Horror Movies

[Bear 1817]

I haven't watched it yet, but I do have it on my watchlist and I will watch it. But to be quite honest I don't have any big expectations. I expect more teen/girl-drama in the vein of Hemlock Grove, True Blood, Dracula, Vampire Diaries and so on. I hope I am wrong, though. The world badly need some good horror shows.

[Gaz 1097]

you didn't like true blood? i think from all vampire series i ever whatched this was the best one with lots of blood and some funny plot twists every now and then. i hated sookie, though.

[Bear 1817]

No, I actually enjoyed the first two-three seasons, but it's not a very good series and they don't put much effort into the horror of the series. The similarity between the series I mentioned is that none of them are horror at the heart, not even close. Three of them are just regular dramas that happens to have a horror theme, obviously aimed at (teenage) girls, while True Blood is a romantic fantasy-comedy that just happen to deal with vampires and werewolfs. It was fun for what it is - a lighthearted, over the top and silly fantasy show, but there's not much of a horror series at all.

 

Out of newer horror series, the only ones I'd rewatch is Masters of Horror and Dead Set as I can remember right now. Masters of Horror was an anthology series ranging from pathetic to amazing, but most of them were on the good side for sure. Dead Set was satirical mixture of horror and drama.

 

So yeah, I haven't been too impressed. Though, I have a lot of series on my watchlist, both newer ones and older ones.

[Gaz 1097]

hah, i see. well i do agree with most of you said about true blood and it's also not one of my favorite but i still found it quite enjoyable. 
 
offtopic:

@bear what are you favorite series anyway? i'm kinda curious to know

[Bear 1817]

Uhm, that's a hard one. I guess my top 10 would look something like this:

 

1. The Wire

2. True Detective

3. Les Vampires

4. Fantomas

5. The Singing Detective

6. The Sopranos

7. Miami Vice

8. Game of Thrones

9. Band of Brothers

10. MacGyver

 

Lots of mandatory series I have yet to watch, as well as series I haven't watched since I was a kid and so on. Aso, I decided to exclude all animated series. And yeah, it's something like that.

[Jigsaw9 6783]

I watched the 1st ep of Penny Dreadful last night, and will definitely continue with it. It's not pure horror of course, more like mystical fantasy light-horror whatever set in 19th century England. So far we have creepy vampires (?), corpse reanimation through galvanism, some Egyptian theme and evil spirits or something like that. Also, an American dude who handles a gun well, so I'm guessing it'll occasionally steer into light-action territory like Sleepy Hollow.

[Gaz 1097]

damn sleepy hollow was a big disappointment for me i regret watching those 5 or 6 episodes because it was so generic and boring so i couldn't even concentrate on the show, always did some other stuff while watching it :v really hope penny dreadful is not like that.

[Jigsaw9 6783]

I just watched ep3, it's a pretty interesting series. If you expect horror then don't watch it tho. It's basically a big imaginative mash-up of old mystery / gothic / horror tales... so if you don't like it when they change things about classic stuff like

the Dracula story or Frankenstein's doings

then proceed with caution. I like it so far tho - it has a cool visual style, there are some neat surprises and interesting hints sprinkled here and there. The atmosphere is great too, especially when they get into

that ancient Egyptian doomsday prophecy and possession stuff.

[Bear 1817]

You talkin' to me, boy? I don't mind that, though. What I mind are awful attempts at covering up your teensy soap dramas with horror themes. But I like fantasy, mystery, gothic and so on. However, it's written by John Logan so it should be something good. Guy knows what he's doing.

 

But this:

 

Boss: "So guys, what do we have here?"

...

Boss: "You don't know? Well, let me tell you."

All: "Ok!"

Boss: "What we have here is just another teen drama obviouslyaimed at girls. There's nothing here that stands out. Do you know what we're gonna do?"

All: "No!"

"We're gonna put in some vampires and werewolf and make it into a romantic horror-drama. Original, and both girls and horror fans will love it!"

All: "Oooooh, boss! You're so smart! That's genius!"

 

And so it goes. Eeeew!

