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

below!!!! lol it took me most of that movie to understand it was supposed to be set during wwII

I thought Them was a lot more effective than The Strangers (pretty similar plots).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAWEvZh8flg

all that talk about sinking german ships and the british sailors and american subs can be misleading...

I'll give Martyrs a shot eventually. Intended to watch it earlier this year as a part of a catch-up session on "endurance horror", but got burned out after watching Frontier(s), Imprint, Inside, Singapore Sling and Eden Lake in a couple days. Only so much a man can take.

P.S.: You've seen Singapore Sling, right?

I mean, it's reaching back a ways (1990), but it doesn't get talked about or seen anywhere near enough.

yah no obv im retarded its just thats the only thing i really remember abt that movie - realizing it was supposed to be ww2 - that and trying to remember what other movie i saw that one chick in before

xxpost

singapore sling is greek right? have not seen, will check out

it's got half the main cast of lock stock and two smoking barrels and zach galifiniakkis (sic) also

whoa waht

yah the cast of below is pretty great but i <3 bruce greenwood so

Speaking of taking shit way too seriously, anybody see that English chav-horror flick Eden Lake? Very well done, great acting and cinematography, but damn that pissed me off to no end.

there's a bit of talk upthread about that one, I called it xenophobic but nobody took the bait.

Haven't seen Martyrs (I think I've had enough of the pure suffering/annihilation of beautiful women as fetishized aesthetic spectacle).

I dunno, that's kind of like saying "I'm sick of japanese horror movies so I'm not watching audition"

martyrs transcends any torture porn label and takes things to a whole other level. yes, a large part of the final third involves torture, but so does the final third of 1984. in a similar way, martyrs' aesthetic isn't fetishized, it's just bleak as hell.

oops thread is moving too fast nevermind

P.S.: You've seen Singapore Sling, right? - nope. Will add, along w/ Them, to the queue post-haste. This thread is making me realize how much has passed me by in recent years, being ostensibly a horror stan & all.

Singapore Sling isn't horror, exactly, it's just ... something. Something that everyone should see. It's kind of a sequel to Otto Preminger's Laura, but with more torture. And porn.

Good to hear so strong a defense of Martyrs. I'd just gotten to this place where I'd noticed how many current films seem revel in this one very specific spectacle: beautiful woman with long (usually dark) hair in a thin (usually white) dress. As the film progresses, she is tortured, imprisoned, humiliated, sexually threatened and dunked in blood and/or offal. By the end of the film, she is so emotionally and physically shattered that she has come to resemble a wild animal. Her hair is matted, her skin and formerly white dress dark reddish brown with blood and filth, clinging to her shivering body. She is framed against plain or light backgrounds where she stands out like a bloody stain, a clot. Or else she is shot in extreme close-up, where her gore-soaked skin makes the whites of her eyes stand out like Audrey Tautou's. Eventually she dies.

I'd got to where I'd seen this image so many times in so many different ways that it started to bother me. I felt like I was watching not horror movies, but some dismal kind of fetish porn, female passion plays. So I decided to take a pass on Martyrs, based on exhaustion more than anything else. Once I get my nerve back up, I'll give it a shot.

Singapore Sling isn't horror, exactly, it's just ... something. Something that everyone should see. It's kind of a sequel to Otto Preminger's Laura, but with more torture. And porn.

shit - i just remembered a friend gave me a copy of this, and i still haven't watched it.

the foreign films get all the attention, but North America has been holding its own. you have to look beyond the marquee, or even the aegis of PR-hogging distributors like Lionsgate, Ghosthouse and After Dark. and it helps to have the patience to sift through each week's crop of mostly dire direct-to-DVD (and now Netflix) offerings. i hesitate to call it a renaissance, but NA-indie horror has never been stronger, demonstrating an embarrassment of new ideas and technical ingenuity. ever since the deserved cult success of character-driven gems like 'May', we've had these offbeat entries:

Deadgirl
Grace
End of the Line
Love Object
The Other Side
The Stink of Flesh
Stuck
Zombie Honeymoon

some uneven first films ('The Roost', 'Hatchet', 'Home Sick', 'Murder Party') show enough genuine promise to make one optimistic that the best is yet to come from these young directors. Ti 'The Roost' West's Satanic '70s throwback 'The House of the Devil' looks like a winner. that said, i'd pay good cashmoney to keep a camera out of Alex 'Dead Birds'/'Red Sands' Turner's hands. and Brad Anderson needs a good talking to.

