A scary thing happened on the way to the Movie Forums - Horrorcrammers
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Another wintry horror that (I'd remember) isn't bad at all is The Dyatlov Pass Incident (aka Devil's Pass).
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Thanks for all the recommendations!
I just watched Ghostkeeper, and it's exactly what I was looking for. It's probably more often compared to The Shining, but I'd compare it more with burnt Offerings. Great vibe, and just enough whack stuff to not break the mood. Strong recommendation to those here who haven't seen it. It's on youtube.
I just watched Ghostkeeper, and it's exactly what I was looking for. It's probably more often compared to The Shining, but I'd compare it more with burnt Offerings. Great vibe, and just enough whack stuff to not break the mood. Strong recommendation to those here who haven't seen it. It's on youtube.
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Upcoming topics of discussion:
1) The Warriors and my very complicated feelings about it.
2) The Birds was not good. Except the broken teacups scene and the seagull eating the small child in the red coat---those were gold.
3) Theater of Blood was . . . something. But Diana Rigg!
4) Pandorum could have been so good if they hadn't wasted so much time and dialogue trying to "hide" some really obvious plot turns. Ben Foster single-handedly made this somewhat enjoyable.
EDIT: One more thing: (5) The lead guy in The Fly is a creep and I'm finding it hard to be sad that he's going to die in a hydraulic press.
1) The Warriors and my very complicated feelings about it.
2) The Birds was not good. Except the broken teacups scene and the seagull eating the small child in the red coat---those were gold.
3) Theater of Blood was . . . something. But Diana Rigg!
4) Pandorum could have been so good if they hadn't wasted so much time and dialogue trying to "hide" some really obvious plot turns. Ben Foster single-handedly made this somewhat enjoyable.
EDIT: One more thing: (5) The lead guy in The Fly is a creep and I'm finding it hard to be sad that he's going to die in a hydraulic press.
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Upcoming topics of discussion:
1) The Warriors and my very complicated feelings about it.
2) The Birds was not good. Except the broken teacups scene and the seagull eating the small child in the red coat---those were gold.
3) Theater of Blood was . . . something. But Diana Rigg!
4) Pandorum could have been so good if they hadn't wasted so much time and dialogue trying to "hide" some really obvious plot turns. Ben Foster single-handedly made this somewhat enjoyable.
EDIT: One more thing: (5) The lead guy in The Fly is a creep and I'm finding it hard to be sad that he's going to die in a hydraulic press.
1) The Warriors and my very complicated feelings about it.
2) The Birds was not good. Except the broken teacups scene and the seagull eating the small child in the red coat---those were gold.
3) Theater of Blood was . . . something. But Diana Rigg!
4) Pandorum could have been so good if they hadn't wasted so much time and dialogue trying to "hide" some really obvious plot turns. Ben Foster single-handedly made this somewhat enjoyable.
EDIT: One more thing: (5) The lead guy in The Fly is a creep and I'm finding it hard to be sad that he's going to die in a hydraulic press.
2) Among my least favorite Hitchcock films though I admire its impact on horror and the push towards inexplicable events.
3) Theater of Blood may not be the best Vincent Price film but it is the most Vincent Price film therefore it is the best Vincent Price film.*
4) It’s also undercut by shlocky, early 2000s over stylized hyper editing techniques that kill any tension. It and Event Horizon are movies people like because of the movies they could’ve been. Not for the movies they are.
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Yay, Takoma's back!
Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back
Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back
Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back
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Upcoming topics of discussion:
1) The Warriors and my very complicated feelings about it.
1) The Warriors and my very complicated feelings about it.
Yay, Takoma's back!
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Don't worry. I was here all along. Reading. Watching. Judging.
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The Warriors, 1979
In a near future New York, a massive summit of street gangs is disrupted by the assassination of one of the main gang leaders. While the killing was perpetrated by the devious Luther (David Patrick Kelly), a gang called The Warriors is framed for the murder. When their own leader is taken out, Swan (Michael Beck) takes charge as he and his gang try to make it back to their home territory, being hunted by every other gang on the way. On their journey they meet up with Mercy (Deborah Van Valkenburgh), a young woman living in a rival gang's territory.
For about the first act of this film I was having some really mixed feelings about it. And while some of those feelings remained mixed for the entire run time, I do have to say that especially in the second half it is able to bring more nuance than I expected to some of its character dynamics.
To begin with, it is easy to grasp why this film has attained its cult status. The look of many of the gangs are immediately iconic, and a lot of them walk just the right line between absurdity and menace. Then there are the stylish interludes with the DJ (Lynne Thigpen---shout out Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?!), only seen as a mouth and a hand on a turntable. The film feels like something different, that strange blessing of a lower budget and shooting on-location. The decision by the director to have the action take place after a rainstorm adds wonderful lighting moments and a dreamy aspect to the proceedings.
Where I appreciated some unexpected nuance was in the development of the romance between Mercy and Swan. Their initial encounter with each other is incredibly ugly: she tries to provoke a violent fight between the Warriors and a rival gang, while he in turn glibly threatens to gang rape her and repeatedly calls her a whore. I really liked a speech she gives later in the film, as the two traverse a subway tunnel, wherein she admits that she sleeps around, but argues that the only future ahead of her is a miserable existence, so why not take some pleasure while she still can? In turn, the way that he refers to her behavior (constantly calling her some variation of whore or filthy) reveals his own insecurities. It's a defense mechanism to push her away, and to hold her (and maybe even women in general) in a kind of blanket contempt that lets him get away with treating them poorly. The scene above--in which Mercy and Swan solemnly regard a wealthy or middle-class quartet of high school students returning from their prom---reveals the bond they've developed through shared hardship. Like I said, a lot deeper than that I expected.
