The cool thing is that, as much of a gore fan as I am, it doesn't rely on gore at all. There's virtually zero blood in it and there's only three shots in the whole movie that are graphic in any way. It relies on mood and the actual premise itself to scare the viewer, and it works.

La Haine : French movie about a methodical downward spiral and wasted, dissatisfied youth. Black and white, stark, slow paced. Vincent Cassel is really great in it. Cops have beaten and shot one of his friends during a riot. The friend is now in terminal condition and he says he will kill a cop if his friend dies. Hate breeds more hate. The movie happens in France and the language is intense french slang so even I had to use subtitles. It's also a surprisingly funny movie with a few surreal moments and a strong atmosphere and philosophical bent. A study of three friends getting closer to the edge.

Just finished Paranormal Activity 4. Good fuck, that sucked. That was about every bad aspect of the found footage genre in one 90 minute presentation. There are only two likable characters, and everyone else is either really stupid or possessed by demons. Even the two leads still make fatally boneheaded mistakes. Plus there's a plot point that completely negates the 2nd movie while being so mindbogglingly illogical that you cannot comprehend it. It bases its suspense entirely around the jump scare, and while there are a couple genuinely spooky moments and the climax is, for the most part, alright aside from the main girl being a fucking idiot, pretty much every attempt at being scary or startling in this movie falls flat on its face. The parents in particular are complete morons, ranging from leaving children unattended in a bathtub with a running laptop sitting next to the water filled tub for at least 10 minutes to brushing off their daughter's videotaped evidence of supernatural shit taking place with "just go to sleep, please".

Overall, it's a fascinatingly bad 90 minutes that show that when found footage is bad, it is BAD.

Ocean's Eleven : my sister came over and after much arguing over what to watch, we settled on this. A movie she liked and I hadn't seen. What to say? Basically it's neither bad nor good. It's one of those nothing movies that you gain nothing from. You turn off your brain for two hours and don't fully pay attention at parts. It's led by the charisma of it's cast, all of whom have been in much better movies. Typical heist film, with an undeveloped romantic sub-plot that it's impossible to care about.

The Bourne Identity : Slick, gritty, somewhat realistic, not all that gripping. The action scenes are well filmed and actually pretty cool in parts but that's about it. I feel like maybe the story could have had potential but I don't think it's told very well, and the scenes involving the government agents hunting him down are tedious. It sounds worst than it is, I never felt compelled to turn it off and it wasn't plagued with modern action quick cuts. I hear the second one is better.

It's not that it's better. It's more or less the same movie: Bourne tries to figure shit out, evades some attempts to catch/kill him, discovers more tidbits about his past, then escapes a couple more attempts and leaves everyone confused. Third movie is more of the same. It's hard to care about any of them if you're not interested in how the Bourne character develops and what he uncovers along the way. The action is fun though, and seeing how he outsmarts government agencies and assassins and shit is also fun.

Thoughts on The Grandfather, 127 Hours and Das Experiment? I've only seen The Grandfather once a couple of years ago but really forgot what it was like. Seems like I got enough to do for this evening.

127 Hours is quite good. James Franco is pretty much the only character onscreen throughout the vast majority of the movie, and whenever he's not onscreen the action still pertains to him. He's very, very good in it and pretty much makes the movie.

I didn't like that 127 Hours movie at all, which is surprising cause I have such low standards anyway. I usually prefer slow and actionless movies but this was simply boring. It was a few years back and I can't really remember if anything specifically annoyed me or was it simply the fact it was boring but yeah, wasn't a gripping one.

I thought it was vastly mediocre. It should have been left as a news story, a book at best or an over-dramatized, Unsolved Mysteries-esque reenactment. It never rose above it's subject matter and barely gave anything new to those who already knew Aron Ralston's story. Basing an entire movie over something that can be summarized in one page will lose the viewers interest pretty quickly unless you incorporate more intriguing fictionalized elements or different sections of his timeline that aren't about him being trapped.

Currently watching The ABCs of Death, an anthology movie about, what else, death. Just so you know what in the world I'm dealing with here:

One of the segments is about a Japanese schoolgirl who gains sexual pleasure from farting who lusts after her teacher. All of a sudden, God farts noxious black smoke in the form of an earthquake that kills all people not indoors. The schoolgirl tells the teacher that if she is to die, she wants it to be done by her teacher's fart gas. The teacher undresses, farts, and her anus emits a deadly yellow gas that fills the room, kills the schoolgirl (who orgasms during this), and then gets sucked back into her asshole along with the schoolgirl. The schoolgirl awakens inside the teacher's asshole looking like the Starchild from the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey, having reached enlightenment through farting. The teacher then appears inside her own asshole, now a Starchild as well, and she and the schoolgirl finish the segment by making out passionately while farting yellow gas.

Yes. That actually happened in this movie.

Wh-What...?

