SHOCKtober: 260-251

More one vote each entries today!

260. Cujo -- 1983, Lewis Teague
259. Spaceballs -- 1987, Mel Brooks
258. Open Water -- 2003, Chris Kentis
257. Megan is Missing -- 2011, Michael Goi
256. The Cure -- 1997, Kiyoshi Kurosawa
255. Friday the 13th Part 5: A New Beginning -- 1985, Danny Steinmann
254. Beneath the Planet of the Apes -- 1970, Ted Post
253. The Gate -- 1987, Tibor Takacs
252. Scrooge -- 1970. Ronald Neame
251. Whistle and I'll Come to You -- 1968, Jonathan Miller

Spaceballs. Man, I love you guys.

While it's been in my Netflix queue forever, I haven't seen Megan is Missing yet because it seems a little too...mmm, unpleasant/torture-y/depressing for my tastes every time I think about giving it a go. Annnd I had the ending spoiled for me on tumblr. Annnd it only has 2.5 stars on Netflix, although you can't always use that to judge because sometimes you're looking at what a film is actually rated by users and sometimes you're looking at what Netflix thinks you're going to rate it. I hate that. Dear Netflix, just give me an actual rating and spare me your magic algorithm AMIRITE? But anyway, is Megan is Missing worth watching some day despite all of this?

Also, hey, I thought Whistle and I'll Come to You was a short film adaptation of a story by M.R. James, but I found out just now when I was posting that it's an episode of a TV show! And I said none of those! So let's all just watch it and ignore my hypocrisy which, really, is only borne of ignorance. Yay!

By: Unknown On 08.49

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SHOCKtober: 270-261

That's right, the SHOCKtober train don't make no stops even on the weekend! It keeps on, like, you know. Rolling.

Today's chunk of the list of scariest movies is a chunk I call "Only one vote for these movies? These movies? These? MOVIES? Hmm. Okay, then."

270. My Bloody Valentine -- 1981, George Mihalka
269. The Tenant -- 1976, Roman Polanski
268. The Hitcher -- 1986, Robert Harmon
267. The Children (aka The Children of Ravensback) -- 1980, Max Kalmanowicz
266. Saturn 3 -- 1980, Stanley Donen
265. The Birds -- 1963, Alfred Hitchcock
264. American Gothic -- 1988, John Hough
263. The Wicker Man -- 1973, Robin Hardy
262. Tourist Trap -- 1979, David Schmoeller
261. Buried -- 2010, Rodrigo Cortes

ONLY ONE VOTE FOR TOURIST TRAP, I AM SURPRISED AT YOU PEOPLE

By: Unknown On 08.48

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SHOCKtober: 280 - 271

Each film below received one vote! Was it YOURS?

280. The Wizard of Oz -- 1939, Victor Fleming
279. Paranormal Activity 3 -- 2011, Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman
278. Sunset Boulevard -- 1950, Billy Wilder
277. Curtains -- 1983, Richard Ciupka
276. Vertigo -- 1958, Alfred Hitchcock
275. Roadkill -- 2011, Johannes Roberts
274. Little Shop of Horrors -- 1960, Roger Corman
273. Infection -- 2004, Masayuki Ochiai
272. Exorcist II: The Heretic -- 1977, John Boorman
271. Superman III -- 1983, Richard Lester

Any excuse to post this picture. Any excuse at all.

Confession: I've never seen Superman III. Confession: I've only seen Richard Donner's Superman once, and I haven't seen any of the remakes. Confession: I don't really like Superman! Except for All-Star Superman, I liked that a lot. Confession: I don't actually watch superhero movies...of the modern era, I've seen the first two Spider-Man flicks, the first two X-Men movies, and The Dark Knight. Confession: I don't know why I'm telling you all of this, but there it is.

Hell yes to The Wizard of Oz! I don't know anyone who isn't at least a little freaked out my the flying monkeys. I found this while looking for a picture of them. You're welcome.

By: Unknown On 08.46

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SHOCKtober: 290-281

Today's chunk o' the list o' the movies y'all find scariest is pretty interesting in that it highlights how a film doesn't have to be "horror" to terrify. I'm including the commentary from the reader who listed these movies for context, as chances are the titles won't be familiar to many. Enjoy...if you dare!

I mean, why wouldn't you dare? It's just a blog post, geez. Oh, and each of these movies received one vote.

290. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial -- 1982, Steven Spielberg
289. The Spiral Staircase -- 1945, Robert Siodmak
288. Lovely Molly -- 2011, Eduardo Sanchez
287. Jurassic Park -- 1993, Steven Spielberg
286. Humongous -- 1982, Paul Lynch

Now then, here's the intro I got to this reader's list of films, and the notes for each.

When I was a pre-teen, my family would go to a Bible conference every year in Iowa. Over the weekend, the adults would have some of their own sessions at the fairgrounds, and the kids would all be bused back to the chapel for youth activities, the main one being watching a Christian movie, usually by Mark IV Pictures (some trailers). These were bad-behavior-results-in-death-or-dismemberment movies, with a gospel presentation in there somewhere.

These movies scarred me for life. Well, for much of it, anyway. Now I'm a horror buff, and owe it to these well-intentioned but horribly misguided event planners (and filmmakers). I'm not positive which traumatic scenes belong to which movie, but I'll do my best.

285. Home Safe -- 1981, Donald W. Thompson

A kid dies by running through a sliding glass door, for no real reason. A black panther escapes from the zoo, prowls the neighborhood, and corners a kid in a barn. Someone rescues him with a pitchfork. Somewhere in there the kid blows up an abandoned car with a cherry bomb in the gas tank to scare away the panther.

284. Happiness Is... -- 1975, Russell S. Doughten, Jr.

An uncle yells at and boxes the ears of a child (scenes where adults yelled upset me). Same child is trapped on a tin roof by bullies, and a loose power line is dragging over the roof, sparking and threatening to electrocute the child and the uncle who is trying to rescue her with a ladder. Several times during the movie, they sing the song, "Happiness is the Lord". To this day, I can't sing that song.

283. Sammy -- 1988, Russell S. Doughten, Jr.

A family is winding through the Rockies in a station wagon. The mother tells the son to stop sticking his head out the window or it'll get lopped off. Soon after, a truck rounds a bend in the wrong lane, and the station wagon plunges through the guard rail to the bottom of the cliff. We see a shot of the open car door, and the family dog's paw sticking out. It pulls its paw inside, and when it comes back out, it's covered with blood. Sammy is an orphan who goes to live with a couple that fights often. He gets locked in a car trunk, and the car gets sent to the junk yard, and put in a car crusher. The crusher works in three steps: hood, body, trunk. The couple comes to the yard just as they are crushing the car, and Sammy's cries can't be heard over the hydraulics. They yell for the operator to shut off the machine so they can call for Sammy, and as it goes quiet, they hear Sammy calling from the last uncrushed section.

282. The Shepherd -- 1984, Donald W. Thompson

Fighter jets zoom around and crash. Two men are canoeing, and cross under a rope and sign warning of white water. Their canoe capsizes, and they cling for life on two rocks in the rapids. The father of one of the men arrives on the scene with a rope, and sees he may only have time to rescue one. He throws the rope to the man who is not his son, and by the time he gets him ashore, the other rock is empty. The father explains he rescued the man first because he wasn't saved, and he knew his son was, and was safe in heaven now. I actually watched this movie again many years later, and the "rapids" they used for the scene was a wide brook, barely a foot deep.

281. The Cross and the Switchblade -- 1970, Don Murray

I actually saw this at a friend's house. It's based on a true story, about drugs and gang life in the 70s. My dad made me come watch it, but after someone got stabbed to death with a switchblade, I was allowed to leave.

Good stuff, amirite? Can't lie, I'm glad my parents opted to take me to drive-ins featuring slasher flicks rather than Bible conferences featuring movies like those.

Anyway, I was surprised to see E.T. get a vote...then I remembered that my introduction to the film came courtesy of a magazine picture featuring Elliott in his Halloween makeup. When I finally saw the movie, I loved it (duh) but was also extremely disappointed that it was not a horror film, as the picture had led me to believe.

By: Unknown On 08.11

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Thriller Parade

In light of today's chunk o' the list o' your scariest films. See you next Wednesday!

By: Unknown On 09.29

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SHOCKtober: 309-291

Day Two brings us some good, good stuff so I'll shut my yap and get to it. Each of these movies received one vote.

