The Horror Movie Thread

IncantatioN said:
Add Wishing Stairs to that list, just about decent. A Tale Of Two Sisters I thought was darn good - gripping, horrific, keeps you emotionally invested till the end and throws a curve-ball at you. If anything I think the ending spelt out what exactly happened. I wish they didn't do that and instead dropped hints for us here or there.
I’ve seen Wishing Stairs, it's the 3rd film of the Whispering Corridors series. ^^ I'll probably try to watch A Tale of Two Sisters again, I just have crappy internet at the moment, so it might take a while to get around to it.

Thanks for the recommendations, keep em coming! I checked out The Red Shoes last night and it was surprisingly good/ enjoyable. The whole mother-daughter relationship and their scenes together in the end were horrific, especially the end. I liked the leading the audience on or ambiguity about closure that it leaves the viewer with.
Oddly enough, the Red Shoes was on TV tonight in my country. Great to see it again.

Kaidan's a classic, it's pretty formidable in giving out genuine scares even today. Didn't know Dark Water was based on a book and wait, different ending (?) - color me interested. I love the fee and tone of the movie a lot, the same with Ringu or Ju-On. It's that feeling of dread, amplified by watching it in the dark on a big screen : p. Try Long Dream if you liked Uzumaki, not as scary but fun. Let me know what you think of Kiyoshi's other movies.

I'm a sucker for Horror and get bloody scared. But it's fun for me when I overcome that.

Oh, the classic Kwaidan. That was a beautiful film. This other one, Kaidan, was made in 2007. It's got a different story.

Just remembered a couple of other J-horrors - Forbidden Siren and Shikoku. The former is set on an island where a creepy siren warns residents when not to go out, and the latter about a girl who goes back to her rural birthplace after learning that her childhood friend died. There's also Kakashi, which is based on another Junji Ito manga. There's another film about a haunted apartment that keeps everyone in the complex stuck living there until someone new moves in, but I can't remember what it was called.

Another K-horror is Roommates/D-Day - Set in a girls' academy for troubled teens. That is very haunted.

It's been a while since I read the short story Floating Water, but basically
in the end the mother figures out the truth about the water tank, is freaked out, decides to leave and notifies the authorities. In the beginning of the story, she's set up as being extremely repulsed by uncleanliness, which serves to exacerbate her horror over what's in the water she and her daughter have been drinking. In short, the movie ending is way more of a downer than the book.
 
This weekend I'll finally get time to catch up with some recommendations here.

There's a really exciting new Horror flick that comes out soon called The Conjuring. It's from the same guy who made Saw and Insidious, looks scary good

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb-jRz7HWqs

There's an extended trailer out but recommend skipping it.
 
Has anyone seen Kilometro 31? It's a Mexican horror film. I just caught it on tv. Without spoiling too much, it's got a freaky final scene.
 
not as heavily into horror films as I used to be my two favourites were probably Halloween(original) and Prom Night(original)(both stared Jamie Lee Curtis weirdly enough) Recently their was one I really enjoyed Called "The Midnight Meat Train" it was done by Clive Barker
 
Follow up on my post of 7 movies - http://www.skullknight.net/forum/index.php?topic=12259.msg224248#msg224248 - last night I finished 31 days of horror movies I had not watched before. It dipped into November but only a few days over heh.

Overall, I'm glad I liked at least some of the movies I watched blindly :schierke:. Below is a list of the remaining 24 ...

Schizo by Pete Walker - predictable but just about decent.

Bimil - I like supernatural horror and this was a pretty decent effort by the guy who made Acacia and Whispering Corridors. This wasn't as good but it still holds up. It's about a hit-n-run, there's that old dilemma of saving the person or not.

Escape From Tomorrow - Good horror comedy that was filmed without permission in Disneyland haha! Of all the places ... definitely worth checking out.

Crimson by Fortuny - I think the movie's also called Man With A Severed Head ... it's horror mixed in a gangster plot which makes cool, the end sequence was fun.

Inugami - slow with an intriguing premise of a family who don't have electronic devices at home and involves one of the members of the family growing younger.

The Serpent And The Rainbow by Wes Craven - zombies involved with voodoo stuff, interesting. It's not exceptional but it works for the time it came out.

Maniac - impressive yet not better than the original. I'd still say, check it out.

Ghoulies - if I watched this as a kid, I'd be scared haha.

Rampo Noir - really weird set of short stories in this J-Horror, quite liked it. Gonna pick it up on DVD. One of the stories called Caterpiller is about a quadriplegic war guy who comes home to his wife and she tortures him for fun haha =_=.

Carrie 2013 - great acting but falls prey to the usual remake hole because main elements of the story just didn't work.

The Beyond - fantastic flick by Fulci, recommended.

The Visitors (1970's version) - a good mind-frak which is always welcome in my books, recommended if you can find a decent print.

The Lords of Salem by Rob Zombie - decent at best, I don't know if this is his best effort till date or not but Rob should give up making horror movies completely.

Father's Day - fun flick can't be taken too seriously.

Castle Freak - under-rated and had good potential to be on a higher level. Recommended.

The Exorcist (Blu Ray version with extra scenes) - the print is crisp and those extra minutes are worth it, some how I still have a soft spot for VHS quality for this movie.

