ok lets all shit our pants to something new: post 2005 horror film thread

Pretty much just the very end of LoS, at the point where Rob abruptly decided he'd rather be filming a new video for 'Thunder Kiss '65'.

xpost
Heh, in a late essay Raymond Durgnat called Jancsó's Red Psalm 'processional cinema' and after reading it, the phrase has stuck in my mind - and yes, totally appropriate to horror cinema too (Argento immediately springs to mind).

Watched "From Within" (2008) during a free horror movie search on Comcast and was pleasantly surprised. Somewhat in the "It Follows" range, though more straightforward. A mix of tropes (religious zealot teen villain, Adam Goldberg as a one-note follower) and surprises (subverted sympathies as the movie plays out, the finale). Worth a distracted watch.

I thought the lead character is LoS was at least moderately compelling. Iirc she was a recovering addict, and the whole thing could be read (were it not literally Satanic witches on the loose - spoilers?) as a metaphor for her going off the wagon.

being-in-recovery was definitely her lone defining characteristic, but it was really only referenced twice, and I just didn't think she brought anything to the character, I felt like she was just a one-dimensional victim, without any depth.

the phantasmagoric-imagery sequences were definitely the best thing about the movie but it didn't feel like enough to me.

Tbf, I only saw it once! Like most of his movies (at least the ones that I've seen).

Mega-challops: his Halloweens, while mostly just decent, were still better than the originals.

His second one is one of his I never bothered with. His first one is mostly just significantly more brutal than Carpenter's, but otherwise, come on, inferior to the original 1 and even 2.

non-challops, both of his Halloween movies were garbage and all of his movies are bad

seriously i've given him several tries based on general ilxor praise and i feel like i've been tricked every time

I'm inclined to agree

The Devil's Rejects is good, for what it is (ugly). Lords of Salem is good (at least visually). 1000 Corpses is garbage, Halloweens are worthless, his music sucks, no idea if 31 even came out. I think I liked his fake Nazi werewolf trailer.

ah, i get them confused. i loved that freebird scene!!

― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Friday, September 14, 2018 2:53 PM

I thought it seemed very amateurish and a bit cringey.

Kramer produced one of his albums so I've considered giving it a listen.

Upgrade was quite entertaining. Reviewers that seemed to focus on movie being “dumb” giving most of its influences much more credit for intelligence than I would. Definitely kind of movie I could stand more of being made.

I agree. I didn't love it, not normally my kind of thing but it was a pretty solid b-movie with quite tight storytelling. Well constructed.

I'd have liked it more with a funnier lead

Quite liked Endless (although end was perhaps a little hokey) although I'm not sure it would make as much sense without having first seen Resolution (which I also liked).

Mandy is batshit, not sure what else to make of it

hoping to see that tomorrow. happy to see Cosmatos doing so well, Beyond the Black Rainbow was good fun

Mandy was.. interesting. The good - a movie crazy enough to live up to the Cage at his craziest. The bad - it was really slow and kinda boring for a lot of it, to be honest

P much agree with that. Also nuts that that's Ken Barlow's son

johann johanneson score right?

yup, his last one :(

and how was it (to the extent it was audible)?

Liked Endless a lot as well. Only knowing its brief plot description, I liked how the movie's pace allowed for "That doesn't seem right. I wonder if..." discoveries. Agreed on the hokey end, but still while happy with it, would have been just as happy if it'd ended in a different (or partially different) fashion. (Trying not to spoil anything here.) The extras were great on that - seemed like everyone on the crew had a great time hanging out and making the movie. Haven't seen Resolution yet, but it's in my library queue.

I was really down with The Endless as well; sadly my library doesn't have Resolution. Maybe I'll give Spring a chance.

So there is an entire subplot of Endless (the cabin) that I would think would be very confusing wo some of the context of Resolution but maybe it’s just well that’s how it is.

it is! but i understood it well enough, just that part took place in the far past

Should be worth a look.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1JdWOqc9Q8

I'm kind of culted out but the prospect of a Gareth Evans horror movie (with bonus action flair!) is interesting.

