@JoenSo Ain't that the truth. At the Mountains of Madness was the first HPL story I read and loved. Some of the animated shorts are interesting and about all we have to go on so far, darnit. Prop Nomicon came out with a couple of mock trailers that showed the promise of this as a film I thought. This one is my favorite so far:
I love HPL but I haven't checked out any of the movies that are attributed to him personally. I loved 'The Thing' but have been reluctant to view the many 'B' movies that have invoked his name directly. I do want to see 'Reanimator' though, especially if any of you folks recommend it.
Some of the better one's I have seen are (trailers included for the enticement ): Pickman's Muse (similar to Haunter in the Dark w/ Pickman's Model added in), The Resurrected (The Case of Charles Dexter Ward), Dagon & Cthulhu (both modern Shadow over Innsmouth types, Dreams in the Witch House (2005) from the Masters of Horror series is very good, The Thing on the Doorstep (2014) is not bad, err, The Whisperer in Darkness (2011 film) is a lower budget but very faithful and effective B&W adaptation, just to name a few.
Heh. I see we have Dagon mentioned by two of us now.
There is also Color From The Dark which is Ivan Zuccon's take on The Color Out of Space.
And Rod Serling does an adaption of Cool Air in the TV classic Night Gallery S02E12.
The melding of two of my most favorite things. The Twilight Zone and H.P Lovecraft.
Good stuff. I've heard of those two versions but yet to watch them (got em on my list again now, thanks). I did see Die-Farbe (a Color out of Space adaptation) and the Cool Air movie which were pretty good.
I didn't realize there were so many Lovecraft movies after all. Thanks, I'll have to check them out! I think I saw The Whisperer in Darkness right when it came out, so I only remember snippets from it now.
I live in Vermont and I was planning on doing a tour of Townshend as many of the places described in Whisperer in the Darkness still exist but they had a rash of sexual assaults and murders this year so it didn't seem the safest time to hunt mi-go.
@voidofopinion Well it would add to the atmosphere for sure, but yeah, I'm hearin ya. Wilmarth was gettin pretty wired by the time he got there himself.
I'm not sure if our HPL fans here have seen any of these, but thought I would bring notice to them regardless. Here are three short film adaptations from different directors based on the short story The Music of Erich Zann, by HP Lovecraft. All have little differences as to focus and atmosphere, but each is quite good. In the first, the longest of them, I particularly like the actor playing Zann and how he captures the terror he feels. In the second, the narrator captures the essence of his horror of hearing the sounds nicely at the end. The third focuses a little more attention on the window, a little more so than the others. These are the longer of of several adaptations over the years, so are given a little more time to build tension. The Music of Erich Zann (Skolnick) THE MUSIC OF ERICH ZANN (Wofford) The Music of Erich Zann (Strysik)
@FinneousPJ I haven't seen those as of yet but they look interesting (my list to watch is growing). Here's one from Finnish director Jalmari Helander that I thought was good for quite a different take on ol St. Nick It's a bit of a blend between fantasy and horror. Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010)
Tokyo Gore Police was not enough so I took a trip on to Amazon to see if I could find any deals. Usually Japanese exploitation cinema is a pretty niche and expensive market.
But through good fortune and even better deals I have waiting to be shipped:
The Machine Girl Tokyo Zombie Audition
The Eye 1, 2 & 3. The proper Pang brothers versions.
I really wanted to get Noriko's Dinner Table and Visitor Q but $140 for a single DVD is outside the scope of my current collection.
Since I owned it on Blu-Ray and had never bothered to open it, I just watched "Creepshow 2" for the first time yesterday. This was actually a fairly delightful slice of horror absurdity (I found that the middle chapter "The Raft" especially in hindsight looks like a clear inspiration for "Cabin Fever"). But what it made me think of most was my perception of '80s horror movies as a child when I wasn't allowed to watch them.
Every time I went to the video store as a young child, I would spend ALL my time in the horror section (my uncle actually owned a video rental store back at a time when they were still literally renting out VCRs for the night). What I was always entranced by was the box art of these movies. It was always so evocative, and the still photographs of scenes on the back were always picked out for maximum effect. I had never seen any of these movies, but they all looked forbidden and terrifying.
