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Horror Films

Annabelle Comes Home: Strong pre-credits sequence as the Warrens (Patrick Wilson & Vera Farmiga) take the Annabelle doll away pointing out that the doll facilitates evil spirits to possess others. Their car breaks down and Annabelle attracts angry ghosts who try to kill them. Surviving this the Warrens meet a priest who blesses the doll which is then placed in a cabinet made of glass taken from a church and is stored in the artifact room. The warrens gp off on another mission, leaving their daughter Judy (McKenna Grace) in the care of babysitter Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman). Judy is bullied at school because of her parents, psychic, she sees the ghost of the priest who founded the school. May Ellen's friend Daniela (Katie Sarife) is intent on contacting her dead father, gaining access to the artifacts room she accidentally leaves Annabelle's cabinet unlocked.

The chaos begins as the motile doll appears in Judy's bedroom and teleports around the house, setting other spirits free. The girls have to battle a ghastly little girl ghost ghost along with a haunted wedding dress and a board game from which hands emerge. Sheer terror results as a knife-wielding dress attacks. Crucifixes provide at least temporary defences against some of artifacts and spirits but the girls resistance starts to crumble as they themselves are put at risk of possession. The film does get a bit teenagery at times but horror is deftly mixed with humour as a lovestruck romeo is chased across the lawn by a werewolf. A wind-up monkey and a precognitive TV set add to aura of panic. The pacing is a bit off in some scenes and 15 minutes could have been shaved from the 106 minute running time. An ok horror film but it doesn't live up to the promise of the opening scenes. Written and directed by Gary Dauberman. 6/10.
 
Final destination V, good fun, I liked how the deaths where signposted, only for a totally different route to be taken.
 
The Intruder: Psychological horror, the homeowner who can't let go even after the sale. An old trope but given a new sheen by Dennis Quaid as the crazy who sells his beautiful house to a young couple. They should have known he was trouble from the start, when they come to view the house he creeps up behind them and shoots a deer in the woods adjoining the house and asks them if they like venison.* At first just seeming helpful his behaviour becomes increasingly bizarre and obsessive. Quaid is great, his facial expressions, the little acts of vandalism he carries out before his temper fully explodes. Some good shots where he suddenly appears in a flash of light or reflected in a mirror. Worthwhile thriller even if some aspects of the plot are a tad implausible. 6.5/10.

*Bit like Max.
 
Class man yerself, Phooty. I was right then looking for an update to my posted alert of a few months ago.

Been eagerly anticipating this one.
 
Wait. Did I just see an adaptation of Waiting For Godot? Is that what this is?
 
Had a look at the cast list and there's a mermaid in it. It's gonna be a weird one but it looks great.
 
1999's The Blair Witch Project is still one of the best horror films I've seen. I still feel the visceral terror of the actors. I think the sound is the most effective element in the production. Brilliant campaign surrounding the marketing, casting etc detailed in this doco.


 
Gosh yes. I remember coming away from seeing Blair Witch at the cinema thinking it wasn't all that scary but the sound was just amazing and that stayed with me for ages afterwards. I think it's that scene where they are in the tent and there's all the noises around them (not seen it for a while so could be wrong here), that really gave me the heebie jeebies :)
 
Just wanted to mention - if you subscribe to Hulu, they've got Rosemary's Baby available. Watched it again last night for the first time in years. It's such a great film.

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Tapeloop said:
Gosh yes. I remember coming away from seeing Blair Witch at the cinema thinking it wasn't all that scary but the sound was just amazing and that stayed with me for ages afterwards. I think it's that scene where they are in the tent and there's all the noises around them (not seen it for a while so could be wrong here), that really gave me the heebie jeebies :)
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There is a new game based on the movie but only for Xbox and PC (PS4 user me)

https://www.gamesradar.com/blair-witch-game-guide/
 
Upcoming book on Women Directors of Horror seeks submissions, Full (interesting) info at link

Call For Papers

Bloody Women! Women Directors of Horror

Collection Editors: Victoria McCollum (Ulster University, Derry) and Aislinn Clarke (Queen’s University, Belfast)

Deadline for Abstracts: 9th of September 2019

Deadline for Chapters: 1st of April 2020 (6,000 words)

Contact: [email protected] and [email protected]

https://bloodywomen.video.blog/
 
The new Guillermo del Toro movie coming out, "Scary Stories" had a couple of shots or scenes, (I'm not quite sure what will actually be seen) that were filmed at the psychiatric hospital in my city! I only just found this out even though it was shot last September.

Bonus! I like del Toro's films and now I have to see if I can recognize the locale.
 
Ulalume said:
Just wanted to mention - if you subscribe to Hulu, they've got Rosemary's Baby available. Watched it again last night for the first time in years. It's such a great film.

