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Lincoln (Lincoln_brown)
Username: Lincoln_brown

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 123.98.137.114
Posted on Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - 04:03 am:   

I know 'found footage' isn't everyones cup of tea, but this looks good, and has been getting positive reviews.

http://twitchfilm.com/news/2012/06/red-band-trailer-for-sundance-hit-vhs.php
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.181.214.176
Posted on Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - 12:19 pm:   

Yes, I've just been watching the trailer courtesy of Zed's post on Facebook. Itriguing stuff...
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Sunday, August 18, 2013 - 06:57 am:   

Wow, so has anyone here seen it yet? Very well done anthology horror film (I hope the antho horror film is revived thanks to this; V/H/S 2 is in production, so there's that). I counted six stories, and even when they're weak, they're still extremely well produced, acted, and structured. The third story, "Tuesday the 17th," where the four young people go into the woods, I found the most impressive: disturbing, scary, innovative. Bodes well for the horror genre in film. And bodes well for You're Next (same people involved in that one, opening in a week).
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David_lees (David_lees)
Username: David_lees

Registered: 12-2011
Posted From: 92.22.10.67
Posted on Sunday, August 18, 2013 - 02:20 pm:   

I haven't seen it (I don't tend to see anything until it comes on Sky Movies these days, sadly) but I've heard mostly good things about it, and do want to.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.134.108.150
Posted on Sunday, August 18, 2013 - 07:33 pm:   

I saw this last year and posted a review in teh films of 2012 section.

I thought most of the stories were pretty good - although just a touch predictable in places - but the wraparound storyy is shockingly badly done. It's nonsensical, badly acted and doesn't hold the interest or explain properly where the segments come from.

My favourite segment was the one told in skype conversations. Why exactly that was found on a VHS cassette in a psychopath's house is something that can't be explained...

Check out ABC's of Death for your next compilation film. No wraparound, just 26 shorts each one beginning with a different letter of the alphabet.

Great stuff with IMHO only 2 duffers (out of 26 - not bad going)
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Sunday, August 18, 2013 - 08:57 pm:   

I don't see your review there on that thread—can you steer me towards it, Weber?

I thought the Skype story made almost no sense (can you explain what happened there?), but it didn't matter, it was creepy enough. As well, it was well-structured: there shows some understanding of horror in these shorts, not just silly standard film horror of the most common type. The wraparound story was also kind of senseless, yet worked for what it was; the last story—was that supposed to be set in the same house? I couldn't tell.

The problem with "found footage" flicks I see, is that they're always leaving the viewer on edge waiting for something to happen—I mean, that's practically all we experience, with no let up: waiting for the shoe to drop. And so it's hard to sustain full-length feature found footages; this antho structure works better. The best found footage script I read recently is one called GARDEN DISTRICT, supposedly in production but looks like it's stalled, about vampires in New Orleans—it actually managed to make vampires scary again, on the page; but it mixed found footage with traditional film, even it couldn't sustain it for the entire run. Sinister utilized found footage very effectively, but it was so exactly for being used sparely.

Yes, I've heard great things about The ABC's of Death!
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.134.108.43
Posted on Sunday, August 18, 2013 - 09:01 pm:   

The skype story made perfect sense.

Watch it again. Spoiler - one of them is not where they say they are.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Sunday, August 18, 2013 - 09:15 pm:   

No, I got that—I mean, what the hell was going on? What was happening at all? I think I get a portion of it, but not really.

I realize this will involve massive spoilers for everyone else, but please, can you explain it to me?...
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Sunday, August 18, 2013 - 09:17 pm:   

Another one that didn't really make a whole lot of sense, was the one about the boyfriend and girlfriend taking a vacation. It sort of meandered, then suddenly ended. But again, I forgave it everything because it managed to be creepy and disturbing and (in a good way) awful....
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, August 18, 2013 - 09:22 pm:   

The best found footage film of them all is Deodato's 'Cannibal Holocaust' (1980), after which the rest of them are pretty much one trick ponies. The REC movies are the best of the later imitations and this year's hilarious mockumentary, 'Wizard's Way', is the ultimate spoof and satirical comment upon the overused form. I always found 'The Blair Witch Project' (1999) bafflingly overrated and the same goes for the majority of recent movies its success spawned.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Sunday, August 18, 2013 - 09:30 pm:   

We're still living in the wake of Blair Witch Project, in the sub-sub-subgenre of found footage horror, Stevie, even 15 years on. So much of V/H/S looks like it could have been released as a direct sequel to that one (well, it is partially set around that same time, so...).

