reading the zombie thread above, it occurred to me we don't have anything like this. Maybe this will just be me talking to myself, but I would think their are enough folks here who watch horror movies that we can actually keep a thread going on the subject
Anyway...as far as movies go, I am a huge horror fan, and I probably on average watch something like a hundred a year. Especially with the wonderful world of Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu at my fingerprints. This past weekend I watched three or four (no spoilers below, but brief descriptions)
Spring
This honestly might be one of my favorite horror movies of the year. A young man deals with the loss of his mother from cancer and an arrest warrant due to a drunken assault by high-tailing it to Italy. While there he ends up falling madly in love with a mysterious and gorgeous genetics graduate student doing research on the local population. Eventually we find out that the woman is way way more mysterious than the guy could imagine.
This movie might be unique in being the only true Horror-Romance. It's basically "Before Sunrise...but with body horror". The cinematography is amazing, and I dare anyone not to want to visit Italy after watching the movie. The two leads have amazing chemistry, and the movie manages to make their relationship authentic, to the point where even someone as curmudgeonly as myself is rooting for them.
Treehouse
I sadly can't recommend this as highly. A couple of teens in missouri break the curfew enacted in a small missouri town due to a series of child abductions. Venturing out into the woods they end up coming across one of the missing teens, terrified and hiding out in a treehouse. A long siege begins between the teens...and something in the woods
The movie started out fairly strong, and takes a lot of setting up creepiness of the antagonists. The movie then seems to take exceptional glee in demolishing every trope related to this genre of movie, resulting in a completely lackluster finish that literally ends without even finishing the final act...
As it turns out...the menacing "creatures" end up being a trio of possibly inbred redneck teens, whose mom died and pretty much resulted in them being free to kill and torture for lolz. However they are probably the least imposing redneck/inbred mutants/teen killers ever put on screen. For one...at least two of them are running around in turtlenecks and slacks. Secondly it seems they wanted to make some of them a bit disfigured, but maybe didn't have the money to do so? Also...its pretty clear that (probably "realistically", given the backstory)the murders suffer some degree of mental impairment. Given how easy they also manage to go down...by the end they completely lose any sense of menace or threat. And then the movie ends with a random declaration of love between the two characters, an amazing coincidence that gives them ASSAULT RIFLES, and we cut to black with them going to hunt down the lead killer.
So much potential (It's a pretty well shot movie), just flushed down the drain.
Creep
Well this movie certainly lived up to its name by being creepy as hell. A photographer is contacted through craiglist by a man dying of cancer who hires him to shoot a video for his unborn son. However the guy become increasingly sketchier over the course of the day, and of course things are not what they appear to be.
This movie just...gets under your skin, as the weird relationship builds between the photographer and his client. Its not a gory movie, but the judicious use of a cheap furry wolf mask more than makes up for that...Definitely one of the most disturbing movies I have seen in awhile, and possibly the cause of my lack of sleep last night.
"Thrill me" -Det. Cameron
That movie might be my best personal example of a movie that freaked the hell out of me as a child (I was afraid that the brain slugs laired under my bed, but then profoundly dissapointed me when I realized it was a (good granted) horror comedy upon. watching it a few years ago
Oh....I really want to see the Pyramid, but it hasn't showed up on the streaming services I am part of. Good to hear it is good.
If you liked In the Mouth of Madness, I can also recommend Prince of Darkness. That movie also inspired a bestiary 4 critter. I think The Thing is an amazing monster movie personally, but I think Carpenter has done better.
Also, Amazon Prime has The Thing on the Doorstep, which is a super low budget yet faithful adaptation of that story.
So last night with dinner I watched [b]The Battery[b]. I remember hearing about this movie ages ago, but had never seen it on the streaming services or on DVD, and I remember being curious about it.
Basically...a pair of former baseball players wander around the woods of post zombie apocalypse New England. (No there really is nothing else to the greater overall plot)
I felt this movie was less an actual movie than a Indie rock music video, and its probably one of the slowest movies I have ever watched, to the point where I could tune out or go to the bathroom and characters would still be brushing their teeth or dancing or walking or whatever it is they were doing. The zombies seem (most of the time) to be a minor inconvenience, and since they are slow zombies one questions why they even resulted in an apocalypse. In fact the zombies are almost completely absent other than a couple here and there, except for the climax...where for no particular reason they show up en mass.
This, combined with the fact that at least one the protagonists spends half the movie sulking...makes it really hard to become invested in their story. Not that there is much a story.
There were some good ideas here. A good chunk of the movie is devoted to a sequence of the characters trapped in their station wagon surrounded by zombies. My understanding is this was the original idea for the film, and it shows...everything leading up to that feels like filler. There is also another scene that really does a good job of illustrating the isolation that another character is feeling, which I won't spoil because it was genuinely one of the few original decent WTF elements of the movie.
The movie tries to avoid being a bog standard zombie apocalypse movie, so I will give it credit there. But unless you have a craving for more hipster protagonists in your zombie movies, or really like indie rock/folk music, I can't really recommend it.
