ok lets all shit our pants to something old: pre-2006 horror film thread

realized after watching The Brood, Videodrome, The Fly, and eXistenZ again recently that I am not really on board with Cronenberg's fantasy body horror films.

I watched it yesterday and enjoyed it fine, but followed it with Testsuo The Iron Man which was much more my sort of extreme body horror tbh.

Can't stop thinking about the last 20 minutes of I Bury The Living, and specifically the way the map gets bigger and brighter lit, and the office more sparsely furnished, as the delusion sets in.

YES. That map was employed brilliantly, the cemetery paths forming some weird occult symbol that just looms and becomes more prominent throughout the film.

There is definitely something strange about the map, all the paths are different shapes and alignments and definitely looks like an occult symbol.

tetsuo: the iron man is proof that cyberpunk is inherently gay

You say that like it's a bad thing.

oh really? i meant to say it like it was a very very good thing

"i love you so much i want to absorb you into my exoskeleton" the movie

In which case, yes.

Guy being attacked in the subway by increasingly crazy woman is the sexiest scene, for me anyway. Sequels aren't as good but the second one has some amazing moments. It's worth seeing everything by Tsukamoto.

I didn't like Tetsuo: the Iron Man, watching it was a really dysphoric experience for me

as far as Cronenberg goes I thought Crash was great, it moved on from his previous films

21st century for him was an evolution

Eastern Promises is my favorite film of his. want to see A History of Violence and Map to the Stars again

I know two of those are post-2006

Scanners was a memorable early film of his that didn't have as much of a body horror component

I mean there was the last half hour!

haha yes

Dead Zone from 1983 seems like an outlier film for him, emotional and scary but not relying that much on special effects

but Dan S, what do you make of Dead Ringers? (My favorite of the pre-2000s Cronenberg, tbh— truly disturbing film).

that's one I haven't seen in decades. I remember liking it, will check it out!

I ask partly because, uh, it's pretty heavy on the body horror, but it's also pretty heavy on the Jeremy Irons, so it sort of evens out

omfg Dead Ringers is one of the only movies i 1) couldn't finish 2) had nightmares after
the gynecology element was a bridge too far for me and i like cronenberg in general

Truly one of the most fucked up films I've ever seen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCGh1ysvlQA

https://www.discogs.com/Zden%C4%9Bk-Li%C5%A1ka-Mal%C3%A1-Mo%C5%99sk%C3%A1-V%C3%ADla-Hans-C-Andersens-The-Little-Mermaid/master/319267
https://www.discogs.com/Lubo%C5%A1-Fi%C5%A1er-Valerie-A-T%C3%BDden-Div%C5%AF-Valerie-And-Her-Week-Of-Wonders/master/106836
The films are very good but I consider these soundtracks essential, just amazing

I have the Valerie soundtrack but not the HC Andersen one

Magical dreamy stuff and the weird bouncy drums are great

Zeiram - Finding this came out of reading up about tokusatsu tv/films, I realized the darker edgier tokusatsu was happening roughly the same time as darker american superheroes. Guyver, new versions of Kamen Rider, Haikaider and others. Isn't Heidegger the perfect name for one of these?
It's really only the violence that makes Zeiram in any way dark, two of the heroes are almost as silly as the comedic characters in Power Rangers and the only real recommendation I can give for this is the costumes and creatures, the titular monster looks amazing (especially the snake woman inside the hat/mushroom head). It's a bit of a sluggish film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjtYWtumafc

Zeiram 2 - There's a lot of improvements, the action is quite a bit better but I still can't say it's a good film. Again, the costumes and monsters are the best thing about the film, there's much more of it (including a crowd of characters who quickly get massacred) and Katsuya Terada designed everything. The Zeiram monster has changed quite a bit and the snake woman is inside his chest now (I love her). disc features includes all the conecpt art.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me8HXfoiYco

Was this the same property as that '90s Iria anime?

It is.

On reading a bit, the anime is a prequel and there is a SNES action-platormer and a PS1 beat'em-up.

The director of the films has an interesting character design CV for videogames.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keita_Amemiya

The monsters of Kamen Rider ZO (1993) pic.twitter.com/Xmw4uooG1G

— HTOP (@Htop_Gunder) March 25, 2021

Is anyone interested in the Hands Of Orlac release? I heard someone say it was a huge disappointment years ago so I've never had much interest until now.

I bought the Norman J Warren box after he died and hadn't seen Prey in years.

That's one immensely fucked up film, the alien creature plot is totally secondary to the story of Josephine's abusive relationship behaviour and how the pair of them just seem to assume Anderson is some mentally ill guy they can treat badly and he'll take it.

