Recently Watched Horror

[jaragon]

7 hours ago, cinemaspeak59 said:

I agree. I also enjoyed It Follows and Hereditary.

"It Follows" is terrifying. The director is a obviously a fan of John Carpenter

[LawrenceA]

1 hour ago, Arsan404 said:

I also liked Hereditary. It is very well directed and Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne and Alex Wolff gave excellent performances.

 

But you didn't much care for It Follows, if I remember correctly, right?

 

3 minutes ago, jaragon said:

"It Follows" is terrifying. The director is a obviously a fan of John Carpenter

And you hated Hereditary, if I remember correctly? Did you like The Witch?

 

Another recent one that came as a pleasant surprise was The Autopsy of Jane Doe.

I also liked the recent Netflix film The Ritual.

I also enjoyed The Babadook, whose director has a new film, The Nightingale, coming soon. It's not horror, but it's said to be harrowing and pretty horrific, nonetheless. 

[jaragon]

Just now, LawrenceA said:

But you didn't much care for It Follows, if I remember correctly, right?

 

And you hated Hereditary, if I remember correctly? Did you like The Witch?

 

Another recent one that came as a pleasant surprise was The Autopsy of Jane Doe.

I also liked the recent Netflix film The Ritual.

I also enjoyed The Babadook, whose director has a new film, The Nightingale, coming soon. It's not horror, but it's said to be harrowing and pretty horrific, nonetheless. 

I liked "The Witch" but was not too crazy about the ending.  "The Ritual" and "The Autopsy of Jane Doe" are both very scary and effective horror films which deserved better distribution than the over rated "Hereditary" ( yes I wanted to throw popcorn at the screen) and the boring remake of "Suspiria" ( I wanted to throw popcorn at my tv)

[Arsan404]

22 hours ago, LawrenceA said:

But you didn't much care for It Follows, if I remember correctly, right?

That's right, I didn't like it at all. One, maybe two good scary scenes, but the whole movie didn't make much sense to me.

22 hours ago, LawrenceA said:

Another recent one that came as a pleasant surprise was The Autopsy of Jane Doe.

That one I liked very much. The autopsy itself and the ending were truly disturbing.

[Arsan404]

22 hours ago, jaragon said:

the over rated "Hereditary" ( yes I wanted to throw popcorn at the screen)

I agree that it went over the top near the end, but the rest of the movie was pretty good. Well, I liked it, anyway.

 I wanted to throw popcorn at The Babadook!

[LawrenceA]

I should watch movies with you guys...sounds like I'd get a lot of extra popcorn.

[jaragon]

1 hour ago, LawrenceA said:

I should watch movies with you guys...sounds like I'd get a lot of extra popcorn.

I ten to eat most of it- but I will share whatever I don't throw at the screen

[jaragon]

1 hour ago, Arsan404 said:

I agree that it went over the top near the end, but the rest of the movie was pretty good. Well, I liked it, anyway.

 I wanted to throw popcorn at The Babadook!

Oh I loved "The Babadook" I thought it was a scary until the bizarre ending. 

[jaragon]

What do you get when "A Quite Place" is invaded by "The Birds"...

 

[jaragon]

1 hour ago, Arsan404 said:

That's right, I didn't like it at all. One, maybe two good scary scenes, but the whole movie didn't make much sense to me.

That one I liked very much. The autopsy itself and the ending were truly disturbing.

"The Autopsy of Jane Doe" is a very disturbing- and it does have an above average cast for a horror film.

[jaragon]

It's scary good...

 

[Arsan404]

5 minutes ago, jaragon said:

"The Autopsy of Jane Doe" is a very disturbing- and it does have an above average cast for a horror film.

I was going to reply and include a picture, but I couldn't find a truly good image to make a point.

The trailer, the movie, as you said, is scary good.

[jaragon]

4 minutes ago, Arsan404 said:

I was going to reply and include a picture, but I couldn't find a truly good image to make a point.

The trailer, the movie, as you said, is scary good.

I like the way he slowly builds the terror and the story takes twist you do not see coming.

[Arsan404]

Just now, jaragon said:

I like the way he slowly builds the terror and the story takes twist you do not see coming.

Very well said. That's what truly glued me to my seat, how the autopsy slowly discovers strange findings that finally reveals the evil they're dealing with. And no, I did not see that ending coming.

[cinemaspeak59]

11 hours ago, Arsan404 said:

I agree that it went over the top near the end, but the rest of the movie was pretty good. Well, I liked it, anyway.

