Fortean Films

[ramonmercado]

Bacurau is an odd town in North East Brazil, but things are about to get stranger. The film opens with a crashed truck which was delivering coffins, caskets are strewn along the road and a motorcyclist has been killed. Bacurau is involved in a war over water rights and the river has been dammed upstream. It's suspected that a shady politician is involved. He arrives in town canvassing for re-election, tips out a lorry load of books and also delivers tranquilizer suppositories. The town has started to disappear from satellite maps and there is no mobile phone coverage. Motorcyclists are chased by tiny flying saucers, after that things really get weird. Bacurau comes under siege and an asymmetric battle commences. Bloody, violent scenes ensue with shootings, stabbings and decapitations.Several films are brought to mind but to mention their titles would give too much away. Though it has influences, Bacurau possesses it's own unique style. A weird Neo-Noir Western with touches of Magical Realism and political satire. Written & Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles. On Film4. 9/10.

 

[GNC]

Bacurau is an odd town in North East Brazil, but things are about to get stranger. The film opens with a crashed truck which was delivering coffins, caskets are strewn along the road and a motorcyclist has been killed. Bacurau is involved in a war over water rights and the river has been dammed upstream. It's suspected that a shady politician is involved. He arrives in town canvassing for re-election, tips out a lorry load of books and also delivers tranquilizer suppositories. The town has started to disappear from satellite maps and there is no mobile phone coverage. Motorcyclists are chased by tiny flying saucers, after that things really get weird. Bacurau comes under siege and an asymmetric battle commences. Bloody, violent scenes ensue with shootings, stabbings and decapitations.Several films are brought to mind but to mention their titles would give too much away. Though it has influences, Bacurau possesses it's own unique style. A weird Neo-Noir Western with touches of Magical Realism and political satire. Written & Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles. On Film4. 9/10.

You didn't mention the cast: the great Udo Kier is a baddie in it! He was also in The Painted Bird this year, and took the role as long as he could play the scene in the book where his character stares at a squashed fly on a wall for hours. Whatta guy!

 

[ramonmercado]

You didn't mention the cast: the great Udo Kier is a baddie in it! He was also in The Painted Bird this year, and took the role as long as he could play the scene in the book where his character stares at a squashed fly on a wall for hours. Whatta guy!

Udo is wonderful, I was too intent on not including spoilers in the review.

 

[captain_bats]

I'm a big fan of Justin Benson/Aaron Moorhead's films too. Having read a few interviews with them, they seem to have a lot of interesting Fortean influences - in one, Benson mentions John Keel's The Mothman Prophecies as inspiring parts of The Endless. I look forward to seeing their new one.

I also enjoyed this bit of guerrilla marketing for Resolution. It's a blog purporting to be written by a guy called Jesse Summoner, an 'international collector' working for the filmmakers, who gets in an ever stranger series of adventures, referencing some of the events and characters from the film.

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

Watched indie British movie Soldiers of the Damned (2015) last night on Prime Video.

The basic plot centres on the the Nazi Ahnenerbe organisation, tasked with recovering occult relics as supposed proof of an ancient race of god-like aryan superbeings.

A small team of Wehrmacht, led by Aussie actor Gil Darnell (the only actor's name I recognised in the entire cast) is tasked with getting an SS Ahnenerbe officer (a rather clichéd "Ve haf vays" type) and a somewhat mysterious female archaeologist through a forest with a bad reputation for supernatural activity to some sort of ancient citadel.
This seems to be very loosely based on genuine Ahnenerbe expeditions to real locations like Mangup Kale in Crimea.

Quite apart from the occult main theme, the movie is packed full of Forteana, with timeslips, ghosts, spontaneous human combustion, translocations and living dead aplenty.

It's more than a bit bonkers (watch out for the Panzer dropping out of the sky!) and contains one rape scene and a fair amount of body horror gore.
For a fairly low budget movie though, I found it moderately entertaining and, at 98 minutes, it doesn't overstay its welcome.
6/10 would be my rating.

 

[gordonrutter]

Watched indie British movie Soldiers of the Damned (2015) last night on Prime Video.

The basic plot centres on the the Nazi Ahnenerbe organisation, tasked with recovering occult relics as supposed proof of an ancient race of god-like aryan superbeings.

A small team of Wehrmacht, led by Aussie actor Gil Darnell (the only actor's name I recognised in the entire cast) is tasked with getting an SS Ahnenerbe officer (a rather clichéd "Ve haf vays" type) and a somewhat mysterious female archaeologist through a forest with a bad reputation for supernatural activity to some sort of ancient citadel.
This seems to be very loosely based on genuine Ahnenerbe expeditions to real locations like Mangup Kale in Crimea.

Quite apart from the occult main theme, the movie is packed full of Forteana, with timeslips, ghosts, spontaneous human combustion, translocations and living dead aplenty.

