Board 8 > 2023-24 Horror Topic: Executive Producer - Jason Blum

(+) Yeah! (+)

Stupid question: Would the Predator and Brendan Fraser Mummy movies count as horror? I feel like counting them, or at least action/adventure movies with horror elements.

Whoo Outer Range is coming back on May 16!

For those unaware, it stars a lot of great actors like Josh Brolin, Will Patton, Imogen Poots, Lewis Pullman, and Tom Pelphrey.

It's about these two feuding ranches in Texas where a giant hole appears out of nowhere on their contested property. And from there, weird stuff keeps happening, especially with things that fall into it. It was an extremely good horror series and I've been so excited for season 2.

It's absolutely worth going out of your way for! Incredibly chilling stuff in it, really engaging drama, wildly unpredictable, and the cinematography is just outstanding.

It's on Amazon Prime! Here's a trailer for the first season!

https://youtu.be/pIxgBqTBZZA?si=fZEGrfM_WavVF04s

Late Night With the Devil lives up to all the hype. What a unique and crazy film. Go see it immediately, probably my favorite horror movie since Hereditary (maybe, I'd have to check what came out in each of the years between them).

v_charon posted...

Late Night With the Devil lives up to all the hype. What a unique and crazy film. Go see it immediately, probably my favorite horror movie since Hereditary (maybe, I'd have to check what came out in each of the years between them).

Chiming in to say I absolutely LOVED this. Just an amazing setup for a horror film executed amazingly well. Surprisingly had a packed house and there were gasps in the audience at points. May end up as one of my all time favourites.

Ugggh hope I can see it this weekend.

I hear Immaculate is supposed to be really special too.

I'm pretty surprised Immaculate is as good as people are saying it is; I wasn't expecting that at all. It'll probably be Monday until we get to see that one though. Exhuma, that South Korean horror film I mentioned, actually was in theaters THIS weekend so we're catching an early showing of it tomorrow at 11:30am. Our typical Sunday movie day is probably off the card this week so Immaculate will have to be pushed back. Still haven't watched Afterlife, so no Ghostbusters just yet. I'll try to get to it though, it's the one I know will be in theaters the longest.

LightningStrikes posted...

Surprisingly had a packed house and there were gasps in the audience at points.

We had a pretty full theater as well, though they did put the showing we saw in one of the smaller rooms for some reason.

Yoooo guys, go out of your way to watch You Will Never Find Me on Shudder.

It's a movie about a girl who goes to find shelter in a guy's house during a terrible thunder storm. It's an extremely claustrophobic horror movie that stays in that single set piece and it flew past any expectations you have. Such a tightly wound and clever script that left me thinking I had the answers multiple times. Incredible last act of the movie. And the cinematography on this one is excellent too.

Check this one out. It's really special.

I always try to watch all the Shudder films. I'm one behind still though, never watched the one they put out before that one still. It didn't look all that interesting so I've neglected it for a little while now.

Exhuma was pretty great, not perfect by any means, but a very different sort of horror movie if you desire something very different. I enjoyed the presentation of the team of four here and the way each of them have a special skill that brings something to the table, and it's an interesting look at Eastern culture in terms of burial and the dead which is something that I once considering making my life revolved around until I realized how unfeasible it would be to do so.

Apparently this movie is a huge hit in its native country, already becoming the highest grossing film of the year there so far even over Western powerhouse films like Wonka and Dune. It seems poised to even overtake Parasite in terms of box office gross in South Korea. I'm unsure if this film will find the success and admiration that Parasite did here in the States, but it's something to keep an eye on.

Saw Stopmotion finally

I thought it was excellent, though I don't think it quite lived up to all the hype surrounding. A must-see of the year for sure but I don't think it reaches my top tier

Immaculate was pretty nice; definitely didn't correctly guess what this movie's twist was going to be when it happened so kudos to them for creating something a lot more original as The First Omen's release draws near. Definitely wasn't just a carbon copy of a movie from that franchise. Despite a really terrible theater-going experience, I did enjoy it. A few of the jump scares got me and I agree with most of the critics I've seen praising Sydney Sweeney's performance, she did indeed do a good job with the role.

Blood and Honey II is officially out in theaters now but we're not gonna be seeing it this time. I can't rationalize paying money after that first money, at least not more than $6-8 once it's available on Prime.

