Nice, thanks for that.
I watched The Seventh Victim recently, and absolutely love it. The male section of the dénouement made me laugh a bit for having such surety in values alien to me, but the Donne aspect was kind of devastating.
Also watched Near Dark. It is rubbish.
― emil.y, Thursday, 23 August 2012 13:27 (eleven years ago) link
023. Possession [1981, 565 points, 17 votes, 2 first-place votes]024. Carnival Of Souls [1962, 560 points, 20 votes, 1 first-place vote]033. Freaks [1932, 475 points, 18 votes]036. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari [1920, 467 points, 18 votes]046. Eyes Without A Face [Les yeux sans visage] [1960, 371 points, 16 votes]060. Vampyr [1932, 314 points, 8 votes]061. M [1931, 312 points, 9 votes, 1 first-place vote]074. Threads [1984, 251 points, 6 votes]080. Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht [1979, 226 points, 8 votes]088. The Seventh Victim [1943, 206 points, 6 votes, 1 first-place vote]092. Onibaba [1964, 191 points, 7 votes]
So I'm sitting down to watch a few: Eyes Without a Face is just about perfect in terms of duration, measured performance, plot, the ending was a bit too cute but effective; Carnival of Souls was all about that score: the organ as an instrument of god as well as the devil and communicate the sheer dread; Threads isn't horror (i know i know yawn), more horrifying: anyhow the assembling of destruction via effects/photographs/staged crumbling landscape with that old 80s computer for narration of effects (the only electrical appliance that seemed to work in the end?) gripped, but I'm not sure about the dramatic strands -- they didn't work for me, apart from Ruth's daughter and her underdeveloped use of language. You had to laugh at the Industry? What Industry shouting off at the demonstration. In the end I thought Watkins' film was better at covering the same ground while also thinking this was amazing in its own right.
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 2 September 2012 10:13 (eleven years ago) link
if that's your to-watch list, it is a pretty awesome group of films
― vincent black shadow giallo (Edward III), Sunday, 2 September 2012 11:54 (eleven years ago) link
Haha, okay, the only dramatic strand that works for you is literally the only thing I think Threads gets somewhat wrong: it moves from the known and realistic results of a very possible event, the MUNDANITY of a ravaged society (the helpless bureaucrats, the collapse of food distribution systems), the absolute devastation of not just one staggeringly huge thing but all the little fractures it causes, into a fantasised dystopia full of feral children that, I don't know, it just feels like it moves from social realism into hysteria.
― emil.y, Sunday, 2 September 2012 12:13 (eleven years ago) link
There wasn't much of a balance between showing the collapse of relationships between people and the way they could also come together to support one another: it gives glimpses when it shows them working the land, but not much more. I couldn't figure out if Ruth was being helped by others during her pregnancy or not. At times she was with people, at others not so she ends up giving birth on her own. It tried to fit in too many of the effects of devastation but Ruth seemed to be used and discaded by the script on a whim.
One thing Threads works through is the bombing of Britain back to a medieval time. I didn't like feral children but the daughter's inability to ask for specific help in the final scenes, her loss of words...that touched a nerve. You see the collapse of the NHS but also of basic learning through that. It wasn't realistic, but it worked.
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 2 September 2012 19:54 (eleven years ago) link
Guys I just saw Phantasm and whoa! SO horribly acted but yet so inventive and awesome!! That sort of intersection of supernatural + weird technology + gore, super stylized and with a heaping dose of psychedelia is just like omg, so so wonderful
― clijster flockhart (Stevie D(eux)), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 02:23 (eleven years ago) link
though that shot from upthread of him lying on the ground in the alien wasteland was totally not in the copy of the film I saw. Deleted scene I guess?
― clijster flockhart (Stevie D(eux)), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 02:24 (eleven years ago) link
it's been years, but i'd swear it is in the movie, when dude gets sucked through the tuning-portal. totally otm abt the "intersection of supernatural + weird technology + gore, super stylized and with a heaping dose of psychedelia"
― i know your nuts hurt! who's laughing? (contenderizer), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 02:37 (eleven years ago) link
I rewatched the scene where he gets sucked in twice; he just floated for like 10 sec before someone grabbed his belt and pulled him back through. Lasted maybe 15 sec? But I mean the orig cut was 3+ hours and there are sooooo many deleted scenes floating around, apparently.
― clijster flockhart (Stevie D(eux)), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 04:04 (eleven years ago) link
Also some of the footage was reused in Phantasm IV
― clijster flockhart (Stevie D(eux)), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 04:05 (eleven years ago) link
I'm pretty meh on Phantasm, but here's an interesting article on it: http://blogs.indiewire.com/pressplay/raised-in-fear-phantasm-and-the-uses-of-enchantment
― Eric H., Thursday, 6 September 2012 13:27 (eleven years ago) link
am LOVING this Zinoman "Shock Value" book at the moment
― chicago rap twitter luminary (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 6 September 2012 15:39 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, it's really great.
