• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Films You Can't Watch Alone At Night

skinny

skinny

Nigh
Joined
May 30, 2010
Messages
8,793
Rob Ager (Collative Learning - check it out) has a new list out on the topic and I thought it would make an interesting thread here. These are films that just creep into your head too much to expose yourself to on the verge of unconsciousness and dream states.

I look forward to adding your selections to my late night must-see list.

I have only a few:
  • ERASERHEAD (D Lynch) ~ the sounds are as vile as the imagery.This film really crawls out of the frame and wraps itself around the synapses. In a word: Ugly
  • Natural Born Killers ~ too wanton; too visceral; too bleak
  • Hereditary ~ this one overlaps seriously into the subconscious; it is irredeemably hellish in theme and mood; Tony Collette's zombie self-decapitation and her horror face stayed with me for far too long after first viewing. Basically, I can't just ride the thrill in this one without paying the price on my soul. Highly recommend it in company though.
  • I, Daniel Blake ~ I haven't been able to go through it a second time yet because it is just too sadly real. Makes Mike Leigh look like Fred and Ginger.
  • Snowtown ~ too close to home geographically, especially since my kids don't currently live under my protection. I get emotional just thinking about this one.

Rob's 8 picks:
 
Night of the Demon, old black and white one, the Demon scared the hell outta me
Rawhead Rex, scary bloody creature
 
skinny said:
Rob Ager (Collative Learning - check it out) has a new list out on the topic and I thought it would make an interesting thread here. These are films that just creep into your head too much to expose yourself to on the verge of unconsciousness and dream states.

I look forward to adding your selections to my late night must-see list.

I have only a few:
  • ERASERHEAD (D Lynch) ~ the sounds are as vile as the imagery.This film really crawls out of the frame and wraps itself around the synapses. In a word: Ugly
  • Natural Born Killers ~ too wanton; too visceral; too bleak
  • Hereditary ~ this one overlaps seriously into the subconscious; it is irredeemably hellish in theme and mood; Tony Collette's zombie self-decapitation and her horror face stayed with me for far too long after first viewing. Basically, I can't just ride the thrill in this one without paying the price on my soul. Highly recommend it in company though.
  • I, Daniel Blake ~ I haven't been able to go through it a second time yet because it is just too sadly real. Makes Mike Leigh look like Fred and Ginger.
  • Snowtown ~ too close to home geographically, especially since my kids don't currently live under my protection. I get emotional just thinking about this one.

Rob's 8 picks:
Click to expand...

Some good choices there - except for "I, Daniel Blake" .
I've never been a fan of the "poverty porn" genre, but Ken Loach's propaganda piece took things to ridiculous extremes. In particular, the way it demonised hard-working DWP staff was little short of disgusting.
I've been through redundancy twice, the last time 2.5 years ago when the Daniel Blake movie was released.
My experience of Jobcentre staff was very positive. They bend over backwards to help and to make sure you have Internet access and are computer-literate. The scene where Daniel Blake was left to struggle using a mouse and the staff were afraid to help him was complete bollocks. No wonder Jobcentre workers felt betrayed by this movie.
 
Eraserhead, vile? I agree it's really unsettling and strange, but I love it. So bleak. Especially the soundtrack which I have on CD and gets a regular spin. Who couldn't love 'In Heaven'? :)

I found Under The Skin (starring Scarlett Johansson) quite spooky and weird and rather depressing. Another great soundtrack though.

I second the nomination of Night of the Demon too. Very strange atmosphere to it. How about The Innocents while I'm here, or maybe A Field In England just for the tent scene?
 
Fillums don't scare me now I'm all growed up. The nights of weeing the bed rather than venture along the suddenly-haunted landing are long over.

Well, it's been a while anyway.
 
I like watching movies on my own - no distractions. But if I was a wimp, I'd add The Haunting (1963) to the list - the only movie that can make embossed wallpaper scary.

It's probably safer watching films on my own - way back when I was young and innocent I took a GF (ex-GF) to the flicks to see Carrie. I'd seen it before and knew what was going to happen and so, at a certain scene, I touched her hand with an ice-lolly.

I was limping for a week after that.
 
otherwise i could watch anything and as others have said, dig going to the cinema on my own
 
I am usually quite happy watching horror films alone in a house at night, but there have been some exceptions. One night a few years ago, I was unable to finish Robert Wise's The Haunting - but I'm fine with The Shining. Still, I do have an odd relationship with The Shining. Backa round 15 years ago, I'd often put The Shining on to go to sleep too (!) -I was so familiar with it, I didn't mind missing anything. I'd quite often wake up at exactly the same scene, when that naked woman is getting out of the bath in Room 238 or whatever number it was. That was always a sign to me it was time to switch it off and go to bed properly. I could never watch The Ring alone at night though - it's not just the scary bits (and they are some of the scariest scenes I've seen in a horror film) but even hen two characters are having a conversation in an office, or something completely normal, there's just an air of absolute impending dread to it all. Gives me the chills just thinking about it.
 
I used to watch all sorts of films late at night, but don't anymore. Not because I'm frightened, but because I don't want to fall asleep halfway through.
 
danny and oxide pangs the eye almost had me walking out of a matinee showing way back when
 
I LOVE The Shining. Some bits of it are straight out of the book and I can't remember which are and which aren't.

When he imagines the fire hose following him along the corridor, is that the book or the fillum or both?
 
I've watched all films by myself, most of them late at night. I tend not to watch horror films, but have seen a few that have weirded me out (Videodrome for example). Still carried on watching it, though.
 
escargot said:
I LOVE The Shining. Some bits of it are straight out of the book and I can't remember which are and which aren't.

When he imagines the fire hose following him along the corridor, is that the book or the fillum or both?
Click to expand...

The fire hose was just in the book - as were the hedge animals (though I think both were in the dreadful TV minis eries of a few years back) - I always find it odd that the twins were never in the book - it feels like they should be, but they're just in the film.
 
In The Mouth Of Madness ..

Somehow John Carpenter got inside my head with that one and it remains the only horror film to have given me a nightmare.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top