What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Wes]

Originally Posted by fuzzymctiger

The whole mind reader thing with the original ring just didn't sit well with me, plus the cinematography and better atmosphere made the remake a lot better in my opinion. I list it as one of the rare cases where the remake is better than the original.

I'd pretty much agree with that, and further add that I never liked any of the Ring films, and I usually love Japanese Cinema. For a while these Asian Horror films were coming out in their droves - films like Pulse, Dark Water, Grudge, Phone, The Eye, One Missed Call, Cursed, Infection, the list seems endless... I did like the Three Extremes collections, but the penny has yet to drop on A Tale of Two Sisters...

[darthelvis]

Seven Psychopaths - Saw a preview of this last night and it was fantastic! This film is a great follow up to In Bruges and is light years better. Great script, great cast and a career high from Walken! You have to go and see it.

[Frankie Teardrop]

GHOST STORIES FROM THE BBC - The one with 'The Signalman' etc. I thought this was great. For some reason I always think UK TV from the 70s has a really haunting quality about it anyway. The three stories included in this volume differ in approach, but all share a similar desolate and enigmatic vibe. 'The Signalman' projects a feeling of claustrophobia and isolation, in part due to its setting, a railway tunnel at the bottom of a wintery ravine. Loved the creepy synth drone soundtrack which somehow worked in the context of a 19th century Dickens adaption. And the eyeless ghost was wonderful. 'Stigma' was possibly the high point of the set for me - contemporary setting, really spare in its unfolding, very bleak vibe. The unseen ghost of a witch subjects a woman to a darkly menstrual fate. Again, great soundtrack which somehow captures the chilly awe induced by just the sight of ancient stones. Very disturbing, despite the presence of Peter Bowls.
'The Ice House' came in a close second. Enigmatic and cryptic to the point of bafflement, this one had my mind reeling for a while afterwards, despite the obviousness of the main theme. A lonely psychiatrist visits a health spa run by a mysterious and slightly incestuous sibling pair. There's a sinister ice house. But what does it all mean? Put me in mind of a strange three way hybrid of JG Ballard, Ian McEwan and M R James. When I was very young I saw a repeat of this on TV one christmas, and I remember being transfixed by the creepy frozen man in the ice house. Watching it now, the whole piece was equally fascinating and unnerving.

BLACK PAST - Olaf Ittenbach's first feature, shot on video in the late eighties. It's a weird blend of partial boredom and extreme gore. I say 'partial' boredom as, during the uneventful bits, the awfulness of early SOV aesthetics at least lends a wonky charm to the proceedings, as do the eighties elements ie. mullets unsurrounded by quotation marks. The storyline is nothing original, with a possessed mirror inspiring violent dreams in a teen who lives in a house with a 'black past'. Culminates in slimy demonic transformation, just because. When it hits, the gore is pretty relentless. I wish my former teenaged gore-hound self had seen this twenty years ago - I feel a bit past this kind of stuff these days, but there's an undeniable energy at work. And I keep returning to Ittenbach's movies without really knowing why, because probably they're not all that good, but there's just a certain quality (possibly Ittenbach's straight faced approach to absurd material) which makes me like all his stuff apart from 'Premutos'.

[Demoncrat]

Kill List. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Can only echo certain sentiments expressed about this film. Was enjoying its "grittish" quality....but the ending felt like it belonged to an another film imo. Did I miss some subtlety inherent in the script? Don't think so, at least it wasn't Darklands cough cough.

[PaulD]

Originally Posted by Demoncrat

Kill List. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Can only echo certain sentiments expressed about this film. Was enjoying its "grittish" quality....but the ending felt like it belonged to an another film imo. Did I miss some subtlety inherent in the script? Don't think so, at least it wasn't Darklands cough cough.

