View Single Post
  #12  
Old 12-24-2006, 09:31 AM
The Flayed One's Avatar
The Flayed One The Flayed One is offline
Mighty HDC Drunken Pirate

 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: I'm Crunchy!
Posts: 4,503
M (1931)

Many argue that M is the single greatest crime story to ever be filmed, and, when viewed, it's hard to disagree. So why the hell is it in a top 100 horror list?! Because it's terrifyingly realistic, and utterly unsettling. Produced in an awkward transitional period between silent films and talkies, this cold-hearted serial killer movie has a curiously powerful effect on viewers through its use of silence. Its shadowy atmosphere combined with Lorre's magnificently creepy performance create something that paunds an uneasy fear of the human race into our hearts...and sickly illustrates what a creature just like us can do to someone just like us. - alkytrio666

Kafka and Poe are two of the cornerstones of horror as we know it. Because of Poe, the Gothic ventured into more intimate territories, the realms of our own neurosis and inability to resist our evil urges, because of Kafka, horror became a lens through which to view oppressive and terrifying social circumstances. M combines Poe' s concerns with Kafka' s, saying that the evil in all men has the potential to make us all criminals, in the eyes of the law, in the eyes of the populace and in our own minds. Peter Lorre portrays a man whose sexual deviance turns him into a monster, but this is rendered no more frightening a prospect than what his reputation does to him. Lorre's Beckert is a man who a whole city is after, a man turned into a monster and hunted down like an animal by his acts. All the while, criminals scheme in gambling dens and the police threaten everyone's personal liberty. M asks us if it is worth compromising the things that make civilization civilized in order to capture those who violate its edicts. This movie only grows in power and relevance in a time where America is asking these questions and coming up with answers that might not be to everyone's liking. - Doc Faustus

Magic (1978)



C'est arrivé près de chez vous (aka Man Bites Dog) (1992)

Man Bites Dog is a masterpiece of epic proportions. It’s a black and white French Mockumentary about your average everyday guy….who just so happens to be a serial killer. This film combines shocks, character studies, and some of the most pitch black humor I have ever seen. Ever seen someone snuff out an innocent old granny and laughed at it?
One of the most interesting aspects of the film is the film crews’ relationship with the killer. Towards the beginning of the film they find themselves intimidated by him, but the more time they spend with him and the more atrocities they encounter, they become more comfortable with him. Eventually, the crew ends up sinking to his level, assisting him and becoming partners in crime. To this day Man Bites Dog shocks and provokes thoughts from the viewer. See it. - The Mothman


Du bi quan wang da po xue di zi (aka Master of the Flying Guillotine) (1975)

It’s a Frisbee… no it’s a hat…no it’s a flying guillotine!!! Let the decapitations begin! As an unofficial sequel to the Shaw Brothers’1974 martial arts classic Flying Guillotine and an actual sequel to Wang Yu’s One Armed Boxer, MotFG surpasses both predecessors in action, gore and flat-out ass-kickery.

The film is a simple revenge tale in which the one-armed boxer is the object of revenge at the hands of a blind (but no less deadly) master of the flying guillotine. It’s all very paint-by-numbers chop-sockey, but the centerpiece of the film is an international martial arts competition that brings out absurdities of the highest magnitude, including a yogi whose arms can extend to freakish lengths. It is this eye for the bizarre that pushes MotFG from fun action to glorious lunacy. One of the many direct influences on Kill Bill this one is not to be missed by any fan of the genre. - Roderick Usher

The Monster Squad (1987)
__________________

Last edited by The Flayed One; 10-05-2008 at 12:54 PM.
Reply With Quote