Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

Countdown To October

Burgundy LaRue

By Burgundy LaRue
in MOVIES & TV

 Share

Recommended Posts

Curt McGirt

Curt McGirt

Posted
Posted

 

^ the best scene from Near Dark. I also love the scene where 

 

Lance Henriksen is revealed to be a former Confederate soldier. Such a cool little twist.

 

That's why Near Dark is so perfect, all the little bits come together to make an off-beat classic. And all from Oscar winner Katherine Bigelow haha...

 

Alligator I haven't seen in years but it's great. The wedding scene is a riot. 

 

Pieces... It Is What You Think It Is!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
piranesi

piranesi

Posted
Posted

So SILENT HILL: REVELATION 3D was pretty putrid.  My wife enjoyed it a little because she hadn't seen the game/games and thought whoever did the design for the film and characters was pretty creative.  But the absurd scenes of Jon Snow just babbling exposition drove her to exasperation and the hilarious ease with which the main character just seems to totally figure out where she is and what she's supposed to do was just half-assed.

 

Like, sometimes it looked okay, but whenever anyone spoke it felt like a really cheap, really bad 60s drive-in movie.

 

It's also amazing how small they managed to make this world look.  There were, like, four sets that made up Silent Hill (a street, an asylum hallway with a couple of rooms, a small part of an amusement park, and a cheap-looking "sanctuary room"...and somehow everyone was always just mulling around there.  That's textbok Golan-Globus or Ewe Boll junk movie-making right there, like where 2/3 of the cast spend the movie waiting in a single room in a castle talking about all the stuff that's happening but that we don't see happen.

 

Junk.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
piranesi

piranesi

Posted
Posted

Yeah but the ability to make a zombie movie cheaply has syphoned off so much activity in the genre.

 

It's been said a bunch of times in these October threads, but one of the best things about horror is how so many young, talented, innovative, but unknowns get their start there, because they are able to make a "real movie" (sometimes their first) without raising a ton of money.

 

But the last few years it seems like every time you turn around those small budget projects are just another zombie movie.  And apart from mxing it with comedy or romance, there isn't a lot of innovation or creativity there.  It's too easy, not just to get it made, but to write.  Everyone already knows the variations on the story, so almost no creativity goes into that part.  And zombie movies aren't really very "moody" so not much goes into creating cool spaces and visuals.  I just don't expect anything to hold my interest in one of these now.

 

SHAUN did it.  It was done.  Then ZOMBIELAND redid it pretty well with more money and bigger stars...the rest all just feels like piling on.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
piranesi

piranesi

Posted
Posted

We've probably discussed this on a previous version of the board, but why aren't there more werewolf movies? 

 

My take is that it's actually a really difficult genre to make work.  It's the one type of horror movie where there is no villain.  The protagonist is the problem and it has to end without a "defeat" of evil or "escape" from fate, but usually with either a heroic sacrifice/suicide or with a rather pathetic sloppy death.

 

It is awkward in that way, and unless you can really build the relationships around the main character well (like they did so brilliantly in GINGER SNAPS) or you cheat a bit and turn it into a pack-of-animals attacks (ALIENS in the woods like DOG SOLDIERS did) it's just hard to make it work.  Otherwise, there's like this awkwardness when it's all over...there's just a dead guy and maybe like his girlfriend is sad about that or whatever.  There's just not much left at the end...nothing to build to or achieve. 

 

It's just the disintegration of a guy.

 

The themes are there to make it attractive...but it's harder to make it click in your mind as a writer I think than the other types, and it must be way harder to sell.

 

In a weird way, Cronenberg's THE FLY is something close to the ideal way to make a werewolf movie click, because it adds the element of personal fault (the protagonist's arrogance and curiosity dooms him...so there is some sort of extra motivational stuff beyond just "Hey and animal bit you and now you're in this thing.")

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Brian Fowler

Brian Fowler

Posted
Posted

The real reason is simple:  Unless you count Twilight as "werewolf movies" they don't tend to make money.

 

The real low-budget horror action is in supernatural and demonic right now, still building off all that absurd ROI that Paranormal Activity got.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Brisco

Brisco

Posted
Posted

An American Werewolf in London is by far my favorite werewolf movie. The transformation is spectacular and the kills are extremely brutal but still keeps a sense of realism in how wild and animalistic they are.