309. Confessions -- 2010, Tetsuya Nakashima
308. The Crazies -- 2010, Breck Eisner
307. The Eye -- 2002, Oxide Pang Chun & Danny Pang
306. Invaders from Mars -- 1953, William Cameron Menzies
305. Scanners -- 1981, David Cronenberg
304. Double Indemnity -- 1944, Billy Wilder
303. Lady in White -- 1988, Frank LaLoggia
302. Terror Train -- 1980, Roger Spottiswoode
301. La residencia (The House That Screamed) -- 1969, Narciso Ibanez Serrador
300. Psycho II -- 1983, Richard Franklin
299. Trick 'r Treat -- 2007, Michael Dougherty
298. The Tunnel -- 2011, Carlo Ledesma
297. Eraserhead -- 1977, David Lynch
296. Mute Witness -- 1994, Anthony Waller
295. Prom Night -- 1980, Paul Lynch
294. Michael Jackson's "Thriller" -- 1983, John Landis
293. The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting -- 1979, Raoul Ruiz
292. Demons -- 1985, Lamberto Bava
291. Cape Fear -- 1962, J. Lee Thompson

In case you're thinking to yourself "Thriller whaaaaaat!", let me just say "Thriller yesssssss!" because as far as I'm concerned, that video is a short film. It is also awesome. AND it provides the basis for one of my famous "I am old" stories, that goes as follows:

When Thriller hit, it was such a big deal, you guys. As it was the days before everyone had instant access to every piece of entertainment in the history of ever, MTV would actually schedule showings of it throughout the day. We neighborhood kids would stop whatever we were doing, run indoors, watch Thriller, and then go back outside to play 20 minutes later. Life was filled with zombified dance numbers, and it was good.

fuck you, Thriller is the best

Anyway, what else? I really, really need to see The House That Screamed. I was first made aware of it when it ended up at #229 during SHOCKtober 2010, but I've yet to track down a copy.

I love Demons! I love it so much, it's so stupid and gross. I wish I loved Trick 'r Treat more than I did...maybe it deserves another viewing? And I'll tell you right now: for someone not usually considered a "horror" director, David Lynch figures into SHOCKtober 2013 (and 2010!) pretty damn prominently.

By: Unknown On 08.55

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SHOCKtober: 323-310

 Here we go, guys...SHOCKtober is here! Every day I'll be counting down a chunk of the movies you have deemed to be the scariest. This is totally democracy in cyber-action!

I had a lot of fun reading all of your emails, wherein many of you explained why you found certain movies oh-so-terribly frightening, whether it was 20 years or 20 minutes ago. Sure, folks are scared by the films you'd expect, but then there are movies that don't really qualify as "horror" under even the broadest of definitions. I love that! So surely there will be titles included that will have your head as to how they could spook anyone, but remember- and I hate to get all scientific here- brains work in weird ways.

Oh, and a note: I opted not to include TV shows, though some of you added them to your lists. Made-for-TV movies and short films are okay, but I didn't want to dive into the realm of television. In case you're wondering, folks included shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer ("Hush" in particular), Tales from the Crypt, Twin Peaks, and so on. Sorry if this harshes anyone's mellow (or marshes anyone's mallow), but my high school yearbook was right to name me Most Likely to Become a Despot. This is totally not democracy in cyber-action!

Anyway, I'll shut up now. On to today's chunk! Each of these movies received one vote each.

323. Funny Games -- 1997, Michael Haneke
322. Tales from the Darkside: The Movie -- 1990, John Harrison
321. Last Man on Earth -- 1964, Ubaldo Ragona & Sidney Salkow
320. Superstition -- 1982, James W. Roberson
319. Ghost -- 1990, Jerry Zucker
318. Wolf Creek -- 2005, Greg Mclean
317. Practical Magic -- 1998, Griffin Dunne
316. Peeping Tom -- 1960, Michael Powell
315. Papillon -- 1973, Franklin J. Schaffner
314. Al final del espectro -- 2006, Juan Felipe Orozco
313. Sleepaway Camp -- 1983, Robert Hiltzik
312. Blue Velvet -- 1986, David Lynch
311. Lost Highway -- 1997, David Lynch
310. Ju-on 2 -- 2003, Takashi Shimizu

Practical Magic, I know right? That was included in a list sent to me by a friend who is not into horror (although she's been watching more and more, so I ain't complainin'), and it was accompanied by "I thought it was a romantic comedy- it wasn't." Man oh man, I love SHOCKtober!

By: Unknown On 12.44

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