Looking for intelligent horror films - how about "The Descent" & "Saw" - Page 3

Saw.
Iv not seen the HD version, but soley on the film itself 10/10, you won't be dissapointed

61 posts and all I have read is Saw & the Decent and a few votes for Hostel. I have seen all of these films and for scary factor only, I thought Hostel was the better of the 3.

+1 For Jeepers Creepers,Part 2 kinda blew though.
How about a shout form the format neutral guys for Feast, I did find this to be somewhat scary.

Here we go, "Feast sucks thats the worst movie ever", blah, blah, blah..

I keep wanting to pick up this title but something stops me everytime!
Is it enything like 'Slither'?

Bug.
You will either like it or hate it.

Funny how most of these posts are pro Descent and anti-Saw. I'm in just the opposite opinion. I really liked the Saw movies. I thought Descent was just bloody awful. The ending really was stupid. At least the Saw movies are somewhat 'believable', and could actually happen on some level.

As far as the Saw movies being the beginning of the end of horror movies. Frankly, I thought that about all of the Holloween, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elmstreet movies.

LOL, Well most of them are either brain-dead horror films, made for zombie audiences these days.

Halloween is a classic (1978) flick that only often gets played once a year around here on Halloween.

The Fly (1986) is scientific look into the horrors of what goes wrong in the lab with terrifying concrescences.

Good point. I guess when it comes down to it, 'intelligent' and 'horror' is an oxymoron.

I agree...The Decent is a "rent only", but a good rent.

"The Others" is the best horror movie I have seen in the last 10 years...
quite a brain teaser too.

It's so subjective you're better off just starting to rent them instead of doing any blind buys. For a few months after our second daughter was born my wife was not up for watching anything so I took the opportunity to NetFlix old westerns and horror movies since she's not in to watching either. I tried Ring, Wickerman (original), Saw I and II, Descent, Hills Have Eyes (original and remake), Wrong Turn, Hostel, Slither, Rest Stop, Eight Legged Freaks, The Others, and High (Haute) Tension. The idea being that I could purchase any worth repeat viewing when discounted (like now).

My verdicts:
- The Others: Ok but no impact on me, like Sixth Sense the twist was no surprise so the impact was lost.
- Ring: Pretty good and ended up a purchase.
- Wickerman: Maybe had some value in the 60's but did nothing for me.
- Saw I: Really liked it. Like someone else said, it implies gore but really doesn't show much, clever ending. A purchase for me.
- Saw II: More of the same, more gore, cleverness already used. Rent only
- Descent: Liked the first half then just a creature fest. Ending did not get me. Rent only.
- Hills Have Eyes: Original had nothing, may have been better watching when originally released. Remake Ok but just a rental at best.
- Wrong Turn: Not bad but not as great.
- Slither and Eight Legged Freaks: Not scary or gore but actually kind of fun. Goes back to the old "B" movies that can be humorous and fun to watch.
- High Tension: Enjoyed very much, Has some gore with a clever twist ending. The ending is works well or you hate it. I liked the High Tension twist but didn't the Descent ending. Could go either way. A purchase for me.
- Hostel: Had me going in the beginning then just went way over the top with the gore. Rental at best.
- Rest Stop: Actually turned it off. I think after Hostel I had had enough for a while.

The later movies have definitely striven for more gore and torture to the point of turning me away. At the very least I need a good break between that style before watching another.

The ones I ended up purchasing were:
Saw I
High Tension
Wrong Turn (actually was ablind buy I decided to keep)
Ring

Just for fun:
Eight Legged Freaks

This is obviously just my opinion.

I thought the first half of Descent was good, but went downhill quickly from there. Neither ending was good.

The first Saw was very good. The second one wasn't. The third one was better than the second, but still not very good. I don't have much hope for the fourth one.


I think this is the best advice of all. Renting offers you the freedom to try just about any movie, and therefore be pleasantly surprised by something you might be unlikely to buy. Recent horror examples for me were Black Sheep and Bug (although I hesitate to label Bug as horror).

Scott

I liked Jeepers Creepers too. 1,000 corpses is good as well, but i like all his flicks so far.
Descent was too dull for me. First Saw was o.k.
-jmo

If you are checking out several different ones, I would recommend "High Tension." It is pretty cheap this week at either BB or CC if you are doing blind buys. While "Saw" got me back into watching these types of flicks, it was "High Tension" that I thought was the best of the lot. IMDB gave it a 6.8 out of 10.

