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moths posted:This started as a post asking for advice on how to enjoy Mario Bava, but instead I just kept watching his stuff on Netflix until it clicked. It took two viewings of Black Sunday, three attempts to get through Baron Blood, and Lisa and the Devil twice before I found the gear it's in. It's so very 70's, beautifully shot, with fun soundtracks and colors, but the stories are completely bananas on bananas on bananas. I can't get enough Bava. Note that the version of Black Sabbath that is on Netflix is a bad cut (it's the American cut). "The Telephone" in the US version has the magic ghost angle going on, but in the original version there's a whole psychosexual element and it's pretty clear that the protagonist is a prostitute rather than a woman home from a date. There's no neighbour walking a dog or a magical letter that writes itself in the original. The original version of "The Telephone" is possibly the birth of the giallo film, predating Bava's seminal and pioneering giallo films. In the US version, it's a whacky supernatural story.  The soundtrack in the US version was also replaced with cheesy stock music. The Italian soundtrack is much creepier and subtle. Also "Drop of Water", being the scariest chapter of the film, is the last segment in the original rather than the first. See if you can find "Three Faces of Fear" or "I Tre Volti Della Paura" if you're interested in seeing a better cut of the film. Bonus Bava trivia:  This is "The Bava Bed" as seen in Three Faces of Fear. It appears in at least 6 of his films (you've already seen it in 2 films, as I check out your watch list).
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Jun 2, 2015 14:40
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LORD OF BUTT posted:Lexi Alexander is in hardcore movie jail for Punisher War Zone, though. The only things she's done since that are an awful-looking Christian movie and a Youtube short. It's an awful shame. Listen to the How Did This Get Made on War Zone. They bring on Patton Oswald who brings her on. It's great.
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Jun 2, 2015 14:58
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Wizchine posted:Sort of. I think vigilante movies like Death Wish are more comparable. Even then it's more than tone - in "action films" you're invited to sympathize with the protagonist and the victims are threatening in some way. In slasher films, if you believe the killer is the protagonist (and I'd argue the films aren't really structured that way), the killer is mostly a blank slate (for the viewer to project onto, I suppose) and the victims are generally never a threat to the killer and usually sympathetic. Vigilante movies are much more comparable, yeah.
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Jun 2, 2015 15:03
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moths posted:This started as a post asking for advice on how to enjoy Mario Bava, but instead I just kept watching his stuff on Netflix until it clicked. It took two viewings of Black Sunday, three attempts to get through Baron Blood, and Lisa and the Devil twice before I found the gear it's in. It's so very 70's, beautifully shot, with fun soundtracks and colors, but the stories are completely bananas on bananas on bananas. I was on a big Bava kick a few months ago and I found it to be extremely rewarding. Not every one of his films will click for you, it sounds like you've realized that already, but the style is always there regardless. I had only ever watched Argento, so it was incredibly interesting to go see the work of one of his biggest influences, and then to go to Fulci's stuff and see the work that Argento in turn influenced. The through-line there is very clear and enjoyable to notice in all of these directors films. I'm glad I watched Black Sunday first though, I immediately loved it, which gave me the spark to keep going with other Bava stuff. I saw Lisa and the Devil once I was fully on-board with his style, and it surprisingly turned out to be my favorite Bava film. Its just so insane, hilarious, and yet still pretty drat creepy. Plus Telly Savalas. If you haven't yet you should also watch The Girl Who Knew Too Much.
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Jun 2, 2015 15:09
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InfiniteZero posted:Note that the version of Black Sabbath that is on Netflix is a bad cut (it's the American cut). What are the differences? That's the version I've seen, and I kind of chalked up how choppy it was to the genre and era.
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Jun 2, 2015 16:27
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Wizchine posted:Sort of. I think vigilante movies like Death Wish are more comparable. Even then it's more than tone - in "action films" you're invited to sympathize with the protagonist and the victims are threatening in some way. In slasher films, if you believe the killer is the protagonist (and I'd argue the films aren't really structured that way), the killer is mostly a blank slate (for the viewer to project onto, I suppose) and the victims are generally never a threat to the killer and usually sympathetic. I don't know about that. As Cabin in the Woods pointed out, for the longest time, slasher movies were about inflicting some, albeit backwards, sense of justice on groups of people who could be viewed as deserving it. The victims are sympathetic, sure, but they were for a long time also stereotypes with really poor senses of self-preservation. More than that, it gets to play on society's feelings toward the, uh, vices in these movies. Even if the viewer is engaged in marijuana use and premarital sex, as quite a lot of people are, they can still recognize it as "wrong" enough for the trick to work. It depends on the action movie, I guess, but Die Hard and Commando both seem like fine examples. The bad guys are all named and distinct and we're given a chance to hate them (albeit for better reasons than the teenagers in a slasher movie).
