They Shoot Zombies Don't They Challenge

[ChrisReynolds]

They Shoot Zombies, Don't They Challenge




This thread is for working on the They Shoot Zombies, Don't They list.

They Shoot Zombies, Don't They Official Website
ICM list
Imdb list

The rules:

- All feature length, mini-series rules from regular challenges apply: i.e. series episodes of 45 minutes or more count one each, while episodes less than this must add up to at least 60 minutes to per point. This is only relevant to five entries on the list

TSZDT multipoint miniseries

#195. It (1990) (2 points)
#211. Salem's Lot (2 points)
#537. Riget (8 points)
#745. Rose Red (3 points)
#746. The Stand (4 points)

And also four entries on TSZDT 1001-2000:

#270. Dead Set (2 points: 1 for the first episode, and 1 for the other four 24-minute episodes)
#758. Les vampires (7 points: 1 for episodes 1-3, 1 for episodes 4-5 and 1 each for the remaining 5)
#906. Erufen rîto (4 points)
#929. Frankenstein: The True Story (2 points)
drop-off. Twin Peaks (30 points)
drop-off. The Twilight Zone (58 points: 40 points from 120x25 minute episodes + 18 points from 18x51 minute episodes each together with one of the remaining 25 minute episodes)

- Shorts count as one entry.
- No rewatches
- Only after you've finished the list you can start on the TSZDT 1001-2000 list

You are encouraged to watch and comment on films in the TSZDT 1001-2000 list and keep track of how many you've seen, but they won't count towards your score while you still have unwatched films in the main list. The primary purpose of this challenge is to work on the They Shoot Zombies list so you can be ranked as highly as possible.

Participants

User name	Films watched
1SO	542
ChrisReynolds	431
Hunziker	243
te18	133
Harco	108
kingink	61
mightysparks	30
nimimerkillinen	19
Nuclearplanet	17
VincentPrice	17
flavo5000	16
Lakigigar	13
clemmetarey	11
sebby	10
chemosh6969	8
sushantv10	5
edkrak	3
Dayave	3
Kowry	3
maxwelldeux	2
sennaho	2
ArthurYanthar	1
jgwr	1
mathiasa	1
funkybusiness

Challenge ends when there's no more room in hell.

[VincentPrice]

1. Onibaba-1964: 8/10 (#104 on They Shoot Zombies, Don't They)

Beautifully shot with some really wonderful little moments. The movie itself drags quite a bit but it gets going towards the end and those last 10 minutes or so are pretty damn good.

133 left to go

[funkybusiness]

I'm in. this'll be good motivation. edit: and the random buttom on iCM tells me the first one up will be Island of Lost Souls!

poster questions, for those of you in the know:

bottom left, the tire? below Monster Squad. and the one to the tire's right. looks like a spider or something.

the house directly below The Stuff?

lady in a coffin(?) below The Thing? fangs right next to that? and the lady in a bowling alley(?) next to that?

[VincentPrice]

The tire poster is for the movie Rubber, the spider is Forbidden World

Lady in the coffin is actually in a locker, it's Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night 2, fangs are The Funhouse and I'm guessing the bowling alley chick is Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-rama

My only guess for the house is The Amityville Horror but I don't know for sure, it looks kinda like the house.

[funkybusiness]

thanks for the quick response! I thought that might be Rubber but it looked like an 70s/80s poster. so. well done, art design people.

and Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-rama is a wonderful title. so is Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night 2. great titles.

[VincentPrice]

Sorority Babes and Hello Mary Lou are a lot of fun, cheesy as hell (especially Babes) but still a lot of fun.

[mightysparks]

Challenge ends when there's no more room in hell.

[jgwr]

Totally up for this.

[Pretentious Hipster]

Wow. Witchfinder General was a nice surprise.

[ChrisReynolds]

poster questions, for those of you in the know:

bottom left, the tire? below Monster Squad. and the one to the tire's right. looks like a spider or something.

the house directly below The Stuff?

lady in a coffin(?) below The Thing? fangs right next to that? and the lady in a bowling alley(?) next to that?

I got the poster by Googling "horror collage". I've made it so now if you click on the poster, you can see the higher resolution, uncropped original.

[flavo5000]

1. The Loved Ones (2009) 6.5/10
Better than I expected as far as torture porn goes. Stylishly directed and I really enjoyed the soundtrack. I thought the subplot with his friend and the goth girl was a complete waste though. Didn't seem to serve the plot at all.

TSZDT Watched

1. The Loved Ones (2009)

[kingink]

Mightysparks, aren't you gonna take part in this challenge?

Of course I'm in.

[mightysparks]

Mightysparks, aren't you gonna take part in this challenge?

Of course I'm in.

I've only got one left on the main list I assume I'll join in at some point with the 1001+ list.

[zuma]

I might as well get in on this if it's going to be an ongoing thing.

Looked down through the list... Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead higher than Romero's Day of the Dead?! Wow. Who would of thought that would happen.


EDIT: I should mention that between now and the end of October my modest goal will be a bronze on this list. (447/1000)

[te18]

I'd be a fool not to join in.