Watched "Wildling" this weekend. Not so much horror as tension, decent enough story of young girl maturing into ...? The actress was good in the role. Liv Tyler and Brad Dourif also star.

I need a good horror to watch. prefs one on Netflix. there's so much cheesy crud out there

started watching the Terror (which is on amazon, not sure about Netflix) and it's quite good, although I may get bored of the "we are all gonna die in the arctic" plot dynamic

Watched Upgrade instead of Mandy this weekend and was very pleased with my decision.

I am probably the biggest Lords of Salem defender on ILX. I think it's great; I even own the Blu-Ray. (I also like Rob Zombie's music, but I hate all his other movies, especially The Devil's Rejects, which is the one everyone else seems to find defensible for some reason.) I very much like the processional aspect of it, and it looks better than anything else he's ever done. (He used the same cinematographer as Halloween II, but got much better results.)

I read "The Terror" a couple of years ago I thought it a few hundred pages too long, though I did like the rigor and research behind it. I watched maybe half the series and just found it so turgid and ... boringly faithful to the book? Anyway, good acting, etc., total snooze, imo.

yeah I was listening to it on audiobook but got a bit bored

Watched Upgrade instead of Mandy this weekend and was very pleased with my decision.

have you actually seen Mandy yet, because it's like several orders of magnitude better!

but we're on exactly the same page re: LoS

I'm about 300 pages into the book The Terror at the moment. At this point I'm finding it to be a gripping read, but not sure how well it will sustain its story over the next 400 pages.

I somewhat agree with what calzino was saying on the another thread about this last week:

I don't know why they needed to add any HORROR, when the story already has a horrific blend of peak BE officer classes, cannibalism, pneumonia, scurvy, lead poisoning, the unremitting sub-zero winds etc...

― calzino, Friday, September 14, 2018 1:56 PM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

At least in the beginning, I'd be cruising along through what seems like really well researched historical fiction when a vague monster appears, briefly. And let's be clear, I signed on for the monster! Didn't pick this up because it was on some list of Best Boat Books of the 2000s. Things do seem like they're picking up steam at the point I'm at anyway.

I'm enjoying the show, although idk how many seasons they could really stretch this out for (things would have to get a *lot* weirder)

pretty sure it was a “limited series” yes?

I have no idea. the season I'm watching is 10 episodes so maybe it will all be wrapped up with a happy ending lol

https://metvcdn.metv.com/aem5o-1481042125-6935-list_items-rudolph-02.gif

lol

Someone here was unimpressed but Across The River (2013) is one of my favorites of the past decade. It's very quiet but I thought it was a good mix of old fashioned spooky and nasty.

Pyewacket - not bad for the most part. Mother & occult-obsessed daughter struggling with death of husband/father, at odds with each other, until a 'fresh start' move pushes the daughter to wish her mom dead and perform a demon-summoning ritual to make it happen. Good build of tension and interesting creature, but a predictable resolution (vaguely along "Bye Bye Man" lines) brings it down to a C+ for me. I find east coast sparse forests so much creepier than PacNW denser forests - those bits were well done. An empty forest behind the girl, then an unnoticed swath of black in the background suddenly hides behind a tree - love background stuff like that.

Is this the main thread where ILX talks about Shudder? I subscribed yesterday and am impressed by the selection ... I wish it provided more information about when films rotate in and out of the collection, and title-only search is weak, but these are minor complaints when it offers so many movies I'm looking forward to seeing. Most of what I've added to my list is pre-2005, but I plan to step up my post-2005 horror game too.

Any recommendations? (I am in the US btw.)

Saw The Blackcoat's Daughter last week - it's another one of those "exactly what you think is happening is happening" slow-march-to-doom movies, this one revolving around demonic possession in a semi-abandoned girls' school. Kiernan Shipka (Sally Draper from Mad Men) is quite good in it.

Shudder is one of the only services worth paying for (esp since it's not very expensive) -- the curated lists are pretty good, not a bad place to start if a general search is leaving you cold.

Saw Halloween.

Competent. Not that good tho

So it's very much like the original film, is what you're saying.</challops>

🙄