Risen From The Dead - The Rolling Horror Thread 2019

Hi gang! Sorry if this is entirely the wrong place for this, but thought you lot would be the best ones to ask: I need tips about some good UK based publications/websites/podcasts etc about horror/genre films, that might be interested in visiting and covering a genre event here in Norway… Any ideas?

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How about The Dark Side? https://thedarksidemagazine.com/ I remember sending them a review of an HP Lovecraft film festival I attended in the hope that they might publish it. They didn’t. But that’s not to say they won’t be interested in your event.

Watched recently:

Children of the Stones: Had heard really good things about this from various places so recently got the DVD and watched the 7 episodes over 7 weeks with my son. This has to be one of the most enjoyable viewing experiences I’ve had in recent memory. I’m a sucker for productions shot in England in the 70s and this has a lovely, nostalgic atmosphere to it that permeates every episode. The story finds a scientist father and his son arriving in the small, rural community of Milbury (actually filmed on location in Avebury, and making the most of this opportunity) to carry out research on its mysterious standing stones. I won’t go any further than that because so much of the fun to be had here is in just sitting back and watching the story unfold. This is folk-horror at its finest although as this was intended as a kids TV show, expect the horror aspects to be relatively light with the chills come from the gradual realization of what’s occurring and some stunningly spooky music. Having said that, the first episode contains one of the best jump scares I’ve ever seen. HIghly recommended and I think it’s all on YouTube if you fancy checking it out. Which you should, ASAP.

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The Lure: Wow - this couldn’t be much more different from the above. I feel like the idea for this could have come from some horror movie generator app as this is surely the world’s only Polish horror-musical mermaid story. This had been on my radar for a while and for the most part comes recommended if you’re looking for something totally different. The emphasis here is on the music (lots of 80s synth tributes here, so you’re in for a treat, if that’s your thing) and the wonderfully colorful visuals. The story itself finds two mermaid sisters coming ashore and taking up residency in a seedy Polish nightclub where they quickly become the star attraction. I have to say, the narrative itself isn’t always as compelling as it might be, but the visuals and music more than make up for this. This draws inspiration from Hans Christian Andersen’s story The Little Mermaid (I read this after watching The Lure - I haven’t seen the Disney version but I’m guessing it omits a lot of the more unpleasant aspects of Andersen’s story) and anyone’s who read that can probably guess where this is heading. Nevertheless, such an original film is ultimately to be celebrated. Its horror elements are relatively sporadic, but on the whole this is well worth your time…

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I’ve never actually seen a single TCM film apart from the original as I’ve only ever heard bad things

It is. I remember my dad was off work for a bit and watched the entire series on YouTube. Might look into it myself as I only saw bits of it, and old folk horror is definitely a thumbs up from me

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Who’s seen The Dead Don’t Die yet? I saw it yesterday and found it a bit underwhelming actually

I liked it quite a bit, I think cause I was expecting it to be bad but ended up finding it really charming

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Leatherface was surprisingly fine

It’s so good, just a lovely old piece of TV. Was hoping to visit Avebury recently as I’ve never been. Got as far as Salisbury, wife got sick and so we never made it. Another time hopefullly… This has got me wanting to check out Robin Redbreast and Penda’s Fen - have you seen either of those?

TCM 2 is worth checking out if you go into it not expecting anything like the tone of the original.

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No, but one of the Ghost Stories for Christmas I watched recently (from the bfi DVD set) is filmed in pretty much the same area and features the standing stones as part of the story.

Called Stigmata. Bit of an unusual one in that it’s set in the contemporary time and not based on a pre existing story. (Also nudity, which surprised me a bit considering it’s 70s BBC and not HBO).

Quite funny thing re: those actually, these modest sort of presentationally “quaint” tv dramas are kind of precursors to a lot of the hyped indie horror films (Robert Eggers talks in the latest A24 podcast about having recommended a bunch of them to Ari Aster)

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As a big hauntology wanker, I should definitely look into the others you’ve mentioned too!

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I posted about Stigmata somewhere further up this thread as I just finished working my way through the same BFI set - wonderful stuff. Definitely feel like a relative newcomer to the folk-horror field. I just got the new Blu Ray of The Blood on Satan’s Claw - I saw it once several years back at a festival in London and remember really enjoying it - looking forward to revisiting it.

I’ll have to gave the A24 podcast you mention a listen, sounds very interesting…

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There’s two versions of the podcast depending on how much of a Bergman fan you are

Any thoughts on A Dark Song?

Some here…

I’ve seen it and thought it was pretty rubs - not scary or funny or exciting and the 4th wall breaking stuff was just awful

Didn’t expect it to be scary, tbf. And I did laugh several times. I normally find all the meta stuff amusing, but in this case it just didn’t hit home for me at all. I also got kind of annoyed with Adam Driver’s character I think, like they were trying too hard to make him as deadpan etc as Bill Murray.

Tilda Swinton was good tho.

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Watched a few bits recently…

The House That Jack Built - had basically given up on Lars Von Trier after shlepping to the cinema to watch Antichrist, but this popped up on my recommendations while the TV was away for work (she would NEVER watch a film like this) so I thought I’d give it a whirl. Should probably have stuck with my first instincts - this is even more edge-lordy than most LVT. Matt Damon’s Jack is a fairly dreary serial killer who kills a number of women in fairly unpleasant ways throughout the two and a half hour (!) runtime for no particular reason. That’s mostly it, interspersed with various chapter breaks of try hard imagery ranging from Nazism (obviously LVT has maxed out his recent coverage of his Hitler views) to LVT’s own previous works. The film actually has a fairly interesting finale, which makes it more frustrating that most of what has gone before is so tiresome. 3/10

Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween - me and the kids LOVE the first of these. Must have watched it 10 times at least. The sequel is…not as good tbh. Broadly a re-working of the first one, but with slightly less invention or interesting characters. Still good family fun however, although I can’t see myself revisiting over yet another rewatch of the original tbf. 6/10

Brightburn - marketing material for this really piqued my interest. Superhero horror is a most under-utilised genre. The set-up is pretty good, although annoyingly once the story is there it doesn’t seem to know where to go. That said, this is filmed in a nicely unsettling way and the gore is fairly inventive and surprisingly difficult to watch at times. Feels like a sequel could do more with the story/character (it also feels like it should fit into the Unbreakable/Split/Glass universe) but not sure if this will push enough people’s buttons to make that a possibility. 6/10

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There’s a little bit at the end that links it to James Gunn’s film Super, and all the other characters mentioned in the mid credits scene were put there as spin-off bait :smiley: