Board 8 > All Purpose Horror Topic 2018: so Suspiria was fucking weird (again)

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://twitter.com/McJesse/status/1142184244845768704
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I watched the Autopsy of Jane Doe last night. For a genre like that, it was surprisingly compelling because they just kept it simple. Maybe a little too much gore for me (and I can handle a lot). But it was actually practical amounts of gore?

Still, as far as a movie where two people are stuck in a haunted morgue, it's probably one of the best I've seen.
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Yeah it was an interesting premise. I didn't find the execution to be that great, nor do I remember it being especially gory, but not bad for taking place in one setting. The same director is directing Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, so I hope that turns out a bit better.
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Child's Play is the current best horror of the year, imo.
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Super sad that it seems like it's not getting any traction.

My buddy and I are debating between seeing Child's Play or the new Annabelle though, since the new Annabelle actually seems like it might be good.
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might not be getting traction because the child's play series in notoriously bad
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I can't believe you spoiled that for me.

But it may be the reason. It's been considered a joke for a while, but it has a certain iconic value at this point that can't be denied. Like, my girlfriend for instance refuses to see it because she says she remembers these movies when she was a kid and was more afraid of Chucky than anything else. And I know other people who feel similarly.

It's in a very weird spot.
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I think people are still kind of sore that they made this remake while the original Child's Play series is still going pretty strong, with a well-liked previous entry and an upcoming TV series.
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Snake5555555555 posted...

I think people are still kind of sore that they made this remake while the original Child's Play series is still going pretty strong, with a well-liked previous entry and an upcoming TV series.

They need to give this one a chance though. It's a different take, but in my opinion, it actually exceeded anything the series has (possibly) ever done. It's every bit as good as the original film, in my opinion. Of the 8 films I've seen this year that I'd call horror, it is the best.
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Speaking of great horror, Midsommar is coming out soon! It's been getting rave reviews.

For those unaware, it's by the same guy who did Hereditary. And people are saying it's just as good in a different way.
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I'm so excited for Midsommar, I honestly get The Endless vibes from it, probably because of the cult-like setting.
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Midsommar looks great

also just watched The Perfection on Netflix, which was a little cheesy and over-the-top and a little too trigger-happy with the twists but was a really enjoyable 90s minutes
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Midsommar definitely delivers. It felt like one of those dreams you have that seems to last an entire lifetime until you wake up, holy smokes.

Probably goes without saying but Ari Aster is a visual and thematic genius who uses grief to profound effect.
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Man wtf I searched for this topic earlier and didn't see it so I posted in the general movie topic. Well, whatever, copy pasting:

Had a lot of fun with Child's Play! Not anywhere near perfect but it was very clever, especially with its new portrayal of Chucky and the AI/IoT fueled horror. I'm a sucker for when horror is so timely. The music and Mark Hamill's performance were also standouts. I wouldn't mind seeing more of this take on the franchise.
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jcgamer107 posted...

Midsommar definitely delivers. It felt like one of those dreams you have that seems to last an entire lifetime until you wake up, holy smokes.

Probably goes without saying but Ari Aster is a visual and thematic genius who uses grief to profound effect.

Really glad to hear this!

The girlfriend and I are going to try to see Spider-Man tomorrow, but if all the seats are filled already, we'll hit Midsommar instead.
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I saw Midsommar last night

I like the themes and personalness of Hereditary a bit more BUT Midsommar is still great and I spent a good half hour or so talking with my friend who saw it with me about symbolism and such in the movie. Definitely warrants a second viewing.
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Also saw midsommar last night and will talk about it after work
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I saw Midsommar.

I don't think it was quite as good as some people are saying. Compared to Hereditary, it seems meandering a lot more, with random unsettling stuff just to be unsettling. Like, I get a lot of the symbolism, and I get the overall theme of it, but I feel like it took a long time to get there, and a lot of the movie just felt like fluff.

I normally love movies like this, but this just didn't feel like it had enough substance in it for the length it was, and the unsettling weirdness of it all just didn't seem like it had enough of a purpose for me.

