The Horror Thread II: The Return

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  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,183
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    I grew up loving the series but never gave Season of the Witch a chance until earlier this year. It's nothing special but all in all I actually quite enjoyed it and the atmosphere it produced.

    It is a film in keeping with the career path Carpenter was taking at the time. The Fog, Prince Of Darkness, and Season Of The Witch are tonally close to each other, IMO. All three rely heavily on a supernatural element, bolstered by dark attacks that ooze juicy gore.

    I rather like the film, but not as a Halloween film, evidently. It's a silly film, especially in its attempts to sell awesome Tom Atkins as some kind of sexual magnet who gets even young, beautiful girls half his age excited for a night with him. "Where do you want to sleep, Dr. Challis?" Delicious! 😄 I also love the Old Man from Robocop, Dan O'Herlihy, as the bad guy. Lastly, the score... Carpenter's score for this film is among my favorites, along with his score for Prince Of Darkness. Great stuff! So yes, as a Halloween film, this is a big 0.0, but as a bonafide Carpenter horror flick... you know, it's not half bad!
  • MajorDSmytheMajorDSmythe "I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it."Moderator
    Posts: 13,978
    Having not seen ENDS myself, I can only say that I get the feeling that it is the Jason Goes To Hell of the Halloween films. At least in terms of it doing something completely different, and being divisive.
  • MakeshiftPythonMakeshiftPython “Baja?!”
    Posts: 8,188
    Not as bats*** crazy as JASON GOES TO HELL. It’s definitely more like CHRISTINE.

    Does this trilogy have a name? I would call it he Haddonfield Trilogy given its emphasis on how The Shape impacted everyone’s lives both directly and indirectly.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,183
    Christine is the reference point I decided upon when first watching H.Ends. It's almost as if they had a script for a Christine remake ready and then decided to cut it in half and glue one half to the Halloween films.
  • edited November 2022 Posts: 6,844
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    Lastly, the score... Carpenter's score for this film is among my favorites, along with his score for Prince Of Darkness. Great stuff! So yes, as a Halloween film, this is a big 0.0, but as a bonafide Carpenter horror flick... you know, it's not half bad!

    Absolutely! Along with Prince of Darkness I think this is Carpenter's most eerie and most foreboding score. I know Halloween III isn't part of Carpenter's "Apocalypse Trilogy," but I think it fits the bill better than The Thing since The Thing is sci-fi rather than supernatural. HIII is not a perfect film by any means, but it's still steeped in early Carpenter goodness.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,183
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    Lastly, the score... Carpenter's score for this film is among my favorites, along with his score for Prince Of Darkness. Great stuff! So yes, as a Halloween film, this is a big 0.0, but as a bonafide Carpenter horror flick... you know, it's not half bad!

    Absolutely! Along with Prince of Darkness I think this is Carpenter's most eerie and most foreboding score. I know Halloween III isn't part of Carpenter's "Apocalypse Trilogy," but I think it fits the bill better than The Thing since The Thing is sci-fi rather than supernatural. HIII is not a perfect film by any means, but it's still steeped in early Carpenter goodness.

    Very much so. Had the film not been called "Halloween", I bet it would've done better. As it was, it left audiences confused. People came to see Michael Myers slaughter a bunch of tweens, yet what they got was not what they expected. A supernatural horror film about a sect taking revenge on all the children for mocking Halloween instead of a straight-up slasher flick was probably not the best surprise act. I've seen HIII be poorly reviewed quite often because it happens through the lens of the Halloween series when it should be reviewed as a stand-alone ghoulish experience.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,183
    I have just watched THE NIGHT HOUSE, a horror film by David Bruckner, director of HELLRAISER 2022. This is a pretty intense film with a few bone-chilling, creepy scenes and a tremendously powerful performance by Rebecca Hall. It's one of those rare cases of a horror film that manages to scare and tell a good drama story.
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,976
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    I have just watched THE NIGHT HOUSE, a horror film by David Bruckner, director of HELLRAISER 2022. This is a pretty intense film with a few bone-chilling, creepy scenes and a tremendously powerful performance by Rebecca Hall. It's one of those rare cases of a horror film that manages to scare and tell a good drama story.

    Agreed. Rebecca Hall has been killing it lately. Check out Resurrection sometime, both she and Tim Roth are fantastic in it. It's a really twisted film.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,183
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    I have just watched THE NIGHT HOUSE, a horror film by David Bruckner, director of HELLRAISER 2022. This is a pretty intense film with a few bone-chilling, creepy scenes and a tremendously powerful performance by Rebecca Hall. It's one of those rare cases of a horror film that manages to scare and tell a good drama story.

    Agreed. Rebecca Hall has been killing it lately. Check out Resurrection sometime, both she and Tim Roth are fantastic in it. It's a really twisted film.

    I was planning on seeing Resurrection, so thanks for the reminder, @Creasy47. ;-)
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,976
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    I have just watched THE NIGHT HOUSE, a horror film by David Bruckner, director of HELLRAISER 2022. This is a pretty intense film with a few bone-chilling, creepy scenes and a tremendously powerful performance by Rebecca Hall. It's one of those rare cases of a horror film that manages to scare and tell a good drama story.

    Agreed. Rebecca Hall has been killing it lately. Check out Resurrection sometime, both she and Tim Roth are fantastic in it. It's a really twisted film.

    I was planning on seeing Resurrection, so thanks for the reminder, @Creasy47. ;-)

    I just rewatched it last night with my girlfriend, she'd not seen it before but she ended up loving it. Hopefully you enjoy it too.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,183
    I just finished watching the film, @Creasy47. It's a very good, somewhat disturbing drama thriller indeed. Rebecca Hall is on fire in this one. She convinces me of her stress and anxieties, which is essential to understand the fears and motivations of her character. Lesser performances would have failed to convey the point of the film.

    Roth really upset me too. When she meets him in the park in broad daylight and he just says a few weird things about
    the boy being inside him
    ,

    I had a visceral response. When she later tells the story about what happened, I felt real pain and nausea, especially with my two-week-old boy in my arms as I was watching the film. But the final scenes really capped it all off very well. Thanks for giving me the extra nudge to watch the film, @Creasy47!
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,976
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    I just finished watching the film, @Creasy47. It's a very good, somewhat disturbing drama thriller indeed. Rebecca Hall is on fire in this one. She convinces me of her stress and anxieties, which is essential to understand the fears and motivations of her character. Lesser performances would have failed to convey the point of the film.

    Roth really upset me too. When she meets him in the park in broad daylight and he just says a few weird things about
    the boy being inside him
    ,

    I had a visceral response. When she later tells the story about what happened, I felt real pain and nausea, especially with my two-week-old boy in my arms as I was watching the film. But the final scenes really capped it all off very well. Thanks for giving me the extra nudge to watch the film, @Creasy47!

    You're so welcome, I'm glad you liked it! Hall nailed her role, such a tremendous performance from her. I love her one shot monologue to her coworker that reveals her past. So harrowing.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,183
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    I just finished watching the film, @Creasy47. It's a very good, somewhat disturbing drama thriller indeed. Rebecca Hall is on fire in this one. She convinces me of her stress and anxieties, which is essential to understand the fears and motivations of her character. Lesser performances would have failed to convey the point of the film.

    Roth really upset me too. When she meets him in the park in broad daylight and he just says a few weird things about
    the boy being inside him
    ,

    I had a visceral response. When she later tells the story about what happened, I felt real pain and nausea, especially with my two-week-old boy in my arms as I was watching the film. But the final scenes really capped it all off very well. Thanks for giving me the extra nudge to watch the film, @Creasy47!

    You're so welcome, I'm glad you liked it! Hall nailed her role, such a tremendous performance from her. I love her one shot monologue to her coworker that reveals her past. So harrowing.

    Her coworker's response was hilarious. After a pretty tense moment, she goes "is this a joke?"
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,976
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    I just finished watching the film, @Creasy47. It's a very good, somewhat disturbing drama thriller indeed. Rebecca Hall is on fire in this one. She convinces me of her stress and anxieties, which is essential to understand the fears and motivations of her character. Lesser performances would have failed to convey the point of the film.

    Roth really upset me too. When she meets him in the park in broad daylight and he just says a few weird things about
    the boy being inside him
    ,

    I had a visceral response. When she later tells the story about what happened, I felt real pain and nausea, especially with my two-week-old boy in my arms as I was watching the film. But the final scenes really capped it all off very well. Thanks for giving me the extra nudge to watch the film, @Creasy47!

    You're so welcome, I'm glad you liked it! Hall nailed her role, such a tremendous performance from her. I love her one shot monologue to her coworker that reveals her past. So harrowing.

    Her coworker's response was hilarious. After a pretty tense moment, she goes "is this a joke?"

    I loved that reaction. Something like "this must be a joke because that's really horrible."

    Yeah, if only.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,183
    I don't get it. People keep saying that "they don't make good films anymore" but this horror fan is being very well treated these days. Take BARBARIAN for example, a neat little scare flick that is smart, patient, pretty darn creative and darkly entertaining in its own way. I'm seeing more and more of these relatively young filmmakers take lessons from low-budget '70s horror pictures, polish the look, add a talented cast, and all of that for a buck and a dime. BARBARIAN is another great case of precisely that. I wouldn't call it an 'elevated horror film', as it doesn't really pursue hard analyses of big societal themes. It's just a straight-up nightmare of screams and thrills, but a bloody good one.
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,976
    Barbarian surprised me so much and delivered tenfold that it'll likely make my Top 3 of the year. I'm pretty tough on the horror genre anymore but that one absolutely nailed it and then some.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    edited November 2022 Posts: 24,183
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    Barbarian surprised me so much and delivered tenfold that it'll likely make my Top 3 of the year. I'm pretty tough on the horror genre anymore but that one absolutely nailed it and then some.

    The climax is still registering with me.

    My horror top 3 for this year so far:
    1) X
    2) Terrifier 2
    3) Barbarian

    2022 has been quite generous with its horror output so far.
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,976
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    Barbarian surprised me so much and delivered tenfold that it'll likely make my Top 3 of the year. I'm pretty tough on the horror genre anymore but that one absolutely nailed it and then some.

    The climax is still registering with me.

    My horror top 3 for this year so far:
    1) X
    2) Terrifier 2
    3) Barbarian

    I'm desperate to watch it again for all the inevitably awesome details you'll only pick up on once you've already seen it.

    And wow, X did release this year, didn't it? It feels like last year, I'm not sure why. It's wild that we got that and Pearl all in one year. I thought that one, while a different beast entirely, was very well done and powerfully acted (Mia Goth has quickly become one of my favorite actresses working today).
  • Posts: 12,473
    X and Terrifier 2 are sooooo good. I’ll have to see Barbarian sometime.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    edited November 2022 Posts: 7,551
    I'm into X, Pearl, and Barbarian... don't know if I could do Terrifier 2, despite all the good things I've been hearing.
    I don't know where I stand on gore, really... I watched Possessor by Brandon Cronenberg and the scene that made me pause and go outside was when the blood was falling down Andrea's face while she had the mask thing on... and I had to do the same thing for the "de-gloving" scene in Gerald's Game... I think I'm too much of a wuss for it.
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,976
    I like when a scene can get me to flinch and cringe in pain alongside a character. The fingernail shot in the 2003 Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot gets me every single time. I shudder at the thought.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,183
    There are a few moments in the Saw and Hostel films that make me cringe. But The Human Centipede 2 is the one that gets me every time, now even more so with a newborn in my own house. ;-)
  • Posts: 12,473
    I can’t stand the Hostel movies. Something about them is just too vile and mean-spirited somehow, even though I’ve arguably seen other stuff just as bad. It’s a distinct feeling I guess that turned me off.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,551
    FoxRox wrote: »
    I can’t stand the Hostel movies. Something about them is just too vile and mean-spirited somehow, even though I’ve arguably seen other stuff just as bad. It’s a distinct feeling I guess that turned me off.

    The "stories" are pretty insidious. There's not pathos, even that you might find in a film like TCM, where even Leatherface could be seen as a victim of his family.
    It's literally just torture porn.
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,976
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    There are a few moments in the Saw and Hostel films that make me cringe. But The Human Centipede 2 is the one that gets me every time, now even more so with a newborn in my own house. ;-)

    That eye snip in the first one? Absolutely brutal. Gives me chills just thinking about it.

    And as soon as I saw you list The Human Centipede 2, I thought "he's probably thinking of the baby scene" before I even finished the sentence. Check out mother! for some equally twisted nightmares. I've scarcely seen a more divisive film than that one but I love it so damn much.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,183
    I rather like the first two Hostel films, to be honest. Yes, it is torture porn--exploitative flicks with a lot of shock value. But I have a particular fascination for such films, from rape-revenge films like The Last House On The Left and I Spit On Your Grave, over sick stuff like Ilsa, She Wolf Of The SS and the crazy cannibal films of the early '80s, all the way to Saw, Hostel, The Human Centipede, and other extreme stuff. I am always curious to see how far they are willing to push the 'bad taste' limits. Hence also my fascination with HG Lewis, Al Adamson and others.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,551
    I'd be curious to hear what you think of Cannibal Holocaust / The Green Inferno. The legends surrounding CH are so fascinating to me.
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,976
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    I rather like the first two Hostel films, to be honest. Yes, it is torture porn--exploitative flicks with a lot of shock value. But I have a particular fascination for such films, from rape-revenge films like The Last House On The Left and I Spit On Your Grave, over sick stuff like Ilsa, She Wolf Of The SS and the crazy cannibal films of the early '80s, all the way to Saw, Hostel, The Human Centipede, and other extreme stuff. I am always curious to see how far they are willing to push the 'bad taste' limits. Hence also my fascination with HG Lewis, Al Adamson and others.

    That's why I had to finally check out A Serbian Film (which I surprisingly enjoyed). Salo or lots of Gaspar Noe (brilliant director, one of my favorites) films apply too.
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,976
    Never-before-seen CGI test for the monster in Guillermo del Toro's adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness that never took off:

  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,183
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    Never-before-seen CGI test for the monster in Guillermo del Toro's adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness that never took off:


    Why oh why was that film never made?! I keep yearning for it.
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