It’s horror movie season in the US and my favorite type is zombies. I also love campy B movies. Watching Dead Snow 2 right now and I think it ranks up there with Shawn of the Dead and Evil Dead 3: Army of Darkness.

What is your top pick for whatever genre?

  • teawrecks@sopuli.xyz
    2·
    8 months ago

    It Follows

    I like that it’s such a simple concept for a horror movie, but it’s still highly engaging for the audience.

    spoiler

    Early on in the movie, it (quite literally) teaches you a set of rules that the monster operates by, and the rest of the film feels almost like an interactive game.

    • the monster is a shapeshifter
    • it has stack (as in the data structure) of targets
    • it’s always walking straight towards the target at the top of the stack (peek())
    • the target can have sex with someone else to make them the new target (push())
    • if the target at the top of the stack dies, the previous target is the target again (pop())

    Beyond that, the writing and cinematography just let the audience play along. The characters are deliberating their plans on how they would deal with the monster, letting you also think about what you would do in their situation. And the camera likes to slowly pan around the people talking so that all the while, the audience is scanning the background looking for the monster. It can look like anyone, and they constantly, and deliberately put extras in the background walking directly toward the camera just to make you go “oh shit! Is that it right there? Hey, pay attention, we need to move!”

    It’s just such a fun, unique experience. I don’t know of another horror movie experience quite like it.

  • Coriza@lemmy.world
    1·
    8 months ago

    I also recommend It Follows. It is so different. And the characters don’t act dumb. And everything makes sense in the context. Like why they dont get a car or catch a plane, because they are broke teenagers.

  • papertowels@lemmy.one
    1·
    8 months ago

    Rec (2007) . A slow night where a novice news reporter shows a day in the life of the local firestation turns into so much more.

    I think there’s something about the intersection between found footage and a foreign (to me) film that makes it so much more believable and enjoyable. This is miles beyond the US remake, quarantine. No big name actors here to ruin the found footage vibe. Just a small town news reporter meandering through a slow night at a local fire station.

  • zero_gravitas@aussie.zoneEnglish
    1·
    8 months ago

    Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010) and The Cabin in the Woods (2012) (go in spoiler-free with this one) are both good comedy horror.

  • Subtracty@lemmy.world
    1·
    8 months ago

    Signs (2002) is my favorite horror movie to watch during spooky season. While it was mocked so perfectly in Scary Movie 3, I feel like the atmosphere it creates is still so unnerving. The humor in the movie adds an element of B movie campiness to an otherwise serious movie.

    Cabin in the Woods (2011) disassembles the horror tropes in a hilarious way. Inspired by the Evil Dead movies.

  • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
    1·
    8 months ago

    Alright I can think of a few that strangely haven’t been mentioned yet!

    • Barbarian - Woman checks in to an AirBnB. But beneath it lies a horrible secret. This one’s pretty disturbing in subject matter, actually. But it’s solidly eery.

    • Tremors - It’s bright daylight! In a small desert town! What’s so spooky about that? Vibration-sensitive, man-eating sandworms maybe. This movie is just solidly fun all around. Legendary B-movie monster film.

    • The Descent - Always thought caves were creepy? Want to experience claustrophobia from the safety of your own home? Wanna see how an all-woman horror film cast is done correctly? This one’s a treat.

    • Dog Soldiers - The Scottish Highlands are gorgeous for a hike. Less appealing though if you’re a squad of British soldiers doing a training exercise in a monster movie. Features reasonably smart cast of soldiers doing their best, but cleverly using the training scenario premise to take away their live ammo so they can’t just shoot away their problems. Also, I remember it being very “B movie” in a good way. A well-placed cheesy joke or two had me laughing out loud without it being Marvel-grade snark, but it was still tense and exciting.

    • Pandorum - Guy wakes up from hypersleep on a giant ship where things have gone horribly wrong. His only other awake crewmate is uh…a bit off, maybe? This one feels VERY Deadspace. If you like “Creepy massive cathedral-like dungeon ships” flavored sci-fi horror, this one’s pretty good. I’d say maybe much tamer than Event Horizon, but clearly took some inspiration there.

    • 30 Days of Night - You know how in Alaska they get really long periods where the sun is just gone? You know how certain classic horror antagonists hate sunlight? Uh oh.

    • Overlord - A World War 2 horror film. I mean, WWII was full of horror but…like… unbelievable horror. No, like, pulpy mad scientist supervillains and secret experiments horror–No, like stuff that DIDN’T actually happen. It’s the closest to a Wolfenstein movie as we’re gonna get. (And very “Weird Wars 2” if you’ve played a good Savage Worlds TTRPG or two)

    • Resident Evil - I liked maybe two or three sequels too, before it got utterly ridiculous to farm cash, but the original is always cited as a horror classic, even among people who aren’t fans of the games. (Almost entirely unrelated characters and plot.)

  • nocturne@sopuli.xyz
    1·
    8 months ago

    Braindead/Dead Alive is always in my top horror movies. Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn is a really good movie too. Both have an amazing number of fantastic one liners.

    28 Days and 28 Weeks Later are great zombie movies that are less camp and humor.