Sangre, cuchillos, y tetas --- Horror Film Discussion

[Dukefrukem]

I watched Troll Hunter last night. It's cut together at an incredibly fast pace (as lost footage Blair Witch Style) which is smart, because I think people would lose interest if it wasn't. There's some running through the woods with a camera, so if you were always annoyed with that, you probably won't like this, but the footage was definitely interesting enough and the characters are likable that I'd want to watch it again. I think it's just over 100 minutes. Some of the best footage is the raw HD environments, shots of rivers, mountains roaming fields of Norway. What a beautiful country.

[Spun Lepton]

Caught the Piranha remake last night, watched it on Blu-Ray, with anaglyph 3D glasses.

The 3D is sketchy, some ghosting, when objects are supposed to be very far away or very near. Occasional shots were completely obscured by blurring, mostly the underwater gore shots. Typical anaglyph.

I was surprised at how gory it was! I mean, holy cow, we've gone back to the level of gore that I enjoyed in the early-80s. I mean, this sucker is gratuitous. Eli Roth's death and the motorboat propeller death were both completely unnecessary and WAY over the top.

(Come to think of it, I wonder if it was the unrated version?)

Jerry O'Connell stole every scene he was in. You could tell he loved playing that sleazeball character. His final line made me laugh so hard I had to pause the movie.

Once again, Ving Rhames played a thankless part. He's a damn good actor, he needs to get meatier roles, dangit.

7/10. I'll see the sequel.

[Russ]

Huh. Slant reviews the unrated version of A Serbian Film and gives it 3 stars. Color me surprised.

[Ezee E]

[REC] 2 narrowly keeps the visceral horror effective by taking on the religious/paranormal route. The zombies in the shadows start to get a little old, but the military approach, with some creatively done kills makes those scenes effective.

I dug the hell out of it.

[Spun Lepton]

The Final Destination was a big improvement over part 3. They did attempt to add a new spin to the movie by giving the lead multiple premonitions, and all the stuff around the final premonition was actually quite fun. Aside from that, it's by-the-numbers.

One thing THE has in common with 3 is a pretty uninspired final scene.

6/10

[D_Davis]

Huh. Slant reviews the unrated version of A Serbian Film and gives it 3 stars. Color me surprised.

That's a very thoughtful review. Almost makes me want to watch it again.

[Dukefrukem]

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[Dukefrukem]

[MadMan]

Despite liking that tagline, I can't imagine that movie not being terrible :lol:

[Spun Lepton]

Terrible poster, terrible title. Movie's gonna bomb.

[Dukefrukem]

Surprising. They rated the Fright Night remake R.

[Bosco B Thug]

Surprising. They rated the Fright Night remake R.

It's pretty R. F-bombs and showy gore effects. Not to get your hopes up or anything for anything intense, though, the film should be pretty friendly to anyone over 13.

[Dukefrukem]

Stephen Kay's

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[Rowland]

La Casa Muda (The Silent House) has an English remake coming out soon from the directing team behind Open Water, but the Uruguayan original is a very worthy effort in its own right, granted you can look beyond its reliance on some tired cliches and appreciate it as an expertly executed stylistic exercise in genre minimalism. It's highly engrossing as long as you can accept its main gimmick, that it's shot in "real-time" Russian-Ark-style, which it clearly isn't, using mostly subtle trickery to achieve the effect, but it's a fun, tense ride all the same.

[Boner M]

What's the consensus on Narciso Ibáñez Serrador's Who Can Kill a Child here? Seems pretty highly regarded, and I'm surprised that I'd only heard of it until recently.

[Bosco B Thug]

What's the consensus on Narciso Ibáñez Serrador's Who Can Kill a Child here? Seems pretty highly regarded, and I'm surprised that I'd only heard of it until recently.

It's solid. Standard genre fare, but creepy and solid. Eli Roth is a fan.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Feel obliged to post this:

Some friends of mine from college produced a 30 minute short zombie musical called "Rigamortis: A Love Story." They posted it online HERE, free to watch, so if you guys want to scope it out, y'know, there it is.

