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

A lot of people seemed to get really upset with the class issue in this film, but the fact that it was disclosed so readily and brought to such a bleak—almost, almost funny—conclusion means we're not quite meant to see it the way we immediately want to see it, if that makes any sense.

eden lake was very well-done from a technical perspective; ace acting, cinematography, editing, etc. in retrospect all its pleasures are of the mechanical sort, it's suspenseful and it works the emotions but I wasn't really haunted by it. I found the chav stuff to be a moral cheap shot, it's a film where the protagonists are good-looking city folk and the rest of the cast is comprised of violent, clannish, and psychotic bumpkins. it's nothing to get really upset about, lotsa suspense/horror classics truck in the same brand of xenophobia. but eden lake is no deliverance.

I wasn't really haunted by it.

That kid having his head burnt up and the ending both totally haunted me.

Isn't anything sufficiently horrible haunting in that sense tho?

i want to see House of the Devil really bad. and Sauna

I can understand somebody being haunted by eden lake, and not just cause it's showing you horrible things - it's well done so what you're seeing has a good chance of getting under your skin.

but it felt mechanical to me - I could see the chess pieces getting set up on the board from the beginning, and I really didn't get surprised by any of the subsequent moves. I can't imagine any horror film fan would? whereas something like martyrs, the chess pieces get set up on the board and then WHAM BAM wait I didn't know we were boxing I thought we were just playing chessssss

xp

sauna is next in my queue btw

dont bother with Death of a Ghost Hunter by the way. not that you were probably going to, but still

thirst out on DVD this week

anybody seen ink? supposedly lowbudget but very effective, hasn't gotten a lot of mainstream press.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBGeErufQdY

^ dude made that movie for $250K

i just watched "the woods" and it was great, looked good, well-acted, etc. but uh i don't really think i understood it plotwise. still really enjoyed watching it.

I've just watched this and I liked it a fair bit. I thought it was a bit Heathers crossed with Suspiria - and though it falls way short of either, it had some interesting touches. There's a nice blustery, autumnal feel to it, and a constant woody creaking that plays throughout that adds a sinister presence. And Agnes Bruckner, in the lead role, recalled the pouty insouciance of a circa 2001 Scarlet Johansson. I liked her.
Apparently the film sat on the shelves for a few years before getting a straight-to-DVD release. It's a little scrappy and not a great deal happens - no real scares either - but it deserved a better fate than the one it got.

i keep misreading this title as 'lets all shit our pants to say something new'

watched Captivity

ehhh nothing new here, "twist" doesnt work at all, ending is stupid

sauna was pretty awesome guys

Glad you liked it - a lot of people at the screening I saw (and online) seemed rather pissed off by it.

you guys just made my sunday.

Bugcrush....really interesting. going to have to watch it again. i like this Treleaven guy, who wrote the story it was based on.

(o also it is up in three parts on dailymotion)

Glad you liked it - a lot of people at the screening I saw (and online) seemed rather pissed off by it.

― Soukesian, Sunday, December 13, 2009 5:47 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark

why?

same director who made bugcrush made the ruins, which is mediocre but not badly done given the material. (i think it's just hard to make spindly vines scary on screen.) next he is supposedly making this.

I guess if you wanted sauna to make "sense" it would be frustrating

but it's like a folk ghost story or fable

black metal horror is a pretty good approximation

Why did people not like it? Well, I saw it at a horror movie festival, where audiences seem to favour fast-moving thrill rides involving zombies and unstoppable serial killers. Nothing wrong with that, but it really isn't what Sauna is about.

the ruins was p terrible irrc - might have worked better as a short story but there really isnt anywhere to go (lol) w/the concept visually imo

needed mobile man-sized plant monsters running around

yeah the book is better but it's really a much different deal than the movie, conceptually. a lot of the movie was just like O NO PLANTS. i did like the scene where the girl goes crazy and starts slashing herself, that was freaky enough. but mostly it was zzz.

(in the book, it's a guy who cuts himself open, but i guess any excuse to get a naked girl into a horror movie -- even a self-disemboweled one)

yah also realistically casting a bunch of semi-retarded c-grade actors probably doesnt help w/creating a sense of tension and desperate isolation - most of the time it felt like they had half-forgotten why the got stuck @ this terrible day spa

house of the devil was pretty good... quite a slow burn

I know this falls just outwith the timescale (2002) but I always enjoyed marc evans' 'my little eye'

did anyone ever see 'switchblade romance' (2003)?