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Jun 2, 2015 16:50
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morestuff posted:What are the differences? That's the version I've seen, and I kind of chalked up how choppy it was to the genre and era. I went through a bunch, but here are some others. Other differences: The Wurdulak sequence isn't as good in the Italian version because you don't get Karloff's original performance. The Italian version doesn't include the same intros you get with the American version. There's a bit more to them in the American versions. The Italian version also has a humorous fourth wall breaking ending: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9JOWnH8vaI The whole "Telephone" sequence is chopped up heavily between versions. The Italian version is much darker and in my opinion superior (especially being a huge giallo fan). Note that I'm not saying that the Black Sabbath cut is bad, but I prefer the Italian version, or if I had the time I'd make my own cut of the film that uses the US version of The Wurdulak and the Italian versions of everything else (as well as the Italian soundtrack). It's also worth comparing the two versions just for academic purposes. You can do this with a bunch of Bava films (Lisa and The Devil has an alternate cut called House of Exorcism that is horrible, while the alternate cut of The Girl Who Knew Too Much (Evil Eye) stands up on its own and has a really different tone). Bava fans have plenty of opportunities to go deep with his films, which is one of the reasons I enjoy Bava so much personally. InfiniteZero fucked around with this message at 17:15 on Jun 2, 2015 |
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Jun 2, 2015 17:13
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InfiniteZero posted:I went through a bunch, but here are some others. Ah, sorry for the confusion — I'm dumb and mixed up Black Sabbath/Black Sunday.
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Jun 2, 2015 17:16
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morestuff posted:Ah, sorry for the confusion — I'm dumb and mixed up Black Sabbath/Black Sunday. I believe that Black Sunday was chopped up a bit to tone down the violence but I don't think that the film itself was dramatically changed like you get with some of the others. Black Sunday is the only Bava film I've been lucky enough to see theatrically.
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Jun 2, 2015 17:27
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It looks like The Green Inferno will finally get a release in September.
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Jun 2, 2015 17:32
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morestuff posted:It looks like The Green Inferno will finally get a release in September. Sweet. I've been looking forward to this one, despite hearing some negative reviews.
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Jun 2, 2015 17:36
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Its worth mentioning that Bava also did Planet of the Vampires, which isn't necessarily horror, but everyone who enjoys his style should see it. Its one of the most underrated sci-fi films of all-time when you consider how influential it was.
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Jun 2, 2015 18:02
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Planet of the Vampires is really great. I wish my friends were into older sci-fi/horror flicks so they would let me show it to them at one of our movie nights.
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Jun 2, 2015 18:43
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I've seen 2 Bava movies on the big screen and the way he uses color is made for film stock. I would flip if I saw Planet of the Vampires on film.
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Jun 2, 2015 18:45
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Basebf555 posted:Its worth mentioning that Bava also did Planet of the Vampires, which isn't necessarily horror, but everyone who enjoys his style should see it. Its one of the most underrated sci-fi films of all-time when you consider how influential it was. Influential?  Nah, strictly coincidental ... 
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Jun 2, 2015 18:49
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I have a ton of respect for Ridley Scott as a director but I lost a little bit of it when I read he had claimed to have never seen Planet of the Vampires. I hope that's one of those internet rumors that isn't actually true, I don't think I've ever actually seen an interview where he discusses it.
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Jun 2, 2015 19:03
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Giger designed the Space Jockey and spaceship and Dan O'Bannon (I believe, since it went through so many re-writes) wrote in the idea about finding the alien corpse. It's completely possible that Scott just knew good poo poo when he saw it on paper and wasn't precisely familiar with the 'source material' before production. Since Prometheus, however, it seems like, at the very least, he caught the ride afterwards that these old sci-fi movies are actually the poo poo.
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Jun 2, 2015 19:17
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K. Waste posted:Giger designed the Space Jockey and spaceship and Dan O'Bannon (I believe, since it went through so many re-writes) wrote in the idea about finding the alien corpse. It's completely possible that Scott just knew good poo poo when he saw it on paper and wasn't precisely familiar with the 'source material' before production. Very good point. I'm going to just go with this idea and continue to have faith in Ridley Scott because he may be my all-time favorite director.
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Jun 2, 2015 19:18
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Basebf555 posted:Very good point. I'm going to just go with this idea and continue to have faith in Ridley Scott because he may be my all-time favorite director. Sometimes you don't even need to see a movie to get an idea from it:  Even if you grow up to be this pretentious U.K. art student whose family is full of directors and who thinks B-movies are trash, you know how you respond viscerally to iconic imagery. This is probably why while O'Bannon credits stuff like It! The Terror from Beyond Space, Scott credits The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a double feature to do...