 

I just want something aimed towards a bit more grown up people. Someone above 15, and also not only towards girls.

[Jigsaw9 6783]

Hah, I finally watched The Uninvited, it was pretty decent. Seen spookier of course but for 1944 it was aight.

 

Also lmao @ that ending "I've had a narrow escape. She might've been my mother-in-law!"

[Bear 1817]

The Uninvited is such a good film. For some reason I always thought of it as very unique. The atmosphere is very... don't know. Like nothing else.

 

 

By the way, I made a proposal to my girl who also loves horror that we should see one horror film a day in october. We pick 15 each and watch mine, hers, mine, hers and so on until we end it with Halloween on the 31st. Should be fun. She's very much into film and horror, but not films before 1980, so I thought I'd pick some older ones to try to broaden her taste. This should be a fun month! I expect a lot of shit from her though as she is not that citical to films as I am, but we decided we HAVE to watch eachothers films. I can't wait!

 

Thought picking both new and old, classics and non-classics, and slashers and splatters and giallos and psychological horror and everything else. A bit of everything to help her broaden her taste. Should be a fun month!

[Jigsaw9 6783]

^ Good idea! I did something similar in the past on my Tumblr -- well, not watching, just listing "appropriate" movies in October (in a chronological order).

 

There it is: http://johnny37564.tumblr.com/tagged/movies-for-halloween (it's a pretty mainstream/obvious list tho)

[Bear 1817]

It's a very good idea. My girlfriend likes the idea too, so it should be great fun. Expect a lot of shit from her though, to be honest. But it should be fun nonetheless. I can't wait!

 

 

That was a cool list. Not everything would've ended up on my list, but a lot would've. I was surprised by how many of those I could've included on my own list.

[Bear 1817]

I started my Octoberfest yesterday, and I actually started with an episode of an anthology series. In 2002 Mick Garris gathered some directors known for their horror films to dine together, and he would do the same later with other directors. During this time Guillermo Del Toro went over to a birthday girl and told her "happy birthday from the masters of horror", and so it all started. A few years later Garris decided to make an anthology series and gathered the likes of Carpenter, Argento, Dante, Landis, Miike, Coscarelli, Gordon and Hooper and more to make a TV-series. I watched this went it was first released almost 10 years ago, but I don't remember much, other than Carpenter having the best episode. I'l have to watch it all again someday, but I went on and watched Carpenter's episode last night.

 

John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns - As we all know, Carpenter made some fantastic films during the 70's and 80's, but as with most directors during these years, he lost it later on. Well, during the 90's. Besides a film or two he's not made anything worthy of anyone's time from the 90's and till now. Well, and this episode, because this episode is fantastic. Or, this short film is fantastic. It's an original, dark and suspensful piece of horror cinema. Extremely violent for a Carpenter piece, but he's handling the violence and blood in a fantastic way. It's really creepy, and the theme song is fantastic. As most Carpenter theme songs it's very Goblinesque, and that's awesome.

 

All in all, a very enjoyable piece of horror.

 

Le Fin Absolue du Monde!

 

[Tokage 5930]

Saw Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon yesterday, it was pretty good! Loved how it referenced other slasher movies and how it played around with the conventions of the subgenre. Definitely one of the better "recent" horrors out there (although it was made back in '06 iirc, but still)

[Bear 1817]

It's a great film, and a film that deserves way more attention than what it's got. Very well-made and cool film.

[Bear 1817]

It was the second day of October and my girlfriend got to choose film, even though she couldn't be in this 100%. But I'm a kind guy, so that's OK. What did she choose? Well, something from my small DVD-collection actually:

 

 

Event Horizon - Despite all hte negativity surrounding this film, I still like it a lot. It's not original and feels like a big mish mash of elements from different films, but there's something with the atmosphere in the film. Claustrophobic, and the Hell-theme is fantastic. I think it's brilliant. Some of the special effects are dated, though. All CGI effects looks bad. But other than that very enjoyable.

