DVDs and Films You Have Watched Recently #2

[iamtheman]

Paranormal Activity 3

 

Went to see this last night and loved it. as said its the backstorys of Katie and christi from the first two movies when they were little girls and just right there is a great setting because little girls acting creepy is very chilling when done right and it is excellent during this. as before the tension gradually rises during the film but it's the little scares that are very well done.

 

its a very good cast(the little girls especially are great sports for the things they are put through) dennis is a very likeable character and his friend randy is a good laugh as well.

 

the tensions builds during the movie from a smaller scale to a much larger but even then there are some excellent little things placed during that are little creepy touches that are very frightening.

 

but for my favourite moments(and general thoughts)

 

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when they are making the sextape at the start and the dust falls down on the figure (toby)who looks like a massive fucker and he runs away as fast as he can. thats very good.

 

they only manage to repeat the one thing from the earlier movies which is katie just blankly staring looking at her parents in bed for about four hours. its creepy but its been done before.

 

the little scares where julie comes out of the closet and the babysitter says BOO into the camera are just your basic little jump scares. i laughed but a lot of people in the audience were got by it which was great.

 

the bedsheet creeping up on the babysitter was fantastic. i just thought it was one of the girls but when the sheet drops i'll admit i was got.

 

everything in the kitchen disapperaing and then dropping from the ceiling was the best scare in the film. worked in well with the oscialting camera that dennis "invented"

 

katie running into the "wall" and then getting yanked up by her hair and her bloody mary game with randy (especially randy getting scratched by toby were frightening.

 

the kids bloody mary game that was in the trailer was not in this movie. i was expecting it but its a trailer and these things happen.

 

when katie is getting sucked into the vortex (or whatever) the best touch was the occult symbol on the light brite in their room. that was brilliant and i think showed that the makers and researched what they could do with things from the era

 

and so towards the climax where toby had been trying to get everyone to go to grandma's house and i thought the creepiest part of the movie was when the girls were playing dress up and christi was dressing as a bride and her mom asked who the lucky guy was and in her sweet little voice said "its toby". errrrr chills then.

 

the whole end sequence with the figure dennis and the camera sees and then he goes to the shed because he cant find anyone and your thinking dont go the shed you twat but he does and its pitch black and he gets the light on and theres the old women in a line just staring at the door (got the biggest scream in the audience)

 

i thought that some deal was made with christi first born and she must have got 'married' to toby. so we will probably find out more in part 4.

 

the only gripe would be how the last tape was found. did grandma keep it just for laughs? but i'm ok with that

 

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these movies are getting better with each one and at this point in the saw series was where i dropped out but i'm there for the 4th film (probably next halloween)

 

if you are a fan of the series this comes with the highest recommendation

 

The thing that I found stupid was....

 

<-- click on 'spoiler' to show/hide the spoiler

if there mother had been killed in this film, why do we see her on the later films?!

 

Also, they were going to watch these tapes before the events of the originals, why then did they claim not to believe in ghosts?!

 

I suppose the general gist of it is....

 

The grandmother did a deal with the demon for wealth, and sacrifcied the family's first born son...which was Hunter, hence why it came back in the originals to claim the debt.

 

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<-- click on 'spoiler' to show/hide the spoiler

there 'mother' could just be a setup by grandma but hopefully we will find out.

 

probably grandma mind wipes for them not remembering?

 

also(i may be wrong here) but at the start katie gives them the tapes. and then when their house is trashed (not sure where this falls in the timeline to be fair*) the tapes are gone. is the movie just us the audience watching the tapes. i say this because at the start of the film it just went straight into the film. no text scrawl explaining what we are about to see. not even any production company logos ?(a production of ...... presented by ........) (loved that by the way)

 

*just checked it's the start of the second movie

 

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anyway the trailers before the film were Dream house (meh), the devil inside (looks excellent) and The thing

 

and im bringing this up because im just wondering why we have to wait till december for The Thing? its been out for over a week in a america and with it being halloween just seems pointless

 

the reviews for it are mostly negative anyway (as i thought they would be). still wanna see it (probably just to moan though but who doesnt love moaning)

Edited October 21, 2011 by iamtheman

[King Pitcos]

and im bringing this up because im just wondering why we have to wait till december for The Thing? its been out for over a week in a america and with it being halloween just seems pointless

 

A lot of films come out here a while after America. I'm not sure why, I presume it's just down to not wanting to spend costs on prints just for the UK market, so they wait until after the US run and just ship the used prints over for the UK run.

