Apparently there’s an animated version coming to Adult Swim?
No One Gets Out Alive (2021) - Netflix. The delightful Cristina Rodlo stars as an illegal immigrant in Cleveland that takes up residence in a creepy boarding house. It’s a not-so-thinly veiled story about how undocumented workers get exploited in the US, especially if they’re women. It’s also about ghosts and stuff. I’ve never heard of director Santiago Menghini (and a quick browse of IMDB reveals only a few shorts as his prior directing) but he does a good job of adapting Adam Nevill’s original story. Neville also wrote the book The Ritual. I think most horror fans liked the Netflix movie based on that novel.
It should be noted that Adam Neville’s novel No One Gets Out Alive had nothing to do with illegal immigrants and was in fact set in England. Moving it to the US and making the lead an undocumented worker adds an additional layer of tension. Ambar isn’t just poor and lacking the resources to get away from the building, she absolutely cannot get the law involved in her troubles due to her status. The movie also drops a weird swerve that the novel has in its last quarter, which I think is an improvement for pacing.
If you watched The Ritual and liked it, I think you’ll see some similarities here.
I very recently got on a Junji Ito kick and read a bunch of his mangas, including Uzumaki. Ito is probably the best writer of cosmic horror ever. Better than Lovecraft. And Uzumaki is one of his greats. Really unsettling from start to finish. I have no idea how you’d make a film of it.
I appreciate that we would not have the former without the latter, but the dreamlike texture and logic of Uzumaki feels more like Ligotti than Lovecraft to me.
Hah, we also watched Uzumaki. My wife and I have read the manga (see if your local library has it: it’s pretty good and not very long), and we’re discussing how it must be sort of mystifying to people who haven’t. We were curious how it would translate to a live action film and the answer is: about how you’d expect from a circa 2000 Japanese horror film? The movie is largely a shot for shot recreation of the manga and includes pretty much all the significant set pieces.
Junji Ito’s work is really about his excellent artwork, but it’s very stylized intricate linework, which evokes a mood but doesn’t really translate to live action. The washing machine thing is a great example of something that *kind of* works in the manga with a certain level of abstraction and unreality, but obviously wouldn’t work in live action so they smartly didn’t even try. To me, his work sometimes treads the line between creepy and laughable absurdity, so it’s really about the art to sell it.
The movie was surprisingly restrained on the gore side, which was a kind of pleasant surprise, I was a little worried it would go into gonzo gore territory (the material is there) and I’m not super fond of that, but for either mood or budget reasons, they didn’t.
Its kind of of a piece with The Grudge, stylistically, although not as good. Overall, I wouldn’t really recommend it other than as a curiosity.
I mean, that’s kind of the size of it. We joke a lot that the comic’s plot is “What if…spirals? That’s it.” The comic goes a but further, but ultimately, nothing is really explained.
Did they? The novel’s pretty good but the movie went a completely different, much less interesting direction IMO and I was so annoyed with the characters that I made it less than halfway through and only skimmed the rest to confirm that it was in fact actually going in the boring conventional direction it sets up instead of actually properly adapting the book. Like, you could do the movie that they did without ever getting Neville involved. In fact, I’m sure it was done at least six or seven times previously. Blah.
How do you skim the rest of a movie?
Fast forward maybe?
Click ahead repeatedly on the time bar.
Drop some mescaline.
The Conjuring. I’ve started watching horror again because it doesn’t really hit like it used to, signs of growing old I guess. Good movie, I like the premise of ghost hunters who have no doubts about what they are or what’s going on. It was really well done on pretty much every level, but that also means I kinda knew where all the horror beats were expected so it wasn’t that scary. “She’s at the top of the stairs looking down, maybe there will be something emerging out of the dark when the perspective shifts . . . no? Then it’s going to be behind her shoulder when it shifts again . . . there it is.” I guess being young is awesome for the novelty, being old is simply futile seeking of the same feeling over and over. Kinda like Cabin in the Woods I was far more delighted by the interesting twist of the metaplot vs. the visceral thrill of the horror parts.
