Canadian film critic Richard Crouse seems to have his hands full with regular gigs in mainstream television, radio and print journalism, yet still manages to find the time to indulge in his lifelong passion for cult cinema. His most recent tome is The Son of the 100 Best Movies You’ve Never Seen, a follow-up to The 100 Best Movies You’ve Never Seen, both of them containing a heavy amount of the macabre.

Making up a list like this is tough. I’m sure I’ll remember a classic or two that I should have included after I hit the send button, but, off the top of my head, here are my faves…

1. The Exorcist 1973, Directed by William Friedkin. The single scariest night at the movies this ten year old ever experienced.
2. Let the Right One In 2008, Directed by Tomas Alfredson. A vampire film without a castle, a cape or coffin. Loved it.
3. Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein 1948, Directed by Charles Barton. Perfect mix of corny laughs and scary stuff.
4. Ginger Snaps 2000, Directed by John Fawcett. Great reinvention of the werewolf myth.
5. Frankenstein 1931, Directed by James Whale. For my money the best of the classic Universal monster movies.
6. Dawn of the Dead 1978, Directed by George A. Romero. Probably the greatest zombie flick ever.
7. Rosemary’s Baby 1968, Directed by Roman Polanski. Evil atmosphere you could cut with a knife.
8. Psycho 1960, Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. I still get creeped out in the shower.
9. May 2002, Directed by Lucky McKee. Really underrated horror film that deserves to be better known than it is.
10. The Host 2006, Directed by Joon-ho Bong. Big bug movies don’t get much better than this.

The Horror Blog Top Ten returns from a short stint in the grave with today’s selection, hand-picked by the Mad Monk of horror blogging, Arbogast. For the month of October Arbogast has cast aside his idiosyncratic musings on weird cinema to concentrate once more on the extraordinary screams of the damned, with a serving of auditory delights on the side. Feast your ears and orbs on that!

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)
CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962)
CANOA (1976)
THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999)
BRIDES OF DRACULA (1960)
NADJA (1995)
THE WOMAN WHO CAME BACK (1945)
NOSFERATU (1922)
MATANGO (1963)
VIY (1967)

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming for this very special announcement.

I received a very urgent missive from Threadless, the online t-shirt company that sells designs created by the public. They’re throwing a 24-hour Halloween sale, with a number of their creepiest t-shirts knocked down to just $10, perfect for the recession and the strong loonie. I’m partial to a number of the designs, including The Horde, Three Dimensions of Terror, Bone Idol, and of course, Hot Chicks on Wolves. The sale is only good for another… 17 hours! Please help me decide on which one I should order before it’s too late!

In other apparel news, you may have noticed a particularly gruesome advertisement added to the sidebar. That would be Zombie Liquorice, the horror t-shirt company that caters to those who prefer splatter to cute. I already own The Swarm, and can attest to both its comfort and its ability to sicken those who I encounter while wearing it. I am very excited to show it off at the next metal show I attend.

Finally, J. won me a t-shirt at Trash Palace this past weekend. I officially have too many t-shirts.

Three years ago, Sam Costello escaped the horror blog ghetto in order to concentrate on something far more rewarding, the creation of his horror webcomic, Split Lip. In concert with the blood-stained hands of a diverse set of like-minded and talented artists, Sam has crafted over 25 short stories of terror, each with their own uniquely macabre feel. The first print volume is available now, though why not try before you buy?

I’ve never made a Top 10 horror movies list. In fact, I usually resist this sort of thing; it’s too hard, too constricting. I’m game, though, so in creating this list, I threw out the things that make these lists tough for me: historic importance and influence, artistic value, and all kinds of other high-minded concerns.

1. Audition
2. The Descent
3. The Ring (US)
4. The Blair Witch Project
5. A Nightmare on Elm Street
6. Martyrs
7. A Tale of Two Sisters
8. Session 9
9. Carnival of Souls
10. Le Sang des Betes

Proprietor of the wonderful Tomb It May Concern, David Z. is one of the world’s foremost authorities on matters concerning Christina Lindberg, Yor, the Pastapocalypse and other equally compelling topics. He’s also the only individual other than Satan to have a Horror Roundtable devoted to him. If you like what you see, please consider purchasing Tough To Kill, the definitive guide to 80’s Italian action movies written by David Z. and Paul Cooke.

House By The Cemetery - THE European horror film of the 80s and, for me, the best entry in the Lucio Fulci filmography. The perfect balance of Gothic Ghoulishness and Psychotic Splatsploitation….every trip through the basement of Freudstein is pure horror bliss.

Day of the Dead - While the first two entries in the Dead series get the love, I find Day to be the most interesting and scariest. Trapped and surrounded by a bunch of hungry monsters, a few survivors dream of creating their own little place in the world. And then there are zombies to contend with as well! Big Bonus…who doesn’t just love BUB?

