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

I mean how hard is it to have more death scenes and make them more creative

repping for Piranha 3-D here.

that upcoming Exorcism movie is getting good press too...

half enjoyed piranha 3D, definitely a step up from mirrors for aja, but still a disappointment. well, a disappointment on every level other than the gore-delivery level. gore-delivery was top notch.

otoh, watched skinned deep the other night and although it is from 2004, it is close enough and wonderful besides. ultimately no more than a "tribute to" (rip-off of) hooper's lunatic texas chainsaw massacre 2, but blazed and crazy and fun from beginning to end. good cheap gore, horrible acting, excellent gags and characters, and a billion stupid/brilliant ideas. more an absurd stoner comedy than a horror flick of any sort, but endlessly entertaining on that level. a new & instant favorite. recommended to all people.

Skinned Deep directed by Gabe Bartalos, Henenlotter's (and Matthew Barney's) main makeup and FX man. been years since i've watched it, but i do remember it being a good time, if a bit batshit.

ok, I'm stuck at home while a dude installs central air, so im cruising through another netflix disc - Seventh Moon. And it is just fucking awful. iirc its one of the dudes who did blair witch and part of that ghost house underground collection, which thanks to this is dropping to a 1 out of 3 success ratio (The Children was great, this is awful and Lake Mungo was boring as hell.)

Yeah, gonna finish this out of obligation but man I know its not getting any better.

― gg eileen (jjjusten), Monday, August 16, 2010 4:37 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

That's funny. I watched Seventh Moon on Chiller a couple weeks ago with my wife and we both thought it was decent. I was going to post about it on here, but then I was like, "Naw, someone will probably make fun of this." It makes total sense that it was directed by someone affiliated with blair witch.

what are the good psychological horrors

session 9, inland empire?

well, in addition to those, gotta second (seventh) the children, as recommended upthread by several. holy shit (!!!), instant classic, bar-none best straight horror/thriller i've seen in i don't know how long. great performances and photography, plus a genius central conceit carried out with pitiless logic, but absent overt sadism or pandering. so nice. loved almost everything about this film, the control of tension more than anything else. so otm about $$$ tensions and aspirations, dad/daughter relationships, fundamental grossness of the wee ones, etc. just cannot sufficiently stress the greatness.

i want more recommendations like this. so many indie production companies making movies direct to DVD these days: ghost house, raw feed, films to die for, etc. every once in a while, one must rise above the rest. you know, like the children. please to tell.

of the Ghost House's i've seen, Dance of the Dead (zombie prom. witty and wild) stands out. wouldn't kick Ole Brondal's The Substitute (The Faculty for the Twilight set) or the loopy The Last House in the Woods ('80s Italo gore/colored gels tribute - think Evil Clutch and House by the Cemetery, not Argento - with no brains but one nifty twist) out of bed, either.

there are some good ADHF titles:
The Abandoned (unites enfants terribles Richard Stanley, Nacho Cerda and Karim Hussain for a Russian ghost story. but what a ghost story!)
The Deaths of Ian Stone (inventive genre-bender. script could have used one more draft)
Mulberry St (fumbles the zombie-ratman FX but gets the human stuff right)
Borderland (scarily intense Mexican torture-cult hijinx undermined by lapse into cartoonishness and gratuitous Sean Astin)
The Hamiltons (something different. generally successful. go into this one with minimal foreknowledge)
Perkins' 14 (a great concept and seriously psychedelirious direction outweigh its (many) shortcomings)
Voices (AKA Someone Behind You. superior late K-horror, more visceral than most)
Dread (almost does justice to the bleak, black psychopathology of Clive Barker's BOB tale. meanders too much, but manages to mount a number of stunning moments)

i don't think there has been a good Raw Feed title yet. maybe Alien Raiders, which is virtually a remake of Carpenter's The Thing, in a supermarket, with HandyCam accoutrement. i guess Otis isn't bad. just misses the mark, for me.

will think of others outside of the major franchises, post later.

Dance of the Dead
The Substitute
Mulberry St

These are all good. I hate Dread, though.

after the a-bore-minations that were Book of Blood and MMT, i thought Dread was at least somewhat successful. one of my favorite stories, along with "Pig Blood Blues" (next up, i believe), so i was ready to hate it. felt longer than it was, and obviously padded, but packed a punch in the more directly sourced scenes.

along with "Pig Blood Blues" (next up, i believe)

please don't let this be bad or a little piece of my 7th grade soul will die.

