2018 Horror Roundup Thread

I think there’s a difference between the stuff they actually produce and the mostly non-English-language garbage they pick up for cheap just to fill up the content hose.

That said, after I switched off Sabrina, I decided to try out this Indonesian horror flick called May The Devil Take You. Pretty traditional horror firmly in the Evil Dead-style with some nasty demons wreaking havoc on a hapless family. It’s not bad. Apparently the director is somehow involved in The Raid/Raid 2, so if that’s your bag.

I think they actually have a better hit rate on the non English language content, because it is considered less valuable and thus they can get the top rate stuff on the cheap, instead of the tiny handful of well regarded American things that everyone is fighting over.

You’d think, but so far most of the foreign stuff under the Netflix banner is garbage.

No, like, in my actual viewing experience.

I just came back from seeing it, so I’ll have to mull it over a bit more, but I’m not too fond of the new Suspiria. The dance sequences are pretty cool, but…it’s not actually much of a horror movie is it? It definitely has horrific bits, but it fails at actually being scary.

There are a number of emotions a horror movie could be attempting to evoke, and fright is only one of them. I would agree that the Suspiria remake isn’t very frightening but I don’t think it’s trying to be. It is way more about fucked up body horror and gore.

There’s not an awful lot of that though either? The there’s like three gruesome sequences in a two and a half. The first of them is really effective, mind you, and the last of them certainly goes some…surprising places, but it’s so out there and I was so emotionally disengaged by then that it started to feel like the whole movie was an elaborate prank and that was the punchline.

The pacing is definitely a fair complaint.

Also true of the original.

Bar the one dance bit, I find the Goblin score alone more effectively spooky than anything in the original, but wherever you fall on its effectiveness as a horror, the original is a feast for the senses. And an hour shorter.

I understand why they didn’t want to even attempt replicating the phantasmagoria of the original, and I think that was the correct decision. Better to use the original as a loose template for something completely different.

I just wish what they had gone for wasn’t so leaden, and had some characters I actually cared about instead of droning on and on about Baader-Meinhof because what’s going on in school is kind of mirroring the revolutionary movements out side and did you catch that Lacan is holding a lecture and he’s of course famous for mirror theory and here’s another update from the hostage drama and shut up and get on with it already.

Huge spoiler for the first movie if you haven’t seen it yet.

Netflix is so secretive about viewing figures it’s even blacking out Roma’s box office.

If you have Shudder, definitely give Terrified (Aterrado in it’s native tongue, and not to be confused with the much worse Terrifier) a shot. Very nice supernatural horror thriller from Argentina with just the right amount of gore and jump scares.

There’s a thing on Netflix called “Don’t Watch This”. It’s a bunch of short films.

The name is correct. Don’t watch it. It’s bad.

Just finished another new Shudder exclusive, horror/comedy You Might Be The Killer. Kinda cute, occasionally funny, plenty of gory death. It’s Final Girls meets Zombieland, and not as good as either, but still pretty entertaining. Starring Allyson Hannigan and the pot smoking nerdy guy from Cabin In The Woods. I’d give it a solid B.

Can second this recommendation. That was great stuff.

Edit: I was reminded of their previous film, Resolution, by a friend, and realized I’d seen that movie also (back during the 2014 Halloween horror movie marathon on the front page) and that was why a certain gun nut tweaker and friend were so familiar.

Another fan of Cold Skin, In felt vaguely Arkham Horror to me :) I really liked the visuals, the dialogue, the story and the acting. Thumbs up!

Just seen PIERCING - I recommend it even though it didn’t wholly satisfy.

I got around to Suspiria, finally.

I wasn’t really looking forward to it given how little regard I have for the original but I came away surprised how absorbed I was by it. I thought the parallel story of the doktor was perfectly proportioned for it’s effect on the main story and the performances were wall-to-wall excellent (obviously Tilda Swinton being a standout, as she is in most everything, but Johnson was very good as well). The dancing is weird and wonderfully staged, and the death scenes are appropriately grand-guignolesque.

I thought the use of the political stuff going on at the time lacked a little bit of subtlety…it tended to hit your over the head with “hey, there’s subtext here!”. And then usual problem with horror movies (ie. how to end it) is a bit of a problem. Whatever that red slo-mo filter they used needed a rethink.

All in all, though, I came away unexpectedly impressed. I kind of want to see it again because I feel like I missed quite a bit of stuff.

I watched Tales from the Hood 2 on Netflix because I hate myself, I guess. It was bad. Not even campy fun bad, like the first movie. Just bad. It’s the kind of movie that makes you feel sorry for the actors in it.

I guess the one positive thing I took away from it was confirmation that Rusty Cundieff is still alive and directing stuff.