Great Realistic Minimalist Horror

[holyzombiejesus]

Is Eyes Without A Face horror? Would the face transplant scene count? Oh, I don't understand the thread.

[Shit Good Nose]

Is Eyes Without A Face horror? Would the face transplant scene count? Oh, I don't understand the thread.

Yes.  Maybe.  I think the point of the thread is nothing like torture porn, nothing too outlandish (Nightmare On Elm Street, the Halloween and Friday 13th sequels for example), and a bit on the low-key side.

I took licence with a couple of my suggestions (The Haunting, The Exorcist, Amityville Horror etc) on the basis that, even though they are arguably not REALLY realistic, they're treated deadly seriously which gives them a sense of realism so you can totally believe they're happening.

[chveik]

maybe some Kiyoshi Kurosawa films (Cure, Creepy)?

[SteveDave]

They Look Like People.

There's another one where a woman's looking after an apartment in a high rise that's slightly haunted whose name escapes me.

[St_Eddie]

There's another one where a woman's looking after an apartment in a high rise that's slightly haunted whose name escapes me.

Slightly haunted?  Does the airing cupboard have a few spectral woodlice in it or something?

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

It's a very lazy ghost.

[DukeDeMondo]

Sorry for the multi posting but I'd definitely put Paranormal Activity in here. For much of the film you're staring at a screen where absolutely nothing is happening and even when it does, it's often just a blanket moving or a door opening. Back in the days of karma, I got a lot of negative on here for praising it but I actually think it's (almost) up there with BWP.

I agree, I think Paranormal Activity is largely excellent. The way that it invites you to tip-toe around the frame as if you were present in the house itself, chewing on your knuckles wondering when you're going to chance upon the ARGH FUCK!, wondering where it might be nestled, is phenomenally effective for the most part, I'd say. It's Shit Brix horror in the key of Ghostwatch and Halloween and Ju-On: The Curse and things like this. Scares that you stumble upon, as opposed to scares that leap out at you. It's a film that absolutely needs to be heard properly, though. So much of the sickly sense of dread that it evokes is down to that ominous bass rumble that rises any time anything's liable to fly off a worktop or topple from a shelf. I've watched it on a telly that couldn't deal with that rumble and the thing as a whole was nowhere near as potent. Unfortunately the ending - tacked on when the film was bought by Paramount - is so awful that it threatens to retroactively enshitten everything that came before, and none of the alternate endings, some of which were on evidence as the film made its way around the festivals prior to Paramount's involvement and one of which brought things to a close in the screener version that first appeared on the torrrent sites and what have you, are all that very much better. Oren Peli just didn't know how to end the thing. All of the endings betray the rest of the film in some way, but the Official One mounts the worst betrayal of all.   

But, the rest of it is brilliant. The third one is really good too, almost as good as the first (in my opinion; others would tell you it's better), but it's not minimalist in any sense. The first one is, I would say, right up until that rotten, shitty end.

[holyzombiejesus]

Yeah, I agree with that. I don't think I've ever leaned in to a screen as much as I did with PA. Which one was the 3rd? It wasn't the one with the XBox beams was it?

[St_Eddie]

Which one was the 3rd? It wasn't the one with the XBox beams was it?

That was Paranormal Activity 4 and it was shite.

[DukeDeMondo]

That was Paranormal Activity 4 and it was shite.

Yeah, 4 was shite, alright. The third one is the prequel, with the wee girls. One of the best scares in the series in that (the camera positioned on the fan, going backwards and forwards and backwards and forwards and backwards and ARGH!).

Also, a bunch of the A24 horror pictures could be gathered under this umbrella, I suppose, couldn't they? That's sort of what they do, isn't it, the Minimalist Horror, with varying degrees of success. The Blackcoat's Daughter, The VVitch (as mentioned on the previous page), It Comes At Night, The Hole In The Ground (which I thought was a load of old bin), so on and so forth.