even the played-out postmodern slasher film has overcome its 'Scream'-assisted demise and mounted a minor comeback, with such strong entries as '36 Pasos', 'Red Velvet', 'The Hills Run Red', and 'Earth Day' all being worthy of discovery.

since the immaculate 'A Tale of Two Sisters', J/K-horror cinema seems to be in steep decline. S. Korea and Japan may yet surprise us with another jolt of out-of-nowhere brilliance, and you can never completely count out powerhouse directors like Shinya Tsukamoto (who needs to drop the 'Nightmare Detective' crap, ASAP), Sion Sono ('Exte: Hair Extensions' will be forgiven if 'Lords of Chaos' lives up to its impossibly high expectations), Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Joon-ho Bong (forget 'The Host;' 'Memories of Murder' is the must-see) and, of course, Park Chan-wook. i actually have my hopes set on Thai horror as the next big thing. it's still in its awkward adolescence, caught between the inescapable box-office influence of 'ghost girl' scares and the hyperbolic cruelty of the Western 'torture porn' craze. but the style and the talent are there, as is evident even from Troma-esque parodies like 'Sick Nurses' and 'SARS Wars: Bangkok Zombie Crisis'. when the Thais ease up on the leering irony, as in the unsparingly nasty 'Art of the Devil 2', they really bring it. Thailand hasn't had its international break-out horror hit yet, but i'm sure there's one in the offing. the erratic anthology '4BIA' isn't a bad place to start. introduces the main players and sums up the state of Thai horror - stylish, if derivative, somewhat confused, and a little "slow," narrative-wise.

'The Nun' (someone mentioned?) is pretty awful, with an entirely CGI menace that misses the mark entirely. certainly not indicative of the best of Spanish horror. you'd be better served by the "big" pictures - 'El Orfanato', 'El Laberinto del Fauno' - and with the ingenious 'Timecrimes', Amenabar's definitive 'Tesis', or even the not-quite-satisfying 'The Nameless' (for me, Balagueró remains promising but has yet to pull it all together. 'REC' and 'Para Entrar a Vivir' show he's on the right track. there's no way that 'REC'2 can be anything other than a misstep sideways).

Damn, Mr. Hal Jam, I have seen exactly NONE of the American films you rep in that list (shame on a lazy horror fan). Thanks for the recs! And while I'm at it, 2nd the buried Tale of Two Sisters mention for anyone who hasn't seen it. Agree that it's the last really great Japanese horror flick I've seen.

Plus hell yeah for Timecrimes. Not a horror flick at all, just a sci-fi mystery thriller with a big dose of giallo-style suspense & shock. But it's one of the most entertaining and satisfying genre flicks I've seen in ages.

x-post to sarahel: Singapore Sling is sooooo good! It's a period piece shot in B&W, in the manner of 40s noir, a loving and surprisingly thorough reproduction of the style & tone, really beautiful from a visual standpoint. And it's horrifying and hilarious and revolting and hypnotic and just one of the strangest things I've ever seen. Plus the two female leads are AWESOME. Unforgettable performances from both, though one's clearly more unforgettably unforgettable than the other.

oh, he told me about it before making me the copy - it was in trade for me making him a copy of Peter Watkins' Privilege

Goddam Hal Jam, my Netflix queue was already getting out of hand & then you had to go & drop all that. How many horror flix can a bro sit thru? I guess we'll find out..

I felt like I was watching not horror movies, but some dismal kind of fetish porn, female passion plays.

ha, it sounds like you were in exactly the right frame of mind to see martyrs!

maybe it's just me - because frankly I can't think of any single element of the film that would cause this - but I spent a lot of time thinking about the implications of torture porn while watching it. there's definitely a self-reflexive aspect to the film. I hesitate to talk too much about the plot, because not knowing where it's going is half the, uh, fun.

Tale of Two Sisters is actually Korean & I'd also recommend it - sort of a summation of Asian horror tropes elegantly bow-tied together. It was also loosely remade recently as 'The Uninvited'.

I have seen Deadgirl, Love Object, & Stuck but I didn't really like any of them. Maybe that scene is just not for me.

