100 Movies. 31 Days. The 6th Annual "October Horror Movie Challenge" (Oct 1-31) Pt 2
10-12-10, 10:30 PM
#426
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Re: 100 Movies. 31 Days. The 6th Annual "October Horror Movie Challenge" (Oct 1-31) P
10-12-10, 10:30 PM
#427
DVD Talk Gold Edition
Re: 100 Movies. 31 Days. The 6th Annual "October Horror Movie Challenge" (Oct 1-31) P
Regarding The Sixth Sense:
Spoiler:
Also viewed Session 9 on Sunday. That was a pretty interesting flick. Anything involving an insane asylum automatically puts me in a tense frame of mind. I will be looking forward to watching this one again in a couple years.
10-12-10, 10:35 PM
#428
DVD Talk Gold Edition
10-12-10, 10:39 PM
#429
DVD Talk Gold Edition
Re: 100 Movies. 31 Days. The 6th Annual "October Horror Movie Challenge" (Oct 1-31) P
Just finished up with The Strangers (2008) and WOW, what a movie!!! Starts out a little slow, but the intensity kicks in around the 20 minute mark and never lets up. Very creepy and disturbing due to the fact it's based on a true story. Of course, everyone knows what that means, so I'm going to have to do a little research after the challenge to find out more details on this case.
10-12-10, 10:40 PM
#430
Moderator
Re: 100 Movies. 31 Days. The 6th Annual "October Horror Movie Challenge" (Oct 1-31) P
okay now it's corrected.
back on topic though - I might have to chime back in after I've seen Suspiria and Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil which I've already bought tickets for at AFI Silver next week.
and I see that The Others is being shown in hidef on Showtime HD - I love love love that movie - and the 5.1 soundmix is highly inventive and fun as hell.
Last edited by Giles; 10-12-10 at 10:49 PM.
10-12-10, 10:51 PM
#431
DVD Talk Gold Edition
Ok. I've had this link up on one of my Firefox tabs for a few days now and I don't know if I got it from this thread or just randomly. If someone else posted this already, my credit back to them (as well as my apologies for my laziness not checking.) If not, this is a quite interesting article called 20 Things you didn't know about The Exorcist. Some of it is fluff, but my favorite was the original teaser trailer that got pulled. Awesome.
10-12-10, 10:52 PM
#432
DVD Talk Legend
Re: 100 Movies. 31 Days. The 6th Annual "October Horror Movie Challenge" (Oct 1-31) P
Just finished up with The Strangers (2008) and WOW, what a movie!!! Starts out a little slow, but the intensity kicks in around the 20 minute mark and never lets up. Very creepy and disturbing due to the fact it's based on a true story. Of course, everyone knows what that means, so I'm going to have to do a little research after the challenge to find out more details on this case.
10-12-10, 11:03 PM
#433
Moderator
Re: 100 Movies. 31 Days. The 6th Annual "October Horror Movie Challenge" (Oct 1-31) P
Ok. I've had this link up on one of my Firefox tabs for a few days now and I don't know if I got it from this thread or just randomly. If someone else posted this already, my credit back to them (as well as my apologies for my laziness not checking.) If not, this is a quite interesting article called 20 Things you didn't know about The Exorcist. Some of it is fluff, but my favorite was the original teaser trailer that got pulled. Awesome.
'Do you know what she did? Your ****ing daughter'
to the 'fuck me, fuck me, fuck me' as Regan stabbs the crucifix into her kooch - how did the MPAA give this film an R-rating over THAT scene - wow!!
10-12-10, 11:05 PM
#434
Moderator
Re: 100 Movies. 31 Days. The 6th Annual "October Horror Movie Challenge" (Oct 1-31) P
I think the movie that stopped me dead in the tracks was Rosemary's Baby - I don't get it, for nearly the entire first hour of the movie it felt like one overly long tease - blah blah blah dialogue, more dialogue... ho hum....
10-12-10, 11:23 PM
#435
DVD Talk Ultimate Edition
Re: 100 Movies. 31 Days. The 6th Annual "October Horror Movie Challenge" (Oct 1-31) P
Hopefully you can still squeeze in some horror this month.
10-12-10, 11:26 PM
#436
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Re: 100 Movies. 31 Days. The 6th Annual "October Horror Movie Challenge" (Oct 1-31) P
Just finished The Haunting In Connecticut and thought it was pretty average stuff. I'm disappointed because I feel like it wasn't far from getting over the hump. Some choices made with sound effects/editing and directorial choices kept it middle of the road to me. Everytime something scary/creepy happened there was the typical loud blast of music to emphasize something being there and it would have worked better to just let it be on screen without telling the audience via music cue that it was there.
