Lurker > Snake5555555555

21. Creep (266 points)

Why I Chose It: Though perhaps merely a cult classic, Creep nonetheless impressed critics with glowing reviews and a top-tier reputation as one of the best found-footage films ever made. With its simple two-handed writer/director duo of Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass, I believe it perfectly taps into the creative-driven world of both independent films and the rise of personal vlogs on sites like YouTube and Twitch - over-the-top personalities vying for our attention, as the film questions who the real creep is - Josef, or the parasocial viewers of such content. Creep has a sequel with a third in development.

jcgamer107: 6
Snake: 7
FFDragon: 8
BetrayedTangy: 13
Inviso: 15
PrinceKaro: 15
thesmark: 16
rockus: 19
Johnbobb: 21
Plasmabeam: 21
red13n: 22
fortybelowsummer: 23
Lightning Strikes: 24
Tom Nook: 27
Suprak: 29

Jcgamer107 - WOW was this fascinating. I started this list feeling that found footage had been pretty much played out, but I found this to be very original, and something that would only work as found footage. Mark Duplass is a superb weirdo. I think my one issue with it is that it badly suffers from stupid horror protagonist syndrome - like in Ti Wests V/H/S segment, had the main character simply bothered to check their old footage even once, they would have discovered their stalker had filmed them while sleeping, and couldve had a much happier ending! Peachfuzz is here; theres nothing to fear.

Snake - Theres so much I friggin love about this film that I dont even know where to begin - Mark Duplass outstanding performance, impressive shot framing for a found footage film, GOD DAMN PEACHFUZZ, I mean come on! How its just Aaron the cameraman and Josef the whole film, really driving home that connection between the two. How the title is literally called Creep and Duplass can literally manipulate you into thinking hes actually not that bad. This is psychological horror at its finest. Josef is the face of any person in your life who gaslights you, pretends to be your friend, pretends to be affable and charming but is actually a two-faced sociopath hiding right under your nose the whole time. Creep is terrifying because of just how plausible a scenario like this really is. A man like Josef will always be scarier than Michael Myers or even Art the Clown because hes a believable, fully-fleshed out real human being. I first heard of this film as a fan of Duplass in The League (A+ hilarious show btw), and his character in that show is like Josefs fake personality here, or at the very least similar enough - immature, narcissistic, and a bit of a playful trickster. Duplass is always excellent at playing these down-to-earth guys that just adds so much magnetic realism to whatever hes doing. The best and scariest part is - Aaron escapes, or at least he thinks he did. But Josef still gets to him in the end - one last final show of pure horror, Josef proves the psychological torment never really ends when you deal with a person like him. Simply magnificent character work, funny memorable moments, and one of the purest, scariest films on the whole list.

FFDragon - Unsettling slow burn at its finest.

BetrayedTangy - I liked Creep wayyy more than I thought I would. I mentioned this in my V/H/S write up, but I really dont like found footage movies. Thankfully this one feels like they actually know what cinematography is and put it to good use. Theres soooo many good shots in this movie its ridiculous. Youve got Josef standing outside the door, him at the top of the stairs and especially the last shot of Aaron looking at the lake are all genius and thats just the camerawork! Everything else is a lot of fun too, I think Mark Duplass performance of Josef is the glue that keeps this movie together. I love how he becomes more and more unhinged as the film progresses. Never once does Aaron feel comfortable around him, but all he has to do is get through a single day. Its once Aaron gets home that the real fear sets in. Just because youre not directly interacting with the threat doesnt mean the horror is over. The psychological games Josef plays is a really nice way to create a realistic change in tone for the second half. All around great movie that Im glad I got to see, still gotta check out the sequel.

Inviso - First off, glad to see furry representation in serial killer fiction. Second off, #notallfurries. But yeah, this was a strange movie for me, because I didnt hate it, but I didnt love it either. Its
extremely unsettling from minute one, with Josef going out of his way to act as crazy and abnormal as humanly possible to Aaron, his hapless victim. The movies pacing is great though. Yes, Josef is unsettling, but up until he begs Aaron to stick around and have a drink with him, he just comes across as a weird dude. Then, up until the phone call from Angela, you still think Josef is only JUST crazy. But then you go into full, psychotic stalker mode, right up until a rather low-key axe murder. Its just a solid slow burn, complete with the extremely creepy scene (with takes full advantage of the found footage style) of Josef just appearing outside Aarons door in the middle of the night. Overall, a decent film for what it is.

