Nostalgia in Movies

[methodwriter85]

With buzz building around Richard Linklater's newest 1980-set film, Everybody Wants Some, I thought this might be it might be interesting to examine movies that seek to recreate an earlier time period, with varying degrees of success.

 

Starting with Richard's magnum opus, Dazed and Confused...from what I understand, it just nails everything about 1976, from clothes to hair to everything. You really do feel like you're stepping into a time machine with that movie. Nothing feels false or off about the world they're inhabiting.

 

The same goes for American Graffiti, which seems like the granddady of this genre. Back when this was made, oldies were cheap and they used that for full-effect here...I think it was one of the first films that used old pop songs for the purpose of making people feel like they were in another time period, and they did a great job with that.

 

A more recent one that I think nailed it...well, it was more "period" than nostalgia, but Argo just really seemed to nail 1980 aesthetic and feel. It's a tough one to nail, because you're in-between the 1970's and 1980's really, but they just did a great job with making me believe these people were from 1979-1980. Ben Affleck's character was dead-on...not quite 1980's yet, but you can see that the 70's are starting to erode here in his look.

 

Some films that I thought could've done better...

 

Dirty Girl, with Juno Temple. It's set in 1987, but everything from the styling of the characters to the furniture they use just feels more like the late 1970's/early 1980's. A 1982 setting could have been more believable with this.

 

Adventureland- a couple of the characters looked right, but most of them just didn't really feel like they belonged in 1987.

 

The Last Days of Disco- I loved the movie, but it was so clearly filmed in the late 1990's. There's this scene where Kate Beckinsale's wearing a crop top with flannel pajama bottoms that just screams 1990's to me.

Edited April 4, 2016 by methodwriter85

[Ms Blue Jay]

I love the idea for this topic!  I love nostalgia!  I love it in television shows, as well.  The more, the better!  (getting older)

 

One of my favourite movies is Grease, which was made in the 70s to re-create the 1950s.  My mother introduced it to us when we were very young, and I'm sure we had no idea that it wasn't made of its time back then.  I have no idea how accurate it was.  My Mom loves any 1970s culture.  

 

I'll be back to read and write more!

Edited April 4, 2016 by Ms Blue Jay

[Ms Blue Jay]

Time Travel Movies

 

Hot Tub Time Machine goes from present day (2010) to the 1980s.  Before this movie came out, I always wanted people to start making movies or television shows about the 1980s and 1990s, and it's a lot more present now that my age group is out there writing.  (TV shows like Being Erica, Hindsight, Fresh off the Boat, The Goldbergs.)

 

Austin Powers was made in 1990s.  At first it is set in the 1960s "flower power/free sex" era and then Austin is sent to the 1990s where he doesn't understand the culture.

 

Is there a difference between Nostalgia in Movies versus Period/Costume/Historial/Biopic Movies?

 

Forrest Gump was made in the 1990s and tried to recapture real things that happened between the 40s and the 80s (also based on a 1980s-written book).
Maybe Nostalgia is more "recent times that the writers would actually remember" versus Period which is "writing about a real event during a period of time the writers may or may not have real life experience with"?

 

Dick was made in the 1990s about Watergate in the 1970s.

 

A League of their Own was made in the 1990s about World War II era - 1940s.

 

The Great Gatsby was made in 2013 about the Roaring 20s (obviously based on a book).

 

The Social Network was made in 2010, about an 'era' only 7 years prior ;)  I really enjoyed watching this because I was years out of college, but felt transported right back when I watched it.  It was exactly about MY college years, which was crazy to see.  I really felt like I was watching myself, a 'documentary' about my college.

 

True Grit was also released in 2010 -- does anyone know what time period that book is actually set in?

 

A nice sister topic to this would be movies made about the imagined future.

Edited April 4, 2016 by Ms Blue Jay

[methodwriter85]

I started college in 2005, and I thought The Social Network was pretty dead-on in capturing that circa 2003-2006 college feel to it. According to the writers, every shirt that Jesse wears as Mark in that movie was something he owned, which they were able to do because of Mark's college photos on Facebook. They also had girls wear tank tops and peasant skirts, which was right for the time period.

 

And in the Big Short, I LOVED the scene of them watching The Hills, and a spin class where "When I Grow Up" by the Pussycat Dolls is playing. They did a great job with capturing the mindset of Real Estate Boom Bush 2nd Term America.