It's more than a bit bonkers (watch out for the Panzer dropping out of the sky!) and contains one rape scene and a fair amount of body horror gore.
For a fairly low budget movie though, I found it moderately entertaining and, at 98 minutes, it doesn't overstay its welcome.
6/10 would be my rating.

I also watched this yesterday and agree a bit bonkers but entertaining.

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

I also watched this yesterday and agree a bit bonkers but entertaining.

It prompted me to do a little Googling about Ahnenerbe and their expeditions.
I know the movie was filmed in a forest somewhere up in Yorkshire, but the ruins at the end did look similar to the ancient fortress of Mangup Kale in Crimea, where Himmler sent an expedition in the hope of finding some powerful ancient artefacts (spoiler - he didn't succeed).

 

[ravensocks]

Wasn't sure whether to post this under Fortean Cartoons or here, but I watched Gints Zilbalodis' 'Away' over the weekend. A simple animation style fully created, edited and scored by Zilbalodis - but which tells a powerful story. There's no dialogue, but the unnamed protagonist and his little bird friend set off on an adventure in a fairy tale land. Along the way they meet mysterious ghosts from the past, strangely acting animals and an unstoppable force of nature.

I really enjoyed it.

 

[Yithian]

Richard Wattis plays a kind of time travelling publican in strange short feature What'll You Have (1977), produced by The Brewers Association. Here he arrives at a 'modern' pub with Go-Go dancers. There are some great shots of 70's pubs..

 

[GNC]

I've seen Synchronic now, and it was kind of disappointing, it gives me no pleasure to say. I liked the "black guy goes back in time and suffers massive racism everywhere" theme, but everything else was a bit too melodramatic, even soap opera, with the earnest relationships taking precedent over the timey-wimey stuff. The ending was a bit "forced poignancy" too. Hope these guys haven't lost it.

 

[Xanatic*]

There are two new films out, about living in a simulation.
The first one is called A Glitch in the Matrix, which I gather is a documentary-style thing.
The other is called Bliss. Owen Wilson meets Salma Hayek, who believes their world is actually simulated. I haven't watched either so far.

 

[GNC]

A Glitch in the Matrix is interesting, and yes, it's a documentary. All I know about Bliss is that it's supposed to be comically terrible.

 

[Comfortably Numb]

I wondered if anyone could please help identify this film - possibly little known and I have never come across it since.

It would be dated circa late 70s and I believe featured the disaster at a nuclear power plant.

A central theme was how this had been prophicised in the 'Book of Revelation'.

It freaked me out at the time, to an extent I left the cinema before the film ended!

 

[Xanatic*]

Isn't this possibly about the Chernobyl/wormwood connection?

 

[Comfortably Numb]

Isn't this possibly about the Chernobyl/wormwood connection?

It would have been too early for this?

I remember there being a comparison made between the building's design and phrases from 'Revelation' - that played an essential part.

 

[Comfortably Numb]

I remember there being a comparison made between the building's design...

I'm sure 'towers' were a key factor - maybe referencing Ezekiel as well?

If I recall, the building had towers...

 

[maximus otter]

I'm sure 'towers' were a key factor - maybe referencing Ezekiel as well?

If I recall, the building had towers...

A distorted memory of The China Syndrome (1979), though l don’t remember anything about the Book of Revelation?

maximus otter

 

[TangletwigsDeux]

I wondered if anyone could please help identify this film - possibly little known and I have never come across it since.

It would be dated circa late 70s and I believe featured the disaster at a nuclear power plant.

A central theme was how this had been prophicised in the 'Book of Revelation'.

It freaked me out at the time, to an extent I left the cinema before the film ended!

This one?

Holocaust 2000

 

[Comfortably Numb]

This one?

Holocaust 2000

That's the one!

 

[Comfortably Numb]

That's the one!

More background here:

https://www.diabolikdvd.com/product/the-chosen-holocaust-2000-scream-factory-blu-ray/

Whilst clearly not recommending anyone shouldn't purchase a copy - obviously the quality will be far superior - the film is available on YouTube, if you should wish to watch on a device without the DVD/Blu-Ray facility:

It seems to be highly rated as an example of that late 1970s genre and I remember the film as being seriously intense.

If you haven't seen the movie, I can heartily recommend - it's the only one which I personally found disturbing.

This is from someone who went to see the Exorcist six times.

 

[Mythopoeika]

A distorted memory of The China Syndrome (1979), though l don’t remember anything about the Book of Revelation?

maximus otter

That's the one I immediately thought of too.

 

[TangletwigsDeux]

More background here:

https://www.diabolikdvd.com/product/the-chosen-holocaust-2000-scream-factory-blu-ray/

Whilst clearly not recommending anyone shouldn't purchase a copy - obviously the quality will be far superior - the film is available on YouTube, if you should wish to watch on a device without the DVD/Blu-Ray facility:

It seems to be highly rated as an example of that late 1970s genre and I remember the film as being seriously intense.