10-12-10, 11:35 PM
#437
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Re: 100 Movies. 31 Days. The 6th Annual "October Horror Movie Challenge" (Oct 1-31) P
Just finished One Dark Night, another great 80s flick that I hadn't heard of. For a PG rated film it delivers the jolts.
10-12-10, 11:55 PM
#438
DVD Talk Special Edition
Re: 100 Movies. 31 Days. The 6th Annual "October Horror Movie Challenge" (Oct 1-31) P
Man, Rosemarry's Baby is one of my favorite films ever, it has some of the best performances I have ever seen, I feel it is a perfect film. I also love the two other parts of Polanski's "Apartment Trilogy" The Tenant and Repulsion.
10-13-10, 12:46 AM
#439
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: 100 Movies. 31 Days. The 6th Annual "October Horror Movie Challenge" (Oct 1-31) P
I've watched some pretty bad movies this year, so when I say I've hit a painful speed bump, you know this thing is bad. Avoid Flesh Freaks on Netflix streaming! Don't let yourself be swayed by the short runtime. This thing is awful in pretty much every way.
I was already planning on counting it, but I'll ask anyway. Anyone see a problem using a wildcard for attending a play or just as a regular entry? Evil Dead: The Musical is going to be at one of the nearby universities. I'm already planning to go with some friends. Should be fun!
I was already planning on counting it, but I'll ask anyway. Anyone see a problem using a wildcard for attending a play or just as a regular entry? Evil Dead: The Musical is going to be at one of the nearby universities. I'm already planning to go with some friends. Should be fun!
10-13-10, 03:31 AM
#441
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
Re: 100 Movies. 31 Days. The 6th Annual "October Horror Movie Challenge" (Oct 1-31) P
I don't think we're far apart. It's just an interesting discussion. I love it when these challenges can open up real discussion like this.
I don't mean to ghettoize horror films. If met right, TCM is just as artistic as any other film. But it's kind of like outsider art or even abstract art. If you don't have an appreciation for it, it's easy to dismiss it. "My kid could do that." Use of something like Casablanca as a contrast implies not meeting it on its own level. It almost comes across as an absurdity taking one of the most beloved films of all time and contrasting the experience of watching it for the first time with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It's like showing off your first apartment, "Well, it ain't the Ritz, but it's home." You aren't literally evoking the Ritz Carlton in comparison, it's an ironic figure of speech meant to be absurd to make a point. You weren't being ironic. I know what you were going for, but in my opinion it might have been ill served using Casablanca as a comparison. Maybe if you had used a first viewing of The Exorcist or something.
My argument is while some product can transcend its genre and be appreciated by those outside its traditional audience, some product can be exalted by its traditional audience while totally baffling the world at large, and that's OK. I think the "get it" argument is a bit condescending. It presumes that those that do are "special". But I do believe that one must meet whatever one approaches on its own level.
I can't find the quote, but earlier dismissal of the use of chainsaws as gimmicky and overused (up to and including haunted houses) and
kind of implies it. It's predictable because it's been imitated so much, right down to the fake "this is a true story". It's not complex at all, as it is little more than a nightmare about the banality of evil stripped to the bone, as it were. 2010's "Yawn, a chainsaw." was 1974's "holy shit, a chainsaw??" It's just a product of being topped for 36 years. That is isn't as violent as current films, or its own reputation suggests, shows restraint on the part of the filmmakers. As far as the characters, perhaps since I've seen it nearly every year since I was 16 and met them all in person a couple times, they don't seem anonymous to me. Most slasher films introduce characters for the sole purpose of slaughtering them. They will be the couple necking in the woods, or their car, or the girl taking a shower. On a first viewing, the characters don't seem like much, but after a few viewings, they are like old friends.
Perhaps. If Waylon and Willie (whom I love) had regular concussions and then wrote songs while sniffing glue it would even be closer.
I'm not for the general debasing of Horror, either. Look at Let the Right One In (Swedish version). It's as high art as any mainstream film. Then there's Rosemary's Baby, The Haunting, Jaws, etc. Horror can be just as profound as any mainstream film. And then there's your Troma films or Asylum films. There's a reason Friday the 13th films or whatever are often the first entry on the filmographies of their directors. It's a genre that embraces its shitty films. You can try out a new director and not worry about losing money while getting him experience. Some films are beloved precisely because they ARE so bad. Troll 2, anyone?
No, of course not. I love exploring things outside my experience, too. Horror is an open community and all are welcome. We're also not under a delusion that the genre is better than it is. We love it precisely for that lack of pretension. There are some films, though, that if you meet them at their level, then the actual "art" comes through. TCM is one of those films. It has all the hallmarks of hackwork, but it transcends those to become true art.
