Top Ten Tuesdays

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Black Sunday (1960)
Plague of the Zombies (1966)
The Premature Burial (1962)
House of Usher (1960)

Those are the four standouts i can think of that don't include Dracula, flesh eating zombies or Frankenstein.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by MrBarlow

Dracula has risen from the grave=Dracula.
(anyone ever done that drinking game without spilling anything?)
Friday 13th =Jason
(he didn't rise up from the grave but does a lake count)

Dracula didn't rise from the grave in Dracula Has Risen from the Grave!

I haven't included Friday the 13th in my long list because I don't think him being in or around a lake counts, but Friday the 13th: Jason Lives (which I would contend has the greatest 'return from the grave' sequence ever) is in there.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

Dracula didn't rise from the grave in Dracula Has Risen from the Grave!

I haven't included Friday the 13th in my long list because I don't think him being in or around a lake counts, but Friday the 13th: Jason Lives (which I would contend has the greatest 'return from the grave' sequence ever) is in there.

Good call. I totally forgot about Jason Lives. A classic scene from my Fave Friday film.

[keirarts]

city of the living dead.jpg serpent and the rainbow.jpg

comedy of terrors.jpg 220px-Friday_the_13th_Part_VI_-_Jason_Lives_(1986)_theatrical_poster.jpg

220px-Kill_Bill_Volume_2.jpg Open_Grave.jpg

220px-Cemeterymanposter.jpg the mummy.jpg

black-sunday-poster.jpg the-mummy-movie-poster-1932-1020293684.jpg

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

RISEN FROM THE GRAVE FILMS

In alphabetical order:

• Black Sunday – I love the imagination behind the spiked metal mask hammered into Asa's face and Barbara Steele is so great as the witch killed and buried before being re-animated with blood.
• Bubba Ho-Tep – Don Coscarelli's wonderful adaptation of the novella of the same name features possibly Bruce Campbell's career best performance as, playing Elvis Presley, he teams up with Ossie Davis' Jack Kennedy in a nursing home to fight the titular Egyptian mummy, a soul sucker who has been brought from his native Egypt to East Texas and is preying on the residents of The Shady Rest Retirement Home.
• City of the Living Dead – a truly nightmarish scene sees Mary Woodhouse declared dead and buried, seemingly to suffocate before she is freed (and nearly killed first) by Christopher George's pick axe-wielding journalist.
• Friday the 13th: Jason Lives – probably the film with the finest "rising from the grave" scene, with Tommy Jarvis' curiosity leading to Jason being re-animated by a lightning strike to the fence post through his body. Astonishingly stupid and a great deal of fun. It's definitely my favourite of the sequels and seems to gain ground on the original with each viewing.
• House of Usher – Madeleine Usher suddenly dies during an argument and is buried under the house, but when her betrothed open circle from, she's nowhere to be found. What could her brother be up to?
• The Mummy (1932) – in my opinion, the original and best 'Mummy' with a really sinister and still quite scary performance from Boris Karloff, a story that zips along for about 70 minutes and really satisfies.
• Night of the Seagulls – I'm classifying the revenant Knights Templar as people who have risen from the grave in a regular quest for human flesh. Although it's been a while since I watched the series (something I might do this week), I remember preferring this film to any other in the Blind Dead series.
• Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror – I don't think there are any Dracula films which can compete with F.W. Murnau's unauthorised adaptation of Dracula, whether it's because of the design, the weird and unsettling speed, or Max Shreck's astonishing performance in which he, as Count Orlock, rises vertically from his coffin.
• Plague of the Zombies – back from the dead, free from their graves and working in a tin mine! It may be a bit pedestrian when compared to other zombie/infected films like Day of the dead or 28 Days Later, but it has bags of atmosphere and a really interesting story.
• The Return of the Living Dead – thanks to the Trioxin-laced rain, those buried deep in the nearby cemetery crawl their way to the surface and, now hungry, ask for such things as "more paramedics"!

Honourable mentions to:
– Dellamorte Dellamore – say what you like about Anna Falchi's thespian talents and physical enhancements, but I don't think you can fault Rupert Everett's acting ability or the wonderful sense of macabre fun in Michele Soavi's 1994 comedy-horror, typified by Everett sitting, on graves waiting to shoot the people buried underneath.
– Jason and the Argonauts – not only risen from the grave, but very handy with swords, the skeletons in this film are a force to be reckoned with.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

As this time next week will be Halloween-Eve, it would be very tempting to ask for your top 10 Halloween films. However, as that has been done before, it's probably better to do something else. If you haven't listed them before or a previous list has changed in the previous 12 months meaning you want to list your top 10 Halloween films, by all means do so.

I think it was Bad Times at the El Royale which made me consider this as a subject because I didn't realise how many films have been set in hotels or motels until I was trying to explain to someone which films it reminded me of, and why.

There are so many films in many different genres, from screwball comedies to musicals and horror movies which have been predominantly set in a hotel/motel (or a series of them), so I be grateful if you could free thinking caps on and list your top 10 films which mostly take place in a hotel or motel.

HOTEL FILMS

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Something different. Nice one.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Movie Hotels.

Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Psycho (1960)
Key Largo (1948)
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011)
Lost in Translation (2003)
City of the Dead (1960)
Four Rooms (1995)
Don't Bother to Knock (1952)
Five Graves to Cairo (1943)*

Special mention for the tv series Fawlty Towers, Las Vegas and Hotel Babylon. Also the MR James Ghost Story for Christmas episodes Oh' Whistle and I'll Come to You and Number 13.

There are a lot of films such as LA Confidential, The Grifters, Unforgiven, Species and Planes, Trains and Automobiles which have great hotel scenes but aren't primarily set in hotels.

Five Graves to Cairo is an excellent WWII drama directed by Billy Wilder about a British corporal who stumbles into a North African hotel following a major tank battle. Unfortunately for him the German army led by Rommel are advancing and use the hotel for their headquarters meaning the corporal has to pretend he's one of the staff whilst trying to get word to the Allies about the German movements and also attempting to stay alive.

[Paul Zombie]

Hotel Motel Films.

1) Psycho(1960)
2) The Beyond(1981)
3) Slaughter hotel(1971)
4) Motel Hell(1980)
5) Pretty Woman(1990)
6) City of the Dead(1960)
7) Eaten alive(1977)
8) The night Porter(1974)
9) The Unseen(1980)
10) Leaving las vegas(1995)