Two days and counting

[yendi]

The best day for horror happens in two days. Although AMC has been showing horror stuff 24/7 for the last few days already, truly a wonderful thing. They've got the last good John Carpenter movie tonight. They Live is one of those movies that everyone needs to see many times, more now than in the Reagan days in which this was first filmed. Low budget aside, it's just an amazing movie.

So, we've talked about horror movies a lot over the last week. But we've skirted around the death scenes. Let's face it -- death scenes are to horror movies what money shots are to porn. Mind you, the a-list stuff (the first Halloween, Psycho, etc) doesn't rely on it, but the late-night direct-to-video stuff sure as hell does.



First, for the horror aficionados out there, what's your favorite horror murder? And yeah, I know that's not an easy question. Marion Crane's death in the aforementioned Psycho comes to mind, of course. Few moments have been scarier. Harry Dean Stanton's in Alien was powerful, as well. Of course, both of those films are about a lot more than setting up a body count. On the exploitative side of the coin, there are few moments to beat Scream's Rose McGowan, who not only gets killed in an innovative and unique way, but who does so with a believable set up (a major problem of many "gimmick" kill movies).

Second, what murders made you actually uncomfortable (this one, in particular, is for the horror fans, as folks who don't like this sort of thing in general will, by definition, find all murder scenes uncomfortable)? As a man, I've got an inherent bias against any murder in which the man's penis is chopped off. Although I can usually tolerate it when the character is a scumbag (like the rapist who gets the "so good it hurts" handjob in I Spit on Your Grave, it bothers me when it's just another stupid teen, as in two Friday the 13th movies and the icky Dr. Giggles. I also found the over-the-top ongoing murder of Lisa Newmyer in Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generationto be too extended and real. There are a few others that come to mind, but I do want this post to end eventually. :-)

Finally, a quiz. Name three movies in which someone is murdered with a flagpole as one of the weapons. And movies like Scream, where the person is killed and then hung on a flagpole, don't count. I'm asking just because it seems weird that there actually are three such movies (and the ones I'm thinking of use the flagpole in three different ways, even).

Comments

[rhiannonstone.livejournal.com]

I'm not a big horror movie fan and this movie doesn't really count as horror and it's not even a particularly gruesome kill, but the only movie-murder I can think of that has made me distinctly uncomfortable is the murder of the wife in Memento. Something about seeing her wrapped up in the shower curtain after knowing she's been smothered with it, and somehting about the way they showed it, just really made me freaked out and uncomfortable.

[lovingboth]

Oh I don't know. If Ghosts of Mars were re-scored, it'd definitely be 'very good' (given that it's a remake of Assault on Precinct 13, what else could it be?) and Vampires wasn't bad. They Live was a very good idea with the wrong cast and too low a budget. Even the music wasn't up to his usual standards.

Hmm. Decapitations are good, but if I had to pick one, it'd either be John Hurt in Alien or the result of Doc attempting to restart someone's heart in The Thing. Oh, the first murder seen from afar in Body Double was very well set up.

Someone's fingers getting chopped off in The Burning was my most memorable 'ick' moment.

Hmm.. was Patrick Troughton's priest character in Omen one of them?

[dslartoo.livejournal.com]

They Live is one of those movies that everyone needs to see many times

Ehhh. I don't know. I saw it a couple times and it was all right, but that stupid fight scene went on about thirty minutes longer than it should have.

"Put these glasses on."
"No!"
They beat on each other for a while.
"Put 'em on!"
"NO!"
More fighting. Repeat ad nauseum.

Maybe my memory is playing tricks on me, but the first time I saw it it seemed like that scene would NEVER end. :)

cheers,
Phil

[hockeyrules88.livejournal.com]

This is funny. I never considered They Live to be a horror movie. It was always a sci-fi action type flick to me.

Now a good sci-fi horrow movie that is re-released today at the regal 24 is Alien: Director's Cut. :)

[jet-li-wannabe.livejournal.com]

As for flagpoles, the evil speaker of the house (I think that was his position) was killed with a flagpole in the Mel Gibson remake of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

[oneechan19.livejournal.com]

I can't think of any death scenes, but there are non-dying scenes from shows I watch that make me cringe. One being a guy getting his eye poked out by the thumb of another guy and seeing the blood run down his face *cringes as thinking about it*

Dont' know about flagpoles... is the Thailand movie 999-9999 one of them? Probably not... it just said he was found on a flagpole, not actually killed by one.

[magiien.livejournal.com]

I remember in Sleepaway Camp III someone is hoisted up a flagpole and then either hung or simply dropped off of it. Does that count, or were you looking for flag-pole impalings?
As for uncomfortable death scenes, the blow-job Last House on the Left scene would have to rank up there too, although it does invoke the scumbag rule.

All will tremble at the crack of our eggs, and the swish of our 2-ply toilet paper!

[pinballsorceror.livejournal.com]

This is a story you can appreciate. My boss and I had a conversation about the intense satire and ingenuity of Carpenter and Romero's work one day at lunch. So later that day while I'm at my workstation doing some things, he sneaks around the office and places all these signs up that read "Obey", "Consume and Reproduce", "Stay Asleep", etc. We left them up for months, and all the other businesses we share office space with apparently thought we were this death cult waiting to manifest itself in an orgy of poisoned kool-aid and blood-scrawled manifestos. The people from "christ central" tried to chat with us in the event we needed to be saved, these were high-larious times indeed.

[pinballsorceror.livejournal.com]

As for favorite horror murder. My vote is cast for the poisoning from "Heathers", which while it isn't a horror movie, is damn dark and hilarious.

[justanotherg33k.livejournal.com]

Sadly, the only Flag Pole murder that I can think of is the scene from Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? when John Goodman's Cyclops character gets impaled.

