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

Yep. See upthread. One of the year's finest.

Oh ok. Well I finally watched it and it was really good!!

Yeah I watched that abt a month ago on Hal jams say so and I was v v into it. Will totally rewatch at some point.

Awesome. Looking forward to checking this out.

LAST WILL is also notable for having nearly no blood or violence. It could almost be rated G if not for the constant mind-numbing terror.

Has there been discussion here about Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh?! (it's on netflix streaming)

Because it was soooooooooo goooooooood (and scary!!!) I still don't even know if I understand what happened, but I know that 1) the camera work and set dressing were beautiful 2) the one actor in it was really good and there was lots of ambiguity 3) angel cult!! 4) i screamed 3 times (at least). Good movie!

― sweat pea (La Lechera), Sunday, October 27, 2013 12:50 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

We watched this last night and yeah it was good. I wish they had a little bit more explicit plotting - I'm ok with open-ended but it was pretty unclear what exactly had happened. Also kept getting distracted by the lead looking a lot like Aaron Paul. But yeah, solid non-gory horror.

christ rosalind leigh was terrifying

happy for their success but kill me now @ mumblegore

http://www.laweekly.com/2013-10-24/film-tv/mumblegore-horror-movies/

We watched this last night and yeah it was good. I wish they had a little bit more explicit plotting - I'm ok with open-ended but it was pretty unclear what exactly had happened. Also kept getting distracted by the lead looking a lot like Aaron Paul. But yeah, solid non-gory horror.

― Immediate Follower (NA)

also the lead actor's name is aaron poole!

ha! that is too weird. he didn't remind me of aaron paul but looking back, i can see how he would. what's next, they're both in a movie directed by Paul Poole?

Ok fine, I'm giving this last will and testament thing a shot

Fucking amazing

Like seriously my best discovery of the year. Total magic.

Point one: if you can make a horror movie that hits all the dread buttons and is still somehow emotionally devastating, well holy fuck, good on you

Point two: we might not be in 100% agreement all the time, but when mr Hal jam tells you to watch something, you probably should.

You should watch all my dumb shit too, but still

awwww, you guys! i wish there were a lot more Rosalind Leigh's to recommend. special movie.

Point one: if you can make a horror movie that hits all the dread buttons and is still somehow emotionally devastating, well holy fuck, good on you

One reason I love "The Orphanage" so much. Gut wrenching rather than gut churning.

Just watched "Last Will...": quality low budget tale of horror, like a good short story. Didn't think it was terribly scary or tense, but it was made with love, and did a great job with the cheap steadicam/crane work and single location. Not sure what was going on, though, not exactly.

I generally prefer horror films where I don't know what's going on.

i think last will is a pretty clear narrative, actually! figuring out what is really happening is just held back until the final moments, and its what makes the movie really profoundly touching and sad. in its own weird way.

Wait, so what is happening? I couldn't figure out why he was so chipper at the end.

well im trying how to give you my take on it without going monster spoiler on everyone, but im kind of drawing a blank on how to do that.

there's a monster?!

Assuming, for the same of argument, that there is a monster - no spoliers, just talking hypothetically here - then what the hell was up with the totally for the sake of argument monster?

There's just so much ambiguity, but I'm totally lost as to what it's supposed to add up to.

It's a 2001 movie, so forgive me, but you've got to check out SUSPENDED ANIMATION. Starts out like MISERY, then becomes a DePalma-esque obsession thriller, except it's directed and lit and scored like a Lifetime movie. It takes the strangest plot turns I've seen in a while and has perhaps my favorite teen delinquent of all time. Words fail me. It's streaming on Netflix.

from the director of Let's Scare Jessica to Death. i didn't care for it, but it's definitely different.

I made a sort-of related listed thread:

Can you name 10 "great" horror-comedies?

http://mediamaps.esri.com/geography-of-horror/

Just watched Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh and yeah, that was really good! It skillfully employs one of the horror tropes that always scares me that I won't mention because it may be a spoiler but gah. GAH.

In a very early scene there is a mysterious creepy noise that in another movie would probably resolve in a jump scare of sorts, but doesn't here, but right about where that jump scare would be, the baby gave me a HUGE KICK and I made a ridiculous screaming yelp noise. In summary: LW&TofRL: so much tense atmosphere, my own fetus scared me.

