I keep thinkin I'm gonna hate Paranormal Activity but I'm sure I'll catch it. I haven't seen Human Centepede but that's because I know what I'd be getting and I'm more concerned about getting bored not shocked/grossed out. I work in a hospital, I see weird and gross things all day. But fuck Ebert, really. I hate that guy. I once a read a review of a movie I didn't like and he didn't either but his fucking review was insane. He disliked the movie for the nature of what it was. It was for a zombie movie (can't remember which) and what bugged him were all the damned zombies. WTF?! I generally think he has the worst reviews ever, whether they're sincere or just he's paid to write them a certain way, just bad.
Paranormal Activity gets hits ratings in my book, but it is a love it or hate it film. You need to be in the right mood for it. Recently revisited Lets Scare Jessica To Death and Who Can Kill a Child. Both totally worth the time, really good creep fests. Especially Let's Scare Jessica to Death. Completely forgot one of my all time favourites, starring the jaw droppingly gorgeous Delphine Seyrig at her most glamorous, Daughters of Darkness. Admittedly it has 2 of the most absurd deaths ever, but it's great getting there.
I thought Paranormal Activity was a total bust. I only eventually broke down and saw it based on the hype, and the payoff was totally not worth the build up. Everything is just lifted from those countless ghost hunter shows on TV, and I've actually seen scarier episodes of those. Then again, maybe I've just been completely worn down by the myriads of cookie-cutter creepy, crawly ghost kid movies that have been cranked out from every country on the globe (but I'm mainly looking at you Japan and Spain!) in the past 10 years or so. Enough with the ghosts already.
I try my best to ignore or disregard hype, I tend to be pretty good at that, selective reading I suppose. I detest Blair Witch, and see the two films as siblings almost. I think that while what PA did, may not have been terribly original, it succeeded where BWP failed. The production team seem to have sat down with BWP and gone over it saying, what can we do better. For me, I thought they succeeded. And for the bloke down the front who squealed like a little girl it definitely succeeded
My fuckin cousin told me about human centipede and then he never even watched, what a dick! I just couldn't believe that the surgery went down so early in the movie. I was like "Really? Already? So it's gonna be like this the rest of the time??!" I will say the Dr. was fun and I wish that they just would've left more to the imagination with that one. After watching it, I was actually truly angry that I could not un-watch those things. Sure it had alot of tension, but at what cost. Whatever happened to not even seeing the knife go into the person. I really like the film "The Strangers" because they kept things pretty old school suspense horror.
As for "Paranormal Activity": I believe there were about five different endings shot, including the one in which the boyfriend gets hurled at the camera - a glimpse of that was in the original trailer. For me, it didn't really work since I was too busy being annoyed by the boyfriend's moronic behaviour most of the time to get scared. So much, actually, that by the end I was rooting for the demon. And I see your Teshigahara and raise to Shindo - how about "Onibaba" & "Kuroneko"? Haven't seen the latter yet, but "Onibaba" definitely is a brilliant film and a must-see for anyone into classic, eerie Japanese cinema! Good to know - haven't seen "Jessica" yet, but love "Who Can Kill A Child". Thanks!
i saw paranormal activity because the pre-screening for up in the air was overbooked. not even a year later, only one stuck with me, and it wasn't the gimmicky horror movie. it's not a movie that deserves credit for anything but sucking people into its stupid orbit. the ending is the only horrifying part of the movie and it's not a worthwhile payoff since, as mentioned, the characters were too irritating to really empathize with. similarly, i've avoided the human centipede. this thread is full of nice recs though - the only fulci i've seen is zombi and i'd like to see more from that era. the last good horror movie i watched was dead alive.. one of the earlier peter jackson efforts. it's not unlike the evil dead series with its over the top camp, but it's not in a cabin or the past. ((speaking of clichés, and paranormal activities for that matter, check out the scream 4 trailer))
As Halloween aproaches, I tend to lean towards the cheese. Had to pull out my VHS copy of this old gem (this is the 70's movie - not the TV show). Total schlock, but great stuff.
This is a great thread - makes me realise I need to see a lot of stuff listed here... It might seem lame to some real horror-freaks on here - but I found Wolf Creek to be pretty scary - and I'm a big fan of the original Halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Love the original of The Omen, and The Exorcist. I think these are all classics. Really going to check out some of the recommendations on here... I think I'm missing out. I saw Let the right one in - and I thought it was just so-so... but people went mad for it... Some of Enter The Void is pretty horrific...
The Cannibal movies and real animal killing is a strange bit of history. They almost all had it, and I don't think I've ever met a fan of the movies that would excuse the inclusion. I would have issue with a current film attempting to do the same thing. I guess for myself I think Cannibal Holocaust is to good a movie to dismiss because of this issue, and I personally just do my best to think of those scenes as an unfortunate part of history. I bet there is a loooad of things we would be horrified that went on in the making of less obvious films even now.
I remember the video for Skinny Puppy's Worlock which included several clips from Suspiria, Four Flies on Grey Velvet, Tenebrae, Phenomena, Opera, Demons, Eraserhead, The Beyond, etc.
"Wolf Creek" was released at the peak of all the critical talk about "torture porn" and unfortunately got sort of lumped in with other movies of the time (e.g. "Hostel") which weren't nearly as good. "Wolf Creek" is hard for some people to take because of the cruelty, but as horror films go, it's got a lot more intelligence and integrity than most that get cranked out these days. John Jarrat's performance of Mick Taylor is excellent. I like the way the film builds up some backstory for the young travelers before the bad things start happening. Usually in horror you don't really care about the victims much. If you like horror and haven't seen this one yet, check it out. Scary and memorable.
^ You are absolutely right - Wolf Creek did get lumped in with crap like Hostel. The 'torture porn' genre seemed to forget about things like plot, unfortunately, and seemed to assume that the audience wasn't interested in any kind of story - rather a loosely strung together chain of sex and gore (not mutually exclusive) sequences. The total 'out there' depravity of Mick Taylor in Wolf Creek put me in mind of the relentless horror of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre - which was one of the reasons for which TCM got banned for so long. I think Wolf Creek definitely deserves to be re-evaluated - and as you say, it is a very memorable and scary piece of film making.
This movie is definitely in my top ten. It is soo underrated. The first time I ever watched it I was actually thinking that it was going to be about aliens or something too, haha. All because of the crater part. With no knowledge of what the movie was it really felt like it was going in that direction. Silly me. I think there is a lot of depth to this movie and filmed extremely well too.
^ Glad there's some fans of Wolf Creek on here. When I saw it, I had little idea of what I was getting into; the film purposefully makes you second guess what might happen - like the idea of aliens etc... and then it all kicks off! I guess it's also in my top ten horror films as well...
^ I think the repetitive footage of the accident involving the main characters as children - especially the sequence towards the end of the film - was horrific and distressing - especially as you have to wonder what was necessary to evoke such a response on film from such young children. But it's certainly not a "horror film" - but still a bleak and disturbing film. (sorry if this is a bit elusive - didn't want to spoil the film for anyone who hasn't seen it )
Was anyone else affected by Martyrs as much as I was? I didn't know what to do for quite a while after that movie... I literally just sat down and did nothing.
Myself and apparently a few others were. Brilliant film, just the way it pulls the rug from under your feet halfway through is a stroke of genius in my opinion.
Since I'm a glutton for pain I plan to watch "Survival of the Dead" this week and then follow it up with the new "Walking Dead" show which should make up for Romero's crap.
I watched Vampyres last night.Also watched Let Sleeping Corpses Lie for the first time.I cant believe it eluded me for so many years.Such a cool flick.
