Irish driving-about-in-the-dark thriller In Fear and Vincenzo-Natali-produced Canadian portmanteau / vignette series Darknet are both on Netflix now, and both watchable.
― Wristy Hurlington (ShariVari), Sunday, 26 October 2014 12:54 (nine years ago) link
Years after the litmus testing in this thread, I finally dipped into PONTYPOOL last week and ... I'm fully with jjjusten there. Well, maybe not quite fully. I thought the movie was pretty fantastic for the first half, and almost wish that it hadn't been a horror movie at all in the traditional sense but had, instead, stuck with the absurdism of its initial situation, small town reporting from inside a bunker with no actual confirmation of the big world event happening outside.
Once it went all semiotics lesson, the movie became a total lost cause. NOTLD had messages too, but they never became the text itself.
― Eric H., Sunday, 26 October 2014 15:46 (nine years ago) link
Wonder if that sequel is really happening.
― Simon H., Sunday, 26 October 2014 16:01 (nine years ago) link
Man, you make me want to watch it again. And again. I love that text itself (as such) is the vector, and semiotics the way the virus spreads! Just genius. When the professor breaks in, talks a bunch, and then escapes out again (iirc) ... so funny.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 26 October 2014 22:29 (nine years ago) link
Eric otm. Its great until the 2nd half and then it becomes ridiculous and unwatchable.
― Οὖτις, Monday, 27 October 2014 00:09 (nine years ago) link
Of all the crap we all big up on this thread, I love that Pontypool is the one that gets branded unwatchable. ;)
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 27 October 2014 00:50 (nine years ago) link
Speaking of which, anyone shocked how few of the usual suspect franchises are available to stream on Netflix, esp. c. Halloween? Is it because this is there bread and butter time to be bought/screened/paid for? Virtually nil when it comes to "Friday the 13th," "Nightmare on Elm Street," "Halloween" or the like on Netflix or Amazon Prime.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 27 October 2014 00:53 (nine years ago) link
Lots of things get labelled unwatchable, it just happens to be the one w the most strident defenders
Xp
― Οὖτις, Monday, 27 October 2014 00:54 (nine years ago) link
I thought p much nothing of quality was availabke on netflix streaming. Perpetua even wrote a buzzfeed listicle abt it
― Οὖτις, Monday, 27 October 2014 00:55 (nine years ago) link
Must be true then.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 27 October 2014 01:15 (nine years ago) link
Lol
― Οὖτις, Monday, 27 October 2014 01:44 (nine years ago) link
If it helps, I didn't much like The Innkeepers either.
― Eric H., Monday, 27 October 2014 02:43 (nine years ago) link
Not sure if that was among the big upped.
― Eric H., Monday, 27 October 2014 02:44 (nine years ago) link
LOVED The Taking of Deborah Logan. Great acting and pretty damn scary.
― The Thnig, Monday, 27 October 2014 15:17 (nine years ago) link
Yes, i think i underplayed how much i enjoyed it. It's definitely worth catching.
― Wristy Hurlington (ShariVari), Monday, 27 October 2014 15:21 (nine years ago) link
I think I big upped the Innkeepers quite a bit. Pontypool on the other hand.
Mr. Jones on streaming is a better than expected little diversion I thought. Suffers a bit from creeping "surreality will disguise that our ending isn't nearly as clever as we think it is", but I enjoyed it a bunch. Been digging a lot of the Darknet stuff, pretty impressive as anthology tv horror goes. THX CANADA!
― Ass Tchotchke! (jjjusten), Monday, 27 October 2014 16:13 (nine years ago) link
The only way I'd watch a Pontypool sequel is if it's a silent movie.
― Eric H., Monday, 27 October 2014 16:35 (nine years ago) link
not even then
― Ass Tchotchke! (jjjusten), Monday, 27 October 2014 17:00 (nine years ago) link
Just dropping in to say I watched 'Tampopo' last night and the food + sex scenes are more disturbing than any horror movie.
― festival culture (Jordan), Monday, 27 October 2014 17:09 (nine years ago) link
Two thirds of The Babadook were really great but as so often the final act unravels and I left disappointed.
― ewar woowar (or something), Monday, 27 October 2014 18:33 (nine years ago) link
That's practially become a formula for near-classic horror movies these days (e.g. The Descent, House Of The Devil). Work on your endings, filmmakers!
― I Am A Very Important Businessman (Old Lunch), Monday, 27 October 2014 18:38 (nine years ago) link
Struggling to name one that doesn't fit the pattern, Absentia jumps to mind but beyond that...
― ewar woowar (or something), Monday, 27 October 2014 18:47 (nine years ago) link
I'm one of the few who liked the ending of The Strangers.
― ewar woowar (or something), Monday, 27 October 2014 18:48 (nine years ago) link
Another measure by which Inside emerges as one of the recent greats.
