Topic: The Movie Thread

@nessisonett Yeah another reason that I'm wary about buying them, as I've seen them so many times over the years!

There is a channel I always watch on YouTube called Films at Home. It is just some dude with a beard talking about films, but he mainly talks about 4K blu ray releases and news, and clearly knows his stuff.

Anyway, whenever he does his top 10 lists for 4K blu rays , he often includes older films like the ones you mentioned over recent films as he prefers the moves filmed on 35mm.

You know, I don't think I've ever watched 2001: A Space Odyssey and Lawrence of Arabia all the way through. Now would be a good time to rectify that!

Top Gun: Maverick really is bloody good. We rented it through Apple TV in 4K for £5 which isn’t bad at all and the picture looked great. Some of the most breathtaking aerial footage I’ve seen in a movie and yeah, there’s a few corny bits as expected, but it’s worth it.

@nessisonett Thanks for the post, I'll probably watch it that way too. It's even cheaper over here.

@Voltan Hmm, I wonder what it is about the current state of the pound that would make it more expensive here 😉

@nessisonett The Polish Złoty isn't exactly in great shape either but I guess they just have regional pricing

@LN78 Oh man, that’s a great movie that I’ve only seen the once. It seems to be almost forgotten about and is rarely discussed for some reason considering how good it is.

@LN78 I’m ashamed to say that I’ve never actually seen The Exorcist, I’m not a big horror movie fan as I’m a total wuss! I’ve heard good things about that director’s cut of the 3rd one though, it seems to have been quite a few years in the making anyway.

Bought tickets to see Terrifier 2 with the family on Sunday. I love the ridiculous claims of people fainting, puking, etc. in the theater. We've become so desensitized to on-screen violence in recent decades that we just kind of shrug when ultra-violent movies release, so it feels like a fun throwback to see a teeny tiny horror movie (production budget was $250,000, lol) become a minor hit through word-of-mouth accounts of how shocking it apparently is.

Apparently it's decently more gruesome than the original, which is... hard to believe, given how nasty that got, but I suppose we'll see!

@LN78 You got claims like that periodically when new horror films would turn up the test the limits of what viewers could tolerate. A lot of it was marketing, but it tapped into a sort of transgressive fun that used to be associated with the genre.

I guess that's why one critic pointedly observed that "films like this just aren't made any more." The transgressive horror market was seized and subsequently run into the ground by the torture porn cinematic trend in the 2010s.

But it's pretty standard for horror most of the best films to be indies and/or low-budget. You have some notable exceptions, but it's usually the people working on shoestring budgets that reinvigorate the genre.

Art the Clown is also the only interesting new slasher villain to crop up... in a long time, if I'm being honest.

I've found a few films to be a bit much for me (A Serbian Film, Martyrs, Funny Games, and any exploitation film with real or simulated animal violence come to mind), but it's rarely about the explicitness of the actual on-screen violence for me. Terrifier 1 had one somewhat shocking death scene, so I'm curious to see how they top it.

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll add I Saw the Devil to my list.

@LN78 It's definitely a film designed to test the limits of what the audience is willing to put up with. And doesn't need to bombard the audience with cinematography and low frequency noises designed to make the audience feel sick like Gaspar Noé does in his films.

That being said, I'd never, ever watch it with everyone else.

@LN78 Did you not realize what you were getting into when you watched it?

@LN78 The film. From what I remember, there was a decent amount of buzz about its extreme content.

@Sable Some of Now You See Me was filmed in Greenwich. I think it was the first one but could be the second. If I remember correctly the magic circle is based in Greenwich Observatory for some reason and there's also scenes of street magic filmed in Greenwich Market.

There's quite a few films made around that area actually!

@RogerRoger Of course you didn’t like Prisoner of Azkaban! Never change Rog 😂

@Sable "If I'm honest I feel it's been on a downward spiral since End Game."

Yeah totally agree. Marvel/Disney are out of ideas and would rather spend their time shoehorning political issues into their shows. It should have ended at Endgame, I think the wheels were coming off before then to be honest but Endgame would have capped it off nicely.

I actually found The Batman to be all over in terms of pacing and story. It tried to do too much and I actually felt the Riddler was under utilised. Pattinson was a better Batman than Bruce Wayne as well but there is room for growth going forward I think. We'll see.

WOW Terrifier 2!

Massive step up over the original film in every way. The practical effects look amazing for such a low-budget film. The violence is... well, it didn't bother me, but it is absolutely one of the most hyperviolent things I've ever seen. But it's so over-the-top that it becomes weirdly fun instead of painful to watch. This is, like, Japanese guro exploitation cinema levels of gore. Not surprised it's unrated, as they'd have to cut half the film in order for it to get an R rating!

The film is 2.5 hours long, which you'd think would be a problem for a slasher, but the strong characters and great pacing keep it from feeling like a slog.

There's a distinct Nightmare on Elm Street-esque 80s horror vibe here between the suburban setting, the clearly supernatural villain, the creative and over-the-top deaths, the large amount of dark humor, and the synth-heavy score.

The acting is all pretty solid in this film, but, of course, David Howard Thornton again steals the spotlight with his increasingly iconic performance as Art the Clown. Creepy and hilarious in turns.

One of the best slashers I've seen in a LONG time. Glad I had the opportunity to watch it in a theater.

@Ralizah You make it sound like a great movie but the thought of that level of gore does rather put me off 😂

Anyone here going to watch black adam. I may go see over the weekend.

@nessisonett Slashers are my favorite horror subgenre when done right. A Nightmare on Elm Street was my first ever movie. I also adored Halloween growing up, along with other classics of the genre. But it has been so long, and the majority of horror films that release now are tame ghost movies that you forget as soon as you leave the theater.

There's a clear enthusiasm from the filmmakers for this project, and it shines through in the film itself. The after-credits interview and behind-the-stage stuff cement that everyone involved seemed to have a blast making it.

But, uh, you do have to be a bit of a sicko to really be able to appreciate a film like this.

@RogerRoger The audience behind us was mostly chatty teenagers, likely lured in by reports of people vomiting and fainting. They felt the need to burst into applause every time someone attacked the clown, which got a bit old as the film wore on.

Watched The Djinn this past weekend along with Dreamscape and Poltergeist 1-3.

Tonight Im watching The Black Cauldron and The Vigil and if Im still up later tonight im watching Tom Savini's Night of the Living Dead remake with the commentary track on