Siskel/Ebert were down on most horror films back in the 1980s. They urged movie goers to write Paramount and express disgust over FRIDAY THE 13TH, in 1980. They (or at least Siskel) seemed to like THE HOWLING and AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON. Wouldn't be surprised to find out they disliked THE BEAST WITHIN. It's too bad Siskel is no longer around. I'd love to see what he would think of this "dog of the week" after seeing gore fests like the SAW series and the HOSTEL movies. They'd probably talk about the "good ol days" of change-o-head transformations and the relatively small amount of blood/gore in THE BEAST WITHIN.
Yeah, they looked down on horror, but Ebert was always more objective of two. He hated gory movies, and "too violent" but he would point out if it was well made, and sometimes he would say he kinda liked it, but hated gory parts (like in case of Evil Dead). Siskel just hated horror, while Ebert only hated horror that had no "positive light" about it (aka movies with "bad endings", depressive horror movies, etc).
He seems to enjoy Halloween, Evil Dead and Re-Animator. I remember him saying that we should look out for then-unknown J. Carpenter and Sam Raimi, because he spotted they were talented. Weird thing is, he didn't complain about gore in Re-Animator, probably because it was part comedy.
In 90s he kinda dropped a ball a little, I remember him enjoying horror movies much more. He was very positive about "From Beyond", I think he gave it 4 stars (which was max).
Siskel on the other hand, always hated horror (and SF) and looked down on it. He even bashed movies like "Predator" calling it stupid and unoriginal, while Ebert liked it, and in their usual-self, they got into argument about it.
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