Iām on a mission to watch more horror films, so hereās a space to talk about ones youāve seen recently, would recommend, or would avoid more than Ransomeās underpants.
The Ritual
I watched this in Mauritius, and really enjoyed it. Itās a British film set in Sweden (though filmed in Romania) following a group of friends who go on a hiking trip to honour their late friend. Things then start to get weird.
Itās got a nice, honest, jokey (but not slapsticky) tone and interesting characters. Itās not overproduced like some lost-in-the-woods horrors, and at feels subtly eerie and ominous.
It stars Rafe Spall who I really like (he was in a few eps of Black Mirror, too) and is produced by Andy Serkis.
I have some theories about what happens and really want to talk about the ending but I wonāt just yet
I also watched The Thing recently, which I thought was great. Iāve learned some interesting things about the production since too - like the fact that they used a fake hand to do the blood test scene for when the blood tests positive, but also used it for every part of the scene (i.e. every test) for continuity.
Today I picked up Unsane - has anyone seen that?
And how apt that Milan challenges me in the horror category on QuizUp as Iām writing this
I loved The Ritual! IĀ“ve seen it pretty much when they added it to Netflix and have recommended to pretty much everyone since (I think I also did that on twitter, you might have missed that?) @nihilquest liked it too, I think he saw it based on my recommendation, even. That monster is fantastic!
When you watched The Thing did you at some point think āoh that is where the plot from the X-Files Episode āIceā is from!ā or did you know that before?
HavenĀ“t seen Unsane. Plot sounds really familar though.
Stuff I donĀ“t like is the general trend to ghost house movies that I find really boring and the fact that they rely on jump scares and little else. Also the ridicolous success of the Conjuring Films that goes far enough to have birthed an entire āuniverseā. I could rant about how I dislike the way they glorify the Warrens as heroic people who care for those in need instead of the hoaxers they really were making use of people in dire situations.
But yeah, I also got annoyed by them in The Woman In Black and the new āItā (possibly the most overrated thing in recent memory I just couldnĀ“t get myself to like that one).
We watched The Planet of the Vampires recently. In spite of its atrocious English title (the Italian original title is Terror in Spaceā¦ not great either I suppose) it was great!
As for The Woman in Black though, itās kind of famous for that main jump scare, at least in the original theatre play (Iāve seen it twice but not seen the film). I feel like itās a bit more āearnedā, and also an example of an early story where it was a bit better suited. If I remember correctly the stage version only had one or two others apart from the big one. I can imagine that doesnāt translate well to film though.
The thing with jumpscares is that they often are the only thing that happens and they are usually made by a loud noise and you are startled by that which has nothing to do with what you react to on screen.
The good or earned ones have a context. Like the one in The Thing in the scene with the bloodtest when suddenly something jumps out..
I think one jumpscare that managed to get me multiple times was the woman on the staircase in Night Of The Living Dead. I think that must be the scene that sticks with most people.
Turns out The Conjuring wasnāt on Prime so watched Unsane instead. It was pretty good. I only found out afterwards that Soderbergh made the whole thing on an iPhone 7 Plus!
Iāve realised itās quite difficult to talk about horror film plots (especially psychological ones) without spoiling stuff. But anyway I enjoyed this one despite that there wasnāt a massive twist, and that it wasnāt quite the āis she insane or isnāt she?ā premise as described.
Oh, over here itĀ“s on Prime AND Netflix at the moment.
I clicked those āspoilersā (spoilers, no spoilers, meta?) because I already heard that on the Half In The Bag about it.
May check it out if it appears on here but IĀ“m not terribly excited either. I still need to see Hereditary, that one absolutly everyone seems to love.
No, it just seems too obscure in this case. ItĀ“s not on any streaming service and the DVD seems to be out of print (no newer release since 2001 it looks like).
As for the other two I recently saw A Quiet Place and found it refreshingly different because how often do you see a modern movie with this little dialog?
And the Exorcist is a must-have-seen classic of course. Maybe not my personal favourite of all time like it is for many. But really well done.
The Ritual
partly why I wanted to watch it. Lots of similarities. Ice was a great episode.