― Eric H., Thursday, 6 September 2012 15:42 (eleven years ago) link
also I like Phantasm a lot but yeah it makes no sense
xp
― chicago rap twitter luminary (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 6 September 2012 15:43 (eleven years ago) link
I think I like Phantasm in large part because it makes no sense. It's like a weird post-burrito dinner fever dream.
― This Whole Fridge Is Full Of (Old Lunch), Thursday, 6 September 2012 15:47 (eleven years ago) link
like centipede hz?
― i know your nuts hurt! who's laughing? (contenderizer), Thursday, 6 September 2012 17:59 (eleven years ago) link
am the proud owner of this phantasm set:
http://p.playserver1.com/ProductImages/7/2/5/9/1/7/719527_300x300_1.jpg
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 6 September 2012 19:07 (eleven years ago) link
haha wow
― stop swearing and start windmilling (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 6 September 2012 19:07 (eleven years ago) link
sweet!
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 6 September 2012 19:14 (eleven years ago) link
Does the orb actually work?
― This Whole Fridge Is Full Of (Old Lunch), Thursday, 6 September 2012 19:15 (eleven years ago) link
so i just watched "Near Dark" last night thx to these results and i can now categorically say i have no idea what some of you see in that movie.
― O_o-O_O-o_O (jjjusten), Thursday, 13 September 2012 00:05 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, seriously. It is a terrible film.
― emil.y, Thursday, 13 September 2012 00:06 (eleven years ago) link
guess you had to be there
― vincent black shadow giallo (Edward III), Thursday, 13 September 2012 01:56 (eleven years ago) link
sucking yr vampire girlfriend's blood in an oil field by night
― vincent black shadow giallo (Edward III), Thursday, 13 September 2012 02:00 (eleven years ago) link
i have no idea what some of you see in that movie.
vampire bar slaughter with Cramps sdtk, basically
watched De Palma's Sisters last night, feel like that maybe should've placed - wild movie
― stop swearing and start windmilling (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 13 September 2012 02:13 (eleven years ago) link
I like it a lot ... it's just that I think just about everything I like in that movie he did better later on.
― Ham Lushbaugh (Eric H.), Thursday, 13 September 2012 02:52 (eleven years ago) link
i own the Phantasm boxed set but i was heartbroken when i saw the death orb version
also hell yes the lack of narrative consistency is part of the point, it's pop surrealism at its bestest
― syntax evasion (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 13 September 2012 11:05 (eleven years ago) link
near dark is about 9/10s of a wonderful movie that falls apart catastrophically at the finish line. i pretend the ending didn't happen in order to enjoy the rest. bar slaughter is amazing, and the film is arguably a vehicle for that one scene, but i like paxton and henriksen in general, love the itinerant cowboy vampires concept. i also really like jenny wright's performance as the young vampire girl. the film pays a lot of attention, in her scenes with adrian pasadar, to the sensual texture of ordinary moments. this communicates her supernatural awareness and speed, intentionally likening her to a wild creature, but it also describes adolescence, a rush of impressions and emotions too overwhelming to contain. the thrill of freedom, lust, danger and the world at night. like the lost boys, near dark imagines vampirism as coming of age, a fascinating idea that, unfortunately, only makes the cop-out ending that much more of a betrayal. you can't go home again.
― i know your nuts hurt! who's laughing? (contenderizer), Thursday, 13 September 2012 15:51 (eleven years ago) link
Guess I'm gnna have to watch Near Dark, something I've always kinda wanted to do anyway since I really do like Bigelow.
― this is the dream of avril and chad (jer.fairall), Thursday, 13 September 2012 15:52 (eleven years ago) link
it's definitely superior to Lost Boys which is really only enjoyable as camp
― stop swearing and start windmilling (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 13 September 2012 15:53 (eleven years ago) link
No way is it better than Lost Boys. Partly because it IS enjoyable as camp, whereas Near Dark is just... nothing. No sympathetic characters, no interesting storyline, no scares, no emotion, no great silliness.
― emil.y, Thursday, 13 September 2012 16:25 (eleven years ago) link
(First 'it' - Near Dark, second 'it' - Lost Boys. I realise that may be confusingly written.)
feel like whoever voted for it should be responsible for mounting a more staunch defense of it. I liked it allright, but I don't think it's all-time material
― stop swearing and start windmilling (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 13 September 2012 16:36 (eleven years ago) link
yeah, i didn't vote for it because my reservations are too strong. what's good is really good though.
― i know your nuts hurt! who's laughing? (contenderizer), Thursday, 13 September 2012 16:50 (eleven years ago) link
near dark my #28. saw it during its original + brief theatrical run, was blown away. so many great scenes, the bus station, the bar scene, the motel shootout. also: jenny wright.
― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Thursday, May 17, 2012 11:21 AM (3 months ago)
I love Near Dark, so stripped down and logical -- if there were vampires, this is probably the kind of life they'd have to lead.
― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Thursday, May 17, 2012 10:39 AM (3 months ago)
― vincent black shadow giallo (Edward III), Thursday, 13 September 2012 16:59 (eleven years ago) link
I will concede that the idea of vampires living a sort of peripatetic wild west existence is not a bad one. But the film they made out of that idea is a bad one.
