Horror Movies

[Bear 1817]

6 hours ago, Tokage said:

I remember enjoying that one as well! Coincidentally that one also kinda gave me some David Lynch vibes when I first watched it. I guess it's cuz it also kinda has the weird dream vibe going for it.. Need me more like that

A very unique film, and there's no doubt about its influence on David Lynch. Like, he's basically taken several scenes from the movie and put them into his own movies. But not only on Lynch, but the whole genre of horror.  

 

While very different, the entire Carnival of Souls reeks of the works of Ingmar Bergman, Jean Cocteau and F. W. Murnau. Different type of movies, but I'd put my head around a few of their movies if I were you. 

 

Kinda hard to find any similar movies, but I kinda think Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, The Company of Wolves, Beauty and the Beast (1978), Viy, Vampyr and Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari has some of the dreamy and unique vibe, albeit some of these are very different.

 

Movies like Castle of Blood, Black Sunday, Lady Morgan's Vengeance, Blood and Roses, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue, The City of the Dead, The Signalman might be of interest too.

 

60's gothic horror often carry some of the same vibe, like the aforementioned Castle of Blood and Black Sunday.

[Bear 1817]

Had to re-watch a few Spanish horror movies:

 

Who Can Kill a Child? - This has to be one of the darkest and grimmest horror movies ever. Just awesome, atmospheric, suspenseful as hell and grim throughout. It's impossible not to be impressed.

 

Horror Express - Spanish horror starring none other than Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Fantastic film, almost like a less grotesque The Thing set to a train. Amazing movie!

 

The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue / Let Sleeping Corpses Lie - Another magnificent Spanish horror movie that's up there with Night of the Living Dead as far as zombie movies goes. Really unique and awesome film.

 

And some non-spanish horror movies:

 

Witchcraft - Cool, mid-60's gothic horror movie starring Lon Chaney Jr among others. It's nothing you haven't seen before, but it's well-executed and very atmospheric. Fantastic cinematography!

 

Paganini Horror - Super cheesy but really fun late-80's Italian horror flick. Silly as hell, but really fun and enjoyable.

[Keiyuh 53]

Korean flicks are usually the best ones such as ju on other than than I can't suggest much internationally since almost all of the European countries make the same shitty horror flicks like ie turkey (not being racist talking from personal experience) you're much better of reading scary books or small sketches because books enforce your imagination and sketches from its limited budget it forces to make the best use of their materials 

[Bear 1817]

Mrs. Amworth - Late 70's British horror short that was a pilot for an unmade anthology series called Classics Dark and Dangerous. It's a lighthearted horror mystery-comedy that's a bit too jolly for its own good IMO. Not bad, but not amazing either. Decent way to spend 30 minutes.

 

Gwen - A slow, slow, slow, slow, slow-burning folk horror tale that's certainly not for everyone, but if you're into slow-burning, atmospheric folk-horror movies then this should be of interest. Well-acted, superbly shot and edited, well-written and with superb cinematography. It's dark, bleak, atmospheric and suspenseful, but it might be too slow for most. But not for me. I thought it was really good. If folk-horror like Hagazussa and The Witch, this should be interesting to you. It's closer to Hagazussa than The Witch, tho.

 

Cat in the Brain - Cat in the Brain is one of Lucio Fulci's final movies and is a meta-horror where Lucio Fulci plays a fictional version of himself. Lucio Fulci is a tormented horror film director who is slowly losing grip on reality. It's a weird one, with scenes from several of his other movies appearing here and there, but I think this is super underrated, slightly overlooked and really fucking awesome.  Way better than its reputation.

 

Death Weekend - Grim, bleak and awesome mid-70's rape and revenge that offers nothing new to the sub-genre, but is full of grimness ala The Last House on the Left. Feels like a mix of The Last House on the Left and Straw Dogs. Good shit!

