Alfred

Thanks Lee!

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djchameleon

I tend to find that the less gore that's in the horror film the more scary it tends to be. I like psychological horror type films. The Strangers, Funny games , Jacob's Ladder, The shining, Repulsion. even though many have said that The Happening was terribad which it is. There is something frightening about the premise behind the movie and where they wanted to go with it.

Guybrush

I realise this is a bit late, but I think you should watch something like Evil Dead. I loved it when I was a teenager .. and if you like it, perhaps you'll like the second and the third movies too! The story in the first is about a bunch of young people who go on a cabin trip - but not just any cabin. This one belonged to a researcher working on the necronomicon, book of the dead. Of course they unwittingly awaken the malign forest spirits living in the woods around them and they come to possess them and kill them all. It's budgety, gory and sometimes spooky. The trilogy eventually turns into comedy with the second movie being a sort of horror-comedy.

I saw the original Halloween not too long ago. It didn't exactly scare me, but I was quite impressed with how John Carpenter did it. Normally in these kind of movies, you don't see the murderer much, but Michael Myers gets quite a lot of screen time. Also, John Carpenter's quite good with building suspension with all kinds of camera use and plot twists (f.ex when Michael has hidden in the car). It's also fun to see that Jamie Lee Curtis was such a cute girl back then.

The movie on the whole stands out because of Carpenter's somewhat unique style, but it's not completely fresh either since this formula (slasher movies) has been done an amazing number of times since then, but it's a piece of horror history and very good for a slasher so watch it to get a lesson in movie history if not for the scares.

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boo boo

Great call on American Werewolf in London, it's one of the scariest movies I watched as a kid, that whole scene with the Uzi toting monster Nazis had me sh*tting myself. Talk about something completely random and unexpected.

I love my horror, it's a shame that no great horror movie is safe from a godawful remake or sequel.

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+81

This thread has put me in the mood to go rent some movies today.

jackhammer

I will update this thread soon as I have a couple of reviews bubbling under especially with Halloween around the corner.

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jackhammer

For a short while in the late 70's and early 80's there was only one Horror director in America who made intelligent, well crafted Horror films and his name was John Carpenter. Halloween, The Fog, Escape From New York (yes I know it's an action film!) and of course The Thing completed a classic quartet of films that he has never really been able to replicate but when the films are this good then we should all be thankful how good they were. Most directors are lucky to make one classic film, let alone 4 in succession and I can think of few directors with consistent output in such a short space of time (1978-1982).

The Thing is a loose remake of Howard Hawks 'The Thing From Another World' (for fact fans it's a film that a character is watching in Carpenters film 'Halloween') but is a much darker and claustrophobic piece. So dark in fact that it bombed upon release in the same year of the much more audience friendly 'E.T' which was also about alien visitation.

The Thing is set in the Antarctic with a research team finding a lone dog traversing the icy landscape and a helicopter following the dog trying to shoot it. Unbeknownst to the American team, the dog is infected and a Norwegian researcher is trying desperately to kill the dog but due to language barriers they presume that the shooter is suffering from 'cabin fever' and let the dog into their compound. A final attempt of killing the dog results in the sole survivor dying by his own hand and an end to any clues to the why's and wherefores.

The American group find the abandoned and destroyed Norwegian site that the helicopter was from and evidence that they have found something dangerous within the ice but now cut off due to radio malfunction are unable to communicate with the outside world. The Thing now living within the dog housed within their own kennels is a parasite that can mimic any living thing it comes into contact with and it eventually hides itself within the crew and paranoia rears it's ugly head as the isolated crew battle not only their own fears of isolation but also the fear that anyone of them may have been infected.

Where The Thing scores so high is in the tense, volatile script and the superlative special effects. Outside of the now common CGI, the effects (in my eyes) have never been bettered before or since with 'The Thing' not having any particular form, so it's identity and shape is manifested in all sorts of unusual and original ways.

Much of the film was shot on purpose built soundstages with temperatures akin to the conditions that the film is set in which only add to the isolation and helplessness of the characters. The ending is also ridiculously downbeat with no final outcome which only adds to this.

The cast are magnificent throughout with Carpenter fave Kurt Russell once again on great form in a subdued role, ably assisted by Keith Gordon amongst others.

The film has been seen as many things and not least an allegory on the AIDS epidemic of the 80's but this is coincidence. The film is quite simply a masterpiece with gut churning and original special effects allied to a superb tight script and minimal scoring by the legend that is Ennio Morricone. Along with Halloween it is a film that I can and have watched multiple times and never get tired of it. Simply brilliant.

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+81

Another excellent review, Jackhammer. I love The Thing, it's probably my favorite of John Carpenter's films.

My sentiments exactly.

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Guybrush

The Thing is definetly my favourite Carpenter movie and has been since sometime in my teens. It is brilliant!

I have to say though - the norwegian guy hunting the dog from the chopper at the start of the movie, what kind of norwegian language is that? It's possible to make out, but they should've gotten some real norwegians for the job, not some 3rd generation immigrant to the states.

I guess it's only noticed by about 1/1000th of the people who ever watch it though.

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jackhammer

Martyrs is a film I rented a few months back and I was so overwhelmed by it that I had to buy it as soon as I could. Today was that day and I immediately had to watch it again to prove to myself that the first viewing wasn't a fluke. It wasn't.

Horror films of late have suffered appallingly at the hands of big budgets and studio interference. The American heyday of visceral horror directed without interference by studios and test card audiences has long since gone and once again the baton has been handed back to European filmmakers with France becoming a shining light. Frontiere(s), Haute Tension and the French language Belgium film Calvaire all blazing a trail in hard hitting and intelligent, visceral Horror movies. Last years censor baiting Martyrs is almost certainly the best of the bunch and is being lauded as one of the finest Horror films of the past twenty years and with justification too.

Despite the explosion of the 'Torture-Porn' movie in American cinema (Saw, Hostel etc), the films graphic violence has not been allied with thought provoking scripts or the realism of such Seminal 70's American output such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre which has pushed the serious Horror fan to look elsewhere for it's viewing. Martyrs has somewhat unfortunately been pushed into this genre which is a huge disservice to the film and it's aims.

Martyrs is literally a film of two halves both visually and thematically, yet it remains cohesive and utterly watchable. The themes of abuse (physically and mentally although never sexual) are pertinent in these times of real life horror stories splashed all over the news and the film succeeds admirably in not reducing the horrors of man to cheap titillating voyeurism. In fact it's a film that not only excels in being psychologically disturbing but also a film that has scenes of enormous empathy that is rarely seen, let alone done so well within the Horror genre that you are drawn in on an emotional and visceral level.

A film that will stay with you with ever with it's power, intelligence and originality also succeeds in questioning our very own existence and ideals. I have no hesitation whatsoever in saying that it is damn near a masterpiece of cinema let alone a standout in the Horror genre. If you have a real interest in cinema and want to be pushed mentally and psychologically, then Martyrs HAS to be in your rental list.

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