PrinceKaro - A filmmaker is hired to do an end of life documentary about a terminal cancer patient, who is to put it mildly, a mite eccentric.

As he films a series of increasingly off-kilter scenes supposedly for his clients unborn son to watch, he ignores like a million warning flags that any person with half a brain should pick up on. Like if you didn't think it was time to leave after his bizarre bathing of an invisible child, you might have had some clue that there is something wrong with this guy after he shared a story of how he violently raped his wife while cosplaying as the big bad wolf.

By the movie reaches its end it really strains the believability that this cameraman could be just that fucking stupid. Why the hell would you just go and meet up with this psychopath stalker, let alone do it all by yourself? Why would you be so absurdly chill in this situation that your 'friend' can just casually walk up behind you and cave your head in? It's just so stupid.

Thesmark - This is the one of films here I hadnt even heard of before this, but it was a nice surprise. The first section of the film is a lot of fun because you know this is a horror film and you know everything feels off for a reason, but theres a lot of room to play with a character whos both completely unpredictable and has nothing to live for due to an inoperable brain tumor (or at least, this is what we think). The movie loses a lot of steam in the last 30 minutes along with most of its justification for being a found footage film, but it doesnt overstay its welcome. Creep is a lean mean 82 minute found footage movie that doesnt do anything all that new with the format or where it goes, but the bulk of it is well-executed and darkly funny.

Corrik7 posted...

I just realized a super glaring omission. Oculus

While I do think in retrospect a Mike Flanagan film maybe should've been on the list, Oculus would've been the fourth film I considered tbh (Sleep > Gerald's > Hush > Oculus). I like it a lot actually but it's also very samey compared with many others on the list already. Same reason I discounted Hush - a lot of "deprived senses" films here too. In a 40-film list, yeah Flanagan makes it in with Gerald's Game or Doctor Sleep or maybe even both.

I went over some other snubs in the sign-ups topic too in case you're curious why something didn't make it.

Anyway, next film ranking coming up shortly!

Yes

Sweet Home
Gauntlet

Kate Bishop

Daredevil

Stan "The Man Owned by Marvel" Lee

Sylvie

fortybelowsummer posted...

Pernicious!

"Evil never dies. It waits."

Good one!

jcgamer107 posted...

Nothing in my top 18 has been revealed yet, pretty good (I'm sure I just jinxed it)

Hereditary!

I thought about it but Hereditary isn't necessarily bad or evil even if it does have a dark connotation in the context of the film.

Creep
Darkman
Demonic
Devil
Diabolique
Fear
Freaks
Insidious
Madman
Maleficent
Malignant
Maniac
Misery
Monsters
Nightmare
Possession
Predator
Psycho
Sinister
Terrifier
Unhinged

What else am I missing

Keep them coming so we can have a whole 30 film project about it!

Outlier
Tom Nook: 99
red13n: 83
PrinceKaro: 68
Suprak: 65
Snake: 61
Plasmabeam: 60
FFDragon: 51
Inviso: 45
fortybelowsummer: 43
jcgamer107: 36
rockus: 31
thesmark: 29
Johnbobb: 28
Lightning_Strikes: 28
BetrayedTangy: 19

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN38KWsZ2ik

Next ranking up late tonight.

22. Sinister (274 points)

Why I Chose It: Sinister is one of the first films of the decade where you can truly feel the "Insidious effect". A box office smash and producing a horror icon in Bagul/Mr. Boogie (in both positive and negative ways), Sinister is also notable for being one of the most mainstream exposures of an "elephant in the room" of the horror genre - the snuff film. In addition, I think Sinister also captures the decade's increasing obsession with sensational true crime.

