The_Piper wrote:

SafeAsMilk wrote:Whatever gets you in the mood to realize how funny writing a check for 69 cent carton of milk is.

That's gonna take a lot.

Do you hate bowling or something? Seriously, for a guy that likes getting stoned as much as you, Big Lebowski should be a shoe-in.

Plus there's green nail polish.

archibald wrote:I admit the genre that seems most surprising is horror. I get that people don't actually believe in stuff like evil spirits and so on....but if they really really don't believe....what's scary?

Another question you might consider asking is: why do atheists write horror? Clive Barker and John Carpenter both spring to mind. Carpenter has said that he has some respect for the power of religious ideas, and is happy to use them as icons in horror.

As for what I find scary: very little. The main thing I liked about Lights Out was the mechanic. It's a simple rule: if the lights are out, the monster can manifest and so come kick your ass. But this leads to a bunch of interesting tricks. The best one is when a cop tries to shoot the monster, the muzzle flash causes it to dematerialise, the bullet passes through straight air, and then the monster rematerialises and kicks the cop's ass. That was just cool.

Another one that I think is just a genius mechanic is Doctor Who's Weeping Angels. It got invented independently in the creepypasta collection "Containment Breach", and included in the game of the same name, and a couple of other games. It's dead easy to implement, and I've made some simple demos in Unity which worked pretty well.

The Ring and The Shining I'd have to go into specifics, but I love those films. I also love Drag Me to Hell, but that's mostly very good horror comedy to me. I laughed most of the way through it.

I thought It Follows was mostly very good. I thought the mechanics in that, which really inculcated a sense of dread, are great. But the way they beat the monster in the end was a bit of a let down.

I'm not into religious horror. It doesn't mean anything to me. I appreciate that The Exorcist is meant to be a classic, but it's not really my thing. I liked the way the photographs worked in The Omen.

Horror were too much is explained annoys me. I want things to be kept weird and ambiguous. Triangle is awesome for this. Cube, a horror without any spooks, is particularly chilling because of how meaningless the whole thing turns out to be. You can also do good non-spook horror by playing it out as psychological: see Jacob's Ladder. Films like The Shining and Candyman, while giving the game away in places that there is something supernatural going on, make it clear or at least hint that there is madness involved.

For something recent, I pretty much loved Syfy's Candle Cove. It's based on an excellent creepypasta. The ending was a bit of a disappointment (horror usually disappoints me), but the first few episodes were just on the perfect side of weird. That's the sense I most want from horror. And the puppets were great.

"Careful now Percy. That box might be locked for a reason. And when you let bad things out...you can never put them back."

I was genuinely laughing at that scene and how cool I thought it was.

Mazille wrote:Pipez...

I hope this doesn't put my cool dude bro status in question.

No, that's a lifetime achievement award. You're still wrong on this, though.

Well it's not written in stone that I don't like the movie. I'll watch Lebowski again when I come across it. It's always possible that I wasn't in a great mood when I first watched it. Spaceballs is my best example of a comedy that I hated with a passion the first time I saw it, then watched it with a relative who knows it so well that he was comically reciting the lines, now I find much of the movie hilarious.

VazScep wrote:

[Reveal] Spoiler:

archibald wrote:I admit the genre that seems most surprising is horror. I get that people don't actually believe in stuff like evil spirits and so on....but if they really really don't believe....what's scary?

Another question you might consider asking is: why do atheists write horror? Clive Barker and John Carpenter both spring to mind. Carpenter has said that he has some respect for the power of religious ideas, and is happy to use them as icons in horror.

As for what I find scary: very little. The main thing I liked about Lights Out was the mechanic. It's a simple rule: if the lights are out, the monster can manifest and so come kick your ass. But this leads to a bunch of interesting tricks. The best one is when a cop tries to shoot the monster, the muzzle flash causes it to dematerialise, the bullet passes through straight air, and then the monster rematerialises and kicks the cop's ass. That was just cool.

Another one that I think is just a genius mechanic is Doctor Who's Weeping Angels.

[Reveal] Spoiler:

It got invented independently in the creepypasta collection "Containment Breach", and included in the game of the same name, and a couple of other games. It's dead easy to implement, and I've made some simple demos in Unity which worked pretty well.

The Ring and The Shining I'd have to go into specifics, but I love those films. I also love Drag Me to Hell, but that's mostly very good horror comedy to me. I laughed most of the way through it.

I thought It Follows was mostly very good. I thought the mechanics in that, which really inculcated a sense of dread, are great. But the way they beat the monster in the end was a bit of a let down.

I'm not into religious horror. It doesn't mean anything to me. I appreciate that The Exorcist is meant to be a classic, but it's not really my thing. I liked the way the photographs worked in The Omen.

Horror were too much is explained annoys me. I want things to be kept weird and ambiguous. Triangle is awesome for this. Cube, a horror without any spooks, is particularly chilling because of how meaningless the whole thing turns out to be. You can also do good non-spook horror by playing it out as psychological: see Jacob's Ladder. Films like The Shining and Candyman, while giving the game away in places that there is something supernatural going on, make it clear or at least hint that there is madness involved.

