Godzilla (as we all remember like it was yesterday) came out in 2014, like The Guest. So you think (xpost) maybe Wingard got picked for Godzilla back then? Hmm. (Googles some more) OK, looks like the G v KK movie got announced in 2015, even before the release of KK and (clearly) the upcoming King of the Monsters, but Wingard didn't get named until 2017. My guess is like Marvel and Star Wars and Jurassic Park they were looking for any semi-competent and cheap genre director, but I think it's still weird, given his track record, that Wingard should even be in the mix. Maybe it'll be his comeback?
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 24 January 2019 18:08 (five years ago) link
I think AW's track record is that of someone who has a distinct enough visual style who works well with a cast and he's shown he can do a lot with a relatively low budget, i mean The Guest wasn't El Mariachi but it was a mere $5 million, and people really love it. Not to mention You're Next was just shy of a million (it did flop, somewhat surprisingly...)
the Blair Witch reboot was decent enough but I think got a harsher rap than it deserved due to the fact that no one ever wanted to see a BWP film ever again.
― omar little, Thursday, 24 January 2019 18:15 (five years ago) link
Someone I kinda sorta trust said Hagazussa was better than The Witchhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_last886efA
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 26 January 2019 19:05 (five years ago) link
As someone who really enjoyed the first <i>Happy Death Day</i>... I really enjoyed the new one!Yeah, it's dumb, somewhat indefensible as a unnecessary retread, but I love time loop gimmicks and you can just see the screenwriters having fun with this damn thing. Still surprised they didn't just completely abandon the first movie, <i>Butterfly Effect</i>-style, but then I sort of admire their dedication to HOW MUCH they stuck to the characters and setting of the original. I don't feel like Jessica Roche was the main draw of the original film (enough to do a whole sequel around her - so it does kind of spread out to the other characters more) but I'll give her credit, she gives her full effort in all of the slasher/soap/farce segments. (They went even broader with the comedy, leaning way into it this time, usually it worked...)
― Nhex, Saturday, 16 February 2019 18:42 (five years ago) link
you can just see the screenwriters having fun with this damn thing
is there info about ghostwriters out? based on the credited writer of the first one, I assumed all the good stuff came from Landon
― steven, soda jerk (sic), Saturday, 16 February 2019 19:30 (five years ago) link
https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/46501798_984474221756874_4122361747308806144_n.jpg?_nc_cat=111&_nc_oc=AQkUpmaR0qc1-PaWg5P2C7JT0AZN6nJhX9v-AS6UT1LfwNNDLbDyY17_IcIlJakcJ7Z3V6m3TqtAzOmptGRriZ5u&_nc_ht=scontent-lax3-2.xx&oh=294ae9eb6fdff95a90e4002291c77871&oe=5D261AA9
― nickn, Sunday, 24 February 2019 19:04 (five years ago) link
suspiria is a mess but is also pretty amazing I thought, one of my favorite films of the year.
can see that a lot of people would really hate it though
― Dan S, Sunday, 24 February 2019 19:13 (five years ago) link
I don't think low budget horror has the same presence anymore, pretty much never see or hear about the stuff unless we're talking high budget indie films. Wonder what happened?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 1 March 2019 18:26 (five years ago) link
Might have already posted this, but I changed my mind about Strange Color Of Your Bodys Tears. It's just okay, but I think I wanted something like that so badly at the time that I kind of overlooked it being a bit boring. First third of Amer is still great and the short films are very good.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 1 March 2019 18:55 (five years ago) link
early 2019 list of interesting looking horror films; outside of HDD2, anyone want to steer me one way or another?
Happy Death Day 2 Level 16The Hole in the Ground Escape Room Body at Brighton RockThe Changeover Rust Creek The Wind Us Ma
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Monday, 4 March 2019 20:37 (five years ago) link
Okay, these books are great and I was prepared to write this adaptation off, assuming they would wind up turning an OTT series of 'kids' books into a tepid film for babies, but...hey, it looks like they might actually be going for it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3J2k3Nhicw
http://cdn.collider.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/scary-stories-to-tell-in-the-dark-poster-red-spot-768x1137.jpg
― WAS ACTING A FOOL AND FELL ON GRILL (Old Lunch), Friday, 29 March 2019 23:37 (five years ago) link
that poster is INCREDIBLE
― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Friday, 29 March 2019 23:39 (five years ago) link
i’m in
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 30 March 2019 05:07 (five years ago) link
I love everything about that poster except for the actual special effect
― Simon H., Saturday, 30 March 2019 05:20 (five years ago) link
This reminds I just kicked my doctor pimple popper addiction. Usually I'm not horrified by posters, this one ...urgh. 😱
― nathom, Saturday, 30 March 2019 22:06 (five years ago) link
Saw The Mist again. Good gawd what an abysmal movie. Esp the ending.