[Sin Agog]

And Soon the Darkness, about two young British girls who go on a cycling trip in the French countryside when one of them goes missing, used to shit me up.  It's by the guy who made The Abominable Dr. Phibes, but it's way more low-key and grounded.  Kept on getting flashbacks to it when I went cycling in France mesen.  It can be beautiful, but there are long stretches where the scenery is eerily identikit, which this movie plays up well.

[St_Eddie]

The VVitch

I'm going to have to pull you up on this.  'The VVitch' is a stylistic choice for the poster, the film itself is titled The Witch.  Typing out The VVitch is the equivalent of typing out A  L  I  E  N or  S T A R  every time you want to talk about those films.                                                                        W A R S

[DukeDeMondo]

I'm going to have to pull you up on this.  'The VVitch' is a stylistic choice for the poster, the film itself is titled The Witch.  Typing out The VVitch is the equivalent of typing out A  L  I  E  N or  S T A R  every time you want to talk about those films.                                                                        W A R S

That's fair enough, I'm happy to be pulled. Believe you me. To be honest I just typed it that way because everyone else does. Muffit of tea sort of thing going on. But it ends here and now.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Its correct title is The Vuvvitch.

[St_Eddie]

That's fair enough, I'm happy to be pulled. Believe you me. To be honest I just typed it that way because everyone else does. Muffit of tea sort of thing going on. But it ends here and now.

It's preciously because so many people type it that way that it's become something of a personal mission of mine to correct anyone who does so, every time that I encounter it.  I'm elated to hear that you shall be typing the title correctly from now on.  One down; seven million, five hundred ninety-four thousand, six hundred and eighty-seven to go.

[Sin Agog]

รt. є๔๔เє

[St_Eddie]

รt. є๔๔เє

st. Eggle?

[BlodwynPig]

St. Eddie
HolyZombieJesus
Sin Agog
Duke DeMondo

all sound like horror characters to me.

[St_Eddie]

St. Eddie
HolyZombieJesus
Sin Agog
Duke DeMondo

all sound like horror characters to me.

The Devil's Retards?

[St_Eddie]

<-------------------------------------- #cancelled

[BlodwynPig]

The Devil's Retards?

The Four Hearsemen of the Fuckocalypse

[St_Eddie]

The Four Hearsemen of the Fuckocalypse

The Four Nerdsmen of the Fuckupalypse.

[BlodwynPig]

The Garynormal Activity 4

[Sin Agog]

If my username were a horror film, it'd be a bit like We Need To Talk About Kevin, only Kevin's a dyslexic Jew.

[holyzombiejesus]

And Soon the Darkness, about two young British girls who go on a cycling trip in the French countryside when one of them goes missing, used to shit me up.  It's by the guy who made The Abominable Dr. Phibes, but it's way more low-key and grounded.  Kept on getting flashbacks to it when I went cycling in France mesen.  It can be beautiful, but there are long stretches where the scenery is eerily identikit, which this movie plays up well.

Ah, I love that. Some really lovely flourishes for such a grounded film, like the lane flying across the sky and the de-tuned radio. Think it was re-made a few years ago. Attended a Q&A with the writer Brian Clemens a while back and he said how he went in to WH Smiths every week to scan the Radio Times to see if it was getting shown on TV that week. Not sure if it was minimalist, mind.

[holyzombiejesus]

St. Eddie
HolyZombieJesus
Sin Agog
Duke DeMondo

They Come Out With Shite.

[BlodwynPig]

If my username were a horror film, it'd be a bit like We Need To Talk About Kevin, only Kevin's a dyslexic Jew.

It's actually Welsh for "So North We Go"

[St_Eddie]

If my username were a horror film, it'd be straight-to-DVD shite, reduced to 99p in the bargain bin.

They Come Out With Shite.

Lovely stuff.

[BlodwynPig]

They Come Out With Shite.

How about Art-House horror: "Out of the Blue"

[Sin Agog]

Morty, is that Roald Dahl-scripted horror you mentioned in the OP any good?  Never heard of it before.