The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (5)
or
Aliens

We're waiting - whoever nominated these must have an opinion? I must regretfully abstain. (One Alien was enough for me, thank you very much - Shamefully haven't seen the Cabinet - Wolf?)

Aliens.

i liked aliens. never heard of the other one.

Cabinet is classic, its the scary look. but like playing a vintage ball player in todays leagues...

Aliens.

House of Wax
or
It

It

House of Wax

Now, just to say a little something about Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. (on that pairing I would have gone for Aliens, BTW. I love Caligari, but when it comes to horror, Aliens has it all going for it. One of the extraordinarily few good sequels. Anyway ...

1920s Germany produced some awesomely interesting avant garde work that was one of the things that got the collective Germanic Lederhosen in a bunch and allowed for the rise of the National Socialist Party. They thought that this weird artistic stuff was too subversive and permissive for the general populace. Anyway ... if you get the chance, see this movie. Rent it. I would expect it to be in the collections of a lot of libraries. Back in the day (mid 70s at a guess), the first time I saw it was by taking an 8mm print out of the library. Caligari presents a surreal landscape in which the absurd becomes normal, and the normal impossible. Cesare, the somnambulist is played by Conrad Veidt, whom you probably better recall as Major Strasser in Casablanca. Another bit of minor movie trivia involves Fritz Lang's M, another of my favorite films ... the head of the group of criminals (whose character name escapes me) wears a pair of gloves that are the negative of the gloves worn by Caligari. The sets are pieces of surrealist artwork in and of themselves, but enhance the overall experience of the film rather than distract from it.

So, basically, see this movie. It's only about an hour long, but does a lot more in that hour than most current films do in two.

Well someone is going to have to break the dead lock on this one 'cause I haven't seen House of Wax.

That, unfortunately, won't be me, since I already voted. House of Wax is the Vincent Price original. It is one of Charles Bronson's, credited as Charles Buchinsky, earliest movies (he plays the mute assistant, who is of course named "Igor"). The film was made during the 3-D craze. There is a totally useless scene involving a guy playing paddleball at you that only makes sense if you know that. Big business is evil, a true artist suffers for his work, loose women deserve what they get, beauty can be preserved forever, and love conquers all.

With screaming. You can't leave out the screaming. Proper classic horror screaming by the heroine, with her fist clenched in front of her mouth because she is so paralyzed with terror. That screaming. The kind that pre-dated the unattractive open-mouthed shrieking, as popularized by Jamie Lee Curtis.

It, on the other hand, was a somewhat lackadaisical made-for-TV miniseries adaptation of one of Stephen King's longer books. I only saw this once. I remember Tim Curry being fairly creepy, but I don't have a lot of patience with anything that Richard Thomas stars in. Harry Anderson was good for the first two years of night court, but I got quite tired of him. I was probably disappointed that the Chinese Dinner scene was not sufficiently graphic.

:innocent look: no, of course I'm not trying to influence the voting ...

yaay! let it be me.

the winner is house of wax.

It sucked.

But I thought you liked House of ...

Ooooooh.

It sucked.

yeah. okay. nevermind. I think I might go to sleep now. Thanks, you've been a great audience. Don't forget to tip your servers and bartenders.

*rimshot*

in school, among my small circle of friends, this kind of humor was considered the finest. quick, topical, you know, clever. some of the best was economical with words, like this one, other times bonus points were awarded for misdirection... I still enjoy this wordplay, but sadly, very few of my current circle "gets it". Certainly for the natural and appropriate reason that they're often just not funny.... but this one (which I regard as quick, clever, 5 out of 10 funny) would have failed to ruffle the hair of any of my day to day aquaintences. :(

So thanks wolf for validating my little joke. I wish I'd been able to hang out with you in school. would have been a howl.

Well it looks like The House of Wax gets to take on more Stephen King in the next round

Manos, the Hands of Fate
or
Pitch Black