And thanks =) I'll get some more up later in the week, but one of the things I always stress about horror flicks is that since there is so little stuff that ain't garbage, an appreciation of the garbage is a given. But maybe it's just me -- I dig cranking up C.H.U.D. or Motel Hell and they're always entertaining. 

I've seen Freddy vs Jason 3 times, it's good if you like that kind of thing. Texas Chainsaw remake was good, actually one of the sickest movies I've seen, erm if you like that sort of thing. Never seen 28 days later. 

Well you asked for it -- here it go. We'll be getting into some of the major franchises of the genre, but I'll only mention the original films, with some asides to the sequels for the most part. As is the case with most series, if you've seen one, you can pretty much guess what the others will be like.

The Entity - 1981: Barbara Hershey is foxy as always, and extremely effective in this film about a woman tormented by an invisible being. It tries to go the route of The Exorcist and Polergeist, and offer some pseudo-scientific and psychological proof for and against the existence of said Entity, but isn't quite convincing (not that Poltergeist really was, either). Nonetheless, the film is really effective and doesn't fall over into exploitation when involving the attacks, which are basically rape scenes. A really good rental.

The Evil Dead - 1981: You can look at the Evil Dead movies as either comedies or horror films, but the first film was much more rooted in the latter. It nonetheless is extremely funny at times, due mainly to Sam Raimi's twisted perspective on the subject. Simply said, if you're a fan of horror or even curious, this in one of the movies you should see -- if anything to see the debut of The Chin That Roared, Bruce Campbell.

The Exorcist - 1973: My all-time fave. Nothing has yet to match the considerable impact this film made on me as a kid (no, not back in '73, later in the '80s when it was on HBO), and continues to through adulthood. It is an effective, thought-provoking, sometimes disturbing and always fascinating film, with marvellous performances, impressive visual effects (for the time), and a creepy-as-fuck soundtrack. It was in my opinion the first mainstream film to take the genre of horror seriously, and have the balls to carry all the way to the goal: endless streams of obscenities, a cruicifix masturbation, not to mention that scene at the hospital where poor Regan is stuck in the neck, and the blood goes flying. Avoid the first sequel if at all possible, but see the third movie, which was directed by William Peter Blatty, who wrote the original novel, as well as the one on which Exorcist III was based -- Legion.

The Fog - 1980: "Something like an albatross around the neck. No. More like a millstone. A plumbing stone, by God. Damn them all." Not necessarily a effective film, but has some creepy scenes, like when you hear the afore-mentioned statement (my fave scene, btw). A great ensemble cast, featuring the always-vulnerable Jamie Lee Curtis, the always-foxy Adrienne Barbeau, the always-consternated Hal "Blake, I Have Your Gold" Holbrook, and everybody's favorite two-fisted, hard-drinking, hard-loving (insert occupation here), Tom Aktins. It's obviously one of my faves -- now you can have a stomach-powder and a coke ;)

Frailty - 2001: This is a unique film in that it's not necessarily frightening, or even disturbing -- but it is unsettling. It is effective not as much because of what you see and hear on the screen, but what you think about it afterwards. Bill Paxton gives a great performance, as well as supplying a solid vision behind the camera as director, with Matthew McConaughey and Powers Booth, as well as the two young actors Jeremy Sumpter and Luke Askew offering excellent support. It won't leave your mind for a while after viewing. 

you forgot to mention the spiderwalk sequence, I thought it was pretty cool. 

Wanna see a Sick movie?
Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses

Haven't seen texas chainsaw so I can't compare, but this one is pretty sick.

Dagon //// 4 severed tentacles (we need a severed tentacle icon :)
Didn't know it was on so i missed the 1st half,
but the second half was nice and ummm
"atlantis gothic"??

Beyond Reanimator <skull><skull><skull> (3 skulls)
not bad if you like the inject them with glowing syringe and bring 'em back as zombies
type things.

Necronomicon <skull> <skull> / (2 skulls and one severed tentacle)
3 stories by Lovecraft
Good stuff.