Probably don't recommend to most people.
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oh I never talked about Midsommar like I wanted to

Pros:
+General direction/cinematography is incredible. Seriously, between this and Hereditary, Ari Aster has some of the best camerawork of any modern director
+Production design is also top tier
+Florence Hugh is incredible
+The film manages to be eerie and disturbing despite being set almost entirely during the daytime, which isn't easy to pull off
+Surprisingly funny enough to make the whole theater laugh consistently, which I definitely didn't expect going in

Cons
-Honestly, it's pretty predictable, which is weird given how out there some of it is. None of the twists are really twists
-Ari Aster is getting dangerously close to becoming a one trick pony, given how the naked quasi-religious murder cult that causes hallucinations and lures in an unsuspecting and unwilling person to be their new leader is all stuff almost directly copied from Hereditary, and the fact that in both movies, everything is ultimately exactly what you expect it to be, playing directly into expectations instead of ever trying to subvery them just kind of left me without the wow factor that should've been here
-The deformed person has literally no significant role in the plot and is mostly just there to look creepy in trailers which just feels kind of exploitative
-Some minor moments (like Mark's face being cut off and worn, Josh's body being buried except for one leg only to be dug back up later and then burned) are just clearly done for the horror factor despite the fact that they don't make sense from the perspective of the cult

I know I'm being pretty harsh on it but I did honestly really enjoy it, largely due to the excellent acting/cinematography/design/etc. It's a flawed movie but what it does right it absolutely nails.
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Hmmmm yeah the cons listed don't really bother me at all. I thought it was a genius journey that has that rare movie moment early on where you think "holy shit, that was just the intro??"

It covers so much ground and has literally about 10 classic set pieces. And yeah, it's surprisingly funny. It's almost always being either horrifying or funny at all times, which is so great.

I liken it to a Wicker Man that cranks the weirdness up to 11.
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@Johnbobb

I absolutely agree with all of your cons.

I expected so much more out of the hallucinations and such. But what we got from it was relatively tame, especially when towards the beginning of the movie they set it up to do so much more. I think if they leaned more on that and less on the grotesquely awful gore and such, it would have been better. So at least we could be like "Wait, is all of the stuff ACTUALLY as bad as it looks or is it just a hallucination?" And we're just not sure WHEN people are high as hell or when they're sober.

I also found the twists to be pretty non-twists. Like, I predicted literally everything that would happen, which is shocking given I was on the edge of my seat with no idea where Hereditary was going the whole way through. But I was more disappointed by how so much of the movie did feel like Hereditary as well. I felt it especially as much during the sex scene. With just the weirdness of a naked cult, it felt so many more times like Hereditary than it had to.

The fact that it DID seem funny took me out of a feeling of dread. Especially when it's just outrageously obvious what's going on at every step of the way. "Oh, Simon is gone? He's absolutely fucking dead." "Oh, the other girl is gone? She's absolutely dead." "Vape guy is gone? He's fucking dead." "Chidi Annakendrick is going to take a picture of the book? Well, he's just sealed his fate."

And when you are understanding the overall theme of the story and where it's heading, her choosing to sacrifice her boyfriend makes all the sense in the world and isn't surprising at all. That said, the way they tell that story and the symbolism is good.

The imagery of at the beginning of the movie, her boyfriend letting her lay on his lap while silent and just petting her compared to the women all grabbing her, literally holding her, and screaming and sharing in her grief is perfect. The ending is a pretty perfect shot too where she is able to scream and cry and then she looks back and notices everyone else doing the same, and she smiles because she finally has a family who unconditionally shares in her grief. That is GOOD stuff. But you took us on this unnecessarily weird and long trip to get there. And that's where the problem lies.

I just don't understand why you introduce this hallucination drug trip thing and then do NOTHING truly clever with it. Total missed opportunity imo.
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Midsommar is a true disappoint when compared to Hereditary in my opinion. Imagine Hereditary's ending; but it's almost 2 and a half hours long. I'm sorry, but it just wasn't any good beyond the first hour or so.

