That's practially become a formula for near-classic horror movies these days (e.g. The Descent, House Of The Devil). Work on your endings, filmmakers!
― I Am A Very Important Businessman (Old Lunch), Monday, 27 October 2014 18:38 (nine years ago) link
Struggling to name one that doesn't fit the pattern, Absentia jumps to mind but beyond that...
― ewar woowar (or something), Monday, 27 October 2014 18:47 (nine years ago) link
I'm one of the few who liked the ending of The Strangers.
― ewar woowar (or something), Monday, 27 October 2014 18:48 (nine years ago) link
Another measure by which Inside emerges as one of the recent greats.
― Eric H., Monday, 27 October 2014 18:59 (nine years ago) link
Seriously?
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 27 October 2014 19:03 (nine years ago) link
All I remember is a zombie policeman.
Cabin in the Woods sticks the ending. Um, "The Orphanage" sticks the ending. Erm ...
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 27 October 2014 19:04 (nine years ago) link
Cabin in the Woods def sticks the ending. Ending of the Strangers really bummed me out, it was so anticlimactic.
― Οὖτις, Monday, 27 October 2014 19:05 (nine years ago) link
I mean really all it needed was maybe a decent monologue from the killers and I would've been happy. but no.
Cabin In The Woods is probably the best horror film I've seen from the last ten years.
Forgot to mention in this thread that I watched The Mist last week. That's certainly up there, as well (although the ending, again, is problematic).
― I Am A Very Important Businessman (Old Lunch), Monday, 27 October 2014 19:08 (nine years ago) link
I liked The Mist a lot, save Oscar winner's horrible overacting. There was a really good fan ending I saw somewhere, set to Dead Can Dance, iirc.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 27 October 2014 19:09 (nine years ago) link
Think you're remembering Les Mis or something.
― Eric H., Monday, 27 October 2014 19:11 (nine years ago) link
xpost Dead Can Dance played over the theatrical ending.
― I Am A Very Important Businessman (Old Lunch), Monday, 27 October 2014 19:12 (nine years ago) link
I'd argue that whatever one feels about the ending of The Mist, the movie definitely doesn't go out with a whimper.
― Eric H., Monday, 27 October 2014 19:12 (nine years ago) link
No, the film in general didn't pull any punches, which I loved.
― I Am A Very Important Businessman (Old Lunch), Monday, 27 October 2014 19:14 (nine years ago) link
Had it been an original screenplay, Welp You're Fucked would've made an excellent alternative title.
― I Am A Very Important Businessman (Old Lunch), Monday, 27 October 2014 19:16 (nine years ago) link
And, of course, Drag Me To Hell.
― Eric H., Monday, 27 October 2014 19:19 (nine years ago) link
Maybe it's just the Ti West movies have problems with lame endings.
― Eric H., Monday, 27 October 2014 19:20 (nine years ago) link
You're Next did a fine job
― Nhex, Monday, 27 October 2014 19:22 (nine years ago) link
Some fine examples but this is still a thing ok.
― ewar woowar (or something), Monday, 27 October 2014 19:25 (nine years ago) link
Didn't like You're Next's ending because it's not really an ending, it just sort of ... stops. "Drag Me to Hell" is a great ending, though of course it (like everything else) is borrowed from Curse of the Demon.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 27 October 2014 19:25 (nine years ago) link
That Mist ending really divided people but I liked it.
Honestly, I think good horror film endings have always been rare, I can't think of many satisfying endings. That famous double bill of Don't Look Now and Wicker Man must have packed a punch when nobody knew the endings, heads would have been nicely fucked for that night.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 27 October 2014 19:31 (nine years ago) link
In fact I think it's a story thing in general that good satisfying endings are rare. I actually prefer abrupt endings that are a bit annoying than the general practice of the conventional comfortable wrap up which approximates the shape of a good ending but doesn't really manage it.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 27 October 2014 19:34 (nine years ago) link
I actually prefer abrupt endings
Yeah, nothing wrong with this, tbh. Anyone watch "Vertigo" lately? It and "Psycho" are obviously masterpieces, but I'll take the sudden ending of the former over the protracted ending of the latter any day.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 27 October 2014 19:38 (nine years ago) link
Ending of the Strangers really bummed me out
I think that is rather the idea.
― Simon H., Monday, 27 October 2014 19:42 (nine years ago) link
RAG otm, it's not a new thing. Endings are almost by definition anti climactic and most of the best ones leave some ambiguity or open-ness. Texas Chainsaw Massacre feels like one of the strongest.
― ewar woowar (or something), Monday, 27 October 2014 19:46 (nine years ago) link
the 'you're next' ending was p great i thought, i like endings that are that type of exclamation point.
― LIKE If you are against racism (omar little), Monday, 27 October 2014 19:47 (nine years ago) link
yeah, they managed to throw together homages to Home Alone, The Shining and Night of the Living Dead within the space of two minutes!
― Nhex, Monday, 27 October 2014 20:29 (nine years ago) link
seeing the babadook tomorrow. it had better be great!