― nathom, Saturday, 30 March 2019 22:09 (five years ago) link
We need to do a definitive "ending of the Mist: good/bad?" poll to settle this
― Simon H., Saturday, 30 March 2019 23:07 (five years ago) link
The Wind is terrible btw
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Monday, 1 April 2019 14:21 (five years ago) link
Just watched Troubled Water (which was Norwegian iirc) and it was really great. Reminded me of First Reformed only even more grim with themes of mother-grief and trauma vs religion and environmental decay. Also, some very good organ music!
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Monday, 1 April 2019 15:26 (five years ago) link
First Reformed only even more grim
!
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 1 April 2019 16:40 (five years ago) link
Soooo ... multiple movies on their way about people trapped in small flooding alligator/croc infested spaces? Black Water: Abyss and Crawl? Hmm. Throw in some father/son body swapping and I'm there!
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 24 April 2019 18:30 (five years ago) link
so i've now watched every rob zombie movie. two of them are pre-2005 but i figured this was the more appropriate thread
house of 1000 corpses: a pretty delightful texas chain saw pastiche, the effect of which is like the first and second movies combined (movie practically screams for dennis hopper to run in with a chainsaw to save the day, which kind of happens in devil's rejects). contains several echoes of his future films (the set design of the infinite catacombs beneath the firefly clan's house is very halloween ii), inherits a lot of stylistic tics from his music video work (degraded film stock/videotape, inverted, radioactive color filters) which never really appear in his films again. a first draft but a good one
the devil's rejects: i watched part of, maybe all of this ten or eleven years ago and haaaated it, found it mean and joyless and it put me off zombie's work for a long time. the first half is still pretty mean and joyless, it's undiluted grindhouse sleaze and i find it very hard to endure the extended motel hostage situation, but the rest of the movie almost feels like a reward for living through that horror: the ice cream scene, the reversal of sympathies when the cop starts torturing the torturers which somehow didn't feel manipulative or graceless at all... really remarkable film, surprisingly political in that it's both anti-torture and anti-cop. in almost all of his movies i think rob zombie wants us to witness dehumanization but he simultaneously refuses to dehumanize any of his characters. in doing so he made this, the anti-revenge revenge film. incredible
31: the only one i had left (quick run-down: zombie's halloween is a failure, his halloween ii is a triumph, and lords of salem is equally as good and features sheri moon zombie's best performance (ymmv)). this one has the reputation of being the rob zombie film that even rob zombie fans hate. but... it's great? most of zombie's movies are really beautifully shot, he has a great eye (which is very indebted to hooper et al), but this one is Ugly and 100 percent about being Ugly. shot almost entirely in digital handheld close-up, the kills practically illegible seizures of flesh and blood, it's mean, hopeless, and there's no light whatsoever in it. i get why people hate it; i find it uncompromising and inspiring, and i'm going to add it to the "trump films" thread even though it may not really fit. also zombie's music cues are always really unexpected and wonderful and he outdoes himself with the way he uses aerosmith's "dream on" in this film
― american bradass (BradNelson), Monday, 29 April 2019 16:30 (five years ago) link
forgot to mention: 31 really lives up to the kafka epigraph at the start ("a first sign of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die")
― american bradass (BradNelson), Monday, 29 April 2019 16:32 (five years ago) link
I re-watched Devil's Rejects for the first time in a long time not too long ago, and iirc found the motel scene even harder to watch than before and the turnaround of sympathies ... less effective than I remembered it?
31 I never saw and always forget it was even released. 1000 Corpses I saw once and don't want to see again, Salem is the one I think about the most. Easily his best directed and, iirc, the only one that doesn't coast on grotesque white trash-ery?
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 29 April 2019 16:49 (five years ago) link
correct that lords of salem is the only one that doesn't dwell in gratuitous white trashiness even though i think zombie's use of that is more complicated than coasting on its grotesquery, cf. the authenticity politics and class war going on in both 1000 corpses and rejects
― american bradass (BradNelson), Monday, 29 April 2019 17:20 (five years ago) link
also if you like and think about lords of salem a lot, i highly recommend watching the director's cut of halloween ii, those movies feel very connected to me
Maybe I've seen it? It's possible it was so ugly (in every sense) that I just turned it off.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 29 April 2019 17:28 (five years ago) link
no no no it's shot beautifully! and is mostly just very sad!