And then I got older and watched them. And while I still ENJOY them very much, 90% of them are nothing like I thought they would be. For the most part, every movie that was on the walls in the horror section in the golden age of video rentals was profoundly silly (almost comedic in many instances) rather than scary. I had a hard time believing anyone could ever have been scared of Freddy or Jason or Chucky. Every movie from this era is so profoundly tongue in cheek. "Return of the Living Dead" and "Evil Dead 2" are the best examples, but in reality, almost ALL horror movies from the decade of the '80s share this spirit. And in a real way, I almost wish I could back to the time where all I had was my imagination looking at those VHS boxes, wondering what horrors were waiting behind the counter. It turns out, there weren't really that many. But they sure sold it well.
I thought I was the only kid that would wander the local video store, marvelling at all the amazing video cover art. I didn't even WANT to watch them, I was incredibly easily scared. But that art was just so interesting.
I thought I was the only kid that would wander the local video store, marvelling at all the amazing video cover art. I didn't even WANT to watch them, I was incredibly easily scared. But that art was just so interesting.
In the end I think the box art was NECESSARY to sell the genre and make it become what it became. In the end, it isn't much different than heavy metal album covers from the same era. If you were to look at any album cover Iron Maiden put out in the 80s, you would never assume they would sound like they do. The deliberately "evil" cover art bears almost no resemblance to the actual music. Ozzy Osbourne would be desecrating crosses on the cover of his first two albums, but there was no actual objectionable content actually contained in the lyrics or music, even from the perspective of someone who was a religious fundamentalist.
What was weird was, my dad had no issue with me watching a movie like "Natural Born Killers" (which I still love), but for some reason, "Night of the Demons" was off limits. Eventually, we would start watching movies together like "Hellraiser" and "Candyman", but only once I was about 12 or so. My initial exposure to this era of films had to come on HBO (which we had because our town was given it for free for a month, and no one switched it off for, I kid you not, an entire DECADE). This allowed me to catch movies like "Ghoulies 2" and "House 2".
Incidentally, I would suggest everyone at least check out the free preview of the streaming service "Shudder". It is specifically catered toward serous horror fans, and only costs $5 a month. The initial free trial is only for 7 days, but a cursory Google search will likely net you a promo to make it a full 30. The big selling point right now is that the old host of TNT's "Monster Vision" Joe Bob Briggs recently did a 24 hour marathon in the style of that show called "The Last Drive In", where he hosts 13 movies, and it is available to stream along with hundreds of horror movies (both horrible and great) and even series like "Tales from the Darkside" and original content. It has come a long way from when I first checked it out a year ago. It even has 4 live channels streaming 24/7 if you can't decide what to watch.
Tongue in cheek horror movies reminds me of Ravenous that @Skatan and I discussed in another thread some months back. It isn't really a good movie, but I enjoyed it anyway because of its weirdness. It's gruesome and over the top in a funny way, but still strangely eerie in some places. The fact that wikipedia describes it as a "black comedy horror-suspense film " says a lot. Great soundtrack too.
This movie was also the second time I heard of the Wendigo myth (the first time being in a Donald Duck comic of all things). It seems like the Wendigo often just turns into a Hollywood monster in movies and TV-series. It would be nice to see more movies that touch more upon the psychological and taboo parts of the myth, like Ravenous does.
Just watched Rob Zombie's newest "31" today. And.....look. I can definitely appreciate how big of a horror movie fan Rob Zombie is, but I'm not entirely sure he has any idea how to actually make one. At this point, his movies are pretty paint by numbers. And "31" is just a combination of "House of 1000 Corpses" and "The Devil's Rejects" by way of "The Running Man". All his signatures are checked off on a neat list. Handheld home movie footage to create empathy for the main characters?? Check. A total overuse of '70s classic rock to lend weight to scenes that don't have weight on their own?? Check. Characters whose vulgarity isn't used to any specific or comedic effect, but simply to make the movie seem as risque as possible?? Check.
