Same reason why they can't make a decent science fiction movie anymore.
Drag me to hell is incredibly fun.
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The Raging Russian said:
Wow.
Seriously?
How about the Japanese school of horror? How about Shimizu Takashi's work, for instance? Mayhaps you saw The Grudge? Check out the original Ju-on and get scared.
There's tons of Japanese horror flicks that got to me. I love the imagery, the metaphors that I can not fully decypher. Great stuff. I love how symbols that are obviously culturally defined (the Japanese preoccupation with hair for instance) still awaken some kind of lingering fear deep within me. Brilliant shit.
Also: don't forget stuff like the first Scream slasher movie, which (plot-wise) was absolutely fucking brilliant. Stuff like the first Saw and the first Hostel - not the best horror out there but quite enjoyable stuff nonetheless - are so heavily indebted to Scream, one can not exaggerate the importance of Wes Craven's masterpiece.
It's the fucking sequels that we need to get rid of. Anyone who saw SCream 2, Scream 3, Saw 2, Saw 3, Saw 4, Hostel 2 and so on ... knows that this is a fact.
And what about The Mist? I fucking loved that movie. And I loved it because it was fucking awesome. That's why.
And how about The Others with Nicole Kidman? Heavily indebted to James' The Turn of the Screw, but still a fucking good horror.
Also: people from different times get scared from different stuff and moviemakers will evidently pick up on those things that 'terrorize' people in a certain time. There is a clear connection between events like 9/11 and flicks like The Mist and Cloverfield, where something huge attacks and all seems lost/is lost. There is a clear connection between images of Americans and Russians getting beheaded by muslim freedomfighters and the media coverage of these events and a flick like Hostel where young and attractive Western people are being held prisoner by foreign scum and are being tortured and killed.
Stuff like Rosemary's Baby, the fear that one's loved ones are actually the source of evil (also amazingly present in the fifties flick Invaders from Mars) works on a more subtle psychological level, it addresses psychological archetypes, the very symbols that stir up the fear in us, basic fears, while the gore variant shows you how these rather abstract fears could take shape in anyone's life, which usually involves pain and blood and so on.
The way I see it, the subtle psychological horror flicks either become respectable movie classics or they are "completely" forgotten.
The gore/monster/blood/guts flicks either end up als cult classics or are "completely" forgotten.
I tend to like both.
Personally, the most "recent" horror I enjoyed was The Cube. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out. Kafka-esque stuff.
S
Stag
Guest
Sort of unrelated, but you know what bothers me? When someone refers to anything involving bugs as "Kafkaesque".
Otherwise, yeah. I think alec's got a good handle on it, though maybe the flemish translation of "The Others" was a bit better than the original.
Caché is one of the best psychological horror movies I've seen of late, and it's fairly recent; well recommended. If you like long, suspenseful camera shots, you really can't go wrong with Caché. (Funnily enough, Firefox corrects the correct spelling of that movie name.)
I also really dug Funny Games, but I understand that it may not be to everyone's taste. It's basically Michael Pitt and some other dude fucking with Naomi Watts and Tim Roth and their kid for an hour and a half.
Otherwise, yeah. I think alec's got a good handle on it, though maybe the flemish translation of "The Others" was a bit better than the original.
Caché is one of the best psychological horror movies I've seen of late, and it's fairly recent; well recommended. If you like long, suspenseful camera shots, you really can't go wrong with Caché. (Funnily enough, Firefox corrects the correct spelling of that movie name.)
I also really dug Funny Games, but I understand that it may not be to everyone's taste. It's basically Michael Pitt and some other dude fucking with Naomi Watts and Tim Roth and their kid for an hour and a half.
Addressing Funny Games US, really babyish compared to the original Haneke film.
He actually directed the "remake", I had no idea why he felt compelled to do so, since the original was far more disturbing and effective, I almost felt entirely bored by the end of US because I felt as though it was a watered down version of Funny Games, yet with a strong sense of confusion because the same director had actually watered down his own film.
