So. We finally broke down and purchased a DVD player. Yes, I know. It’s the year 2009. Old technology. Blah blah blah. It’s sitting on the entertainment center next to the 8-Track recorder. No I am not kidding. Tell it to my husband.
I have discovered (well actually, my kid told me) that our Library offers many many movies to rent! So I ambled on in after work earlier this week and picked up a selection of horror movies I’ve either seen and would like to see again, haven’t seen but like the premise, have seen and forgotten, or some that just SUCK. (“Hellraiser - Deader” - why was that movie ever made? What possible point could it have had? What function of any type of entertainment does it provide? It’s idiotic!)
“Candyman” was good (but not as good as I remembered). Tonight I’m gonna watch “Phantasm”. I also got “Hellraiser - Hellworld”, and the original “Hellraiser” (I can watch THAT one a million times and never get tired of it.) Oh - and I got “An American Haunting”. Hellworld - eh - I’m thinking I’ll give it 30 minutes and if it is as big a suckfest as Deader was, out it goes.
So now that I have this magical DVD machine and access to all the free movies I could ever want, recommend me some!! My very first purchase of a DVD (“Righteous Kill”) was such a horrifically bad film that I no longer trust my own judgement.
So far, I’ve been recommended the following (I’ve only asked one other person at the bar so that’s why I only have two recommendations):
Mirrors
Eighty Eight Minutes
Guys and girls, can you add to my list please?? If it’s not a well-known name, could you tell me what genre it is (that’s how they’re laid out at the library. By genre. Is genre even a word? It looks funny.)
Can you give us some help, maybe narrow it down to a genre?
As you seem to like Horror, check out Teeth (youtube) which is better than the premise makes it sound.
I recently rewatched the Evil Dead series, and it is just as enjoyable as ever. Check those out. Evil Dead 1 and 2 and Army of Darkness. Evil Dead 2 is still my favorite, and you kinda sorta have to see it before you see AOD, but the first two don’t have to be watched in order.
Go to that very same library and check out one of the massive film guides they will surely have. Leaf through it, and make notes of the movies that look fairly interesting to you.
Some will be at the library. After you run out, sign up for Netflix, and put the rest on your queue. Netflix is the world’s best deal.
You might want to check on the many threads about this, but I’m dubious about recommending movies to my wife, let alone a stranger.
You can also watch all the old and fairly new TV series you’ve missed…I’ve found that watching them on DVD is a better experience than watching them on TV. Not only no commercials, but you get the story arc better compressing viewing into a shorter time.
I’ve watched very, very few horror movies, so I can’t rate my recommendations on the horrible/gruesome/shocking scale. They may be too tame for you, and as well, you’ve probably already seen them.
But John Carpenter’s The Thing certainly freaked me right the hell out. I thought it very well-made and appropriately horrifying.
And Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is way up on the creepy scale. How did he make that hotel seem so vast and and yet claustrophobic at the same time?
I think Evil Dead might have been the first DVD I ever bought. Didn’t have a DVD player at the time except on the computer, but it still looked great, even on a 17 inch monitor. I love those movies.
I don’t have much of a horror/fantasy/SF collection, but what I do have is stuff I can watch repeatedly. The Changeling (George C. Scott, a haunted house), Near Dark (non-supernatural vampires), Them! (giant ant movie from the 50’s), Pan’s Labyrinth, The Orphanage, The Devil’s Backbone, Dracula (the romantic one with Frank Langella).
The first DVD I bought after buying my DVD player was Mr Vampire - not really a traditional horror movie because it’s from Hong Kong so it’s about Chinese vampires, which are very different from western vampires. But I liked it and would recommend it.