 I wanted to throw popcorn at The Babadook!

Unfortunately, I haven't seen this yet, though I've heard mostly positive things about it.

[cinemaspeak59]

11 hours ago, LawrenceA said:

I should watch movies with you guys...sounds like I'd get a lot of extra popcorn.

I don't eat popcorn so you don't have to worry about sharing.

[LawrenceA]

On 5/13/2019 at 9:41 PM, Arsan404 said:

I'm also looking forward to Robert Eggers' The Lighthouse.

Robert Pattinson, Willem Dafoe’s The Lighthouse’ Wins Cannes Critics’ Award

Robert Eggers’ “The Lighthouse,” with Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, won the Cannes Film Festival critics’ award for best first or second feature in Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week, one of the first prizes for which “The Lighthouse” has been eligible at Cannes.

Produced by A24, New Regency and Brazil’s RT Features, and picked up by Focus Features for international distribution and A24 for North America, “The Lighthouse” is shot in chiaroscuro black-and-white and a 1.19:1 box ratio, with Dafoe and Pattinson playing lighthouse keepers who drive each other to the brink of madness.

The Fipresci honor for “The Lighthouse” marks another plaudit for Eggers, who is rapidly emerging as a major talent in many critics’ view, as well as for one of the best-reviewed of movies in any section at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Variety called “The Lighthouse” “darkly exciting” and “made with extraordinary skill,” commenting that “the movie, building on ‘The Witch,’ proves that Robert Eggers possesses something more than impeccable genre skill. He has the ability to lock you into the fever of what’s happening onscreen.”

https://variety.com/2019/film/news/robert-pattinson-willem-defoe-the-lighthouse-critics-award-cannes-film-festival-1203225940/

[Arsan404]

On 5/24/2019 at 6:41 AM, cinemaspeak59 said:

Unfortunately, I haven't seen this yet, though I've heard mostly positive things about it.

The Babadook? Yes, it does have mostly good reviews, and posters on this thread liked it, too. I seem to be in the minority around here.

[jaragon]

Vincent Price plays  Paul Toombs a horror film star trying to make a come back after a nervous breakdown in "Madhouse" (1974) when various associates begin to die like characters in his old movies.  Is Price going mad or is someone out to frame him.   Peter Cushing plays an ambitious writer and Robert Quarry a producer who wants to make money by reviving Toombs most famous character Dr Death- which really should have been the title of the movie.   This film wants to be another "Theater of Death" but the it lacks that films wicked sense of humor.  And the various murders lack the stylish touches of the Dr Phibes series. The movie includes various clips from scenes of Price's classic Corman- Poe series and those are better than anything going on in the new one.

[jaragon]

"Anabelle Comes Home" (2019) the evil doll is back but she has very little to do is this latest chapter in "The Conjuring" universe.   The doll is locked up in a specially blessed cabinet until a nosy baby sitter lets her out and she unleashes some very bland scares.  Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson ( who should be in better movies) appear in the effective prologue .  Anabelle was scary in the previous and much better "Anabelle:Creation" but after this boring film she really belongs in the attic. 

 

[cinemaspeak59]

Midsommar (2019) It was with high anticipation that I went to see Midsommar, Ari Aster’s follow-up to the superb Hereditary.  Aster has a gift for creating atmosphere and dread, which were on full display in the brilliant first act. The protagonist, Dani, played by Florence Pugh (on a roll from her breakout performance in Lady Macbeth) is reeling from a horrific family tragedy.  To clear her mind, she joins her reluctant boyfriend Christian (a great Jack Reynor), and his even more reluctant pals, Josh (William Jackson Harper) and resident bro Mark (Will Poulter), on a trip to Sweden, to celebrate the midsommar festival, a nine-day summer solstice event that happens every 90 years.

The guys are grad students, and the trip could serve as both research and pleasure. But they don’t want the clingy Dani tagging along and plead with Christian to break up with her.  The invitation for the excursion came from a mysterious foreign student named Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren). The way Aster frames him and lights him suggests Pelle has sinister motives.

Once in Sweden, they’re greeted by an army of malevolently welcoming worshipers, dressed in white linen.  It’s not long before the word cult comes to mind. Set pieces bring out the eerie environment: elaborate rituals, exotic food and drink, strange drawings, and a holy book that serves as a bible. But these often serve as just filler. Aster makes good use of strange architecture, but the blinding sunlight has a diluting effect.  Josh, as the serious scholar, starts to suspect that something is not right. Aster drops Easter eggs throughout, and one painting early on hints that everything that happens may have been preordained.

