jacob_b

So I've bought a load of horror films, both wide release and independent films, that I thought might be interesting or could be a good watch. I was wondering if anyone might be interested in using this thread as a way to talk about horror movies they just watched and keep up a lively discussion. I can't wait until October for the Horror Challenge, so I'm hoping there might be some interest in the forums now.

Rockmjd23

I'm always up for it. Discuss away!

PhantomStranger

Anyone seen Thale? It's Norwegian horror with a tinge of fantasy that was recently released on home video in the States. I only know of it since I had to review the Blu-ray, but it wasn't bad for a small Euro film. I would not recommend watching the trailer, it gives away most of the film's plot.

jacob_b

Awesome! I posted these reviews in another topic, but it got no love. Hopefully you guys have seen these and can talk about them:

The Return of the Living Dead (Collector's Edition Blu-Ray): I may have seen bits and pieces of it before, but this is the first time I remember watching it from start to end. There were some good parts to it, some pretty funny one liners, and watching the special features, it did bring comedy to horror as well as zombies eating brains. I was expecting a bit more from it, seeing as this is one of those must see horror films, and felt it was a bit of a let down. The ending was funny, though. I'd give it a 3/5 stars.

ATM (DVD copy): I bought the movie as it seemed to have a great premise and I kind of like Josh Peck. Peck's character, though, was a complete asshole and it made no sense for some of the actions he did. I'm sure everyone has a douchebag of a friend and that's what his character was. While the movie had potential, it was pretty much a bomb. 1/5 stars.

Love Me (DVD) Another movie I bought because of the person in it: Lindsey Shaw. Been a fan of hers (even though she does sound like a guy) since Ned's Declassified. The story was so-so, typical high school drama, no one trusting anyone. The movie did throw you in a loop and I was wrong about the killer. Nothing amazing, but nothing TOO terrible. I would have liked to see more scenes with Lindsey's friend and the Lucas Green character, but what can you do. I'd give it 2/5 as the killer took me for a loop, even though that didn't make too much sense.

The Day (Blu-Ray copy): For a WWE Studios film, this was actually really good. Nothing ground breaking or new, but it's a really good end of times film. The acting is really good, the story doesn't drag on, there's no plot holes or anything, and Ashley Bell is a complete bad ass in this film. Worth a watch. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Crush 2013 (Blu-Ray copy): This was another surprising pick up. It's got a Swimfan meets May type of film. It's your typical girl has a crush on guy, goes crazy, teenage flick, but the acting isn't too bad and the script isn't horrible. For an independent film, it's worth checking out. A good 2.5 out of 5 stars.

John Dies at the End (Blu-Ray copy): I was really excited to see this film because of all the hype around it and I was not disappointed. It's got a new age Bill & Ted feel to it. All the actors did an amazing job, the script flowed, and it was a fun watch. Nothing TOO scary, but some creepy creatures. My only problem was the sound on the disc. I had to play with closed caption to get everything. Other than that, it was pretty epic. 4 out of 5 stars.

I haven't seen Thale but since it has the Screamfest logo on it, I added it on Amazon and will wait for the price to drop.

PhantomStranger

I have always felt much the same way about TROTLD. Coming from Romero's classic zombie movies, it didn't do much for me except for the few comic bits.

Tom Creo

Wow. I thought I was the only one who that that way about RotLD as well. Although there are parts I really enjoy, it never really clicked with me. i think I liked part II better but it's been years since I've seen it.

TomOpus

Yes and a naked Linnea Quigley was a nice addition

It's campy fun but I'd rather stick to Romero's trilogy.

Hokeyboy

How was Quigley down under?

TomOpus

Wish I knew... back in the day

TheySentYou

any art horror recommendations? i'm looking for anything along the lines of:

Possession (Andrjez Zulawski)
The Reflecting Skin (Philip Ripley)
Twentynine Palms (Bruno Dumont)
Trouble Every Day (Claire Denis)
Hour of the Wolf (Ingmar Bergman)

Rockmjd23

Hopefully trimmed better than Tom Selleck.

jacob_b

Glad I'm not the only one that wasn't as into TROTLD as the special features made the movie seem like a top horror film. And this is why I love talking film with people haha.

For art horror films, I haven't gotten into it yet, but may venture to it this summer.

GoldenJCJ

I've been really impressed with horror movie output lately.
Insidious, Sinister, The Woman in Black, and The Awakening have all been effective, atmospheric horror flicks. They've all got their flaws but overall they succeed in what they intended to do.

Hopefully The Conjuring will be just as good.

After years of crappy remakes of Japanese horror films and "torture porn" dreck it seems like we're starting to get some quality horror films that try to scare through storytelling and atmosphere rather than by throwing a bunch of gore and crappy CGI at you thinking its being clever.

brainee

I hope the thread turns out well. I'm a huge horror fan myself. Its probably not surprising your other threads didn't go so well ... you're talking about movies with limited mainstream appeal. You'd probably need to go to a horror forum to get appreciation on a movie-by-movie basis. And even then it might not be very rewarding for you. I was a regular poster at a few different horror boards over the years but gradually gave them up. It was too frustrating to wade through the crap and difficult to have intelligent discussions.

It almost seems like there's more good horror out there than I have time to watch. Especially if you open yourself up to foreign movies. Filmmaking technology has advanced to the point where quality-looking movies can come from anywhere. And as you point out, there are good mainstream releases too. Having been a fan for more years than I want to admit, horror fans have it better than any other point ... it's just so easy to find stuff watch what you want. It's crazy to think back to the early 90s when I was paying good money for crappy VHS prints of movies.

I can't be objective about this movie since I saw it as a kid when it came out. Maybe you had to be there to really love it. At the time the slasher boom was getting repetitive and this felt like a breath of fresh air. Not a fan of the sequel though (which shamelessly repeats the first movie).

Did you read the book? If not, it's highly recommended. There's tons of stuff that had to be cut out or was just plain unfilmable (at least without a giant budget). Coscarelli nailed the tone and probably did as good a job with the material as possible with the resources available. And about the title:

brainee

How far back are you going for recommendations? Zulawski's movies are tough to track down, but if you liked Possession it would probably be worth it. The Devil, like Possession, seems like another genre of movie (in this case, historical epic) until it starts getting strange and veering into horror territory by the end.

Amer is very art-house. Beautiful to look at and listen too, and an especial treat for giallo fans (like those of Argento and Bava). But while it has horror elements its not really a horror movie (at its core). Very symbolic and almost completely lacking in story. I really liked it, but I think you have to go into it expecting more art-house and less horror.

In the vein of Trouble Every Day is In My Skin ... disturbing arty body horror. And if you haven't seen Almodovar's The Skin I Live In, it's a must (it's pretty close to horror in my book).

jacob_b

GoldenJCJ I LOVED Sinister but the second half of Insidious left a LOT to desire and Woman in Black when I saw the early preview put me to sleep. Never saw The Awakening yet. The Conjuring looks promising, as does the summer horror films, which are a lot. I do agree, I love the stories more than just pure torture and horrible CGI. I do admit, Wvil Dead was damn good.

brainee I don't know many other forums, but if you know of any, please let me know. I know Fangoria had one, but not sure what happened to the forums. I can see your thoughts on Return of the Living Dead as there are movies out there that you just had to be there during the time to see how they changed the game. And I will check out the John Dies at the End book as well as the sequel. I just got to get through my months of movie pile to actually read haha. I bought a Kindle for Christmas and hardly use the damn thing.

brainee

Another thing with ROTLD was that the zombie genre wasn't as played out as it is now. At least for kids my age ... we had the Romero trilogy (don't remember if Day of the Dead came out first). And Fulci's Zombie was popular at the video rental store (love that rotting zombie face cover). And that was about all I saw at the time. Again, it was just so much harder to see more obscure movies in those days (especially when you were a kid).

Oddly, my reading has gone way up since having a Kindle. It's just so easy to carry around and it fits a whole library of books. I've gotten into the habit of reading about 30 minutes before I go to bed. Gets my brain into a "shutdown" mode so I get a good night's sleep ... and I've been reading about a book every two or three weeks.

Has anyone seen Outcast? Interesting mix of urban fantasy and horror. It has a striking atmosphere and style to it. It was hard to get into. The movie throws you into the deep end without much background on the characters or the story (I'm still not certain of the details of what was going on). But it caught my interest enough by the end.

The Woman was another recent viewing. A bit overrated (at least from some horror reviews). The metaphors were laid on pretty thick, to the extent I couldn't ever see the characters and situations as being real (I liked McKee's May a lot more). Certainly worth seeing to see what the fuss is about. I'm a fan of Jack Ketchum too, and if nothing else he's never boring. Weird that we still have yet to have a movie of his horror breakthrough Off Season, but we got its sequel (Offspring) with The Woman being a loose follow-up of that movie.

The other recent horror movie in my Netflix queue was Human Centipede 2. And ... I think I've had enough Human Centipede for my lifetime. I'm old enough and I've seen enough that movies with nothing but the shock factor going for them do nothing for me. I went through a phase tracking down all the "video nasties", and in retrospect a lot were wastes of my time. The first HC was kind of interesting. Much less graphic than its reputation would have you believe, an admittedly original idea, and a dark sense of humor underlying the whole thing. But this movie goes a different way, trying to be every bit as disgusting and unpleasant as it possibly can. And I just have too little free viewing time to waste with shit like this. Yeah, it goes "meta" by the end ... but the 90 minute journey to get there wasn't worth it.

Rockmjd23

I went through that phase too. Once you come across Boogeyman II and Cannibal Terror, you know you're scraping the bottom of the barrel.

jacob_b

Yeah, the zombie thing is way overblown and too many comedy zombie films out there, which I shall get to later

I "work" for a nonprofit and entertainment firm, so my nights usually have ended with putting on a movie and doing some sort of research. Pretty easy to look up email addresses and catch most of the action in movies, luckily. So usually haven't made the time to read, which sucks.

Human Centipede 2 was interesting, but LOVE May. One of the most f'd up films I've ever seen.

Out of curiosity, has anyone seen The Chainsaw Sally Show? The entertainment firm I help out, their clients did the show and it's cheap on Amazon. Just got it and going to give it a few this weekend. I think it's like 12 episodes.

TheySentYou

i've been wanting to track down The Devil. I keep thinking Mondo Vision will put out more of Zulawski's work, but it's like they've put a halt to any releases. there hasn't been anything in over 2 years. i may just download The Devil.

i've been wanting to watch Amer and In My Skin. and i LOVED The Skin I Live In

EddieMoney

I've only seen Sinister out of those, but I really enjoyed it. Mr. Bogey!

PhantomStranger

Sinister was pretty good for a horror film made by Hollywood.

brainee

Another favorite art-house horror that just came to me ... Santa Sangre. I love that movie. And they're not exactly horror, but more Jodorowski weirdness check out El Topo ... and if you're really adventurous Holy Mountain. But Santa Sangre is my favorite by far.

For more Latin horror check out Alex de la Iglesia. His English-language movies fall flat for me (Dance with the Devil, Oxford Murders), but his Spanish ones are all good to different degrees. Most of them are black comedies, with Day of the Beast and The Last Circus being the most outright horror. He also did one of the Films to Keep You Awake (The Baby's Room).

PhantomStranger

I do not recommend a blind buy of Holy Mountain.

Numanoid

ROTLD was really a product of its moment in time. I don't think that you could ever really get the true feeling of that film from a blu-ray, it just looks too good (I have the UK edition). That is one movie that really benefited from the low-quality and overall graininess of VHS, which is how I watched it 30 or 40 times over the years. Seeing it now with a crisp, clear picture is nice, but it takes something away from it. It's a punk movie, and should look punk, not clean. I feel the same way about a lot of the '80s movies that I've loved on video that are coming out in HD now, like Re-Animator, From Beyond, Repo Man, etc. Maybe it's just that VHS quality is much more forgiving to low-budget effects movies.