[The Curious Orange]

There's usually marketing reasons as well, such as having the actors available to do press etc. Can often be as simple as needing the film to start making money before launching in different regions too. Different areas of the world often have different distributors and they might want to see how something does in the US first and adjust their plans accordingly if the film turns out to be a flop.

[Cobra1000]

been on a bit of a music documentary kick rencently...

 

just watched When You're Strange, a film about The Doors and thought it was really good. Brought the iconic Jim Morrison back down to earth a bit and characterised him really well, and it gave enough time to the other members of the band too. Still, wouldn't have minded some proper interviews with the surviving members, but I suppose that has been done to death.

 

Also, FINALLY going to watch Anvil: The Story of Anvil for the very first time tonight.

[Astro Hollywood]

Christ, these "The Girl With/Who" movies are the worst kind of trash. I've just watched the second one.

 

It's going to be awful when Fincher's comes out, and people start whining like they always do about remakes, like he's ruined some kind of high art, when really, it's just a series clearly written by some kind of perpetually masturbating manchild. Lazy tropes all round, with repeated use of the laziest one of all, "How to create strong, vengeful female characters, and abhorrent male villains? - RAPE!" So much rape. Lisbeth herself is hilarious, pandering to everything men are supposed to like, I suppose. She's into computers, takes no shit, and likes random no-strings sex, JUST LIKE WHAT MEN DO! What a dream girl, with her outsider tattoos and piercings, the unique little snowflower. And the journalist character was based on Larsson himself, so I'm going to assume that he definitely wanked as he wrote the sex scenes between him and the world's biggest Mary Sue.

 

There's a super obvious shot in Played with Fire, of Lisbeth laying in bed with one hand behind her head, literally just so we can get a good look at her unshaved armpit and see what a strong independent woman who don't need no man she is. I really hate the notion that subtitles immediately adds an arty depth and meaning to something, as these are so lauded, but basically a big pile of exploitative shit pretending to be something they're not.

 

Stieg Larsson's The Girl who Never Met a Man That Didn't Immediately Try to Rape Her.

[Devon Malcolm]

I reckon Fincher will do a MUCH better job of Dragon Tattoo and probably piss off a lot of Stieg Larsson fans along the way. That's the way it should be, though. Considering how faithful the original was supposed to be to the book, Fincher would do well to make a lot of amendments. There was the germ of a great idea in there but the actual mystery wasn't given nearly enough screen time.

[Surf Digby]

Christ, these "The Girl With/Who" movies are the worst kind of trash. I've just watched the second one.

 

It's going to be awful when Fincher's comes out, and people start whining like they always do about remakes, like he's ruined some kind of high art, when really, it's just a series clearly written by some kind of perpetually masturbating manchild. Lazy tropes all round, with repeated use of the laziest one of all, "How to create strong, vengeful female characters, and abhorrent male villains? - RAPE!" So much rape. Lisbeth herself is hilarious, pandering to everything men are supposed to like, I suppose. She's into computers, takes no shit, and likes random no-strings sex, JUST LIKE WHAT MEN DO! What a dream girl, with her outsider tattoos and piercings, the unique little snowflower. And the journalist character was based on Larsson himself, so I'm going to assume that he definitely wanked as he wrote the sex scenes between him and the world's biggest Mary Sue.

 

There's a super obvious shot in Played with Fire, of Lisbeth laying in bed with one hand behind her head, literally just so we can get a good look at her unshaved armpit and see what a strong independent woman who don't need no man she is. I really hate the notion that subtitles immediately adds an arty depth and meaning to something, as these are so lauded, but basically a big pile of exploitative shit pretending to be something they're not.

 

Stieg Larsson's The Girl who Never Met a Man That Didn't Immediately Try to Rape Her.