If you haven't seen the movie, I can heartily recommend - it's the only one which I personally found disturbing.

This is from someone who went to see the Exorcist six times.

The frame youtube chose there is serious uncanny valley territory for me, looks like a Tussauds Lovejoy came to life.

 

[Comfortably Numb]

...looks like a Tussauds Lovejoy came to life.

The scene at 1:29 into the film, where Kirk Douglas is literally thrown into a padded cell replete with flesh-eating zombies, is a masterpiece of that contemporary 'religious horror' genre!

 

[ramonmercado]

Don't Go: Difficult to categorise: horror, time slips, attempting to change past events, maybe a touch of the supernatural about it. Ben blames himself (as does his wife Hazel) for the death of his child, Molly, who died in an accident. His guilt is worsened by where he really was when Molly perished. Ben and Hazel move to the West of Ireland to renovate a hotel but instead of being a new start Ben has strange dreams. He is transported back to a time when all three of them were on a beach. Even when awake he keeps seeing the slogan Seas The Day. He becomes obsessed with the idea of actually time travelling to avert the accident. The oddities of his situation are well illustrated - he has conversations with people who aren't really there yet seems to be able to being physical objects back from his time-slip dreams. The themes of guilt (plus hiding the truth)and the need for redemption run Don't Go but the realisation that redemption comes at a price is made all too clear. Reality (and Ben's imaginary conversations) is generally shot with a darker filter while the past beach scenes are in brighter colours. The film is unevenly paced with too much time used to set up the critical scenes, it might have worked better as a 60 minute episode of an anthology series. Directed by David Gleeson from a script by Ronan Blaney and John Collins. Saw it on RTE. 6/10.

 

[Swifty]

If you count religion, the end of the world type stuff and more than a sprinkling of puerile behaviour from Mr Jason Mewes as Fortean then strap yourself in and enjoy .. and you're welcome .. snootch ..

Dogma - Full Movie (1999) - YouTube

 

[captain_bats]

I've seen Synchronic now, and it was kind of disappointing, it gives me no pleasure to say. I liked the "black guy goes back in time and suffers massive racism everywhere" theme, but everything else was a bit too melodramatic, even soap opera, with the earnest relationships taking precedent over the timey-wimey stuff. The ending was a bit "forced poignancy" too. Hope these guys haven't lost it.

I have just watched it. I thought it was alright but did find it a little disappointing. My least favourite of their films.

So much of it seemed too convenient and contrived:

Spoiler

The drug's creator breaking into our man's house just to deliver a load of exposition before disappearing out of the film was particularly bad.

...and I don't think some of the time travel stuff is working to any kind of logic:

Spoiler

In his house, taking the pills a few feet apart leads to ending up in times thousands of years apart, yet travelling to the rock on the riverbank (in another part of the city) takes him to a time much closer to either of his trips on the couch. It could all be just random but then in his final trip he arrives at a time not long after where the girl went - presumably not the exact time because he was a few inches off (indicating a connection between the geographic location and the time you end up in).

And I'm a bit unclear on the ending:

Spoiler

What was the significance of the message on the rock? It seems Steve wrote it but why was it spelled like that?

 

[GNC]

I think they're doing a Marvel thing next, either a step up or a sell-out, depending on your POV.

Must admit I've forgotten most of Synchronic now, it didn't linger long in the memory banks, so can't answer your questions, sorry!

 

[ramonmercado]

French Exit: A quirky comedy drama which turns very strange. Frances (Michelle Pfeiffer) is an improvident New York socialite widow who has squandered her inheritance and that of her directionless son Malcolm (Lucas Hedges). They move to Paris to live in a friends apartment, having adventures on a liner on the way. An ensemble cast of characters join them at the apartment: a lonely expatriate New York widow; a private detective, a psychic (Danielle Macdonald), Malcolm's estranged fiance Susan (Imogen Poots) along with her new fiance. The move doesn't stop Frances from continuing her profligacy and losing their rather odd cat. Seances, visits to the liners morgue along with other incidents vie with Frances's behaviour for zaniness. Flashbacks are important to the development of the narrative as is Frances walking along a Parisian Street exchanging pleasantries with another flaneur. Episodic and a tad uneven. Directed by Azazel Jacobs and written by Patrick deWitt. 6/10.

In cinemas.

 

[GNC]

Can anyone tell me anything about this:

First film based on a paranormal podcast, apparently. Supposed to be funny, I think? Anyone any the wiser?

 

[JamesWhitehead]

Supposed to be funny, I think?

Not very different from the swathes of related material on Youtube already, where intentional and unintended laughs are impossible to distinguish.

Urban Explorers are reaching to the point that they declare up-front that they are not ghost-seers, as a seal of authenticity in their own niche!