Horror

[jenkins]

I've been lazy with Severin Films because I have a trust issue with older horror movies. I've visited them a bunch and they haven't all worked for me in the past. Giallo, for example, has not gone smoothly for me. but so Sergio Martino finally cracked open for me because the fact is a lot of the Severin movies aren't um richly received on letterboxd, but The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh was sitting around with a 3.6, which made it stand out. so I'm reentering Giallo territory and I know Martino's Torso through Eli Roth's screening of it at the New Bev, and I know Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key is sitting around at Arrow, although in fact his most celebrated movie has not yet been mentioned, All the Colors of the Dark, which I'm basically now dying to see at some point or another, it's celebrated at Severin through the title All the Colors of Giallo, "Over 5 1/2 Hours of Classic Trailers Plus Bonus CD of Legendary Giallo Themes," and I mean I do like the sound of it

Sergio Martino's psychedelic/psychosexual satanic panic rural hallucinogenic gothic giallo—occupied by sex blood orgy cults, nefarious blue eyed stalkers, numerous red herrings, fingernails that look like evil death talons, and the lacerated psyche of an unreliable narrator.

Equal parts kaleidoscopic surreal dream and phantasmagorical nightmare logic, All the Colors of the Dark Initially opens with bizarro grotesque dreams and the mystery of the psychological trauma surrounding them before spiralling into a trippy supernatural satanic cult jam where ultimately the greatest mystery isn't necessarily a murder or said nefarious blue eyed demon man watching your every move—it's what is real and who can you trust?

[jenkins]

I don't believe that giallo has an intellectual basis. its entire appeal is primal. The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh begins with an epigraph from Freud, by the way. you don't get it, you feel it. anyway I watched The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh and immediately ordered All the Colors of the Dark. this isn't new land for me but it's a fine land to return to, and I'm meeting Sergio Martino for the first time

[WorldForgot]

Cult Horror Movie 'Faces of Death' Getting 21st Century Reimagining Via Legendary

Legendary Entertainment, currently basking in the box office glow of hit Godzilla vs. Kong,  has picked up the rights to the title with the goal of launching a new horror franchise. Isa Mazzei and Daniel Goldhaber, the team behind the 2018 psychological thriller Cam, will write and direct, respectively.

Producing will be Susan Montford and Don Murphy of Angry Films, who are behind Legendary's fast-tracked multi-platform Buck Rogers reboot, are producing. Cory Kaplan will co-produce while Rick Benattar of BT Productions will exec produce. John Burrud, the producer of the original movies, will also work on the new iteration.

Hell yes ~

[jenkins]

tubi is my new kick and you gotta at least sample Blood Beat from there. the horror fans. it's a wisconsin-set slasher with a samurai killer and I'll quote letterboxd to make this even more obvious

Whoa... wait... 👀 DID SHE SUMMON THAT SAMURAI WARRIOR SPIRIT WHILE FURIOUSLY MASTURBATING?! This movie is so wild...

I still think he's full of shit but here's the matt lynch quote

One of the weirdest things I have ever seen.

[jenkins]

my post before I watched Blood Beat. I was ready for it. now, a day and multiple viewing sessions later, I can confirm that it's a genuine surrealistic movie. "Fabrice Zaphiratos' French-US co-production," set in Wisconsin, with a supernatural samurai, this strange assortment could only result in a strange movie. the product comes from the ingredients. and the dramatic engine is this highly intense psycho-sexual discharge that appears to be a community problem. the interior compliments the exterior

if you want to experience the essence of the movie in a short amount of time, linked above, 49:30 to 56:30

[WorldForgot]

Giallo's fabric iz kinetic. A dance between camera and color design. Though I haven't gone as deep into the genre as jenkins, yet, it's maybe my favorite subgenre within horror at the moment.

you don't get it, you feel it.

Though I prefer those that lean more toward horror/supernatural than Poliziotteschi, usually, Blood and Black Lace (like, later, ) highlights in its procedural the widespread misogyny in pockets of class. Fulci's film will draw from gray shades of noir and NY poverty, while Bava aims at the high Haute Couture bourgeois. Fashion as an element of texture to the setting and theme, both.

One on Top of the Other riffs on doppelganger tropes and lays the foundation for Fulci's interest in gendered power dynamics, highlights the obsession and voyeurism latent in mystery tropes. Then later, of course, De Palma will perfect this within Americanized (re?) inversions wherein the horror of how we're perceived and how limited our perception iz keeps us tethered to libido. If they only knew she had the power...

