What to watch tonight

[yendi]

It's October, which is a Happy Month if you're a horror movie fan. At 11:30 PM tonight, IFC will be airing Adam Simon's nifty documentary, The American Nightmare. I've seen it twice, and if it's ever released on DVD, I'll own it. It's a great look at the indie horror films of the '70s, when directors like Craven, Carpenter, Cronenberg, and others took the nascent indie movement and produced some brilliant low-budget looks at society through their films. The film isn't perfect, as it omits The Exorcist (which was an indie film) and Alien (which wasn't), the two most influential horror films from that decade. But neither Friedkin nor Scott really remained horror directors, moving out of the genre almost immediately. The folks covered in the documentary had a vision of horror, and created some of the best horror movies ever. Highly recommended both for fans of the genre, and for anyone who's curious about the current state of horror films.

Comments

[luis-mw.livejournal.com]

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It's October, which is a Happy Month if you're a horror movie fan. At 11:30 PM tonight, IFC will be airing Adam Simon's nifty documentary, The American Nightmare.

What's that about? The 2000 Election? :)

[shawnj.livejournal.com]

That is a great documentary. They do justice to Romero's actual skill as a director, which is a rarity among critics.

Hot damn!

[anexstacy.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads up.

Re: Hot damn!

[yendi]

No problem -- IFC is major Tivo fodder for me!

[yendi]

Very true. Romero has done some amazing work, and he's almost never recognized for it.

[yendi]

I wish. We can wake up from nightmares.

[tyrantmouth.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads-up! That sounds awesome.

I loooove October, it's full of TiVo worthy stuff, from horror movies, to documentaries about horror movies, to stuff about haunted places and witches and so forth. Early this morning TiVo grabbed the original Dracula for me. *glee*

[lordrexfear.livejournal.com]

Showtime happens to have an excellent horror documentary they aired a week or ago, I believe called Masters of Horror. It was hosted by "The Chin" and had interviews and profiles of Romero, Craven, Carpenter, etc. really well done. Yet this review I just found from IMDB ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0353721/) says that American Nightmare is better, so I'll be checking that out for sure.

[yendi]

A bunch of the other Drac films will be on, too, including most of the Hammer flicks at times. I caught my favorite -- The Brides of Dracula, in which the count is killed when a windmill's shadow forms a cross -- last year at this time.

[yendi]

Alas, I'm Showtime-free.

[lordrexfear.livejournal.com]

'tis is a shame. If I had Showtime On-Demand I'd make you a tape, but alas I am without that. I would love to have it. Also HBO On Demand. I could watch Sopranos back to back and then on SHowtime I could watch all of Out of Order and I would never need to buy the DVDs... all for 7 dollars a month each. Oh, to be a thousandnaire.

[nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com]

Good catch, thanks for the reminder.

Also, aha, you're the fear factor guy! I followed you from welcomerain's lj. You're being stalked now.

[yendi]

In the immortal words of Deadly Girl in The Specials, "Bitchin'. My own personal stalker."

Welcome aboard.