For something recent, I pretty much loved Syfy's Candle Cove. It's based on an excellent creepypasta. The ending was a bit of a disappointment (horror usually disappoints me), but the first few episodes were just on the perfect side of weird. That's the sense I most want from horror. And the puppets were great.

"Careful now Percy. That box might be locked for a reason. And when you let bad things out...you can never put them back."

I was genuinely laughing at that scene and how cool I thought it was.

Those weeping angels are a hell of a good writing device. They're very much like the Freddy Kruger character.

You're going to eventually blink. You're going to eventually sleep. Then, you're screwed.

Inevitable peril.

The_Piper wrote:Spaceballs is my best example of a comedy that I hated with a passion the first time I saw it,

How is it even possible to dislike Spaceballs?

then watched it with a relative who knows it so well that he was comically reciting the lines, now I find much of the movie hilarious.

That would completely ruin it for me.

Just re-watched all the Star Trek movies up to the 2009 movie
Next Gen was ok, but it sure went down hill after that.

SafeAsMilk wrote:

The_Piper wrote:Spaceballs is my best example of a comedy that I hated with a passion the first time I saw it,

How is it even possible to dislike Spaceballs?

I didn't like Spaceballs because of all the stupid jokes that fell flat. Some of those same jokes and gags made me laugh now, though some of them are still stupid. But even if there was nothing else, the scene with the video tape of the movie is worth it.
That's not much of a knock, I thought even some Fletch gags were stupid. Not many though.

SafeAsMilk wrote:

The_Piper wrote:
then watched it with a relative who knows it so well that he was comically reciting the lines, now I find much of the movie hilarious.

That would completely ruin it for me.

I don't know about these quotes, I'm sure you can figure out who said what.
I know what you mean, that can be annoying, but in this case it enabled me to see the humor more easily, somehow. Or maybe it was the B.C. bud.
I like bowling. As a matter of fact, my dad was a semi-pro bowler. Big balls.

Well...

Obviously you're not a golfer.

The_Piper wrote:

SafeAsMilk wrote:

The_Piper wrote:
Spaceballs is my best example of a comedy that I hated with a passion the first time I saw it,

How is it even possible to dislike Spaceballs?

I didn't like Spaceballs because of all the stupid jokes that fell flat. Some of those same jokes and gags made me laugh now, though some of them are still stupid. But even if there was nothing else, the scene with the video tape of the movie is worth it.
That's not much of a knock, I thought even some Fletch gags were stupid. Not many though.

Seriously, if Fletch is funny, then Spaceballs is laugh a minute Yeah, of course the humor is stupid, it's a Mel Brooks movie. Haven't you ever seen one of those before?

The_Piper wrote:

SafeAsMilk wrote:

The_Piper wrote:
then watched it with a relative who knows it so well that he was comically reciting the lines, now I find much of the movie hilarious.

That would completely ruin it for me.

I don't know about these quotes, I'm sure you can figure out who said what.
I know what you mean, that can be annoying, but in this case it enabled me to see the humor more easily, somehow. Or maybe it was the B.C. bud.
I like bowling. As a matter of fact, my dad was a semi-pro bowler. Big balls.

That took a surprising amount of work to sort out. Anyway, if you had to be guided through the humor of Spaceballs, you'll probably need help with Big Lebowski. Though considering you've got a bowling background, there's really no excuses.

SafeAsMilk wrote:

The_Piper wrote:

SafeAsMilk wrote:

The_Piper wrote:
Spaceballs is my best example of a comedy that I hated with a passion the first time I saw it,

How is it even possible to dislike Spaceballs?

I didn't like Spaceballs because of all the stupid jokes that fell flat. Some of those same jokes and gags made me laugh now, though some of them are still stupid. But even if there was nothing else, the scene with the video tape of the movie is worth it.
That's not much of a knock, I thought even some Fletch gags were stupid. Not many though.

Seriously, if Fletch is funny, then Spaceballs is laugh a minute Yeah, of course the humor is stupid, it's a Mel Brooks movie. Haven't you ever seen one of those before?

The_Piper wrote:

SafeAsMilk wrote:

The_Piper wrote:
then watched it with a relative who knows it so well that he was comically reciting the lines, now I find much of the movie hilarious.

That would completely ruin it for me.

I don't know about these quotes, I'm sure you can figure out who said what.
I know what you mean, that can be annoying, but in this case it enabled me to see the humor more easily, somehow. Or maybe it was the B.C. bud.
I like bowling. As a matter of fact, my dad was a semi-pro bowler. Big balls.

That took a surprising amount of work to sort out. Anyway, if you had to be guided through the humor of Spaceballs, you'll probably need help with Big Lebowski. Though considering you've got a bowling background, there's really no excuses.

Fletch is a different kind of funny. Comebacks, one liners and insults.
I didn't need to be guided through the humor of Spaceballs. Does anybody? I still haven't watched that movie by myself again
Other Mel Brooks movies I've seen:
Blazing Saddles - I've tried to watch two or three times, but can't get too far beyond the painful song at the beginning. I know there are funny scenes in it, if I put in the time.
Young Frankenstein - That one is very funny, though I don't think I've ever seen it from start to finish. I think I have that dvd now.
The Producers - was ok.
I think that's all.

