Horror films

[Brundle-Fly]

Dumb Shark movie and Nazi Zombies have both been the two big schlock film gimmicks for the last decade or more:

If you'd have shown me the trailer for Zombie Tidal Wave (2019) when I was thirteen years old, I would have prolapsed my entire alimentary canal with excitement.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elEqA2fgobU

[Hand Solo]

If you'd have shown me the trailer for Zombie Tidal Wave (2019) when I was thirteen years old, I would have prolapsed my entire alimentary canal with excitement.

I can imagine at a certain age they must appeal, but usually the obviousness and ubiquity is a bit depressing. I often have ironic ideas for awful movies and check online and invariably they exist or are in pre-production. Like the idea I had for Zombie Osama..

[Brundle-Fly]

I've seen the Osama one and like so many exploitation horror films (and most video nasties of yore) they're often badly made, poorly acted and grindingly dull. Fans say that's the half the charm but I'm never convinced. Sometimes the trailer is all you need.

[The Mollusk]

I've seen the Osama one and like so many exploitation horror films (and most video nasties of yore) they're often badly made, poorly acted and grindingly dull. Fans say that's the half the charm but I'm never convinced. Sometimes the trailer is all you need.

I feel the same way about almost all of the comedy news sites, The Daily Mash, The Hard Times and whatnot. A vaguely amusing idea, where the headline contains all of the meagre humour, and the piece itself is just a load of fluff. I think it's because culture is now so disposable that people don't really care as long as it's another quick distraction from the real world. It fucking sucks.

[Hand Solo]

I feel the same way about almost all of the comedy news sites, The Daily Mash, The Hard Times and whatnot. A vaguely amusing idea, where the headline contains all of the meagre humour, and the piece itself is just a load of fluff. I think it%u2019s because culture is now so disposable that people don%u2019t really care as long as it%u2019s another quick distraction from the real world. It fucking sucks.

It's just laziness, a really good idea can be the engine an entire movie works upon, but it still needs lots of good writing to flesh it out and keep it interesting. A funny idea like Osama Zombie basically only works for a poster or a short SNL-type trailer, any more than that and outstays its welcome, but these people think it's enough to power a whole movie except they'd need Zucker brothers level writing to keep that entertaining and invariably they don't have that going on for them. Usually as filler they have low-budget bad special effects and gore scenes, though there's been a whole grey area between being low-budget and making them look terrible on purpose to Tim & Eric style yuks for years now, as the snake flosses it's teeth with its tail.

This goes with a lot of things like The Onion articles etc. If you want an idea to remain interesting beyond the initial concept you've got keep stoking the fire with ideas to keep the engine going beyond a headline, if you read older similar formats like Monty Python books and the like, they had the initial idea then come up with a lot of other funny things on that theme to flesh it out, most of the modern variety can't get beyond that and just think the funny premise is all you need, there's a reason it's called a premise.

[C_Larence]

I enjoyed Host a lot. All the actors (except Teddy, who was barely in it) were very believable and had great chemistry. I haven't read anything about it but wouldn't be surprised to find out that they were all an existing friend group in real life. It was certainly predictable, as soon as Caroline's zoom background was shown I knew what was going to happen, but still effective all the same. Reminded me of The Blair Witch Project a lot at times, especially with the amount of ugly crying that went on

[Moribunderast]

Yeah I liked Host. Doesn't do anything you wouldn't expect but for some reason I found it quite tense toward the end, maybe because I was also watching it on a laptop in the dark. Was a nice refresher after watching Amulet which I thought was quite shit.

[Hand Solo]

Lake Michigan Monster looks like yet another parody monster movie, but it looks like the budget is so minimal they've tried to use that as a stylistic element, rather than you know - making it look total crap for a cheap laugh like Birdemic etc - couldn't tell you if it works for it as I haven't seen it yet.

[thugler]

Got hold of a few of the better rated horror flicks from 2019. So far just watched Crawl, which was acceptable croc danger nonsense with actors better than the level required.