That is also my feeling on The Conjuring. It’s skillfully made but felt entirely rote.
I watched Midsommar and Hereditary this month, and while I realize I’m firmly in the minority here, neither of them worked for me at all.
Neither of them every made me feel…scared? I have a olot of specific problems with both, but generally, Midsommar just lacked any kind of atmosphere of dread or unease for me. Like, the events were upsetting, but never really creepy. There were also some suspension of disbelief breaking mechanical bits, like the apparent incuriosity of these grad students and some just sloppy bits on racial dynamics. Like, I can’t tell if the overall philosophy of the Harga (that people should simply accept death at a certain age) is supposed to be viewed as inherently monstrous or not.
I also didn’t particularly care for Hereditary, which felt like a well acted family drama, but the family stuff didn’t really seem to have any relation to the horror elements, and I spent most of the movie wondering which parts of the story I was supposed to care about. Also, the writing that was there was sparse enough that there weren’t really any surprises, e.g. Chekhov’s peanut allergy and Chekhov’s seance flier. I also had some problems with specific bits of construction, like some problematic choices around the depiction of autism.
I’m well aware that I’m wrong on both accounts and that these are universally loved, but neither worked for me in a way that I think Aster just doesn’t see eye to eye with me. In both cases, I was waiting for things to… coalesce…in a way they never did.
I also watched Raw, a French horror film about a Veterinary school student which I enjoyed quite a bit. Contrary to the Aster films, the whole thing had this just sheen of grime and unease and it was impossible to tell what was horror and what was Vet school and what was just maybe sort of French? I felt unmoored the entire time (in a good way), and the whole thing had the sort of baseline metaphor which is, apparently, something that I really crave in horror. It ties up it’s mythology surprisingly well in a mad dash in the last couple minutes of the film.
All three movies I’d love to discuss, and all with their own threads. :(
You guys can do what you want, of course, but I’m done here. I’m just going to mute this thread – on Halloween, to boot! – so knock yourselves out. But if anyone wants to actually discuss movies anymore, you know where to find me.
-Tom
I’ve watched two so far for my Halloween horror binge. The Night House and Censor last night. Tonight going with some old favorites: The Exorcist and Ghost Story.
No need to belabor The Exorcist, but both of last night’s movies get thumbs up from me, thanks to plenty of eerie atmospherics and two powerhouse female lead performances (the always-excellent Rebecca Hall and newcomer (to me anyway) Niamh Alger). I’d say both films had a little trouble with endings, but the last few minutes of Censor legitimately creeped me out.
The Night House is more of a slow-burn meditation on grief that I found pretty absorbing all the way through the runtime. Unfortunately, there’s a big central plot point that I’m still finding a bit hard to swallow…not enough to ruin the experience in retrospect, but close. Maybe there’s an explanation somewhere in the text, but on first viewing, I missed it.
I don’t know what Aster intended, but I think it is inherently monstrous in the context of the rest of the movie, if that makes sense. They believe that the good of the community requires that people die, and they treat it as a wholesome, spiritually uplifting way of dealing with death.
All the bad things that happen to the family in the movie happen because they are descended from a demon worshiping witch.. That seems related.
Not to say that you’re somehow wrong for not liking the movies, If you don’t enjoy them you don’t enjoy them.
Yeah, at their core, neither of the Aster films felt scary to me, like neither in a fear of physical harm way, nor in an existential dread way. I’m very okay with it, I’ve read reviews and browsed the threads on those movies and I understand what the conversation about them is, in general, but for whatever reason they just didn’t work for me. I’m not going to say that me talking about them is pointless, but it’s not like I’m going to talk myself into being afraid.
Also, to be honest, swimming upstream against the general consensus on either of those movies sounds exhausting.