Tom Nook: 3
FFDragon: 6
PrinceKaro: 6
Johnbobb: 14
Suprak: 15
Inviso: 16
fortybelowsummer: 17
Lightning Strikes: 22
thesmark: 23
BetrayedTangy: 24
rockus: 24
jcgamer107: 25
Plasmabeam: 25
Snake: 26
red13n: 28

Tom Nook - This is a very depressing movie the whole time, greatly aided by the excellent soundtrack; this probably has the best musical score of anything on this list, despite it being generally very toned down. The movie reminded me a bit of The Ring, both in terms of the specific mood created, as well as how you are put in the same voyeuristic role as the protagonist, as they watch past horrors and dig for answers, trying to figure out what it all means. This had a good pacing, filled with some good scares throughout. While the plot was a little more out-there than what I usually prefer in horror, it did everything well, and followed its own rules and tone. The ending was perfectly in line with the setup, and they never went over the top. It was a great one!

FFDragon - I was hooked from the rip with the tree scene. Absolutely chilling.

PrinceKaro - A true crime writer seeking inspiration moves into a house where a quadruple murder occurred and of course nothing bad happens.
So after discovering old film reels in the attic depicting the butchering of various families, he ends up in a race against his rapidly fading sanity to find out the truth and make a buttload of money in book sales.

The sinister subtlety with which the film ghoul is portrayed is the height of the creepiness that infuses the story from top to bottom. Bughuul is barely in the movie, and he cannot even cause harm to people directly, yet the terror he projects looms over the entire film. He is the representation of the darkness in the heart of mankind, the inexplicable cruelty and irrationality with which even people know and care about can behave.

It is rare to see a horror film capture this kind of terror properly, rather than just taking the cheap path of having some shit-faced ghoul dismember people or something. It is a movie that actually lives up to its title.

Johnbobb - So in the time of Blumhouse's domination in the early 2000s, by-the-numbers haunting movies were kinda all the rage, and, in my opinion at least, most of them weren't particularly good. The floodgates opened wide for jumpscares aplenty, and among the lot of Insidiouses and Conjurings and Paranormal Activities, Sinister landed. All things considered, it almost seems like it happened by accident, but Sinsister is pretty goddamn good. It's not perfect or without fault; like most early Blumhouses this was guilty of some goofy jumpscares and cliches, but it had something more. Characters that were actually interesting! This wasn't some forgettable friendly family being made victim of some mean ghost. This was a total asshole who lied to his wife and knowingly put himself and his family in harm's way to soothe his own ego. And characterization exists all over, much more than in the other films of this area, from Deputy So-and-so, the well meaning fanboy cop (who's just a little smarter than people assume), and the asshole cop (who's ultimately a little nicer than he lets on). On top of that, this soundtrack is fuckin' so good. One of the best of this decade of horror.

Kuon

So judging from the write-ups, I think I'm the only one here who likes Halloween II (81).

You know, a disappointing aspect of this film now that I think about it again is that it never feels Halloweeny in the same way '78 does. I might be a little old-fashioned here but sitting home, carving pumpkins, an old black-and-white movie playing on the TV - that's such an idyllic version of the holiday for me. I just don't get that same cozy atmosphere here that I do in Carpenter's. There's a costume party and some kids running around trick or treating, but that's just about it.

The next film up again has three top ten rankings - and one of those is a top 5er!

Outlier
Tom Nook: 80
red13n: 77
Plasmabeam: 57
Suprak: 58
Snake: 57
PrinceKaro: 52
Inviso: 39
fortybelowsummer: 38
FFDragon: 35
jcgamer107: 33
rockus: 29
thesmark: 28
Lightning_Strikes: 28
Johnbobb: 20
BetrayedTangy: 17

Everyone's entitled to one good outlier - and red's hot on Tom's heels.

Next ranking tomorrow afternoon.

23. Halloween (289 points)

Why I Chose It: It's Michael friggin' Myers. While it's practically a meme at this point to remake, reboot, or rewhatever Halloween every ten years, Halloween is a stalwart classic of horror franchises and STILL influencing the genre after 40 years. Halloween '78 helped kickstart a slasher craze and here we are in 2022 and now Halloween '18 is doing the EXACT same thing to franchises long dormant or dead, like Scream, Candyman and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It's hard to put into words just how nuts that is. It's Michael friggin' Myers - and if there's a Halloween film in a decade, hell, I'm probably going to put on the list just out of sheer respect alone.

