October Horror - The 31 Flicks That Give Me The Willies

Shoot The Projectionist has the final list of 180 films that received at least 3 votes each from early ballots for the favourite Horror films of all time.

It’s a terrific list filled with great films and I’m happy to see that it’s longer and more diverse than I expected. I’ve seen about two thirds of them, so I obviously have some work to do. Most of my initial picks made the final list (27 of 31), so I guess I’m not overly original in my choices. Oh well.

The 4 I chose that didn’t make it were:

* “The Abominable Dr. Phibes” (1971) - Not so much a film that scares me, but a hugely entertaining one that I just couldn’t leave off the list. Dr. Phibes uses the biblical plagues as reference points for getting revenge on the 9 doctors he holds responsible for his wife’s death. Vincent Price rules here and it led me directly to his Edgar Allen Poe films - so that alone is reason enough to put it on my list.

* “Cure” (1997) - Probably regarded less as a horror film and more as a mystery thriller in the vein of Seven (which made the final list), this is a terrifically creepy and disturbing tale of a killer who seems to hypnotize others into committing murders. Along with “Pulse”, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s finest film.

* “The Fury” (1978) - My favourite of Brian DePalma’s horror films. Young people with strong psychic abilities are kidnapped by the government and are trained to become weapons of war. There’s just something about the way the plot flows that engaged me more than his other films.

* “Shallow Ground” (2004) - I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a forest look this good on film. The rich greens and cool colours make a perfect background for the blood that appears - and there’s definitely lots of blood… Read more …

Toronto After Dark Film Festival: The Human Centipede (2010)

Short Description

In the most talked about horror film of the year, a doctor performs a disturbing medical procedure on his patients

The Buzz

“A masterpiece of perverse originality, a truly unique experience of sleaze and horror” - CHUD

“The bastard child of Takashi Miike and David Cronenberg - a deeply disturbing and shockingly original piece of work” - Twitch Film

Winner, Best Director - Austin Fantastic Fest

Winner, Best Actor - Austin Fantastic Fest

Winner, Best Picture - Los Angeles ScreamFest

Synopsis

You heard about it online, watched the freaky trailer on YouTube (along with 2 million others) and winced about its utterly insane, ‘100% medically accurate’ premise. And now after winning both fans and awards at numerous film festivals around the world, the most talked about horror film of the year, is finally crawling its way into town as Toronto After Dark’s Closing Gala film! Prepare to be shocked by Tom Six’s THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE. The truly twisted tale features two American tourists with car trouble who seek help at the house of Dr. Heiter (the outlandish Dieter Laser), a physician who specialized in separating Siamese twins but now wants to create… a human centipede. The madder-than-mad doctor sews the girls, and a Japanese tourist, together – butt-to-mouth! – and marches them around his yard. Now, the only hope for escape is their ability to work together as a singular organism. THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE: truly the sum of its parts. Read more …

Toronto After Dark Film Festival: I Spit On Your Grave (2010)

Short Description

Anchor Bay’s much-anticipated and very gruesome remake of the controversial rape-revenge horror film of the same name

The Buzz

“An intensely brutal film carrying some of the best gore I’ve seen the past few years….” - Bloody-Disgusting

“In this day of gutless remakes and reboots Monroe stays shockingly true to Zarchi’s vision and delivers” - Sound on Sight

“The killings are creative, and unbelievably gruesome, although considering what our heroine’s gone through, you may find yourself cheering her on….It’s a solid, well made film that should please hardcore horror fans.” - Joblo.com’s Arrow-in-the-Head

Official Selection - Fantasia Film Festival, Montreal

Synopsis

Steven R. Monroe’s remake of Meir Zarchi’s infamous 1978 rape/revenge cult goes for the throat… and just about everything else. Sarah Butler gives a raw performance as Jennifer, a writer from the city who escapes to a lakefront cabin to work quietly on her latest book but instead invokes the rage of a group of local men. Raped beaten and left for dead, she disappears into the bayou, her attackers assuming she’s dead. But Jennifer survives and enacts some of the most savage revenge ever committed to film—SAW franchise included! Crass exploitation? Feminist filmmaking? Both? Ask Monroe himself, who will be on hand for a Q&A. Just be warned! I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE ain’t for the faint of heart. Read more …

Ju-On: The Grudge Game For Wii - A haunted house simulator based on the horror film “The Grudge”

Ju-on: The Grudge is a haunted house simulator based on the horror film “The Grudge”.

Making a horror game for a “casual” audience requires a reorganization of priorities. While something like Resident Evil is intent on scaring the player, there are a lot of gameplay elements aside from fear, like inventory management and even accuracy. These elements make for a well-rounded game, but they can actually prevent the player from experiencing all the game’s scares.

AQ Interactive’s Ju-On: The Grudge, being released in North America this October by XSEED, takes out all the “survival” from a survival horror game to create what XSEED calls a “haunted house simulator,” focused entirely on scaring the crap out of players over and over again. And from what we saw, it works.

Ju-On consists of a series of playable scenarios in which normal people are brought into creepy haunted places. In the one we saw, a young woman’s dog runs into a dark old building, and the woman goes in to find it. The game is controlled using the pointer and the Wiimote’s buttons — the pointer controls both the camera and the in-game flashlight, and buttons are used to walk forward and backward, and to investigate objects. Batteries found throughout the level maintain the flashlight’s power.

The room is so dark, and the flashlight so dim, that you can typically only see a small circular area at one time. Items that can be picked up glint noticeably. After exploring the first room (some kind of office in a warehouse, it looked like) the person playing the demo went for a door. The door opened a crack, and then the camera jerked down to reveal a creepy ghost toddler thing staring through the door. Yes, we jumped a bit. The creature closed and locked the door, with the dog behind it, forcing the player to look around for the key. After finding the key on the floor, the player went into a small room with another door at the end. She opened that one, and immediately a pale hand jumped out and grabbed the on-screen avatar’s forearm. Then the camera panned up to, well, this. Arrow indicators on the sides of the screen directed the player to shake the Wiimote to break the apparition’s grip, after which the creature disappeared and the path was blocked. It was around here that our demo concluded.

It’s interesting that both this game and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories hit upon the idea of the combat-free horror game. Not only does fighting monsters provide a barrier to the game’s fright moments, in a way being able to defeat them undermines the horror themes. In most horror games, a skilled player can actually defeat the creatures (with notable exceptions like Silent Hill 2’s Pyramid Head, who just happens to be one of the most terrifying monsters in any horror game), making the game more of a power fantasy than a true fright. In both of these games, you can escape the creatures at best.

Ju-On: The Grudge Game For Wii Screens

Ju-On: The Grudge (Wii) Trailer

Ju-On: The Grudge (Wii) Gameplay

Official web: http://www.juonthegrudgegame.com

Jsyns’s Top 10 Horror Movie Picks Of 2008!

1) LET THE RIGHT ONE IN - For those who have seen it, the general consensus is that it’s the clear frontrunner. Simply put, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is a sublime, dark and beautiful film. Probably the most fascinating and unique portrayal of vampirism since Larry Fessenden’s HABIT. An absolute must-see.

2) [REC] - In a very close second, another foreign offering. (REC) starts disarmingly ho-hum but winds up ending on such a truly scary note it really just blew me away. No, I didn’t see QUARANTINE and frankly, I’m not going to bother because this one is that good. Read more …