saw "trick r treat" - did not really enjoy. half-assed creepshow does not a good movie make.
― GO THICK AMOS! (jjjusten), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 17:07 (fourteen years ago) link
deadgirl - could've been stone cold classic in surer hands but as-is it's still worthwhile, nervy filmmaking. aesthetics are def more IFC/indie than grindhouse (moody scene transitions with shots of highways and clouds over ambient soundtrack, hello). major mistake: casting folks in their twenties to play high school students. if they had used real teens, the sexual-coming-of-age angle in the movie would have been uncomfortably foregrounded. most chilling shot: a fashion mag ad casually laid over deadgirl's face after it has been beaten to a pulp.
embodiment of evil - bravura gonzo gore freakout, great if you're willing to unplug yr brain and submit to the bountiful flow of horrific imagery. tacky and vile, but also hypersurreal and not without a sense of humor, like hostel if it were directed by jodorowsky or del toro. still waiting on a US DVD release.
― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 20:36 (fourteen years ago) link
"could've been stone cold classic in surer hands but as-is it's still worthwhile""great if you're willing to unplug yr brain"
I'm always willing to unplug my brain but right now I want to see stone cold classic that is brain agnostic!Any new ones out there? (can be older than 5 years)
― Philip Nunez, Tuesday, 17 November 2009 20:43 (fourteen years ago) link
have you seen martyrs
― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 20:49 (fourteen years ago) link
Getting it now -- any others?
― Philip Nunez, Tuesday, 17 November 2009 21:23 (fourteen years ago) link
Stuff I watched in the past week that has been mentioned in this thread:
Paranormal Activity: a pair of cultureless, aspirational suburban dullards are mildly irritated by a ghost. I wanted to see them suffer a lot more for their crimes. A lot more. Barely a film.
Eden Lake: I actually liked this. The forest is shot beautifully. I feel a lot of responses to this film have been too hard on the mechanics of the chase ("how do they run for ages and end up five feet away from the pursuers?") but I don't see how else a director could contrive the repeated catch-escape-catch-escape sequences you need in a story of this kind. A lot of people seemed to get really upset with the class issue in this film, but the fact that it was disclosed so readily and brought to such a bleak—almost, almost funny—conclusion means we're not quite meant to see it the way we immediately want to see it, if that makes any sense.
Pontypool: This is a re-watch but the first time I saw it (three? four? months ago) I was pretty high. I LOVE this cute little movie. I seem to remember it was a novel, then a play, and now a film, so sometimes it seems like you're watching a piece of theatre (it's preposterously verbose and almost entirely static). There are also some really good jokes and the most surprising defence of the Official Languages Act (1969) you'll ever come across. You never know when it'll come in handy, right? (Not sure why the military voice at the end has a Metropolitan French accent, though. Maybe a joke too subtle even for me.)
End of the Line: I watched this based on the recommendation of Mr Hal Jam upthread and it did not disappoint. It doesn't hurt that I live a couple of stops from the creepy subway station some of the action was filmed in, but what we have here is a bit of cheap and cheerful horror that does quite a lot with a little. Fun stuff. I also find the idea of an almost entirely French-speaking crew handily knocking out an English language film that's livelier, edgier, and more economical than the somewhat safe, laborious English-language film industry elsewhere in Canada (stuff like Pontypool excepted, obviously).
― fields of salmon, Tuesday, 17 November 2009 21:41 (fourteen years ago) link
SAUNA is great, probably the best thing I've seen this year. I don't entirely get it, but in a way that makes me want to see it again, so if you're up for a movie which is closer to 'Seventh Seal' than 'Blood Feast', seek it out. This is Depressive Black Metal Horror, not Pornogrind Death Metal Horror.
― Soukesian, Tuesday, 17 November 2009 21:44 (fourteen years ago) link
(Yeah, OK, reaching out to a single figure demographic there, but then this is probably the place to do that.)
― Soukesian, Tuesday, 17 November 2009 21:47 (fourteen years ago) link
Waaay xpost: "Innocence" is creepily surreal, rather than horrific, but a great movie. Reminded me a lot of Robert Aickman's oblique 'strange tales'.
― Soukesian, Tuesday, 17 November 2009 21:55 (fourteen years ago) link
This is Depressive Black Metal Horror
I love how you think this might put anybody off.
― I thought I could make it work because you look a bit like a man (aldo), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 22:16 (fourteen years ago) link
A lot of people seemed to get really upset with the class issue in this film, but the fact that it was disclosed so readily and brought to such a bleak—almost, almost funny—conclusion means we're not quite meant to see it the way we immediately want to see it, if that makes any sense.
eden lake was very well-done from a technical perspective; ace acting, cinematography, editing, etc. in retrospect all its pleasures are of the mechanical sort, it's suspenseful and it works the emotions but I wasn't really haunted by it. I found the chav stuff to be a moral cheap shot, it's a film where the protagonists are good-looking city folk and the rest of the cast is comprised of violent, clannish, and psychotic bumpkins. it's nothing to get really upset about, lotsa suspense/horror classics truck in the same brand of xenophobia. but eden lake is no deliverance.
― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 22:20 (fourteen years ago) link
I wasn't really haunted by it.
That kid having his head burnt up and the ending both totally haunted me.
― I am flesh and blood. You are software and circuitry. (chap), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 22:28 (fourteen years ago) link
Isn't anything sufficiently horrible haunting in that sense tho?
― my full five minutes of iguana time (contenderizer), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 22:58 (fourteen years ago) link
i want to see House of the Devil really bad. and Sauna
― surfboard dudes get wiped out, totally, Tuesday, 17 November 2009 23:13 (fourteen years ago) link
I can understand somebody being haunted by eden lake, and not just cause it's showing you horrible things - it's well done so what you're seeing has a good chance of getting under your skin.
but it felt mechanical to me - I could see the chess pieces getting set up on the board from the beginning, and I really didn't get surprised by any of the subsequent moves. I can't imagine any horror film fan would? whereas something like martyrs, the chess pieces get set up on the board and then WHAM BAM wait I didn't know we were boxing I thought we were just playing chessssss
xp
― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 23:20 (fourteen years ago) link
sauna is next in my queue btw
― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 23:21 (fourteen years ago) link
dont bother with Death of a Ghost Hunter by the way. not that you were probably going to, but still
― NAKES HAVE THE STAPLES IN THEM (jjjusten), Friday, 20 November 2009 16:37 (fourteen years ago) link
thirst out on DVD this week
― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Friday, 20 November 2009 16:48 (fourteen years ago) link
anybody seen ink? supposedly lowbudget but very effective, hasn't gotten a lot of mainstream press.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBGeErufQdY
― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Friday, 20 November 2009 16:53 (fourteen years ago) link
^ dude made that movie for $250K
― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Friday, 20 November 2009 17:01 (fourteen years ago) link
i just watched "the woods" and it was great, looked good, well-acted, etc. but uh i don't really think i understood it plotwise. still really enjoyed watching it.
I've just watched this and I liked it a fair bit. I thought it was a bit Heathers crossed with Suspiria - and though it falls way short of either, it had some interesting touches. There's a nice blustery, autumnal feel to it, and a constant woody creaking that plays throughout that adds a sinister presence. And Agnes Bruckner, in the lead role, recalled the pouty insouciance of a circa 2001 Scarlet Johansson. I liked her.Apparently the film sat on the shelves for a few years before getting a straight-to-DVD release. It's a little scrappy and not a great deal happens - no real scares either - but it deserved a better fate than the one it got.
― DavidM, Monday, 23 November 2009 18:03 (fourteen years ago) link
i keep misreading this title as 'lets all shit our pants to say something new'
― thomp, Monday, 23 November 2009 18:08 (fourteen years ago) link
watched Captivity
ehhh nothing new here, "twist" doesnt work at all, ending is stupid
― NAKES HAVE THE STAPLES IN THEM (jjjusten), Wednesday, 2 December 2009 17:12 (fourteen years ago) link
sauna was pretty awesome guys
― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Sunday, 13 December 2009 01:59 (fourteen years ago) link
Glad you liked it - a lot of people at the screening I saw (and online) seemed rather pissed off by it.
― Soukesian, Sunday, 13 December 2009 10:47 (fourteen years ago) link
you guys just made my sunday.
― And now my dick is where? Oh, this is too rich (the table is the table), Sunday, 13 December 2009 19:25 (fourteen years ago) link
Bugcrush....really interesting. going to have to watch it again. i like this Treleaven guy, who wrote the story it was based on.
― And now my dick is where? Oh, this is too rich (the table is the table), Sunday, 13 December 2009 20:10 (fourteen years ago) link
(o also it is up in three parts on dailymotion)
― And now my dick is where? Oh, this is too rich (the table is the table), Sunday, 13 December 2009 20:11 (fourteen years ago) link
― Soukesian, Sunday, December 13, 2009 5:47 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark
why?
― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Sunday, 13 December 2009 20:52 (fourteen years ago) link
same director who made bugcrush made the ruins, which is mediocre but not badly done given the material. (i think it's just hard to make spindly vines scary on screen.) next he is supposedly making this.
― hellzapoppa (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 13 December 2009 21:04 (fourteen years ago) link
I guess if you wanted sauna to make "sense" it would be frustrating
but it's like a folk ghost story or fable
black metal horror is a pretty good approximation
― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Sunday, 13 December 2009 21:09 (fourteen years ago) link
Why did people not like it? Well, I saw it at a horror movie festival, where audiences seem to favour fast-moving thrill rides involving zombies and unstoppable serial killers. Nothing wrong with that, but it really isn't what Sauna is about.
― Soukesian, Sunday, 13 December 2009 21:40 (fourteen years ago) link
the ruins was p terrible irrc - might have worked better as a short story but there really isnt anywhere to go (lol) w/the concept visually imo
― ^_^ (_² ÷_X +_- (Lamp), Sunday, 13 December 2009 21:41 (fourteen years ago) link
needed mobile man-sized plant monsters running around
― krampus activities (latebloomer), Sunday, 13 December 2009 21:44 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah the book is better but it's really a much different deal than the movie, conceptually. a lot of the movie was just like O NO PLANTS. i did like the scene where the girl goes crazy and starts slashing herself, that was freaky enough. but mostly it was zzz.
