/horror/ general megathread - Let's talk about movies and shit.

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Lone Star said:
Man, is it really that bad? I know it's PG-13, but I was still kind of planning on seeing it. It really sucks how the franchise basically became one for kids. The games don't even try to be scary anymore.
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Like there are some fun kills in the movie and Matthew Lillard is great. But best to just wait for those clips on YouTube.
 
Cnut said:
J

John Bellairs and Edward Gorey made a whopping punch of horror for me as a kid and probably the reason I'm in this thread right now.

I'm glad they did the Louis Barnavelt movie instead of massacring my guy Anthony Monday or even Johnny Dixon & Professor Childermass. Sorry Louis.

That movie looked like shit and i won't see it. You don't need a cgi shit storm to make those books into movies, just some good actors, sets and cinematography. Man I'd love to see movies made of 'Eyes of the Killer Robot' or 'Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull' if someone could/would do without trying to turn them into Harry Potter or whatever.
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Yes, I got into Bellairs' works with the Johnny Dixon series first, with "Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull" and "Eyes", drawn into Bellairs' depiction of the early 50s milleu, and then the direct sequel to "Sorcerer's Skull", "Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost" which contained, I later learned, some allusions to the work of scholar and supernatural tale writer M.R. James, specifically his stories "Mr. Humphries and His Inheritance" (the protags discover the titular wizard's family crypt, which has "Penetrans ad interiora mortis" inscribed on it) and something inspired by the familiar of the titular character of "Count Magnus".

Suddenly the professor stopped talking. He was staring at a statue that stood in a niche on the front of the temple. It was a statue of a short, hunched figure in a monk's robe. The hood of the robe was large and hung down over the creature's face, but you could see something dangling from one long, drooping sleeve. It looked like an octopus' tentacle. Below the statue was an inscription: To him are given the keys of the Bottomless Pit.
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Edward Gorey Spell of the Sorcer's Skull DJ.jpg


wiz ghost dj adjusted.jpg
 
Lone Star said:
Man, is it really that bad? I know it's PG-13, but I was still kind of planning on seeing it. It really sucks how the franchise basically became one for kids. The games don't even try to be scary anymore.
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Here's what pisses me off about this. This movie could be used as what I and others call gateway horror. There was a lot of it back in the late 70s and 80s/in to the 90s. You had a lot of horror shows and books aimed at kids that are good. This is things that I'm sure everyone has heard about before like Goosebumps, Are you afraid of the Dark, Eerie indiana, Fear Street, movies like The Gate, Monster Squad, comics like Tales from the Crypt, ect you get the idea.

FNAF has a child fan base. It could be so easy to make a kid horror movie just like something like The Gate and still have it be good, but horror now a days does this weird thing where they want to make bloody slasher teen horror but the cut it down to PG-13 so the kids can get it because you know the kids want to see the so why not milk them of their money, and then you get something that's shit, like The Bye Bye Man. Make a kid's horror movie that's really for kids and with kids in it, not bland teen actors that have the personality of a plank of wood.

And it's not like there aren't good horror movies that are rated PG-13 or even G. A lot of the old classics from Universal or Hammer are rated G and PG. Granted they got made before PG-13 got introduced but still. Even Beetlejuice is PG. I think I just miss horror made for kids like really for kids. I think it's good for kids that are interested in horror to have something that is made for them and well written, not that creepypasta crap. I could go on a rant about that but I've ranted long enough.
 
Commander X said:
Yes, I got into Bellairs' works with the Johnny Dixon series first, with "Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull" and "Eyes", drawn into Bellairs' depiction of the early 50s milleu, and then the direct sequel to "Sorcerer's Skull", "Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost" which contained, I later learned, some allusions to the work of scholar and supernatural tale writer M.R. James, specifically his stories "Mr. Humphries and His Inheritance" (the protags discover the titular wizard's family crypt, which has "Penetrans ad interiora mortis" inscribed on it) and something inspired by the familiar of the titular character of "Count Magnus".



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God damn the wraparound covers are so bitchin. I wish the paperbacks had those. There were fewer books starring Anthony Monday but they are all awesome. I think 'The Dark Secret of Weatherend" is the first. Johnny Dixon would probably make a better movie series though. When 'Trolley to Yesterday' came out, I was able to appreciate it as a brand new book. Sadly soon after Bellairs (and Gorey) died and there were more books written by some fill-in guy. All the original books are pretty much solid gold, and they should get way more love than they do.
 
