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Horror Films

SleepyPanda

SleepyPanda

Always sleepy, not actually a panda.
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Has anyone seen The Blackwell Ghost series of films? They seem to have good ratings for films that I don't think are particularly well-known.
 
ramonmercado

ramonmercado

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Never heard of Ganja & Hess before. Has anyone here watched it>

Bill Gunn's 1973 horror was revered at Cannes, but buried in the US – leading him to pen a famous letter about reviewers' racism. Now it's finally getting its due, writes Leila Latif.
T
The story of Ganja & Hess is just as compelling a tale as the film itself. Written and directed by Bill Gunn, and released in New York on 20 April, 1973, the black vampire movie has lost none of its power over the past 50 years. It artfully depicts a wealthy anthropologist Dr Hess Green (Duane Jones), who is stabbed by his assistant George (Gunn) with an ancient African ceremonial dagger before George kills himself. The dagger turns Hess into a vampire, and further complications ensue when George's widow Ganja (Marlene Clark) comes to Hess' home looking for her husband, and the two fall hopelessly in love.

The film defies easy classification with its hallucinatory visuals, rich metaphors for addiction, raw sexuality and lyrical dialogue that offers a wholly unique treatise on African-American identity. For the film critic and programmer Kelli Weston, who recently co-programmed the In Dreams are Monsters season at London's British Film Institute, which screened Ganja & Hess, "the story has a quite classic structure for a horror film" and is founded on "the core premise of horror cinema, that what is repressed must always return". "But Ganja & Hess is enlivened by these black characters and the tension between spirituality, addiction and the predatory nature of empire," she adds. "Hess faces a curse from another place that he's sort of tied to – there's a rupture between black Americans and Africa, but a sense of feeling always bound or even haunted by it."

But, while Ganja & Hess is nowadays widely praised, the journey that Gunn's film has had to gain due respect is infamous, having been mistreated and misrepresented for decades. ....

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article...he-50-year-old-vampire-film-critics-got-wrong
 
blessmycottonsocks

blessmycottonsocks

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The House on the Cliff (2021 on Prime).

An Anglo-Indian horror set in the 70s in the mythical English village of Corvid's Head (a thinly disguised Marazion in Cornwall, overlooking St. Michael's Mount).
Well-to-do Indian couple, featuring glamourous Bollywood star Nyra Banerjee, move to England and buy a suspiciously cheap big old house on a cliff. They should have realised something was a bit awry when the husband asked the estate agent "is there anything you're not telling us" and she looks panicked, mumbles something about getting the place at below the market price before beating a hasty retreat.
Even though they're obviously a Hindu couple, the local vicar pops in to offer a blessing, presumably knowing the grim history of the house and nearby suicide hotspot - only to get the full-on Amityville Horror treatment.
As things get increasingly weird, the couple seek the services of a psychic investigator.
Yes, this isn't the most original movie and feels rather like a throw-back to umpteen 1970s horrors, but with a hint of the usual over-dramatic Bollywood vibe (thankfully though, no-one breaks into a song and dance routine).
The special effects of the ghosts are pretty weak and are revealed far too soon and some of the acting is a bit iffy.
At a shade under 2 hours, it also feels at least 20 minutes too long.
Still it ticks most of the Fortean boxes, there are a couple of make-you-jump moments (notably at 1hr 20!), and there's a certain entertainment value in identifying all the clichés and hat-tips (Amityville Horror, The Exorcist, The Omen, Straw Dogs, Poltergeist and The Ring spring immediately to mind).
Overall, it's only a 5/10 from me (would have been less if Nyra Banerjee wasn't so captivating!).

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ramonmercado

ramonmercado

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Beau Is Afraid: Beau (Joaquin Phoenix) has good reasons to be afraid, he was setting off to visit his mother (Patti LuPone) when everything started to go wrong. The night before he gets notes shoved under his door accusing him of making noise when neighbours are actually doing so. He sleeps in, rushes to catch his flight but his his keys and luggage are stolen. A mob of street people invade his apartment and he is then stabbed and chased by a naked serial killer and is struck by a vehicle. All of this occurs in the opening 15 minutes of the film and is not without it;s comic moments, Beau awakens in the home of the family who knocked him down, the pater familias being a surgeon he's on a drip. Shades of Misery ensue.