― Shepard Toney Album (dog latin), Tuesday, 28 October 2014 12:39 (nine years ago) link
Tall Man stayed solid all the way to the end IMO
― a drug by the name of WORLD WITHOUT END (Jon Lewis), Tuesday, 28 October 2014 14:05 (nine years ago) link
'Scuse me real quick while I head to the ILX quoted out of context thread...
― I Am A Very Important Businessman (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 28 October 2014 14:49 (nine years ago) link
Lol
― a drug by the name of WORLD WITHOUT END (Jon Lewis), Tuesday, 28 October 2014 15:28 (nine years ago) link
so darknet takes a serious downward turn by the end of the first season. 5th ep is pretty bad, last ep is pretty terrible. i think they were opening a second season path but yeesh, it's a harsh decline in those last 2.
― Ass Tchotchke! (jjjusten), Tuesday, 28 October 2014 15:30 (nine years ago) link
"the woman" (2011) was excellent. a shame about all the bar rock stinking up the soundtrack tho.
― slam dunk, Wednesday, 29 October 2014 00:09 (nine years ago) link
Kimberley Pierce's "Carrie" remake = crap, tons of wasted opportunityTi West's "The Sacrament" = tasteless, pointless Jonestown pastiche
― bippity bup at the hotel california (Phil D.), Thursday, 30 October 2014 02:50 (nine years ago) link
otm re: both points on The Woman. McKee is an interesting filmmaker with terrible taste in music.
― Simon H., Thursday, 30 October 2014 03:03 (nine years ago) link
So the Babadook was flipping excellent.
― Shepard Toney Album (dog latin), Thursday, 30 October 2014 08:33 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, apart from the end. The mum and the kid are both fantastic.
― ewar woowar (or something), Thursday, 30 October 2014 11:25 (nine years ago) link
It's a shame you don't see more of Daniel Henshall too, just because he's so good in Snowtown, but also nice that they didn't feel they had to shoehorn a romantic subplot in.
― ewar woowar (or something), Thursday, 30 October 2014 11:31 (nine years ago) link
Yes! Mixed feelings about the ending - sort of anticlimactic but at least it made sense and resolved in a way best suited to the rules and tropes of the monster.
― Shepard Toney Album (dog latin), Thursday, 30 October 2014 11:36 (nine years ago) link
Don't know much about, but in passing the movie sound a bit like ... "Mama"?
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 30 October 2014 13:38 (nine years ago) link
not seen Mama I'm afraid.
Babadook sounds on paper like it could be yet another haunted house movie with a wide-eyed little kid and lots of shadows and jump-scares, and to an extent, it is. But it's just done so much better and more originally than that. I'd say go and see it.
― Shepard Toney Album (dog latin), Thursday, 30 October 2014 14:04 (nine years ago) link
Really enjoyed, belatedly, "Oculus," even if I never quite understood what its central characters were trying to do. "We have to wait here by this cursed mirror to stop my contraption from destroying the cursed mirror, it's the only way to destroy it!" Flanagan clearly knows how to make a scary movie, much less hacky than James Wan.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 30 October 2014 19:20 (nine years ago) link
I always had this feeling that was gonna be horrible, but it's on my list for Amy Pond and Starbuck.
― Nhex, Thursday, 30 October 2014 20:21 (nine years ago) link
I'll never understand what people like about James Wan's movies.
― Simon H., Thursday, 30 October 2014 20:28 (nine years ago) link
Feeling cautious about Babadook because it does look a bit too familiar from trailers.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 30 October 2014 22:33 (nine years ago) link
Housebound. a keeper, though perhaps a reel or two overlong. draws from other films, but the parts are put together in a way that feels fresh. a distinctly Kiwi sense of humor helps. hard to do this sort of horror comedy well, and i think they pulled it off. tonally reminiscent of Murder Party, which is never a bad thing.
― silent ouzo eclipse (Mr. Hal Jam), Friday, 31 October 2014 15:16 (nine years ago) link
American Mary. Not really my cup of tea but it was okay.
Why do so many films need a country, state or city name in them when it rarely seems like the location has much relevance? It's annoying.
Since Tokyo Fist is one of my all-time favorites I'd hope there was a good reason and I think it's Tsukamoto's view that Tokyo is a nightmarish energy sapping place. Texas Chainsaw Massacre seems fine too.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 1 November 2014 16:36 (nine years ago) link
MR. JONES was pretty good! The first half was really fantastic. When things started getting weird closer to the end, it sort of lost me. I feel like I've been seeing more of this, filmmakers abandoning logic for a last-act freakout, and though I generally appreciate the instinct, it was pulled off better in things like A FIELD IN ENGLAND and YELLOWBRICKROAD.
― The Thnig, Monday, 3 November 2014 15:01 (nine years ago) link
Oculus was really good. as an exploration of family trauma and its cycles I thought it was quite effective, even if it did borrow really heavily from the Shining. and of course why didn't they just smash the mirror right away etc. also lol at the deathtrap, was obvious what was gonna happen with that as soon as it was introduced.
― Οὖτις, Monday, 3 November 2014 17:17 (nine years ago) link