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IShallRiseAgain posted:Don't be deceived, this isn't a Lovecraft story at all. Its just named Cthulhu to trick fans into watching it. Just watch the trailer, and you will see it has nothing to do with Lovecraft's works. This would not in any way preclude it from being a good movie regardless.
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May 18, 2011 03:21
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PateraOctopus posted:This would not in any way preclude it from being a good movie regardless. True, but it bugs me how many movies claim themselves to be based on Lovecraft's work, but the only similarities are some names, maybe some plot elements, and that they are horror films. There still hasn't been any halfway decent adaptation of any of Lovecraft's works. Also, I heard the film is pretty bad, with a heavy-handed message, bad acting and incomprehensible plot. Although, I didn't see the film myself for the aforementioned reasons, so I can't confirm that is a valid opinion.
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May 18, 2011 03:36
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I enjoyed the silent adaptation of The Call of Cthulhu, as far as adaptations go. But a lot of his work is based on what you don't see rather than what you do, so it makes sense that it'd be hard to adapt to a visual medium.
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May 18, 2011 04:06
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IShallRiseAgain posted:Don't be deceived, this isn't a Lovecraft story at all. Its just named Cthulhu to trick fans into watching it. Just watch the trailer, and you will see it has nothing to do with Lovecraft's works. It isn't based on one of his stories, but it's most definitely Lovecraftian. IShallRiseAgain posted:True, but it bugs me how many movies claim themselves to be based on Lovecraft's work, but the only similarities are some names, maybe some plot elements, and that they are horror films. There still hasn't been any halfway decent adaptation of any of Lovecraft's works. Did we even watch the same movie? IShallRiseAgain posted:Also, I heard the film is pretty bad, with a heavy-handed message, bad acting and incomprehensible plot. Although, I didn't see the film myself for the aforementioned reasons, so I can't confirm that is a valid opinion. Hahahahahahahaha. That explains it.
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May 18, 2011 04:07
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PateraOctopus posted:I enjoyed the silent adaptation of The Call of Cthulhu, as far as adaptations go. But a lot of his work is based on what you don't see rather than what you do, so it makes sense that it'd be hard to adapt to a visual medium. I guess it depends on what you consider "Lovecraftian." The Call of Cthulhu is really cool as a pretty straightforward adaptation of one of Lovecraft's stories, done in an appropriate medium for his time. Cthulhu is in many ways the diametric opposite of this approach - it takes place in the modern day, it's set in the Northwest instead of the Northeast, and there's a distinct lack of squiggly things, Elder Signs, and "Ia Ia Ia!" in it. It's not a lurid pulp story - it's pretty restrained, but it's about a young man trying to distance himself from his family, the traditions of a small, isolated coastal town, the inescapability of horrible fate, and the stars and world events aligning for an apocalypse. Seriously, it's all there - it's just pretty subtle. But it does help if you've actually seen it.
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May 18, 2011 04:15
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I really don't care if it's properly Lovecraftian or not. What I care about is if it's a good movie. "Faith to the source material" is nowhere near as important as "faith to telling a good story in the medium you've chosen."
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May 18, 2011 04:19
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Craig Spradlin posted:Anyway, some movies I haven't seen mentioned... This sounds fascinating. I wouldn't mind watching it with my wife (who has studied psychology and would probably enjoy it), but how violent is it? She can't handle seeing gore or realistic violence against women.
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May 18, 2011 04:41
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I just watched Mulholand Drive for the first time. What the gently caress did I see? Anyways, I think Funny Games fits into this category. Although there are some parts that may get into the tortureporn territory, I think it's an excellent film and was probably one of the most unique movie watching experiences I've had. I've rarely been so angry at an antagonist, and have never felt like the antagonist was loving with me, directly, before this movie.
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May 18, 2011 09:46
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Big Bad Voodoo Lou posted:This sounds fascinating. I wouldn't mind watching it with my wife (who has studied psychology and would probably enjoy it), but how violent is it? She can't handle seeing gore or realistic violence against women. If these are things she can't handle. She will make you turn this movie off or walk away in disgust 15 minutes into it. Other than that jarring scene, the rest of the violence is subdued and there's hardly any gore. EDIT: But don't mistake my words to lead you to believe this is some Hostel remake, it is nothing like that and there's no tortureporn in this movie. Mouser.. fucked around with this message at 16:38 on May 18, 2011 |
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May 18, 2011 16:32
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I watched The Woman In Black last night. It is absolutely every bit as good as people in this thread said it was. It became a bit extra scary for me, since my family's dog ran away during the time I was watching it. She was found in the morning and I don't live near any marshes anyway, so all is well.
