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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.185.27.105
Posted on Saturday, August 06, 2016 - 01:08 am:   

Go on. Name the last three new ones.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 81.133.201.120
Posted on Saturday, August 06, 2016 - 08:16 pm:   

These are the new horror films that have peaked my interest, Tony:

Bone Tomahawk
The Witch
Cell
10 Cloverfield Lane
Green Room
Creepy
Holidays
Yoga Hosers

And upcoming:

Phantasm V : Ravager
The Sandman
The Insects

I'm sure there are others. In truth the last 16 years has seen a resurgence of quality horror films. It was in the 1990s that we really went through a drought, imho.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Sunday, August 07, 2016 - 02:41 am:   

I've heard great things about THE WITCH, and it looks great too, the trailers - just gotta go down to Redbox and rent it. So I saw 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE... I literally can't say anything about it to anyone who hasn't seen it, until they see it. Stevie especially, I'd like you to see it and give your opinion, and we'll discuss. I saw and detected something about the film itself, not hard to do really, and I asked my brother (who would know) if I was right - sure enough, I was dead-on. But... can't say anything.

Still, Tony, I know exactly what you're trying to say - it does seem that horror's "gone away" from the world of films, for lack of a better term. So, by the way, as I've sensed it, has comedies - broad, romantic, quirky, etc. Film has drastically changed: it's all superheroes, comics, animated, remakes, spectacles... the bottom has dropped out of feature films, and even these I've mentioned aren't doing great. But yes, Tony, you've hit the nail on the head: horror as mainstream film, has been mostly unavailable lately....
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Sunday, August 07, 2016 - 01:27 pm:   

Great to see you back, Craig. I've missed your musings.

This year has been the poorest for cinema that I can remember. For months now every time I've checked what's on at my local multi-plex there's been absolutely nothing that appeals to me. I was so looking forward to the new 'Star Trek' movie and went to see it on Friday. Jesus, it was terrible!! I'm still reeling from what an incoherent irritating mess it was. All the great work of Abram's' first two pictures has been flushed down the toilet. Like all those recent awful super-hero movies I'm sick to death of it was just meaningless spectacle. A string of vacuous action set pieces with none of the wit or cleverness that the franchise was famous for. Popular cinema has never been in such a desperate state of affairs, imho. It would seem that TV has taken over.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Sunday, August 07, 2016 - 02:02 pm:   

I'm annoyed too that they've seen fit to make another Jason Bourne movie. The original trilogy was a superb achievement that came to a thoroughly satisfying conclusion. Another example of the current laziness in popular cinema. I noticed things really starting to go downhill about four years ago but now it's like there is literally no one taking any chances anymore. It's all lowest common denominator fluff designed to make a safe profit with the minimum of risk. All the imagination and talent has flocked to television. We are living in a time of revolutionary change for the whole entertainment industry.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Sunday, August 07, 2016 - 03:40 pm:   

What's sad is that special effects in cinema have never been of a higher quality but all that technical wizardry is being wasted on inane claptrap devoid of originality. Special effects were always nothing more than a tool to be used in the service of telling a good story. Nowadays spectacle comes first and what story there is appears to have been shoe-horned in as an afterthought. Even young people I've spoken to who love super-hero movies have been expressing frustration at the lack of content and coherence recently. I just pray that when their voices begin to be heard and profits begin to slip that the big studios will pay heed and start giving us some brain food again.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.185.27.105
Posted on Monday, August 08, 2016 - 12:04 am:   

Comedy has become adult, and lazy. The two Jump Street films are among the worst things I've ever seen, yet the same crew made The Lego Movie, which was funny, beautiful, even deep - I see a correlation between 'adult' and 'lazy', and I'd much rather see a kids movie like Zootopia for laughs than any Seth Rogen movie.
The Witch is mostly good, but a tad arty for its own good.
Cloverfield Lane was reputed to be a kidnap movie that couldn't get made until Abrams stuck some monsters on at the end. It didn't sit right for me at all.
Best recent horror, and still not great, was Shyamalan's The Visit. It felt slight but also fun and fresh, and not remotely slick. Watching it a second time made it even better.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.185.27.105
Posted on Monday, August 08, 2016 - 12:08 am:   

Green Room was one of the dullest horrors in recent times. A couple of brutal scenes had no effect because everything about the whole production felt limp, weirdly paraplegic.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.185.27.105
Posted on Monday, August 08, 2016 - 12:13 am:   