Also picked up: 'Wind' 'Nightmare Cinema' 'Depraved' and 'Harpoon'. Any of those particularly worth watching?

[Noodle Lizard]

Got hold of a few of the better rated horror flicks from 2019. So far just watched Crawl, which was acceptable croc danger nonsense with actors better than the level required.

One of the oddest things about Crawl is that Kaya Scodelario (Effy off Skins) supposedly only took the role because one of her earliest acting aspirations was to work with Barry Pepper.

[clingfilm portent]

'Nightmare Cinema'

Quite a mixed bag, but I liked a couple of the segments. Worth seeing once I'd say. I really liked the dark, surreal bit in the middle called 'This Way to Egress' by David Slade.

[thugler]

One of the oddest things about Crawl is that Kaya Scodelario (Effy off Skins) supposedly only took the role because one of her earliest acting aspirations was to work with Barry Pepper.

Haha that's amazing! Both were excellent to be fair. Rather slight otherwise though

[Custard]

The Strangers: Prey At Night (2018)

The original film is hardly a classic, but it certainly had some effective moments. This belated sequel however is prime dog plops

They couldn't have made a more generic home invasion film if they'd tried. So predictable, and worse, so boring. What a massive waste of Christina Hendricks, too. Hope she was paid well

The original is on Prime I see, so I might rewatch that tonight. I remember it being at least better than this. But then most things are

[Brundle-Fly]

If you like gruesome home invasion films, then Secuestrados AKA Kidnapped (2010) might be worth a look. Terrible dubbing into English and a lot of ear-piercing screaming but pretty gripping in parts and some De Palma cinematic moments thrown in for good measure. It's not great but not terrible either.

[Goldentony]

Often forget the Strangers got a sequel. Just reading the wiki for the first one

Contemporary film scholars have interpreted it as a criticism of the perceived safety of pastoral life, as well as an exploration of stranger-on-stranger violence

No source listed there so I can say is it fuck. If anyones said that they need their head fucking examined. It's a Rob Zombie version of Funny Games. Nihilist post 9/11 nu metal wank that belongs to that big gassy cloud of shit that America was launching at everyone after Hostel and Saw. Total, total fucking shit. Closest contemporary film I could compare it to is Faces Of Death. Pointless, hateful shit.

[Custard]

If you like gruesome home invasion films, then Secuestrados AKA Kidnapped (2010) might be worth a look. Terrible dubbing into English and a lot of ear-piercing screaming but pretty gripping in parts and some De Palma cinematic moments thrown in for good measure. It's not great but not terrible either.

Thanks for that. Will check it out!

[Custard]

Often forget the Strangers got a sequel. Just reading the wiki for the first one

No source listed there so I can say is it fuck. If anyones said that they need their head fucking examined. It's a Rob Zombie version of Funny Games. Nihilist post 9/11 nu metal wank that belongs to that big gassy cloud of shit that America was launching at everyone after Hostel and Saw. Total, total fucking shit. Closest contemporary film I could compare it to is Faces Of Death. Pointless, hateful shit.

It's also a complete rip of Them, the French-Romanian horror from 2006. To the point where apparently some people thought it had to be an English language remake

Them is horrible. Pretty good, but really horrible!

[holyzombiejesus]

Them is horrible. Pretty good, but really horrible!

...apart from the silly 'this is a true story' bit tacked on at the end.

[shagatha crustie]

Just watched last year's Vivarium. Got mixed reviews but I loved it in honesty, a really original idea, tightly and believably plotted without getting silly. Eisenberg was pretty lumpen but that's the only major fault I could find.

[Hand Solo]

Just watched last year's Vivarium. Got mixed reviews but I loved it in honesty, a really original idea, tightly and believably plotted without getting silly. Eisenberg was pretty lumpen but that's the only major fault I could find.