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May 18, 2011 18:19
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 Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me Most of you probably know Twin Peaks as a landmark TV show, and I'm assuming many of you who've watched it also know why. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is a 'prequel' to the TV show. It's basically the final week in the life of Laura Palmer, the girl whose murder is the central mystery for a large portion of the TV show. From what I've been reading, though, the movie was highly disliked by fans of the show and audiences in general-- it even got booed at Cannes and Quentin Tarantino had this to say about it: "…after I saw Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me at Cannes, David Lynch had disappeared so far up his own rear end that I have no desire to see another David Lynch movie until I hear something different. And you know, I loved him. I loved him." (I really want to know what he thought of Lynch's later films) I don't want to give details on the movie because that can majorly spoil the show for those who haven't seen it, so I'll just say that, if you want to watch the movie, I recommend you watch the show first (though watching the movie without any sense of context is still a weird and disturbing experience, but also wonderfully disorienting). I think the movie is among David Lynch's best works, and it's disheartening to hear how much contempt some people have for it, even fans of Lynch's work (I don't know what most of you guys at CineD think, though). This one seems to be Lynch's most overlooked film (I read more praise for Dune than for this one), so I'm putting it in this thread in hopes of it getting a little more exposure, so give it a chance, guys! I can understand why it was unpopular to many fans of the show, though, so, to those who've only watched the TV series, know that the tone of the movie is much, much darker. The show is funny, mysterious, and quirky, with some horrifying bits thrown around, but, aside from being much weirder, the movie is mostly bleak, deeply sad, and downright terrifying. This is getting a bit long for this threads purposes, so I'll end it with saying that, for those of you whose tastes tend to align with Mark Kermode's, it's his favorite of Lynch's films. If you don't like Kermode, watch it anyway-- I don't share many of his film preferences, and it's currently my favorite of Lynch's films (though I admit that this category of 'favorite' changes periodically). Sense and Motion fucked around with this message at 00:14 on May 19, 2011 |
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May 18, 2011 23:49
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Grem posted:Anyways, I think Funny Games fits into this category. Although there are some parts that may get into the tortureporn territory My read on the movie is that it's a direct response to torture porn as morally bankrupt. People watch movies like this to see a family terrorized and ripped apart, instead you don't see any violence on screen, only the emotional aftermath. This movie is not a fun watch by any stretch of the imagination, but it's also very worth watching because of it.
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May 19, 2011 06:42
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What's with all the Cthulhu hate? I found it to be a good indie flick, very Lovecraftian in tone. Anyways, here are some movies that I added to my queue: Santa Sangre netflix posted:When his mother, Concha (Blanca Guerra), catches his father, Orgo (Guy Stockwell), philandering with a tatooted woman, she pours acid on him, after which he chops off her arms and kills himself. Now, she exists as a vengeful circus performer. The situation leaves their son, Fenix (Axel Jodorowsky), severely disturbed and in the care of a mental hospital. Alejandro Jodorowsky directs and co-writes this intense, hallucination-filled thriller. Sisters netflix posted:Reporter Grace Collier (Jennifer Salt) sees model Danielle Breton (Margot Kidder) commit murder in the apartment across the way and promptly alerts the police -- who find no corpse or other evidence of the crime, forcing Grace to crack the case on her own. She teams with private eye Joseph Larch (Charles Durning), with the trail leading to Danielle's once-conjoined twin and a creepy mental asylum in director Brian De Palma's disturbing shocker. eXistenZ netflix posted:Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh), the world's leading designer of virtual reality games, is testing a new prototype when an assassin wielding a daunting organic weapon attacks her. She survives the assault with help from her marketing assistant turned bodyguard (Jude Law). But she'll need to "portal" into her own game to get to the bottom of the intrigue. David Cronenberg directs this mind-bending action-adventure.