I walked out of two films this year, Warcraft and Independence Day 2, two totally lifeless efforts. The new Trek is the worst ever - no-one seems to have even noticed it was basically a remake of the previous one. Truly ghastly, like an episode of He Man.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.185.27.105
Posted on Monday, August 08, 2016 - 12:13 am:   

But yes, with beautiful, breathtaking effects...:-(
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.185.27.105
Posted on Monday, August 08, 2016 - 12:15 am:   

Bet - Toy Story 4 is on the way.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.185.27.105
Posted on Monday, August 08, 2016 - 12:16 am:   

BTW, not Bet!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Monday, August 08, 2016 - 01:00 am:   

I never thought I'd be saying this - because they have always been entertaining films - but I literally had to grit my teeth and grip the arms of the chair till my knuckles were white to STOP myself walking out of 'Star Trek : Beyond' on at least three occasions. I just didn't want to have wasted my money but it was a hell of a tough ride. Everything about the film was misjudged and hamfisted lowest common denominator shite.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Monday, August 08, 2016 - 01:03 am:   

It made the recent 'Star Wars' movie look like a masterpiece by comparison. And we all know how problematic that picture was!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Monday, August 08, 2016 - 01:09 am:   

Did you notice, Tony, that Scotty's hair had inexplicably turned ginger in this one?! A small point but indicative of how little respect the filmmakers were paying the history of the franchise. And the way the Enterprise was so casually destroyed ffs!! God it was a terrible film!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Monday, August 08, 2016 - 01:30 am:   

I'm aware of the basic set-up of '10 Cloverfield Lane' and that it was intended as a sequel to 'Cloverfield' (2008) - a film that I still rank, along with 'The Host' (2006), as the finest of the modern "giant monster" movies. It pissed all over 'Pacific Rim' (2013) and beat the recent 'Godzilla' (2014) remake at its own game, fun as it was. I've heard good things about 'Monsters' (2010) and its sequel 'Dark Continent' (2014) though.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.233.148.3
Posted on Wednesday, August 10, 2016 - 12:36 pm:   

If you want to hear someone talk in depth about the state of Western cinema culture and its relationship to television, Brett Easton Ellis usually has a monologue on the subject in every one of his podcasts. It was such a relief to hear someone express what I didn't know I'd been feeling about this subject. Try the episode with Illeana Douglas.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Thursday, August 11, 2016 - 01:55 pm:   

Recent viewings include:

The House by the Cemetary (1981)- Lucio Fulci, need I say more?

The Cave (2005) - saw it on Youtube first and liked it so much I recently bought the dvd.

Humongous (1982) - visibly made in the eighties: the boys look like teddy bears - but there are some interesting Psycho-like elements.

The People across the Lake (1988) - made for tv, but I genuinely liked this. This one too was influenced by Psycho.

Fort Apache, Bronx (1981) - not horror, but with interesting thriller-like elements. We never learn why the prostitute turned serial killer, and by the end it doesn't really matter anymore. With a good Paul Newman.

As Above, So Below (2014) - not yet seen. With the delightful Perdita Weeks. I fell in love with the murderous schoolgirl she portrayed in "Death and Dreams", a Midsommer Murders episode.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - 05:26 pm:   

Wow, so much good meaty stuff to comment on on this thread... it sucks not having been able to keep up like I used to! I'm gonna come back later today, but I'll just remark for now on the very last sentence in this thread:

Hubert, I really wanted to love As Above, So Below - it had some good moments, but it just kept pulling its punches I felt, didn't want to go deep into the depths like it easily could have. Some great scenes though, and a good setting. The very best POV horror film I've seen of late? Frankenstein's Army. Highly recommended; fun, disturbing, creeply intelligently made period-piece horror (WWII). But that's all for now....
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Thursday, August 18, 2016 - 07:01 am:   

Stevie, I'm surprised, and not, that the new Star Trek is as poor as you say! I liked the last one... but both didn't have that magical spirit of the best of the original films, like the original Khan. I'm singularly unimpressed by what I've seen of J.J. - which is admittedly not everything: I'm one of the few who's not seen the new Star Wars, and don't care I haven't yet. But I guess he was better earlier on?

Tony, I knew nothing about 10 Cloverfield when I saw it, and indeed, you were right: it was a spec script they tacked that ending onto, and only because of Abrams' getting invovled did it get greenlit. The point was, it was so clearly that way, watching it - literally, an uneven film; compelling, until that final set-piece ruined it, imho.

