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beer_good_foamy) wrote2017-10-01 07:48 pm
beer_good_foamy) wrote2017-10-01 07:48 pm
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Horror october #1
So I'm going to try a challenge and watch a horror movie every day in October. Or at least 31 horror movies in October. Or at least recommend a horror movie every day in October. We'll see how far I get. (Suggestions of movies I may not have seen are most welcome, though fair warning, I've seen a lot of horror movies...)
#1 is Gerald's Game, which just opened on Netflix. Based on a Stephen King novel I read when it came out and always considered completely unfilmable, since the entire plot is that a woman agrees to let her husband chain her to the bed 50 shades-style to spice up their marriage, and then he gets a heart attack and dies and she's chained to a bed miles from the nearest neighbour and nobody due to miss them for at least a week. So 90% of the story is just her, trapped in a bed, dragging through a lifetime of bad memories of men who think they own her to try and find a way out.
Still works rather well, though, up until the ending that gets way too comfortable. Carel Struycken (the Giant in Twin Peaks) in a small but crucial role. Also, one of the singularly goriest scenes in the whole history of Stephen King films, which is saying something. Not great, but not bad, and when it comes to Stephen King adaptations that's usually all you can ask.
Director Mike Flanagan also made Hush and Oculus, both of which are recommended.
#1 is Gerald's Game, which just opened on Netflix. Based on a Stephen King novel I read when it came out and always considered completely unfilmable, since the entire plot is that a woman agrees to let her husband chain her to the bed 50 shades-style to spice up their marriage, and then he gets a heart attack and dies and she's chained to a bed miles from the nearest neighbour and nobody due to miss them for at least a week. So 90% of the story is just her, trapped in a bed, dragging through a lifetime of bad memories of men who think they own her to try and find a way out.
Still works rather well, though, up until the ending that gets way too comfortable. Carel Struycken (the Giant in Twin Peaks) in a small but crucial role. Also, one of the singularly goriest scenes in the whole history of Stephen King films, which is saying something. Not great, but not bad, and when it comes to Stephen King adaptations that's usually all you can ask.
Director Mike Flanagan also made Hush and Oculus, both of which are recommended.
Re: Cult Horror Films...that require strong stomachs...
I've seen a lot of weird shit. :)
I am curious about mother!, people have been yelling about it being either a masterpiece or the Worst Movie Ever for a week now. Aronofsky has done some great movies, and also some really annoying ones, occasionally at the same time.
I liked the movie version of Cujo up until the end. Let's just say I much preferred the book's ending. One thing I like about King is that his characters rarely live happily ever after; you don't go through what he puts them through unscathed, the horror lingers on even after the monster is defeated.
Re: Cult Horror Films...that require strong stomachs...
One thing I like about King is that his characters rarely live happily ever after; you don't go through what he puts them through unscathed, the horror lingers on even after the monster is defeated.
Except for Stanley Kubrick's version of The Shining...which basically was far darker than even Stephen King's take on it. And oddly the only adaptation that King famously disliked, stating he felt Kubrick was trying to hurt the audience. I saw it, read the book, and then saw King's television version with Steven Webber. Kubrick's is by far the scariest and the best...not to mention darkest. Which is interesting.
I am curious about mother!, people have been yelling about it being either a masterpiece or the Worst Movie Ever for a week now. Aronofsky has done some great movies, and also some really annoying ones, occasionally at the same time.
Feel much the same way. Aronofsky can be heavy-handed at times with his metaphors. Apparently this is one of those films people either really love or really hate. The critics have been all over the place with it.
They also don't appear to know what to make of it. I've seen reviews stating it's an empty and somewhat tedious psychological horror film, and reviews stating it is an incomprehensible allegory.