What is the spookiest Bond movie?

[@Dale_The_Space_Wizard]

I remember as a child being spooked by the idea of being burned alive in a coffin after seeing Diamonds are Forever. I remember asking my parents how they made sure that you were dead before burining you in a coffin.

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

Oh, that's a good one. Terrifying moment.

[@frankb821]

Have you seen "The Premature Burial" with Ray Milland?

[@Dale_The_Space_Wizard]

@@frankb821 No, sorry, I have not heard of that.

[@CosmicApe2]

@@Dale_The_Space_WizardPremature Burial is one of my favorite Roger Corman’s Poe movies. Well worth checking out.

[@thecinematicguy]

Ryan, Yet another terrific video; thank you! I love the points you bring up of horror being an underlying component to the bond films and books. I forget the term you used but you referenced the animal horror aspects (bond fighting the giant octopus (or was it a squid in the novel of Dr. No, I forget). I personally would love to see more of that in the films going forward. You mentioned the novel The Spy Who Loved Me and how one of the baddies is named Horror. I’ve read that book a few times over the years and always felt that the name Horror was out of left field/ a false note in choice by Ian Fleming but your talking points in your video have completely rectified this for me; so I thank you! But what really excited me was the Spectre aspects that you brought up. I would love to see Bond’s adventures lead into darker places for a given film. I watched the opening music video of Spectre with the Octopus motif and the abstract/ faceless people surrounding bond, the eyes glowing in the dark, the tentacles etc. I would love to see Bond head to Haiti and tackle an adventure that doesn’t quite explain the fantastical elements. Doing a modern take on the spirit of Live and Let Die (not a remake) but an acknowledgment of that ‘world’ would be amazing. Come to think of it; I’ve heard lots of rumors that Bond may go back to the 1960s / 1970s (not as time travel but to ‘reset Bond’ back to the Cold War era with analog gadgets etc. I think it’d be quite fun to see a low key bond adventure where 1960s bond has to investigate some events in Haiti and has to take an 707 jet and use old tech (radio triangulation, old tech spy gear) in addition to his wits to stop the bad guy. I love the idea of almost doom noire bond lurking in the shadows doing genuine spy work to infiltrate the bad guy’s lair. Think of the tension in From Russia with Love with a bond waiting at the train station; the audience sees Grant watching Bond but the audience knows more than Bond does. That’s what Hitchcock loved to do and I’d love to see Bibd go in that direction. We don’t need a villain taking over the world; I’d love a good intimate story that is still globe trotting and exotic.

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

I would really like some of the atmosphere you describe. The Gardner novels played a bit with cults here and there. It'd be nice to see the films follow their lead!

[@regis_red]

Baron Samedi seated at the rear of the train at the end of Live and Let Die. That the spookiest for me.

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

@@regis_red Hard to beat that laugh for sheer eeriness.

[@regis_red]

@@AnalyzeThisMisterBond A unique moment in the franchise.

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

@regis_red Very much so. Hard to imagine them doing something like it today, but it's a magical way to end a movie.

[@regis_red]

@@AnalyzeThisMisterBond I've always viewed Bond himself as a kind of spirit or angel of Death, but that's just me 😆

[@vinnieh9557]

Really love this video my friend. Bond and horror certainly make for interesting bedfellows

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

I agree!

[@vinnieh9557]

@@AnalyzeThisMisterBond To be honest a lot of the deaths in Bond are horrifyingly portrayed

[@JohnDoe-tm9wz]

I love this topic. I'm a huge fan of the way EON handled the supernatural in Live and let Die and how Fleming's novel had Mr. Big using voodoo as an instrument of fear. We need more of that in the new upcoming films in my view.

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

I would love to see that trope return!

[@Lighthazzles]

Ian Fleming was buddies with Aleister Crowley.

[@JuanSolo776]

When I saw that promotional image of Daniel Craig dressed up in the Day of the Dead outfit, I was convinced the writers were bringing back Baron Samedi. I was disappointed when I actually watched Spectre...

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

That sequence is still pretty cool, though.