Bone Snatcher <skull> <skull> (2 skulls)
Not scary enough :)
Also, carrying nitroglycerine without a stabilizing agent in the desert is suicidal at best (it explodes spontaneously if it reaches 90 degrees F), almost no one uses nitro as an explosive anymore, tnt, C4, Semtex, Ampho or other more stable explosives would be used (probably a binary explosive). 

doh no icons? or did I just bork the code? 

 

Right, so where's Alien?

Cannibal Holocaust was quite... interesting. Though I have to admit that the very last line made me laugh, some of the more graphical scenes were unsettling. Then again, it was too slow even for my tastes, and was pretty much made just to try out some neat special effects involving chopping people to bits. 

Hehe, I actually don't mention the spider walk because I always go by the 25th Anniversary version of The Exorcist, which didn't have the spider walk. That is a really cool scene though, and the best additive to the otherwise wretched Version You've Never Seen, which I wish I never had, seeing as how William Friedkin did all of the cheap tricks with the film he swore he would never do some five years before.

And to be honest (and I'm sure many would disagree), I've always classified Alien as a sci-fi flick, and have never thought of it as a horror film -- even though it very obviously bears all the right characteristics. I'm a silly fuck, you know ;) 

Friday the 13th - 1980: I know, I know, this is clich� from the word go, but nonetheless fairly strong cheese, here. Mind you, I lost interest after the first two sequels, and haven't seen all of the others at one time, which has left me with an odd patchwork of recollections about the rest of the series -- but the first film nonetheless is a hoot to watch.

The Gate - 1987: Probably the only PG-13 horror flick I'll ever recommend. As one could guess by the rating, it's not exactly filled with violence and titillation, and the leads are all kids -- but it has some really neat stop-motion effects, and moments of genuine creepiness. A nice rental.

Halloween - 1978: Basically, the film that started the whole "survival horror" sub-genre. This film seems tame by today's standards, since it mainly relies on tension and suspense more than shocks and violence. It nonetheless is one of my faves, if only for the always-excessive Donald Pleasance as the that wacky psychotherapist, Dr. Sam "He's Evil On Two Legs" Loomis. After the second film and third (a cheeesy delight, that one), I basically lost interest, as by then the original filmmakers were no longer involved, but the first film is great for its atmosphere.

Hellraiser - 1987: A decent flick from Clive Barker, unfortunately dated now in terms of visuals -- but a imaginative film anyway. To be honest, I like the sequel (Hellraiser II: Hellbound) better than this one, but again, lost interest after it. Really depends on if your into Barker's sfuff. I for one dig the otherworld of The Lament COnfiguration, and the Cenobites and lost souls who live there. Creepy stuff.

THe Hitcher - 1986: This one is a trip. C. Thomas Howell gets on the wrong side of Rutger Hauer, and lives to sincerely regret it. But he doesn't really get the worst of it - that's saved for the girl he meets along the way... I will say no more. Just see this one if you can.

THe Howling - 1981: High-grade cheesy fun, with some neat Rob Bottin werewolf effects thrown in. Like most of the Roger Corman-produced flicks of the '70s-'80s, this comes off like a made-for-TV movie with something extra. Director Joe Dante plays along well, but not without his usual dose of the tongue-in-cheek, fueled onward by John Sayles' quirky screenplay (Sayles makes an appearance in the film as a coroner, btw). And Dee Wallace Stone makes a cute werewolf, don't she?

That's it for now, again I'll post more if there's interest. 

I only saw the 'version you've never seen' edition, earlier this year. What's better/different in the other version? 

The 25th Anniversary edition was simply a digitally remastered version of the original theatrical release. What's different is that it is missing the spider walk scene, the extra scenes at the hospital (which mainly consist of Regan getting pissy with the nursing staff and some other tests that they run on her), a brief dialog between the two priests midway through the exorcism when they're sitting at the stairs, and a slightly elongated ending, where Lt. Kinderman and Father Dyer meet up at the end, which basically sets the stage for the third film, in which they're depicted as old friends. Also, there are those annoying digital paste-ins like fucking stickers one would get out of a box of cereal throughout the film, usually of ol' Pazuzu and one of Karras' mother that's seen on the curtains of Regan's window right before he jumps through it.

