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Sentinel Red posted:Re. Cabin in the Woods I just saw this and that was all that was going through my head. What a great movie. Seriously, go see Cabin in the Woods.
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Apr 14, 2012 00:31
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Spoilers for REC and Quarantine below:Nemesis Of Moles posted:Can you get into [why Quarantine owns]? I've always much much preferred REC but when SMG says something at the very least there's an interesting read behind it. Well like I was saying, the films are entirely different, thematically. REC has basically the same subtext as The Exorcist. Without a 'rational' explanation for the traumatic goings-on, the religious explanation fills in the gaps. The Exorcist is very clear that there could be a psychological explanation for everything, that the scenes of demonic special effects are just amplified subjective states. In the same way, although you can read REC as being about just a virus, that misses the point. That aspect is strongly de-emphasized and presence of a literal demon is a bonafide twist. The film is playing off an extremely 'realistic', materialist genre. REC2 is really fun because it runs with the subversion and goes full-blown Evil Dead 2 with it, upending the materialism with some horror-comic gnostic fuckery. REC already hinted at this by not strictly adhering to the 'Found Footage' aesthetic. Like when the footage rewinds onscreen: a camera can't record and rewind simultaneously, meaning that although the POV is the camera's, what we're looking at isn't 'footage' per se. REC2 makes this more overt by intercutting different perspectives, with the little battery indicators and such flashing on the screen. Those should only appear in the viewfinder, and obviously the film has been extra-diegetically edited. It's no surprise that REC 3 is reportedly breaking from found-footage altogether. Quarantine doesn't 'cheat' this way; besides the Screen Gems logo at the start and the cut to credits, it's strictly adherent to the logic of found-footage. In fact, the film does a lot to revise REC. Like if you check the IMDB, every 'goof' in REC has been not only corrected but expanded into a plot point. (There's a functioning TV in REC even though the cable's been cut, while in Quarantine, they make a point of tracking down the one TV with rabbit ears.) I'm not one of those pedants who judges movies based on their 'realism', but this is to point out that REC's aesthetic is based on some relative staginess and theatricality. This is important, because both films are about the breakdown of the symbolic order: for example, the police officer who is "trapped in here like the rest of us", and whose badge no longer conveys any authority. In REC, this has a specifically religious connotation. The darkness that envelops the people over the course of the film is a spatial thing, a cosmic darkness that engulfs and corrupts. The viral outbreak in the film is symptomatic of the various conflicts between the apartments' tenants (based in class, race, etc). "If we were to translate John's image of the dark world that hated and killed Jesus into modern language, we might express its contents in this way: hatred is the disease of unredeemed humankind; and its symptom is violence." -John N. M. Wijngaards "The Gospel of John and his Letters" (my italics) The campier aspects of REC and (especially) REC2, however, show that they're not totally committed to making a compelling fiction. So although it's not an explicitly religious film, I feel that Quarantine expresses the same themes better. Even though it's technically not a zombie film it's very much about the 'living death' of Giorgio Agamben's homo sacer - individuals who exist as exceptions to the law, who exist under the law only insofar as they are excluded from it (as in a state of emergency, where one must be quarantined). So you have the scene where the people learn that they've been officially declared nonexistent, immediately before the camera-guy kills a woman the same way he killed a rat. Quarantine ramps up the animal imagery in a similar way to Battle: Los Angles, which explores similar themes (the soldiers are directly equated to dogs, wearing 'dog tags', etc.). Quarantine is likewise an existentialist film about what separates man from animal. It starts with the firehouse dog performing a purely symbolic function as mascot, and ends with a german shepherd tearing a guy apart. There's a Nietzschean level to it as well, with the fireman who emerges as a superheroic figure 'beyond good and evil' (when one character worries about a little girl, he admonishes him: "forget the little girl! We've lost control of the building!" - and the film is, unusually, entirely sympathetic to that ethical prioritization). Quarantine is much nicer to its characters in general, including a subtle romantic tension between the heroine and the cameraman that plays well against the explicit sexual tension between her and the firemen. This increased focus on characters is important because it shifts away from REC's traditional conflict between a 'rational' patriarchal institution and an 'irrational' monstrous-feminine creature, and into a more interesting view of the creatures as something inherent to the institutions themselves. There's an obscene, jocular undercurrent to how the firehall is organized - which would be disavowed, cut from the television program that's being filmed... So it's natural that REC expanded into the direction horror-comedy, while Quarantine is much more bleak and sad - but not without the profit of an underlying humanism. It's that human element that makes the difference. It's more sincere, and more substantial as a result. SuperMechagodzilla fucked around with this message at 07:52 on Apr 14, 2012 |
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Apr 14, 2012 07:49
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Alright, alright, you've convinced me to watch Quarantine. Seriously though, nice write-up. I've never seen Quarantine because a friend of mine said, "It's literally the same movie dog." You make it seem like it has its own legs to walk on. Thanks.
