I offer you the emptiness which you seek...
Consider this a place of refuge, not from the waters, but from damnation.
DAY 07 - FAVORITE SLASHER MOVIE
I’m not a huge fan of slasher flicks. The concept of a (usually) faceless maniac chasing (often) scantily clad women through the woods/a slaughterhouse/the urban jungle/etc really annoys me. Death in slasher movies is often seen as a punishment for a variety of perceived immoral behavior. They’re modern day morality plays.
That said…. I think I’d have to go with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) for this installment
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I didn’t see this movie until I was in my late 20s, and my dearest husband suggested that I give it a go. I had no great hopes for it, buuut… I was pleasantly surprised. It was violent, gory, and there’s one scene that makes me jump every time. I like the gritty graininess of the film; it looks like old, overprocessed crime scene photos. And more to the point… I love cannibalism movies <3
Leatherface… is disturbing. He’s big, strong, and deadly. He also has an apparently loving family who support him and encourage his unusual hobbies. Everyone eats human flesh as readily as they’d nosh a bologna sandwich. The dinner scene pictured above gives me a sense of deja vu every time.
This isn’t your typical slasher movie, if you ask me. It’s got too many components to it, too many extra characters who are in on the joke. But if you ask me, it’s the best slasher movie out there, and well worth the watch.
DAY 06 - FAVORITE HORROR MOVIE SEQUEL
No brainer for me:
I love zombie movies. I love George Romero. And I love Dario Argento. Hence, I love this movie. I remember being around 8 years old (making this 1982 or so), sick with a nasty case of plague flu, and watching this on our Betamax (!!) VCR with my stepdad. I admit, it’s not the best as far as effects, but I love it all the same. It was, i believe, my first zombie movie, so I have some warm fuzzies for it, and a long history of zombie love as a result.
DAY 05 - FAVORITE HORROR MOVIE REMAKE
Anyone who really knows me knows that the one thing I hate above all else is a remake. This is a problem for me because, let’s face it, remakes in general tend to be awful (case in point, the recent remake of Red Dawn. Not horror, to be sure, but truly horrible).
However.
I did recently (as in, within the past 3 months) finally watch Rob Zombie’s remake of Halloween, and I really liked it. Amazing.
I enjoyed that we got to see more of Michael as a child, got to watch his issues grow as he grew (and grew… and grew until he was the hulking Shape we all know and love). I loved the masks that Michael created, and I thought that Malcolm McDowell was brilliant as a very in-it-for-me Loomis, much different from the more concerned version played by Donald Pleasence.
I’d heard in an interview with Zombie that John Carpenter told him to make Halloween his own, to have fun with the script (in response to Zombie being reluctant to remake such a classic). I think he stayed true to the character of Michael, I think he stayed true to the overall vibe of the story while making it fresh and thoroughly enjoyable.
So, see? I don’t hate all remakes. Just most of them.
DAY 04 - HORROR MOVIE YOU THOUGHT YOU’D LOVE BUT DIDN’T
There are so many!
Most recently, I was disappointed with Chernobyl Diaries. None of the characters came off to me as sympathetic at all and the ending was really predicable. I was hoping for something… different, maybe. I just didn’t find it enjoyable at all, and almost turned it off at the halfway point.
Another disappointment was V/H/S. Personally, I adore found footage style movies. I don’t know why; maybe it’s the pseudo real-world element. Anyway, I was really put off by the casual sexual assault that the movie opened with. I kept watching, because there’s usually at least one or two segments in anthology movies that are worth the effort. This one… not so much :(
