Your Favourite Horror Films?

[pjgh]

Interested myself as I feintly remember seeing it in video shops.

"The Exorcist was available on home video from 1981 in the UK. After the passage of the Video Recordings Act 1984, the film was submitted to the British Board of Film Classification for a home video certificate. James Ferman, the board's director, vetoed the decision to grant it over a majority vote. He believed that, even with a proposed 18 certificate, the film's notoriety would entice underage viewers to seek it out. As a result, all video copies of The Exorcist were withdrawn in the UK in 1988 and could not be purchased for 11 years."
From Wikipedia

... seems it could well have been in available 1981-1984.

 

[isaiah53]

There were still a fair few "dodgy" videos without age ratings circulating in the early 1980s, so there is a chance that you may have seen one of those.

I think I saw ALL of those...

 

[donnie_arko]

I did enjoy the Empire Pictures, New World and New Line Cinema budget horror movies such as House, Critters and Ghoulies. I recently watched Troll...

I need to check those films out.

Have you seen "The Burning" or "Zombie Flesh Eaters"? These are two very notorious films that were on the Video Nasties list until the late 1990s. They were previously released on VHS heavily cut in the early 1990s and were then released on DVD, but were still heavily cut. I didn't see a complete, uncut version of these films until the mid Noughties, but by then my interest in them had waned a lot. I guess that I had moved on from those kinds of horror films by then. These days, my horror tastes veer more towards the classics, rather than the Video Nasties that I used to enjoy.

Nope, I've not seen either, but for the latter Lucio Fulci also directed 'The Beyond' which is one of my favourite films.
Like yourself, I've kind of lost interest in watching horror films of such a nature.

Thank you for your very informative post. I'll have to keep an eye out for the Ghost Stories boxset. I have a collection of MR James short stories among my books, so I am sure that it would appeal to me. TV adaptations of his stories do tend to be very well-made and are usually worth watching.

I have never seen The Exorcist 3, I am sorry to say. I haven't seen The Exorcist 2, either, but that seems to have predominantly very negative reviews. I've always avoided it, because of that. I don't watch films if there is a reasonably good chance that they will disappoint me.

Yes, Exorcist 2 (I've not seen it) is supposed to be an absolute stinker, but Exorcist 3 is very good. It was directed by the novelist of the first one, and it follows on directly from the first one. If my memory serves me correctly Part 2 is supposed to be about Regan after the initial posession, whilst Part 3 is about the priest and his descent into madness after performing the exorcism.

The BBC Ghost Stories at Christmas are very old fashioned ghost stories, but they are beautifully shot and composed, with excellent sound design as well. I'm surprised at how well they have aged. Of course they are not for everyone, but I'd recommend watching the original 'Whistle and I'll Come to You' on youtube if you have the chance to do so.


There was a remake in the last 10 years with John Hurt which I remember which was pretty good as well.

 

[havings]

Oh my word!!! I've only just realised, even though I've been reading this thread since it started a couple of days ago, that I've been sitting in my living room under a print of the Boris Karloff Frankenstein film poster.

 

[pjgh]

Oh my word!!! I've only just realised, even though I've been reading this thread since it started a couple of days ago, that I've been sitting in my living room under a print of the Boris Karloff Frankenstein film poster.

Better than a poster of Boris Johnson!

... now that's horror!

 

[donnie_arko]

Better than a poster of Boris Johnson!

... now that's horror!

He's back like Michael Myers!

 

[PHR]

Thank you for your very informative post. I'll have to keep an eye out for the Ghost Stories boxset. I have a collection of MR James short stories among my books, so I am sure that it would appeal to me. TV adaptations of his stories do tend to be very well-made and are usually worth watching.

The Beeb's adaptations are excellent, but they do take some liberties with the original stories, as do most film adaptations. It's also worth searching out their version of The Signalman by Dickens, with the marvellous Denholm Elliott.

 

[havings]

The Beeb's adaptations are excellent, but they do take some liberties with the original stories, as do most film adaptations. It's also worth searching out their version of The Signalman by Dickens, with the marvellous Denholm Elliott.

My father-in-law has a copy of The Signalman, since my wife bought it for him. They did a good job creating the 'atmosphere' with that one.

 

[isaiah53]

The Beeb's adaptations are excellent, but they do take some liberties with the original stories, as do most film adaptations. It's also worth searching out their version of The Signalman by Dickens, with the marvellous Denholm Elliott.

