"The Exorcist" director William Friedkin's 13 Must-See Horror Movies
 

http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/1,,2008...155567,00.html

William Friedkin on 13 Must-See Horror Movies



Here's a scary thought: The following movies give William Friedkin, director of The Exorcist (pictured), nightmares. ''They're usually pursuit dreams. Somebody is after me to kill me,'' explains the Oscar winner and man behind 2007's Bug— now available on an EW Must List-approved special edition DVD — and the Dec. 6 episode of CSI (which he directed for friend William Petersen). ''I dread having these nightmares because they are so real to me that it takes me maybe hours after I wake up to convince myself that I'm not in that world,'' Friedkin says. ''These films produce that same effect every time I watch them.'' With that sobering endorsement, on to Friedkin's annotated list. Rent at your own risk.

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,2008...153543,00.html

A Q&A with John Carpenter: The Sultan of Scare

The original ''Halloween'' director examines the enduring appeal of vampires, the new wave of torture horror, and why ''Texas Chainsaw Massacre'' is hi-lar-ious.

Psycho (1960)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

WILLIAM FRIEDKIN SAYS: ''Psycho was the first film that really scared me, that made me think, Oh my God, this is possible. Hitchcock based it on a novel by Robert Bloch, which was based on actual murders committed by a guy living in a shack in Wisconsin named Ed Gein. I grew up and lived in Chicago, a stone's throw away....When I made The Exorcist, I understood what Hitchcock had done with Psycho. The build-up to those horrific scenes was more terrifying than the scenes themselves, as unforgettably disturbing as they were. Any work of art that can produce an emotional response is powerful. Hitchcock is able to scare you, almost any time he cares to.''

and the rest...Friedkin commentary on each at the ew.com link.
http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/1,,2008...155567,00.html

Alien (1979)
Directed by Ridley Scott

Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Directed by Roman Polanski

Diabolique (1955)
Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot

Onibaba (1964)
Directed by Kaneto Shindô

Suspiria (1977) / Deep Red (1975)
Directed by Dario Argento

Le Boucher (The Butcher) (1970)
Directed by Claude Chabrol

Funny Games (1997)
Directed by Michael Haneke

Them (2006)
Directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud

The Lodger (1944)
Directed by John Brahm

The Spiral Staircase (1946)
Directed by Robert Siodmak

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Directed by Tobe Hooper

cool list to read. thanks!
I think tonite I will rent a few horror movies and get high with my lady and get scared

"Them (2006)
Directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud
WILLIAM FRIEDKIN SAYS: ''If you'll notice, most of the films on my list are from many, many years ago. For the most part, I'm not interested in horror films that I see today. But Them is an exception. It's based on a true story, and similar to Funny Games, it's about some young people who go around a small vacation town and kidnap various visitors, take them to a house, torture them, and kill them. For the entire length of the picture, you have no idea who's doing this or why, and then the final scene kind of explains it. Those sequences of hunting, capturing, and torturing are really among the most brilliant that I've ever seen.''



Well, that is not what happens in the movie, actually :confused: :confused: :confused:....

pwned...Billy Friedkin got busted!

I haven't seen it.

seen this Them, of course

Guess those "articles" get some heavy editing before publishing... maybe they messed up something. The story is a bit more "twisted" than that, the "elements" are all there ( a house and some people, mainly, that's all there's in the movie ha ha ) but the events are kinda different. and the best thing about that movie imo is the amazing audio, it's really scary with headphones on..go rent it, it's just over 70 mins long and well worth watching :D

and now, atsonicpark's 13 favorite horror movies!