Texas Chainsaw Massacre - This could be the only dinner I’d dread more than eating creme de foie gras again.

Lips of Blood - I love Jean Rollin films, and this one is his most satisfying horror film. The mixture of the protagonist seeking lost memories from his youth and the bizarre turns his quest takes as he frees a batch of vampires is wonderfully surreal and frightening.

Erotic Rites of Frankenstein - Jess Franco pays tribute to and plays with the conventions of monster rallies in this bizarre film. Sadly the versions presented on DVD are the covered/censored prints, though you can see the sequences in lesser quality in the supplements sections. The silver skin of the Monster-a crazed whipping machine in this film-is great, but Howard Vernon as Cagliostro and Anne Libert as Melisa the Bird Woman will forever remain in my memory. Have a really high fever and want to see something amazing, grab this and enjoy.

Devil’s Nightmare - Erika Blanc stars in her best role in a wacked out tale of nazis, succubi, sinners that sin seven ways and a priest with a mission. The ambiance is sleazy, the horror is trippy and the ending is twisted. Leave it to this one to have a zany confrontation with SATAN no less. Maybe it is just me, but this knocked Black Sunday off the list-it is just that good.

Deadline - This 1981 film directed by Mario Azzopardi seems easy to dismiss when you first start watching it. A horror film screenwriter wants to move away from his genre fame, but keeps getting sucked back in to the business…blah blah. The gore sequences from his films are fantastic, and keeps you watching. Then he gets a little more hypocritical and begins to not only hate his horror work, but becomes haunted by it. When his children are involved in a tragedy that may or may not be inspired by dear old dad-all hell breaks loose. Azzopardi has directed tons of TV shows, I wish he could be involved in looking back at this great film someday.

The Thing - Howard Hawks’ original film scared the crap out of me as a kid because yes… the killer carrot ruled. But John Carpenter slammed my face into the wall the first time I saw this one and it never gets (c)old. A perfect blend of horror, thriller and a little bit of humor to entertain me forever.

Return of the Blind Dead - The second in Amando de Ossorio’s quadrilogy of zombie terror, this one is my favorite Visually Impaired Templar films. What it loses in ambience from the first film, it makes up for with action set pieces of the Templars running amok. I love the Blind Dead…badasses beyond the grave, they come back meaner than when they died!

Vampyres - THE best lesbian vampire film ever shot, it is like a ghost story mixed with a vampire tale and stirred by a stiff but soft porn swizzle stick. Anulka and Marianne Morris look great and director Jose Larraz takes all of his elements and plays each to the hilt. Gory, haunting and one of the headiest horror cocktails you could devour this Halloween season.

The Horror Blog is very proud to present the eclectic top ten horror movie list of a living legend, one of the masters of pulp horror, Guy N. Smith. For nearly four decades the prolific Mr. Smith has been delivering lurid masterpieces to his legion of rabid fans. Like a runaway train full of giant crabs he’s shown no sign of stopping, writing a steady stream of short stories, novels, non-fiction, comics and other wonders. If you’re not familiar with his work, do yourself a favour and visit his website, sample a free e-book, or best of all, take a stroll down to your local used bookstore and pick up one of his classics.

1. The Yellow Balloon (1952)
2. The Devil Rides Out (1968)
3. Frankenstein (1931)
4. The Ghoul (1975)
5. Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1921)
6. The Howling (1980)
7. Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
8. Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971)
9. The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)
10. Island Claws (1980)

With comics including The Land Of Nod, Jetcat and Atomic City Tales, Jay Stephens has established himself as one of the great contemporary humour cartoonists. However, it’s his creation of two animated series, Tutenstein and The Secret Saturdays, with which Stephens is shaping the next generation of Monster Kids. And as if all that weren’t enough, he also runs Cute Creeps From Pop Culture, one of the finest old school horror blogs. Somehow he found the time to send in the following list.

Really hard to narrow it down to only 10, and my list shifts all the time depending on mood, but here you go. Jay Stephens’ top 10 horror movies…

#10- An American Werewolf In London. The Oscar-Winning John Landis masterpiece is utterly surreal and at turns blackly humorous and genuinely unsettling. Still holds up nicely.

#9- El Orfanato (The Orphanage). Thought I’d throw in a recent-vintage film that I felt succeeded in gorgeously artful horror. Bayona delivers a heart-achingly horrifying story that stays with you for days.

#8- The Abominable Dr. Phibes. Robert Fuest directed this bizarre camp-fest that has become my favorite Vincent Price film after repeated viewings, even though the actor never actually moves his mouth to speak! I enjoy a little humor with my horror…

#7- Kwaidan. This 1964 masterpiece by Masaki Kobayashi is an anthology of four hauntingly wonderful Japanese ghost stories. Fantastic stuff.

