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Basebf555 posted:Just curious, what are some of your favorite horror films from the past ten years or so? Well strictly going by the last decade I've been a tad disappointed, but movies like: Cabin in the woods, the mist, let the right one in, and Insidious were all pretty decent, but aside from Cabin which is easily amongst my top 5, everything has kind of been bland to me. The Conjuring was a huge let down for example, and I had heard nothing but good things. Movies like Event Horizon, The Thing, and In The Mouth of Madness occupy my favorites list. Horror that has structure is usually my favorite, and honestly this is why It Follow's failure to capture my attention annoys me. The rules are established early on, there is no bullshit changing of the rules for the sake of scaring the crowd or shoehorning in a dumb cliffhanger ending. Perhaps there just isn't enough encounters with the monster to keep the dread going, and to much focus on teen angst(which I get confusion over sex is the metaphor) but I feel they were just to heavy with it.
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Aug 5, 2015 15:29
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Uroboros posted:Well strictly going by the last decade I've been a tad disappointed, but movies like: Cabin in the woods, the mist, let the right one in, and Insidious were all pretty decent, but aside from Cabin which is easily amongst my top 5, everything has kind of been bland to me. The Conjuring was a huge let down for example, and I had heard nothing but good things. Well you're taste is fairly similar to mine, I don't think Cabin in the Woods is an all-time great like you do, even so the movies you list are some of my recent favorites too. I was pretty disappointed by The Conjuring as well. Interesting then that you didn't like It Follows, but this stuff can be unpredictable. I definitely disagree with you about the tension in the movie, for me that was one of the biggest positives. Because of the nature of the monster and the rules that they set up, the tension was there in literally every single scene, regardless of how "safe" the location seemed to be. Basebf555 fucked around with this message at 15:44 on Aug 5, 2015 |
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Aug 5, 2015 15:40
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Basebf555 posted:Well you're taste is fairly similar to mine, I don't think Cabin in the Woods is an all-time great like you do, even so the movies you list are some of my recent favorites too. I was pretty disappointed by The Conjuring as well. I wouldn't say It follows was tense at all, but I would say there was a pretty palpable sense of dread throughout. Just the acceptance of the existence of this force of (super)nature.
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Aug 5, 2015 16:14
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I would say the overall theme of It Follows is that danger can never be escaped and the consequences of your actions will follow you forever. The best thing you can do is find someone you care about to share this burden together. And that's life. I liked the ending because to me it didn't feel like a "they beat it! ...or did they?" but rather the inevitable conclusion of something that cannot be stopped.
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Aug 5, 2015 20:51
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I have no idea where else to post this, so uh, is anyone else surprised at the positive reception that The Gift is getting? It's at 91% on RT, "The Gift is wickedly smart and playfully subversive, challenging the audience's expectations while leaving them leaning on the edges of their seats." The trailers on TV look kind of cheesy, but the positive reviews have made me curious, so I'm gonna go see it this weekend.
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Aug 7, 2015 20:22
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Ehud posted:I have no idea where else to post this, so uh, is anyone else surprised at the positive reception that The Gift is getting? It's at 91% on RT, "The Gift is wickedly smart and playfully subversive, challenging the audience's expectations while leaving them leaning on the edges of their seats." i haven't seen any previews but i like Joel Edgerton on the basis of Animal Kingdom and The Rover so i'm glad that it sounds to be good
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Aug 7, 2015 21:03
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Uncle Boogeyman posted:i haven't seen any previews but i like Joel Edgerton on the basis of Animal Kingdom and The Rover so i'm glad that it sounds to be good It's a completely different movie, but he's quite good in Warrior as well.