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Yes, it's a superbly made film, one of the nastiest ever made, horror film or not. Who would have thought Roman Polanski would have such an understanding of how horrible rape is? That might be its weirdest element.
 
brownmane said:
The new Guillermo del Toro movie coming out, "Scary Stories" ...
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also looking forward to this even though trailer was a bit too IT for me, especially given release dates only a few days apart .. del toro so gifted but he misses more than hits these days ...
 
skinny said:
1999's The Blair Witch Project is still one of the best horror films I've seen. I still feel the visceral terror of the actors. I think the sound is the most effective element in the production. Brilliant campaign surrounding the marketing, casting etc detailed in this doco.


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These blokes did a tour of the film locations for TBWP. Burkittsville is a real town. I didn't know that. This was in 1999 right after the film came out, so they located pretty much everything that was on the movie. I'd guess whatever's still there would have been trashed by now. It's a nice little meta-look at the locations. I enjoyed it.

Just going to bed to watch Blair Witch 2016. It is 11:30pm, and I am alone in the house with a howling southerly wind ripping at the trees outside the window. I may not make it back.

Goodbye.
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Universal have decided a right wing version of The Purge that plays into the paranoid fantasies of your typical US mass shooter might not be the best thing to release right now. Here's the trailer of the film you'll never get to see:
 
GNC said:
...a right wing version of The Purge that plays into the paranoid fantasies of your typical US mass shooter...
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:confused:

Premise: The film follows 12 strangers, referred to as "deplorables" in the trailer, who mysteriously wake up in a clearing. They do not know where they are or how they got there. They discover that they have been chosen to be hunted in a game devised by a group of rich elites.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunt_(unreleased_film)#Premise

maximus otter
 
maximus otter said:
:confused:

Premise: The film follows 12 strangers, referred to as "deplorables" in the trailer, who mysteriously wake up in a clearing. They do not know where they are or how they got there. They discover that they have been chosen to be hunted in a game devised by a group of rich elites.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunt_(unreleased_film)#Premise
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From what I've read it's "liberal elites" doing the murder of right-leaning common folk, sort of paranoid like The Purge, but feeding into the kind of shooter conspiracy that believes a new civil war is around he corner. Trump condemned the film, possibly as a pre-emptive after the recent mass killings, but take a look at the comments on YT under that video and you'll see a lot of "You don't know how true this is!" persecution complexes.
 
Saw "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark". A fun movie that reminds me of the type of urban legends, campfire stories that you heard and revelled in as a kid.

The main characters are teens on the verge of adulthood. So childhood terrors are still real, but real life terrors are creeping in.

A good movie for kids who like scary tales, but are not old enough for more gory stories.
 
Eerie: Filipino Ghost Story/Murder Mystery. It's been done before, the haunted school. girls dying, this film has a few interesting twists though. The voiceover is by the school's guidance counsellor, Pat Consolacion (Bea Alonzo) she relates the tale of a girl who committed suicide in the toilets decades ago and who is now rumoured to haunt the school. The story has effects on some of Pat's troubled pupis, one is found gibbering in the toilets, totally insane, another is murdered. The school is run by nuns who are more worried about the school's image than the girls.

Pat is herself psychic and in communication with the ghost, Eri. She tries to find out why Eri (Gillian Vicencio) died and who really murdered her pupil. Much of the action is shot in dark corridors of the school and the toilets. Even when it is filmed in offices, ghosts appear. Pat's vivid and terrifying nightmares are often difficult to distinguish from the reality of contact with spirits and may be another form of communication. Angry ghosts, bullying, nasty nuns and Dybbuks feature in this dark narrative. Directed and written by Mikhail Red. 8/10. On Netflix.
 
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Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark: Halloween, a Haunted house, teenagers fleeing bullies, sounds familiar but the story by Guillermo del Toro adds some extra spice. Dybbuk style spirits possess and shape shift their victims. A Scarecrow comes to life, pitchforks a bully and then transforms him. A teen is dragged into a wall by a revenant seeking it's big toe. A strange storybook writes new tales which ensnares the victim's of a vindictive ghost. Eerie shot of corridors which become threatening in bright light, even more so in flashing red alarm lights with a Momo style character approaching. Time shifts take place and a 19th century mystery has to be solved. Entertaining but at times I feel the other screenwriters were put in to restrain the del Toro influence and make this more teen than adult horror. This may also have hampered director André Øvredal so Scary Stories doesn't reach the terror levels/darkness of his previous films The Autopsy of Jane Doe or Trollhunter. Still it's well worth watching. 7.5/10.
 
skinny said:
1999's The Blair Witch Project is still one of the best horror films I've seen. I still feel the visceral terror of the actors. I think the sound is the most effective element in the production. Brilliant campaign surrounding the marketing, casting etc detailed in this doco.


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I also really enjoyed this film. I think you really like it or you don't. So many of my friends think it is shit, where as the ones who like it, got really into it.
 
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