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Jun 2, 2015 19:28
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Here's to The Martian.
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Jun 2, 2015 19:30
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InfiniteZero posted:Influential? Welp, time to watch this since I'm a whore for Alien.
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Jun 2, 2015 22:39
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Sire Oblivion posted:Welp, time to watch this since I'm a whore for Alien. Double feature it with Forbidden World.  Planet of the Vampires is the film Alien ripped off, Forbidden World is the film that rips off Alien (but adds gratuitous nudity).
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Jun 3, 2015 01:03
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I'm loving there.
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Jun 3, 2015 01:04
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I'm pretty sure Forbidden Planet is a sequel to something , can't remember what though. Also, the first minute has more nudity than all of the Alien franchise films.
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Jun 3, 2015 03:47
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It's not a sequel, but Forbidden World uses many of the same sets and stock footage as Galaxy of Terror, which rather explicitly lifts a lot of its elements (especially the pyramid) from Dan O'Bannon's original Alien script.
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Jun 3, 2015 03:59
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Dagon popped up on Hulu plus so I watched it last night. I was pleasantly surprised, even though its Stuart Gordon this movie is pretty much ignored, you never hear about it. Its certainly no Re-Animator or From Beyond, but I think its worthy of being considered part of a "Stuart Gordon's Lovecraft" trilogy. Gordon is an expert at making a film look better than its budget, and he does it again here. He builds suspense by not showing very much of the townspeople at first, but then when its time for the effects to be front and center they are very well done. There are a few mediocre CGI effects but not a whole lot. For a Lovecraft fan it would be impossible not to enjoy this movie. I have a pretty good foundation now for a Lovecraft week during my October horror-fest. The three Gordon movies, plus Necronomicon(Lovecraft anthology directed by Brian Yuzna). Maybe throw in a Prometheus or Event Horizon. I love October so much that I pretty much plan for it all year.
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Jun 3, 2015 14:40
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It's a pretty good film but the ending is really bad because he went with the choice for CGI it just looks awful now.
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Jun 3, 2015 14:53
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Hollismason posted:It's a pretty good film but the ending is really bad because he went with the choice for CGI it just looks awful now. Its such a quick shot though that I don't really think that even qualifies as "the ending". For me the ending is everything from the ritual onwards, and that includes some cool stuff like daddy squid-face and the underwater scene where they swim into the gigantic tunnel. There's some CGI in the movie that works pretty well though, like a few shots of the capsized boat during the storm.
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Jun 3, 2015 15:02
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Hollismason posted:I'm pretty sure Forbidden Planet is a sequel to something , can't remember what though. Also, the first minute has more nudity than all of the Alien franchise films. Forbidden Planet isn't Forbidden World. Forbidden Planet is a re-skin of The Tempest.
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Jun 3, 2015 17:25
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Basebf555 posted:Dagon popped up on Hulu plus so I watched it last night. I was pleasantly surprised, even though its Stuart Gordon this movie is pretty much ignored, you never hear about it. What they did to the old dude in that movie was so disgusting and also not physically possible
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Jun 4, 2015 02:39
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Industrial posted:What they did to the old dude in that movie was so disgusting and also not physically possible Yeah but it was fun. I like that it's a mashup of a bunch of Lovecraft including Shadow over Innsmouth, his most "actiony" story.
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Jun 4, 2015 20:05
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It Follows was bloody awful, I do not understand the hype.
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Jun 5, 2015 16:55
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We Are Still Here is up on Comcast On Demand, $7.99.
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Jun 5, 2015 18:46
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zombieman posted:It Follows was bloody awful, I do not understand the hype. Do you hate centred framing?     Because if you hate centred framing that might explain it.
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Jun 5, 2015 21:15
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zombieman posted:It Follows was bloody awful, I do not understand the hype. Welcome to the forums, this guy: http://blogs.indiewire.com/criticwire/you-will-never-not-understand-it-follows-like-this-person-does-not-understand-it-20150604
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Jun 5, 2015 23:51
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(or "lay it forward" if you will)
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Jun 5, 2015 23:59
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zombieman posted:It Follows was bloody awful, I do not understand the hype.
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Jun 6, 2015 01:10
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zombieman posted:It Follows was bloody awful, I do not understand the hype. Thought it was the best horror film of the last 10 years or so
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Jun 6, 2015 01:13
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It Follows was my second favorite horror film of 2014 after As Above, So Below, but it's stiff competition. Overall, it's number nine in my top ten from that year.
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Jun 6, 2015 01:35
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zombieman posted:It Follows was bloody awful, I do not understand the hype. It's mediocre at best.
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Jun 6, 2015 01:51
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