Alien is hopelessly worn out by now - too popular. When you shed too much light ion something, it looses its magic. Actually, the original movie I saw again three years ago, and found it boring.

But in the very early 80s, when it came out (1980?) , it was anything than worn out or boring. It was a sensation. There was nothing to compare it to. It was new style, like Star Wars was a new style, too. It was shocking. And it stayed like that for quite some time, because the beast remained in the shadows for years to come, and the media landscape was not such to distribute the images of it as fast as it is the case today with internet and all that.

Alien must be seen as a culture phenomenon that can only be appreciated and understood by comparing it against the background of the time it came to life in.

Before, it were movies like Formicula! or Tarantula!, or the old classical Jack Arnold movies (I love them). But they do not scare anybody anymore. We laugh instead.

Have horror films gone to far?

Take Psycho the grand daddy of the slasher films which looks so harmless too today's films.

I'd say recently the trend has been towards "shocker" rather than "horror". Surprising rather than unsettling.


That said, El Orfanato scared the bejeezus out of me.

I remember seeing Jaws when I was a kid, after that movie no one wanted to go to the beach.

Another movie that scared me as a kid was "The Amityville Horror."

Today nothing really scares me, can sleep like a baby after any movie.

Fair enogh, you're forgiven, this time.:O:


Wow, she really didn't realize that the books are even more frightening?
Never read the Exorcist. After watching the movie - I never will. The stair-walk scene gave me the creeps. :huh:

Searched for it and saw a video on youtube. I understand why the cleaning crew freaked out :har:

Oh jee, I have the strong feeling I gotta watch that movie again soon! :arrgh!:

It was probably the first DVD I ever bought, but oddly enough I don't know that I've ever gotten it out to watch the movie. There will be periods here where it is shown frequently on tv - one cable channel would sometimes run it two or three times over a single weekend. And usually I'd have it on every time when that happened. It's one of those movies where, if it's on and I find it, it's highly unlikely that I'll turn it off.

So you've never seen Das Boot? :O:

Or Downfall? How could anyone not watch Downfall, the shouty scenes were just as good as the squillion-and-one parodies.

Or Battle Royale? Or Man Bites Dog? Doberman? Seven Samurai? :doh:

Just sticking with the good ol' US of A factory produced stuff, a good grounding for life. :hmph:

The Exorcist took some beating in its day.

You mean for being a little too intense? I don't doubt that for a second, ha.

You mean RedOctober's never seen Downfall? How could he not!? It's the greatest German film, bar one! Bring me RedOctober!
RedOctober!
RedOctober!
REDOCTOBER!

Confession...

I watched ALIEN when I was around 12 years old, did it scare me? No..I was blown away by the visual effects.

It certainly frightened me :)

I know you've seen the thread I started where I spent my Saturday watching the entire Director's Cut.

I've seen a couple foreign films. There was Das Boot, Beneath Hill 60 (An aussie movie for you CM47), Rec3, Attack on Leningrad, there was a really good Korean movie about the war from the South Korean's POV, there was War of the Dead, and there's a couple more I can't remember off the top of my head.

Whoa whoa whoa whoa. Calm down. I have not seen Downfall. You can come and find me, but, I'll just retreat into the woods with a white morphsuit with a suit over it and hide behind trees. It'll look something like this:

http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/i/20...fe-d5hvoam.jpg

:stare: HA!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NihDE3qITes


HAAAAAAAAAAI GUYS!