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

Honestly, there's enough to talk about in that one film to merit opening a thread but I'm too tired to do it just now. This made an odd double header with Whiplash, lemme tell ya.

lol Whiplash. saw It Follows today too, very good work. glad it's getting a wide release and is doing decently this weekend.

Just watched ABCs Of Death 2, hard to believe but it's even several steps down from the last one. The only thing I liked was a Robert Morgan animation. There are a few that aren't terrible and there are some kinda interesting things (a women pregnant with a fully developed child, kids entering a world like Masters Of The Universe, a Bill Plympton animation with heads fighting) here and there but there's not much point going on about them. There is going to be a third one, and unless some really good directors are announced for it, I'll avoid. I could have swore this one had good directors initially attached who must have pulled out.

The tagline is "Some people never learn" and the end credits have a note stating that they love the internet hate. I feel stronger than ever about what I was arguing in the worst films thread: low budget horror films are often far worse than any blockbuster or prestige film. Regardless of inept craft, the stench of the banal lowbrow smugness is harder to stomach than mainstream stupidity and emptiness.
What's particularly sad is that I'd even prefer a soulless, cynically made film to one made by people personally invested in their proudly shallow ambitionless fare.

Why have a little genre ghetto when it's used to nurture such crap? I like any sort of horror done well enough but there's so much shit in the gore/sleaze area that I think maybe it's actually necessary that the Weird Fiction/Dark Fantasy/Ghost Story area drifts away from the shared "horror" umbrella. I'm so sick of having to wade through that sort of Xtreme crap to get to what I want. If a different genre name had stuck, maybe things would be a lot better?

It also makes me extremely uncomfortable thinking how I'd act around someone who made crap like that.

Stuck at home watching rubbish on Netflix at the moment and caught the following:

Starry Eyes - unusually well reviewed for a low(ish)-budget horror film and clearly made by directors with ambitions towards quality but hampered by a paper-thin story. Alex Essoe is pretty good as lead actress. A turn towards basic horror cliches prevents it from capitalising on much of its promise.

Devil's Backone Texas - found-footage film with five idiots bickering in an RV while searching out a mysterious...blah, blah, blah. Pointless.

The Houses October Built - found-footage film with five idiots bickering in an RV while searching out a mysterious...extreme haunted house attraction. The underlying concept is actually a decent one and this could have been excellent in better hands. As it is, it's just effective in places.

I caught As Above So Below recently. Mediocre, though considering I generally hate the found footage genre, better than normal. Not an entirely bad premise with the catacombs of the dead in Paris, alchemy and whatnot.

not exactly horror, but since there was some brief talk about stuff like 'mmmm' upthread, i guess it fits the criteria. watched 'faults' the other day and really liked it - a bit all over the place tonally (some cohen-ish attempts at black humour included), but the impressive acting and pacing manage to carry the movie fwd quite seamlessly...

looking fwd to see 'the harvest' - michael shannon + mcnaughton seems like a killer combo. and i guess i might give 'spring' a try.

Trailers for Spring do look fairly interesting. Looks like it might even come to lots of cinemas.

With its arrival on Netflix, finally watched Babadook. I was a little let down, probably because I'd read/heard so much hype about it. I thought it was really well made, she's an interesting filmmaker. Good performances and a great first half. But once the metaphor became clear, I thought it got less interesting, less scary, overly schematic. As far as grief-horror goes, a few pegs down from Antichrist, and not a patch on Don't Look Now. (Not surprising that she trained under von Trier.)

babadook was improved by knowing nothing about it going in... i'd say the more you know the lesser the returns. it's a first film after all!

Agreed, minus the expectations I would've been impressed. As it is, I was impressed but not quite at the level I was hoping.

I just watched it tonight and that was some full-on triggering shit in the second half, I think I was crying for most of it.

i liked it - LOVED the look, lynch/twilight zone.....but i cant objectively talk about whether it was good or bad, it really fucked with me emotionally

Davis went into her Mum character so hard, so much of her anger felt and sounded so real... I am really, really blown away by how they really poked around in some difficult stuff re motherhood/child etc but jesus fuck it was rough going, i feel wrung out

'spring' was bad. 'the harvest' is quite good overall, but some of its flaws are quite hard to ignore - especially how pointless the character played by peter fonda is.

finally saw the Babadook. loved it, genuinely unsettling and with a thematic focus and empathy that feels rare to me in the genre. Also really appreciated that the film supports a psychological reading but not really a literal one - the monster is never "explained" in any realistic way, but is perfectly explicable as a reflection of the underlying psychological conflicts of the characters.