― american bradass (BradNelson), Monday, 29 April 2019 18:27 (five years ago) link
however if you remember a rob zombie movie that featured a white horse, you saw it
― american bradass (BradNelson), Monday, 29 April 2019 18:28 (five years ago) link
Maybe I didn't see it? Which is the one that began with a rape in a hospital? The first one? That one was certainly ugly, so maybe it made me skip the second one. Also, it was the second Rob Zombie Halloween, which would be another reason for me to skip it as well.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 29 April 2019 18:30 (five years ago) link
Which is the one that began with a rape in a hospital? The first one?
this happens about 30 minutes into the director's cut of the first one
― american bradass (BradNelson), Monday, 29 April 2019 18:38 (five years ago) link
The Hole in the Ground is on Amazon now.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Monday, 29 April 2019 22:26 (five years ago) link
OK, I was weirdly excited for this, but a) it looks like garbage and b) the trailer gives away what must be most of the scares, so you've been warned:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6MLJG0RdDE
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 4 May 2019 16:50 (five years ago) link
yeah don't watch that if yer spoiler-averse. also, briefly thought it was Frank Grillo as the dad and was stoked....but alas
― Simon H., Saturday, 4 May 2019 17:01 (five years ago) link
I keep hoping film trailers will change again but they haven't for a long time.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 4 May 2019 17:11 (five years ago) link
Someone I kinda sorta trust said Hagazussa was better than The Witch
Anyone seen this? I'm wondering whether to go tonight.
― jmm, Sunday, 5 May 2019 12:41 (five years ago) link
I just got it in the mail, so I might watch it tonight.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 5 May 2019 17:49 (five years ago) link
i liked it but not as much at the witch
― dynamicinterface, Sunday, 5 May 2019 20:00 (five years ago) link
Suspiria 2018 is on Amazon Prime now and its kind of a mess but enjoyable. It deviates from the original story but idk if you weren’t familiar with the original plot how much sense any of it would make.
At the other end of the spectrum, Unfriended: Dark Web was better than I expected.
― ShariVari, Sunday, 5 May 2019 23:02 (five years ago) link
I only made it 45 minutes into nu-Suspiria. Really didn't click for me at all.
The discussion above makes me want to take another run at Zombie's Halloween II. I bailed on that one early, too, but I love Lords of Salem so much (I own it on Blu-Ray) that I'm feeling generous.
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Sunday, 5 May 2019 23:06 (five years ago) link
xpost The first Unfriended was good, too!
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 5 May 2019 23:35 (five years ago) link
the Unfriended movies rule
― Simon H., Sunday, 5 May 2019 23:53 (five years ago) link
the unfriended movies do rule, and nu-suspiria is unmitigated garbage
― american bradass (BradNelson), Monday, 6 May 2019 00:46 (five years ago) link
I didn’t even finish the new Suspiria. Just seemed kinda grey and miserable, which is not exactly what I was looking for in a Suspiria movie.
― circa1916, Monday, 6 May 2019 00:53 (five years ago) link
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Sunday, May 5, 2019 4:06 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
really gotta emphasize director’s cut here, it’s, in many ways, a completely different movie from the theatrical (though i think the director’s cut is the one widely available for rent/streaming online). the footage zombie reintegrates is the stuff that really connects the movie to what he did in lords of salem
― american bradass (BradNelson), Monday, 6 May 2019 01:35 (five years ago) link
really gotta emphasize director’s cut here, it’s, in many ways, a completely different movie from the theatrical
Interesting, because Vern, the only critic I trust, says the theatrical cut is the one to watch, and that's the version I can see on Showtime (through Hulu).
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Monday, 6 May 2019 02:32 (five years ago) link
i mean i like the theatrical too! there’s just much more laurie strode character work in the director’s cut
― american bradass (BradNelson), Monday, 6 May 2019 02:53 (five years ago) link
but the preference legit baffles me, there’s so much more to chew on in the dc
― american bradass (BradNelson), Monday, 6 May 2019 03:00 (five years ago) link
lol at shower gator fight
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Monday, 6 May 2019 05:58 (five years ago) link
I liked nu-Suspiria! It took a mighty long time to get cooking but once it did, I enjoyed it!
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Monday, 6 May 2019 13:41 (five years ago) link