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Horror Films

brownmane said:
A good creature feature that I think was done well is The Mist. Special effects reminded me of the older creature feature films.
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The Mist was great, it probably helped that I'd read the story first but you can't ever go wrong with a Frank Darabont film of Stephen King stories. I hope this is the start of a trend and creature features are coming back into fashion.
 
The Prodigy: A film with a Folk Horror opening: a fist crashes through a wooden door, unbolting it from the outside. A woman runs through woods, crosses a stream, is almost run over by an elderly woman who has long dreads adding to the (Folk vibe). The fleeing woman, Margaret (Brittany Allen) shows her arm stump: "he took my hand!". Cut to a couple heading to hospital, the woman is about to give birth. Back to the house the woman escaped from. A serial killer, Scarka (Paul Fauteux) within is surrounded by a SWAT Team. He commits suicide by cop. Cut to a baby being born as the killer dies. This all happens in the first ten minutes of the film and perhaps it gives too much information, making clear the connection between the killer and the baby boy.

The boy, Miles, is indeed a prodigy showing great promise at 20 weeks, 2 years, 5 years. At age 8 Miles (Jackson Scott) is still way ahead of his peers but shows some worrying behaviour. At first this is more obvious to his mother Sarah (Taylor Schilling) than to his father John (Peter Monney). This could have been just another murderous kid movie as Miles hits a classmate with a wrench and harms animals but it returns to it's Folk Horror roots with the arrival of Arthur (Colm Feore) a psychologist who specialises in rebirth and reincarnation. This is no case of possession as no demonic entity is involved, rather a deceased personality, a Dybbuk which is Scarka, is trying to take over Miles. The internal struggle is illustrated as Miles wears a skeleton suit at Halloween but his face is only half covered by skull make-up.

There are a few scares and scenes of savage violence but most of the narrative unfolds in a low key fashion, maintaining tension but after the frantic opening sequence it does result in uneven pacing. Arthur, as a seasoned professional, could also have been better prepared for his encounter with a child he believed to be in danger of going Dybbuk, but that's a script failing. Good performances from Scott and Feore.

Director Nicholas McCarthy working from a screenplay by Jeff Buhler delivers a satisfactory addition to the "Possessed" Child genre but it falls short of being a classic. 7.5/10.
 
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ramonmercado said:
The Prodigy:A serial killer, Scarka (Paul Fauteux) within is surrounded by a SWAT Team. He commits suicide by cop. Cut to a baby being born as the killer dies. This all happens in the first ten minutes of the film and perhaps it gives too much information, making clear the connection between the killer and the baby boy.
7.5/10.
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I thought that this was the original plot of Chucky!
 
Spiders 3D: More than 20 years after the break-up of the USSR a Soviet Space Station crashes to Earth. But not just any station - mutant spiders were experimented on in this one and they'er had all that time to mutate further. Some of the debris which survives re-entry hits New York and ends up in the Subway. We soon have spiders killing transit workers and laying eggs in their bodies. Spiders of all sizes but rapidly growing bigger send rats and bats scurrying and fleeing from the Subway tunnels. But those who live underground in abandoned tunnels and stations. the mole people, provide a ready food supply for the spiders.

The large spiders, about the size of capybaras, are quite frightening and realistic. They are difficult to kill and readily scurry up fire escapes. The Queen Spider when she finally arrives is a real monster but not as credible, effects just didn't hack it. There is an evil army colonel who wants to secure the spiders as a weapon who will kill anyone who gets in his way. The script isn't any great shakes and the locations are limited as I guess was the budget. The best acting is certainly by the spiders

A trashy B movie which is certainly worth watching if you are a fan of such fare. 5.5/10.
 
The Devil's Tomb: Looks like a typical job for mercenary leader Mack (Cuba Gooding jr) as his team is hired by CIA agent Elissa (Valerie Cruz) to rescue her scientist father Wesley (Ron Perlman) from an archeological dig in the Middle East. But when they arrive they find a vast underground laboratory and are assailed by a gibbering boil covered priest rather jihadis. It soon becomes clear that some secret project was underway at the dig. But it has literally raised Demons.

Team members have hallucinations and flashbacks to previous battles. Gradually the extent to which the demons have possessed the scientists becomes clear and the mercenaries also start to fall victim to the ancient evil which has been unearthed and these Demons are hard to kill. Henry Rollins plays a (sometimes) self-possessed priest who reveals that they are dealing with the Nephilim. Some good scenes as the soldiers face an enemy which is new to them. Largely filmed underground which raises the sense of dread and tension and convincing portrayals of Demonic Possession.

Director Jason Connery delivers an OK Horror B Movie which would have benefited from a bigger budget and better screenplay. 6/10
 
Jim said:
"Be Afraid" good horror thriller presently on Net-flick. Suspense keeps one off balanced a bit and a creature features. 9/10
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It's not on RoI/UK Netflix yet but it certainly looks interesting.
 
I Remember You: Scandi-Noir meets Horror in this tale of vengeful ghosts set in Iceland. Two boys go missing 60 years and 100 miles apart. In a remote part of Iceland the the disappearance of the boy 60 years ago is linked to the suicide of an old woman who has crosses carved in her back. She had been a classmate of the boy and several of his other classmates have died in mysterious circumstances. The psychiatrist helping the police is the father of the boy who has recently vanished. Three city folk are trying to establish a guest house in the area are also plagued by strange events and apparitions.