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Aug 7, 2015 21:15
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Ehud posted:I have no idea where else to post this, so uh, is anyone else surprised at the positive reception that The Gift is getting? It's at 91% on RT, "The Gift is wickedly smart and playfully subversive, challenging the audience's expectations while leaving them leaning on the edges of their seats." I just got back from seeing it. The ads made me think it was going to be a lovely Lifetime-level thriller movie, especially since I didn't see any reviews. In the end I wouldn't say it was great, but I'd give it a B. I think the super positive reviews are because many people, like me, were going in expecting absolute poo poo and were pleasantly surprised. My detailed thoughts are a bit disorganized: - The beginning and middle were actually good. Even though it was obvious from the trailer that the husband (Simon) had done something horrible to his old classmate Gordo, the focus was actually on the wife (Robin) having to find out why Gordo is such a weirdo on her own since her rear end in a top hat husband won't tell her. - This was helped a lot by Rebecca Hall's good performance of dawning horror at realizing what a horrible person her husband was, and still is (though there is one funny moment when she completely loses her American accent during an argument). - There was a very cliche "Evil Demented Gay Man" route the movie looked like it was going to take, but it didn't, much to my relief. - Now the bad stuff. In Acts 1 and 2, Robin is the main character. We see that she has some serious problems of her own, which are brought back by the stress of the Gordo situation, but in the end it makes her determined to find out the truth. But then in Act 3 there's a sudden swerve to focusing on Simon as the main character. - On top of that abrupt change, I really hate plots where a woman is raped (or possibly raped in this case) and the focus is only about how it torments a male character. It's especially bitter because the wife was the protagonist until this point. The movie spends the whole film time alienating her (and us) from Simon, showing that she has no idea about his true nature. So it's simply bizarre to then switch to Simon's perspective, especially for a lame sexist plot. Strangely, the conclusion isn't about Robin's trauma at all, only Simon's, even though Robin was BY FAR the one who got hosed with the most (that's a really unfortunate pun, sorry). At least show her reaction. -I know I sound mad. It didn't ruin the movie completely but it definitely left a sour taste in my mouth. - The movie I saw right before this was Ex Machina, which had really beautiful cinematography and set design. In comparison, this movie's was just bleh.
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Aug 7, 2015 21:48
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FourLeaf posted:I just got back from seeing it. The ads made me think it was going to be a lovely Lifetime-level thriller movie, especially since I didn't see any reviews. In the end I wouldn't say it was great, but I'd give it a B. I think the super positive reviews are because many people, like me, were going in expecting absolute poo poo and were pleasantly surprised. My detailed thoughts are a bit disorganized: Can you spoiler what horrible thing he did to Gordo?
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Aug 7, 2015 21:56
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AFewBricksShy posted:Can you spoiler what horrible thing he did to Gordo? In high school, Simon bullied Gordo for being "weak," culminating in a lie about seeing Gordo being molested by an older male student. Rumors spread that Gordo was gay. Gordo's homophobic father then tried to burn his son alive.
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Aug 7, 2015 22:04
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How blue-tinted is The Gift? The trailer looked reasonably blue.
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Aug 8, 2015 00:41
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space-man posted:Reading this I feel like the only person who sort of took the movie as there is a supernatural entity following a girl who lives in a world with no adults. The entire time I was watching It Follows I kept asking my friend "Where are all these kid's parents." I think the whole thing is about parental neglect.
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Aug 8, 2015 00:50
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mrking posted:The entire time I was watching It Follows I kept asking my friend "Where are all these kid's parents." I think the whole thing is about parental neglect. yeah, the few parents you do see in the movie are passed out drunk or interacting with other adults.
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Aug 8, 2015 01:29
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Snak posted:yeah, the few parents you do see in the movie are passed out drunk or interacting with other adults. It puts me in mind of Bully.
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Aug 8, 2015 03:48
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:It puts me in mind of Bully. It puts me in mind of the Peanuts.
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Aug 8, 2015 10:25
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Grendels Dad posted:It puts me in mind of the Peanuts. Muppet Babies, the psychological thriller.
