PDA

View Full Version : I could make a REALLY good werewolf movie...



Wryan
02-03-2008, 01:31 AM
Give me good resources and enough time and I could make a bitchin' werewolf film. Played for straight horror, no winking or irony. Not a "smart" horror film, hee hee, a fucking scary one.

How bout you? Think you could do a genre or type really well?

Grouchy
02-03-2008, 07:15 AM
Give me good resources and enough time and I could make a bitchin' werewolf film. Played for straight horror, no winking or irony. Not a "smart" horror film, hee hee, a fucking scary one.

How bout you? Think you could do a genre or type really well?
I've done a short movie about werewolfs vs. vampires fighting, Madison. I should put in youtube, with subtitles for the forum crowd, it's over an year old.

I dunno. I always thought that, given the opportunity, the unlimited resources and Hollywood not working against me, I could do a kickass Justice League movie. Heh.

Sycophant
02-03-2008, 08:08 AM
I'm editing a movie with a werewolf in it. And a vampire.

I'm the vampire. iosos is the werewolf.

number8
02-03-2008, 08:17 AM
The only way I'd do a werewolf movie is if it involves beastiality.

Dead & Messed Up
02-03-2008, 09:01 AM
IT'S A TIE!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v179/deadandmessedup/Horror%20Decade%20Titles/25-Cthulhu-Titled.jpg
(Andrew Leman, 2005, USA)
(Dan Gildark, 2007, USA)

WHAT THEY ARE
A cheap effort by me to add one extra film to a restrictive list of twenty-five.

WHY THEY'RE HERE
It's only in the past couple of decades that filmmakers have really angled to bring Lovecraft to the screen. Sometimes with brio (Re-Animator), others under the radar (In the Mouth of Madness), but the end results are most often the same: underwhelming if noble efforts to translate a singular voice of literature into a visual medium. Of those adaptations, two chief methods emerge. Either they keep true to the material slavishly, creating period pieces, or they reinterpret for the modern era, keeping loose situations.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v179/deadandmessedup/Horror%20Decade%20Pics/25-CallofCthulhu-Pic.jpg

So it's surprising that we got two great Lovecraft films in the past decade, one arch and formal, the other modern, sexualized. The Call of Cthulhu is a terrific example of the former, with its intentional retreat to silent film convention. Grandiose acting, expressionist makeup and set design, and that beautiful stop-motion at the end. Also, at forty-odd minutes, the film stays true to the length of the original, keeping the events well-paced and involving.

On the other end of the spectrum, Cthulhu updates "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" as a slow-burn thriller centering on gay professor Russ (Jason Cottle), whose return home involves confronting his cult-leader father. Director Dan Gildark wisely jettisons most of the exposition, focusing instead on the dichotomy between Russ's desire to love Mike and his need to fulfill a sickening birthright. The beautiful minimalism recalls Japanese master Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

WHY THEY'RE NOT HIGHER
The Call of Cthulhu's effects reveal its cheap video origins during some of its more vital special effects, hampering the otherwise plausible (if not convincing) film aesthetic. Meanwhile, Cthulhu's gay subplot occasionally overwhelms the drive of the mystery (a late-film tryst is especially circumspect), and Jason Cottle, as the main, delves a little too much into Method mannerisms.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v179/deadandmessedup/Horror%20Decade%20Pics/25-Cthulhu-Pic.jpg

OVERALL
Alternately delightful and eerie ventures into the imagination of horror's most divisive poet.

CROWNING MOMENT(S) OF AWESOME

The Call of Cthulhu

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v179/deadandmessedup/Horror%20Decade%20Moments/25-CallofCthulhu-Moment.jpg
The stop-motion Cthulhu, evoking warm memories of Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen.

Cthulhu

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v179/deadandmessedup/Horror%20Decade%20Moments/25-Cthulhu-Moment.jpg
It's gotta be the amazing long shot at the end that swings from a close-up of the ocean to a delirious wide shot of people walking into the sea. Stunning.

OTHERS SAY

Everything I thought that was going to make Cthulhu not work actually ended up making it a stronger, more horrifying experience.
- D. W. Bostaph, DreadCentral.com

Well made movie with a crazy-cool ending, but ultimately not really my cup of horror tea.
- balmakboor

While it stumbles in places, both in terms of storytelling and presentation of its “gimmick," it’s such a unique project, and the love for the project by all involved is so contagious, that it becomes one of those special hidden secrets that you can’t wait to introduce to your friends.
- David Cornelius, EFilmCritic.com

A very worthy effort. The silent film aesthetic was well suited to the paranoiac nature of the writing.
- Spinal

============================== ========


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v179/deadandmessedup/Horror%20Decade%20Titles/24-TheLastWinter-Title.jpg
(Larry Fessenden, 2006, USA)

WHAT IT IS
The Thing with elk spirits subbing in for tentacle dogs.