This movie also suffers HORRIBLY from a camera that looks like it is being operated by a chimp on meth. There are sequences in this film that may have worked from a visceral gore standpoint if I could have possibly followed what was going on. But Zombie's camerawork and editing in these action scenes is so frenetic I was completely pulled out of the scenes. All in all, this is probably his worst work. At this point all he has going for him is the expectation and guarantee that his movies are going to be filled with gonzo, over-the-top violence and visuals, but that isn't enough to make a worthwhile film, especially when the most effective of those scenes are ruined by camera work that is 10x too frantic for it's own good. Thumbs down.
The issue of the camerawork also brings up one of the main beefs I have with many horror films, and that is not being able to see what is going on. I can understand certain situations where I need to know the main character can't really see what is going on, but that doesn't mean I as a person watching the film needs to be staring at a nearly pitch black screen for 5-10 minutes at a time. The worst offender of this is "The Strangers", a movie whose first half I though was stellar in it's atmosphere (great use of music by Joanna Newsome), and whose second half I might as well have not watched because I couldn't tell what was going on 75% of the time.
Tongue in cheek horror movies reminds me of Ravenous that @Skatan and I discussed in another thread some months back. It isn't really a good movie, but I enjoyed it anyway because of its weirdness. It's gruesome and over the top in a funny way, but still strangely eerie in some places. The fact that wikipedia describes it as a "black comedy horror-suspense film " says a lot. Great soundtrack too.
This movie was also the second time I heard of the Wendigo myth (the first time being in a Donald Duck comic of all things). It seems like the Wendigo often just turns into a Hollywood monster in movies and TV-series. It would be nice to see more movies that touch more upon the psychological and taboo parts of the myth, like Ravenous does.
@JoenSo Black Mountain Side (2014) is one the the better films I have seen that tackles the Wendigo (or Ithaqua in HLP) myth. It most definitely focuses on the psychological side of things.
@JoenSo Black Mountain Side (2014) is one the the better films I have seen that tackles the Wendigo (or Ithaqua in HLP) myth. It most definitely focuses on the psychological side of things.
Nice! The synopsis does sound promising, so I'll check it out.
[Spoiler] [/spoiler] Round 2 of the Tokyo Shock/Asian Horror Amazon Hunt.
This time around:
Meatball Machine Robo Geisha The Machine Girl Pyscho Gothic Lolita The Eye 1, 2 & 3 Suicide Club Audition
I lucked out and snagged Meatball Machine and Robo Geisha New and at their regular retail price. It's even the new remastering of Meatball Machine where it's a decent bluray transcoding from the original 13mm instead of 13mm to SD to HD like the first bluray they authored.
Machine Girl was also a casualty of bad transcoding for Bluray so I grabbed the (oddly) superior DVD version. It's the remix version which comes with Machine Girlite.
I haven't seen Pyscho Gothic Lolita before but the trailer looked like fun!
I love Pang Brothers "The Eye" films. 1 is a legit horror classic. 2 is a terrifying concept and 3 is just good ol' campy fun!
Audition was missing the case but the disc is immaculate. Like it had never been played.
I managed to snag a New copy of Suicide Club for $10. Which it normally goes for $50+
And speaking of Suicide Club... On the way is a Like New copy of Noriko's Dinner Table. Someone put a copy up on Amazon this morning for $20.
It's such a good deal that I'm a little worried it's a scam and I'm going to get a plastic bag filled with shredded discs.
Oh, and I also scored a $20 copy of Ringu Anthology of Terror which has all 4 Ringu films. It has yet to arrive but supposedly the box is in "average" condition but the discs are great. So we shall see on that front as well.
I've only ever seen the first Ringu film and it was vastly different from the American remake. Unlike Ju-On/The Grudge which was a near shot for shot remake with a different female lead.
I was considering Shutter but blasphemy of blasphemy I actually prefer the English version. It had more weight to it.
And finally, I grabbed one of my guilty pleasure. Tokyo Zombie. Mt Fuji becomes a waste dumping site. It explodes and everyone turns into zombies. It's up to two judo loving wastrels to save the day!
Sadly Noriko's Dinner Table and Ringu Anthology of Terror are not set to come in until the end of the month and so begins the long wait.