Oh, it gets fucking weirder. For example:

-There are evil Nazi half-human/cat furry strippers that melt and explode when electrocuted.

-An animated woman is killed by her freshly laid turd coming to life and bouncing into her asshole.

And...

-A bunch of people in Eyes Wide Shut-esq masks are spectators to a masturbation tournament. Japanese men are forced to whack off to things such as naked women, a one legged amputee getting boned by her own prosthetic foot, and a fat man violating a young child, until one of them climaxes. Whoever reaches peak arousal first moves onto the next round (12 of which are made through in the segment), while the loser is killed by a spike being driven up their ass. The main contestant in the segment at one point is helped to win a round by one of the stage handlers showing him her vagina, which is actually a moving, living, sentient eyeball. After the guy fails to win one round, the scene cuts to him getting screwed on a bed by a busty lady as part of another round of this masturbation contest, only to be violently disemboweled with a chainsaw.

I thought that when the ABC's of death worked, it was pretty fucking entertaining. It certainly was mostly creative and sometimes even innovative, but the misses were more constant than the hits I'm afraid. Segments like Ti Wests look like they were conceived and filmed in 5 minutes.

Ti West is, for some reason, not that good with anthology movies. His segment in The ABCs of Death was really lazy, and his segment in V/H/S was easily the worst segment in that movie. His feature lengths are great though, particularly House of the Devil; I could watch that Jocelin Donahue 80s dance scene forever and never get tired of it.

You know, I'm one of very few people who liked his segment in V/H/S, I thought it was simple and effective.

I thought it was really boring and didn't make much sense. Even though the other segments don't explain much, if anything, either, at least with those segments you can kinda figure out what the deal is. With his segment, the fact that they don't explain who this robber is or what her connection to his girlfriend is beyond them apparently being lovers only makes things confusing. Plus there are only two scenes of "suspense" in the segment; when she steals his money and toilets his toothbrush, then when she kills him, with everything before and in between just them screwing around in that wild west town, in the hotel, and in the mountains.

Really the rule of thumb with V/H/S is that the odd numbered segments are great, while the even numbered are not.

Yeah sure, that's what all the reviewers say, but my personal opinion is that they were all varying levels of good
How did it not make much sense? The wife has a secret lover and he/she followed them on the trip and killed the husband. It's literally the most straightforward and realistic of all the stories.

So, Megan is Missing..... I watched it today. Now, if you guys excuse me, I'll proceed to look up pictures of little animals wearing funny hats for the next couple of days or so.

Those bondage photos, man. They stay with you for days. Same with the rape scene, the barrel stuffing scene, and Amy's screams going quieter and quieter as she's buried alive.

I actually told my dad about it, and he told me about another found footage child abduction movie that's on Netflix called Amber Alert. After wrestling tonight I'll give it a look as he said that it's pretty good.

Yeah, the thing is..... I know that what I watched was a movie, yet I can't stop feeling really, really awful when I think about it. It messes you up both in a depressing and disturbing way.

Well Michael Goi intentionally tried to make a movie that had an underlying message to it, and he succeeded. It definitely shows how bad internet predators can get, and still manages to be effective as a horror piece at the same time.

I absolutely agree. It's very strong as an actual film, while also being actually horrifying. That mostly has to do with the fact that it makes you realize that people have actually gone through shit like that, and it's chilling. Seriously; reality is, time and time again, scarier than fiction.

The only times that the movie really feels kinda blah is the newscast scenes and the party scene. The party scene and its aftermath with the camp counselor is just Larry Clark gone found footage, and the newscasts really show the film's low budget. Everything else though is pretty damn good.

To anyone who thinks Megan is Missing is original/worthwhile/not-completely-awful: have you guys seen The Poughkeepsie Tapes? Because it's basically Megan is Missing only, you know, actually watchable.

The same director also made Quarantine and Devil. What a great record he's got, indeed.

I've been meaning to check that out, darkeningday. It looks like a decent exploitation film. Also for all you shock hounds, apparently The Girl Next Door (2007) is the most shocking movie ever. Knock yourselves out, I have no interest in seeing it.

Spoiling the ending much. I don't care though as I watched it the other day.

Recently watched The Collection and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's got a very basic and predictable plot but so did the first one so it works fine, plus it's great to Lee Tergesen (Tobias Beecher from Oz) in a starring role. I liked that Josh Stewart's character had a significant role and wasn't just cheaply knocked off in the opening like Children of the Corn 2. You wont find character development here and the traps aren't as mysterious as the first but if you want a well executed and fast paced slasher that feels similar to an 80's movie, you could do alot worse.

I've never seen Devil, and while Quarantine was quite bad I found it generally more palatable than [REC], because at least it had a filmmaker's touch (as opposed to [REC], which felt like a slapped-together college capstone project).

