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

Bug and Killer Joe are both nasty and great

so is color out of space worth seeing

I saw Bug so long ago I had no idea who Michael Shannon was, but I remember it being pretty good in a highly claustrophobic way. I should get around to Killer Joe one of these days.

Killer Joe's great but the stage version's even better. something about being in the same room as that maniac just raises the stakes.

I missed the point of Bug when I saw it, due for a rewatch

watched Ready or Not last night, one of the worst films I've ever seen

Wow, I guess see more movies? At the very least it's competent.

not sure how it's competent when it fails at being a horror, a comedy, a satire or anything else one would assume it's going for

colour is fine? i wouldn't get too excited but it does what it says on the wrapper.

i didn't hate ready or not but i did think it was mediocre and squandered some game performances. i agree it was weak satire and not particularly funny or scary. everybody exploding at the end did make me laugh.

ready or not is definitely ugly-looking and never gives you a sense of the mansion as a coherent space which is like basically inept filmmaking. but i had fun so who gives a shit

Its horror and satire are weak but I've seen enough shitty horror/comedy-ish movies to recognize it as better than average, if only for the goofy ending. It's not going in the Library of Congress or anything, but it's definitely not inept, come on.

Like, I have a pretty low tolerance for inept, I have no qualms walking out of movies.

no i just mean that a movie having no sense of the space it takes place in is bad filmmaking 101. the layout of the mansion and where characters are situated in it at any given time is pure randomness and confusion. i enjoyed the movie despite this

Heh, I think I appreciated the mansion and its passages and stuff as just, like, a production design McGuffin. That is, in "Knives Out" - or even "Clue" - where things are matters. In this one, not so much. Just need to be doors and cabinets and whatnot to pop in and out of, the how and where of it didn't matter much to me. For example, no matter how many times I've seen, say, "Evil Dead 2," I have no idea how that cabin works as a space.

Imo, having a likable, charismatic lead made a huge difference, and if that was all the film did well, that's enough for me these days.

that's the one thing it did have going for it admittedly, unfortunately everyone else in it bugged the shit out of me

Just saw Color Out of Space and thought it was dull af, crummy CGI & acting out of a SyFy original movie, and Cage does not deliver nearly enough of teh crazy to make it worthwhile imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoJc2tH3WBw

Brad otm about Ready Or Not and the mansion. For a film that is almost entirely about playing hide and seek, it has basically zero tension as well. Samara Weaving is always good value though.

I’ve seen to much trash recently on planes. Annabelle Comes Home and La Llorona suggest that the people making the Conjuring universe stuff, while never high art, have basically stopped trying. Just a dull slog with a cobbled together script and a handful of jump scares. McKenna Grace, despite being about ten, is vastly better than the former deserves.

Fantasy Island, which has a very strong vibe of a film Paris Hilton would have starred in circa 2004, is at least watchable.

Oz Perkins’ Gretel & Hansel looks like it might be legit good, from the trailer.

Samara Weaving is always good value though.

I thought she was a big reason why the movie didn't work tbh.

Green Knight looks cool but fuck that cgi fox.

I thought "Doctor Sleep" was pretty silly, and sometimes strange, and not at all scary, and I'm surprised it got a theatrical release rather than live on Netflix with most of Mike Flanagan's stuff. But I like him, and he did about as well as he could with the material, I suppose. I saw the director's cut, fwiw, so can only imagine the theatrical version was even more confusing.

It's a weird thing, though, this movie. "Doctor Sleep," the book, was (I guess? I didn't read it) a sequel to "The Shining" (the book, which I've also never read), but of course "The Shining" (the movie) is apparently pretty different from the book. So I suppose this this movie is trying to be both adaptation of "Doctor Sleep" (the book) and sequel to "The Shining" (the movie).

It retreads a lot of familiar territory for King; the redemptive alcoholic etc. And it kept some of his worst traits - his anti-zigianism, the predictable buddy death. And it just felt too fantastic. Sucking a soul from a flask? It just didn’t work.

I'm no King stan, but while there did seem to be tons of familiar stuff ... it's a sequel. Regardless, a more interesting story could have been told without those "Near Dark" leftovers, since it has all those themes of abuse (alcohol and child) to explore. But like I said, probably did about as well as it could with the material.

(Had to google antiziganism)

Also: de-gloving and tendon cuts, King seems to like those.

I watched Splice (2009), and it’s been a while since I disliked a film so strongly. I don’t think a single thing anyone did in this film is believable, the characters are wildly inconsistent, clumsy dialogue. Stupid and ugly.

$4 Comcast stream of "Haunt" was worth the money. Kids out driving in country see "Haunted House" neon sign, decide to visit house run by masked people. Final girl was a decent character. Not original, but done well, with a few things I didn't expect, and a satisfying ending.