#6- Fright Night. Tom Holland’s 1985 self-referential take on the horror genre is still a fave from my youth.

#5- I Tre Volti Della Paura (Black Sabbath). Another anthology, this time by the master Mario Bava. All three stories are superb.

#4- The Thing. John Carpenter scared the crap out of me with this one as a kid. It’s still thoroughly terrifying.

#3- Creepshow. E.C.. comics plus Steven King plus George A. Romero plus the anthology format that I’m so obviously partial to. I love this flick!

#2- Bride Of Frankenstein. James Whale’s 1935 sequel surpasses the original, and remains my favorite of all the early Monster Movies.

#1- The Wicker Man. Robin Hardy’s 1975 thriller is my favorite scary movie. Creepy, unique, and starring the brilliant Christopher Lee.

David Wellington is one of the hardest working authors in horror, crafting unique interpretations of classic creatures for both the internet and print. His latest is the werewolf tale Frostbite, available in bookstores today, though if you’d like to try before you buy you can read the entire novel here, along with some of his previous serials, including Monster Island, Monster Nation, Monster Planet, Plague Zone and 13 Bullets.

1. Bride of Frankenstein
2. Let the Right One In
3. Psycho
4. The Blair Witch Project
5. The Hunger
6. The Shining
7. 28 Days Later
8. The Exorcist
9. Prince of Darkness
10. Hellraiser 2

Canadian provocateur extraordinaire Bruce LaBruce has taken his love for both horror and pornography and combined them to create the melancholy gay zombie movie Otto; or, Up with Dead People, available on DVD through Strand Releasing. Hoping to strengthen his claim to the burgeoning zombie porno industry, LaBruce is hard at work on his follow-up, the alien/zombie epic L.A. Zombie starring Francois Sagat, which is due out next year.

Bruce was by far the most enthusiastic respondent to this poll. While most everyone else was torturing themselves over their choices, Bruce shot back a response within minutes of my initial inquiry. It’s like he had his list sitting in a desk drawer, ready to go just in case someone asked. For that reason alone, I’m letting him slip in an extra selection.

1) The Innocents
2) Rosemary’s Baby
3) Seconds
4) Carrie
5) Halloween
6) Romero’s Dead Trilogy (Night, Dawn, Day)
7) The Exorcist
8) The Shining
9) Repulsion
10) Carnival of Souls

11) Psycho

Renaissance man of the Fantastique, Tim Lucas is an award-winning novelist, screenwriter, critic, and blogger. A select few of his most recent achievements include the completion of the acclaimed biography Mario Bava: All The Colors Of The Dark and shepherding Video Watchdog to its 150th issue. He’s forgotten more about strange cinema than you will ever learn, so sit up straight and pay attention, because you’re about to get schooled.

In past Top Ten horror lists I’ve done, I’ve included certain titles that now strike me as better belonging to other genres, like Schoedsack’s King Kong (1933), Whale’s The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast (1946) or Michael Reeves’ Witchfinder General (1968). I’ve kept my list very focused on horror, which can encompass the allure and the repulsion factor of horror, but everything here frightened me on first viewing and continues to, on some level. I’ve eliminated anything I might have included that seems more closely allied to science fiction, fantasy, psychological drama, or other frontiers of imaginative cinema. I find the older the film, the more secure it is in its standing for me, while the more recent ones are subject to my own day-to-day fickleness. By and large, I find the truly great not as interesting as the offbeat, and would probably find the films on my Top 11-20 more interesting to list and write about. — TL

Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau, 1922)
I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)
Les Yeux sans visage (Eyes Without a Face/The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus; Georges Franju, 1959)
Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
I tre volti della paura (Black Sabbath; Mario Bava, 1963)
Operazione paura (Kill, Baby… Kill!; Mario Bava, 1966)
Toby Dammit (from Histoires Extraordinaires/Spirits of the Dead; Federico Fellini, 1968)
Rosemary’s Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968)
The Devils (Ken Russell; 1971)
Marebito (Takashi Shimizu; 2004)

For the month of October The Horror Blog will be showcasing top ten horror movie lists provided by some of my favourite horror pundits and professionals. I was inspired by the poll conducted by Sight & Sound once every decade, where various filmmakers and critics submit their list of top ten films, which is then tabulated into one final list. Though it’s interesting to see how the top ten films shift around from decade to decade, the real action is in sifting through the individual lists and discovering new delights that didn’t make the cut. Not only that, but you can learn a lot about a person by their selections, and if you’re already partial to the majority of films mentioned in someone’s list, you may very well enjoy the remainder as well.

