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Otis straddles a the border between being kind of clever, and a mean-spirited, exploitative mess. It's more of the latter, but I can't help feeling it wasn't all bad.
Some of it had me puzzled, though. This girl who is kidnapped, beaten and knows she's going to be raped is actually able to muster a laugh at her kidnapper and how he can't dance? I don't think so.
It had some funny dialogue and a few inspired moments. But it's really not too good.
I haven't seen the scene in question and I've never found myself the victim of such a situation -- most thankfully. But I would think that, once a victim crosses that boundary between "this isn't happening to me" and acceptance, a certain clarity would set in and make just such laughter possible.Quote:
Originally Posted by megladon8
Maybe that's not how it is presented at all though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fasozupow
I suppose this is possible.
There are other moments like this, though, that I strongly felt were stupidly unrealistic. If you don't mind a minor spoiler, here's one...
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I think being kidnapped and beaten would be, in itself, quite traumatic.
Yeah, I don't think there's any way I could explain that one away.Quote:
Originally Posted by megladon8
Horror movies do often have scenes where the characters just seem too calm considering what's going on around them. I remember scenes like that in Cloverfield. I just write them off as conventions unless they step over that line (one of those lines again) between unbelievable and ridiculously unbelievable.
I watched one of the three films I said I would.
The overwhelming feeling I get from Spiral is that it's a showcase for Joel David Moore to go crazy, and go crazy he does, although he acts crazy from the get go, so there's not much build. He's Mason, a reclusive artist and potential murderer. His fragile world is torn asunder when Amber (Amber Tamblyn) plays that thankless role of an adorably chipper girl who's inexplicably attracted to Mason. Girls like this are rarely anything more than a prop. The best role goes to Zachary Levi as Mason's horndog brother. He's comprehensible and sympathetic, and his droll reactions to the film's moments of insanity prove more interesting than Amber and Mason's somewhat typical doomed romance.
There's a lot of rain. Rain = sad.
Moore co-directed the film with Adam Green, the man behind Hatchet, which was half a good movie. This is a little better. Maybe six-tenths of a good movie.
What can you guys tell me about Timecrimes?
I didn't like it. It's only purpose was just to confuse/impress audiences with a convoluted time travel plot, (which I found easy to follow, but then I've seen and read loads in that sub-genre of SF) make them go "Aaah! That's clever" a few times, and then wrap it all up before they realise the film had nothing of substance to say.Quote:
Originally Posted by Robby P
I agree with Teh Sausage. That several reviews are calling Timecrimes "brilliant" boggles my mind. It had a few neat moments and ideas, but putting any thought into the time travelling at all renders the entire movie moot.
So last night I watched Nightmare Detective, and wow, talk about a movie going downhill after the first half.
The first half was a genuinely disturbing thriller with some great imagery. I found the lead actress a little annoying and I was getting sick of all the times Tsukamoto opted to show her staring reflectively into a pond, or sitting introspectively at her desk or whatever. But hey, on the whole it seemed like a pretty neat movie - as some have said, it felt like a great idea for a TV show.
Then around the halfway point it seemed to suddenly buy too much into its own psycho-babble bullshit and tried to make some profound message about death and the subconscious mind. It became a convoluted mess and completely betrayed everything it had given us in the first half of the film.
It's so disappointing when something with such potential is screwed up so badly.
Hey Meg, have you seen the Korean serial killer flick, Tell Me Something? I think you'd probably like it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Russ
No I have not.
I'll add it to me enormous list :)
Hammer's version of The Mummy is surprisingly well-done, though a large part of that success depends once again on the work of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, both of whom work their asses off to make this story engaging. The mummy effects on Lee are remarkable, equal to Jack Pierce's work in the Universal original, but the ancient Egypt sets are gaudy and unconvincing. Still, the film is a winner, and I'd call it better than the Universal original, which is more stylish but awfully dull.
Not that anyone's counting, but:
Hammer Horror:
1. Horror of Dracula
2. The Devil Rides Out
3. Curse of Frankenstein
4. The Mummy
Your #1 is a winner, DaMU. That's my #1 as well.
I also love Dracula: Prince of Darkness.
And I've never really understood the adoration that Dracula A.D. 1972 gets. The only way I can rationalize it is that it's a kind of ironic "love", like one of those "so bad it's good" movies.
What are some good werewolf movies?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Winston*
The usual recommendations...
An American Werewolf in London
Dog Soldiers
Wolf
The Howling
The Wolfman (original Universal one)
The Curse of the Wolfman ('61 w/ Oliver Reed)
Ginger Snaps
Seen these
Quote:
Originally Posted by megladon8
Haven't seen these. Really should check out the Universal one.
There is a dearth of interesting werewolf movies says I.Quote:
Originally Posted by megladon8
You might also enjoy Wolfen.
The Company of Wolves. A very different werewolf film.
Looks neat. Will check it out.Quote:
Originally Posted by Russ
Seen it. Awesome movie.Quote:
Originally Posted by soitgoes...
The Company of Wolves is one I'm really interested in checking out, too.
Actually, I'd also like to see Wolfen.
I think that the film is an enjoyably nasty excursion into Clive Barker Country, and I suspect that you disagree. But can't we agree that Vinnie Jones in his proper business suit, with his suspicious man-purse, and that gigantic silver hammer...that he's awesome? Adding to the immediately iconic look of the villain is his sadness, which peeks through even when he's clubbing Ted Raimi's eyes right out of their sockets. You may not want more of Bradley Cooper crying while he takes pictures of his wife, but can you honestly say you don't want more Mahogany?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...V-Stuntman.jpg
Now look, I ain't stalking you, but I didn't say I wasn't a wolf.