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Aug 8, 2015 12:05
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FourLeaf posted:I just got back from seeing it. The ads made me think it was going to be a lovely Lifetime-level thriller movie, especially since I didn't see any reviews. In the end I wouldn't say it was great, but I'd give it a B. I think the super positive reviews are because many people, like me, were going in expecting absolute poo poo and were pleasantly surprised. My detailed thoughts are a bit disorganized: I'll say that your first point about that "shift" was very welcomed by me. Felt like a fuller movie because of it. As to that second point, I did feel if the guy had raped her it would have really left a bad taste for me but the end result of "see how easy it is to gently caress with your head" was better, and I thought at that point he probably didn't do it. She wasn't told about that part so why bother showing her reaction? . Overall I thought it subverted the small expectations I had, was pretty excellent casting. Bateman really did great but whoever played his wife really did some heavy lifting. Was the 2nd best thing I've seen this year besides Max. Besides the 2nd "bad stuff" point that got a bit iffy I thought it was great, absolutely worth going to see.
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Aug 9, 2015 03:44
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Yep, I'd agree it's pretty good and it benefits from your expectations of it. I really felt like the script was written constantly with a sense of us prepping rolled eyes at obvious setups for "clever for a Lifetime movie" twists and then veering away in a good direction. Cast was strong all around, Edgerton was just the right kind of strange that you could see how someone wouldn't be immediately creeped out but you also don't think is all perfectly normal. It's a shame that the trailer was what it was because the movie does a more than fair job giving you ambiguous cue about the potential tone of the movie. Worth watching for sure. Most of the moments played well in a "perhaps it's nefarious" and "perhaps it's just a coincidence" so you're not so sure. I don't like the concept of the perspective shift but you also can't have the psychological horror of things be presented without it so maybe it's just a clumsy necessity. Based on reactions in the theater I was in, not everyone read enough into preceding scenes to totally get what was going on until it was shown so I don't think you could get by with just her perspective. And by that point she's not reacting well to her husband so you can't infer much by how he treats her after he "knows". On that point, thematically, I think the conclusion that he didn't do anything to her makes the most sense. His torment was started with an implied lie and false allegation so this seems like an appropriate phantom force to use against Simon. To actually rape her would be the equivalent of just chopping off her head so Simon didn't have nice things anymore. In this way he exaggerates the beating at the bar to permanently separate an innocent girl from Simon (he doesn't know she's already seen the light well enough to cut ties) and gives Simon a permanent mental scar he doesn't dare itch because of the harm it puts on her. I also particularly liked that Gordo wasn't the only reckoning coming Simon's way. Having the colleague expose him made the whole thing less fairly tale magical and more like a tidal wave of retribution that was coming his way. Gordo being just the most aggressive wave of it. I'd say that this movie did a really good job of wringing tension out of your own lack of certainty about how this movie was going to play out. Jogging in the street felt incredibly tense just because you don't know what's up. That's quite a victory. One thing I think might have been out of place is using the vacationing couple's house. If they pressed charges he'd have been derailed from his revenge and he also stood a strong chance of losing her trust and sympathy. Seemed risky for someone with that kind of endgame and it led to a restraining order that was mentioned but never factored in.
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Aug 10, 2015 02:06
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Uroboros posted:Well strictly going by the last decade I've been a tad disappointed, but movies like: Cabin in the woods, the mist, let the right one in, and Insidious were all pretty decent, but aside from Cabin which is easily amongst my top 5, everything has kind of been bland to me. Just watched Insidious last night and it was good and creepy until about 20 minutes before the end. At that point, though, it became some cheap-rear end made-for-TV poo poo. I was amazed at how much the feel of it changed.