Suprak: 6
Plasmabeam: 9
red13n: 10
Lightning Strikes: 14
fortybelowsummer: 15
rockus: 18
Inviso: 19
Tom Nook: 21
thesmark: 22
BetrayedTangy: 23
FFDragon: 24
Johnbobb: 25
PrinceKaro: 27
Snake: 27
jcgamer107: 29

Suprak - A-
I remember going into this movie when I first saw it and expecting what I always expect from the Halloween franchise throughout the entirety of my lifetime: a stupid popcorn slasher flick that just exists because of the Halloween name and is good to watch with a group of friends while youre drinking but is at best okay and at worst barely watchable. But, shockingly, I thought this was great. Like a legitimately good horror movie, which isnt really what I expect from one of these endless big name horror sequel factories. The cinematography is really good. The script is mostly good. This might be the best score on the entire list, and I say that without exaggeration or irony. I was blown away by the soundtrack here and it might be my favorite of John Carpenters ever. It is a really well put together, thoroughly entertaining big name slasher/horror movie and it really blew away my expectations.

This is the best interpretation of Michael Meyers and one of my favorite interpretations of any of the slasher monsters ever. I like that hes just kind of a dude in this one. There is no need for any sort of supernatural element to this. Hes a strong guy that loves to murder and thats all you need. And the fact that he is so random somehow makes him much more menacing than past films where hes focused on Laurie. It is much more interesting when he isnt that because he is now almost a force of nature. One of my favorite scenes in any slasher movie I can remember is that one where Michael Meyers is walking through the neighborhood, then sees someone in the backyard and walks over to kill her. It is this fantastically filmed scene (all one shot, if I remember correctly) that culminates in him walking over to the neighbors and killing her too while shes on the phone with a friend. He just a dude that loves to murder. All these people wanting to do a podcast on him (loved those characters btw) and the psychologist wanting to get him to say something (way less enthused on that character btw) dont understand this. Hes not even interested in killing Laurie, really, until he is literally driven to her doorstep to make the final confrontation happen. Hes an unstoppable killing force, but yet hes still just a guy in this one.

Oh! You know what else is fun? The brutality in this one. Michael Meyers is not messing around. Do you know what I wasnt ready for? Him breaking the neck of a 12 year old boy (I did think it was a little funny he was apparently just hiding in the back seat so he could get the jump on someone who hasnt entered puberty yet). I was like ok, yeah, dad is dead obviously but then when he killed the kid too I kind of gasped because I was not expecting it. And then, later in the movie, when you hear the baby crying, I actually held my breath. I saw him kill a 12 year old and he slows down just enough in front of the crib that I was like oh shit, its happening. He doesnt, but he feels like the kind of character that would and it is a nice misdirect when he just sort of walks on by. But then you have him doing stuff like smashing someones head in against a bathroom stall or stomping their face until it is just a face puddle or impaling someone jaw first on a fence post. He is truly menacing in this movie in a way that a look of slasher villains arent.

Something that I absolutely loved about this movie was that Jamie Lee Curtis is a fucking lunatic. I thought it was such a genuinely interesting choice and I was actually surprised when I watched it the first time. What a cool idea for the character. Not that the alternate option here isnt fun you can have a badass lead like in Youre Next if you want and it can work. But the fact that Jamie Lee Curtis is not that character was really, really cool. This is a much more interesting character than stereotypical final girl she usually plays when she shows up in these films. Shes been divorced twice, her daughter hates her and wants her away from their family, and she lives in this weird survivalist compound in the woods. I feel like a less interesting version of this movie just has her being a generic badass and thats it. She gets to be a badass, which is great, but she also gets to sob through her granddaughters birthday dinner and tells other characters shes dreamed of Michael escaping because shes fantasized about murdering him. Shes traumatized and she acts like a traumatized character and shes fantastic in this.

Theres so much good stuff here, and I really, really enjoyed that back third of the movie. And the first third of the movie. And most of the middle third, too, I guess. But really that back third where she is stalking him is great. That scene where she goes out the window and then Michael Meyers hears a noise and looks away, and then looks back and shes gone is such a clever twist on the first movie that works so well and the twist that the safety room is really just a trap to lock Michael in so she can burn the whole house down is such a good ending. What a way to wrap things up. You had tension and a real threat and some good scares, and then Laurie was able to finally vanquish that demon that has been haunting her all these year. It was the ending she deserved and at the same time one that worked within the context of her story.

