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

Though I don't mean to oversell its social conscience. I think this line from the NYT review is pretty otm: "Cregger isn’t as concerned with making bold political points as he is with orchestrating a snappy spectacle that goes a mile a minute. #MeToo, gentrification, the brutal underbelly of the Reagan era — all these elements fit like puzzle pieces into a broader nightmare that lets the context speak for itself."

I guess I would have preferred it do one thing well than bits and pieces of other things that other movies did better.

I ... think it did? But again it really depends on your perception of what it was trying to do. I was getting pretty irritated with it until its first big gear shift, because I thought it was doing something that it wasn't actually doing (because it wants you to think that's what it's doing, until suddenly it's not any more). Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's genius or perfect. But I do think it has a very deliberate structure and strategy.

maybe I'm just tired of troglodytes, lol.

Fair enough, although I liked that even the troglodyte didn't turn out to be the real bad guy. She was more in the tragic-monster tradition.

Barbarian was great. Every twist was a surprise, and all earned. 10/10, no notes.

Still think it could have leaned in harder on the gentrification angle, frankly. I mean, THIS is a real horror story:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/18/detroit-house-free-property-tax

But it was well-constructed in general and just doing that wisely-never-hinted-at-in-trailers mid-movie shift alone was smart.

Meantime was taking advantage of that A24 Streaming Room deal to catch up on a few things I'd missed. Saint Maud, that was an awe-inspiring final shot that transforms the film and the film was already pretty damn sharp.

Saint Maud is either on Hulu or Amazon Prime, I forget which, but it's definitely on my to-be-watched list.

Rewatched Cabin in the Woods and Saint Maud the last two days. Enjoyed them both. I'm convinced Saint Maud is a mini masterpiece

Saint Maud is great, yeah. Tonight we finally watched Jennifer's Body, which I liked. It doesn't surprise me that it sort of fell through the cracks on its release, it's legitimately upsetting in some parts and funny in others. Fox and Seyfried were both good.

Speaking of funny, we also just watched Tucker & Dale the other night, loved it.

WE GOT YO FRAND

Heh. I loved that movie.

saw terrifier 2! lol

man, wtf barbarian

first half scared the full shit out of me in the best way and then as soon as the nursing video & the bottle happened i was like, wut… and just stared stupidly as this great movie got progressively less scary & more dumb & then it was over

like it started with one idea & ended with like twelve. and it just got too heightened, it totally took me out of it.

there was a better movie in there somewhere if he’d coco chanel-ed a few of his ideas. oh well. “

Yeah, I mean, all the good themes that tipsy laid out are there in that first section, introduced with intelligence, subtlety and tons of suspense. And then either the guy ran out of ideas or had a crisis of confidence or had to deliver for the money people, because a la lots of disappointing horror movies, when the monster you see isn't nearly as scary as the monster you can't see, you've done something wrong. When the troglodyte burst through the wall and ripped the guy's arm off, I laughed, but not in a good way. Why do these inbred creatures in movies always have super-strength as well? You'd think they'd be vitamin deficient or something. Anyway, there are so many things you can do with a spooky basement or secret door, both of which are metaphor rich, but they went the literal route instead.

saw terrifier 2! lol

― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Monday, October 31, 2022 9:46 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

to expand: gross, not very scary (unless you're scared of clowns) (i'm not), takes place in a universe ruled by random cruelty and sadism (so our universe), but brings a lot of imagination and fun(?) to it. more impressed the more i think about it, can't think of a recent horror movie that more gleefully walks the line between ridiculous and upsetting. the story is very basic, practically a slasher writing prompt, but i didn't feel the 2.5 hour runtime at all (well except when the teens go to a boring halloween dance, my expectations for halloween party scenes are v high) and i loved whenever there was a dream sequence or a teen fantasy element bc i felt the film's narrow and cruel world expanding; also grateful the film spent zero time explaining the elm street-esque dreams and fantasy stuff, which would've made a good dumb movie bad dumb

https://letterboxd.com/unbornwhiskey/list/halloween-2022-dead-by-dawn/

i also finished my october horror marathon, which since it was all pre-2006 is maybe more appropriate for the other thread, but wow it sure was a brainmelter. mostly incompetent z-grade grindhouse/direct-to-video/might as well be shot-on-video even if it isn't-type fare. i had an amazing time. if you were to ask me "which of these movies were legit good" i would dwell on the british horror classics the shout and xtro, those movies will fuck you up for days, plus fulci's the psychic which had the increasingly rare effect of pulling me in with its story, it's such a good yarn. but also the new argento, dark glasses, was an utter delight, otherworldly, atmospheric, unsettling, yet ultimately...wholesome(?) at its core. watching the characters take such good care of each other made me believe in humanity lol

xpost I know it is sort of intentionally over the top, but I heard about a scene where someone is tortured and mutilated and nearly killed, then the magic clown leaves and comes back with salt and bleach just to torture her some more. and I thought, I get it, that's so ridiculous, but at the same time I thought really? *and* it's two and a half hours long? nah.

i thought it was interesting that both barbarian and x both center around monsters that are grotesque naked women who are driven by stereotypically feminine concerns (feeling less attractive as they get older/motherhood) without anyone being offended by it (as far as i've seen). it bothered me more in x because of the whole "ew a gross old person wants sex" angle and bc the movie as a whole was not as good, at least in barbarian the monster is ultimately sympathetic, but it felt icky to me (not in a fun horror movie way) in both movies. i do agree barbarian suffered in the final chunk when they actually had to show and deal with the monster but that's true of like 85% of horror movies so i'm not going to ding it too hard for that.

