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

I'll also throw down for stakeland, but from that list taking of Deborah Logan is miles in the lead

came across 'the taking of deborah logan' a bunch of times and it never piqued my interest. this couple of posts of support from credible sources made me give it chance. hope it holds up.

re: cub - liked it, but didn't love it. prefer to think of it as something of an arthouse european/detached take on some slasher tropes - take that as you will, i'd put the emphasis on the psychological aspect of it. beautifully shot and with a great soundtrack by steve moore.

also, from that list, 'creep' is this sort of unreasonable keeper for me. like it more everytime i think or talk to someone about it. and i found 'the canal' surprisingly touching.

Not sure if this is a problem now anymore than it has been for the last few decades but I find it difficult to care about most new stuff because there's so many generic characters who are probably supposed to be relatable. As much as I'm tired of scholars, horror writers, detectives, wry outsiders, priests, high society men visiting friends and relatives, it's often better than the modern incarnations of Person Peopleton and Manonymous McMediocre.
I actually like somewhat anonymous characters but it's probably the blandly aspirational quality that is part of what is bothering me.

The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh is even better than Deborah Logan, though I love them both & often mix up the titles.

"What's the deal with Cub? I've only seen the poster which is distinctive (am assuming it's horror)"

Isn't this the Belgian lost boy scout troop encounters crazy family in woods one? I've heard it's good, but it's not streamable AFAICT.

Let Us Prey, which was added to Netflix USA today, is deeply silly but mildly entertaining.

Deborah Logan fell apart when it got to the whole snake thing imo

Yeah, just watched that, and while it starts out OK it devolves into kind of incoherence. Like, were the snakes even poisonous? Certainly no one seemed to be afraid of getting bitten. And I was really put off by the brazen found-footage Mad Libbing. Cameras posted all around? Check. Security camera footage? Check. A sequence with night vision? Check. Running through the woods at night with only the camera for light? Check. Not to mention the usual by the books jump scares. Approaching a character facing the other way? Check. Things that go bump in the attic? Check. Also a little irked by how long they let it go with only a modicum of safety concerns, considering the protagonist was at her best tearing off her own skin and speaking in tongues, at worse prone to attacking/biting people.

Pluses: still well-made, well-acted, and featuring the rare character who literally says fuck it, I'm leaving. Plus a penultimate monster moment on par with the reveal at the end of "Rec."

Docked points for the way it finally ended, which is a whole 'nother lame cliche.

But still: worth seeing, I think!

AV Club list of the 25 best horror movies since 2000

yeah, drag me to hell and ginger snaps are both excellent

uuuuugh @ It Follows being so high / on that list at all, but not terrible otherwise.

i loved It Follows, but you should know by now that overhyping a recent/controversial movie for a Top X list is a staple of the modern listicle

Yeah, 10 months ago and Babadook would've been #4 at the lowest.

I watched Knock Knock last weekend. Is Keanu Reeves hurting for work?

Tarantino was OTM when he described "It Follows" as so good you wish it were great. I think that's the best kind of backhanded compliment I've ever heard, because it's without a doubt a huge compliment. It's rare you encounter a movie so engrossing and so original you're disappointed that it's not perfect, especially in horror, where the standard is typically set so low we praise movies for not being terrible.

Always thought Them was so much better than The Strangers.

Them is way better than Strangers.

Was "The Strangers" officially an English language remake of "Them?"

Loved the home invasion inversion of "You're Next," that could have made it on that list.

Not a remake, no. Not sure Bertino actually saw Them tbh

same premise - people wearing sacks on their heads terrifying a couple.

https://nbcprohockeytalk.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/unknown-comic.jpg

Speaking of remakes, did I read correctly that someone remade "Martyrs?" I didn't like the original but even I can say with some certainty that a remake was uncalled for.

I watched Knock Knock last weekend. Is Keanu Reeves hurting for work?

