Likes: 
Faceplams: Halloween kills was fucking awesome.
Behold the morning star
Halloween kills was fucking awesome.
FATUM NOS IUNGET
No doubt.
Banned
Very disappointed in Halloween Kills. Jamie Lee is barely utilized in this movie. She spends the entire movie in a hospital (gee where have they done that before?).....Its basically Halloween starring Anthony Michael Hall......This is also the closest Halloween has come to torture porn. The best Halloweens had suspense and even some humor. This is just straight up massacre kill everybody fuck it all kill kill kill.....I think Rob Zombie's Halloween movies were better than this........and his movies sucked.........Halloween Kills is somewhere between the Busta Rhymes and Paul Rudd Halloween shitbombs
Active Member
Well that was... not good. The writing is no better than any of the sequels these sequels retconned. At least some of the kills were good. And of course, the new score from John Carpenter.
Active Member
Definitely disappointed with Halloween Kills. They doubled down on all the issues that I had with the previous film, plus there was some truly cringeworthy fan service moments. Very glad I got to see it for free on Peacock.
Trollhunter
I just got home after seeing it and my initial reaction is pretty close to 50/50… though I think I slightly liked it more than I didn’t.
Hell of it is they could’ve done basically everything they did do without the dumb shit. Spoiler: First and most idiotic was the “many sides” nonsense. “Michael is our division/our anger.” Nope. Are the writers naive libertarians? Secondly, the diversion of the other escaped patient was unnecessary. How do you bungle having the townspeople rise up against Michael?! They didn’t need that. They could’ve kept all the other hospital stuff. Related, the thing I totally understand is why Laurie is a non factor in this movie. If they didn’t show the severity of her injuries from the first movie, that would be a massive mistake, so everyone bitching about that should maybe rethink it. Third, why did they need a cheesy vision of kid Michael to get Karen back inside to set up her (likely) death?
I loved the pace, the gore, and the ideas not related to what I put in spoiler text. I think the third movie could be salvageable but this one needed another script pass before they shot it. You trim about 20 minutes of nonsense and there’d be a great movie here. It’s a shame.
Last edited by Swykk; 10-17-2021 at 05:16 PM.
Active Member
Spoiler: Because they needed yet another pointless callback to the original before the credits rolled.Originally Posted by Swykk
Throbbing Member
I watched Halloween Kills twice. Slight spoilers...
And it's probably one of the most difficult movies to rate for me. The stuff in it I like, I love. The stuff I don't like I think is absolutely terrible. I'd say I give it a 5-6/10 but that doesn't really seem right. There are chunks of it I'd give a 10 and chunks of it I'd give a 1. Weird mess of a movie.
I think they shoehorned way too much campy comedy into it and at the wrong times. Jokes are ok but when you are making the 50th big John little John joke while Michael is on screen about to kill them then it kinda sucks any tension out of it. The 2018 movie was more balanced and I preferred that tone more. This seemed like a regression. And yeah, the hospital sequence is awful in every way. And Tommy Doyle's character was useless and could have been cut entirely.
It had great music and a lot of great imagery. The flashback was great and Loomis was done with 100% prosthetics and makeup (suck it star wars, cgi sucks folks). And the practical effects were good. Both actors playing Michael were great. It's just such a long way from the minimalism of the original.
And who the fuck thought it was a good idea to have every inch of the Myers house painted deep green? Even the furniture for fucks sake. Those plain white walls in the original were a much more effective backdrop.
Active Member
I enjoyed it quite a bit. Some parts weren't great, but I still had a lot of fun watching it. The way the ending sequence is shot so differently, style wise, made me wonder if it was more of a death dream fantasy type scenario or something.
Throbbing Member
These guys pulled no punches
Active Member
just finished it. it was sold to me as a Lovecraftian tale so I am bummed out at that ending.
I mean other than the whole "man that was a fucking bummer of an ending", you know? But bummed because I was expecting cosmic horror and got religious horror. Kind of made me want to rewatch the first season of True Detective.
I was nobody. Nothing.
So i'm super excited about the new Paranormal Activity.
