Horror Movies

I recently watched some of Sion Sono’s movies. Cold Fish, Suicide Club and Exte. Pretty fun movies with interesting concepts and kinda hard to understand stories. If you are fans of more avantgarde approach to horror I definitely recommend those.

2 Likes

Sure is. The Curse, from 1987, is also based on it. It is also a good film, though not as good as the two previously mentioned adaptations. It’s one of the most popular and well-known H.P. Lovecraft stories, so it makes sense for it to be adapted a lot. It is also one of his more known stories which is the easiest to make into a film I believe, especially if you want to be really faithful to the source material. Unlike most of Lovecraft’s stories which is super hard to adapt in a good way.

It’s just really hard to do Lovecraft and be faithful, both because the stories themselves are told in a very unstructured and introverted way, but also a lot of the elements makes it hard. I am not sure about how familiar you are with H.P. Lovecraft, but one of the major themes in Lovecraft’s works is the fear of the unknown and the stories often deal with terror of the unknown, the beyond, the unnameable etc. As Lovecraft himself said: “the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”
So yeah, I guess that is why we get a lot of HPL adaptations that are based on the same stories. But there has been a lot of fantastic adaptations of HPL, both faithful and less faithful ones. There’s also geen a lot of Lovecraftian horror movies in the past decades that deals with a lot of his themes, without actually being based on HPL.

Aaaaaanyways:
17:
Sint/Saint Nick
Dutch horror based on the legend of Sinterklaas, although it takes a dark turn. I’ve seen a lot of negative critisicm towards the film and I don’t get it. It’s so much fun. Cheesy fun with loads of practical effects and gore. Great film!

1 Like

All this talk about Lovecraft made me watch some Lovecraftian horror tonight.

The Mist
Stephen King adaptation that is as much a nod to Lovecraft as to Stephen King. Is it amazing? I don’t think so. It’s very good, with a really nice, thick atmosphere and a really bleak feeling to it. But it is a tad too long, and the special effects looks rather dated. But the ending? God damn, that ending is one for the history books. Does it get any darker, bleaker or more depressing than that? I don’t think so. The movie is a 7/10, but the ending is a 10/10.

The Last Case of August T Harrison
I thought this was pretty cool and Lovecraftian. It is not an adaptation, but based around Lovecraft and his thoughts and writings. Main problem for me is the way the movie looks. It looks cheap and digital, and some of the camera work looks really amateurish and bad. But it’s got a cool and interesting story, is well-acted and all that. Nice little film, this.

1 Like

18:
Elves
I was having problems finding this one and was afraid I couldn’t watch it, but I found it on youtube and is super happy about that. Because damn, what a movie! The plot is absolutely bananas, and as absurd as it gets. I am a sucker for nazi occultism and shit like that, and this kinda goes into that territory. We get to know that Hitler’s plan was to breed an aryan virgin and an evil elf on christmas eve to create the ultimate being/race. I am not kidding, this is the motherfucking plot. How great is that? Fucking hell, it’s wild. The plot is a lot better than the film, but it was fun as hell anyway.

“YOUR GRANDFATHER IS YOUR FATHER AND YOUR GRANDFATHER.”

What a fantastic quote!

Edith:

19:
Who Slew Auntie Roo?
Who Slew Auntie Roo? is a early 70’s Psycho-biddy film and a re-telling of Hansel & Gretel. First off, what is a psycho-biddy you ask? Well, psycho-biddy, or hagsploitation as I prefer, were a microgenre that rose up in the early 60’s and lasted until the mid- to late-70’s. It’s a mix of horror, thrillers and noir and centers around formerly-glamorous older women who has become ill or just lost the plot. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte and What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? are great examples on the genre, with Sunset Boulevard being sort of a proto-hagsploitation flick. It lacks the elements of horror, but certainly has the plot and characters in place.

Anyway, Who Slew Auntie Roo? is, like already said, a re-telling of the classic fairytale Hansel & Gretel. It looks really good, it’s superbly acted, it’s weird, silly, over the top and is absolutely delightful in its campiness. It just has that weirdness that makes these movies so unique. And it’s set around christmas. Really, really liked this one!

Edit:

20:
3615 code Père Noël aka Deadly Games
A really overlooked GEM of a movie that most likely inspired the creators of Home Alone hella lot. There’s just too much similarity for it to be a coincidence. But that doesn’t matter at all, because Home Alone rules. But this is quite the different movie as it ss a horror movie. It’s darker, more graphic and the violent isn’t as cartoonish at all. It’s overall a really, really good film. A must-see for sure!

Also watched Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City which turned out to be a pleasant surprise. It doesn’t break new grounds or offer the genre anything new, but it’s very, very faithful to the first two games and that’s what makes it work for me as a fan of those games. I don’t mind the Paul W. S. Anderson, and the first one is really good. But it’s not very faithful at all, and if it was released under a different name no one would’ve seen any similarities to the games. This however is so faithful that if it was released under another name, people would call it a rip off of the old Resident Evil video games. Dumb, silly and easy on the brain, but loads of fun.

images (6)

Decided to give “May The Devil Take You” a try after having watched the sequel first. I actually enjoyed this one a lot. Overall, much better than part 2. The plot was tighter, the characters and their dynamics more compelling, and the acting was more grounded.

I wasn’t scared but it was pretty creepy. The costume design on both this film and the sequel are gruesome and unsettling.

@ghost are you familiar with other Timo Tjahjanto movies? Or any of the ones he directed with his brother under the name The Mo Brothers? I’m a huge fan of what I have seen from them.

Timo Tjahjanto’s “The Night Comes for Us” is probably the greatest movie of of the 2010’s.
Timo Tjahjanto and Gareth Evans’ segment from VHS2 might be the best segment in the entire series.
His segment “The Subject” from VHS94 were probably the second best from the entire VHS series.

As the Mo Brothers they hit the nail on the head with Macabre, Killers and Headshot, with Macabre being a truly brilliant piece of work.

Kimo Stamboel, the other half of the Mo Brothers, also hit the nail on the head with “The Queen of Black Magic”. A truly fantastic film!

I haven’t seen May the Devil Take You or May the Devil Take You Too yet, but I’ll watch them whenever “May the Devil Take You: Dajjal” comes out sometime in the future. I’ve heard the movies are like a mix of "Evil Dead"and “The Queen of Black Magic”, which sounds very promising.

21:
À l’intérieur aka Inside
One of the best known movies from the whole “new french extremity” wave alongside Martyrs. It does not quite live up to the greatness of Martyrs, but it’s incredible in its own right anyway. Dark, twisted, suspenseful and just straight up evil. Like…this the type of movie to make me sit on the edge of my seat. It’s so brutal, grim and gritty, and so fucking suspenseful. They really nailed about everything in the movie. A truly superb and unique movie!

22:
Day of the Beast
Unique mix og horror and black comedy from the mid 90’s. Director Álex de la Iglesia was really ahead of his time with this movie and the black comedy bits are hilarious. I do think it’s a tad too long, but it’s a really spectacular piece of cinema for sure. Film is most likely an acquired taste, but if you like your black comedy with a touch of horror then this is it for sure.

23:
Silent Night, Deadly Night
This is easily one of the more notorious Christmas horror movies, and for a good reason. It was super controversial back in the 80’s made old(er) cunts go mad because the killer was dressed as fucking Santa Claus, which was unheard of etc. It’s not the best slasher ever, but it is certainly a lot of fun and overall really damn cool. Love this one!

24:
Black Christmas
The Christmas horror to rule them all I guess. One of the earliest slasher movies, pre-dating Halloween by no less than 5 years, and an absolute must-see for any horror movie fan. It’s a dark, suspenseful, clever and really intelligent slasher with a sharp script, well-written characters and beautifully directed by someone who really understood how suspense works. It’s simply one of the best slashers ever, and one of the best horror movies ever. It’s movie perfection, and is the perfect movie for a Christmas evening alone along with some beers and stuff. Gorgeous!

Stay the fuck away from the remakes. Both suck.

Today I watched Tokyo Gore Police. It’s a fun splatter horror that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

I recommend a horror movie called pyewacket I watched it a while ago but it is still the best horror film I have seen. It has metal, witchcraft and good scares lol

No, I am not. I did hear about their involvement with VHS 2, but I haven’t watched it. I saw the first VHS and I remember it being decent. Yeah, the evil dead influence is very apparent when you watch. From the settings and even filming techniques, I think you’ll find it very obvious.

Watched Prevenge. It was…weird. It’s supposed to be a black comedy but It seemed like it couldn’t decide. It could be that I don’t get the nuances of British humor, but some scenes felt oddly too dark while others were just ridiculous. Interesting concept but it just didn’t land for me.

If you know any good scary movies lemme know and nothing that has anything to do with it was a experiment trope or some dumb shit about souls being trapped

Yeah, like all anthology movies/series the quality is a bit up and down. But their efforts in the VHS movie franchise are really good.

But I really recommend The Night Comes For Us, by Timo Tjahjanto (director of May the Devil Take You and May the Devil Take You Too). It’s not a horror movie, but it’ll be the most brutal and savage movie you’ve ever seen nonetheless. But I will go as far as to say that the movie is borderline horror just based on its brutality and violence alone. It’s wild. It’s similar to The Raid, which kinda turned the knob up from 10 to 11*, but with The Night Comes For Us Timo Tjahjanto basically turns the knob from 11 to 21. And it is done with such beauty and elegance that it is hard know to appreciate. It is the movie of that decade. It’s…wow! One of the ten clearest 10/10 in the history of cinema if you ask me.

*a refrence to the brilliant This Is Spinal Tap, for those unaware.

1 Like

But what is scary to you? It usually helps a lot if you can come up with a few movies you think are scary, because what is scary differs so much from person to person.

Aline, The Thing, Martyrs, The Exorcist, The Blair Witch Project, Inside, The Descent, Ringu, The Innocents, The Woman in Black (1989) are all movies known for being scary and terrifying, but at the end of the day it depends on what you consider scary. Some will react to jump scares, some will react to atmosphere, some will react to ideas and ideology etc. It’s so different from person to person.

Well, you sold me! I’ll have to check that one out. I’m usually ok with violence and gore but don’t typically watch films focused on that aspect as it can get to me (I’ve avoided watching Martyrs because I hear it’s really intense).

Compared to films like Saw III or A Serbian Film how much crazier is it? I had to skip a lot of Serbian Film as it was too much for me at the time.

It doesn’t have that type of gore in it at all. Can’t be compared to something like A Serbian Film, which I consider trash. The Night Comes for Us is kinda like The Raid meets Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky or something. It’s violence and brutal as hell, but the violence and brutality serves a purpose. It’s there for a whole other reason than just to be shocking and diusgusting.

Martyrs is insanely intense, and it is violent and brutal, but it’s not really the graphic violence or brutality that makes it so insanely intense (for me). It’s more a combination of the setting, story and characters that truly makes it into the gorgeous, bleak nightmare which it is. Insanely good film, but also incredibly bleak, dark and brutal.

1 Like

+1 recommendation for Martyrs, what a movie! One of the rare films that I watched once, then immediately bought it on DVD, only to never see it again for like a good 3-4 years. Traumatizing, but great and weirdly cathartic.

Just please do not watch the American remake under any circumstances…

1 Like

@Your_mum @Jigsaw ok, I might just buck up and watch it then. I’ve always wanted to, so might as well start the new year off with Martyrs haha.

Yeah, the parts I did sit through of Serbian Film were pretty extreme but in a very stupid and cheap entertainment way.

1 Like

@ghost Gonna be interested in reading your opinion! :smiley: Cannot even be compared to the tryhard lameness of A Serbian Film, that’s for sure…

1 Like

@Your_mum @Jigsaw Watched Martyrs tonight. You guys weren’t kidding about how bleak it is. I’ve been listening to some “relaxing sounds” videos for the past 40 minutes to numb myself to what I’d just watched. Geez, it was intense. It was as extreme as I had imagined but in a much more different way than I anticipated. I haven’t been this uncomfortable watching a movie in a long time. I’m glad I waited to watch this because I’m not sure I could have handled this when I was younger.

The philosophical aspect of the film was a nice surprise and I had to hit up all the reddit discussion threads about the movie after finishing it. I have my own thoughts about “the moment” but I like that it can be interpreted in more ways than one.

I went into this practically blind and I feel like that helped me experience the film to the fullest. Lots of twists that kept me guessing. Really enjoyed it. Regret watching it. But now I can finally check it off my list.

This comment from Reddit is pretty accurate (at least for me):
“Martyrs is basically the final exam you give to horror movie fans.”

1 Like

Very well-put, haha! Glad you were able to experience it finally tho.

1 Like