...and what did you think of it?




Crawlspace.

I'm a Klaus Kinski fan...but I'm not sure why. More than half his films are garbage, but he brings a certain...er...."charm" to even the bad films. Crawlspace was one of his bad ones, but there were a few good things about it that made it palatable. The bad: It just screams 80's, the dialogue was ridiculous (what little of it there was), and a lot of what happened didn't make much sense. But Kinski is enough of a creep to make his role as a deranged, tenant-killing landlord believable. Every time he killed someone, there would be a scene of him playing Russian Roulette with himself. The gun would never go off...then he would utter the line, "So be it". Like it was fate dictating whether or not he'd live another day to kill someone else. I thought that was a nice touch in an otherwise bad movie. And, of course, being a creepy German guy, he had a film projector with old Nazi film footage playing on it at certain points of the movie. Of course!

Recommended for Kinski fans and those looking for a very different kind of 80's slasher film. It's actually better than most of those...but still not exactly (good).

I haven't seen 'Crawlspace' though I do remember the gaudy cover from our local videostore back in the day.

The last Horror film I saw was 'Wind Chill'. Initially I was intrigued as it is really just a two character movie and they begin their car journey discussing reincarnation and eternal recurrence. There is a steady build up of suspense towards the climax but out of nowhere we get a feast of CGI and totally out of place action. I think this film is better than the average modern Horror film but it seems that the director or studio made some concessions in order to accomodate mainstream audiences.

The last one I saw was 30 Days of Nights. Hardly great, it's still a reasonable stab at the vampire genre. I wouldn't rush out to buy the DVD though. Once was enough.

I thought 30 Days of Night was good for what it was. I pretty much knew what to expect...and it actually surprised me by being quite effective in spots. One thing that bothered me was that the vamps always had this big splotch of blood smeared around their jaws...but the blood looked like it had been carefully applied by an f/x crew...

Last seen: The New York Ripper

I'm an Italian horror movie buff in general and I really like Lucio Fulci. NYR was by no means a (good) movie in the technical sense, but I guess I'd consider it a guilty pleasure. It's a particularly sleazy little film and is not one I'd necessarily recommend to any women I wanted to keep as a friend. It seems to go out of it's way to depict women as either sluts or prey for the Ripper. But...it did capture perfectly the grindhouse aesthetic of Times Square in the early 80's. My God! There really WAS nothing but porn theaters and sleazy second-run movie houses in Times Square back then! The location scenes in this film are so surreal...especially when compared to how Times Square looks now.

The Orphanage

It was a good enough film, but somehow I felt like I'd seen it all before. I'm not especially fond of ghost stories or suspense thrillers, but I'll admit this one was above average. If you're into films like The Others or Stir of Echos, you'll probably love it. It wasn't a bad movie, just not very memorable....

I felt the same way Rob: started off well, but developed very predictably.

I, for one, am a huge fan of ghosts, though I feel like the ghost-as-a-dead-person-hanging-around is a bit of a ghost cop out. I want to find a ghost story that doesn't live in an anthropomorphic universe. Anyone know of any?

I liked this film although it was unoriginal and the ending was weak in its resolution. I can't buy that the parents never heard the child during the time he was missing and it is beyond belief that the police would be so remiss as well. That said, I happen to like 'spooky' films and ever since 'The Changeling' have been disturbed by such atmospheres.

Mike, the original version of 'The Haunting' which is based on 'The Haunting of Hill House' steers clear of man made assumptions regarding ghosts but I'm sure there are better examples. I'll mull it over.

The Cottage

This is a film from one of the writers of 'The League of Gentlemen' which is a blackly surreal 'comedy' series if people haven't seen it. It's not as outlandish nor as strange as the BBC series, unfortunately, but throws a nod and a wink at the Horror genre with its second half gorefest and even has a cameo appearance by Doug Bradley.

The film keeps its tongue firmly its its cheek throughout, however, so even the most absurd and grotesque deaths are played for awful comedy laughs rather than screams.

Mike:

The Changeling and The Legend of Hell House spring to mind. I don't consider it a (good) movie, but The Amityville Horror (original version anyway) might also qualify....