And i don't care what anyone says. Paranormal Activity is fucking badass. I remember coming away from that movie thinking "i hope they never stop making sequels to this."
The sequels haven't let me down yet.
I LOVE found footage. So many of them are awful, but i find the good ones. Host is my latest favorite found footage movie, and it was fucking UNREAL how scary that movie was. It was Zoom call found footage, but it fits under the umbrella.
I got a big kick out of Found Footage 3-D; it was kind of on some Scream/Cabin in the Woods meta shit.
Censor had a found footage element, and it was great.
Anyone else have any recommendations for found footage i may have missed in the past couple years? @Deepvoid ? DEEEEEEEEEEEP Void. Are you there? I really miss you.
While i'm talking about this, i should mention The Poughkeepsie Tapes. It's presented as like, an episode of 20/20, but they found the killer's tapes, and they're showing this special episode with EXTREME warnings, because they show excerpts of the tapes. And, good god, this introduced me to a kind of found footage i don't really want any more of.
I DO think it had a message, though. It's like, "HEY! Like stories about REAL serial killers? How about the ones that keep some girl in their basement for years and years and brainwash her and shit. Wanna see what that LOOKS like? HOW YOU LIKE IT NOW?"
THAT shit is the first fucking horror movie i've ever watched where i felt like the movie was CHALLENGING me to finish it.
Some of y'all who are into A Serbian Film and Hostel and such may get a kick out of this one. It all comes across as VERY real. It really, really does. It's SUPER well made, but it's not for me.
The Poughkeepsie Tapes. Check it out, you sick fuck.
SO. What's good to watch as far as VOD, or New On BluRay, this Devil's Night?
I was nobody. Nothing.
So i'm super excited about the new Paranormal Activity.
And i don't care what anyone says. Paranormal Activity is fucking badass. I remember coming away from that movie thinking "i hope they never stop making sequels to this."
The sequels haven't let me down yet.
I LOVE found footage. So many of them are awful, but i find the good ones. Host is my latest favorite found footage movie, and it was fucking UNREAL how scary that movie was. It was Zoom call found footage, but it fits under the umbrella.
I got a big kick out of Found Footage 3-D; it was kind of on some Scream/Cabin in the Woods meta shit.
Censor had a found footage element, and it was great.
Anyone else have any recommendations for found footage i may have missed in the past couple years? @Deepvoid ? DEEEEEEEEEEEP Void. Are you there? I really miss you.
While i'm talking about this, i should mention The Poughkeepsie Tapes. It's presented as like, an episode of 20/20, but they found the killer's tapes, and they're showing this special episode with EXTREME warnings, because they show excerpts of the tapes. And, good god, this introduced me to a kind of found footage i don't really want any more of.
I DO think it had a message, though. It's like, "HEY! Like stories about REAL serial killers? How about the ones that keep some girl in their basement for years and years and brainwash her and shit. Wanna see what that LOOKS like? HOW YOU LIKE IT NOW?"
THAT shit is the first fucking horror movie i've ever watched where i felt like the movie was CHALLENGING me to finish it.
Some of y'all who are into A Serbian Film and Hostel and such may get a kick out of this one. It all comes across as VERY real. It really, really does. It's SUPER well made, but it's not for me.
The Poughkeepsie Tapes. Check it out, you sick fuck.
SO. What's good to watch as far as VOD, or New On BluRay, this Devil's Night?
I was nobody. Nothing.
Also, sorry for double post after long meandering post, BUT,
I recommend VHS/1994.
And one more thing. I'll add five people, ETS only, to my Plex server, for Halloween.
If you don't know what Plex is, it's a free service, wherein you host your data: movies, music, whatever. And you can SHARE said data with other users. It's laid out kind of like netflix. So, i'm offering access to my bulbous collection of shows, movies, audiobooks, Ken Burns docs, and a special library of JUST horror. SIgnup is free. Just make your own server ( you don't have to put anything on it,) tell me your login name, and i'll hook you up.
Throbbing Member
So I was making a Halloween horror recommendation list for my friends and it ended up bloating and becoming more involved than I intended, including a number of films that they've already seen, so I thought I'd share it here. Sorry that it's so long and if you check anything out based on my word, hope you like it and don't think it sucks!