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May 19, 2011 07:47
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 Hotel Irene is a new clerk at a secluded Austrian hotel. She works the night shift and everything seems fine at first but she soon finds out that the girl who had her job before vanished without a trace. Everyone treats Irene with hostility or takes advantage of her and no one will say a word about the missing girl even with the police snooping around the premises. I posted about this in the horror movies thread a while ago. Hotel isn't available in America but it got a release in the UK recently. The best way I can sum up Hotel is that it's one of the most realistic horror movies I've ever seen. Whenever we encounter something that scares or unnerves us in our own lives whether it's going into a basement/dark room at night or hearing weird noises there's always a level of ambiguity to it (in the sense that we have no idea if something malevolent really IS there or not). Most horror movies lay out everything, Hotel is nothing but that feeling of ambiguity. Just expect a very slow horror movie. You can see a clip HERE but be warned: this is a spoilerish clip in the sense that it's the only thing close to a 'scare scene' in the whole thing.  Sombre A serial killer who travels around France doing puppet shows for children faces a crisis when he meets up with a shy virgin and her outgoing sister. Philippe Grandrieux, the director of Sombre, takes an approach to his films where he wants to get the most visceral reactions out of anyone watching them. At the same time he uses the camera to put people in the same mindset as his characters. He achieves this effect with plenty of stylistic touches in Sombre. The lighting is so low that people look more like floating blogs. The editing will made sudden shifts to remove any sense of comfort. Most of the time only low rumbling vibrations will soundtrack the movie (I think it's because of this that Grandrieux gets a lot of comparisons to David Lynch). Sombre has a bare bones narrative but the story doesn't matter. This is all about the feeling of unease it creates. You can watch the opening sequence of the movie HERE.  La Vie Nouvelle A young American soldier in an unnamed Eastern European country becomes infatuated with a prostitute. He tries to hunt her down again, determined to buy her freedom, but ends up going deeper into the dark world of the country's sex trade. This is Grandrieux's second film and while it's extreme (the movie got comparisons to Irreversible when it came out) aside from one relatively tame scene the movie is pretty bloodless. It says a lot that La Vie Nouvelle can conjure up the same suffocating, nauseous feelings that Irreversible did for some people while having a small fraction of extreme content that would match up to Noe's movie. La Vie Nouvelle feels like you're descending down to hell (or something close to it) right along with its main character. As the movie goes on the entire narrative falls apart and the movie shifts into more of an avant garde territory before a sequence that's like watching someone's worst nightmare come to life. You can see a slightly NSFW clip HERE.
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May 19, 2011 08:03
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This movie needs to be in here: Below( 2002) I picked this up because it had a writing credit for Darren Aronofsky (Pi) and directed by David Twohy (Pitch Black) It's a WWII submarine movie that slowly descends into fear and paranoid madness. The poster mentions Poltergeist which I think is an unfair comparison, because unlike that movie, Below requires no suspension of disbelief depending on your interpretation of it, and it's very open to interpretation. It does have a few cheap jump scares, but they're used sparingly and don't spoil it.
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May 20, 2011 14:21
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There's a cool Australian film called 'Wake in Fright' from 1971. I had no idea what to expect before watching it and found it completely terrifying. "Wake in Fright is the story of John Grant, a bonded teacher who arrives in the rough outback mining town of Bundanyabba planning to stay overnight before catching the plane to Sydney. But his one night stretches to five and he plunges headlong toward his own destruction. When the alcohol-induced mist lifts, the educated John Grant is no more. Instead there is a self-loathing man in a desolate wasteland, dirty, red-eyed, sitting against a tree and looking at a rifle with one bullet left..." Disturbing, brutal and violent.
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May 23, 2011 08:26
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The Exam is far far superior to The Killing Room Exam (2009) quote:Plot It is not Horror, really, but you could consider it a psychological suspense/thriller entry. Check it out and tell me what you think, comparing the two.
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May 24, 2011 01:32
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Strange Days is a scifi crime thriller that is almost literally psychological: the story is facilitated by a small device that, when placed on the head, records the wearer's experiences and allows others to relive them in full five-senses immersion, as if the memories are their own. "Set in the year 1999 during the last days of the old millenium, the movie tells the story of Lenny Nero, an ex-cop who now deals with data-discs containing recorded memories and emotions. One day he receives a disc which contains the memories of a murderer killing a prostitute. Lenny investigates and is pulled deeper and deeper in a whirl of blackmail, murder and rape. Will he survive and solve the case?" It's set in Los Angeles and weaves through themes of voyeurism, police brutality, sadism and racism that feels more grounded and authentic than a lot of regular crime dramas I've seen.
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May 24, 2011 02:57
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Mr.Graves posted:The Exam is far far superior to The Killing Room Sounds awesome, but I have to ask: any gore or violence against women?
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May 24, 2011 02:58
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McSpanky posted:Strange Days is a scifi crime thriller that is almost literally psychological: the story is facilitated by a small device that, when placed on the head, records the wearer's experiences and allows others to relive them in full five-senses immersion, as if the memories are their own. This movie is great. But if the OP is still asking for no movies with violence against women, then this is the worst movie you could possibly suggest. The rape/murder scene in this is loving brutal.
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May 24, 2011 03:38
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LtKenFrankenstein posted:This movie is great. But if the OP is still asking for no movies with violence against women, then this is the worst movie you could possibly suggest. The rape/murder scene in this is loving brutal. Oh, I'm the "no violence against women" guy, not the OP. I love most of the movies that have been mentioned in this thread, but I'm always on the lookout for cool, weird thrillers I can watch with my wife without freaking her out.
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May 24, 2011 04:08
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Regarding ExamBig Bad Voodoo Lou posted:Sounds awesome, but I have to ask: any gore or violence against women?
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May 24, 2011 05:43
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Meh I thought The Exam was terrible. It was too over the top. I'm probably going to avoid The Killing Room even though it sounds like what I wanted The Exam to be like. There Is a thread about Enter the Void which I suggest taking a look at, although its not a psychological horror, more of a psychological drama. I'll add Dream Catchers as a recommendation for psychological horror. The whole thing was a bit Alienish though. Kneel Before Zog fucked around with this message at 07:29 on May 24, 2011 |
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May 24, 2011 07:25
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Kneel Before Zog posted:I'll add Dream Catchers as a recommendation for psychological horror. Now here's a sentence I never though I'd see.
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May 24, 2011 09:00
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Kneel Before Zog posted:Meh I thought The Exam was terrible. It was too over the top. I'm probably going to avoid The Killing Room even though it sounds like what I wanted The Exam to be like. There Is a thread about Enter the Void which I suggest taking a look at, although its not a psychological horror, more of a psychological drama. I watched both The Killing Room and The Exam the same week and thought both were pretty terrible, despite the intriguing premises. They were just... dull. I'll throw out another recommendation for Triangle though, just a really tight thriller involving (premise-spoiler) time travel. It's a bit of a mindbender but well worth the time to watch. Also nthing the likes of Moon, Sunshine and Session 9 as being some of the best examples of the genre that deserved a much larger audience.
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May 24, 2011 13:00
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Watched Triangle and Kairo thanks to this thread. Triangle was really good, it's quite unpredictable and at times shocking. So did Jess lose her memory when she slept on the boat, as she's in shock at the boat harbour (obviously having just killed her past self and her son) but she seems to lose that memory in time for the storm to hit and the cycle to begin again. It was really effective, Sally crawling into the huge pile of clones to die was incredibly creepy and disturbing. The plot reminds me of Primer, in that you want to watch through it again to see every scene in the light of the knowledge that you get later in the film. Definitely not as insanely complicated as Primer's timeline though! I also see the comparisons to Timecrimes, but the plot and tone are completely different. Kairo was pretty interesting, I had a little trouble following exactly what was going on but that may just be because the characters in the film don't have any idea what's going on either! While I wouldn't call it scary, it was definitely very creepy. The feeling of despair that permeates the whole film really starts to get to you after a while too.
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May 24, 2011 14:52
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I watched Frailty because of this thread and I can't believe it took me so long to give it a go. It's awesome. Was great that I went in with only the premise outlined in the original post. Critiques: The "I'm actually Adam" twist was so hamfisted. I mean, you'd think that the audience would know who Adam was. No need to overlay the shot of the little kid running with the ax. The ending was definitely too long. I know they wanted to ham the God angle in as deep as possible into my brain, but it should have just ended with the handshake between Adam the FBI agent. Even with that said, it did not affect my enjoyment in any significant way. If you haven't watched the show go watch it now.
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May 24, 2011 16:34
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ecotron posted:There's a cool Australian film called 'Wake in Fright' from 1971. I had no idea what to expect before watching it and found it completely terrifying. Looks really interesting - found a clip here. EDIT: Looks like it was recently restored and is on DVD and Blu-Ray. It's also known as Outback if anyone else is interested. PTizzle fucked around with this message at 17:35 on May 24, 2011 |
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May 24, 2011 17:10
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Mr.Graves posted:The Exam is far far superior to The Killing Room I disagree - The Exam felt, to me, like a SyFy movie-of-the-week take on The Killing Room. The pacing felt off, it didn't so much rise to a climax as sort of eventually walk there, the protagonists were painted too broadly, and the ending didn't feel earned at all. What I liked about The Killing Room was its general plausibility and a palpable feeling of desperation from the characters (the "tests" devised for the characters in The Killing Room made more sense to me as well, in a pitting-them-against-each-other way.)
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May 24, 2011 20:12
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Does Shadow of the Vampire qualify for this thread? It is a fictionalised account of the making of Nosferatu starring Willem Dafoe as Max Schreck, John Malkovich as F.W Murnau and Udo Kier as Albin Grau. The plot of the movie is that rather than just being an actor, Max Schreck is actually a vampire and that is why Murnau hired him for his movie. Things soon start to go wrong and weird however. It is easily one of my favourite movies of recent years.
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May 24, 2011 20:35
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Sunday Punch posted:Kairo was pretty interesting, I had a little trouble following exactly what was going on but that may just be because the characters in the film don't have any idea what's going on either! While I wouldn't call it scary, it was definitely very creepy. The feeling of despair that permeates the whole film really starts to get to you after a while too. Yeah, and it really crept up on me since I didn't realise the film would take the kind of direction. It's actually stuck with me a lot more than many other 'scarier' films because of that.
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May 24, 2011 22:52
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MrBling posted:Does Shadow of the Vampire qualify for this thread? I thought that movie was a comedy, so maybe not.
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May 25, 2011 01:49
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Corvy Day posted:If you haven't watched the show go watch it now. The...show?
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May 25, 2011 01:56
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I think The Exam was very British and The Killing Room was very American, if that makes any sense. I'm not either, so I'm outside looking in. For the critiques on quality, they were both pretty low budget to me. I can forgive that for an intriguing premise, though. Maybe I should suggest Cube because I can't remember if it's already been covered here. The Machinist is artwork, goes without saying. Christian Bale in his best role. (My opinion, of course)
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May 25, 2011 05:41
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I'm usually a fan of this type of movie, but The Exam was just silly. The mysterious question was obviously going to by a cheap cop-out, which basically killed all the tension for me. The best part, though, is that the winning applicant actually gave the wrong answer.
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May 26, 2011 00:13
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justlikedunkirk posted:
The fact that this look into the tortured mind of a serial killer is creepy, surprised us 
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May 26, 2011 07:48
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One of my personal favorites: Natural Born Killers "The misadventures of Mickey and Mallory: outcasts, lovers, and serial killers. They travel across Route 666 conducting psychadelic mass-slaughters not for money, not for revenge, just for kicks. Glorified by the media, the pair become legendary folk heroes; their story told by the single person they leave alive at the scene of each of their slaughters."
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May 30, 2011 00:01
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I'd just like to thank this thread for the awesome movies I'm going to start playing for my friends. We do a semi-weekly horror/crazy movie night and while we've seen a lot of these films there are many here we haven't seen.
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May 30, 2011 00:48
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I literally cannot believe this one hasn't been mentioned yet.. The Orphanage (Spanish: El Orfanato) is a 2007 Spanish-Mexican horror film and the debut feature of Spanish filmmaker J.A. Bayona. The film stars Belén Rueda as Laura, Fernando Cayo as her husband, Carlos, and Roger Príncep as their adopted son Simón. The plot centers on Laura, who returns to her childhood home, an orphanage. Laura plans to turn the house into a home for disabled children, but a problem arises when she and Carlos realize that Simón believes he has a masked friend with whom he will run away. After an argument with Laura, Simón is found to be missing... If you need to know more, it got ***1/2 from Ebert and is at 7.6 on IMDB, 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, 7.4 on Metacritic. That's all you need. Don't read any reviews, don't watch any trailers, don't spoil anything - just rent and watch it. It's the best psychological horror movie I've seen in years. The main actress is fantastic.
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Jun 12, 2011 18:41
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pigdog posted:The Orphanage Yes yes yes. This is a great movie, and the main premise is open enough to interpretation (are there really ghosts or is she just crazy?) that it stands up to subsequent rewatches. I highly recommend it. Having just finished the book, I finally got around to watching The Exorcist last night. What a fantastic movie. Tautly executed, tense throughout, stays amazingly true to the book (the screenplay was written by the original author), no jump scares just incredibly creepy and well acted.
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Jun 12, 2011 19:07
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