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So with neverending dropping his vote for The Fog and Sculpt's neg, if I'm counting right, it looks like a three horse race for the final spot between RotLD, Near Dark and The Beyond. Wow, tough choice. I agree with neverending's assessment of The Fog having a brilliant beginning, but not that much to write home about after that. For me, it's a huge drop off from Halloween and The Thing -- much more than The Brood is from other Cronenberg films in contention.
I love K-Demon's plea for RotLD. I think she's right -- the film is influential. As a middle schooler, my cousin and I used to go around saying "braaaiiins," and I had never even seen the movie back then. It's a more accessible take on the genre than Romero's, and is a precursor to the comedy horror trend that picked up in the 90s. I love how it directly references Romero's film as a plot setup device, and makes "the guy that made the movie" complicit in a government cover-up. Really good, well-liked movie.
I only watched Near Dark after metternich mentioned in the Last Seen Movie thread. I'm really wondering how I had never heard of this one before that. Great film. I loved it, and I'm not all that big on vampire films. Immersive soundtrack by Tangerine Dream. The group kill scene in the bar had me rooting for the victims to be spared. True Blood has lifted more than a couple details straight from this film. Perhaps a little too perfect an ending for my tastes, but overall, very enjoyable.
Both of those films are excellent choices for the top 22, but in the end, I've got to go with my original vote. I had The Beyond ranked #9 overall in my submission for the 80s. It's surreal, has some excellent, creative practical gore effects, and spiders that bite people's faces off. I enjoy zombies, but typically they don't scare me. The slow, staring ones in this film do, as does that chick's eyes. Some might not enjoy the non-linear nature of the story, or might consider it nonsensical, which is fair, but for someone that enjoys surrealism and the bizarre, I think it makes more sense than it's often believed to. Even if it didn't, it wouldn't matter. I'd choose the film that had the most impact on me, and this one is it.
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