Just watched Rob Zombie's newest "31" today. And.....look. I can definitely appreciate how big of a horror movie fan Rob Zombie is, but I'm not entirely sure he has any idea how to actually make one.
You pretty much just described how I feel about Rob Zombie. You can see he's a huge (cheesy) horror movie fan, but he has no damn idea how to make a horror movie himself. Rob's entire movie premise is "filthy rednecks doing disgusting things". That's it. His remake of Halloween was tolerable, though it completely undermined the original's subtext. All his other movies are awful.
Speaking of Halloween though, october can't come fast enough.
@Dev6 A great trailer for the new Halloween. Laurie looks like shes prepped as all get out after waiting 40 years for his return. It looks to have some promise of being good as I see that Carpenter is at least involved with it again. It will be nice to get Curtis and Castle back in their roles as Strode and Michael as well. Patton will be good in the role of chief of police I think.
Someone in the mail office likes me as it arrived a whole 10 days early!
Instead of arriving as an assortment of shards it is in near mint condition. The only difference between the version I received and a new one is the shrink wrap.
I wouldn't be surprised if it had been watched once and then put on a shelf never to be opened again until I got my grubby little hands on it.
@voidofopinion I feel like you've already surpassed me on this journey. You've mentioned a few movies I haven't watched yet.
I can give you a couple more recomendations though!
Evil Dead Trap (Shiryô no wana) - This one has an 80s low-budget look that I think you'll love. It's bloody and gross, and some of the actresses are actual porn stars which pretty much tells you what to expect.
This movie is great, I highly recomend it. And Reina Triendl is adorable.
Grotesque (Gurotesuku) - Not much going on here story/plot-wise, but the gore effects are really realistic.
Stacy - I watched this one about 15 years ago, and I'll be honest, I don't really remember much about it. I do remember that I enjoyed it immensely though.
Tetsuo - The Iron Man - A classic. It's weird, strange, surreal. It's not exactly good, but it's worth a watch.
You might've also heard about the Guinea Pig series. I only watched the first one but to be honest it's really not that good. It's less of a movie and more an effects-test-tape if that makes sense. I've heard good things about the second one, but can't confirm.
Some of these might be almost impossible or ridiculously expensive to find on DVD, but there are, hmm... Other ways.
@Dev6 Suggestions are very much welcome as my search is becoming a bit pedestrian with films like Dark Water, Pulse and Whispering Corridors.
I havent seen Evil Dead Trap, Grotesque, or Stacey so I am definitely going to check those out!
I was kinda disappointed in Guinea Pig. I saw it shortly after watching Saló and Unit 731 so I was quite numb to it's often cheesy effects and acting. I should check it out again with a fresh set of eyes.
@JoenSo Tag is on Netflix at the moment. It has some fantastic scenes and ideas. The cast is great and the pacing is good but the ending is a little unsatisfying. Still very worth a watch.
@ThacoBell It's part of the criterion collection and has a beautiful bluray transfer. It's so influential that it spawned an entire genre of over the top, grotesque body horror films!
Comments
Heh. I see we have Dagon mentioned by two of us now.
And Rod Serling does an adaption of Cool Air in the TV classic Night Gallery S02E12.
The melding of two of my most favorite things. The Twilight Zone and H.P Lovecraft.
The Music of Erich Zann (Skolnick)
THE MUSIC OF ERICH ZANN (Wofford)
The Music of Erich Zann (Strysik)
Here's one from Finnish director Jalmari Helander that I thought was good for quite a different take on ol St. Nick It's a bit of a blend between fantasy and horror.
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010)
But through good fortune and even better deals I have waiting to be shipped:
The Machine Girl
Tokyo Zombie
Audition
The Eye 1, 2 & 3. The proper Pang brothers versions.
I really wanted to get Noriko's Dinner Table and Visitor Q but $140 for a single DVD is outside the scope of my current collection.
Every time I went to the video store as a young child, I would spend ALL my time in the horror section (my uncle actually owned a video rental store back at a time when they were still literally renting out VCRs for the night). What I was always entranced by was the box art of these movies. It was always so evocative, and the still photographs of scenes on the back were always picked out for maximum effect. I had never seen any of these movies, but they all looked forbidden and terrifying.
