it was indeed a pioneer of the genre of horror comedies that peaked in the 80s

so it was just a regular cemetery? i thought that initially but i wasn't sure

It isn't gross in the sense of gory. For all it's notoriety it isn't graphic at all. It works more on a psychological level.

Don't understand the stuff about it being a comedy. It's no more a comedy than Hills Have Eyes. Saying that, I have watched it with people who've laughed at bits of it. But in the same way some people laugh at bits of The Exorcist.

i watched i think 10 or 20 minutes of TCM and it was too disturbing

but now im vaccinated though. i just might...

btw just started TRUE DETECTIVE season 2

it's very... it has a touch of david lynch on it. the music, the light, some characters (e.g. lolita davidovich or the bar singer). there's a definite influence on the general mood of the thing--can't be a coincidence either that a street sign for mulholland drive appears when the vehicle that carries a certain guy drives by.

also the colin farrell character is definitely a bad lieutenant ha ha ha. not just his rank but that shot of him in the car with the kid outside of school and him doing drugs after he drops him. he's a bad lieutenant ha ha ha.

everything is intertext these days.

just got Tale of Tales, will be watching soon!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9ETi804w-E

I'll be interested in what you think of the rest of the season.

I definitely feel you on the Lynch thing. At the very least, there's a bit of Mullholand Drive sheen to it. (I'm not sure it's all that similar to anything else in the Lynch canon). But I remember thinking the same thing. There's also I suppose a bit of Lost Highway in some of the season 2 imagery.

Colin Farrel is a good actor. Occasionally great. In Bruge is so so so fucking good. I think he's really the best part of TD 2, though Vince Vaughn ends up delivering quite a memorably performance too.

It's a sad season. Not rooted in horror and lore like the first. Totally different kind of "detective" story (though correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there's a single actual detective in the show, which doesn't matter, but is kind of funny)

i've only seen 3 eps! more next week

--

so finally watched EVIL DEAD 2 and found it HILARIOUS! it was supercampy. like, the first one was low budget but wanted to be scary. this second one is extremely imaginative and ingenious and clever but it's also totally ridiculous.

i really like bruce campbell-- i first became familiar with him in burn notice (i know, i'm decades behind) and it's like--- haaa haaa haaa look at chuck finley! his acting here was so bad it was good. he's by himself for 1/2 the movie at least, gesticulating.

can't wait to see ARMY OF DARKNESS! and also MY NAME IS BRUCE.

but yeah while the first one scared me at various moments (i even spilled whiskey on myself) the 2nd one was mostly superfunny. i don't think that it's just that i got accustomed to it-- it's really funny.

Near Dark.

Probably the only way I'd end up liking a George Strait song, thanks to the bar scene.

Forsaken..



which i actually really liked because i have a soft spot for good gritty Westerns and especially for Donald Sutherland let alone him and Keifer together?? just an all around great flick

wait you had never seen these??

yeah Evil Dead 2 is the good one, more "refined"

Army of Darkness is brilliant, a classic, but its ummm.. different? let us know and i will happy to spend much time discussing and disecting, its in my all time top 10

Yeah Evil Dead 2 is kind of the nexus of doof horror, while the first had more traditional ambitions. Don't get me wrong, the first one is ridiculous too. But it's not nearly as stuffed with campy shot as 2.

For better or worse, they double down on the camp even more for Army of Darkness.

FYI: if you're getting into the Evil Dead... ahem.. mythos.. then I'd like to point out that Starz has a new Bruce Campbell-starring show called Ash Vs. Evil Deadtha apparently serves as a sequel to the trilogy. I haven't seen it, but I want to. I think the second season starts soon.

Hah. Yeah. To say the least. I remember when this one came out actually. I didn't realize from the preview that it was a sequel to Evil Dead (even though I think it actually says it is, probably in big spiky letters, but hey... I was young)

Indeed it takes the premise to new heights of absolute absurdity. But it still kicks unholy ass.

I think Evil Dead 2 is my favorite. I love and respect the first one, but the tree rape scene unsettled me to this day.

Speaking of Evil Dead 2, that's what I followed up with after Near Dark :D

yeah army of darkness looks bananas-- i'm really looking forward to seeing it

also saw yesterday Mario Bava's THE MASK OF SATAN aka BLACK SUNDAY. it was fucking great! i really enjoyed it. awesome effects, especially for the time. and really enjoyed his cinematography. plus that woman's straaaaange face!

and last, finally saw PIRANHA 3DD. or in my version, just DD, ha ha ha. at the beginning (not the first scene, which was great, but once we get to the water park) it feels like some low-budget tv show from the CW-- but soon it builds up to be awesome and hilarious. i laughed so hard! and got grossed out too but always in a funny way.

also the credits-- fantastic! they were like an extra movie on their own.

i've looked at reviews and ratings for the movie, and it's rated so low i think most critics (professional and self-appointed) are missing the point of it. if it hadn't been for demonrail's recommendation i would have COMPLETELY missed it. thanks!