[ChrisReynolds]

Looked down through the list... Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead higher than Romero's Day of the Dead?! Wow. Who would of thought that would happen.

You will quickly find that being made in America in the past 20 years confers a huge boost to a film's ranking.

[flavo5000]

Looked down through the list... Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead higher than Romero's Day of the Dead?! Wow. Who would of thought that would happen.

You will quickly find that being made in America in the past 20 years confers a huge boost to a film's ranking.

It really is sad. I know quite a few co-workers that were much more interesting in the TSZDT 21st Century list than this one just because they don't watch "old movies".

[zuma]

Looked down through the list... Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead higher than Romero's Day of the Dead?! Wow. Who would of thought that would happen.

You will quickly find that being made in America in the past 20 years confers a huge boost to a film's ranking.

It really is sad. I know quite a few co-workers that were much more interesting in the TSZDT 21st Century list than this one just because they don't watch "old movies".

Ugh.

[ChrisReynolds]

1. Blood Creek / Town Creek (2009) #885 on TSZDT
I had no idea that Joel Schumacher had made a movie where Michael Fassbender is a Nazi vampire until I saw it on this list. It's far from Schumacher's worst but it's far less interesting and involving than a movie about a Nazi vampire should be, essentially boiling down to a siege movie with too much exposition. Still, it's well-paced and has a lot of action and gore that makes it OK for a one-off watch.
4/10

List status

Checked	Unchecked
798	202

[1SO]

Guss I watched White Dog a little too early. (April 25) * * Even though this is little more than cheap exploitation and little about it feels real, it's tough to sit through a film that focuses on a dog trained to get into bloody fights. Maybe it's a good thing that this never strikes a realistic note. One of those films (much like Fuller's Shock Corridor) that's so thoroughly unrealistic but it sticks firm to its own unreality. Kind of like a safety film on the dangers of racism by Herschell Gordon Lewis.


335 films to go.

[kingink]

Mightysparks, aren't you gonna take part in this challenge?

Of course I'm in.

I've only got one left on the main list I assume I'll join in at some point with the 1001+ list.

Yeah... I saw it

[funkybusiness]

poster questions, for those of you in the know:

bottom left, the tire? below Monster Squad. and the one to the tire's right. looks like a spider or something.

the house directly below The Stuff?

lady in a coffin(?) below The Thing? fangs right next to that? and the lady in a bowling alley(?) next to that?

I got the poster by Googling "horror collage". I've made it so now if you click on the poster, you can see the higher resolution, uncropped original.

groovy. although the crop does look more appropriate with The Thing right in the middle. or almost right in the middle.





I don't like Day of the Dead.

[kingink]

I couldn't resist but start right away.

1. Magic (1978) 7/10

The whole ventriloquist and his weird dummy is a bit worn out as a theme, even for the 70's but Hopkins with his acting skills and Attenborough with his direction managed to save a film that I thought would bore me.

[VincentPrice]

2. Taste the Blood of Dracula-1970: 7/10 (#709 on They Shoot Zombies, Don't They)

The typical beautiful Hammer atmosphere and some really great scenes help a movie that lacked a lot of Christopher Lee and long sections where I just could not give a shit about anything happening.

Missing Peter Cushing didn't help either.


132 left to go

Spoiler: click to toggle

. Onibaba-1964: 8/10 (#104 on They Shoot Zombies, Don't They)

[ChrisReynolds]

Previously watched...

1. Blood Creek / Town Creek (2009) #885 on TSZDT 4/10

2. Dead Silence (2007) #417 on TSZDT
James Wan's second major work combines the split-in-half-heads that Saw only teased us with, with several ideas the evil old ladies and creepy dolls he'd reuse in the Insidious and Conjuring films. The film is intrinsically silly, Ryan Kwanten is bad and I realised what the final twist would be quite early on, but the grab-bag of horror tropes and the American Gothic mise en scène turned up to insane levels help make this a decent Halloween movie
5/10



3. Critters (1986) #552 on TSZDT
Apparently written before Gremlins, but a comparison with that inventive spin on monster movies reveals the shortcomings of this one. It takes the Critters too long to arrive, and when they do the film is very limited in scope, with the Critters sticking to a single location and the chaos kept to a low level. It does have quite a few entertaining moments, there's a nice sense of small-town Americana and the Critters themselves are another brilliant creation of the Chiodo brothers, but overall it's a rather mediocre 80s monster movie.
4/10



4. Snowtown / The Snowtown Murders (2011) #787 on TSZDT
A slow-paced and effective study of corruption and evil, with a great sense of realism. More of a bleak drama than a horror; there's only a couple of scenes which get really nasty, and mostly the film works at creating an atmosphere of brooding despair.
6/10

List status

Checked	Unchecked	Progress bar
801	199

[funkybusiness]

nifty progress bar.

[edkrak]

Only 380 checks. I guess I need to go back to more regular horror watching. IN!

[clemmetarey]

1. The Cabin in the Woods (2012) 7/10
Fun, original film. Lots of great ideas even though the end feels quickly made.

Spoiler: click to toggle

1. The Cabin in the Woods (2012) 7/10

663 to go

[jgwr]

Mightysparks, aren't you gonna take part in this challenge?

