Devil (2010)
Devil on Netflix Streaming
Having a helluva time catching up here. Anyway.
I've watched this one before. I gave it one star. And I stick to that, having watched it again. Blame Shama-lama-ding-dong beating his one trick pony to death. (Which is not a racist knock. It's a knock on the crap he's releasing as films, and how infantile I find them. He could be a prince from purple hermaphroditic frog people of Pluto, whom conquered the Earth and we all crave to become, and I'd still mock him however possible.)
Blame the boredom of the film. I was digging up information on Norse mythology when this was on, FFS, and didn't lose the plot.
Blame the narrow vision of the Devil. Not even a little smarm to smooth on the evil? Come on.
Blame the people who decided to fund this film.
But I'm not watching it again. He not only needs a new gimmick, he needs a new POV.
Would I watch it again? No.
Would I own it? Hell no.
Friday, November 15, 2013
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Day 28: Hunger
Hunger (2009)
Hunger on Netflix Streaming
It's definitely schadenfreude that I chose this film to watch as catch-up after deciding on dinner. Dinner which I'm now plowing into. Sorry, characters. You make your tough, cannibalistic choices, and I'm going to eat re-heated kubideh and rice. Yum.
A low-budget film, but a well done one. Part of the Fangoria Frightfest, one of the few I enjoy enough to watch again.
And it is pretty standard, plot wise. Mysterious stranger captures a group of strangers and tests them. Forces them to violence, often against each other, and clearly enjoys it.
What catches my attention is the mix of grim reality, and the application of beauty. Again, with the choice of classical music to capture the tone, reminding jaded modern ears that it's not all elevator music.
This is nothing new. But there is nothing new in the world. All ideas are built on each other. To directly copy an extant idea is one thing, a lazy thing, but to take the core of the idea and expand on it in another way, another direction, is the essence of creativity.
Would I watch it again? Yes.
Would I own it? Yes.
Hunger on Netflix Streaming
It's definitely schadenfreude that I chose this film to watch as catch-up after deciding on dinner. Dinner which I'm now plowing into. Sorry, characters. You make your tough, cannibalistic choices, and I'm going to eat re-heated kubideh and rice. Yum.
A low-budget film, but a well done one. Part of the Fangoria Frightfest, one of the few I enjoy enough to watch again.
And it is pretty standard, plot wise. Mysterious stranger captures a group of strangers and tests them. Forces them to violence, often against each other, and clearly enjoys it.
What catches my attention is the mix of grim reality, and the application of beauty. Again, with the choice of classical music to capture the tone, reminding jaded modern ears that it's not all elevator music.
This is nothing new. But there is nothing new in the world. All ideas are built on each other. To directly copy an extant idea is one thing, a lazy thing, but to take the core of the idea and expand on it in another way, another direction, is the essence of creativity.
Would I watch it again? Yes.
Would I own it? Yes.
Monday, November 4, 2013
Day 27: Hostel III
Hostel III (2011)
Hostel III on Netflix Streaming
At the risk of defending the overall notion of the trilogy theme and Elite Hunting, and telling people to move past the lesser video quality, I like this one. It takes the idea of the first two-- rich assholes paying to kill other humans without reparation or punishment in the middle of nowhere-- and elevates it to a gladiator ring. Forget the characters in this, members bid on the right to kill, gamble on the number of shots taken or kind of victim pleas, and watch everything behind the safety of glass. Like a peep show for the bloodthirsty.
Some of the humour and quirkiness is gone, replaced with an action/thriller mood, but I really can't complain. It seems to be a bigger commentary on the setting of the new arena, that placing it stateside in the den of gambling and vice, it must be taken seriously.
Except it's still Hostel. And stripping some of the humour strips out some of the horror, too. Oh well.
Would I watch it again? Yes.
Would I own it? Eh, probably not.
Hostel III on Netflix Streaming
At the risk of defending the overall notion of the trilogy theme and Elite Hunting, and telling people to move past the lesser video quality, I like this one. It takes the idea of the first two-- rich assholes paying to kill other humans without reparation or punishment in the middle of nowhere-- and elevates it to a gladiator ring. Forget the characters in this, members bid on the right to kill, gamble on the number of shots taken or kind of victim pleas, and watch everything behind the safety of glass. Like a peep show for the bloodthirsty.
Some of the humour and quirkiness is gone, replaced with an action/thriller mood, but I really can't complain. It seems to be a bigger commentary on the setting of the new arena, that placing it stateside in the den of gambling and vice, it must be taken seriously.
Except it's still Hostel. And stripping some of the humour strips out some of the horror, too. Oh well.
Would I watch it again? Yes.
Would I own it? Eh, probably not.
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Brief Update
As it is now November, I'm aware that there are not 31 films/blogs here... and will catch up to them as soon as possible. My plan is to keep posting entries when I watch something, particularly something new, at least once a week. October is a busy month for this gorehound, but the last week of October is insanely busy. I've either been on stage or rehearsing to be on stage since last Saturday, and am shortly leaving to be on stage tonight again... Oh, except Monday, which was spent in the glory (/sarcasm) of a flame retardant cubicle doing what I do to keep paying for things like this horror film habit of mine. So it's been tough to carve out the time for a film.