Edited April 4, 2016 by methodwriter85

[Ms Blue Jay]

I can't say enough good things about The Social Network -- only a few flaws from what I could see.  I don't know if I really noticed the clothes as much, but more capturing the time itself and what happened via Facebook starting out.  Things drastically changed when Facebook came out.  First it was at Harvard, then other Ivy League colleges I assume, then academic institutions everywhere, and so on.  What website did I used to go to first thing when I turned on my computer before Facebook?  It's hard to even imagine.  Anyways I think the movie did such a good job of capturing college in that time, the excitement/newness over Facebook, the conflicts it created in personal relationships, how half the people around you hadn't heard of it.  Even just being in your early 20s.  Great movie.

Edited April 4, 2016 by Ms Blue Jay

[Ms Blue Jay]

Movies that Invoke the "style" of another decade, but are (perhaps) set in present day:

 

Napoleon Dynamite

- Movie made in 2004, one can assume it's set in present day, but the charm of the movie is that everyone in the town where Napoleon lives seems to be living in a 1980s/1990s type world.  The clothes, the half ponytail that Deb wears, the phone in the kitchen with the long cord that Napoleon uses.  

 

Edward Scissorhands

- Movie made in 1991, but has style of different decades from the 1950s and onward.  Someone online says that a VCR is used in the movie, for example.  The set design of the houses in the neighbourhood and the clothes the women wear are candy coloured pastels to invoke a more innocent time, perhaps the 1950s especially.

 

The Truman Show

- Movie made in 1998 about the dangers of technology and reality television, but set in a fictionalized world that seems to mimic a Norman Rockwell 1950's or something.  

 

"Time Travel"

 

Pleasantville

- This is not a movie I know too well, but I know it's ALSO from 1998, and I guess the people in it are transported to the 1950s!

 

By the way, this is one of my favourite sites, all about time travel movies:  http://mjyoung.net/time/

 

Methodwriter85, you're kind of making me obsessed with this topic now.

Edited April 4, 2016 by Ms Blue Jay

[JustaPerson]

Does Boyhood count? Since it was actually filmed during the years it took place in. As a whole movie being watched in 2014 (15?) though, it was so nostalgic!

[Ms Blue Jay]

There's some other movies I don't know as well, like Diner, and movies starring Natasha Lyonne, Parker Posey, Chloe Sevigny (I am trolling their IMDb pages) that deal with times outside of when they were made. 

[methodwriter85]

Diner was fantastic. I loved it.

[magicdog]

Sometimes I find certain stories set in the past lacking in both atmosphere (mistakes in wardrobe for example) and mores of those who grew up during that period.

 

For example, "Dirty Dancing" was set in the summer of 1963.  While some people looked like they belonged in that world (usually the older adults), some teens (specifically Jennifer Grey) looked very out of place physically.  Baby would never would have worn her hair like that.  Both she and her older sister were also contemplating sex outside of marriage. While there were obvious exceptions, the average teen girl at that time wasn't planning on having "a first" sexual encounter.  Baby's older sister was telling her how she was going to make a certain boy her "first" and was going to see him - until she walked in on him having sex with a different girl.   This was something written by someone acting with a more recent frame of mind.  On average, most teen girls back then were expected to wait until marriage, and those who didn't tended to get caught up in the heat of passion rather than actively seeking out a sex without commitment arrangement. 

 

The spiral hairstyle on one female character in "The Help" was also all kinds of wrong for the era.  

 

Ralphie's mom's hair in "A Christmas Story" was also not a 40s style, although I think that was the only thing out of place in that film.

 

In "Titanic" - we got a spoiled Rose who was planning on running off with Jack (with whom she was sexually intimate with in the backseat of an early automobile no less!)  once they arrived in NY.  In reality, Rose likely would never have met up with Jack (since ships like the Titanic strictly controlled each class of passengers) and she certainly wouldn't have been able to survive poverty as it was in 1912.  No rational woman of Rose's station at that time would have contemplated this. Other period details including clothing and modeling the ship as it looked however was stellar!  I even appreciated how the director allowed the water to sweep away the grand staircase as it might have on the real ship!!  