 

[Bear 1817]

Stage Fright - What do you get if Camp Rock got raped by Friday the 13th and Sleepaway Camp? This film. It's a mix of musical, horror (slasher) and black comedy. The plot itself isn't very original, but the excecution, with the musical elements, makes it feel like something slightly original. The musical numbers are more often than not good, catchy and funny, and while never scary or reepy, it does have something very interesting about it. There's some weird atmosphere here to lift everything about the film, and that makes it even more enjoyabe. The kills are FANTASTIC and the way they are set up are amazing. I loved it, and I often found myself very impressed and surprised by it. Allie MacDonald is as good as she's beautiful, and she's stunning btw, and Meat Loaf is fantastic as well. They steal the show here.

 

So what we'vegot here ain't a masterpiece, but it's a very enjoyable and original film, and it's highly recommended.

 

[ghost 2687]

Has anyone seen society?

I saw it once a few years ago and mostly just remember the visuals, but I remember it being pretty interesting.

http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0098354/

[Jigsaw9 6783]

^ Yeah, it's a pretty neat movie imo! The visuals are what stuck in my mind too, but the story is properly weird/interesting too.

[Bear 1817]

The Howling - Über classic low-budget horror from 1981, done just as I like it. The Howling plays out like many horror films at the times, though a little slower than most of them, especially the first haf o so where it just builds up slowly. This is an atmospheric, fun and very charming horror film with beautiful special effects, great acting, a fantastic soundtrack, a good plot and superb direction from Joe Dante. And I really like the cinematogaphy here.

 

 

Joe Dante's the man, and I'm his fan.

 

 

[Bear 1817]

Ringu - Hideo Nakata decideded to defy the current trends in horror back in the late 90's and went for something slow with atmospheric tale of terror. Nakata keeps it very simple, both as far as pictures and music and sound goes.This film is a great example of less is more, the opposite of its remake actually. The way the camera moves and the angles used are more often than not quite unimpressive, the lack of quick cuts, the grainy and gritty production and the general lack of technical film making, might be the strongest point of this film. It's not artsy or impressive in a technica sense in any way at all. Straight forward film making where I believe Nakata only had one thing on his mind: to create atmosphere, something in which he succeeded in. The way the videotape is used, how little screentime Sadako gets and lack of both blood and gore and jump scares is phenomenal. That's what makes this a tale of terror.

 

One of the most creepy films ever made. Still creeps me the fuck out.

 

 

15 years later it is interesting to see how much of a influence this proved to have, just not on Japan and the eastern film makers in general, but in America and rest of the world as well. This transformed the current trend of blood, gore and violence in horror and went into a more subtle and susenseful territory, relying heavily on atmosphere, just as horror once did. So in that sense this film ain't as original as many wants it to be, but it proved to be a massive game changer within the genre anyway by bringing back the horror of older days. Fantastic work!

 

 

I haven't really seen too many Hideo Nakata films, but from what I've seen he never managed to follow up this properly, despite making some good films. When watching this film it's so obvious that the guy is mad talented, and he has a huge potential that he just seems to struggle toget out there. That's a shame.

 

 

I could also add that the remake is allright and the best "j-horror" remake, but I don't get how anyone can prefer it to the original. The technical aspects of the film are better, but that just doesn't make a film good. Just as with music. Playing technical and having a clean production doesn't make it better. Quick cuts, CGI, jump scares, fast zooms, sudden use of weird noises and so on. It didn't help the story at all. Kudos for doing more than just copying the film, but it was very weakened by this bullshit.

 

Less can be more no matter what my man Yngwie J. Malmsteen says about it. More can be more, you're right about that my good friend, but so can less, even though you don't get it. Cheers!

[ghost 2687]

@Jigsaw9: Yeah. I'm still...confused should I say? About the *you know what* scene (don't wanna ruin for anyone who hasn't seen it). Is that even possible?? Because I looked it up on google and apparently it's a thing.

[ghost 2687]

Bead, you're making my October the best I've ever had yet.

[relentless 254]

Recommended slasher films? I've seen the staples such as the Halloween, Nightmare on Elm St., and Friday the 13th Franchises along with Black Christmas, My Bloody Valentine (remake and original), The Burning, and Sleepaway Camp.

 

 

Any lesser known that are also worth checking out?