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Post by andydecker on Nov 13, 2009 10:15:17 GMT
I liked your reviews, John. Your thoughts on Mother of Tears were spot on. What a disappointment. Jaded as I am I also started to go into the obscure movies. Stuff like Nude for Satan or Werewolf vs Vampire Woman (which was terrible ) Still, one or two of those Paul Naschy films are quite fun. A newer strange one is Nattens Engel, a very gory vampire movie from Denmark.
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Post by Johnlprobert on Nov 13, 2009 11:02:29 GMT
Thanks! Reading Mr Marsh's comment I do wonder sometimes why I watch movies no-one else would ever want to. The latest is the boxset of Karloff & Lugosi Horror "Classics" where only two of the four movies are actually horror and only one (The Walking Dead) was any good. Frankenstein 1970 featured the worst monster ever - like a 5 year old's attempt at the Michelin man, and Zombies on Broadway was a far worse vehicle for Bela Lugosi than anything by Ed Wood. As for You'll Find Out - I managed 10 minutes of this 1940s 'zany musical murder mystery' before I realised some things are beyond even me.
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Post by bushwick on Nov 13, 2009 12:36:26 GMT
A recent horror some of you might want to try is Gutterballs, a Canadian flick from the guy that did the nasty rape-revenge short Torched. Didn't get a theatrical release and there is no way on God's earth the BBFC would allow it through uncut. I saw the fully uncut one which actually features a bit of HC action during the sex scenes...
It's not a 'good' film, it's an 80s-throwback slasher featuring incredibly unlikeable characters (who you are just wishing to die as soon as they step onto the screen), horrible dialogue, and loads of horrendously over the top brutality. An early scene is redolent of I Spit On Your Grave, if you know what I mean, not easy to watch and most definitely exploitative (and involves a bowling pin). In true pulp style, of course the woman's fine afterwards and is back with her friends the next day. Her trauma is expressed by wearing sunglasses...Incredibly severe gore scenes, including a guy getting his entire face ground off by a bowling ball polishing machine (oh yeah, I forgot to mention it's all set in a bowling alley and the killer wears a bowling ball bag as a mask...).
It's an enjoyably uncomfortable mix of 'lighthearted' cheesy tone/horrible scenes, disconcerting bits of real sex, tributes the 80s without trying too hard, plus there is a sequence where a transsexual character gets a non-consensual sex change...yeeesh...
Many of you will hate it, there's very little to defend it really. I can't get on with most modern stuff but , if you 'like' this sort of thing, this is worth a look. To shoehorn in a pulp reference, this could well have been a Laurence James book. Without any of the crafty clever bits.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Nov 13, 2009 13:04:21 GMT
I sometimes ask the same question John as I stare disconsolately at the grainy image of an abysmal actor struggling with the ramblings of a questionable director. If it is any consolation I am usually watching the same or similar films to you and I am sure there is a fair body of equally sad individuals lurking in the vault.
A couple of reasons I watch old films: One is that the cultural milieu was different and exerts a fascination on its own terms. The Night of The Living Dead or Carnival of Souls offer an entirely different moral framework from that of modern horror. They are therefore intriguing because they offer unexpected insights into other frames of thinking and not only that, they show the peripheral edge of that kind of thinking - the twilight zone of a different time and place. This is also true of foreign horror movies and is of perennial fascination to me.
Another is they occasionally make me laugh very loudly. Sometimes of course there are gems of horror, moments of utter confusion and darkness made all the worse by the unexpectedness of the fright
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Post by Johnlprobert on Nov 15, 2009 20:13:36 GMT
Craig those are all valid reasons to watch these things and certainly there's a fascination for all the things you mention going on when I watch them. 1940s horror films for example aren't just watched because they might scare me,but because I'm really looking at a time capsule from another age.
They make me laugh a lot too - but that's what I love about the horror genre - it's got everything. Scares, laughs and sex. There's even subtext in some of the stuff, and not even the heavier films
I'll stop before I write another essay.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Nov 15, 2009 20:26:56 GMT
Rog sent me The Spanish film To Let some time ago - I watched it alone in a hotel room in Germany. It scared the life out of me. Had to sleep with the light on; rather embarrassing for a horror writer.
This thread got me thinking: why do I like being scared?
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Post by paulfinch on Nov 16, 2009 10:35:31 GMT
Rog sent me The Spanish film To Let some time ago - I watched it alone in a hotel room in Germany. It scared the life out of me. Had to sleep with the light on; rather embarrassing for a horror writer. This thread got me thinking: why do I like being scared? On the subject of Spanish horror, can I assume that all of you chaps and chapesses have seen REC - I mean the Spanish version, not the American remake? A horror classic in my opinion. John, if you haven't check that out, go for it forthwith. I'd be interested to hear anyone else's views.
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Post by mattofthespurs on Nov 16, 2009 12:11:33 GMT
Rog sent me The Spanish film To Let some time ago - I watched it alone in a hotel room in Germany. It scared the life out of me. Had to sleep with the light on; rather embarrassing for a horror writer. This thread got me thinking: why do I like being scared? On the subject of Spanish horror, can I assume that all of you chaps and chapesses have seen REC - I mean the Spanish version, not the American remake? A horror classic in my opinion. John, if you haven't check that out, go for it forthwith. I'd be interested to hear anyone else's views. I agree. The Spanish version is superb. I turned the US remake off after 30 mins as it was pretty bad. Thanks for the 'heads up' for "To Let". Just bought the 6 episodes of "6 Tales To Keep You awake" on which that story features.
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Post by Johnlprobert on Nov 16, 2009 12:53:35 GMT
Here's my review from RCMB:
Short review:
Absolutely totally and utterly bloody brilliant.
Longer review:
I never thought I’d liken horror films to buses, but after years (literally) of sitting through sub-standard crap like 30 Days of Night my love of this genre of ours has been well and truly reignited in the last couple of weeks by THE ORPHANAGE (a superb ghost story), THE MIST (a superb monster movie) and now, just when I thought things couldn’t possibly get any better I’ve just seen [REC]. [REC] is a Spanish zombie movie. It’s also the most terrifying, nerve-shredding, thrill ride of a zombie picture I may have ever seen. Half an hour after it’s finished & I’m still shaking with terror and glee. It’s the ‘people trapped in a tenement building’ scenario with gradually more & more becoming infected. I lost count of the number of ‘stinger’ shots that had me jumping a mile. A couple of the zombie attacks are so brilliantly choreographed you forget to breath, and it even has one of those here’s-the-explanation-but-it-doesn’t-actually-make-much-sense-and-actually-make s-everything-scarier endings us fans of Euro-Horror know and love so well. It’s only about 80 minutes long but it’s so kinetic I could have sworn I’d only been in the cinema for half an hour. A tiny budgeted well acted brilliantly made kinetic bloodbath.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Nov 17, 2009 0:46:38 GMT
REC - looks like another sleepless night for me. Next lonely hotel REC is going to be in the bag...
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Post by andydecker on Nov 17, 2009 21:55:25 GMT
REC is a great little movie. A simple tale, but cuts to the mark.
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