[Bear 1817]

The Wailing - South-Korean horror movie by  Hong-jin Na (The Chaser, The Yellow Sea), who just keeps getting better with each film. The Wailing is basically a South-Korean folk-horror-ish movie, and it's a damn fine one. Atmospheric, exciting, intense and incredibly suspenseful. Full of stunning details, beautiful cinematography and photo throughout. 2,5 hours well spent! Felt more like a 70 minutes movie tbh.

 

Midsommar - This new folk-horror movie by Ari Aster (Hereditary) is nothing short of breathtaking, and one of the year's best movies for sure. It really nails that 60's and 70's folk-horror feeling, and you can't really talk about this without mentioning The Wicker Man. And that is a compliment for sure. Like The Wailing this is full of stunning details, beautiful cinematography and photo throughout. 2,5 hours well spent! Felt more like a 70 minutes movie tbh.

 

The Stalls of Barchester - This is the first episode of the 70's anthology series A Ghost Story for Christmas. This has nothing to do with christmas, but it was aired during christmas as a tradition of telling ghost stories during this time. This is a pretty standard ghost story. Decent, but not amazing by any means.

 

A Warning to the Curious - This is the second episode, and this was much, much better. Folk-horror based ghost story that's chilling and suspenseful. This is one of a few episodes I have seen before because of it's folk-horror themes.

 

The Witch in the Window - Ghost story that leans more towards drama than horror, and while it surely does carry some atmosphere and looks gorgeous, it feels a bit cheap and underdeveloped. It's a slow-burner, which I tend to like a lot, but this doesn't carry enough story for this much drama. Wasted potential IMO.

[Bear 1817]

The Ruins - I hadn't rated this, but it didn't take many minutes before I realized I had seen it once upon a time and I remembered liking it. And I liked it a lot now too. Great atmosphere throughout, and while it is somewhat predictable it kinda keeps you guessing exactly what are gonna happen next. Good shit.

 

Backcountry - Survival horror based on a true story. It's pretty good, but thought it took too long to get going and when it finally got going it was more or less finished. A couple of really stupid choices from the director too, choosing to have the most shaky cam I've ever seen in that one scene where the girl is running away from the bear. Almost got dizzy and sick from it.

 

Frozen - Adam Green's survival horror/thriller set to a ski resort. The premise is really simply and really straight forward, but it's superbly executed with great atmosphere and suspense. Well-acted throughout as well. Well done!

 

Rogue - Amazing killer croc movie that does more or less everything right. Great atmosphere, full og suspense, great effects for most part and great performances. Directed by the same guy who did Wolf Creek I & II.

 

47 Meters Down - Decent survival horror, but it lacks both the suspense and cast of a film like Rogue, or even Frozen. The actors are all-around pretty bad, and it never gets suspenseful enough. It never gets you to the edge of the seat. Shame, cuz there's great potential here. Will watch the sequel tho.

 

Witches in the Woods - At one and a half hour it feels fifty minutes too long, and it just never really gets going. Wasn't impressed by anything in this. Poor movie.

[Bear 1817]

 

 

Man, I can't wait for this. Richard Stanley debuted with the classic Hardware, and followed it up by the amazing Dust Devil. But he's probably most known for working on The Island of Dr. Moreau back in the mid-90's, a film which turned into a failure of a project with Richard Stanley losing his job and getting replaced by John Frankenheimer, who failed to make it any justice at all. I highly recommend the fabulous documentary Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau which takes a look at this entire project.

 

Anyway, since 1996's The Island of Dr. Moreau the incredibly talented Richard Stanley have only made a few documentaries, as well as a handful of short movies, so this is his first feature length since that. And it looks amazing, and Lovecraft fans are highly positive towards this movie. It's supposed to be really good as well as actually nailing the Lovecraftian feeling. It looks so good!

