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

I think Dream Home is one of the ones I heard about recently. I'll put it on the checklist.

The trailer and reviews for Rigor Mortis don't look promising to me. Looks like there might be too much cgi again. They say the film has a dedication to two of the dead stars of Mr Vampire and has several actors from it but if this really is supposed to be a tribute, why take out the slapstick (cant remember if the trailer had any martial arts either)?
To be honest, I don't think Mr Vampire is as good as a lot of those other supernatural martial arts films. It's really weird that the prank vampire at the start looks totally convincing but the real vampire at the end looks as if he is supposed to be fake, like some guy just wearing a mask. One of the laziest makeup jobs I've ever seen, I wonder I they were on so tight a dealine and had no eye makeup to make it look less like a mask.

Mr. Vampire is one of my favorite movies, so i think i might disagree with you there.

Could you wax lyrical about it for me? I'm interested.

I always thought Spooky Encounters was much better. The movements/choreography of the vampire/corpse are amazing. It has one of the best laugh out loud endings I've ever seen. I just wish it had more horror stuff and didn't go for the long magic battle. I think the start of both Spooky Encounters and Mr Vampire promise more horror than they end up delivering. The chandelier scene at the start of Spooky Encounters 2 is classic.

The Mr. Vampire, Spooky Encounters, and ACGS series are blessedly true to their own cultural roots, and it's strange to me that you expect these movies to deliver Western-style horror. There's no shortage of HK films that draw/crib from the Western horror-film canon. The best of them are able to infuse a distinctly Eastern sensibility (The Imp, Bewitched/The Boxer's Omen, Hex, Killer Snakes, Devil Fetus, Seeding of a Ghost- to name a few favorites) that keeps them from being merely derivative. So why not just enjoy the purity of these series?

Admittedly, the most entertaining IMO HK movies come from the random collision of Eastern mysticism and mimicry of Western blockbusters. Like the Terminator-styled precinct rampage in Evil Cat, and the HK-styled retelling of The Witches of Eastwick in An Erotic Ghost Story.

I'm not complaining about eastern or western styles of horror. Mr Vampire and Spooky Encounters both get less and less dark at the showdown even if they are still supernatural, regardless of regional styles. They lose the macabre edge of the end. The openings of both films seem to suggest more macabre spookery than is delivered for the remaining time.

Boxers Omen and Devil Fetus both have macabre showdowns.

I haven't seen Devil Fetus yet(I seen youtube clips) and few of those others. Never heard of Hex.

I read a lot about Hong Kong films stealing music from western films and parodying parts of other famous films.

I am giving In Fear a shot tonight, a low budget British horror movie that has garnered rave reviews. It looks very promising from the reviews and has a 100% rotten tomato rating for what that is worth.

Finally watched Monsters on Netflix and can't believe anyone enjoyed that POS melodrama.

Ty damo suzuki's parrot - saw trailers for In Fear just before Xmas but since forgot what it was called and have been fruitlessly googling 'British horror 2013' or variations thereof for the past couple of weeks. Report back pls!

It isn't very good I'm afraid, they run out of ideas after the first 40 minutes and as much as they pile on the creepy atmospherics it isn't very scary or convincing, even if it was a film student effort I would consider it below par. That Scottish kid from Agents Of Shield is in it.

the problem with "monsters" is a surprising lack of uh monsters

^^^ this

Well there's that, but there's

- Starting your movie with three screens of text that have to do all the setup. Some movies can do this, some can't, this one should've found a way to cover the infodump in dialogue. It seems too much like setting up an improv class scene: "Here's your scenario - there's a crashed space probe that brought aliens from space to the US/Mexico border region, and GO."

- Having one of those screens of text have a grammatical error. ("US and Mexican military" instead of "militaries.")

- Lead actor was a charisma vacuum on a level with the guy in Birdemic.

- Lead actress has giant rock on finger, doesn't want to get on phone with fiance, WILL SHE STILL BE ENGAGED AT END OF MOVIE WHO KNOWS AM I RIGHT?

- Charisma vacuum hits incessantly on his employer's daughter, who he knows is engaged, can't get invited into her hotel room, goes out drinking all night. Cut to charisma vacuum waking up in bed next to a woman whose face we can't see -- IS IT LEAD ACTRESS? IT ISN'T! BET YOU DIDN'T SEE THAT SHYAMALAN TWIST COMING!!!

- "A photo of a child killed by an alien gets me $50,000. [ed.- shyeah, RIGHT.] A photo of a happy child gets me nothing." WILL HE BE FORCED TO CONFRONT HIS WARPED VALUE SYSTEM? WHO KNOWS, STAY TUNED!!!

Just ham-handed nonsense in nearly every scene. The only thing I liked was the official at the ferry dock who was all "Sucks to be you, that'll be $5,000 please."

huh I guess I liked its melodrama over most movies', let alone horror movies' (which Monsters, ironically, is not) total lack o' drama.

the monsters were the best thing about the movie hence my annoyance that they were barely in it

they could have at least eaten skip la doo or whatever that actor's name is to make up for all that wandering around

Has that movie gotten the Rifftrax treatment yet? It nearly outdoes Manos for aimless wandering. (THRILL TO THE OUTBOARD MOTOR REPAIR SCENE!)

i dont really get how you can feel like a genre based on people avoiding getting killed is generally drama free.

I dunno, I love horror, but "who will survive?" isn't enough to hold my attention in more than the most rote way. Start throwing "how" and "why" in there and yeah, things get more interesting. But how and why is not always horror's strongest suit (or point).

