John Carpenter’s version is what I opened up the thread to mention. I found it much better than the original film ( and much closer to the story ). A great atmosphere of paranoia, and a monster that doesn’t require an idiot plot or immunity to nukes to be a genuine threat to humanity.
Horror may be just about my least favorite genre of movies types, (I haven’t seen any of the movies listed so far in the thread except for Alien, The Terminator, Jaws and Young Frankenstein) but for some reason (probably the use of great music and humor throughout the film) “An American Werewolf In London” is in my top 10 favorite movies of all time, and for those who have never seen it, I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Another vote for Alien.
Return of the Living Dead deserves a mention. If only for one word, one single element it added to a mythos…
…“BRAINS!”
+X for Tremors, the Bacon/Ward chemistry is spot on
Ward-You’re not gonna bring that vacuum
Bacon-I like this vacuum
Ward-hell, you never use it
Bacon-Well it’s good fer parts
pure gold.
I’ll add Wolf, with Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer as an underated werewolf flick. Good cast, Mike Nichols directing, Pfieffer was never hotter
Matango.
Please ignore the subtitle (“Fungus of Terror”) and the alternate title (“Attack of the Mushroom People”) which both make it look like schlock. It’s not; it’s wonderfully creepy and atmospheric and includes some great model work.
Oh, and count me among the Tremors fans.
+++Tremors
The thing I liked best about this movie was that it was the thinking man’s monster movie. Unlike most monster movies where the humans act completely irrational and stupid (panic, scream, run, die):rolleyes:, the characters acted sanely and intelligently. They knew how to be safe from the monsters and spent time thinking of ways to outwit them. And came up with ideas to actually battle and escape them.
It never had any of those “yeah right, who would do something stupid like that” moments.
More big ups for Tremors. The characters, in spite of being presented as local hicks were smart… They were also scared, showed resentment toward each other, showed great concern for each other, were confused, heroic, sympathetic – in other words all the things normal people would be if they were caught in that situation. They were all likable people that you didn’t want to see die, and cheered each time they found a way to outwit the giant worms.
The characters were also funny as hell without them knowing they were being funny. That’s hard to pull off. It also had one of the sweetest trauma-bonding romances, with Earl nudging Val towards the homely grad student scientist instead of his usual blonde bimbos… only to find that Val was secretly insecure about a woman like that being remotely interested in a blue collar handyman. Again, all played straight without a hint of sap or insincerity.
And the byplay was just fantastic. “See, we plan ahead. That way we don’t ever to anything right now. Earl explained it to me.”
Amen, Brother.
Random fave quote- “…I know, I know, he thinks he knows everything…”
.
For some reason I always thought it was Harvey Keitel as the doctor. Anyway, some of the scenes with DeNiro were pretty good and I liked the inclusion of the arctic frame setting - I don’t think there’s any Frankenstein movie that used that - but the adherence to the book’s script had its downsides too, especially w/r/t the doctor’s complete stupidity.
au contrair. Long before Branaugh’s version there was another, lower budget version that was extremely faithful to the original – more faithful than Branaugh’s , even. But it starred no one famous and didn’t have great distribution. It goes by Victor Frankenstein and Terror of Frankenstein (not to be confused with any Hammer film), and I love it. It opens with the arctic scenes:
http://www.communistvampires.com/horror/Terror%20of%20Frankenstein.htm
Oh, here’s one that hasn’t been mentioned yet: War of the Gargantuas. (Some may remember it by it’s original title, Furankenshutain no kaijû: Sanda tai Gaira 
) It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it, but the scene where one of the monsters chews up a victim and spits out her clothes is classic.
I also love Tremors, I never get sick of it!
One I haven’t seen in the thread yet is Slither. Great cast, it’s funny, it’s gross, the special effects are good, and you actually care about the story. Also, the DVD has great special features, I’m a sucker for good special features.
I’ll try and catch a copy of Slither. That poster looks like it’s a “remake” of Cronenberg’s Shivers which I mentioned above. If you haven’t seen that, I recommend it (warning: it’s not funny at all).
I never even heard of that version. Sounds interesting, I’ll try and find it.
“In space, no one can hear you scream”
Alien
This is off topic, but what the hell…
Your reference to Slither reminded me of MST3K’s take on Squirm. The movie opens with the title card. Mike and the bots look at it for a moment, say, “OK”… and start squirming in their seats.
The remake of the Mummy with Brandan Fraser is pretty good, with some genuine scares in among the comedy and action.
Does Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness count as a monster movie? I would say yes. Despite not getting the same kind of attention that other Carpenter movies get, it has an engaging story, incredibly creepy atmospherics, and at least one genuine moment of sheer terror. And Alice Cooper!
What about the Exorcist? I consider that a monster movie, too, though others may disagree. My wife has never seen and and will not watch it. I, on the other hand, have seen it multiple times and it still scares me every time. [shivers].