In that light ,the suicides at the end don’t fit but now I see your point too.

My view was probably colored by remembering some of King’s anti-Bush rants that were in the press last year.

Luke

Now, back to Luke and “The Mist”…

****MORE SPOILERS FOR THE MIST****
****MORE SPOILERS FOR THE MIST****
****MORE SPOILERS FOR THE MIST****
****MORE SPOILERS FOR THE MIST****
****MORE SPOILERS FOR THE MIST****
****MORE SPOILERS FOR THE MIST****

While the timing may have been bad, they went as far as they could. Given all they had seen, there was no reason to believe they could go anywhere on foot, there was no visible shelter, and, I’m guessing, someone was going to have to step out soon to use the toilet. And the groceries weren’t going to be an issue - you can survive weeks without food, but only days without water. If they evaluated the situation as hopeless, and logically one can see why they would, what is the point to hanging out to slowly die of dehydration?And part of the reason for making their choice was the fact that they WERE “safe” - there were no creatures immediately about. That’s why they did what they did - to avoid death in one of the various horrific ways that they had seen. Wait, and they risk a terrible death. Do it now, and they get… well, I guess, a “clean and easy” death. One could certainly argue whether it was the right choice or not, but I would suspect that it is not coincicence that this echoes the debate over euthanasia, in which the sides also tend to be drawn between the secular and the faithful.

They could have lasted a week or two in the car. That’s not lack of faith. That’s lack of brains.
Luke

I’m also one of those who likes the Dawn of the Dead remake more than the original. I had seen the original before I watched the remake, so it’s not that. I just thought the original was pretty slow, with not the greatest acting. Plus I don’t really see the much-vaunted Romero “social commentary” that everyone talks about with Dawn in particular. Can anyone explain what commentary there is? Shaun of the Dead had some social commentary. I’m not so sure about Dawn.

For those of you who are zombie flick fans, by the way, I recommend “Dead Set”, a miniseries that just finished airing on BBC4 I believe. Its setting is silly and kind of pointless, but despite setting itself up with the expectation of parody it plays it straight as soon as the zombies show up. Pretty enjoyable.

I’d also recommend the Orphanage highly, fantastic tense flick. And for once it had a good ending; horror movies tend to be bad at that. I agree that Return of the Living Dead’s Tarman was very creepy. It’s not as serious as other zombie flicks but I found it just as creepy because of the creativity of some of its ideas. The Exorcism of Emily Rose was also excellent, and made me think about my faith a bit too. Quite creepy, plus thought-provoking.

Apparantly the studio wanted a less thoughtful, more action oriented Exorcist sequel. And that’s what Harlin gave them.

Why they wanted it I have no idea, but I can say that the original version wasn’t particularly scary, so they were right in recognizing that something was wrong. I really can’t say which is better, but I can say neither one was right.

I really didn’t see the point of the films. I can be generous when it comes to horror films, and could pick out things here and there that I liked, and add some background to Father Merrin (though whether that is good or bad is another argument) but truth be told neither really stuck in my memory. These are very forgettable films. If you have any interest in them, catch them on cable or NetFlix.

…

I neglected to include “The Omega Man” as a film that creeped me out as a child.

Speaking of House of 1000 Corpses, I would highly recommend The Devil’s Rejects, which clearly supplants The Godfather II and Empire Strikes Back as best evidence a sequel can be better than the original.

Corpses was a fun flick, a clear homage to the 70s and early 80s horror flicks. But it never rises above its Texas Chainsaw Massacre/Toursist Trap origins, and really never gets to be more than, at best, a fun homage.

Devil’s Rejects is the sequel we never see, and that’s the great thing about it. It is, essentially, what happens the next day, when the cops come haul in the Firefly family. The Firefly’s hit the road, going on a brutal crime spree, while being persued by a revenge minded cop. The horror is more grounded, more human, and more believable than in Corpses (Dr. Satan is seen only in a deleted scene), and the time spent with the villains fleshes them out without making them sympathetic. And I’ve not been able to hear “Midnight Rider” or “Free Bird” without flashing back to this film.

It’s a crying shame that Zombie went from this to a tired retread of Halloween. Hell, if he had taken this same novel approach to Myers in a sequel (if possible, a Superman Returns “those other sequels never happened” type sequel), he might have been far more successful.

I’ll be curious to see whether it is Rejects or Halloween that ends up being the exception to Zombie’s film career.

…

Luke,

Nope. I definately liked The Mists ending. Even though I’m a hard core agnostic, The Mist, up until that point, had been giving a thorough shitkicking to those of faith, and even I was pretty insulted by it. By having that ending, in which we see what a lack of faith brings, it adds some gray back to the black and white, and should make the viewer wonder who was really right (assuming you follow the ending to its logical conclusion).

And speaking of The Mist, I highly, highly recommend watching Darabont’s director’s cut. Exactly the same footage, edited the same way, but its in black and white. I think it is far more effective. Not only does it make the effects more convincing, but it readily evokes the feel of a 50s monster movie. Wonderful stuff for those who appreciate it.

And as I I’m sure you figured out the original message should have read “worst horror movie of all time”

@NeoConJedi,
Did you see there’s a new Underworld movie coming out:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0834001/
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like we’ll be treated to Ms. Beckinsale in that tight leather costume.
Luke

Horror films, or films with strong horror threads I enjoyed:
- Devil’s Rejects
- Dawn of the Dead (2004)
- 28 Days/28 Weeks Later
- Alien
- Halloween
- Underworld films
- Resident Evil trilogy

A friend said Cujo was the only movie he walked out of and demanded his money back from the theater. Saved me the trouble of watching it.

But of course it was not the sequel to the scariest movie ever. From the sublime to the ridiculous understates how bad II is.