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

who's the girl in it tho? is that Amber Heard?

"All the boys love Mandy lane" btw. And yeah, pretty sure that's her.

right. yeah. she's hot.

Tale Of Tales by Matteo Garrone

dying to see this. probably the film i'm most anticipating this year, along with fury road and a pigeon sat on a branch doing whatever it is that pigeons do while sitting on branches.

Good to hear it's supposed to be great but this is a case of nothing being able to put me off seeing it.

That does look really awesome. I've never heard of Basile.

What I'm taking issue with is the approach of "I don't like this therefore it is not good, and is the product of people that know it's not good". Especially when it leads to more ideas like writing gore stuff out of the horror genre, or sticking it in its own derisive named sub genre. Horror works best as a big tent imo - that doesn't mean I can't dislike tons of it, but it also doesn't mean that I get to choose that things I don't like ought to be excluded from the genre, or Balkanized into some weird "lesser lazy horror for creeps" category.

― a strawman stuffed with their collection of 12 cds (jjjusten), Wednesday, 13 May 2015 22:53

To be fair I should have also quoted

"Robert Adam Gilmour
Posted: April 3, 2015 at 8:09:06 PM
It also makes me extremely uncomfortable thinking how I'd act around someone who made crap like that."

Which definitely raised my hackles a bit about what you're trying to say here.

― a strawman stuffed with their collection of 12 cds (jjjusten), Wednesday, 13 May 2015 22:57

I didn't like Insides or Dream Home, but I thought they were basically solid and effective films. Just not for me. Chopper Chicks From Zombie Town and 2001 Maniacs are a different story.

"Horrorcore" is not a derisive label and I don't think it started outside fandom. Even "torture porn", "sleaze", "schlock" get used by fans who like all that stuff.

Again, I never said any genre is inherently bad, but some genres inevitably have way more bad than your average genre. If more Gore films were as good as Braindead and Insides, I wouldn't have been so harsh.

People are always excluding things from genres on this forum and on the comics section people mocked Avatar comics and Garth Ennis in a similar way. I probably sounded more dogmatic about it, so I guess that's why you responded.

I don't stand by what I said about purposefully separating horror. I like some venues to be as inclusive as possible but I think everyone draws the line somewhere in a certain context. And what constitutes exclusion?

Unless it's a democratic thing like a forum or a database or some expansive project with hundreds of contributors, nobody is obligated to include subgenres they have no interest in.
If some styles of horror are not represented in the Year's Best genre anthologies, some might complain about being excluded, but editors can only go on their personal taste and judgement.

Here are several subgenres that horror fans have complained are ruining things. In some cases I think it's justified to have some degree of separation. Even the most inclusive horror buffs do not enjoy all these equally or want all this in the same place on a regular basis.

- Paranormal romance. People who are in the horror book business complained about being suddenly swamped in paranormal romance. I think this stuff can legitimately be called part of the extended horror family but aside from Anne Rice and Poppy Z Brite, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of audience overlap. I think it's fair enough if people want the bookshelves separate.

- Domestic realist horror stories about bullying, mental health issues, rocky relationships, cancer and pedophiles. Sometimes there is a contrarian feeling about the inclusion of this stuff, as if to say "vampires and werewolves ain't scary, cancer is the real shit". I think these people miss the point about what attracts people to vampires and werewolves. I'm fine with people including The Hunt in their favourite horror films list but including these stories in horror anthologies along with the standard tropes is far too jarring for most people.

- Quiet obscurist horror with no ghosts, monsters, violence or even any clear indication or something supernatural or surreal. That sort of Aickman school of "What the hell happened? Did anything even happen?" is often taken away from the clear ghost story leanings of Aickman.

- Sadean porn. And then there are further divisions between aesthete decadence and stuff with more of a modern extreme hardcore porn sensibility.

If there was a fantasy/science fiction films thread here and all the superhero film discussion was there, I'm sure more than a few people would hate it.

You say horror works best as big tent but why not have a bigger tent with all the related genres? In some contexts I'd like that but in others it's just too much.
Some pieces of horror have far more in common with non-horror genres than they do with the majority of horror.
Reshuffling genres can be more productive to developing/following your interests and it creates new communities and possibilities.

The Weird/Fantastic resurgence is not actively rejecting realist horror because it's been around way longer than "horror" has and it never really included violent crime and even supernatural slasher stories probably wouldn't fit in.

There's a time and place for exhaustive inclusiveness. Like this thread, with the possible exception of superheroes, with the possible exception of Hellboy.

For whatever it's worth: Inception won an award for best film at a horror awards show.

I didn't like Dream Home

You are a terrible, terrible person.

