Silent Hill

Someone on a msg board asked me today to name a horror film I liked from the past 10 years. I was stumped. INSIDE and HIGH TENSION (if you can get over the unnecessary ending -- I guess it helps to understand the whole movie is from one character's point of view, therefore the implausibility makes sense) and some Japanese "sorta-horror" stuff (SUICIDE CLUB, VERSUS, and so on) were all great, but there wasn't really any cool giallo films, and as far as American films go......... Henenlotter's BAD BIOLOGY is great, and that's pretty much it. I mean, I can list plenty of films that entertained me mainly because of their absolute stupidity -- MULVA, POT ZOMBIES, both versions of THE WORST HORROR MOVIE EVER MADE -- but if we're talking "serious" horror, most attempts were just lame (AUGUST UNDERGROUND and MURDER SET PIECES come to mind as lame as hell, especially when SCRAPBOOK came out way before them and did pretty much the same thing). Seriously -- where's the PREMUTOS? Where's the EVIL DEAD 2? Where's the DEAD ALIVE? Where's the SLIME CITY, BODY MELT, STREET TRASH, MANIAC, BRAIN DAMAGE, CHRISTMAS EVIL, etc? The horror film is sad. I mean, when I was 13, all I bought were horror movies, I wouldn't even deal with anything else, I had 1200 horror VHS's before I got rid of my collection. And thinking about it now, BLOOD FREAK, BLOOD FEAST, GORE GORE GIRLS, EVIL WITHIN: BABY BLOOD, DON'T OPEN TILL XMAS, MANIAC COP 2, THE STUFF... all that shit was priceless, was almost genius compared to the crap coming out nowadays. I mean, Japan has ALWAYS been the greatest country in the world for cinema, and I'm going to go ahead and say that if you consider certain Tsukamoto films as horror at all, then, yeah, VITAL and GEMINI (and a film he starred in but didn't direct called MAREBITO) were a few of the only "horror" films to do it for me. Also, can't forget STRANGE CIRCUS... WILD ZERO.... etc. They took chances... and succeeded wildly and brilliantly. Strangely, I actually liked Argento's THIRD MOTHER: MOTHER OF TEARS, despite thinking Argento overall has made a lot of stinky ass turds. But it was probably his best film since STENDHAL SYNDROME. Anyway, it all goes into what your definition of "horror" is, obviously the film REFLECTIONS OF EVIL was by far the greatest film of the 00's, I'm going to go ahead and say it's in the top 20 films of all time...


What a masterpiece. ESPECIALLY if you can get your hands on the 4 hour version. But at the same time, the "horror" aspects -- while truely horrifying -- are merely a facade, for the deeper social issues covered..

It's like.. man, where are the groundbreaking classics like GORE GORE GIRLS?





Where's our TORSO?!

....where are the groundbreaking, genius horror films of old?

So, I thought long and hard and while I concluded there'll never be anything that comes close to something like DEAD ALIVE, I think the best PURE horror film of the last 11 years is SUBCONSCIOUS CRUELTY...




The best way to describe it is Jodorowsky making a gore film, with Lynch occasionally peaking in to make suggestions. It's truely original, mindbogglingly well made, and genuinely disturbing. It's an honest-to-god great film.

Aside from that, it all just goes into what oyu consider "horror" I guess, RUBBER'S LOVER and PINNOCHIO 964 are masterpieces, though they are more cyberpunk, a genre perfected by TOKYO FIST, TETSUO II, some of Ishii's films, and DEATH POWDER....

Anyway, if you manage to see a good horror film in the 00's, cherish it. It's truely a dying breed. As much as I have enjoyed Troma films like Combat Shock and Unspeakable, as much as I totally love and adore Something Weird, and countless other DVD companies -- they're sorta the problem. Horror films seem to all be schlocky and self-referential, without doing anything new. ,A bunch of people patting themselves on the back for making obscure references to horror films that are way better... all for the sake of them and thier friends to have a good laugh...

you just simply can't make a good horror film and expect it to find an audience. Helll, honest-to-god classics like NIGHTMARE IN A DAMAGED BRAIN and DEATH LAID AN EGG don't even have U.S. distribution, while films like MESSIAH OF EVIL don't get bought once they ARE put out.

