feedmyleg posted:

Care to make a pitch for it?

Pomp posted:

Its a mostly unsuccessful art/horror film from Troika, but it fails in all the best ways while the stuff that works is legitimately either compelling or funny IMO

Burkion posted:

So you know what ultra mega successful and popular franchise is secretly a horror series, just no one ever talks about it in that context because it tends to hide/ignore that fact very well?

Godzilla. Some of you will get this immediately and already be nodding, indeed indeed. A lot of you however, when you think of Godzilla, you're thinking of one of three things.

One of the two American Godzilla films- which have mild elements of horror but in the same way that a disaster movie does.

Maybe Godzilla 2000, the last Japanese Godzilla to be released in American theaters nationwide.

Or this

First, this is the pinnacle of cinema and all naysayers are denied. This singular moment would cure any number of ills and put to rest the numerous woes of the world if it could only be accepted as the brilliance that it is.

The brilliance being, the movie just not giving a gently caress and doing whatever it wants and gently caress you for caring. But that's a whole other discussion for another day. Right now, we're going to focus in on Godzilla: Horror. To understand exactly how this franchise enters the horror frame of mind, beyond just the tangential connection of monster movies that are shared universally, we have to take a step back. We have to take the context of the time, and what informed it.

Actually we don't, so I'll be brief. World War 2, it was a poo poo. Atrocities, racist fuckheads, dogma, and a changing of civilization that swept the world over. WWI was the coming of the modern age of war, where classical ideals clashed with terrifying technology. WWII was the superior sequel with a greater depth of horrors yet unthought of, where instead of just the soldiers getting torn into, we got even more casualties involved. We're not giving a Japan a pass on this either- the Godzilla franchise itself has made note of their culpability in the war crimes they commited, the people they killed.

But Japan didn't do these things in a vacuum and get away with it. Of course there were the atomic bombings which broke the camel's back and ended the war- in the pacific at least. Poland got REAL hosed over but we're not talking about them right now. Before those though, were the fire bombings. Something that tends to be overlooked, how many air strikes were raided on Japanese civilian towns. More damage and more loss of lives are attributed to those events than the atomic bombs themselves. Basically, World War 2 was a poo poo and no one walked away happy.

World War 2 is incredibly important for this discussion because the horrors of it are mundane and depressing, and those are some of the very same horrors that make up Godzilla. Because Godzilla IS a product of World War 2, a response to it and what it had done to the nation of Japan. The people of Japan. To the creators of the work itself. Tsuburaya, the man who gave Godzilla life, was and is one of the most renowned and acknowledged special effects artists in history. His work helped define Japanese culture as it is today, and had a fair bit of influence over seas as well.

Yet it almost all went south because of World War 2. One of his biggest projects before he came back to the limelight in the 50s, was a recreation of Pearl Harbor. The studio he was working for had been tasked by the government to create propaganda films, and he was one of the many cogs in the machine caught in the middle. So he did his work, and reportedly did it so well and meticulously that it was mistaken for actual footage shot of the event.

After WWII, you can well imagine how this was received. When his blackballing was done, he quietly returned to Toho Studios with a full team on his side. He helped craft the visual story of Godzilla in his own way, working with Ishiro Honda and Tanaka hand in hand. Though, a huge element to what makes the original Godzilla so unsettling is his roar. The original roar is very different than what would become popularized, rougher and less warm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRYq58QPTk8

Especially his chilling death cry from the end.

So for a group of men to make a movie that was about a giant monster rising from the ocean, which itself was based on the atomic testings on the Bikini Atoll and the sailors who were killed by it- long, sad story there- you really couldn't have asked for a better line up.

This brings us directly to the original movie. It is a masterpiece of filmmaking, yet because it was released in 1954 it had to share the stage with Rear Window and Seven Samurai, so you know. 1954 was kind of a big year for movies- and horror, as it turns out. From the jump, there is a quiet dread that hangs over the film, especially if you keep in mind the then extremely recent atomic testings and what had happened to Japanese sailors during them. A quiet dread that immediately takes a turn for the violent, ship after ship vanishing in atomic fire within the ocean.

Like any good horror film, the monster is built up. The moment you meet the monster is a monumental moment, but unlike the Universal Horror of old, the angry mob with torches run away from the beast that they had hoped to chase back to the sea. For Godzilla is quite the unique threat- invincible, unstoppable, unknowable. Emerging larger than a mountain, impervious to any and all of man's weapons, able to unleash nuclear fury from his mouth at a whim, Godzilla towers over all other cinematic monsters before him.

Here is the easiest place to find the horror elements of Godzilla, as he systematically eradicates Tokyo, burning it to the ground one block after another, crushing men, women and children alike. Imagery of the firebombings in Japan are evoked, explored, and even referenced. One of the most memorable moments is a widowed mother clutching her children as Godzilla's horror approaches ever closer, promising that they will soon be with their father.