[@Visqo1]

True. In NTTD the openning scene was pretty scary movie like

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

Very much so!

[@Weezing336]

You're right, Bond is pulp. It is surreal. And the movies used to understand and embrace this. Horror will run through Bond because it really is a franchise about our relation to death. Bond himself is a serial killer. And I appreciate you talking about the horror and big tonal swings of Moonraker. I love tonal swings because, that's life. It can be done poorly, but tonal swifts can also work and work very well.

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

Tonal swings help movies feel "alive."

[@Weezing336]

@@AnalyzeThisMisterBond sure. There's depth and complexity when a film has all shades of emotion to present and to balance.

[@Paul_Whaley]

As always, happy to see new uploads Ryan! Was planning/hosting a watch meetup over the weekend, so I'm just now catching up on your last two videos! I think that the spooky, horror moments are great in the Bond series. A lot of the films have elements, or wholesale themes that are very horror. As time goes on, I really appreciate how different LALD is as a film, and the horror elements really play a part. It's one part Italian slasher film, one part Wizard of Oz, as we can see what's fake, and what's real. For favorite moments (discounting the entirety of LALD), I think that the leadup to the fight on the Orient Express in FRWL is up there. We know that Red Grant is going to strike, but the thrill comes from waiting for Bond and Tatiana to get attacked. The murder of Kerim Bey plays into that horror too. I could crack a joke about how Spectre is a horror film, but that it's really a horr-ible film. Such a waste of some decent concepts. I think it's nearly at the bottom for me, with only one film doing worse than it (sorry Roger). Thanks for the video Ryan! I'll be checking out the London AAR shortly!

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

FRWL does have plenty of that slow-burn tension.

[@tylordstevenson]

I find this idea equally as fun. Hope we get more of it in future movies. A few other spooky moments I can think of: Full moon murders by Grant in FRWL novel Vampire knife throwing guy in coffin on the boat in Moonraker 😂 Roger Moore corpse coming alive in body bag in Octopussy Scaramanga'a funhouse Mad scientist turning a woman into a gorilla in DAF...

[@frankb821]

I loved this one! Would definitely enjoy watching Bond battle a giant creature of some kind, but in this era it would most likely be a CGI monstrosity gone awry (especially if Lee Tamahori was directing)

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

They couldn't even give us real Komodo dragons in Skyfall! 😢

[@mohammedashian8094]

I don’t know about the movies, but there is one moment in live and let die the novel (that’s still in my head) where M tells bond to read about baron samdi and voodoo in general and warns him that it will scare the daylights out of him. Sure enough, When bond was in the hotel reading all about he becomes slightly unsettled by it. Idk why but I like that moment because it shows that even bond is creeped out and scared (maybe a little bit interested) by the supernatural (which makes him more human and relatable).

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

It's a very vivid passage!

[@jasonanderson_PA]

i remember watching diamonds are forever with my parents when i was very young, maybe kindergarten age, and i was terrified by the opening scene where bond confronts blofeld in the volcano mud bath plastic surgery clinic. something about being suffocated and cooked in that hot mud scared me silly, i still get a little antsy thinking of it as an adult, and it's probably why i'm claustrophobic today.

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

That bit is *so* weird.

[@danielbaldwin8220]

That sequence oddly feels very Hammer Horror. Reminds me a bit of The Reptile.

[@CosmicApe2]

Mixing the obstacle course and the cult idea could be done. Bond in an escape room too. Beats the “what kind of vehicle hasn’t been used in a chase for a while” approach.

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

There's a lot in Fleming they still haven't explored fully.

[@belloq81]

Fun topic! I’d love to see some more Fleming-esque macabre/eerie touches find their way into the films, as I think they're an important part of the total Bond tapestry. Agree with you that "Bond vs. cult" would be a fun hook, and I also think that the Garden of Death was so under-utilized in NO TIME TO DIE that it's an idea that could be more fully explored down the line again.

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

I don't think movies have to skew into outright camp to bring back more of the colorful and grotesque touches. The Garden of Death really deserved a better showing.

