Posted on 01/04/2006 6:06:00 PM PST by jmc1969
NEW YORK - Today's horror movies are more likely to be dripping with blood than irony, with films like "Wolf Creek," the "Saw" series and this week's "Hostel" representing a return to their grisly, low-budget '70s roots.
While the "Scream" trilogy grossed hundreds of millions of dollars in the late 1990s with characters who winked at the camera in playful mockery of the genre's conventions, horror flicks like "Hostel," Eli Roth's follow-up to his gory 2003 debut "Cabin Fever," will show you a character whose eye is dangling from its socket after a long afternoon of torture.
Joe Dante's contribution, "Homecoming," takes traditional zombie movie imagery and turns it into an indictment of the war in Iraq: Soldiers return from the dead not to eat people's brains but to vote the president out of office who sent them into battle.
Dante, a Roger Corman protege whose films include "The Howling" and a segment of "Twilight Zone: The Movie," pointed out that zombie films have always had underlying social statements, from 1950s West Indian movies about race and class to George A. Romero's 1968 classic "Night of the Living Dead," with its subtext about the Vietnam War.
(Excerpt) Read more at nctimes.com ...
Hey, Joe, what if Vic Morrow did the same thing to you?
Well, of course, they'd vote against Bush-- if they're dead and voting, they're Democrats!
Egad. Dead people always vote Democrat.
Joe Dante's contribution, "Homecoming," takes traditional zombie movie imagery and turns it into an indictment of the war in Iraq:
Actually a simple rip off of "J'accuse!"
Only liberals would try to get away with this.
"J'accuse!" a post WW I. French anti war movie, in which
the dead from Verdun and the Western front come back to
castigate the survivors for going to war.
A remake of a remake of a remake.
Yawn.
My friends are excited to see Hostel. I have heard people have been fainting in the screenings. As a result I'm not too pumped. Then of course there is the fact that Eli Roth made it. I think Cabin Fever is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Maybe the worst.
Some people would probably faint watching the grue in Cannibal Holocaust (which was RIPPED OFF later as the Blair Witch Project). I suppose that film could be considered an indictment of Americans and journalists.
The "horror" and "suspense" films of today (at least from America) seem to be so sadistic and have been for over a decade. And Wes Craven has nothing to boast about in bringing back the slasher film. So much crap. So little good film.
There are rough films being made around the world (especially in China and Japan) but they don't center the whole ad campaign around "spam in a cabin" or now "shooting survivors in a box". Ichi The Killer and Battle Royale had much more to say than this trash.
I have seen previews for Ichi the Killer and just that kind of scared me. I really want to see Battle Royale but of course they won't release it in the US.
Is there any suspense or horror film made in America in the past 10 years I should seek out? I suppose that Danny Darko is tangential to the genre and was alright (not fantastic but alright).
Ichi is very rough, brutal, and graphic at times (some of the violence is implied, some is shown, some is cartoony). I can't say it is for everyone. But I see more in that film that I ever could in the premise of seeing a bunch of people in a torture room slowly killing one another.
Battle Royale is yet another "Most Dangerous Game" knockoff. The sequel is not worth your time.
Years ago I had a discussoin with one of my wife's kids about The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which he had seen on cable at a friend's house after my wife and I had refused to let him watch it at home.
I told him that kind of movie makes me sick. He thought it was funny. He grew up with the oodles-of-blood kind of movies and thought nothing of them.
But The Birds scared the crap out of him.
Too bad there are so many Romero's and so few Hitchcocks out there.
I'll stick with Shawn of the Dead. My favorite.
Hey, Joe, what if Vic Morrow did the same thing to you?
That was John Landis. Dante screwed up the one about the kid who turned his dad into a jack-in-the-box. Still, it was the best part of that movie.
"Some people would probably faint watching the grue in Cannibal Holocaust (which was RIPPED OFF later as the Blair Witch Project). "
Or the lawnmower scene in "Dead Alive" or the decompression chamber in "Men Behind The Sun".
Horror films today like "Saw" are tame by comparison. "House of 1000 Corpses" was extremely lame. And you're right about that crappy "Blair Witch Project". What a waste of my life that was!!
The last REALLY great horror film made in this country ,IMO,was HELLRAISER, although the first sequel wasn't bad. If you want to see something a little different, you might want to check out HIGH TENSION, a French film (dubbed, but there isn't much talking). Off-the-wall ending I didn't see coming at all.
Oh yeah, 'Dead Alive' my favorite zombie film!
If you loved 'Army of Darkness' you'll probably love this movie. Just don't see it if you've a weak stomach, it's far and away the most disgusting, gross film I've ever seen.
By Kiwi director Peter Jackson I couldn't find any agenda the film was pushing (other than if your mum turns into a zombie don't lock her in the cellar) which is refreshing these days. Just a simple, amazingly gross, fun movie.
BTW: In Jackson's remake of 'King Kong' look closely at the background cages when they take Mr. Driscal down to his quarters in the hold, you'll see one small cage labeled 'Sumatrian (sp?) Rat Monkey', a nod to 'Dead Alive'.
"you'll see one small cage labeled 'Sumatrian (sp?) Rat Monkey', a nod to 'Dead Alive'."
Whoa! I didn't make that connection!! The good ol' zombie-causing Rat Monkey!!
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