[Bezulsqy]

Room is just incredible.
Haven‘t heard about Krisha but sounds like an intriguing but tough watch.

I don't think it is that tough of a watch. It was an attack on the senses of my girlfriend :-)

[inksb]

The Cat Dir by Ngai Choi Lam\
The last film directed by Ngai Choi Lam (Riki-O, Erotic Ghost Story, The Seventh Curse) and quite the film to go out on. This one is just fucking wild all the way through. You would think evil spirit possessed cat right? Wrong! The plot is crazy, kind of all over the place and it throws a ton of shit at the wall, some sticks, some doesn't but it makes for a very entertaining time. This has one of the best cat vs dog showdowns in all of cinema. I was impressed because it didn't look like they actually harmed either of the animals in the process, it has stop motion, stuffed puppets and lots of fancy in camera effects to make it spectacular. But they follow up that scene with one where they do hurt the actual cat and I was pretty upset about that, it looks like they pin the cat by it's leg to the trunk of a car and it's trying to get free, it's awful. The cat was obviously in pain and very upset about the situation. Really outside of that scene though the film does a good job to not really show the animals getting hurt or being abused. I highly recommend this one if you just want to see some wild early 90's HK cinema.



Brand New Cherry Flavor
I had zero interest in watching this based on that poster/image they used on Netflix for advertisement. It just looks bad. I saw a few people who have similar taste in horror movies praise it so I decided to check it out. The first episode I almost shut off, it seemed like it was trying so hard to do early 90's hollywood with some odd acting choices and then the cat thing happens in the final moments of the first episode. I immediately hit play on the next episode to see what was happening. Honestly the show is really weird, fun and feels Mulholland Drive-ish. Characters are "off", weird things happen with no explanation. It builds this mythology around certain things that just kept me hooked. It's nothing groundbreaking but it does a good job of capturing the grossness of Hollywood while framing it their own little Lynchian way. Don't expect this to be as good as Lynch (what is?) but I think they obviously love Lost Highway & Mulholland Drive which you don't see people use as inspiration in a good way that often. And there is one scene in particular that is one of the most disturbingly horrifying scenes I've watched this year. The definition of "WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK ARE THEY DOING?!?!?"



Superhost Dir by Brandon Christensen
I can't really recommend this one. It's kind of a dumb plot but I think a lot of people have been enjoying it? Basically a pair of youtuber's who review Airbnb places go to a fancy one they have been trying to book for months. The host is kind of crazy and things escalate. It goes pretty much exactly where you think it will, Barbara Crampton has a small roll which I enjoyed and the main actress who plays the host does a great job with the role. Overall it just felt very bland and probably could have worked better as a 10 minute short.

[Bezulsqy]

[ScoJo]

Neat bit of misdirection with the MALIGNANT marketing. That's all I will say for now as you really need to have as few spoilers as possible for this one to work for you. Which it did for me! All I will say is that rather than all this 'ode to Giallo' nonsense going around, this is a love letter to late 80s-early 90s video store B-movie horror. Think Craven/Shocker, Henenlotter, Body Parts, and there are a few other specific reference points which I won't name as they will tip you off too much :)

Oh and Bishara's score is pretty bloody great! He also gets in on the fun with a sort-of song cover version that adds to the subtle misdirection. You'll know exactly what I mean.

It's all complete nonsense from start to finish, and not something we've seen for a while hence people going batshit for it/hating it. Very different tone to the Conjuring/Insidious flicks, much more returning to the Dead Silence vibe.

Actually really looking forward to a second watch of this one.

[inksb]

I was blown away by the fact that some one let him make that film. It is truly stupid from beginning to end. You described it perfectly. I was telling my friend last night that it felt like some one was making a 90's B-movie with a modern day big budget. So many fancy camera tricks. I rather enjoyed it but can see how anyone could hate it just as easily.

And to echo ScoJo, avoid all spoilers and just watch it.

[ScoJo]

I was blown away by the fact that some one let him make that film. It is truly stupid from beginning to end. You described it perfectly. I was telling my friend last night that it felt like some one was making a 90's B-movie with a modern day big budget. So many fancy camera tricks. I rather enjoyed it but can see how anyone could hate it just as easily.