Man, there's a bit in the new Liam Neeson movie where the bad guy, after the massively implausible/impossible scheme is revealed, declares "it was easy!" My wife and I had a blast with that line, like the filmmakers just did not give a fuck about the "how" part.

lol phil otm, definitely had manos-levels of aimlessness

Oh, come on now.

sorry dude but that shit was BOOOOOOOOORING

and pointless

I ain't afraid of no boring.

it felt really mumblecore iirc

yeah

Dream home is fucking fantastic

― Corpsepaint Counterpaint (jjjusten), Thursday, February 27, 2014 7:51 PM (5 days ago)

just finally got around to watching the american remake of shutter and wow, i think it takes the title for worst remake i have ever ever seen

Maybe if The Fog didn't exist.

Just watched In Fear, not bad at all!

How do you defend the last hour of that movie Chap? It is terrible.

What after matey turns up in the back seat? The tension definitely drops after that point, but it remains unsettling. I thought his performance was great. I like how it's not really explained fully what's going on.

Come off it, the back seat guy is a dreadfully conceived villian and as for the finale .. oh words cannot express how shit that is.

Agree to disagree. Wasn't mad keen on the denouement, everything up to that point was fine.

Children of Sorrow. Slow-burn found-footage autopsy of a desert death cult that coceals a character study of pure evil. Didn't love it, and was frustrated by how often the simple story loses focus, but i think it's still well worth seeing for Bill Oberst, Jr.'s ferocious star turn as the cult leader. Should be interesting to compare this one, the work of new director Jourdan McCloure, with Ti West's forthcoming FF Jonestown riff, The Sacrament.

I have heard almost nothing good about The Sacrament.

he certainly has his fans. i'm not really one of them. i'll see it for Seimetz, Swanberg, Bowen, Reeder, etc.

make that Sheil. don't know where i got Reeder. i always enjoy West's casts.

(glowingly) positive review here: http://movierehab.com/sacrament-movie-review/

Anyone seen We Are What We Are or Contracted? Both just appeared on Netflix.

i thought Contracted was terrible. the director has something to say, but no idea how to say it. characters and situations are also totally unbelievable.
the WAWWA remake is worth watching. an interesting companion piece to the original. very Americanized, though the techniques and themes are true to the Mexican original.

Cool - thanks!

BTW, someone on Facebook just shared this little two-minute horror short:

http://vimeo.com/82920243

It scarred the crap out of me!

http://bitchmagazine.org/post/the-feminist-power-of-female-ghosts
worth a glance

A FIELD IN ENGLAND:
I still don't know exactly what was happening in a few parts but I liked it; it had some really beautiful sequences, great music and impressive techniques.
I was lukewarm on Kill List and his overly straightforward ABC segment but I'm more enthusiastic about the potential of Wheatley now.

UNDER THE SKIN:
I know this book/film has two threads but I'll put it here. I saw this film in the same location as the early parts of the film and that was quite strange. I think Glasgow people nervously half expect to see themselves in the film.
Even though I knew I shouldn't set my expectations too high, I was slightly underwhelmed because some people built this film up as an eternal mighty masterpiece. Although I wouldn't urge people to see it, it is a good strange atmospheric film with some really striking moments.

ANTICHRIST:
I'm amazed this film was from 5 years ago, it feels like much less. I'm finding myself lured to things I wasn't interested in at the time they came out but start to really desire in a change of mood.
I have no problem with extreme violence but it puts me off when I hear about endurance test style violence, which makes me wince and squirm and that tends to be closer to annoying than harrowing (like somebody pinging your ear and fingering your belly). Maybe loads of horror fans really do get turned on by violence because drawn out scenes that somehow bore, annoy and wincify me would make sense in that light. I think the violence in this film was exaggerated by the media.
I really liked this, especially in the aesthetics but the level of craziness of the woman escalating that much seems like too much of a jump for me; I know she had horrendous grief but it didn't really account for how extreme it goes, am I missing something? I'm sure there is lots of discussion online and probably on this forum but I'm not sure I can be bothered.

These 3 films above are making me increasingly of the opinion that a lot of the best films don't entirely add up /make a coherent whole. For me, a film being a unique and interesting experience is the most precious and rare thing. It's amazing how much I swing so far in and out of enthusiasm about films. I've seen a lot of really stimulating stuff recently and it's hard to see why I was so unenthusiastic a few months ago. Maybe I used to be too intent in getting certain types of films.

Anyone else see that French film Livid from a few years ago? Pretty decent, some were saying it was a bit like a new Jean Rollin film but there were several computer and sound effects that significantly spoiled the whole thing. I hope the director goes on to better things because I liked the general approach of the film.

The directors of Livide Bustillo & Maury also made Inside. I definitely have both eyes on their next project, Among the Living.

^^ high expectations for 'among the living' too. and this movie called 'starry eyes' seems promising from what i read.

speaking of cults, 'faults' seems to be something along the lines of 'sound of my voice' or 'mmmm'. might be of interest.

loved 'a field in england'. still, i'm something of a wheatley stan - didn't care much for his 'ABC's' short and never saw 'down terrace' tho. he already proved he knew how to tell a story on 'kill list' and 'sightseers', 'a field in england' shows he can deal in more abstract waters with impressive results. he manages to pull some great performances from his casts as well.

I finally saw Big Bad Wolves...I think I wasn't in the right mood for it? like it wasn't really that much of a twist. idk, I was bummed, I'd been looking forward to it.

I continue to find those guys really overrated

tonally it kinda bothered me too

BBW's brilliance isn't in the delivery of big plot twists, but in the utter unease generated by the skilled juggling of deadly serious and darkly comic scenes. Even if you thought the plot predictable, you can't tell me that you were able to anticipate the relentless tonal shifts. I thought they made for an exceptionally tense and entertaining watch.

But i don't think Simon and i have agreed even once in this thread. So i am not shocked.