FINAL GIRL explores the slasher flicks of the '70s and '80s...and all the other horror movies I feel like talking about, too. This is life on the EDGE, so beware yon spoilers!

Oct 2, 2017

SHOCKtober: 616-597



Each of these films received ONE VOTE. We're gonna be in the land of the onesies for a good, long while, y'all, so settle in!

616. American Psycho -- 2000, Mary Harron
615. An American Werewolf in Paris -- 1997, Anthony Waller
614. And Soon the Darkness -- 1970, Robert Fuest
613. Angel Heart -- 1987, Alan Parker
612. April Fools -- 2007, Nancy Norman
611. Army of Darkness -- 1992, Sam Raimi
610. As Above, So Below -- 2014, John Erick Dowdle
609. Asylum Blackout -- 2011, Alexandre Courtès
608. Attack the Block -- 2011, Joe Cornish
607. Au rendez-vous de la mort joyeuse -- 1973, Juan Luis Buñuel
606. The Autopsy of Jane Doe -- 2016, André Øvredal
605. Baby Blood -- 1990, Alain Robak
604. Bad Taste -- 1987, Peter Jackson
603. Banshee Chapter -- 2013, Blair Erickson
602. Barton Fink -- 1991, Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
601. Battle Royale -- 2000, Kinji Fukasaku
600. Berberian Sound Studio -- 2012, Peter Strickland
599. Beyond the Black Rainbow -- 2010, Panos Cosmatos
598. Beyond the Darkness (aka Buio Omega) -- 1979, Joe D'Amato
597. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage -- 1970, Dario Argento


Movies I've seen and really enjoyed but haven't reviewed: Banshee Chapter and The Autopsy of Jane Doe. Especially Jane Doe, loved it. There's sort of a pantheon of modern horror already, you know? The VVitch, It Follows...the same few movies are repeatedly brought up when folks talk about the state of the genre, but these two are rarely mentioned. But they deserve it! Scares, originality, solid stuff.

I've wanted to check out As Above, So Below but after watching the trailer it's always seemed like a Designer Impostor The Descent so I haven't committed. But I should!

Buio Omega...it recently came out in some fancy Blu-ray edition and while I am curious, its notorious reputation puts me off. Way off. Way way off. But I love the soundtrack! Is it still worth seeing even though I am grossed out by gross-outs?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good call with Barton Fink. It never occurred to me to call it a horror movie, but it definitely qualifies.

Chris Otto said...

As I was crafting my list of 20 films, I had a small collection of films under the general label "horror comedy" that was vying to make it onto the list. Army of Darkness -- the best f--kin' Three Stooges film ever made -- was definitely on that list of films to consider. But then I decided the rabbit hole was too big, and if I opened the door for Army of Darkness, then I had to let Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein walk in, too. And that would start to bump a whole lot of OTHER films I love off the list. To each her or his own, of course, but I decided not to included the awesome horror comedies.

Viking71 said...

Hail SHOCKTOBER and welcome back!!! Just got a new comp and yours was the first site I bookmarked again. You are free to remain awesome :)

- Charlie

CashBailey said...

BARTON FINK is definitely disturbing.

ANGEL HEART is my jam. But that last shot of the baby... *shudders* Pure nightmare fuel. I keep hearing how amazing the original novel is, so I may have to track it down at some point.

Deadthyme said...

Buio Omega is very sleazy and gory (I heard D'Amato actually secured a real corpse to chop up somehow) with great dialogue such as in one part, when protagonist Frank is running through the hospital to see his dying wife, he runs into an elderly man who shouts at him “Hey! Who taught you how to drive?!”. However it also has a completely awesome atmosphere and very beautiful cinematography and (as you already mentioned) a great soundtrack by Goblin (or as they are called on the old version I tape traded for back in the day "The Goblins"). At heart it's just a touching love story about a man who loves his wife so much he’ll do anything to be with her forever, and the other woman who’ll do anything to marry him. How romantic- it should be a Valentine’s Day movie tradition.

Ryan Clark said...

Buio Omega is a great movie -- sleazy, yes... gross, yes... but it has amazing atmosphere, and Franca Stoppi is all kinds of fabulous. That rumor about D'Amato using a real corpse in the movie, which deadthyme mentioned above, is a load of crap though.

Anthony Hudson said...

Oh my stars. So many people hate As Above So Below that I feel like some kind of apologist for it. BUT I LOVE IT so much. There’s SOME The Descent riffs here and there, but it’s even more like the (also Descent-adjacent) Tomb Raider reboot game. Like, this is what a I want a Tomb Raider to be, and yes I 100% pretend the heroine is young Lara Croft when I watch it. It’s just a cute treasure hunting movie about alchemy complete with a Satanic women’s choir!

Stacie Ponder said...

That's more than good enough for me, I'm in!

Poli said...

In retrospect, I should've included Attack the Block on my list. I do love that movie.