[Bear 1817]

The Descent: Part 2 - A pretty fun, but ultimately disappointing sequel to  Neil Marshall intense original. It's got great atmosphere, loads of killings, blood and gore, but it lacks the intensity and claustrophobic feeling of the original. One thing first-time director Jon Harris gets wrong is he's making it too close to the original. The setting is good and all, but it feels like a weaker version of the original. Too similar. The other thing, which is very, very disappointing, is he's showing too much of the monsters. That's one thing Neil Marshall really good right. More often than not, what you can not see is more scary than what you see. But all in all it was a fun ride.

 

Here Comes Hell - A silly, over the top horror comedy made much in the vein of 1930's whodunit set to a house, just with a supernatural side to it all instead of a whodunit theme. But the setting and feeling is the same. Think 1930's whodunit in the form of a supernatural movie mixed with classic William Castle movies, Evil Dead 2 and Clue. It's a black and white movie with the 1.37:1 ratio, and despite being shot digital it both looks and feels very 1930's, with the exception of the over the top gore and silliness of course. Ye, excellent! Really fucking impressive piece of filmmaking. There was one scene I didn't like tho, but I didn't hate it either because it felt very Army of Darkness-ish. But all in all great, great fun! Highly recommended!

 

The Mildew from Planet Xonader - I started watching this last night, and it didn't take long until these thoughts popped up in my head: "what the fuck, haven't I seen this before? Isn't this the disappointing Troma-esque Mold! that I saw a few months ago?" Well, not quite, but I wasn't too off. That means, director Giulio De Santi (founder and president of Necrostorm who produced(?) and released Mold!) takes 25% of the original movie, 25% of unreleased footage from Mold! and shots 50% new scenes to make a whole new movie. It's in the same vein tho. Melt movie that feels Troma-esque, but isn't quite as good as a regular Troma movie. It's fun, got some great practical effects and stuff, but it looks way too clean, polished and digital, and there is something lacking. Disappointing.

[Tokage 5930]

The Boneyard: A (somewhat) obscure '90s film. I've seen it being labeled as a zombie film in some places but that's not quite what it is. If anything, I'd compare it more to something along the line of Demon Wind or Evil Dead although that's not entirely accurate either.. It falls somewhere in between the two. Regardless of that, this one's definitely entertaining! Somewhat low on the gore, but features some very cool effects (mostly in the form of some very nice (and amusing) monster suits) that more than make up for that. The film has that kinda gritty and grainy visual quality to it that I love - it's somehow always maximum comfy to me. What's interesting as well is that this one kinda subverts the commonplace horror stereotype of having the beautiful young pure girl as the protagonist. Instead, the protagonist is a burnt out, overweight, and middle-aged psychic woman. It's something you don't see every day, so props to the director for daring to switch things up. The only gripe I have is that the movie kinda suffers from severe mood whiplash at certain points, but overall I'd say this one's definitely worth watching

[Bear 1817]

Indeed! Very overlooked, but incredibly cool film.

 

The Field Guide to Evil - An eight-part anthology movie with directors from different countries, with each telling one traditional tale of urban legend, myths, and folklore from their own country. One was rather bad, but the rest ranged between good and incredible.

 

A quick run through with scores:

 

The Sinful Women of Höllfall (Austria) - 7/10

Haunted by Al Karisi, the Childbirth Djinn (Turkey) - 6/10

The Kindler and the Virgin (Poland) - 8/10

Beware the Melonheads (USA) - 3/10

What Ever Happened to Panagas the Pagan? (Greece) - 8/10

The Palace of Horrors (India) - 9/10

A Nocturnal Breath (Germany) - 6/10

Cobblers' Lot (Hungary) - 9/10

 

Cobblers lot was actually made by Peter Strickland, but it based on a folk tale from Hungary.

 

Highly recommended from me, but it seems like this is more miss than hit among the audience.

[Bear 1817]

47 Meters Down: Uncaged - This sequel is by no means a masterpeice, or even very good, but it's as fun as the first movie. Loved the setting which was in a Mayan city under water. Was really cool and atmospheric! Overall it was more atmospheric, but less suspenseful and intense. Liked the actors a lot better here, but liked the ending of the original better. So kinda equal all in all.

