The first and greatest of the crazy psycho with a mask and a machete movies. A film that spawned a whole genre of films. It's never been equaled in the amount of sheer terror it brought to me in my seat. It's the reason I hate to watch horror films in the theatre. I just can't stop the movie when I get too scared and need to just stop the scares and hug a puppy.
Another movie my Mother refused to take me to or allow my father to take me to because of all the anti-Catholic bits. My mother also was not a fan of the Exorcist which meant I never saw that movie until college. This movie taught me never to trust little kids. Any one of them could be the devil. Always check under the hair for the 666 numbers. Then get out your holy knives and start stabbing.
My aunt came all the way to Germany so that she could take me to this movie. Well that is what I believed when I was 11. I knew my mother wouldn't take me to see this one but after watching the trailer I just thought I wouldn't be so scared. Was I ever wrong. The ending to the movie is also the first time I had ever seen the 'hand out of the grave' shot and I am sure I pooped in my pants a little. The film has such a disturbing first half that I was actually happy to watch Carrie take her revenge. No film shoots me full of fear adrenaline like this one.
This was the first movie I took a girl to. Not the greatest of choices. Two hours of claustrophobic terror with an unstoppable, slobbering alien monster. Good times. I dug into her hand with my nails as much as she dug into my arm with hers. Then we had to go home in the dark on a dark bus. Everything became a little too real after that.
This was the first movie that I watched over and over again during the dawn of the Video Age. It seemed to also be on cable everyday back in the day. Jenny Aguter can't be beat in ANYTHING she does and the violence and special effects were over the top, scary but still fun. It's rare how often all those items come together.
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13 comments:
Great post! Targets my movie love like none other.
"Halloween" is a staple of the season. I think theres some law that says it has to be playing on every other channel throughout the month of October.
I haven't seen "Carrie" yet because I know how it ends; Carrie goes crazy and kills people, what more do I need to know? Its the same reason I haven't seen "Titanic", I feel like I know enough about it already. I wouldn't be opposed to seeing either, I'm just not going out of my way for them just yet.
I wasn't too impressed with "Alien" when I first saw it, but thats because of the passage of time, constant imitators and the pop culture factor took some wind out of the sails. "Aliens" however remains one of my favorites.
During the 80s there was a big push for blending humor with horror with titles like Gremlins and Ghostbusters. American Werewolf being made in 1980 was probably one of the first of this sub genre. It was an unexpectedly fun feature.
You were probably too young to have seen Alien in the theatres so you forget what a raw experience it was. Another movie like the Thing with Kurt Russel that I watched many times on video. You are right about imitators. They always bring the original down once you see it. But all of THOSE movies borrowed their best bits from ALIEN.
"Alien" came out a decade before I was even born so yeah, they'd have probably seen through my fake ID.
"The Thing" is a movie I have seen times and recently purchased my own copy. That being said its a film I have mixed feelings about since the effects still look amazing after all this time, but no matter how many times I watch it and look for clues, there is no definitive answer to the mystery, "who is human by the end?" And while that ambiguity is fitting for this kind of story its also frustrating at the same time.
They're remaking Carrie, aren't they?
With Chloe Grace Morents I like her but I thinks he is too pretty to play Carrie. It's all make-up and effects. Even the mother is too pretty to be Carrie's crazy mother.
The THING was written to be sequel ready. In the 80s you had to be ready to make multiple chapter of your original classics.
I'm uncertain how a remake is really going to be anything special.
I started reading the first few chapters of "Carrie" earlier this week. I remember when I saw another super-kid goes nuts movie, "Chronicle" I thought that would be better as a faux-documentary that included found footage with witness accounts, testimonials from experts and news reports to give it more dimension and lend itself to different points of view on a disaster, especially ones that are related to school violence. Maybe use the sci-fi angle to address issues like school shootings and how people react to them.
So you can imagine my surprise when it turns thats kind of what happens in the original novel. Now I'm wondering why they didn't do that for the new movie, and also how someone as crazy as Mrs. White even operate in the an age of Internet-heatens.
I love, with a passion, Carpenter's Halloween. It is just a perfect film for me and never gets tired, nor does it ever fail to leave me with that sense of fear. I can watch this and still get the willies about what is out there, watching, waiting.
The other films here are great, but Halloween will always sit on top.
I liked Chronicle. Saw at the same time as Attack The Block which is awesome if you haven't seen it. I always put those two together in my head.
I looked at a lot of movie posters and I always came back to HALLOWEEN as one that really delived the goods and still does.
And that music. Good lord it's a cliché now but at the time? Genius.
No question that Halloween is a classic. This musical send up was my first exposure to the film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_436438&feature=iv&src_vid=V2clMl8gDqE&v=h8VfreZsuPg
My earliest horror movie experiences were with the Universal Monsters: Frankenstein, The Mummy, Wolf Man, Creature from the Black Lagoon. Great fodder for a pre-teen. Then I got exposed to Alfred Hitchcock. Jimmy Stewart's line from Rear Window, "How would you even begin to cut up a body" turned my blood to ice at 13, and you know what, it still does.
I never slept during my teen years. In the days before infomercials they always had those great old horror movies on TV in the wee hours. That is how I got my education on all the greats.
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