TR's Top Ten horror flicks of all time

[Lick Ness Monster]

And here we are - in honor of the single best two weeks of my entire year - horror films constantly on TV, the spooky ambiance at my very workplace, the falling leaves - the very last fully-themed TR reviews thread. The format for this will be a little different from what we're used to, but I think you'll all be able to figure it out.

And now...

#10.



THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE
1974
Director: Tobe Hooper

Brief, brief plot synopsis: A group of perfectly normal (well, with the exception of one) teenage kids head off across the very, very rural areas of Texas in search of one of the teens’ grandfather’s grave. And man – do they ever pick the wrong route. First picking up an incredibly creepy hitch-hiker, the kids eventually stumble upon the ultimate nightmare house – and the secret of the beef jerkey that they bought at a cruddy gas station.



TR’s thoughts: smurf the remake – this is where it’s at. The story is far from a masterpiece, the special effects are far from polished, and the acting is far from refined – and that’s just the way I like it. Director Hooper makes this crap look like somebody’s home movie, and as an ungodly story of cannibalism, homemade meats, and some crazy guy who walks around with human skin covering his face unfolds, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre feels like something that just might be going on at this very moment – or likely in a nightmare starring you.



Villain ruminations: What makes Leatherface immortal is that the script paints him as someone who is totally at peace with what he’s doing – unlike Freddy, he doesn’t deliberately pause or make grand gestures, as if he knows what he’s doing is incredibly evil and/or badass. He just does them – and that just makes his actions that much more unsettling and disturbing.

Why it deserves to be in this spot: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre reminds us of the power of hindsight – scorned by critics during its first release, it is now lauded a masterpiece by many in the very mainstream media that derided it as “trash” upon its initial release. While not overtly scary, the original TCM has an incredible raw, cruddy ability to get under your skin every time you see it - particularly during the very harrowing final twenty minutes as lead heroine Marilyn Burns screams herself crazy.

[Strotha]

Hey, I have that poster!

[Joker]

I really like this film. Especially the first unexpected death which comes out of nowhere.

Guy walks in house, door opens, *bonk*, body dragged into room, door shuts.

[Strotha]

Yeah, it's truly one of the best movies I've ever seen.

[Loki]

I'm probably part of a small minority, but I hated the original TCM...

Not scary, not gory, not eerie, not disturbing... Just boring.

And don't get me started on the 30 minutes dinner sequence and its random screaming.

As clichè and dime-a-dozen as it was, I enjoyed the remake much more. And that says it all

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Oct 20, 2008 4:01:30 GMT -5 Loki said:

I'm probably part of a small minority, but I hated the original TCM...

Not scary, not gory, not eerie, not disturbing... Just boring.

And don't get me started on the 30 minutes dinner sequence and its random screaming.

I'm with you on that one, though I haven't seen the remake. Seriously, nothing happens in this movie. Or, to be more precise, stuff is going on on screen, but I just don't feel involved, I don't feel it has anything to do with me.

Nothing really creepy beside Leatherface himself and perhaps the scene in which we see the furniture made of human bones and skin, and that little moment when the old man who we believe is dead moves his lips, showing he's alive.

Honestly, it's supposed to be loosely inspired by Ed Gein's antics, but just reading Gein's Wikipedia article gives me more chills than the entire TCM movie.

And last but not least, for a movie called the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, there's a strong lack of chainsaw. Only one guy gets killed with the saw (said guy being on a wheelchair and unable to flee on top of that) and beside that and the chase in the end of the movie, we almost don't see any saw whatsoever.

[BlackJackRobby]

There is such a dirty quality to that movie, you feel all the dirt and grime from it.

The only film to do it any justice as far as homage goes is Night of a Thousand Corpse.

[Welfare Willis]

Oct 20, 2008 4:01:30 GMT -5 Loki said:

I'm probably part of a small minority, but I hated the original TCM...

Not scary, not gory, not eerie, not disturbing... Just boring.

And don't get me started on the 30 minutes dinner sequence and its random screaming.

As clichè and dime-a-dozen as it was, I enjoyed the remake much more. And that says it all

I disagree with you on this one. For some reason, the remake felt way too "clean" to me. Like mentioned in an early post the original TCM had this grimy, dirty feeling to it that the slick remake lacked.


Plus Harry Knowles "cameo" took me out of the film for some reason.

[Big DSR Energy]

I don't particularly care for the original or the remake. The remake, as mentioned, has a bit too much of that Hollywood polish, and any time R. Lee Ermey shows up in a movie, I immediately think "hey, that's R. Lee Ermey" and I'm taken out of the experience, so to speak.

As for the original...I appreciate that documentary feel to the proceedings (though I prefer it in Night of the Living Dead), and, as a slasher fan, it's kinda cool that all the kills take place in the first half hour or so, leaving the "final girl segment" as the bulk of the flick. But all of the villains come off as annoying to me, and that whole "let's let our mummified grandpa feebly attempt to drop a mallet on this girl's head for ten minutes" just came off as crap. Call me crazy, but I expect even the dumbest four backwoods cannibals to be able to kill off one shrieking teenage girl somewhat quickly. Hell, they killed off her friends in no time at all. Rarely does the girl's escape come off as a result of her resourcefulness, rather than her captors' stupidity.

