Lurker > Evillordexdeath

I'm sticking with Nightmare as well

Ah okay, in that case I think I'll leave Come and See off my list and I would encourage you to include it if we end up doing War Films because I feel it is an extremely great and important example of one of those!

Hey Snake, I was reading the planning topic from January and it was suggestion that you were planning to host a War Movies topic sometime in the future, were you thinking of/planning to include either The Battle of Algiers (1966) or Come and See (1985)? I am trying to decide if I should add them to my list for the Art Films ranking or not.

O and on a similar note, are there any plans to do a sci-fi ranking or can I have 2001?

I'll stay on Nightmare on Elm Street

Wow, that was NOT the drop I was expecting next. I can't believe someone would have Le Prdateur in 30th place... I thought that was definitely gonna be a Henry or Possession ranking.

At this point I think I'm gonna guess Nightmare on Elm Street next for Vegas, Possession and Henry are just unstoppable it would seem.

I can see any of Possession/Henry/Videodrome/The Fly being a potential #1, I'm sure The Shining and The Thing have #1s but I also think they're a lock for 2nd and 1st respectively, I wouldn't be too surprised if Le Prdateur or Beetlejuice made it, but Nightmare I kinda doubt was anyone's first place pick.

Hmm I think I'll get in on Possession too

haha, tbf I was probably a little more impassioned when I wrote that writeup and have cooled my hatred for the film a little bit over the last few weeks. I did cover some of the ways it's much better than Movie 43, but I still think comparing them in that they both just repeat one brainless shtick the whole runtime is valid... at least from what I saw of 43 which I admittedly dipped out on in like 10 minutes. Maybe I was just so tapped out from the opening that I didn't notice but personally I really don't feel like adding the other characters changed much for Evil Dead II, it was still pretty much just nonstop horror setpieces I found entirely meaningless and tiresome. Maybe you can say the female lead is a little less empty and reactionary than Ash but I still thought her character was completely shallow. I get why people appreciate the ending and how it was set up earlier, but for me it just kinda meant the film was ending with the promise that the same repetitive shenanigans would continue even after the credits rolled so it just pissed me off even more.

Fuck yeah, I would've been so disappointed to see that one land ahead of my beloved art films

LinkMarioSamus posted...

Never been interested in Hellraiser and the first thing that comes to mind about the movie is Roger Ebert giving it 0.5/4 stars.

I always found Ebert's take on Hellraiser very strange. Hellraiser 2 is probably one of his worst reviews because of the extremely condescending tone he takes toward people who liked the movie. I find it rather odd that he bemoans how the movie is "made for people with no attention span" when he gave a 3/4 to a certain other movie on the list that feels like it deserves that criticism quite a lot more

https://tenor.com/view/latios-licks-pikachu-gif-6431863923421164287

I wonder if everyone's #1 is either The Shining or The Thing

I'll stay on Evil Dead II

1. ???
2. ???
3. ???
4. ???
5. Fright Night
6. Tetsuo: the Iron Man
7. ???
8. ???
9. An American Werewolf in London
10. Prince of Darkness
11. ???
12. The Changeling
13. Phenomena
14. The Dead Zone
15. The Lost Boys
16. Pokmon Movie 05: Mizu no Miyako no Mamorigami Latias to Latios
17. Hellraiser
18. ???
19. Christine
20. Pet Sematary
21. Child's Play
22. ???
23. Basket Case
24. Poltergeist
25. Creepshow
26. Gremlins
27. Re-Animator
28. Sleepaway Camp
29. Friday the 13th
30. Killer Klowns From Outer Space
31. ???

Here are some of my thoughts on art:

- These topics are weird about "Art Films". I've previously participated in two animated film rankings where there was a group (Inviso, Ermine, Red, and sometimes Karo though he would deviate a lot from the other 3 on certain films) who seemed to me to have a very broad definition of what constitutes an "Art Film" and were very hostile to those films. When I think of "art films" I think of things like Jeanne Dielman (4 hours of watching a woman do chores to make a point about Feminism), or anything directed by Tarkovsky (Russians looking sadly into the middle distance for 10+ minutes at a time in between random conversations about philosophy), while in contrast I recall Inviso describing Cartoon Saloon movies like The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea as "Art Films" that get extra credit for being foreign. And while I can understand where that perspective comes from I think it's hard to deny that those movies are several tiers lower than the aforementioned in terms of being inaccessible for the sake of some kind of "artistic" purpose, so for me it was something of a culture shock seeing movies like Anomalisa or Boy & the World get lambasted on these lists. I often felt like films that were in any way challenging where getting unfairly criticized for using things like dialog-free storytelling or characters you aren't strictly supposed to relate to and it was very frustrating for me to see these films land below what I perceived as mediocre shlock like Abominable or Over the Moon. So I am surprised that the "Art Films" of this list (which I presume to mean Possession, Videodrome, and Henry) have yet to be eliminated. This does mean that compared to previous lists, "Art Films" are doing well this time, but that might even be because Red and Ermine didn't participate this time and the sample size among the voters is larger, so the "anti-art bias" of previous lists isn't being felt as much. I only think Possession is Art on this list. Videodrome is structurally a fairly standard Hollywood horror film that just refuses to explain certain aspects of its plot and Henry feels more like an attempt at gritty realism. Dumb fun movies are doing fine too, Le Prdateur, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Evil Dead II are all still in and Gremlins and Re-Animator at 13 and 12 is respectable on a carefully curated list.

