Horror Roundtable - Week Seventy-Seven
Describe your favourite horror-related experience of 2007.
To me, after being away from the genre for a few years, catching up on all the great stuff from over the last few years was great fun. By far the film that blew me away the most was Niel Marshall’s “The Descent.” It was one of those films that will scare the shit out of you and stays with you for days afterwards. Also, flying out to Indianapolis for Horror Hound Weekend (A horror convention put on by Horror Hound Magazine, which I also write for) and getting to meet John Landis was amazing. I met some great people that weekend and I’ll never forget the experience.
Sean T. Collins - Attentiondeficitdisorderly Too Flat
Probably watching the opening sequence of 28 Weeks Later, the best horror movie of the year.
Jeff O’Brien
Watching THE EYE for the first time. Terrific Asian horror!
I had a few that have really stuck with me. The first was discovering Fabrice Du Welz’s Belgium/French horror film Calvaire (2004) on DVD earlier this year. Calvaire was easily the best new horror film I’ve seen in at least two or maybe even three years. The French have been producing some of my favorite modern horror films of the last decade and Calvaire is just amazing in the way the unusual story plays out and the beautiful way it’s shot. I was also thrilled that I was finally able to see Hiroshi Teshigahara’s Pitfall (1962) and Teruo Ishii’s Horrors of Malformed Men (1969). I’ve been wanting to see both of these Japanese horror movies for years so when they were released on DVD in the US this year I was really excited and they didn’t disappoint me. As a matter of fact, I was so blown over by them that I haven’t been able to write anything about them yet. Words have sort of failed me.
Hands down it was seeing the director’s cut of the first Hostel with Eli Roth in attendance a couple months ago. Not only did I end up preferring the director’s cut to the original, but Eli Roth was funny and articulate and, well, standing five feet from me in relatively snug jeans… I’m a simple man, with simple tastes.
My favorite horror experience of 2007, I think, was the Postcards From Hell project. I paid the low price of $6.66, and once a week for thirteen consecutive weeks I received a postcard in my mailbox containing a brand new short-short horror story, each one an eerie gem. The project was an original and delightfully tangible way of delivering stories to readers, and all of the postcards are now stored safely in a creepy little wooden box on my mantel. Sadly, the project is over now, and it’s not clear whether it will ever be repeated, but it was lots of fun while it lasted. My compliments to the organizer and participating authors.
Retropolitan - Tales To Astonish
My favorite horror-related experience of 2007?
The official ‘Monster Squad’ DVD. I’m sure I’ve seen the movie a thousand times already, but actually having a super-duper double-disc set with all the commentaries and documentaries and frills made 2007 worth living through. If the entire civilized world collapses before January 1st, the rise of human society will not have been in vain because of this DVD set. Now that I think of it, maybe we should just quit while we’re ahead.
My alternate answer: “Whatever the opposite of SAW III is.”
My best experience of the year? Why, thanking the Horror Roundtable participants each and every week, of course! Make like Zelda and check out the links above, while simultaneously letting the world know your own worthwhile horror-related experience in the comments below. I know you can do it. I believe in you.
December 20th, 2007 at 12:31 am
Opening scene of 28 Weeks Later–definitely my highlight as well. Incredible!
May 9th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
muie