 

Gutterballs - Incredibly trashy, crude and rude slasher in the vein of the mid-to-late 80's slasher movies. Gory and violent as hell, but with more nudity. It's not amazing, but I had a fun time with it.

[Bear 1817]

It! The Terror from Beyond Space - This movie is often considered a predecessor to Alien, or Alien is often considered a rip off of this. And it's easy to understand why, because this is to Alien what The Thing From Another World is to The Thing. It's different, but still the same, and it's absolutely fucking amazing. Late 50's sci-fi horror that's intense and suspenseful. It's not Alien-good, but it's amazing!

[Bear 1817]

Queen of Blood - Very disappointing sci-fi horror that uses some gorgeous footage from a russian sci-fi movie. It's not bad, but the first 35 minutes or so are way too slow-burning with little of interest happening. But from there on it slowly gets better, and the last 25 or so minutes were excellent. Cool enough, but not something I'd recommend to anyone.

 

Infini - Sci-fi horror that tries way too hard to be clever and deep. Loads and loads of wasted potential, and the ending was AWFUL. Hoyl shit! One of the worst endings I've ever seen. Fucking hell!

 

The Barn - More or less one big, fat homage to the 80's horror movies, and a good one as well. I had a blast watching this campy, silly, over the top and bloody horror movie. This was great! Highly recommended! Can absolutely see this become a cult film in a few years.

 

This entire movie made me think of the psychedelic death/doom metal band. Acid Witch. It's fun and awesome in the same way.

Edited November 16, 2019 by Bear

[Bear 1817]

The Witching Season - A 5 episode anthology series that contains 5 short episodes, ranging from 9 minutes to 31 (with a minute and a half intro included). It's a bit up and down, but it's fun throughout. Each episode is predictable as hell, but they're fun and I like how each episode pays homage to a different type of horror sub genre.

 

Shame I missed out on the VHS release of this. Would've loved to own this on VHS.

 

Btw, best part of the entire series is the intro. Looks and sounds like something John Carpenter could've made in 1979. With music by Slasher Dave, a guy best known for his work with psychedelic death/doom and cheesy horror metallers Acid Witc. But his soundtracks and synth-music is really good and fun. Highly recommended if you like John Carpenter's horror scores

 

 

[Jigsaw9 6783]

Managed to catch a rare screening of The Lighthouse. Amazing atmosphere, visuals and acting all around.  I couldn't have hoped for a better 2nd movie from Robert Eggers, great job! Completely sucked me in, and after the movie was over it was a really weird feeling to leave the theater and go back to the 'real world', haha. Also, in a perfect world Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson would get nominated for (and win) an Oscar for what they did here.

[Bear 1817]

Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman - This is far from Kôji Shiraishi's best horror movie, but it's still a really solid piece of work throughout. Great atmosphere and suspense, bleak and brutal in its own way. Very good!

 

Occult - Another Kôji Shiraishi flick, but this time a found footage, which seems to be his favourable format of horror. It's low-budget (made on a micro-budget as far as I know), and the creators doesn't try to hide that. In fact they used that as well as they can and take great advantage of that. This isn't as good as Noroi: The Curse, but it's a good one nonetheless. Some nice Lovecraftian vibes throughout.

 

Marebito - Felt like re-watching this and this was as great as I remembered. Quite unique and different, incredibly Lovecraftian and really weird. It's a very original movie. Great stuff, heavy on the atmosphere and mystery.

 

Harbinger Down - Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr. of special effects studio Amalgamated Dynamics felt so betrayed and disappointed when they saw what had happened to their special effects on The Thing (2011, which originally had some AMAZING special effects, only for a studio to put cheap, awful CGI over them in post-prod) that they decided to start a fundraiser and create something with actual practical special effects and something that felt old school. They raised 380k, got some move money from somewhere else and made this. Harbinger Down has close to 0% originality. It's 85% The Thing (1982) and 15% Alien. The story is familiar, the setting is familiar, the monster is familiar, the characters are familiar and so on. But I thought this was AMAZING! Fantastic special effects, it's just a shame there's not more of them. And if you worship The Thing (1982) and other monster flicks from that era I can't really see how you can not like this. This was phenomenal!