Yes, the found footage of Cannibal Holocaust is probably the best—a weirdly structured film as a whole, but a disturbing one nevertheless. Deodato is still around, too—check out this one he's part of, another horror antho film—looks good! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2066123/
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, August 18, 2013 - 09:52 pm:   

Incidentally, I finally got to see Polanski's 'Macbeth' (1971) last night, Craig, and thought it was far and away the best film version of Shakespeare I have seen. Instead of giving us a filmed play this was very much a work of pure cinema based upon the text and making great innovations in its on-screen presentation. One of his greatest directorial achievements and more than worth the wait. It's now become one of my favourite 70s masterpieces... and, bloody hell, the gore and psychological ramifications of what must have been going on in the poor man's mind following the Manson murders on top of his childhood experiences in the Warsaw ghetto!!!! Surely no other filmmaker has such an intimate personal experience of the evils of the 20th Century...
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Sunday, August 18, 2013 - 09:56 pm:   

You are right, Stevie, it's one of the best—ranks up there with Olivier's; and despite being Shakespeare, should probably be put on 10 Best lists of Horror Films of the 1970's, surely. The witches alone, in all their scenes, are magnificently done.

Polanski is a genius, and even when he's off, he's so much more on than scores of other directors. He can take a static one-room play like Carnage and turn it riveting (worth catching). Did you see The Ninth Gate? I've not, and I don't know why not... I guess I'm worried, judging from what I've heard, that I might be wrong that he's always on, even when he's off....
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, August 18, 2013 - 10:26 pm:   

Read my review of 'The Ninth Gate' (1999) on the Horror Triple Bills thread, Craig. I've watched it twice with increasing admiration of its Lovecraftian subtleties. Do a search. I see it as a very clever and entertaining post-modern satirical comment on the doom laden satanic horror genre of the 70s that he was instrumental in bringing to life.

Yes, 'Macbeth' is unusually bloody pure gothic horror through and through with every scene and famous speech done to absolute perfection.
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 92.8.30.41
Posted on Sunday, August 18, 2013 - 11:16 pm:   

Found footage? Before Cannibal Holocaust there was Caltiki, which was derived from Quatermass Xperiment. I still think Blair Witch is the nearest thing to Lovecraft on film.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, August 18, 2013 - 11:56 pm:   

I must admit I haven't watched 'The Blair Witch Project' since it was originally in the cinema, when I came out supremely unimpressed. That may have had a lot to do with the ridiculous hype surrounding the movie and my dashed expectations but I found it almost painfully amateurish and obvious at the time. Time for a reappraisal, perhaps?

I thought 'The Burrowers' was a much more impressive recent distillation of Lovecraftian Americana on screen, Ramsey. And Ridley Scott's 'Alien' and 'Prometheus' the most successful cinema treatment of his cosmic yet tangible horror vision.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Monday, August 19, 2013 - 04:20 am:   

Okay, on your recommendation, I'll see it, Stevie. I still have Cul-de-Sac, What? and Bitter Moon of his left to view, too.

Different kind of Shakespeare, but on a par with Macbeth, is—forgot to mention it—Zeffirelli's Romeo & Juliet, made three years before Polanski's; production value I found similar, probably influenced him in his later one.

For another strange and bloody Jacobean play, catch 'Tis Pity She's A Whore, Italian production released same year as Polanski's Shakespeare, starring Charlotte Rampling. Not quite as dark and eerie and malicious... but damn close.
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David_lees (David_lees)
Username: David_lees

Registered: 12-2011
Posted From: 92.22.10.67
Posted on Monday, August 19, 2013 - 06:37 pm:   

I was the same with The Blair Witch Project Stevie, the hype spoiled it for me. I did find the mythology surrounding the film very impressive though and I recall getting quite creeped out by The Blair Witch Dossier while alone in a hotel room one night, particularly the transcript of the medium's attempt to communicate with the entity. I actually saw the book in a charity shop window today and was tempted to pick it up, but my old copy must be around here somewhere.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Tuesday, August 27, 2013 - 07:05 am:   

Here's the link to this thread: the same guys that did V/H/S did You're Next, which just released this weekend—didn't do well. Well, I didn't know this, but that film sat on the shelf for a few years... and so, this list riffs on that fact, to list its top 10 shelf-sitting horror films.

Of course, the one most enticing on this list, imho, is The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007), a film... still unreleased, with no plans to.

http://www.fearnet.com/news/list/youre-next-and-10-other-horror-films-sat-shelf- years

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