I select a thematically appropriate horror movie for each day of the year and tell you about it.
Why?
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
How do you get to decide what qualifies as a horror movie and where each one goes on the calendar?
I am the Mayor of Horror Movies.
Are all these movies good?
Oh gosh no. But I recommend all of them to the adventurous viewer.
What’s with the CWs?
In horror movies, disturbing material is part of the entertainment package. But for some viewers, elements like sexual violence or bigotry ruin the fun. For those folks, I include content warnings. That said, the warnings are based on my personal reactions and should not be expected to cover all potential cinematic skeeviness, so proceed with caution.
Who are you, aside from the mayor?
I’m Shaenon K. Garrity. I’m mostly a cartoonist. I watch a lot of scary movies while I draw cartoons.
Yep, a nearly perfect horror film. I grew up watching movies like this and it still made me flinch several times. I remember thinking we were due for a jump scare and getting the timing almost exact, but I was expecting it to come from the right and the damn face-hugger fell down from the ceiling.
My first viewing was slightly hampered by the guy in the row in front of us freaking out almost constantly. Seriously, he was literally on the edge of his seat the whole time and talking to himself to buck up his courage. Then he’d shriek in terror whenever something happened. If O’Bannon and Scott had seen him, they would have been grinning for a week.
On the DVD release of Dark Star, kind of a comedy prototype of Alien, O’Bannon writes, “If I can’t make them laugh, then maybe I can make them scream.”
Dark Star is truly amazing. If you’ve ever wondered what Alien would be like if it had a budget of about ten dollars and the alien was played by a beach ball, definitely watch it.
I didn’t see this until I’d watched Aliens way too many times, so it seemed a little boring to me. Great for its time tho. And I remember hearing that H.R. Giger started a resteraunt somewhere made out of props from the film.
This movie seriously messed with me. It broke all the rules I knew.
*SPOILERS* Starting with MASH, Tom Skerritt made a career of slightly scruffy good guys; watching him in Alien, it was clear he was the laid-back-hero type. So when he disappeared halfway through, I kept waiting for him to pop out of the ductwork again, bloody but alive. And waiting, and waiting… Up to Alien, you could usually pick out a movie’s hero early on (except for slasher/sorority house films, which seemed to make a fetish of leaving alive the one character that had the whole audience going, “Oh, please kill her next!”)
And then in the shuttle, when the creature finally moves and you realize you’ve been staring right at it for several minutes—
And Weaver was just magnificent as the cold, by-the-book officer who by the end is pleading tearfully with the computer, just like a human. And who saves the cat.
Definitely a masterpiece of horror cinema. Great film.
On a side note, I feel like most* of the more poorly-received entries in the franchise work a lot better when viewed with the idea that the real monster is the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, and more generally, people who are insulated from the consequences of their decisions by their money and power. Prometheus, in particular, is much better this way.
*Resurrection and AvP2 still suck even with that viewpoint.
Another bit of Totally Useless Trivia for you all: during the infamous “chestburster” scene, the only cast member who knew what was about to happen was John Hurt, because he had to be rigged up with the chest-bursting alien makeup gag. The rest of the crew were all totally clueless until filming started, and those looks of shock and horror? Totally real, not one bit of acting in the lot! How’s THAT for cinema verite, nyao? -_^
Yep, a nearly perfect horror film. I grew up watching movies like this and it still made me flinch several times. I remember thinking we were due for a jump scare and getting the timing almost exact, but I was expecting it to come from the right and the damn face-hugger fell down from the ceiling.
My first viewing was slightly hampered by the guy in the row in front of us freaking out almost constantly. Seriously, he was literally on the edge of his seat the whole time and talking to himself to buck up his courage. Then he’d shriek in terror whenever something happened. If O’Bannon and Scott had seen him, they would have been grinning for a week.
On the DVD release of Dark Star, kind of a comedy prototype of Alien, O’Bannon writes, “If I can’t make them laugh, then maybe I can make them scream.”
Dark Star is truly amazing. If you’ve ever wondered what Alien would be like if it had a budget of about ten dollars and the alien was played by a beach ball, definitely watch it.
I didn’t see this until I’d watched Aliens way too many times, so it seemed a little boring to me. Great for its time tho. And I remember hearing that H.R. Giger started a resteraunt somewhere made out of props from the film.
This movie seriously messed with me. It broke all the rules I knew.
*SPOILERS* Starting with MASH, Tom Skerritt made a career of slightly scruffy good guys; watching him in Alien, it was clear he was the laid-back-hero type. So when he disappeared halfway through, I kept waiting for him to pop out of the ductwork again, bloody but alive. And waiting, and waiting… Up to Alien, you could usually pick out a movie’s hero early on (except for slasher/sorority house films, which seemed to make a fetish of leaving alive the one character that had the whole audience going, “Oh, please kill her next!”)
And then in the shuttle, when the creature finally moves and you realize you’ve been staring right at it for several minutes—
And Weaver was just magnificent as the cold, by-the-book officer who by the end is pleading tearfully with the computer, just like a human. And who saves the cat.
Definitely a masterpiece of horror cinema. Great film.
On a side note, I feel like most* of the more poorly-received entries in the franchise work a lot better when viewed with the idea that the real monster is the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, and more generally, people who are insulated from the consequences of their decisions by their money and power. Prometheus, in particular, is much better this way.
*Resurrection and AvP2 still suck even with that viewpoint.
Another bit of Totally Useless Trivia for you all: during the infamous “chestburster” scene, the only cast member who knew what was about to happen was John Hurt, because he had to be rigged up with the chest-bursting alien makeup gag. The rest of the crew were all totally clueless until filming started, and those looks of shock and horror? Totally real, not one bit of acting in the lot! How’s THAT for cinema verite, nyao? -_^