I'd highly recommend The Innocents if you're into ghost stories. It's based on The Turn of the Screw by M.R. James. I've never read the book, so I don't know how faithful the film is, but it's a classic. It might not fit in the "non-anthropomorphic" category...but it's well worth watching if you haven't already...

Yeah, I need to see Changling, Hell House, and Amityville (read the book).

I just read the Turn of the Screw last month (maybe the month before?). I can't say I was thrilled with it, to be honest, but I've been told that The Innocents is a classic, so I've got to check it out.

I have a few (well, really one) good ghost hunting stories. If anyone else has some it'd be awesome to trade some real life sort of things.

And, last horror movie seen:

REC.

Quite quite good. One of the only recent horror movies I can say that I highly recommend.

REC

A brilliant film that I will definitely watch again.

Hey guys just wanted to say hi and introduce myself, I saw that there was a horror movie group and that got me pretty excited, anyways, on with my list

Last horror movie I watched was-
Guillermo Del Toro's Devil's Backbone
and it was a very creepy ghost story, and I usually don't care for ghost stories but it was great.

Hi Aaron.

If you liked Devil's Backbone, then YOU might enjoy The Orphanage...if you haven't already seen it. It's very "Del Toro-ish"...which makes sense because I think he produced it. I've decided I'm just not real big on Del Toro, but he does obviously put a lot of care and effort into making his films...which I can appreciate.

Last seen: Cat People (the remake). I saw this in the theater way back when I was a wee lad, and I remember liking it a lot. That might have been partly due to Nastassia Kinski's many nude scenes! But it didn't hold up as well for me today. I was surprised that I didn't like it that much seeing as the director was Paul Schrader-the writer for Taxi Driver. But it was like they took the best scenes from the original and added lots of sex and a transformation scene. It didn't have nearly as much atmosphere or creepiness as the original.

Hi Aaron, welcome to the group!

I enjoyed 'The Devils Backbone' but I felt that by showing us the ghost so early in the film it became less disturbing. Now, having said that, maybe Del Toro wanted a different kind of ghost story, one that dealt with revenge and burgeoning adolescence as the main themes and with the haunting merely being either symbolic or a hook to move the characters more tightly together.
As Rob mentions, 'The Orphanage' is another similar film but one that works better in the more traditional sense, for me anyway.

Rob, I must actually get hold of the original 'Cat People'. I saw it when I was about 12 but didn't like it back then. Some people say its reminiscint of Jack Williamsons classic of horror (well, supposedly a classic; I haven't read it yet!) 'Darker Than You Think'.

Dave:

If you like horror movies in the "less is more" vein, then I think you'd like Cat People (original). Actually, you'd probably like ANY of the Val Lewton films....'Bedlam' with Boris Karloff being a personal favorite. There was an excellent documentary on Lewton recently shown on Turner Classic Movies narrated by Martin Scrosese. I believe it's out on dvd. You should seek it out.

'Darker Than You Think'? Never heard of it.

Thanks for joining Aaron!

I, as well, saw 'Cat People' when I was really young (I think 10 or 11?) and hardly remember it now. I'll have to go back to it and get the atmosphere.

I just bought Silent Hill Origins today. Though the movie was terrible, the Silent Hill games have been pretty much consistently the scariest things ever, excepting 4 (which was never intended to be a SH game). Hopefully this one lives up to its earlier glory.

Kind of hijacking the thread for a moment...

http://www.amazon.com/Darker-Than-Think-...

Like I said, it's been years since I've seen 'Cat People' but this book is also from the 1940's.

Hey, new here. I am a big horror fan and the last thing I saw was The Orphanage. Now, I love good ghost stories and this movie was pretty good. It was not incredibly scary, but there were a few times my heart skipped a beat. I like a plot in the movies I watch and endings that are unexpected, so this fulfilled both of those. Reminded me of The Sixth Sense or The Others.

Good to know about the Silent Hill games. Debated buying one to try, but was worried that they would follow the movie. Sounds like they are a lot better and I'll have to give one whirl real soon.

Hey Tera! Welcome to (good) horror movies! Take off your shoes and stay a while.

Your post gave me an idea of a new topic to start. Feel free to share an opinion or two...