I looooove korean movies and I was convinced a tale of two sisters was one of the best movies I'd ever seen for about 3/4 of the runtime

but in typical korean fashion, the ending drifted off

still would recommend it highly

Never seen Privilege (or, honestly, ever heard of Peter Watkins), but based on some quick snooping around, he & it sound fascinating. Another one for the endless list, I guess...

tale of two sisters is like david lynch decided to direct a ringu-inspired bros grimm tale

shutter - thai film- was good but it might just miss out on this time frame, i think it was 2004

xxp - you of all people on ilx should watch Peter Watkins' films.

Oops on Tale of Two Sisters. May have known at some point that it was Korean, but "Japanified" it in my memory due to laziness and/or cultural ignorance.

Speaking of Japanese films (ahem), anyone see Strange Circus, by Shion Sono, the guy who made Suicide Circle a while back (and also Hair Extensions, I guess, which I haven't seen)? Kinda sleazy and cheap, but so inventive and bizarre and titillating and cetera. Again, it's not horror, not exactly, but it's very closely related to horror and another recent favorite. Probably make a good double feature w/ Tale of 2 Sisters. Similar in some respects, but waaaaaay more OTT.

Me of all people? Damn, now I guess I gotta...

Gaah, plus I lied about the total moribundity of recent Japanese horror because TOKYO GORE POLICE. TGP is silly and pointless and it panders to its audience abominably, but it's at least as much fun as Drag Me to Hell. Plus gore and prosthetics are amazing, strongly indebted to rubbery 80s insanity flix like Society, but even more absurd.

I was about to say it's only a matter of time before contenderizer's reviving watkins threads

xp

i am hear you no

xposts

Yeah, I was getting at that upthread - it's like a return to the 'Evil Dead Trap' 80s days. TGP is probably the 'best' of these (director is -surprise - primarily a make-up/FX artist) as I didn't like Machine Girl or X-Cross & couldn't be bothered w/ Onechanbara. It's the ghost girls who are gone & I sort of miss them.

Though it'd be pretty neat if we got a 2010 Tetsuo out of this.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1176416/

tale of two sisters is also the last great k-horror thing ive seen, let alone the japanese stuff. totally agree on the thai film future, kind of the only bright spot right now for me.

although having said that, Re-Cycle, although again im not sure whther to call it horror (fantasy tinged with horror maybe, idk) is worth watching.

i mentioned it upthread, but deadgirl really knocked me out. stuck is, uh, something to be reckoned with - havent seen the rest (wait maybe the stink of flesh but id have to imdb it to be sure). just passed up grace on the netflix queue, so ill have to rectify that i guess.

xpost ha tokyo gore police is pretty insane, if you liked it no reason not to go ahead and find machine girl if you havent seen it

xxpost heh well to each their own

this thread moves quicker than i can type, so forgive xposts, but, yeah, they're not all going to be suited to all tastes. each succeeds, IMHO, in being a refreshing addition to a genre that thrives on the occasional infusion of creativity. and that makes them stand out.
i guess a little more info might be useful. i'll try to avoid spoilers.

Deadgirl - ties together the zombie and torture porn tropes, while turning the teen sex film on its decomposing ear. not a pleasant movie, but uncompromising, intelligent and provocative.

Grace - genuinely unnerving variation on the hoary 'what a mother wouldn't do' theme.

End of the Line - might be my favorite of the bunch, because it's brimming with new ideas and actual horror and suspense. i've been waiting for Maurice Deveraux to make a great movie, sure he had it in him. he's almost done it. i don't know if this Canadian film has US distribution, so it might not be Netflix-able yet.

Love Object - the creepier, more horrific side of the bathetic 'Lars & The Real Girl'. a modest production where every element works. more comparable to 'May' than that film's actual sibling, 'Roman' (also good, but a little too slow for my liking)

The Other Side - shoestring action/horror hybrid with unflinching religious overtones. came out of nowhere and, frankly, blew me away. high energy, high concept. if you can get past some of the community theater acting, you may be just as impressed.

The Stink of Flesh - just when you think that every zombie permutation has been played out, enter the zombie sex film. swingers, desperate for warm bedfellows, kidnap a lone-wolf survivalist type in the aftermath of a zombie plague. it's not a bad deal for him - food, shelter, all the tail a guy can stand. but it quickly becomes a classic "too many roosters in the hen-house' crisis. inventive, quirky, ambitious. and miles beyond what one usually gets from trashy imprints like Sub Rosa Cinema and Brain Damage.

