[Lucky]

Its Kubrick's version of King's classic vs Craven's version of Kevin Williamson's annoying teenage crap. That's a lot of notable players and one of them doesn't belong. Care to guess who? I'll give you a hint. The non-genius made David Arquette a star. Bah, stupid bastard.

(5) The Shining





vs



(12) Scream



[/b]

Poll closes Fri 8 PM EST. Hopefully.

[Jack Quinn]

this shouldn't even be close

[DevSop]

You are correct. The hotness of Neve, Drew, Rose, and Court is much much better than Jacky boy.

[Lucky]

You know, you've completely perverted the Hot Chick rule. It was a tiebreaker intended to solve apathy. And it was light hearted since I instituted it during the Kids' stuff. You're not supposed to use it universally, man!

Besides, all hotness should be negated by these guys:

[creepy]

Scream was pretty good when it came out. Heck, it might still be pretty good.

But it was more of a whodunit than a scary movie. I just wanted to know how the killers would justify their killing. I guess it was a glorified episode of Murder, She Wrote (Which I love).

The Shining just scared ya.

[Stu]

I guess it was a glorified episode of Murder, She Wrote (Which I love).

Did you not think it was a bit suspicious that a woman who made her living writing murder mysteries had to solve murders (and thus have something to write about) everywhere she went?
And did you know they once did a crossover with Magnum PI?
uk.youtube.com/watch?v=m2J7OaTFJgU
I want a Dirty Harry/Columbo Team-Up now!

[creepy]

stu said:

Did you not think it was a bit suspicious that a woman who made her living writing murder mysteries had to solve murders (and thus have something to write about) everywhere she went?

Yeah, that wasalways a running joke. "Murder, She Hopes." I've only known at least one dude who was murdered, but it seemed that she was around when 200 or so people were taken out.

And did you know they once did a crossover with Magnum PI?
uk.youtube.com/watch?v=m2J7OaTFJgU
I want a Dirty Harry/Columbo Team-Up now!

Yeah, I tape MSW twice daily when it comes on the Sleuth channel. This episode came on, but since I haven't seen the Magnum PI ep in probably 10 years, I had to delete it.




Yeah. I DVR Murder, She Wrote.

[Jack Quinn]

devilsoprano said:

You are correct. The hotness of Neve, Drew, Rose, and Court is much much better than Jacky boy.

You know, somehow, this is exactly what I expect from you

[Lori]

The Shining did NOT scare me. And I'm not sure how David Arquette holding a plate full of WEED is supposed to deter me.

[Lucky]

Is that what that is? I've been posting that pic because I couldn't for the life of me tell what it was and I thought there was a decent chance he had a plate of manure.

I guess it does kinda look like weed. That explains that. The manure thing was just creepy.

[Lori]

Well, and he has pot leaves on his jacket.

[Lucky]

I'll be damned, so he does. And here I was just presuming he was wearing his wardrobe from 3000 Miles to Graceland.

Sorry. Me and pot have never been well acquainted. Still, I probably should have noticed the jacket. I try not to look too closely at Arquette.

[DevSop]

I have not used the Hot Chick rule wrong. There's also the "I hate Jack" corollary here. At one time I thought he was pretty good, but then I realized he's never acted in a movie. He's been Jack Nicholson in every fucking role he's ever done. The closest I think he's come has been The Departed and in that he got overshadowed by every other single person who has a scene in the movie.

So if you want to eliminate the Hot Chick vote here, that's fine. I vote for Scream because Nicholson sucks. I vote for Scream because I don't care what happened after it with regards to giving undeserving careers to Skeet, Lillard, Kennedy, and Arquette...but the movie was really good. I vote for Scream because it re-energized the horror genre. You have to be honest there, there was a period there with all of the horrible Freddy and Jason sequels where horror was a joke and nothing was coming out of it. Scream, even if it led to the Summer movies and other crap, proved horror could come back and it has.

[Lucky]

I've already said it was a breath of fresh air when Horror was dying. Problem is it it was as momentary a resurgence as possible since Scream begat a couple of dozen crappy ripoffs including 5 or 6 movies done by Williamson himself (and 2 carrying the Scream name). I'd be a lot more respectful of it if it ACTUALLY helped horror. But it didn't. I'd argue it sunk horror into a bigger hole of shit and suck then it was in before it. But it was mainstream suck now that teens watched because it starred pretty people. So putting aside all the pissy Dawson's Creek/crappy actors stuff I've been spouting. Fuck the claim that it "saved horror" or even helped it.