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Apr 14, 2012 18:00
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I would just like to add that the style of the lighting between [REC] and Quarantine immediately tips you off to the differences between the two movies. They really are quite different.
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Apr 14, 2012 18:09
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I watched Apollo 18 in the advice of this thread and I thought it was a decent found footage movie. Little rock creatures weren't that bad since there was enough tension in the movie prior to it's big reveal.
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Apr 14, 2012 19:05
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TUS posted:I watched Apollo 18 in the advice of this thread and I thought it was a decent found footage movie. Little rock creatures weren't that bad since there was enough tension in the movie prior to it's big reveal.
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Apr 14, 2012 19:12
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Xenomrph posted:Interestingly enough they aren't all little. It's a bit more apparent on a second viewing when you know what to look for, and also one of the alternate endings on the DVD has Ben getting run down and killed by a bunch of huge ones. Fair enough. The only time I was able to measure their size is when they're inside of Nate's helmet. Although in their actual "reveal" it looked like their were some big guys in there
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Apr 14, 2012 20:33
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Oh don't get me wrong, most of them are little. There's just some bigger ones if you keep an eye out for them (or watch the alternate ending)
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Apr 14, 2012 20:34
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I know there's a separate thread for this now, which I'm about to go read, but, I'd just like to say, I avoided this thread for the last 6-8 pages, JUST IN CASE there were any Cabin spoilers. My girlfriend and I went and caught the midnight showing last night and we both went in not having seen any trailers or read anything about it. Best. Movie. Ever. I can't put into words how much we enjoyed it.
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Apr 15, 2012 00:29
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So, I saw Evidence today. It certainly was... a thing. A found footage thing. Kinda sloppily written, but it's sort of impressive how utterly insane the whole thing gets by the end. Also, some pretty creepy moments in there, so it might be a worthwhile time if you're into that sort of thing.
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Apr 15, 2012 01:54
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PaleBlueDot posted:So, I saw Evidence today. It certainly was... a thing. A found footage thing. Kinda sloppily written, but it's sort of impressive how utterly insane the whole thing gets by the end. Also, some pretty creepy moments in there, so it might be a worthwhile time if you're into that sort of thing. I fell asleep some towards the middle and woke up near the end. Basically, when I fell asleep it was a camping slasher and when I woke up it was a mutant/military base movie. Definitely a wtf moment.
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Apr 15, 2012 02:06
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I finally got around to watching Insidious, and I suppose I didn't hate it. It had some pacing and structural issues, but it at least held my interest throughout. And good lord did it have problems with tone. It started out as a slickly produced if mediocre horror movie with some neat images, then transformed into a rather cheeky fantasy, then a downer ending where it was all for naught. It's sort of like a carnival ride, so it strikes me as a good Halloween film, or something to foist on your kids during a sleepover.
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Apr 15, 2012 03:59
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Finally got to see Final Destination 5, and was pleasantly surprised to see that it turned out to be a surprise prequel to the first film.
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Apr 15, 2012 04:31
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Nog posted:Finally got to see Final Destination 5, and was pleasantly surprised to see that it turned out to be a surprise prequel to the first film.
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Apr 15, 2012 07:17
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H.P. Shivcraft posted:I finally got around to watching Insidious, and I suppose I didn't hate it. It had some pacing and structural issues, but it at least held my interest throughout.
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Apr 15, 2012 16:36
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Lacklustre Hero posted:Despite it having tropes from almost every kind of subgenre of horror, I enjoyed Insidious immensely at the cinema. While watching it I was aware of the silliness of some of the characters and scenes (dancing dwarf? Nerd ghost busters? Literally the Robot Devil from Futurama?), I thought they were created in such a way that you still felt sufficiently on edge and enthralled in the film. Ending was a huge cop out though, and I felt pretty pissed it finished like that I really enjoyed Insidious overall but I felt like the ending was meta-spoiled thanks to Patrick Wilson being in it. Has he ever played a good guy or sympathetic character?But the imagery was interesting and the movie went in 100% with its premise which is a nice change of pace.
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Apr 15, 2012 16:53
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Insidious' campy tone and bold, BOLD, BOLD!!! design choices reminded me a lot of Poltergeist.
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Apr 15, 2012 20:27
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EgillSkallagrimsson posted:I fell asleep some towards the middle and woke up near the end. Basically, when I fell asleep it was a camping slasher and when I woke up it was a mutant/military base movie. Definitely a wtf moment. The worst part? The change is pretty much as sudden when you stay awake. I looked away for a moment, and bam zombies and aliens and the army oh my
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Apr 16, 2012 00:48
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scary ghost dog posted:Insidious' campy tone and bold, BOLD, BOLD!!! design choices reminded me a lot of Poltergeist. I'm almost positive the film was intended as a homage to Poltergeist in a lot of ways. I think I even remember reading the director stating he was trying to make poltergeist for a new generation. Some plot similarities are pretty blatant, especially The kids being taken away, and the Dad having to go into the "realm" and rescue them. You also have nerdy guys with fancy equipment helping out a crazy spirit lady in both movies, and a big sort of exorcism scene.