In appreciation for my misspent youth, catching blurry black and white chillers play out past my bedtime, I spent last night watching Island of Lost Souls as I drifted off to sleep.  My dreams were filled with men in bright white suits roaming a dense plastic jungle, muscular spectres growling from the shadows and wide-eyed cat women shrinking in terror from the House of Pain.

Welcome to The Horror Blog.

As you may have already guessed, The Horror Blog is going on hiatus. If you’re still stopping by regularly for updates, you may want to divert your attention to some of the wonderful horror blogs found in the post below this one.

It’s been two years since I started The Horror Blog, and I’ve enjoyed myself immensely. However, writing has never really been either one of my passions or one of my strengths, and for that reason, and a few others that I won’t bore you with, I’ve decided to step down as the main contributor to The Horror Blog.

I’ve spoken to someone whose passion for the genre and flair for writing surpasses my own. I’m working closely with this person in redesigning the site, and will be overseeing the first few months of the relaunch, at least. I may even pinch hit when the new writer isn’t able to perform his duties. We’re unsure at this time when the relaunch will take place, but it won’t be for at least a few months, and if I have my way we won’t start until the next year. I’ll be sure to contact at least a few of my peers in horror blogging when that day comes so they can pass the news on to you, if they choose.

Thank you to everyone who passed through, left a comment or sent a link my way. I hope you had even a fraction as much fun reading the blog as I had writing it.

Say your goodbyes.

Dave - Rue Morgue’s The Abbatoir

The problem I’ve often had with the Horror Roundtable questions is that sometimes they feel too broad, that they demand an essay or a top ten to answer appropriately. Ah, such is the excitement of a horror geek.

Steve’s project has been a fantastic forum for passionate genrephiles to good naturedly argue, to shed light on the more obscure corners of The Dark and generally share the love of all things transgressive.

So, I’ll end this last Roundtable contribution with an argument:

“Death Proof” sucks, and will only suck harder in the future. Please stop defending Tarantino’s ham-dicked snore-a-thon, and celebrate the gooey goodness of “Planet Terror”.

By shedding some light:

“The Reflecting Skin”. I don’t think I ever got to talk about this 1990 film, but it’s an amazing prairie gothic tale guaranteed to disturb. Unavailable on DVD here, but rumour has it you can find a nice widescreen laser disc rip on the torrent sites. See it!

And, some love:

I looked forward every week to, if not participate, at least read the entertaining bytes of insight here. Coming up with a 100 questions isn’t easy, so nice work, Wintle, I can’t wait to see what you cook up next. I hope the end of the Roundtable means you’ll finally have time to finish that robotic Sasquatch you’ve been working on for so long, and that the people who mocked your mad science will finally pay for their scorn.

Make them pay, Steve. Make. Them. All. Pay.

GlowStormLion - Happy Horror

The last Roundtable… I remember the very first time the crew of Happy Horror participated (yet I can’t figure out WHICH post it was so just pretend you remember, too, ok?). I remember wondering how long it would go and how entertaining it would be. I found out about SO many blogs I had no clue existed. Sites that helped me broaden my understanding of horror as a genre and horror fans as a community.

Steven’s given us such a terrific opportunity to be able to vent and speak our minds while we connect with each other. He’s a big part of what kept Happy Horror going by sending us visitors even during our leanest months. I never feel very confident with goodbyes and maybe I just secretly hope for a resurrection or change of heart.

Either way, though I didn’t participate as often as I wish I would have, I’ll miss the fun of getting to ponder the questions and respond as intelligently as possible. At least we’ve got the archives, though! :)

And those of you participating here and running a horror blog shouldn’t forget to come over to Happy Horror and not just read our completely subjective reviews, but ask us for a link to your own site, too!

Eric - Bloody Good Horror

Wow, it’s really over, huh? I’ve only been posting on this roundtable for a few months now, but I’m going to seriously miss it. Steve’s questions in the mailbox every Sunday afternoon were sort of like a sign that a new week was about to begin. Not only that, but they were also a handy reminder of why horror movies are my passion, since reading through everyone’s answers every week always served as inspiration to keep up all the work I’ve put into my site.

And since he implored us to plug our own sites, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention to visit bloodygoodhorror.com. We’re a fully functional horror website, with reviews, columns, interviews, blogs… as well as a weekly podcast where we all get together and debate the crap out of each other. If you’re a reader of this blog, hopefully you’ll find something in our rag tag crew that you can identify with. So, hope to see you around! And long live The Horror Blog.

T Van - Tolerated Vandalism

Thanks for the opportunity to participate in a great roundtable. It’s been fun. Now if you’ll excuse me, i have to go fill my freezer with my own blood.