Dread director (Anthony DiBlasi) is doing it. and Barker seems to trust him implicitly. i'll give him the benefit off the doubt.

so this thread deserves a revive since it's that time of year. have to say there's been an explosion of quality indie horror lately, and every recommend from this thread has been worthwhile.

watched the end of the line last night and I fall in with its supporters. a creepy, gory, and unique shocker, it balances the ghost/slasher/apocalypse angles nicely. some unmodulated performances but as noted above, it does a lot with a little and I anticipate most horror fans will be forgiving. between the end of the line, pontypool, and the signal, canada has been bringing the goods these past few years. martyrs was filmed in canada, too, tho I'm unsure on how much local contribution was made.

hey canada, why so apocalyptic?

what's new on netflix instant that's recommendable?

been out of the loop and watching very few movies lately. if anybody's seen anything cool in the last month or two, lemme know.

plus belated thanks to hal jam for the production company rundowns. agree on the abandoned (which i didn't entirely love, but enjoyed up until the too-pat ending) and otis (which was never better than okay). will check out dance of the dead, last house in the woods, perkins 14 and alien raiders. sound like they might be up my alley.

sublime = another raw feed title that almost works then totally, totally doesn't. keep meaning to see rest stop...

the signal, love object, grace, the chair, teeth, aftermath, and genesis all streaming on netflix

anyone seen the living and the dead? more like a thriller but marketed like a horror movie

you'd recommend all of those edward?

I will def second the signal

and i will def second teeth

o yeah if you haven't seen the signal... everyone should see the signal... see the signal.... see the signal...

I actually kinda liked DS, but this is OTM. Zombieland was a good enough note to end on. Let the genre lie for a while & leave it for new blood to pick up & run with sometime down the line when a new series of apocalyptic events scares our culture into zombie-mode all over again.

? Man or Austro-Hungarian? (Pillbox), Monday, 15 March 2010 21:40 (7 months ago)

it's funny, I was gonna respond to this yesterday, but people have been doing some really interesting things with the zombie genre in the past few years, including variations on the theme. I slot the signal into a zombie-related category, it's more along the lines of something like shivers or the crazies, hordes of people possessed by something unspeakable bringing about the downfall of civilization. other innovative zombie flicks of late are deadgirl, pontypool (language is a virus!), sexykiller (absurd, quirky serial killer comedy from spain w/ bonus zombies, it's a treat), and the end of the line.

the only thing you should know about the signal before going in is it's an anthology directed by 3 different directors all dealing with the same plotline and characters. otherwise you will be like wtf with the tone changes.

kinda can't believe this didn't get US distribution

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf84vZUb_fM

^ that's macarena gomez from dagon btw

SexyKiller is pretty great. Manic direction, veers wildly between horror and comedy but somehow works. Definitely worth a look if it ever comes out here - or if you pick up the R2 release.

^ that's macarena gomez from dagon btw

― only ad hominem strawman can troll me (Edward III), Tuesday, October 19, 2010 7:51 AM (50 minutes ago)

oh crap no way. MUST SEE.

yeah, I'm the harshest critic of both horror comedy and that type of hyperactive aesthetic but SK was gory bananas goodness

I don't think I've seen a truly holy-shit horror movie since last year's The Loved Ones, which I'm sort of shocked never got a proper international release. I guess The Wild Hunt sort of counts - great movie, but a unique hybrid (drama/comedy/horror/fantasy?).

IFC has had a pretty good track record distributing decent horror (sauna, pontypool, home movie), anyone seen these?

left bank - some belgian ghost story
fear(s) of the dark - B&W animated horror anthology, looks pretty cool
the skeptic - haunted house type thing
the last winter - directed by larry fessenden, who did habit and wendigo, with ron perlman and james legros

oh wait, the last winter got mentioned upthread, n/m

fear(s) of the dark - B&W animated horror anthology, looks pretty cool

great great great

Left Bank is a weird, weird movie. very Belgian. no ghosts. just an unholy combination of Polanski, Cronenberg, Noe.
Fear(s) of the Dark is so uneven. but the good parts are great. just great, tho. nothing in this movie is close to "great"x3.

rong. chas burns piece is great3 full stop. and it's so great to see bluch's demonic nobleman animated, even if the story is kinda wtvr. the other 3 main chapterss are all at least close burns level, if not quite. between great and great2. none of the stories end all that well, but it doesn't bug me for whatever reason. vibe and look are so great. a favorite thing.