R-Point - starts off with a radio transmission from call sign Donkey 30 who have been presumed dead for 6 months, set in war in Vietnam. There's a sole survivor and they go check things out. Pretty good flick overall even with predictable scares.

Stacy - pure entertainment ... references to Evil Dead, Romero and a whole bunch more. In this other world every girl that dies comes back as a messed up weird zombie. What makes them special is if they die when they're happy, their zombie versions change a bit. It's just stupid but good.

The Strangers - masked people terrorize a couple, this is a bit over-done but overall meh. Looks like it was made in the late 2000's.

The Purge - good amount of plot holes and slightly predictable, I didn't enjoy this flick. Expected a bit more from those box office figures.

Last Days On Mars - released a few days ago on iTunes and VOD, this was predictable, not very interesting either. I expected a lot more coming from Magnet.

The Last House on the Left - supposed to be a classic so I checked it out, pretty decent for the time it came out. Wish I had the DVD for those extra scenes that were cut out.

Temegotchi - involves a girl who can do messed up stuff and people around her die like flies. It's derivative, predictable once you've watched The Ring or Ju-On.

Battle Royale 2 - not as good as the first one, bad acting, predictable plot ... pretty messy and meh.
 
A quick note: I wrote this last year around Halloween for this thread, but I never completed it. I've been wanting to revive this thread for the season, but I've been way too lazy busy to actually write about what I've watched recently. Since I might not get off my ass find the time to write a new post before Halloween I decided to just post what I already wrote so there's at least something in the thread. So if you read this and it seems outdated and incomplete it's because it is outdated and incomplete. Enjoy!

The House of the Devil

A romantic comedy directed by Ti West, The House of the Devil tells the story of a college girl named Sam who takes a job as a babysitter from a very sketchy old man. But when things start to heat up will the old man return Sam’s feelings? Or will the sexual tension make this one-night job a living hell?

This movie is great. West set out to make a horror movie that’s a throwback to the horror greats of the 1960s and 1970s. And he nailed it. The film looks like it was truly made in that era. And he perfectly captured the slow, building suspense. So if you’re into horror films like Rosemary’s Baby and The Omen then I highly recommend this movie.

I give The House of the Devil 7 Ghosts out of 10. They say Ti West is one of the best up and coming horror directors out there. Before this movie I hadn’t heard of him. But I’m definitely interested in watching his works now.

The Awakening

The Awakening is a British romantic comedy about a woman named Florence who works with the police to debunk charlatans who pretend to speak to the dead. She’s one of those stereotypical supernatural horror characters who adamantly refuses to believe in ghosts. But when a strange fellow invites her to the orphanage he works for to debunk their haunting, will love blossom in the unlikeliest of places? Or will their feelings be left out in the cold?

I thought this movie sucked. Don’t get me wrong, the settings were quite beautiful. They certainly captured the beauty of the English countryside. The building they used for the orphanage was beautiful as well. But that’s where the good ends. The story and directing were pretty bad. I figured out the Oliver plot Twist that would come later in the movie just as soon as Florence reached the orphanage. What’s worse is it ended with one of those faux-philosophical endings that are open to interpretation. There were two problems with that. The first problem was they completely ignored everything that happened in the movie up until that point so not only did they look arrogant, but they looked like arrogant idiots. The second problem was that by that point in the film I simply didn’t care enough about the characters, or the movie as a whole, to try to figure out my own interpretation of what happened. I was just glad the movie was over.

I give The Awakening 2 Ghosts out of 10. Unless you’re a diehard Anglophile who eats up anything that’s British, I wouldn’t recommend this movie.

Session 9

A romantic comedy about an asbestos removal crew who get a big job removing the asbestos from an abandoned insane asylum, Session 9 tries to answer an age old question: How long can a group of men work together before their buried romantic feelings drive them crazy?

If you watch this film you’ll be underwhelmed in the beginning because it looks exactly like a Made-For-TV movie. But don’t let its looks fool you. This movie is pretty badass. The star of the film is the insane asylum itself. It is truly a creepy place, and the film uses a ton of great shots that highlight just how truly creepy it is. (And what’s even better is the fact it’s an actual place!) The story itself is pretty good. And the ending was creepy as fuck.

The only bone I have to pick with the movie is that with one of the characters you’re left wondering why he’s doing what he’s doing. It doesn’t ruin the movie at all if you suspend disbelief. But it’s still a negative point. They say the DVD has deleted scenes included with it that flesh out the motivations and some of the story so that it makes more sense. So when you watch this movie (you really should) get the DVD, I guess.

I give Session 9 7 Ghosts out of 10. The sheer creepiness of this film brought me closest to actually being scared out of all the films I’m reviewing here.

Absentia

Absentia is a movie about a woman who is about to declare her husband legally dead after he has been missing for years. To help her with this stressful time, her sister moves in with her. But not everything is as it seems to be in this romantic comedy that seeks to answer the age old question: Does absence really make the heart grow fonder?

Before I begin, I’d like to point out something about this movie. This is an independent film that cost a mere $70,000 to make. On top of that, they used Kickstarter to help fund the movie. That’s pretty cool, in my book. The future is now!

This movie is fucking great. Since they didn’t have a big budget you’re not going to see huge sets or great effects. But the acting is good. The story is great. And they did a great job with the limits they had. This movie is truly a hidden gem. Because it’s not a big blockbuster most people will never see it though. And that’s truly a shame.