Really weird, I guess Funny Games US is for one sort of person, and the original for another.
US is much better made, the original is far more effective in getting across the message.
He actually directed the "remake", I had no idea why he felt compelled to do so, since the original was far more disturbing and effective, I almost felt entirely bored by the end of US because I felt as though it was a watered down version of Funny Games, yet with a strong sense of confusion because the same director had actually watered down his own film.
Really weird, I guess Funny Games US is for one sort of person, and the original for another.
US is much better made, the original is far more effective in getting across the message.
Radwaster
It Wandered In From the Wastes
Couple of atmospheric recent Spanish horror flicks: Rec, and The Orphanage. Worth a look if you can live with subtitles.
Hehe. You goddamn smartass you.Stag said:
IIRC there are no bugs present in The Cube.
I call it Kafkaesque because of the setting: it reminds me of the labyrinthian structure of Der Prozess and Das Schloss. It reminds me of Kafka's brilliant short story In der Strafkolonie in which a horrible machine is explained into great detail, a machine that kinda tattoos your punishment/verdict into your skin, killing you in the process. The same haunting atmosphere is present in The Cube, the knowledge that the Sword of Damocles could drop at any fucking moment.
Got it, kid?
Funny Games US wasn't bad at all, yet even though it was only a shot-per-shot remake, the original Funny Games somehow still made a much bigger impression on me.Stag said:
On a sidenote: what intrigues me the most about some of the newest horror flicks is the shift from serial killers à la Jason, Freddy, Bates and so on, murderers who did what they did because of very personal reasons (usually trauma) towards killers that go nuts because they want humanity to suffer for the obvious crimes they commit, like the Jigsaw Killer in the first Saw, the cube contraption in The Cube and even the crazy perverted organization in The Hostel. The idea of punishment for sins committed has always been a major theme in horror, but it seems that this time it has become broader in scope (compare it to the Cenobites in the Hellraiser series who only really haunted you if you solved the puzzlebox, whereas in Saw people get punished for not living their lives the way they should). That's interesting stuff, IMO. A trend probably started by Se7en, but already present in cult horror films like The Abominable Dr. Phibes and the sequel Dr. Phibes Rises Again, two flicks from the early seventies.
I dare say that the mix of innovative Japanese horror, the neat postmodern plot-development in (primarily) American horror and the constant shift in topoi makes for a quite entertaining and sometimes even amazing horror landscape these days. And this is coming from a guy who is so crazy about horror that he even rents all the crappy horror (sequels) out there, feeling cheated afterwards.
There's always room for improvement, of course, but we shouldn't complain. Seriously.
heh the movies that creeped me out have been those based on Stephen King stories and Alien. But that only cause my Sister forced me to watch them when I was a kid ... though I am still pretty normal today, well on most parts ! 
I sometimes wish though one could see things like a "child" sometimes. So easy to be creeped out !
I sometimes wish though one could see things like a "child" sometimes. So easy to be creeped out !
The Cube was indeed pretty good. But as you already said, we have to get rid off all this idiotic sequels. Cube 2 was pretty useless.alec said:
Here are some recent horror movies I loved:
Audition: slow, artsy and incredibly brutal in the end. Basically it starts as an odd romance movie and ends on the floor covered in blood.
The Signal: nasty and fun, the movie has one plot but it is divided into 3 chapters by different directors and the middle one is an amazing comedy. Basically a strange signal sent out on the tv and radio turns everyone into paranoid homicidal maniacs.
Let the right one in: it is not scary but it is very moving and interesting, basically a lonely kid becomes best friends with a vampire but this vampire actually is pretty inhuman as opposed to the modern romantizised variety.
Planet Terror: the nastiest, grosest and silliest zombie movie in a while by Robert Rodriguez.
Save this green planet: misery with a clockwork orange vibe, a disgruntled employee kidnaps his ex boss and decides to torture him until he admits to being an alien. Ugly yet funny and almost touching.
Audition: slow, artsy and incredibly brutal in the end. Basically it starts as an odd romance movie and ends on the floor covered in blood.
The Signal: nasty and fun, the movie has one plot but it is divided into 3 chapters by different directors and the middle one is an amazing comedy. Basically a strange signal sent out on the tv and radio turns everyone into paranoid homicidal maniacs.
Let the right one in: it is not scary but it is very moving and interesting, basically a lonely kid becomes best friends with a vampire but this vampire actually is pretty inhuman as opposed to the modern romantizised variety.
Planet Terror: the nastiest, grosest and silliest zombie movie in a while by Robert Rodriguez.
Save this green planet: misery with a clockwork orange vibe, a disgruntled employee kidnaps his ex boss and decides to torture him until he admits to being an alien. Ugly yet funny and almost touching.
CavemanLawyer
First time out of the vault
Eyenixon said:
Inland Empire was a great one. Not Lynch's best, in my opinion, but the only one where everything was just... 'right'.
Someone else mentioned Audition, yeah thats another good one. Japanese horror films I think are the only thing keeping the genre alive. But then again I'm more into artistic psychological than pop outs and freak out imagery, hence Lynch being one of my favorite directors along with Takeshi Miike.
Cimmerian Nights
So Old I'm Losing Radiation Signs
Miike does come off as the Japanese David Lynch sometimes.
Cimmerian Nights said:
Have you seen Gozu yet? He makes his Lynch fandom very evident in that movie, it is very much a japanese lost highway. I have to warn you it is not his most entertaining film (it crawls at times) but it is very nicely surreal and a little bit funny.
Loved Inland Empire too but something funny happened to me while watching it. You might have noticed that the movie is really dark, even pitch black at times. Well I kept experiencing long segments with nothing but sound and I was like "wow, he is really amping up the darkness in this movie". Turns out my TV was crapping out and it would lose picture, didint realize it until I was like 20+ minutes in.
I saw "Drag Me to Hell" two days ago. It wasn't too bad (I think less CGI would have made it a lot better) decent storyline, but the ending was quite obvious. Adding to the pop out scares was the music and annoying noise they played during them, it added an extra umph! to the coming scare. If you liked the 2nd Evil Dead you should like this. The car scene mentioned earlier was just pure greatness. Nowadays I think horror movies should stay away from CGI, it doesn't make things look better but just the opposite, making them look faker and taking away from the movie.
welsh
Junkmaster
So this is more Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2 or Army of Darkness.
Evil Dead- was great.
Evil Dead 2 was fun, but a bit campy. I mean, its just Evil Dead all over again with a better budget.
Army of Darkness- some great lines, but ok. A Bruce Campbell flick.
Evil Dead- was great.
Evil Dead 2 was fun, but a bit campy. I mean, its just Evil Dead all over again with a better budget.
Army of Darkness- some great lines, but ok. A Bruce Campbell flick.
TapLup said:
Less CGI would almost make ANYTHING better today. Not that I have any issues with it, it can be quite amazing, particularly in cases where the usual artistic ways come to their limits, but the overuse of it in almost any movie has become kinda quite ridiculous. I mean in the past with many movies when they wanted to show space, or ships they created big canvas where artists created with PAINT the background and used a model and it absolutely was amazing how convincing everything looked (see Alien and Aliens from Ridley Scott and James Cameron to see what I mean, you would not believe that it was painted or a model if one did not told it, also the creatures have been as well either mechanicaly guided instruments or puppets, the queen had 2 people inside that have been responsible for the movmenets and the fighting scene was blend together with a miniature model, and no one can tell me this is inferior to CGI ... )
Another movie not horror or anything but that did it very well though was Men in Black. Many of the creatures one could see have been puppets or costumes, not CGI. And the quality is awesome in my eyes.