Into the mouth of madness, perhaps the best lovecraftian movie I have ever seen. I never liked John Carpenter's the thing because I felt it was a wasted opportunity (the monster was amazing, but the movie wasn't scary, it was almost like it was DESIGNED not to be scary) and for a long time I thought all his movies would be like that but THIS movie was truly amazing, perhaps his best work.
The pyramid, I think it was THIS movie that made me realize I have a thing for claustrophobic horror movies. Takes place inside a recently unearthed 'pyramid' (I put the quotation marks there because apparently it's not like how pyramids are USUALLY built).
The whisperer in darkness, an ACTUAL lovecraftian movie. Not scary but very well done. A scientist who studies folklore (and doesn't believe in them) is offered proof that something odd is happening in a remote town/village and he goes to investigate (and indeed, he DOES discover something).
There is a German adaption of The Colour Out Of Space. I haven't seen it yet, though.
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@Fabius, that sounds intriguing, could you give us a name please? I've been eager to find some lovecraftian movies.
Aww man...
So updating the thread:
Watch The Visit last weekend, which I was surprised to actually enjoy given Shyamalen's track record since since Unbreakable. Especially in the "found footage" horror movie genre. Now I actually find found footage effective if used well (Banshee Chapter, Grave Encounters, some of the entries in V/H/S series), but it all too often is used as a crutch to justify bad writing or cheap effects.
The Visit mostly uses found footage to its advantage, in a PG-13 horror tale revolving around the idea that old people can be kind of creepy, and then using that to somewhat conceal the idea that more is going on than is apparent.
Obviously...there is a twist, which I genuinely did not see coming (yes I knew that something was wrong, but thought they were going at it from a different angle than what happened). If I have any complaint its the couple of weird attempts to characterize the kids; There are some "poochy" moments where it seems the writer is trying channel kid dialog without having talked to one in a decade.
Also relevant, I have watched the first two episodes of Scream Queens. Just like the American Horror Story, it's incredibly uneven, this time in the mix of horror elements and comedy. I love myself some good horror comedy: Shaun of the Dead, Army of Darkness, Tucker and Dale Vs Darkness. This is is not on par remotely with those.
There are moments of genuinely funny comedy, usually in the form of dialog that plays with the genre conventions: The blood oath scene and Hester's disturbingly detailed descriptions of disposal of bodies. But then there are outright slap stick moments that evoke Scary Movie: One character attempts to get help via facebook instead of just leaving the room.
There is also a serious flaw in having so much of the time spent following Emma Roberts character, who is such a two-dimensional racists bigot and all around horrible person she actually tries any patience the viewer has when she shows up on screen. Slasher movies get away with having such characters because they are typically only around for less than two hours. Expecting viewers to sit through an entire season with her around, for at least a significant portion of it, is a bit much to ask.
And I have to say, beyond the weird tone shifts there is just some really lazy plotting. The movie loves cramming as many horror tropes as possible onscreen, but in some cases it uses the existence of those tropes to justify the some plot point happening, without that plot point making any sense at all.
Overall I am just not really sure this premise can be stretched out over an entire season, at least with the writing I have seen so far.
I keep forgetting to update this thread, and twice so far I have done posts but the internet ate them. SO frustrating, so going to try to keep my capsule reviews short
Anyway, as is my tradition I rented (this time via amazon prime) some horror movies for Halloween, and watching the following:
The Final Girls
This was a great and fun movie, more leaning on the comedy side of the horror comedy spectrum. Did a good job of playing with the tropes, although I think it would have worked a bit better with more gore/nudity (a satire of 80's slasher movies without those elements seems...off).
Tales of Halloween
This is a an anthology of 10 (I think?) short films which all take place in a single town on Halloween night. Each short has a different director, with most being recognizable names (Neil Marshall and Lucky McKee were two that stood out in my mind). In many ways it kind of feels like a lower budget unofficial sequel to the (superior) Trick R Treat anthology of a few years ago. Like any anthology, the stories are of varying quality. Some are really good (the story about ghost following a woman home), while others seem kind of lame (the deadly trick or treaters story). Some are of a more serious nature, although most lean more towards black humor or straight out humor (with the devil pranking people and the "bigger fish" Jason story being the more funnier efforts). Worth watching on Halloween
Bone Tomahawk
Now for something completely different; while the former two movies were comedic in tone for the most part, Bone Tomahawk was a dead serious Horror Western. A small posse launches a rescue when a "lost tribe" of degenerate inbred troglodytes abducts some towns folk. The first half or more plays out as a straight western. Things descend into The Hills Have Eyes territory in the latter part of the movie, which also includes one of the most grisliest deaths I have seen in a movie. It's got a stellar cast including Kurt Russell and Patrick Wilson; My only real complaint would be the feeling that the movie kind of just...ends, almost as if they ran out of budget and couldn't show the entire climax.
So did anyone else watch any horror movies last night?
Saw..
Creepshow 3: Just bad. Really bad.
The Night Was Dark: Really Good horror movie.
