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i cant imagine the experience of watching it (or any film) this way would come close to catching it at the cinema
 
The Maus: Confused and confusing film about a couple. a Bosnian woman and her German boyfriend, whose car breaks down on a road on the midst of a Bosnian forest. They appear to wander into a minefield but the woman's dog who isn't actually with them is blown up. They encounter two Serbian men who attack them but this appears (along with the dog incident) to be the woman hallucinating about past events when her family were murdered in the 1990s. Then they really seem to be attacked by two Serbs.

The woman also has an amulet which has the power to summon up a spirit to help her. Or is she just imagining all of this? Is she suffering from PTSD? I don't know and I don't think the screenwriter or the director did either. Some very disturbing scenes but an absence of shocks. 5/10. On Netflix.
 

Russian horror from 2015: Queen of Spades: The Dark Rite. The full movie, with English subtitles.

A group of city kids, messing around with a rite they have heard about, inadvertently summon a malovelent spirit which begins to pick them out one by one. Will their elders believe them? Can they help?

Effectivley creepy throughout, with some good performances from the kids and an ambient score. No surprises but handlled with intensity. Clearly influenced by the `Sinister` franchise - but has its own Russian flavour.
 
Resurrection of Evil (AKA Havenhurst): Jackie (Julie Benz) a recovering addict has just completed rehab and moves into a strange old apartment building run by the sinister Elanor (Fionnula Flanagan) and her creepy sons. She has really moved there because one of her friends disappeared in the house. Jackie is joined by a detective in investigating what is going on in this house of horrors and she also enlists the aid of Sarah (Belle Shouse) a teen resident in the building.

And house of Horrors it is: walls move, floors tilt and deposit victims. You can check out but you can never leave. Some disturbing scenes of dismemberment and torture, one of Elanor's sons - Jed, looks positively like a Cenobite and has a circular saw attached to his arm. It's nonsense but enjoyable hokum. 6/10.
 
The best film ever made...
every Friday December 11 that comes around, I take the day off and watch Psycho at 2.43pm. I watch it on other days and at other times, but that particular day is very special. It's also the day before my birthday, so it's super special! The next one is in 2020.
 
The Maus: Confused and confusing film about a couple. a Bosnian woman and her German boyfriend, whose car breaks down on a road on the midst of a Bosnian forest. They appear to wander into a minefield but the woman's dog who isn't actually with them is blown up. They encounter two Serbian men who attack them but this appears (along with the dog incident) to be the woman hallucinating about past events when her family were murdered in the 1990s. Then they really seem to be attacked by two Serbs.

The woman also has an amulet which has the power to summon up a spirit to help her. Or is she just imagining all of this? Is she suffering from PTSD? I don't know and I don't think the screenwriter or the director did either. Some very disturbing scenes but an absence of shocks. 5/10. On Netflix.
sounds up my street, shame its netflix only
 
sounds up my street, shame its netflix only

Not everyone thought it was that bad. The whole break up of Yugoslavia involved some terrible horrors and perhaps this film is just trying to portray them.
 
Leatherface: There was a time when old Leatherface (Jed) was as cute as Pretty boy Floyd or at least no monster. 1955, young Jed (Boris Kabakchiev) and his brother lure a teen girl into a barn and drop an engine block on her. Her father, Hartmann (Stephen Dorff) a State Trooper, arrives enraged and clashes with Jed's mother Verna (Lillie Taylor). Jed's brother goes to the gas chamber but Jed is given a new identity and sent to a psychiatric hospital. Ten years later a new nurse in the hospital, Lizzy (Vanessa Grasse) gets on well with two patients, Bud (Sam Coleman) and Jackson (Sam Strike) but is harassed by the crazed Ike (James Bloor). Verna arrives demanding to see Jed and when she is refused causes mayhem allowing a riot to occur and patients to escape. Ike takes Lizzy hostage and flees with the equally deranged Clarice ( along with Bud and Jackson. One of the escapees is Jed...

This is an interesting origin story for a Horror Icon, did I mention that Verna wanted Jed to hacksaw a man to death as a present on his eighth birthday? While there are many disturbing scenes involving decapitation and dismemberment by hacksaw, stabbings shootings by the escaped inmates, Hartman has also become unhinged after the death of his daughter and now a massacre at a café and is prepared to kill without compunction.

Will you guess which one of the patients is Jed? Not Oscar winning material but the narrative is coherent within the framework of the crazed killer hillbilly families Horror Subgenre. Screenplay by Seth M. Sherwood, directed by Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury. 7/10. On Netflix.
 