 

I have never seen the original Howling, would I be missing much if I started on the third installment?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
No Point Stance

No Point Stance

Posted
Posted

The original Howling is a stone cold classic; I actually prefer it to American Werewolf, a film I like a great deal. The 2nd Howling is also enormously entertaining, but for VERY different reasons. None of the subsequent films are likely to impress you and the remake is awful - a horrible attempt to cash in on the likes of Twilight - but beg, borrow or steal to see the Joe Dante flick.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
piranesi

piranesi

Posted
Posted

Fuck wating:

 

THE HAUNTING AT SILVER FALLSMy wife was bored to death by this.  She wanted THE RING or JU ON style ghost horror, and this, despite the title and ghosty picture on Netflix...was not that.  I kind of liked it.  It was a little shabby and loose in parts, and it's not really very scary, but it does a good job of moving between three different types of spooky story.  Maybe it feels a little drab because it doesn't really commit to one type until the very end, so you kind of feel like you're going nowhere and then suddenly it's done.It starts as a "girl is haunted and no one believes her" movie and for awhile I hated it because it was building to my most hated type of movie the "girl gets blamed for all this shit a ghost is doing" (like stealing things and breaking things). I fucking hate that wrong-person-blamed...like all the way from extreme versions like NORTH BY NORTHWEST to little things like this...it just gets under my skin.I kind of liked this part, though.  It reminded me a bit of an old Nickolodeon show (well, BBC TVS??? show) called THE HAUNTING OF CASSIE PALMER, since it's really just this girl walking around with a ghost following her.  That awesome, moody, spooky super-drab and very believable little ghost story can be found entirely on Youtube starting here:

 

 

Now back to SILVER FALLS: Like the ghost in CASSIE PALMER, the ghost here isn't doing much...and the lead girl seems fairly okay with following it around.  They actually do a good job of understating the lead characters and their likability is really what holds this movie together.  The teenage girl is supposed to be some L.A. girl who moved ot this small town when her father died...blahblah backstory and everyone assumes she's some Sunset Strip maniac...but she's really normal...everyone just over-reads everything she says.  There is somethign believable and sympathetic about that if you've ever lived in a small town.But about 1/3 of the way through it starts to turn into something else...a TWIN PEAKS-ish creepy small town mystery/conspiracy vibe creeps in, helped by the fact that every single character apart from the lead girl is creepy in one way or another.  BlahBlah...girls killed in the past...new backstory that makes it seeem like the town is cursed or hiding something or they're all going to sacrifice her to some demon or something.But then, it finally settles into what it really is...a murder mystery.  There is a nice moment when you realize that you're supposed to be guessing who is set up as the real "killer" or whatever...and suddenly you realize that they've done a really good job making everyone seem just creepy enough.  Her new guardians (her aunt and aunt's boyfriend) are wierdly good-looking and oddly attentive and off-putting throughout, the sheriff is clearly a corrupt bully, his son is obviously a rapist, the psychologist is obviously covering for someone...maybe his mousy son who seems just maladjusted enough to be the one.The problem is that they get to this so late...they've wandered through so many different moods so casually, that there's really no suspense or buildup here...it all just sort of happens.  By the time it dawns on you that it's supposed to be an actual msystery...it's done.  The "third act" is all of maybe 15 minutes, 12 of which is "final battle" kind of stuff.  You end up feeling a bit cheated that the "truth" was so simple, given how they were building up town secrets and mysteries "behind the waterfall" at Silver Falls...like there's this one moment where the sheriff's son is like "you have to meet me at Silver Falls, it's about the ghosts" or something, and the lead actress is just "Yeah...that's where you date rape people, right?" and hangs up on him.  You would think that they were setting up some misdirection where he's really a good guy and there has to be something at the falls...Nope...I'm pretty sure he was just trying to date rape her because we never hear any more about this.I don't know if that sort of thing is, like, "organic" and realistic or just frustrating.  But I feel like they just threw those little feints in there too casually to mean much and the tension just wasn't there.  I can say that there was a moment when I was yelling "It's the aunt...no, it's totally the psychologist..no, wait...it's the nice guy...yeah, his psychologist dad is covering for him!!!!!"  So they at least got me caring enough to try and guess the ending, and that's something.Bottom line:  It's actually a nice story.  The lead actress is super cute and likable, looking and acting every bit like Joey Potter (DAWSON'S CREEK NERDS UNITE).  The mood is slow and a little spooky but never really scary.  I almost wished they had toned down the ending a little and made this a scary movie that kids could watch.I would say give it a pass to you hard-core horror freaks.  It won't ever make you jump.  But it's a decent story that unfolds a little awkwardly...a Saturday afternoon watch maybe just for the mood.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...