 

Ready or Not - Horror-comedy bu Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (V/H/S, Southbound), starring a truly outstanding Samara Weaving (Babysitter, Mayhem). I think this movie will be a bit hit or miss for most people, but I loved it. Through it was phenomenal and among the best movies of 2019. I'd say that if you liked You're Next there's a big chance you'll like this.

[Bear 1817]

Cold Skin - Great concept, but incredibly disappointing. The two main characters are boring, the CGI looks awful, and there's no punch in it at all. Thought it was boring. Things have really gone downwards for Xavier Gens since his amazing debut movie Frontier(s).

 

Absentia - An early film by Mike Flanagan who would go on to direct the amazing The Haunting of Hill House, as well as Hush and the recent Doctor Sleep. I don't like the overall look of this film. Looks very cheap and digital, with weird lighting throughout, but the movie itself is really good. The story is good, the characters feels really real and fleshed out, the atmosphere is good and the Lovecraftian vibe is spot on. Like, this shit is really damn Lovecraftian. A must for fans of Lovecraft. Very good movie, despite some major flaws.

 

The Dyatlov Pass Incident - I am a huge fan of found footage, and this didn't disappoint...until the end at least. I really liked it, and I liked the overall feeling of it. But I was left slightly disappointed by the ending. They simply revealed a bit too much, and showed a bit too much. But I really liked it anyway. But the unknown is always scarier, so it would have been good to show a bit less. Strong on atmosphere and mystery too.

 

Black Mountain Side - Amazing, semi-Lovecraftian horror movie set to the big nowhere Northern Canada. It's a slow-burning movie, but it has got great atmosphere, great characters, great set-pieces and a super cool plot. Thought this was amazing!

 

Lifeforce - Mid-80's Tobe Hooper movie where he adapts Colin Wilson's Lovecraftian The Space Vampires. This is a slight disappointment, but it's a cool movie and you won't find a vampire movie more original than this. Very 80's throughout, and that's always a plus.

 

Dirt Dauber - 30 minute Lovecraftian short movie. It's good, but it left me a bit disappointed. The car scene was just too long. They did not have either the actors or dialogue to make the scene that long. But overall it was a cool short film. Loved how it went from black and white to colour after a long while. Excellent choice!

[Bear 1817]

Kairo/Pulse - Re-watched today. I am  bit disappointed tbh. Don't get me wrong, it's fantastic and both plot and atmosphere is really good. I just thought it was a bit too long, and the first half is way creepier than the second half. But it's a solid 8/10

 

Ju-on: The Curse - A cool, atmospheric and ballsy movie. It's told in a weird way, and the different stories doesn't feel as connected as they maybe should, but Takashi Shimizu does his own thing and it really pays off in the end. Really good film, and it would go on to become better.

 

 

[Bear 1817]

Tales from the Lodge - A different type of anthology movie that just doesn't quite live up to its premise. It's fine for what it is, but it lacks laughs, blood/gore or suspense. It just kinda falls inbetween.

 

The Final Terror - Cult slasher movie made in 81 and released in 83.  It's kinda like Friday the 13th meets  Deliverance, and that Deliverance-vibe makes it stand out tbh. Really awesome movie and highly recommended for fans of slashers.

[Bear 1817]

Fright - Very early 70's proto-slasher from UK. It starts off as a bit of a standard gothic horror movie, but slowly evolves into something completely else. Great atmosphere, superb suspense and some truly magnificent performances. I'm sure Black Christmas was very, very inspired by this. Feels like it. Highly recommended.

 

Terror Train - Classic early slasher film featuring a very young Jamie Lee Curtis in her third slasher movie, and fourth (horror) movie overall. It's an early slasher and follows all of the rules, and it does it in a fantastic way. Not the best slasher around, but amazing nonetheless.