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Aug 10, 2015 06:12
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I agree with most of what you guys already said about The Gift, but I was left questioning whether or not he actually raped her. Part of me thinks that Gordo was a decent enough guy that he never would have done something like that, but the other part of me thinks he may have been just "off" enough mentally that he actually did it as a misguided act of kindness towards Robin. When he visits her at the hospital he says something to the effect of, "You're a good person, and good people deserve good things to happen to them" - I wondered if that was him saying, "You're a good person so I gave you the gift of motherhood." - like maybe the issue with them conceiving was with Bateman's character and Gordo stepped in to help her conceive? That would explain why they couldn't conceive for so long and then all of the sudden she gets pregnant after Gordo potentially raped her. I could be totally misreading that, but there was also the stuff in the beginning where they have Gordo over for dinner and he talks about good things coming out of bad situations. Was this a foreshadowing of a good thing (motherhood) coming out of a bad situation (rape?) Obviously that is a thoroughly twisted reading of the movie, but when they left things up for interpretation it crossed my mind.
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Aug 10, 2015 13:08
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Ehud posted:
yeah that's probably the worst possible reading into it, I just assumed he meant his attempt of friendship after what happened. I don't think the darker alternative fits for the way he acted otherwise through the movie. also pretty sure a blood test would rectify anything real quick so my take was that the whole situation was just to make Bateman's character freak out for a half hour or so. the real damage to his reputation has already been done and the firing wasn't even Gordo's fault.
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Aug 10, 2015 13:45
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Ehud posted:I agree with most of what you guys already said about The Gift, but I was left questioning whether or not he actually raped her. Part of me thinks that Gordo was a decent enough guy that he never would have done something like that, but the other part of me thinks he may have been just "off" enough mentally that he actually did it as a misguided act of kindness towards Robin. When he visits her at the hospital he says something to the effect of, "You're a good person, and good people deserve good things to happen to them" - I wondered if that was him saying, "You're a good person so I gave you the gift of motherhood." - like maybe the issue with them conceiving was with Bateman's character and Gordo stepped in to help her conceive? That would explain why they couldn't conceive for so long and then all of the sudden she gets pregnant after Gordo potentially raped her. Well that probably isn't it because they weren't having trouble with the conception part; the wife successfully became pregnant but then had a miscarriage- the guilt from that likely leading to her drug issues. So it's not like Simon was shooting blanks and Gordo decided to step up to bat or whatever. The troubles with having a baby were with Robin so switching dads wouldn't have helped. I think Gordo saying "good people deserve good things" was simply his way of saying it was good she finally had a baby and was happy. Since she was nice to him, she deserves it.
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Aug 10, 2015 23:11
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Ehud posted:I agree with most of what you guys already said about The Gift, but I was left questioning whether or not he actually raped her. Part of me thinks that Gordo was a decent enough guy that he never would have done something like that, but the other part of me thinks he may have been just "off" enough mentally that he actually did it as a misguided act of kindness towards Robin. When he visits her at the hospital he says something to the effect of, "You're a good person, and good people deserve good things to happen to them" - I wondered if that was him saying, "You're a good person so I gave you the gift of motherhood." - like maybe the issue with them conceiving was with Bateman's character and Gordo stepped in to help her conceive? That would explain why they couldn't conceive for so long and then all of the sudden she gets pregnant after Gordo potentially raped her. MinibarMatchman posted:yeah that's probably the worst possible reading into it, I just assumed he meant his attempt of friendship after what happened. I don't think the darker alternative fits for the way he acted otherwise through the movie. I think I'd read into it to mean the good thing at the beginning was that he was compelled and intended to break the illusionary world a bully had created. And at the hospital I'd take it that he thinks the good thing she had coming was breaking loose from Simon. Being with him wasn't a good thing and, unbeknownst to Gordo Simon's world had already crumbled due to his bullying. I think what he imagined was that this was going to happen to him in the future and he'd drag her down with him. By separating him from the monster, she was free of that collateral damage. And, his controlling behavior had some glimmers of emerging in their relationship and his steering of her career in sacrifice to his desire for a kid. The movie benefits from being interpretive because it illustrates the horror of Gordo's plan but I think it undermines things if you take the most negative reading. And having her take a blood test just informs her of a horrifying event regardless of the result. Either she was raped or she was drugged and groped as part of a gross pantomime intended to destroy her husband. But again I think the movie is better for being interpretive.