That the Jack Ketchum one, Necro? It was awful. I turned it off early not out of horror but out of boredom. However, An American Crime (which I *THINK* was based on the same true story, or inspired by similar events or something like that) was fairly respectable and definitely worth a gander. Neither film struck me as particularly shocking but I am fairly jaded.

Devil was written by M. Night Shyamalan, so that should tell you all you need to know about it.

But I see it has Caroline Dhavernas ...

...so I may have to see it anyway.

That's the one. It's frequently cited as one of the most messed up movies ever but it looks like shit. A morbid curiosity viewing at best.

Ti West's segment in V/H/S was easily my favorite, and the best thing he has done yet. Short, sweet, atmospheric - well done stuff.

I want to see Poughkeepsie Tapes...didn't think it'd be very good, but hey, maybe I'll be surprised. Megan is Missing I dunno if it's really GOOD, but it effected me - so I can say it was powerful. It had its impact.

And I liked Devil. It was fun - had some bounce and verve to it. Stupid, sure. But fun.

Horror movies that try to be scary and disturbing primarily through gore or cheap, manipulative shocks are so lame. Pretty much everyone knows Saw and Hostel are shit and if you're just watching them for brainless entertainment that's fine, but there are people who genuinely think tripe like A Serbian Film has serious value. The problem with those movies is that there's pretty much never anything interesting about them aside from the gratuitous violence. Take that away and you have nothing left, like a porno without the fucking.

The first Saw is a great thriller, Hostel is blah, and A Serbian Film I wish I had never seen because of the baby fucking.

Gore can be used to great positive effect, like in The Thing. A lot of the time though, especially since Saw sequel-inspired torture films became a thing, it's just used in place of actually telling a (good) story or building real suspense.

That goes without saying, failsafeman, and my post reflects that.

Just finished another found footage child abduction movie called Amber Alert. It stays as a thriller throughout pretty much the whole movie with the only horror elements coming into the picture in the last 15 or 20 minutes. The deal with this movie is that two best friends are making an audition video for a reality show, and while driving to the place they're gonna make the last part of the video at they see an Amber Alert on the highway. As they're driving, they see a car that matches the description of the car listed in the Amber Alert and decide to follow it. The brother of the female friend is the person holding the camera, so he's along for the ride too, although nothing really happens with him until the last 10 minutes. Most of the movie is them in the car following this guy and arguing about whether or not they should follow him, and quite honestly it is grating a lot of the time. However, just like with Megan is Missing, the ends justify the means through the ending. Spoilers follow.



When the movie picks up in the last 20 minutes, they really pick up and are filled with a LOT of tension and suspense. When the movie drags though, it drags really badly. The arguing between the two mains will very quickly get on your nerves, but if you can make it through that (which unfortunately takes up most of the movie) then you're in the clear. All in all, very flawed movie with an excellent climax and ending.

Just watched An American Crime and The Girl Next Door, both were not disturbing, just unpleasant to watch. The Girl Next Door plays as a Stand By Me but instead of a dead body it's a cartoonishly-wicked Aunt who takes pleasure in tormenting and torturing two girls. An American Crime is similar but is based more closely with the actual case of Sylvia Likens, who was abused and killed by Gertrude Baniszewski. The one thing that I found unsettling in both wasn't Aunt Ruth or Gertrude but the way the children behave during scenes of torture, watching their innocence be taken away and becoming active participants was a little sick. The actress who played Gertrude was believable although the portrayal of 'an implied cause' probably wasn't necessary, while the actress who played Aunt Ruth was almost comical, possibly due to the shoddy dialogue, her approach was just strange and unrealistic on every level. If you want a dank and depressing movie; An American Crime is the better of the two.

Sure, The Thing is a great example of shocking, gory effects used well. Of course the rest of the film is a masterpiece as well; one thing that's always struck me about that film is how tight the screenplay is. There are twelve members of the research team, and you get a good feel for who each of them are without any kind of ham-fisted backstory sequences, rather it's all done through brief but illuminating interaction and how each reacts to the increasingly horrific situation. I haven't seen the movie in over a year, but I can remember each of those twelve guys and generally who they are. It's really a masterpiece of deft characterization.

Yup, The Thing is immaculate. That one and Halloween are my favorite Carpenter films. The Thing like FSM said is just great characterization, and really makes you care about these people despite the fact that there are so many of them, they all look and act alike at first blush and there is so much else going on. And despite that it's also phenomenally scary and out of this world. Just a grade-A horror flick.

As for gore, yeah, basically agreed with everyone else - it's why I hated Martyrs so much and I pretty much don't see a point in ever watching Human Centipede, Serbian Film, etc - I already know I won't like them. Another type of awful gore is the kind where they include shocking/taboo things just to say 'wow, that's gross' instead of actually telling a good story with it...i.e. Silent House, a repugnant movie that I detested.

I so agree with all of that! Just brilliant how the characters come to life without silly and awkward exposition!

Also, can't help but put this part, which always makes me laugh my ass off in an otherwise really tense film: