Horrorfest 2007?

[Jon_Nation_Films]

anyone going to see the new 8 movies? I just missed the chance to get the all access pass but i might still try to catch a few of them i think theyre playing in select theaters all over the US from Nov 9-18... they look really good this year i have 4 of the 2006 movies ,the gravedancers was awesome as well as dark ride.

[fortunato]

anyone going to see the new 8 movies? I just missed the chance to get the all access pass but i might still try to catch a few of them i think theyre playing in select theaters all over the US from Nov 9-18... they look really good this year i have 4 of the 2006 movies ,the gravedancers was awesome as well as dark ride.

i can't say i was a fan of any of last year's films. however, there are couple this year that look worth checking out, frontier(s) and the deaths of ian stone in particular.

[Sharkchild]

I definitely want to make it to at least one of the films.

[GorePhobia]

I am thinking of going to see Borderland and Tooth & Nail.

[Red1332]

Ressurecting an old thread...my bf and I made a concerted effort to go to all 8 films this year after only managing to see 2 from last year. (That being Gravedancers and Penny Dreadful.)

I enjoyed going just because I really enjoy horror movies and various takes on the genre. To their credit there was not a single repeat of any one type of horror movie...not 2 movies about monsters hiding in the dark, or 2 movies withcrazy men with hatchets.
There were some that when we were done we simply sat there and looked at each other and realized a few things were missing.

~In Unearthed there are half a dozen characters that live quite a while and never receive a name
~In Tooth and Nail they don't explain why everyone is named after a car (save for two individuals). They also fail to give us any reason to be concerned the people are dying. I say that keeping in mind I really liked the premise of the film, a post-apocalyptic world where we ran out of oil.
~Crazy Eights - INFORMATION. Not enough back story concerning why they were where they were, who they were, why any of it was even happening. And this is not in the usual "we stumbled in to something huge and we're getting slaughtered with no idea what's going on." kind of ignorance. The one where it's obvious they've created a history for what's going on with the screen, they're just not sharing any of it.

I really liked the Deaths of Ian Stone, although the explanation for the story was somewhat handed to you. Granted, had they not done it that way it is quite possible Ian would've never caught on to what was happening so I won't fault them for that.
I also really liked Borderland (probably the renamed Frontiers as I thought I remember that one on the website but never saw it listed with a showtime). I liked the way it was shot, and that it was based on a true story. Everything supernatural had a rational explanation in the end which actually made it seem more scary and real.
Probably hands down my favorite, though, was Mulberry St. Also shot really well, it is just the story of a group of people trying to survive the evening. There are no experts that swoop in. Any information about what's going on is caught via blurbs heard over TVs and radios in the background. We aren't given an omniscient overview of what is happening in the whole city. The complete confusion and desperation of the situation is well captured. along with the personalities of the characters in it. When this one hits video, I am purchasing it.

If anybody's interested in a quick non-spoilery synopsis of the other movies I can do a rundown but honestly they'll probably be on Sci-Fi next Halloween, following the pattern that tne 2006 ones did this Halloween. They're at least worth viewing on cable if you can. If for no other reason, you can laugh at the use of obviously bad masks and prosthetics in some. :)

[ChronoGrl]

I had seen 5 of the moves from last year (Meet the Hamiltons - GREAT, Penny Dreadful - GREAT, Abandoned - Good, Dark Ride - OK, Reincarnation - GREAT). THIS year, my boyfriend and I got the ALL ACCESS PASS... And while only three of them were good, those three were SPECTACULAR.

I actually already did a rundown of the 8 of them in the "LAST SEEN MOVIE" thread, but I will put them all here, in case you are interested. If not, then please disregard.

____________________________________________

1. Unearthed

This movie doesn't try to do anything novel; Monster movie ripping off Alien 3. Yes, Alien 3. Didn't bother ripping off either of the good ones... The script was poor, the direction horrible (the director made up for lack of budget by over-using the shaky cam), and the special effects were pathetic. I consider this movie essentially Alien 3 with slightly better CGI but in the desert on an Indian Reservation...

It's a B Grade monster movie. Nothing more, nothing less.

I give it 2 stars out of 5.



2. The Deaths of Ian Stone

The Matrix meets Dark City meets Groundhog Day... But not in a good way. At first glance, the concept seems intriguing and well thought-out. The scares are fantastic. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the first 2/3 of the movie was possibly some of the best horror film bits that I have seen... ever. The last 1/3 however... The movie seems to tack on inconsistent Hollywood themes as well as HORRIBLY written exposition. Considering how great the beginning of the movie was, the end was just... Terrible to take.

I give it 2.5 stars, but only because the beginning was incredible. Otherwise, it would barely even get 1.



3. Borderland

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v623/Chronogrl/borderland.gif

Wow. Seriously. Wow. I am actually going to add this to the "Incredibly Gory F*cked Up Movies" thread. Borderland is slow-going at first because it did not fit in with the previous two frenetic monster movies. It is the branch of horror that treads the waters of investigative noir with some elements of torture porn and revenge.

My boyfriend takes issue with this film being classified as a horror movie as it definitely leans into the broken detective fighting his own personal demons plus investigative revenge epic plus drug cartel/cultish themes. With a little bit of lost Spring Breakers thrown into the mix.

Ok... Maybe that description doesn't really sell the film... The honest truth about the film is that it's gritty, honest, and truly horrifying. Spring Breakers run across a creepy cult who are part of a drug cartel. There are various questions between what is real and what is supernatural. Throughout the entire film, I wasn't sure where it was going, but I was excited to get there.

It was definitely slow going at first, but now that I know the purpose of the film, I would definitely own it.

Part of the horror of the film is the feeling of alienation and isolation (Spring Breakers across the Border in a world with a language and cultural barrier). Not an original theme, but done really well there.

Also, I wanted to clarify the "supernatural" aspect that I spoke of... I don't think that I was particularly clear... What I meant was that it's not really clear whether or not the assailants are supernatural entities or not, and that's definitely part of the purpose. Good juxtaposition to different cultural themes.

I honestly recommend this film. Just keep in mind: It starts slow with an increeeeeeeeeeedibly cliched set up: But, oh, it gets good. REALLY good. I give it 4.5 out of 5.



4. Lake Dead

I mean, with a quality title such as this, how can this movie possibly be bad?!

...

So three sisters find out that the grandfather that they thought was already dead, wasn't until, well, he actually died and left them a motel in a remote location. They travel up to the motel for the weekend... And are hunted down with such poor direction that there is no suspense, horror, or slashing at all...

Bad writing, TERRIBLE direction, and a really horrible poorly executed storyline. D-



5. Mulberry Street (http://www.horrorfestonline.com/film_mulberry-street.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v623/Chronogrl/mulberry.jpg

By far my second favorite film of the Festival so far (I've seen 6 out of 8 films). Mulberry Street is another modern variance of the monster/zombie infection formula. Very obviously influenced by 28 Days Later, this film uses gritty filtering and a well-directed shaky cam to create believable suspense and paranoia. Mulberry Street takes place primarily in a New York City neighborhood and follows the tenants in an apartment building as they strive to survive a spreading mysterious infection. The writing is smooth, the acting fantastic (the characters believable and charming), the special effects and make-up are truly horrifying. Definitely a successful chapter in the increasingly growing zombie mythos.

Loved it and plan on owning it. A must for zombie/monster movie fans.A-/A



6. Tooth and Nail

So the Earth has suffered through the apocalypse; fuel has been completely depleted and for some reason, the world's population is decreased by 2/3 in a matter of, oh, three years... yeah... So a group of local tools (seriously - tools; if you survive an apocalypse, I'd imagine that you'd be pretty badass... But not in Tooth and Nail) hole up in a hospital and are targeted by a gang of cannibalistic rogues.

SUCH good themes:
Post-apocalypse
Society vs. Anarchy/Cannibalism

But... Yet... So... Bad... I find it difficult to believe that the Earth would be cut down by 2/3 in a matter of 3 - 5 years and that the survivors were pathetic cultish victims (there are possibilities in here!)... Michael Madsen had a very, very small role... But not enough to keep this thing interesting... The only thing to keep this movie above LAKE DEAD was the fact that it had some pretty great action scenes... The rogue cannibals adorned themselves in viking gear and yielded delightfully pointy objects (spiked clubs and that whatnot)... They definitely tear through the hospital and turned this movie into a siege film... But not a good siege film.

D. Stay away.



7. Nightmare Man

There's B-Grade horror and then there's b-grade horror. This film is about a woman who receives a creepy mask and then thinks she's haunted by the Nightmare man, a demon that comes to her in her dreams... And then it comes to her reality...