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Apr 16, 2012 01:39
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I'm kind of scared to ask this, but is there a CineD consensus on Human Centipede 2?
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Apr 16, 2012 04:21
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PaleBlueDot posted:The worst part? The change is pretty much as sudden when you stay awake. I looked away for a moment, and bam zombies and aliens and the army oh my This was pretty much exactly what the person I was watching it with said when I asked what I had missed.
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Apr 16, 2012 04:34
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Operating Rod posted:I'm kind of scared to ask this, but is there a CineD consensus on Human Centipede 2? As someone who kind of liked the first, I hated the second. It felt too much like it was trying to be edgy for edginess's sake, which ultimately came off poorly.
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Apr 16, 2012 04:42
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Operating Rod posted:I'm kind of scared to ask this, but is there a CineD consensus on Human Centipede 2? I don't know about consensus, but it's in my top 5 for 2011. I wouldn't entirely categorize it as a horror film though, as it's more of (a satire of) a documented transgressive performance art piece. It belongs in a gallery is what I mean, although it rather brilliantly makes use of horror-film marketing and distribution to further its point. TUS posted:I watched Apollo 18 in the advice of this thread and I thought it was a decent found footage movie. Little rock creatures weren't that bad since there was enough tension in the movie prior to it's big reveal. The little rock creatures are awesome because they're loving adorable, up to and including the point where they infect your nervous system. They're the cutest found-footage antagonist since Cloverfield's parasitic fleas. Black bars, yo. SuperMechagodzilla fucked around with this message at 06:50 on Apr 16, 2012 |
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Apr 16, 2012 06:43
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Operating Rod posted:I'm kind of scared to ask this, but is there a CineD consensus on Human Centipede 2? I really enjoyed Human Centipede, and I thought #2 was utter garbage and worthless crap. It wasn't "oh my god this is so horrifying and gross, I won't be able to sleep tonight and oh jesus I just threw up on my dog" like people would make you believe. It was more "who is this ugly little fat man I'm being forced to watch, why hasn't he made his centipede yet it's been over an hour already." The movie was purposefully trying to be as edgy as possible (why did the psychiatrist want to molest the ugly fat retarded man and why did the woman crush her newborn baby's skull under the gas pedal in the car?) and failed horribly at it. I was yawning, actually yawning, when poo poo started spraying out of everyone's mouth/anal stitches. That shouldn't happen. That is how much Human Centipede 2 failed at everything it set out to do.
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Apr 16, 2012 07:05
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I thought Human Centipede 2 was a marvelous trainwreck. I was watching all the grossest poo poo happen, but I couldn't look away. I don't know if that makes it a good movie, but it sure kept me glued to the screen despite being pretty hosed up.
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Apr 16, 2012 07:18
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Centipede spoilers I guess:MrGreenShirt posted:The movie was purposefully trying to be as edgy as possible If you conflate the film's plot content with its presentation, then sure. A movie trying to be 'edgy as possible' isn't going to resemble Full Sequence. The film has a avant-garde style that's totally detached from the subject matter by design, akin to how First Sequence was clinically detached from the subject matter. Full Sequence is a satire, in part, of indie miserablism, and is more funny than ever scary. The infant's head being crushed, for example, is played for comedy. First because it's so obviously a rubber doll, second because of how unexpectedly gratuitous it is, and third because it's a culmination of a reproductive rights theme that had been simmering through the whole film (the antihero/villain is pretty much a monstrous man-baby, tied to mother who doesn't want him). It's an abortion, get it? The film uses the crushed infant as an example of 'good' transgression against 'bad' transgression of the sort that Zizek examines and criticizes. References to films like Psycho and David Lynch's films dominate the first half of Full Sequence, because the film takes their depiction of society's obscene underside to an extreme, showing only the underside. It's important that the baby is crushed under the gas pedal, because that's where the woman exits the film and escapes its (and its antihero/villain's) perverse logic of transgression-without-subversion. Critics of Full Sequence make the mistake of confusing a film about bad art with actually being bad art. The difference is that Full Sequence puts us in the mind of a bad artist and then shows what he does. SuperMechagodzilla fucked around with this message at 08:24 on Apr 16, 2012 |
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Apr 16, 2012 08:05
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Never change, SMG.