pearl is totally sympathetic

i think the movie plays it both ways

cynically

i agree the movie plays on the characters' and audience's revulsion toward aging bodies but i don't think it shares said revulsion. fair to read it the other way i guess

but as a character she's totally as tragic a figure as the crone in barbarian. of course i'm a little informed by the prequel but i thought of x this way before i saw pearl

i'm not super upset about any of this, i've seen enough horror movies to know how stuff like this works, i'm just surprised i didn't see any discourse around it

i've seen it mentioned in a few letterboxd reviews, especially of barbarian, which tend to note it as an inadvertent 2022 horror trend lol

I think the stunt casting in "X" at least partially explained why a lot of people elided right over the "yuck, old people" angle. I haven't seen "Pearl," but there was this weird ambiguity to "X" that felt more ambitious than what the movie delivered, though not necessarily to its detriment.

Watching "Barbarian," I thought they totally leaned into the "ew" angle, but I thought it was mostly lazy, like much of the by the numbers end stuff.

man can't believe a horror movie featured a character with grotesque facial features

also Brad super otm re: Terrifier 2.

using a balding old naked woman to horrify people is one of the oldest dullest tricks in the book imo. honestly because it's so common i didn't think twice about it in Barbarian. i wouldn't have expected her to look any different tbh.

am I the only one here who thought Hatching was great? I am not a hardcore horror fan so it was just the right level of scary for me, also I love the sound of Finnish when spoken

I love Cabin In The Woods in all its meta glory

Boy, "X" was OK but "Pearl" was utterly inspired. Martin Scorsese otm.

prey for the devil: incredibly average possession/exorcism movie with more than a few anti-choice vibes? solid lead performance tho

lead was jacqueline byers who has barely been in anything but i look forward to seeing her in a good horror movie maybe someday

i saw two horror-adjacent-but-not-really-horror-movies recently and i don’t know where to post about them!:

1. the menu: maybe a little basic in some of its storyline choices but deliriously entertaining anyway

2. bones and all: this movie worked its way inside of me and did something to me and i’m different now

Agree with the "Barbarian" reviews itt. The Justin Long "boop!" made me laugh.

The Menu felt like a foodie Theatre of Blood

This is a good thing

I thought "The Menu" was great, like "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by way of Peter Greenaway, with a dash of "Ratatouille."

skinamarink: remember when you were a kid and you'd turn out the light to go to bed and the shadows in your room would collect into the shape of a face on the ceiling and if you were tired enough you could hear sounds like gnarled speech coming from its bottomless mouth

^^^ I just came here to post about this, my son the horror buff sent me the trailer last night. Intrigued.

Getting some serious "Near Dark" vibes from "Bones and All."

This was fine and there was more I liked about it than didn't, but at the same time it felt frustratingly half-baked, like a low-budget pandemic rush job, with limited time with the actors and locations (maybe it was?). Also count me among those that did not really like Mark Rylance's Clare Quilty as written (and directed) by Stephen King.

horror and horror-adjacent 2022:

crimes of the future
dark glasses
bones and all
mad god
pearl
nope
the munsters
orphan: first kill
you won’t be alone
skinamarink
smile
x
terrifier 2
halloween ends
bodies bodies bodies

bitter disappointment:
scream ‘22

best first 30 minutes of a horror movie:
barbarian

not good at all:
the invitation
prey for the devil

still need to see:
resurrection
watcher

best horror movie from the past i saw for the first time this year:
the shout (1978)

horror/horror-adjacent director i grew increasingly obsessed with over the year:
shinya tsukamoto (tetsuo the iron man, kotoko)

Tsukamoto and The Shout is my all-time stuff, have you seen Tokyo Fist, Haze, Vital and Gemini yet?

Rebecca Hall has been in at least 3 horror films and I haven't seen any of them yet.

Best Horrors from 2022/2021 that I saw this year

Top Tier:
Skinamarink
Flux Gourmet
Hatching
You Won't Be Alone
The Northman
Lamb
The Feast
Memoria
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair
Hellraiser
Censor
Strawberry Mansion

Middle Tier:
Hellraiser
Deadware
Incantion
Black Phone
She Will
Barbarian
Gaia
Broadcast Signal Intrusion
Things Heard & Seen
In the Earth
Resurrection
Prey
VHS 94
Nope
Shepherd

Disappointing:
X
Deadstream
The 8th Night
Medium
Watcher
Midnight Mass

Lol I see I've put Hellraiser in 2 tiers, and that def reflects my indecisiveness over how good it is...

Did you see Pearl? I thought it was a lot better/more interesting than X.

Tsukamoto and The Shout is my all-time stuff, have you seen Tokyo Fist, Haze, Vital and Gemini yet?

still working my way through the filmography so no not yet! literally just saw tetsuo ii body hammer a few weeks ago (it’s insanely great and i should’ve bought the manga entertainment release back when it was constantly advertised to me on anime dvds when i was 12… wonder how i would’ve reacted to it, suspect i would’ve instantly been on its wavelength bc people transcending their bodies to become big guns is awesome)