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Aug 11, 2015 06:25
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Snak posted:The no adults thing is pretty clever. The person I watched the movie with didn't even realize the whole thing was a metaphor for sex, and the physical and emotional dangers that are associated with it, until we talked about it the next day. The fact that the movie is about teenagers trying to allay their fears by having sex with each other even though they don't fully understand the rules or potential consequences, and they have no role models to turn to, is genius. It Follows is literally just stripping everything else away form every teen fright film over the last like 30-40 years. When I'm watching the movie and thinking that it's a frame without form, I'm bored.
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Aug 12, 2015 15:59
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coyo7e posted:My problem with It Follows is largely that I already was aware that pretty much every horror/slasher film is about sex, and how anyone who breaks the list of social niceties (don't have sex, don't drink, don't misbehave) ends up dead by the usually-supernatural force which is after them for some (usually) inexplicable reason. I don't entirely follow your logic, because It Follows is a complete inversion of the form you quoted. In a typical slasher, having sex is the reason you die. In It Follows, having sex is the only way you can survive. It's the furthest thing from the morality plays you see mirrored in stuff like Halloween and Friday the 13th.
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Aug 12, 2015 17:14
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well, it gets you into trouble, then you need to do it again to get out of trouble. so... you're both right?
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Aug 12, 2015 18:51
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It Follows basically contextualizes insecurities about having sex, who you choose to have sex with, and why, into manifest fear. And it's something that's invisible to people that aren't you or your sexual partners. It's like the transition between having a good sexual experience with traumatic consequences, to trying to get over it with casual sex, to reigning that in and trying to have a stable sexual relationship with someone that cares about you. That's the movie. The STD angle is obvious and definitely present, but I think the general fears and insecurities aspect is what makes the movie genius.
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Aug 12, 2015 22:14
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I just saw Parallels on Netflix, which was sci-fi, but not quite into "sci-fi thriller" territory. Still, about five minutes into it, if you're anything like me, you'll get really excited about where it might go, and then it goes there. Basically, if you enjoyed the alternate Earth stuff on Fringe (or Sliders, I guess -- I've never seen it), you need to check it out. It starred a poor man's Mark Wahlberg/Channing Tatum type, and also Constance Wu (the mom from Fresh Off the Boat) as an adorable "manic pixie dream girl" type. The end will probably piss everyone off, but I had a feeling it might end the way it did. Just wondered what other people thought.
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Aug 14, 2015 05:39
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Big Bad Voodoo Lou posted:I just saw Parallels on Netflix, which was sci-fi, but not quite into "sci-fi thriller" territory. Still, about five minutes into it, if you're anything like me, you'll get really excited about where it might go, and then it goes there. Basically, if you enjoyed the alternate Earth stuff on Fringe (or Sliders, I guess -- I've never seen it), you need to check it out. It was a pilot for SyFy that didn't get picked up and it was also incredibly terrible.
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Aug 14, 2015 05:43
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Rhyno posted:It was a pilot for SyFy that didn't get picked up and it was also incredibly terrible. I KNEW IT! It felt so much like a pilot. I haven't seen a movie with an ending like that since Source Code.
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Aug 14, 2015 13:05
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:How blue-tinted is The Gift? The trailer looked reasonably blue. Inconsistently blue. There's a lot of nighttime scenes with sparse yellow lighting and an emphasis on lighting Rebecca Hall dimly, and then a fair amount of daytime scenes that also emphasize lighting Rebecca Hall dimly. And it turns out a simple way of accomplishing that in a clearly-staged daytime scene is to make poo poo blue. I think I mentioned this in the Gen Chat thread, but it reminded me of Deakins doing the cinematography on Prisoners, although obviously a few notches down. It's still a visually accomplished movie, though, especially for a directorial debut.