Welcome indeed, Tera.

Yeah, Silent Hill 1-3 are tremendously fantastic. Otherwordly good. If you have any backwards compatability in you, the first one is probably the closest thing to perfect horror that has ever been. But it is quite dated as a PSone game. 2 is probably a good place to start.

I'm not really a "gamer", but has anyone here played Clive Barker's new video game?

I played the demo of 'Jericho' and thought it was alright but the reviews for the game itself were pretty bad and apparently it was quite unforgiving to a frustrating degree.

Last seen Horror film: Scream and Scream Again.

Have not played Barker's, but went to the store to get Silent Hill today, however, they were sold out. Ended up getting #4 CSI. It finally went down in price. I enjoy the CSI games.

I haven't played any of the games but the two episodes of CSI I watched made me think about drinking hemlock like Socrates.

Maybe the games are good though!

The Signal.

The opening scene and indeed first segment made me go "Wow!"; I really thought that I was in for something special. The script was unsentimental and strong and the quick, realistic degeneration of the world into violent chaos was matter of fact and very scary.

Then...for some reason, the second segment was like another movie entirely, with a completely different director. Imagine a cross between some off-broadway comedy and a very bad 'Tales form the Darkside' episode: it killed, absolutely, any sense of fear or sympathy I had for the characters, turning them into goofy, psychotic caricatures spouting awful lines from a bad film students first script!

But...somehow, in the third and final segment it's like the director decided to make a serious film again and, due to how 'good' or interesting the movie had begun, he almost succeeds. I felt very frustrated by the continuous use of the trick where we're led to believe something shocking is occuring only for the moment to be shown to have been imagined.

Overall, this is a difficult film to judge because of it's schizophrenic nature. I'd be interested to hear what everyone else thinks.

Black Sheep

It was alright, nothing to write home about though. Comedy and Horror...how many times does it actually work?

On the plus side, the New Zealand countryside is beautiful and the effects are very good. I'm not going to say I didn't like the film, just...I'm not going to remember much about it in a week.

Had to laugh 1) my first thought for Black Sheep was the mid-90's film starring Chris Farley and David Spade, imagine my confusion and 2) when I was in labor with my second son, every time I had a contraction the nurse would say "It's nothing to write home about".

Anyway, I downloaded Rec today and also a 1932 Karloff film called Old Dark House. Plan on watching them both sometime tonight!!

Tera: I just watched The Old Dark House about a month ago, and it surprised me by being more of a black comedy than horror. It was still good though. It's hard to go wrong with James Whale and Karloff!

Last seen: Two movies I've seen before, but really like.

The Fly (original) and Cronenberg's Shivers

So, I watched Rec. It was a typical biological contagion meets zombie type movie with filming done by a character in the story. Reminiscent of two films I saw recently: Cloverfield and I am Legend. It's not a movie that will keep me up wondering about the fate of the world or make me want to leave a light on, but I found it enjoyable. The part that really made me jump was the "zombie" in the attic. You know it's coming and you tense up waiting. I think I actually made some noise at that part because my youngest ran over to see what I was doing (I was watching it on my laptop). Anyway, it was a fun watch and a great recommendation. I haven't been able to watch the other movie yet as the download got interrupted for some reason and it is finishing up today.

I also finished playing CSI: Hard Evidence, so I can refocus on some other things now.

Alright, it is 2:48am and I have to be at work in 5 hours, but I was able to get in 3 movies: Hills Have Eyes II, 28 Weeks Later and Turistas. All kept me awake, so that's a start. They were all mildly entertaining, but unoriginal. Looking for some new twists, hence my movie list thread.

Inside.



jesus christ.

Dave:


So.......did you like it?

I think it was very well made, yes,...emmm, I'll post the rest in the 'Inside' thread.

Just finished P2. Run of the mill cliches...car won't start, cell phone won't work, 911 won't pick up. It kept my interest however just to see if my prediction of the ending would prove correct. Of course I already knew what the ending was going to be half way through...but I won't ruin for you. Not very frightening and extremely predictable.

Thanks for that confirmation, Tera; I'm surprised that the same person behind 'High Tension' could have considered this plot original or worthy of being made into a film.
I was wondering if maybe there might have been some element of surprise in it but obviously not.