And to echo ScoJo, avoid all spoilers and just watch it.

Inks - you know those ‘spoil a movie with an image’ things? There is a specific shot from a Schwarzenneger classic that pops into my head hahaha… you get me? ;)

[Hatter313]

ok FINE, i'll go watch it now..

Honestly, he's the only "mainstream" horror director worth a damn to me, i adore both his insidious movies, both his conjuring movies, and i think Dead Silence is like a tales from the Crypt episode dialed up to 11 and is a campy delight from start to finish. (and yes, Saw too)

[Hatter313]

ok FINE, i'll go watch it now..

Honestly, he's the only "mainstream" horror director worth a damn to me, i adore both his insidious movies, both his conjuring movies, and i think Dead Silence is like a tales from the Crypt episode dialed up to 11 and is a campy delight from start to finish. (and yes, Saw too)

Oh my god this is already not in the least what i was expecting.....hahahahah

[ScoJo]

ok FINE, i'll go watch it now..

Honestly, he's the only "mainstream" horror director worth a damn to me, i adore both his insidious movies, both his conjuring movies, and i think Dead Silence is like a tales from the Crypt episode dialed up to 11 and is a campy delight from start to finish. (and yes, Saw too)

Oh my god this is already not in the least what i was expecting.....hahahahah

I believe he had you at ‘campy delight’!

[Hatter313]

ok FINE, i'll go watch it now..

Honestly, he's the only "mainstream" horror director worth a damn to me, i adore both his insidious movies, both his conjuring movies, and i think Dead Silence is like a tales from the Crypt episode dialed up to 11 and is a campy delight from start to finish. (and yes, Saw too)

Oh my god this is already not in the least what i was expecting.....hahahahah

I believe he had you at ‘campy delight’!

This is an absolute treat. What an over the top piece of stylish nonsense, and my god is he having fun with his camera. I think I quite love it.

[ScoJo]

On my second watch. Think I love it too.

The mirror scene in the police station bathroom just freaked me out - I got a genuine jolt when I suddenly realised what I was looking at, and saw the whole scene from that perspective! 😱

[Hatter313]

On my second watch. Think I love it too.

The mirror scene in the police station bathroom just freaked me out - I got a genuine jolt when I suddenly realised what I was looking at, and saw the whole scene from that perspective! 😱

POTENTIAL SPOILERS, TRIED TO BE VAGUE




I’ll talk as much around this as I can but at a certain point it clicked with me what was up (I guessed what you meant by your Arnold aside at about 20 minutes in. It wasn’t sure the mechanics of what I thought was going on, and I started to put it together but when the scene itself happened my jaw still dropped at the visuals of it) and at a certain point while I was fairly confident I had it figured out, during the fight with the detective I said out loud to an empty apartment “oh my god that’s what’s wrong with the way he moves!” And then just waited for the reveal later on with the stupidest grin on my face.

It’s such a gonzo movie, in the same way as insidious was his statement about making a horror movie with zero blood after the evolution of Saw, this felt like a guy proving how much campy fun he can still have after the seriousness of the conjuring films, which have their funny moments but are VERY self serious. I swear to god when she fell through the ceiling I actually started guffawing like Tom hanks in the money pit.

And yeah, thirding the sentiment about the type of movie it felt like. If Argento and Craven had gotten together in about 1991 to make a movie and then remembered to have a sense of humor about it, this might have been the result.

[ScoJo]

MORE POTENTIAL SPOILAGE:









On second viewing, I will say that it leans heavily on Stendahl Syndrome (with a big dash of Opera), and for that reason more than earns the Argento comparisons. And this time I couldn’t help thinking of Fulci’s The Psychic and parts of The Beyond. But it also manages to throw in Sisters, Dressed to Kill and The Fury! And not to mention Basket Case and Brain Damage of course… but then also 90s schlock like Brainscan, Shocker and Body Parts. How it does all that and still has it’s own flavour and consistency is quite a feat.

[Hatter313]

Yeah, I was getting a heavy phenomena vibe as well. Maybe it was the weapon or the high gothic atmosphere, but good call on opera! (Stendhal is one of the few I haven’t actually seen)

Yes on Fulci too! I was getting a heavy Italian horror vibe in general through the whole thing, it’s just the sort of high concept nightmare logic lunacy they churned out int he 80s and 90s like the more supernaturally tinged giallo and straight horror, bishara certainly leaned in that direction musically more than a few times.

