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

Watched Svengali (1931) starring John Barrymore. People don't talk about this much but it's quite an oddity. Kind of a comedy but has a totally downer ending. Lots of german expressionist aesthetics in the sets/architecture and Barrymore's eyes look genuinely creepy in one scene (reminiscent of Mabuse). Writer or director probably liked feet. A scottish man and english man strip Barrymore and put him in a bath (but mostly off-camera).

Writer or director probably liked feet.

If you're referring to the bit where Trilby kicks off her shoes to display her feet, that's in the source novel.

But yes, the art director and cinematographer borrowed copiously from Expressionism. Anyone who likes this should check out The Mad Genius (1931). This also stars Barrymore, playing a mashup of Rasputin and Diaghilev.

It was also that bit with the artist drawing her feet on the door

Also worth mentioning is Barrymore was possibly the most striking looking Jekyll & Hyde

So much that Graham Ingels based a character on that version of Hyde

Mentioned in a few posts back in September. Just watched the whole thing. Thanks for the recommendation, really well done.

Oh wait thought I was responding to a post in the pre-2005 thread about Woodlands Dark.

88 Films is releasing Pupi Avati's Zeder. I liked House Of Laughing Windows okay but I've always wanted this one. Hopefully Mysterious Enchanter won't be long away too.

Watched a muddy version of Spider Labyrinth on youtube, it's heavily inspired by Argento but with more monster stuff. It's okay but I wonder how much better it could look with a remaster, I used to think you could tell roughly how well a film is shot even in a shitty copy but I think I've been surprised before.

https://www.fabpress.com/the-ghastly-one-paperback.html
Has anyone read this? I've never seen any of his films but the book sounds great

I'm cautiously interested in this but I fear it will spend more time on everything but the films
https://www.johnhuntpublishing.com/zer0-books/our-books/fear-before-fall-horror-films-late-soviet-union

Didn't know this was coming back into print so have ordered, thanks for the tip.

I'm going to stick my neck out and say his films are not for you. The acting is rarely more than amateur, he makes some ridiculous shot choices repeatedly (my favourite is when he sets up a two shot on a table with a giant centrepiece which obscures at least one actor wherever he shoots from and he does in at least three films), weird bits of actual hardcore pornography, poorly realised gore or real animal abuse appear frequently and often not in service of any plot point. But...

He has a real charm that somehow gets under your skin. The movies are edited together haphazardly, but part of that is because scene length is based on whatever offcuts he could buy. And Vapors is genuinely good, I think.

Of his famous works, Fleshpots is a good start and then try his British films. There's a BFI Flipside twofer of Nightbirds and The Body Beneath that's fairly easy to get hold of. Then I guess you can take your choice after that.

I'll probably try one someday, but not in a hurry.

His real life is pretty fascinating though, so you might get a kick out of the book.

I was okay with Zeder but Gabriele Lavia is super handsome, had only seen him in the Argento films I think. Maybe a little too sunny and prosaic?

Finally got around to Tenderness Of Wolves, it's pretty good. In an extra Stephen Thrower talks about how strange the trajectory of Lommel's career has been, one of those directors who either straddles or goes back and forth between arthouse and more traditional exploitation films. Is Boogeyman worth a go?

Really enjoyed Darkman but it is so much like Batman, love how cartoony all the angry bits are

Hope this means blurays are coming soon, Demon Pond has been literally at the top of my most wanted film for years

4K restoration of Masahiro Shinoda's haunting and fantastical DEMON POND premieres this Friday @MoMAFilm to kick off their series "Beyond Ozu: Hidden Gems of Shochiku Studios!" https://t.co/dSXpigMzyo pic.twitter.com/60TapVFQCB

— Janus Films (@janusfilms) June 5, 2022

most wanted film list, that is

Been hearing great things about Ghost of Sierra de Cobre, seems like it came on disc in 2018 so this seems like really delayed praise

"Ghost of Sierra de Cobre" (1964) have just entered my top 5 horror movie list. Great everything, but top casting and sound design. The thing surprisingly made me tense some moments. The thing looked like found footage glitch apparition, super creepy,super good. pic.twitter.com/t2FlxfHI06

— Gontijo (@gontijodesign) June 9, 2022

https://johnnyalucard.com/2019/05/09/film-review-the-ghost-of-sierra-de-cobre-1965/

watched The Changeling (1980) over the weekend having never seen it before. solid, not gimmicky, not really what i was expecting. probably influenced a lot of later films.

(what i was kind of expecting was a film about a possessed girl. what am i confusing it for?)

and last Saturday i went to spend the last of some tokens i had on the Female Prisoner Scorpion box set but it was gone 8(

^ but it was there yesterday

Definitely worth seeking out

Seventh Curse - This is fun, like a gorier Indiana Jones with monsters. People have said that Maggie Cheung's character is an idiot but she's downright nuts, she knocks Kara Wai out with a brick just to get ahead in her job. Ni Kuang introduces the film in the middle of a luxurious party surrounded by people drinking wine, more films should open with the original writer of the source material hosting a party, have this at the start of every Stephen King film.

I watched both versions of Ghost Of Sierra De Cobre/The Haunted. The former is longer and has a sharper picture but the latter is tighter. I'd recommend it to fans of The Haunting, though it's at the seaside and the architecture is more modern. The ghost is quite eerie. It is sad that it never aired on television, I wonder how the series would have progressed because it's a cut above any Thriller and Twilight Zone episodes I've seen. Seems to be from people who worked on The Outer Limits series.

Yeah, it's surprisingly tight for something that started out as a tv pilot.

I rewatched Tsukamoto's Gemini and it's still a contender for the best looking color film I've seen. Why does a film like this happen then the film industry mostly doesn't learn anything from it? It's a shame Ryo hasn't had more major roles that I can see, most of her work seems to be on television. I didn't know that writer Yasutaka Tsutsui was playing the father first time but then I probably didn't know who he was back then. Wonderful film.