[hookncrook.livejournal.com]

I love "They Liive" the fight scene between Piper and the other guy with bats and bottles flying is great... Plus I love the concept, it hits so close to the basis of consumerism.

[yendi]

*dingdingding* Yup, that's one of the three I had in mind. The murderer and another character (Cindy, the token "bitch" of the movie") were playing a trust game in survival camp, where Cindy was blindfolded and had their hands tied behind her back. The murderer led her to a flagpole, then hoisted her up real high and dropped her.

[yendi]

*nod* part of what made that so effective was the camera work. Just chilling.

[yendi]

I thought Ghosts of Mars was more like a watered-down version of AoP13 than a real remake. I actually enjoyed the movie, but it's cheese. It does have a lot to offer if you enjoy decapitations.

I thought Vampires was ok by itself, and terrible as an adaptation. And yeah, They Live could have been better (it wasn't as good as his previous efforts), but it's a movie I always enjoy.

I think Troughton got killed by a church steeple, didn't he (or maybe a lightning rod from a church)?

[hookncrook.livejournal.com]

There are so many Horror archtype movies: The Haunted House, the serial killer, the mystical/mythic killer, mad scientist, vampire, werewolf, but my very favorite is always the Haunted Ship setting... I love the Bermuda Triangle slant and I think "Deep Rising" is the best of all haunted ship movies... though it isn't really haunted... it actually has characters who ACT like they are in that situation, not the "stupid teen" or "waiting victim" characters horror movies usually fall back on, plus it has an ending with a twist.

[hookncrook.livejournal.com]

Camera work is the best in building graphic horror. I love "What Lies Beneath" for that reason. The camera angles and shots are very much like Hitchcock's shots...which are always spine tingling.

[hookncrook.livejournal.com]

I love all those movies at the beginning, but I thought Ghost of Mars and most of his more recent movies peater out at the middle..it is like he loses his plot and all the near scary stuff he worked so hard at building in the first 30 minutes of his movie!

[yendi]

You know, that was my reaction when I first saw the movie. But the fight just gets more enjoyable each time I've watched it since. Either they've edited it since the theatrical release, or it's just grown on me.

[yendi]

I had a pass to see it last night, but couldn't make it, alas. I'm very psyched for it. What a great film.

[yendi]

True, but not exactly what I was thinking of. Although I'd love to see that movie get made.

[yendi]

Yeah, anything involving the eyes squicks me. Never heard of the Thai movie you mentioned, I'm afraid.

Re: All will tremble at the crack of our eggs, and the swish of our 2-ply toilet paper!

[yendi]

Ha! I love it!

[yendi]

I still haven't seen that. It needs to be at the top of my list.

[yendi]

Deep Rising was a lot of fun. Have you seen Ghost Ship? Not a great movie, but some really well-done moments (and again, the characters seem real).

[stevenglassman.livejournal.com]

They've got the last good John Carpenter movie tonight. They Live is one of those movies that everyone needs to see many times, more now than in the Reagan days in which this was first filmed. Low budget aside, it's just an amazing movie.

Heh. I saw the commercials for that last night while watching the 1958 version of Godzilla and programmed it accordingly.

I haven't seen They Live since the 80s.

[shawnj.livejournal.com]

Although it's not technically a horror movie, the soup poisoning from Battle Royale made me very uncomfortable. I can't really think of any from Horror films off the top of my head.

[justanotherg33k.livejournal.com]

I think it is one of the Coen brothers' best films. I'd highly recommend it.

[hookncrook.livejournal.com]

That was a great death scene very weirdly real.

[hookncrook.livejournal.com]

I loved the beginning and the end of Ghost Ship, the part everyone gets cut in halves! Oh it was spectacular... plus the twist at the end was very nice. But the middle kinda faded for me because the deaths weren't as believable as I would have liked...

It was like (another Haunted Ship movie) "Event Horizon" with their characters.. If you started seeing strange things on a ship, would you really follow it and seek it out? I think not! All these characters happily walk into their deaths for no reason when warned of ghostly activities.

[pinballsorceror.livejournal.com]

It was so sudden, no protracted death scenario, just this stocatoed end to someone's life. I think they didn't really care how it would look on screen, they just filmed this sequence in a way that interested them, and it just happened to translate well on film.

[yendi]

Still haven't seen that. I need to.

[lovingboth]

I've never seen the book, never mind read it I'm afraid.

Something falling from a steeple, yes. I can't remember if it was a lightning rod (though I think what it was was hit by lightning) or a flagpole.

[phantom_wolfboy]

Fave murder? I don't know if this counts, but the scene with the Red Queen's laser defence system in Resident Evil was good and very effective (the more I see that movie, the more I like it--so far).

Squickiest? Heh. The killing of the female cop-turned-vampire in Haunted Cop Shop II--though it was inventive and, yes, funny, I identified her as the hero of HCSI and I hate when sequels kill off the hero of the predecessor for effect.

[melvh.livejournal.com]

Favorite Death Scene? Has to be Paul Reubens in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Both of them...

As for most personal squick, my vote goes for the opening of Ghost Ship when the steel cable garrottes everyone over the age of 10. I think that one hits too close to home because that's so damn easy to actually have happen. Maybe not a whole luxury-cruiser-full but individually. We have way too many things in life that deal with highly-strung wires that can go Snap! and remove body parts...

[yendi]

I still haven't seen RE (although I've heard about the scene, and have Tivo nabbing it for me next week).

Never saw HCS. I'll have to keep an eye out for it. But I agree about the killing of the hero -- something that the Maniac Cop and Friday the 13 sequels both did (not to mention Mortal Kombat.