The Birds is a fantastically made movie. The craftmanship in it is extraordinary.  If you watch it again - watch for the bird like movements from Tippi.  Also watch the rivalry between Tippi and the mother and notice that they have exactly the same hairstyle. That's a very small detail but this movie has tons of details like that.  

Quoted from bert I have to groan a bit at your list, too, Dreamscale.  I found Hostel laughable, and most American horror has grown stale of late.  Asian horror was promising for a while, but they, too, are only repeating themselves now.  [Note to Japan:  Stringy-hair female ghosts are not scary anymore.] Back on topic, "Trick ‘r Treat" is a solid, average horror.  It is not reinventing anything, but it is good enough to warrant a watch.

Amen to that. You wouldn't watch it again though, would you?

Quoted from DS Another one we haven't discussed yet is the original "Omen".  A true classic and one of the best horror movies of all time, IMO. I don't want to knock obvious classics, but when you say the only great horror movies you can come up with are flicks from the 60's, or from revered directors, I'd say you've obviously missing something.

I like The Omen. It had some moments. And guess what, revered directors directors tend to make great movies. They know how to create tension and not just throw a load of blood around. Funny that.

Oh and I still think Trick 'r Treat is a bag of pooh. And I'm right too.

OK RV, so there are like 5 or 6 horror movies in the last 50 years that you'd call good to great?  And all the other ones bite?  Is that what we're talking about here?

So, if The Exorcist is a 100, Turistas about a 25, and The Being a 1, where would Trick 'r Treat rate?

0.5, at a push.

HaHa!  Funny...I hope you're kidding around.

No matter what you thought of it, you seriously can't be saying it's one of the worst movies of all time, can you?  I have this funny feeling you don't watch too many horror movies...and probably don't like the genre as a whole.

LOL. Not that I'm a part of this argument but there's no way this movie's worse than Turistas. 25 is mighty generous, don't you think, Jeff? Anyway, this one's at the top of my Netflix cue. Will be checking it out after Gutterballs.

Quoted from Dreamscale C'mon now, RV.  Let's play nice here. Your constant remarks to shelf life and the like are confusing my pea sized brain.  I think we're talking about 2 completely different things here. I've recently watched both Pyscho and The Birds.  I was literally shocked at how poorly they have held up in terms of just about everything.  Sure, you can say they were cutting edge at the time they were released, but in terms of what we're used to nowadays, they are both paper thin. There are numerous movies that do hold up well.  Alien and Aliens are perfect examples.  Another one we haven't discussed yet is the original "Omen".  A true classic and one of the best horror movies of all time, IMO. I don't want to knock obvious classics, but when you say the only great horror movies you can come up with are flicks from the 60's, or from revered directors, I'd say you've obviously missing something.

For me the best horror film of all time. It was truly extraordinary at the time.

I think there are different kinds of people who like horror films. The "true" horror fan doesn't tend to enjoy the slower, less vicious films whereas people who don't generally like horror seem to prefer them.

Horror films age very quickly. The Birds is so melodramatic now that it seems awful. It's one of the few films that seems totally in need of updating.

Psycho was revolutionary. It scared people in a way that's almsot impossible now, by killing off the "main" character. It's hard to imagine how much that upset peopel at the time, it completely wobbled their sense of morality and caused a huge outcry. now it seems incredibly tame.

The Exorcist is a film that I never enjoyed. even as a kid it seemed weak and repeat viewings have never revealed to me the fuss that was made over it. Maybe you have to be extremely religious to get it.

The Shining is boring. There I said it. I believe Stephen King said he didn't like it, that Kubrick didn't undertsand the horror genre. I don't really agree with that, but I can understand why he said it. It's like a horror film for people who don't like horror. One of those films that I end up merely looking at the set design and such because I've lost interest in it. On paper it should be right up my street, but it  just doesn't hold together for me. About as scary as an episode of Futurama.

My favourite horrors of recent times have been the Ring, Juon, Kairo and the Orphanage. Going back a bit, I'm a big fan of Dario Argento.

I find the modern US horrors to be quite awful if the truth be told. They are just assualts on your phsychology, with little effort made on the story. I'm sure I would have liked them more as a kid, but they seem somewhat perverted and, without wanting to sound too anal, a bit of a symptom of a Western society that has forgotten the importance of human life. I read a recent article about the evolution of horror films, about how they've moved from taking a look at the problems in society to essentially saying that people are evil. There is a bleakness and a dirtiness to them that is hard to watch.