I would say it opened up pretty strong. We get some backstory on Dani and it's all pretty interesting, and they do end up subverting what I figured was a "we are all in on it" trope, which she does end up dreaming once herself. However... the decisions made by the characters in this film were nearly all bad. The thing about bad decision making in horror films is that everyone is ready to jump on characters that do this pretty quickly. Like how often does the "girl runs up the stairs instead of out the door" thing get brought up? Or how about "who's there?". Yeah, everyone agrees those are almost always pretty shitty. But just because you wrap up your bad decisions with colorful language and an "artsy" attempt at portraying it doesn't make your characters look any more intelligent. Take for example Christian, just a load of terrible decisions to be had here. "What's this? No... I don't want to drink it." "It'll be ok." "Oh, alright, sure I'll drink it I guess". Then you've got Dani; whom I feel like we're supposed to feel sorry for and agree with. Yeah, Christian is a bit of a dick sure. He isn't there for her when she's going through emotional difficulties. But we're led to believe that Dani has a lot of problems, she even admits it herself. I don't feel like leaning on one party of a relationship is fair; it's a two-way street. If you are constantly burdening your partner with your problems, they'll never feel like they can come to you with theirs because they'll view you as too weak to handle it or too preoccupied to be of any comfort to them. Despite his feelings about Dani, he sticks with the relationship and that's enough proof he must care at least a little. I'm not saying he was perfect but if this movie wanted me to go all in on this weird cult group "feeling what she's feeling (literally), they're finally what Dani needed because they'll be there for her" then yeah, no. Again, just because you paint with a lot of colors doesn't make it some beautiful masterpiece. It's a huge mess of nothing after the first hour or so.
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What I have been telling my friends about Midsommar.

"I wish I could just show you guys the first fifteen minutes of this movie and like the last fifteen minutes, and that you wouldn't need to watch the other two hours of this movie."
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reposting from Movie Discussion Topic

Johnbobb posted...

Pet Sematary was a book I never really thought would translate that well into a movie, and now two movies later I still stand by that. I think it would make for a really neat Twilight Zone/Black Mirror episode, but just doesn't really have enough plot to fill the runtime, and isn't deep enough to use the time for quiet reflection. It's especially hurt by the fact that the big "twist" 2/3s of the way into the movie everyone already knew was coming because 1. the story is 36 years old and 2. it's literally in the trailer. Changing up that last 3rd doesn't really add anything of substance to what was already a substance-lite movie.

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https://www.polygon.com/2019/7/19/20700978/halloween-sequels-michael-myers-blumhouse-trailer
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xp1337 posted...

That's... surprising.

None of the FAQs here seem to work?

From what I can tell from the board the one max social link FAQ is wrong in several places. It seems like if you're familiar enough with the game you can work around it, but I'd hate to play through the game following a guide and then end up with one unmaxed confidant or something.
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I don't like the titles of the Halloween movies, especially the first one.
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Steiner moves on

Stein glass

vs

me

Great topic. No particular comment at the moment beyond that but maybe I'll have something for later entries now that I'm caught up with it and aware it exists.
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Saw Crawl earlier this week

it's fine. Pretty great practical weather effects but pretty terrible CGI. Decent action but flat characters and overused jumpscares
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My British relatives superimposed me over Florence Pugh for my birthday card LOL, oh my god
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Haha that is excellent!

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bump

***'Scary Stories' spoilers***

It was a decent Halloween-themed, intersecting anthology type-movie - like Trick 'r Treat, though not as clever in its storytelling. It's cool that they wanted to stay true to the art sytle of the books - the jump to 3D almost works but looks cartoonish at times. It also reminded me of Halloween Tree a little, with kids uniting on Halloween to stop some awful thing from happening.

If they hadn't gone with the cheap 'talk the ghost off the ledge' happy ending, or if they had a better overarching story, I think I would have been more into it. They also seemed to be confused about the tone of the movie and the demographic it was for - like one minute you've got the female lead being super dramatic and in terror, and the next you have their goofy Shaggy-type friend still making weird jokes and giving awkward line-readings. It was bizarre.

Also had the amazing one-liner: "You don't read this book....this book reads you."

7/10

EDIT - OH and the last 30 seconds so obviously set it up for a sequel that they must already have one planned. Felt forced to me.

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Saw both Scary Stories and Brightburn this week

Scary Stories is creative and really creepy, but also kind of aimed at kids and inconsistent in tone. Overall pretty alright.

Brightburn is... kind of a waste of really good potential. It's a great concept with really dark tones and some cool action effects but it's just really, really dumb from a writing standpoint. Tons of plotholes and an unwillingness to really make the effort
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jcgamer107 posted...