Stay bloody.
Stay bloody.
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Day 26: The Crazies
The Crazies (2010)
Mysterious plane goes down in marsh, contaminates water source, people go homicidal. Pretty standard, really. Faceless government stepping in to contain it by any means necessary... which then goes comically wrong? Also pretty standard.
It's another one of those films I can't really dig into and claw up something meaningful to muse over, but I enjoy it.
Moving on.
Would I watch it again? Yes.
Would I own it? Yes.
Mysterious plane goes down in marsh, contaminates water source, people go homicidal. Pretty standard, really. Faceless government stepping in to contain it by any means necessary... which then goes comically wrong? Also pretty standard.
It's another one of those films I can't really dig into and claw up something meaningful to muse over, but I enjoy it.
Moving on.
Would I watch it again? Yes.
Would I own it? Yes.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Day 25: Silent Hill
Silent Hill (2006)
If you know me, you know there's a list of certain actors I'll watch whatever they're in. Sean Bean is on that list.
Plus, it's Silent Hill. There's no way in hell the movie could measure up to the games. Not for plot, or characters, or the atmosphere. It can take a gamer hours--days or weeks if they do side missions-- to get through the convoluted and regularly bizarre story of the games, and they do so as the main character. They are the main character.
In a film, you follow the main character. Some perceptions of the main character, and the monsters, is immutable. There's a loss of control.
So, of course, gamers are going to complain. The film can never be as creepy as the game, and it doesn't try. It's an episode of the world, an alternate universe just recogniseable enough that people who know what details to look for can appreciate it, but the game-innocent isn't lost or bored.
Silent Hill, the world, is beautiful. Terrible and beautiful. It's the dark side of the magic Disney uses to lure in people and feed their imaginations. There is the physical, and there is the emotional connection to it. Everything has meaning.
Without knowledge of the games, it's easy to miss the meaning, to mark Pyramid Head as just another bizarre Hell creature and call it a day. To try and intentionally forget him. (Good luck.)
Gamers seeking a live action version of the mannequin screwing (I mean that literally) Pyramid Head of the second game hate that he's not the same avatar of rage and destruction, that their longer glimpse of him is somehow more human than the graphics and game designers of 2001 made him.
I love this movie. I always will. It finds that magic button in my mind and turns on my imagination. The games do that too, but this has its own magic. Hate it for not being pure, or being too weird to be mainstream.
But love it for being something different. Something terrible and beautiful. Plus, there's Sean Bean, and he doesn't die. That almost never happens.
Would you watch it again? Yes.
Would you own it? Already do.
If you know me, you know there's a list of certain actors I'll watch whatever they're in. Sean Bean is on that list.
Plus, it's Silent Hill. There's no way in hell the movie could measure up to the games. Not for plot, or characters, or the atmosphere. It can take a gamer hours--days or weeks if they do side missions-- to get through the convoluted and regularly bizarre story of the games, and they do so as the main character. They are the main character.
In a film, you follow the main character. Some perceptions of the main character, and the monsters, is immutable. There's a loss of control.
So, of course, gamers are going to complain. The film can never be as creepy as the game, and it doesn't try. It's an episode of the world, an alternate universe just recogniseable enough that people who know what details to look for can appreciate it, but the game-innocent isn't lost or bored.
Silent Hill, the world, is beautiful. Terrible and beautiful. It's the dark side of the magic Disney uses to lure in people and feed their imaginations. There is the physical, and there is the emotional connection to it. Everything has meaning.
Without knowledge of the games, it's easy to miss the meaning, to mark Pyramid Head as just another bizarre Hell creature and call it a day. To try and intentionally forget him. (Good luck.)
Gamers seeking a live action version of the mannequin screwing (I mean that literally) Pyramid Head of the second game hate that he's not the same avatar of rage and destruction, that their longer glimpse of him is somehow more human than the graphics and game designers of 2001 made him.
I love this movie. I always will. It finds that magic button in my mind and turns on my imagination. The games do that too, but this has its own magic. Hate it for not being pure, or being too weird to be mainstream.
But love it for being something different. Something terrible and beautiful. Plus, there's Sean Bean, and he doesn't die. That almost never happens.
Would you watch it again? Yes.
Would you own it? Already do.
Day 24: The Descent
The Descent (2005)
A bunch of women go down into an "unexplored" cave and run into monsters, and manage to not turn into screamy, useless cardboard cut-outs.
That's enough for me to like it, right there.
The claustrophobic cave passages will make you squirm, and the monsters are definitely nothing I'd want to run into in the middle of, well, anywhere.
And that's all I have to say about it, really. Go watch it. Go buy it.
Would I watch it again? Yes.
Would I own it? Already do.
A bunch of women go down into an "unexplored" cave and run into monsters, and manage to not turn into screamy, useless cardboard cut-outs.
That's enough for me to like it, right there.
The claustrophobic cave passages will make you squirm, and the monsters are definitely nothing I'd want to run into in the middle of, well, anywhere.
And that's all I have to say about it, really. Go watch it. Go buy it.
Would I watch it again? Yes.
Would I own it? Already do.
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