Horror Flicks?

Watched Dead Girl last night.

It was like River's Edge taken to a perverse extreme.

While the ending is predictable, it's no less unnerving.

The overall storyline is a bit sick-and-twisted, too, recalling some of the exploitive horror films of the '70s (I Spit On Your Grave, etc.).
To this point, in many ways it reminded me of Wes Craven's original 1972 version of Last House on the Left and even more so Roger Ebert's review of that film (http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/la...-the-left-1972). While not particularly in the league of that film, Dead Girl contains many familiar elements, but ultimately ends up being a little more perverse.

It also touches upon some of the same misogynistic themes that The Woman did, but again in a more twisted manner.

It's not so stomach churning in terms of visuals, but more in terms of the story elements themselves.

In the end it becomes one of those films that makes you wonder what kind of folks come up with stories like this and what kind of folks will sit through a film like this: it's one that you want to turn off, but keep watching anyway.

Again, not terribly gory, but the story is severely (and perversely) twisted.

Interesting (and somewhat massive) list of "Best Horror Films" from Sight/Sound magazine:

http://www.soundonsight.org/tag/rick...-horror-films/

Recently bought and watched several of the classic Hammer vampire flicks starring C. Lee but also a couple of euro trash movies with some full frontal shots.

looks like Nip/Tuck gone terribly awry...
(also, peeped out the trailer for the "Twisted Sisters" previous films and this one looks like a marked improvement in terms of cinematography and production values).


http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/i.../americanmary/

V/H/S-2, is on-demand right now.
it's gotten pretty good reviews and looks like a fun watch.
mrs. flake and i are checking it out tonight.
http://movies.yahoo.com/video/vhs-2-...223027452.html

I rather enjoyed You're Next.
I've not been impressed with most of the sub-genre of "home invasion" films (with, perhaps, the exceptions of Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs and Wes Craven's original Last House on the Left), but for some reason You're Next just worked for me.


I wasn't so much surprised by anything in it, I just felt it had great pacing, the story contained a motive (too many of the newer home invasion films--The Strangers, Ils--have no motive, which I guess is supposed to make them more scary, but honestly it didn't), and the practical effects kicked ass. For me it was one of those films that followed all the cliches and they just clicked and felt fresh and alive as opposed to redundant. At first I hated all the characters, but then I began to enjoy their annoying traits. It felt very much like an '80s horror film filled with bad actors, and that homage, which I'm pretty sure was intentional, just worked for me. I felt the film had lots of nice twists when it came to basic horror movie archetypes, such as the final girl and others, too.

Was rather surprised by Oculus.
From the trailers I expected it to be yet another riff on ho-hum and less-than-mediocre fare such as Mirrors and all the recent "possession" films, but it ended up being nothing like the trailer hinted at.
For much of the movie I had no idea what was going on as it flits between reality and imagination to the point of not being able to distinguish between the two.
Some of the acting was a little earnest, but the pacing and complete WTF is going on nature of the film kept me intrigued and eyes glued to the screen.

interesting list:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/louispeitzma...014#.jtedXrQRZ

givin' a thumbs up to The Guest, Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett's latest (the guys who directed/wrote You're Next). I'm really vibing on their grasp of '80s action thrillers and horror films, from the storylines, to the characters, and music. Lottsa Halloween (amongst others) references, too.

Just saw Wolf Creek 2 the other night, meh. While it did have some decent tension throughout it seriously lacked the grittiness, suspense & true terror of the first one. And the awful pre-Jurassic Park CGI kangaroos just ruined the film completely.

Been on a mission to watch all the older 70's-80's movies whose VHS covers seen on the shelf of the rental store but was never allowed to watch that haunted my dreams as a kid. Some really good ones i've seen lately have been: Xtro, Curtains, Night of the Creeps & The Changeling (The George C Scott one, not to be confused with the Angelina Jolie one which was good in it's own right.) Pretty much all the haunting genre movies of recent years owe a huge debt to this one and not many are nearly as good IMHO.

Eager to see The Babadook, it looks pretty promising. The trailer gives me the shivers :D.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szaLnKNWC-U

^hitting NF streaming 4/14, btw...

just watched As Above So Below.
off-the-nuts!
totally not what i was expecting from the trailers, which was cool.
easily one of the coolest horror films of the past decade, imho, as it defied and surpassed my expectations.
in some strange way it reminded me of Martyrs, albeit not as gruesome/violent. Also reminded me of a few '70s joints (like Don't Look Now) and some '80s era stuff with psuedo religious undertones. It was also a bit like National Treasure on meth, ludes, and strong psychotropics.
The film is trippy, unnerving, claustrophobic, weird, confusing, and incredibly well-paced.

It Follows is deserving of all the praise it's been getting.
worth seeing in the theaters due to the sound design alone.
it's an eerie, uncomfortable teen horror flick that borrows from the Japanese malevolent spirit genre (The Grudge, The Eye, Uzumaki, Pulse, etc) as well as American fare such as Nightmare on Elm Street.
it's teeming with quite a bit of allegory for those that like their scares with a semi-intelligent undertone, too.

falls into line with the films of Adam Wingard/Simon Barrett (You're Next, The Guest) in that it isn't clear what time period the story takes place in: could be present day, could be early '90s, could be early '80s; the ambiguity adds to the overall vibe of the film.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dookey67

It Follows is deserving of all the praise it's been getting.
worth seeing in the theaters due to the sound design alone.
it's an eerie, uncomfortable teen horror flick that borrows from the Japanese malevolent spirit genre (The Grudge, The Eye, Uzumaki, Pulse, etc) as well as American fare such as Nightmare on Elm Street.
it's teeming with quite a bit of allegory for those that like their scares with a semi-intelligent undertone, too.

falls into line with the films of Adam Wingard/Simon Barrett (You're Next, The Guest) in that it isn't clear what time period the story takes place in: could be present day, could be early '90s, could be early '80s; the ambiguity adds to the overall vibe of the film.

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Agreed. Really good film. I couldn't even tell you the last horror film I've seen as I am not a fan of the genre. But it invoked feelings of the good old days of Halloween (the original) and such.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by balefulstare

Eager to see The Babadook, it looks pretty promising. The trailer gives me the shivers :D.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szaLnKNWC-U

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This film reminded me of The Exorcist, Wendigo, and Oculus. The director (as well as the cinematographer and the sound person) made nice use of shadow and sound (as well as the absence of sound) for creep factor (nods to Robert Wise's The Haunting). The kid was creepy-as-f@‪#‎k‬, too. It was solid, although I wish I had avoided all the web hype which really built the film up and put it on a pedestal, but such is the problem with foreign horror films that spend a coupla years on the festival circuit (makes me kinda miss the days when you had to learn about horror films via print in Fangoria and even then they really didn't hype so much as show pictures and behind-the-scenes stuff).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dookey67

The kid was creepy-as-f@‪#‎k‬, too

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That kids teeth, man. It was the teeth

Watched Exists a few weeks back. It's Eduardo Sanchez's latest. Yet again he visits the whole found-footage thing,which is getting kind of old. That said, he manages to instill quite a bit of tension and edge-of-your-seat theatrics into this tired filming style. The characters are generic horror film staples (the stupid jock, the stoner loner, the cool dude, the ditzy chicks) and the story is pretty damn predictable (I figured out what was going on within the first 5 minutes), but again Sanchez knows pacing and how to milk OG scares via intense bursts. I'd give it a 3/5 as it's one of his better post-BWP efforts. Still, I'd like to see him get away from the found footage crutch.

THE GUEST
currently streaming on NF
It's by the same team that made You're Next.
Weird genre blend of horror/action/sci-fi and very heavy homage to late '80s action films (think Chuck Norris' cop films, Dolph Lundgren's sci-fi stuff, etc.)

SPRING
nice, surprising little indie horror outing filmed in Italy and of a sub-genre I'm calling "strange romance".
Cali kid falls into a rut so he takes off to Italy and meets a hot chick. Things get weird from there.
Cool effects, nice pacing, and a slow-burn creepy vibe rolling underneath.

THE STRANGE COLOUR OF YOUR BODY'S TEARS
insanely visual and hallucinatory homage to the classic giallos from Italy (heavy Dario Argento influence) not to mention borrowing a few plays from Brian DePalma's early works.
In French with subtitles.
The larger the screen and the better the surround sound you have, the more impact the film will have (it really is a visual and auditory tour de force).
It doesn't make much sense, but there's a fair amount of nudity and a fair amount of gore, so who really needs a coherent plot, right? (besides, many of the films it is paying tribute to weren't too heavy on the idea of plot, either).



PS
streaming on NF currently

Just watched Rob Zombie's Halloween. Sick shit.

saw GOODNIGHT MOMMY the other day.
intense indie psychological horror flick from Austria (it's subtitled).



it was filled with white-knuckled moments and several scenes that had me literally jumping out of my seat (the other folks in the audience jumped out of their seats too, so it wasnt just me).

worth seeing if it pops up in the local arthouse cinema or when it comes to DVD and/or streaming.

Thanks dookey, I'm gonna check out The Guest tonight.

Bloodfreak, a 1972 film that was a Christian effort to scare kids from using drugs is so bad it's sort of good. It's monster is a turkey headed beast that feeds on the blood of drug users.

Watch the entire movie right here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmbCLa4L1E4