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

I wasn't a huge fan but the mist in b&w >>>>> the mist in color

I didn't have a problem w/ the twilight zoney ending of The Mist... I mean they had to end it somehow considering that the novella didn't really have an ending.

Thomas Jane's Maine accent totally threw me

I spent about 5 minutes going... "Is he Dutch?"

Just occurred to me how many from "The Mist" cast made it into "The Walking Dead." At least three, and no doubt they would have gotten Jane, too, had he not been hooked up to "Hung."

HARDWARE NOW STREAMING ON NETFLIX FYI

Pro tip: you can not get drunk enough to watch red state

red flag to the bull here.

ha well consider the author tho

OK Session 9 sounds pretty great and it'll be the 4th mental institution themed movie I've watched this week.

― Juggy Brottleteen (ENBB), Monday, October 31, 2011 6:23 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark

s9 is creeeeeeeeeepy

wait why do people like this Pontypool movie...?

the lead guy is really good, but I dunno, the premise seems sort of overwrought

As I pitched it to my friend, it's "No Exit" by way of Ionesco but also a metaphor for the perils of talk radio and also maybe the French-Canadian separatist movement and also the threat of language itself. Maybe. Would make an awesome play. It's scary and funny, but in an absurdist way that nonetheless takes itself seriously. I think it's wildly ambitious, not overwrought, and hovers on the cusp of so many Big Ideas that it's constantly engaging. Some may see that is a failure, but I loved its tonal and thematic ambiguity. Plus, it's very well acted and directed for what is in essence a three people in a room story.

it is well acted and directed (and looks great) I just feel like the underlying premise was sort of fleshed out in the wrong way

I'm not so sure! It's pretty surreal. There's that bit where the doctor (who randomly enters via a window) is sitting in the booth, with headphones on, eagerly tossing back snacks as he watches the assistant go nuts on the other side of the glass. Or the fact that no one ever explains exactly what's going on, or the nature of the disease, or how it's spread. And then there's that absurdist black and white ending in the credits, which is just totally strange. Honesty, the movie really took me by surprise. I thought it one of the richest films I've seen in eons. The horror aspect was almost totally peripheral. It just added to the strangeness.

it is not a movie without flaws, but still worth recommending/seeing imo

reminded me of early cronenberg, not in tone or content, just in the way it presented some weird intellectual ideas on the horror/scifi spectrum while falling short of being a perfectly executed film, oh yeah and canada

Or the fact that no one ever explains exactly what's going on, or the nature of the disease, or how it's spread

yeah this is the real problem imho

early Cronenberg ref makes sense to me

The original conceptualization for the movie was to have Burgess read the script with the wavering line being the only visual. Sydney's voice would be heard and Laurel Ann would only get a mention.

^ they should still make this version, it would cost $19.95 to produce

I don't get the Cronenberg comparison. Pontypool is so totally about language and communication, whereas Cronenberg is so much more ... physical. The fear, the terror, is real and immediate. Pontypool is a much odder bird; for being terrified, its protagonists follow pretty unpredictable emotional paths, exacerbated by how much they may or may not be affected by the symptoms of the spreading virus. And Pontypool does have all those aspects of outright absurdism, too. It's very intellectually engaged if somewhat obscure, but no more than, say, Bunuel's "Exterminating Angel."

It's sort of lost in the shuffle that the film takes place on Valentine's Day, too, which surely muddies up the themes even more. "Kill is kiss."

it's more in the execution - the cerebral presentation, the half-explained stuff, dabbling in horror but not really fully engaging with the genre imho

Sure, I can see that. But I really do think the Ionesco comparison is pretty apt. I mean, at one point when the woman is listing words that have no meaning or whatever she does actually say "rhinoceros." And just as a convenient reminder, Wiki sums up Ionesco's play thusly: "Over the course of three acts, the inhabitants of a small, provincial French town turn into rhinoceroses; ultimately the only human who does not succumb to this mass metamorphosis is the central character, Bérenger, a flustered everyman figure who is often criticized throughout the play for his drinking and tardiness."

Sub in zombie for rhinos ...

sub in zombie for rhinos, and you have Zombie Strippers, which wears its (unexpected) Ionesco influence proudly. Club Rhinoceros!

Well, Zombie Strippers is certainly absurd ...

TS: Theatre of the Absurd Vs Cinema of the Unsettling

Bloody Disgusting had a pretty good list of the best horror films of the '00s. I got there looking up stuff about "Session 9," which was great until, inevitably, the resolution. Some good ones they remembered: http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/18403

oh i forgot about frailty

Just watched The Strangers - the tension at the start was handled brilliantly. Expected a bit more from the end, though.

Not sure how many other directors would hire Gemma Ward for a film and get her to wear a full-face mask for the duration. Would be interested in seeing the sequal.

Pontypool is fucking classic, josh in chicago otm

The Mist is the worst, remembering it and its connection to The Walking Dead kinda brings home some of the reasons i don't like that show

Yeah, I've never understood the love for The Mist. I like the premise, but the dialogue is so naff and the characters are all awful. The whole thing's weirdly amateurish as well.

watched "The Shrine", interesting premise poorly executed, kind of a shame really.

watched the Strangers last night. what a great set-up, I was totally sold on this movie for like the first hour. great use of music + Dennis from Always Sunny as obligatory sacrificial lamb. resolution was too anti-climactic tho, sorta fell down on the delivery imho.

there's a sequel? why?

I think it was in development for a while, but I doubt it'll actually happen.

The last i'd heard they'd started production but i'm not sure it is likely to see the light of day. It made a lot of money for a low-budget film so i can see why they'd want to turn it into a franchise. Can't imagine it having the same impact when you know what's coming, though.

it did have the charm of being a simple concept executed really well, which I always appreciate. but was definitely expecting more of a payoff.

I had the same feeling. I suppose there's a certain unexpected honestly / realism in the direction it took. It just wasn't very exciting or interesting to watch.

*honesty*

huh most of the reason i liked that movie was the chilling aspect of how not explosive the ending was, i dig the totally plain explanation and its way creepier than anything else they could have done imo

thats a tortured senctence/description, but i wanna avoid spoilering so itll have to do

*SPOILERS* *SPOILERS*

it's just that by the time they finally get around to killing the couple it's just ho-hum stabby stabby when they could have done that to them at pretty much any point in the film. they don't inflict any extra dosage of psychological terror or manipulation - there's no angle - they're just like "welp, sun's up guess we should stab them in the stomach now. yawn"

I like the premise, but the dialogue is so naff and the characters are all awful. The whole thing's weirdly amateurish as well.

stephen king iirc.

the tension created in the first section had already started to flag at a certain point when all the standing at a distance and then disappearing became too repetitive. i thought the movie was at its best when the female character was left alone in the house for the first time.

xpost re: the strangers

totally. film needed to up the ante at a certain point to sustain the tension and it just didn't

I read somewhere the strangers was supposed to have a much longer section at the end with the intruders interacting with the couple but they ran into issues - can't remember if it was budgetary or they just didn't like how it was turning out - seems like the ending was something thrown together to make due, and it plays that way too

agree it's an effective movie with a disappointing ending, ils (them) is extremely similar but handles the payoff much better imo

been a dry dry last few months for horror movies huh? btw that exorcism thing that made piles of money is crap right?

Big piece in the NYTimes on Ti West and his new ghost movie "The Innkeepers."

It sucks.

saw that piece, movie sounds terrible

Did either of you see/like the last one? Because I loved the last one, but some people think it "sucked" too.

Your talking about "house of the devil" right? I hated it but I think I was seriously in the minority on here.

i liked "house of the devil" a lot until the last 15 minutes or so.