October/Halloween/Horror Recommendations

Shudder has been upping their game (at least in UK, I assume the same or very similar films are available in Ireland) - Hellraiser 1 & 2, Audition, Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Snowtown/The Snowtown Murders (grim as all get-out, that), Ring & Ring 2 (Japanese originals), Tenebrae, Prevenge (Alice Lowe comedic horror), Let The Right One In, The Hills Have Eyes (Wes Craven version), The Furies, One Cut Of The Dead (fantastic, and worth going in blind if at all possible), The Transfiguration (another pretty heavy one), Antiviral, We Are The Night...

Fysh wrote: »

There's a lot of talk about Host on Shudder being the film of the Lockdown era, which I haven't seen yet. But Vivarium is really good and also has unexpected relevance in the context of Lockdown.

Await Further Instructions
Try this one for a lockdown feel.
Vivarium was good as well.

Bambi wrote: »

I thought Host was awful, I wanted the entire cast dead within 10 minutes

Well if you wait long enough...

But don't want to spoil it

Best thing for me about Shudder is The Last Drive In series with Joe Bob...I could listen to that guy for hours... fascinating insights into the movies and horror flicks in general.

If you're after a lighter Halloween movie on Shudder try out Scare Package which I found pretty hilarious.

rtron wrote: »

Await Further Instructions
Try this one for a lockdown feel.
Vivarium was good as well.

I watched that a while ago and was a bit disappointed - it's a solid premise, but the acting wasn't great and it felt like it petered out towards the end. Could just be me, though.

johnny_ultimate

Rewatched Dawn of the Dead (1978) last night and had forgotten the extent to which it is the absolute boss of them all. I had such a big smile on my face seeing the absolute childish glee with which two of the main characters embrace the potential of the mall, breaking into shops and sliding down escalators. What a bromance! That it manages to be such fun without downplaying the danger posed by the shambling undead is Romero’s greatest achievement - these zombies can be bested, but also can easily overwhelm the characters before they realise. The satirical jabs at consumerism don’t hurt, mind you, but this is a best-in-class portrayal of zombies first and foremost.

Been watching a few of the Shudder titles recently too. Host was my favourite, comfortably - a whole lot of fun, and commits to its gimmicky premise with gusto.

Tigers Are Not Afraid is a pretty good Mexican drama with horror elements - more like Del Toro’s Devil’s Backbone. It commits to its idea of orphan kids caught up in the violence of Mexico’s drug war in a brash and unromantic way - nobody is invincible here. It can be blandly shot, but it commits to its premise and is a solid enough ‘prestige’ supernatural drama.

La Llorona in contrast fell flat for me. I love some of the ideas behind it - a war criminal being literally haunted by his past deeds. It does some cool stuff with the idea, including a nice ending that’s a smart ellipsis. But for a reasonably short film it all kinda dragged for me - undeniably well made and sometimes effective, but lacks the edge or bite that it needed to push itself up a quality level or two.

Fysh wrote: »

I watched that a while ago and was a bit disappointed - it's a solid premise, but the acting wasn't great and it felt like it petered out towards the end. Could just be me, though.

It was a bit budget alright, but I liked the concept, it was enough for me to get through it. I did start thinking about it during lockdown though.

Velvet buzzsaw is a fun one on Netflix.

Seconding the Hell House LLC recommendation from earlier, very pleasantly surprised with that one. Would definitely not recommend the sequels though.

Resolution and Spring on Amazon Prime and then the The Endless on Netflix from the same directors are definitely worth checking out.

On the opposite end of the scale, would thoroughly not recommend The ABCs of Death. Watched it last night and I genuinely can't remember the last time I've been so disappointed by such a large number of people in such a short amount of time.

Current watch list includes: Triangle, Mayhem, Vivarium, Errementari, Veronica and The Ritual - although I'm kind of tempted to read the novel of the last one first?

The Ritual is great.

Another one Joe Bob clued me into recently is The Changeling with fantastic acting from George C Scott and the rest of the cast.

Subtly scary as the best early 80s horror can be

Man Vs ManUre

Live! starring Eva Mendes was pretty enjoyable and easy watch.