When you do find out who's Leatherface, your credibility may be stretched...

...as much as the stretching machine that Jed obviously fell into after the events of this prequel.
 
When you do find out who's Leatherface, your credibility may be stretched...

...as much as the stretching machine that Jed obviously fell into after the events of this prequel.

It's good horror fun though.

I guessed who it was straight away.
 
Anybody see Juan Of The Dead? Cuban Zombie film, I gave up after 20 minutes, even the satire was plodding.
 
Anybody see Juan Of The Dead? Cuban Zombie film, I gave up after 20 minutes, even the satire was plodding.

I quite liked it, it was kind of sassy, though I imagine much of the local humour was lost on me. Nice to see some developing world horror not made by developed world filmmakers (The Dead, I'm looking at you).
 
The Secret Of Marrowbone: A family flees to the US leaving behind a dark past. They arrive at Marrowbone, the isolated ancestral home of the mother. The mother dies shortly afterwards and her death must be kept secret until Jack (George MacKay) is 21 or the family will be split up. Sam (Matthew Stagg) who is 8, sees ghosts, Billy (Charlie Heaton) 17, undertakes dangerous tasks and Jane (Mia Goth) 16 mediates between Jack and Billy on what to do as well as tutoring Sam; Jack goes to the local town for supplies.

There are several secrets of Marrowbone, the past the family fled, the walled up room in the attic, the stain on the ceiling, the strange noises. The house itself is a star of this Gothic Horror/Mystery, in a state of partial dereliction, creaky boards, rats and raccoons in the walls. A strange mansion which was just made to contain dark secrets. The mirrors are covered so that Sam won't see ghosts, they have a makeshift hide to which they retreat when ghosts appear. Jack has fallen in love with Allie (Anya Taylor-Joy) a librarian who lives on a nearby farm. A local lawyer, Tom (Kyle Soller) is also interested in Allie and things get complicated as he handles the family's legal affairs.

Some great shots especially of Billy on the roof and of the eerie interior of the house, filmed largely in washed out tones for internal shots. A complicated script by director Sergio G. Sánchez with some flashbacks and plot twists demands careful attention but in the end supplies a coherent narrative. The Secret Of Marrowbone mixes several Horror styles and tropes and is up to the standard of The Orphanage, also written bt Sánchez. 8.5/10
 
The Secret Of Marrowbone: A family flees to the US leaving behind a dark past. They arrive at Marrowbone, the isolated ancestral home of the mother. The mother dies shortly afterwards and her death must be kept secret until Jack (George MacKay) is 21 or the family will be split up. Sam (Matthew Stagg) who is 8, sees ghosts, Billy (Charlie Heaton) 17, undertakes dangerous tasks and Jane (Mia Goth) 16 mediates between Jack and Billy on what to do as well as tutoring Sam; Jack goes to the local town for supplies.

There are several secrets of Marrowbone, the past the family fled, the walled up room in the attic, the stain on the ceiling, the strange noises. The house itself is a star of this Gothic Horror/Mystery, in a state of partial dereliction, creaky boards, rats and raccoons in the walls. A strange mansion which was just made to contain dark secrets. The mirrors are covered so that Sam won't see ghosts, they have a makeshift hide to which they retreat when ghosts appear. Jack has fallen in love with Allie (Anya Taylor-Joy) a librarian who lives on a nearby farm. A local lawyer, Tom (Kyle Soller) is also interested in Allie and things get complicated as he handles the family's legal affairs.

Some great shots especially of Billy on the roof and of the eerie interior of the house, filmed largely in washed out tones for internal shots. A complicated script by director Sergio G. Sánchez with some flashbacks and plot twists demands careful attention but in the end supplies a coherent narrative. The Secret Of Marrowbone mixes several Horror styles and tropes and is up to the standard of The Orphanage, also written bt Sánchez. 8.5/10
You seem to like family orientated horrors Ramon, I think I've already mention PARENTS in this thread but that's a good 'un for you to check out (unless you've already seen it), made in the 80's, set in the 50's and starring Randy Quiad. A young boy suspects his parents have a secret, he's especially scared of his Dad and he's not wrong in being so.
 
You seem to like family orientated horrors Ramon, I think I've already mention PARENTS in this thread but that's a good 'un for you to check out (unless you've already seen it), made in the 80's, set in the 50's and starring Randy Quiad. A young boy suspects his parents have a secret, he's especially scared of his Dad and he's not wrong in being so.