OLDIES - The Classics
For a dose of that old fashioned Universal Monster magic, you can’t go wrong with The Bride of Frankenstein, The Black Cat, and The Invisible Man - they’re inevitably dated in some respects but the moving tragedy and devilish humor of Bride, the shocking perversity and disturbing themes lingering just beneath the surface of The Black Cat, and Claude Rains’ deliriously magnetic vocal performance as The Invisible Man (his maniacal laughter was a direct influence on Mark Hamill’s Joker performance) are just some of the pieces that make these aged masterpieces so worthwhile. Karloff’s monster remains a timelessly beautiful character, he and Lugosi match wits so thrillingly in The Black Cat, and The Invisible Man is perhaps the best display of all time great director James Whale’s uncanny blend of horror, low key science fiction, and campy black humor. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) likely remains the best adaptation of the tale (though John Barrymore’s silent Hyde is notably disturbing), with stunning performances from Fredric March (whose leering, twitchy Hyde is like some kind of terrible, intelligent chimpanzee) and Miriam Hopkins - some of their (pre-code) scenes together remain surprisingly sexual and disturbing. The Creature from the Black Lagoon is one of those ultimate monster films, a simple yet classic and effective tale of man testing the boundaries of nature and its place therein, with a monster who remains beautifully designed and executed (and proved to be hugely influential on other movie monsters in the future). Cronenberg’s remake gets more press now but the original The Fly (1958) is still unforgettable and affecting, regardless of its more dated aspects - the “love you” scene and the ending still pack a punch with me. Further interest in this category? Check out Night of the Demon (aka Curse of the Demon) and The Masque of the Red Death (1964).
ALL HALLOWS FLAIR - Halloween-flavoured
Sure Halloween is a great film and a classic but if you’re looking for something a little less obvious, watch Halloween III: Season of the Witch, pretend it’s not a sequel because it really isn’t, and enjoy the madness of this truly odd but weirdly engrossing and memorable pop cultural misfit - at the very least it’s a lot more about the holiday than the original and that Silver Shamrock song will never leave your head. For pure 80s fun with heart and wits, the Fred Dekker double feature of Night of the Creeps and The Monster Squad will do the trick and then some - fun characters, clever lines, genre references galore, and seriously great monsters (especially in Squad, where the classic Universal baddies get modern makeovers that leave them polished and threatening yet as recognizable and iconic as ever). The only downside is some 80s homophobia! For even more kid friendly fare, Rankin Bass’s Mad Monster Party is like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer’s cool, edgy Halloween-themed older brother, with a kick ass soundtrack, a genuinely fun script and story, and an ending unlike any other I’ve ever seen for a kids’ movie. Of course, if you’re down for the genuinely creepy, one could always celebrate the most important Halloween creature with a woodland nightmare that perfectly blends Puritan nightmares with a modern interrogation of that isolating, spiritually draining culture, Eggers’ The Witch. And of course Trick ’r Treat is a no brainer choice, but one that also fits in our next category…
ANTHOLOGIES PLEASE - Nightmare Collections
Not to be confused with the HBO show, the English Tales from the Crypt (1972) film may on paper be drawn from the outrageous shlock of EC Comics, but its delivery is much more cold, deliberate, and subtle than its source material and as such is much creepier - the unsettling Christmas segment and the absolutely heartbreaking ‘Poetic Justice’ (with a deeply affecting performance from Peter Cushing) are worth the price of admission alone. Creepshow, on the other hand, channels the lurid spirit of the EC Comics with perfect accuracy and in doing so crafts a delightfully monstrous time for the viewer - the stellar cast, the garish lighting and close ups and painted comic panels, the playful way it toys with its classic model