B-Sol - Vault of Horror

I’d just like to thank Steven for the opportunity to be a part of the Horror Roundtable. When I started, The Vault of Horror was just getting off the ground. Now, it’s one of the most widely read horror movie blogs on the internet. I’m glad for the chance to share my opinions, and to help my website reach more readers than it would have otherwise. Hope to see you back in action soon, and don’t forget, the invitation to the League of Tana Tea Drinkers remains open!

RedHawk - Happy Horror

I had alot of fun participating in the round table. I know I didn’t post as often as alot of other people did, but it was still fun. Take care, everyone!

Unkle Lancifer - Kindertrauma

I’m really going to miss checking out THE HORROR BLOG every Friday. It’s quite an incredible feat to get so many interesting and different opinions corralled into one space. It’s been a pleasure throwing my 2 cents in the mix for the last couple of weeks and I’m sure I’ll be returning every once in a while to dig through the extensive archives here. At the risk of sounding like a door-to-door salesman or an annoying telemarketer, I can’t pass up this opportunity to invite all the readers and writers here to stop by Kindertrauma.com to share their tales about the films, books and whatever that scared them in their youth. (I know, a site dedicated to ONE question, while the HORROR BLOG has posed exactly ONE HUNDRED. Don’t I feel like an underachiever?) Anyway, we’d love to hear from all of you. In the meantime, long live THE HORROR BLOG, truly a constant source of inspiration!

Nathan - MicroHorror

Honestly, what is there to say? I’m really going to miss this thing. I came in about halfway through the Roundtable’s run, and my only regret is that I wasn’t able to get on board earlier. I’ve learned a lot, found out about great movies I never would have heard of otherwise, and had a marvelous time all around. Thank you, Steven, for creating and helming this wonderful project, and thank you for letting me in despite not being a horror blogger per se. Thanks to the other Roundtablers as well– I’ve found some terrific horror blogs that have become part of my daily reading. I’m going to miss the Roundtable– it was a highlight every week.

But here’s a thought: If there’s one thing we’ve learned from our favorite genre, it’s that it’s awfully hard for things to stay dead. Maybe the Roundtable will come crawling back out of the grave someday. We can only hope.

P.S. Visit MicroHorror.com for the world’s largest online archive of short-short horror fiction. Read hundreds upon hundreds of terrifying stories, each no longer than 666 words. Hey– you did suggest that we plug our sites. :)

Tim - Mondo Schlocko

All I really want to say is that it was a honor being here and I had a blast. It’s a shame to see the roundtable end. Good-bye to all of the fellow roundtable guests and I will continue to check out your blogs as well as this one as well. Stay weird!

Matt - Highway 62

Goodbye? But I just got here.

And kinda played hooky for the last many weeks. My own fault for thinking “I’ll just give it some time to stew and then I’ll get right to it,” and by that time it’s Saturday and I’ve gone and let another one rush past me.

I should push my book, so I will. Strangeways: Murder Moon. Ask for it by name. Western horror like you like it (if you like 70s Warren horror mags and the cramped, dirty atmosphere of the haunted frontier). It’s still relatively fresh; not too many scavengers have gotten to it yet. http://www.highway-62.com/strangeways is the place to go.

Thanks to Sean for turning me on to this place and Steven for letting me play along. And all the commentators out there who gave me something to chew on.

State of the art? I’m the last guy to ask about that. Hell, I had to look up “torture porn” to even follow recent conversations. Pretty clear that the genre is wider than anyone here, which means there’s a lot of room in it yet, a lot of unexplored territories. We’ve been on the map a long time (I certainly didn’t deviate from it much), but now we oughta give some thought to the terrifying blank spaces left, where you go upriver and maybe don’t get to come back.

The best thing about it is, that those places are just around the corner and under your nose, having only to be seen in a slightly skewed light, a momentary insight that lets you understand that this is indeed an uncharted region, and maybe just maybe, there’s someone else out there who’d appreciate that insight. Go uncover those, the stucco ruins of the bright city, where shadowy titans make their true selves manifest. Find daytime horror, that is unafraid to walk in the sunshine, knowing that the piercing light of day can only illuminate its true nature further.

Those blank, soft places are unwritten and undiscovered as of yet. But they can’t stay that way ever.

Curt - Groovy Age of Horror

Thanks for a great run, Steven! I’ve enjoyed a lot of these questions tremendously–both answering them and reading everyone else’s answers. Enjoy your hiatus, but know that your return will be eagerly awaited!

Chick Young - Trash-Aesthetics

“In forgetting they were trying to remember.” W.P. Blatty, The Exorcist

Ah yes, parting is such sweet sorrow. And, as a relative latecomer to The Horror Blog (on the contributing end - not the reading), I don’t have archives of posts to fall back on for plugs, laments, or missed opportunities! I really hope Steven reopens the doors to The Horror Blog sometime in the near future as it has always been a wonderfully stimulating and lively site, thank you Steven.

