Photoset
October 24, 2012
7 notes

The House of the Devil and The Innkeepers.

I have been on a scary movie kick this whole month, it’s October—so I’d be crazy if I wasn’t cooped up in my room watching spooky movies by myself. I love a good scare.

I am really excited that two of Ti West’s best movies are on Netflix: The House of the Devil, and The Innkeepers. I don’t know about you guys but I am really excited about Ti West and his career— he’s only 32. I really like his style—which is old fashioned, slow burning, well executed spooky horror. He’s great with “the set up” in both The House of the Devil(2009) and The Innkeepers(2011). He looses me a little bit in during the climax of the House of the Devil, but I think he makes up for that a bit with Innkeepers. Horror movies are incredibly difficult to conclude, they get silly as soon as the answer of what’s been spooking you is revealed and the tension starts to recede. As soon as you can guess what will happen next, it’s not a scary movie anymore. But, Ti West does a pretty above average job with Innkeepers, I was with him till the end. Part of the reason is his female leads are really cool. In both movies the lady lead is smart, funny, inquisitive, and normal seeming—she’s someone you might know not some super unrealistic horror movie babe. He’s great with aesthetics in that way—the leads are not jocky teen types. I like that he seems to put a lot of effort into his characters being full people, I think that’s part of the reason I like his set-ups so much. I am really excited to see what he does next.

If you’re in for a spook, I would definitely recommend watching both of these (net) flicks.

Tags: Ti West Innkeepers House of the Devil Halloween Horror Scary Ghosts October Female Leads Netflix Vicki

Video
October 28, 2011
9 notes

Happy Halloween, everybody! It’s been a long time since I’ve posted, but I want to get in the Halloween spirit and introduce you to the scariest, ghouliest, worst movie you’re ever going to see in your life. It’s called Grizzly Rage and it is streaming on Netflix.

It’s basically about a bunch of morons who try to go camping but fuck it up so bad they drive their car into a tree and then get eaten by a bear.

Last year my boyfriend tricked me into going camping with him in bear country. This movie is a fairly accurate depiction of what I thought was going to happen to us. There are a few differences. One of the differences is that I was camping in Yellowstone National Park, and these people are camping in a dumping ground for nuclear waste that they broke in to by ramming the locked gates with their car.

Tags: halloween grizzley rage netflix aggie irene camping nightmares

Photo
October 03, 2010
2 notes
Ah! October. I love watching horror movies all year round but in October it really feels like you’re doing something festive with your time. This movie was pretty good. It’s about a grieving family dealing with the death of their 16 year old daughter after she dies in a drowning accident and then decides to hang around their house. Done in the ever popular mockumentary style featuring interviews, old news footage, audio tapes and photos, its low key attitude makes for some low key frights. There are no outright scares but they manage to make zooming in on a photograph freaky. Midway through they add on some stuff about the daughter leading a double life and the whole thing gets to feeling very 3rd generation Twin Peaks. Did I mention that the family name is Palmer? It’s Australian and I read that the people who remade The Ring are going to be remaking Lake Mungo. I will go see this remake. I think it could benefit from a touch of crass American razzle dazzle.

Ah! October. I love watching horror movies all year round but in October it really feels like you’re doing something festive with your time.

This movie was pretty good. It’s about a grieving family dealing with the death of their 16 year old daughter after she dies in a drowning accident and then decides to hang around their house. Done in the ever popular mockumentary style featuring interviews, old news footage, audio tapes and photos, its low key attitude makes for some low key frights. There are no outright scares but they manage to make zooming in on a photograph freaky.

Midway through they add on some stuff about the daughter leading a double life and the whole thing gets to feeling very 3rd generation Twin Peaks. Did I mention that the family name is Palmer?

It’s Australian and I read that the people who remade The Ring are going to be remaking Lake Mungo. I will go see this remake. I think it could benefit from a touch of crass American razzle dazzle.

Tags: Australian Lake Mungo Joel Anderson Talia Zucker horror Halloween Irene film movies

Photo
September 20, 2010
9 notes
It says on wikipedia that Wes Craven, who admits in the documentary Inside Deep Throat that he spent his early career directing porn, originally set out to make this a hardcore movie. But when they started filming it they realized it was too good to not be mainstream. Additionally, it’s a remake of The Virgin Spring which is an adaptation of a medieval Swedish folk ballad about two sisters killed by highwaymen who then seek shelter at the girls’ parents house. Those are two of the best fun facts I’ve heard about a movie in a long time. It’s hard to believe it was made in 1972, I think it’s aged very well. It’s a crude and effective mix of exploitation (Abel Ferarra) mixed with realistic emotional reactions (Michael Haneke). What a combination. It’s funny to think that Funny Games came over 20 years after Last House on the Left when it feels like a predecessor. The songs were written by the actor who plays the villian Krug. Early 70s acoustic. Amazing. The final act of this movie is actually shocking and crazy good.

It says on wikipedia that Wes Craven, who admits in the documentary Inside Deep Throat that he spent his early career directing porn, originally set out to make this a hardcore movie. But when they started filming it they realized it was too good to not be mainstream. Additionally, it’s a remake of The Virgin Spring which is an adaptation of a medieval Swedish folk ballad about two sisters killed by highwaymen who then seek shelter at the girls’ parents house.

Those are two of the best fun facts I’ve heard about a movie in a long time.

It’s hard to believe it was made in 1972, I think it’s aged very well. It’s a crude and effective mix of exploitation (Abel Ferarra) mixed with realistic emotional reactions (Michael Haneke). What a combination. It’s funny to think that Funny Games came over 20 years after Last House on the Left when it feels like a predecessor.

The songs were written by the actor who plays the villian Krug. Early 70s acoustic. Amazing. The final act of this movie is actually shocking and crazy good.

Tags: David Hess Fred J. Lincoln Irene Jeramie Rain Last House on the Left Sandra Peabody Wes Craven exploitation horror Halloween classics film movies