tales…it’s not hard to see how it has left such a positive legacy. Creepshow 2 is unfortunately rather stale but in lieu of that, Tales from the Darkside: The Movie will more than suffice - another terrific cast, another collection of memorable tales, and this time with a wrap-around story about Debbie Harry getting ready to eat a kid! For Halloween specifically, Trick ‘r Treat is the obvious choice, with a handful of great Halloween tales cleverly woven together in one of the more interesting frame-narratives in a film of this kind. With the exception of a strange drawn out scene featuring Marilyn Manson’s Sweet Dreams cover, it’s a Hallowinner! (kill me)
CREATURES OF THE NIGHT - Monsters, Monsters, Monsters
Directed by one of the all-time great monster makers, Stan Winston, in his directorial debut, with an incredible creature created by his pupils, Pumpkinhead is a rustic country fable of love’s place in vengeance with atmospheric photography and settings, a strong lead anchor in Lance Henriksen, and the titular monster, who is just so very cool and expressive and well executed. On the vampiric side of things, I’ve always been fond of Fright Night and its 80s stew of memorable characters and performances, a killer synth soundtrack, gooey transformations and gore, and just a fun, inherently watchable energy that still allows it stakes and tension. Dog Soldiers shows Neil Marshall’s penchant for digging admirably deep with a tight budget, with his debut conjuring a rousing and effective tale of Aliens-esque brothers-in-arms camaraderie that excites as easily as its werewolves shed blood. On a different side of werewolves, Ginger Snaps cleverly connects menstruation and lycanthropy (similar to Alan Moore’s story from his incredible Swamp Thing run) and milks it for all it’s worth, presenting a more gradual and Cronenberg style take on the subject that the strong characters and writing bolster into something truly unique. For a straight creature feature that runs through most of the tropes but is so savvy and genre literate and efficient that it doesn’t matter, Alligator is a sturdy beast, with the great Robert Forster leading an unusually distinct cast, creepy and claustrophobic sewer settings, and some truly memorable sequences - the brutal highlight at a swimming pool. Ignore or skip the incredibly stupid and annoying Crypt Keeper intro (and outro) and Tales from the Crypt Presents: Demon Knight is one of the most energetic and entertaining horror films of the 90s, with an insanely packed cast of great character actors like William Sadler, Dick Miller, and CCH Pounder, all headed by Billy Zane having the time of his life and bringing you along for the ride, in a blast that’s witty yet blunt and totally unpretentious in the best way. With a little more money to work with, Neil Marshall plummets his female cast into a genuine claustrophobic nightmare with The Descent, and as far as modern creature features go it still delivers where pure tension is concerned, all anchored by his established sense of character and truly wild photography and settings. Assuming he doesn’t take a break from making awesome albums and return to filmmaking, In the Mouth of Madness is John Carpenter’s last truly great film and what a final hurrah it is. An excellent cast, particularly the great Sam Neill in a charmingly cynical turn as the lead and a perfectly cast Jurgen Prochnow, creepy sequences, effective creature work, and a captivating story about dangerous collective fantasy altering reality (not such a fictional notion anymore) are just parts of what make it such a satisfying horror film. It’s not directly based on Lovecraft but it may very well be the finest Lovecraft film ever made. Before he was wowing the West with Snowpiercer and Parasite, Bong Joon-ho was dazzling South Korea with his incredible blend of monster film, political satire, conspiracy thriller, and family drama, The Host. The colorful family at the center anchors our focus and sympathy and gives us a ground level view of the dense world being expertly skewered by the biting, whip-sharp writing. I’m not usually a fan of totally digital monsters but the creature showcased here is genuinely impressive, and its entrance into the film is a stunning sequence to behold.
THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING - Found Footage & Mockumentary
Ghostwatch scared the living shit out of people when it first aired on the BBC and it’s not hard to see why - framed as a live probing of a supposedly haunted house, with major anchors and crewmembers playing themselves conducting the “broadcast”, the program’s slow slide into the eerie and outright sinister is so quietly terrifying - the subtle visual scares that begin to be incorporated are the kind of thing that would have alarmed the hell out of people who thought they were watching live, and even viewed separate of its original context now it is still one of the strongest of its kind. Similar in terms of its basic conceit, the WNUF Halloween Special differentiates itself through tons of innovated, period accurate commercials that pepper the “broadcast” in a nostalgic glaze and a very different kind of turn towards the macabre in the final act. When he learned Frontline had already covered pollution in the Chesapeake Bay, Barry Levinson began reworking his developing documentary into an environmentally conscious horror story with serious teeth, a found-footage mockumentary that documents the gruesome fate of a seaside Maryland town and the man-made ecological disaster that precipitated it - The Bay, a superb addition to the proud long tradition of environmental horror, one that innovates an especially icky and unforgettable threat. For the nakedly unsettling, Lake Mungo is the destination of choice. The “documentary” about a tragedy befalling a family and the strange, deepening mystery of cryptic events that follows is deeply disquieting in a way that is all its own, with its standout sequence using the glitchy imperfection of old cell phone videos to create something unforgettably eerie. The questions it raises are that much scarier because they remain unanswered - they only deepen the murky, chilling aura of the film and make it linger that much more in your mind.
PEOPLE ARE SCARY - Human Monsters
Alice, Sweet Alice is one of my personal favorites, a piercingly distinct kind of American giallo in which the horror is foregrounded in family melodrama. The themes are so very distinctly Catholic (or perhaps more accurately lapsed Catholic), the imagery is unnerving (the killer’s mask is memorably creepy), and the cast of characters genuinely interesting enough to anchor interest in the central mystery. The Invitation, without getting into too much detail, milks the discomfort that can be wrought from beneath the surface of a blasé social get-together for all its worth, with devastating and powerful results. It has lingered with me and remains one of my favorite of the last decade. Pin: A Plastic Nightmare shoots itself in the foot a bit with an opening that gives a little too much away, but by the time you’re done watching the jaw-dropping weirdness and discomfort that follows in its running time you probably won’t be thinking about that. There is some hokeyness but the central story is so odd and off putting that it works in concert with it, kind of feeling like a weird Lifetime movie from hell. By the time the ending and the creepy main theme hits it has more than earned its ‘seriously warped people’ stripes. Also the discomfiting voice of Pin is provided by none other than Jonathan Banks, AKA Mike himself from Breaking Bad / Better Call Saul. The People Under the Stairs remained off my radar for too long because I was overly dismissive of the late Wes Craven but this easily not only his greatest film but his most enduringly relevant as well. No surprise that they’re currently developing a remake because the story - a poor black youth who, in his struggles to avoid eviction, plummets into a nightmare house perfectly embodying the twisted vision of America’s worst white landlords, here personified as two ceaselessly evil caricatures of the Reagans - engages with the ravages of capitalism, gentrification, and racism in ways that were all too relevant then and shamefully relevant now. It’s great satire, it’s great horror, and it also still manages to be great fun. Vincent Price was the best of course, and he was always superb when it came to theatrical evil, but The Witchfinder General showcases him at his most genuinely evil as Francis Hopkins, the ruthless witch-hunter of the title who wanders civil war ravaged England collecting payment for the confessions he tortures out of innocents accused of witchcraft. A surprisingly grim and brutal film for the time of its making, it remains a memorable foray into period-based, historical horror and a terrific entry in Price’s filmography. Eyes Without a Face is both a wrenchingly tragic tale of what is lost when deludedly selfish ends justify evil means and a dark and beautiful horror fairy tale, a 1960s version of the kind of film Guillermo del Toro has become so acclaimed for. The visuals are arresting and impactful, the direction is seamlessly suited to its task, and the story fills its fable-esque simplicity with genuinely believable humanity. Targets must hit more differently, and more powerfully, now than at the time of its release, with the violence therein feeling much more terribly commonplace these days. The taut and gripping narrative, all leading to the inevitable intersection of fictional horror’s embodiment (portrayed wonderfully by Boris Karloff in one of his last performances) and a manifestation of real-world horror, is a terrific thriller and a fascinating meditation on what our made-up nightmares are actually for. Kill List is a phenomenal masterclass on ratcheting up tension, where the ambience and performances create unbelievable stress and discomfort before anything really disturbing has happened. By the time criminal acts take center stage, they have an air of menace beyond a simple crime film, an aura of something more evil, and then the final act takes a savagely hard left turn into outright horror. The acting and writing are terrific and the story (and the unspoken story beneath it) left me shaken.