I haven't even seen Trick r Treat. Sorry Nixon.

It's a worthy debate about horror films though. Important in screenwriting terms I think.

Turistas was not good by any means, but it had an opportunity to be decent.  The premise was good and the build was decent.  It just fell all to shit with that walk through the jungle and what followed.  Terrible cinematography, horrible lighting, bad acting, and cartoonish villains sealed the deal.

I'll stick around a 25 or so.  

Dec, I thrilled that I'm not completely alone here.  Your comments are spot on, and I completely agree with about The Omen, The Shining, The Exorcist, and The Birds.  You're also correct about why Psycho worked.  More films should follow the same concept, but everything is so cookie cutter now, it seems almost impossible.

Nothing is set in stone when it comes to art and entertainment.  Thank God!

Quoted from Dreamscale HaHa!  Funny...I hope you're kidding around. No matter what you thought of it, you seriously can't be saying it's one of the worst movies of all time, can you?  I have this funny feeling you don't watch too many horror movies...and probably don't like the genre as a whole.

No it ain't one of the worst. But then it would have to sink pretty low to be so.

I watch a lot of movies, regardless of style and genre. There's only two types of movie in my book - good and bad.

And TrT ain't good.

RV

EDIT: I was typing just before you posted Wes. I think I've said my bit so I'm off to watch the Exorcist and The Shining again.

Lets keep this about the movie in the title and not about the genre as a whole. We had this discussion before in its own thread.

Quoted from Old Time Wesley Lets keep this about the movie in the title and not about the genre as a whole. We had this discussion before in its own thread.

Agreed.  It was a very old thread, though.

Quoted from Dec It's a worthy debate about horror films though. Important in screenwriting terms I think.

If someone were so inclined to start a new thread, say in General Chat, about this topic, I would not delete it.

But it is about time to wrap up this conversation here, unless it pertains to the film in question.

Fair notice that deletions will follow here, on this thread, for fresh posts that are off-topic.

Okay. This post's about the actual movie so lay off, mods!

So... Pretty underwhelming. Felt like an R-rated Goosebumps but not that R-rated. Gore was pretty minimal. There were a couple things I liked. The principal and his son, razorblades in candy and the Pumpkin creature but all were pretty underdeveloped. The characters were slightly better than most American horror movies but still pretty much archetypes of the genre. Brian Cox and Dylan Baker did well with their characters but none of it was particularly impressive. Honestly, the whole movie felt so smug in being maybe a couple notches above mainstream American horror but it was still mediocre. There was also a considerable lack of structure. While I don't mind stories melding together, the transitions were nonexistent. No good. The killing kids didn't impress me either. Eden Lake did it way better and with a little more conviction. In the end, I sort of enjoyed the first and last stories. The middle ones both sucked. Especially hated the troupe of teenage girls. I don't give a rat's ass how many scholarly essays about adolescence and "the last girl" you can get out of them; I prefer my horror movies slut free. I guess porn just isn't enough for some people.

Also, while my sentiments aren't as intense as Balt's or RV's, I'm surprised at how great people think this movie is and even more surprised by the people themselves. It's not so much that I think you guys have higher standards so much as it is I think you guys have neglected infinitely better horror movies to put this one on a pedestal.

Wow, I'm shocked again.  Totally shocked.

The "lack of transitions" was part of the beauty and genius on display here.  All the stories melded together because the timeline was very well thought through and made complete sense.  This was simply a number of things going on in in 1 small town, on 1 night.

James, you didn't like the young kids in the quarry, either?

You didn't like the werewolves?

Damn, very surprised again.

Quoted from Dreamscale The "lack of transitions" was part of the beauty and genius on display here.

I disagree.  The transitions were largely of the sort where one group of people "just happen" to walk past another group of people on the same street -- or "just happen" to drive past another group of people -- cue new story.  Oh, and viewing part of another story through a window.  Eh.  That last one was OK, I guess.

At least, that is all that I can recall.

Sure, there were transitions -- but they were servicable, at best.  I think you may be giving them too much credit because they simply made any effort at all -- which is understandable, given the state of horror today.

The transitions were not particularly clever, and IMO they were pretty far removed from "genius" territory.

EDIT:

Quoted from James McClung Felt like an R-rated Goosebumps but not that R-rated -- Honestly, the whole movie felt so smug...

For the record, I am pretty much on-board with this assessment.