UnidentifiedFlyingTard
Vault Fossil
being I'm a visual effects artist its obvious that I love cgi, but less cgi is always better in my opinion, the best cgi is something called Digital Enhancement, the little things you might not notice.
Crni Vuk said:
II like it when CGI is not the main way that the special effects are done. I like it when they use traditional effects and then they use CGI to enhance those effects and make them better...
I dont watch horror movies, though, because I get nightmares...
That is why the attitude of James Cameron is great in my eyes. He always had the oppinion to only use CGI in situations when the usual ways of movie making have not been enough. And it shows. The movies he did get a much more sharp feeling in the way they are played. Like the Abbys for example, where the used CGI was always a "higlight". Or Terminator 2 for example. The use of CGI was as well always a rare occurance (mainly with the T1000 machine) but thus a highlight. Like the icing of the cake!
UniversalWolf
eaten by a grue.
I just saw Drag Me to Hell (at a matinee where I was completely alone in the dark theatre, which was cool), and I liked it, but I didn't love it. I see Roger Ebert gave it three stars, and I think that's about right.
The "sudden reveal" technique of making the audience jump is something I've become jaded about. Because, you see, I'm not really scared by that, or by loud discordant noises; I just have a reflexive biological reaction that's being exploited. It's a tool in the horror arsenal, and it's okay to use it once or twice, but DMtH has too many incidents like that for my taste.
There are good things about it though, and parts of it are genuinely scary. It's not torture porn, which I loathe. Alison Lohman looks excellent when she's sopping wet and covered in mud; I could definitely stand 100 minutes of that.
The more I think about it, the more I believe they really missed a great opportunity to make this movie memorable. There comes a point where the main character is faced with a horrible moral dilemma. Resolving that dilemma should have been the crux of the story (there was some serious weight to that decision, and I wasn't sure what was going to happen, or what the outcome would be), but instead they went for a fairly predictable, vapid horror ending. Oh well.
In reference to scary movies in general, my preference is psychological horror. I think The Shining is a masterpiece. Count how many people are murdered with an axe in that movie: precisely one. Everyone remembers the scene where Jack Nicholson is chopping down the bathroom door, but check out the scene in the bathroom where he has a long conversation with Mr. Grady. Nothing happens, but it makes your skin crawl.
Of the horror movies I've seen in the past few years, I liked The Others, The Ring, and The Grudge.
The "sudden reveal" technique of making the audience jump is something I've become jaded about. Because, you see, I'm not really scared by that, or by loud discordant noises; I just have a reflexive biological reaction that's being exploited. It's a tool in the horror arsenal, and it's okay to use it once or twice, but DMtH has too many incidents like that for my taste.
There are good things about it though, and parts of it are genuinely scary. It's not torture porn, which I loathe. Alison Lohman looks excellent when she's sopping wet and covered in mud; I could definitely stand 100 minutes of that.
The more I think about it, the more I believe they really missed a great opportunity to make this movie memorable. There comes a point where the main character is faced with a horrible moral dilemma. Resolving that dilemma should have been the crux of the story (there was some serious weight to that decision, and I wasn't sure what was going to happen, or what the outcome would be), but instead they went for a fairly predictable, vapid horror ending. Oh well.
In reference to scary movies in general, my preference is psychological horror. I think The Shining is a masterpiece. Count how many people are murdered with an axe in that movie: precisely one. Everyone remembers the scene where Jack Nicholson is chopping down the bathroom door, but check out the scene in the bathroom where he has a long conversation with Mr. Grady. Nothing happens, but it makes your skin crawl.
Of the horror movies I've seen in the past few years, I liked The Others, The Ring, and The Grudge.
zioburosky13
Vault Senior Citizen
Since the film is directed by Sam Reimi and based on the Evil Dead universe, I expect to see this guy made a cameo.
You know, this guy.
You know, this guy.