WHY IT'S HERE
Here's the thing about Larry Fessenden. He's an intellectual horror filmmaker. He uses his films as a way to explore philosophical ideas like subjective perception (Habit) and the random cruelty of life (Wendigo). His movies are frequently atmospheric and involving, and while the gulf between the visceral and cerebral can be awkward, I find his films consistently exciting.

That admiration continues with The Last Winter, which is his biggest film yet, his most ambitious, and, at times, his best. This time, Fessenden has oil on the mind, and his way of adapting such a contemporary fear into the horror sphere is brilliant: since oil is composed of dead animal and plant matter, it's not much of a stretch to suggest that humanity's living on the ghosts of the ancient dead.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v179/deadandmessedup/Horror%20Decade%20Pics/24-TheLastWinter-Pic.jpg

The topical story will be especially appealing to those "going green," but even if one disregards the message, the film is gorgeous and creepy, its icy environs as imposing as in classic horror tales like "Who Goes There?" and "At the Mountains of Madness." The enormous white landscapes emphasize the loneliness of the main characters, their conflicts playing as a mix of tragedy and farce. They cannot overcome their differences, and the world doesn't care.

WHY IT ISN'T HIGHER
Because for all its careful attention to building plausible characters, the film goes for too obvious a final act, where the specter of ages past reveal themselves. As one of the only current horror directors exploring the "fantastic" genre (where the narrative can be either supernatural or merely uncanny), Fessenden does himself a disservice by so clearly picking a side.

OVERALL
A mostly-successful genre piece on arguably the most horrific of modern concerns.

CROWNING MOMENT OF AWESOME


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v179/deadandmessedup/Horror%20Decade%20Moments/24-TheLastWinter-Moment.jpg
In the most striking sequence, a body is found in the snow, and a quiet piano plays an elegy as our "heroes" cart the corpse back to camp.

OTHERS SAY

The Last Winter delivers a much more frightening warning about global warming than any superstar-hosted documentary.
- Bob Strauss, The Los Angeles Daily News

A wicked atmosphere of claustrophobia materializes through Fessenden's cunning sense of widescreen spatiality: nightmarish empty corridors and elegantly swirling aerials ominously gazing down from the skies.
- Aaron Hillis, Premiere

Personality-less might be a good word to throw at The Last Winter.
- Bosco B Thug

============================== ================


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v179/deadandmessedup/Horror%20Decade%20Titles/23-ThreeExtremes-Title.jpg

("Dumplings" - Fruit Chan, 2004, China)
("Cut" - Chan-Wook Park, 2004, Hong Kong)
("Box" - Takashi Miike, 2004, Japan)

WHAT IT IS
Tales of terror from the mystic Orient!

WHY IT'S HERE
Who doesn't love a good horror anthology? When I watch one, it takes me back, however briefly, to when I was nine years old, devouring Edgar Allan Poe one nasty little tale at a time. Since then, I've felt that same kind of magic from movies like Creepshow, Kwaidan, Dead of Night...and Three Extremes. It edges out the enjoyable Trick 'r Treat as the decade's best omnibus.

Technically a sequel to a similar project entitled Three (which featured A Tale of Two Sisters director Kim Ji-Woon), Three Extremes by having three of the most prolific and well-regarded of Asia's directors tackle horror short subjects. Surprisingly, it's Fruit Chan who leaves the strongest impression, thanks to his taboo-crushing "Dumplings." Poe never wrote anything quite like this.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v179/deadandmessedup/Horror%20Decade%20Pics/11-ThreeExtremes-Pic.jpg

A pitch-black excursion into vanity and sacrifice, "Dumplings" kicks off the film's emphasis on the ways in which sin can haunt us, as "Cut" and "Box" also touch on the ways that past mistakes have a habit of turning back up. Each short showcases a different method of filming, a different way of telling an "extreme" story, be it perverse, goofy, or subtle. If they're not all on an even keel in terms of quality, they remain vibrant, evocative, and distinct.

WHY IT'S NOT HIGHER
Mostly because of "Cut," Chan-Wook Park's segment, which is frequently funny, often ridiculous...but mostly wonky, thanks to that head-scratcher of a conclusion, which doesn't resolve a damn thing. The other two segments - "Dumplings" and "Box" - more than compensate.

OVERALL
I can't think of a better primer for those new to the "Asian Wave." Watch it, see what you like, and go from there.

CROWNING MOMENT OF AWESOME


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v179/deadandmessedup/Horror%20Decade%20Moments/11-ThreeExtremes-Moment.jpg
Oh, boo. Boooooooooooooo. That's not right.