I dunno, I just didn't buy this movie. I mean, I bought it, as in I own a copy, but I just felt disconnected from the proceedings because of the stuff I mentioned above.

[BoilerRoomBrawler]

I like the original but don't particularly care for the remake but it was okay.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Oct 20, 2008 9:20:24 GMT -5 BlackJackRobby said:

There is such a dirty quality to that movie, you feel all the dirt and grime from it.

The only film to do it any justice as far as homage goes is Night of a Thousand Corpse.

Sorry, but I just don't see it. I expected a psychological horror with, as you say, a dirty feel, all I saw was boring randomness that didn't make me feel anything, like an emotional black hole. I really didn't feel ANYTHING.

[BoilerRoomBrawler]

Well, it is TR's Top Ten Horror Flicks of All Time, granted I would still put it on my list too.

Also keep in mind that The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was not a true slasher film - it's more like a "proto-slasher" in that it laid the foundations of the genre to develop.

It's actually more of an exploitation film.

[erisi236]

I always thought that Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 was much better then the first.

[Lick Ness Monster]

OK - to answer many of the posts...

I will defend the original TCM over the remake until the end of time. As many have said, this movie feels like cinema verite; you're watching something that's actually happening. And I don't know if I can speak for many other people, but the film's final twenty minutes actually come across very affecting, at least to me; notice how in the scene the day turns to night, indicating just how long Sally (Burns' character) is in captivity in the hell-house.

As for the remake - it tried, but movies like this just can't be repeated with all the slickness.

[-Lithium-]

Oct 20, 2008 4:01:30 GMT -5 Loki said:

Not scary, not gory, not eerie, not disturbing...

And don't get me started on the 30 minutes dinner sequence and its random screaming.

This. Cheap cameras and awkward framing really dont add anything for me.

And they were trying way too hard to make the "Grandpa" character disturbing. He wasnt either.

But I do actually like the movie. The movies like...interesting. But not all that creepy or scary or whatever...

[Jiren]

Oct 20, 2008 14:27:14 GMT -5 erisi236 said:

I always thought that Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 was much better then the first.

TCM 2 rocks.

Especially the pickup truck/Car scene

[amsiraK]

Oct 20, 2008 17:08:42 GMT -5 Lick Ness Monster said:

OK - to answer many of the posts...

I will defend the original TCM over the remake until the end of time. As many have said, this movie feels like cinema verite; you're watching something that's actually happening. And I don't know if I can speak for many other people, but the film's final twenty minutes actually come across very affecting, at least to me; notice how in the scene the day turns to night, indicating just how long Sally (Burns' character) is in captivity in the hell-house.

As for the remake - it tried, but movies like this just can't be repeated with all the slickness.

Agreed to the 10th power. I saw this when I was 12 and fairly new to the horror genre and... yikes. There's nothing quite like that first shot of Leatherface, never mind the wet *thwack* that follows.

[Jiren]

As i live in England i had a long ass wait before i could see it, and Import wasn't as easy back then.

[Lick Ness Monster]

#9.



AUDITION
1999
Director: Takashi Miike

Brief, brief plot synopsis: A middle-aged widower is urged by his teenage son and a film producer friend to start dating again. The producer comes up with the idea to hold a phony film audition as a way for him to meet women, and the widower sets his sights on Asami, a beautiful ballerina with a very murky past. A series of revelations leads us to the truly terrifying final moments.

TR’s thoughts: Audition is just such a brilliant film, and just like every film in this list, living proof that horror films are more vital, important pieces of literary cinema than any of the supposed “great works of art” that the Academy trots out every year. The entire film is a buildup to the last twenty minutes, which may be the single most brutal, shockingly graphic and sickening series of revelations in the annals of film. And while this film’s villain is most assuredly a very, very sick person, this film accomplishes the impossible – by the end of this movie’s graphic and stomach-churning final moments, we truly identify with perhaps the sickest f*** we’ve ever seen in a movie. Hey, everybody just wants to be loved.



Villain ruminations: While Asami Yamazaki may not be as big and brutal as Jason or as creative as Freddy, she’s every bit as scary. She’s realistic – she’s had an absolutely awful life, she’s been betrayed by countless people who have said they looked out for her. She’s been wronged – and just like all the best heels, she believes that she is right. That, and she just looks badass wearing a butcher’s smock.



Why it deserves to be in this spot: This is not a film for typical slasher film fans, although the final twenty minutes of this movie have more raw power than perhaps any other movie on this list. Audition is a movie about mood, about the real meaning of love and what one person will do to keep it – regardless of the extreme lengths and the sick depravity that this character’s definition of perfect love must truly be – loving only her.

[Big DSR Energy]

Yes, Audition is a phenomenal piece of work. I agree with all you said, TR.