Rewatched You’re Next, to introduce it to my girlfriend. Still super good, with a catchy-as-heck earworm all prepped for you. On rewatch, it’s interesting to watch AJ Bowen sandbag good ideas, encourage bad ones, be surprised and worried about Sharni Vinson’s unexpected crisis management skills, and e.g. not actually do anything with the car. All of which is plausible in someone just reacting to the sudden death of family members (although the way he reacts to basically everyone else in his family takes on a new light), but when you know he’s in on it…yep. Checks out. Also this time around I know who Larry Fessenden is.
My horror marathon is finished now so here are my brief thoughts on what I watched in October. Ranked roughly from most favorite to least favorite (or really, which one I’m most likely to pick up off the shelf and watch).
I’m not spoilering anything because none of these movies are particularly new, so you’ve been forewarned.
I was going to just post these in their 37 respective threads, but I felt that might be frowned upon.
The Thing (1982)
Perfect horror film. Isolation, paranoia, dreadful atmosphere. No stupid plot twists or half-assed redemption arcs. Just bleak, beautiful horror. One of my favorite films of all time, horror or otherwise.
Alien
Still my favorite film in the franchise and basically tied for my favorite horror film ever. Phenomenal design and cinematography paired with a beautiful score gives it a haunting atmosphere. Then you add the incredible cast and the greatest monster in cinematic history.
The Shining
This is the quintessential big screen horror film. Every shot is a masterpiece you could hang on your wall. The hotel and grounds are as much a star as the rest of the cast, with the exception of Nicholson, who steals every scene he’s in. Jack’s a villain, but he’s not a monster or a demon. He’s not a freak of nature or a ghastly horror. He’s just a man, but Nicholson makes him an icon.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Best slasher film ever. Shot brilliantly on location with a shoestring budget. Every ounce of misery that went into filming in the Texas heat earns it a legitimacy that few films shot on a backlot can enjoy. It’s everything you could want in a great horror film. It has the story, the actors, the writing, the score, the cinematography, a suspenseful ending, and even a touch of madness. It’s gritty without being gross. It’s gruesome without being bloody. It’s witty without being pretentious. It’s humble without being cheap.
The Witch
My very favorite modern horror film. Beautifully designed, shot, written, and acted. I really didn’t know what to expect going into a period-horror like this, but now all I want is more. I listened to the commentary and Eggers mentioned something that I thought were amusing. He said the flies on location were absolutely out of control and miserable to work with. There’s no way he could have edited them out of the film, and they are very evident in the early scenes. And I absolutely love it. That’s the kind of thing missing from a lot of modern films. It’s a free gift from mother nature that adds more gravity to the scene than anything you could get if you weren’t to shoot on a real location like that.
This isn’t a big budget film, but they proved you don’t need a big budget. Their costume and set designs are perfect the way they are, and they utilize their location to give the film every ounce of atmosphere it needs. The few effects shots that are there are done tastefully and with subtlety so as not to betray the quality of the film. That’s the sign of a mature and talented director.
The Silence of the Lambs
I never really thought about this as a horror film before putting together my list for October, but it certainly is that. What can I say about it that hasn’t been said already? Unlike most of the films on this list, the horror here doesn’t come from the impossible, but from the real darkness that can and does exist in every corner of our world. Hopkins, Foster, and Levine are incredible.
The Exorcist
It’s the only exorcism-type movie I’ve ever seen (apart from Exorcism III), but I always enjoy this. The foreboding in the first third followed by the absolutely brutal transition from peaceful New England home to pure nightmare that Blatty and Friedkin achieved here is phenomenal. Once it gets going it doesn’t let up, and if there was any fat put on film it was left on the cutting room floor. Linda Blair always gets mentioned, and she does an outstanding job, but the rest of the cast is pitch-perfect as well.