― Eric H., Monday, 27 October 2014 18:59 (nine years ago) link
Seriously?
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 27 October 2014 19:03 (nine years ago) link
All I remember is a zombie policeman.
Cabin in the Woods sticks the ending. Um, "The Orphanage" sticks the ending. Erm ...
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 27 October 2014 19:04 (nine years ago) link
Cabin in the Woods def sticks the ending. Ending of the Strangers really bummed me out, it was so anticlimactic.
― Οὖτις, Monday, 27 October 2014 19:05 (nine years ago) link
I mean really all it needed was maybe a decent monologue from the killers and I would've been happy. but no.
Cabin In The Woods is probably the best horror film I've seen from the last ten years.
Forgot to mention in this thread that I watched The Mist last week. That's certainly up there, as well (although the ending, again, is problematic).
― I Am A Very Important Businessman (Old Lunch), Monday, 27 October 2014 19:08 (nine years ago) link
I liked The Mist a lot, save Oscar winner's horrible overacting. There was a really good fan ending I saw somewhere, set to Dead Can Dance, iirc.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 27 October 2014 19:09 (nine years ago) link
Think you're remembering Les Mis or something.
― Eric H., Monday, 27 October 2014 19:11 (nine years ago) link
xpost Dead Can Dance played over the theatrical ending.
― I Am A Very Important Businessman (Old Lunch), Monday, 27 October 2014 19:12 (nine years ago) link
I'd argue that whatever one feels about the ending of The Mist, the movie definitely doesn't go out with a whimper.
― Eric H., Monday, 27 October 2014 19:12 (nine years ago) link
No, the film in general didn't pull any punches, which I loved.
― I Am A Very Important Businessman (Old Lunch), Monday, 27 October 2014 19:14 (nine years ago) link
Had it been an original screenplay, Welp You're Fucked would've made an excellent alternative title.
― I Am A Very Important Businessman (Old Lunch), Monday, 27 October 2014 19:16 (nine years ago) link
And, of course, Drag Me To Hell.
― Eric H., Monday, 27 October 2014 19:19 (nine years ago) link
Maybe it's just the Ti West movies have problems with lame endings.
― Eric H., Monday, 27 October 2014 19:20 (nine years ago) link
You're Next did a fine job
― Nhex, Monday, 27 October 2014 19:22 (nine years ago) link
Some fine examples but this is still a thing ok.
― ewar woowar (or something), Monday, 27 October 2014 19:25 (nine years ago) link
Didn't like You're Next's ending because it's not really an ending, it just sort of ... stops. "Drag Me to Hell" is a great ending, though of course it (like everything else) is borrowed from Curse of the Demon.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 27 October 2014 19:25 (nine years ago) link
That Mist ending really divided people but I liked it.
Honestly, I think good horror film endings have always been rare, I can't think of many satisfying endings. That famous double bill of Don't Look Now and Wicker Man must have packed a punch when nobody knew the endings, heads would have been nicely fucked for that night.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 27 October 2014 19:31 (nine years ago) link
In fact I think it's a story thing in general that good satisfying endings are rare. I actually prefer abrupt endings that are a bit annoying than the general practice of the conventional comfortable wrap up which approximates the shape of a good ending but doesn't really manage it.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 27 October 2014 19:34 (nine years ago) link
I actually prefer abrupt endings
Yeah, nothing wrong with this, tbh. Anyone watch "Vertigo" lately? It and "Psycho" are obviously masterpieces, but I'll take the sudden ending of the former over the protracted ending of the latter any day.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 27 October 2014 19:38 (nine years ago) link
Ending of the Strangers really bummed me out
I think that is rather the idea.
― Simon H., Monday, 27 October 2014 19:42 (nine years ago) link
RAG otm, it's not a new thing. Endings are almost by definition anti climactic and most of the best ones leave some ambiguity or open-ness. Texas Chainsaw Massacre feels like one of the strongest.
― ewar woowar (or something), Monday, 27 October 2014 19:46 (nine years ago) link
the 'you're next' ending was p great i thought, i like endings that are that type of exclamation point.
― LIKE If you are against racism (omar little), Monday, 27 October 2014 19:47 (nine years ago) link
yeah, they managed to throw together homages to Home Alone, The Shining and Night of the Living Dead within the space of two minutes!
― Nhex, Monday, 27 October 2014 20:29 (nine years ago) link
seeing the babadook tomorrow. it had better be great!
― Shepard Toney Album (dog latin), Tuesday, 28 October 2014 12:39 (nine years ago) link
Tall Man stayed solid all the way to the end IMO
― a drug by the name of WORLD WITHOUT END (Jon Lewis), Tuesday, 28 October 2014 14:05 (nine years ago) link