I found Midsommar a bit of a disappointment. It isn’t helped by the plodding pace and close to 2.5 hour running time. It’s not a bad horror movie, but it lacked the insidious terror of Hereditary.  There were also some very funny moments, whether intentional or not. The packed theater I was in laughed hysterically at a few scenes, and this nudged the film in the direction of a parody.

There are the obligatory echoes of Rosemary’s Baby, and a twist ending that really isn’t that shocking. The performances, however, are uniformly excellent, and I look forward to Aster’s next film.  Grade for Midsommar: B.

[jaragon]

7 hours ago, cinemaspeak59 said:

Midsommar (2019) It was with high anticipation that I went to see Midsommar, Ari Aster’s follow-up to the superb Hereditary.  Aster has a gift for creating atmosphere and dread, which were on full display in the brilliant first act. The protagonist, Dani, played by Florence Pugh (on a roll from her breakout performance in Lady Macbeth) is reeling from a horrific family tragedy.  To clear her mind, she joins her reluctant boyfriend Christian (a great Jack Reynor), and his even more reluctant pals, Josh (William Jackson Harper) and resident bro Mark (Will Poulter), on a trip to Sweden, to celebrate the midsommar festival, a nine-day summer solstice event that happens every 90 years.

The guys are grad students, and the trip could serve as both research and pleasure. But they don’t want the clingy Dani tagging along and plead with Christian to break up with her.  The invitation for the excursion came from a mysterious foreign student named Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren). The way Aster frames him and lights him suggests Pelle has sinister motives.

Once in Sweden, they’re greeted by an army of malevolently welcoming worshipers, dressed in white linen.  It’s not long before the word cult comes to mind. Set pieces bring out the eerie environment: elaborate rituals, exotic food and drink, strange drawings, and a holy book that serves as a bible. But these often serve as just filler. Aster makes good use of strange architecture, but the blinding sunlight has a diluting effect.  Josh, as the serious scholar, starts to suspect that something is not right. Aster drops Easter eggs throughout, and one painting early on hints that everything that happens may have been preordained.

I found Midsommar a bit of a disappointment. It isn’t helped by the plodding pace and close to 2.5 hour running time. It’s not a bad horror movie, but it lacked the insidious terror of Hereditary.  There were also some very funny moments, whether intentional or not. The packed theater I was in laughed hysterically at a few scenes, and this nudged the film in the direction of a parody.

There are the obligatory echoes of Rosemary’s Baby, and a twist ending that really isn’t that shocking. The performances, however, are uniformly excellent, and I look forward to Aster’s next film.  Grade for Midsommar: B.

I hated "Heredatary" but was curious about this one- the trailer is very effective- but when I found out it was 2.5 hours long I'll wait for it to play on cable- the plot sounds more like "The Wicker Man" than "Rosemary's Baby"

[cinemaspeak59]

13 hours ago, jaragon said:

I hated "Heredatary" but was curious about this one- the trailer is very effective- but when I found out it was 2.5 hours long I'll wait for it to play on cable- the plot sounds more like "The Wicker Man" than "Rosemary's Baby"

The setting and costumes do remind one of the Wicker Man.  I saw the 2006 remake with Nicholas Cage but haven't seen the 1973 version, which is regarded as much better. 

[jaragon]

On 7/9/2019 at 7:48 AM, cinemaspeak59 said:

The setting and costumes do remind one of the Wicker Man.  I saw the 2006 remake with Nicholas Cage but haven't seen the 1973 version, which is regarded as much better. 

You  must see the original film - a true horror classic with that still shocking ending- curiously the lame trailer does not mention Christopher Lee who gives a great performance

[jaragon]

" Devil Witch Child" (1975) directed by Armando de Ossorio who created the scary Blind Dead movies. This Spanish production originally titled  "La Endemonida" is a laughable "The Exorcist" copy about a Susan a young girl who is possessed by the evil spirit of an old witch.The movie is not helped by horrendous dubbed English but I doubt the original Spanish would have helped the crazy plot and cheesy fx.  But for fans of psychotronic cinema and Euro horror is a must.  There is a horrible print on Amazon prime and I do wish someone could release this classic on special edition DVD- are you listening Scream Factory