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

only three years later. christ. already ponies up for the UK DVD (and Blu-ray upgrade), but I enjoy it enough that I'd pay yet again to see/support the domestic theatrical release.

watched sion sono's cold fish last night. not sure what to think of it, tbh.

it's a long, a slow-building, and largely character-driven suspense thriller that eventually goes completely off the rails with grand guignol gore and brutality. somewhat reminiscent of takashi miike's audition in this regard. left a bad taste in my mouth though i'm not sure why, as it's less perverse and sleazily transgressive than strange circus, which i love.

couple of new-ish titles worth checking out.

Absentia - patient, subtle, admirably Lewtonesque. sticks with you.
Ashes - moody, mature, thoughtful. shame about the third act. had to go there?
DeadHeads - overlong but endearing zombuddy flick #1
Enter Nowhere - stagy but clever. though i can't see the point of re-watching once you're keen to the trick
Evidence - FF-by-numbers, but this one builds to an exhilarating, disorienting, frankly batshit finale (that continues through the credits. don't tune out prematurely)
Father's Day - irreverent Troma-approved exploitation. works best when it's not tripping over its own excesses
A Horrible Way to Die - mumblecorror? some will hate this more than life itself
Nazis at the Center of the Earth - no, really. totally entertaining.
Respire - inventive and almost great. see qualifier for Ashes
Restraint - Aussie cat-and-mouse thriller, adult variant (read: with sexy overtones)
The Revenant - overlong but endearing zombuddy flick #2. mentioned upthread, i believe.
Some Guy Who Kills People - didn't completely work for me. still worth seeing for the acting and good intentions.
Wrath - Aussie cat-and-mouse thriller, teen variant (read: with slasher overtones)

can't wait for DEAR GOD NO! promises to be the last word in demon biker Bigfoot meta-exploitation.

I hated Cold Fish - too long, too loathsome, too self-satisfied.

co-sign on Absentia and The Revenant.

the former is noteworthy for pulling off quite a bit on a seriously skimpy budget.

Some Guy Who Kills People - didn't completely work for me. still worth seeing for the acting and good intentions.

gets points for title obv

what Shion Sono movie isn't too long, too loathsome, and too self-satisfied? that's his trademark.

i liked CF - more than Guilty of Romance, which i can't get into no matter how i try. it's operatic in a way that recalls the OG Straw Dogs.

CF, that is. not GOR.

I mentioned it way upthread, but did anyone else get around to seeing "S&MAN (Sandman)?"

well, Love Exposure at least managed to dodge the "loathsome" requirement, though I still only like it about 1/10 as much as everyone else I know does.

like S&Man a lot. didn't we discuss it?

Luv X and Noriko double up on the overlong.

up=down.

NOT recommended, without hesitation:

Bordello Death Tales
Clownstrophobia
A Darker Reality
Demons Never Die
Devil's Playground
The Green Monster
Hellraiser: Revelations
House of Flesh Mannequins
Kill
Madison Country
Sleepaway Camp IV: The Survivor
Strippers vs Werewolves
Won Ton Baby!
Terror Overload

I liked S&Man a lot too. I wanted to discuss it ages ago but no one was interested.

a few more that should have made the noteworthy list. kicking myself for leaving off Rabies. still one of the best things i've seen this year.

Beyond the Black Rainbow - '70s sci-fi/horror stylistic pastiche. gorgeous to behold-and-hear but maddeningly void of meaning. also saddled with maybe the worst ending of all time ever. turn off your mind.
Cold Sweat - geriatric Nazis, horny teens, nitroglycerine. doesn't quite gel, but has a handful of great moments. another close-but... from the promising Adrián García Bogliano. i'm very eager to see Penumbra
Rabies - daaaaaaaaaark comedy of errors and errant intentions. subversive and quite brilliant. horrible things happen, so often that it's not a stretch to call it "horror." - see also Headhunters (Hodejegerne)

for our purposes, are Daylight, MMMM and Sound of My Voice to be considered horror films?

always up for a S&Man discussion, Jon. fire away.

Yeah, hit me. It was one of the more unique fake/real docs I've ever seen, its subject matter so unseemly that when it veers from truth (assuming any of it was real) it's pretty subtle and scary.

what Shion Sono movie isn't too long, too loathsome, and too self-satisfied? that's his trademark.

well, suicide circle, strange circus and exte are relatively brief. honestly, this is the only sono where the length has been a problem for me. would have worked better, overall, if it'd taken more cues from the wonderfully deadpan and kinetic opening scene.

xpost I saw it quite awhile ago so my memories have some moss on them now. I should rewatch so it's on the tip of my tongue. But basically it was p damn powerful stuff and I wanted to hear other ppl's thoughts.

