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

then you will find some joy in magician. just making it clear that it's only horror accents in an art film, not the other way round

I can see why ppl don't fully dig the signal - it's not a "perfect" movie - but I loved it, one of my favorite recommends from this thread.

don't get yr "angry male character" issue, contenderizer, it's not like the movie's on that guy's side, he's the villain! and he's an interesting one because he's not evil, just sick. the film does have it's share of sadism/gore, but that's why it's on this thread and not the nonexistant scifi one. it sounds like maybe a personal aversion?

paranormal activity

in the middle of watching this with my gf and she's gone to the toilet, the bitch

she's gonna come back and stare at you for like three hours

!!! SPOILERRY TALK BELOW \/\/\/

I just watched The Signal yesterday and I thought it was really good. I appreciated that they cut the tension in the middle with the black comedy stuff. I have to admit that I enjoyed Lewis's character because from our introduction to him it was obvious he was a jealous passive-aggressive guy with some inferiority issues but obviously if he hadn't watched so much of that damn signal he wouldn't have gone so damn crazy... its interesting to see a normal persons character flaws turn into OTT pathologies. There was a lot of brutalization in the film in general, its hard to claim that there was more put on women than men. Perhaps it just seems so much more brutal when the violence turns on women though? It was certainly more unsettling to me to see the lady's friend get her head bashed in repeatedly than say, when the same happened to Lewis (and more gore was shown even).

But, it addressed fears that play heavily into some favorite horror films like The Crazies (the original one) about how one could possibly know if anyone is sane when everyone has to act crazy in order to defend themselves and their loved ones. Sanity being something that is decided by society and not actually real is really scary, cause society seems more fragile than ever in our post-industrial techno world.

The second act brutality played more as slapstick to me though. That is probably due to my own desensitization, and I can see why someone would see it as just gratuitous exploitation.

As someone who refuses to pay time or money to things I see as gratuitous exploitation, I can certainly see contenderizer's larger point about violent asshole men being lavished with attention as a serious problem in modern horror films, since they are edging further away from being strictly the villains and more-and-more straddle that anti-hero line. For instance I thought the guy in Paranormal Activity was an obnoxious and abusive husband and I really hated the movie cause he was in it. Oh well, we all have our own hang-ups.

those dudes are always dicks in these movies, not antiheroes. Dude in paranormal activity is a total jerk.

ok so, watched love object and was kinda eh about it, finally saw human centipede and thought it was pretty well done EXCEPT for the fact that the 2 female leads are kinda terrible, but the big winner by far was Stuck, which I thought was completely fucking fantastic.

Tenebre and The End Of the Line showing up today from netflix so it should be a good week.

oh also watched The Chair and found it kinda lacking tbh - one great spooky shot, but that was about it.

ok, sorry dudes, but after watching tenebre and being kinda blah about suspiria and a few others, i am (outside of Goblin which is awes and that super long crane shot around the house) i am just straight up not really an argento fan.

yeah, I like suspiria but I'm definitely argento-impaired

Boooo. (That said, I can't think of many other directors I love who more regularly inspire choruses of "meh" from those around me.)

not kidding about that crane shot though, its pretty magnificent - apparently the american distributors wanted to cut it and he put his foot down and refused.

You still haven't seen his best picture, then. Write him off after you've checked out 'Deep Red.'

ok, yeah, im def not 100% opposed, so i was going to ask for recs - the other one peeps keep mentioning is something about a bird or plumage or eh never mind ill just go to imdb and stop being stupid. anything you get behind eric?

Yeah, Deep Red is the one that seems to treat the Argento non-fans best.

(I'm not particularly enthused by it, myself. I'm much more in favor of the flamboyant ones: Suspiria, Phenomena, Opera.)

I'll rep for 'The Bird with the Crystal Plumage.' it's a tidy, downright nifty thriller. But it's Srgento still so in the long shadow of his mentor, Mario Bava, that you might want to watch Bava's delightful Hitchcock riff 'The Girl Who Knew Too Much', first. Argento doesn't come of his own until 'Deep Red,' which is still traditional enough in terms of it's mystery and mechanics not to be alienating. 'Tenebre' almost doesn't make sense until you're immersed in Argento's world, being a metafictional autobiographical reinvention of 'Bird' and 'Deep Red' and a near parody of the giallo form in a slightly futuristic setting. It's his ' Alphaville,' if you will.

deep red is hitchcock + giallo kinda.

That equation doesn't compute, because there wouldn't be any "giallo" without Hitchcock (and Edgar Wallace).

i suppose that's true

LOVE ARGENTO OR GTFO

and he's an interesting one because he's not evil, just sick. the film does have it's share of sadism/gore, but that's why it's on this thread and not the nonexistant scifi one. it sounds like maybe a personal aversion?