Well, ya know, horror has always been my thing. I was the kid who had his face stuck in Famous Monsters while the other kids were reading Sports Illustrated. I was the kid who was figuring out how to get that blood bladder to work for my Halloween costume, I was the kid who never put his hands over his eyes during the scary parts, and I was the kid who always chose the evil girl over the nice one (not so much anymore).

I’m not entirely thrilled with the state of the genre (as a professor of film, I expand upon this greatly in writing and in class - of which, neither are appropriate here). Suffice it to say that the state of the genre is also a good barometer for measuring the state of human affairs - which is a bloody mess. The most profoundly philosophical genre - horror is always with us - utterly ubiquitous. In a car, on a plane, on the beach, in a house, in an airplane, in the woods, in the desert, in our minds, etc. - it is not dependent upon a place or a time or a character (unlike other genres). Horror is locatable everywhere and usually is most profoundly found when looking in the mirror. To quote the great Stephen Prince, “The anxiety at the heart of the genre is, indeed, the nature of human being.” I am not thrilled with the climate of the remake, prequel, sequel culture (lazy, mundane, easy), which thrives not on the genuine creative impulses of a writer or director, but typically, more on the distinct ring of the cash register. This business practice and attitude is not new, but it is certainly far more pronounced than it has EVER been. And yet, in the midst of such transparent efforts, we get a modest little film from Spain in 2007 which scared the absolute shit out this 37 year old genre veteran. Yes, “.Rec” is that good - if you have not seen it, do yourself a favor and do so. So, there is hope for the state of the genre, but not because of anything the industry will or could do - there is hope because the diet staples that feed this genre are synchronic with social anxieties, fears, taboos and ideologies. And, dear friends, as long as these remain good and fucked up, we will continue to find repressed monstrosities to feed the machine.

We are a brother and sisterhood of genre fanatics. I’ve been honored to throw in with you on Steve’s notoriously interesting and diverse roundtables. I suggest you stop on by my pad sometime and we can mull it over - over a frothy stein of A negative (www.trash-aesthetics.blogspot.com). I have a good deal of fun there, and, on occasion, may even have something clever or entertaining or even rhetorically sound to say now and again. Cheers.

Retropoliltan - Tales To Astonish

I’ll just say that I’ve loved this feature for 99 weeks, and I’m sad to see it go. I was honored to be a part of it while it lasted, but I hope some industrious young horror blogger out there takes up the Roundtable mantle. Thanks for the good times!

Also, I would like to add:

ZOMBIES RULE, VAMPIRES DROOL

Louis - Damaged 2.0

Well, this really sucks. The Horror Roundtable has been something that I’ve looked forward to every Friday, and now what will I have? That’s right. Now I have nothing. I have discovered so many awesome blogs through this exercise, and made a few friends, so at least there is always that. At least. I should pitch my blog, Damaged 2.0 to you at this point, so, if you get the time, try to visit. It’ll never take the place of your dad, and I’m not trying to, but I really love your mom and want to be part of this family. Vaya con Dios, Horror Bloggers.

Corey - Evil On Two Legs

I think this roundtable is a fabulous idea; my only regret is that I didn’t discover it sooner. I hope that it returns in some form in the near future as I will miss reading the responses of so many intelligent writers on a single topic. In any case, thank you for allowing me to participate.

In regards to the state of the genre — I’m very excited about the future of horror. Since the advent of film, horror has been well represented (going all the way back to Edison’s Frankenstein). However, the quality, tone and relevance of horror films fluctuates in a cyclic pattern. Fortunately, I think the last few years show that we’re in the midst of a horror revival. Some may feel there’s been an over-saturation of J-horror, but you can’t deny that The Ring ushered in an unprecedented appreciation for foreign horror, opening the door for films from Japan, Korea, France, Australia and others to be seen by American mainstream audiences. The widespread adoption of unrated DVD releases (as well as the fact that the MPAA is more lenient than they have been in decades) has given horror auteurs more freedom than ever before. It’s a good time to be a horror fan, and I only see that becoming more true in the coming years.

Sean - Attentiondeficitdisorderly Too Flat

Good times and bad times
Hellos and goodbyes
Just past the joint
And let’s get high

THX HORROR ROUNDTABLE
LYLAB

Arbogast on Film

I came to the Horror Round-Up very late in the game, making me feel a bit like William Smith on the last season of HAWAII FIVE-0. It’s been my honor to rub shoulders with the big wheels of the Blogosphere and to wax thoughtful about our favorite subject. To a continuing world of Gods and Monsters. But mostly Monsters.