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Aug 14, 2015 19:38
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I'm looking for some movie recommendations, and I think this thread is the best spot for me to ask: My friends and I are starting a regular horror/supernatural movie night, and we wanted to start by watching as many good ghost story movies as we could track down. We're sticking to relatively recent films (as much as I love some of the old Vincent Price films, they aren't exactly what we're looking for). We also want to err towards films that focus more on atmosphere and mystery than jump scares or overt freak-outs. Also I was asked to focus on movies with "older settings", though I took that to mean they wanted basically haunts house stories rather than Paranormal Activity type stuff. Here's the list we have so far, can you guys add (or remove!) any suggestions: The Others The Awakening The Orphanage The Changeling The Shining The Innkeepers I also suggested Session 9, though I admit it doesn't quite fit in with the rest.
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Aug 15, 2015 23:20
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Ignoring how anyone feels about the remake, I think the two versions of Poltergeist are examples of the tell me v. show me arguments. Personally, I like both of them because of that, though Raimi is very good at the show me brand of horror in my opinion.
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Aug 15, 2015 23:59
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Well, it doesn't have an "older setting" but I thought the recent Oculus was fantastic. There are probably some jump-scares in it, but I didn't notice because I was busy being blown away by the dynamic integration of the characters having flashbacks with what was happening in the present. It might come across a gimmick and you might hate it, but I thought it was great and haven't really seen anything quite like it done before.
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Aug 16, 2015 00:03
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MockingQuantum posted:I'm looking for some movie recommendations, and I think this thread is the best spot for me to ask: The Devil's Backbone
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Aug 16, 2015 00:03
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Snak posted:Well, it doesn't have an "older setting" but I thought the recent Oculus was fantastic. There are probably some jump-scares in it, but I didn't notice because I was busy being blown away by the dynamic integration of the characters having flashbacks with what was happening in the present. It might come across a gimmick and you might hate it, but I thought it was great and haven't really seen anything quite like it done before. I'll second this one; I just got around to it last night and absolutely loved the execution.
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Aug 16, 2015 00:57
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Oculus reminds me of another film, but I can find it even with imdb keyword search... What is the movie where doppelgangers come out of reflections in glass to stalk and kill their originals, I think the slow reveal is that the main character is not an original, but she doesn't know it. Anyone know the movie I mean? I recall it being kind of classy, like the characters are all fairly well off, I think it was from around 2010.
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Aug 16, 2015 03:41
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monkey posted:Oculus reminds me of another film, but I can find it even with imdb keyword search... What is the movie where doppelgangers come out of reflections in glass to stalk and kill their originals, I think the slow reveal is that the main character is not an original, but she doesn't know it. Anyone know the movie I mean? I recall it being kind of classy, like the characters are all fairly well off, I think it was from around 2010. There was a movie that was vaguely like that with Kiefer Sutherland. It was called Mirrors and came out in 2008. I don't think it has the aspect you describe as the slow reveal, though. edit: V I will have to check that out. Snak fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Aug 16, 2015 |
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Aug 16, 2015 03:44
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monkey posted:Oculus reminds me of another film, but I can find it even with imdb keyword search... What is the movie where doppelgangers come out of reflections in glass to stalk and kill their originals, I think the slow reveal is that the main character is not an original, but she doesn't know it. Anyone know the movie I mean? I recall it being kind of classy, like the characters are all fairly well off, I think it was from around 2010. That's The Broken. Pretty good from what I remember.
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Aug 16, 2015 03:49
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Rhyno posted:It was a pilot for SyFy that didn't get picked up and it was also incredibly terrible. Netflix, but yeah. I thought the concept had some potential but it was altogether nothing to write home about.
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Aug 16, 2015 04:04
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