Stuck - "ripped from the headlines" horror given a proper black-comic treatment by Stuart Gordon. has some problems, and not one you'll re-watch often, but a solid "A-" B-movie. Gordon's experience in organic theater give him a certain knack for visceral ickiness. it's not a bloodbath, but the grisly bits really bring the pain.

Zombie Honeymoon - the 'zombie' aspect is less successful than the romance, thanks to winning lead performances. that's okay, because undeath and a taste for flesh are treated as a metaphor for any addiction that might strain a young marriage. the climax of this low-budget gem is masterfully directed. worth the sometimes rocky trip getting there.

These are a lot of movies! Which ones of these are unqualifiedly great?

re: Sion Sono. i hated 'Exte' and couldn't get into 'Noriko' at all. even at his best, he's too uneven. as i said, a lot is riding on 'Lords of Chaos.'

Shinya Tsukamoto's quieter films - 'Vital', 'Gemini', 'A Snake of June' - have really grown on me. the man is monstrously talented. glimmers of genius even shine through the crassly commercial 'Nightmare Detective' series. he seems to be following Cronenberg's trajectory, though i find Tsukamoto's "mainstream art-house" maturation less compromised. can't wait to see where he goes next. anything but 'Tetsuo 2010'! wasn't 'Tetsuo Redux' - AKA 'The Body Hammer' - pointless enough?

Damn, it is really, really nice to have a troo, serious, full-time, die-hard horror stan in this thread. Saves me a lot of legwork (or eyeball work, or whatever).

And yes, Body Hammer was pointless enough.

re:nu-Tetsuo, yeah, an English reboot shot in digital sounds pretty unfortunate. I didn't mean an actual new one, just something as unhinged & galvanizing for these times.

haha. glad i broke my self-imposed lurkerdom, then. if any thread was going to do it...

You've seen Strange Circus (Kimyô na sâkasu) though, right? I'm not saying it's not uneven, but it takes a bunch of huge gambles and pays most of them off. It's not perfect, but it's worth seeing just for sheer visual creativity on a shoestring budget.

^ a lot of what I look for in horror flicks, TBH.

What was wrong with Tetsuo:II? There was a bit in it where he speeds along the side of a building and some guy sticks his head out and goes "wha?" I wish that guy was in Tetsuo I.

I thought Love Object was pretty boring, tho everyone else I saw it w/found it creepy.

the director of love object was my neighbor and used to date my fiancee's best pal, apparently he's a good guy. i did find it funny that when i mentioned this to one of my horror bros, saying, "yeah the director of 'love object' lives in my building," just in passing, he looked at me quite seriously and said, "r0bert p@rigi." one of the great auteurs, i guess!

i'll see your visual creativity, and raise you for Sono's sheer audacity. remake this, Hollywood! but i think i actually admire 'Strange Circus' more than i can say i enjoyed it. Sono (and Masumi Miyazaki) never really sold me on the critical twist, the pacing is unbalanced, the climax is far too chaotic. but, yeah, some of the dream/nightmare imagery is stunning. still, i'll stick with Hisayasu Sato and Naoyuki Tomomatsu for my "ero guro" jollies. and Sono's on the bubble for me. 'Noriko's Dinner Table' was just a very good idea buried in three joyless, plodding hours of footage. i have no idea what he was thinking with 'Exte'. it just doesn't work on any level.

that Parigi story is too funny! wasn't even aware that 'Love Object' had a following among the horror bros. i've never met anyone who even knew about it. though i can see why this film would have its ardent attractors. it's different and well-made enough to stand out from the crowd. but it's also Parigi's lone non-TV genre credit. which makes me wonder if anyone stans for his much more extensive work as an executive producer. prolly not.

oh, wow. the new Tomomatsu/Nishimura (TGP) collaboration looks mental. uh, NSFW? (no nudity, just extreme splatstick). and how much is Robert Rodriguez kicking himself right now for not making this first?

Very TGP-like, which isn't a bad thing at all, but I feel like I just saw every good bit. "Student Wrist Cut Rally" poster is pretty, not sure what to think of the, uh, blackface (???) business. Thing? WTF was that?