Can I once again ask what was so great about the Conjuring? There was almost nothing, and I mean NOTHING original about that movie. the story was predictable as hell, the "scares" were also incredibly predictable and the camera work, effective as it was, did nothing to relieve those two facts. I can't for the life of me fathom how something so thoroughly boring, cliche and flat out unoriginal could receive so much praise. I wouldn't rag on it so much if it was actually creepy, but it wasn't Every single trick in the book was used in that movie.
anyways, now that the rant is over, I haven't really seen any horror movie that truly scared me. but some of my favorites are The Evil Dead (original) You're Next, and I Saw the Devil.
As far as the Exorcist goes, I can see why it scared people at the time, but it's not very scary now. The special effects were a big turn off for me. Like the head spinning scene? CLEARLY animatronic. I get it was the seventies, but there are quite a few movies from the seventies that hold up well today. Granted, I was 16 when I saw it so that may have had something to do with the lack of scares, but nothing about the movie really jumped out at me aside from the subliminal messaging (which made me dizzy more than anything).
And to people who would say that I'm contradicting myself by saying I like Evil Dead, but not Exorcist, and like You're Next, but not The Conjuring, I will say this: In the case of the Evil Dead, part of the reason it's so good is because of the cheap ass effects. They look so bad, that it actually adds to the "grimy" and "unclean" feeling of the movie. Plus, it still manages to be pretty creepy at points (thank you, uncanny valley). This is opposed to the Exorcist, which is supposed to be flat out scary and not so bad it's awesome. And with You're Next, it is a cliche concept that was twisted on its head and incredibly well executed. The main character became the ultimate killer as the movie went on, AND, unlike in an infinity of other slasher films, no one is safe from harm in You're Next. Not the main character, not the victims, not the villains, nobody. this is opposed to The Conjuring, which uses every generic haunted house trick in the book to try and evoke "scares" and ended up failing because it wasn't even well done.
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