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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.5.12.20
Posted on Monday, July 27, 2009 - 06:42 am:   

I know these are a plague upon the internet; this one, I'm suspicious of, most of it. The website it refers back to is some very strange, fundamentalist Catholic thing that - from what I can tell - has absolutely nothing to do at all with ghosts.

I found this one mostly entertaining for its long 11 minutes. But the reason I'm posting it is: the very, very last ghost "footage" here is somehow so nightmarish, it chills even me; even if it is something someone faked - good job.

It's frustrating there's absolutely no context for this last bit... but maybe that's what makes it even more creepy?...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRzWT85atIk
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.4.250.150
Posted on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 - 04:13 pm:   

Well, if that didn't disturb you, this certainly will....

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D99MUM7O0&show_article=1
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.44.39.227
Posted on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 - 04:43 pm:   

That's sad - mothers are fragile things, mentally and emotionally. They're almost alien.
I liked the ghost clips btw. I like stuff like that.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.5.1.176
Posted on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 - 05:35 pm:   

So do I Tony.... In fact, I'm reminded much of a sentiment I associate with you now: sometimes it's more - insert the term of choice: fun, life-enhancing, gratifying, satisfying, etc. - to just go with it, whatever "it" is, and believe something's real for even a few minutes. Or at least let the magic take you over.

Even if all these are faked faked faked, I admire the imagination putting them together. The final manifestation is thoroughly Campbellian - only a strange mind indeed could have conceived of that, or understands it.

... And I'm desperate to find something scary of late! I rented THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT hoping to see something horrifying along these lines... so far (1/3 way through), not hitting pay-dirt....
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.44.39.227
Posted on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 - 05:40 pm:   

Ha! You won't - it's shit!
And thank you; you've summed me up to myself! Youtube is the new campfire.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.44.39.227
Posted on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 - 05:42 pm:   

I've recently tried watching Hansel and Gretel, a Japanese film, and K31 (I think). Too artsy, too up-their-own-asses. They never got passed 20 mins.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.44.39.227
Posted on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 - 05:42 pm:   

Proto said to me they were technically accomplished. And that was it. He's right.
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 82.38.75.85
Posted on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 - 05:52 pm:   

>>I've recently tried watching Hansel and Gretel, a Japanese film ..<<

That reminds me, a couple of years ago at the Fantastic Films Weekend in Bradford, I saw a short film, Butcher's Hill, which was billed as a cross between Hansel and Gretel and The Blair Witch Project. Now that short WAS genuinely creepy. I believe they were trying to get funding to turn it into a full-length feature, but not sure if they ever managed it. If they do, that will be one film I'd strongly recommend going to see.

Right, now I'm going to go and watch your scary ghost videos ...
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 218.168.192.156
Posted on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 - 06:32 pm:   

Hansel and Gretel is one of the better weird Asian films to come out in the last few years, in my view (and many other people's). It's mysterious, creepy and atmospheric, and also manages to be genuinely touching. And it's a Korean film, not Japanese. They have different countries in Asia, you know.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.44.39.227
Posted on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 - 07:01 pm:   

Can't they wear name tags, or badges?
I liked bits of it, but went off it the minute it all started to look a bit Pee Wee Herman. Funny thing is, the night before I watched Supernatural, the ep with the Fairy Tale killings, and while it was 'plainer bread' I sort of enjoyed it more.
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 218.168.192.156
Posted on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 - 07:33 pm:   

I liked that episode of Supernatural, Tony. It's a good one.

Hansel and Gretel is worth persevering with - it's very odd and creepy in places, and really affecting toward the end.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.4.229.139
Posted on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 - 10:26 pm:   

Ha! You won't - it's shit!



*Sigh*... maybe Virginia Madsen will get naked at some point, and make up for it....
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.4.253.50
Posted on Wednesday, July 29, 2009 - 07:17 am:   

Water on one campfire, Tony....

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-debunk-the-mirror-ghost-girl-vide os-211419/
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.44.39.227
Posted on Wednesday, July 29, 2009 - 09:16 am:   

'The hot muggy gazebo of gullibility'.
Ha!
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.44.39.227
Posted on Wednesday, July 29, 2009 - 09:22 am:   

Hilarious. And excellent.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1080187/ghost_caught_by_dog_debunk/
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.4.255.67
Posted on Wednesday, July 29, 2009 - 03:54 pm:   

Ha! Love it, Tony. He makes poking holes through illusions its own creative bit of fun.

... alas, to find that which is truly scary anymore....
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.4.244.174
Posted on Thursday, July 30, 2009 - 05:36 pm:   

You were right, Tony. Ramsey Aickman nothwithstanding, I found HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT mediocre. Or maybe I'm just jaded now; I know all the tricks, the gimmicks; I need a stimulation to the next level. A horror film with no horror gimmicks - sudden jolting cameras, discordant strings, actors with corpse make-up.... Fulci's zombies and dead-things are far more scary than the things in this film - have movies advanced at all?! Even the slick look of it all reduces scariness - the old scratchy cheap film stock of those old horror flicks is so much preferable. Horror is dead, in film, I fear. I hold out hope for THE ANTICHRIST, but I'm worried it too, wants too much to be a feast of the eyes, rather than a knife of horror through the heart....

Cheese-ball as it is, there's more of an understanding of horror - as an artistic Ideal, to which writers like Ramsey Campbell work diligently and with reverence; as a sensation achievable through artistic means, and not always to be lured away by the sensually slick or easy or perfect or even logical - again, as cheese-ball as it is: there's more of horror in that last seconds-long jerky clumsy amateur "ghost" clip in the link above, than all the horror films I've seen of late....
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 82.38.75.85
Posted on Thursday, July 30, 2009 - 10:23 pm:   

>>>Even the slick look of it all reduces scariness - the old scratchy cheap film stock of those old horror flicks is so much preferable.<<<

Craig, my advice would be to go back to the old films - things like "Carnival of Souls" (the Herk Hervey one), Ealing Studios' "Dead of Night",and so on. In those days, they knew how to make films scary with nothing more than shadows and suggestion - not flashy effects and gimmicks.

In fact, if you want a somewhat newer film which really scares I'd recommend "The Others". Also, "The Last Broadcast" - a "Blair Witch Project" style of film which pre-dates Blair Witch and without all the hype.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.110.235.121
Posted on Thursday, July 30, 2009 - 11:52 pm:   

Some of the Japanese and Korean ghost story films of the last decade have been superb examples: creepy, serious, atmospheric film-making that tried to move viewers as well as frighten them. DARK WATER and THE EYE are very fine examples. Another great ghost story film from the last decade is del Toro's THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE. The Americans can do it too (witness THE HAUNTING and CARNIVAL OF SOULS), but THE SKELETON KEY is a piss-poor example and even THE SIXTH SENSE was merely OK. I loved THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT though.

Overall, I think THE INNOCENTS is perhaps the finest cinematic ghost story ever created. In many ways ghost stories need to be about more than fear: they need to be about loss, grief, pain, desire, loneliness. That is where M.R. James often (though not always) seems one-dimensional to me. He's not interested in people except as spook magnets.

That rumbling you hear is probably the sky falling on my head.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.5.13.183
Posted on Friday, July 31, 2009 - 12:44 am:   

All of these great films require comment:

THE OTHERS - scary, but too derivative of INNOCENTS, and other such fare, for me - still too concerned with THE SIXTH SENSE's style (THE SIXTH SENSE is a ghost film which, despite Joel bringing it up here, rarely seems to come up in our discussions here of ghost films. I know why: it's terrible, imho).

THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE - a grand disappointment, but better than PAN'S LABYRINTH. The story is the flaw here, and it infects the horror inherent: the horror element (separating it) is more concerned with telling a story (and a story that is tangential to the running one: the stories in this film don't link well, but are clumsily connected), than being a horrorific element - I think both need to be balanced (only talking about film here for the moment) to be considered masterful.

Such is the case with THE INNOCENTS, which I hold with Joel, as the finest cinematic ghost story ever made. And that's because, the two - horror, and story - are so evenly balanced, it can go either way: someone can look at it as purely a psychological study of mental breakdown, or purely in dramatic terms, and be right - or look at it purely through the eyes of someone who appreciates the power of the unexplained-horrific, the terror of the supernatural, etc.

THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT - ahead of its time, and quite a terrifying experience. A good film that is difficult to watch twice. I've not seen THE LAST BROADCAST, but will look for it.

I take a certain sort of delicious joy in THE SKELETON KEY, but it's more for its story, than the horror element - it is, essentially, the screenwriter's former movie - ARLINGTON ROAD - the same plot-through and story development, only in a scary-movie setting. The ending is so utterly bleak and black and disturbing - Kate Hudson in a bleak, black, disturbing film?! - that it holds a special place in my heart (the comedic bleak, black, disturbing version of same: BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, which itself has distant echoes of horror).

THE EYE, left no impression on me. Never saw the original DARK WATER - the American version was god-awful. CARNIVAL OF SOULS is a classic of horror: it touches upon the chilling, which is what I'm really seeking in horror film now, the truly chilling. NOSFERATU too, is truly chilling, let's not forget.

NOSFERATU, THE INNOCENTS, BLAIR WITCH... these are films that are chilling and horrifying... not containing elements that are, they are....
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 82.38.75.85
Posted on Friday, July 31, 2009 - 11:48 am:   

How could I have forgotten "The Innocents"? Of course, that's the finest example possible.