Three of the best horror movies I've seen recently, are not even full-length, rather about 20 minutes each and free on youtube, and ostensibley comedies - they're funny, too, but mostly deeply disturbing, nightmarish: "Too Many Cooks," "Unedited Footage of a Bear," and the most recent "There Are People In This House." Enigmatic to a large degree, there's apparently masses of extra explanatory material the filmmakers provided for those who want to delve deeper into their meanings - I've seen youtube videos as long as these films that are just trying to explain them! But I highly recommend them, they're superbly made...

...and are a better example of what we are now in - regarding your "Spectacle comes first" comment - it's what I've been saying for the last five years, and I'm being proved correct all the time: as far as film goes, we've exited the Age of Character, and are entering the Age of Spectacle. The Age of Story (where story/plot was king in film: hence the amount of genre work produced [westerns, crime-noir, etc.]) dominated from the dawn of talkies to about the 60's, when the Age of Character eclipsed Story (i.e., where character study/development took the fore in film) to about the 2000's: appx. forty years for each Age, I guess the natural life-span for entertainment forms. Now, thanks to tech and a general lassitude for what's come before, we've thoroughly turned to Spectacle as our primary film type. It's so apt that the remake of Ben Hur is opening this weekend: that chariot race itself, even in the film's storyline - the apotheosis of Spectacle. But just like with our two previous Ages, amidst the heaps of poor and mediocre, great art is possible, and it's exciting to see what might come of it all....
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Friday, August 19, 2016 - 12:34 am:   

Craig, the first two new Star Trek films were absolutely brilliant continuations of the franchise specifically because Abrams was at the helm as director. The new one was directed by Justin Lin and a right balls up he made of it! Of course it didn't help that Simon Pegg & Doug Jung's script was rubbish. It made no sense and was a mockery of the wit and intelligence we have come to expect in the Trek universe. I've spoken to many other fans since seeing it and they all agree Beyond was a right shambolic mess.

As for the new Star Wars film it was something of a curate's egg. Not a complete disaster, with many great things in it, but disappointing as a whole nonetheless.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Friday, August 19, 2016 - 12:58 am:   

Here's how I'd rank the thirteen Star Trek movies to date:

1. 'Star Trek : The Motion Picture' (1979) by Robert Wise - yes, really!!
2. 'Star Trek II : The Wrath Of Khan' (1982) by Nicholas Meyer.
3. 'Star Trek IV : The Voyage Home' (1986) by Leonard Nimoy.
4. 'Star Trek VI : The Undiscovered Country' (1991) by Nicholas Meyer.
5. 'Star Trek VIII : First Contact' (1996) by Jonathan Frakes.
6. 'Star Trek V : The Final Frontier' (1989) by William Shatner.
7. 'Star Trek VII : Generations' (1994) by David Carson.
8. 'Star Trek III : The Search For Spock' (1984) by Leonard Nimoy.
9. 'Star Trek XI : The Future Begins' (2009) by J.J. Abrams.
10. 'Star Trek XII : Into Darkness' (2013) by J.J. Abrams.
11. 'Star Trek IX : Insurrection' (1998) by Jonathan Frakes.
12. 'Star Trek X : Nemesis' (2002) by Stuart Baird.
13. 'Star Trek XIII : Beyond' (2016) by Justin Lin.

All but the last of them were thoroughly entertaining and reside proudly in my DVD collection. Beyond a joke!
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.155.218.177
Posted on Wednesday, August 24, 2016 - 11:22 am:   

Thing is, New films don't FEEL spectacular, more 'visually busy'. I went to see Lights Out yesterday (with high hopes) but again met with frustration at what turned out to be another treadmill of repetitive scares spread over what was an actually very moving study of a family brought down by depression. It's like somewhere along the line it was deemed the film could or should not be more human or dramatic but rather more a kind of ghost train ride. Such a shame to see clear talent bent out of shape like this.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.216.225.246
Posted on Friday, August 26, 2016 - 04:26 pm:   

That's a great way of putting it, Tony! 'Star Trek : Beyond' was so "visually busy" it almost made me sick.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Wednesday, August 31, 2016 - 09:46 pm:   

Fertile Ground (2011), with Leisha Hailey. I find her singing only so-so, but she's a great actress. The haunted house theme is anything but new and the film offers quite a few clichés, but by golly I liked it. The ending too is all too classic, reminiscent of They. It worked for me.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Friday, September 02, 2016 - 12:14 am:   