I honestly have no issue with monster/slasher films, but the production value of this film was so incredibly low that everyone in the theater couldn't help but give way to laughter. The demon's mask was absolutely pathetic, and attempts to catch the victim were just... poorly choreographed... The dialogue was stereotypically bad, but not so bad as to be self-conscious parody...

Just an all around bad movie. As in, I want that hour and a half back. WOW. D-



8. Crazy Eights (http://www.horrorfestonline.com/film_crazy-eights.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v623/Chronogrl/crazy-eights_poster.jpg

Session 9 meets The Grudge. In a good way.

A ghost story involving 7 old friends, an old found box, and an old building. The present is confronted by the mistakes and shortfalls of the past. Definitely not a novel concept, but the execution was so incredibly clean that it left me digging my nails into my poor boyfriend's hand throughout the entire film. Crazy Eights takes a similar setting as Session 9 with the cast dealing with ghosts of their past (both metaphorical and literal) and couples it with the slow, methodical, hauntingly creepy suspenseful direction similar to Takashi Shimizu and other Japanese directors (the ghost aspect also follows similar themes). The writing and acting were incredibly vivid and captivating.

This was definitely the scariest film of the entire festival and a must-see for horror fans. A/A+

[Red1332]

I was just going to cut and paste the review I did on another site, so that's fine. I realized I didn't go looking to see if this had been posted elsewhere and shouldn't have done the reviews in this thread.

Pretty much I agree with every single thing you posted, and the reasons you posted them. Except for Crazy Eights. It was wonderfully scary, but I thought they were waaaay too vague with the back story.
Anyway, I'll get out of this thread now and go use the "search" tool in the future. :D

[ChronoGrl]

Dude - Copy, paste. If it sucks, we won't read it. :p

I have NO idea if I created a huge forum faux pas by copying and pasting from another thread... I figured - If people here read it, they can skip it. At least it's all on topic. I've been meaning to actually put my thoughts together on the Fest as a whole as I have yet to blog on it.

I'm actually interested to read what you thought... Go ahead and paste it here...

And if we want to get spoiler-y, we can discuss outside the forum.


Oh, yeah, and for Crazy Eights... I actually liked how it was vague, and I thought that they did exposition really well (generally when there is a lack of backstory, exposition is thrown at you and it seems incredibly contrived), so that was impressive... But I can see how it could be annoying too, though.

[Red1332]

The majority if it has some spoilers in it. I'd be happy to PM it to you instead and leave some mystery for other folks if they want to find out on their own.

(And no, I cut and paste from one forum to another constantly. If it's a faux-pas I've never been chewed out for it.)

My bf and I spent a LOT of time pouring over Crazy Eights in the absence of the information. It's true there's a fine like between being HANDED the story and just leaving it too damned vague to try and build up suspense (and fail.) As I go back over it in my head the movie's growing on me. I think I would probably need to see it again to watch for more clues, as I have a theory for what really happened, especially with the last few minutes of the film being thrown in there as it was.

Anyway, PM inc.

[ChronoGrl]

The majority if it has some spoilers in it. I'd be happy to PM it to you instead and leave some mystery for other folks if they want to find out on their own.

(And no, I cut and paste from one forum to another constantly. If it's a faux-pas I've never been chewed out for it.)

My bf and I spent a LOT of time pouring over Crazy Eights in the absence of the information. It's true there's a fine like between being HANDED the story and just leaving it too damned vague to try and build up suspense (and fail.) As I go back over it in my head the movie's growing on me. I think I would probably need to see it again to watch for more clues, as I have a theory for what really happened, especially with the last few minutes of the film being thrown in there as it was.

Anyway, PM inc.

PM me, baby.

...

I can definitely see where you're coming from. Would you say that you'd recommend it besides its faults? I honestly think that people should check out Crazy Eights. Stuck out to me as the strongest horror film over all.

[Red1332]

It was well shot, well scripted and it had atmosphere. Yes, go see it. And then see it again because even as I'm sitting here typing this I'm thinking it's probably a better movie the second time around when you're not dismissing items in the background as superfluous.
I'm starting to suspect strongly that a lot of the story is told via the walls. In fact, this spurred a discussion between my bf as I turned to talk to him about possibly trying to watch it again, and he's of the same mind. We both really liked how well it was shot and we realized just how many details we dismissed the first time. We didn't pay attention to the various items found with the little girl. We didn't read signs on the walls or look at posters....and what I DID catch is now tickling the corners of my mind as being the place where they probably put most of the story.