hilarity. Find a copy - download it, whatever. Do yourself a favor. I still can't call it a "favorite" though.

[Matthew Of Canberra]

Good scary character ... Don Logan from sexy beast. Ben Kingsley doing a very convincing, very nasty individual. It helped that the rest of the cast was able to reflect sheer terror.

[angra]

The ploy that makes me mad is when the subject goes down into the dark basement, up into the attic, or into the dark chamber, and you just want to scream "Don't go in there! You know something bad is lurking!"

And they always do.

[angra]

I actually conned my kids into listening to extracts of Wagner's Ring cycle by telling them it was 'Lord of the Rings - the musical'. Then I played them the bit about Siegfried going into Fafnir's lair and added a few sound effects. They were scared witless! (A bit cruel as they were only around 8 and 10)