Looked it up and Parents sounds interesting, I'll seek it out. Ta!

I won tickets to a preview of Marrowbone, it's opening on Friday the 13th.
 
Looked it up and Parents sounds interesting, I'll seek it out. Ta!

I won tickets to a preview of Marrowbone, it's opening on Friday the 13th.
Parents is weird .. it's a slow, pondering paced film viewed through the eyes of the wary child .. sort of how blatant it is when his parents over smile about everything when he knows he's being fobbed off .. a creepy film with only token gore but also some surreal set pieces .. I think it was made to make viewers uneasy.
 
On the topic of horror films relating to families, I assume everyone has seen "The Babadook" ? If not, you probably should.
 
Parents is weird .. it's a slow, pondering paced film viewed through the eyes of the wary child .. sort of how blatant it is when his parents over smile about everything when he knows he's being fobbed off .. a creepy film with only token gore but also some surreal set pieces .. I think it was made to make viewers uneasy.

It's also a comedy! Bob Balaban directed it, and looked to have a promising career away from his acting, but his follow-up was My Boyfriend's Back which was messed about by the studio to make it less of a horror movie. It's OK, but you can see a better film struggling to get out.
 
It's also a comedy! Bob Balaban directed it, and looked to have a promising career away from his acting, but his follow-up was My Boyfriend's Back which was messed about by the studio to make it less of a horror movie. It's OK, but you can see a better film struggling to get out.
There was dark humour in it, quirky purple people eater music, his girl friend of sorts who was eccentric and those fast comedy cuts from memory .. then those slow motion nightmare scenes between Michael and his parents bedroom .. I'm still confused by the whole film tbh ... the traditional punchline ending was a nice touch .. I wouldn't change a thing about it tbh, it's the sort of horror John Waters would have made if he'd ever tried to make a psychological horror IMO.
 

Courtesy of the New Wave of Russian horror comes Mermaid: Lake of the Dead.Interestingly, this trailer seems to have been dubbed into English (well, American) - which is a rare situation.

This is from the makers of Queen of Spades and The Bride from the last few years. (The latter, I believe is getting the dubious honour of be given a Hollywood remake). Both were impressive but, ultimately overblown I thought. Russian horror tends towards mythic dark fantasy - and it all gets very grand guignol. They could do with applying the `less is more` principle - but that's just my own taste.

It's already being described as `Shape of Water` meets `The Ring` (Haven's seen either). Anyway the promo poster is a work of art in its own right:View attachment 10612

Anyhoo it comes out here mid-next week, and your Russia correpondent here will be first in the queue.

Seen it.
A non-descript twenty-something couple, the man being a semi-professional swimmer, hire a dacha out in the sticks. The young man goes skinny dipping in the nearby lake and encounters a rusalka who asks him if he loves her. He extricates imself from her deadly embrace, keeps quiet about it, but retains a wooden comb of hers which he takes back to the city. His girlfriend and him are then haunted by this rusalka, using water as her medium - until they have to return to the lake to confront the demon head on.

First of all the `rusalka` is not a `mermaid` - that's just a cackhanded translation. It's more a sort of Slavic succubus:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/rusalka

This didn't bring any other film to mind, except that it is more Japanese in feel than Western. The water iconography - blocked drains, showers, floods, swimming - is used efectively throughout and the underwater scenes are handled well. There many loud bangs and jump scare scenes which work but are overdone. The cast lack charm and there is some humourless hocus pocus.

The monster - the rusalka -is a dripping wet raunchy woman who needs an assurance of love and morphs into a multi-fanged reptipian harpy type thing at the drop of a hat. Hell hath no fury, etc.

This is the third horror movie from the same makers (all featuring demonic femeles, btw!) and features some of the same actors - and is carries out with a real air of confidence. It is quietly pioneering insofar as it ressurects an old folk myth (like the werewolf) and yanks it into the present day. There could be more mileage in the `rusalka`.

If you like mythic folk-horror then this is for you ( and I'm sure a subtitled or dubbed version will appear soon) but I don't, really, so 6/10.
 
Just watched a horror classic from 1972 titled 'Tales from the Crypt' starring Peter Cushing, Joan Collins and Ian Henry.

Well worth the watch if you like classic storytelling rather than effects en masse.
 
Section of it is based around Christmas yes. Why?
 
I hadn't realised it was at all Christmas focused until it was on..
 
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