(Originally posted on Facebook Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 3:00am)
Ok, I took time out this past October to be a little festive for Halloween, basically turning it into a month-long horror fest of the arts, everything new: movies, literature, music, nothing rehashed and boring, and if I've been there already, I payed closer attention. So here's what I found:
FILM
i picked 10 horror movies at random (with the help of some "best of" lists (see below for more info) ), watched them, digested them, and then vomited them back up in a top 10 list as rated by Me. Here goes!
10) Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) - dir: Jim Sharman - this wasn't even on my original list but as it happens, ended up doing the "rocky horror thing" at Edna Boykin theater on Halloween so ive finally done that, interesting, funny, tim curry is the MAN! er...woman...uh
9) King Kong (1933) - dirs: Merian C. Cooper/ Ernest B. Schoedsack - all imitators come form this original, dont think it deserves the #1 slot for best horror film of all time as some have said
8) Night of the Hunter (1955) - dir: Charles Laughton - a mother goose nightmare seen through the eyes of a child, it can become too "leave it to beave" but it does have its moments, wouldnt even classify this as horror but it supposedly is
7) Nosferatu (1922) - dir: F.W. Murnau - Nina! the sweet virgin died for us (sound familiar?) or is it menarche, or sweet lust of adolescence?
6) Freaks (1932) - dir: Tod browning - real freaks, all the time, in your face, peeps in '32 couldnt handle what they were seeing, and that's where the real horror lies
5) Halloween (1978) - dir: John Carpenter - yes i have never seen it, until now. i hear the remake is good but wanted to watch the original first, interesting that myers' role in the credits is actually listed as "The Shape"...nice
4) Eyes Without a Face (1959) - dir: Georges Franju - french horror about plastic surgery, still resonates today, facelift has a new meaning...
3) Repulsion (1965) - dir: Roman Polanski - unreliable narrator, madness, solitude, murder, all centered around a blonde 1960s immigrant, awesome, see some feminist dialogue in there as well
2) Martyrs (2008) - dir: Pascal Laugier - instant classic, french horror, about transcending death through life/love, mental breakdown, scientific conclusions of religious awareness, excellent cinema!!
1) Inside (2007) - dirs: Alexandre Bustillo/ Julien Maury - one of the best horror movies ive ever seen, extremely brutal, gory, so it satisfies anyone in that category but goes beyond this, a multi-layered screenplay about giving birth, and the destruction that happens therewith, creation/destruction, pregnancy anxiety, christian themes of death/rebirth all wrapped up in this (another) french horror - not for the squeamish! and even though it has a baby in it, this is not a family-friendly film!!!!
LITERATURE
read 2 short stories by H.P. Lovecraft: Call of Cthulhu and The Music of Erich Zann, awesome, would recommend lovecraft to anyone needing some short story horror...
MUSIC
nothing like some death metal for the holidays - found some new Cryptopsy favs: "Open Face Surgery" and "Slit Your Guts", reacquainted with Suffocation's Pierced From Within, some Human Remains, and Cannibal Corpse...horror in music doesnt get much better than this
also checked out Black Angels (1970), by George Crumb,Doom A. Sigh (1989), by Istvan Marta, and Quartet No. 8 (1960), by Dmitri Shostakovich (all string quartets perf. by kronos quartet), Talking Heads album Fear of Music (1979), random gothic hits from diff eras and last but not least some sacred choral music! some tavener, part, gorecki, and various antiphons in latin, believe me, when you listen to phobophile and follow it with some tavener you begin to see what horror really is and where religion comes from...
Movie lists i consulted: rotten tomatoes' 50 best horror films of all time
you can see the whole list for yourself here.