Funny, Stevie, I have no burning need to see either the new Star Wars or the new Star Trek - I'll get around to them when I get around to them. I thought I was burning to see the new Bond, SPECTRE. At last, I finally did. I think I subconsciously realized why I didn't make a bigger effort: It's not that it was bad, it was just... lesser; surely the least of the Daniel Craig Bond outings. It answers some plot questions, sets things up... but really? We have to have Bond's stepbrother being Blofeld? What is this burning need in films to connect characters in some grand family tree?! The EMPIRE effect, persisting some thirty years later. And then Blofeld doesn't really make an appearance until the end of the film - a sharp depature from most Bond films. Ugh. But hell, a bad Bond is still preferable to many another film coming out of Hollywood or elsewhere.

Not that this has anything to do with horror - haven't seen any lately, but am meaning to....
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.216.225.246
Posted on Friday, September 02, 2016 - 02:19 am:   

I enjoyed 'Spectre' much more than I did 'Skyfall', Craig. Found it a great big entertaining romp. But in truth all the post-Connery Bonds suffer the same flaw... they were made out of time and can't be anything more than professionally mounted popcorn entertainment. The original films were that but they were also so much more, imho.

I really can't emphasise enough the vast gap in filmmaking quality that exists between 'Star Trek : Beyond' and any other movie in the franchise. It was heartbreaking to see.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Friday, September 02, 2016 - 04:12 pm:   

The thing with films like Spectre and The Force Awakens is that when you finally do get to see them you've been bludgeoned by trailers, interviews, merchandising for the better part of a year. No film can live up to that.

Re Bond: most people find the Moore Bonds laughable, but take away the slapstick elements (the gondola scene in Moonraker etc.) and you often end up with something interesting. I think a reassessment is in order. Not that I don't prefer Connery or Craig, mind.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Sunday, September 04, 2016 - 02:03 am:   

I think the Bond films are some of the finest cinema ever, in that they are like mythological/religious tales - they are coded that way, and they break down that way. Someone should do a study, because it could fill a book: I watch these films for the entertainment, and for the "deeper" messages - not really deep, they're right there on the surface, just made to look like a spy flick. Like myths, you revisit them over and over, even though known by heart, for a reiteration of something bigger than ourselves. All this must be why Bond has survived and thrived, long after the heaps and piles of spy films it spawned in the 60s and 70s have rotted away from anyone's memory.

I love the Moore film: they are some of my favorites (though the last one he did, A View to a Kill, is the least in quality). Long live Bond!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 81.137.244.250
Posted on Friday, September 09, 2016 - 07:24 pm:   

I did a complete critique of the Bond movies on another thread some years ago, Craig. I'm a fan of the franchise too. Will look it up and post an update on here. For me 'Spectre' was easily the best and most entertaining Daniel Craig Bond since 'Casino Royale' - which remains his finest hour. Moore's finest was 'Live And Let Die' which also featured my favourite of all the Bond theme songs. Roger Moore always makes me laugh and I am very fond of him as an actor. He was at his best in 'The Saint' and 'The Persuaders' TV series, imho.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 5.81.149.93
Posted on Friday, September 16, 2016 - 01:08 pm:   

I was watching a 'moody' thriller the other night and it dawned on me that 'moody' was the enemy of good art. It squeezes out any other mood or chance of emotion. Life itself is steadily up and down (albeit mostly down for me of late) and if art doesn't reflect that we can't engage with or believe it. This is why I revisit so many movies and books of my childhood - they had laughs and thrills, not just sullen frowns. Rainbows in movies these days would be spectrums of grey or beige...
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 5.81.149.93
Posted on Friday, September 16, 2016 - 01:10 pm:   

Snowfall was so slow, though! It felt filmed in real time, none of the walking between scenes cut or anything.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Saturday, September 17, 2016 - 05:14 pm:   

I hear what you're saying, Tony, if I understand what you mean by "moody." I think it might depend: a novel by Ross McDonald is "moody," in that it's usually soaked in the cynical, sardonic gloom of post-WWII harboiled nihilism; spiraling lives under a microscope, but there's cold poetic beauty and lyricism. One could characterize lots of Ramsey's work as "moody." Perhaps it's that in lesser hands, being moody is just wrecked. Problem is, I think lesser hands are all over the place....