I hate that they made more movies after this. I get that Michael Meyers is iconic and they gotta keep using him to make as much money as they could, but this wouldve been such a good bookend on the series. And if they wanted to make more, hey just reboot it and ignore past continuity for like the tenth time. Halloween Kills (spoilers for our 2020s horror movie list in ten years) is such an absolute flaming pile of garbage that I just pretend it doesnt exist. This was such a clean ending and a nice bow on top of everything that I wish Lauries story wouldve ended here. There some weirdness in the middle of the movie and the hoops they jump through to get Michael Meyers to Lauries house is a little silly. But, honestly, my real complaint here is that they werent smart enough to realize this was a perfect conclusion to the series. This has genuinely become one of my favorite slasher movies and it is amazing that after so many years of horrendous sequels that Halloween was able to put out something this good. This is one of the best surprises Ive had in horror, and I think we can just agree that the series ended here and anyone saying otherwise is just crazy.

Plasmabeam - Im gonna be honest I actually like this better than the original Halloween. The 2018 reboot was gripping when I saw it in theaters, and the modernized directing techniques made Michael feel alive and threatening like never before.

I remember Insidious 2 being decent but 3 lost me and I never watched The Last Key.

Usually 6.5 - 7

River
Castle

Got no problem with any

Oh, I should probably say the next film has THREE top ten rankings.

Kate Bishop

Daredevil

Sylvie
Stan "The Man" Lee

@thesmark
https://twitter.com/ChrisLaMartina/status/1526571033674776577

We manifested this

Outlier
Tom Nook: 78
red13n: 64
Snake: 53
PrinceKaro: 48
Plasmabeam: 43
Suprak: 41
Inviso: 35
FFDragon: 34
fortybelowsummer: 30
jcgamer107: 27
thesmark: 27
rockus: 24
Lightning_Strikes: 19
Johnbobb: 18
BetrayedTangy: 17

thesmark makes a jump but the rest stay in their usual haunts.

Next ranking tonight.

I thought it would come out in the middle of the pack personally.

24. Insidious (301 points)

Why I Chose It: After creating the massive horror franchise Saw and the cult classic Dead Silence, the director/writer duo of James Wan and Leigh Whannell could've called it a day and still had their names forever cemented in horror and film history. But they weren't finished - not by a long shot. It wouldn't be hyperbole to call Insidious the most important horror film of the decade. It laid the blueprint for an entire generation of horror - low-budget, low-risk films that returned huge profits (Patrick Wilson starring optional). Wan and Whannell had already proven blockbuster horror worked with Saw, but now it was no longer a fluke to see a horror film gross hundreds of millions of dollars - it was the norm, and they were now nearly on the same level as comic book superhero movies in terms of gross and mainstream conversation. With that, however, came template-styled films filled with similar jump scares, settings, and concepts - a downside to be sure, but its hard to argue with results, and when even films that might've previously been niche like The VVitch or Us seeing increased or similar box office draws, I'd say Insidious, James Wan, and Leigh Whannell came out with a net positive here.

thesmark: 12
Tom Nook: 13
fortybelowsummer: 16
Inviso: 18
Plasmabeam: 18
PrinceKaro: 20
red13n: 20
FFDragon: 21
rockus: 21
BetrayedTangy: 22
jcgamer107: 22
Suprak: 22
Snake: 23
Lightning Strikes: 26
Johnbobb: 27

Thesmark - There've been plenty of family moves into a haunted house movies before (okay, this technically isnt that but it plays exactly the same), but this is easily one of the most effective. Maybe its how well it plays as just a family drama in the first half, in addition to being a good horror film, maybe its the handheld camerawork, or maybe its a really solid cast. Sure it relies on some jump scares, but a lot of it is more just mounting creepy imagery, dread and things you see either in a corner or in the background with a set-up and payoff. The hackneyed audio stings are the weakest element and Im way more positive on the 1st half than the second, but I really enjoyed it; its my biggest surprise of the rankings given my expectations.