The signalman is fantastic

 

[donnie_arko]

The Beeb's adaptations are excellent, but they do take some liberties with the original stories, as do most film adaptations. It's also worth searching out their version of The Signalman by Dickens, with the marvellous Denholm Elliott.

The Signalman is in the BBC Ghost Stories for Christmas DVD Boxset. I'm in agreement with both of your observations. I think it might be my favourite of the adaptations.

 

[havings]

The Signalman is in the BBC Ghost Stories for Christmas DVD Boxset. I'm in agreement with both of your observations. I think it might be my favourite of the adaptations.

Good information. I may buy that, thank you.

 

[FJY]

Interested myself as I feintly remember seeing it in video shops.

"The Exorcist was available on home video from 1981 in the UK. After the passage of the Video Recordings Act 1984, the film was submitted to the British Board of Film Classification for a home video certificate. James Ferman, the board's director, vetoed the decision to grant it over a majority vote. He believed that, even with a proposed 18 certificate, the film's notoriety would entice underage viewers to seek it out. As a result, all video copies of The Exorcist were withdrawn in the UK in 1988 and could not be purchased for 11 years."
From Wikipedia

... seems it could well have been in available 1981-1984.

Ah, yes...good old Wikipedia. An online fountain of knowledge. It's also a website widely renowned for it's 100% accuracy, lol. Yeah, right...

But seriously, folks. There's more bullshit on Wikipedia than there is in a farmer's field. Sorry, but it's a fact.

 

[pjgh]

Ah, yes...good old Wikipedia. An online fountain of knowledge. It's also a website widely renowned for it's 100% accuracy, lol. Yeah, right...

But seriously, folks. There's more bullshit on Wikipedia than there is in a farmer's field. Sorry, but it's a fact.

... and citations. Over 250 citations in the article, which if you follow regarding the quote above take you to BBFC (presumably a source of fact).

"In 1981, the film was released on video by Warner Home Video, as one of their first UK releases. At the time, there was no requirement that videos should be classified by the BBFC so the video was simply released on the strength of its existing X certificate. Contrary to popular opinion, the video version was never included on the Director of Public Prosecution's list of 'video nasties' and was never prosecuted for obscenity - testament perhaps to the popularity of the film and the high regard in which it was held."

The Exorcist

William Friedkin's powerful adaptation of William Peter Blatty's bestselling novel was submitted to the BBFC at the beginning of 1974

www.bbfc.co.uk

Of course if you want a yarn, check out Encylcopaedia Britannica.

 

[FJY]

... and citations. Over 250 citations in the article, which if you follow regarding the quote above take you to BBFC (presumably a source of fact).

"In 1981, the film was released on video by Warner Home Video, as one of their first UK releases. At the time, there was no requirement that videos should be classified by the BBFC so the video was simply released on the strength of its existing X certificate. Contrary to popular opinion, the video version was never included on the Director of Public Prosecution's list of 'video nasties' and was never prosecuted for obscenity - testament perhaps to the popularity of the film and the high regard in which it was held."

The Exorcist

William Friedkin's powerful adaptation of William Peter Blatty's bestselling novel was submitted to the BBFC at the beginning of 1974

www.bbfc.co.uk

Of course if you want a yarn, check out Encylcopaedia Britannica.

Well, I certainly don't recall seeing The Exorcist legally available in any video shops I ever went into. And I used A LOT of different video shops back then, because at that time it was very expensive to buy films on video and so I used to rent most of them. If it was available, it must have been a "dodgy" video shop, because it certainly wouldn't have had a BBFC age certificate, as it wasn't given one until the late 1990s (1998 I believe).

I COULD be wrong, but somehow I don't think that I am on this...

 

[Kevy]

I remember watching a pirate copy of the Exorcist in the early 80s with my mates. I must have been about 11 or 12 years old. It was on Christmas eve. I remember not being able to sleep after seeing it and having to sleep in my mum and dad’s bed. It scared the shit out of me for the next few days. I still haven’t watched it again.

 

[Kevy]

Not really a horror film as such, but there was a mini tv series called Sybil starring Sally Field. About a young girl that was abused by her mother and she had multiple personalities. Based on a true story it was really good but quite an emotional and difficult watch. It stayed with me for a long time after I’d seen it. I’ve searched for it a while ago but I cant seem to find it online anywhere.