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New talent in horror.

Started by astrozombie, May 04, 2012, 11:51:11 AM

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Noodle Lizard

Quote from: Paaaaul on May 21, 2012, 04:22:04 PMI've already watched the Cage version of The Wicker Man which I laughed all the way through and re-watched the following day. I've not seen another film with that big a budget that has been so badly thought out, misguided and appallingly put together than I found it fascinating. The punching in that film doesn't really matter because there is no emotional core to the film and it's like cartoon characters hitting each other.

As side-splittingly hilarious as Nicolas Cage, dressed as a bear, running up and punching a woman in the face may be, that film definitely gave me the impression that whoever wrote it had a bit of a problem with women.

Junglist

The Girl Next Door has a point, to me The Woman didn't. It's a horror story for horrors sake. Like most horror, really. Take it at face value.

Paaaaul

Quote from: Noodle Lizard on May 21, 2012, 04:31:59 PM
As side-splittingly hilarious as Nicolas Cage, dressed as a bear, running up and punching a woman in the face may be, that film definitely gave me the impression that whoever wrote it had a bit of a problem with women.
I agree. But it's not a message that hits the viewer in a meaningful way because of the impotence of the delivery.
I seem to remember the last scene was a particularly awful stab at depicting women as only able to get what they want by prick-teasing.
Quote from: Junglist on May 21, 2012, 04:36:34 PM
The Girl Next Door has a point, to me The Woman didn't. It's a horror story for horrors sake. Like most horror, really. Take it at face value.
If it was purely a horror film, it was massively shit.
Horror films are largely about ideas and unspoken or unrealised fears. The Woman had very little in the way of scares for me, and had lots of half-ideas that went nowhere. The story is almost non-existant. A thing happens about 10 minutes into the film which changes a situation, and nothing else really changes until the end of the film when the situation changes again with bloody results. It was pretty much the dictionary definition of Torture Porn to my eyes.It was made with little to endear you to the characters - and so has fairly low-stakes, and it ends without any satisfying sort of payoff.
Martyrs and A Serbian Film are both much nastier films graphically, but both have an intelligence and vision that makes what you are watching valuable and worthwhile (to a subjective degree).I wouldn't class either of them as Torture Porn (even though
Spoiler alert
A Serbian Film is literally torture porn at points
[close]
)
Even if you think a horror film is just a horror story, if you peel back the fascade of a decent one you will find much more beneath the surface than just scares and gore.


GeeWhiz

Dunno if it's been mentioned up thread, but Glenn McQuaid's I Sell The Dead is a fun bit of throwback horror, very much in the fog-wreathed AIP/Hammer mode. McQuaid has a foot in with the Glasseye Pix gang - with production credits on Stakeland and The Roost - and the flick's a sort of rambling, episodic romp starring Larry Fessenden and Dominic Monaghan as graverobbers who get tied up with supernatural shenanigans. Low in budget but it has punky bravura and nice cameo turns from Angus Scrimm and Ron Perlmann.

I'm not aware of any Brit directors working in similar territory. The revived Hammer stuff has been pretty bum, to my mind. Wake Wood, in particular, promised much but delivered very little.

holyzombiejesus

Talking of faux found stuff, has anyone seen Lake Mungo? I enjoyed it (from what I remember); a sort of ghost / found footage thing mixed with a bit of a Laura Palmer-esque back story. Quite eerie. The director doesn't seem to have made anything since.

Staying in Australia, there was a really good zombie short called I Love Sarah Jane, which starred Mia Wasikowska. I heard that there were plans to develop it into a feature length but haven't heard anything for a while (although it's listed as In Development on IMDB) . The whole thing's available on youtube, although I can't provide a link as I'm at work.

I'm trying to think of some horror films directed by women but can't think of any, apart from Near Dark and maybe Trouble Every Day. Is American Psycho a horror?

billtheburger

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on May 22, 2012, 10:00:51 AM
Talking of faux found stuff, has anyone seen Lake Mungo? I enjoyed it (from what I remember); a sort of ghost / found footage thing mixed with a bit of a Laura Palmer-esque back story. Quite eerie. The director doesn't seem to have made anything since.
I've sat through Lake Mungo - now this film has it's fair share of creepy moments, and I liked the premise, but I found it a rather slow. The kind of history channel documentary it is parodying runs about 45mins which made this at least 30 mins too long.
The freakiest part of the film was due to my 2 year old son waking up half an hour in screaming. The film was paused and my wife went up to see him and he was pointing to the corner of his room saying "Arthur Spot" over and over until he began laughing.

Dark Sky

Quote from: billtheburger on May 22, 2012, 12:11:06 PM
The freakiest part of the film was due to my 2 year old son waking up half an hour in screaming. The film was paused and my wife went up to see him and he was pointing to the corner of his room saying "Arthur Spot" over and over until he began laughing.

This sounds terrifying!  I'm gonna have to see this film...

Junglist

I thought Lake Mungo was absolutely awful, not a single scare, or even a sense of dread or such at all.

Noodle Lizard

Quote from: Junglist on May 22, 2012, 03:28:55 PM
I thought Lake Mungo was absolutely awful, not a single scare, or even a sense of dread or such at all.

Dammit, Junglist.