probably the best horror movie about parenting & grief since the peaks in the 70s (Rosemary's Baby, It's Alive, Don't Look Now)

Kotoko isn't really a horror but it might be quite harrowing for some parents to watch. It even used the two stars' (Cocco and Tsukamoto) own children

Ok I'm about to watch the Babadook but if this turns out to be some word virus crapfest I'm taking this whole thread down with me.

http://eil.com/images/main/Laurie-Anderson-Language-Is-A-Vir-504906.jpg

Babadook was phenomenal.

glad to see some babadook love ITT after some backlash further upthread. i thought it was great.

lol jj you can trust me not to recommend any word virus crapfests I swear

I loved that the presence of the book is never explained, that there's a gradual (but significant) shift from the child being the threat to the mother being the *real* threat, that it captures the madness of sleep deprivation, that it doesn't devolve into generic haunted house tropes - so many great things about it

Babadook was fantastic. Reminded me of Repulsion in some ways. Also loved the casting of the little boy. He looked like a spooky little Shelly Duvall.

Yes he did! I straight up wanted to throttle him so many times in the front half of the movie

Also, I am totally cool with its non-normative yet non-nihilistic ending

loved his spring-loaded ball-throwing backpack

As I said above, he reminded me of Katherine Heigl a lot.

babadook ending is a def high point; the suggestion that those hard memories still demand their pound of flesh but over time they find a kind of equilibrium and we learn to cope with the sadness and horror that is our life through routine, faith and patience
thought "It Follows" is very much in the same lane

I haven't seen It Follows yet, but it's on my list obviously

btw, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night just upped on netflix streaming
http://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/A_Girl_Walks_Home_Alone_at_Night/70301280
not too much horror but worth a watch for sure. some indelible images.

There might be a better place to put this but I can't think of one: the Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark book series is getting a documentary film.

xps yeah, good comparison b/w It Follows and Babadook endings

From a supernatural perspective, I like how the Babadook monster is too strong to meet a demise. There's no ectoplasmic ray gun or special chant which will make him go away.

in both films, the monster is emotional (and/or sexual) injury: the darkest part of our soul's makeup given legs
would support a bunch more of magical realism horror films; preferably with fewer hoary genre tropes

btw, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night just upped on netflix streaming
http://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/A_Girl_Walks_Home_Alone_at_Night/70301280
not too much horror but worth a watch for sure. some indelible images.

^^ i guess it's the kind of movie that horror buffs and arthouse freaks will hate while everyone else gets on board. great direction and photography and capable of conveying some sort of hopelessness and dread, but veers too much towards a pale indie-sensibility (how music is used, for example).

i wouldn't argue with that? it's not a world changing film but there are several great ideas, beautifully shot and that's good enough for me.
wish it had something a bit more solid at its core

i actually liked the movie. there were a couple of moments where i couldn't quite stomach the romantic naivety, but not enough to ruin it.

It Follows was dope

Unfriended made me glad not to be 18 anymore

the latter was maybe the first time I've ever seen the party game "Never Have I Ever" used as a horror conceit.

some of the more tense scenes involved furious mouse clicking

Please tell me the entire movie is shown through video chat windows

watched 'Sleep Tight' last night. Solid and creepy as heck. Excellently made.

Nhex
Posted: April 27, 2015 at 8:11:02 AM
Please tell me the entire movie is shown through video chat windows

This exists btw, I just can't remember the name at the moment. Megan is Missing maybe?

I think that's literally what Unfriended is!

Well not just video chat but it's all on a computer screen I think?

yeah i think so

https://youtube.com/watch?v=e3hVmpGzl7A

Anyone else really excited by this trailer? I haven't been this impressed by a film trailer in fuck knows how many years.

In case the link disappears it's Tale Of Tales by Matteo Garrone

Based on a 17th century collection of fairy tales by Italian author Giambattista Basile, the film weaves realistic and fantastical elements together into three different storylines, one of which involves Salma Hayek eating the heart of a giant beast. Vincent Cassel, John C. Reilly and Toby Jones also star.

Please tell me the entire movie is shown through video chat windows

― Nhex, Monday, April 27, 2015 2:11 PM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it is!

it's kinda a strange film - an embarrassing Youtube video of a high school girl having fouled herself appears at least four times with more footage each time.

it should have been called "teenagers are horrible and should be killed pt 1"

Reilly Jones and Hayek is a promising cast

xxp