Horror Films

[last.caress]

31 DAYS of HALLOWEEN - DAY 10

Yesterday’s horror offering… didn’t happen, due to family commitments. Still, since my extended family is a bit Texas Chainsaw Massacre at the best of times, they kind-of filled the gap. I’ve only got to think of them and I want to start screaming uncontrollably. However, I’m not having an horrible gap in my sequence, so today will be a double-bill:

31 DAYS of HALLOWEEN - DAY 11

First up it’s yesterday’s intended picture: British chiller Heartless (Ridley, 2010), in which a disfigured youth enters into a pact with Satan amidst a spate of urban gang violence being perpetrated by creatures who may be chavs, or demons from Hell itself. Not that there’s much difference of course.

Next, it’ll be the disquieting and underrated Lovely Molly (Sànchez, 2011), a creeping, ambiguous and tense slow-burn horror from the co-writer/director of The Blair Witch Project (1999) about a recovering heroin addict battling with the mental scars of her addiction, the traumatic memories of her abusive father, and maybe something else.

[last.caress]

31 DAYS of HALLOWEEN - DAY 12

I’ve just sat through The Blair Witch Project (Myrick/Sànchez, 1999) but that’s not my pick for today because I used it last year, and I’m about to get stuck into the curtain-raiser to season six of The Walking Dead but that’s not my pick for today because… well, because it’s f*cking well not, okay? No, later on I shall be making time for Austrian Alpine chiller Blutgletscher (aka Blood Glacier or The Station) (Kren, 2013), an obvious love letter to John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) which, despite considerable budgetary constraints and an unfortunate habit of keeping the viewer at arm’s length, shows a lot of promise and tells a neat little story in the process.

[Reverend_Danite]

OK you spooky-dooky slashy-gashy fuck*ers - I may be a soft southern jessie that still gets sleepless nights after seeing Wolf’s Creek many (full) moons ago, but I’m gonna join yas in this horror-fest and, although not a film, will endeavour to do my best with this bad boy…

Just listen…
“Somewhere in the dark and nasty regions - where nobody goes, stands an ancient castle. Deep within this dank and uninviting place lives Berk, the overworked servant of The Thing Upstairs. But that’s nothing compared to the horrors that lurk beneath The Trap Door. For there is always something down ther, in the dark, waiting to come out…”

Fuck Ye*h!

[last.caress]

31 DAYS of HALLOWEEN - DAY 13

Last night, we went with what I feel to be one of the more successful remakes of recent(ish) years: The Ring (2002), Gore Verbinski’s English-language reworking of Hideo Nakata’s seminal J-horror Ringu (1998). It handled the elements which appeared in the original movie well whilst introducing other ideas which genuinely felt as though they added to the plot.

31 DAYS of HALLOWEEN - DAY 14

Today, it’s underrated found footage piece As Above, So Below (Dowdle, 2014), written by the Dowdle brothers who previously brought us the disturbing serial killer thriller The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007). As Above, So Below isn’t anywhere near as visceral as that earlier picture but it’s a neat tale nonetheless. Think along the lines of The Blair Witch Project but set in the already creepy Catacombs of Paris rather than the Maryland Appalachians.

[last.caress]

“We’re going to get you. We’re going to get you. Not another peep. Time to go to sleep.”

31 DAYS of HALLOWEEN - DAY 15

An all time classic tonight; horror royalty in the form of Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead (1981), the splatter leviathan which made a star of its director and of its lead Bruce “The Chin” Campbell, still fighting the dead-ites after all these years in the upcoming TV show Ash vs. Evil Dead, which starts on All Hallow’s Eve of this year.

[titoli]

The Master and Margarita (1972)

Political satire, not really a horror per se, but there is a black cat, the Devil and various other demons, scene with decapitation etc. Based on the famous novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, directed by one of the most respect Yugoslavian directors Aleksandar Petrović (won grand prize in Cannes with Skupljači perja), with music by Morricone and international cast (Italian-Yugoslavian co-production). I haven’t read the book, but it was clearly a difficult story to transfer to a movie, so as a movie it doesn’t really work.

