ok lets all shit our pants to something new: post 2005 horror film thread

i think it was pretty lolsome that you knew it was coming.

You mean, it was funnier knowing he would fail? In that case, I don't they pulled the gag off that well. They could have had a Sam Jackson in "Deep Blue Sea" moment, but nope.

This was so Fran Kranz's movie, and if I ever saw it again - and I'm not sure why I would need to see it again - I'd see it for him. Some dude on etsy I'm sure is getting right on that travel-bong.

I actually really appreciated Ebert's key takeaway:

This is not a perfect movie; it's so ragged, it's practically constructed of loose ends. But it's exciting because it ventures so far off the map.

Also, a bit miffed at all the reviews who characterize these college kids as dummies. They're all actually pretty smart - Thor as an econ wiz was worth a chuckle, and I actually liked when the other hunk put on his smart glasses to look at something - but their behavior is directed contrary to said smarts. They're literally made to behave like dummies

thought cabin was pretty great. speakerphone gag was perfect

Yeah, a big point was making them into the stereotypes. Also Rex Reed not getting the Final Girl wasn't actually a virgin was pretty wtf (except not coz its Rex Reed but you know).

Wasn't quite sure why the victims are allowed to "win," or why all the other countries seemed to have failed/succeeded, persevering over evil, given what's at stake. I suppose all those unanswerable loose ends constitute a big part of its ridiculous charm. Regardless, the Japanese schoolgirls got the biggest laugh when I saw it.

hahaha. the japanese thing killed me.

Wait, was this 3-D?

no. it was going to be, but due to MGM clusterfuck we were spared that indignity.

saw cabin in the woods early this afternoon. dug it a lot, though i can't quite say it's great. i do have this advice: if you have any interest in it at all, do not read anything about it, do not talk to your friends about it, do not wait for DVD, do not read this thread, just go.

lol rex reed http://www.observer.com/2012/04/cabin-in-the-woods-rex-reed-richard-jenkins-bradley-whitford/

(spoilers within)

I'll second contenderizer.

I doubt if these people even know who Sigourney Weaver is.

here's a screenshot of the betting board from cabin: http://i.imgur.com/BQaLg.jpg

sold when i saw "angry molesting tree"

The way the opening scene cut to the title: Funny Games?

lol Deadites

yeah i thought of funny games too, though where haneke is a stern moralizer who wants to chasten his audience, cabin in the woods gives the horror audience more of a gentle ribbing

Good to have that screenshot. I only caught a glimpse of "dismemberment goblins", which was enough for a laugh.

"Reptilius" would have been damn awesome.

You can't see it on there, but I think one category was just called "Kevin." I don't know if that's supposed to be like Freddy, Michael or Jason, or just some fictional ... Kevin.

Oh, wait, there it is: Kevin, bottom left.

What I thought was oddly funny ... what if the kids in the cabin had accidentally raised killer robot insect with giant saws or whatever? Would have made a hilariously poor fit for the spooky woods.

We Need To Talk About Kevin.

what if the kids in the cabin had accidentally raised killer robot insect with giant saws or whatever? Would have made a hilariously poor fit for the spooky woods.

still pretty scary though. plus kill you good, by the looks of things.

was really hoping for a screenshot of that board, so thanks, h4a. passed by too quickly in the movie for me to catch stuff like "deadites" and "angry molesting tree". lol @ "witches" and "sexy witches". will take option #2, if it's all the same to you.