EDIT - OH and the last 30 seconds so obviously set it up for a sequel that they must already have one planned. Felt forced to me.

Personally I thought this clever, because even though this is aimed at younger viewers it doesn't give you a sugary ending where everyone is magically okay now.
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My Unofficial 2019 Horror Rankings:

Child's Play
Us
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
Ma
Escape Room
Brightburn
Crawl
Pet Sematary
Annabelle Comes Home
The Prodigy
Happy Death Day 2U
The Curse of La Llorona
Midsommar
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For me:

Glass
Us
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Annabelle Comes Home
Brightburn
Happy Death Day 2U
Pet Sematary
Hellboy
The Silence
Escape Room
The Curse of La Llorona
The Prodigy
Assimiliate

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If it wasn't on my list I didn't see it, of course. I didn't watch Glass because I never saw Split.
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Honestly (and this is without me seeing some reason ones since i typically wait for it to release at home, so grain of salt and all that), this sadly feels like one of the weaker horror years in a while. Most everything from Brightburn down has been mostly mediocre to bad.

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Us
Midsommar
The Perfection
I Am Mother (more scifi though)
Velvet Buzzsaw
Glass
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
Happy Death Day 2U
Brightburn
Crawl
Escape Room
Pet Sematary
-big gap-
Hellboy

gotta agree with Snake though, weak year for horror so far. Us and Midsommar are great, The Perfection through Glass were decent, and everything below was pretty disappointing. Velvet Buzzsaw was kinda disappointing too, but Jake Gyllenhaal was incredible in it so I'll give it a pass

here's hoping Ready or Not lives up to the hype
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v_charon posted...

Personally I thought this clever, because even though this is aimed at younger viewers it doesn't give you a sugary ending where everyone is magically okay now.

The spider girl magically turned up okay though

I think it's been a good year - potentially great if It 2 delivers. Snake, you gotta see Midsommar!

Midsommar - 9.5/10
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark - 7.5/10 (growin' on me slightly)
Us - 7/10
Velvet Buzzsaw - 6.5/10
Ma - 5.5/10
Happy Death Day 2U - 5.5/10
Pet Sematary - 5/10
The Perfection - 4.5/10

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Midsommar is far to divisive of a film to lead a year, so if that's really going to be the best then I would say 2019 isn't a good year. I'd suggest seeing it, but yeah, I personally think it's one of the worst movies I wasted money on since It Comes At Night (which wasn't a bad movie, but was terrible as a horror film because it was misadvertised). I'll just say Strangers Prey at Night because I hated that as a movie and as horror.

However, I personally really loved the Child's Play reboot and think it's the most brilliant horror since Hereditary so I don't view this as a wash at all personally speaking. It's been a decent year, but IT Chapter 2 is still on the way so if it's able to be as good as or better than Child's Play, I will consider this a great year because it would have two really top tier films in it.

The girl with the spiders was saved by the intervention in the film; she was committed to an asylum afterwards so her being released isn't exactly 'sugary'. It's sort of a bittersweet ending where you get a little bit of 'we beat this' and a little bit of 'but we still lost'.
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went to see Ready or Not

It was really good and the ending was great
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Woah The Terror season 2 is superb! Fantastic j-horror vibe set against the backdrop of WW2 and Pearl Harbor that deals with the racial subjugation of the Japanese in the America. Also has some body horror that will definitely make you squirm.

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I want to second Ready or Not. Amazing movie with an incredible ending.
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I third Ready or Not - awesome that it dared to be both intense/brutal, and fun/funny.

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jcgamer107 posted...

I third Ready or Not - awesome that it dared to be both intense/brutal, and fun/funny.

yeah, that's one of the things I really liked about it

it was a horror comedy that went hard on both the horror AND comedy instead of favoring one or the other
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Ready or Not is pretty good. I'd probably drop it in somewhere above or below Brightburn on the list I previously posted. Going to check out Don't Let Go tonight and we should be seeing an early screening of IT 2 late Wednesday night. We'll see.

At DragonCon we checked out an Asian horror panel and saw a screening for a film called Stacy. It was a little offbeat and strange, but I probably found enjoyment in it that I did with Audition.
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Oh, please tell me how Don't Let Go is. I almost went to see that instead of Ready or Not.
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