There is a creepy ambience to even the smaller, less-good (I don't want to say "bad") films like SUPERSTITION, that you won't find nowadays. Look at a great film like ROCK N ROLL NIGHTMARE; it's kinda crappy and hilariously bad, yeah (I still contend the final 10 minutes are the funniest 10 minutes ever put on film, EVER), but it still had a real ATMOSPHERE to it, one that can't be perfected; the recent sequel, INTERCESSOR, is the worst film I've seen in my entire life.

As a genre, I guess, horror must seem pretty limited to the people interested in making it, or it has to have a certain angle/hook to get people interested, to get produced or whatever... but I still think there are tons of brilliant things you can do with horror... like at Cronenberg. Very few of his films are traditionally "Horror" but even the films that ARE a bit more "horror", like VIDEODROME, really succeeded with a concept that had never been done before -- and will probably only be done again when they remake it as YOUTUBEDROME.

I just miss interesting horror films. The 300 or so giallos I currently have will just have to keep me company until the latest remake/rehash/homage comes out. Oh well.

fOR THOSE wondering, my top 10 horror films are:

1. MANIAC (1980)
2. Dead Alive
3. Evil DEad II
4. THE GATES OF HELL/CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD
5. Tenebre
6. VIDEODROME
7. TORSO
8. NIGHTMARE in a DAMAGED BRAIN
9. All the Colors of the Dark
10. PREMUTOS

Of course, there are films I'd love to incldue, like POSSESSION (1981) but I tired to limit to films that 99% of people would consider "horror". Probably a pretty cliche list, note I tried to keep it one-director-per-film also (otherwise, Argento would probably make another appearance)...


Man, I just think of little films like the grocery-store slasher INTRUDER, or Bava's simple-but-effective BAY OF BLOOD (which was later completely ripped off for FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 3)... probably shot on a shoestring in a week but man, they were EFFECTIVE. They worked!

Anyway, enough ranting from this old fogey, carry on.

+ short q/a with director after screening

i just came home from screening of Nyback Presents: Kill a Commie for Christ.

the offence - 9/10

Ever notice I consistently give 8 and 9 out of 10 to films directed by Sidney Lumet? Ever notice Sidney Lumet has directed a shit ton of films? Get what I'm saying? This guy is MAYBE the best American director of all time, all things considered. THE NETWORK. THE VERDICT. DOG DAY AFTERNOON. SERPICO. PRINCE OF THE CITY. 12 ANGRY MEN. BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD. It just goes on and on and on and on. Nothing flashy about his style. Nothing INSANEEEEEEE. Just strajght-up GREAT fucking a) acting b) directing c) stories. And, creepily, his films often feature no soundtrack at all (I noticed GLENGARRY GLENN ROSS had no soundtrack either and it ruled; in fact, I think in some weird way I usually end up really loving films with no soundtrack. I even like I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, sorta -- I mean, it's better than LAST HOUSE, at least... uh.. okay, bad example).

Anyway, THE OFFENCE fucking rules. It's got Sean Connery in his first non-Bond role since taking on Bond. His next role would be in the amazing Zardoz. Okay, this isn't a good review. But this is a great film. Sidney Lumet kicks ass.

My top 1 horror films: Gremlins.

God damn atsonicpark... you've spiked my Japanese film interest yet again! FUNERAL PROCESSION OF ROSES! Looks fucking amazing.

SRSLY WHO IS THIS WOMAN? Beautiful! With one look at her features I must watch this movie.


1969! This film definitely cutting edge, looks so fresh.


Anyways I watched:


I liked Memento. I hate the new Batman. I think his version of Insomnia was good. Never seen Inception. But I can say this.. the Following is his best movie. Neo-noir perfection.



Nothing more to say. It's Battle Royale and I've finally seen it. Now to buy it, and watch it over and over, again and again. I think the runner chick was my favourite student.

Last movie I watched was "Tetsuo: The Iron Man". I know this movie is loved by at least one other messageboard member. I saw it for the first time. Do you guys think "Eraserhead" played a bit influence on the movie? It reminded me of it in terms of just weirdness.

\

"The Passion of Joan of Arc" Been on a real silent film kick for quite awhile and Turner Classic Movies shows one every Sunday apparently. This was really great.

"never let me go". not bad. not as devastating as the book. good acting though.

yes indeed. btjunkie that shiiiiiii. if you can't find it... you should lemme lemmu a cinemageddon invite.