THE LESS THAN LIVING - Zombie Time
The zombies of Shock Waves don’t eat flesh or moan - they are silent uniformed men in goggles with mottled skin and faded hair, who walk on the ocean floor and wait silently in the shallows before creeping after their prey on land. It’s an unapologetic B-Movie, with the irritating characters and baffling moments that can sometimes bring, but the cast (featuring Peter Cushing as the exposition dumping ex-Nazi who created the zombies, the Death Corps) is generally very fun, the atmosphere of the ocean and island setting is very memorable and eerie, and the cold, calculating menace of these aquatic Nazi zombies make them a refreshing change of pace from the Romero variety. Speaking of whom, obviously the late director’s Night of the Living Dead is a classic but the most overlooked entry in his series, Day of the Dead, might actually be my favorite. The commentary woven into the claustrophobic societal microcosm of the collapsing “team” portrayed remains true and biting, the story builds to a suitably intense boiling point, the zombie makeup and special effects are easily among the best ever made, and the cast of characters and their performances are just right, particularly Sherman Howard’s moving performance as the most lovable zombie of all time, Bub. Of course, if what you’re looking for is just fun and “BRAAAAAINS”, look no further than Return of the Living Dead, which still manages to be satirical but in a much more ridiculous, off-the-wall way. Great effects and great fun. Fulci’s Zombie (aka Zombi 2) is also a classic of the subgenre, and while it has plenty of creaky acting and thin storytelling, its atmosphere, its music, and its wonderfully rotten zombies (one of whom fights a shark and yes we are talking an actual tiger shark here) make the whole thing a trip to B-movie heaven.
Last edited by Deacon Blackfire; 10-31-2021 at 11:06 AM. Reason: formatting!
Throbbing Member
Continued because one post couldn't hold it, told you it was fucking long!
THAT GOEY SHIT - Things Slimy and Wet
The Void obviously loves the slimy tentacle horror of the 1980s and channels the gnarly practical effects and simple but captivating character dynamics of that era adeptly, but it’s also modern and narratively thoughtful enough than it more than earns its way as an original horror film in its own right and not just one of the dime a dozen ‘intentional throwbacks’ that come out every few years. John Carpenter’s The Thing is, well, if you haven’t seen it yet, it’s a must. One of my all time favorites going back to my youth and still one of the best of all time. From Beyond is the crew behind Re-animator crafting an even more hallucinatory, gooey and wild experience, and in doing so creating one of the 80s most memorable and unique horror films. Jeffrey Combs remains reliably great and Barbara Crampton is to die for. That The Brood was written by David Cronenberg during a painful divorce will be no surprise to anyone who has seen it - the story, a disturbing literalization of the way trauma and rage become flesh to wound and mold our world and our children, feels intensely intimate and personal, and thus its horror all the more real. The antagonists, what they represent, and where they emerge from, retains a true sickly power. With Videodrome Cronenberg’s view expands, tackling the way screen-based technology is transforming our existence into something altogether different, something artificial and imagined and programmable, and the results are mesmerizing, ghastly, and uncomfortably closer to reality with each passing day. As in our world with the internet, the potential transcendental freedom offered by media technology, the potential to achieve the New Flesh, is left to atrophy by corporate interests and the wealthy and powerful, who instead utilize its potential as a system of complete control, as Videodrome. As time passes, the less it is science fiction and the more it is horror. Of course Cronenberg cut a phenomenal remake as well, his intensely upsetting and disgusting remake of The Fly (1986), and its modernization of an already terribly tragic story resulted in something genuinely horrific on a physical and emotional level. Jeff Goldblum’s central performance, with his gradually developing insect tics and constant fly-like twitching, is spectacular and the visual effects outstanding in all their nauseating glory. Hellraiser is naturally a classic of the modern genre, a British soap opera blended with Clive Barker’s unique variety of sexual, body-modified, sadomasochistic horror. And it’s still unmistakably its own. The series devolved into idiocy and self parody but Hellbound: Hellraiser II is a worthy follow up to the original, remaining consistent while deepening and exploring the mythology.
