Attention VOTE: Battle of the Films

[captainofbeef]

Round 1
Battle 7
Northwest region
3 seed
Halloween (Carpenter, 1978)

On a cold Halloween night in Haddonfield, Illinois in 1963, six year old Michael Myers brutally murdered his teenage sister after she had sex with her boyfriend. Michael is then locked inside Smith's Grove Warren County Sanitarium where he is placed under the care of Dr. Sam Loomis who is the only one who sees the pure evil within the soul of Michael. In October 1978, Michael escapes from the sanitarium. After witnessing the escape, Dr. Loomis heads back to Haddonfield where he knows Michael will kill again on Halloween night. Michael begins stalking three teenagers, Laurie Strode and her friends Annie and Lynda. With the help of the town sheriff, Loomis hunts for Michael and hopes to put an end to his grisly murder spree.

vs
14 seed
28 Days Later (Boyle, 2002)

Jim wakes up from a coma in a London hospital to find the hospital deserted - and the rest of London as well. By degrees he comes to learn that in the past 28 days, a blood-borne virus has been released from a research facility and swept across England, Paris and New York, killing many and turning most into murderous zombies. After coming across a handful of uninfected people, Jim and his companions go to Manchester, where they hear the uninfected are gathering. But they have more on their hands than just zombies...

[captainofbeef]

I liked 28 Days, but Halloween is my favorite horror movie of all time. So, I am voting for that.

[misterbalco]

Halloween...28 Days later was SOOOO TERRIBLE!

[agentknight]

Halloween was one of the few films to have actually frightened me, but 28 Days Later has a special place in my heart, so I'll go with that.

[satantangofan]

Halloween by a long stretch. Thought 28 Days Later was abysmal.

[PTAhole]

While 28 Days Later is one of the better new horror films, Haloween is much better.

[blackmoses]

Halloween

[criterionmaster]

28 Days Later was a good new horror film but Halloween is in the top 10 best horror of all-time!

[captainofbeef]

Halloween wins 6-1. Next one up soon.

[captainofbeef]

Round 1
Battle 8
4 seed
Night of the Living Dead (Romero, 1968)

Chaos descends upon the world as the brains of the recently deceased become inexplicably reanimated, causing the dead to rise and feed on human flesh. Speculation rests on a radiation-covered NASA satellite returning from Venus, but it only remains a speculation. Anyone who dies during the crisis of causes unrelated to brain trauma will return as a flesh-eating zombie, including anyone who has been bitten by a zombie. The only way to destroy the zombies is to destroy the brain. As the catastrophe unfolds, a young woman visiting her father's grave takes refuge in a nearby farmhouse, where she is met by a man who protects her and barricades them inside. They both later discover people hiding in the basement, and they each attempt to cope with the situation. Their only hope rests on getting some gasoline from a nearby pump into a truck that is running on empty, but this requires braving the hordes of ravenous walking corpses outside. When they finally put their plans into action, panic and personal tensions only add to the terror as they try to survive.

vs
13 seed
Misery (Reiner, 1990)

Novelist Paul Sheldon crashes his car on a snowy Colorado road. He is found by Annie Wilkes, the "number one fan" of Paul's heroine Misery Chastaine. Annie is also somewhat unstable, and Paul finds himself crippled, drugged and at her mercy.

[captainofbeef]

Misery is one of the few King adaptations that I liked, but Night of the Living Dead is superior.

[criterionmaster]

Dead.

[PTAhole]

Night of the Living Dead

[Clark Nova]

Love Misery, but c'mon, we're talking about a film that sat in George Romero's trunk as he tried to look for distributors, and it turned into one of the most important horror films ever made...it's a classic, so Night of the Living Dead gets my vote.

[captainofbeef]

Dead wins 4-0. Next one up soon.

