As we approach the most magical time of the year (Halloween, Samhain, All Saints’ Eve, call it as you will) so the horror thread rises from the crypt, or the old DiS forum to give it its proper name…
Upcoming horror business, new series of Ash vs Evil Dead and The Walking Dead imminent. Who got killed in the cliffhanger ending to the last series of TWD? My guess would be Abraham.
Also, new Blair Witch film in the cinemas next week, and the initial buzz has been surprisingly positive. I remember just how big a deal the original was (one of the earliest examples of something going viral maybe?), so it will be interesting to see how this one fares by comparison.
Started watching Fortitude this week which is pretty good. Basically a cross between a Scandinavian police procedural and The Thing (which I’d be amazed if this description didn’t form at least party of the pitch). Great cast too.
On the subject of The Thing, possibly finally a clue to the cliffhanger ending:
I had initially dismissed it when it first aired, but then got suckered in by the attrative trailer for the second series. Are you suggesting that there might be some kind of book/cover issue here?
I’ve not seen Don’t Breathe yet, but with the benefit of hindsight would you say that the trailer gave away too much? I’m defo going to watch it, but feel like I know the first two thirds of the story arc already.
Hello, new horror thread! I don’t like change, but here I am.
I watched Lovely Molly on the horror channel. I tivoed it, i’m not mental enough to stay up until 4:30 watching a film on a school night. It was alright, worth a watch. I also tivoed May, which i’ve seen about half of but it hasn’t gone crazy yet, like I know it will. A visit to cex today and I came away with The Borderlands for £1, The Battery for 50p, Zombeavers for 75p and Paranormal Activity 3 (bluray) for £1. Result!
I have a load of horror dvds that i’m going to flog for a quid at a record fair next month, I wondered if anyone wanted to do some swaps for free on here, just exchange and pay the postage. Will post what I have if anybody is up for it but you might not know if you’re up for it until you see what I have…,
I didn’t see the trailer because I read it was better to not know anything about it before going in!
Think that with modern horror films, if you watch the trailers or read reviews then it definitely spoils the film. I did the same with It Follows and it made it 100x better.
Watched this weekend, The Fly (1986) - 30 years old!
What struck me most watching this for the first time in ages is just how much like a TV movie it seems. Possibly because of the mid 80s stylings, but even the soundtrack (by multi Academy Award winner Howard Shore no less) is fairly shlocky. Also, it’s super economical - almost all set in a single location, and with a main cast of only three. Jeff Goldblum spends most of the film with his top off, and is fairly buff incredibly. Obviously it’s all about the special FX of course and, much like Alien or The Thing, the latex/puppetry approach still looks about 100 times better than the equivalent CGI would. All in all, still an enjoyable watch. 7/10
Night of the Living Deb was on horror channel last night, I really enjoyed it. A zom-com in the vein of Shaun of the Dead, the result of a kickstarter campaign so not the usual fodder. I laughed several times, the person who didn’t like it on imdb becauseof the ‘low brow humour’ encouraged me to watch it. Also, the curious complaint ‘It has all the hollow of a knight, generic and without personality.’ What does that even mean?
Here are the dvds mentioned upthread that i’m offloading. Would prefer swaps of stuff I want to see or have never heard of. Some are here because I’ve bought bluray.
Obviously a film that comes with a fair amount of baggage, this is actually a sequel proper rather than the risible Book Of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 cash in. It’s something of a victim of its own legacy, as the original wrote the book on found footage horror and 17 (!) years later still dominates how a whole genre if filmed and marketed. As a result, a lot of this one feels somewhat overfamiliar.
Following a documentary crew returning to the woods of the original, this is updated for the modern tech that most of us can get our hands on easily enough, so digital cameras, GPS, LED torches and drone cameras are all here to augment the hand held vibe of the first film. That said, directed by rising star Adam Wingard, this is actually very slickly put together and you can tell that unlike its predecessor some real cash was obviously spent on this one. Which is one of its failings if anything – as discussed in this interesting revisit with the creators of the first film ( Into the Woods – The Blair Witch Project revisited - Little White Lies ) its success was largely having as a necessity to do very much with very little. BW 2016 instead follows a number of modern horror tropes fairly closely, including a third act set piece that has similar problems to those that I had with the final part of Wingard’s The Guest.
That said, on its own merits it is an effective scare film. The distractingly attractive young cast all do terrified fairly effectively. It is fun to revisit the mythos of the Blair Witch again, the sound design is fantastic (Adam Wingard also scored the film) and really adds to the atmosphere of dread in the woods, and there were several moments that were genuinely chilling. Overall though, this shows that you can’t capture lightning in a bottle twice. 6/10
Don’t Breathe is absolutely awful
