Lurker > Espeon

Haruhi

MyGO

Imbaffled by the write-ups for this one.

WhiteLens posted...

MyGO

Auto-trading it

for haruhi please.

Trading for haruhi, auto.

LotGH

Okay, admittedly that was harsh, but so help me if you guys genuinely eliminated Beetlejuice in 8th. No, I guess my real pick at this point is gonna be Nightmare on Elm Street. Just seems like its got potential to snag a few of those remaining low rankings, since the avant garde films seem unstoppable.

Snake, you have exdeath at 11 for changeling and predator

Yeah, I dont even need to comment at this point, do I?

Bump (today is going long)

Bumping until I get home.

Im genuinely worried for Predator at this point, because I look at the remaining 11 movies, and its the only one that doesnt feel like it has either a deep, mature tone (Shining, Possession, Henry, Hellraiser) or a very strong and distinctive directorial vision (Thing, Videodrome, Nightmare, Fly, Evil Dead, Beetlejuice).

Im gonna hope for the best and predict that Evil Dead II is similar enough to Re-Animator to end up just one point higher.

Snake, you have JB listed at 11 for both Reanimator and Pet Sematary.

Beastars

Afternoon bump.

Bane_Of_Despair posted...

Auto for Beastars

for Conan

LotGH

And on that note, why not? Lets change and predict Re-Animator, because it fits the theme of recent eliminations.

Im sorry, but Im just fucking MAD at this point. I GET people not liking Gremlins, because everyone has different tastesbut it just feels like casually popular movies are held to SO much higher of a standard by this group of rankers, and it sucks to see movie after movie after movie that was actually FUN to watch get picked off while the more pretentious films on the list get to just step over that EXTREMELY low bar.

Like, as a collective, our group decided Basket Case is the worst movie on this list. Its a movie that is visually grimy and gross, the imagery in it is nauseating and disgusting, the audio is a non-stop assault of horrific noise, and the acting is godawful. Its a movie that rightfully deserves to be panned.

But then, you have Tetsuo. And while it still only placed 23rd, thats a full seven spots higher; and FOUR people ranked it as the seventh best film or better on this. Everything bad about Basket Case is repeated in Tetsuo. Bad visuals, disgusting imagery, painful audio, bad acting, and hell, off-putting rape scenes. Yet there is MASSIVE swings between the two movies (16 placements for Evil, 18 for Rockus, 22 for you, Johnbobb, and a massive 24 for Seginusand to be fair, its weird to see a 16 point swing in the other direction for Bitto). To me, that makes it seem like one movie is a sleazy, low-budget monster/slasher film and is judged accordingly, while the other is a black and white movie with subtitles and metaphors and is given a LOT more leeway in terms of its actual quality. And then I look at whats left and its likemy least favorite movies left feel like theyre being cut a LOT more slack than they deserve.

Guessing Henry again I guess. Who fucking cares at this point.

Haruhi

LotGH

Bump while at work today.

Haruhi

Bump

LotGH

Away from home, so probably letting this run long.

Actually, Im gonna predict Videodrome, since its not on the odds board yet, and none of the stuff thats been obvious and hanging around on the cusp has gone out since Creep Show.

Bump.

Still going until I get home.

Haruhi

LotGH

Gonna guess Henry.

For free

Dangers in My Heart

Haruhi

Noon bump.

LotGH

Bump.

Haruhi

Also guessing Creepshow, just because it feels bizarre to still have in, when its tone and filmmaking is very similar to Killer Klowns.

LotGH

Thank God for that. Holy shit it is insane that a movie managed to almost be as bad as Basketcase, but Tetsuo defies logic.

Afternoon bump (round goes on until I get home.)

LightningStrikes posted...

I dont see whats so confusing about Prince of Darkness, its just bananas.

At the end of the day its all art. It doesnt really make sense to call art artsy as positively or negatively it implies that some films are not art or are more art than others. I mean when you look at The Fly its basically concerned with the same issues Videodrome is and making the same artistic statements. Without getting into spoilers my list has a very avant garde film near the top and another one near the bottom!

I strongly disagree with the latter assessment. In terms of theme and messaging, I can see a similarity between The Fly and Videodrome. Both share a theme of modern advancement being bad and leading to the loss of humanity. And in both cases, the main characters goal at the start of the film is to advance himself by finding the next big thing, but his life goes off the rails as a result, leading to his downfall.

In The Fly, however, the plot is far more well-executed. First off, Jeff Goldblum is presented as a scientist who is working on a major breakthrough. Its his desire for fame and glory that leads to his obsession and sloppiness, and ultimately his downfall. The arcs in the movie make sense.

In Videodrome, first off, James Woods being a network exec trying to find new, more explicit shows to draw in viewersalready youre starting with a less rational premise. But then his transformation is weirdly supernatural, and while I can accept the concept of Videodrome creating a brain tumor, the body feels completely forced and unnecessary. Even if its a hallucination due to the brain tumor, the movie treats James Woods weird chest wound as a real thing that he uses to hide a gun. And then the movie turns into a weird plot about a shadowy cabal facing off against a light cabal and its just utter nonsense. Its too focused on visuals and theming to create the films framework of a solid plot first.

Also, upon looking up their filmography, its interesting to see Carpenter and Cronenberg referred to as artsy directors, because in terms of the list itself, they have very similar records. Both have three films on the list: a Stephen King adaptation, a remake of a 50s B-movie, and an original idea inspired by their life experiences. And spoiler alert for my list, but I feel like they are best when applying their directorial intent and vision to a property that already exists. Yes, Cronenberg WROTE The Fly, but he was using the concept from the original film as a baseline. Meanwhile, their two original ideas are both confusing nonsense throughout the runtime.

To go back to earlier discussion, when I talk about Artsy movies with disdain, it has always been in terms of movies that feel like the director cared more about making something that showcases them as a filmmaker or an auteur, than creating something fun and entertaining for the audience to enjoy. This isnt to say that a movie cant be both entertaining AND artsy (Id argue that my top two from the 2010s horror list are both), and in fact that often elevates a film above something like a Childs Play or a Killer Klowns, but there are a lot of films on this list that feel like theyre just trying to smell their own farts in an extremely unenjoyable fashion.

Mentioning John Carpenter is actually perfect for this, because we have multiple Carpenter movies on this list, and one has already been eliminated, while others have not. And it stands out that Prince of Darkness, the Carpenter movie where hes trying to make some philosophical plot about science and religion and the devil while forgoing quality plot and character writing, is the one we collectively liked the least.

Gonna guess Creepshow again.

Bump.

Im on mobile right now. Did Dr. Stone get PJd?