Walk Hard, which sucked hard. Followed immediately by some weirdo documentary called "The Secret", which sucked even harder. Shit played out liked the worst of informercials. The shit people buy into, Jesus. Actually, this shit was even sillier than Jesus. I couldn't bring myself to finish it.

eyes of a stranger



weatherman '69 (sonic youth is in this!)


BOOK OF MANSON


pettibon is n3rrrrrrrr4t

Classic.



Malkovich, the best jewel thief ever. Better than Eastwood or De Niro.

Ikiru is one of the few movies to make me weep.

Also tried watching Grandma's House...



It has Uncle Leo from Seinfeld (who died recently RIP) and actually had some decent shots in it. Not too thrilling though (neither was Open House, for that matter) and I wasn't all too disappointed when the VHS tape went to complete shit less than halfway through.

quote from review: If I had a time machine I would just use it to go back to the 80s and bang Lydia Lunch while she talks dirty with big words.



Scenario: Lydia Lunch is relaxing at home when suddenly a spacetime vortex opens up in her front room. You step out of it and announce - " Ms. Lunch I'm here from the future and I'm going to bang you. Please talk dirty with big words."

Duh! How likely is she to comply with that? Get real, that would never happen.

On second thoughts.....She's probably just the kind of person who'd go for that. Put me down for a ticket on your Tardis.



hah


3/10

also


driver - 9/10


the hit - 9/10

7/9.5

always loved those kitties!

just watched the new lynch short LADY BLUE SHANGHAI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gmisZlnyRM

okay, it's not new, as he did it last may (!). Seriously, I am not the hippest person ever, but I do keep up with directors and films and shit, I mean Ki-Duk Kim could release a short of him farting and I'd have it on DVD by this time next week. You know. Packard, Jost, Giuseppe, Trecartin, Kitano, Fournier, Godard, Tsukamoto, these are dudes who have like 10 fans a piece nowadays and yet the minute any of these dudes even JOKE about a new film, the msg boards are lit up, as is FB and shit. Even KORINE and Trash Humpers (one of the worst films ever made) -- while most people agreeing he sucks and hasn't done anything good in well over a decade -- still gets plenty of hype. But 10 months went by since this film and I've never heard one person ever, EVER talk about it, in any way, shape, or form. I've never seen a msg board post about it -- not even on imdb -- never even seen a twitchfilms post, NOTHING. No website/board/blog/PERSON I've ever seen, in any way shape or form has posted that Lynch released a new short film 10 months ago. The only thing I can think of is that people were really really disappointed with Inland. Which is understandable. And all those shorts he's made since then, like Darked Room, Boat, and stuff? I mean, those are all horrible, all pretty easily 0/10's, probably. Just boring bland DV experiments that border on self-parody.

So, yeah, I know Lynch isn't very popular nowadays, but... still, it took 10 months for me to see this film -- or to hear about it at all? I mean... is this a fluke.. did everyone here already know about it and just didn't feel the need to talk bout it? Has everyone on the net seen it secretly? Seriously. I am really curious now. I guess what I'm asking is.. how the hell did Lynch put out a 20 minute new film without anyone in the world noticing or caring? I thought this guy was some big-time cult hero or something. I mean, when Tsukamoto put out Tetsuo 3, same deal. This guy was, at one point, huge. It may not seem like it nowadays, but films like Tetsuo and Tokyo Fist and Snake of June were HUGE cult films at one point. I guess the same goes for Miike.. used to, whenever a Miike film came out, there'd be a huge celebration (online, at least). Are cult films dead? It seems like it. It seems like no one really cares about underground directors... it seems like there's this huge void. I know DVD sales are nonexistant. I know netflix does not carry independant DVD's anymore (they're not even renting out new Criterion films anymore -- you know Criterion, right? Home of the best films ever made and stuff). This just blows me away, sorta. No one gives a fuck about movies anymore. Well ,anyway, click the link above and you, too, can see the new Lynch short, which was his first since 2007's awful short "Boat". It feels along the same lines as Inland/Mulholland and everything else he's been doing for the past 15 years or so. And yeah, it's supposed to be a long form ad for a purse or some garbage, but really, it is an honest-to-god Lynch film in the end. I dunno what rating I'd give it, I liked it better than Inland Empire at least.