I also watched "Right to Die" tonight. I thought it was a waste of time and made a mockery of the moral issue of resuscitation. It was a bit too pornographic...with sex scenes that were somewhat relevant, but so tasteless that they detracted from the storyline. The ending was a real let down although you did have to draw your own conclusion as to what happens to the main character, so I guess it gets you thinking just a bit. And I still can't figure out why, when the main character's wife dies, the doctor asks, "Didn't you see it on the news?" A hospital would call a family member directly to inform of a spouse's death, so that particular scene, along with others, was highly unrealistic. Not a movie I would recommend.

I don't know that film, it wasn't listed on the IMDB unless it's the TV movie with Michael Gross...(TV not being transvestite...obviously!)
Hmmm, now I've got an image of Michael Gross in full make up in my mind...I'm going now.

It is a Masters of Horror film by Rob Schmidt

Oh, I haven't seen that one actually. I've watched the entire first series and half of the second. I'm up to 'The Screwfly Solution' which, along with 'Cigarette Burns' was the only episode that I felt was in any way 'good'. Overall, the series was a huge let down for me with very bad choices being made with regard to what was chosen. The idea was to allow directors to pick any short story...when you think of great collections like the 'Masques' series, the 'night visions' series all packed with fantastic writing it's very apparant that the so called 'Masters of Horror' don't know the genre at all.

Rant over!

I completely agree. The first season of Masters of Horror was one of the first things I downloaded once I got an internet connection that was above 56k (don't have Showtime!) and I was thoroughly disappointed. The Argento one was pretty okay, the Miike one was overly Miike, Cigarette Burns had some pretty interesting ideas but was half baked I though...and the Hooper one was practically unwatchable! I really hope that there's something good in the second season...and that someone tells me which one it is so I don't have to sit through them all.

But also! "(TV not being transvestite...obviously!)" was one of the funniest things I've read in a while.

Ha ha, I bet you'll smirk to yourself every time you read that a film was made for TV from now on!

Well, Mike, I've bad news because the second series is even worse so far.
I notice that Mick Garris is calling the third series 'Fear Itself'; I wonder if he's embarassed about the 'Masters...' label?

I have just Q'd some up on Netflix the past few days and now am reluctant to watch them. Right to Die is actually the first MoH story I've watched. It wasn't a very positive way to be ushered into the series, so I may put that on the back burner for something better. Thinking about rewatching Nosferatu and Omega Man tonight.

I found some good things in the first season of MoH, but I will agree that the 2nd season was awfully weak. From the 2nd season, 'Pelts' wasn't too bad and I thought 'Sounds Like...' was among the best in the series.

Mike: You really hated 'Deer Woman' that much? At first I was beyond skeptical just because the plot sounded ludicrous, but once I actually watched it I liked it a lot. More for the humor aspect than the horror, admittedly. And the Deer Woman herself.....hoo-hah! Easy on the eyes.


Last seen: Gozu.


OK...I think I've had my fill of Takashi Miike. This movie was terrible. Slow, boring, dull, and pointless. The breast milk scene might have been semi-shocking had I not already seen something similar in Visitor Q. I never even watched the last half hour of this before sending it back to Netflix.

Hmm...I have Gozu coming sometime soon.

I actually didn't watch Deer Woman all the way through. I think we have our wires switched on that and Gozu, because I couldn't finish Deer Woman, but I enjoyed Gozu. Wouldn't really call it horror though, which was kind of disappointing while I was watching it. Some scenes were a little too much with the aping-Lynch-without-any-subtlety thing going on, but overall had some pretty good parts. And the ending is, really, the best of those parts! I think it's more of a psychological exploration of the reluctance some people have with coming to terms with their sexual orientation than horror--which is something I think should be explored more in horror, since it seems dreadful to go through.

Good point, Mike. I'm sure there are a couple of films that deal with such matters. Sexuality and its impact upon the growing adolescent was explored in 'The Company of Wolves'. The film itself is a mixed bag but it does have some beautiful images and an underlying sense of menace.

I'm not aware of it; I'll have to check it out. Thanks Dave!