Halloween
I actually never saw Texas Chain Saw Massacre as a child, but I did see every single one of the Halloween movies, several times (thanks to the wonders of VHS rentals). It remains a guilty pleasure, but there’s nothing to feel guilty about with the original, which is an incredible horror film. Michael, Laurie, and Carpenter’s incredible soundtrack are all iconic for a reason, as they all leave an indelible impression. It’s obviously not a complex plot, but it’s skillfully played straight, where most of its peers drift into the ridiculous either intentionally or otherwise.
The Fly (1986)
If you couldn’t tell from my first two entries on this list, I am a huge sucker for Sci-Fi Horror. David Cronenberg’s remake of The Fly is my third favorite of such films. Goldblum could not have been more perfectly cast for the role of Seth Brundle. He’s nerdy, but intimidating. Weird, but relatable. He’s as much at home standing in front of a computer talking about scientific discovery as he is standing on the ceiling with 20 pounds of prosthetic make-up on. This film’s themes of progress, relationships, disease, and losing oneself in the pursuit of self-change will never age. And I can’t forget to mention Geena Davis, who plays a perfect foil to both Brundle as well as Borans.
Psycho
Like Kubrick, Hitchcock is a visionary and a perfectionist, and it shows in Psycho. I’ve always been a fan of simple stories done well, and this is just that. Vivian Leigh is great of course, but for me Anthony Perkins is the life of the film. I don’t just understand his character, I know his character. I know people who look and act just like him. They may not be hiding their dead mother in the attic, but I see the similarity. The insularity. The awkwardness. The loneliness, and the struggle to overcome and interact with “normal” people. I feel Perkin’s performance. And I feel that it’s often overlooked when people talk about the greatest of all time. He’s not given a massive script or character arc to explore, but he still gives a monumental performance regardless.
Night of the Living Dead
I bounced back and forth about which one of these I liked more, but in the end I felt Night was the more timeless of the two. It’s a small movie about a global catastrophe. It’s as much about humanity as it is about zombies. I love isolation in horror, and you can’t get much more isolated than being stuck in a farm house in the middle of the night while you’re being surrounded by zombies who are appearing out of the inky darkness. And I’m a huge sucker for a bleak ending, which is probably also why I chose it above…
Dawn of the Dead
There is no mistaking that this movie was made in the 70s. I’ll get that out of the way first. The first time I saw it I will say that I was not a huge fan of some of the sillier scenes in the mall (like when the biker gang showed up). I felt it was a bit of a jarring departure from the subject matter. I’ve since mellowed on that, and find that I enjoy the entirety of the film. Particularly while I’m a little wine-drunk. And the more I watch it, the more I absolutely love the chemistry between Ken Foree and Scott Reiniger.
Hereditary
Toni Collette losing her mind with one of the best performances I’ve ever seen. She’s so good it honestly feels like she’s the only one not acting in this movie. I haven’t quite grown to love the ending, but I love everything leading up to it.
The Cabin in the Woods
Horror / Office Comedy that shouldn’t work, but does so brilliantly due to fantastic writing and performances. I went into it blind originally, and it’s one of the only films I’ve ever seen that genuinely subverted all expectations (and exceeded them as well).
Shaun of the Dead
This right here is the funniest horror film ever made, and very clever to boot. I don’t think I’ll ever not be in a mood to watch Shaun of the Dead.
Tremors
Eminently watchable. Tremors is the pinnacle of low-budget monster movies. Funny, well cast and written, with great practical effects.
Color Out of Space
Beautiful photography and score frame this weird, but awesome cosmic horror. It could very easily have turned into a shit show at the end with the subject matter at hand, but managed to avoid that with some great effects and pure, unbridled, uncaged Cage. The highlight for me was Tommy Chong’s performance though.
You don’t get it, do you? It’s not out there. It’s in here. It’s in the static. It’s in the moisture. Up is down. Fast is slow. What’s in here is out there, and what’s out there…it’s in here now. Comprendo?