Tom Nook - This is one of many haunted house type movies on this list, and since I'm doing my write-ups from 30 to 1, this one is where I see things starting to improve among them. This one has potential of many of the higher ranked ones, but it's also brought down a little for reasons that my lower ranked ones are. The praise is that this has a great mood filled with some very creepy scenes, and an eerie and aggressive soundtrack. The movie might go a little reliant on jumpscares at times, but I feel they've mostly earned them because they've done some legit creepy scenes too. The baby monitor scene is one of the best scenes out of these 30 movies; it gives me chills just thinking about it, with the audio and the camera work. The cons for me, come from how out there it gets near the end. It could have used a little more restraint, because it felt like a video game during those later scenes where they go into the other world. But the praises for this movie are high enough that I still think it was a good one overall, even if I disagree with some of the direction it went.

Fortybelowsummer - So this is the one with the guy that also played Ed Warren in The Conjuring, the Scream King Patrick Wilson (no wonder Im not differentiating these well) and the villain that looks kind of like Darth Maul. Its directed by James Wan, who I respect, and he infuses a typical ghost story with own brand of scary. That scene where the demon randomly appears behind the guy as theyre sitting at the table is definitely memorable. I also recall a healthy of dose of super creepy old lady. That wraps up my totally half assed review of this section, but I can say that both Insidious and Sinister have their place as genre and decade defining examples.

Inviso - You know, going into this watchthrough, I couldve sworn Id seen this movie before. Maybe its because I always wind up getting it confused with Sinister and The Conjuring (I KNOW Ive seen at least one of those for sure). But ultimately, this was a perfectly acceptable horror movie. Knowing its from the makers of Paranormal Activity gives me a big appreciation, because at least this film understood pacing, and understood that in a horror movie, you need to actively have things HAPPEN once in a while. I will say the concept is somewhat interesting, almost like if Stephen King wrote a horror movie of this caliber. Really though, although hes iconic for his jump scares, the main demon is rather poorly-designed. He just stands out compared to the legitimate creepiness of the ghosts, and the CGI he utilizes towards the ending renders him completely toothless in terms of his scare factor.

Plasmabeam - The setup led me to believe this was going to be another generic Family vs. Haunted House story, but Insidious turned out to be suspenseful and emotionally resonant. Was surprised to find myself caring about the characters midway through.

What I liked most was how the father was portrayed as a disbelieving jerk for most of the movie. Then we get hit with the revelation that he was nearly possessed as a child. Nice twist.
Not sure how I feel about the ending. Sure, its cool that there was a price paid after the father entered the dream world, but ultimately the ending felt like it was forcing a sequel.

PrinceKaro - So this family moves into a generic spooky house and generic spooky things happen, sort of like if Paranormal Activity had some semblance of a plot and characterization. Then in a rare display of actual intelligence in horror movie characters, the family decides to move out. But whoops, it wasnt the house this time, it was due to their son having sent his own soul to the farplane and his body being haunted by the ghost of Darth Maul. So daddy has to go to hell to get his son back with superpowers that were in his heart all along. Or something.

It is directed competently enough to gain a passable grade, but it doesnt really bring anything new to the table. Haunted houses? Possessed children? Goofy ghost hunters? Weve done that all before.
Indeed, it feels like the premise of the movie changes arbitrarily multiple times, and the narrative relies heavily on creating artificial twists via unfairly misleading scenes, such as the ultimately irrelevant attic hijinks.

Bereft of any real vision, it ends up trying to throw everything at the wall in the hope that something will stick, and nothing really does. It is less insidious and more insipid.

Red13n - Kid goes into a coma except hes not in a comma because he gets up at night and freaks everyone else. But through not coincidence its determined hes astral projecting and inherited it from his dad who was too good at and now they have to go get him back for the astral plane or whatever. Meanwhile the dad gets possessed and murders a character you probably didn't care about anyway. This is a pretty basic and generic horror plot is the best I could describe it, but it also contains a lot of boring.

FFDragon - I once read that this was like the M. Night Shyamalan of horror movies and that has stuck with me.

plasmabeam posted...

Hey Snake... Minor clerical error on your part. For my rankings you listed both The Purge and Girl as #23. I actually had The Purge at #22 and Girl at #23.

That would make my outlier score 37 as of now.

Oops, thank you for pointing that out, it will be reflected in the next update.

Next ranking coming up soon!

So maybe a little hint - I find the next film dropping to be quite a surprise, at least in my eyes.

