inspiredlamb
Crab On The Rampage
Feeling grateful for the reception...
Posts: 43
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Post by inspiredlamb on Oct 27, 2021 16:50:28 GMT
Midsommar (2019) Finally was able to catch it on some channel for free. A lot of people here in the Vault liked it. I tried to, but at the end I couldn't. I thought the script underdeveloped in every regard that was important. It is of course okay to do a new version of The Wicker Man. But some innovations or new interpretions of the established story-beats would have been nice. The biggest problem I had with the script was the undefined pagan faith which failed to establish a strong story-fundament. In Hardy's and Shaffer's movie the roots of the paganism and the mystery it offered were easy to comprehend. Without any spoon-fed exposition the viewer understands what this is about. Ordinary people with a different belief who kill people to kickstart their export. In Midaommar there was no mystery, the moment you see the sect you know how this will end. No grey tones here, just a town full of nutters in uniform.
(And frankly I thought the non-existant reaction of our heroes to the suicide/murder so preposterous that I couldn't take the rest seriously. Hey, they just bashed a head of an oldtimer in, but it is their belief, so we are not to judge. Yeah, right.)
But more problematic IMHO was that even at the end I didn't understand what the belief of the sect was about. Why the may queen stuff, why the bear? Weirdness for weirdness sake, which is seldom a good thing. The whole belief-system seemed fake and made-up, which made this unrelatable and arbitrary. At least you knew why Lord Summerisle did what he did. The photography looked nice, but the movie was too long. I was bored and a few times tempted to switch the channel. Glad I didn't buy the DVD. I confess I really enjoyed Midsommar although not as much as I enjoyed Hereditary, which I thought was one of the best horror movies of the last 20 years.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Oct 27, 2021 19:01:45 GMT
I guess I must have missed the Chekovian bear when it was introduced in the first act. "If a bear is seen in the first act, by the end of the third somebody must have been sewn into it."---Anton Chekhov
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Dec 3, 2021 19:51:33 GMT
I was sorry that circumstances meant I had to miss Edgar Wright's latest film, 'Last Night In Soho', at the cinema, as I had been keenly looking forward to it for months, so I rented it on Prime at the first opportunity I had, and it exceeded my already high hopes. I loved it from start to finish! Scary, stylish, rather like watching a perfectly performed magic trick in places, a treat for the senses, and beautifully cast - apart from terrific performances from Thomasin McKenzie as Ellie, the fashion student who seems to slip through time to 60s Soho, Anya Taylor Joy as Sandy, the aspiring singer whose life Ellie observes, and Matt Smith as Jack, Sandy's shady 'manager', there are rewarding appearances from genuine 60s icons like Terence Stamp, and Rita Tushingham - who would have been Ellie if the film had actually been made in the '60s - and the film is a fitting tribute to the marvellous Diana Rigg.
I can only imagine how great it looked and sounded at the cinema. But I felt compelled to buy both soundtracks, the blu-ray is on pre-order, and I might watch it again before my Prime rental lapses.
And I'll never not be delighted by the Amicus and Hammer nods in one of the film's key scenes, as Ellie enters a cinema past posters for a couple of classic horrors. Doctor Terror lives on.
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Post by jamesdoig on Dec 4, 2021 0:13:27 GMT
I was sorry that circumstances meant I had to miss Edgar Wright's latest film, 'Last Night In Soho', at the cinema, as I had been keenly looking forward to it for months, so I rented it on Prime at the first opportunity I had, and it exceeded my already high hopes. This goes to the top of the list - I'll watch it tonight.
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Dec 4, 2021 16:54:25 GMT
This goes to the top of the list - I'll watch it tonight. I hope you enjoy it. I watched it again last night and spotted layers I'd missed first time around, and also confirmed my initial thinking that there are Jamesian echoes in the film.