― hellzapoppa (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 13 December 2009 21:45 (fourteen years ago) link
(in the book, it's a guy who cuts himself open, but i guess any excuse to get a naked girl into a horror movie -- even a self-disemboweled one)
― hellzapoppa (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 13 December 2009 21:46 (fourteen years ago) link
yah also realistically casting a bunch of semi-retarded c-grade actors probably doesnt help w/creating a sense of tension and desperate isolation - most of the time it felt like they had half-forgotten why the got stuck @ this terrible day spa
― ^_^ (_² ÷_X +_- (Lamp), Sunday, 13 December 2009 21:49 (fourteen years ago) link
house of the devil was pretty good... quite a slow burn
― (9/9/8/9) (cozwn), Monday, 14 December 2009 11:14 (fourteen years ago) link
I know this falls just outwith the timescale (2002) but I always enjoyed marc evans' 'my little eye'
did anyone ever see 'switchblade romance' (2003)?
― (9/9/8/9) (cozwn), Monday, 14 December 2009 20:01 (fourteen years ago) link
Just watched martyrs -- pretty good -- thanks for the recommendation! -- is consensus that sauna is the one to watch next?
― Philip Nunez, Monday, 14 December 2009 20:20 (fourteen years ago) link
the subs on my dl of sauna didn't work :*(
― (9/9/8/9) (cozwn), Monday, 14 December 2009 20:36 (fourteen years ago) link
ha! i had to scroll through the subs for martyrs in a separate text file while running the movie in another window
― Philip Nunez, Monday, 14 December 2009 20:42 (fourteen years ago) link
speaking of malefic girl schools, anybody seen innocence? not sure how "horror" it is tho I've heard there's some creepy dread to be had― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Saturday, 31 October 2009 15:12 (1 month ago) BookmarkWaaay xpost: "Innocence" is creepily surreal, rather than horrific, but a great movie. Reminded me a lot of Robert Aickman's oblique 'strange tales'.― Soukesian, Tuesday, 17 November 2009 21:55 (3 weeks ago) Bookmark
― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Saturday, 31 October 2009 15:12 (1 month ago) Bookmark
― Soukesian, Tuesday, 17 November 2009 21:55 (3 weeks ago) Bookmark
I watched Innocence recently. No, it's not horror. It's a dreamlike fantasy about child/girlhood, which is depicted as both an idyll and a prison from which eventually the girls crave escape, even though the outside/adult world beyond the walls is full of foreboding. There is a creepiness to it, oddly haunting too, but it's vague and dreamy. Quite light on narrative. Watch alongside Picnic at Hanging Rock, Voice of the Beehive, The Company of Wolves, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, maybe even The Virgin Suicides.
― DavidM, Monday, 14 December 2009 20:53 (fourteen years ago) link
I'm assuming you mean the spirit of the beehive, and not that we should invite the twee 80s pop group to watch innocence with us
― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Monday, 14 December 2009 21:12 (fourteen years ago) link
sauna - two brothers, one a cartographer and the other a sociopathic military man, join an expedition to determine the new borders of finland and russia after a war in the 1500s. the group gets literally and figuratively bogged down in a creepy swamp village and the ghosts of their wartime crimes close in. arthouse horror, but not excessively pretentious. it moves slow and doesn't hold your hand to explain details, so I can understand why traditional horror fans might get turned off, but the thing's absolutely beautiful. cinematography, set design, acting, script are all on point. there's not much plot and the ending is cavalier about resolving any of the issues raised - almost like they ran out of time and said, well, let's end it here. but I appreciated its sense of total desolation, reminiscent of stalker, hour of the wolf, or come and see, in how it sets you down in a wasted, godless no man's land with no hope of redemption.
― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Monday, 14 December 2009 22:22 (fourteen years ago) link
switchblade romance also known as haute tension and I see it ws mentioned upthread
just about to watch 'the woods'; psyched
― (9/9/8/9) (cozwn), Monday, 14 December 2009 23:26 (fourteen years ago) link
thought the woods ws OK not amazing; can def appreciate what the ppl above see in it tho
had to stop watching martyrs cz it ws actually srsly freaking me out
― cozwn, Tuesday, 15 December 2009 23:44 (fourteen years ago) link
agree w/jjusten, captivity ws enh; diet saw at best
― cozwn, Tuesday, 15 December 2009 23:47 (fourteen years ago) link
just watched the last 2/3 of martyrs... I think someone in lamp's other thread called it pseudo-intellectual; nothing wrong w/a little symmetry tho it is def v.cute, as edward says, in the way it finds 'a way out of its narrative challenges'. beside the point however, it ws very good but tht first 1/3 is freaky and the last 1/3 is some bleak diet catherine breillat
― cozwn, Wednesday, 16 December 2009 00:56 (fourteen years ago) link
oh man, i don't feel qualified to judge it on that level being a) not fluent in French and b) having to follow the dialogue along in a separate text filebut was very impressed by the effects/makeup by what seems like a low budget movie.
― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 16 December 2009 17:29 (fourteen years ago) link