And then I got older and watched them. And while I still ENJOY them very much, 90% of them are nothing like I thought they would be. For the most part, every movie that was on the walls in the horror section in the golden age of video rentals was profoundly silly (almost comedic in many instances) rather than scary. I had a hard time believing anyone could ever have been scared of Freddy or Jason or Chucky. Every movie from this era is so profoundly tongue in cheek. "Return of the Living Dead" and "Evil Dead 2" are the best examples, but in reality, almost ALL horror movies from the decade of the '80s share this spirit. And in a real way, I almost wish I could back to the time where all I had was my imagination looking at those VHS boxes, wondering what horrors were waiting behind the counter. It turns out, there weren't really that many. But they sure sold it well.
What was weird was, my dad had no issue with me watching a movie like "Natural Born Killers" (which I still love), but for some reason, "Night of the Demons" was off limits. Eventually, we would start watching movies together like "Hellraiser" and "Candyman", but only once I was about 12 or so. My initial exposure to this era of films had to come on HBO (which we had because our town was given it for free for a month, and no one switched it off for, I kid you not, an entire DECADE). This allowed me to catch movies like "Ghoulies 2" and "House 2".
Incidentally, I would suggest everyone at least check out the free preview of the streaming service "Shudder". It is specifically catered toward serous horror fans, and only costs $5 a month. The initial free trial is only for 7 days, but a cursory Google search will likely net you a promo to make it a full 30. The big selling point right now is that the old host of TNT's "Monster Vision" Joe Bob Briggs recently did a 24 hour marathon in the style of that show called "The Last Drive In", where he hosts 13 movies, and it is available to stream along with hundreds of horror movies (both horrible and great) and even series like "Tales from the Darkside" and original content. It has come a long way from when I first checked it out a year ago. It even has 4 live channels streaming 24/7 if you can't decide what to watch.
This movie was also the second time I heard of the Wendigo myth (the first time being in a Donald Duck comic of all things). It seems like the Wendigo often just turns into a Hollywood monster in movies and TV-series. It would be nice to see more movies that touch more upon the psychological and taboo parts of the myth, like Ravenous does.
This movie also suffers HORRIBLY from a camera that looks like it is being operated by a chimp on meth. There are sequences in this film that may have worked from a visceral gore standpoint if I could have possibly followed what was going on. But Zombie's camerawork and editing in these action scenes is so frenetic I was completely pulled out of the scenes. All in all, this is probably his worst work. At this point all he has going for him is the expectation and guarantee that his movies are going to be filled with gonzo, over-the-top violence and visuals, but that isn't enough to make a worthwhile film, especially when the most effective of those scenes are ruined by camera work that is 10x too frantic for it's own good. Thumbs down.
The issue of the camerawork also brings up one of the main beefs I have with many horror films, and that is not being able to see what is going on. I can understand certain situations where I need to know the main character can't really see what is going on, but that doesn't mean I as a person watching the film needs to be staring at a nearly pitch black screen for 5-10 minutes at a time. The worst offender of this is "The Strangers", a movie whose first half I though was stellar in it's atmosphere (great use of music by Joanna Newsome), and whose second half I might as well have not watched because I couldn't tell what was going on 75% of the time.
Black Mountain Side (2014) is one the the better films I have seen that tackles the Wendigo (or Ithaqua in HLP) myth. It most definitely focuses on the psychological side of things.
[/spoiler]
Round 2 of the Tokyo Shock/Asian Horror Amazon Hunt.
This time around:
Meatball Machine
Robo Geisha
The Machine Girl
Pyscho Gothic Lolita
The Eye 1, 2 & 3
Suicide Club
Audition
I lucked out and snagged Meatball Machine and Robo Geisha New and at their regular retail price. It's even the new remastering of Meatball Machine where it's a decent bluray transcoding from the original 13mm instead of 13mm to SD to HD like the first bluray they authored.
