Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

Best Boogeyman!


OSJ

Recommended Posts

Y'all really didn't think that Halloween was going to come around without our resident horror guy posting some content, didya? Okay, we have the following characters:

Jason Voorhes

Freddy Krueger

Michael Myers

All three featured in a shit-ton of movies, the body counts left were astronomical. But which movie boogeyman was actually the scariest? Discuss. FWIW I'm a Michael Myers guy, Freddy descended into a self-parody popping off silly one-liners. Jason, despite being an awesome force of evil was never quite as scary as the (more or less) human Michael Myers. Myers had purpose, and a horrifying single-mindedness as to how to fulfill that purpose. That in and of itself is terrifying.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

MV5BNTliNGMzOTUtNDliMi00OTNhLWJhZDAtMmQ1

But if it is a choice of the three, I'll agree with you and go with Michael Myers. Aside from cracking up at some of the inventive ways for killing kids I wasn't much into the Nightmare series and Jason wasn't even the scariest member of his family. Halloween though, goddamn! I saw that on vhs as a teen and I probably checked the house about a half dozen times that night before I could sleep.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Execproducer said:

MV5BNTliNGMzOTUtNDliMi00OTNhLWJhZDAtMmQ1

But if it is a choice of the three, I'll agree with you and go with Michael Myers. Aside from cracking up at some of the inventive ways for killing kids I wasn't much into the Nightmare series and Jason wasn't even the scariest member of his family. Halloween though, goddamn! I saw that on vhs as a teen and I probably checked the house about a half dozen times that night before I could sleep.

Oh, yeah Night of the Hunter was awesome, particularly as Davis Grubb based the story on real events. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My vote would go to Freddy Kreuger.  A man so vile in life (and remember he was a serial killer that targeted children) that even Hell didn't want him.  His hatred and thirst for vengeance would not allow his soul to transcend.

The best part about Wes Craven's characterization of Kreuger is that at his very core, he's a total coward.

He does not avenge himself by going directly after the people who killed him.  The son of a bitch goes after their kids.

And he doesn't do it when they can defend themselves.  He come to them in their sleep; when they are most vulnerable.

The very idea that Wes takes those sorts of gutless  qualities and places them into a creature that goes on to terrorize generations of people is really remarkable.  

The bastard even pulls a page from Sun Tzu.  He has a fucking urban legend and a nursery rhyme that conditions future victims to believe they have no defense against him.  Once you believe you cannot win, you're already beaten.

Wes Craven RIP was a fucking genius.

Edited by J.T.
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In that same vein, I would give my number two slot to the Candyman.

As much as I love slasher films, I am predisposed not to consider Michael Myers or Jason Vorhees to be real boogeymen.  Jason at least shares the common thread of being a creature of urban legend, but I really believe that slasher movies have colored our cultural views on mental illness in a negative way.

I think we're all been conditioned over time by media like slasher films to buy in to the stereotype that insanity grants men preternatural abilities like imperviousness or super strength and that has done us all a great disservice. 

I think it's time that we as a society properly addressed mental illness as something to be treated rather than feared.

That being said. the fucking liquid nitrogen face smashing kill in Jason X is the best murder in the F13 series.

Edited by J.T.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, OSJ said:

All three featured in a shit-ton of movies, the body counts left were astronomical. But which movie boogeyman was actually the scariest? Discuss. FWIW I'm a Michael Myers guy, Freddy descended into a self-parody popping off silly one-liners. Jason, despite being an awesome force of evil was never quite as scary as the (more or less) human Michael Myers. Myers had purpose, and a horrifying single-mindedness as to how to fulfill that purpose. That in and of itself is terrifying.

The brilliance of John Carpenter shows in what he didn't show about Michael.  His real face is as expressionless as his mask and he is a creature driven of total will and he will never stop on his own.

Carpenter played his cards close to the vest when it came to The Shape and we learned to expect the unexpected.  I think we all remember the shock of seeing Michael operate a motor vehicle and wondering where in the hell did he learn to drive?  What other surprises were in store.  What else is he capable of?

Even In his madness, Jason sees humans as human beings and he is in the constant mindset continuing his mother's mission of ridding Crystal Lake of all outsiders.   Even when he became a zombie, his targets mostly remained the same.

To Michael, we are all mere objects in his way to be torn apart in his pursuit of Laurie Strode... who must also die..

 

Edited by J.T.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Best slasher, okay.

Leatherface

But I was always a Jason kid. I didn't want backstory or mystery, I wanted a bunch of different inventive kills that I could probably pull off myself. 

Only Michael and Leatherface were scary though. Leatherface was scary, gross, AND had personality.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The boogeyman I had nightmares about as a kid was a cross between Michael Myers and The Boogeyman from the animated Ghostbusters series. It's either Michael Myers or The Tall Man. Nothing says Boogeyman like a metaphysical shapeshifter that can bend reality and enslaves all the corpses in every town he invades. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

41 minutes ago, J.T. said:

Thank God someone had the wisdom to include the Tall Man in this discussion.

I purposefully left out most completely supernatural characters. Granted, Jason and Freddy evolved into completely supernatural beings, but their roots in the first films were still human. The Tall Man was a supernatural being from the get-go, which is why I didn't mention him. 

Still, I'm a Michael Myers guy, just something about his deadly sense of purpose is terrifying. Reverend Harry Powell still delivers the chills, probably Robert Mitchum's best performance and that's saying something.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've never been a horror guy, but I second the mention of the Bogeyman from Ghostbusters. He scared the shit of me when I was a kid. Has there been a kids show as scary as Real Ghostbusters? They did a TON of creepy shit in that show.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...