[Athena]

Many years ago, I had a mentor who recommended me Boogie Nights because of how it perfectly captured that time period of the 1970s and 1980s. I personally can not say, but the movie does capture a particular feeling in time.

 

Another movie which I think did capture the look and to some extent of the 1980s was American Psycho. I think there is this weird timelessness to that movie even though all the trendy stuff mentioned was very late 80s/early 90s.

 

Surprised that Back to the Future has not been mentioned either as the first movie's 1950s is one of the things that helped popularize it among wide audiences.

 

I like time travel movies and shows in general. I enjoy About Time and Sliding Doors for those reasons even though they aren't exactly about Nostalgia.

[Ms Blue Jay]

Crispin Glover does such a fantastic job with his role in Back to the Future, the first movie, where his character is set in the 1950s.  Not that I would know what people were like back then.  Lea Thompson is so pretty in that role too, with the light curls in her hair, the rosy makeup, and the peach prom dress.  And Crispin has that very hard side part with a lot of pomade in it, and that lovely white blazer.

 

Marty McFly:  I am your density.

 

To be honest, I'm kind of always thinking about BTTF, but it slipped my mind that the movie went to the 1950s.  Maybe because (I thought) it did such a good portrayal.  I knew that it was set in the present (1985) and that the second movie went into the future (2015, which would almost count as nostalgia now, HAHA) but briefly forgot about the excursion to the "past".  

 

magicdog, you make me want to see Titanic again.

Edited April 5, 2016 by Ms Blue Jay

[magicdog]

Crispin Glover does such a fantastic job with his role in Back to the Future, the first movie, where his character is set in the 1950s.  Not that I would know what people were like back then.  Lea Thompson is so pretty in that role too, with the light curls in her hair, the rosy makeup, and the peach prom dress.  And Crispin has that very hard side part with a lot of pomade in it, and that lovely white blazer.

 

 

Ditto.  BTTF did s great job of showing mid 50s America and both Glover and Thompson looked like they belonged in that era.  My parents (who were from that generation) loved the film too and thought the 50s portion was spot on.  Far too often people behind films set in another time think all they have to do is put a few vintage cars and clothes and references in it and that's enough.  Not so. 

 

Edited April 6, 2016 by magicdog

[methodwriter85]

Back in 2007, there was actually a movie that tried to be a Dazed and Confused for Generation Y- it follows everybody on the last day of school in 1999. I thought it did an okay job with the nostalgia, and at some points nailed the soundtrack, but the movie desperately needed someone to figure out what plots were working and what wasn't.

 

"Remember the Daze"

 

It's kind of a shame, because it did have a great cast- Amber Heard, Leighton Meester, Brie Larsen, etc etc, but something about it just didn't gel. I do think it reminds me about how difficult it can be to do a period film about a very recent period- The Wolf of Wall Street talked about what it was like trying to capture the early 90's.

 

The Wolf of Wall Street Is Hollywood's First 1990's Period Piece

 

I did get a kick of how they did Margot Robie's hair in it. It's not 80's hair, and it's not the Rachel. It's straight up 1990's beauty pageant hair. 

[VCRTracking]

The recent show The People Vs OJ Simpson in an odd way made me nostalgic for the mid-90s(when I graduated high school). There isn't a movie I know that makes me feel the same way.

[JBC344]

Sometimes I find certain stories set in the past lacking in both atmosphere (mistakes in wardrobe for example) and mores of those who grew up during that period.

 

For example, "Dirty Dancing" was set in the summer of 1963.  While some people looked like they belonged in that world (usually the older adults), some teens (specifically Jennifer Grey) looked very out of place physically.  Baby would never would have worn her hair like that.  Both she and her older sister were also contemplating sex outside of marriage. While there were obvious exceptions, the average teen girl at that time wasn't planning on having "a first" sexual encounter.  Baby's older sister was telling her how she was going to make a certain boy her "first" and was going to see him - until she walked in on him having sex with a different girl.   This was something written by someone acting with a more recent frame of mind.  On average, most teen girls back then were expected to wait until marriage, and those who didn't tended to get caught up in the heat of passion rather than actively seeking out a sex without commitment arrangement. 

 

The spiral hairstyle on one female character in "The Help" was also all kinds of wrong for the era.  

 

Ralphie's mom's hair in "A Christmas Story" was also not a 40s style, although I think that was the only thing out of place in that film.