JA - My New Plaid Pants

I just want to take this opportunity to thank you Steven, for allowing me to participate, and for introducing me to all of my brilliant fellow Rountablers, and for all of the movies that I’ve been introduced to via the topics and answers that’ve come up over the past 100 weeks. My horror knowledge had been rather limited in scope - I never really realized that I even was a horror geek until well into my 20s, and I’ve had a lot of ground to catch up on, and this forum has been absolutely instrumental in my continuing education. Oh how we’ve laughed and we’ve cried, and lovingly pondered all manner of viscera - this is what family is supposed to be like!

So much for just discussing the state of the genre or plugging your site. I’ve always strived to keep the Roundtable topics easy and accessible, which is why I never put forward one that centres on saying nice things about me. Thanks, everyone. That must have been the toughest Roundtable yet.

A wonderful world of Horror awaits you.

Name a piece of horror art or entertainment that you believe changed the genre, and explain how.

Jeff O’Brien

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. I think it ushered in the era of graphic horror even more than the drive in gore flicks that preceded it. It was graphic, dour and realistic. And the zombie rules it established have been so widely copied that it’s a shame George Romero isn’t living fat off the royalties.

Bill - Pulp 2.0

Absolutely one of the most influential pieces of art or body of work which has influenced the horror genre is the work of H.R. Giger.

He melding of tech, flesh, sado-masochism, predator and disease has influenced several major horror/scifi works which directly used his design work (ALIEN, SPECIES) and countless others who imitated his unique, dark vision not only in film but in comics, book covers, album covers, games and other media.

B-Sol - Vault of Horror

Rosemary’s Baby doesn’t get enough credit for what it truly did for the genre. Night of the Living Dead came out the same year, and everyone knows how drastically that film changed horror cinema. But Rosemary’s Baby did as well, in another way. Horror flicks had been consigned to B-movie purgatory ever since Universal demoted them in the late 1930s, and Rosemary’s Baby was the first mainstream, “respectable” Hollywood horror movie to come along since that time. It demonstrated that you could do a horror movie with A-list actors, an A-list director, major publicity, etc. Plus, it was nominated for the Academy Award. Movies like The Exorcist, The Omen, Alien, and so many others followed soon after. Although B-horror movies still proliferate, it’s because of Rosemary’s Baby that horror movies can also be more than just exploitation fare–although I fear that the recent “torture porn” trend may wind up forcing horror back into the b-movie closet.

Corey - Evil On Two Legs

I could easily go with Psycho or Halloween for creating the slasher genre or Scream for revitalizing it when the slasher film seemed all but dead… but I think I’ll go a different route and say The Silence of the Lambs. When Hannibal Lecter swept the Oscars, I think it heralded a change in how horror films were perceived and defined for both the general public and for horror fans themselves. Many didn’t define The Silence of the Lambs as a horror film, but that’s only because the genre carried a stigma precluding anything of such quality. Silence is certainly a horror film and not purely a ‘psychological thriller’ (the term usually given to a horror film once it passed a certain threshold of quality) — it was featured on the cover of Fangoria, the plot revolves around a guy killing women to make a suit out of their skin and one of the primary characters is a cannibal. When Silence won the top 5 awards at the Oscars that year, I think it lent some legitimacy to and broadened the definition of the genre (much as The Exorcist had done two decades earlier), reminding people that truly remarkable films can come from any genre, even those generally looked down upon.

Eric - Bloody Good Horror

H.R. Giger’s alien designs for the “Alien” series are still some of the most visually disturbing imagery ever put to film. They’ve influenced science fiction and horror filmmakers going on 30 years now, and probably will continue to do so for another 30.

Chick Young - Trash-Aesthetics

Wow, another tough one. So many achievements in the genre - thematic, aesthetic, and technical (I’m tempted to say Robert Stoker Jr. for his design and development of a the cobweb gun!). So many came to mind - especially with the clear demarcations between specific periods and the transgression boundaries in the postmodern era. But, I’m gonna go with Horrors of the Black Museum (1959). I think that its influence is obvious and very far reaching (well into the 21st century).

Shot in glorious HYPNOVISTA, Horrors really was the first movie to indulge at length in the “creative death” sequences that later became so commonplace in the Slasher sub-genre (and is, essentially the hook for, say, the entire Saw franchise). It also bears the distinguishing feature of being AIP’s first Cinemascope and Eastman color production. Pre-Black Sunday, pre-Psycho, pre-Blood Feast, pre-House of Usher, the only contemporaneous genre film that delights in showing as much unusual death is probably Nakagawa’s Jigoku (1960). Ya gotta love this film! The legendary binocular scene alone is worth this particular roundtable entry!

Tim - Mondo Schlocko

I’m not sure if this counts, but I do believe that GRINDHOUSE ruined the way some current mainstream films and drek from yesteryear are being promoted. Instead of it being a hip subgenre it is instead twisted in a way to market crap films and trick us into playing the role of the sucker who buys into it.