This is part of my argument, though: that the whole world expects you to admire and adore the Casablancas of cinema. In the realm of Horror, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is such a film. Why is the latter held in such high esteem only in the context of its own genre? Now that I think about it some more, perhaps a better question for me to have asked is: are there any Horror films that do exist on the same tier of all-genre films as Casablanca? Jaws, Psycho and The Exorcist all come to mind offhand. Any others?
It's been an implied condition of my argument all along that there are, in fact, people who would not be charmed by that or any other film, regardless of its legions of devotees or the numerous tomes written in praise of it. How, then, does one go about saying to the rest of the world, "I don't get it?"
I'm confused here, because I felt that both films had been been seminal over the years as far as subsequent films attempting to duplicate them. I have not taken the position that the imitators have diminished either of these two iconic films, nor would I take that position.
Perhaps it’s because the film is 36 years old and I’ve seen far more graphically violent films. Perhaps it’s because I’m a behind-the-scenes junkie and even while watching a movie, I’m thinking about how a given shot was achieved, or how an effect was staged. I just felt like the film had all the complexity of an episode of Scooby-Doo. I found it obvious; there was really nothing to bother predicting. It was just a matter of going through the motions of uniting victims with the killer. In fact, they may as well not have bothered naming the characters; they could have referred to one another as “Victim Number One” or “Victim Number Three” for all the difference it would have made.
I'm sure it's a brilliant comparison, but it's rather lost on a guy who doesn't listen to the genre at all. Being, however, a longtime fan of outlaw country, I think I get the gist of what you're saying. (Attempted analogy spoiler'd for length; feel free to ignore.)
Spoiler:
I'm not presumptuous enough to insist that every work of art need to aspire to make a poignant commentary on the human equation; art for the sake of art or distraction or mere amusement is perfectly valid. But I wonder if there isn't a sense that the rest of the film criticizing world hasn't demoted the Horror field to the point that Horror regards itself as nothing more than a base genre not to be given "too much thought." That seems...wrong...to me.
But then, I was emotionally affected by Up, no matter how many people like my mother-in-law want to tell me, "It's just a cartoon." I don't believe that the nature of a film's medium or aesthetic should be held against it; either it succeeds in evoking a reaction or it does not and that's the starting point for criticism.
But then, I was emotionally affected by Up, no matter how many people like my mother-in-law want to tell me, "It's just a cartoon." I don't believe that the nature of a film's medium or aesthetic should be held against it; either it succeeds in evoking a reaction or it does not and that's the starting point for criticism.
I'm not a Horror fan, that much is certain; but I hope at no point you or anyone else felt as though I came into this for the purpose of being an Armond White wannabe! I'm fascinated by a lot of the literary horror tales; Shelley's Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is flat-out great. Poe's "Ligeia" is one of my favorite short stories of all time. I'm fascinated by storytelling that preys on, and exploits, our innate fears. I've been a challenge participant before, but this is the first time I've really made a concentrated effort to study the genre while participating.
As for the high esteem in which Massacre is held within the genre, I'm pretty sure I've already acknowledged that as a key reason I felt it appropriate to contrast with Casablanca in the first place.
As for the high esteem in which Massacre is held within the genre, I'm pretty sure I've already acknowledged that as a key reason I felt it appropriate to contrast with Casablanca in the first place.
10-13-10, 06:20 AM
#443
DVD Talk Legend
Re: 100 Movies. 31 Days. The 6th Annual "October Horror Movie Challenge" (Oct 1-31) P
Woo! I got past my 2 speed bumps...Jason Goes To Hell and Friday The 13th: Part VIII
Now to enjoy the final 3 films later today.
Now to enjoy the final 3 films later today.
10-13-10, 06:36 AM
#445
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Re: 100 Movies. 31 Days. The 6th Annual "October Horror Movie Challenge" (Oct 1-31) P
ok, not sure if the 'Red Riding' trilogy would count since it is based on a serial killer, but centers more around the investigations/cover ups so this might be pushing it.
If not, then consider these to be my wild card entries. I've heard good things about it and am interested in it since its actually from my part of the country and just before I was born.
If not, then consider these to be my wild card entries. I've heard good things about it and am interested in it since its actually from my part of the country and just before I was born.
10-13-10, 06:47 AM
#447
DVD Talk Legend
10-13-10, 07:20 AM
#448
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Re: 100 Movies. 31 Days. The 6th Annual "October Horror Movie Challenge" (Oct 1-31) P
Now that I got some sleep, time to resume my Frankenstein series with Bride of Frankenstein.
10-13-10, 08:42 AM
#449
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Re: 100 Movies. 31 Days. The 6th Annual "October Horror Movie Challenge" (Oct 1-31) P