I give Absentia 8 Ghosts out of 10. The perfect horror movie, to me, not only scares me while I’m watching it, but also disturbs me (in a good way) enough that it sticks with me well after the movie has ended. While Absentia didn’t scare me, I couldn’t get the movie out of my head for two weeks after watching it. That says a lot.

Audition

Audition is a romantic comedy about a middle-aged man who gets his co-worker/best friend to help him find love by creating a fake audition for actresses. But when they find the woman of his dreams, will she dump him when she finds out he deceived her? Or, when it comes to her heart, does he already have his foot in the door?

I’m not going to lie. I’ve been avoiding Asian horror movies for a few years now thanks to the whole Ring/Ju-on thing I mentioned in the “Movies You’ve Watched” thread. But after pretty much watching the only good American horror movies out there I decided to give this one a shot given its glowing reviews. After reading what you guys said about this movie in this thread I figured if anything was going to warm up my cool feelings for Asian horror films it’d be this one.

I thought it was pretty good. Going in I was worried it was a torture porn movie so I was pleasantly surprised when the gory part wasn’t as gory as my imagination thought it’d be. So that was nice. The story was decent. The acting was good. I felt really bad for the
woman at the end after she fell down the stairs and was laying there repeating over and over the lines she had to train herself to say because she was so utterly unhappy inside.
That was a bummer.

I give Audition 6 Yurei out of 10. Audition is the reason why almost every film after this is from Japan or Korea.

House Hunting

House Hunting is a romantic comedy about two families who go out into the middle of the woods to check out a house that’s for sale. All’s well and good until they try to leave the property only to find out they can’t. Will the families be able to find the strength to go their separate ways? Or will they realize that home is where the heart is?

This movie isn’t very good. Out of all the movies I’ve watched the directing in this one is probably the worst. During the biggest “action” scene in the film the director has the movie cutting from scene to scene at a fast pace. While I understand he did it to make the action seem more frantic, the problem with it is he cuts to the next scene way too quickly. Your brain barely has time to register what you just saw before he’s off to the next scene. On top of that the scenes are a bit sporadic so you quickly get confused about what’s happening. Luckily though the worst directing is concentrated in one portion of the film so if you can ignore that it’s not so bad.

To add to the problems the acting is pretty bad. With the exception of the dads (played by Marc Singer and Art LaFleur, who were really good), the acting was sometimes scarier than the story.

With all that said, it wasn’t all bad. I thought the idea behind the story was really cool. Unfortunately they didn’t use it to its fullest, but the idea had a ton of potential. There were also some really cool, potentially creepy ideas sprinkled throughout the film. Again though the director just couldn’t recognize them or didn’t know how to use them to make a truly great horror film. This movie reminds me of a chef who has a table full of the freshest, most delicious ingredients on earth. But he’s only able to make an alright but not good dish out of said ingredients because of his own limitations. It makes me wonder what the movie would’ve been like if a more talented writer-director had done the project.

I give House Hunting 4 Ghosts out of 10. The movie’s not technically good, but it’s not so bad that I regret watching it. If you have nothing better to watch and just want to kill some time then I recommend this movie.
 
Your descriptions are hilarious! I agree with most of it and must admit I haven't watched House Hunting but now I want to. Audition is a hit or miss with me when I take it apart for the actual plot like why would anyone wanna date Asami, however the last act packs in all the entertainment you need.

Last year I tried to watch 30 films I hadn't seen before and took a week or two to gather those movies. This year I didn't have the time to hunt older or obscure movies, so I'm watching movies I already have with a mix of whatever else I can find, good or bad. So far ...

It had been a while since I re-visited the Ring movies and decided to watch em since I had them, pure laziness. Ring 0: Birthday is the first movie in the Ring timeline and takes you to a time in the past where Sadako takes up acting and joins theater/ a play but there's a certain aura about her and everyone around her is scared by a presence. It treads with a mish-mash of events but converges well in the end with a final creepy scene, although setting itself in line for the next movie in the cycle - Ringu. Ringu fortunately still holds up as a complete package - suspense, supernatural horror, ambiguity leaving some answers left to one's imagination, no visual over-use of the antagonist in question and Penderecki (legend). Both Ring 0 and Ringu share a penultimate scene with Sadako but I felt the execution in Ring 0 was creepier. Rasen came out the same year as Ringu but didn't catch on understandably because it was mediocre. Anyway, Ring 2 is a more direct sequel to Ringu and starts with the premise that Sadako was alive in the well for many years and with her bones, try to reconstruct her face/ body. The professor's girlfriend student takes it upon her to find out what happened to him. It's as entertaining as Ringu. I stopped there, I think there was a Ring 3D film or something that came out in Japan but I haven't watched it. After this marathon, I hit up the American remake - The Ring. Cool to see some differences when compared with the original (the video had been changed and it explained Sadako's psyche more) but I think it falls short and I lost interest when Rachel's at the island trying to figure things out right before the final act. Deformed faces in the remake were a cool touch. I'll pick up The Ring 2 before the month ends, bit burnt out on the franchise for now.