― death panel of the mods (Edward III), Friday, November 12, 2010 11:49 AM (6 days ago) Bookmark

it is a totally personal aversion. and it's weird, cuz when viceroy says, "I appreciated that they cut the tension in the middle with the black comedy stuff," i feel completely the opposite. jacob gentry wrote and directed jealousy monster (the name of that segment), and i loved the black comedy stuff up until the point where lewis was fully in control and raged out. the scene where he suddenly, brutally murders laura's (?) friend, and later, where he blinds and tortures laura with poison, were both played for laughs, and i didn't think either was particularly funny. they made me depressed and even a bit angry. perhaps i empathize too strongly with the victims in such situations to ever truly enjoy them. anyway, this aspect of gentry's chapter took me out of the movie and made it hard to get back in. fwiw, i did think it was an interesting, effective and well-made film overall.

that said, a lot of the best ott black humor/horror induces a kind of psychedelic bewilderment in the viewer, where you don't know how far things are going to go or how you're supposed to take it. more sadistic films will push through to the worst thing imaginable, while horror comedies and mainstream films will typically undercut the awfulness, or swerve away at the last minute. it's a legitimate and effective horror tool, and one that i don't have a problem with, for the most part. maybe i was just in the wrong mood for those kinds of stunts that night, i dunno...

i wanna ask though: did anyone watch the short film that's included as a bonus feature? like jealousy monster, it was written and directed by jacob gentry, in this case as a "24-hour film festival" contribution. it's a quick and dirty TCM ripoff wherein a goofy redneck psycho (played by the guy who plays clark in the signal) abuses and butchers several trapped women. given the obvious budget and time constraints, it's surprisingly successful, wringing a measure of suspense out of one deaf victim's attempt to escape and free a fellow captive. but i couldn't get around the fact that it's basically just helpless women getting snuffed one after the other, with a side of sickly lols. disliked it, and watching it after the signal didn't improve my opinion of the latter.

But it's Argento still so in the long shadow of his mentor, Mario Bava, that you might want to watch Bava's delightful Hitchcock riff 'The Girl Who Knew Too Much', first.

― silent ouzo eclipse (Mr. Hal Jam), Thursday, November 18, 2010 10:24 AM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark

hell yeah, or blood and black lace

can't really fathom anyone not digging tenebre, though.

the slasher genre shd probably give up right now tbh

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

Bad horror run for me - end of the line had some great initial jump scares but was teeteringly unfocused and oh man, some of the worst acting I have seen in some time. Really wanted to like it, but I just didn't.

Also lj I hate u.

sorry you didn't dig end of the line, jjj (not my fault, but i did like and recommend it). acting was a serious problem, but i just forced myself to accept it as the price you pay for weird indie horror. dug it otherwise.

and yeah, can't imagine why anyone would want to watch mouse snuff

soz guys, was brought up in the 'animals eating other animals' thread and I felt it would fit here too

the joke is on me, for I have not been able to sleep properly

we are very sensitive in this gore torture horror thread, louis

I Sell the Dead was way way too goofy for me, with a plot so transparent and cgi so blatant that i really didnt like it at all, seemed v v cheap, and not in a good way. Mum and Dad was a nasty bit of mean mean movie, not totally to my liking but some great moments - dad in particular was pretty o_O.

Loved 'House of the Devil.' I love the tone and subject matter of many films from the mid- to late- 70's, and (this isn't a very original idea on my part) I thought Ti West captured it pretty perfectly without resorting to irony.

S&Man = i mean, not really that good. maybe i watch too much S&M porn or something (i know TMI TMI) but most of that stuff was pretty tame, and didn't really dive into the meat of the questions Petty seemed to be attempting to ask.

anyway.

It's not about S&M or porn, ya maroon!

excuse me, but who the hell are you?

It explored three directors, one of whom was obviously a fake (Eric), and didn't really dive that deep into the questions behind why people enjoy extreme, near-snuff, or snuff itself. even the 'paraphilia' talks with the husband-wife team were just completely insubstantial. and anyone who didn't see that last part coming is a maroon, imho.

i raise the issue of s&m and porn because of Zebub's bizarre machismo and those long, lingering shots of that 'dead' girl surrounded by candles. there was something strange there, her uncomfortability. to me, that was the most interesting part of the entire film. otherwise, pretty meh.

It's not a documentary.