Yeah, I enjoyed "High Tension" Also.(even though I didn't actually care for the twist)

Check out an obscure horror movie called "Session 9" probably released in 2001 or 2002..

Well put. I agree except for the part about it being worth a viewing. A movie like Silence of the Lambs also contains brutality, but is far more intelligent and socially redeeming.

That's what I was going to suggest as well.

Yes!!! This movie was a total sleeper! One of my favorite horror movies!

The Descent is an intelligent horror film, not a gore fest. I liked it.

Session 9 is also good.

If you liked Cube, then check out a mini-series called The Lost Room (2006).

If you have not seen them, then by all means see Dog Soldiers and 28 Days Later....

Finally, try The Ninth Gate.

Edit: Speaking of horror, one film I overlooked is quite scary: Strangeland .

Hope they do a better job with SAW 4

We all have different tastes. I dont think intelligent gore-lacking horror movies are exciting or even should be called "horror" movies.

To me, a horror movie is Hostel II, Saw (all of them), Chaos, Barricade, The Hills Have Eyes, 28 Weeks (and Days) Later, Devils Rejects, etc.

I dont understand this torrent of praise for the "horror" of The Descent. Maybe its bad for people with claustrophobia, which I dont have. Seeing the creature for the first time sure didnt scare me.

Anyway, to me personally, an intelligent "horror" movie should be called a "thriller". Its just not the same.

I have to agree that Saw I was a decent thriller, but I wouldn't really classify it as a horror movie. I watched "The Descent" last night for the first time. It was a decent flick except for the last 20-30 minutes which was awful! The strangest thing though was the whole time I felt like I was watching "Deliverance" except it was women in a cave with sub-humans after them instead of hillbillys. Anyone else feel that way?

Apparently, what you call a "horror" movie is what I call a "horrible" movie.

...I call those types of films "splatter films", and I am not among their admirers.

Gore is after all but one way to invoke horror. Some of the most terrifying films are much less explicit - for example, that scene in Silence of the Lambs where the serial killer Buffalo Bill is dancing around draped in the flayed skins of his female victims always gets to me. I find it equally horrifying that the Buffalo Bill character is based upon a true life killer named Ed Gein, whose horrific acts also inspired the creation of Norman Bates (Psycho) and Leatherface (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre).

The original viewing of the films Jaws and Alien are also pretty horrifying IMHO. The second and subsequent viewings are not as good. The slimy scenes in the John Carpenter film The Thing are on a similar plane.

It's not that blood offends or disgusts me. One of my guilty pleasures is the Vampire Cinema, and I pretty much watch them all, good and bad. In a Vampire film, splatter with a purpose that serves the plot is perfectly OK. But splatter to no purpose other than to scare those who are afraid of blood is truely pointless and boring.

I know of people who can apparently remain unaffected by any amount of violence or gore, but cannot stand seeing cockroaches crawling out of E.G. Marshall's mouth in Creepshow - a scene that amuses me. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

Thought Descent was a horrible movie. I've been trying to find a movie that will leave me creeped out at the end and have fulfilled its purpose of scaring me. Unfortunately I haven't found anything that has yet. Not in a visual/gore way though, in more of a psychological way.

If you haven't already seen it check out 'Creep', it has some pretty creepy scenes and it's definitely worth a rent.

hmmm...

how about "the astronaut's wife"? certainly creeped me out...

"rosemary's baby"?

i'm not big into gore, personally, i prefer "suspense horror" (for lack of a better term)... although someone made a good point in reference to "jaws" in an earlier post that holds true with all "suspense horror", after you've seen it once, it doesn't have nearly the same impact the second time around...

I found the Ninth Gate slow and plodding and not scary at all.

A few others in what I guess I'll call "smart horror" are:

The original "Wicker Man"
The Rapture
The Omen (and the recent remake)
The Ring
Exorcism of Emily Rose
Skeleton Key
The Dark

Well after reading here, and being sort of inspired for a good Horror, I rented (that means watched, for the majority of you who may not be able to Grok rented/watched), The Descent.

What's with you people?

Both of the Jeepers Creepers were way more entertaining and just about as intelligent.

When Peter Griffin returns from Sensitivity Training, and his son Chris says:

OMG, dad's a chick!

Well that makes sense.