Berberian Sound Studio (2012)

This comparison of two movie posters will give you good hint what this movie is all about:

Yes, it is a glorious tribute to gialli. It is a real tribute, because although it uses genre tricks and style, it doesn’t not try to recreate or make a giallo movie by-the-numbers, Berberian Sound Studio is its own beast. It wonderfully shows how there is something peculiar and surreal about gialli that make those movies to have a lives on their own, while at first they and the popele who made them seem pretty superficial and profane. Toby Jones is great in the lead role of a guy whose inner demons are slowly exorcised. I liked it better than Strickland’s follow-up effort “The Duke of Burgundy”.

Apart from this two movies, I’ve been filling my October horror with second season of Masters of Horror series (in there are Carpenter, Argento etc.)

[last.caress]

31 DAYS of HALLOWEEN - DAY 16

Yesterday’s pic - Dark Water (Salles, 2005) - wasn’t a visceral chiller; it was really more of a melancholy ghost story focussed on themes such as isolation, loneliness and neglect. Well, to be more precise it was an English language remake of Honogurai mizu no soko kara (Nakata, 2002) a melancholy Japanese ghost story focussed on themes such as isolation, loneliness and et cetera et cetera, from the writer/director combo who’d previously brought us Ring (Nakata, 1998). Still, the US remake starring the hypnotic Jennifer Connelly is a decent movie too even if it doesn’t bring much of its own to the table, and tbh it was a toss up as to which version I was going to run with.

31 DAYS of HALLOWEEN - DAY 17

Today, I’m busting out Exists (Sánchez, 2014), one of the only decent Bigfoot pictures I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen a few: Willow Creek, The Lost Coast Tapes, The Bigfoot Tapes, Man Beast, The Legend of Boggy Creek, The Wildman of Kentucky, Abominable, Snowbeast among others - all crap). Here, Eduardo “The Blair Witch Project” Sánchez returns to his found-footage origins and brings us a full-on panic-station of a movie, with some actual in-camera sasquatch action for a change (something you don’t see as often as you’d think you would in these bloody films).

[scherpschutter]

DE BEHANDELING / THE TREATMENT (2014, Hans Herbots)

A Belgian horror thriller, based on a novel by British crime novelist Mo Hayder. Her (Mo is a woman) thrillers are rejected by some critics for being too nasty and violent and this movie adaptation quickly earned the title of most controversial Belgian movie in decades: it’s gruesome, violent, nasty and frightening. And, yes, it’s also well-made and exciting. It’s pure horror, but in spite of some references (made by the characters) to a “troll” it’s not a supernatural thriller.

The story’s about a family (father, mother, 9-year old son) who have been tortured and sexually abused for three days by a maniac. The parents hardly survived the torture - and are psychologically broken - and the child is missing. The DI on the case, is haunted by demons from his own past: his younger brother was abducted by a pedophile at the age of 9 and the person who most probably was responsible for the evil deed, was never arrested. With one of the most famous child molestors in recent history, Marc Dutroux, being Belgian, it’s a small miracle that the film wasn’t banned at home.

As said, the movie is well-made but the subject material (pedophelia, sexual torture, etc.) is extremely unpleasant, at times even off-putting and objectionable. There are a few shortcomings as well: performances feel a little overwrought at times and the source material obviously was to complicated for a movie with a running-time of a little over two hours. The narrative is overly busy and occasionally a bit hard to follow. As a result the film works better in parts than as a whole.

Here’s the trailer:

[El_Topo]

[size=10pt]Green Inferno -2013 Eli Roth[/size]

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I just remember how good a film like Cabin Fever was, but Eli Roth’s Green Inferno, was just a waste of my time, to be quite honest there was a lot of fast-forward involved, and it wasn’t because of the gore.
Roth tries to pay some sort of homage to those Italian cannibal films from Lenzi and Deodatto, and to be honest never been a fan of those in the first place, but at least they effective.
Effectiveness is something Green Inferno isn’t, not only the bad acting, but the narrative is pretty basic and humour inserts that Roth did so well in other movies, just don’t work here by the contrary.
Ok I may be biased against these type films, but the main point in gore gratuitous feast film is to bring the girl closer to you while watching it, but for that you need a girl and a certain age, which I really don’t have anymore.

3 out of 10, one for Lenzi one for Deodatto and other for Roth and his ecological reverse punishment

[Lone_Gringo]

Meh!..Same usual exorcism idea/story as others, but decently done. Perfect sunday horror movie if you got nothing else to do.