Just watched martyrs -- pretty good -- thanks for the recommendation! -- is consensus that sauna is the one to watch next?

the subs on my dl of sauna didn't work :*(

ha! i had to scroll through the subs for martyrs in a separate text file while running the movie in another window

speaking of malefic girl schools, anybody seen innocence? not sure how "horror" it is tho I've heard there's some creepy dread to be had

― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Saturday, 31 October 2009 15:12 (1 month ago) Bookmark

Waaay xpost: "Innocence" is creepily surreal, rather than horrific, but a great movie. Reminded me a lot of Robert Aickman's oblique 'strange tales'.

― Soukesian, Tuesday, 17 November 2009 21:55 (3 weeks ago) Bookmark

I watched Innocence recently. No, it's not horror. It's a dreamlike fantasy about child/girlhood, which is depicted as both an idyll and a prison from which eventually the girls crave escape, even though the outside/adult world beyond the walls is full of foreboding.
There is a creepiness to it, oddly haunting too, but it's vague and dreamy. Quite light on narrative. Watch alongside Picnic at Hanging Rock, Voice of the Beehive, The Company of Wolves, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, maybe even The Virgin Suicides.

I'm assuming you mean the spirit of the beehive, and not that we should invite the twee 80s pop group to watch innocence with us

sauna - two brothers, one a cartographer and the other a sociopathic military man, join an expedition to determine the new borders of finland and russia after a war in the 1500s. the group gets literally and figuratively bogged down in a creepy swamp village and the ghosts of their wartime crimes close in. arthouse horror, but not excessively pretentious. it moves slow and doesn't hold your hand to explain details, so I can understand why traditional horror fans might get turned off, but the thing's absolutely beautiful. cinematography, set design, acting, script are all on point. there's not much plot and the ending is cavalier about resolving any of the issues raised - almost like they ran out of time and said, well, let's end it here. but I appreciated its sense of total desolation, reminiscent of stalker, hour of the wolf, or come and see, in how it sets you down in a wasted, godless no man's land with no hope of redemption.

switchblade romance also known as haute tension and I see it ws mentioned upthread

just about to watch 'the woods'; psyched

thought the woods ws OK not amazing; can def appreciate what the ppl above see in it tho

had to stop watching martyrs cz it ws actually srsly freaking me out

agree w/jjusten, captivity ws enh; diet saw at best

just watched the last 2/3 of martyrs... I think someone in lamp's other thread called it pseudo-intellectual; nothing wrong w/a little symmetry tho it is def v.cute, as edward says, in the way it finds 'a way out of its narrative challenges'. beside the point however, it ws very good but tht first 1/3 is freaky and the last 1/3 is some bleak diet catherine breillat

oh man, i don't feel qualified to judge it on that level being a) not fluent in French and b) having to follow the dialogue along in a separate text file
but was very impressed by the effects/makeup by what seems like a low budget movie.

so just watched "feed" and "1408"

feed was maybe ok i think (wow super gross, never scary at all really, but eh idk i think it worked on some level i cant quite articulate), 1408 was one of those missed opportunities that just infuriates me - build up was kind of good, and then the rest of the movie happens. how the fuck do you screw up a haunted hotel room locked door thing?

i think what i have learned is that john cusack needs to stay the hell out of scary hotel rooms (yeah im looking at you identity you overblown piece of shit)

btw should i just roll this over to 2010, or do people want to bother with a new thread?

for aussie film fans i def recommend this hilarious doc:

http://www.smartartists.com.au/not-quite-hollywood/nqh-poster.jpg

― banned, on the run (s1ocki), Thursday, October 22, 2009 6:48 PM (2 months ago)

i never OTM people, but i will here. one of my favorite things i saw last year (not a horror film obv, but WOW, just goddamn brilliant and tons of fun). on netflix on demand last i checked, if you do such a thing.

1408 was one of those horror movies that just ended up being funny, because it wanted to be "scary" but wasn't - also see that Number 23 movie with Jim Carrey, that reminded me of something 10 year old girls would watch at a slumber party.

Number 23 is in my most hated movies ever go to list.

Watcher in the Woods which I did see at slumber parties when I was 10, is better than Number 23

but was very impressed by the effects/makeup by what seems like a low budget movie.

― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 16 December 2009 17:29 (1 month ago)

the fx guy who did martyrs committed suicide shortly after it came out

director laugier was slated to do the hellraiser remake but sounds like he's off the project

interesting interview w/ laugier here: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/39602

It's not a likeable movie. Even me, myself, I hate the film.

I'd just as soon see this thread continue. It's low-traffic enough that it's nice to have all the answers in one place. Maybe change the numbering on the title though. (2005 & beyond...eg)

new title - ought to work

Watched Quarantine this past weekend. What a waste of time.