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I was so happy to hear Scott say my username in this episode. His laughter over it made my day.

Got you there Babyyy

I think what holds me back on Blair Witch is that it's influential but not necessarily good. They continually talked about seeing it at the time. If we're talking top 100 ad campaigns, Blair Witch deserves a spot. But it's central ideas have been done better. Cannibal Holocaust (which I hate hate hate) used found footage nearly two decades before Blair Witch and is weirdly more believable in spots. Paranormal Activity uses it better and doesn't rely on marketing tricking you into believing it was real (it's marketing was also fantastic though). Blair Witch really only might belong because it popularized a new genre of found footage horror.

I'll cut Phil Nobile some slack, since he said he came up with his pick very quickly (Get Out) before checking the actual list and didn't realize stuff like The Exorcist wasn't already there. Otherwise, yeah, most of these picks (except Amy's) shouldn't get bumped to the front of the line over the likes of The Exorcist, The Shining, Alien, Halloween, Rosemary's Baby, etc. As to what defines a horror, I've had as my rule of thumb that there must be some kind of malevolent physical threat to the central human characters in the story, and that threat is what drives the narrative. The threat can be something supernatural (ghosts, aliens, etc.) or it can be a human killer (a "slasher"), but it's got to be something out of the ordinary. That's kind of what rules out The Sixth Sense and why the applause seemed tepid for that one: it has ghosts, but they are not an actual threat to the central human characters. I'm not sure where serial-killer narratives fall here, since sometimes they definitely are about the horror (Halloween has got to be considered a horror movie), but sometimes they are crime dramas and mysteries without a direct threat to the main characters hanging over the story (I personally would say Seven isn't horror, since for the bulk of the movie they're just investigating crimes that have already happened, not under direct threat from the killer).

I have to agree with you. I enjoyed the episode fine, and I like all their picks well enough (I would definitely put them all on a Top 100 Horror list), but only Night of the Living Dead comes close for me to making it on the actual “all movies/all time” AFI list - and then, only because the other proffered movies were (in my opinion) weak contenders. There’s no way ANY of those movies deserve to be on a list with Citizen Kane or 2001 or most of the movies on the AFI list. I think, in terms of an honest shot, you have to be talking about movies like The Exorcist, The Shining, Alien, or Rosemary’s Baby. Frankenstein (which was on the previous list) or Bride of Frankenstein are also worthy of consideration. But Blair Witch and Scream? Really? I like them both, but on a list of “all time greats” I just don’t see it. Fun and scary? Yes. Great? No way.

I was a little bit disappointed in this episode. It's never a good sign when the panel is displaying more recency bias than the audience. (Phil seemed to throw Amy under the bus a bit for not mentioning the dearth of horror films on the AFI list, and perhaps that explains Phil's pick, but Paul has no excuse.) I think Amy expected people to pick classics like The Exorcist or Texas Chainsaw Massacre or one of the Karloff/Chaney/Legosi Universal monster movies. Instead, she got three films that she has already covered on The Canon. (To be fair, she also already covered The Exorcist, at the Overlook festival a year ago. If you're keeping score, out of Scream, The Blair Witch Project, Get Out, and The Exorcist, all four were inducted into the Canon.) So as it turned out, the "vote" was pretty elementary: of COURSE Night of the Living Dead would deserve a place before the other three, simply because it has stood the test of time and is as brilliant today as it must have been 50 years ago. And pushing back against Paul's statement, I don't know if a list would need Get Out if it has Night of the Living Dead. Look, I like Get Out as much as the next guy. I would have voted for Get Out for a third Oscar if I could. Best horror film in my lifetime, hands down. But it's a film that draws heavily from the racial politics of Night of the Living Dead, which did it better and more subtly in my opinion. (Speaking of the influences of Get Out, I can't believe this episode on the best horror films doesn't even mention Rosemary's Baby. I know, I know, the Polanski of it all, but still, how is it not worth talking about?) And while they mentioned that AFI made a separate list, 100 Thrills, they don't go into just how shitty that list is, since it combines horror, thriller, action, and adventure films all into one hodgepodge list (Lawrence of Arabia is #23, Night of the Living Dead is #93). While it's tempting to come here and just say, "Why wasn't the film I care about mentioned?" (in my case, that film is The Shining, which I will forever call the best horror film of all time), the fact that so few got the benefit of an in-depth discussion is disappointing. The fact that 3 of the featured films were made in the last 25 years is a disservice to Alien and Carrie and The Thing and The Fly, not to mention all the movies from the silent era that showed how to build dramatic tension in the film genre, all the Universal monster movies, and even through the B-movie exploitation era of Castle and Corman. I'm not the biggest horror fan, but it's a historically important and significant genre, and I know Sam Zimmerman and Phil Nobile Jr are vastly knowledgable about that history, so to not put that on display here was a bit of a bummer. Also, obviously The Shining deserves to be on the list.

88 minutes is fine with me

That sucks, Cam I think, since the poll is tied, we should watch 88 Minutes tomorrow since it is chronologically before Pluto Nash. Sound good everyone?

I was not able to get out of work so I will not be able to join you guys sadly. Please disregard my opinions on what to watch and have fun having original jokes that nobody says a split second before you.

I just bought tickets to the Berkeley show! Not sold out yet!

I think it's weird out of all the things people used to describe a horror movie, I don't think anyone said "scary". I think that's the only real prerequisite is intending (successfully or not) to scare you.

Her scream flowed freely, then its stream slowed nearly to a trickle, then it flickered back to icy silence, dotted by some coughing islands.

a) girl b) got iiiiiit... c) funny Well done everybody. We did it!

Yes! Also, the lead vocal rhythms on the verses of that song are all over the place, so it's a TERRIBLE song for two people to try to sing together a capella.

Even a couple of bad boy rascals can bring the world a bit of joy ❤

I was thinking that, too. It definitely made it even funnier. Especially on the Roger Stone song, where the tuneless screeching kept getting higher and higher as the song went on.

the grass is greener

The funniest thing about Hashtag Song Goals is that there was absolutely no reason it needed to be two people, and their awkward attempts at singing in unison might have been even better than the actual lyrics.

Based on the Country Bear Jamboree attraction from Disneyland. Live action, too.

Next week people!

^ my experience with trying to embiggen this image: "COMPUTER ENHANCE!" (clicked the image) (Image is now the same size, but now centered on a black screen) "COMPUTER ENHANCE FURTHER!" (clicked that image) (Image is now the same size, but in the top left corner and on a white screen) "Excellent." "Now can I see a hat wobble? And a flargunnstow?"

I fucking love this film. I first saw it on HBO in the mid eighties, and had a VHS copy for the longest time. As I grew older, I began to realize how terrible the film is, but I nonetheless love it. I also use it for a very special purpose. Whenever I am going to see a movie that's disappointing, I put this on first. That way, whatever I watch, I know it won't be the worst thing I see that day, (and because this film will always be a favorite, I don't mind watching it that way). I imagine you guys use the Wicker Man for the same reason. This movie has so much you guys could talk about, that it would be a travesty to not have you guys watch and review it.

huh, just finding out the hollywood handbook guys do a paid version of the show called the pro version that comes out on wendsdays