The whole thing stinks of how SCREAM changed films when suddenly every producer and their grandmother thought it would be a great idea to stick teens in every horror flick that is being cranked out today.

Unkle Lancifer - Kindertrauma

PSYCHO and HALLOWEEN deserve all the laurels they get and I’m happy that in the last 10 years BLACK CHRISTMAS has gotten it’s fair shake too, but I don’t think anyone ever takes FRIDAY THE 13TH’s contribution to the genre seriously enough. FRIDAY may owe its existence to HALLOWEEN (it should also buy BAY OF BLOOD and CARRIE a beer sometime too), but what it did with the opportunity HALLOWEEN allowed should not be taken lightly. HALLOWEEN may have opened the gate, but FRIDAY ripped it off its hinges and ran like a mo-fo. So much so, that by the time HALLOWEEN’s sequel came around, it was taking its cues from FRIDAY. I think most slasher movies that live under the umbrella term “HALLOWEEN clones” are in fact “FRIDAY THE 13TH clones.” FRIDAY invented the over-the-top, set-piece kill and conveyer-belt elimination game that any respectable slasher film had to emulate for years. HALLOWEEN does not have that structure; in fact, its focus is on showing as little as possible. HALLOWEEN derives its power from watching someone try to live where FRIDAY gains its power by watching people die. HALLOWEEN is not concerned with the visual aftermath of its deceased either; their bodies are rather neatly stored in cupboards and closets (or propped on a bed). FRIDAY lingers and dares you to look away. It shows death as messy, unpoetic and impossible to return from. Most forget that it’s queasy celebration of the human body’s potential for damage was absolute cutting edge for its time. Many people may not be happy with the mark left by FRIDAY, but that doesn’t make it any less important. Even with its rather obvious impact, you’d be hard pressed to find an actual positive review for the film in many horror reference books. It’s time to recognize that even beyond the elaborate bloody kills, FRIDAY has real atmosphere and tells a pretty damn scary tale too (anyone who grew up watching the edited version on television can attest to that.) It deserves much more than a condescending pat on the head from horror fans and a knee jerk dismissal from critics. I don’t mean to take anything away from HALLOWEEN, which at the end of the day I prefer, but FRIDAY THE 13TH was a lot more original and influential then anyone gives it credit for.

Arbogast on Film

I hate to be a negative Nellie but Anne Rice’s INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE sliced the balls off the creature in question and beget a generation of sensitive, brooding, mopey emo sluggards more interested in looking Goth than tearing jugulars. The 80s and 90s took the worst of it but we’re still dealing with the infection in TV shows like MOONLIGHT. INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE may even have, in a delayed reaction sort of way, played some part in the current vogue for horror backstory, which particularized the crap-ass remakes of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and HALLOWEEN, showing us that the killers at the heart of these stories have reasons for being evil. Ye gods and little fishes, I don’t want excuses, I want unbridled, unblinking, heartless malevolence, I want monsters!

No more interviews!

Nathan - MicroHorror

I have something in mind, but it can’t really be called horror, since the modern notion of genre literature hadn’t really been invented yet. For that matter, neither had the novel. You could call it fantasy, I suppose, or even fan fiction if you wanted to be uncharitable. I’m talking about John Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” first published in 1667.

Milton’s epic poem is the first major work to depict Satan as a rounded and arguably sympathetic character. If not for Milton, we never would have had Al Pacino in “The Devil’s Advocate” (Pacino’s character is even NAMED “John Milton,” for Pete’s sake), Christopher Walken in “The Prophecy,” Jack Nicholson in “The Witches of Eastwick,” or any other interesting portrayals of Satan or similar fallen angels– nobody mentioned in Roundtable #66 at all, for that matter.

Milton started it, and we’ve just been playing in his sandbox ever since. I’ll bow out with a quote from the great 18th-century poet William Blake: “The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels & God, and at liberty when of Devils & Hell, is because he was a true Poet and of the Devil’s party without knowing it.”

Sean - Attentiondeficitdisorderly Too Flat

This is actually a hard question for me, because I’m so accustomed to (solipsistically?) focusing on how a given work of horror changed me. Frankly that’s more what I’m interested in. That said, I think there’s a pretty clear pre- and post-Psycho line of demarcation in terms of horror films intended to disturb and horrify in addition to “spook”–or at the very least their ability to do so with a contemporary audience.

Ninety-nine weeks of Roundtables; ninety-nine weeks of Sean struggling with the topic and/or answering Hellraiser. Thanks to all of this week’s participants for chiming in, and if you’d like to say your piece, please do so in the comments below. Join us next week for the finale.