1. dead alive
2. MANIAC (1980)
3. street trash
4. brain damage
5. deadtime stories
6. gore gore girls
7. night train to terror
8. dawn of the dead (original; the remake was TERRIBLE)
9. bloodsucking freaks
10. body melt
11. the gates of hell/city of the living dead
12. the beyond
13. basket case

Thanks for your list, atsonicpark; that's the ghoulish spirit.

my 13 favorite horror/monster/suspense thriller movies:

1. Psycho (1960) by Alfred Hitchcock (my #3 all-time)
2. Targets (1968) by Peter Bogdanovich
3. Alien (1979) by Ridley Scott
4. The Shining (1980) by Stanley Kubrick
5. Rosemary's Baby (1968) by Roman Polanski
6. Jaws (1975) by Steven Spielberg
7. The Thing (1982) by John Carpenter
8. Spoorloos [The Vanishing] (1988) by George Sluizer
9. Videodrome (1983) by David Cronenberg
10. Blade Runner (1982) by Ridley Scott
11. Halloween (1978) by John Carpenter
12. Eraserhead (1977) by David Lynch
13. Sin City (2005) by Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez



Blue Velvet (1986) by David Lynch is more of a suspense/mystery to me, thus it's not topping this list.
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) by John McNaughton just might be the scariest for its grisly sense of realism, although it's not a typical horror movie.
There's no The Exorcist (1973) by William Friedkin on my list; it's okay, it's just that it didn't make the top thirteen.

That's not a bad list at all, but he obviously hasn't seen Fred Vogel's August Underground.
I consider it to be one of the sickest serial killer movies of all time.

I would operate under the assumption that he has seen it before; he's William Friedkin, after all.

Then again, one can never be certain. I certainly haven't seen said movie.

How is it that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is on his list, but no Halloween? There's no The Shining either. Friedkin obviously doesn't have the greatest taste if these aren't in his top thirteen. Then again, it seems part of his list is used to highlight older ones that he feels a lot of people may not have seen.

Yeah. He probably has.
Here's a site with more extreme horror.

http://www.toetagpictures.com/

Hmm, I suppose Blade Runner (1982) by Ridley Scott has a dark, suspenseful sci-fi horror-vibe. I should probably kick out Grindhouse.

The original The Hitcher (1986) by Robert Harmon was pretty scary, and not a bad movie.

I liked Peter Jackson's Kong, (Dino's wasn't too bad), but the original is quite the cinema classic.

I enjoyed The Hitcher. I also shat myself in John Carpenter's The Thing.

Love Carpenter's The Thing. Had to rank it fairly highly.

Carpenter's Escape from New York with Kurt Russell is fun, but not as good of a movie, and more of a sci-fi adventure. I'll go ahead and write that The Thing is a bit more horror than sci-fi.

So, in lieu of The Hitcher, Blade Runner will provide the Rutger Hauer baddie mention, and score a deuce for director Ridley Scott. And Kurt Russell gets demoted because Grindhouse (Death Proof) is gone now from the thirteenth slot.

Yes, I'm taking my list way too seriously.

It's gross, and the scene where they test their blood is nail biting.

I've only seen "the thing" awfully dubbed in italian till now :(

things can be both horror and sci-fi. they are not mutually exclusive.

Horror has many faces. One of them being Salo. The horror. The horror.
The Burning was fun.

The Believers (1987) by John Schlesinger was pretty good, or at least better than The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) by Wes Craven.

Oh, I have to kick out something.

I just remembered Altered States (1980) by Ken Russell, which kinda also makes me think of Jacob's Ladder (1990) by Adrian Lyne.

South Park parodied that scene in the "Lice Capades" episode recently. It a pretty good one for a recent one.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0983724/

jacob's ladder used to freak me out so bad when I was in high school

a lot of the imagery was taken from Joel Peter Witkin's photographs

Top thirteen horror films, great idea:

Here's my contribution:

1. The Wicker Man - Robin Hardy
2. Witchfinder General - Michael Reeves
3. Night of the Living Dead - George A. Romero
4. Halloween - John Carpenter
5. The Devil Rides Out - Terence Fisher
6. Martin - George A. Romero
7. Vampyres - Jose Larraz
8. Black Sunday - Mario Bava
9. Alien - Ridley Scott
10. Texas Chainsaw Massacre - Tobe Hooper
11. Nosferatu - F. W. Murnau
12. Bride of Frankenstein - James Whale
13. Shivers - David Cronenberg

Oh, and a happy Halloween to you all!

It's weird, I can never decide whether i actually like that film or not.