Also, re Hal Jam upthread: I was mean to poor little Spring, and for that I should be sternly punished. But it really does suck. Charisma-free lead killed any effective romance potential, and the SPOILER's mythology was dopey af ("internet slang" for "as a fish-woman monster thing").

It Follows, otoh, worked just fine to me because I don't have any closely-held opinions about the relationship of today's youth to sexual dread. Except I figure that some degree of confusion and anxiety where such things are concerned probably comes w/ your standard-issue human condition. And I didn't see any implied, crypto-Christian sex negativity in it. I saw it instead as a movie about young people existing in a transitional state on the edge of suburban American youth's sheltering idyll. Sex is alluring but destabilizing and with it comes intimations mortality and difficult questions about one's potential place in a less-than-idyllic adult world. Plus fun and clever spin on traditional slasher film survival rules.

Dream Home was mostly interesting about modern Hong Kong and quite funny at times but not liking it isn't very damning. Not dislike exactly.

There are things that can never be forgiven.

horror is like fashion in terms of divisiveness tbh

For whatever it's worth: Inception won an award for best film at a horror awards show.

Good of them to recognize the truly horrible.

Clown is a surprisingly serious horror drama about a man who becomes possessed by a demonic clown suit. It is not very good.

^ 2014

I'm let down by hyped up horror stuff like 98% of the time, but I was kind of blown away by It Follows. Beyond the central conceit (which I think is deeper and muddier than the puritanical sex negativity angle mentioned above) the cinematography, music, mood were just so expertly and smartly handled. Loved the period ambiguity too. I imagine (hope?) Mitchell has a bright career ahead of him.

o boy i bet it's scary

Just saw It Follows today -- good movie, beautifully shot, good performances. I also didn't get any puritanical sense from it -- it struck me more like Buffy, where sex was a double-edged thing. (The whole scenario could have easily been a Buffy episode.) I liked that it didn't overexplain.

Willow Creek. Actually pretty good but it needed more to differentiate itself from Blair Witch Project. I listened to a big Bobcat interview about this last year and I can't remember if he had seen Blair Witch Project before or after making this film (don't need to have seen a film to be familiar with it) but he did talk a lot about the similarities.

Starring was the office douche from God Bless America and the teacher girlfriend from World's Greatest Dad.

Finally watched The Babadook on Netflix. Damned good. Wears its metaphors on its sleeve, sure, but the tension building is terrific. And it's such a rare film that deals seriously with moms that not only don't like their children, they genuinely resent them.

Weird seeing creepy fuck from Snowtown Murders show up in that tiny nice-guy role. I expected something bad to happen, then he just disappeared from the movie.

my boo put it on recently; it seemed good, i didn't finish it tho

It Follows was a good, clever film. Kept me entertained. That same level of dread as when the hobgoblins used to come during ITV's Knightmare.

*SPOILERS THOUGH*, again it's a good horror movie let down by a pretty unsatisfactory ending. Shooting it in the head did (but didn't) kill off the monster, fine, but you'd think there'd have been a smarter way to deal with it and the main characters wouldn't be so naive to believe that was the end?

I think we talked about how the elaborate pool booby trap was sort of a another '80s callback. Then again, one of the film's most memorable touches is the way it shifts from the characters in total abject horror to just sort of chilling out in slumber party mode; for people in constant fear of death by relentless pursuer, they're pretty mellow, unlike, say, the characters in "Elm Street" popping caffeine pills and whatnot. What's stuck with me most about the movie is not all the metaphors but how all the metaphors sort of fall just short of metaphors. It's a very richly ambiguous movie.

xp ...they don't believe it's the end. They've resigned themselves to the inevitable future trying to survive It for the rest of their lives, but at least, together. It's a pretty damn bittersweet ending IMO

There was a real Halloween vibe to the street they lived on as well. Loved the John Carpenter-style music too.

xp - i guess it makes sense. they're together, therefore they're both vulnerable, therefore they look out for each other

i guess we're past the point of spoilers: imo (and this may just be a restatement of what you're saying) that they accept that the other is a wounded child at heart, as we all do when we engage in a relationship with someone who has dealt with sexual abuse or been sexually injured. the film's open ending feels like a suggestion that you never stop being afraid, even older or wiser or with a partner. the unknowable of disease, shame, mental blockades, unshakeable fear stays with you well past the point where it's reasonable to be afraid but it never really stops following.

and it's weird to me that reading isn't part of everyone's takeaway but i've found lots of folks for whom it isn't the case!
i think it's a question of personal experience and how raw that spot is for you maybe

Anyone see "Late Phases?" I made it pretty far before I pulled the plug. I suppose an OK scenario squandered by being inept or unbalanced or ... just sucking?