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Apr 16, 2012 12:54
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Human Centipede 2 is legitimately the funniest movie of 2011. People didn't recognize it because the jokes are all related to the cinematic techniques and how they undermine the gore, reducing it to just a bunch of people rolling around in syrup wearing fake genitals. The film references feminist artworks like Cindy Sherman's work with prostheses and Hannah Wilke's photography/performance pieces (probably not a good idea to google those at work). They namedrop Julia Kristeva on the commentary track, unsurprisingly, because the whole film is about abjection as an academic/feminist/psychoanalytic concept.
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Apr 16, 2012 13:26
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I would honestly have to agree and say that Human Centipede 2 is one of the funniest movies I saw last year. When I read the premise of the film, I knew I was in for a treat but I didn't think they'd follow through. I actually greatly prefer it to HC1.
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Apr 16, 2012 13:46
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With all the love that CitW is gettng I'm wondering if anyone went to see Detention this weekend? I know it got limited release in my town.
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Apr 16, 2012 14:03
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Here's a belated recommendation for The Innkeepers. It's definitely not a film that will benefit from being over hyped, but it's a very well told ghost story with some memorable scenes. And a good eye for reinterpreting some hoary old cliches. It's slow, but the actors really bring their roles to life After House of The Devil I was very surprised to see how well Ti West handled a lighter tone. The main girl in particular is hilarious and touching, but when it's time to turn the screws the film really doesn't let up. I've not watched a horror film through my fingers for A LONG time but this one broke me. A+
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Apr 16, 2012 17:05
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foodfight posted:With all the love that CitW is gettng I'm wondering if anyone went to see Detention this weekend? I know it got limited release in my town. Jesus, could they have picked a worse release date?
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Apr 16, 2012 17:07
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Operating Rod posted:I'm kind of scared to ask this, but is there a CineD consensus on Human Centipede 2? I'm more or less with SMG on this, though I don't read it quite as extensively as he does. I thought that as a stand-alone movie, it wasn't all that good - a gross oddity, not much more. But, as a comment on/response to/variation of the first movie, it was great. It's definitely much funnier than I expected it to be, and it pretty much exists entirely to comment on critical reception of the first movie and its actual and assumed audiences. It manages to troll both the fans and detractors of the first film, and do so smartly. The last act is pretty loving gross, though.
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Apr 16, 2012 17:58
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If you look at it as a modern Lloyd Kaufmann film it's really, really funny.
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Apr 16, 2012 20:34
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H.P. Shivcraft posted:I finally got around to watching Insidious, and I suppose I didn't hate it. It had some pacing and structural issues, but it at least held my interest throughout. And now you'll shiver uncomfortably when you hear creepy old Tiny Tim's "Tiptoe Through the Tulips", congrats. The part that scared me most was grandma is explaining her dream about watching the boy sleep when the figure points down to him definitely is one of those things that when I'm drifting to sleep pops in my head and leaves me freaked out. The end was a bit lovely though.
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Apr 17, 2012 03:49
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:I would honestly have to agree and say that Human Centipede 2 is one of the funniest movies I saw last year. When I read the premise of the film, I knew I was in for a treat but I didn't think they'd follow through. I actually greatly prefer it to HC1. And makes everything bigger and better in standard sequel form. Such as using even more people to make the human centipede instead of just 3.
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Apr 17, 2012 03:54
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Has there been any news about the next Human Centipede? I think I remember reading something about the final sequence being 25 people/100 limbs. Also, I watched both Mimic and Final Destination 5 tonight. Mimic was pretty good, I was watching it while studying for a test so wasn't paying full attention but the plot was fairly interesting, though I'm not sure I understood why the insects bothered "mimicking" human body parts when it ended up looking nothing like a human anyway. FD5 was just ridiculous, the girl's death in the gym was just hilarious and the girl at the optometrist/surgeon made me wince. The ending was a nice touch, makes me want to rewatch the original.
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Apr 17, 2012 04:42
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Trap Star posted:Has there been any news about the next Human Centipede? I think I remember reading something about the final sequence being 25 people/100 limbs. Rumor was it's supposed to be 500 people, not 25. Tom Six is suing one of the stars (Dieter Laser, star of the first film) for signing on and then demanding script changes last minute, so who knows if it'll end up happening. http://www.avclub.com/articles/human-centipede-director-says-hes-suing-actor-for,71682/
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Apr 17, 2012 04:49
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Just saw Cabin in the Woods too. First time I've been in a theater this year. Absolutely did not regret it. When a movie makes you think it's about to come to a satisfying end, throws another twist your way, then makes you happy it kept going, you're into something good. I had a big goofy grin on my face the whole time, best meta-horror I've probably ever seen.
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Apr 17, 2012 05:09
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Toriori posted:The part that scared me most was grandma is explaining her dream about watching the boy sleep when the figure points down to him definitely is one of those things that when I'm drifting to sleep pops in my head and leaves me freaked out. "Last night I watched myself sleep"
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Apr 17, 2012 09:37
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