From his book
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sheetsadam1 — 7 months ago(August 28, 2025 12:37 PM)
I'm thinking it's actually the only Oliver Stone movie I haven't seen. At least of his scripted films. I probably should correct that soon.
"Praise be to Allah." - President Donald J. Trump, Easter Sunday 04/05/2026 -
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Paul P. Powell — 7 months ago(August 29, 2025 03:12 AM)
Big budget horror is what turns me off. I don't mean studio-era, I mean post studio-era.
Low budget horror all the way.
But as I skim the list again I'm wondering why these omissions. Am I just not seeing them? Did I run my eyes over them once already and now am just not looking close enough?
The Tenant (Polanski)
The Honeymoon Killers
Bad Ronald
Death Ship
Outward Bound
Nightmare Alley
The Raven
Targets
The Unknown (silent)
Eyes Without a Face
Chamber of Horrors
Shock Waves
The Clonus Horror
Funhouse
The Nanny (Bette Davis)
The Old Dark House (Karloff)
When a Stranger Calls
11 Rillington Place
Paul P. Powell, Pool Player -
sheetsadam1 — 7 months ago(August 29, 2025 03:42 AM)
Some of those are outside of the scope of the book (King's own lifetime; I suppose Nightmare Alley is right on the edge), but I agree that Targets is a big omission as I mentioned to somebody above. I do wonder how he would craft such a list today with all of these films and more being readily available on various home video formats and cable showings (TCM, early AMC) for years.
I agree completely that low budget horror is the best. That's why the films of Corman and AIP in their prime generally still hold up very well (not Corman's later, more hands-off production work as he entered the direct-to-video and SyFy Channel market). I think there has been a revival of sorts in the genre in recent years, but things were indeed very grim for the most part in the '80s, '90s and the early part of this century with endless slasher sequels, remakes of the same and the wave of inferior American remakes of Japanese horror films.
But I think that directors such as Robert Eggers, Ari Aster, Mike Flanagan (primarily his TV work), Osgood Perkins, Panos Cosmatos, Jordan Peele, Ti West and others have breathed some new life into it. To a certain degree, a revival has occurred in the realm of horror literature as well, as I talk about elsewhere on these boards from time to time. Mariana Enríquez, Laird Barron, and Stephen Graham Jones are particular favorites of mine among recent horror writers.
It is a shame that Peter Straub, the best American horror writer of King's generation, never got to see a proper adaptation of any of his work. The 1981 version of
Ghost Story
with a truncated plot and a horribly miscast Fred Astaire certainly wasn't one.
"Praise be to Allah." - President Donald J. Trump, Easter Sunday 04/05/2026 -
/.ㅤ — 7 months ago(August 29, 2025 03:56 AM)
i pretty much agree.
a big budget can get you suspense or a thriller
but the big budget horror is rare because it's mostly what you don't see on the screen and needs to be things we can relate to.
it can be done though if they bothered to spend more of that money on the script and actors and didn't have too many outside influences (profit motives).
although it would probably be more like a sci fi or fantasy horror.
alien would be a good example if that could be considered horror. -
Paul P. Powell — 7 months ago(August 29, 2025 04:02 AM)
Aye. '
Less is more
', in horror.
Whom did I just hear lecturing on this …oh! Alan Arkin talking about the technique used in
'Wait Until Dark'.
What else is there to say. Well. If anyone is interested, the famous '
chicken heart
' radio episode from '48(?) is available here:
https://archive.org/details/LightsOutoldTimeRadio
No visuals at all. See if it doesn't sweep you along, as silly as the premise may be. There's just something about it which gets under the skin.
I believe King writes about this in that same book. It is also a favorite childhood memory of Bill Cosby.
Paul P. Powell, Pool Player -
sheetsadam1 — 7 months ago(August 29, 2025 04:07 AM)
I think much of the artistic failure of big budget movies today - horror or otherwise - stems from a lack of adequate hands-on training of the type that AIP, Corman's later New World Pictures, and even smaller production companies provided. Coppola, Scorsese, Bogdanovich, Cameron, Demme, etc. went on to much bigger things, but because of their experience on low-budget films, they seemed to learn how to make each dollar count. We can see the opposite approach in the same era with Michael Cimino, who began his career writing big studio productions, moved into the director's chair and went on to bankrupt an entire studio.
"Praise be to Allah." - President Donald J. Trump, Easter Sunday 04/05/2026 -
/.ㅤ — 7 months ago(August 29, 2025 04:22 AM)
i see modern big budget films as elaborate money laundering schemes these days.
and with the quest for larger audiences to extract from, they've made it so we basically cannot relate to anything culturally except other things we've seen on our screens.
anything relatable that's not the intellectual product of hollywood itself, tends to get **** all over. -
sheetsadam1 — 7 months ago(August 29, 2025 04:36 AM)
I largely agree. I read books nearly every week which would make for fantastic movies, but it's unlikely that many of them will ever be adapted to the screen. Hollywood is all about riding the superhero wave until it crashes (with video game adaptations already set to take their place) and occasionally catering to nostalgia by giving people a 105-year-old Indiana Jones or geriatric Ghostbusters. A24 is among the few reasons why American cinema is still alive at all, in my view.
"Praise be to Allah." - President Donald J. Trump, Easter Sunday 04/05/2026 -
/.ㅤ — 7 months ago(August 29, 2025 04:46 AM)
i also see deeper, psychological games being played as part of a larger system.
sure, we call it "nostalgia" and "superhero movies", but i wouldn't dismiss it as coincidence or merely for-profit. there is a clear direction to all of this. -
sheetsadam1 — 7 months ago(August 29, 2025 04:52 AM)
Sure, but it's a chicken and egg scenario. Is Hollywood responsible for creating the situation or are they merely meeting their audience on it's intellectual level? There are many factors at play here.
"Praise be to Allah." - President Donald J. Trump, Easter Sunday 04/05/2026 -
Paul P. Powell — 7 months ago(August 29, 2025 03:18 AM)
Also
WHAT THE HELL
is Brian DePalma's lame-o,
"The Fury"
doing on his list? What is that a favor to his friend John Farris? I love Farris' writing but the adaptation was a joke.
Talk about one of the least intimidating pointless big-budget horror flicks ever. Gag. It's exactly for reasons like this, I sniff and shrug at big budget horror. Turn up my nose and stroll right past.
You can tell just by looking at the glossy production values, it's gunna suck rope.
Paul P. Powell, Pool Player