Let Me In
I haven’t seen the original, but I enjoy this remake. It’s certainly a bit of a slow burn, but Chloë and Kodi are so intriguing in their roles that I enjoyed every minute of the build-up.
Frankenstein
My favorite of the classic Universal horror films. A great, tasteful adaptation of the perfect horror novel. There’s nothing here that will age, because there’s nothing here that can age.
Army of Darkness
This is the perfect sequel to Evil Dead 2. It’s bigger and better in every way, so if you liked its predecessor I can’t imagine you not liking this one. Ash vs Evil Dead is the best of the series for me, though.
A Nightmare on Elm Street
I actually had not even seen this until this year, and I wasn’t disappointed. The concept is great, and the execution matches it. I loved the clever practical effects as well as the ending.
Evil Dead 2
I actually prefer the original, but was doing a double feature with AoD, so this works better for continuity. It obviously leans far more into zany territory than its predecessor, but exhibits more character for it, and becomes what the Evil Dead series is really known for.
The Blob (1988)
Shockingly good practical effects in the first 90% of the film. The ending kind of sucks, but faces and limbs are melted throughout, and the kid gets blobbed. So that’s a thumbs up from me.
Jeepers Creepers
The first half is fantastic. Gina Phillips and Justin Long are the perfect quarreling sibling pair, and the creeper truck is the real third pillar of the film. When the monster is revealed after they meet the cat lady, the film loses something. If they had kept him hidden until the end, I feel it would have been for the better.
It: Chapter One
The opening sequence is essentially perfect, and nothing that follows quite lives up to it, but there’s still a lot of good scares to be had. It’s always felt a bit rushed to me, with character-building segments feeling like they’re just there to be checked off the list so IT can make another appearance. But Bill Skarsgård is awesome and kind of makes up for it.
Dracula
Like Frankenstein, this is a pretty spot on adaptation of a classic horror novel. For whatever reason I felt it lacked a bit of character (heh) by comparison apart from Lugosi’s fantastic presence.
The Mummy (1932)
When you watch these three films you begin to sense a bit of a formula taking shape. It’s not a terrible thing necessarily, because they are all handled very competently. I love the story of The Mummy, and felt everybody did a great job on it and enjoyed it thoroughly. I had meant to do a double feature with the version from 1999 but ran out of time. Of course that film has a greater scope and has far more comedic elements, but I do prefer it and think it’s a great movie in its own right.
American Werewolf in London
A film that starts off brilliantly and slowly slides downward, ending with a bit of a dull thud. Still the best werewolf movie, though. The opening sequence is among my favorites, and the make-up effects are great.
The Fly (1958)
While I think Cronenberg’s remake outdoes it in every way, I do like the original as well and have seen it several times. It’s obviously a more concise story, but handled very well.
The Bride of Frankenstein
I know a lot of people love this film, and while I do think it’s good, I didn’t like it as much as the original. It tries too hard to one-up its predecessor, and comes off the worst for it.
Poltergeist
The Spielbergiest of horror films. It’s a good movie and still holds up for the most part, but to be honest it doesn’t really do much for me. I’m not sure why.
The House of the Devil
I had never even heard of this before, but I was surprised by how good it was. They captured the 80s feel (both from a timeline perspective as well as a film-making perspective) pretty much perfectly.
The Fog
I love the premise and atmosphere, and there are some really great moments, but I felt the characters in the end weren’t particularly memorable.
Phantasm
I had not seen this before, but I enjoyed it for the most part. It has a unique premise and a certain 70s sensibility that appeals to me.
Prince of Darkness
I like the premise, and there are some cool moments, but in the end I felt it mostly fell flat and didn’t live up to my expectations.
Friday the 13th
More or less the standard teen slasher film. Good for what it is, but nothing special.
Friday the 13th Part VI
Stupid, but in a way that’s more purely entertaining than most of the other films in the series.