"close to burns level"

it's a slow & quiet film for the most part. some grotesquerie, but few shocks or deep scares. atmosphere over all else, but i like that. use of light and space in the final ep is just (0)_(0)

vibe and look are good, true. just wish stories were stronger. and that abstract thing stuck in the middle is too pretentious for words. brings the whole enterprise down, for me.

eh, it's french

anyway, i watched vincenzo natali's splice last night. it was okay, but disappointing in that it wasn't any better than that. to its credit: some smart writing in the first half, solid performances and good chemistry from adrian brody and sarah polley, and consistently impressive effects work. splendid, seamless, digital monster making with memorable creature designs. unfortunately, small dumbnesses accumulate as the story rolls along, eventually undoing the clever opening act, and the final half hour's descent into action/horror thrills is laughable. maybe worse is that the actress playing "dren" (a genetically engineered creature) is more annoying than convincing. she's lovely (and creepy!), but her wide-eyed innocent shtick is more grating than affecting. the biggest problem is that splice doesn't seem to know what kind of movie it wants to be. it's often comical, but in ways that seem unintentional and undercut the horror. like eraserhead, it establishes this interesting parallel between monster making and raising a family, but abandons the idea rather than follow it through. i have the feeling that it was conceived and would have worked better as a restrained and chilly tragedy , but the director & producers wanted something more populist. maybe not. whatever the filmmaker's motivations, it's still an interesting near-miss.

I'm less stringent on the QC when it comes to horror anthologies, they are rarely good start to finish

xp

your review of left bank has piqued my interest

have heard many good things about splice

If you want to check out something different, try 'Long Pigs.' framed as filmmakers Chris Power and Nathan Hynes' mockumentary about a culinary cannibal. Doesn't have the impact of 'Man Bites Dog', though more of that ilk than the irreverent 'Behind the Mask,' but it is quite an interesting curio, well acted, written, and paced. It really pushes the limits of the viewers' sympathies. Be warned that the FX for the dressed human carcasses are extremely realistic, so only the strong-stomached need apply.

ha, a friend tagged me in a photo of the poster art from long pig on facebook

I'm not sure if I was meant to be the diner or the dinee

there's a lot to recommend about splice, especially with regard to the performances and the ideas that natali is playing with. it just didn't work for me. i loved the first half, but became increasingly bored and disinterested as things started to ramp up towards the end. i'm not sure why. the way over-the-top biological grotesquerie intrudes upon the lives of these nobly motivated liberal/techie canadians was strongly reminiscent of cronenberg, but the film never packed that kind of punch (for me, anyway). like it wants to be some hybrid of the brood and the fly (and frankenstein, of course), but didn't quite get there. but i'm kind of a hater in general, so...

might watch it again to see if i like it better now that i know what to expect. defnitely worked with fears of the dark, which i was ambivalent about the first time through.

yeah i have heard nothing but bad stuff about splice tbh

plz also confirm that this "legion" movie is a piece of garbage - it popped up on netflix on demand and im just assuming its a waste of time

That's weird. DVD cover art is just a knife-gouged and bloodied cutting board.

ok, there is a movie called long pig (2008) and one called long pigS (2007) both horror movies about cannibalism

that's not confusing, no not at all

plz also confirm that this "legion" movie is a piece of garbage

done

I'll have to watch Fear(s) again with that in mind. Had the same initial response.

'Splice' was a hoot in the theater. The audience reaction is as much fun as the movie itself.

the trailers for legion were v cool iirc

so maybe watch the trailer and skip the movie

yeah i have a neighbor that i hang out with while our dogs romp around and we drink beer a couple times a week that is also a horror dude and his hatred for legion was DIRE, and we agree like 90% of the time so i assumed he was otm, just expanding the polling group.

iirc he said that yes the trailers were cool and that there was no movie outside of the stuff in the trailers basically.

Well, "long pig" is just the term for a human corpse prepared as food. I'm not familiar with the other title - does look interesting. The one i'm recommending is a 2007 release that came to DVD in 2009.

ok I am watching long pig ASAP so I can say, however briefly, there is a horror movie I have seen which mr hal jam has not