It reminded me of watching a feature length Injury Lawyers 4 U advert with the creepy baby with the talking mouth.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Dead Snow (2009) - Norwegian daftness with a bunch of medical students who are holed up in a cabin in the woo- oh wait, it's a mountain, and a snowy one at that.  After old man Exposition briefly appears to tell them how a bunch of nazis once froze to death in the mountains and that it's an evil place, soon the

Spoiler alert

body count starts piling up as a bunch of Nazi Zombies are all pissy about being dead. As all too often wit this sort of fare it takes about a third of the movie before it starts being fun, but at least it delivers on the OTT gore front after that, and they especially seem to like fucking about with intestines

[close]

which it turns out was something I didn't tire of. 7.3/10

[Noodle Lizard]

Just watched last year's Vivarium. Got mixed reviews but I loved it in honesty, a really original idea, tightly and believably plotted without getting silly. Eisenberg was pretty lumpen but that's the only major fault I could find.

It's surprising to see people comment on how original it was, because my main thought whilst watching it was that I'd seen it all before in various fragments. The suburban "nice but it's actually bad" horror, the paedophobia, the METAPHOR - it all felt very familiar. There was a sequence towards the end that was taken right out of Joe Dante's Twilight Zone Movie segment an' all.

Not knocking you for liking it or anything, but I feel it would've been better with Kevin Eldon playing the child.

[Shaky]

Yeah, I enjoyed Vivarium for it's duration but it's pretty much a grab-bag of familiar sci-fi/paranoid thriller tropes.

[zomgmouse]

very much thought it could have been done in 30 minutes

[neveragain]

Particularly as it was set inside a number 9.

[Small Man Big Horse]

From Beyond (1986) - From the director of Re-Animator, this is yet more body horror madness supposedly based on a story from H.P. Lovecraft, though it only borrows the central idea really, where after creating a machine that stimulates the pineal gland soon one scientist is seemingly dead and the other possibly quite insane. A doctor and a cop take the latter back to the scene of the crime to try and discover what went wrong, and win the award for stupidest idea of the year as misery ensues. Most of it is all rather daft but the performances are strong, and it's also enjoyably grotesque as things spiral out of control and all manner of weirdness takes place. 7.5/10

[ImmaculateClump]

Thanks for the recommendation, I loved it!
Didn't care for re-animator at all when I saw it but this was much, much better!
I really enjoyed the overly dramatic acting and the effects were great, they either held up really well or, like the greenscreen stuff, had an otherworldly charm.
Really dug the Argento style funky lighting too. Loads to like.

Spoiler alert

Did you think the guy turned into James Hurley when he lost his hair? The lass seemed to turn into Laura Palmer around the same time too. very weird.

[close]

[Small Man Big Horse]

Thanks for the recommendation, I loved it!
Didn't care for re-animator at all when I saw it but this was much, much better!
I really enjoyed the overly dramatic acting and the effects were great, they either held up really well or, like the greenscreen stuff, had an otherworldly charm.
Really dug the Argento style funky lighting too. Loads to like.

Spoiler alert

Did you think the guy turned into James Hurley when he lost his hair? The lass seemed to turn into Laura Palmer around the same time too. very weird.

[close]

Really glad you liked it, and I agree with everything you say there. As for the spoilers bit, though I didn't notice it at the time I can see what you mean

Spoiler alert

re: Bald Combs looking like James, and while watching it I also thought Crampton looked like Laura at a couple of points, especially when she screamed in one of the close ups.

[close]

[SteveDave]

It's surprising to see people comment on how original it was, because my main thought whilst watching it was that I'd seen it all before in various fragments. The suburban "nice but it's actually bad" horror, the paedophobia, the METAPHOR - it all felt very familiar. There was a sequence towards the end that was taken right out of Joe Dante's Twilight Zone Movie segment an' all.

Not knocking you for liking it or anything, but I feel it would've been better with Kevin Eldon playing the child.

Or Jamie Demetriou playing the "grown-up" kid.

[purlieu]

Had a watch of the previously mentioned This House Has People in It and Unedited Footage of a Bear, both of which were excellent, the former in particular. Had that wonderful sense of unease and total air of not knowing what the fuck is going on that I love.