The question being asked is not so much "why do movies like the S&Man series exist?" as it is, "could something like the S&Man series exist, unsuspected, amid the protective shadows of underground fringe horror?"

hmm, well, yes. there are snuff films and stalker films that are real and do exist. you can find some of them pretty easily, tbh.

that said, i just finished 'Going to Pieces,' a pretty well-done doc about the rise of the slasher pic, political backlash, etc. streaming instant on Netflix. recommended.

there are snuff films and stalker films that are real and do exist. you can find some of them pretty easily, tbh.

since i will never in my life spend any time searching for such things and reassure myself by believing they don't exist, i'd like you to unpack this a bit. i mean, i know that one can find footage of death and even murder, but we are told that snuff films in the classic sense don't exist. by "snuff film" i mean proper movies which happen to include footage of real murders, not simple, on-the-fly event recordings - a hazy division if there ever was one. i.e., not counting stuff like africa addio (as jacopetti was acquitted) or straightforward documents of executions & other killings.

i mean, do tell (don't show)...

yeah, i guess it depends on whether one is using the classic definition of snuff films. obviously on-the-fly examples are numerous (see jjjusten's talk about the Hammer film, for example, which is as sickening as they come, really), but often, even those that are on the fly or depicting executions fit one aspect of snuff, and that is that they are intended for distribution and viewing. i read an argument somewhere (and i can't find it right now, excuse me) that Al Qaeda's videotaping of executions can be considered snuff in some way, since warlords (and etc) profit immensely from continued war (and opium production, duh).

so, yeah, you're right, but a lot of it depends on the parsing of the definition of snuff film.

and yeah, mr. hal jam, i think that no matter what S&Man— part fiction, part real— that it just wasn't successful. it didn't scare me, and it certainly didn't make me think about anything that i haven't thought about before. those are two of my main concerns when watching films of this ilk— if it doesn't make me jump out of my seat, or doesn't make me ponder issues of violence (or moral codes, or sexual barbarism, or whatever), then i tend to be a bit non-plussed.

bewildered and at a loss for words?

regardless of how un/successful you felt Petty was, i do wish you'd refrained from SPOILing S&Man's IMHO clever gambit. those of us here who have seen it have tried to be discreet for the benefit of those who have not yet watched the film.

yeah, i get you, i don't feel i've spoiled anything, tbh. talking about issues relating to the movie doesn't equal SPOILER ALERT

that said, i'm also sorry if i was a dick to you. i just find that within this genre, there's a lot of divisiveness within the fan base. it's cool that you liked it, i just found it sophomoric and rather boring.

hmm, well, yes. there are snuff films and stalker films that are real and do exist. you can find some of them pretty easily, tbh.

― Honey, I squirted jizz all over the baby (the table is the table), Sunday, 28 November 2010 01:58 (5 hours ago)

No real snuff films have ever been found. If you DO know of snuff films that exist and are being sold, you should contact law enforcement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snuff_films

eh, i prefer not to interfere. or intercept such vile material. i'm just saying that if you go to Russia and former Soviet countries, it's there. i saw some things i don't wish i'd seen.

enough, tho. back to horror.

ok, not really horror at all but mentioned on this thread more than any other - "Timecrimes" is pretty fucking amazing. not mucking up a time travel movie deserves some sort of special award imo.

yeah Timecrimes is great.

yup

just watched calvaire, belgian survival horror flick from a few years back. holy shit, that was great. easily and instantly one of my favorite horror films of the past decade. from some shit i wrote on imdb:

kept thinking of humanism while watching this film, the enlightenment idea that human feeling and human intellect are equally rational and that they both intrinsically strive toward human betterment. like a lot of fashionable late 20th century/early 21st century pop philosophy, this film feels like an attempt to annihilate the humanist project, to entirely crush the idea that human beings, human thoughts and emotions have any purpose, that they strive towards anything but their own satisfaction.

marc represents humanist idealism in this scheme, an apollonian vision of human beauty and worth. he is an artist first and foremost. he is industrious and sensible. he sings sentimental, heart-wrenching songs about a love that conquers and thus defines human experience. he lives in a world that makes sense, is cooperative and rewards fundamental decency. but he is alone in this world. he is not only alone but deluded. in the film's scheme, marc's faith in the world's reciprocation of his rational decency is tragically misplaced. in the real world, the world around marc, brutality and obsession rule the day, and no communication can cross the distance between individuals. marc's failure to understand this dooms him.

therefore, when he, in the end, says, "i loved you," he is merely fulfilling his role. he is that which loves, or pretends to try to love, in a loveless world. he is the fool that sees beyond himself, truly believes in the petty, lying bauble, the love song, the christmas morning. in believing, he becomes the object of the world, its plaything. those around him, unable to see beyond themselves, simply use him to satisfy their own hermetic desires. i'm reminded here of lars von trier's dogville, another splendid assault on humanist self-delusion. and i say this as a committed humanist, the obvious object of this film's scorn. c'est la guerre.

I second the Calvaire praise. The Belgians are more fun than the French. (See also: Ex-Drummer.)

dance sequence in the bar tops the one that kicks off werckmeister harmonies, love that scene to death