Whoah. I need to check out Dog Soliders then. I like 28 Days later better because the entire latter half of the movie had little to do with zombies and was more humans behaving like humans in a post-apocalyptic world with little in the way of any moral structure or code. It becomes an entirely new movie and it’s amazing.

But no, Kev, I havent’ seen Heavenly Creatures or Carnival of Souls. I saw Wickerman recently, though, also during the salmonella week off.

- Dog Soldiers – good call, kev!
– Dawn of the Dead remake – i am obsessed with it – the beginning with Johnny Cash stands my hair on-end.
– Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield was an OnDemand film last year and for being free, it was pretty damn disturbing and graphic. it might even be back again considering the season.
– the first part of the It miniseries – the rest is shit.
– Children of the Corn
– The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
– the original Frankenstein & Bride of
– Delicatessen
– The Fly
– i’ll back-up Near Dark, Creepshow and Hellraiser, as well.
– Cube
– Shaun of the Dead – hated it on first watch, love it now
– Dolls
– Poltergiest
– the Twilight Zone movie
– Fall of the House of Usher
– Carrie – the ending? come on.
– The Shining – if only because i absolutely cannot EVER have my shower curtain closed at night – i need to make sure that dead old lady is not there when i pee.
– the first Hostel and Saw are guilty-pleasures

i also thought the ghosts in the Thirteen Ghosts remake looked fantastic, but the film was terrible.

Some that I heard were really good but I haven’t gotten around to yet are 1408 and The Devil’s Backbone. 1408 with John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson. The Devil’s Backbone is supposed to be really damn good, just like everything else by Guillermo Del Toro.

Whoa…those are some good ones as well Mandy. And I’m glad someone else mentioned the Dawn of the Dead remake. I’m similarly obsessed with that movie and have watched it probably dozens of times. I tend to leave it out of horror discussions because it’s so polarizing. But just because I love the remake doesn’t mean I like the original any less.

• Texas Chainsaw Massacre – It’s so effective that I get uncomfortable when I watch it. It’s stunningly well made, but not an enjoyable experience for me.

• Shivers – How about Cronenberg? And rape zombies? It’s pretty creepy stuff (But for me, Cronenberg was scariest as a kid when he played the serial killer in the otherwise lame Nightbreed).

• Salem’s Lot (the original series by Tobe Hooper) – Not the greatest thing ever, but it’s got some good spooky moments. And Barlow is one of the scariest looking vampires ever.

• Demons – Gory, silly Italian horror about zombie demons terrorizing a movie theater. I like it, it’s fun to watch and make fun of with others.

I enjoyed The Devil’s Backbone, but if you’ve seen Pan’s Labyrinth you’ve seen a very similar movie done better.

I never liked The Wicker Man. It leaves me cold and leaves the same dull taste as a Hammer horror feature. My friend Kyle offers up his great defense of the movie, however: “But, there are exposed breasts.”

I think the Dawn of the Dead remake is great, but usually leave it out so I can distinguish that I’m fonder of the original. Ving Rhames vs. zombies equals greatness.

I’ve seen Texas Chainsaw countless times over the years and it never gets any less unpleasant a viewing experience, and it also never ceases to surprise me ho there is no actual gore in that movie.

“Ving Rhames vs. zombies equals greatness.”

I’ve heard that the Day of the Dead remake that was done recently proves this equation wrong, but I haven’t actually seen it yet so I reserve judgement.

Speaking of the Romero movies, when I first started buying DVD’s, one of the ones I obviously needed was Night of the Living Dead. Since this is a public domain work at this point, there are a ridiculous number of versions available. Like a sucker I bought the “Super Special 30th anniversary Edition” or some such thing. It turns out it was a version put together by some random crew members from the original movie, and their goth kids who shot new scenes and put a new score behind the movie. I’m not in the habit of throwing things away that I paid good money for, but that thing went right in the garbage because there was no fucking way I’d ever watch it again. But now in hindsight I wish I had kept it just to show to people to prove such a horrible thing existed.

Yeah, it’s so weird to me that the movie is public domain. I think we need to make our own version where Ving Rhames shows up, throws Duane Jones down into the basement, and gets really mad and yells at the zombies. Then the zombies feel bad and just lie down.

Also, hare krishna zombie is there.

And, yeah, I was explaining to John that there’s hardly any blood in TCM… but I always remember it being a thousand times gorier than it actually is. Much like the “ass to ass” scene in Requiem for a Dream.

John’s never seen that either? That’s getting added to the list.

My favorite scene in any of the zombie movies (if not in all movies of any genre ever) is the biker guy in the original Dawn who keeps trying to take his blood pressure in the mall kiosk machine. He is so hellbent on finding out what his blood pressure is, and it eventually costs him his life. It’s just brilliant and puzzling on so many levels.

Just tie John to a table and scream at him for 20 minutes, should have the same effect.

I always thought the moment in Dawn where the zombie gets scalped by the helicopter was very charming… poor guy didn’t even know what hit him.

Have you ever seen Flesheater/Revenge of the Living Dead? It’s made by Bill Hinzman, the cemetary zombie from the original Night of the Living Dead. I like it because it’s trashy, poorly made, and really just an old man inventing reasons to grope lecherously at the breasts of the actresses he’s employing.

John, I’m bringing over the following movies one night and we shall watch them: Creepshow, American Werewolf in London, something else disgusting and random.

I’m surprised to hear someone describe the new Dawn of the Dead as polarizing cause I haven’t heard a single person say anything bad about it. It’s interesting, though, cause I read something a few nights ago about how they still liked the original more because it has a sense of humor about American consumerism that was missing from the remake.

But yeah, I’ve never seen TCM.

I meant more polarizing to consider it close to, equal to, or better than the original. Horror fans don’t care if you don’t hate the remake as long as proper deference is paid to the original.

I always hear the same thing about the original and the consumerist message, but I think the remake has the same message and take on the same subject.

@John: Yeah, make sure you watch Repulsion first, maybe followed by the Tenant. Rosemary’s Baby is a different beast than the other two.

For the more modern films, it’s worth checking out The Abandoned and Unrest; features from the 2006 After Dark Horror Fest. And from the Showtime masters of horror series, I’d suggest people watch Imprint and Pelts (Pelts is SO GOOD—an Argento flick starring fucking MEATLOAF!).

The Master of Horror series has some really good episodes. And for what it’s worth, for those pc folks with netflix access (or presumably mac people running windows), I think most of them are available in their “watch it now” library. Or at least they were when I still had a PC with internet explorer that allowed me to watch movies on line.

I’ve actually got the Takashi Miike Masters of Horror on the way now.

Yeah, there were some good Masters of Horror episodes. Joe Dante’s was nifty… not scary in the least, but did a good job of tapping into his anarchistic prankster vibe. Don Corascelli one totally sucked, though.

I saw this French horror film “Ils” at the Philly film fest a year back (I think they released it on DVD as “Them”) and it scared the pants off me.

IIls was REALLY good. VERY scary. I can’t believe I forgot that one since I just saw it not too long ago.

Is the Miike MOH episode Imprint? The one that was never aired? I’ve heard that’s brutal and since the whole “torture porn” arena of horror is the one are that I get somewhat squeamish on, I avoided that one.

Yeah, Miike is… nuts. I’ve had Imprint floating around my queue for a while now, but I simply hate getting into that guys head. Weirdly, his Happiness of the Katakuris is one of the most sunshiney and lovable movies I’ve seen in recent years.