Mayhem is a lot of fun in a "kill my boss? Do i dare live out the American dream?" sort of way. And Triangle punches above its weight and manages to get several very unsettling and creepy moments out of a premise that at face value might seem a bit tired.

jill_valentine

I love Triangle. What a lovely surprise that was to stumble over on SyFy one night.

Wailin

I've seen The Ritual recommended on here a good few times. Is this the 2017 movie about the hikers in Sweden?

Man Vs ManUre

Not a movie but the Roanoke season of American Horror Story is great. I think it’s a completely standalone season too so you don’t need to have seen the others.

FullBack Jam

jill_valentine wrote: »

I love Triangle. What a lovely surprise that was to stumble over on SyFy one night.

Good film alright. Have to say I struggled to follow it properly until I read up about the timelines afterwards.

Wailin wrote: »

I've seen The Ritual recommended on here a good few times. Is this the 2017 movie about the hikers in Sweden?

yup

Fysh wrote: »

Mayhem is a lot of fun in a "kill my boss? Do i dare live out the American dream?" sort of way. And Triangle punches above its weight and manages to get several very unsettling and creepy moments out of a premise that at face value might seem a bit tired.

Watched Mayhem last night and yea, would heartily recommend. The Belko Experiement meets Office Space with a dash of Zombieland.

Sounds like Triangle should be next on the list.

Is La Llorona worth a watch, johnny?

I watched Scare Package on Shudder last night and it was really good fun - a tongue-in-cheek horror anthology with a framing device based in a video rental shop, it was an entertaining riff on a variety of horror tropes and had someone clearly having a lot of fun with the practical FX (evidently a fan of the Evil Dead approach to gore and FX work, which is rarely a bad thing). One of the shorts was merely alright, but in this sort of anthology I count that as a win.

One thing to note - if you care about Game Of Thrones spoilers, maybe finish watching the series before watching this...

Watched The screaming silent there, very good. Blair witch style movie about people making a movie.

Watched Triangle last night and yea, definitely a nice surprise.

Had intended to watch Vivarium tonight but after gushing a bit over Hell House, a mate recommended The Houses October Built to me. I can see where they saw the connection, a found footage style movie with an interesting premise acted out by a cast with really good chemistry but the travelogue meets horror movie direction just never gelled for me and much of the running time felt like a waste until the climax. Eager to see what the director would do with the sequel I jumped straight into it and... regret.

The beach house. Couple goto the beach house and it turns into survival horror.
It's done well and worth it if you are struggling to find something.

Homelander

Just watched the Australian film 'Relic', thought it was absolutely superb. Best watched knowing nothing about it.

Dyr

Fysh wrote: »

I watched Scare Package on Shudder last night and it was really good fun - a tongue-in-cheek horror anthology with a framing device based in a video rental shop, it was an entertaining riff on a variety of horror tropes and had someone clearly having a lot of fun with the practical FX (evidently a fan of the Evil Dead approach to gore and FX work, which is rarely a bad thing). One of the shorts was merely alright, but in this sort of anthology I count that as a win.

One thing to note - if you care about Game Of Thrones spoilers, maybe finish watching the series before watching this...

I watched the first few parts and thought it was a ham fisted ball of ****e.:D

ERRMGZ Horror cliches r so FUNNEH!!

Dyr

gizmo wrote: »

Watched Triangle last night and yea, definitely a nice surprise.
(

I've been wondering what this film is people are raving about and then I realised that I watched it a few years ago.

Yes it is dead good, deffo worth watching

Bambi wrote: »

I've been wondering what this film is people are raving about and then I realised that I watched it a few years ago.

Yes it is dead good, deffo worth watching

Yea, was quite surprised when I saw the date after I watched it. I'm gona guess it's come up again due to folk jumping on Shudder and it being recommended there?

Oh, watched Vivarium by the way. Also recommend, definitely more sci-fi thriller than horror and Eisenberg seems to channel his inner Zuckerberg for part of it, but Poots is on form and yay filicide.

The Raging Bile Duct

Homelander wrote: »

Just watched the Australian film 'Relic', thought it was absolutely superb. Best watched knowing nothing about it.

The Relic is the best horror film I've seen in a while. Horrifying and heartbreaking in equal measure. Best watched blind as Homelander says.