THE FUCK AM I WATCHING - The Hard-To-Classify
Onibaba is like watching a living folk tale brought to life art house style. The photography and visuals are outstanding, and the deceptively simple story is alive with layer upon layer of emotional tension. It’s disconcerting and brilliant. For pure what-the-fuck factor, see Xtro. It’s an alien horror film, but unlike any you’ve ever seen. It’s unpolished and unabashedly a B-movie, but its atmosphere is so unpredictable and strangely disturbing, its story so bizarre and rife with alarming implications, and its visual effects so well-executed, palpably tactile and gross, that its impact is much more lingering and lasting than it often is with other, “better” films. Tetsuo: The Iron Man is a perfect hyperkinetic fusion of style and substance, a visually breathtaking and overwhelming spiral into the abstract madness of metallic, artificial love swallowing and choking the life out of the stale, destructive, and lifeless family unit. Or it’s just about a guy transforming into a fucked up cyborg. Either way its an unforgettable, blistering hour of an experience. Let’s Scare Jessica to Death is just plain creepy. Literate, quiet, softly spoken, its whispered danger and softly blossoming tension have all the aspect of a nightmare you can’t quite remember but wish you could completely forget. The eerie visuals and cryptic story are flavored quite distinctively.
TRAUMATIZE ME CAPTAIN - The Legitimately Disturbing
I can’t tell you about Audition without telling you too much about Audition - even most posters for it give away too much. Suffice to say, it is a slow burn with an unbelievably harrowing payoff - the first hour is all excellent but not very scary set up, before suddenly tipping into the concerning, and then the disturbing, and by the last twenty minutes you are in a full on nightmare. Threads might not be a horror film technically but this dramatization of a 1980s North England community that endures nuclear war and its fallout is easily one of the most frightening and powerfully disturbing films I have ever seen. The writing is as naturalistic and fully believable as the dreadful inevitably of the story’s plummet into outright nihilistic despair and hopelessness. Perhaps Threads is indeed a horror story, the horror story of the human race, or perhaps just its climax, one that we still seem to be working towards some form of. It’s a shame The Wicker Man is so heavily associated with the admittedly hilarious Nicolas Cage remake because the original remains an incredibly brilliant and terrifying examination of the power of belief and the behavior it draws forth from people and society. The performances are excellent, the sing-songy atmosphere is so jarring and, behind the smiles and seeming happiness, very creepy, and the climax is iconic. With so many sleek and humanized takes on human monsters, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is utterly devoid of sympathy, humanizing touches, or glamor and is brutally satisfying and honest for it. The titular Henry, played to cold perfection by Michael Rooker, may have had a horrible life, but that fact never overrides or mitigates the savage evil of his actions. He’s not misunderstood, he’s not looking for love - he’s a man who can only ever hurt people, especially those who feel sympathy for him, and the horror on display in this film (specifically the videotaped sequence and the chilling ending) leaves no doubt where the filmmakers stand on people like Henry and the things they do. As such, it is probably the most honest and disturbing film of its subgenre. On the more modern side of things, Hereditary actually lived up to its incredible hype and delivers a white knuckle tour de force in terror that horrifies as much through its painfully real themes of family trauma and inherited evil as it does through its petrifying visuals and nightmarish sequences. The performances are absolutely incredible (Toni Collette not even getting an Oscar nomination is an excellent reason to ignore award shows altogether), the score is genuinely eerie, and the story is unforgettable. Possessor shows Brandon Cronenberg has insight into the way technology has corrupted our lives and humanity that is just as piercing and biting as his father’s - if anything, Brandon’s vision is even more modern and believable and chillingly consistent with the world we live in. This story’s literalization of data mining and content harvesting is as dystopian as it is immediately recognizable, and that’s not even the truly scary part. The exploration of our own bodily autonomy being conquered and subverted by corrupt forces beyond our control, and how corporate entities in fact desire and push for our complete dehumanization, is even more genuinely frightening than the disturbing hallucinatory visuals and the hideous violence. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (the real one from 1974) and Eraserhead are of course magnificent mainstays of this category but I don’t feel like I need to explain them any further.