That being said... I'm checking now and... the movie has a 100% on RT and a 82% audience score. Limited critics so far, but how could this be possible?

I saw Late Night with the Devil! It was an really fun and creative movie. I really, really enjoyed it. Give me more weird, new ideas like this that are executed well please. Hell of a final act.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/89fc47ac.jpg

Couple of Saint Maud posters I hadn't seen before that I like a lot

Go see Late Night with the Devil

Holy shit

A+ marketing

https://twitter.com/ImmaculateMovie/status/1773742288427975080?t=GZfAkvuhSRGgv3i-m7-_hg&s=19

Finally watched Afterlife, so we're seeing Frozen Empire in the morning. Considering Ghostbusters horror is still not something I'd personally do, but thematically it fits fine. I did watch that Goosebumps movie last year and didn't bat an eye about putting it on my list, and essentially the Ghostbusters franchise is just a higher quality version of that I think. They even both have Dan Aykroyd.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/easter_bloody_easter

Considering watching this tomorrow night for the holiday. It doesn't seem as bad as one would think, and it's kinda a fun tradition we're building watching these holiday horror flicks around the time of the holiday season it's based on.

The best Goosebumps stuff is that TV show that came out last year! But they decided to make it an anthology series now which... kinda sucks honestly since these characters were all great and they set up for the story to continue.

Also, I saw Immaculate yesterday. Outstanding movie! Exceeded my expectations! Sydney Sweeney was great and it was just a basic film of an immaculate conception that went places I didn't expect, and it was quite a grisly affair. I actually really recommend this one.

Y'all, we need to be watching our for Cuckoo. It looks phenomenal.

https://youtu.be/NuON7HH0UkQ?si=cG1Z9lyVGTcj3rOm

Yeah it does! Love Dan Stevens in just about anything I've seen him in.

Seen the trailer in front of a few recent horror trips to theater. A couple of the scenes they use gave me chills, really looking forward to it. Sadly I read recently it's had its release date pushed back a few months to August.

Frozen Empire was pretty good. What you would expect from the franchise if you watched the previous film; good quality, family-style entertainment with horror themes. I feel like Frozen Empire is a bit darker than Afterlife on the whole; there are a few actual deaths of humans sprinkled around (though not nearly anything to write home about) and probably more uses of swear words as well. The main villain has a really cool design I liked.

We did end up watching the Easter horror movie I mentioned. Schlock. But it's one of those fun films that's aware enough to know that's all it is. So long as you approach it knowing that's all you're going to get, you'll probably think it's pretty funny and have a good time with it. It's no Thanksgiving, and really no My Bloody Galentine either, but it's okay. Probably not worth the time out of season but I enjoyed it.

The First Omen is out to pretty good reviews so far. I'm surprised.

Saw Immaculate. There are aspects that were great and some that were pretty weak

The good, Sydney Sweeney's performance here went all out, especially in the last like 20 minutes. It was absolutely dark and made great use of the set design to really make the church feel terrifying

The bad, it really felt very obviously written/directed by a man. Like some scenes like Gwen talking about her abusive ex while the camera is zoomed to show her see-through shirt felt pretty needlessly exploitative. It also has one of the stupidest villain plans I think I've seen in a horror movie. Like none of these assholes understand how pregnancy works, under what reality is constant horrifying treatment and torture going to be the way to get this girl to healthily give you this child?

Overall I enjoyed it for what is was but it's not one I'd call a favorite by any stretch

v_charon posted...

The First Omen is out to pretty good reviews so far. I'm surprised.

I'm actually not. It looked legitimately good from the trailers in a way these pre-sequels usually don't.

Just got back from it. Good stuff. After having seen Immaculate just recently, it's interesting to note how many parallels there are between the two films. I did say when I talked a little about Immaculate that it did a good job of subverting expectations that it would be a ripoff of The Omen franchise. Even so though, there are still a lot of things in common between these two films.

On the whole, I give the slight edge to The First Omen. Both are good movies, but I think only Sweeney was stellar in that movie whilst there was a higher amount of quality amongst this one. I think both films sort of go off the rails just a little around their endings, but there was really only one way for First Omen to end I guess since it's a canonical prequel to a nearly 50 year old movie. There are some really good scenes sprinkled throughout that are pretty unnerving and visceral. You can sort of see the plot twist coming from a ways away but I don't think it takes away from the film too much. Definitely not the bumbling of a historic horror IP that Exorcist: Believer was. I still don't think that movie is as bad as most do. There's a clear step down though.

I watched Baghead that just came out on Shudder.

Overall, a pretty good movie! Some legitimately chilling stuff in it. The plot was enough that it kept you guessing through quite literally the entire movie. Lots of surprises in it.

To give a quick description, a girl inherits her father's pub, where there's a woman with a bag over her head trapped down there. She can turn into dead people, but if she's changed for too long then she starts to become deadly.

It's a unique idea, and I love those. A strong showing from Shudder. They've been having a strong group of Shudder Exclusives lately! I recommend it!

Walking into Late Night With the Devil! Right now!

That was insane!!!! Surpassed my already pretty high expectations

Watched two of Shudder's original films from 2024. I had been meaning to start on them for a while, especially since @PrivateBiscuit1 has been saying good things about the two most recent. But I felt I needed to watch one that came out a couple of months ago now, History of Evil, first. So last night we did just that... and boy oh boy, this did not leave me feeling that Shudder was on the right track with their originals at all. I have no idea who signed off on this.

To start, the film has an interesting enough premise, even if it does make me feel a certain sort of way. If you've seen the trailers for the upcoming movie Civil War, then it's basically that. You have this setup to where the government has been overthrown or perhaps just changed into that of a heavily Christian authoritarian state, at least that's what the movie tells you at first. But what it actually seems to be is more based on race, because any time a non-white person is on the side of this new government, they're referred to as "converts" specifically. Like only white people were originally part of this new order, even though that's never explicitly stated. Anyway, the horror aspect of this film is that a wife, husband and their daughter are on the run and part of the uniquely named "The Resistance", and while on the run they take refuge in what's essentially a haunted house. The wife is supposedly this big time leader of the group and she's recently escaped prison, though the way this film is written you'd never know she was supposed to be any sort of leader. Her relevance to the plot amounts to making two speeches over the radio that could have been easily created better by AI. Hollow nothingness.

The actual main character is her husband, and well, this is one of the worst written characters in horror recently. It's sort of like someone watched The Shining and then did a supremely shitty job of copying it. There's no nuance, no building of character, nothing. Just total horse shit and forced everything. It's infuriatingly bad writing to a level that's hard to put into to words. There is nothing good to say about this movie after the first 15 or 20 minutes. Plot points are introduced and go nowhere, but time is devoted to them anyway. Ghosts appear with no sort of explanation about who they are or what they represent; the one ghost that does get the most screentime just makes no sense. It's so poorly explained and again, the writing is just so shit it's hard to believe anyone put money into making this movie. I feel bad for everyone who was involved in making this. One of the worst horror movies I've ever seen.

The second one we watched is Baghead, though it's the newer of the other Shudder films it's what Genny picked so after me having picked what I did, I couldn't make any argument. It's a pretty good offering, definitely needed after what we had to watch before it. It was successful with some good jumpscares, especially early on. I did like the "villain" here the film has a 'dark end', which is something I typically don't like in my horror movies. But with this one I felt the 'witch' had really been screwed over here and didn't deserve to spent centuries locked in a basement and abused for her powers. So looking at it from her point of view, I suppose this wasn't a 'bad ending'.

But yeah, very competently done and definitely solidly enjoyable.

https://thefilmstage.com/don-hertzfeldt-and-ari-aster-collaborating-on-a-big-existential-horror-animation/

AND

https://youtu.be/y0uS3t6nFgY?si=raINWP-MT0eYgPsf

Fucking Pearl 3

I am over the moon that Ari Aster and Ti West are two of the top names in horror. What a time.

Hertzfeldt and Aster is not a collab I ever thought I'd see, holy shit

I had a feeling History of Evil was going to be bad. Buddy, you should have went with You Will Never Find Me! I think that's one you would have vibed with!

Glad to hear you liked Baghead though! I thought it was a very enjoyable little movie.

I have You Will Never Find Me downloaded to watch soon

We'll probably watch it some time in the next week. We'll be on vacation, but at night I imagine we'll be watching a film most of the time. Unfortunately Maine doesn't have a ton of movie theaters so we might miss the limited showing of Sting; Arcadian just looks more interesting and we only have time to see one of them before we leave, so we'll be checking out Nic Cage's latest offering tomorrow. I'm a little more interested in Longlegs but this one has good reviews ahead of release.

Watched the Maxxxine trailer. I'm just not sold on it. I was disappointed with Pearl (slightly triggered by it being called "Pearl 3" there; XXX was a great movie that I did enjoy). I mentioned when it came out that I just felt it was a little overhyped and preferred XXX. But since this is a sequel and won't have Pearl in it at all, it might be more for me.

There was only one X lol

Still better than calling it Pearl 3 imo

We actually ended up watching Sting before we left on vacation after I found out we would be able to see Arcadian at a local theater here in Maine after all. It's gonna cost a lot more than usual, but it's a vacation so meh. Seeing that tonight or tomorrow night.

Sting was fairly good. Nicely done little creature feature sort of movie; it's nice to see one that isn't about sharks. I think the first parts of the film are probably better than the later ones. It never takes itself too seriously and there are some humorous parts in there too; I liked the main character, well, I liked her a lot at first but by the end she was just sort of okay. If you like creature horrors, this one should be one you'd enjoy too; it doesn't do anything special or take chances, just a well-done by the numbers experience.

We also watched a shorter horror film in flight called Arctic Hollow; it's only about 70 minutes... and yeah. Just... not good. I would say kinda bad. It's sad because I know this is probably a really low budget movie but it shows. Sometimes when you have a low budget, you have to make a film that hides that fact. It's not hard to do; but it does mean you can't tackle certain concepts and this film is guilty of that. It's basically a "hollow Earth" influenced movie; and this was made with like a shoestring budget and there's just no way it can pull it off. Both the writing and acting are pretty bad... music is kinda out of place a lot of times. I wanted to like it because I would say maybe the first 10-15 minutes so paint this as a slow burn movie with perhaps a way to execute a smart story with a little bit of money, but no. So corny and cringey in the last act.

Yo The First Omen was actually amazing I thought. Extremely satisfied with this one. Tons of horror imagery that will stick with me, and the plot was actually outstanding. Very impressive from a director's first actual film outing.

I think Nell Tiger Free, who folks may know from Servant, was completely outstanding here. For as good as Sydney Sweeney was in Immaculate, I think Nell was many times better. She's just incredibly talented and people ought to take notice of how good she was in this film. The range she had was so good. I got serious Mia Goth vibes in that she feels like an actress that puts on these great performances and just needs someone to give her that big break.

Absolutely amazed that this movie also teased a sequel. No, not the original movie, but a side story. Lol I would love to see it, but it's questionable since this movie has only just beat its budget now. But I'll follow this director going forward.

Yeah, it's unfortunate that even with good word of mouth and high ratings The First Omen hasn't arrived with any fanfare. I guess the IP is just too old to get people excited, or Believer might have tainted the idea of old, religious themed horror franchises being very good for most people. It could also be that the Omen films, at least in my opinion, kinda suck after the first one.

Arcadian was a nice experience for sure. Probably the coolest monsters of the year so far, and they didn't shy away from showing them. There's something pretty unique they do that I won't spoil here; the first time you see it I think it's pretty terrifying. It helps this film has some good acting as well; the dynamics between the two brothers is the star of the show I think. Nic Cage of course is always good too.

Outer Range Season 2 trailer! New season next month! God, it's going to be so good. Exceptional TV.

https://youtu.be/gNiN18WOuyc?si=-E0OKvugSlvybw4-

PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

Yoooo guys, go out of your way to watch You Will Never Find Me on Shudder.

It's a movie about a girl who goes to find shelter in a guy's house during a terrible thunder storm. It's an extremely claustrophobic horror movie that stays in that single set piece and it flew past any expectations you have. Such a tightly wound and clever script that left me thinking I had the answers multiple times. Incredible last act of the movie. And the cinematography on this one is excellent too.

Check this one out. It's really special.

Got around to it.

Yeah, this one is quite good. I liked it a lot; very tense and it was like 50 minutes before I could even tell who the bad guy was. Even though I was able to correctly predict a few things about this movie at that point, I still really enjoyed the presentation. I bet the budget was smaller here with this one, but this is exactly how you do it. I really love these one location horrors lately.

At 40 films now on the year, so here's an update to my list so far. I'm trying to get Genny to get a list too so we can compare them but it might be a little too late now to get them in proper order I think. Some of the films in the C tier for me I feel end up being pretty forgettable experiences and I'd be hard pressed to rank some of them unless I had a fresh take on them while they were still in the forefront of my mind.

S Tier:

1. Late Night With the Devil
2. Stopmotion

A Tier:

3. Lovely, Dark and Deep
4. Monolith
5. You'll Never Find Me
6. Exhuma
7. Lisa Frankenstein
8. The First Omen
9. Arcadian
10. Destroy All Neighbors
11. Somewhere Quiet
12. My Bloody Galentine
13. Immaculate
14. Double Blind

B Tier:

15. Founders Day
16. Out of Darkness
17. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
18. Departing Seniors
19. Baghead
20. Sting
21. Laced
22. Imaginary
23. Last Night at Terrace Lanes

C Tier:

24. I.S.S.
25. Guess Who
26. Stranger in the Woods
27. The Windigo
28. Cellphone
29. Easter Bloody Easter
30. Sunrise
31. Alice in Terrorland
32. Midnight Peepshow
33. Gods of the Deep

D Tier:

34. Project Dorothy
35. Night Swim
36. Punch
37. Skeletons in the Closet
38. Arctic Hollow

F Tier:

39. They Turned Us Into Killers
40. History of Evil

I think it'll be difficult for any film to unseat Late Night With The Devil this year because I can't say enough good things about it. It's out on Shudder now (or soon) and we might even end up watching it again because that's how great it is. I've liked the majority of movies we've watched this year, just a handful of stinkers so far in my opinion.

v_charon posted...

Got around to it.

Yeah, this one is quite good. I liked it a lot; very tense and it was like 50 minutes before I could even tell who the bad guy was. Even though I was able to correctly predict a few things about this movie at that point, I still really enjoyed the presentation. I bet the budget was smaller here with this one, but this is exactly how you do it. I really love these one location horrors lately.

Glad you checked it out! Just such a really cool film on a shoe string budget. It's just an awesome script that knows how to keep you on the edge. Hoping this team of directors blows up because they were awesome. It really makes me have a ton of faith in these indy movies with no budget can still end up being so damn good.

I've heard From Season 1 is free on Amazon Prime right now if anyone wanted to give it a shot!

I just watched The Last Voyage of the Demeter again and it's still tragic that movie flopped as bad as it did, because it's awesome. (and on Showtime!)

It was alright, definitely better than I was expecting but it's honestly not on the higher end of vampire movies for me.

PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

I just watched The Last Voyage of the Demeter again and it's still tragic that movie flopped as bad as it did, because it's awesome. (and on Showtime!)

Heh Universal's biggest flops last year involved vampires and krakens.

I really dug Last Voyage of the Demeter.

Glad I got to see it in theaters, I feel like I wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much otherwise

I liked it. Didn't deserve to bomb. Not the greatest movie ever but it looked good and was competent.

We watched something called Night Shift. It's about a woman who, of course, begins a new job working a night shift at a hotel that's a little seedy. Supposedly, even haunted. There are a couple of really effective scares mixed in but there's a twist near the ending I personally didn't like too much. It ultimately brought it down a bit for me. Still not bad though.

Watched a few more movies on our return flights. The first is one I had noticed on Prime a while back called A Cold Grave. This is a very low budget found footage style film, generally at least. Like some movies of that genre it betrays that in moments in needs to. Blair Witch inspired for sure, hikers get lost in the woods then a relative of one of those characters gives search. There are a few characters in the movie, but it's mostly a one man show. I don't think this movie will be for everyone, it will hinge on if you find this particular character charming, and I kinda did. He's a bit hammy and over the top but for whatever reason I liked his wit. I've seen a few reviews absolutely hammering this movie but I don't think it's bad. No masterpiece and doesn't add anything new to this subgenre outside of an eccentric lead.

Secondly, I finally checked out T.I.M. featuring one of my favorite up and coming scream queens in Georgina Campbell (Barbarian and Lovely Dark and Deep, subnote to make sure you see that one). If you've seen M3GAN, then you can probably guess how this movie plays out. Not that that is a bad thing since I personally thought it was one of the best films last year. TIM is a bit more violent I think since ratings weren't an issue. Like M3GAN, the guy playing the AI really gives a great performance and along with Georgina helps this movie shine. If you did enjoy M3GAN, this one should push all those same buttons. Maybe it presses them too much sometimes but it's well acted and produced.