 

In "Titanic" - we got a spoiled Rose who was planning on running off with Jack (with whom she was sexually intimate with in the backseat of an early automobile no less!)  once they arrived in NY.  In reality, Rose likely would never have met up with Jack (since ships like the Titanic strictly controlled each class of passengers) and she certainly wouldn't have been able to survive poverty as it was in 1912.  No rational woman of Rose's station at that time would have contemplated this. Other period details including clothing and modeling the ship as it looked however was stellar!  I even appreciated how the director allowed the water to sweep away the grand staircase as it might have on the real ship!!  

Regarding Dirty Dancing; I wasn't around during the 60's but are you really saying that it was unrealistic for a late teen girl to contemplate and/or have sex?  I find that incredibly hard to believe.  Now I can see there possibly being less pre-marital sex than there is now of course, but the idea that a teen such as Baby and her sister would never contemplate or have sex seems to kind of foster this "stereotype" that things like this didn't happen back then, which we know is completely false. 

[methodwriter85]

I mean, in 1961 we had a movie where the entire plot is around a teenaged girl deciding whether or not she should have sex with her boyfriend, and then literally goes insane with the repression. And that film was set 33 years earlier, in 1928.

 

I will give you Baby's hair, though. I think she probably would have gone for a short curly hair cut like this.

[Ms Blue Jay]

The recent show The People Vs OJ Simpson in an odd way made me nostalgic for the mid-90s(when I graduated high school). There isn't a movie I know that makes me feel the same way.

 

Best show of 2016 so far, I recommend it to everyone.  It's just so fucking good.  (I was also obsessed with the shortlived "Hindsight" on VH1, which was basically a rip-off of the Canadian Being Erica.  But yeah, television is definitely getting there first.  Fresh off the Boat is another great 1990s nostalgia series, especially if you like hip-hop.  They do a few shout-outs to grunge, but Hindsight was better for the grunge era stuff.)

 

Speaking of Margot Robbie, she will be portraying Tonya Harding in a new 1990s nostalgia flick.  http://www.people.com/article/margot-robbie-tonya-harding-cast-i-tonya

 

Lots of dream casting talk going on, like people preferring someone like Amy Schumer or Amy Adams (who really does show a resemblance to Tonya) for the role.  Then there's choices like Hilary Swank or Anne Hathaway for Nancy Kerrigan!

Edited April 7, 2016 by Ms Blue Jay

[methodwriter85]

Amy Adams, while she would have been perfect, is 41 and just can't believably pull off someone in her early 20's. She still looks youthful but not THAT youthful. And honestly, she bitched once about hating having to play all these younger roles because of how young she used to look.

 

There was an early attempt at 90's nostalgia- an indie movie called The Wackness about a young pot dealer in New York obsessed with hip-hop, during the summer of 1994 when he graduates from high school. It starred Josh Peck and Olivia Thirlby. I thought they did a great job with the soundtrack, but I don't know if I really "felt" the period.

 

Aubrey Plaza played a teenager obsessed with losing her virginity in a movie called The To-Do List. It's set in 1993, and I thought they did an AMAZING job with the clothes and hair.

[Ms Blue Jay]

Hmmm, I had NO IDEA The Wackness was set in the 1990s.  I guess I have to see it now.  I just kind of hate those tales glorifying white people enjoying black culture (with no black people cast in the thing.)

[Rick Kitchen]

 

 

Pleasantville

- This is not a movie I know too well, but I know it's ALSO from 1998, and I guess the people in it are transported to the 1950s!

 

Actually they're transported to a black and white 1950s TV show.

[Ms Blue Jay]

Going through my Pinterest account I found

 

The Notebook.  

- Movie made in 2004

- based on a 1996 book

- Movie is set partly in present day and 1940s   (taken from Wikipedia, I don't know this movie)

 

Moulin Rouge - made in 2001, set in 1900.  

Speaking of Baz Luhrmann, I was wondering if Romeo + Juliet counted, but it seems to be set in the 1990s?

 

There is a 2009 Grey Gardens movie made with Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange, who try to dramatize the 1975 documentary.

 

The Princes Bride is made in 1987, but is about the Renaissance Era.  There's also all those Robin Hood movies.