Of course I'm in.

I've only got one left on the main list I assume I'll join in at some point with the 1001+ list.

Slacker.

[jgwr]

nifty progress bar.

I like the progress bar too. How do you do that?

[edkrak]

1. Excision (2012) 55/100
Loved the ending, but I wasn't impressed with the direction and the way whole story was told. I need to check original, because it looks like it might be the case of unnecessarily stretched short.
2. The Last House on Dead End Street (1977) 70/100
Technically not a good film, but it has this raw, sleazy energy that makes you feel like you're watching something you're not supposed to. This was an unenjoyable viewing in the best possible way.

[ChrisReynolds]

nifty progress bar.

I like the progress bar too. How do you do that?

Java program that processes a CSV file. I'll post the program when I get back to work later this week.

[ChrisReynolds]

Previously watched...

1. Blood Creek / Town Creek (2009) #885 on TSZDT 4/10
2. Dead Silence (2007) #417 on TSZDT 5/10
3. Critters (1986) #552 on TSZDT 4/10
4. Snowtown / The Snowtown Murders (2011) #787 on TSZDT 6/10

5. Los sin nombre / The Nameless (1999) #831 on TSZDT
Has some good concepts, though I've seen them done better in other movies. It's atmospheric but is let down by being very boring, with a succession of uninteresting characters talking with each other to explain the plot. The ending was weak as well.
3/10



6. Below (2002) #986 on TSZDT
An interesting mix of war movie and horror. It does have a few decent chills and action, but it's leadenly paced and it never seems confident with the horror - we get a lot of creepy build-up, but when the horror actually arrives it's just a brief flash of a CGI ghost face.
4/10



7. Popcorn (1991) #816 on TSZDT
Not a particularly well made slaher, but one that is often entertaining and fun, usually due to the excellent horror movie pastiches that form the backbone of the story.
5/10

List status

Checked	Unchecked	Progress bar
804	196

[mightysparks]

And I thought I was harsh with ratings

[kingink]

Yeah Chris.... Why do you hate this list so much? Why? WHY?


On a serious note... I really like some of the films you've seen. Popcorn is an example. I think it's a fine fine movie

[mightysparks]

Popcorn is awesome. And so is Below.. and Dead Silence (though I've not seen that for almost 8 years so who knows).

[ChrisReynolds]

Yeah Chris.... Why do you hate this list so much? Why? WHY?


On a serious note... I really like some of the films you've seen. Popcorn is an example. I think it's a fine fine movie

This list is mostly amazing. If I was working on the highest ranked films I'd be giving out high rankings like candy, but working on the lower reaches of the list, there's a lot of divisive stuff and things I don't think deserve to be there. Some of this may just be because my rating scale is calibrated differently.

But am I really the person here who hates horror the most? I loaded our ratings into Excel to find out.

Average rating for all films on TSZDT

ChrisReynolds	5.94
kingink	6.97
mightysparks	5.79

D: D: mighty, why do you hate horror so much?

We agree more than we disagree - there are literally hundreds of films on this list between each of us where our ratings differ by 1 or less.

[mightysparks]

Yeah Chris.... Why do you hate this list so much? Why? WHY?


On a serious note... I really like some of the films you've seen. Popcorn is an example. I think it's a fine fine movie

This list is mostly amazing. If I was working on the highest ranked films I'd be giving out high rankings like candy, but working on the lower reaches of the list, there's a lot of divisive stuff and things I don't think deserve to be there. Some of this may just be because my rating scale is calibrated differently.

But am I really the person here who hates horror the most? I loaded our ratings into Excel to find out.

Average rating for all films on TSZDT

ChrisReynolds	5.94
kingink	6.97
mightysparks	5.79

D: D: mighty, why do you hate horror so much?

We agree more than we disagree - there are literally hundreds of films on this list between each of us where our ratings differ by 1 or less.

And yea I know, whenever I check your page on IMDb I see this:



Though I don't know what's up with the other 1000 titles...

[mightysparks]

Btw, do you have some spiffy way of showing our rating distributions through the top 1000? Eg, to see if we rate higher at the top of the list and lower at the bottom etc?

[kingink]

Yeah Chris.... Why do you hate this list so much? Why? WHY?


On a serious note... I really like some of the films you've seen. Popcorn is an example. I think it's a fine fine movie

This list is mostly amazing. If I was working on the highest ranked films I'd be giving out high rankings like candy, but working on the lower reaches of the list, there's a lot of divisive stuff and things I don't think deserve to be there. Some of this may just be because my rating scale is calibrated differently.

But am I really the person here who hates horror the most? I loaded our ratings into Excel to find out.

Average rating for all films on TSZDT

ChrisReynolds	5.94
kingink	6.97
mightysparks	5.79

D: D: mighty, why do you hate horror so much?

We agree more than we disagree - there are literally hundreds of films on this list between each of us where our ratings differ by 1 or less.

Haha! Well played Chris!

You know we were just kidding. We know you have a great taste. All horror fans have great taste.

6.97? I'm a frisky puppy!