Weird mad SF/horror films

[Mark Steels Stockbroker]

We've had this thread before, but let's have it again to drag in any new things or old things that escaped previous attention..

Films that interest anyone whose tastes include Berberian Sound Studio but also Static and Coherence and similar concept films. Lynch and Cronenberg homages/rip offs also welcome for consideration.

[Steven]

Timecrimes (2009),Triangle (2009) and Predestination (2014) are very similar in concept to eachother and the above.

[purlieu]

Who'll be first to post the plot graph of Primer I wonder? I still can't remotely get my head around it.

[Steven]

Who'll be first to post the plot graph of Primer I wonder? I still can't remotely get my head around it.

Become slightly autistic.

I know the graph you mean, but isn't it all just various regurgitations of this on top of eachother?

[purlieu]

Become slightly autistic.

Funny you mention that.
I might have to sit and watch it with the big complex graph in my hand I think, that simplified one didn't help much.

[Blumf]

I know the graph you mean, but isn't it all just various regurgitations of this on top of eachother?

Stupid chart.There isn't a double, the 'original' doesn't lose his existence. It's one person throughout.



Don Hertzfeldt's It's Such a Beautiful Day probably fits this thread.

[Steven]

Stupid chart.There isn't a double, the 'original' doesn't lose his existence. It's one person throughout.

There are doubles though aren't there? Multiple iterations of the same person contemporaneous with eachother even though it's still a single person's continuous narrative? I don't recall if they ever actually see eachother but they are there by implication. Just putting on this video to refresh my memory.

[Paaaaul]

[purlieu]

Imagine writing that film.

[steveh]

In my atmospheric oddness list I'd put:

Long Weekend (1978) - classic about wildlife ganging up on a couple in the Australian countryside. Very understated in the way it portrays the growing threat and subtly disturbing in the sound design. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079482/

Footprints On The Moon / Le Orme (1975) - an Italian oddity about a woman visiting a resort where people seem to know her even though she doesn't believe she has been there before. Quite hard to categorise with elements of a typical giallo plot but replacing the gaudiness with disorientation and atmosphere instead. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071950/

[Steven]

Imagine writing that film.

Imagine continuity editing that film.

[purlieu]

Just putting on this video to refresh my memory.

This makes more sense of it than anything I've seen before, might have to rewatch soon with that fresh in my mind.

Much simpler, of course, but Shane Carruth's other film, Upstream Color, definitely fits the 'weird SF' category. It's also one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen.

[Phil_A]

Much simpler, of course, but Shane Carruth's other film, Upstream Color, definitely fits the 'weird SF' category. It's also one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen.

Totally agreed. One of probably a few films that kept me absolutely spellbound for it's entire duration.

I hope Carruth manages to get his unmade epic A Topiary into production at some point. It's often called one of the great lost masterpieces of the genre, like Lynch's Ronnie Rocket or Vincent Ward's Alien movie.

Don Hertzfeldt's It's Such a Beautiful Day probably fits this thread.

But only really the last five minutes ventures into sci-fi-ish territory, right?

Hertzfeldt's most recent short World Of Tomorrow would definitely qualify, though. God, I love his stuff so much.

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

[purlieu]

I hope Carruth manages to get his unmade epic A Topiary into production at some point. It's often called one of the great lost masterpieces of the genre, like Lynch's Ronnie Rocket or Vincent Ward's Alien movie.

Completely, I keep hoping one day I stumble across the news that it's actually being made. I get the feeling it won't be the case, sadly.

[Phil_A]

Completely, I keep hoping one day I stumble across the news that it's actually being made. I get the feeling it won't be the case, sadly.

It could still happen. Carruth signed a fairly major production deal last year in order to make his first big budget feature The Modern Ocean, if that does well enough, then who knows?

[purlieu]

True. My fingers remain very much crossed.

[Blumf]

It's Such a Beautiful Day

But only really the last five minutes ventures into sci-fi-ish territory, right?

More of the (psychological) horror side I'd think. Not yer jump scare stuff obviously, but quiet unsettling.

Hertzfeldt's most recent short World Of Tomorrow would definitely qualify, though. God, I love his stuff so much.

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

Forgot I've been meaning to see that.

[Benjaminos]

There's some good Cronenberg-esque body horror in Xtro (and I think it fits the 'weird' category pretty well too). That 5.5 IMDB rating is a travesty, it should be at least two points above that.

If you ever wanted to see a midget clown milk alien porridge out of a cocooned au pair, then use it to incubate extra-terrestrial foetuses in an upturned fridge, then this is the film for you.

[Blumf]

It's only got 20%/35% on Rotten Tomatoes too.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/xtro/

Fucking robbed mate!

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/xtro-1983

"Xtro" is an ugly, mean-spirited and despairing thriller that left me thoroughly depressed.

Cheer up you miserable sod!

[Mini]

a cocooned au pair

Bond girl Maryam d'Abo, no less. And of course a "rebirth" scene to rival Hellraiser. Blows my tiny mind just thinking about that sequence...

I'll also mention The Signal, a surprisingly nasty one from 2007 with shades of Cronenberg, Carpenter and Romero. Not the Larry Fishburne film from last year, which I haven't seen - is it any good?

[Paaaaul]

No.

[billtheburger]

XTRO is ace & not the same as everything else.

[Glebe]

Xtro" is an ugly, mean-spirited and despairing thriller that left me thoroughly depressed.

I've only seen it once, years ago, but I found it kind of depressing... maybe it was just the shitty little house out in some shitty little backwoods or something.

[Blumf]

It slotted in with the other alien monster films of the time, with some outstanding scenes in it, even if the overall film doesn't hold together as good as it could. Can't really see the depressing argument being made solely just for Xtro, it's no worse than e.g. Alien or Inseminoid

[Bad Ambassador]

https://youtu.be/vcBkm1nOI5k The Red Letter Media gang watch Xtro as part of a triple bill of what they expect to be shit sci-fi horror, and are pleasantly surprised.

[purlieu]

Wasn't it vaguely an ET exploitation film, or at least promoted as such?
I do find it pretty depressing, in the sense that nothing remotely nice happens in it whatsoever, but it's also pretty excellent for horrible grotequeness. Has anyone seen any of the "sequels" (that are only sequels by name)

[Brundle-Fly]

Sssssss (1973)



Something really cruel and unsettling about this Grindhouse obscurity.  Starring Dirk Benedict and Strother Martin.

TRAILER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnasfM3UtDc

[zomgmouse]

You want something weird?
Watch Something Weird (1967):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCAzHV2btOo

Witches, murder-solving, ESP, LSD. Fucking mindblowing. It's so bad. And also the best thing ever. Not because it's bad. It's just pure trash. I saw it only very recently. I love it.

Another one I saw recently that I posted about in the "films you've seen" thread is The Perfume of the Lady in Black (1974). Truly mad.

[Famous Mortimer]

XTRO is ace & not the same as everything else.

I saw it about 6 months back and I didn't like it all that much (although it's Bergman compared to parts 2 and 3).

If you've not seen it, this interview with director Harry Bromley-Davenport is perhaps the most honest interview with a director ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovp-z9O56IE

[DukeDeMondo]

Sssssss (1973)
Something really cruel and unsettling about this Grindhouse obscurity. 

On a similar kick, Cat III Shaw Brothers misery parade The Killer Snakes.

Prodigiously repellent. I think I said that about Human Centipede III, but at least it had laughs in. No laughs here. Fuck the laughs. Sexual violence and snakes and depression and madness, that's what you're in for.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073696/