With the Horror genre seemingly drowning in directing talent, especially considering the sheer amount of new horror films being churned out, especially with the stigma of stright to DVD now containing none of the shame it formally possessed, yet only a handful of these new directors are being noted along with the Masters of Horror (Carpenter, Landis, Romero etc) for thier contributions to the genre.
So which director can be considered the MOST criminaly overlooked? Who should rightfully be placed with the masters, yet for some reason never seems to get thier due?
Babe of Yesteryear – Allison Hayes, Part I: 1953-54
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Allison Hayes (6 Mar 1930 – 27 Feb 1977) was an American film and
television actress and model who could perhaps be described as a poor man's *Jane
Russel...
4 days ago
16 comments:
Rob Zombie! No matter what the man does, people whine and bitch and say it sucks. His two Halloweens were 100x better than anything starting with Curse of and on. People actually say his Halloween sucked, yet H20 was good?
I personally loved the first Halloween remake but even without that one there is House of 1000 Corpses and Devil's Rejects. those 2 movies are amazing!
New: Adam Green. Hatchet & Spiral were amazing films. I look forward to Hatchet 2 and can't wait to see his new movie Frozen.
Old: Brian Yuzna. He's kind of a love him or hate him kind of guy. But I like bad movies and he makes a lot of good/bad movies. He loves the gore and so do I.
I agree with Hellbilly Hollywood anything Rob Zombie touches turns to gold and he is an amazing director.
Wes Craven- he has made a lot of wonderful horror movies and he doesn't get enough praise which he deserves. Even though he needs to stop the whole Scream franchise all his other movies are good.
I'm still partial to Clive Barker (NightBreed,all time favorite Movie! WTB the extended cut). But some others possibly worth mentioning are:
Danny Boyles (28 Days Later)
Neil Marshall (Descent)
Ryuhei Kitamura (Midnight Meat Train)
Christophe Ganns (Silent Hill)
J.A. Bayona (The Orphanage)
Drago Floyd (Troll 2)
Ok...maybe not so much the last one :D Some might not agree with these directors, just throwing some names out there for discussion!
For new I'd like to throw out:
Michael Dougherty, because Trick 'r Treat was incredible. But... where is he now?
John Gulager, because the Feast trilogy is nothing short of the best horror trilogy ever from a brand new director.
Also agree with:
Rob Zombie gets way too much flack... somehow it became hip to hate his movies, and that's ludicrous.
Brian Yuzna is the king.
Rob Zombie in many ways to Horror, what Quentin Tarantino is to the Crime genre. He saw what was there and took inspiration from the films he loved and thought to hell with it, I'm going to do things my way. I'm not a fan across the board, as "Devils Rejects" took a couple of watches to get it, seeing how he refuses to keep things black and white, which is what makes him an interesting director, even if he pushes the boundaries of tastes, much like Takashi Miike's early work.
Mike Mendez is always overlooked. Real Killers, The Convent and The Gravedancers all have been fantastic and Ov3rkill looks so bad ass.
Granted, I haven't seen the Rob Zombie remakes, as I was a little disappointed in him for doing them. He did so well with Corpses and Rejects, that I think it was a mistake to go and do remakes, especially before making the closing chapter in what I think should be a trilogy ending with Dr. Satan! I mean, come on, Rob! You clearly showed Dr. Satan never being brought to justice and Tiny surviving all the mayhem so it only follows that the two are still lurking about. Make with the horror, man!
Seconding Neil Marshall. Also need to mention Lucky McKee.
I have a lot of hope for Christopher Smith (Triangle, Severance), Neil Marshall, Ti West, and most especially, Maurice Deverauex (End of the Line). For older directors, I'd say Joe Dante, who not only directed some fantastic horror films, but also has a refreshing love of genre cinema that shines through in his personal projects and movies (Matinee, anyone?).
undoubtedly: Michele Soavi. Made only 4 horror movies (Stage Fright, The Church, The Sect, Cemetery Man) but they are all killer!!
Also: Marcello Avallone - his 2 Italo-entries 'Specters' and 'Maya' are criminally underrated.
I'm going to disagree with most people's Rob Zombie views. I don't think he's underrated at all. His original work is fantastic, for what it is. He writes and directs redneck, white trash films. And, I'm not saying that his audience, that's his subject matter. He can't drop the dysfunctional, almost incestuous tone to his movies. And sickeningly, he brought that element to Halloween, and most purists didn't appreciate it. Myself included. Again, I love his originals, but defiling an already decent series was too much, for me. And, everything after Halloween 4 has been mediocre or less than. H20 was atrocious. Rob is hardcore, and while that's great and new, well, I'm rambling.
Anyway, as far as this is concerned I'm going to echo the Brian Yuzna, as well.
I'd have to say, Jaume Balagueró who worked on Rec and a really creepy film called The Nameless, and Fragile. Also, Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury who did Inside, and Pascal Laugier who did Martyrs. These french directors were going to do the Hellraiser remake, but sadly, they left the project from what I'm sure must have been studio interference. Also, JA Bayona, who did The Orphanage.
However, none of these directors has done more then a few films in the genre. I mean I might as well add the Serbian film director, Srdjan Spasojevic, to this list.
Honestly, I can't think of any directors recently that have cranked out consistently good horror films.
Clive Barker definitely did some quality directing, but he seems to only produce now.
Like the Dead Hooker in a Trunk directors, the Soska sisters, but I don't know if they could be called horror directors, since Dead Hooker was kind of a hyrbid action, horror, comedy.
Underappreciated from the 80's: Mr Frank Henenlotter (Basket Case, Brain Damage, Frankenhooker etc) and Larry Cohen (It's Alive, The Stuff etc)
and HELL YEAH!! Brian Yuzna is awesome!
Great comments here. I'd have to second a few that have already been mentioned: Christopher Smith, Adam Green, and Neil Marshall-all great newcomers. Another newcomer that doesn't get nearly enough attention is Christian Alvart, who's made Antibodies (amazing German film), Pandorum, and just recently Case 39 (which I haven't seen yet, but looks good).
Seems like a lot of people are mentioning people that have only made one horror film....I think 3 (maybe 2 if they are both good) should get em into this category.
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