Johnbobb posted...

also somebody from gauntlet crew acknowledge my wicklebee metropolis joke because I thought it was hilarious

Oh I knew that was referencing something but I wasn't sure what, I had forgotten about that XD

Outlier
Tom Nook: 67
red13n: 60
Snake: 52
PrinceKaro: 44
Suprak: 39
Plasmabeam: 36
FFDragon: 31
Inviso: 29
jcgamer107: 25
fortybelowsummer: 22
rockus: 21
Lightning_Strikes: 17
BetrayedTangy: 15
Johnbobb: 15
thesmark: 15

It's still smooth skating for the most part but some big leaps are starting to make things interesting.

Next ranking up still tomorrow afternoon.

Kinda killed me to rank it as low as I did but this list is just too good god damn it.

25. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (304 points)

Why I Chose It: Promoted as the first "Iranian vampire western", A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night represents the creative effort of Ana Lily Amirpour in totally redefining what making a "vampire movie" means. Though technically American-made to avoid censorship in Iran, the film is steeped in Iranian culture, representing a totally unique voice and vision that's wholly different from almost any other horror film in the list or, otherwise, in the decade.

Suprak: 11
Snake: 13
PrinceKaro: 14
thesmark: 14
Lightning Strikes: 15
rockus: 15
BetrayedTangy: 21
FFDragon: 22
Johnbobb: 22
Plasmabeam: 23
Tom Nook: 25
fortybelowsummer: 26
jcgamer107: 27
red13n: 27
Inviso: 29

Suprak - B+
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night was so good It helped me understand twilight better. Like, sure the main girl here is essentially a serial killer and she eats at least one homeless man so clearly she isnt just killing bad peoplebut shes kinda cute though, right? Like I was actively rooting for the romance in this movie, and Arash/the woman are cute enough together you want them together and just sort of ignore the fact she ate his father during the ending. I feel like horror/romance is a difficult mix to pull off, but it works well here even if overall the film feels a bit light on the horror. The way she keeps following people around, getting closer each time they turn to face her, is somewhat creepy, but theres only so creepy she can be when she spends a lot of the movie riding around on a skateboard and going on dates with Arash.

I will say that I think the film is a bit to artsy for my tastes. It doesnt get in the way too much, but when youre dealing with cutaways of random people dancing for a full thirty seconds that isnt related to the story in anyway, I feel like youre doing a bit too much to be weird. Apparently the director here describes this as the first Iranian vampire western which sounds like a Madlib gone wrong. And maybe it is just because I have absolutely zero interest or knowledge of westerns, but I feel like some of the things I didnt get were references to spaghetti westerns and I just dont have a frame of reference to appreciate them. Im not saying the style is bad and in fact I would say it is a major strength of the film. I really liked the style and direction and even the dedication to black and white. I just feel like they couldve toned down and at times it feels like they focus a bit too much on style at the expense of substance.

Overall though, I thought this was great. I was shocked to find out this was at least partially funded via Indiegogo because it feels incredibly competently made. If anything, I thought maybe the film could be 10-15 minutes longer to help flesh out the relationship between Arash and the girl just a little bit more.

Basically just one more scene between their date and their decision to run away together. Other than that though, I really enjoyed the story here and I thought the script was really strong. It was interesting and funny and charming and I thought there was a lot of heart here, which sort of helps set this one apart from other films on this list. Im not sure I would really recommend this if someone was looking for a horror film per se, but I think it is a thoroughly enjoyable movie with some horror elements and definitely horror inspiration, if that makes sense. I want more movies with vigilante vampires going around and doling out justice one bite at a time, and this is a clever twist on what Ive come to expect from vampire movies.

Snake - A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night perfectly demonstrates what the genre of horror can be, what it can say, what it can represent. The film combines family drama, romance, crime, urban Gothic noir, dystopia, and skateboarding all in cohesive and enriching ways. Its a slice-of-life film where horror lurks silently on the edges of Bad City - a ghost town with landmarks such as the gulch where bodies are unceremoniously dumped and forgotten, and the nightmarish, polluting, long-reaching arms of industry encroaching and invading on the population, omni-present in sight, sound and influence, a constant drone on everyday life feeding on the very spirits of the citizens of Bad City. The black-and-white invokes memories of Dracula and Frankenstein, but their looming castles and clamorous laboratories have been replaced by ever-churning, monolithic oil refineries and thunderous, deafening freight trains for a more mundane type of horror.

