MILLENNIUM GROUP SESSIONS 17:Horror Top 5 - guest Screamstress Alison Nastasi!
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BacktoFrankBlack: Millennium Group Sessions 17: Horror Top 5!
Followi
ng the popularity of our HORROR interview with Alison Nastasi from Screamstress.com and the interest in our Top 5 Millennium episodes pod cast last week, we decided to combine the two! So this is our Top 5 Horror films Podcast with the welcome return of Alison! Oh, and expect a little Millennium chat as well! Visit www.screamstress.com to hear more from Alison!This free podcast is available on a weekly to fortnightly basis via ITUNES and BacktoFrankBlack.com. We'll naturally update you all on information on the podcast from this blog as well.
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5 Responses to "Free Podcast:: MGS 17 - Horror Top 5 with Alison Nastasi!"
Part 1:
I would find it difficult coming up with a Top 5 favourite horror films/movies list, as often you discover a new film you've never seen before which you've found yourself (either one from years or decades ago, or a more recent film), or one which someone has told you about.
Horror films have many various ingredients which make them what they are. If there's some kind of a story thread running through the film that's great. It has to have a setting which sticks in the mind, classic set-pieces, classic locations, the atmosphere, the characters (whether they be one-dimensional, two-dimensional etc.), the killer(s), one-liners...those are just some of the things which you get, discover and expect in a horror film. It varies depending on the horror film, and if you are watching a Austrailian, Canadian, European, Japanese, UK, US (or from other countries of the world) horror film.
Okay pop-pickers, counting down, my Top 5 horror films (I would call this a shaky Top 5 list, as like when I'm asked what my favourite Bond movie is, it always changes):
5. The Shining (1980)
- I liked this movie for the set pieces, the hotel, the ending with the maze, that intriguing final moment (which reminds me of the ending to the MM episode "A Room with No View" where you discover Lucy Butler has been around for scores/hundreds of years) and the spoof done on The Simpsons, a spooky story from one of the Treehouse of Horror Halloween specials (called "The Shinning" because I think it saved them getting sued) and the music, especially when Jack Nicholson's character is in the bar, and at the end as they show the black and white framed photos on the wall.
4. Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)
- I first saw this, the first sequel to the original Hammer Horror 'Dracula' film (released in 1958. A remastered print was released in cinemas last year I think. Unfortunately part of Dracula's death scene has I think been lost), many years ago while I was on holiday in Scarborough. It scared the whatsits out of me (especially when the American guest, whilst walking in his dressing gown in the castle, is stabbed by the butler, is hung over the coffin in the crypt, his blood dripping onto Dracula's ashes, bringing the count back to life).
The film ends with one of my favourite scenes in the whole movie, when Francis Matthews' (he also did the voice of the lead character in one of my favourite animation series - Captain Scarlet & The Mysterions - and played the lead role in a late 60's/early 70's TV series called Paul Temple) character fights with Dracula on a frozen lake (outside the monastery), trying to get onto dry land, with the head monk on the outskirts of the lake holding a rifle at the lake.
Sir Christopher Lee would go onto play Dracula for another five films (Taste the Blood of Dracula, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, Scars of Dracula (also starring Dennis Waterman from Minder and New Tricks), Dracula AD 1972 (one of the best in the series) and The Satanic Rites of Dracula, which was released I think around 1974), but this one is probably my favourite in the Hammer Horror 'Dracula' films (including the ones which Sir Christopher Lee didn't appear in).
Part 2:
3. Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter (1984)
- It's very difficult trying to choose my favourite Friday the 13th movie. I remember a few Christmasses ago when Sci-Fi showed Parts 2-7 back-to-back over the course of two nights (in the early hours of the morning). I think I watched them over two days, being impressed by them all. Going back to what I said about my choices changing, it's the same with the Friday the 13ths. I thought they were all good, even Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (if ever there was a film which needs remaking with a bigger budget it's Jason Takes Manhattan. Maybe then they could film in Manhattan properly!), Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (the ninth in the series and the first to be made with New Line) and Jason X (containing the classic liquid nitrogen head kill). I consider there to be ten films in the Friday the 13th film series, as I consider Freddy vs Jason to be a 'versus/crossover' film, and Friday the 13th (2009) to be a remake of the first three films (it was what they call an 'amalgamation', a combination, of the first three films). It was awful in my opinion and didn't have that [[i]thing[/i] which I can't explain that the 1980 original up to Jason X had.
2. Mulholland Drive (2001)
This film is kind of a thriller and drama, but it has horror film moments as well (after all, The Thing is part horror/part sci-fi).