A Christmas Horror Story: A anthology much like Trick r' Treat really good.
Also Final Girl : Which I agree was good but...
Also saw Tales of Halloween which I liked it was fun.
The Night Was Dark: Really Good horror movie.
Correction on this title...I don't know what I was thinking...but
Dark was the Night was the title.
Dark was the Night wasn't too bad. My thoughts on the movie was one of the posts that the internet ate on this thread. I find it interesting how popular the Wendigo legend is, and the fact that I have basically seen it used in so many completely different ways, which I think helps explain that popularity.
Yep it's been two years since I last posted. Still watching a lot of horror movies, just been lazy.
Today I am home sick with the flu, which is making it difficult to do much but sit around and be bored. SO...seems like a good time to update this thread!
As part of my "Can't sleep Sinuses are congested" binge, I have so watched two movies
Last night, late at night I finally was able to watch the original Prom Night (1980), thanks to the wonders of Amazon Prime. Prom Night is probably of greater historical interest (to the horror genre) than it is an actual good movie, being part of the initial Slasher movie wave inspired by Halloween, and also one of several of slasher movies to star Jamie Lee Curtis, solidifying her status as the Scream Empress of the horror genre.
Prom Night, like many of earliest slasher films, feels more like an Italian Giallo movie than its later slasher descendents, with a standard plot: Some kids act like little bastards, resulting in the death of another child, which they tell no one about. Six years later the annivesary of said death falls on prom night, and someone leaves threatening phone calls to said participants.
There is a fellow faculty member at my current school who continually complains about the fast pace of "modern" movies. He would LOVE Prom Night, which is very much a slow movie. The first kill doesn't even happen until around the hour mark, for a hour and half ish film. Until then...we mostly get to experience the horror that was 70's fashion and disco, including an incredibly long disco dance number. And the movie trying to create as many red herrings as possible until we learn the identity of the killer. Long story short...it's a tedious movie without a lot of pay-off. The only nod I will give it is that for the most part, being an early entry into the genre, the killer was somewhat realistic, lacking the die hard qualities of later villains, and had solid motives and specific goals.
And now for something completely different: Savageland (2015) (Although seemingly only released this year?)
Savageland is a pseudodocumentary, and an excellent one at that, in the spirit of similar movies such as Lake Mungo. This documentary explores the mystery behind the massacre of a small town on the US-Mexico border, and the subsequent trial of the lone survivor of said event.
Savageland is not a found footage horror fest, nor a straight up zombie movie. Rather it's a movie that explores race relations and politics on the US-Mexico border in the context of a specific horror-inspired event. This event is described via crime scene photos, recovered photographs taken by the survivor, interviews with various folks around the adjacent town, journalists, police, experts, and the families of victims, all of who have there own take on the situation.
The movie manages to be both thought revoking and incredibly creepy in its narration of events, as well as things not so clearly stated. Definitely worth a watch if you dig this sort of format.
Next up on the coughapalozza marathon, Havenhurst
Starring Julie Benz of Angel/Buffy fame, this movie is about a former alcoholic who moves into a creepy old apartment which also operates as sort of a halfway house, with a very STRICT no relapse rule. She ends up investigating the mysterious disappearance from that building, and ends up encountering murder and mayhem along the way. The movie started fine enough and had some interesting ideas, but ultimately fizzled out at the end.
The atmosphere for the movie was fine, but I felt the downer ending really wasn't called for. Generally, I have a rough mental rule of whether or not I approve or disapprove of downer ending? Are the antagonists built up suitably in such a way that I have an investment in them? Is there some sort of point or commentary that the director/script writer is trying to make with the ending? Or is the situation just so ridiculous that allowing the characters to survive would be completely unrealistic or not fitting the tone of the story.
In Havenhurst, the bad guys win out even really getting a hiccup in there plans (at worst they have a local cop now suspicious of them). And the lead is captured and presumably faces a long and slow torturous death. The whole thing just comes out as completely anti-climatic. There are angles that could have been explored to really avoid that; the messed up family dynamic, the H.H. Holmes connection; the construction of the complex as just a giant series of traps, or even the main character's attempt to make amends or another characters treatment by the foster system. But nothing is actually developed, so we just get a lukewarm climax without a logical pay out.
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It's the weekend before the weekend before Halloween, so of course I am watching horror movies (not that don't most weekends).
Put on the Netflix original The Babysitter , an uneven but not horrible comedy. A kid stays up after his bedtime only to see his totally cool and awesome babysitter take part as the ringleader of a human sacrifice.
I did find elements of the premise kind of clever. Basically the bad guy teens are the standard cliche cast of a slasher flick, with the normal "final girl" the big bad. Which pretty much makes the kid who is trying to evade everyone in the role of slasher. Again, I thought this was a bit of a clever angle.
Some of that however is undermined by some directional choices in editing, and the fact that bad guys mostly come up as incredibly incompetant, some humor which doesn't quite land, and the fact that movie tends to go out of its way to give the kid a death exemption in a way that distracts from the movie, not enhances it.