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Post by jamesdoig on Dec 4, 2021 19:58:08 GMT
I hope you enjoy it. I watched it again last night and spotted layers I'd missed first time around, and also confirmed my initial thinking that there are Jamesian echoes in the film. I did watch it and thoroughly enjoyed it - a terrific film. Nicely constructed, beautifully made, terrific soundtrack, unexpected twists that I should have seen coming. Somehow it reminded me of Dario Argento - maybe the stylish production values, nightmarish situations, psychological horror etc. It even produced a few jump scare screams from my better half. I'd only known the director from Shaun of the Dead, which is brilliant, but this is a step or two up.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Dec 5, 2021 16:08:01 GMT
... I can recommend Malignant. Malignant was a hoot. An absurd plot, over-the-top mayhem, Suspiria-style lighting, a synthwave score, and no shame at all about its B-movie roots.
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Post by jamesdoig on Dec 5, 2021 19:50:05 GMT
... I can recommend Malignant. Malignant was a hoot. An absurd plot, over-the-top mayhem, Suspiria-style lighting, a synthwave score, and no shame at all about its B-movie roots. Absolutely! I haven't laughed so much in a long time.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Dec 8, 2021 19:28:37 GMT
This goes to the top of the list - I'll watch it tonight. I hope you enjoy it. I watched it again last night and spotted layers I'd missed first time around, and also confirmed my initial thinking that there are Jamesian echoes in the film. I would be interested in hearing more about those Jamesian echoes. I enjoyed LAST NIGHT IN SOHO up to and including the final revelation, but after that it descended into bombastic, sentimental nonsense. (For some reason I was reminded of CRIMSON PEAK, but unlike that one this actually has a clever plot.) I also find the ethical perspective offensive. Finally, like many modern films and novels it goes on long after it should have ended, apparently in the belief that the audience needs "closure." In reality, few people are desperate to know what happened to the characters after the interesting stuff was over.
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Dec 9, 2021 16:41:17 GMT
I would be interested in hearing more about those Jamesian echoes. I - and at least one other I've discussed the film with - detected traces of Lost Hearts in the nature of the apparitions. Plus the way past events played themselves out put me in mind of The Mezzotint, in particular the assertion that "...it looks very much as if we were assisting at the working out of a tragedy somewhere."Of course, it could also be that I seek out Jamesian echoes in pretty much everything...
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Dec 9, 2021 17:19:58 GMT
I would be interested in hearing more about those Jamesian echoes. I - and at least one other I've discussed the film with - detected traces of Lost Hearts in the nature of the apparitions. Plus the way past events played themselves out put me in mind of The Mezzotint, in particular the assertion that "...it looks very much as if we were assisting at the working out of a tragedy somewhere."Of course, it could also be that I seek out Jamesian echoes in pretty much everything... Plus the protagonist becomes an antiquarian when she hits the microfiche.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Dec 10, 2021 16:31:26 GMT
Malignant was a hoot. An absurd plot, over-the-top mayhem, Suspiria-style lighting, a synthwave score, and no shame at all about its B-movie roots. Absolutely! I haven't laughed so much in a long time. MALIGNANT is great. Brian De Palma's SISTERS as re-imagined by David Cronenberg. Or something.
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Post by jamesdoig on Dec 22, 2021 20:35:35 GMT
Saw Antlers the other night. I had high hopes but they were ultimately disappointed - it was all a bit slow, though it had a nicely grim atmosphere of unrelenting poverty and decay. Still, it had some nice moments and a decent creature.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Dec 23, 2021 14:25:55 GMT
I switched on television last night only to behold Fanny Cradock lubricating a turkey. I did have nightmares.
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enoch
Devils Coach Horse
Posts: 117
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Post by enoch on Dec 26, 2021 11:47:35 GMT
I mainly get my film horror fix these days by checking out short horror films on YouTube. Sure, 95% of them are trash, but that remaining 5% is well worth the trouble to seek out. I've always found horror to be best in small doses, anyway. I've actually only read a handful of horror novels, though I've read too many horror short stories and comic books to count. Naturally, I'm a big fan of horror anthology movies (like the immortal Dead of Night) and horror anthology television shows.
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