 

There is a 2004 Alfie film remaking the 60's movie - I never saw it, but I see that it's set in present day 2004 New York - looking through the fashions and the plot, it seems like it goes for a bit of 1960's nostalgia anyway.

 

The Aviator in 2004 is based on Howard Hughes's life "between the late 1920s and late 1940s".

 

Speaking of Martin Scorsese, he obviously loves Period/Nostalgia movies and television shows.  (I don't know his oeuvre that well because I'm scared of violence.)  There's also  Casino which was made in 1995 but is about the 1970s.  (He's now doing an HBO show Vinyl about rock music in the 70s.  We all know that he loves the 70s!)  

[magicdog]

I happened to come across a movie I hadn't seen since it was first released to theaters, "Heaven Help Us." (1985).  

 

The film is set in Brooklyn back in 1965, and generally dealt with Catholic high school students (the boys went to an all boy school, the girls to an all girl academy).  I remember being a bit bored by it when I saw it in theaters. I was however taken aback by the violence in the film - as the Brothers who ran the boys' school were seen beating the students with no mercy (as a Catholic girl myself who was attending  Catholic HS, these were not the kind of nuns and priests I was accustomed to dealing with).       I caught it on cable recently and I thought they did a good job in recreating the place and time without it looking like a bunch of 80s teens were walking around in the 60s (then again, some parts of NY - especially some Brooklyn neighborhoods have barely changed at all).  When I mentioned to my Dad about the beatings the boys got from the Brothers, he said that was the way at the time.  He even begged his parents to not send him to the local Catholic HS for fear the Brothers would split him in two (he was a free thinker before it was cool)!  It wasn't until the late 60s and early 70s when the church instituted a "kinder gentler" way of teaching.  

 

More impressive is the cast- considering I'd forgotten them until I rewatched it:  Andrew McCarthy, Mary Stuart Masterson, Kevin Dillon (Matt's lookalike kid brother), Donald Sutherland (and the head of the boys' school), Patrick Dempsey and Yeardley Smith (the future VA for Bart Simpson)!  Wallace Shawn also played a priest who gave an infamous speech warning of the dangers of teenage lust before a school dance!

 

One thing that I didn't get were the scenes showing the "raids" the Brothers would put on at the kids' local hangout (a soda fountain).  Since it wasn't on church property and the Brothers weren't cops, they had no right to regularly go in like gangbusters and turn the place upside down.

Edited April 12, 2016 by magicdog

[Ms Blue Jay]

I remember thinking that Sleepers was such a good movie when I saw it, and it definitely does the nostalgia AND flashback to the past  / flashforward to the future thing, and your post reminded me of that one.  It's been ages since I've seen it though.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleepers_(film)

Edited April 13, 2016 by Ms Blue Jay

[methodwriter85]

It was cheesy and not very subtle, but I really enjoyed There Goes My Baby- a nostalgic film set in the summer of 1965, the summer after graduation for a group of Los Angeles students. It included Dermot Mulroney, Ricky Schroder (he's back to going by Ricky now), and Kelli Williams from the Practice.

 

If we're going to include time travel, Peggy Sue Got Married...Kathleen Turner plays a 43-year old woman on the verge of a divorce who faints at her high school reunion and wakes up during the spring of her senior year in 1960. Fending off the advances of her ex-husband-to-be, Peggy tries to change her future, but finds it much harder than she thought it would be. It's a very sweet and gentle movie, one I hope that Hollywood remakers stay far, far away from.

 

To go to another era, Skateland follows a guy who lives in small-town Texas in 1983 and works at a roller-rink. It didn't blow me away, but it was a pleasant little ode to the 80's. They did a pretty decent job with the 80's nostalgia in it, and it kind of goes with the theme of how the 70's skating fade was fading out. (There's still a roller rink nearby where I live, but it's kind of a dinosaur.)

 

Shiloh Fernadez's hair was DEAD-ON early 80's. I like that they didn't need to use a wig to achieve that look.

Edited April 13, 2016 by methodwriter85

[magicdog]

If we're going to include time travel, Peggy Sue Got Married...

 

 

 I liked this film for the most part (saw it in theaters at the time it was originally released) but I was a bit annoyed at the events towards the end when

Peggy Sue still married her HS sweetheart despite his future berayal and IIRC her first born child was fathered by the beatnik she was hanging with.  I really wanted her to marry the geeky kid who was the only other one in that timeline (other than her grandfather) to know she was from the future.   I thought the whole point was to do things differently.  