Tony, someone linked me to, and you too should find and listen to the latest podcast by Brett Easton Ellis (it's free), where he interviews Moby. It's just an hour of mind-blowing evisceration of all things currently cultural. I think you especially would appreciate it.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.147.183.89
Posted on Monday, March 04, 2019 - 04:31 pm:   

Craig, I never replied. I'm so sorry.
Proto - is this what you were talking about?
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 89.19.67.244
Posted on Tuesday, March 05, 2019 - 01:39 pm:   

Brett Easton Ellis? Yes. Though his podcast is subscription only now. You might be able to get the old episodes though.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 31.48.108.148
Posted on Friday, June 28, 2019 - 08:58 am:   

Went to see the new Chucky. The first half was my favourite horror film in recent years, it was so moving, the second half not.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 31.48.108.148
Posted on Friday, June 28, 2019 - 08:59 am:   

Yoga Hosers?!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 2.217.181.155
Posted on Saturday, June 29, 2019 - 03:15 pm:   

New horror or horror-ish films I've seen in the cinema so far this year:

‘Escape Room’ (2019) by Adam Robitel. *** HORROR/SCIENCE FICTION
Watchable but pretty average rip-off of 'Cube' (1997).

‘The Hole In The Ground’ (2019) by Lee Cronin. ***** HORROR
Seriously scary and very well made low budget horror from Ireland. Watch this director!

‘Border’ (2018) by Ali Abbasi. ***** FANTASY/HORROR/ROMANCE
Brilliantly original, unpredictable and disturbing dark fantasy from Sweden based on a short story by the author of 'Let The Right One In'.

‘Under The Silver Lake’ (2018) by David Robert Mitchell. ***** SURREAL FANTASY/HORROR/CONSPIRACY THRILLER
Hands down the best new film I've seen this year! A mesmerisingly Kubrickian/Lynchian/Hitchcockian instant masterpiece!!!!

‘Us’ (2019) by Jordan Peele. ** HORROR/SCIENCE FICTION
Biggest disappointment of the year so far, after the promise of his debut 'Get Out' (2017). It was complete bollocks, imho!

‘Pet Sematary’ (2019) by Kevin Kölsch & Dennis Widmyer. *** HORROR
Another very average adaptation of one of King's finest novels. It passes the time and has some decent moments but that's about it.

‘Greta’ (2018) by Neil Jordan. **** PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR/SUSPENSE THRILLER
Entertaining psycho suspense thriller somewhat along the lines of 'Misery' (1990). Well worth seeing.

‘Extremely Wicked’ (2019) by Joe Berlinger. ***** CRIMINAL BIOPIC
Easily the finest true crime serial killer movie that has ever been made. It was absolutely stunning and chilled me to the bone. Zach Effron actually becomes Ted Bundy.

‘High Life’ (2018) by Claire Denis. ***** SCIENCE FICTION/HORROR
High concept and deeply disturbing adults only philosophical deep space epic that put me in mind of what David Cronenberg would have produced had he set out to film 'Solaris'. Body horror has rarely been so intelligently and uncompromisingly filmed.

‘Ma’ (2019) by Tate Taylor. **** PYSCHOLOGICAL HORROR/SUSPENSE THRILLER
A real minor classic Hitchcockian psycho suspense thriller that even made 'Greta' look kind of average by comparison. I can see this being a real sleeper hit.

‘Godzilla : King Of The Monsters’ (2019) by Michael Dougherty. *** SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY/HORROR/ADVENTURE
It has monsters in it and looks sensational but that's all the good things I can say about it. Everything else in the movie is truly Terrible.

‘Brightburn’ (2019) by David Yarovesky. **** SCIENCE FICTION/HORROR
Went in not expecting much and was very pleasantly surprised. One of the most effective frighteners of the year. Highly recommended.

And there's another new horror out this week that I'm not going to miss:

'In Fabric' (2018) by Peter Strickland of 'Berberian Sound Studio' (2012) fame. His first return to the genre since then and apparently it's a gialloesque supernatural horror film for real this time. Really looking forward to it.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 31.48.108.148
Posted on Monday, July 01, 2019 - 05:34 pm:   

Saw Brightburn last week and while I think it had a great aesthetic and mood and some great ideas I didn't 'feel' the film, no-one reacted appropriately.
I really wanted to see the next film by the It Follows director but it seems to have slipped totally under my radar. Never heard a word about it.
I've written about Us elsewhere on the board but in short I didn't love it because artiness crept in, and I think artiness can kill horror sometimes in that it can reduce it to metaphor, and metaphor is tricky to pull off - it can lose urgency.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 31.48.108.148
Posted on Monday, July 01, 2019 - 05:36 pm:   