1995: "Boy, horror really sucks these days."
1996: "Wow, Scream was really surprisingly good. And its been insanely successful! This could be the shot in the arm horror needs and a reason for the studios to make more!"
1997: "Wow, horror really sucks these days."
1998: "GODDAMN YOU, SCREAM! YOU SENT HORROR DOWN A VERY SUCKY PATH!"

Around 2000 we saw American Psycho, Sixth Sense, The Others, and Ginger Snaps released. I think that's roundabout when Horror bounced back. If you haven't seen Ginger Snaps see it. I'm an idiot for not including it on my ballot.

Oh, and Dev I'll get the rest of the ballots up today. Sorry for the delay.

[Lori]

Ginger Snaps? Seriously? Now granted, I've only seen it once, and maybe I haven't given it a fair shake, but I have big werewolf fears, and I wasn't all that impressed. Cursed was worse, but even Silver Bullet was better.

[Lucky]

Ginger Snaps rocks. Comparing it to Cursed just makes me sad. Good acting, dark humor, a weird little puberty metaphor. An awesome transformation and quality effects. And while it means nothing to you Ginger was HAWT.

Hell, its even a critical favorite. Horror. On the web. I think Ebert even dug it. Not that I put a ton of stock in that but if you can get the widespread approval of a tough crowd there has to be something to it.

I dig that movie lots. Now the sequels? Eh. They're pretty iffy. Although the idea of addiction in 2 is kinda interesting and I though the effects in 3 were pretty solid.

And Ginger was HAWTer in 3.

I'd give it another shake. It really surprised me as to how good it was and I've seen it a few times since and continue to dig it. My only real complaint is that Mimi Rogers' character is pretty fucking silly and stupid. But Mimi Rogers seems to always be pretty fucking silly and stupid. So I'll hold that against her and the casting director.

[Lori]

I'll give you the transformation, the change scene was pretty good from what I remember. The puberty/period thing was just weird. I don't pay attention to critics, they do a job any one of us could do, I can't imagine why they're paid for that. I don't know, I'd probably give it another shot, it's been a few years since I saw it, and can't really remember entirely why I had such distaste for it at the time.
If you haven't seen Dog Soldiers, there's a good werewolf movie you should check out. It was on my list, near the top, but I don't think anyone else had it.

[National Champion Chris Cole]

I saw Dog Soldiers but thought the movie was pretty bad. It almost made my Top 10 nominations for Worst Movies.

[creepy]

So it might actually be pretty good.

[Lori]

It is. The werewolves themselves weren't great, but they never look quite right in movies anyway (at least not compared to what I picture). As far as building dread goes, Dog Soldiers had it going on.

[Lucky]

I haven't seen Dog Soldiers but I've been meaning to for awhile. I like werewolf films and I haven't seen many good ones. Now that I have my DVR I'll be on the look out for it. I feel like I see it on the schedule every once and awhile so hopefully I'll catch it.

I don't much care about critics either. I rarely read any of them. I think Ebert is amusing and very fair. And he has the unique ability to judge a movie for what it is and not what he likes. He'll watch a decent horror and say "It was gory, mediocre story and acting, and not my thing. But if you're a horror fan and don't mind the gore it was a good mood piece with some good effects." Outside of him I don't care. I just bring it up because I sometimes look to critics as a whole just to get a sense of how a film is being received. If you have 80 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and have a 89% positive rating that's pleasing a LOT of people. And critics tend to be really bitter assholes. Especially internet ones. So I'm not saying "good reviews=good movie." But when I see a movie I wouldn't expect to review well get good reviews it makes me raise an eyebrow.

BTW, since we brought up Cursed I think I watched it 3 times desperately wanting it not to suck. I don't even know why. I like Ricci, I love Craven, and it felt like it could be good. But everytime I watched it I just hated it more and more. But I had to keep giving it chances. I'll probably give it another one just because I want it to...

Oh wait, what's that?

Cursed is a 2005 horror film by director Wes Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson, the creators of Scream.

Yeah, ok. That makes more sense.

And this is just weird:

When the production was stalled, many cast members were cut, including Skeet Ulrich, Mandy Moore, Omar Epps, Illeana Douglas, Heather Langenkamp, Scott Foley, Robert Forster, and Corey Feldman. Some of these actors even filmed scenes which were scrapped by director Wes Craven.

Yeah, why did I give this movie more chances? And how did I manage to miss that it was Williamson with Craven and all those damn Teen Beat actors? If I had just made that connection I could have saved myself so much more time.

Full circle, baby.