 

That said, I loved the scene in which Peggy Sue is in her past self and answers the phone - and it turns out to be her long dead grandmother.  Peggy turns in silhouette and you can see her turn into the adult woman she really was talking with a long lost loved one.  Very emotional moment.

[methodwriter85]

Wow, I totally

never thought that her first child was actually conceived with the beatnik she had sex with. I figured she and Charle made love in the green house, as a show of Peggy accepting her life choices and her pregnancy with Scott. It's an interesting thought, though.

Edited April 13, 2016 by methodwriter85

[Rick Kitchen]

The only thing I didn't like about Peggy Sue Got Married was that it was impossible to believe Kathleen Turner as a teenager.

[methodwriter85]

The only thing I didn't like about Peggy Sue Got Married was that it was impossible to believe Kathleen Turner as a teenager.

I always liked that Hot Tub Time Machine got around that by casting younger versions and saying that everybody was seeing them as their younger selves. Joan Allen and Catherine Hicks weren't exactly believable as 17, either.

 

Usually, in this subgenre they try to get someone "between" the ages they're portraying (Peggy was 43 and 18, and Kathleen was in her mid-30's.) Sometimes it works well (see: Laura Ramsey being 32 and play a woman in her early 40's and early 20's during Hindsight), but in this case, it's just never believable that Kathleen was a teenager. Her performance is so great in that you just kind of get over it, though.

 

The original casting choice was Debra Winger, who probably could have been believable, but eh, I'm just glad so far that this movie is basically safe from getting remade. At least for now.

[Ms Blue Jay]

Oh god, did I love Hindsight.  I wish I could watch that forever, which is the same thing as saying as I want to relive 1995.  So sad that it was cancelled, devastating!

[Miss Dee]

I think Now and Then would count as a nostalgia movie. I don't think it really counts as nostalgia unless there's a sense of idealism and/or longing for the past time period.

Edited April 24, 2016 by Miss Dee

[methodwriter85]

I'd definitely count that as a nostalgia movie, kind of like a girl's version of The Sandlot.

[methodwriter85]

I saw a movie theater showing of American Graffiti, which made me think again about how it's pretty much the granddaddy to the modern nostalgia movie. So many movies crib notes from it, most notably the use of popular music to evoke the time period. Still holds up incredibly well despite being over 40 years old.

I did get a chance to see Everybody Wants Some- solid movie, not as great as Dazed and Confused, but the soundtrack was great. I absolutely loved the use of "Pop Muzik" by M in the scene where the boys go to a theater geek party. It worked on two levels- showing that these were the "alternative types" who weren't listening to stuff like Foreigner or the Knack, and portending where music was going to go over the course of the early 1980's as new wave music starts hitting the U.S. hard in 1982-1983.

[NutMeg]

I had no idea where to put this, but here seems relatively all right (although a popcorn machine area for general talk would be nice):

Anyone watching Halloween-ish movies this month? I've just introduced the next generation to the original Scream, which was greeted very well, now what? I like Hocus Pocus bus last saw it ages ago, does it pass the test of time?

[Princess Sparkle]

21 minutes ago, NutMeg said:

I had no idea where to put this, but here seems relatively all right (although a popcorn machine area for general talk would be nice):

Anyone watching Halloween-ish movies this month? I've just introduced the next generation to the original Scream, which was greeted very well, now what? I like Hocus Pocus bus last saw it ages ago, does it pass the test of time?

I LOVE Hocus Pocus, but I do wonder if that is because it came out when I was a kid and so it reminds me so strongly of my childhood.  I'm incapable of being neutral on it unfortunately.

I'm not sure how old your kids are (I'm assuming that's what you meant by 'next generation' - please correct me if I'm wrong!), but the Halloween movies I watch every year are The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Exorcist, and Sleepaway Camp (purely for the camp/WTF factor alone - probably not ok for children under like 12; there's some nudity in there).  I liked the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween when I first saw them, but I'm not sure how well they really hold up.  I also really liked Sinister, Grave Encounters, Sleepy Hollow (the Johnny Depp movie), You're Next, The House of The Devil, and The Sacrament.  There's a British horror movie called "The Facility" that I also think is quite good; there's an American remake that isn't great.  I think almost all the ones I listed are on Netflix.  For what it's worth, I tend to like "suspenseful" scary movies versus "gory" scary movies, so most of my suggestions are in the vein.