I saw it not on it's original cinema release, but later at a one night only screening at one of my local cinemas...and I was amazed by the film I saw. A very interesting, mind-bending, confusing but oh so great masterpiece, one of the few films this decade which I have seen and called a masterpiece. Naomi Watts went on to do two other films which I really liked, 21 Grams and the US remake of Ringu (The Ring). I still haven't seen one of her other films which she made around the same time, Ellie Parker.
Then there was Laura Elena Harring, Chad Everett (who played a good part in a couple of Murder, She Wrotes), Robert Forster (was in a quite good late 90's film with Fairuza Balk called American Perfekt), Billy Ray Cyrus and Justin Theroux (who later starred in another David Lynch film Inland Empire) and that woman with the lovely voice who sang the Roy Orbison song Cryin'.
I love how everything you saw was turned upside down. I still can't fathom it out, and even with the help of these 10 questions I'd rather not want it to make sense! If you know what I mean.
I'm hoping that one day the original ABC TV pilot will be released on DVD.
Part 3:
1. Halloween (1978)
- I consider this to be the granddaddy of horror films, although I haven't seen the 1974 slasher film Black Christmas which preceded it. I wouldn't hesitate in giving the original Halloween 10 out of 10 (I certainly wouldn't give either of Rob Zombie's Halloween films close to that mark out of 10. I even thought Halloween: Resurrection was better than both of those films!). THAT theme tune still gets to me. It's scary, atmospheric (these are what I'd describe the film as too). It sets the mood and tone for the film ahead. There are too many things in this film to mention here which I loved about the movie.
Special mention must go to the following:
1.) Rick Rosenthal's 1981 follow-up Halloween II, which follows on directly after the events and ending of the original. I love the James Bond-like beginning, which after the studio logos begins with what was an innocent song, turned into something more sinister with this film...Mr Sandman by The Chordettes (it was originally released as a single in the UK back in 1954. Dickie Valentine also released a version of it as well (don't know if The Four Aces (featuring Al Alberts) recorded their own version of it (in 1955), but the song title is the same). A recap of events from the last few scenes of Halloween are replayed, but with a new instrumental score (which really adds something to the scenes) played in the background. Then new footage shot, especially the bit with the bit where Michael Myers falls from the house balcony onto the grass below, is spliced (is that the right word?) with old footage, as Donald Pleasance's Dr. Loomis runs out of the house, gets the next door neighbour to call the police and emergency services and runs off round the side of the house (where Laurie Strode (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) is inside) going after Myers. As he runs off round the corner you hear the first notes of the revised version of the original Halloween's theme tune (done partly or wholly with I think a synthesiser organ or piano). Then the title sequence begins, with Jamie Lee Curtis getting equal billing with Donald Pleasance.
I just really liked how it followed on from the original (still 31st October, 1978) and ending on a foggy 1st November morning).
2. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)
Is this a horror film? Unfairly criticised on it's original cinema release. I enjoyed this strong story, along with the numerous images and characters. Fingers crossed the film gets a much better (and deserved) DVD release, including the deleted scenes, next year.
Some of the horror films I haven't seen yet:
Babysitter Wanted
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
The Fury (although this kind of sci-fi as well)
Salvage (under another name in the UK)
The Sentinel (1977)
Wind Chill (stars Emily Blunt, who I was impressed by in an indie film called Sunshine Cleaning. One of the best films I've seen this year).
Horror films which, once they've been released on DVD, I'll like to see:
Amhurst
Black Devil Doll
Lonely Joe.
I know there is more I need to add to this.
This was a fine podcast, very fun chatter and interesting to hear your top 5 horror movies, that is, however you define horror.
I thought Alison's top 5 were safe and typical. I think all films are good, while I can't stand Shelley Duvall in The Shining, she ruins the movie for me, horribly miscast.
Good to hear Dario Argento's name there, but I haven't seen all his films. I really want to see Deep Red and The Bird with the Crystal Plumage. Shame there hasn't been a real UNCUT version of Deep Red without some compromises.
Troy, you really need to open up your slasher eyes and dive into the deep end of more adventurous horror movies, like some of Argento's films.
And James, if you want movies that scare you and/or can make you laugh. Then you should check out Re-Animator, Braindead (Dead Alive in the US, Peter Jackson film), Return of the Living Dead, Slither, The Night of the Creeps and Cemetery Man is funny as well, but if I can understand it, that is another issue.
I never had a problem with watching films when I was younger. But films like The Fog lost their frightening touch when I revisited it on DVD. I remember seeing Night of the Living Dead on the Hallmark channel (!) and being a bit uneased since I was watching it in the middle of the night and the film is in black and white and the soundtrack is odd. I remember trying to show that movie at school and the kids just complained of the score hurting their ears or something *rolls eyes*
This is good for now.
Cheers from Iceland!
- Jósef
yes, it's impossible to pick just five but i wanted to choose some of the tried of true that were on my mind at the moment. great picks from Wave_Crest and Jósef Karl!
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