[last.caress]

31 DAYS of HALLOWEEN - DAY 18

Yesterday, we were supposed to go with the one and only movie on my list that I hadn’t already seen yet: Insidious: Chapter 3 (Whannell, 2015). But I just couldn’t be @rsed to try with it. The last half-hour of the first movie plus the entirely forgettable second movie have done a lot of damage. I’ll check it out one day no doubt, but I’ve no enthusiasm for it at all as things stand. So, we drafted in The Babadook (Kent, 2015) as a late substitution. Good, slowly ratcheting tale featuring a couple of great central performances and an absolutely terrific prop in the form of the book which sets the horror in motion.

31 DAYS of HALLOWEEN - DAY 19

Tonight, we’re going far more gory but quite a bit more silly too, with Clive Barker’s The Midnight Meat Train (Kitamura, 2008), featuring an early-ish outing from Bradley Cooper, and with Vinnie Jones in the role he was born to play (ie glaring, not speaking, and hitting people with a hammer). I dunno, I won’t pretend that this is a horror classic or even an especially good movie but I’ve definitely got a bit of a blind spot for it. My love of the short story from whence it originated probably helps.

[titoli]

I’ve been catching up with this Horroktoberfest:

Crimson peak (2015)

New from Del Toro. This time it’s an ode to blood. Its has director’s usual suspects (ghosts). By now, he is slightly repeating himself and there is no socio-historical backdrop that played big part in his most celebrated works, but no other director could make this kind of grisly story seem so tender and romantic. Grand finale is the best part of the movie.

Bait (2012)

This was on cable last night, so since it’s October, I’ve decided to treat my self to some modern ozploitation/sharksploitation. Apart from some dreadful CGI, which was thankfully not used that much, this Jaws meets The Poseidon Adventure aussie flick was actually quite watchable. It has robery, redemption, love triangle, father/problematic daughter relationship, tsunami…oh yeah, and couple of sharks. So it has a lot of stuff going on, but that actually helps to make it more eventful and character-developed than your average slasher.

(although Crimson peak is the last movie I’ve seen in cinema, this post was meant to be in this topic, so I’m moving it)

[titoli]

The Possesion (2012)

Exorcist, jewish-style. Tame and seen-before.

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[size=12pt]DARKMAN[/size] (1990, Sam Raimi)

A horror month rewatch. This one has never been a true favorite, but it’s an enjoyable blend of grand guignol and melodrama.

Darkman is basically a cartoon brought to the big screen, and as a grim cartoon it works quite well. The story uses the popular premise of a brilliant scientist who is mutulated in his own lab and comes back from ‘the other side’ (the other side of sanity so to speak) to get even with those who did him wrong. There are some vague (but most probably not unintentional) references to André de Toth’s House of Wax (1953). The film is fast, colourful, furious and funny - but Raimi could have done a bit more with the human edge of the story, in the end the characters (including the lead character) remain a bit flat. There are some hints that Raimi noticed there was more into it (especially towards the end), but he leaves some of the stones unturned.

7-

[last.caress]

31 DAYS of HALLOWEEN - DAY 20

Last night, I went with little-known gem Seventh Moon (Sánchez, 2008), the third film of the month from The Blair Witch Project co-writer/director Eduardo Sánchez, about an American couple lost in rural China on a night believed by the local villagers to be their version of Halloween, when all the ghosts and gremlins of Hell come up to Earth for a bit of a rumble, you know.

31 DAYS of HALLOWEEN - DAY 21

Candyman.
Candyman.
Candyman.
Candyman…

CANDYMAN!

My movie today is, of course, The Fault in Our Stars… not really, you little tinkers! Nah, it’s urban legend chiller Candyman (Rose, 1992), my second slab of Clive Barker nastiness of the week. That is, IF my Back to the Future three-film marathon doesn’t run too late. As I write this, Marty’s not long been in 1955, so I’ve still got a ways to go.

[titoli]

Candyman is personal favorite. High on atmosphere and spookiness, if it manages to fully occupy your mind you’ll end up in an excellent nightmare.

[last.caress]

31 DAYS of HALLOWEEN - DAY 22

Yesterday, we went with one of my favourite horrors of the 21st century: Ju-on: The Grudge (Shimizu, 2002), the first theatrically-released entry into the Ju-on series but third entry proper (well, fifth actually if you include the shorts Katasumi[/url] and [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywa_wpnbPks]4444444444[url]- YouTube), almost all of which concern the curse emanating from a suburban property in Nerima, Tokyo, where a husband killed his wife, child and self in a fit of jealous rage. J-horror has been done to death and many of its staples carry little weight now thanks to their over-familiarity but Ju-on gets me every time.