Even though everyone and their mother knows the twist by now, I still think The Sixth Sense holds up as a really good scary movie.  I do know a lot of people love V/H/S - I'm not one of them, but I'm pretty sure I'm the minority opinion on that one.  I've also heard good things about Trick R Treat and Gingersnaps, but I haven't seen either one so I can't vouch for them.

I could literally talk horror movies all day though (my favorite genre of film!), so if these suggestions seem "meh" to you, I have a billion more.

[NutMeg]

3 minutes ago, Princess Sparkle said:

I LOVE Hocus Pocus, but I do wonder if that is because it came out when I was a kid and so it reminds me so strongly of my childhood.  I'm incapable of being neutral on it unfortunately.

I'm not sure how old your kids are (I'm assuming that's what you meant by 'next generation' - please correct me if I'm wrong!), but the Halloween movies I watch every year are The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Exorcist, and Sleepaway Camp (purely for the camp/WTF factor alone - probably not ok for children under like 12; there's some nudity in there).  I liked the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween when I first saw them, but I'm not sure how well they really hold up.  I also really liked Sinister, Grave Encounters, Sleepy Hollow (the Johnny Depp movie), You're Next, The House of The Devil, and The Sacrament.  There's a British horror movie called "The Facility" that I also think is quite good; there's an American remake that isn't great.  I think almost all the ones I listed are on Netflix.  For what it's worth, I tend to like "suspenseful" scary movies versus "gory" scary movies, so most of my suggestions are in the vein.

Even though everyone and their mother knows the twist by now, I still think The Sixth Sense holds up as a really good scary movie.  I do know a lot of people love V/H/S - I'm not one of them, but I'm pretty sure I'm the minority opinion on that one.  I've also heard good things about Trick R Treat and Gingersnaps, but I haven't seen either one so I can't vouch for them.

I could literally talk horror movies all day though (my favorite genre of film!), so if these suggestions seem "meh" to you, I have a billion more.

Wow, that's fantastic, so many suggestions... Thanks!

I've NEVER been a horror movie fan, but my son and his friends are, and now that he's 17 and in his last year of high school it feels even more precious when we watch and enjoy things together. Maybe I'll force him to watch Hocus Pocus, haha (I'm sure I already did when he was much, much younger). I definitely prefer suspense to gore too, so I'll look up the names on your list, weirdly enough I've never watched the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, because I always thought it was pure gore:) And the horror movie that freaked me the most and that I'm never watching again is The Others, so go figure...    

[GreekGeek]

It's arguably not a horror movie, but I love Rosemary's Baby. It's unfortunate that everyone knew about the baby even when the film was new, but it's still very effective. Bonus nostalgia points for nicely depicting NYC in the early-mid 60's. Another suspense film that came out a bit earlier was Wait Until Dark. I well remember the big gimmick: darkening the theater to the legal limit during the last half hour to make the climax, set in almost total darkness, even more scary. It's pretty much impossible to replicate this at home, but you can try if you wish.

This Halloween I am going to brace myself to watch the classic Freaks. It casts actual circus performers rather than actors in makeup as the "freaks." They aren't horrifying in themselves, but their revenge scheme is.

[Silver Raven]

The thing about Freaks is that to modern sensibilities, it isn't a horror film, the circus performers are victims of evil, nasty "normal" people.

[methodwriter85]

I finally got around to seeing Sing Street. It really is a lovely ode to the 1980's.

One thing I absolutely loved is that they had the lead female/love interest have her hair like this and this.

Absolutely period correct, but maybe not the most flattering. One thing I've noticed about 80's period movies is that they tend to refuse to give the female lead/love interest an unflattering period hairstyle. They might give that to the supporting characters, but never the lead.

Edited January 30, 2017 by methodwriter85

[methodwriter85]

Oh my god, did Greta Gerwig finally grant my wish of seeing a nostalgic coming-of-age movie set in the late 90's/very early 00's?

If you look very carefully at the clothes, there's a distinct Y2K era vibe about them. Not the happy-go-lucky pop princess Mandy Moore version of them, but that beige/muted colors version of them. (What someone described as being like The Camping Years look.) And her one love interest seems to have an ever-present pukka shell necklace.