Maybe in all good Horror sensation becomes the medium. And in Giallo the questions aren't merely amusement-ride thrills, because they're framed within unknowns that become

[jenkins]

dynamic shifting perspectives are both one of its treasurable qualities and a potential corrosive element within a sensible narrative, and why i sometimes struggle with giallo movies—let the erratic nature come from the character, not the storyline. as you were getting into, wf, the arena here is sensual, interior, and a narrative itself is not sensual or interior. when the narrative guides the character it's a betrayal that results in a failed movie imo

a subgenre birthed in italy, when possible i'd one day like to hear your reaction to The Killer of Dolls, a spanish  movie which I'm sure you could procure in some internet way, and i'm like infatuated with this one. long story short a boy's sister dies young and his mother raises him as if he were the sister, and the lead actor performs the duties of this role to sublime heights

[WorldForgot]

Ooo, gracias. Someday I hope to join you and wilder in the physical genre film tomes, for now it's in my possession as 0z and 1z.

Gonna watch this asap.

[jenkins]

Another thing that makes Killer of Dolls interesting in a genre context is the fact that Paul's neuroses more closely fit the female giallo protagonist/villain template than the male. it's great because it's a male killer who's a woman. it's not quite a giallo and it's not quite a slasher. it's its own fingerprint

[Jeremy Blackman]

Recently saw It (2017) and liked it way more than I expected. This iteration of Pennywise is just perfect — some of the best creature design I've ever seen, aided by judicious editing and a stunning Bill Skarsgard performance. Monster/creature horror is my favorite horror subgenre, and boy does this deliver on that.

So then of course I had to check out It Chapter Two. Ooof. What a slog. Kind of funny but not scary or particularly effective at anything. There are literally two or three good Pennywise scenes, and then they turn him into a CGI action villain running around on cheap sets. Just awful. The entire final hour is almost unwatchable. It's like a bad imitation of a The Mummy sequel. And somehow as adults these characters act ten times dumber than they did as kids. "These visions are not real, he feeds on your fear" is a lesson they keep learning and forgetting and learning and forgetting over the course of, what, a few days? Come on.

[Reel]

Yeah, It 2 was such a waste of time. I used to think I didn't like part 2 of the miniseries, it's a masterpiece compared to the film.

After watching both versions of It since part 1 came out I've ultimately decided I like the miniseries waaay more, but I find the movie extremely watchable. I could put it on at almost any time

[Jeremy Blackman]

I watched The Conjuring but could only get through an hour and a half. This movie takes itself Very Seriously. It's outrageously absurd propaganda for both The Warrens and the church.

This film really wants to tell us that:

– Society needs to stop ignoring demons and dark spirits.
– You're a naive idiot if you don't believe in them (and the Salem witches were real btw).
– Catholic objects are magic.
– Ed and Lorraine Warren were not grifters at all. Nope. Trust us. It was all real.
– Ed and Lorraine Warren sacrificed so much for regular people.
– Ed and Lorraine Warren are perfect humans with a perfect marriage.

(Lorraine Warren was of course behind the production of this whole franchise.)

This is truly one of the most morally bankrupt movies I've ever seen. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga should be ashamed of themselves — they do such a good job glorifying these detestable scammers. The writing does kneecap them a bit, though, because the Warrens end up looking cartoonishly sympathetic.

[Alethia]

The Insidious movies are better.

[Alexandro]

I watched The Conjuring but could only get through an hour and a half. This movie takes itself Very Seriously. It's outrageously absurd propaganda for both The Warrens and the church.

This film really wants to tell us that:

– Society needs to stop ignoring demons and dark spirits.
– You're a naive idiot if you don't believe in them (and the Salem witches were real btw).
– Catholic objects are magic.
– Ed and Lorraine Warren were not grifters at all. Nope. Trust us. It was all real.
– Ed and Lorraine Warren sacrificed so much for regular people.
– Ed and Lorraine Warren are perfect humans with a perfect marriage.

(Lorraine Warren was of course behind the production of this whole franchise.)

This is truly one of the most morally bankrupt movies I've ever seen. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga should be ashamed of themselves — they do such a good job glorifying these detestable scammers. The writing does kneecap them a bit, though, because the Warrens end up looking cartoonishly sympathetic.

No offense, but it seems you're the one taking it more seriously than it deserves or pretends to be.
Or maybe I just never considered for one minute that I was supposed to believe any of what's shown in the film or in the other two films. Like, it's all so absurdly over the top that putting a "based on a true story" disclaimer somewhere just adds to the fun.
My ten year old kid asked me if it was a true story and I laughed and said "of course not", and that ended the discussion.
It would be a better, more intriguing film if it was grounded in reality, but I mean, that opening sequence clearly sets up a more, let's say, unrealistic direction.

[Jeremy Blackman]

You might be surprised how many people believe in evil spirits and believe stuff like this can happen — certainly not every day, but in extraordinary circumstances. I did not detect an ounce of self-awareness in this motion picture. Not a single wink. The characterization of the Warrens really gives it away. It's humorless propaganda for the Warrens, likely at the instruction of Lorraine and their estate. And I'm sure James Wan made the calculation that a dead-serious full-commitment approach would be most effective for a lot of viewers. Which it was.