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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC1DQsaKdgw

Trailer gives away any "is / isn't he?" mystery, but the movie has some neat additions to the genre with some daylight action and a non-standard werewolf look.

Cross-posting with the "last movies you saw" thread:

Signed up for HBO Max and finally watched The Conjuring, which I've been meaning to check out for a while. James Wan speaks the language of horror cinema better than almost anybody around right now; I expected lol70s cheese, but this thing is no-fucking-around scary. If you're in the mood for old-school horror (I strongly suspect more of the effects were practical than digital) with really good performances all around, especially Lili Taylor, it's kind of a must-see. The most genuinely frightening horror movie I've seen since Prince of Darkness.

I love the Conjuring - it's taken everything that worked from lots of haunted house movies and stuck them together.

Watched The Unholy (which was fine) and The Corruption of Divine Providence; which was nearly as good as it's title! I understand complaints that it wsa too crowded/busy, and I'd love a bit more Tarr to it, but what it did it did well.

Finally got around to The Dead Don't Die and In Fabric. The former was exactly what I expected from a Jarmusch zombie film, and enjoyable as such. In Fabric I kinda loved even though it was ridiculous. So many great images and scenes.

in fabric is so so so good. i'm a strickland stan at this point

Yeah I dug Berberian Sound Studio too. I still need to see Duke of Burgundy (which I guess doesn't qualify for this thread).

it doesn't but it's still creepy and kinda scary at points

also his best imo but i love lesbians

Duke could probably pass as psychological horror.

I really disliked The Conjuring, goofy melodrama, it treats mediums with an annoying reverence and it doesn't help that it has two real life frauds as heroes

Duke could probably pass as psychological horror.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, June 1, 2021 9:27 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

it could also pass as a comedy, movie really has everything

It is pretty funny, tbh.

The Conjuring ... iirc it relied sooooo much on loud scares, not just jump scares but *loud* jump scares, which I think are an extra kind of cheating.

The Conjuring 2 >>>>>>>>>>> The Conjuring

I don't care about the real life frauds being the 'heroes', I just pretend the film takes place in a world where they're real and actually saw what they claimed to.

the first Conjuring was just mediocre Catholic-guilt horror. second one was better just by going bigger and actually killing people.

Sinister was better than both

I keep meaning to watch Sinister. The crappier the movie around him seems to be, the better Ethan Hawke's performance turns out to be, IME.

I didn't know the characters were real people until a couple of years after I saw it, but I still really disliked it.

I knew cos basically they're the Amityville Horror looney toonie investigators.

Iirc, Sinister may be the only of these sorts of movies to address the "why don't they just leave!?" conundrum.

Great trailer, like Cronenberg's "Crash" meets ... I dunno no. Noe?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYm2RETn_oQ

^^^ from the director of raw btw

the images are astonishing, and julia ducournau doing something that's at least partially industrial horror.... it's already got my ticket

hmmm

Looks good thanks

Superdeep got terrible reviews but I quite enjoyed it. It’s not particularly innovative but it’s pretty fun.

Good soundtrack too.

Thelma was the first film I've seen by J. Trier and it's certainly worth a watch but I found the pacing somnambulant and its need to overexplain everything tedious. Great acting and a fun take on Firestarter with a "kill the patriarchy vibe".

I just watched Host and really enjoyed it. Loved the formal invention, which managed to deal with the 'just turn the fucking thing off!' conundrum quite neatly, and I totally fell for the cast and was invested in them, which is rare for a horror film. I was properly scared in a few places - to the point where I actually roared at one point and one of my kids came down to see if I was alright!

I've signed up for a month of Shudder as well, so will be enshittening myself for most of July and August.

you'll find plenty of shudder recs if you go back thru this thread

Nice one cheers. I'll have a dig around.

Watched The Hunt last night on HBO Max. I knew it would be dumb as shit, but it was actually OK, a few suuuuuper on-the-nose/this-film-was-made-in-2019 lines of dialogue aside. It's a Hostel/The Most Dangerous Game knockoff with "political" overtones, some decent fight scenes (it's often more action movie in the Scott Adkins/old-school Van Damme vein than horror, exactly), and (digital) gore. The biggest surprises come from who turns out to only have been hired for a single day of shooting, if you know what I mean.

I actually enjoyed "Werewolves Within," which features a lot of familiar funny faces in the cast, even if it's more fitfully amusing. If you liked "Ready or Not" (I did) you'd probably like this, too. Got some of its own on-the-nose political jokes, but I thought they mostly worked.

I liked the hunt. some amusing elements and Betty Gilpin rules

Following some of the Shudder recommendations, I watched Beyond the Walls over the last 3 nights and loved it. I'm a sucker for a 'house as symbol of the unconscious' and I loved how the house was rendered. It did lose its way a little in the final act but held its nerve and mercifully held off from 'chuck everything at the screen' rising climax approach. Great stuff.

Empty Man is on Disneyplus now

In the uK, at least

Blood Born is pretty good, though it kind of comes apart a bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4unxjlKCpw

Shudder's new one, Son, is pretty decent too, if you prefer you trauma post-partum instead.

gah definitive no thanks!! that image is even a bit much for me. i don't like grisly pregnancy horror tbh unless it is The Brood. It's hard enough having these reproductive organs, I don't need any more horror :)

Only just post-2006 but saw Lake Mungo this afternoon. Very affecting, expertly constructed and beautifully paced with the revelations slowly gathering momentum. It made me think of House of Leaves (most things do) but most obviously Twin Peaks (a bit on the nose to call the family the Palmers? Perhaps). It seems insane that the director has essentially disappeared but fair play: create something perfect and take your leave.

In The Earth is a nice addition to the psychedelic horror genre.

So it looks like a couple horrifically anthropomorphized animal films on their way?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hleuhBW_lc

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

I'm assuming the pig in Pig is just a pig, though.

Love the cute wee sheepies

oh man, lamb looks awesome

Mandibles is above standard Dupieux, definitely not a horror film but a good time.
Lamb looks amazing.

Despite finding plane hijackings to be a horrible dramatic setting, Blood Red Sky on Netlfix was pretty good, fun.

do y’all think i should make a thread for the empty man

I'd contribute! Just watched it and loved it.

Still processing The Empty Man. I loved it for all sorts of reasons. Some of them (most of these are themes/connections):

I'm glad I saw this knowing mostly nothing so *possible spoilers*

I winced at the run time but it didn't feel long at all. Too much happens; it's too well constructed.
We're in a rich vein of films about disassociation - enough for it to be a signal of the times? This and Possessor feel like peaks.
The film within a film referencing Candyman and Nightmare on Elm Street (among others).
The film within a film of the prologue that I absolutely could have watched another hour of.
The weird clicking whisper that permeates the whole thing made me think of the ""ki ki ki, ma ma ma" from Friday 13th.
Jacques Derrida High School! (Kinda cheap, but I liked it).
Cherry-picking and straight-up Orientalism in places but the references to the darkness at the heart of a lot of Buddhist thought are thoughtfully managed. The Alexandra David-Néel book they referenced is excellent. The Pontifex (bridge-building) Society embody that worst kind of syncretism and cheap folk-wisdom. Stephen Root as the Hubbard figure was fantastic.
The 'dreaming into being' of Lasombra is straight out of Borges' The Circular Ruins. (Lasombra means 'shadow' 'phantom' - I'm a total sucker for (not so) buried references like this).
I wanted more Ron Canada. 'We can't indict the universe'.
Prior has worked with Fincher? This has something of Zodiac about it for sure.

I'll stop now.

Was enjoying Saint Maud but godammit the special effects really spoiled it for me.