Yeah, I watched it a few months back. Like you, I was underwhelmed, though I'm loath to say it outright sucked. I'd rather call it a promising near miss, a slow-burn monster movie that, despite an interesting concept and a strong certral character/performance, never quite catches fire.

Perhaps I'm being too generous. Here Comes the Devil, Argentine director Adrian Garcia Bogliano's previous film, is a recent personal favorite I count among the best horror movies of the new millennium. It's every bit as wild, brave and cinematically adventurous as Late Phases is stoically drab. The latter is not only Bogliano's first English-language effort, it's also his first time directing from a screenplay he he didn't write (either alone or with his brother and frequent creative partner Ramiro).

Though I went in with sky-high expectations and came out disappointed, I'd rather anticipate his Spanish-language follow-up, Scherzo Diabolico (filmed, like Here Comes the Devil, in Mexico), than cry over spilt werewolfs.

Cant think of an appropriate thread but this is weird and disturbing, MUST SEE clip of interactive outdoor theatre called Snuff Puppets. Amazing that they performed this in front of families.

https://vimeo.com/121001475

lol, that is astounding!

good lord!! on that snuff puppets

HFS where is that from

love how the audience (and kids!) are just laughing and clapping and running around through the whole thing

It's an Australian troop.

http://letterboxd.com/rabbitroom/list/favorite-horror-films-2000-2014/

That video was amazing - like a body-horror version of Survival Research Labs.

“Ash vs Evil Dead,” which is currently in production in New Zealand, is the long-awaited follow-up to the classic horror film franchise The Evil Dead and is set to premiere on STARZ in Fall 2015. The 10-episode first season of the half-hour series is executive produced by Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert, Bruce Campbell, the original filmmakers of the franchise, and Craig DiGregorio who will serve as executive producer and showrunner.
Campbell will be reprising his role as Ash, the stock boy, aging lothario and chainsaw-handed monster hunter who has spent the last 30 years avoiding responsibility, maturity and the terrors of the Evil Dead. When a Deadite plague threatens to destroy all of mankind, Ash is finally forced to face his demons –personal and literal. Destiny, it turns out, has no plans to release the unlikely hero from its “Evil” grip.
The cast is led by Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead, “Burn Notice”) in the role of Ash Williams, Lucy Lawless (“Salem,” “Spartacus”) as Ruby a mysterious figure who believes Ash is the cause of the Evil outbreaks, Ray Santiago (“Touch,” Meet the Fockers) as Pablo Simon Bolivar, an idealistic immigrant who becomes Ash’s loyal sidekick, Dana DeLorenzo (A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas) as Kelly Maxwell, a moody wild child trying to outrun her past and Jill Marie Jones (“Sleepy Hollow”) as Amanda Fisher, a disgraced Michigan State Trooper set to find our anti-hero Ash and prove his responsibility in the grisly murder of her partner.

Just in case that isn't a standard press release, here's the source
http://hellnotes.com/starz-to-release-the-ash-vs-evil-dead-trailer-at-comic-con-2015

timely

Timely?

i just meant that the prime moment for an evil dead revival is probably not 3q 2015... maybe more like '95

don't get me wrong, i will tivo (and maybe even watch) it but still

I'm just quite sceptical about making it a tv series. At best the films built up the madness and went crazy but in a series that may last longer than one season, I don't see them being able to do that. I guess it shouldn't matter as long it's of high quality but I'll be really annoyed if it in any measure becomes a serious survival drama.

After not watching a horror movie in what seems like forever, we finally saw It Follows last night. LOVED the music, and visually it was very engaging without devolving into a fashion shoot. After briefly scrolling up and reading what others have written, I can see how there would be multiple interpretations but basically forks otm. The pool scene was kind of goofy but otherwise I thought it was great.

Coincidentally, this morning when I was walking my dogs, a huge off-leash German shepherd ran out of nowhere and I started screaming and running away, so terrified that I was shaking. In my mind I could see my dogs being eaten alive, my legs chewed into ribbons of meat. It wasn't going to leave us alone, and the lady whose dog it was came over and grabbed it, assuring me that it was a nice dog and didn't want to hurt me or my dogs. I told her the truth, which was that 2 years ago a different off-leash dog did the same thing in the alley and almost killed my larger dog right in front of me. I told her as well as I could that I wasn't mad at her, that I had been traumatized by the incident 2 years ago and was just really scared. She was nice about it, and I hope she understood why my reaction was really disproportionate to what had happened (I know this) but man, trauma is real and it's way scarier than a monster.

you can't punch a feeling of helplessness
i've been working a job where i deal with lots of aggressive people yelling at me for hours at a time and that shit really DOES follow you long past any point of it being useful.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=645HCNXxx6I

CGI animated films are a tough sell for me but 10,000 Years Later is said to be bulging with ideas and the trailer seems to support that.