Last Pirahna movie I saw was the one where the piranhas flew. I don't know where that landed in the chronology, but based on that effect alone I'd say it had "part 3" written all over it. 3 is where folks start to get desperate. Anyone remember RoboCop 3 (it had ninjas.... and I think they flew, but I'm not sure). Or Terminator 3? Holy moly what a stinkeroo.

Rocky III... Superman III... Jaws 3... the list goes on.

Is this new Piranha nice a reboot? A continuation? A sequel to a reboot?

Oh, Hellraiser 3! That might be the worst of the worst man. First two are iconic. Third one had grunge bands and a hell monster that shot CD's at people. Yup.

I'm really glad you liked Piranha DD. It's inexcusable on so many levels except that it somehow actually works. I love the Hoff''s 'character' ... "you went back in the water, you little ginger moron" and Ving Rhames's whole "bring me my legs" heroics. And yes, the gore is sooo outrageous it could only work as a comedy. Even thinking about certain moments while typing this is making me laugh. I only wish more remakes would forget about trying to improve on the original and adopt this approach.

And yeah, Black Sunday. Interesting that just as Hammer was busy revolutionising gothic horror with its vivid colours, Bava produced one of the most beautiful looking B&W horror film ever made. At the time it was considered extremely violent, to the extent it was banned in the UK for quite a few years and heavily censored in the US. Hard to see now what all the fuss was all about and it's a shame that it's (in)famous more for its notoriety than for how beautiful it is. Although admittedly, that opening scene with the mask does still pack a punch.

Also, jumping onto the Poltergeist discussion, I like it as a Spielberg film but I don't think it works as a horror film at all.

Plus I seem to be in the minority in preferring the 1st Evil Dead to the sequel. It's purely down to the tone. The 1st one has comedy in it but never forgets that it's ultimately a horror film whereas the sequel really only works as a comedy for me. Nothing against comedy horror (as my love of Piranha DD shows) but I just get far more from watching Evil Dead I than I do II.

Anyway, just watched ...



Night of the Living Dead

For all my love of Fulci, it's pretty much impossible to over praise this. I'm not just talking about its influence, which is obviously beyond question, but purely as a horror film in its own right, regardless of everything it inspired. A perfect 10/10 for me.

A sequel to a reboot.

Keeping up with the franchise is pretty complicated in that there was actually two reboots. So you get

Piranha - the original
Piranha 2: The Spawning - the sequel made in the 80s. This is the one where they fly.

Then there's:

Piranha - a straight up remake of the original made in the 90s.

Then there's

Piranha 3D - the second attempt at a reboot, but nothing like the original (this is basically just a lot of porn stars on a boat.
Piranha 3DD - the sequel to the 2nd reboot. Same amount of porn stars and a direct follow-up to 3D, but far funnier. This is the one El Symbols and I are talking about.

The end of 3DD points to the likelihood of a further sequel (3DDD?) by showing that a new breed of Piranha can walk. I'm probably the only person on earth (besides maybe el symbols) who can't wait for it.

"don't worry mom! they're slow on land!"

...

they also make me for the first time since coraline really want to watch a 3D movie. even though i get headaches.

...

i haven't seen piranha the 1978 original (it's hard to find/out of print/in license limbo) but i know it was a roger corman ripoff of jaws-- directed by joe dante, who later made gremlins.

this is probably why the beginning of gremlins is reminiscent of corman's little shop of horrors-- the narrator kinda like a detective story.

...

for another corman connection, i read that black sunday ran as a double feature with the original little shop of horrors.

CORMAN IS EVERYWHERE

I get headaches too. As a result, I haven't seen a 3D film since I was super wee, back when the glasses were polarized blue and red. I actually want to say it was Jaws 3(D) that I saw in the theatre like this, but it must have been a special showing because I was too young to remember anything in 1983. Hah.

I always liked the first Gremlins film. It somehow made me deeply afraid of the song "Do you Hear what I Hear?" when I was little. So much so that I actually think of Gremlins before I think of Christmas when I hear the song to this day. And it wasn't just the Grenlins. It was something about the movie... the female lead telling a story about how she hated Xmas because she lost her father to booze or some shit on some awful Xmas past. Made me shiver.

I should really post in this thread. You guys are talking about movirles I havve a lot of thoughts on. Lazy.

Watched it this weekend. 5/10. It had some fucking FUNNY parts but it felt very slight, as if they were trying to go dark and weird but decided at the last minute to edit out the weirdness and bizarre stuff since the whole mascots angle better suited a more family friendly film.

Cool cameo return of Corky St. Clair though.....

PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK

for some reason it had eluded me all these years

it's fucking great

Yeah, that's great. and another one, like the wicker man, that belongs in that category of the uncategorisable.

one of the things i really enjoyed from the start is that the movie doesn't naturalize things, by this i mean, it shows you this scene and these people who should be completely "normal" but instead of trying to familiarize you with them as an ordinary film would do it shows you what is strange about them and points and things you don't know and changes shots to seemingly unrelated things. it's like the tolstoian ostranenie but in reverse--it shows you the familiar but points towards the unknown. just brilliant.

i've seen the last wave, ages ago, and it's also unusual but in a more predictable way, and i've also seen some of his mainstream films and enjoyed them, but this is totally different from the rest, though maybe i have to rewatch some of the others and see the ones i've missed with the perspective of this one.