You're Next seems like one of those 'I know what's going down' kinda movies you're tired of seeing all the time but it's actually not. A family gets together at their vacation home and the movie starts off with a couple being murdered in the neighboring house, no reason, just cold murder by a dude wearing an animal mask. Family's the next victim and things are entirely what they seem, it's not straightforward in that respect. Good watch.

The Woman In Black has all the weapons it needs to be a good film but didn't deliver. Decent cast, good atmospheric setting but heavily relied on loud scare sounds or thuds or screeches or whatever else rather than focus on deliveries the meat of the story well. Harry Potter cannot act and that's only confirmed further when you see this (however his new movie I'm told is critically acclaimed). I think what doesn't work is the predictable tale. You have a case of kids dying in a small town. Rewind to the past and there's a story of a weathy family whose boy died. Wealthy family = big creepy unkept abandoned mansion = perfect for ghosts. Skip this one.

Deliver Us From Evil falls short, actually pretty short - it's predictable and the exorcism in the end packs no punch. In the end it's a horror movie that just isn't scary. Bana plays a cop who can sense which police calls have more of a dangerous situation than others and choose the more dangerous ones. The film starts with a group of soldiers entering an underground dark mysterious stairway and whatever they saw or whoever they saw came back with them to the states.

Watched The Blair Witch Project last night. Isn't scary anymore but good nostalgic fun. I remember being scared in the theater cos the movie started off with a hey, this really happened sort of thing and I didn't know what to expect, believing all that shit actually happened! Pretty iconic though in the Horror circle cos I think it paved the way for other found footage kinda movies filmed on a low budget.

I'll probably play catch-up this weekend. 17 days gone :( !
 
IncantatioN said:
It had been a while since I re-visited the Ring movies and decided to watch em since I had them, pure laziness. Ring 0: Birthday is the first movie in the Ring timeline and takes you to a time in the past where Sadako takes up acting and joins theater/ a play but there's a certain aura about her and everyone around her is scared by a presence. It treads with a mish-mash of events but converges well in the end with a final creepy scene, although setting itself in line for the next movie in the cycle - Ringu. Ringu fortunately still holds up as a complete package - suspense, supernatural horror, ambiguity leaving some answers left to one's imagination, no visual over-use of the antagonist in question and Penderecki (legend). Both Ring 0 and Ringu share a penultimate scene with Sadako but I felt the execution in Ring 0 was creepier. Rasen came out the same year as Ringu but didn't catch on understandably because it was mediocre. Anyway, Ring 2 is a more direct sequel to Ringu and starts with the premise that Sadako was alive in the well for many years and with her bones, try to reconstruct her face/ body. The professor's girlfriend student takes it upon her to find out what happened to him. It's as entertaining as Ringu. I stopped there, I think there was a Ring 3D film or something that came out in Japan but I haven't watched it. After this marathon, I hit up the American remake - The Ring. Cool to see some differences when compared with the original (the video had been changed and it explained Sadako's psyche more) but I think it falls short and I lost interest when Rachel's at the island trying to figure things out right before the final act. Deformed faces in the remake were a cool touch. I'll pick up The Ring 2 before the month ends, bit burnt out on the franchise for now.

Man it sounds like you had a lot of fun! I’ve only seen the first Ring movie (the American one). In my mind, they were quickly eclipsed by the Ju-On films so I think I’ve undeservedly ignored them. But it sounds like the original Japanese films are pretty good, eh? I’ll have to watch the first two. There’s a 2012 film on Netflix called Sadako with the following premise:

There's an outbreak of teen suicides after the mysterious cursed video from the Ringu trilogy becomes a viral sensation on the Internet.

Have you seen that one yet? I’ll have to watch it just to figure out the logistics behind out that’s possible. For example,
if that video is as popular as Gangnam Style then the ghost will have to kill millions of people. Someone’s going to be working overtime! :isidro:

IncantatioN said:
You're Next seems like one of those 'I know what's going down' kinda movies you're tired of seeing all the time but it's actually not. A family gets together at their vacation home and the movie starts off with a couple being murdered in the neighboring house, no reason, just cold murder by a dude wearing an animal mask. Family's the next victim and things are entirely what they seem, it's not straightforward in that respect. Good watch.

I really enjoyed that film. The scene where
the oldest brother is shot and dying on the floor and yet him and his brother are still bickering like siblings do
had me laughing so hard. Great movie. :ganishka:

Some films I’ve watched recently that I wanted to share:

Rigor Mortis: Rigor Mortis has a lot going against it. It doesn’t have a plot or at least one that makes any sense. It’s not scary. And some of the elements are things we’ve seen in every East Asian horror film.

With that said, the film is visually beautiful. In fact, I think if you go in knowing you’re watching less of a film and more of a series of beautiful designs (creatures, effects, etc) then you’ll be pleased. The acting is also really good. It’s a shame the rest of the film is a bust. I feel like there was so much talent that could’ve gone towards making something truly great if it hadn’t been wasted.

Dead End: This movie came out in 2003, but I had never seen it. It’s utterly predictable, but I thought it was really well made, especially considering they made it with limited funds. I thought the
hearse
scenes were really cool.

The Road: The Road is a Filipino film that is bloody fantastic. Nearly everything about this film is pure gold. I didn’t know who Yam Laranas was before I watched this movie, but I do now. Apparently he has made two horror movies before this one. I need to get my hands on them ASAP.