Just watched the FNAF and I have to say the movie was quite good imo, I wasn't expecting much but came a little surprised it was a lot better than I thought it was going to be, don't go in expecting some high class A24 slowburn horror movie go into as a video game adaptation in mind.
Also the fact the animatronics are done so well is great and proof that practical effects will always outshine CGI.
If i had to rate it I would say it's about an 7/10

Edit: on second though 8 is too high the movie is a good 7 though
 
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Gutter Twin said:
Something else that bothers me is the fact that people who love this movie say, "It's for the fans." But, it's not good. It's like that phenomena people have discussed on the Farms before: fanbases will accept the bare minimum just because it exists. Back in the day, fans used to be the most critical of the franchises they loved. Now, they just eat whatever shit gets laid out for them as long as it has the logo they like slapped onto it. THEY SAID THE THING THAT WAS IN THE GAME SO THAT MEANS IT'S GOOD. I'm sure I'm overthinking this, but it really rubs me the wrong way. Why are you accepting half-baked garbage? If it's a movie for something you really love, shouldn't you want the cream of the crop?
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It must be a generational thing. Fans of the Resident Evil games did not enjoy the Paul Anderson movies with his wife as a self-insert, while only tolerating the first one, despite with all the references to the source material. Now that nerd/geek culture has been in the mainstream, those who accept piss-poor adaptations (aside from the fanbase) are YouTube shills who grift off it.
 

Diablo Rojo PTY , a Panamanian horror feature, featuring the driver of one of the titular buses, a garishly decorated ride complete with being wired for music, and his helper as they end up stuck in the jungle, caught in a spell cast on him out of revenge, and they and two cops who pulled them over for joyriding are trying to escape being pursued by the witches who cast the spell, and cannibals, and monsters out of Panamanian folklore.
 
Among interesting reads, lately, I went through horror author Orrin Grey's recent story collection How To See Ghosts & Other Figments, one story that has stuck with me is the unusual "Anum’s Fire (1987) — Annotated", written as an annotated summary of and commentary on a weird Italian sword-and-sorcery film about a "man" made out of metal out to bring down an evil queen, obviously inspired by Fulci's Conquest, Grey states in the afterword one of his inspirations was the film poster (it was originally written for a Fulci-themed horror anthology Beyond The Book of Eibon that was apparently a crowd-funded project that I haven't been able to find a copy of which is a shame because it sounds like my kind of thing).

Anum was his name, but they called him the Machine Man from the Haunted Realms (also the title under which the film was released in Spain and Mexico).
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Anum had vanquished the ghosts of the haunted ruin (in the montage that opens the film), for what fear could grave-cold spirits hold for such a being of metal and heat? He had blazed a trail from those ruins to the palace he now occupied--(itself a combination of soundstages, interiors shot in the Musea di Storia Naturale, and the ruins of the Castle of San Sebastiano on the island of Sardenia)--yet he felt uncontented.
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We never get an origin for Anum. In his book, Orgy of the Dead, William Teague argues that Anum was a robot from a civilization so advanced that their technology appears as magic to the people of the film. That, in fact, the "haunted ruins" in which he first appears are the remains of this lost civilization.

Another theory is that Anum was an alien. "When I saw the movie as a kid," filmmaker Wayne Bartalos says in the commentary track on the Severin release, "I just assumed he was from another planet. It explains why he was always looking up at the night sky, right? He was looking for home."
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"People of the Mud Tribes," the Queen's voice boomed across the land, "the time has come to pay your debt to me."

From out of (previously unseen) pools of standing water rose those people of the Mud Tribes (simply stunt performers plastered with dried mud and cheesecloth, ping pong balls cut in half and placed over their eyes) while Flesh Tearers sprang from the tall grasses, their muscular legs devouring the ground in loping strides. Black (ragged, stop-motion) birds began to pour from the darkened sky.
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I randomly decided to watch They Live (1988 ) for the first time last week because it's Halloween season and it's shameful that I haven't seen all of John Carpenter's (good) movies. It's a classic, so just some random thoughts.

- They Live is not a great movie, but it is a good one, and it could not be improved with a remake, because even if the remake failed, it would not "fail" in the endearing ways the original does. It's not Carpenter's best movie, but it's well-directed. Roddy Piper isn't a great choice for the lead, but his strange performance is so iconic I wouldn't want to see anyone else try it. The dialogue isn't perfect, but it is what it is and shouldn't be changed. The movie is conceptually a mile wide and an inch deep, and some of the elements are kind of cringeworthy in retrospect (people being brainwashed to MARRY AND REPRODUCE when we're facing a truly disastrous lack of both now), but it's still a great concept that's well-executed. Basically, it's a movie that shouldn't "work" on paper, but it does.

- The alien effects are so great. You can tell the budget isn't huge, but it doesn't matter because the look they went with is so shocking and effective.

- It was nice to see George "Buck" Flower get a more substantial role than I'm used to seeing from him. He's a good actor.

- The stupidly long fight scene is absurd, but it's great! Keith David and Piper choreographed it well.

- Jay from RLM pointed out in some video that Carpenter has said he's always wanted to direct a Western, and you can hear that in the They Live soundtrack. Piper is kind of doing a (discount) stoic, "Man With No Name" thing.

So yeah, I loved it. I started the original Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) right after it was over, but I haven't gotten to finish it yet.
 
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