Good suggestions all round. I'd like to add Herk Harvey's "Carnival Of Souls" too - a fantastic horror film which works on suggestion as opposed to more visceral visuals. And talking of genius splatter, on the exploitation tip, I can think of many worse ways than to grab a bottle of red wine and watch Amando De Ossorio's "Tombs Of The Blind Dead"...talking of which, anyone here seen "Night Of The Seagulls"?...and for pure misanthropic misery, you cannae beat "American Nightmares", the uncut version of "Combat Shock".

demonrail666, your Shivers (1975) mention makes me think of Videodrome (1983), The Fly (1986), The Dead Zone (1983), and Scanners (1981), all of which I had forgotten.

Eastern Promises, his new one, is very good. I actually went to see it downtown (across town) and wanted to see The Simpsons Movie (saw it the week after), but made the choice to see it first because I knew it might not be there long. It's kind of irritating when you know you have to do that sort of thing.

I almost did the same thing with Across The Universe instead of 3:10 to Yuma (which I figured might run for several weeks (turned out it did)), but I didn't and I missed Across The Universe. I'm glad I did too. It kind of looks like it might be wretched.

Totally agree. I completely forgot about it. Otherwise it would've been hovvering very close to the top of my list. I might've even stuck it at joint top with The Wicker Man.

...and copying Atari's lead, I love Croenenberg's "Dead Ringers" - very twisted and compelling.

EDIT: And from the sublime to the, er, "legendary", anyone here for Herschell Gordon Lewis' "Two Thousand Maniacs" (including a truly demented theme tune from the Pleasant Valley Boys)? Demonrail666 once described the barrel-roll sequence in this film as pure genius, and still I heartily agree with this sentiment.

A triple amen to that.

Oh shit, I missed Dead Ringers.
That's one of his best, if not his best overall. And outstanding acting from Irons. A fucking first-rate head trip; it's up alongside Videodrome.

You shouldn't have been so nice; should've ridiculed me.

I suppose Naked Lunch, and for that matter, Existenz, weren't so bad. There's so much dreamlike eeriness in both of those to like, but there's also so much tackiness that spoils things.

Go ahead and shoot me now for not mentioning Eraserhead (1977) by David Lynch.

...also the Bunuel Un Chien Andalou (1929) experimental short.

added Videodrome & Eraserhead...

Evil Dead 2 & Night Of The Living Dead just aren't cuttin' into the top 13.

I had trouble deciding on either Shivers, Rabid or Videodrome (I'm not that big a fan of Dead Ringers or the Dead Zone) so I chose the one with Barbara Steele in it. It worked for my Bava selection too. Thanks Babs!

Despite its rather contrived "shock" ending, I still find Takashi Miike's "Audition" to have some genuine chills to it in places....and seeing as Mario Bava's been mentioned, I'd like to throw in the fabulously unpleasant "Semaforo Rosso" (Rabid Dogs).

On a final note, seeing as it is Halloween, I'd also like to nominate Joe D'Amato's "Anthropophagous".

"You are the weakest link ... goodbye!"

The Entity was also quite disturbing.
Rumor has it that Hideo Nakata is going to do a remake.

DR666: LOL...you have to admit though, the idea of George Eastman throtting Anne Robinson would make for jolly fine entertainment.

In the very early 80's, I really wanted to see this film (thanks to several tabloids ranting about the "rape" sequences, and repeated showings of a sleazy TV ad for this film)..."Brimstone and Treacle" (featuring the fist magnet that is Sting) was also hyped on the "rape" premise...could anyone imagine a film being sold like that now? Kinda seems like a lifetime ago.

^Interesting.
It's supposedly based on a "true" story.

Yeah, I remember the same thing happening with Death Wish II. And of course, there were few more hallowed playground topics than that of the 'bummed in the greenhouse' scene in Scum. Which probably reduced instances of juvenile crime in Britain by half, the week following its release.

I'm gettin' feeble-brained...I forgot one of the very best...Spoorloos (1988, The Vanishing) by George Sluizer...the original Dutch version.

see ya Dracula, you're off the list