That was my thought on it. I must give it another go and see if the shift doesn't seem as abrupt on a second viewing. I kinda felt like I missed some clues in it

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

GHOST STORIES FROM THE BBC - The one with 'The Signalman' etc. I thought this was great. For some reason I always think UK TV from the 70s has a really haunting quality about it anyway. The three stories included in this volume differ in approach, but all share a similar desolate and enigmatic vibe. 'The Signalman' projects a feeling of claustrophobia and isolation, in part due to its setting, a railway tunnel at the bottom of a wintery ravine. Loved the creepy synth drone soundtrack which somehow worked in the context of a 19th century Dickens adaption. And the eyeless ghost was wonderful. 'Stigma' was possibly the high point of the set for me - contemporary setting, really spare in its unfolding, very bleak vibe. The unseen ghost of a witch subjects a woman to a darkly menstrual fate. Again, great soundtrack which somehow captures the chilly awe induced by just the sight of ancient stones. Very disturbing, despite the presence of Peter Bowls.
'The Ice House' came in a close second. Enigmatic and cryptic to the point of bafflement, this one had my mind reeling for a while afterwards, despite the obviousness of the main theme. A lonely psychiatrist visits a health spa run by a mysterious and slightly incestuous sibling pair. There's a sinister ice house. But what does it all mean? Put me in mind of a strange three way hybrid of JG Ballard, Ian McEwan and M R James. When I was very young I saw a repeat of this on TV one christmas, and I remember being transfixed by the creepy frozen man in the ice house. Watching it now, the whole piece was equally fascinating and unnerving.

BLACK PAST - Olaf Ittenbach's first feature, shot on video in the late eighties. It's a weird blend of partial boredom and extreme gore. I say 'partial' boredom as, during the uneventful bits, the awfulness of early SOV aesthetics at least lends a wonky charm to the proceedings, as do the eighties elements ie. mullets unsurrounded by quotation marks. The storyline is nothing original, with a possessed mirror inspiring violent dreams in a teen who lives in a house with a 'black past'. Culminates in slimy demonic transformation, just because. When it hits, the gore is pretty relentless. I wish my former teenaged gore-hound self had seen this twenty years ago - I feel a bit past this kind of stuff these days, but there's an undeniable energy at work. And I keep returning to Ittenbach's movies without really knowing why, because probably they're not all that good, but there's just a certain quality (possibly Ittenbach's straight faced approach to absurd material) which makes me like all his stuff apart from 'Premutos'.

Re: "The Ice House". Always felt this was the inspiration for "A Figure Walks" by The Fall myself.....

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by PaulD

That was my thought on it. I must give it another go and see if the shift doesn't seem as abrupt on a second viewing. I kinda felt like I missed some clues in it

Maybe. I just felt that if that was his intention, that side could have been fleshed out slightly more. don't get me wrong, I'm all for ambiguity in a film, but this just jarred. Due to the back-and-forth about KL on here, I was waiting for this "shift" and it just felt too tacked on imo. The bit with the hammer though....

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by Demoncrat

Re: "The Ice House". Always felt this was the inspiration for "A Figure Walks" by The Fall myself.....

One of my fave 'songs' by MES et al. 'Dragnet' could've been by the M R James punk house band with 'Spectre vs Rector' etc.

[PaulD]

Originally Posted by Demoncrat

Maybe. I just felt that if that was his intention, that side could have been fleshed out slightly more. don't get me wrong, I'm all for ambiguity in a film, but this just jarred. Due to the back-and-forth about KL on here, I was waiting for this "shift" and it just felt too tacked on imo. The bit with the hammer though....

It was the all-pervading sense of tension and dread in the household scenes that really had me on edge

[Wes]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

GHOST STORIES FROM THE BBC - The one with 'The Signalman' etc. I thought this was great...

Fantastic stuff Frankie, and I would go out this minute and pick up the set on the strength of your post, but I have shot my load so to speak on purchases for this year - I've been spending like a maniac for the last few weeks... But great to have these films available again, the previous OOP BFI issues were unspeakably expensive...