The Invisible Man:

Good - opening scene, restaurant scene, Elizabeth Moss, some style, jump scares.
Bad - wild improbabilities (not in general, you just go with the premise, but specific scenes and points of logic), too long, zero attempt to ruminate on invisibility (like Cronenberg's The Fly ruminates on decay--too much to ask, I know), too-cute ending, jump scares. Also didn't like the way there isn't even a hint of sexuality in Moss's relationship with her cop friend.

I've never read the book or seen the original, and suspect this has little or no connection to either. I do love Elliot Gould's Invisible Man joke in The Long Goodbye.

I don’t check this thread too often so forgive me if it’s been discussed ad nauseum, but I finally caught the Suspiria redo and was enthusiastic about it. I really thought it paid tribute well and stood its own ground. I was nuts about the dancing and the color/photography.

I can understand negative reactions but I really liked it a lot

Not sure if it's cos i went to the cinema in a bad mood but i found color out of space quite disappointing. seemed to mush together tropes and ideas from a ream of existing films (The Shining, Society, The Thing, Slither) without really offering anything new, nor anything to really think about. It ended up being a sequence of loosely-linked events that seemed designed to show off some quite nice but OTT special effects, but it all felt a bit empty and inconsequential.

I enjoyed how it messed with everyone in different ways, but it seemed a little less than well thought out. Some of the things that it seemed to suggest simply went nowhere. It seemed like the kind of movie they ran out of money making. Still, I'm glad to see that Stanley got work again.

Also caught the Suspiria remake this weekend, too, and agree with your comments, particularly the dance scene with the audience. Wonderful. Was thinking the final dance scene could have ended with more than dancers somewhat whirling in place, but guessing choreography driven by safety concerns given the slippery floor. Leaps and slides probably not a good idea.

Also watched Girl on the Third Floor. Don't feel the time was wasted, despite many, many medium close-ups, plus a seriously 'meh' ending and epilogue. Was rooting for the evil house.

color out of space quite disappointing. seemed to mush together tropes and ideas from a ream of existing films ... a sequence of loosely-linked events ... inconsequential.

this is not an unfair reaction to the film or to Lovecraft in general, but the movies you cite were all made 55-80 years after The Colour Out Of Space

Story is a tad too long but my favorite thing is the bit they'll never get onscreen: the farm and "blasted heath".

Hey y’all, I’m quietly sneaking back into a few beloved threads after an...extended absence. Looks like I have some catching up to do here.

:D

welcome back, friend

the new black christmas was so riotously good i was freaking out the whole time

the script is simultaneously a lot on the nose and a lot hopped up on goofballs but respectively 1) it's on the nose in ways that are... correct, so i was never mad about it 2) some of the more ridiculous moments make the movie seem like it's operating according to a weird private sense of humor shared among a group of friends, which is great in a film explicitly about sisterhood. looked great (again everyone should watch always shine), enormously cathartic and cool and fun and wildly different from the original and the 2006 remake, i couldn't have been happier

any Shudder recommendations? been burning through stuff so I can bounce before I get charged lol

highlights so far:

Luz: probably would have annoyed me if it was any longer but at 65 mins before credits, this was just the right length. almost more of a demo reel than a movie, but a very good demo reel.

Daniel Isn't Real: son-of-Schwarzenegger makes an excellent imaginary Patrick Bateman. this was way more solid than I expected.

Black Coal, Thin Ice: not horror - Chinese neo-noir - but really good, sort of a deeply fucked new take on Sea of Love. made me eager to check out Wild Goose Lake.

Dogs Don't Wear Pants: also not really horror, just an exceptionally violent BDSM romantic tragicomedy. Had some really great moments and fine performances, but would have really benefitted from fleshing out the other characters besides the protag. Leans into some cliches the BDSM community would frown upon, I kinda suspect, though I'd be lying if I said I was an expert of any kind.

Slumber Party Massacre: somehow had never seen this. A riot, though would have been a first-tier slasher classic with a less lame killer.

what! the driller killer in slumber party massacre is terrifying!

I found him pretty effective till he started talking

These both sound interesting but I don't think I'll bite yet. There's a few spoilers.
https://thebedlamfiles.com/film/the-platform/
https://thebedlamfiles.com/film/swallow/

Heard v good things about the latter.

is that a horror movie about Bush's meteoric rise in the 90s

Essay from Mike Flanagan about watching horror ... well, now:

https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3611821/facing-fear-times-uncertainty-guest-essay-filmmaker-mike-flanagan/

as I mentioned on the Streaming thread, Shudder just added the first eight Friday the 13ths, so that's my weekend sorted

Re: Flanagan piece, I also hated horror when I was a kid but loved monsters, it was intensely uncomfortable.

There was a lot of horror writers on twitter promoting their virus stories, some people saying that is screwed up and some people saying it's completely appropriate to the function of horror.

I've seen a lot more trends about comfort reads/viewing though.

I don't think I've really responded at all to the situation in my entertainment habits.