There's also some interesting moments in terms of the way that gangs form as a way of creating family, and often as a kind of masculine support system. (We do see one female gang, but they are certainly a minority). The scene where the Warriors confront a smaller gang called The Orphans shows the degree to which most of these kids just want to command respect and this is the only way they know how. There's a fragility to people who need to join such groups, and I liked that the film touched on this a bit. (Though fragile people, and fragile men in particular, can be incredibly dangerous---fragile and vulnerable are not exactly the same thing).
Where my mixed feelings came in were in some ways that the main characters seemed to be meant to evoke sympathy but definitely did not. While Swan's threat to have his crew gang rape Mercy didn't seem all that sincere as an actual threat, it's definitely true that fellow gang member Ajax (James Remar) is a sexual predator. It's something that his crew has accepted about him, and something they don't even blink an eye at. I'm not saying that this is unrealistic. In fact, I think it is very believable. But it made it a lot harder for me to root for the Warriors as a group.
I also went back and forth a little bit in terms of the portrayal of gangs and gang culture. While it does show that there is violence---both between gangs and towards people not in the gangs, particularly women--the nature of the story splits the gangs into "good ones" and "bad ones". The false accusation plot makes the Warriors the "good ones", but again we see that they do not blink an eye at one of their crew raping a woman just because he feels like it.
Overall I quite liked the film and felt it had a very unique look and feel to it.
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Uh oh, this means you probably noticed me trashing you all week. I should probably delete my posts ASAP if it's not too late.
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The Warriors, 1979
In a near future New York, a massive summit of street gangs is disrupted by the assassination of one of the main gang leaders. While the killing was perpetrated by the devious Luther (David Patrick Kelly), a gang called The Warriors is framed for the murder. When their own leader is taken out, Swan (Michael Beck) takes charge as he and his gang try to make it back to their home territory, being hunted by every other gang on the way. On their journey they meet up with Mercy (Deborah Van Valkenburgh), a young woman living in a rival gang's territory.
For about the first act of this film I was having some really mixed feelings about it. And while some of those feelings remained mixed for the entire run time, I do have to say that especially in the second half it is able to bring more nuance than I expected to some of its character dynamics.
To begin with, it is easy to grasp why this film has attained its cult status. The look of many of the gangs are immediately iconic, and a lot of them walk just the right line between absurdity and menace. Then there are the stylish interludes with the DJ (Lynne Thigpen---shout out Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?!), only seen as a mouth and a hand on a turntable. The film feels like something different, that strange blessing of a lower budget and shooting on-location. The decision by the director to have the action take place after a rainstorm adds wonderful lighting moments and a dreamy aspect to the proceedings.
Where I appreciated some unexpected nuance was in the development of the romance between Mercy and Swan. Their initial encounter with each other is incredibly ugly: she tries to provoke a violent fight between the Warriors and a rival gang, while he in turn glibly threatens to gang rape her and repeatedly calls her a whore. I really liked a speech she gives later in the film, as the two traverse a subway tunnel, wherein she admits that she sleeps around, but argues that the only future ahead of her is a miserable existence, so why not take some pleasure while she still can? In turn, the way that he refers to her behavior (constantly calling her some variation of whore or filthy) reveals his own insecurities. It's a defense mechanism to push her away, and to hold her (and maybe even women in general) in a kind of blanket contempt that lets him get away with treating them poorly. The scene above--in which Mercy and Swan solemnly regard a wealthy or middle-class quartet of high school students returning from their prom---reveals the bond they've developed through shared hardship. Like I said, a lot deeper than that I expected.
There's also some interesting moments in terms of the way that gangs form as a way of creating family, and often as a kind of masculine support system. (We do see one female gang, but they are certainly a minority). The scene where the Warriors confront a smaller gang called The Orphans shows the degree to which most of these kids just want to command respect and this is the only way they know how. There's a fragility to people who need to join such groups, and I liked that the film touched on this a bit. (Though fragile people, and fragile men in particular, can be incredibly dangerous---fragile and vulnerable are not exactly the same thing).
Where my mixed feelings came in were in some ways that the main characters seemed to be meant to evoke sympathy but definitely did not. While Swan's threat to have his crew gang rape Mercy didn't seem all that sincere as an actual threat, it's definitely true that fellow gang member Ajax (James Remar) is a sexual predator. It's something that his crew has accepted about him, and something they don't even blink an eye at. I'm not saying that this is unrealistic. In fact, I think it is very believable. But it made it a lot harder for me to root for the Warriors as a group.
I also went back and forth a little bit in terms of the portrayal of gangs and gang culture. While it does show that there is violence---both between gangs and towards people not in the gangs, particularly women--the nature of the story splits the gangs into "good ones" and "bad ones". The false accusation plot makes the Warriors the "good ones", but again we see that they do not blink an eye at one of their crew raping a woman just because he feels like it.
Overall I quite liked the film and felt it had a very unique look and feel to it.
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