- Tetsuo is kind of an oddball. I can see thinking of it as an "Art Film" and I get why one would be confused to see it ranked above certain other movies. I actually think an even more useful comparison than Basket Case for Tetsuo is Evil Dead II. Both are basically one shtick repeated nonstop with very little attempt at plot, characterization, or relief. There's a big gap between these two movies on my list too and I would explain this by saying that I enjoyed the shtick of Tetsuo and not that of Evil Dead II. I would definitely not try to defend Tetsuo by saying it has deep metaphors or anything like that, I just thought Tetsuo's unique brand of stupidity was refreshing after so many movies that were stupid in samey ways.

- I don't necessarily mind unpleasant things in my movies. Especially when criticizing I try to evaluate whether what the film does matches with what it's trying to achieve. So something like the opening scene with the man inserting metal bits into himself in Tetsuo doesn't really warrant criticism imo. Yes it's disturbing and made me cringe, but it's meant to and that suits the intended tone of the movie. I also don't necessarily mind if the characters are unlikable as long as I feel they're psychologically interesting which is why I think Anomalisa is a great movie even though I agree the main character is a piece of shit. Come and See is basically nothing but suffering and it's one of the greatest films of all time because of how raw its depiction of war is. This goes doubly when we're talking about horror movies, for me. Possession is definitely not my idea of a fun movie but it was an intense experience and I value that a lot more than something like The Dead Zone that was inoffensive and mildly entertaining throughout. I don't really recall being disgusted by Basket Case, I just remember it being dull - which for me is worse.

- I think Deadzone vs. Videodrome might encapsulate a lot of the difference in how Inviso and I think about movies. Both films where I left wishing for more narrative depth, but I value the story in Videodrome a lot more precisely because it leaves things unexplained. I think trying to create a deep metaphorical analysis of what Videodrome and the New Flesh are in the context of the film would probably be very tortured, but because it doesn't spell everything out for you the viewer is still able to come to interesting conclusions on their own: for example, is the "New Flesh" really a preferable alternative to what Videodrome is trying to accomplish, or is James Woods just getting pulled between two equally nefarious and manipulative agendas? Videodrome's ending is one of my favorite scenes in any movie on this project, I found it extremely haunting, but if the movie had gone on for five more minutes either to show you that James Woods does somehow ascend to "The New Flesh" or that he just winds up lying in a pool of his own blood that would've ruined it - and that's basically what The Dead Zone's ending does by showing you the flash of Martin Sheen's political career being ruined. I felt very disappointed by The Dead Zone's tendency to explain everything and make sure you know that Christopher Walken's actions are morally correct. For me, this made for a much shallower narrative than that of Videodrome. It's perfectly valid to see it the other way around and think that Videodrome is just begging empty questions to try and compensate for a lack of substance in its narrative, but I don't really like the assumption that anyone who doesn't think that way must just be giving the movie "a pass" because it seems artsy.

- I like fun movies, Fright Night is my #5 and The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales is one of my favorite movies we've done across all of these lists. They just have to actually be good :p

I'll get in on Evil Dead II

O damn surprise great elimination, I think this gives us a small possibility of a top 10 with no bad movies

Gonna guess Re-Animator again

I'll guess Possession then

Sticking with Re-animator

Staying on Re-animator

Wow I would not have expected to be the top ranker for Werewolf.

Staying on Re-animator

Sticking with Re-Animator

LinkMarioSamus posted...

I thought Fright Night has a Rotten Tomatoes score in the 90s? I know Gene Siskel didn't recommend it but still.

Fright Night is the best non-artsy movie on this list by a lot so I'm really surprised people are already predicting it but then again my taste in movies isn't very representative of B8 as a whole

I'll take Re-Animator

I too will predict Creepshow

I will also stay on Creepshow

I'll keep guessing Creepshow

Artsy is a bit of a loaded term in this topic series lol

I think it's crazy that anyone is guessing Fright Night but I would've said the same for Prince of Darkness...

Curious to see how high Tetsuo can go. I wouldn't be surprised if it drops next but multiple people switched to it when the hint that the next film had a number 2 placement came out which is intriguing because one play with that information is to guess your own #2.

I'll go back to Creepshow

O wow that one got done unbelievably dirty

Hmm well with that hint I feel like I should change my guess, Creepshow being someone's #2 seems a little unlikely

I guess I'll change to Possession

I'll guess Creepshow

Cool poem, I think it speaks to something a lot of us struggle with :)

I'll take Tetsuo as well

Solitaire
Phelps

I'll take Friday 13th

I'll take Killer Klowns

Inviso posted...

I struggled to brush my teeth for two days after watching Basketcase, because I kept picturing Belial and it made me gag.

lol

I must admit Basket Case was one of the movies I didn't rewatch for the list (I saw it like 2 years ago and was confident a second viewing wouldn't change my opinion of it), so my mental image of Belial was basically the "Goblin" from the game Damn Dolls:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/78b585ff.jpg

Mushishi

Didn't really expect Basket Case to be #30 but can't complain. When Inviso posted about having just seen one of the worst movies across all lists I thought he was talking about Possession (1981).

I'll hop on the Sleepaway Camp bandwagon

Earthbound
Super Metroid
Super Mario World
Chrono Trigger

Yes

Final Fantasy VII
Resident Evil
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Parappa the Rapper

Super Mario 64
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Star Fox 64
Banjo-Kazooie

Shadow of the Colossus
Silent Hill 2
Ratchet & Clank
kami

Super Mario Bros.
The Legend of Zelda
Final Fantasy
Mother

Donkey Kong Country Returns
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Chrono Trigger

GLaDOS