A scary thing happened on the way to the Movie Forums - Horrorcrammers

Thank you. DoestheDogDie had no information about Dog Star Man, and for some reason I got a bit nervous.

I'm pretty liberal with the definition of horror, but not sure if Dog Star Man would qualify on any level.

Huh. It's marked as horror on IMDb, which is how I've been doing my searching.

It's definitely not a horror film, but it's still worth watching.

Had my annual catch up on weird indie horror/genre films day with a friend, we watched 5 films quick notes as follows.

When Evil Lurks - Well we started off with the best film of the night. This was fantastic, in the utterly dread inducing, skin crawlingly gory and utterly emotionally devastating sort of way. Just great performances and wonderful story telling that rewards paying attention to what's going on. Sure it's a horrible downward spiral you can see coming but it's such a captivating one.

They Wait in the Dark - I liked this one with some caveats. The good is that it's twist is wonderfully revealed and has a bunch of good subtle hints about it throughout. The bad is that the acting and pacing could have used a bit of work, it's not terrible but it's low budget definitely shows a bit there. In the end it's still a pretty good slow burn with a nice ghost story revealed, though I have no idea what the title really refers to in regards to what occurs in the film.

You Won't be Alone - The set up is definitely that of a horror film, young girl gets kidnapped and turned into a witch, or wolf-eateress as they are called in the film. From there it of course turns into at cool ever shifting meditation on society, life and love with a somber ending. Mesmerizing just way more dark fable than horror.

Sorcery - Kind of a dark fantasy coming of age drama, at times feels very Del Toro in some of it's humans are the monsters themes and background folklore and mysticism. Either way it was a powerful if somewhat somber look at a young girl having to come to terms with her life, spirituality and colonialism.

In the Dirt - First and foremost if you have problems with flashing lights never see this movie like the last half of it is mostly flashing lights to some degree. Now they we are past that this was largely and extended acid trip, was anything really going on or was everyone getting high on something the forest. The ride was entertaining though I'll be damned if I have any idea of what it was all about. Kind of feels like Ben Wheatley had a fun horror film idea and an experimental noise electronica music video idea and got the notes crossed and just made it without trying to disentangle them.

If I had to order them best to worst it would probably be When Evil Lurks, Sorcery, You Won't be Alone, They Wait in the Dark and then In the Dirt, but honestly they all had some interesting moments and I certainly don't regret having any of them on the watch list.

does THE BIG BOSS 1971 count as a horror movie?

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Absolutely love Possession, and I've seen it on the big screen twice. I think it's A+ horror that works on both a visceral and allegorical level.

One of the best ever. A movie so unbelievably good I was shocked it could slip past my radar as long as it did.



I don't think I'm being hyperbolic when I say it should be in the discussion for determining what the greatest horror film of all time is.


It's up there.

I just watched this and it's easily the best film of 2023 I've seen this far. It was on my radar because of the director's earlier film, Terrified, which I liked quite a bit but this is better still. Bleak and devastating, just the way I like it.

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For the longest time, to my understanding, the version that showed in the US was heavily edited (down for running time, you know, 90 minutes and all) and I've heard that version was a lot worse (this was according to someone I knew who watched it as a teen when it first hit the US video stores and stuff back in the 80s).


I'll just assume Canada got the same version.


I feel like watching it in 2012 felt like it was unheard of everywhere and now it's just exploded in popularity in the last five.
I think the most surprising bit of evidence of the last part is that it made the top 250 for the Sight & Sound critics poll this time around, which just blows my mind just that many people have seen it. Albeit, just barely.

Checks to see if anyone I follow on letterboxd has seen When Evil Lurks...
Okay, adding When Evil Lurks to my watchlist, possibly for New Year's Day.

When Evil Lurks is great, I watched it back in October.

What about Alien, though?

I have. It's okay.

I don't have any problem if someone considers it. Don't know if I'd quite put it on my personal short list thought. But it's an obvious contender.

Another recommendation for Possession. I've never seen a movie quite like it, horror or otherwise. Isabelle Adjani's lack of an Oscar nomination for it makes me question the Academy's judgement a bit.

My first hastily-written writeup of the year is on its way.

Evil Dead (2013) -

Is this on par with the 1981 original? No, but it's a worthy attempt and a pretty good horror movie in its own right. Mia (Levy), an addict, hopes that a trip to a cabin in the woods with brother David (Fernandez) and her best friends will put her on a path to sobriety. They soon discover that with its blood stains, cat carcasses in the basement and that legendary flesh-bound tome, the Necronomicon, that it's no ordinary cabin. After Eric (Pucci) unwittingly places a curse on the property, Mia and pals have another demon to fight.

Like the original, this version started with a rating more extreme than R and it's easy to see why. It's not surprising because if Don't Breathe is of any indication, director Alvarez is not a guy who pulls punches. He succeeds at making you feel the pain in big ways with its amputations and small with its use of needles and nail guns. Oh, and there's those thousands of gallons of fake blood as well. As for atmosphere, with its convincingly decaying cabin and possibly the most overgrown forest in New Zealand, it's got that covered in spades. On top of that, despite calling too much attention to themselves, Alvarez's nods to Raimi's trademarks like the camera journeying through the woods and the use of a chainsaw are welcome touches.

Again, this is a pretty good, but not great horror movie that, if anything, deserves credit for how it associates fighting one's personal demons with fighting actual ones. If there's one thing holding it back from greatness, it's in the character department. In the original trilogy, I willingly care about Ash and his associates, but in this one, I had to make myself do it. With the exception of Levy, the typical performance is mostly bloodless, no pun intended. While I did not go in expecting a cult hero like Ash to emerge - which I don't do before watching any horror movie, for that matter - I wish I walked away with at least one of the heroes leaving a lasting impression. I also didn't like that a supposedly important plot point about Mia and David's mother being in an asylum has minimal payoff. I recommend the movie anyway, and it's nice to know that most of the cast and of course Alvarez have gone on to have good careers. It's just too bad that this job was more of a stepping stone than a monument to them.

This seems correct. It feels to be on the better end of an IFC Midnight movie, which, like "A24 horror," also seems to be a descriptor of the type of horror movie, and its quality, you're going to get.

My memory of it is it feels like it has a tonne of promise at the beginning,and then slowly chipped away at my expectations as it went along.


But at no point was it anything less than decent, which is way more than I can say for the similarly well received The Sadness, which I thought was shit.