My one gripe about this film, and I admit it is a completely stupid gripe, is the fact that
the film, which is in three parts, essentially changes from a supernatural horror film in the first part to a more psychological horror film in the last two parts.

Here’s the thing: I absolutely love supernatural horror above all else. If I had to give an example of how to make a truly fucking amazing supernatural horror film I’d point to Part 1 of this movie. Part 1 was the greatest, and perhaps scariest, thing I’ve seen in years. Parts 2 and 3 are fantastic, mind you. There’s not a drop in quality at all. It’s just that the film does a 180 and puts the supernatural elements in the background. They’re kind of there but might as well not be. And that’s a real shame because Part 1 was so intense and great. When I realized the supernatural aspects were gone for good it felt like a bit letdown.

If they had made Part 1 into a full length film and kept up the quality throughout, it might have been the closest I’ve ever come to giving a horror film a 10/10. Oh well.[/spoilers]
 
Johnstantine said:
Wait, how has no one mentioned Jacob's Ladder?

It's a fantastic psychological horror movie.

Just watched this about a month ago. Really enjoyed it. Great movie.
 
Skeleton said:
Man it sounds like you had a lot of fun! I’ve only seen the first Ring movie (the American one). In my mind, they were quickly eclipsed by the Ju-On films so I think I’ve undeservedly ignored them. But it sounds like the original Japanese films are pretty good, eh? I’ll have to watch the first two. There’s a 2012 film on Netflix called Sadako with the following premise:

There's an outbreak of teen suicides after the mysterious cursed video from the Ringu trilogy becomes a viral sensation on the Internet.

Have you seen that one yet? I’ll have to watch it just to figure out the logistics behind out that’s possible. For example,
if that video is as popular as Gangnam Style then the ghost will have to kill millions of people. Someone’s going to be working overtime! :isidro:

Oh definitely good fun watching them all together in some order because you get a sense of continuation and explanation from one jump to the other, flows well or ... not when sequels switch things up. I do however feel the same way you do about Ju-On, in the sense, it's a LOT creepier than Ringu. One of the most frustrating things was finding sub-titles for Ju-On The Curse 1 and 2 but they popped up years later although I don't think it's part of an official release because the makers didn't want them in for some reason. To me, Ju-On The Curse and Ju-On The Grudge are the best in the series. Their respective part 2's are not bad but they don't top em which's what the Ring or even Alien or Predator or Saw or Exorcist or Hellraiser aka most franchises suffer from.

Nope, haven't watched the one that's on Netflix, I'll hit it up soon, thanks!

Skeleton said:
I really enjoyed that film. The scene where
the oldest brother is shot and dying on the floor and yet him and his brother are still bickering like siblings do
had me laughing so hard. Great movie. :ganishka:

Right on, they just weren't concerned about the bloke!

Skeleton said:
The Road: The Road is a Filipino film that is bloody fantastic. Nearly everything about this film is pure gold. I didn’t know who Yam Laranas was before I watched this movie, but I do now. Apparently he has made two horror movies before this one. I need to get my hands on them ASAP.

My one gripe about this film, and I admit it is a completely stupid gripe, is the fact that
the film, which is in three parts, essentially changes from a supernatural horror film in the first part to a more psychological horror film in the last two parts.

Here’s the thing: I absolutely love supernatural horror above all else. If I had to give an example of how to make a truly fucking amazing supernatural horror film I’d point to Part 1 of this movie. Part 1 was the greatest, and perhaps scariest, thing I’ve seen in years. Parts 2 and 3 are fantastic, mind you. There’s not a drop in quality at all. It’s just that the film does a 180 and puts the supernatural elements in the background. They’re kind of there but might as well not be. And that’s a real shame because Part 1 was so intense and great. When I realized the supernatural aspects were gone for good it felt like a bit letdown.

If they had made Part 1 into a full length film and kept up the quality throughout, it might have been the closest I’ve ever come to giving a horror film a 10/10. Oh well.[/spoilers]
How did you get access to The Road? I've been meaning to check it out and now I'm more than curious about the movie since I too love supernatural horror. Supernatural or psychological or horror that's atmospheric or within the science fiction realm are some of my go-to movies.

I couldn't do 30 movies in October but I got close : /

The Conspiracy - saw this on Netflix and gave it a shot. It's shot in a documentary style kinda way about two film-makers who find themselves in troubled waters over conspiracy theories. One of their close buds who's a vocal theorist goes missing and they pick up what he was talking about, analyze it and try to document evidence behind it using camera's etc. Things go wrong, which was to be expected but it suffers from predictability and isn't very interesting in the end or maybe I've just watched too many movies like this to know what to expect.

The 9th Gate - I come back to this every few years because of the premise, it's good fun. Depp's his quirky self (yet not overly quirky as he's been post Pirates fame) and it's got a sort of good suspense and reveals at good moments in the film. That ending though, bad.

Mid-week I was talking to a friend on my way home about exorcisms and we spoke of which were the best movies in that genre, etc. and it struck me I'd never checked out other movies in The Exorcist franchise, so I picked them up ... although Exorcist: The Beginning slipped through the cracks. Wrapped up the series in a day's worth of marathoning.

So I dove right in, watching it in order. Dominion:Prequel To The Exorcist is a more recent film around the early/mid-2000's and is a prequel to The Exorcist. A mid-aged Father Merrin is tasked to look into an archaeological find of an ancient church that was newly discovered. The movie starts off with the Father in a difficult situation that results in breaking his spirit and his faith. Fast-forward to the present where the ancient church is accessible and it isn't a typical church, they find a path leading down where they find an
idol for the demon Pazuzu
The CG was surprisingly bad or looked pretty low budget, cast except Merrin suffered from bad acting and the whole movie was choppy, a bit of a disaster, safe to say this is the weakest in the franchise. Moving on, I we get to the biggest baddest movie in the franchise - The Exorcist and it doesn't fail to impress. It's as disturbing as I remember it being when I saw it in college. There are so many iconic scenes or dialog or acting or cast and the cinematography, soundtrack are just superb. A well deserving classic, from the haunting cover on the DVD to the ending. With a smile and sense of satisfaction, I then watched Exorcist II: The Heretic. I found a sort of connection to the Ringu franchise in the sense, the first movie in both dealt with showing the audience the supernatural and now part 2 spent time analyzing it in a more scientific way to find reason in what had happened. Burton I felt was a mis-cast and the movie just didn't take off for me. I didn't remember most of the movie which was good but now I know why. We spend a lot of time flying as a locust and nothing really grabs you till you get to the 3rd act of the film. The end makes this movie bearable. A little disappointed, I reached out for a tub of my favorite ice cream flavor, got myself 3 big scoops and turned Exorcist III on. I was liking it, I wondered if it was the effect of being happy because of the ice cream or if it was because of what I was seeing. Patton does what he does best - he's good at yelling in his coarse throaty voice! I liked the link to the original Exorcist film and while this movie wasn't horrific or anything, it plays out as a decent Thriller with a mandatory exorcism because of the film's title >_>. Those scenes in the cell are worth checking out. The end I wasn't a big fan of but I was still relieved it wasn't as bad a watching experience as II had been. Maybe it was the ice cream that kept me happy? I'd gone in for 3 helpings by the time I got to the end.

I took a week off from watching horror and jumped back in last weekend with another franchise I wasn't overly familiar with - Hellraiser.

Hellraiser starts with it's signature theme, red font for credits with Clive Barker's mark on it. I remembered some things from the movie and I'm glad I hadn't seen it in a while. Ended up loving it, the end leaves you wanting more although the end where the fella stalking Kristy
turns into a dragon/ bad thing and flies off was a bit jarring to watch
. Hit up Hellbound: Hellraiser II next and I smiled when the same font and signature theme hit up the beginning of the movie. Pretty enjoyable and good addition to the series. Witnessing the horror on the other side was fascinating and well done with those massive looking landscapes. The doc post transformation got my approval for his massive creep factor. This movie is to the franchise as Judgement Day is to The Terminator. Took a bit of a break to cook lunch and got back to Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth. Uhh what was I watching ... some weird plot with terrible actors and the only redeemable thing was that CD SPEWING CENOBITE!! Raised Hell alright (in my lungs) cos I was laughing my ass off. I also didn't like this change in direction in knowing more about Pinhead. I mean, some things work better when you know less about it, whether it's characters or scenarios in a mysterious setting. This was an over-explanation to what we briefly (and rightfully) see in movie 2. Anyway, I put on Hellraiser: Bloodline next with a small bag of chips. I felt like I needed another bag but much bigger to fill the void of the horror I'd missed since the first 2 movies. Bloodline actually worked on some level, expanding on the origins of the box and going through 3 timelines within the movie. I was totally loving the space station till I realized how cheap and bad the sets, props or graphics were and it's weird how 1 year made a big difference - Event Horizon came out a year after this was released and looks WAY better. Budget's were different I understand, the comparison hit my head nonetheless. New cenobites was a trend after the 3rd movie and the cenobites in this one aren't scary : / oh well. Fun, felt long but better than movie 3. Next up was Hellraiser: Inferno which was a chore to watch. I won't go into details but this one and the next one in the franchise are basically one and the same - the both deal with
characters going through their own demons and they're stuck in hell
. Hellraiser: Hellseeker is as bad as Inferno but the beginning was exciting for a bit cos you see Kristy return, by the end of the movie you see her for maybe 5/10 mins total and that really blows. Painful watch. Horror : 0, Unnecessary make out scenes : 1. At this point, I went downstairs for a walk and came back with some fruit. Hellraiser: Deader toyed with a different kind of people, who come back to life after they're dead and they're called deader's but they basically invade Pinhead's world and guess who's not happy about it and gets to do some killing in the end? I knew they were milking it but this was ridiculous on a different level, then again I didn't know what was coming next. Hellraiser: Hellworld. Kids are invited to a house party with an invitation to play a game with Pinhead in it? This was beyond dumb and I was shaking my head throughout asking myself how the series had reached low depths since the first 2, I mean those first 2 were great! But I was glad I didn't have more to watch. Later found out there is a 9th movie, but I'm not even curious after this burn-out.

After that streak of bad disappointing films I had to watch something I could trust and put Loft on. Trademark Kiyoshi. Slow, atmospheric supernatural film that hits all the right notes if the pacing doesn't bother you.

The past few months I'd read good things of The Babadook and finally got a chance to watch it last night. Refreshing and you can sense the director is a fan of classics. It's psychological horror done pretty well. You have a single mother raising a young boy who's got a huge love for magic tricks. She loses her husband the same night she gave birth to the boy and that's something she hasn't gotten over and it manifests itself in perturbing ways. The acting's bloody good and there were moments or acts where you go step by step to the top of a build-up. I'd say it was as much fun as say watching Oculus or The Conjuring was only not as straight-forward as those but a bit more artsy. I hope there isn't a sequel. Recommended.

Toad Road isn't much of a horror movie as it is a thriller and a decent one at that. It takes a lot of time to build with the actual narrative taking form in the 3rd act but it would be unwise not to pay attention to the beginning, although hard and uninteresting it may seem. It's on Netflix for anyone curious. The toad road's a part in the forest that's a path to 7 gates, where if you get to the end you'd get to hell.

Edit: fixed a spoiler tag
 
IncantatioN said:
I took a week off from watching horror and jumped back in last weekend with another franchise I wasn't overly familiar with - Hellraiser.

Ha, me and the permanent roommate powered through all the Hellraiser movies over the course of a week or so this month, and I had very similar reactions to you.

IncantatioN said:
Later found out there is a 9th movie, but I'm not even curious after this burn-out.

It's not that great, unsurprisingly, but it does get back to the roots of the series, so I'd check it out. My fiance thought it was really stupid, but I appreciated what it tried to do, especially after the slew of abhorrent movies preceding it.
 
The weirdest thing about Hellseeker is that there's some deleted scenes on the DVD that are head and shoulders better than anything they put in the actual movie. Like some actual halfway interesting banterous scenes between Kirsty and Pinhead.

I've had the chance to hang out with Doug Bradley a few times and he seems like a really great guy who is as disappointed as the fans are that none of the film guys seem to be able to figure out how to do anything interesting with the franchise.

I also rewatched the first one after a million years and finally realised where I'd seen that guy before! Andy Robinson, who plays Frank, is the fan-favorite Cardassian tailor, Garak, on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
 
Delta Phi said:
It's not that great, unsurprisingly, but it does get back to the roots of the series, so I'd check it out. My fiance thought it was really stupid, but I appreciated what it tried to do, especially after the slew of abhorrent movies preceding it.
Aaah, I guess that's reason enough to check it out I suppose to put a final stamp of watched-them-all. I'll pick it up after I go through those missing Ring movies. Thanks!

Lithrael said:
The weirdest thing about Hellseeker is that there's some deleted scenes on the DVD that are head and shoulders better than anything they put in the actual movie. Like some actual halfway interesting banterous scenes between Kirsty and Pinhead.
I wonder what advantage they thought they'd have had by excluding her scenes. Thanks for the heads up, I'll look for it.
 
Lithrael said:
I've had the chance to hang out with Doug Bradley a few times and he seems like a really great guy who is as disappointed as the fans are that none of the film guys seem to be able to figure out how to do anything interesting with the franchise.

Scarlet Gospels comes out next year finally, which will introduce and conclude a lot of stuff with the Order of the Gash, so maybe they could do something in a film with that info. I think partly the franchise sucked since Bloodline was because they didn't have a lot to go on.
 
Because backstories are always good in horror, specially concerning villains.

Anyway, Incantation, why is the Ninth Gate ending bad? It's perfect. Such an underrated and misunderstood movie.
 
NightCrawler said:
Anyway, Incantation, why is the Ninth Gate ending bad? It's perfect. Such an underrated and misunderstood movie.

Under-rated, definitely. I like the movie a lot and watched it a few times to get the
symbolism of the illustrations with what was happening in the film. I didn't get why Balkan failed initially or how those twins forged that 9th or last authentic page to be that good a forgery (?) or why the fallen angel would choose Corso
. I read The Club Dumas after and liked the flow especially the final act which's pretty different from the movie.
 
IncantatioN said:
How did you get access to The Road? I've been meaning to check it out and now I'm more than curious about the movie since I too love supernatural horror. Supernatural or psychological or horror that's atmospheric or within the science fiction realm are some of my go-to movies.

On Netflix online. It's really where I watch all my movies with only a few exceptions, to be honest.

Although I was pretty disappointed in the company this year. Last year they had a Halloween "event" where they added tons of horror movies that were only on the website until Halloween ended. I was really looking forward to it this year, but they didn't do it. They just had a "Halloween Favorites" section with horror movies that were already on the website (all of which I had watched previously, of course). Oh well. There's always next year. :)
 
Cool beans, thanks for the tip. I'll hit it up sometime this week. I was unaware Netflix did that sort of thing for Horror movie month but it makes sense that they did. I'd like to see them pick up limited releases off independent productions/ distributions during that sort of promotion, run it for a limited period, see how popular it can be and bring those titles on for the long run.
 
The Witch released and waiting on a few friends to confirm if we can go see it together next Thursday. I'm reading decent to good things about it with some people saying it's 'over-rated', so I'm definitely curious plus it's horror, yeah! Trailer for it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQXmlf3Sefg

Anyone seen it yet?

Trying to think of horror movies I've watched the past few months ... October's a blur ... oh wait Crimson Peak ... yeah, that was just A-OK.

