xStraightxEdgexSaviorx
04-02-2011, 01:03 PM
Hello horror fans, the EWN database was down last night so sorry that this wasn’t posted until today but there was nothing I could do about it. Anyway, this match-up features one of my all time favorite foreign films, and one of my all time favorite films in general. The Silence of the Lambs and Ringu were both very different films in nature, one relying on gritty realism and brilliant movie-making to both encapsulate and terrify the viewer, where the other relied much more on subtle, atmospheric portrayals of the super-natural. Both films were terrific no doubt about that, but which one was the better horror flick? Well, that’s what were gonna find out. Before that though, check out these cool clips I found off of youtube.
Here’s a great behind the scenes of the Silence of the Lambs. Highly recommend if you’re a fan of the film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfh8GnkK87k
Here is the scene from Ringu that I find to be most effective. Sorry it’s kinda long, but especially in context the scene if very frightening:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmvzAkBe4P4&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
My opinion:
Better movie: Silence of the Lambs. I’m just gonna come out and say it, any one of the 15 other movies would be hard pressed to beat Silence of the Lambs in this category. Some detractors may say that Foster’s accent isn’t accurate; something that may be the case as I don’t have a keen ear for that type of thing, but other than that it’s almost a perfect movie. Ringu is a great movie, one of the better ones in this tournament in fact, but it’s still not too particularly close to Silence of the Lambs in my book.
Scarier movie: Ringu. This category was awfully close for me, as both films were really scary in different ways. I almost picked Silence of the Lambs because that movie seems to get to me more and more every time I watch it, whereas Ringu’s presence in my mind has slightly decreased with multiple viewings. However, I stick by my pick based on the fact that Ringu obviously has worked on my subconscious because it’s one of the very few films that literally gave me nightmares after watching it.
Impact on pop-culture/society/other movies: Silence of the Lambs. This one was also very close, as both actually did make a pretty big impact. Ringu had a big splash on the world of film because it was the movie that originally spawned the recent J-horror remakes that exposed Western civilization to Asian horror. Silence of the Lambs won this category though because it made people change their minds about the horror genre in general. It was the only horror movie to win all 5 major Oscars (unless you include One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest as a horror), and it introduced the world to Hannible Lector as we know him today.
Gore: Silence of the Lambs. If there’s one thing that Ringu wasn’t, it was gory. There was no blood at all in fact, and other than a couple images of dead bodies, nothing too much of note at all really for this category. Silence of the Lambs wasn’t exactly a splatter film either, but the jail break scene alone wins this category in a landslide.
Overall: Silence of the Lambs. Ringu is a very good movie that I felt could have advanced until at least round 2 of this tournament if it had been facing another film, but for me Silence of the Lambs was just too much for it to handle. Imo, Ringu= very very good, Silence of the Lambs=elite.
But what do you think?
Here’s a great behind the scenes of the Silence of the Lambs. Highly recommend if you’re a fan of the film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfh8GnkK87k
Here is the scene from Ringu that I find to be most effective. Sorry it’s kinda long, but especially in context the scene if very frightening:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmvzAkBe4P4&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
My opinion:
Better movie: Silence of the Lambs. I’m just gonna come out and say it, any one of the 15 other movies would be hard pressed to beat Silence of the Lambs in this category. Some detractors may say that Foster’s accent isn’t accurate; something that may be the case as I don’t have a keen ear for that type of thing, but other than that it’s almost a perfect movie. Ringu is a great movie, one of the better ones in this tournament in fact, but it’s still not too particularly close to Silence of the Lambs in my book.
Scarier movie: Ringu. This category was awfully close for me, as both films were really scary in different ways. I almost picked Silence of the Lambs because that movie seems to get to me more and more every time I watch it, whereas Ringu’s presence in my mind has slightly decreased with multiple viewings. However, I stick by my pick based on the fact that Ringu obviously has worked on my subconscious because it’s one of the very few films that literally gave me nightmares after watching it.
Impact on pop-culture/society/other movies: Silence of the Lambs. This one was also very close, as both actually did make a pretty big impact. Ringu had a big splash on the world of film because it was the movie that originally spawned the recent J-horror remakes that exposed Western civilization to Asian horror. Silence of the Lambs won this category though because it made people change their minds about the horror genre in general. It was the only horror movie to win all 5 major Oscars (unless you include One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest as a horror), and it introduced the world to Hannible Lector as we know him today.
Gore: Silence of the Lambs. If there’s one thing that Ringu wasn’t, it was gory. There was no blood at all in fact, and other than a couple images of dead bodies, nothing too much of note at all really for this category. Silence of the Lambs wasn’t exactly a splatter film either, but the jail break scene alone wins this category in a landslide.
Overall: Silence of the Lambs. Ringu is a very good movie that I felt could have advanced until at least round 2 of this tournament if it had been facing another film, but for me Silence of the Lambs was just too much for it to handle. Imo, Ringu= very very good, Silence of the Lambs=elite.
But what do you think?