[captainofbeef]

Round 1
Battle 9
Southwest region
4 seed
The Shining (Kubrick, 1980)

Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) gets a job as the custodian of the Overlook Hotel, in the mountains of Colorado. The place is closed down during winter, and Torrance and his family will be the only occupants of the hotel for a long while. When the snow storms block the Torrance family in the hotel, Jack's son Danny - who has some clairvoyance and telepathy powers - discovers that the hotel is haunted and that the spirits are slowly driving Jack crazy. When Jack meets the ghost of Mr. Grady, the former custodian of the hotel who murdered his wife and his two daughters, things begin to get really nasty...




vs
13 seed
Phantasm (Coscarelli, 1979)

Mike cannot decide what is real and what isn't, and is plagued by vivid nightmares. He gets the shock of his life when he watches, with binoculars, the conclusion of the funeral of his older brother's friend--the mortician (the Tall Man), by himself, lifts the casket into the back of a hearse. Mike heads to the grounds of the mortuary, which is home to very bizarre happenings, including a unique security device. Enlisting the help of brother Jody and ice cream salesman Reggie, Mike attempts to vanquish the Tall Man.

[captainofbeef]

Liked Phantasm, but The Shining is an absolute classic. So, I go for the Shining.

[satantangofan]

Phantasm. Whilst The Shining looks great and has memorable performances, it fails to convey any sense of Jack Torrance's character development, which is absolutely why the book is so f***ing brilliant. And the central theme of the film (that the emotional weather inside the hotel is far worse than the weather outside) is handled clumsily in my opinion. Come on, be honest...if this wasn't directed by Kubrick it would be rated average at best.
Phantasm is a great little film with a unique atmosphere. Watch out for the flying, spiky ball thing...

[blackmoses]

I vote for The Shining and Tim is with me right now and votes for Shining as well. Phantasm is amazing and I love it but Shining is better.

[Clark Nova]

Can't vote since I haven't seen Phantasm, but allow me to say that I wasn't at all impressed with The Shining...not one of Kubrick's better efforts, and the book was a lot better.

[captainofbeef]

The Shining wins 3-1. Next one up soon.

[captainofbeef]

Round 1
Battle 10
Northwest region
5 seed
Dawn of the Dead (Romero, 1978)

It's some time after the dead have started to rise and attack the shocked living, and civilization has started to crumble. In the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, TV station workers Stephen and Francine decide to run as the situation worsens and, after meeting Roger and Peter (two special policemen ordered to move any people into rescue stations) who have also choose to run, steal the station's helicopter and fly west in an attempt to find a safe place. After several attempts during their flight across Pennsylvania, they find a deserted mega-mall in Monroeville, outside Pittsburgh and decide to wait there until the crisis is over. They clear the mall of the undead and board the entrances up with tractor-trailers and then sit down and wait. Can they hold out, not only against the growing, moaning, and hungry masses of the undead outside, against murderous looters, but most importantly of all, can they hold out and not lose their sanity...?

vs
12 seed
Bride of Frankenstein (Whale, 1935)

Dr. Frankenstein and his monster both turn out to be alive, not killed as previously believed. Dr. Frankenstein wants to get out of the evil experiment business, but when a mad scientist, Dr. Pretorius, kidnaps his wife, Dr. Frankenstein agrees to help him create a new creature, a woman, to be the companion of the monster.

[captainofbeef]

Bride is a classic. But I like Dawn better.

[criterionmaster]

Dawn! But Bride is just so sweet.

[satantangofan]

Dawn of the Dead remains one of my favourite horror films.

[Clark Nova]

Dawn of the Dead. Great scares, even greater message about consumerism.

[PTAhole]

Dawn. Bride of Frankenstien is fucking fantastic, though...

[blackandwhite]

dawn of the dead

[captainofbeef]

Dawn makes the clean sweep, 7-0.

[captainofbeef]

Round 1
Battle 11
Southwest region
5 seed
Jaws (Spielberg, 1975)

The peaceful community of Amity island is being terrorised. There is something in the sea that is attacking swimmers. They can no longer enjoy the sea and the sun as they used to, and the spreading fear is affecting the numbers of tourists that are normally attracted to this island. After many attempts the great white shark won't go away and sheriff Brody, with friends Hooper and Quint decide to go after the shark and kill it.

vs
12 seed
The Dead Zone (Cronenberg, 1983)

Johnny Smith is a young schoolteacher with his whole life ahead of him. Unfortunately, after leaving his fiancee's home one night, he is involved in a wreck with an 18-wheel tractor-trailer and is in a coma for 5 years. When he wakes up from it, he discovers he has an ability to see people's futures by coming into physical contact. But the visions he has are often frightening, and even apocalyptic...