Also, a bit miffed at all the reviews who characterize these college kids as dummies. They're all actually pretty smart - Thor as an econ wiz was worth a chuckle, and I actually liked when the other hunk put on his smart glasses to look at something - but their behavior is directed contrary to said smarts. They're literally made to behave like dummies

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, April 13, 2012 8:02 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

[mild spoilers ahead, so...]

yeah, i thought the film handled this very well. not only are the kids forced into their roles, they're textually framed as "horror movie types" from the very beginning: the introductory shot of the panty-clad protagonist as seen voyeuristic 80s-style makes this comically clear. to say nothing of the opening sequence that foregrounds the film's twofold reality. those scenes put such huge quotation marks around the presence of the kids in the movie (and the movie as a whole, tbh) that i had no problem accepting the first act's more contrived and familiar aspects. by the time we got to mordecai the harbinger and the straight-up evil dead cabin, it was clear that the cliches were pretty much the entire point.

while watching, i liked how up-front the film was in letting us in on its first-level secrets, but in retrospect, i might have appreciated a bit more restraint. by the time we got to the reversals and expansions about halfway through, there wasn't much mystery left, which drained the subsequent absurdity exhibition of its power to really surprise me. overall, i liked it a lot, but a bit of the air did fizzle out in the ott final act.

Disagree, but not vehemently. Leaving the reveal til the end would have been mindblowing, but left the entire first half pretty tediously cliched. Knowing they were playing around from the get go was sort of crucial.

I think it was very well measured. I didn't expect it to go as bonkers as it did. I guess Meta's only direction to go is out.

("The Japanese are the only other viable market currently running!")

Ha. I like the furious STATE-OF-THE-GENRE-RIGHT-NOW of the movie the more I think about it. It may or may not toss posterity out the window, but whatever - the manipulators/manipulatees scenario may probably always be potent. Or not.

anyone seen the divide? very bleak

remind me: pontypool is yea or nay?

i like pontypool, its worth watching

Finally got around to Stake Land last night. I liked its faux-Malick lyricism and affectless voiceover more than I usually like actual Malick lyricism and affectlessness. The story felt very third- or fourth-hand, too much like I Am Legend or 28 Days Later or whatever other apocalyptic vampire/zombie movies you might name. But the downbeat vibe was an interesting approach, and there was some legitimately gorgeous filmmaking.

did rex reed even watch the same cabin in the woods that i did?

well he thought the virgin was actually a virgin so I don't think so

also, since we've gone all Glenn Kenny, here's Wells: http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2012/04/underground_hor.php

remind me: pontypool is yea or nay?

very enthusiastic yea from me, but it's pretty divisive, so no promises

someone make a Cabin In The Woods thread

Leaving the reveal til the end would have been mindblowing, but left the entire first half pretty tediously cliched. Knowing they were playing around from the get go was sort of crucial.

yeah, i agree with you there. i guess i wasn't clear. i liked that we knew from the outset that a game was being played and who the players were. my criticism, and it's a fairly mild one, is that i felt that the film gave the larger game away a bit too soon. we quickly came to understand so much of the film's overall design that after the first forty minutes or so, there weren't any real surprises left. we just got to see how things played out. a more conventional approach would have been to hold enough back so that we could learn about the next-level stuff along with the protagonists, and i think that might have served the final act a little better. would at least have allowed the ever-increasing absurdity to be disorienting, rather than merely comical. think this could have been accomplished without ditching the basic structure.

i dunno, maybe that "merely" was unfair. this winds up being a strangelove-style satirical comedy more than a "proper horror film, and there's nothing necessarily wrong with that.

xp

ok

I've debated it here at length, but I think "Pontypool" is one of the best movies I've seen in years.

I'll add another yea for Pontypool.

I think pontypool is rampagingly adequate.

pontypool is better on the second viewing

i will never know if that is true

Was surprised to see The Wicker Tree on sale at Best Buy last night for 14 bucks. Worth buying, or just worth seeing? It beckons me strongly...

I did the same double take, as it was on a center rack facing the front door with the likes of MI4

Wicker Tree is...something. Worth seeing, definitely. A friend of mine is quoted on the jacket, though, which was nice to see!

one of the reviews of "cabin in the woods" was mentioning those recent-ish french horror movies that were talked in this thread, made me think to check-up on those guys and it turns out the guys who made "Inside" made a new one, "livid". I checked it without knowing/seeing a thing about it and it was ok.

*trailer-like mild spoiler*

the subject of the movie appears on the betting board of "cabin in the woods", haha.

thanks for the tip, sebastien, gonna watch livide tonight