OTHERS SAY

Are Asian horror movies really all that scary? All too often they feel a little too stylized and preassembled to be truly unnerving, especially considering how outlandish the stories typically are.
- Gregory Kirschling, Entertainment Weekly

Though the two-to-three-reeler may be a lost art commercially, this sample platter's a bracing sign of the short form's vivaciousness and succinct pleasure.
- Michael Atkinson, The Village Voice

I really liked "Dumplings," didn't care for "Cut," and "Box" is striking but random.
- Bosco B Thug

============================== ======================

Ezee E
02-03-2008, 01:55 PM
I've never cared for Werewolf movies really. I still need to see the Landis film though, and I'm aware that it's the biggest one there is, but still, no werewolf movie has impressed me yet.

Grouchy
02-03-2008, 08:26 PM
I've never cared for Werewolf movies really. I still need to see the Landis film though, and I'm aware that it's the biggest one there is, but still, no werewolf movie has impressed me yet.
It's good, but I also suggest this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/90/Company_of_Wolves_DVD.jpg

Awesome film. Plus, it has even better transformation FX than the Landis one.

And Dog Soldiers if you want more action-oriented stuff.

Rowland
02-03-2008, 08:29 PM
I think I could crank out a quality urban ennui joint.

Grouchy
02-03-2008, 08:35 PM
I think I could crank out a quality urban ennui joint.
You and 95% of my bloody film school.

Rowland
02-03-2008, 08:38 PM
You and 95% of my bloody film school.Wow, that's impressive that 95% of them can make good movies. ;)

Ezee E
02-03-2008, 08:58 PM
I think I could crank out a quality urban ennui joint.
sounds boring.

number8
02-03-2008, 11:18 PM
I can make a mature film.

Rowland
02-03-2008, 11:26 PM
sounds boring.It'd be absurdist in tone, so I don't think it'd be boring. Lots of experimentation with tone and strictly visual storytelling, laced with droll humor. Hell, I'd prefer it be dialog-free.

Skitch
02-04-2008, 12:18 AM
I can make a mature film.


I could blow shit up good.

Philosophe_rouge
02-04-2008, 01:49 AM
Considering how few horror films I've seen, I actually have a good grasp of the genre. On the other hand, I don't think I could ever make a good comedy although it's probably the genre I'm most familiar with.

Sycophant
02-04-2008, 01:51 AM
Played for straight horror, no winking or irony. Not a "smart" horror film, hee hee, a fucking scary one. I would like to see more of that kind of thing.

D_Davis
02-04-2008, 02:39 AM
Mumblecore would be my forte.

Boner M
02-04-2008, 02:51 AM
Mumblecore would be my forte.
I imagine it would involve painfully inarticulate twentysomethings, whose everyday micro-conflicts of miscommunication build and build until they eventually can no longer contain themselves, and culminate in a riotous kung-fu extravangaza.

It would be titled Shaolin Shoegaze Showdown.

bac0n
02-04-2008, 03:26 AM
I could make a totally awesome Godzilla film. I would pack in so many monsters in there it would be, like, non-stop fights. And they would take out Paris and London and New York and Chicago and Kansas City and Seattle and Juneau Alaska! It would play like a street fighter game, except with the likes of Godzilla and The Smog Monster instead of Ryu and M. Bison. Fuck the plot: just start with a two-round battle with two monsters, one monster wins, move to the next one.

And Lee Majors would be in it. I don't care how; I would find a way. Maybe I could put him in a rubber monster suit and a red sweat suit, buttoned all the way down the front, with a gold chain hanging from his sweaty man-neck.

Ezee E
02-04-2008, 04:28 AM
It'd be absurdist in tone, so I don't think it'd be boring. Lots of experimentation with tone and strictly visual storytelling, laced with droll humor. Hell, I'd prefer it be dialog-free.
define urban then.

Rowland
02-04-2008, 04:40 AM
define urban then.Urban environment. The kind I know.

Ezee E
02-04-2008, 04:40 AM
Urban environment. The kind I know.
That's still pretty vague. What type of urban?

Wryan
02-04-2008, 06:13 AM
That's still pretty vague. What type of urban?

As in, there are no pigs, cows and chickens eating various objects or shitting on other various objects.

Grouchy
02-04-2008, 10:07 AM
Urban environment. The kind I know.
Chicago? NY? Frisco? Jesus Christ, LA?

No, seriously, have you seen these movies?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0284537/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0796906/
That's Argentinian cinema for ya. A bunch of guys who live in Palermo, thinking they got it all figured out, shoving urban ennui outta their bunholes. You know what's the worst part? They're my script writing teachers at film school.