Not technically a movie, but I've been enjoying season 2 of Twin Peaks the past day or two

yeah man season 2 is so much better than the first. WINDHAM EARL kciks so much ass. I'm glad they wrapped up the Laura Palmer story. The way the show ends was so badass, season 3 would have been surreal and amazing as fuck, too bad it never got to happen.

very cool thanx for sharing:)

I have the prequel movie in line afterwards. Overall, I feel that it's one of those that i should probably watch through at least a 2nd time to fully grasp what's going on.

I have access to netflix finally.

I have a friend who has been pestering me to start watching battlestar gallatica and another friend who has been pestering me to start watching twin peaks.

Which should I choose?

the hit, niiiice! stamp is really a piece of work in it

"scum". i love alan clarke, especially this and "made in britain". just brutal depictions of violence in realistic settings. "Scum" i feel is the most affecting prison film of all time, with fantastic fight scenes, one of the most disturbing rape scenes ever put to film, and amazing performances. ray winstone was already excellet at playing nails tough anti-heroes, and even though im prolly bigger than he was in the film, he scares the shit out of me.

well, twin peaks is the better of the two, I guess, but I'd say.. watch mighty boosh. And CORNDOG MAN! and touch me in the morning!

netflix has kinda lost its way, it used to be a fucking POWERHOUSE 4 years ago, back when you could rent all sorts of obscure independant films that werent even available on torrents. nowadays, they don't even rent out new indie films anymore. they're switching to instant-watch-only, as in.. they won't be renting out dvd's at all, probaly in the next year.

I guess the only problem with this is that I kinda like Troll 2 and always have. I don't consider it to be the worst movie ever, or even close to it. It's just a genuinely entertaining film. I'd watch it any day over IRREVERSIBLE or most of Daron Aronofsky's films, any of Richard Kelley's crap (Darko, Southland Tales, the Box), Antichrist (and most of Von Trier's crap -- I don't like to use the word "pretentious" in a critical way, but Von Trier is the definition of the word, and most of his films are bad), Death Proof, most of Eli Roth's stuff, most mainstream horror of the last decade, most underground horror of the last 15 years, almost everything Full Moon has released that they had a hand in creating, both of the Matrix sequels, all Pirates of the Caribean movies, all the Shrek movies, The Expendables, Salo, Superman 3, etc etc etc etc... all those films are a lot worse to sit through than Troll 2.


BY BRAKHAGE ANTHOLOGY VOLUME 2

Well, was finally able to borrow this, it's like a $60 DVD... it's probably almost worth that. I dunno. Some good stuff here. Would've been nice if I could've just rented it off of Netflx like the first volume, but they don't carry DVD's that anyone would want anymore. Anyway, BRakhage is.... well... DOG STAR MAN is my favorite experimental film of all time. And this guy has done some more amazing stuff like DANTE QUARTET. On the other hand, you will NEVER hear anyone be the LEAST BIT critical of Brakhage. It's almost like an unspoken rule, thou shalt not criticze Brakhage (Lynch was similiarly untouchable until people figured out that he hasn't made anything watchable in at least a decade). So... well, I'm not here to criticize Brakhage, but let's just say the first volume had a lot "better" -- more entertaining/thought provoking/interesting/influential/etc -- movies than this one. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of good stuff here, but Brakhage made like 600 films. Not all were amazing. Not all were even interesting. In fact, quite a few were pretty samey. JEFF KEEN is a much better filmmaker yet has been 100% ignored in America. Ridiculous. Anyway, this is still one of the best sets Criterion has ever released check it out.

y'all want to see some good films? I highly reccomend going here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_film_noir_titles

and checking out every film on this list. Like 80% of the films listed here are good, and many of them are even great. I actually have about 80 of these that I haven't seen in my torrent cache (I always have around 250-300 torrents in my utorrent cache). I'm going to just check out every single neo-noir film ever made. Lots of good stuff here, either way.

GREAT list of japanese films:

http://wildgrounds.com/index.php/200...-you-must-see/

FUNERAL PROCESSION OF ROSES, MAN WHO STOLE THE SUN, TETSUO. RED ANGEL, GRAVEYARD OF HONOUR are all on this list (and all classics). No Kitano or Shuji Terayama is sorta lame but the films actually on here are topnotch classics.

Watching Funeral Procession Of Roses tonight! Watched Vibrator last night, it was quite good.

 

Fuck yeah, now yer talkin'!

I just watched I AM AN S&M WRITER by that vibrtor director



8/10

that and TOYKO TRASH BABY rock!