[@erikbergfeldt4007]

The drowning sequence in Casino Royale triggers my primal fear.

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

Oh, it has some very haunting imagery.

[@billhope2596]

While it doesn't come from a movie the back story Ian Fleming gave to Red Grant is beyond chilling. He was basically a serial killer back in Ireland who defected to the Russians because he heard they would probably could use his "talents". The Russians were almost going to just off him until they found out that he was very good at assassinations and torture so let him live. But Fleming also added in that once a month during the full moon Grant would go totally crazy because of it so the KGB would take Grant to different gulags and prisons during this time and just let him loose on the unarmed prisoner and let him fulfill his manic blood lust. Really horrific stuff!

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

I forgot about that detail!

[@DafyddBrooks]

Those scare crows with cameras in the eyes, firing guns were horrible to me as a child :( 9:33 yeah good point, its the first time i heard what skin suffocation was

[@jbjones07]

Bond movies dabble in surreal moments that emphasize in horror. I may have mentioned it before, but one of my favorite scenes in Octopussy is when 009 is being stalked deep in dark woods by the Circus Twins. It's a nice tense sequence, right up there with Corrine Dufour's death and Safin's attack at Madeline's home. A little off topic, but I'm always disturbed by what I describe as "tribal sadism" killings, where a group of people gather around and participate in the grisly killing of an individual. Examples: Largo ordering his men to throw poor Quist into the shark pool; Zorin ordering his security to throw the Soviet agent into the huge pump fan; Sanchez and his goons watching Krest depressurize. And each of them let out bloodcurdling screams... I love horror movies too 🧟

[@mohammedashian8094]

License to kill is really one violent kill after the other (sometimes one is more violent than the last). I mean aside from krest, there was Dario in the grinder, heller being impaled by a forklift (I know it’s off screen but still), Sanchez burning to death, Felix being mauled by a shark and left for dead and his wife being SA’ed and killed). With that being said, I personally think it’s a great bond movie (I know the script could’ve been polished better but great nonetheless) and I embraced (actually I WELCOMED) the harder and more violent edge to it. Because that’s the bond that I know by Fleming.

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

The way Bond movies leap in and out of grotesque violence is always fascinating to me!

[@jbjones07]

​Love hard edged LTK, too. Yeah, it​'s pretty gruesome in some places. Almost Lucio Fulci or Friday the 13th- level gruesomeness. @@mohammedashian8094

[@ArchieWatts-j5e]

My dad said he used to be scared of live and let die when he saw it in the cinema when he was young and he hated the voodoo elements

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

I believe it.

[@jhjhjhjhjhjhify]

Creepiest Bond scenes for me are the opening of No Time To Die with the villain in his weird mask, and probably after that the death of the 00 agent in Octopussy (where he's running around in a clown costume and gets knifed in the back). The films are great in the sense they can have those dark moments.

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

I looooove the opening of Octopussy!

[@deanlemckeevans]

I am ok with the Bond series having brushes with death or the occasional gory demise of a villain but the thing that makes Bond movies different from many horror movies is Bond has more agency and control, he is the one to laugh in the face of it, he keeps the audience safe but on the edge of your seats, he disproves superstitions and uses brute force, hot lead and scientific gadgets to thwart evil in its steps. I wouldn't mind a bond film where a villain uses a cult or the fear of the unnatural almost like in Dr No with the dragon but the movie should be grounded in reality and leave the paranormal stuff to Indiana Jones or Van Helsing.

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

Yes, no Bond movie should ever be outright paranormal.

[@johnwells5414]

Jaws acted like a Michael Myers like horror character in Spy Who Loved Me

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

Very much so!

[@Murphysmovies]

OHMSS: Blofeld, in both book and film, there is basically, Dracula, without the blood sucking. Similar methods, plan, snobbery, castle etc

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

@@Murphysmovies That's a very interesting notion...

[@charlesmarsh316]

My first thought was: "well duh, it has to be 'Live and Let Die'", but you bring up so many other horror moments from the other films that didn't come immediately to my mind. "Live and Let Die" was my first "grown up" movie in the theaters (Summer of '74, baby!). The scarecrows scared the living daylights out of me. I'm coming round to appreciating the tonal shifts in "Moonraker" more as a feature than a bug. That a single film could contain both a double-taking pigeon and a fatal dog mauling is horrifying in and of itself. I find the idea of a cult intriguing. The state of politics in the U.S. could certainly provide a topical theme - perhaps another media mogul along the lines of Carver, who spreads disinformation to achieve a destructive political agenda? The cinematic depictions of both Dr. No's obstacle course and Dr. Shatterhand's garden were halfhearted at best - I'd like to see both more fully and effectively explored in a Bond film. You interest me strangely with your talk of Gialli! Jill's gilded demise would certainly feel at home in an Argento flick. I could see a story involving a misinterpretation of a visual clue (a la Profondo Rosso) playing a role in a Bond movie scenario. Don't ask me how. Wonderful analysis! I'm a newcomer to your channel - Michael Kenyon sent me. Looking forward to watching more of your past and future content!

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

@charlesmarsh316 Thank you for this thoughtful reply! (Michael is a good egg.) I would love to see more Giallo influences in Bond. I think the lushness of Giallo aesthetics works well in a Bond context. (I often daydream about EON doing a version of the "assassin headhunt for Bond" story of the NOBODY LIVES FOREVER novel, which would be a great excuse to stage some elaborate stalking sequences!)

[@charlesmarsh316]

@@AnalyzeThisMisterBond - Your mention of the Giallo aesthetic immediately made me think of both Scaramanga's funhouse and the Berlin sequence of "Casino Royale 1967", although I suppose I'm really thinking of Argento's visuals for "Suspiria" which isn't a really a Giallo, strictly speaking. Never mind.

[@charlesmarsh316]

@@AnalyzeThisMisterBond - Michael is a Fabergé-quality egg.

[@CosmicApe2]

Not necessarily on the spooky side, but DAF is coming up for you. I’ve always seen a weird darkness in the movie that I’m curious if you see as well. The pictures of the canals for the children line has to be one of the darkest jokes in the series.

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

I find it to be a pretty mean movie!

[@Murphysmovies]

SPECTRE, if one treats it as a dream with Blofeld as a ghost

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

It's very eerie in tone.

[@Murphysmovies]

Also, Licence to Kill: its production was cursed/haunted and one could argue Bond effectively turns not just rogue but outright eeeevill, via nervous breakdown?

[@Murphysmovies]

No Time to Die: they never explain why Rami has not really aged, or quite what it is he is working on, alongside the nanobots, with the poison garden..

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

@@Murphysmovies The aging is less of an issue for me - we never see his face when he's younger. The poison garden is implied to belong to his parents, who we're told were creators of poisons/toxins.

[@jhjhjhjhjhjhify]

He does age. In the opening he'd be about 20 or even slightly younger (you never see his face and even though it's Malek's voice he's actually performing in an ever so slightly higher pitch, so it gives the sense he's younger). Can't remember how much time exactly passes in the film, but I guess 20/25 years? That'd put Safin at around 40-45, which was basically Malek's actual age.

[@SharkWhosFondOfBond]

That was an idea for a video I was going to make!

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

You should probably still make it! We may have different opinions.

[@SharkWhosFondOfBond]

​@@AnalyzeThisMisterBond I probably will, I've been thinking it over for weeks!

[@danielbaldwin8220]

​@@SharkWhosFondOfBondThere's always more room for discussion about horror elements in Bond.

[@Bundeskaiser]

Baron Samedi was wasted and they should have used him in another movie. He was used as some kind of Cliffhanger overall. The movie gives hints that Baron Samedi might not be a simple henchman but an entity of his own. The character himself is already very spooky. So I think Lald is high on the list of spooky Bond movies.

[@AnalyzeThisMisterBond]

I'm trying to remember the details, but I seem to recall they considered a pre-title sequence with Samedi returning... I think it involved a garden that turned out to be a garden on top of a skyscraper.