The villain is so Craven too, definitely a potential evolution from Freddy and Pinker with the type of hammy over the top super powered revenge plot and everything. I like how there’s just no explanation for anything he’s capable of.

Ditto on the de Palma feel.

The tropes on display are well tread for sure, but also just so well executed. When the first conjuring came out, one fo the reviews I read said something along the lines of “there’s nothing you haven’t seen here before, but Fred Astaire didn’t invent tap dancing either” and I think that is a nice description of Wan overall. He knows what tropes and motifs work and he knows how to use them in his own way and with his own style.

I love few things more than a nice bit of camp, and this delivered in droves.

[inksb]

Malignant Dir by James Wan
Already discussed this above but just in case people over look it, it's worth watching. It's very fun, especially if you like that late 80's early 90's b-movie schlock, except is has a Wan budget!



Gaia Dir by Jaco Bouwer
This one was quite interesting. I really enjoyed the setup and most of the story, it had some very cool visuals. The only real downfall for me was the CG used in a few spots was really awful to the point of distracting me and two the final moments of the film didn't really work for me and felt a touch rushed. The rest of the film was quite good and I recommend checking it out. Basically two park rangers in South Africa are doing a routine check and their drone goes missing, one goes after it while the other continues to check their cameras. Well one encounters some people "living off the grid" and the story continues from there.



Women on the Run Dir by David Lai & Corey Yuen
Another Cat III film checked off the list. This time we have two woman, one a police officer and the other a hooker who is addicted to heroin that was tricked by a guy to come to the big city and make it big as a martial arts action star, team up to try and evade/take down a drug kingpin and the corrupt cops working for him. This one is a bit of a mess from coherence standpoint, some stuff is just hard to follow, whether that's partially due to bad subtitles (and they really were) or first time director not doing a very (also quite apparent) it still makes up for with extremely entertaining action scenes. The two actresses did a great job and ever fight scene was worth watching the film for. I enjoyed this one even though I don't think it necessarily deserved the Cat III rating.



Kate Dir by Cedric Nicolas-Troyan
You have seen this before, the question is do you want to see it again. Did you like John Wick? Do you want to see a film similar but slightly different? Then give it a go. I for one enjoyed it. I see so many people criticize modern action films saying they are just rehashing previous films with different stars. Welcome to the film industry??? How many 80's and 90's action films recycled ideas from other action films? Most of them. Mary Elizabeth Winstead (who I really like) is at the center of this one, she is poisoned and will die in less than 24 hours. She goes on a rampage trying to find out who did it and why. She does a great job with a lot of the action scenes, there is one that takes place in what I will call "black & white tea house". It's the films best scene and worth watching even if you don't want to watch the rest of the film.

[Bezulsqy]

I am starting to be very cautious when opening this thread because of all the Malignant stuff... I am going to watch this Friday because of all the hype you people are creating :-)

@inksb
I love John Wick and a good action movie is a good action movie even if the story has been told so many times. So thanks for mentioning Kate. I don't pay attention anymore to movies released on Netflix or some reason...

[inksb]

I am starting to be very cautious when opening this thread because of all the Malignant stuff... I am going to watch this Friday because of all the hype you people are creating :-)

@inksb
I love John Wick and a good action movie is a good action movie even if the story has been told so many times. So thanks for mentioning Kate. I don't pay attention anymore to movies released on Netflix or some reason...

Any person who has watched 1000 JCVD films will find some things to enjoy in Kate :)
Honestly I didn't pay attention to the release of that film either, a friend of mine mentioned that he watched it Friday night and I had completely forgot the movie was even coming out.

[Bezulsqy]

[Bezulsqy]

I watched Malignant yesterday. Loved it. But was the acting in the first half deliberately bad?

[inksb]

I watched Malignant yesterday. Loved it. But was the acting in the first half deliberately bad?

It had to be. Everything felt so deliberate.

