It's a Horror to know You: Chuckles72!
1. What is the first film that ever scared you?
Escape to Witch Mountain (1975). Not a scary film unless you are four years old and have no idea what is going on. I could not understand why these authority figures were intent on doing bad things to the kids. Completely freaked me out.
2. What is the last film that scared you?
Honestly, the last horror film that got my heart pounding was The Blair Witch Project (1999). I found myself alone, deep in the woods a few days after watching it and basically had a panic attack.
While not terrorized, I was very, very creeped out by Lake Mungo (2008).
3. Name three Horror movies that you believe are underrated.
There are so many but….
a. John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness (1987). IMHO the most underrated horror film ever.
b. Trick 'r Treat (2007). I am confounded that this excellent film did not get more hype.
c. Angel Heart (1987). Everybody was obsessed with the steamy scenes, but this is a very unsettling and gruesome film.
4. Name three horror movies that you enjoy against your better judgment.
a. Seed of Chucky (2004).
b. Night of the Comet (1984).
c. The Craft (1996).
5. Send us to five places on the Internet!
a. Retronaut
d. Scary Horror and Mindf*ck Games List (oft updated):
e. Oglaf My favorite, bizarre web comic. NSFW! NSFW! (did I mention NSFW?)
Yowza! The first "Horror to Know You!" post! Great picks Chuckles!
I think you're right about Prince of Darkness. Even though it's well regarded it always seems to get looked over in favor of Carpenter's other films. Meanwhile, it's almost the perfect amalgamation of all of Carpenter's most interesting themes all smooshed together in one movie! I'm always wanting to do a review of POD but I keep chickening out because where to start? It's too big for my little head!
I LOVE Angel Heart too; one of my favorite endings (I know who I am!) and it feels like a halfway point between Blade Runner and Jacob's Ladder to me & such a great performance by Mickey Rourke!
Seed of Chucky is the smartest of the whole franchise. I think it just went over people's heads! I gotta back up the love for The Craft too. Fairuza!!!!
I could not agree more about the fabulous Trick 'r Treat! I love the movie and it is now one I MUST watch at Halloween.
I also adore The Craft! Whenever I find it on TV, I am compelled to watch.
Ha-ha! A fellow viewer who shuddered at LAKE MUNGO's touch! Great picks, Chuckles!
Oh yep, that one still image from Lake Mungo stayed with me for days!
"Nigh of the Comet!" What a great guilty pleasure! I absolutely love the requisite 80's montage with the inexplicable cover of "Girls Just Wanna' Have Fun."
Oh, and thanks for Retronaut and Awful Library Books. My work day is now shot.
I don't mind saying that Prince of Darkness is my favorite Carpenter movie.
Regarding John Carpenter's "Prince of Darkness": I fucking love this movie specifically because of the scenes of the broadcast transmissions from the future to the unconscious mind [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGsv0pJemTY ]. It's pure alchemy: you have seemingly the most laughably rudimentary images for this, as though one handed a fourth grade class a video camera with the task of making a suuuuuper spooky video. However, the layers of sound design added to it, the very concept behind the script, and the clinical monotone delivery of the words is what makes one clench both the jaw and the sphincter muscles in all seriousness. It's brilliant. Jump scares only last until the adrenaline wears off, but unnerving notions like this one presented in the film is what hovers over your bed for years.
Fun fact: That church is currently the theatre for the East West Players group: [googlemaps http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=embed&hl=en&geocode=&q=120+Judge+John+Aiso+Street,+Los+Angeles,+CA+90012&aq=&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=57.42297,114.169922&t=h&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=120+Judge+John+Aiso+St,+Los+Angeles,+California+90012&layer=c&cbll=34.051094,-118.240295&panoid=R775TZbgFnds9g3G7UQotw&cbp=13,164.09,,0,-3.05&ll=34.041778,-118.23482&spn=0.017069,0.036478&z=14&output=svembed&w=425&h=240]
And Chuckles: Fuck Yeah Night of the Comet. I saw it in High School and 25 years later my friends and I can still quote lines from it.
Lake Mungo appears in my responses too…I probably should have included it in couple of categories, in fact.
I really, really, really, really wish I'd liked Trick 'r Treat. Everything about it should be 100% in my wheelhouse, but I just couldn't get into it…Except for the story about the schoolbus and the quarry. I would have wanted more of that and less of the sexy werewolves.
Prince of Darkness is Carpenter's best film, hands down. I guess that's what happens when you give him total control over the project. I wish he would make more independent films like this one. Also, you should totally write an article about this film, Unk, and try to get to the bottom of WHY it's so underrated. So many genuinely creepy parts to that movie, I wouldn't know where to begin either, but you're the wordsmith and I am not.
I hope that it is not bad form to comment in your own "Horror to Know You" post, but:
1. Prince of Darkness – Stickman's URL showing the St. Goddard's location – amazing! Were the reverse exterior shots all from somewhere else in the film or has the neighborhood just been completely gentrified?
2. I should mention that if you have never read Oglaf before, start at the beginning. Also, if you are offended by sexual content (including: gay sex, straight sex, masturbation, man-on-monster sex, etc.) – STEER CLEAR because it is incredibly base and raunchy. Try not to think less of me if you are horrified…..
Yea, Awful Library Books!
I saw Prince of Darkness for the first time in the theater a while back and the last half hour seriously gave me that feeling of wanting to leave the theater. The whole trapped and something's coming to get you is so well done in that movie.