Beau's onward journey is convoluted as he encounters an travelling actors troupe in a forest along with crazed pursuers. His sanity as well as his life is at stake. People die horribly, commit suicide by drinking paint. Through flashbacks we learn how Beau became the man he is, still controlled by his distant mother. There are literally heart breaking scenes scattered throughout the movie. There is a story here but the moral of it is difficult to figure out as he Beau wanders through animated scenes and longs for a lost love from his childhood. His mother gradually begins to emerge as the domineering parent from Hell whilst his father is missing due to a fatal on the job accident. What is reality here and what is fantasy, drug induced visions or psychosis is open to question but the narrative somehow hangs together. Totally different in tone, imagery and influences from Hereditary and Midsommar, Beau will likely disappoint those who expect to see a film of the Folk Horror genre. But it's worth sticking with even if I may have to watch it a second time to figure everything out. Written, Directed, and Produced by Ari Aster. 8/10.

In cinemas.
 
Swifty

Swifty

doesn't negotiate with terriers
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Swifty

Swifty

doesn't negotiate with terriers
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Mr Mrs put on a horror film that had been recommend to her by her ex called 'INBRED' ..

.. a torture porn which I hate, set in England in Yorkshire and with townies sent there who get captured then tortured or violently murdered. 10 out of 10 to the special FX crew to be fair, I never thought I'd get to see a horse stamp on someone's head with no cutaway. The decapitation by meat cleaver was done with reverse motion photography in three fast edits ending with the lingering fake head so someone needs to buy F/X legend Tom Savini a pint to thank him for teaching them that. I couldn't stomach watching it because I don't like the 'torture porn' genre of horror but some people might enjoy it. It's intense.

 
Ronnie Jersey

Ronnie Jersey

Justified & Ancient
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ramonmercado

ramonmercado

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The Boogeyman has some jump scares but a lot of the horror is also psychological, about how our fears may summon up a physical reality. sort of a tulpa that has been around for millennia. Maybe first summoned up when humans discovered fire and feared what hid in the daek beyond. Not just fear but grief may bring about the onset of the conditions which create The Boogeyman. High school student Sadie Harper (Sophie Thatcher) and her little sister Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair) are distraught after the recent death of their mother. Their father Will (Chris Messina), a therapist by profession, gives them neither the support nor the affection that they need. He tries but is crippled by his own pain and dense of loss which he refuses to verbalise.. A disturbed patient shows up unexpectedly at their house asking for help, ends up committing suicide and brings in a strange entity that preys on the family and like a psychic vampire leeches off their greatest suffering. The monster when it appears is quite effective, even terrifying but on prior scenes the dark corners where it lurks beforehand, barely glimpsed also work well. This film is based on a classic Stephen King story and carries more depth than such a trope normally would. The lives of the children, their father and the disturbed patient are explored, no cardboard characters here, Good performances all round. Directed by Rob Savage from a screenplay by Scott Beck, Bryan Woods and Mark Heyman. 8/10

In cinemas.
 
blessmycottonsocks

blessmycottonsocks

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ramonmercado said:
The Boogeyman has some jump scares but a lot of the horror is also psychological, about how our fears may summon up a physical reality. sort of a tulpa that has been around for millennia. Maybe first summoned up when humans discovered fire and feared what hid in the daek beyond. Not just fear but grief may bring about the onset of the conditions which create The Boogeyman. High school student Sadie Harper (Sophie Thatcher) and her little sister Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair) are distraught after the recent death of their mother. Their father Will (Chris Messina), a therapist by profession, gives them neither the support nor the affection that they need. He tries but is crippled by his own pain and dense of loss which he refuses to verbalise.. A disturbed patient shows up unexpectedly at their house asking for help, ends up committing suicide and brings in a strange entity that preys on the family and like a psychic vampire leeches off their greatest suffering. The monster when it appears is quite effective, even terrifying but on prior scenes the dark corners where it lurks beforehand, barely glimpsed also work well. This film is based on a classic Stephen King story and carries more depth than such a trope normally would. The lives of the children, their father and the disturbed patient are explored, no cardboard characters here, Good performances all round. Directed by Rob Savage from a screenplay by Scott Beck, Bryan Woods and Mark Heyman. 8/10

In cinemas.
Click to expand...
Is this a remake of the 1980 Boogeyman?
 
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