 

The Mutilator - Mid-80's slasher. Feels really cheesy, but is a lot of fun and features some amazing kills. Very very good!

[Bear 1817]

Leprechaun - Super underrated and super fun horror comedy that balances horror with comedy in a really good and fun way. Warwick Davis is excellent as the titular character, and a young Jeffnifer Anniston is super as well. Fantastic film!

 

Leprechaun 2 - The second movie goes more into the lore of it all, as well as leaning a bit more towards comedy. But it''s great fun. A small step down, and not as well-acted as the first, with the exception of Warwick Davis which is phenomenal, but other than that very good. Fun stuff! Super underrated.

 

Leprechaun 3 - Even sillier than the second one, but still great fun. Warwick is, once more, phenomenal as the titular creature. Well worth your time if you want something good and silly.

 

Looking forward to the rest of the series. In Space, in that Hood I & II and the most recent reboots Leprechaun: Origins and more than anything Leprechaun Returns, directed by none other than  Astron-6's Steven Kostanski (The Void, BioCop, Manborg), Should be a blast!

[Bear 1817]

Leprechaun 4: In Space - The most over the top and silly movie in the franchise so far, but it's fun alright. But liking this film more or less depends on if you enjoy the silly humour or not. But I did. Weakest in the series so far, but still fun IMO. THere's some IMMENSE practical special effects throughout this film tho that on its own makes it worthwile. IMMENSE!!!

[platy 3018]

18 hours ago, Bear said:

Leprechaun - Super underrated and super fun horror comedy that balances horror with comedy in a really good and fun way. Warwick Davis is excellent as the titular character, and a young Jeffnifer Anniston is super as well. Fantastic film!

 

Leprechaun 2 - The second movie goes more into the lore of it all, as well as leaning a bit more towards comedy. But it''s great fun. A small step down, and not as well-acted as the first, with the exception of Warwick Davis which is phenomenal, but other than that very good. Fun stuff! Super underrated.

 

Leprechaun 3 - Even sillier than the second one, but still great fun. Warwick is, once more, phenomenal as the titular creature. Well worth your time if you want something good and silly.

 

Looking forward to the rest of the series. In Space, in that Hood I & II and the most recent reboots Leprechaun: Origins and more than anything Leprechaun Returns, directed by none other than  Astron-6's Steven Kostanski (The Void, BioCop, Manborg), Should be a blast!

I'll second you here, Leprechaun is definitely underrated as a dark comedy (wouldn't go as far as to call it horror). You made me want to watch it again 

[Tokage 5930]

Night School: This is another one of those movies that fits in the 'very obviously giallo-inspired' category that also includes Dressed To Kill, The Eyes of Laura Mars, White of the Eye etc. It has the usual giallo staples: tits and ass, sleazy characters, extremely obvious red herrings and a series of outlandish killings committed by a figure in leather gloves. There's a handful of pretty cool and atmospheric sequences here (like the aquarium sequence and the one where the girl's being followed home from the diner for example) and the killer's black leather biker uniform is a simple but very effective choice. Overall I was pleasantly surprised, expected a lot less going in but it turned out to be quite entertaining. If you're a gore hound you might end up disappointed as most of the violence occurs off-screen, but otherwise this one's not bad at all. 

[Bear 1817]

19 hours ago, platy said:

I'll second you here, Leprechaun is definitely underrated as a dark comedy (wouldn't go as far as to call it horror). You made me want to watch it again 

 

Why would you not call it horror tho? That makes no sense to me.

 

Have you seen the two newest? Origins and Returns, a reboot and its sequel.

 

Edit: I'm mistaken. Leprechaun: Origins is a reboot, but Leprechaun Returns is a direct sequel to Leprechaun, ignoring every movie made after the original. Interesting...this just made me even more keen to see it.

Edited December 7, 2019 by Bear