Last Seen Contemporary Movie

[phantomstranger]

"Sleepy Hollow" (1999)
-Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci

Plot: Constable Ichabod Crane is sent from New York to the small village of Sleepy Hollow, to investigate a series of gruesome murders.

Phantoms Review: A Halloween staple at my house. Tim Burton's last great film. (oh , how I wish Dark Shadows had been more like Sleepy Hollow and not like it was) Beautifully filmed in dark colors to give it an almost black and white feel. Well acted, well written, with some great sounding dialog, scary,and just dripping with atmosphere.
I thoroughly enjoy this movie.

[PassiveCannibal]

I saw VHS 2 last night. Holy crap was that good. Especially the Indonesian cult story. :eek:

[Sicknero]

Snuff 102 (2007)

The film begins with a (to me) pretty disingenuous warning that says "All documented torture scenes in this film are real", which they obviously aren't. What it means is that there are scenes of animal suffering and some images from the internet that are real. Not a good start.

There are a couple of animal scenes but this is no Cannibal Holocaust; they are real sequences of vivisection and slaughter of the type you'd find in a PETA release - distressing but relatively tame compared to animal rights films. Aside from that there are some bits of internet footage which are difficult to make out because of being "artistically" degraded for the movie.

So all that aside ... the plot revolves around an investigative journalist who goes looking into snuff movies, with not unpredictable results. It isn't a linear film either so it's a little confusing until you get the hang of what's going on.

There's some nasty and horrific stuff in here, so if you're a fan of Vogel et al it's worth a watch. I found it quite annoying though - I mean there was obviously some time and effort spent on creating some pretty convincing footage, but then the effect is ruined by OTT music and sfx that detracts totally from the sense of reality. A "real" soundtrack would have made these bits infinitely more shocking and disturbing.

Some reviewers praise this movie for asking "Important Questions", which I guess it does really. The thing is though that it asks them directly and overtly, in voice overs and in interviews carried out by the journalist. This approach does work, but ultimately it doesn't raise any questions that aren't raised by any other piece of extreme cinema, or indeed any other screen violence.

The ending is ok I thought - it moves from faux-snuff to a more traditional horror sequence and finishes in a way that enjoyably (to me at least) reverses the trend in this type of movie.

Why "102"...? You'll have to watch it. :-)

[AmericanIdiot]

The abc s of death.............like chronogrl said huge disappointment. This was awful. Made myself watch it to the end hoping for something. They should have made a short of me watching this. R for Rage.

[AmericanIdiot]

also checked out After Earth. Kept falling a sleep. I guess my prob with this one is i just dont like jayden smith. Thank god for his dad or he would never be working.

[ImmortalSlasher]

Trick r Treat -


SPOILERS!!!










I finally watched this one. I think horror anthologies might not be for me. At least in movie form. The tone always shifts from segment to segment. It was like that in Creepshow, Twilight Zone the movie, and other things that I can't remember. With TV shows it's ok because it's episode to episode. But with movies I like consistency. Or a constant build up.

There are some moments in this movie that lose some of the horror feel from the first segment, which I thought was great. I thought I was in for a really good horror movie in the opening. After all, people are saying that this is one of the best Halloween movies. And saying that puts it against Halloween. But when then they start to develop things and other stories it backs down a bit from that first segment and leans towards twists and gets away from dark slasher type horror of the opening. Which I guess is the point of anthologies. The movie is still kind of dark but in other ways. But once I realized that every segment had some kind of twist and how far the writer would go for that twist and to be clever, I was ahead of it. Except in the case of the Vampire. At least at first.

The movie certainly wasn't that scary. Not like movies I was able to see when I was very young. Movies that after watching them I didn't want to go to sleep. Or was scared at the idea of a guy not being able to be killed. Movies like Halloween which is still scary. Or Nightmare on Elm Street and a few of the Friday the 13th movies.

It is a cool idea of showing what goes on during Halloween in a small town. But I thought it could and should have been darker. Especially going from the opening and what one character that's everywhere does and symbolizes. Maybe he should have been more prominent instead of just a look who's around type. Because he's the most interesting thing in the movie. And the idea that this character wanders around, watching the activity, enforcing things in the open, and he's so small. That's freaky. A lot of bad things happen on this night. Especially to kids. I wonder what the town's reaction would be the day after? Perhaps this is the type of movie that actually needs a next year Halloween sequel. And since it was just announced I'm looking forward to what direction they go in.

I do wish that the twist with Anna Paquin's character was with witches, chanting, and something with human sacrifice. Sort of a reverse burning thing. That would have been more scary I think. At first I thought they were Vampires. But the idea of witches doing this every Halloween and waiting for this moment is more scary to me. Since this happens with Anna's type every so often I would imagine. It's not as special as needing to wait for every Halloween. I watched the movie a second time and from many pieces of dialog it's obvious what they are from the beginning. I guess the Red Riding Hood costume should have been enough for me to guess. But I knew she wasn't going to be as innocent as Red Riding Hood.

The appeal of this movie kind of feels like Cabin in the Woods. It wraps up a lot of horror stuff in a modern package. Which is cool I guess. But once you get past all the twists what sort of movie do you have? I don't think one as good as many are saying and not one to compare to Halloween.

[bamahorrorfan87]

our town 2003


one of my fav plays

[Alucard the Risen]

Two on the same day, first a morning flick on TV, Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak On a Plane, I rather enjoyed it, so I picked that up, then off to the theater! The lady wanted to see the Carrie re-remake, and while far more faithful to the original, I prefer Sissy Spacek in all her pissed off teenage glory to Chloe Grace-Moretz, who I always remember as "Hit Girl".

[ferretchucker]

Mama (2013)

Not sure exactly how I feel about this film. I think it started off fairly promising and slowly devolved into something ever so slightly cliché, although it did eventually redeem itself. If nothing else I appreciated how fine the line between mortifying and heart warming was throughout. Shame about the overuse of CGI towards the end.

[Despare]

Evil Dead - The Musical

Yeah yeah, it's not a movie but who cares, it was an absolute pleasure to go back again this year. Same cast, improved set, and more eyeballs and organs in the splatterzone. I can't wait for next year.