| Author | Message | ||
     Lincoln_brown (Lincoln_brown) Username: Lincoln_brown Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 121.220.111.168 |
I know I'm late to the party on this one, but - what a superb film. So much to like about it - looks & sounds great, good performances, scary, mysterious. The conflict between the workers was very well done, nice to see blue collar workers with blue collar problems. Was also played straight - no silly one-liners, no 'Rambo' heroes. Also watched 'The Mist'. Hated it. Enough said - I know I'm in the minority! SPOILER BELOW Any one in the non-supernatural explanation camp with this one(Session 9)? I'm not. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.21.232.26 |
It has been some time since I last saw this. I remember one very troubled crew member killing off his co-workers while another goes through a stack of tapes in the basement, which basically reveal that the troubled one is an erstwhile patient. Supernaturalism? The coins in the wall can be explained away, I suppose; same with the very eerie apparitions of various dead crew members. Would love to have this on dvd. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.149.134.59 |
Very fine film, yes. Absolutely chilling conclusion. One of the few English-language exceptions to the rule that the new 'quiet' supernatural thriller films are lame and cosy. And SESSION 9 is definitely supernatural, though perhaps only in retrospect. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.159.83.68 |
SESSION 9 is an excellent little film - wait, what's that wooshing sound? Ah, here comes Zed! | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
:-) It's a masterpiece - I refer you to the article I wrote for All Hallows. My reading of the film is certainly that it's supernatural, but there's an ambiguity which allows for both readings. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
Oh, and it's terrifying. Utterly terrifying. The final voiceover - "I live in the weak and the wounded" - never fails to chill me. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.248.217 |
Loved this film. Wasn't too taken by The Machinist, though. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
I thought The Machinist was excellent - a nice lowkey psychological drama. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.248.217 |
Yes, but surely you must give me credit for knowing that they both directed by the same guy. I didn't even Google IMDB! I mean, come on - encourage a film duff! | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.192.13 |
Well done, GF! *pats Gary on the head in gentle encouragement* Great film, Session 9. I think it's one of the creepiest of recent horror films, and proves that 'western' horror films can be as quietly effective in conveying dread as the Japanese and Korean films that were doing the same kind of thing so well 5-10 years ago. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.248.217 |
Thanks, Huw. Here's an apple from me mam. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.159.84.0 |
It's not from his mam - he's been scrumping again. | ||
| John_l_probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.208.214.30 |
I loved Session 9. Nice to see that it's getting fairly regular showings on the SciFi channel | ||
| Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 69.236.164.76 |
Yes, a great horror film. I love the naturalistic performances. They help make the atmosphere all the more disturbing (along with that great sound design!). If David Mamet made a horror movie--though some of his work can be considered horrific, he might have made this one. I saw it the week after 9/11. I thought it wouldn't have any effect on me . . . but I was wrong. Its director, Brad Anderson, has a new coming out: "Transsiberian" a Hitchcockian thriller. Looking forward! | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 65.95.99.168 |
How many times can we talk about this film? lol this is an odd thread. I feel like I'm in a parallel universe... My memory (and I saw it when it came out, so it was a while a go now) was that I LOVED the first two acts, and was gravely disappointed in the third - precicely because it ceased to be supernatural, and instead became one of those guys who went nuts (but didn't realise it) stories... Maybe I need to see it again. But seriously, I remember so distinctly thinking that it had so much promise (omg - like that scene in the tunnel with all the lights going out one at at time - EEEK) but then sold out to boring crazy ville. Sigh | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.108.15.193 |
Adriana, I experienced it the other way round – wasn't sure it was supernatural until the end. But then I tend to react much less to what I see than what I have already seen – the most important moment in watchibng a film, for me, is the end credits when the whole thing replays itself in your head and you go "Oh, I see..." I do that with stories as well: go on reading them in my head after the book is closed. | ||
| Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 69.236.164.76 |
Adriana: I agree, I don't like "shaggy ghost" stories either, but the supernatural element in "Session 9" remains to the end. They're *all* driven mad by the bad spirit that haunts that place. | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
I hear you Joel - in fact, I'd go as far as to say that stories and films that allow for that process (of continuing the tale in one's head after it's done) are usually my favorites, and certainly the ones that stay with me... Ok, I'll see it again. If there is still a supernatural element then I'm relieved. But I do remember being disappointed by the fact that it was just a mad man (driven mad by the supernatural or not). And something about peanut butter??? I have no idea what that element is that's pushing its way back up to my conscious, but I seem to remember peanut butter being at the heart of my disappointment... Man my memory sucks. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.193.19 |
I don't recall any peanut butter - I need to watch this again... ;-) | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
I have this faint memory that the peanut butter is the clue to his madness. And that that pissed me off in some way... | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
We should all get together and have a screening. | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
I wish we could, you know. I really really really do. And not just because I'm abysmally sad. | ||
| Michael_kelly (Michael_kelly) Username: Michael_kelly Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 207.188.88.234 |