Also, it had touches of broad humour that were completely at odds with it and pulled me out of it.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 31.48.108.148
Posted on Wednesday, July 03, 2019 - 10:15 am:   

I went and s
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.198.230.159
Posted on Wednesday, July 03, 2019 - 04:25 pm:   

Well ‘In Fabric’ was pretty damn awesome, imho, and my new favourite film by Peter Strickland. I wouldn’t exactly call it a comedy, though it has weirdly humorous moments throughout it, but it is his first out and out supernatural horror. Surreal as hell in a way that blends David Lynch with the darker sketches of Monty Python or The League Of Gentlemen. Kind of Campbellian actually, when Ramsey turns on his surreal dark “humour”. I absolutely loved it!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.198.230.159
Posted on Wednesday, July 03, 2019 - 05:30 pm:   

Btw Tony David Robert Mitchell's follow-up to 'It Follows' (which was an instant classic) is on another level of cinematic brilliance altogether, imho.

I really can't praise 'Under The Silver Lake' enough. It's a brilliantly realised surreal headtrip from start to finish that mixes neo-noir crime with creepy as hell horror, metaphysical fantasy, absurdist comedy and conspiracy thriller science fiction in a way that recalls Alejandro Jodorowsky at his most OUT THERE. I sat hypnotised throughout the thing and came out stunned. I guarantee it's destined for cult masterpiece status in the years to come. My kind of movie! Oh, and Andrew Garfield was fantastic in it as the Hitchcockian "wrong man" caught up in events way beyond his control. A favourite actor of mine these days.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 31.48.108.148
Posted on Thursday, July 04, 2019 - 12:17 am:   

All sounds great.
Toy Story 4 was excellent and totally unnecessary.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 31.48.108.148
Posted on Thursday, July 04, 2019 - 12:18 am:   

Actually no, I didn't like it.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.198.230.159
Posted on Friday, July 05, 2019 - 02:23 pm:   

I do intend going to see 'Toy Story IV', Tony, as I loved the first three films and consider them far and away the best of all the computer animated "kids" movies that cinemas are awash with these days. I see what you mean, though, as the original trilogy did seem to have come to a perfect ending and I wondered why they decided on a fourth (bar the obvious profit reason). What is the gist of this one, man?
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 31.48.108.148
Posted on Friday, July 05, 2019 - 02:47 pm:   

Basically, the little girl makes a fork come to life and it refuses to think it's a toy, keeps referring to itself as "trash". It's not happy being alive, but Woody keeps trying to convince it otherwise. Also, Woody is being neglected as a toy and feeling a bit bummed out. Besides other things he also meets Bo Peep again, happy being a lost toy...
Very well done, it just, unlike Forky, lacked spark.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 31.48.108.148
Posted on Friday, July 05, 2019 - 02:49 pm:   

I'm sort of sad because nobody started new threads here. Felt I was making something live on life support or CPR. Maybe I was.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.198.230.159
Posted on Friday, July 05, 2019 - 09:20 pm:   

I’ve been making inroads on Facebook trying to bum up the old RCMB again, Tony. I miss it as much as you do. Was talking to Craig the other day for the first time in ages. Technologically this site has been superseded by Facebook but I still like to think of it as like an old gentleman’s club visited by crusty curmudgeons puffing fat cigars and going on about who much better things were back in the day.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 31.48.108.148
Posted on Saturday, July 06, 2019 - 06:45 pm:   

I chatted with him loads on messenger but kind of hoped he'd come here. I really like him but think he has a full life.
Yes, I loved this place for that atmosphere, too.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.150.214.79
Posted on Monday, July 08, 2019 - 07:26 pm:   

Just rewatched a fantastic horror disguised as an episode of Doctor Who, one with just him in a shuttle with a handful of tourists, and not even technically a monster. Midnight it was called. I think it was RTD's best piece of writing ever.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.150.214.79
Posted on Thursday, July 11, 2019 - 09:02 am:   

Flatlining again.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.198.230.159
Posted on Friday, July 12, 2019 - 05:31 am:   

Go see ‘Midsommar’ by Ari Aster if you have not already done so, Tony. Now it is a horror movie!! One best seen with zero expectations and as little foreknowledge as possible. So I will say no more till after you’ve watched it.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.150.214.79
Posted on Friday, July 12, 2019 - 08:27 am:   

I have - but I wrote about it on another thread...
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.145.220.160
Posted on Wednesday, July 17, 2019 - 02:08 pm:   

Cloverfield. No good.

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