― JacobSanders, Monday, October 26, 2015 3:24 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol this movie..i kind of liked it. it seems like it's going to be a pretty grim 'funny games'+'hard candy' but then the weird tonal shifts that creep into every eli roth movie start to happen. it's pretty stupid and bad but keanu's mega-acting in the second half is really something. recommended for fans of nicolas cage being tortured at the end of wicker man.

the new Guy Maddin film, The Forbidden Room, has multiple vintage horror pastiches; Poe, nosferatus etc

kudos for including 2 kurosawa movies - had no idea 'cure' was only released overseas after 00 - and the exclusion of 'the mist' - seems to pop up everytime this sort of lists appears and yeah, it's not that great imo. and there's still really a lot of love for the '28 weeks/days...' thing innit?

also, innkeepers >>> house of the devil

I was ready to complain about that list containing the Others (which is fine and all but nowhere near top 25) until I saw Trouble Every Day and just gave up on even trying to salvage the list. Also I'm sick of the automatic Audition #1 spot. Grump grump.

my personal fave that is usually missing from these lists: Frailty, which has taken on extra significance since it predicted the MacConaughssaince

Frailty is great. Has Paxton directed anything since?

I finally got around to seeing "Triangle," which I knew I'd like, which is sort of why I took my time getting around to it. For some reason it had totally slipped my mind that it was the same guy that did "Severance" and "Black Death." I really liked "Severance." This one reminded me a lot of "Timecrimes," but obviously "Triangle" only makes sense sort of on its own terms. One thing I thought was really strange, though: literally the entire cast is Australian acting with American accents, and I think it was filmed in Queensland, but there's absolutely no reason for them to be American, since 90% of the movie takes place on a boat and the rest in an anonymous seaside community. So ... yeah, that's weird.

Frailty is great. Has Paxton directed anything since?

He only ever did Frailty, this, and the "Fish Heads" video. Weirdest director CV ever.

I watched the Green Inferno last night, I should've know better that he would do nothing surprising with the source material. I'm finished wasting time with Eli Roth.

"Goodnight Mommy" is Austrian and, although well made, gives the entire plot away in its German title (won't spoil it -- if I didn't know what the title meant, I'd have enjoyed the film more). This is a total Austrian art film/ theater school move which annoys the hell out of me.

xp he's a super boring director.

xp i don't see how the original title was a spoiler, am i stupid?

Yeah, those Austrian folks clearly come from the Haneke school of cheerful pick me ups.

Ich seh, ich seh was Du nicht siehst.

Austrian title of the Sixth Sense is Memoirs of a Dead Child Psychologist.

Kristy / Random is a fairly solid entry in the bunch-of-people-terrorise-another-bunch-of-people-for-no-obvious-reason canon.

It's a Weinstein film made in 2012 that nobody ever felt the need to release, but it has just surfaced on Netflix.

Thought I burned my bridges by making my wife watch "The Descent," which was so intense it unnerved her (fair enough), but I think "It Follows" won her back!

I was into The Descent when it was about being lost and trapped underground, glimpses of weird things lurking nearby, not knowing whether you're hallucinating. When the threat was made clear and it became about fighting morlocks, it was kinda over for me.

Just finished watching It Follows. A solid premise, with a few good moments. The rental was only 99 cents on Amazon, which seems about right.

It wasn't even remotely scary, but I think I liked "Unfriended," not as a horror movie but as a sort of PSA about how impulsive, self-centered, stupid kids and social media are a bad mix. The window novelty worked pretty well on TV - don't think I would have liked it in theaters - and something about the way the asshole kids were depicted seemed really accurate to me, both in the perennial sense (bullies be bullying, peers be pressuring; even the ghost was a dick) but also the way a lot of people (in my experience) live through social media. Anyway, not especially good but not bad.

I saw Unfriended in theaters and quite liked it. I was even more impressed with it after learning that it was mostly made of of rehearsed near-feature-length single takes.

*up of

Last Shift, which is just up on Netflix, is quite good. It's by the guy who did Cassadaga, which I don't remember being much cop, but very well executed.

Recently got around to watching "Calvaire." I'm not even sure it counts as horror, it's so surreal and fitfully (darkly) comic. It's more like some strange parody of torture porn/backwoods redneck horror, paced like molasses, shot neo-verite, devoid of scares/suspense, yet not because it's inept, just because. Not even sure what to make of it, to be honest. Probably more akin to Harmony Korine, maybe?

It's pretty bizarre and nasty. Not sure how people would react if it was better known.

i loved it, i'll never forget the pub scene

Pub scene reminded me of the asylum dance party set to the Pet Shop Boys in "Bronson."