Crescent Wrench posted:

The name's Mo. They call me me that because when people recommend investigative horror movies, I always want mo'.

Bacon Terrorist posted:

Talk to Me spoiler chat:

so was Mia possesed by a malignant spirit from the first time for the rest of the movie because there was that weird hand when Riley was asleep.

dorium posted:

Yes

https://twitter.com/filmupdates/status/1685665820343476224?s=46&t=wbUf_u7uOvtvxKOmB6dAHQ

Shrecknet posted:

that would be Hellraiser 7: Deader which is the second-best Hellraiser after the original. It's really good!

Crescent Wrench posted:

HOT TAKE ALERT

quote:

I've thought a lot about what makes a movie a Hellraiser movie, and it really boils down to Desire.
Hellraiser VII: Deader, despite its ridiculously off-putting name that suggests all the worst of the Direct-to-Video horror sequels, acquits itself gloriously and ends up being, I think, probably my second-favorite Hellraiser in the franchise. Ace reporter Amy Klein (Kari Wuher) gets a peek at a snuff film sent to her London alternative-press paper, and the race is on for her to dive the rabbit hole of Hellraising. Since the plot is basically ancillary - person learns more about the box and its culture, opens the box, cue Doug Bradley in 3 hours of makeup, roll credits - let's talk about specific choices.

Amy Klein as a heroine is perfect. She's a tough reporter, willing to dive into the culture to get her story - but she's essentially alone, and her tough-girl persona starts to crack as she's confronted with the truly vile activities on display by the death cult. Speaking of which, the death cult (the horribly-named "Deaders") are the perfect antagonist, and really capture the Lovecraftian feel that Hellraiser has always hinted at. They've found some hedge against nature, some seam to exploit and get the tiniest taste of what truly supernatural power is. They're playing with daddy's gun, and we all know how that story ends.
Deader also does a great job of hinting at things to come. A party promoter Amy meets early in the film has his hair twisted up in little patches poking out (think Coolio, but shorter) and is so drug-addled he can barely form a sentence, just giving cryptic pronouncements. So - Pinhead via MDMA. And in that great scene, Deader makes the connection between sins of the flesh and orgiastic behavior and the world of the Cenobites. I really can't say enough about Kari's work as Amy here. There's an extended 5+ minute scene where she doesn't say a word or interact with anyone else, just attempts to remove a knife from her back, while trying to figure out why the knife sticking out of her chest isn't killing her. The whole thing is far more gruesome and unsettling than anything from the later SAW movies, if only because she has to avoid breaking down into madness and hysterics. We get to see Amy actually become the unflaggable reporter she played at in the beginning of the movie.

As I said at the beginning, if Hellraiser is about anything, it's about lust. This movie has several parallels and lusts - the Deader cult leader's lust for control, and Amy's lust to know. The idea of the andry's lust for control and the gyny's lust for knowledge is biblical, if probably unintentional, and makes for fantastic parallels. This might be the best pure Hellraiser story told, even more quintessential than the first. How Rick Bota made both this and the excreable Hellworld I'll never figure out.

If you squint just right at some oblique intimations, you can piece together a better movie in your head, which is the mark, I suppose, of a repurposed script that needed another pass but Miramax was absolutely not going to pay for that so instead we get first-draft-to-screen.

Still, there's a ton going on that is really nice - Bota somehow incorporates so much symbolism at once that it accidentally makes the movie good. Are the Christ themes and the Orpheus themes conflicting because Bota is bad at his job? (almost certainly!) or are they conflicting because Amy is a flawed, PTSD-stricken protagonist descending in to madness?

The tag at the end that recasts Charles as some sort of "feeding hottie reporters into the Cenobite woodchipper" monster doesn't really work for me but the rest of this movie is lights-out great.

SneakySneaks posted:

I'm in a mood for a good investigation horror (supernatural basis, not serial killer like Zodiac, Seven, Memories of Murder, Chaser) after watching Mirrors of all things. Despite being a middle of the road movie, the Esseker stuff hit a sweet spot for me and I'm looking something with a similar creepy vibe, but I think I've seen most of the good/decent ones. I've seen most of the J-Horror Movies (and remakes), Empty Man, Cure for Wellness, A Record of a Sweet Murder, Seance, Incantation, Session 9, Cure. Are there more films along those lines that keep in paranormal?

Xiahou Dun posted:

Yeah its general handling of LGBT issues is a big ol’ negative and the one thing that stops me from recommending it to everyone.

PKMN Trainer Red posted:

Magic Hate Ball posted:

Hollismason posted:

Think I'll watch Excorcist 3 tonight just because I wanna hear the carp story again

gey muckle mowser posted:

e: also Last Days by Brian Evenson is a noir/hard-boiled detective horror novel and it rules

Deadite posted:

Frailty is investigative but I don't know if that counts as horror either

Uncle Boogeyman posted:

this book is great and Evenson's short stories are even better. fantastic writer.

Opopanax posted:

Candyman, if that counts

Hollismason posted:

The Mothman Prophecies is just alright so far.

Xander B Coolridge posted:

I don't count Vast of Night as horror, but I think it's just a fantastic movie. I think my favorite scene was when the screen is just black and you're listening to that guy tell the story.

Gyro Zeppeli posted:

I just realized, all these investigation recommendations and nobody has said The Exorcist 3 yet.