We later find her corpse in one of the many crisis centers, 'hospitals overflowing with the maimed and the dead', to borrow from Raymond Burr in the American version King of the Monsters. More on that in a moment. We find her dead, her children orphans, and possibly doomed themselves to a much worse fate. Because in the aftermath, we find that Godzilla truly is just as vicious and awful as the nuclear fire that awoke him- he leaves radiation in his wake. Dangerous, deathly radiation, that has taken hold of many of the 'survivors' of his wrath. Including, notably, children.

Because the horror of Godzilla's attack isn't his direct actions, but all of the consequences after. Godzilla does not care for individual humans, does not notice them as such. He passes by and all goes to ruin in his wake. Not out of malicious intent- nothing he does is malicious, which is possibly the worst thing of all. Simply because of what he is, devastation follows. He is a horror that cannot co-exist with humanity.

What heightens this tragedy is the reason why I brought up, if only obliquely, Japan's own crimes in the war. Namely, all were victims in the end. There were no victors in war, not when the individuals were concerned. One country that terrorized others would then become victims themselves of another power. Japan and Germany are the most obvious examples, though others exist as well. The reason this paralel is important is because Godzilla is also a victim.

Godzilla's design in the original movie is that of a survivor of nuclear bombing. As in, someone who was directly exposed and is suffering accordingly. Unique to this Godzilla, obscured until the end by darkness, are radiation scars that cover him head to toe. His behavior is also patterned off of those unlucky individuals in the wake of the blasts, walking in a daze, bright lights and noises bothering them, sudden fits. Everything about him is intentionally, by the creators, patterned off of the victims of the very act that he embodies.

Fitting as in universe, the whole reason he is awake is because of those atomic testings. A victim and victimizer of atomic war. We see Godzilla in his natural element at the end, where he is calm, peaceful. A pitiful creature. In the end, they kill him with an even worse weapon than the atomic bomb ever could be, only for the dread of another Godzilla appearing to hang over their heads.

We take a detour here to King of the Monsters. The original Gojira is a taught and tightly paced, almost modern in fact, film that builds and builds mounting horrors and terrors until reaching Godzilla. The American version, King of the Monsters, takes that and scratches the record. Instead, we get another horror film genre in its origins here.

The Found Footage Film. The movie opens with a noir-style narration of Raymond Burr, playing a reporter who happened to be in the area. But it specifically opens after Godzilla's attack, after the peak of his destruction, and we work backwards from Raymond Burr's perspective to build back to up that moment. This gives the movie an entirely different edge and tone, and brings it in line with the likes of Cannibal Holocaust as the progenitors of the found footage genre as we know it today. It is a fascinating film, and Raymond Burr's narration is top notch through out, though he tries to end the film on an optimistic note, one of the few missteps.

One line that is applicable here however, and it is one exclusive to the American version and superior I believe, comes from one of the characters convincing the scientist who made the super weapon to use it.

"You have your fears, which may become reality, and you have Godzilla. Which is reality."

All backed up by this- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SowvXSmiIXo&t=26s

If you can get into the dated effects- mostly the puppet work- it is a suspenseful, unrelenting classic, that draws on broader, more cultural terrors and horror, while never ignoring the individual victims that hold it up. It is a draining, serious, unapologetic film that pulls no punches.



And like any great horror film, it had a quicky cash in sequel that was rushed out with half the effort and relying more on gimmicks than craftsmanship. Raids Again, funnily enough, could have been even better than the original, but it was so rushed that the highest it could rise was 'mediocre'. Which, following an atomic bomb of a film like Gojira, stings ever more.

Following was Rodan, itself a mild blip on the horror genre as it played with the American trend of giant insect monster movies that were popular back in the day. Only with the twist of the insects merely being the food for a greater terror, which is so far from a spoiler that it's not even worth going into.

Godzilla itself would dip back into horror from time to time, even pulling the all time classic Roger Coreman into its circle to create the American version of Return of Godzilla (1984), Godzilla 1985. Featuring Raymond Burr again! And Doctor Pepper. Though Return of Godzilla itself has some horror elements, most notably the beginning of the film on the boat, with the sea louse. It's another film that emphasizes that Godzilla does not need to act maliciously to DESTROY your life, as well.

Since then, we have smatterings of horror here and there. Notably there is an extended ALIENS rip off scene in Godzilla VS Destroyah that is suitably bonkers and awful. Just a really stupid, bad idea that I'm so happy exists. Also there is GMK Godzilla, who is the embodiment of all the souls wronged by Japan from WWII, acting out of revenge for Japan denying their war crimes and culpability. He is one of the only really malicious Godzillas, accordingly.

Of course, when talking existential horror, Shin is pretty high up there. The, to date, newest Godzilla movie, Shin Godzilla, features one of the most unsettling Gojis out there, who is an abomination of nature and radiation. Constantly changing, mutating to match what harms him, a mistake in the eyes of man who has come to punish them for his very creation- whenever the film focuses on him, it takes a dark turn.

Never mind what his first use of his beam does, and how quickly he could obliterate the status quo of the world.

If you're a horror fan, and you haven't thought much of them, think about looking at the Godzilla franchise. From cheesy, to serious, to horrifying and everywhere in between, you may yet find exactly what you're looking for.

OldTennisCourt posted:

This is a serious question: What is everyone's dream/unique take on found footage they'd like to see?

For me: Zombie Apocalypse scenario done through security cams, news footage, police body-cam footage, cell phone footage etc.

Franchescanado posted:

I've never been bothered by bad ADR, especially for Italian flicks, so I don't really get how that can take you out of a flick, but you could always watch them in the original Italian with subtitles, which I find way more distracting in horror than lip syncing.

A Spider Covets posted:

God I love The Shining. It's one of those films where you notice something new every time. This last watch, I noticed that in the ballroom scene, wherein almost no one in the background is actually talking, the band isn't playing, either. Little details like that add so much to further viewings.

Basebf555 posted:

I'm trying to think of possibilities for tonight beyond Silent Night, Deadly Night and I'm not coming up with anything. I guess that's probably it, kinda disappointing actually.

Is there another Christmas themed horror series with multiple sequels?

Levantine posted:

I'm trying to watch as much slow burn stuff as I can get my hands on right now. I'm not big on gore or (unearned) jump scares, but I like a movie that either sets a mood or ramps up the intensity. Lake Mungo is probably one of my favorite, but I watched Savageland today which was pretty brilliant considering how so much of it was told through still photographs. I finally got around to The Invitation as well and I thought that was just a fantastic film from start to finish. I love the documentary style film so what else should I look for? I've seen Hell House LLC recently too which was just fantastic. I'm pretty late to the party on a lot of these movies so any suggestions would be awesome.

david_a posted:

Looking at the Canadian schedule I was a little taken back at some of the titles - Eastern Promises, Enemy, No Country for Old Men, Only God Forgives... I don’t know how the US schedule differs (maybe those titles are way cheaper to get in Canada) but I wouldn’t label any of those movies as primarily “horror.” Not sure what’s going on over there.

Bluedeanie posted:

Seems someone already wrote this very essay.

https://www.overthinkingit.com/2008/07/08/cthulhu-and-chigurh-separated-at-birth/

James Woods Fan posted:

Watched Noroi, The Borderlands (Last Prayer) and The Last Broadcast. Loved the first, really liked the second and enjoyed the third until the ending.

Gejimayu posted:

Whats everyones favorite cosmic horror movie? Still looking for some Lovecraftian film that i love.

TheKingslayer posted:

Timeless Appeal posted:

Just a quick reminder that The Mummy also had a Saturday morning adaptation.

CelticPredator posted:

Watch Tomb of the Dragon emperor and then you’ll have a better appreciation for The Mummy Returns.

Neo Rasa posted:

All they had to do was keep it simple and like at the end of The Mummy have Rachel Weisz back working at a library or whatever and be like oh look this is an interesting volume but it's about the Wolfman or Dracula instead of Mummies and have each sequel be them doing archaeology stuff and then running into a new monster. Also have his whiny buddy Benny come back and then ally himself with that movie's monster each time with no explanation for how he got out alive the last time.

Megasabin posted:

What was that newish Western Horror the was supposed to be good in 2018? Someone had mentioned seeing it at a festival and really liking it a few months ago. Did it get a wide release yet?

Drunkboxer posted:

The last segment was kinda meditatively spooky I guess, as was the Liam Neeson one.

Windows 98 posted:

I tuned into Shudder TV to catch the end of Maniac while laying down for a nap. After Maniac they started to play Tenebre, which I haven't seen before. It starts to roll and all of a sudden my ears immediately recognized the theme song, because Justice sampled it for their song Phantom on their Cross album in 2007. That has been one of my favorite all time albums since its release and I am just now realizing this because I hadn't seen Tenebre. This poo poo blew my mind, guys. I feel like my whole life is a lie. I seriously listen to this album at least once a week in the car and had no idea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5TOPI1375w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoZ8l40RpeE

Tolkien minority posted:

If your idea of good is Jason x you should be pleasantly surprised by like every movie in the series (it’s the worst one)

Basebf555 posted:

Goddamn Carpenter really outdid himself with that new Halloween score. Just completely haunting all the way though, and I love the almost BR2049-like whines(electric guitar I guess) that added in a few crucial moments.

Drunkboxer posted:

I never even really considered watching the movies because I’ve never played any of the games. That and I guess I assumed they’d be a lot like the Resident Evil movies, which I hate.

Davros1 posted:

My favorite John Carpenter's stories come from Showtime's Masters of Horror. When the producers got in touch about doing an ep, his wife told them that she wasn't sure he'd do it, since all he does now (2005) is eat fried chicken and play video games. Then when the producers got a hold of Carpenter himself, he had reservations. Those reservations being he wasn't sure he wanted to get up at 6:00am for 10 days.

Windows 98 posted:

I had to go through a poo poo load of effort to find this on DVD so I am not sure how the producers of Hereditary even decided to use this.

Fart City posted:

I feel like one of the few constants of the universe is if someone owns a Boondock Saints shirt they have punched a woman during sex.

ruddiger posted:

I have seen the face of horror

https://twitter.com/rvlsco/status/1086060565749936129