The Month of Horror PART IV: dsheinem vs. noiseredux

[dsheinem]

all my Google-Fu can't find me a copy of Furcht (1917) to download/stream (or purchase from a reputable site)

[noiseredux]

the first 3 days of October have been consumed by XCOM: Enemy Unknown... much like the last 3 months of the year. But really, a game about an alien invasion could certainly fall under the horror umbrella anyway.

ATTN: STEAM USERS - Enemy Unknown is free to play this weekend. Hurry the F up!

[prfsnl_gmr]

Lat night, my wife and I ordered in cheap tempura udon and watched:



Jigoku (1960) tells the story of a Japanese theology student who, after a series of tragic events, finds himself in hell. During the first half of the film, the protagonist meets a variety of unsavory characters, and during the second half of the film, he encounters all of them in hell while trying to rescue the soul of his deceased fiance's unborn daughter. (It is a very odd film. Not quite as odd as House...but it comes pretty close at times.) The torment depicted in hell is very graphic considering the film's age, and the second half of the film plays out like a Buddhist-themed version of Dante's Inferno. I am unfamiliar with the concept of hell in most religions, and the Buddhist themes made the film very interesting to me. Additionally - and like my very favorite Japanese horror films - the movie relies on intricate sets and colored lighting to convey atmosphere, making the film feel like a really good, really creepy stage production. Despite its many strengths, however, I respected the movie more than I enjoyed it, and since it drags a lot during the first half, it did not live up to my admittedly inflated expectations. Accordingly, while I cannot give the film my highest rating, I do recommend it to anyone who is a fan of vintage Japanese horror.

.....

prfsnl_gmr's 2013 List of TERROR!
1. The Frighteners (1996)
2. Kill, Baby...Kill! (1966)
3. Salem's Lot (1979)
4. Blood Thirst (1965)
5. The Hunger (1983)
6. Jigoku (1960)

[noiseredux]

haha, I love the rating system prfsnl...

[prfsnl_gmr]

haha, I love the rating system prfsnl...

Thanks! It is very complex...but not entirely accurate. (While good horror films make me very happy, bad horror films don't really make me sad.)

[Ack]

I've been laid up the last couple of days with a cold, but I'm still watching horror movies!



Lucio Fulci hates people's eyeballs!

The Beyond is sort of all over the place. Its plot ranges from awesome to barely coherent at points, its gore is excessive to the point of ridiculousness, and its acting varies depending on the person, though most of the characters do ok. But the soundtrack is incredible in that late 1970s/early 1980s exploitation kind of way. And while the film leads us to an ambiguous ending, I enjoyed this mixture of supernatural horror and zombie film.

What strikes me as odd are the times when Fulci was cryptic or kept things off screen. With his emphasis on focusing on every gory detail, there were several moments which surprised me with how he cut away. The death of Joe the Plumber's wife, for instance, where she sees something and screams, only to apparently be dead on the floor when her daughter runs in. Or how Arthur is shown working in the basement but is dead the next time we see him. Yet on the opposite end of the spectrum, we get to watch in agonizing detail as a series of obviously fake tarantulas eat a man's face(what is even weirder is that real tarantulas were shown crawling up the man's body alongside the fake ones, which just helped make the fake ones stand out more). I like the movie, I think it's wonderfully creepy, but there was a lot that left me scratching my head.

As Roger Ebert once said about this film: "The movie is being revived around the country for midnight cult showings. Midnight is not late enough."

Anguish
Demons
Creepshow
The Beyond
Zombi 2
From Beyond
The Beast with Five Fingers
The Screaming Skull
The Killer Shrews
The Tingler
Viy
At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul
Black Sunday
Children of the Corn
The Burning
The Descent
Trick r' Treat
The Innkeepers
Stake Land
The Evil Dead (remake)
The Lords of Salem
The Gate
Kuroneko

[TSTR]

I think it's wonderfully creepy, but there was a lot that left me scratching my head.

This is like 95% of Italian horror/giallo schlock summed up in a sentence, and one of the reasons why I love it so.

[Ack]

I think it's wonderfully creepy, but there was a lot that left me scratching my head.

This is like 95% of Italian horror/giallo schlock summed up in a sentence, and one of the reasons why I love it so.

Maybe. Maybe it's just that I've watched so much Dario Argento that I'm expecting other giallo to be on par.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Maybe. Maybe it's just that I've watched so much Dario Argento that I'm expecting other giallo to be on par.

Perhaps on par with his older work...I have heard - but have not witnessed the fact - that his new filsm are terrible.

[noiseredux]

I think it's wonderfully creepy, but there was a lot that left me scratching my head.

This is like 95% of Italian horror/giallo schlock summed up in a sentence, and one of the reasons why I love it so.

Maybe. Maybe it's just that I've watched so much Dario Argento that I'm expecting other giallo to be on par.

@TSTR: haha and yes, I agree.

@Ack: So you're expecting every Itialian director to be severely overrated?

But seriously, Opera is one of the finest films to come out of Italy. Susperia is good. Recently Jennifer was pretty good. A handful of others are alright. But for the most part (and I've seen most of his work), I think that Argento is a director who should have just been a cinematographer. He's got a great eye for color, and vision for the way the camera should move. But a lot of the films themselves I'd be fine never seeing again. And the bulk of his output from the last decade is near terrible (Do You Like Hitchcock, The Card Player, etc).

RE: The Beyond... man that is a great movie, though.