― emil.y, Thursday, 13 September 2012 17:01 (eleven years ago) link
No way is it better than Lost Boys. Partly because it [Lost Boys] IS enjoyable as camp...
― emil.y, Thursday, September 13, 2012 9:25 AM (25 minutes ago)
yeah, i was talking about this recently, perhaps upthread. both film shy away from the implications of the hero-turned-vampire concept, but the lost boys never takes itself seriously, so this isn't a problem. near dark seems tougher and more intellectually/artistically engaged, so the loss of nerve really hurts the film. disagree that it lacks appealing characters, though. i like everyone except the hero, his pa and the littlest vampire (river's edge weirdo kid).
― i know your nuts hurt! who's laughing? (contenderizer), Thursday, 13 September 2012 17:03 (eleven years ago) link
plus contenderizer just did a bang up job of elucidating its high points
― vincent black shadow giallo (Edward III), Thursday, 13 September 2012 17:03 (eleven years ago) link
I have trouble reading near dark as "bad" - sure it has more good ideas than it can realize in a satisfactory way (puts me in mind of early cronenberg) and its conclusion is troubled, so its placement in the nether regions of the poll is appropriate. its shakier aspects are offset by sophisticated camera + design work, a good tangerine dream score, and some decisions that reveal a thoughtfulness at work (e.g. the word vampire is never used). there's a mean spirited charm to the vampires, but also a sadness.
in the 80s, freak subculture was still really underground. near dark played into this both thematically and in the details - using the cramps during the bar scene was a dog whistle. decades of updated vampires and 80s fetishism have maybe dulled the charms of near dark, but it was pretty unique at the time. it captures the downbeat vibe of drifter life, a certain american lost-ness, while still retaining the poetry of the vampire myth, two poles captured in these stills:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/ND1.jpghttp://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/ND2.jpg
plus bishop, vasquez, and hudson from aliens! don't know what else to say. sorry you didn't like dis movie, guys.
― vincent black shadow giallo (Edward III), Thursday, 13 September 2012 18:30 (eleven years ago) link
and I'll take the rough ugliness of near dark's dysfunctional outsider family over the pretty boy nonsense of the lost boys any day
― vincent black shadow giallo (Edward III), Thursday, 13 September 2012 18:37 (eleven years ago) link
I even like the little kid in near dark, or at least the pathos in his character - preteen boys can be snarky + annoying, imagine being trapped in that state forever *shudder*
― vincent black shadow giallo (Edward III), Thursday, 13 September 2012 18:40 (eleven years ago) link
Okay, I dunno if it makes any difference, but I had SERIOUS problems with the representation of women in this film. And the storyline runs so very very close to messianic boy-saves-girl bullshit. It's not even sexy-woman misogyny, it's just patronising homespun traditional misogyny. I found it hard to really get past this.
― emil.y, Thursday, 13 September 2012 18:40 (eleven years ago) link
I wasn't saying it was bad, i was just expecting a lot more delivery of something from it - there just isnt a lot of movie there in a lot of ways. it seems kinda uncomitted to being anything really, i mean theres a really half-assed love story in there somewhere, and one bar scene of horror, and sort of a little road outlaw standoff, but none of it ever really delivers or gets sustained. it just seemed really aimless and unfocused, and not in an intriguing way xposts
― O_o-O_O-o_O (jjjusten), Thursday, 13 September 2012 18:43 (eleven years ago) link
I call it out upthread for being regressive but mysogynist seems like a problematic term to hang on Bigelow
― stop swearing and start windmilling (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 13 September 2012 18:44 (eleven years ago) link
jjjusten, I guess I enjoyed that rambling aimlessness but then again I'm a two lane blacktop fan so
― vincent black shadow giallo (Edward III), Thursday, 13 September 2012 18:51 (eleven years ago) link
Ah yes, the old "women can't be misogynists" defence.
xpost
― emil.y, Thursday, 13 September 2012 18:51 (eleven years ago) link
I wasn't making a generalized statement, I was making a specific statement about a particular woman, the writer and director of the movie, who I think it's difficult to hang the mysognist tag on. she's not exactly Phyllis Shlafly.
― stop swearing and start windmilling (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 13 September 2012 18:57 (eleven years ago) link
Okay, fair enough. I haven't liked any film of hers I've seen, so never paid that much attention to the rest. This one pretty much just shores up that impression.
― emil.y, Thursday, 13 September 2012 18:59 (eleven years ago) link
did you dislike the portrayal of the female protagonist generally, or did you primarily object to her "rescue" by the male protagonist and his father at the end?
― i know your nuts hurt! who's laughing? (contenderizer), Thursday, 13 September 2012 19:03 (eleven years ago) link
Bit of both. The whole 'listen to the night' thing or whatever it was felt a lot like proto-MPDG crap.
― emil.y, Thursday, 13 September 2012 19:07 (eleven years ago) link