Edited to add: I googled a bit. It's set in 2002. Really good period detail without being over the top.

Edited September 6, 2017 by methodwriter85

[methodwriter85]

It's contemporary, but Tag had a lot of Gen Xer nostalgic touches. It was weird to realize that Generation X makes up the 40-something/early 50-something mid-life crowd. I'm so used to thinking of the parental generation as being the Baby Boomers.

I feel like the new boom in 80's nostalgia stuff is the result of Gen X hitting their mid-lives.

[Ms Blue Jay]

Hot Tub Time Machine was the first time I saw the 80's represented in movies from people looking back at it.  There was also That 80's Show, but that was short-lived.  

[methodwriter85]

The Wedding Singer seemed to be the first big one, but there's been renewed interest in the 80's again, especially after Stranger Things hit.

[methodwriter85]

Bumblebee did a good job of feeling like a 1980's movie especially when they got to the bully plot.

[methodwriter85]

Not surprised that Sandy's makeover outfit was the least accurate of the 3 looks she analzyes. She also makes the observation that the supporting characters tend to look more accurate to the time period than the lead does. In the recent Lady Bird, I thought Jenna and Julie looked more accurate to the time period than Lady Bird did in terms of hair.

Edited August 23, 2019 by methodwriter85

[Silver Raven]

12 hours ago, methodwriter85 said:

Not surprised that Sandy's makeover outfit was the least accurate of the 3 looks she analzyes. She also makes the observation that the supporting characters tend to look more accurate to the time period than the lead does. In the recent Lady Bird, I thought Jenna and Julie looked more accurate to the time period than Lady Bird did in terms of hair.

Somebody posted in the comments that Danny wouldn't be allowed to wear those clothes to school.  Even in the 60s, when I was in high school, we weren't allowed to wear jeans.

[VCRTracking]

People have said 1973's The Sting use of Scott Joplin's ragtime music from the turn of the century was anachronistic because the movie is set in 1936. I think it's brilliant because that was the music of the time  when Paul Newman's character Henry Gondorf, Luther, Kid Twist and all the other old cons were young and in their prime. Using actually era appropriate music like Benny Goodman swing wouldn't work. It's like if you have a movie set in the 80s but about main characters in their 50s, you wouldn't use Prince or Duran Duran on the soundtrack. You'd have like Sinatra or Dean Martin or Rosemary Clooney or Peggy Lee.

Edited October 12, 2019 by VCRTracking

[methodwriter85]

In the movie Everybody Wants Some, they had the character Willoughby wax poetic about circa 1973 Led Zeppelin despite the setting being 1980. He also bashes Van Halen, which was hot at the time period.

Spoiler

And it turned out that Willoughby was really 30 years old, hence why he was more bonded to 1973 Led Zeppelin as opposed to 1979-ish Led Zeppelin or Van Halen. Quite brilliant, I think.

People also complained about 13 Going on 30's Jenna's taste in music in 1987 being off- liking Rick Springfield instead Jon Bon Jovi, still caring about Thriller despite it being the Bad era, etc etc. But she was supposed to be kind of a nerd who didn't really know what was au currant, and I thought that a pretty good choice.

[VCRTracking]

3 hours ago, methodwriter85 said:

In the movie Everybody Wants Some, they had the character Willoughby wax poetic about circa 1973 Led Zeppelin despite the setting being 1980. He also bashes Van Halen, which was hot at the time period.

  Reveal spoiler

And it turned out that Willoughby was really 30 years old, hence why he was more bonded to 1973 Led Zeppelin as opposed to 1979-ish Led Zeppelin or Van Halen. Quite brilliant, I think.

People also complained about 13 Going on 30's Jenna's taste in music in 1987 being off- liking Rick Springfield instead Jon Bon Jovi, still caring about Thriller despite it being the Bad era, etc etc. But she was supposed to be kind of a nerd who didn't really know what was au currant, and I thought that a pretty good choice.

Willoughby would have been in middle school around Zeppelin's peak period. The band you love when you're 13 will always be your favorite band and noone else will top it. There were 20somethings when Willoughby was in 7th and 8th grade who thought Zep couldn't hold a candle to the Beatles or the Stones.

Edited October 12, 2019 by VCRTracking