If you listen to the commentary on the 25th Anniversay edition, you can basically follow a list of stuff that William Friedkin says he wouldn't do to compromise his original vision for the film, and that's basically what he turned around and did with The Version You've Never Seen. Albeit it doesn't contain the spider walk, but I simply think the original is way better, since things aren't as spelled-out to the viewer on what's going on at the core of the film (the good vs. evil stuff), and those fucking digital pastiches aren't in there. 

I thought those things were meant to look like cheesy symbols, didnt know they were additions. Thanks for that though, will check the original out sometime but I'm viewing the version I have again since I still havent worked out a few things (eg how regan became possessed). At least it wasnt a total disaster ala Apocalypse Now Redux. 

you can basically follow a list of stuff that William Friedkin says he wouldn't do to compromise his original vision for the film, and that's basically what he turned around and did

That sounds suspicously like Alien: Directors Cut. When the bonus footage, including the infamous 'cocoon sequence', was released originally as part of the boxhugger set, it wasn't reinserted into the movie because Scott said the original release version was the 'director's cut'. But here we are with an extra 6 minutes of footage to justify the re-release. Oh, the thundering of the bandwagon :P 

how true. 

Apocalypse Now redux was *horrible*.
I loved the original movie, it was so slow that you could only stand it because it was so good. It had mood and atmosphere. With the nearly hour of extra footage, the movie is just ruined. And the thing I'm most pissed off about is, I can't see Apocalpyse Now on DVD without the damned extra footage! Yes, I could technically skip the scenes, but that would just ruin the mood, and I'm serious that's the movie's primary strength. 

However, no less than nine discs of Alien-goodness will surely make up for the extra 6 mniutes. 

it depends what they've managed to find to pad out 9 discs; a proper interview with Ron 'N66 cyclone thrust tunnel' Cobb would be top of my list. Less of Sigourney 'you can't fire me' Weaver would be good too :P 

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/avp/ 

from what I understand you should be able to watch both the theatrical and director's cut versions of both Alien and Aliens.

The only scene I didnt like in Aliens's drector's cut was the dune buggy ride by newt and her parents near the start fo the film, totally kneecaps the suspense when the marines find her. 

yes you can, order the original, it's still available in R1 format, albeit very expensively.

And it's harder than just skipping scenes since they've rearranged some of the footage in the timeline too. 

Starbuck: thank you, my man

Nitin: yes, the Jordan family scene was the one that stuck out the most to me, especially since it also includes Timmy, the derelict and a facehugger. Too much information. The Operations scene with Mac 'fat cop' McDonald ( aye, there's a canny name :) was rather good, though. Of course, by the time I saw the SE I'd seen the movie so often none of the extra scenes detracted very much. Perhaps it will be like that with Alien: DC.
Oh, and the 'dune buggy' is a Daihotai Tractor, btw. 

from what I understand, each movie will be on a standalone disc, hopefully meaning better quality and the extras on a separate disc. Disc 9 is prbably documentaries etc ala disc 5 of the original release. 

...had me pissed off because it wasn't showing any footage of actual gameplay. Then I realized it's an actual movie! Sweet!

Though, I'd maybe prefer a game... Lots of movies like this end up being sub-standard (let us all forget Street Fighter, Mario Bros., and Mortal Combat - heaven help us). I did like Resident Evil though (I've never played the game, I got into Dino Crisis), so maybe AVP will be good enough to like. 

bear in mind that the franchises to which you refer are computer games -> movies; Aliens and Predators are movies -> games. The AvP movie is not to be based on the plot of either game - one little factoid that has come to my attention is that the movie is actually title Alien versus Predator and not Aliens versus Predator to subtly distinguish the movie from the games. Though that seems a bit too subtle for Hollywood :P
The plot for the movie has been posted around - I'll find the link if you want it. Near future. Antarctica. Ancient ruins. Read 'At The Mountains Of Madness' and you're halfway there. Anyone care to guess the author of said yarn? ;)
No holy cows. Nope, not here.