"The Last Broadcast" is well worth seeking out. Not sure if it's available on DVD? I have a scratchy copy which I'd videoed off TV. It's very similar to "Blair Witch" in style and story, but was actually released (without any fanfare) a few months earlier. Personally, I think it's better.

I'm surprised you didn't mention the portmanteau film "Dead of Night", Craig. Is this one you're not familiar with?
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Steve Jensen (Stevej)
Username: Stevej

Registered: 07-2009
Posted From: 82.0.77.233
Posted on Friday, July 31, 2009 - 11:52 am:   

I haven't watched the whole thing but, at first glance, it looks like The Last Broadcast has been uploaded to Youtube. :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvkw6C4qThM
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 82.38.75.85
Posted on Friday, July 31, 2009 - 01:07 pm:   

Nice one, Steve! I don't know if that will be the whole, uncut film, but I'd definitely recommend this one. It's worth remembering as you watch this that it was released BEFORE Blair Witch so don't just view it as a copy of the same.

If anything, it's also an interesting exercise in seeing how much difference it makes to a film when you have the right marketing and PR behind it. The Blair Witch team certainly did, but the people responsible for The Last Broadcast clearly didn't - which is a shame as it deserves much more acclaim than it got I reckon.
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Steve Jensen (Stevej)
Username: Stevej

Registered: 07-2009
Posted From: 82.0.77.233
Posted on Friday, July 31, 2009 - 01:16 pm:   

It looks an interesting film, Caroline - it's a pity The Blair Witch Project stole its thunder.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.110.246.240
Posted on Friday, July 31, 2009 - 01:59 pm:   

DEAD OF NIGHT only has one good segment, but that one is very good indeed. The framing story is effective too.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.110.246.240
Posted on Friday, July 31, 2009 - 02:04 pm:   

The blurb on the DVD on THE ORPHANAGE (which I haven't seen yet, maybe tonight) says "THE BEST GHOST STORY FILM SINCE THE OTHERS". Which is the most underwhelming blurb of all time. if you look very closely you can see that the last two words are in bold.

They never did find most of the designer.
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 82.38.75.85
Posted on Friday, July 31, 2009 - 02:35 pm:   

>>DEAD OF NIGHT only has one good segment, but that one is very good indeed.<<

I have to disagree with you there, Joel. I guess you mean the ventriloquist story? That is, indeed, the best of the bunch, but I find the ghost boy in the house during the children's party one quite disturbing/scary too. The golf course story is rubbish, of course! I believe they felt the need to put a light-hearted story in because of the era (1945 - end of World War II) and the studio's leaning towards comedy.

I guess when you watch any of these really old films you need to somhow revise expectations. Nowadays, we're used to such slick special effects, filming and so on that the old films can look a little silly if you're wearing the hat of today's cinema-goer when you watch them. Somehow, you need to try to watch them from the perspective of someone seeing the film for the first time in its intended setting. Personally, I always try to picture myself in a cinema similar to the one in Graham Greene's story "A Little Place Off the Edgware Road" when I watch an old horror film!

(sorry if I haven't quite got the name of that story right - typing from memory. Hope you'll all know the one I mean)
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.93.21.74
Posted on Friday, July 31, 2009 - 02:37 pm:   

I'd say Dead of Night had two fine episodes, the Hamer and the Cavalcanti.

I suppose it depends on how ghostly a ghost story has to be to qualify here. I think the finest film I've ever seen with a definite ghostly element is Ugetsu Monogatari.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.4.255.212
Posted on Friday, July 31, 2009 - 04:08 pm:   

DEAD OF NIGHT I re-saw a couple years back - had seen it before that years before - and it didn't quite hold up for me: I give films lots of slack, but I felt it didn't date too well. Most over the years have cited the ventriloquist story as the best, but it seems like it's gone stale. The one about the mirror, to me, rose to the top of that film, as the lasting best - the most chilling.

Things seen in "portraits" - the mirror is a big portrait of the room, so it fits - there is something about that story-concept that can be quite disturbing. Above, is mentioned the viral with the ghost girl in the mirror: it's debunkable and a bit silly, but judging that clip purely on aesthetic values - as something that inspires horror - even untranslated - it certainly does.

I also remember the very first story about the painting of the cemetery, in the pilot of "Night Gallery," that starred Roddy McDowell. I saw that when quite young for the first time, and its seared into my mind....

Will go get UGETSU MONOGATARI.
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 218.168.186.239
Posted on Friday, July 31, 2009 - 04:11 pm:   

Well said, Ramsey! I think Ugetsu is a magnificent film but, unfortunately, I know very few people who've actually seen it. A shame, as it's a classic.

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