Grief, loss and estrangement are central to the unfolding of this story as secrets are gradually revealed. One ghost seeks revenge against those who bullied him, the other wreaks vengeance on those who unwittingly brought him to his death. Some quite frightening scenes but this is mostly a psychological horror drama directed and written by Óskar Thór Axelsson. 8/10.
 
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I do have trouble finding films as I either search for them online by name or stumble over them. I live in a small town of 36000 (though legally I guess has "city" status) but one theater and it rarely plays horror of any kind.
 
brownmane said:
I do have trouble finding films as I either search for them online by name or stumble over them. I live in a small town of 36000 (though legally I guess has "city" status) but one theater and it rarely plays horror of any kind.
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If it's got a cathedral then it's a city but that's UK rules. Cromer never plays horror either, it did play the Evil Dead remake though which was cool and an employee nabbed the poster for me. Other than that, it only plays shit films.
 
Swifty said:
If it's got a cathedral then it's a city but that's UK rules. Cromer never plays horror either, it did play the Evil Dead remake though which was cool and an employee nabbed the poster for me. Other than that, it only plays shit films.
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I believe the correct term is "scheisse videos".
 
GNC said:
I believe the correct term is "scheisse videos".
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I think you'll find the underground who actually do this for fun call it 'Champagne &/or Caviar', champagne is perv slang for wee and caviar is slang for poo. I used to know someone who was an adult baby in his spare time, he leant me an amazing video although he wasn't on it thankfully. That would have been just weird.
 
Swifty said:
...champagne is perv slang for wee and caviar is slang for poo. I used to know someone who was an adult baby in his spare time, he leant me an amazing video although he wasn't on it thankfully. That would have been just weird.
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Yeah, that’s the cutoff point for “weird”.

maximus otter
 
Swifty said:
I think you'll find the underground who actually do this for fun call it 'Champagne &/or Caviar', champagne is perv slang for wee and caviar is slang for poo. I used to know someone who was an adult baby in his spare time, he leant me an amazing video although he wasn't on it thankfully. That would have been just weird.
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Can you describe contents of said video?
 
Swifty said:
No.
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giphy (4).gif
 
Us: A family comes under attack from doppelgangers who intend to kill and replace them. You may think you know a lot about this film from the trailers but you don't. There is so much more to this film than than one family being under siege. While Us might lack the very obvious social commentary and irony of Get Out it does deal with the fear of The Other and how some people literally live an underground existence.

1986, Santa Cruz Beach, the Fun Fair, eight year old Adelaide wanders off from her parents and encounters her double in a Hall of Mirrors, this leaves her traumatised. 2018, Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong'o), her husband Gabe (Winston Duke), daughter Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and son Jason (Evan Alex) return to her family home in Santa Cruz for a holiday. Things soon get weird with four figures, a family, appearing in their drive. When Gabe attempts to confront them, the two strange children lope off to the sides, almost like rabbits, the male approaches Gabe and the attack commences.

The doppelganger family can't seem to speak properly, they communicate in the open by whistling and through animal-like howls. Each of them carries a large pair of scissors which they use to stab people. Even the children are murderous, killing whoever gets in their way. All prove very difficult to kill. When the Wilson's neighbours house comes under attack from their own doppelgangers it becomes clear that this is a wider problem.

After this the film literally goes down the rabbit hole, we are dealing not just with existential terror and a killer cult but something far stranger. A horror story straight out of an unexpurgated fairy tale. Jordan Peele has written and directed this alarming tale which will have you mulling over it's meaning long after the final credits roll. 9/10.
 
ramonmercado said:
Us: A family comes under attack from doppelgangers who intend to kill and replace them. You may think you know a lot about this film from the trailers but you don't. There is so much more to this film than than one family being under siege. While Us might lack the very obvious social commentary and irony of Get Out it does deal with the fear of The Other and how some people literally live an underground existence.

1986, Santa Cruz Beach, the Fun Fair, eight year old Adelaide wanders off from her parents and encounters her double in a Hall of Mirrors, this leaves her traumatised. 2018, Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong'o), her husband Gabe (Winston Duke), daughter Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and son Jason (Evan Alex) return to her family home in Santa Cruz for a holiday. Things soon get weird with four figures, a family, appearing in their drive. When Gabe attempts to confront them, the two strange children lope off to the sides, almost like rabbits, the male approaches Gabe and the attack commences.

The doppelganger family can't seem to speak properly, they communicate in the open by whistling and through animal-like howls. Each of them carries a large pair of scissors which they use to stab people. Even the children are murderous, killing whoever gets in their way. All prove very difficult to kill. When the Wilson's neighbours house comes under attack from their own doppelgangers it becomes clear that this is a wider problem.

After this the film literally goes down the rabbit hole, we are dealing not just with existential terror and a killer cult but something far stranger. A horror story straight out of an unexpurgated fairy tale. Jordan Peele has written and directed this alarming tale which will have you mulling over it's meaning long after the final credits roll. 9/10.
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This one is actually playing at my theatre. I might go see it.
 
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