Why? I'll tell you why. Because it's B-movie king Kurt Russell as a villain who kills teeny-boppers with a fucking car. That's why.
A bank assistant denies you a bank loan. Do you (a) move in with a relative until you get your affairs straight or (b) damn the bank assistant to Hell? Ganush picks the latter. Which leads to a series of shocks and set-pieces that involve staplers, embalming fluid, napkins, and goats. It's a testament to Lorna Gaver that, despite a considerable absence after the first half of the film, her spirit lingers over the remainder of the film. I would love a prequel that details the other unfortunate souls who crossed her path.
The one thing that Leslie never quite gets around to saying in Behind the Mask: slasher villains are the heroes. At least in all those sequels that established the "rules" of the genre, which, if you want my opinion, were stupid, Puritan codes that harbored a lot of buried misogyny. But I love Leslie, because he holds so much respect for his situation, its implications, the buried symbology...he's really a philosopher, at heart. The creators hinted recently at more of Vernon's escapades. If he can find another willing camera crew, I'm in.
Otis emerges victorious over a hundred other horror aggressors, and why? Because I can't think of one that takes so much joy in what they do. Otis was born to viciously murder. I swear, it must be coded in his DNA, because he just throws himself into it. Bill Moseley got so good at the role that he actually took Zombie aside and asked if he really had to go that far. Zombie's answer ("Art is not safe") is dubious, but what's not in doubt is Otis. Like Hannibal Lecter, and Harry Roat Jr., and Hans Beckert, this guy is pure evil.
I was watching Below last night - directed by David Twohy and written by Darren Aronofsky.
It's one I saw when it first came to video (actually I think I taped it off one of my satellite movie stations) and I remember liking it.
I didn't finish it last night, but I got the impression that it is a good story, executed horrendously. The direction and editing are a total mess, the latter often making scenes incomprehensible because it's been mashed together so quickly.
I really like seeing Bruce Greenwood play a good guy. He's kind of type cast as "the slimey/morally defunct businessman" and to see him here as a bit of a hero was good, because he has that authoritative quality about him which works well.
It's funny that the supporting cast is like a reuniting of the supporting cast from Alien 3. I counted at least 4 faces I recognized from that movie.
If this movie had been more competently put together, I think it could have attained sleeper-hit status. Alas, it's just another slightly-above-average chiller with too many missteps to be great.
The Broken (Sean Ellis, 2009) 50
This sophomore feature by British director Sean Ellis, whose first effort was the much-derided (besides by Spinal IIRC) Cashback, has been positioned as the headliner for the third After Dark Horrorfest festival, and while it isn't anywhere near as sophisticated or elegant as the grossly undervalued The Abandoned, it remains a reasonably competent chiller more concerned with exuding menace through form than its undercooked, nigh-incompetently devised narrative. It plays distinctly like a movie-movie, clearly made by a young, impressionable filmmaker more concerned with applying his own spin to the movies that inspired him than elaborating any unique vision, which in this case results in a pastiche of cribbed horror signifiers and often-dialogue-free set pieces resembling a more self-contained take on The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, with a faintly clever but wholly predictable Shyamalan-ian twist tacked onto the ending which, for all it's worth, isn't a cheat, nor however does it appear to have any thematic relevance. Indeed, Ellis seems unconcerned with any thematic pretenses, unless an opening Poe quote and a photograph of Richard Jenkins (!!) posing with Bill Clinton are meant to signify some sort of existential concerns or political commentary, neither which the picture ultimately appears to pursue. Approach this instead as a (sometimes excessive-bordering-on-hackishly) slick patchwork of horrors past, with a few semi-interesting spins on the material, a bevy of creepy imagery, and a clever touch or two, my favorite being a subtle wraparound twist involving cat-scans that proves much more satisfying and creepy than the main twist. I'd like to give Ellis the benefit of the doubt in regards to his hole-infested narrative, but I'm not convinced this was an intentional or at least successful opacity, especially given that a much more resonant picture is only a few rewrites away, so the particulars are best left politely ignored. If I'm being overly kind to this (which feels overlong and redundant even at 82 minutes), it may be because I sense potential in Ellis, who clearly has an eye for the macabre (unsettling slow-motion flashbacks to a brutal car-crash recall no less than the climax to Argento's Four Flies on Grey Velvet) and some degree of taste in his cinematic inspirations, so I only hope he directs someone else's material for his next project, and sheds some of the formal bombast that reflects the picture's weaker moments. A faint recommendation to those looking for potential up-and-comers, those searching the detritus of the horror genre for signs of talent, and Jenkins fans who'd like to see him stalked by his own doppelganger.
It's sad that the Horrorfest/8 Films to Die For label is now synonymous with crap.
The Broken sounds interesting enough, but it's nothing I'm bolting out of my seat to get.
I completely agree with what you said about The Abandoned. It's the best film to come out of this annual horror series.
By its very virtue of being just this side of decent, it's better than most of the horror released in theaters, and even more so the weekly cascade of no-budget DTV horrors, which I suppose says more about the general quality of what's released than the movie itself.Quote:
Originally Posted by megladon8
I haven't seen most of what the label has released, but I'm reasonably confident that this is the case. I did enjoy Reincarnation more than I anticipated however (one of Shimizu's stronger efforts), and I've heard good things about Mulberry Street, which I don't believe you liked IIRC.Quote:
Originally Posted by megladon8