[ScoJo]

I could write an essay on the references in Malignant! One that hit me immediately was the opening scene/prologue, which has to be a deliberate nod to Reanimator? And to me that’s also the key to unlocking the tone of the film which I think Wan was shooting for … go back and rewatch that scene in the Stuart Gordon classic, the performances are wildly campy and high pitched. So for me, that prologue in both told me exactly what I was in for, and I loved each movie for delivering on that promise. I can see how others have struggled with the tone, esp perhaps a younger audience who won’t necessarily click with the references and deliberately wacky plotting. And are expecting the grave, ultra serious tone of the Conjuring/Insidious films.

[Hatter313]

I could write an essay on the references in Malignant! One that hit me immediately was the opening scene/prologue, which has to be a deliberate nod to Reanimator? And to me that’s also the key to unlocking the tone of the film which I think Wan was shooting for … go back and rewatch that scene in the Stuart Gordon classic, the performances are wildly campy and high pitched. So for me, that prologue in both told me exactly what I was in for, and I loved each movie for delivering on that promise. I can see how others have struggled with the tone, esp perhaps a younger audience who won’t necessarily click with the references and deliberately wacky plotting. And are expecting the grave, ultra serious tone of the Conjuring/Insidious films.

And what strikes me as funny about this is that the first insidious movie really does strike me as pretty campy, that opening title card is very BIG, even if the movie itself plays everything very straight. And yet I feel, like you, that a lot of younger audience members may not have the vibe for the sort of over the top camp horror we love. I’d be interested to see where the age cutoff is too, I’m in my mid 30s so I definitely discovered most of those types of movies well after their initial releases but I wonder if that same sort of thing happened to the next generation, because it definitely seems like a lot of the younger twenty-something crowd is not digging this flick at all. I couldn’t agree with you more about the opening sequence and reanimator.

Also, any Seattle people, do you have a Silvercup sign too? Because that’s a minor New York landmark (or a major one depending on how much you love highlander). It’s a big production studio in Queens and it’s presence in the movie really threw me as I didn’t know there was one in Seattle as well and google is coming up empty for me.

[inksb]

In discussing what our theme would be for our October curated scary movie month, my wife chose Aquatic Horror. Our list was very long, too long to even attempt at doing in just October so we started a few weeks early. We have a lot of other stuff to mix in too so we're trying to fit in as much as we can



Breaking Surface Dir by Joachim Hedén
This movie sucked. No sugar coating it, it was terrible. It has a decent premise and the set up would have been so easy to make a tense experience out of, instead we get a horribly unlikeable main character who doesn't listen to anything, is a complete and utter moron who also stabs a dog to death in a house that she breaks into to get help. Every single moment she makes the wrong choice and it was infuriating to watch. Don't bother with this.



Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Not sure if any one else here watches this, it's one of my favorite comedies on TV. I've watched the series probably 3 times at this point and last night I watched the series finale. It was a good farewell to a show that I'm sad to see end but it went out with a fitting finale.



Reservation Dogs
This might be the best new show of 2021. I highly recommend any one check it out. It's funny, heartbreaking and just full of amazing characters.

[Bezulsqy]

Thanks for watching Breaking Surface so I don't have to anymore :-)

[vinyljunkie]

Reservation Dogs IS the best show of 2021!! The only thing that may best it is Midnight Mass (just going off reviews from advance screeners)...

In discussing what our theme would be for our October curated scary movie month, my wife chose Aquatic Horror. Our list was very long, too long to even attempt at doing in just October so we started a few weeks early. We have a lot of other stuff to mix in too so we're trying to fit in as much as we can



Breaking Surface Dir by Joachim Hedén
This movie sucked. No sugar coating it, it was terrible. It has a decent premise and the set up would have been so easy to make a tense experience out of, instead we get a horribly unlikeable main character who doesn't listen to anything, is a complete and utter moron who also stabs a dog to death in a house that she breaks into to get help. Every single moment she makes the wrong choice and it was infuriating to watch. Don't bother with this.



Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Not sure if any one else here watches this, it's one of my favorite comedies on TV. I've watched the series probably 3 times at this point and last night I watched the series finale. It was a good farewell to a show that I'm sad to see end but it went out with a fitting finale.



Reservation Dogs
This might be the best new show of 2021. I highly recommend any one check it out. It's funny, heartbreaking and just full of amazing characters.