Exte?! a mildly amusing idea that would've been better served as an anthologized short. but noooooo, Sono had to drag it out, through domestic melodrama and sociopolitical subplots, to an excruciating 108 min.

i might also need to re-view, Jon.

yeah, exte didn't feel too long to me. my objection was that it felt lazy and pointless. the horror had no bite and the comedy wasn't particularly funny.

intrigued by beyond the black rainbow

OH FFS!

BTBR is all shiny, shiny surfaces and killer soundtrack. it may be a bizarro coming-out allegory - or it may just be a shiny, shiny load of reverent/referential bullshit. or a little of both. it would be fun to see on the big screen.

The title of S&Man is too clever and never fails to confuse me before I remember what it means. Good movie, though, and the everyguy main subject is pretty convincing, whether it's total acting or not.

agreed. and it is. fortunately.

that final S&Man tape. (shudder).

<3 Beyond the Black Rainbow, so much. Conversely, kinda hated Rabies.

huh. what did you find to love about BtBR? i've been tryin'.

Besides that it's visually stunning and has a great analog-synth soundtrack, I find it inscrutable in the best way, throwing out just coherent enough a narrative - complete with a year-specific flashback! - to suggest readings without throwing any in your face. Plus, great villain.

that just wasn't enough for me. all the films to which it alludes had meat on their bones. Cosmatos just served up the carcasses on a pretty plate. with a side of mint jelly.

soundtrack is awesome, i concur. was shocked that it wasn't done by Lopatin.

It was done by a member of Black Mountain, I believe. Shame it didn't get a commercial release.

The main thing I hated about Rabies was the editing - that whole, "build to a claimax in one setting then cut to the other setting instead" thing they were doing through the whole thing felt like a cheap TV move.

*climax

yep. Sinoia Caves (Jeremy Schmidt of BM). i'm hoping for at least an isolated track on the Blu-ray. c'mon, Magnet.

Wake Wood 3 nights ago. Had me in under its spell for about 30-45 minutes, then became useless. Timothy Spall as classic villager-who-knows-dark-secrets A+, pretty sweet percussion + synth score, neat specifics to the horrid ritual, but overall dudsville. By the time of the OMG Coda I did not care at all.

i liked that about Rabies. lent a loping, off-kilter feel to film that underscored the unpredictable way each scenario played out.

By the seventeenth cut-away I just stopped giving a shit, I think.

I think BTBR was bolstered for me thanks to my mental pairing of it w/ another Canadian mindfuck - though not at all horror - which I saw at the same fest, Daniel Cockburn's You Are Here.

The title of S&Man is too clever

That's part of its genius. Even the titular character complains that nobody gets it, and they keep confusing it for S&M Man.

That's part of its genius. Even the titular character complains that nobody gets it, and they keep confusing it for S&M Man

I'd forgotten that. Still, though, for someone trying to choose a movie on Netflix, it's like "huh?" Until later, when it's "ahhh, ok."

I rather liked Wake Wood when I saw it, though now I remember nothing except that very good "birth" scene.

Yeah... sometimes a good front half and nice grotesque/arabesque details are enough for me. In Wake Wood's case, nah.

i posted about both of these in the horror results thread and then realized that they really had no business in there so

Trouble Every Day hmmmmm, kind of confused what people see in this movie really, mostly because oh man vincent gallo is really at his most inept and terrible in this movie, and thats saying something. ive heard theories that his wooden idiocy is intentional here, but i dont buy it.

Amer really exceptional and fantastic, scratches the same itches that Strange Circus and Anguish and Hausu do for me - i say if you want to do art-house horror go all in, and thats just what this does. i dont think i have a single criticism about anything this movie did, and i hope everyone sees it asap

Is Amer available on streaming (will try to remember to check when I get home)

not afaik, i think you have to get it on disc

some more stuff, including one surprising gem. and some okness.

yellowbrickroad - amateur awesomeness, despite an ending that i am fairly eh about. totally fantastic sound design in which the soundtrack is the antagonist both for the viewer and the characters. yeah i know, that doesnt seem to make any sense but just trust me, watch it, its a great movie and a total surprise. might appeal to the pontypool crowd. streaming netflix fyi.

absentia - another somebody has gone missing but why film which yeah is kinda done to death at this point, but theres some pretty solid acting and writing going on here. the jump scares start to evolve into something more forboding fairly early at which point the film hits a pretty nice balance between psychology and spookifying, with at least one very cerebral and subtle "oh shit" moment towards the end. i dug it.

the disappeared - and another missing person thing, british, well acted but sorta wandering around in search of a hook and you can feel that most of the way through. ending is off the rails and not really set up or justified well including a gotcha moment at the very end that might maybe surprise really really stupid people that didnt figure it out about 15 minutes into the movie. pretty aimless, pretty dull. also on netflix streaming but eh dont bother unless you are hoping for a mashup of a dumber sixth sense and a tame kids in trouble film. bleh.

Playback (2012) is on streaming now. It looks dumb. Is it?

well, christian slater is in it.