Machine Girl was also a casualty of bad transcoding for Bluray so I grabbed the (oddly) superior DVD version. It's the remix version which comes with Machine Girlite.
I haven't seen Pyscho Gothic Lolita before but the trailer looked like fun!
I love Pang Brothers "The Eye" films. 1 is a legit horror classic. 2 is a terrifying concept and 3 is just good ol' campy fun!
Audition was missing the case but the disc is immaculate. Like it had never been played.
I managed to snag a New copy of Suicide Club for $10. Which it normally goes for $50+
And speaking of Suicide Club... On the way is a Like New copy of Noriko's Dinner Table. Someone put a copy up on Amazon this morning for $20.
It's such a good deal that I'm a little worried it's a scam and I'm going to get a plastic bag filled with shredded discs.
Oh, and I also scored a $20 copy of Ringu Anthology of Terror which has all 4 Ringu films. It has yet to arrive but supposedly the box is in "average" condition but the discs are great. So we shall see on that front as well.
I've only ever seen the first Ringu film and it was vastly different from the American remake. Unlike Ju-On/The Grudge which was a near shot for shot remake with a different female lead.
I was considering Shutter but blasphemy of blasphemy I actually prefer the English version. It had more weight to it.
And finally, I grabbed one of my guilty pleasure. Tokyo Zombie. Mt Fuji becomes a waste dumping site. It explodes and everyone turns into zombies. It's up to two judo loving wastrels to save the day!
Sadly Noriko's Dinner Table and Ringu Anthology of Terror are not set to come in until the end of the month and so begins the long wait.
Rob's entire movie premise is "filthy rednecks doing disgusting things". That's it.
His remake of Halloween was tolerable, though it completely undermined the original's subtext. All his other movies are awful.
Speaking of Halloween though, october can't come fast enough.
I really really really hope it doesn't suck. *crosses fingers*
The illusive Noriko's Dinner Table!
Someone in the mail office likes me as it arrived a whole 10 days early!
Instead of arriving as an assortment of shards it is in near mint condition. The only difference between the version I received and a new one is the shrink wrap.
I wouldn't be surprised if it had been watched once and then put on a shelf never to be opened again until I got my grubby little hands on it.
I feel like you are the only one (twisted enough) to understands this journey.
Thank you for being an inspiration.
ps: Now to keep an eye out for a good copy of Visitor Q. Yep... we hit that point.
I can give you a couple more recomendations though!
Evil Dead Trap (Shiryô no wana) - This one has an 80s low-budget look that I think you'll love. It's bloody and gross, and some of the actresses are actual porn stars which pretty much tells you what to expect.
Tag (Riaru onigokko) - You might've seen this gif around the internet...
This movie is great, I highly recomend it. And Reina Triendl is adorable.
Grotesque (Gurotesuku) - Not much going on here story/plot-wise, but the gore effects are really realistic.
Stacy - I watched this one about 15 years ago, and I'll be honest, I don't really remember much about it. I do remember that I enjoyed it immensely though.
Tetsuo - The Iron Man - A classic. It's weird, strange, surreal. It's not exactly good, but it's worth a watch.
You might've also heard about the Guinea Pig series. I only watched the first one but to be honest it's really not that good. It's less of a movie and more an effects-test-tape if that makes sense. I've heard good things about the second one, but can't confirm.
Some of these might be almost impossible or ridiculously expensive to find on DVD, but there are, hmm... Other ways.
Suggestions are very much welcome as my search is becoming a bit pedestrian with films like Dark Water, Pulse and Whispering Corridors.
I havent seen Evil Dead Trap, Grotesque, or Stacey so I am definitely going to check those out!
I was kinda disappointed in Guinea Pig. I saw it shortly after watching Saló and Unit 731 so I was quite numb to it's often cheesy effects and acting. I should check it out again with a fresh set of eyes.
@JoenSo
Tag is on Netflix at the moment. It has some fantastic scenes and ideas. The cast is great and the pacing is good but the ending is a little unsatisfying. Still very worth a watch.
@ThacoBell
It's part of the criterion collection and has a beautiful bluray transfer.
It's so influential that it spawned an entire genre of over the top, grotesque body horror films!