I love this film. The scene in the hallway with the lights going out is absolutely terrifying. If you watch the DVD extras, there's a whole completely different storyline that was, thankfully, chopped from the film. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.108.7.57 |
"I seem to remember peanut butter being at the heart of my disappointment..." If you weren't so young, Adriana, I'd say that was just a flashback to the seventies. | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.195.236.131 |
Why would anyone eat peanut butter? Why would anyone have invented it? "You know, I really wish there was some substance that would completely dry out my mouth in a second and take away any ability to chew or swallow." Phew. I'm glad I got that out of me. | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
I was born in the 70's Joel. Spent 3 whole years in them. Sadly, I rely on peanut butter for survival. With my allergy eating while traveling is difficult. And as sick as I get of it, peanut butter is one of the few proteins I can easily bring, store, and eat. Sigh. But I'm serious about Session 9. When I see it again, I'll let ya'll know. I'm telling you, peanut butter was the "madness" clue. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.21.232.26 |
No juicy steaks, hot spaghetti sauce or paprika soup, Adriana? I don't envy you. Strange as it may sound, peanut butter is one of the few things that plays havoc with my digestion. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.148.96.124 |
Asda's own peanut butter - the cheapest - is the best there is. It's so oily. Session 9 is ok, but not worth a rewatch. Watch something else, A. I liked it till the director left near the end and handed the camera over to a goth chimp. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.148.96.124 |
And is it me or was the film not just that spooky episode of Auf Wiedersehen Pet? | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
I felt like that too, Tony. But all this talk makes me feel that I have to see it again to defend my peanut butter disappointment in the 3rd act...  | ||
| Lincoln_brown (Lincoln_brown) Username: Lincoln_brown Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 124.176.226.72 |
Tony - serious question - can you name three contemporary horror films that you would consider better than 'Session 9'? Going back 10 years, English language only. Not being smart, just interested in what you think. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.148.96.124 |
Three? Hmm... this year I can only think of the mist and Sweeney Todd, which I think was a new classic, and even though it was also a musical. Thing is, I don't want to dismiss Session 9, I just think it did end feeling 'loose' compared with how it had begun. It did feel like the reigns were handed over to someone less skilled for the last act. Oh, you said ten years. I'll have another think. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.148.96.124 |
I liked The Others and Sixth Sense, too. And the Dawn of the Dead remake. But for me this is tricky as there really hasn't been a perfect horror film since The Innocents anyway. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.149.134.59 |
"But for me this is tricky as there really hasn't been a perfect horror film since The Innocents anyway." That's not fair. It's setting the bar far too high. Like comparing current rock bands with Joy Division or fish fingers with foil-wrapped sea bass. Nothing compares with THE INNOCENTS. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.148.96.124 |
Oh, there have been films I've liked since, but The Innocents niggles away inside my head whenever anything new comes along. But you know what I might nominate as a horror? one that had both a superb level of craft and stuck in the mind the way a horror does? The Pledge. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.149.134.59 |
Good for getting stains off woodwork too. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.76.216 |
Your puns have hitherto completely lacked polish, Mr Lane, but this one just missed a sheen. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.148.96.124 |
It does make me wonder if there's a sub culture of Granny-friendly films i.e Pledge and the recent Jumper. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.149.134.59 |
A friend of mine specialises in granny studies. He's a cardie-ologist. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.77.197 |
Is his thought ever woolly? | ||
| John_l_probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.199.0.138 |
Does he ever look sheepish? | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.248.217 |
Does he knit his brow? | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.148.96.124 |
Ahem! Session 9...?  | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
I'd second The Others and add Shawn of the Dead ;) and -though nobody will agree with me. THE VILLAGE. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.148.96.124 |
Ah, I like that. It addresses horror but isn't really of it. It showed horror's place in the world, for me, to a point. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.5.7.185 |
Hearkening to the very first post above: I'm even later to the party than Lincoln, but I too loved SESSION 9. Bone-chilling psychological horror, plain and simple. More movies like this one, please! And, like Lincoln, again, I too hated THE MIST. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.157.91.38 |
Still, what did you think of THE MIST, Craig? | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.98.9.4 |
I think he secretly loves it and watches it in a double bill with Donnie Darko late at night i a darkened room with a packet of kleenex. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.193.191 |
Your secret is out Craig. Busted! | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 67.116.103.241 |
Spend the night alone in the creepy insane asylum from SESSION 9, or watch THE MIST and DONNIE DARKO again back to back... spend the night alone in the creepy insane asylum from SESSION 9, or watch THE MIST and DONNIE DARKO again back to back... hmmm.... Strap me down to the EST board and stab through both my eyes with lobotomy-spikes, boys - it's gonna be a looooong night.... | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
I'd say that since The Innocents we've had several horror films at least as perfect from David Lynch. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
Hear-hear, Ramsey. Lynch has given us some of the best - and most terrifying - horror films of recent times. |