It's a while since I saw it so can't recall individual scenes; I just remember an overall atmosphere that really got to me.

perfect time of the year to rewatch it. alternatively: valentine's day haa haa haa.

just finished true detective season 2-- the last episode was movie length so i guess it qualifies

damn!

damn damn damn....

so i watched summer of sam for first time in like 15 years because i remembered totally not liking it, or in particular just really not liking John Leguizamo in it, but seeing it again it wasn't entirely terrible and i also didn't know it was a spike lee joint!

See what I mean?
Pretty goddamn good, right? Totally got a shit rap from the press who wanted more McConaughey, more McConaughey! Honestly -- who can blame them? That first season was insanely good.

But it's not fair to the second series, which is its own beast, and deserves to be evaluated on its own merits.

Corking good (sad) last episode!

i loved it, and i'm still haunted by those characters. GREAT characters.

and yeah, ufff... wow...

great though. great.

the second season of td was massively rushed, but yeah its still excellent.

first season is heavily plagiarised from thomas ligotti and falls apart at the end but still v good.

black mirror is back on netflix havent watched it but

just want to point out how over half of the episodes of this show are utter shite. this is the most pompous and overhyped turd of a show ro be revered by idiots in a long time.

in fact there is about 1 good episode which is the talent show one, the rest are pretty much rich white people (played by the right number of rich light brown people) bursting out into spasms of aggressive fury over the existential crisis brought about by their smartphones.

that is LITERALLY what this show is 99% of the time.

this show is literally a rich english person throwing an aggressive temper tantrum because
digital capitalism isn't flattering enough to their narcissism. not quietly of course, but right in someone elses face like it's somehow their fault.

very english.

wish i lived in america and didnt have to deal with this shit.

just finished ARMY OF DARKNESS haaa haaaahaaaaa

awesome!!

i laughed and laughed-- so many cheesy lines and so much funny action

bruce campbell's style now the one i'd recognize anywhere

really great stuff, very entertaining

fantastic you clearly "get it"..

its a masterpiece of camp and cheese
personally i always interpreted it as satire or parody on both horror but also those mythical type of hollywood flicks that were popular in the 80s

oh, i didn't read it as satire or parody-- i read it as a straight story, very enthusiastic and imaginative but also very conscious of its sources (kaatu barada nikto, haaa haa haa,) and with a great sense of humor. postmodern if you will, and very funny, but not a mockery like the zucker brothers would make. i can see why he was picked to do spiderman. now i'm a fan and have to look at his other films (darkman, etc.)

the alternate ending shown on the disc was twilight zone hilarious btw.

yesterday watched 2 great films

THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

i got this thing for the weekend as b-movie fodder but holy shit it was so good it blew me away. great script, great camera, great performances, wow. then credits roll and i spot nicolas roeg as cinematographer. 2.35:1 aspect ratio in some wonderful looking "colorama". this has to be the best-made low-budget movie ever. corman is great.

CAT PEOPLE (original 1942 version)

awesome! so well done. tight, original story, and time flies by in it. gorgeous bluray restoration does justice to the great lighting and camera work-- plus some interesting extras on it. this is like nothing else i've seen in recent times. great job, criterion!

Oh man, that last episode of TD2 stuck with me for weeks. Just ... fucking hell man... that landed. Hit me right in the gut in the way a great film (or show) should. So sad it was almost terrifying.

And not to spoil anything for anyone else, but I just have to mention... that desert scene. DAMN. When they asked for Frank's coat... UFFF.
Like, you just knew what was going to happen.
All he had to do was give up his dignity and all would have (supposedly) been well, but that was never going to happen.

It was great because it made me care... and care deeply... about these more or less despicable people. These two men who were only really "despicable" because they were flawed in the exact ways that the best of men are. Really, they were just people, surviving and living with their choices.

TD2 didn't have an almost morally invincible character like Rustin Cole. Rustin was great in the way Batman is great. He did fucked up things, was achingly human, but was trustworthy to a fault, and almost saint-like in his heroism.

TD2 had no innocents, or casualties of evil made stronger by their pain. The only innocents were the female leads. And they still had their issues, but they were as close to innocent as the show got.

I think that's why the tag line for the show was "you get the life you deserve." In the end, everyone kind of did.

Car Wash!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXXmeP9TvBg

You're criticizing a British show for being British? Also, you seem to either think the creator themselves is the narcissist for spotlighting society's obsession with narcissism, or being pompous enough to criticize their obsession with narcissism. I think much of the series is stating how society is willfully putting themselves out there to the world to be mocked or hated, and then can't take it when they get mocked or hated by the world.