Masters of Horror

[Miskatonic]

H.P. Lovecraft

He influenced two of the three choices greatly, but if we are talking about film then out of those three I'd go with Carpenter. Hitchcock is a master of suspense, not horror. Wes Craven overall is pretty mediocre.

Unfortunately for Lovecraft, nobody has done his works justice when it comes to film. Stuart Gordon might be a big fan but he's pretty much failed miserably with all his Lovecraft films.

 

[Miskatonic]

Classic: Lovecraft, Poe

Recent: Barker, King

They are re-making Hellraiser. :crash:

I like some of Barker's books, though at times you have to wade through some homo eroticism, which isn't what I read books for.

 

[Petra]

For literary horror, I have to go with Poe and Lovecraft. For theatrical, Vincent Price.

 

[mrtrebus]

Peter Cushing gets my vote. Always totally convincing, made you believe in the character no matter how far out the plot of the movie was. His portrayal of Van Helsing is definitive. A true master of horror!

 

[hedonis]

For literary horror, I have to go with Poe and Lovecraft. For theatrical, Vincent Price.

"Master of Horror" is a pretty vague title. I would agree with Petra that Vincent Price is pretty much synonymous with horror in the movie world, and even bleeds into literary stuff with his love of, and performance of, Edgar Allen Poe's works.

If you haven't seen "An Evening of Edgar Allen Poe", I highly recommend it- live performance of Vincent Price telling 4 Poe stories.


It's hard to have a master of movie horror, because they seem to come and go. Carpenter was awesome from 1978 to about 1983 or so, and then he started to make things like "Ghosts of Mars", "Vampires", and others. But his works that include "Halloween", "The Fog", and "The Thing" are among the best.

George Romero (and here I go risking a flame attack) really doesn't do that good of work. Night, Dawn, and Day are fun, iconic, cult classics, but "Monkey Shines", "The Crazies", and his others are actually kind of.. meh. "Creepshow" was also good, but hey- he was working with Tom Savini and Stephen King.

"Land of the dead" sucked balls in a most unholy fashion. KNB's effects were awesome, but the writing and characters were terrible. I would like to see the new one, but most of his stuff just doesn't reach the level of mastery.

Wes Craven... Hmmm.... "Nightmare on Elm Street", and.... that's about it. "Scream" was about as scary as a Halloween episode of "Dawson's Creek", and like Romero, I just wouldn't say that any of his stuff beyond Freddy's razor glove has been "mastery".

Who's stuff has? Hard to say without actually looking into it more than just sitting here typing this. I mean, I love Roger Corman, and he's legendary, but it would be hard to call him the "Master of Horror".

I'll have to watch a bunch of horror movies now, and do some research!

H

 

[ChefChiTown]

George Romero (and here I go risking a flame attack) really doesn't do that good of work. Night, Dawn, and Day are fun, iconic, cult classics, but "Monkey Shines", "The Crazies", and his others are actually kind of.. meh. "Creepshow" was also good, but hey- he was working with Tom Savini and Stephen King.

"Land of the dead" sucked balls in a most unholy fashion. KNB's effects were awesome, but the writing and characters were terrible. I would like to see the new one, but most of his stuff just doesn't reach the level of mastery.

I feel the same way. George Romero is more of an icon than a great horror writer/director. When people talk about "the greatest horror writers/directors", I think that most people feel like they have to mention George Romero, just because of his iconic presence in society.

It's just like the Beatles when talking about the best bands ever, but...that's a different thread.

 

[Spleen]

George Romero (and here I go risking a flame attack) really doesn't do that good of work.
"Land of the dead" sucked balls in a most unholy fashion.

And it's about to get much worse.

http://www.movieweb.com/news/NEBePCDJMXtCFJ

"We're shooting underwater zombies. They're swimming, grabbing people's legs, pulling them down. It's a lot of fun."

Claude have mercy

 

[hedonis]

He's just becoming a parody of himself now- he's not even trying to do anything without zombies in it...

 

[Fanny Fart]

Argento and Fulci

David Lynch is an interesting one in this topic. You cannot limit him to horror because he well and truly traverses most genres but he does take many horror techniques and creates entirely frightening worlds that leave the others for dead (pun intended).

 

[Patrick_S]

Wes Craven... Hmmm.... "Nightmare on Elm Street", and.... that's about it. "Scream" was about as scary as a Halloween episode of "Dawson's Creek", and like Romero, I just wouldn't say that any of his stuff beyond Freddy's razor glove has been "mastery".

I would say that The Last House on The Left and The Hills Have Eyes are the two best movies he´s made. The Last House on The Left is probably one of the most "effective" horror movies ever made. I read a review somewhere where someone called it "the most flawed masterpiece ever made" and i think that is a pretty good description. Watching that movie is not a pleasant experience and it made me feel ashamed to be a member of the human race (which i guess was exactly what the filmmakers wanted to achieve with the movie). Overall Wes Craven has done too many movies that are complete crap to get anywhere near the title "Master of Horror".

 

[L3ggy]

I watched Wes' The Hills Have Eyes II Unrated Version, now that's a horror movie

 

[hedonis]

I would say that The Last House on The Left and The Hills Have Eyes are the two best movies he´s made. The Last House on The Left is probably one of the most "effective" horror movies ever made. I read a review somewhere where someone called it "the most flawed masterpiece ever made" and i think that is a pretty good description. Watching that movie is not a pleasant experience and it made me feel ashamed to be a member of the human race (which i guess was exactly what the filmmakers wanted to achieve with the movie). Overall Wes Craven has done too many movies that are complete crap to get anywhere near the title "Master of Horror".

Ya know- I'd forgotten about his pre-Nightmare stuff. Good call, Patrick. From a movie-making standpoint, Last House is crap, but you were right about its effectiveness. Hills was good as well, but still, kind of like Carpenter, just hasn't really consistently done great stuff over the years.

H