Meanwhile, the inhabitants themselves are fed upon with their more metamorphic demons - eaten up by drug abuse and prostitution, controlled by Saeed, a man with all the power and money under his thumb, manipulating and violently lashing out against any who even think to disobey or cheat him. Then, you have the titular Girl - a chador wearing specter of the night, arriving somewhere in the middle of our valleys of the people of our everyday lives and the summits of our unnamed innermost terrors. Shes a feminist anti-hero, soft-spoken as a lamb but fierce as a lion in her taking down of men who would choose to abuse their power and explot women - yet shes not above threatening a child either. In Bad City, there really is no such thing as good or evil, as theres just simply no room for it. Take Arash, who perhaps would like to see things differently. Hes hard-working, cares for his father, indulges in vices but tries not to let them control him - yet he steals a pair of diamond earrings from a wealthy woman hes working for. Hes trying to resist corruption - and he thinks his chance meeting with the Girl is the answer. Their romance is one of understated tenderness, and plays with vampire tropes such as the stake, represented by the Girl piercing her ears - a cute melding of a rom-com scene taking advantage of the classic way to kill a vampire - or the always-great-for-a-gag exposed neck as the Girl struggles to resist biting into Arash. Its in these tropes where the ultimate tragedy of it all is found though - when the Girl eventually feeds on Arashs father after he forces a prostitute to do heroin with him. Its the classic Gothic twist again seen through a new lens, this romance now forever tainted with questions raised, like, was the Girl in the right to do this, is she really helping the women of Bad City, or is she really just a blood-thirsty monster looking for her next feed. In the eyes of Arash - perhaps it doesnt matter. After much turmoil, he leaves with her anyway. Another day of life in Bad City - but now at least, perhaps theres a chance to leave the realities of that world behind and start fresh again.

PrinceKaro - So there is a vampire girl in Iran and she like bites a bunch of people and maybe falls in love with one of them or something.

It is certainly unique, but the story seems unfocused and a little unclear of what it wants to do. Too often it takes detours from the central romance plot to follow random side characters or have everyone dance to weird Persian rave music.

So the girl unwittingly murders her new boyfriend's father, and despite him finding out they still both run off together because daddy was kind of a prick I guess. It's a weird movie.

Yeah people really came out swinging with the write-ups I must say!

I agree with most here that The Purge is more action than horror. But that's okay. Action-horror is still a valid subgenre and The Purge is still very much associated with horror culture.

Theoretically, horror SHOULD have an attempt to be scary. The Purge is a scary concept - ALL crime being legal for one day? It's an unknown that starts to raise questions and problems. I think it fits horror.

The problem is, what scares people varies from individual to individual, as well different generations finding different things scary. Monsters like vampires and werewolves are so ubiquitous now I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone scared of them now, but the late 1800s-1940s would tell a different story. Horror continues to morph like that - you start to notice now a bigger shift towards the psychological and the aesthetics of horror being played around with. You can have colorful, disarming horror in a game like Doki Doki Literature Club. Horror can practically be found in all corners of media now - look at the biggest thing in culture right now, the MCU, exploring horror in its latest phase even if its films and TV shows aren't exactly The Exorcist. I think ultimately the way I see horror now is more a tool than a concrete genre and it's only just going to keep opening itself to more interesting ideas and concepts as the decade rolls on.

Frankly, I would've been fine if the series ended with The Forever Purge like it was supposed to. That was definitely a miserable time and it feels like the series is spinning its wheels now. At this point, it's only a matter of time before we start to get The Purge: Purgatory (takes place in heaven and hell) and The Space Purge.

Outlier
Tom Nook: 67
red13n: 58
Snake: 40
Plasmabeam: 34
PrinceKaro: 33
FFDragon: 28
Inviso: 25
Suprak: 25
jcgamer107: 23
fortybelowsummer: 21
Johnbobb: 12
rockus: 11
BetrayedTangy: 11
Lightning_Strikes: 7
thesmark: 4

Coincidentally, I wore my Purge t-shirt today.

Next film up tomorrow afternoon (or maybe a surprise third ranking!)