You realise that I had no interest in the series whatsoever until now.

[John Galt]

What's the consensus on Vanilla Sky? I really enjoyed it but RT only has it at around 40% and none of my friends seemed to like it at all.

[big mickey]

Watching Big Fat Gypsy Gangster!

 

I fucking love Bulla!!!!!!

[Kawaii Guy]

Checked out a few horror film festivals this month.

Saw Halloween 3 and The Woman at Grimm Up North. The Woman left me speechless, a really brilliant film. (I also won a poster signed by Pollyanna Macintosh, I was happy)

 

this weekend Ive been at Celluloid Screams in sheffield. The New features I saw were....

Inbred - Yorkshire horror movie that owes a lot to Texas chainsaw massacre, with a dash of League of gentlemen.

Helldriver - Batshit mental zombie movie from the director of Tokyo Gore Police.

Some Guy Who Kills People - John Landis produced comedy horror, really funny.

Masks - Bizarre German Giallo that was like Suspiria meets Martyrs, the final scene from this has stuck with me all weekend.

Theater Bizzare - fun anthology film that was maybe 1 story too long.

Tomie: Unlimited - the ninth film of the franchise,though this acted as a reboot from the director of Machine girl. pretty crazy but I wasnt a huge fan.

Whisper in Darkness - HP Lovecraft story that is very faithful & very well made.

Harolds Going Stiff - my film of the festival, an endearing and touching take on zombies. this is highly recommended when it gets distribution (it won the Austin film festival jury prize this weekend too)

Cold Sweat - Argentinian action packed horror film. within 5 minutes you are into the story and it doesnt let up. very fun and original.

Finally was the secret film, which turned out to be the Warp Films austraila release Snow Town, based on the serial killer John bunting. it apparently caused a stir in australia but without the cultural relevance and a story that seems to drag without much in the terms of big plot moments, it was a dissapointing film to end on.

 

got some classic films (all uncut 35mm prints with vintage trailers). Vampyres (ridiculous), Dust Devil (pretty good) Re-Animator (amazing) and Halloween (poor quality ruined it a little)

[EdgarTheSlouch]

For those who lihe Ghostwatch, Nottingham Broadway is playing it this Sunday with a Q And A by the writer Stephen Volk.

[Loki]

got some classic films (all uncut 35mm prints with vintage trailers). Vampyres (ridiculous), Dust Devil (pretty good) Re-Animator (amazing) and Halloween (poor quality ruined it a little)

 

Love Dust Devil. I've probably bollocked on before about Richard Stanley, but I absolutely love Dust Devil and Hardware. If you've got a 35mm print of Dust Devil, it's probably worth a few bob!

Edited October 24, 2011 by Loki

[Merzbow]

After many years of hating it i watched Wes Cravens New Nightmare, best film in the whole bloody series! I think i was too young originally and just prefered the sillyness of the older films but now all this time later i realise how damn good it was.

[iamtheman]

went to watch Tintin and wasn't expecting it but it was excellent. the animation style works welll especially with the main action sequences. and it means the characters look just like they should. although it is Speilberg and you should never really doubt him

 

couple of sequences are breathtaking. performances are good across the board but special mention must go to Andy serkis as Captain haddock. steals the whole film with an hilarious and at times quite emotianal performance.

 

went to see it in 2d and it looks great.

 

recommend it especially if youve got any kids (they will love snowy)

[wh1007]

After many years of hating it i watched Wes Cravens New Nightmare, best film in the whole bloody series! I think i was too young originally and just prefered the sillyness of the older films but now all this time later i realise how damn good it was.

 

Agreed.A New Nightmare is probably the best in the series.Saying that Part 3:Dream Warriors is my favourite.The entire series deserves a re-evaluation.Part 2 is pretty decent(the homoerotic subtext only adds to the camp enjoyment),Part 4 is underrated.It's not fantastic but it's got a pretty good story and some nice visual touches.Saying that Parts 5 and 6 are pretty naff with Part 6 being the worst of the bunch.That Part 7:Wes Craven's A New Nightmare is so awesome makes up for the previous duff entries.One of the better horror cannons in my opinion.