31 DAYS of HALLOWEEN - DAY 23

Tonight - and I’ll be brief since a) I wrote a few bits and bobs about it only very recently elsewhere in the forum and b) my wife is hassling me because we’re about to go out - we’re going with Ana-Lily Amirpour’s “Iranian Vampire Western”, the fantastic A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014).

[Reverend_Danite]

Wake Wood

I’ve been trying to get into the spookiness of the season, and although not my favorite genre, I spotted Timothy Spall lurking in a newish (2010?) budget ‘Hammer’ film in the charity shop, so I thought I’d give it a go.
Since seeing it, I’ve read reviews that claim it to be derivative of others - Don’t Look Now, (dead child and grieving parents); The Wicker Man (pagan village shennanigans); and Pet Cemetery (don’t know 'cos I aint seen it… stuff coming back from the dead I suppose?).

There’s less menacing villager types here than in TWM, in fact they’re quite kindly in their ability to bring the dead daughter back from t’other side for 3 days, so’s mom ‘n dad can say goodbye properly. And it’s more supernatural than DLN - with the daughter being ‘reborn’ through a reasonably gruesome ritual and ceremony. Unfortunately, it is the parents that have caused the problem with little Alice being a bit strange upon her return, for reasons I won’t go into here.
Timothy Spall is good as expected, as are the folks and the spooky weird looking girl. The story is ok for the most part, although the time and village boundaries are a bit of a poorly thought out conceit I reckon. The end gets a bit predict-a-slash and uncreative, but the final few seconds were pretty good. Worth a look - gory and bloody, and quite thought-provoking regarding the meaning of it all, but not really shit yersel’ scary (even by my wussy standards).

[last.caress]

My Saturday Halloween movie didn’t happen, so yesterday was a Day 24/Day 25 double-bill:

31 DAYS of HALLOWEEN - DAYS 24/25

Yesterday’s double-bill kicked off with Saturday’s intended movie: Frank Darabont’s modern classic The Mist (2007), in which the customers and staff at a small Maine supermarket are trapped in the shop as a strange thick mist full of pan-dimensional abominations engulfs them. Featuring future The Walking Dead alumni Melissa McBride, Laurie Holden and Jeffrey DeMunn (Frank Darabont ran The Walking Dead in its first season), my personal preference for watching The Mist is to watch the black & white version, and to watch it only up to the point at which the original short story by Stephen King ends. The movie’s final twist - added by Mr. Darabont but fully approved by Mr. King - is fantastic but I prefer the ambiguity of the short story. Anyway. I’m the father of a young boy and I don’t need to see that movie finale over and over.

Next up was yesterday’s scheduled pic: The House of the Devil (West, 2009), Ti West’s fantastically-observed retro-horror in which, typically of West, nothing much happens until it ALL happens. One of the most Halloween-flavoured movies of the bunch, this, evoking the feel of many of the satanic cult movies of the late 70’s/early 80’s such as The Devil Within Her (Assonitis/Barrett, 1974), All the Colors of the Dark (Martino, 1972), The Brotherhood of Satan (McEveety, 1971) and even the earlier Rosemary’s Baby (Polanski, 1968).

31 DAYS of HALLOWEEN - DAY 26

Tonight, following The Walking Dead, it’ll be… um, It Follows (Mitchell, 2014), in which a shapeshifting demon stalks its intended victim at walking pace, finding them wherever they are, until either a) the target has sex with someone, which passes the curse on to that person or b) until the demon kills the target, at which point the demon reverts back to the previous target and starts working back down the chain. Creepy premise, executed for the most part (a muddled sequence set in a swimming pool notwithstanding) by writer/director David Robert Mitchell in an interesting, stylized manner.

[last.caress]

@Reverend Danite

Wake Wood

I bought Wake Wood unseen purely off the strength of it being from the recently reborn Hammer stable but, although it was okay (and Timothy Spall is good in pretty-much everything), I didn’t find anything there which would inspire a second viewing, so I binned it. The basic premise is incredibly similar to that of the magnificent Stephen King novel Pet Sematary (sic), although the setting and specifics are of course different.