Oh - that house was amazing and I would totally let Rosalind Leigh decorate my home and landscape my yard. I'd get someone else for pool maintenance, though.

yeah RozLee is really good, very heavy on the tension like everyone says and that ending is heartbreaking. I was like "Damn, I should really call my mother."

I have Lords of Salem to watch either tonight or this weekend :D

They showed the first half of The Conjuring at lunchtime today at work -- I enjoyed it! Corny, but I had fun.

made rosalind leigh our halloween watch. found the end a little deflating when it came but enjoy it more as I let it sit. like it went from whatever it was to something else entirely, but that something else wasn't bad either. sadder and sweeter and less scary but not bad. or pretty much: jjusten otm.

ps josh if, just speaking hypothetically, this had been the kind of movie that would involve monster, imo it would also be the kind of movie where that monster's presence would be accounted for unambiguously.

but hey i thought mulholland drive was pretty straightforward so what do i know.

When everybody in the world sees this movie I want jjjusten to post his take bc I too have a take (also thought it was unambiguous) and I want to see how wildly different all our takes are.

Also there is one part near the end that nearly put me over the edge (not a jump scare. LL knows the part) that I could not stop thinking about as I was trying to go to sleep last night.

the bit where she says his name in the garden

had me like >>>>>>>

xpost I thought said hypothetical monster was totally unambiguous. Is that the wrong take? Had it been more clearly ambiguous, imo, I might have gotten more out of this flick. I guess I wasn't sure what the monster was supposed to be/represent? Because there was enough spooky supernatural shit at work that I wasn't sure what I was meant to take from the guilt trip side of the film. Or, for that matter, why the guy kept waking up on the floor. Or what pills he was taking. It was all very elliptical, I though, which can be good, but I wish I knew if I actually missed something vs. whether I'm looking for something that isn't there.

that's what made it good!!
the pills? the slime-licking? the guilt? his confident cooking skills? i don't really care to try to figure out what it all means. all of it was there for the viewer to interpret. it beats being bonged on the head by skinny angry witch ghosts.

I can't really get with that at all. If leave too much to interpret then there's nothing actually there. I guess it all depends on how much you trust the perspective of the camera in this, though I tend to think what's shown to us, especially absent the presence of the protagonist, is "real." It's lame if you just show, say, a ghost floating around, and then try to argue it's all in the head of someone not present.

the person who wielded that camera did a really great job, imo. i trust that person!

Like, is what he sees, and rewinds on the VHS supposed to be up for interpretation? How about the manner of death of his mother? The neighbor talking about the animal? The hypothetical monster creeping around while he sleeps? All that stuff. It's too concrete to be ambivalent, but too confusing to be concrete, especially once you toss in pills and passing out and things going growl in the dark.

The camerawork was cool.

Yeah I dunno, none of that bothered me much. The camerawork was really cool, the set dressing was cool, it was scary, the actor was good, Vanessa Redgrave A+ choice, I didn't feel insulted or disgusted by anything, that alone would have been enough for me. Maybe I have low standards? (I don't think so, but maybe I do)

I don't think so. I have low standards, but I would not say that you do.

I actually just took everything that happened as literal in the world of the movie and metaphorical in the world of making the movie (kind of like how we are to take the events of the Exorcist as literal, but also understand there are metaphors for Father Karras's loss of faith and guilt over his relationship with his mother). So these things happened to Leon, but they also were meant to represent his emotional issues about his strained/estranged relationship with his mother.

yes, and her possible delusions that came real?

OK if we're just straight up talking about it ... there was something at the end that made me think that maybe the whole story of Leon visiting was all in the mind of Rosalind as she was dying - like she was imagining a redemption for Leon that allows him to be happy, and forgiving him for his lack of religious belief. But I don't remember specifically where that interpretation came from - I guess because a literal interpretation wouldn't be as satisfying without a little more explanation? But either way, I enjoyed the movie and am OK with it not totally making sense.

Oh that actually makes a lot of sense w/ the voiceover at the beginning.

I kinda thought it might be dementia?

My feeling was similar to NA's. A story Rosalind is telling herself.

i am also in NA's camp