Blazing saddles is almost entirely funny scenes. I consider it Mel Brooks' best work.

I'll get to that one again sometime, and just start it from after the song at the beginning.

Mel brooks is one whose movies I tend to avoid. His humour is too slapstick, too obvious, and too unsubtle for my tastes.

With that said, Young Frankenstein is one of my favorite comedies.

The_Piper wrote:

SafeAsMilk wrote:Anyway, if you had to be guided through the humor of Spaceballs, you'll probably need help with Big Lebowski. Though considering you've got a bowling background, there's really no excuses.

Fletch is a different kind of funny. Comebacks, one liners and insults.

Whadaya mean? Spaceballs is full of those. "I'm surrounded by assholes! Keep firing, assholes!"

I didn't need to be guided through the humor of Spaceballs. Does anybody?

Well you said you had to watch it with someone else who could quote the film verbatim, sounds like guiding to me

I still haven't watched that movie by myself again
Other Mel Brooks movies I've seen:
Blazing Saddles - I've tried to watch two or three times, but can't get too far beyond the painful song at the beginning.

Are you referring to "Theee Camp-town Lay-dee"? Never heard of it...

For fuck's sake, how can anyone not get Blazing Saddles? What's next, Airplane! and Naked Gun??

The_Piper wrote:I'll get to that one again sometime, and just start it from after the song at the beginning.

Oh no wait, are you talking about the Rock Ridge song? "Our town is turning into shiiiiiiit"?

VazScep wrote:

archibald wrote:I admit the genre that seems most surprising is horror. I get that people don't actually believe in stuff like evil spirits and so on....but if they really really don't believe....what's scary?

Another question you might consider asking is: why do atheists write horror? Clive Barker and John Carpenter both spring to mind. Carpenter has said that he has some respect for the power of religious ideas, and is happy to use them as icons in horror.

As for what I find scary: very little. The main thing I liked about Lights Out was the mechanic. It's a simple rule: if the lights are out, the monster can manifest and so come kick your ass. But this leads to a bunch of interesting tricks. The best one is when a cop tries to shoot the monster, the muzzle flash causes it to dematerialise, the bullet passes through straight air, and then the monster rematerialises and kicks the cop's ass. That was just cool.

Another one that I think is just a genius mechanic is Doctor Who's Weeping Angels. It got invented independently in the creepypasta collection "Containment Breach", and included in the game of the same name, and a couple of other games. It's dead easy to implement, and I've made some simple demos in Unity which worked pretty well.

The Ring and The Shining I'd have to go into specifics, but I love those films. I also love Drag Me to Hell, but that's mostly very good horror comedy to me. I laughed most of the way through it.

I thought It Follows was mostly very good. I thought the mechanics in that, which really inculcated a sense of dread, are great. But the way they beat the monster in the end was a bit of a let down.

I'm not into religious horror. It doesn't mean anything to me. I appreciate that The Exorcist is meant to be a classic, but it's not really my thing. I liked the way the photographs worked in The Omen.

Horror were too much is explained annoys me. I want things to be kept weird and ambiguous. Triangle is awesome for this. Cube, a horror without any spooks, is particularly chilling because of how meaningless the whole thing turns out to be. You can also do good non-spook horror by playing it out as psychological: see Jacob's Ladder. Films like The Shining and Candyman, while giving the game away in places that there is something supernatural going on, make it clear or at least hint that there is madness involved.

For something recent, I pretty much loved Syfy's Candle Cove. It's based on an excellent creepypasta. The ending was a bit of a disappointment (horror usually disappoints me), but the first few episodes were just on the perfect side of weird. That's the sense I most want from horror. And the puppets were great.

"Careful now Percy. That box might be locked for a reason. And when you let bad things out...you can never put them back."

I was genuinely laughing at that scene and how cool I thought it was.

Good post, I agree with it almost in its entirety. A couple of things I would add - I am perhaps into 'religious' horror a little bit more, but it's not my favourite approach. Does Rosemary's Baby ualify as religious horror? I can take or leave The Omen, but I think that's because it was scary to me at 12 and I watched it too much. As a result I've grown past it. The Exorcist is a classic and I will watch it if it's on, but there are many more recent demon-y type films which I prefer, such as The Last Exorcism, The House of the Devil and The Possession of Michael King (although people generally hate it ).

I have a soft spot for The Fourth Kind (although people generally hate it ), and Sinister is a film which I found genuinely disturbing, but don't bother with Sinister II.

Secondly, it doesn't really matter to me too much whether a horror film contains anything supernatural or not. Psychological horror can be just as effective, providing it is relatively subtle. One film which I found very unsettling but contained nothing supernatural was The Sacrament, which is a story based on the Jonestown massacre and another is The Conspiracy.

Also, I do enjoy a film more if it's shot in a low budget, slapdash way. I think this is why I like found footage so much. There's a lot of crap in that sub genre, but I also think it contains many of the most effectively unsettling films I've ever seen. I think it's because of the immediacy and realism which can be achieved by using these techniues.

Oh and don't forget The Borderlands.