[

Show Spoiler

I think it's well-mounted, well-shot, with respectable technical work (particularly the zombie makeup), but it's not as clever as it wants to be, and material of this sort needs a lot more zip and wit to really impress.

]

[megladon8]

Going to watch Return of the Living Dead tonight.

[Spun Lepton]

I've heard some praise for Scarecrows (1988), and I remember watching it when I first found it on VHS. (Whew, VHS!!) And I also remember enjoying it. So, I crossed my fingers and fired it up on NI.

Somewhat disappointing. A great idea that's poorly executed, but sprinkled with some inspired moments. The acting bounced between decent to poor, the worst culprit being the young woman. She didn't have a natural bone in her body, even her non-speaking moments were ruined by strange, stiff physicality as if she were really uncomfortable in front of the camera.

Character decisions were, overall, stupid. We've got all the 80s cliches. Splitting up, multiple times, even after the characters have realized the threat. Hearing a strange voice in the dark and going toward it. Shit like that. Oh, and one of the most maddening parts ...

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Show Spoiler

Everybody is dead, save for the most (according to the script) ruthless thief/kidnapper and the young woman. They're making a break for the plane when the thief gets attacked. The woman (who knows how to pilot the plane) GOES BACK TO SAVE HIM. No, sorry, if your kidnapper was being attacked, you wouldn't go back to save him. No. Sorry. I don't buy it. AT ALL. There was no Stockholm Syndrome going on here. She would've counted her losses and kept running. Period.

]

The hints to the scarecrows' history could have been less vague. I would have enjoyed it if one character actually took the time to sort out WTF was going on around that farmhouse. The movie was just over 80 minutes long, so there was definitely room for it. That said, you'll figure it out if you really pay attention.

Finally, one of my biggest pet-peeves. Day-for-night. All of the shots of the plane -- ALL of them -- were poorly done day-for-night. It was jarring to go from actual night shots of the people to day-for-night shots of the plane. It ripped me out of the movie every single time. I have a feeling the filmmakers realized too late that they couldn't see the plane in the sky in the dark, so they decided to do day-for-night instead -- but that doesn't explain why we still got day-for-night in the shots where the plane was on the ground.

Best moment of the movie is when Jack reappears near the end.

4/10

[Grouchy]

What's the consensus on Narciso Ibáñez Serrador's Who Can Kill a Child here? Seems pretty highly regarded, and I'm surprised that I'd only heard of it until recently.

It's great. Perhaps its biggest flaw is that it takes a long time for it to get started, but once it does, it's great.

[Rowland]

Scarecrows (1988)

I wrote about this in my horror thread last year. I was probably being a bit generous, but with lowered expectations, it's passable schlock.

[Spun Lepton]

I wrote about this in my horror thread last year. I was probably being a bit generous, but with lowered expectations, it's passable schlock.

Furthermore, every one of them is saddled with idiotic dialogue (samples: "God to Bert - your birthday has been cancelled!"; "Yeah Bert, I think I'm gonna have to write you out of my will!") and boneheaded behavior suggesting how an alien may react to any given situation (example: your partner-in-crime has apparently been cut open, gutted, and stuffed full of the stolen money he double-crossed you for, after which he proceeds to attack you while being invulnerable to bullet fire. Your response? "OMG, he ate all the money!").

100% agreed. I'm glad you mentioned the "he ate the money" bit, because I thought the exact same thing. The guy has a slit going up his middle, he's missing his guts, instead he's stuffed with money and straw ... and you conclude HE ATE THE MONEY? Come on. Anybody with a working pair of eyes and half of a brain would figure something bad was going on.

[megladon8]

Got the trilogy of Puppet Master films (not to be confused with Puppet Masters starring Donald Sutherland) for $5 today at Wal Mart.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Wal Mart is sandwiched between Satan and Saddam in the master bedroom of hell...but their bargain bins are great!

[Dukefrukem]

I watched my first Masters of Horror over the weekend. Cigarette Burns. Was good. But not great. A lot more gruesome than I was expecting.

[EyesWideOpen]

I watched my first Masters of Horror over the weekend. Cigarette Burns. Was good. But not great. A lot more gruesome than I was expecting.

It only goes downhill from there.