Rewatched Beauty And The Beast (Virgin And The Monster) by Juraj Herz. Commentary points out how much Beast resembles Phantom Of Paradise and that was well spotted, I wonder if it was an actual influence? Herz made it at the same time as Ninth Heart and I hope to see that someday. The film studio accused him of tricking them because they asked for fairy tales and got horror films.

I thought Black Death with Eddie Redmayne and Sean Bean was really good. There's a couple of ambiguities that make it richer than it might have been. I thought the director's earlier film Creep was just okay but I might keep an eye on him now.

I love that movie, quality carice van houten performance too. Great vibe, great score. I saw triangle and liked it but haven’t kept up with later things by this director.

I mostly know Tim McInnerny from Blackadder and 101 Dalmatians, so this was different! And second thing I've seen Kimberley Nixon in after Fresh Meat.

I forgot how much Scream dialogue crossed over into Dawson’s Creek.

Seen the full version of Salem's Lot for the first time in ages, knowing who more of the actors are changes the experience quite a lot.
I still think those shock zoom shots are a mistake and some of the vampires look like they're wincing with discomfort in the make-up. The vampire who repeatedly says "look at me" seems as if he wants the old man to shag him.
The old house in the last 6th of the film looks very good. Soundtrack might be worth seeking out?
Does anyone know if the Hooper commentary track is worth a listen because he was a notoriously quiet man and 3 hours might be difficult.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfs9x0Yxyw0
Been wanting to see Singapore Sling for a very long time and discovered recently there is a channel with the bulk of Nikos Nikolaidis's filmography in HD (I've heard his son uploaded it all). It's a contender for the strangest film I've ever seen, like a deranged soft porn film set in a neo-noir world. I don't think it's his best known film in Greece but it's the one that got him international attention and it was banned in britain. I maybe admire it more than enjoyed it but it always looks wonderful.
See You In Hell My Darling whooshed over my head even more, it has a lot of similarities to Singapore Sling but I found it harder to get a foothold. What were the multiple scenes of that woman falling in the water all about? I'm having trouble imagining what his more mainstream films might be like.

I was a bit underwhelmed by Ebola Syndrome but they really do go for the grossout and loathsome characters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC3rqbT_VD8
Really enjoyed this Mark Hartley video, I bought 2 films because of it.

I don't understand why he's so enthusiastic about The Survivor. It's quite stylish at times but I thought it was ultimately just okay.

He was totally right that Torture Chamber Of Dr Sadism is alarmingly like a Mario Bava film. I got a german bluray rather than the Severin Christopher Lee box set. How did this film escape me so long? Within the limitations of this kind of film I found it really delightful. A must-see if you like colorful gothic horror films of the 60s. Harald Reinl has done Nibelungen/Siegfired, Mabuse, many Edgar Wallace crime adaptations and westerns but I don't think he has anything else like this, what a shame! This film and a chunk of his others have Karin Dor (who I somehow didn't notice in James Bond) who he was married to for a while. I really love this film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzLLUt_lCiA

Don't know if this is streaming right now but I love this one
https://www.criterionchannel.com/under-the-blossoming-cherry-trees

I Drink Your Blood - hated it. just no hook. the build-up could have been really entertaining, a family living in a ghost town created by a nearby dam, terrorized by local Satanic cult. but the whole thing was so bungled.

when the grandpa shows up to get revenge for the rape of his granddaughter, instead of him being killed which would have made sense, they inexplicably let him and his grandson go, even though they could call police (ghost town or not, you can still get law enforcement to visit) or take another stab at revenge later. then they go to the bakery of the very people they terrorized and willingly eat something prepared by the child who is staring at you with daggers because of what you did with his grandpa the night before. by the time the violence finally starts, I was already so fucking bored.

normally love exploitation horror, but this one kept inching up to something entertaining then scuttling away for the first 70 minutes or so.

aight fess up, who else has seen Lamberto Bava's Macabre

cos LOL

xp still incredible for it's amazingly wrong treatment of "rabies"

that, I was ok with, in that I expect horror movies to take real ideas to absurd, nonsensical heights.

is that the one Stephen king talks about in Danse Macabre like the holy grail of what they wanted to see as kids, calls it "macbare"?

(ha, first ddg hit for "Stephen king macbare" is me in another ilx thread)

Holy shit, Der Fan (1982). Just saw a screening. A lot of unpack on that one, but man pretty affecting, even just as a incredibly slow burn (coming-of-age) thriller to the climax, let alone all the pop music idolatry metaphor for Nazism. Don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it, even by indirectly comparing to a certain iconic modern horror it's probably influenced, but yeah... catch it if you get a chance.

All Region bluray of Laurin coming
https://secondrundvd.com/comingsoon.html

Nice that two of my favourite Italian films are getting blurays: Horrible Dr Hichcock and Night Of The Devils. Not sure I need to buy these films again but the former might benefit an upgrade. Undecided.

Laurin is pretty good. Grim little Christmas film I didn't understand was a bonus feature.

If you haven't heard of it, here's a trailer of the recent remaster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3qRUc0PHGo

Just watched The Exorcist, which I'd never seen before (it's on Max). It's technically accomplished, but only moderately frightening. More interesting for its depressing early 70s vibe. NYC in 1972: scarier than demonic possession!

Watched Event Horizon for the first time - first two-thirds I was confused how it got bad reviews on release, it looked great and was creepy as hell.

The back third horror action could have been all right but it's the rare time I wish a movie had been longer - more build up to Sam Neill going insane or something. As it was it dropped from a couple of rungs below Alien to a couple of rungs below Hellraiser.