4098_d026_00099_r1449276243.jpg


The Forest - an identical twin senses something's wrong with her sister and sets out to go find her, who was last seen entering Aokigahara suicide forest. Don't stay during the dark and don't stray from the path - yeah right, we know that's exactly what's going to happen anyway. Dormer can act and hold her own but she couldn't save the movie. It sucked. Expect a lotta jump scares.

deathgasm-main-reveiw.jpg


Deathgasm - slapstick, cheesy, over-the-top and so much fun, even more so if you're a fan of heavy metal. It was fun picking out small references or checking out posters, band tees and what not, they even threw in some very cool car-music ^_~. There's a new kid in town and he's into metal. Few metal heads come together to start a deathmetal band and they call it Deathgasm. You can tell how the film-makers were serious fans. There's a scene where a guy's in a record store and picks up a Devourment LP, raises an eyebrow in acknowledgement to the other guy standing next to him to say "this's good stuff" ... and that's what the movie is too.

11191138_ori.jpg


The Visit - barely decent and I wouldn't have bothered with it if I wasn't bored enough cos it's by Shyamalan. Two kids spend some time (a week I think) with their grand parents but things slowly seem a little off. They aren't allowed to leave their rooms in the night and maybe a scene or two is genuinely creepy but outside of that, the story drags with jump scares and that basic plot almost to the point where you're begging for the end to happen.

creepposter-duplass-656.jpg


Creep - this's on Netflix and I've watched it twice now with a different set of friends cos it's honestly a lot of fun and Duplass's character lives up to the title - he's SUCH a creep man! Duplass's character puts out a Craigslist advert for a videographer to record or film 1 day of his life, it's something he wants to share with his son at a later point in time. This fella responds to the advert and you get through the whole day with both of them ... what you see is through a hand-held camera and it's quite effective.

Bone-Tomahawk-e1443815101236.jpg


Bone Tomahawk - I know I mentioned it briefly in another topic but I felt like it needed a mention out here. It's hard to call it pure horror because there's a lot of drama through the film leading up to it's horrific closure. This's out on BR/ DVD, recommend picking it up. Patrick Wilson's character break his leg while fixing the roof and is stuck in bed for it. On the side, there’s a drifter who get shot in the leg by the local sheriff (Kurt Russell) and is put in prison for the night. The wife’s called into service that night but what nobody knows is that the drifter has a bigger target on his head for disturbing a burial ground sacred to a bunch of caveman. That night not only does he go missing from the jail but the doctor + deputy go missing too. Patrick Wilson and his bum leg along with Kurt the sheriff, Richard Jenkins the assistant deputy (who’s unrecognizable and faaking awesome in his role) and a seasoned hunter (Matthew Fox) follow the trail to rescue the kidnapped. The cinematography, writing/dialogue, acting, action - everything's just damn good quality. Be prepared for graphic scenes. Cannot recommend this film highly enough.
 
Bone-Tomahawk-e1443815101236.jpg


Bone Tomahawk - I know I mentioned it briefly in another topic but I felt like it needed a mention out here. It's hard to call it pure horror because there's a lot of drama through the film leading up to it's horrific closure. This's out on BR/ DVD, recommend picking it up. Patrick Wilson's character break his leg while fixing the roof and is stuck in bed for it. On the side, there’s a drifter who get shot in the leg by the local sheriff (Kurt Russell) and is put in prison for the night. The wife’s called into service that night but what nobody knows is that the drifter has a bigger target on his head for disturbing a burial ground sacred to a bunch of caveman. That night not only does he go missing from the jail but the doctor + deputy go missing too. Patrick Wilson and his bum leg along with Kurt the sheriff, Richard Jenkins the assistant deputy (who’s unrecognizable and faaking awesome in his role) and a seasoned hunter (Matthew Fox) follow the trail to rescue the kidnapped. The cinematography, writing/dialogue, acting, action - everything's just damn good quality. Be prepared for graphic scenes. Cannot recommend this film highly enough.

Ditto this movie was amazing! I highly recommend IT Follows and The witch I truly enjoyed the witch . I told my wife while leaving the theater, most people will leave this theater tonight and say "that movie sucked" because it is being marketed as a horror film. A lot comes with that title. People expect horror in the conventional sense. This movie stands in a league of its own. The fear in this film I think is in the unknown of a new world, in the fear of everything you believe in being a lie. The horror that anything is possible... I feel this director had a vision and he felt he didn't need to spoon feed it to viewers.
 
GiantSword Mufasa said:
Ditto this movie was amazing! I highly recommend IT Follows and The witch I truly enjoyed the witch . I told my wife while leaving the theater, most people will leave this theater tonight and say "that movie sucked" because it is being marketed as a horror film. A lot comes with that title. People expect horror in the conventional sense. This movie stands in a league of its own. The fear in this film I think is in the unknown of a new world, in the fear of everything you believe in being a lie. The horror that anything is possible... I feel this director had a vision and he felt he didn't need to spoon feed it to viewers.

Thanks for that. To me, the way you put it sounds a lot more rewarding of an experience to have had than a casual or the run of the mill horror movie. IT Follows is great too because as much as it's newly made, it's very retro in both soundtrack and plot (back in the day things used to be a lot simpler like the plot in this one). I loved it and re-watched with my brother (who hadn't seen it) just last month.
 
Back
Top