Currently working my way through the new William Grefé blu-ray boxed set. Seven low budget indie features made in Florida between 1966 and 1977 (not including Stanley which may be his best, nor Impulse starring William Shatner which I've not seen).

There's some horror in here (eg Death Curse of Tartu (1966)), some action thrillers, some noirish stuff, lots of hippie exploitation (the director evidently was down with the Haight-Ashbury-style hippie scene of Coconut Grove in Miami); there's also plenty of animals that attack. This is a director who's very comfortable with dangerous wildlife.

Best of all is the seedy, sordid, often fetid atmosphere that's typically present throughout Grefé's filmography.

I started with The Naked Zoo (1970) which is a potboiler about a modish young playboy type/writer having an affair with, of all people, the middle-aged Rita Hayworth. Not quite as fascinating as I remembered it from watching it in some bleary state on a late-night cable showing back in the early '90s. Pacing is poor and the plot elements don't really fit together. Fun to see Hayworth in this setting though. And still wonderful and priceless is a scene with Canned Heat performing at a hippie house party, this scene having been inserted by another director after Grefé turned in his final cut.

A genuine horror is Mako: The Jaws of Death (1976) about an antisocial shark whisperer played by Richard Jaeckel, and his misadventures with an unscrupulous bar owner in the Florida Keys. The stuntwork involving real sharks is phenomenal and truly frightening... more convincing than Jaws! The plot is generally implausible and marred by leaps of logic, but Jaeckel plays it as straight as possible (many of the other cast members are locals, per the director's usual m.o.).

Also watched The Hooked Generation (1968), an action thriller about drug running starring Jeremy Slate, with support work from Coconut Grove hipppies. Not terrible. Fun climax in a mangrove swamp that is actually a public park in Miami. For those more interested in horror, the set also includes The Sting of Death (1966), about killer jellyfish, and a Deliverance-style murderous redneck shocker called Whiskey Mountain (1977), among other goodies.

One of the coolest things I ever made was this boardgame based on the world of Jean Rollin. Art by Jessica Seamans and hand-sculpted tokens by Dan Martin. pic.twitter.com/BiPcT9JQCc

— Kier-La Janisse (@bigsmashkierla) March 16, 2021

xpost If I have one major complaint about Arrow, it's how ridiculously limited-edition some of their stuff is. That Grefé set was released, what, a couple months ago? I've read more about it recently that piqued my interest (including your post!) but now afaict it's already out of freakin print.

finally watching ravenous (1999)

this movie is WILD

That Grefé set was released, what, a couple months ago? I've read more about it recently that piqued my interest (including your post!) but now afaict it's already out of freakin print.

I saw this just before I gave the Arrow Easter sale one last look and added it to my cart on the off chance it would let me. It turned up today so there are copies in the UK at least.

Sad to report that Grefé's Whiskey Mountain is pretty dull, despite a good cast (incl Christopher George, Roberta Collins). It was shot in North Carolina instead of Grefé's usual territory of Florida. Having poor sound does not help.

(rare) Max Schreck taking a break filming 'Nosferatu' (1922) This photo is creepier than any shot in the movie pic.twitter.com/sQ2iCiN1wj

— Hammer Horror Films (@HorrorHammer1) May 1, 2021

dead and buried, 1981 slow motion seaside village horror a la messiah of evil, currently available on shudder, fog in every scene, totally fucking amazing

This has been a crown jewel in Blue Underground's catalog for so long I'm shocked I still haven't seen it. Was featured in the second installment of In Search of Darkness, though, and it looks fantastic.

There's a second installment of In Search of Darkness!? I think I saw most of the first one, and it was iirc 4 1/2 hours long! And was basically just a parade of talking heads going "and then this movie came out, and it was really cool," and then moving on to the next movie.

Totally forgot that I bought Dead and Buried from a Blue Underground sale late last year. I should get on that.

All criticisms of In Search of Darkness are 100% correct and I also 100% don't care.

xpost that was just included on Last Drive-In on Shudder

i've heard the second in search of darkness is an improvement on the first

The selection of films feels more esoteric, fwiw, and there's definitely more of a laser focus on the Italio horror of the early 80s.

Also, a somewhat hilarious meta moment where the doc includes Terror in the Aisles as one of its featured movies.

Dead and Buried is the other great horror film directed by Gary (Death Line) Sherman. It was actually considered a 'video nasty' in the UK on its first VHS release, probably because of the old needle to the eyeball moment.

I've passed it up many times but I might give it a shot soon