And outside of any categories Alien is one of the all-time greats, period.
tempus est umbra in mente
I literally passed out in the movie theater and was woken up because someone threw popcorn at my head to make me stop snoring.
On random Halloween recommendations though, I strongly recommend everyone starting their day with an adorable Simpsons episode. It's not a Treehouse of Horror. Season 27, ep 4
So great.
Last edited by Jinsai; 10-31-2021 at 11:19 AM.
I was nobody. Nothing.
Good GOD @Deacon Blackfire . Thanks for the recommendations! You went all in for this one.
Isn't that about as much as you post here, total, in an average 6-9 months, if not more?
@Jinsai the last time I passed out in a movie, it was Shazaam, which is stunning because I see about .4 movies a year in the theater, on average.
I damn sure saw PA: The Ghost Dimension in the theater, though. I'm aware that I cut these movies slack. I also love ALL the Blair Witch movies.
Last edited by elevenism; 10-31-2021 at 06:14 PM. Reason: I can't spell, or remember a simple, short phrase for longer than like 60 seconds
tempus est umbra in mente
well, the makeup effects for the new Pinhead design seem to be exhausting and trying something that I didn't expect.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CVpiiD-J...2-58c153529cb0
Active Member
Not sure what you mean. Doing a mold of the actor's face is pretty standard stuff when it comes to doing makeup effects.
tempus est umbra in mente
Ah, I thought the thing they were extracting was intended to be the outer layer of the costume. I really don't know much about makeup stuff, but from the video I thought they were going for something a lot more make-up heavy than I expected.
Active Member
The inner layer was probably a silicone-based mold that they were making. They use that to sculpt the actual makeup design so that the applied pieces fit them perfectly.
I was nobody. Nothing.
I was SUPER bummed out by Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin.
It was NOTHING like the other movies.
I love these movies for their subtlety, atmosphere, realism, apparent lack of a precise script, and low grade camera work.
They usually look REAL. That's why there's so much tension in little things, like a door slamming.
THIS one looks like another D grade found footage movie with the PA name attached. The cameras are WAY too nice, it's obviously heavily scripted, and there's a fucking monster running around, among other old school horror tropes.
I've got a strong notion that this wasn't even originally INTENDED to be a Paranormal Activity movie.
Damn. This is honestly the first time this series has REALLY failed for me☺.
tempus est umbra in mente
@elevenism I keep championing this recommendation, but check out Found Footage 3D. Crazy entertaining and definitely one of the best found footage movies I’ve seen and way smarter than you’d expect
I was nobody. Nothing.
Oh, I saw that as soon as it was available. It was great.
Throbbing Member
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/m...rocks-1254805/
Foo Fighters Horror Movie Incoming
Just tickles my balls!
Has anyone seen this before?
At the 50:27 mark, Kubrick actually goes on to explicitly say what the endings of 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining mean. Up until now I thought an official explanation by Kubrick didn’t exist!
Last edited by Erneuert; 11-12-2021 at 03:00 AM.
Throbbing Member
Yeah I'd seen that a while back. I actually think the explanation he gives for 2001 is kinda self explanatory if you pay attention to the movie's structure. The last sequence of that film is my favorite part.
With the Shining, he explains what his idea was with it but honestly its one of those times I wish he never said anything about it. Either way its still probably the best horror movie ever made and a checkmate argument against people who claim books are always better than movies based on books. What he did with the source material runs circles around King's sappy run of the mill story (I do like many of King's stories, but his version of the Shining is just inferior).
With some exceptions granted for when an artist is trying to reference something historical, in general, I don't want an artist explaining their work. David Lynch comes to mind. Would Eraserhead be what it is if he was just like "yeah it's about the fear of fatherhood and adult responsibility." Also I think Ingmar Bergman's Persona might be the best film that's ever been made and part of it is that he never explained it away. So it just stays in your mind and becomes something else.
Just tickles my balls!
What’s this "Titane" movie I’ve just heard about that has supposedly made 13 people faint?
Trollhunter
I found it to be largely overrated shock rock. Real fucking boring in the middle too. I liked the beginning, though…probably the first 30 minutes were promising.
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