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lambychop · 2 years

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It’s that time of year again besties!! In the spirit of the season, I present to you:

Athina’s Horror Masterlist

Slashers

The Halloween Franchise

The Friday the 13th Franchise

The Nightmare on Elm Street Franchise

The Scream Franchise

The Child’s Play Franchise

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Franchise

My Bloody Valentine (1981)

The Burning

Alice, Sweet Alice

The Town That Dreaded Sundown

Slumber Party Massacre

Sleepaway Camp

You’re Next

Black Christmas

Prom Night

Happy Death Day

Maniac

Hatchet

Pieces

The Prowler

The Candyman Franchise

The Hellraiser Franchise

Psycho

Tourist Trap

When a Stranger Calls

Terror Train

The Last House on the Left

The Hills Have Eyes

The Stepfather (1987)

The House on Sorority Row

I Know What You Did Last Summer Franchise

Urban Legends

American Psycho

Rob Zombie’s Firefly Series

The Strangers

The Purge Franchise

Don’t Breathe

The Wrong Turn Franchise

There’s Someone Inside Your House

Haunt

Hell Fest

Terrified

Trick

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

Fear Street Series

Creature Features

A Quite Place I and II

The Thing

Underwater

The Descent

The Alien Franchise

The Predator Franchise

Jaws

47 Meters Down

Shark Night

Black Water

Rogue

Alligator

Anaconda

The Fly

C.H.U.D.

The Tremors Franchise

The Ruins

Castle Freak

Basket Case

Supernatural

The Conjuring Franchise

The Insidious Franchise

The Amityville Horror

The Poltergeist Franchise

Sinister

The Autopsy of Jane Doe

Lights Out

The Exorcist

The Grudge

The Ring

The Evil Dead Series

The Night House

The Woman in Black

It Follows

Susperia

The Babadook

Hereditary

The Witch

The Changeling

1408

Dead Silence

It (Chapters 1 & 2)

The Shining

Doctor Sleep

Oculus

Crimson Peak

The Orphanage

The Empty Man

Thirteen Ghosts

Rosemary’s Baby

Carrie

The Skeleton Key

The Omen

Devil

Mama

The Rite

Sleepy Hollow

The Ritual

Pet Sematary

The Endless

The Dark and the Wicked

The Void

The Wretched

Eli

In the Tall Grass

Werewolves

An American Werewolf in London

The Howling

Howl

Ginger Snaps

The Wolf of Snow Hollow

Bad Moon

Wer

Dog Soldiers

Silver Bullet

The Cursed

Vampires

The Lost Boys

Fright Night

Salem’s Lot

30 Days of Night

Nosferatu

From Dusk Till Dawn

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

Bran Stoker’s Dracula

I Am Legend

Zombies

Night of the Living Dead

Dawn of the Dead

Day of the Dead

Train to Busan

28 Days Later & 28 Weeks Later

Pontypool

Blood Quantum

Re-Animator

World War Z

Found Footage

Paranormal Activity Franchise

Grave Encounters

V/H/S Franchise

Host

As Above So Below

Hell House, LLC. Franchise

Creep

Spree

Dashcam

Gonjiam Haunted Asylum

Unfriended and Unfriended: Dark Web

The Blair With Project

The Taking of Deborah Logan

Devil’s Pass

Savageland

Apollo 18

The Mirror

Troll Hunter

Lake Mungo

REC / Quarantine

The Bay

The Conspiracy

Cloverfield

Cannibal Holocaust

The Last Exorcism

The Final Prayer (aka Borderlands)

The Tunnel

Willow Creek

The Visit

Ratter

Butterfly Kisses

The Poughkeepsie Tapes

The Den

The Gallows

Psychological

Watcher

1 BR

What Keeps You Alive

Triangle

The Invitation

Super Dark Times

Men

The Rental

Last Night In Soho

Possessor

The Lodge

Midsommar

I’m Thinking of Ending Things

The Invisible Man

The Girl on the Third Floor

It Comes At Night

Split

The Silence of the Lambs

Jacob’s Ladder

The Lighthouse

The Wickerman

Orphan

The Others

Goodnight Mommy

The Killing of a Sacred Dear

Annihilation

Get Out

Session 9

Split

Eraserhead

The Color Out of Space

1922

Things Heard & Seen

Apostle

The Perfection

His House

Cadaver

Hush

Incident in a Ghostland

Coming Home in the Dark

Body Horror/ Gory

The Saw Franchise

The Hostel Franchise

The Green Inferno

Audition

The Collector and The Collection

The Final Destination Franchise

The Belko Experiment

Society

Tusk

Martyrs

Cabin Fever

Videodrome

Raw

The Girl Next Door

Giallo

Tenebrae

Deep Red

Torso

Phenomena

Orgasm I

The Black Belly of the Tarantula

The New York Ripper

StageFright

The Cat O’Nine Tails

Anthologies

Trick r’ Treat

Creepshow I and II

The Mortuary Collection

Body Bags

Cats Eye

Southbound

Family Friendly

Coraline

Paranorman

Corpse Bride

Beetlejuice

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Monster House

Frankenweenie

The Haunted Mansion

Gremlins

Ghostbusters

Little Shop of Horrors

Labyrinth

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Shows

American Horror Story

Creepshow the Series

Slasher

NOS4A2

Channel Zero

The Twilight Zone

Midnight Mass

The Haunting of Bly Manor and The Haunting of Hill House

Castle Rock

Archive 81

Penny Dreadful

Hemlock Grove

Bates Motel

The Devil in Ohio

I’m sure there’s a ton that I missed, so don’t be afraid to reblog and add to the list! Keep in mind that trigger warnings may apply to all of these movies, so feel free to reach out and ask about any in particular. I love to talk horror, so send me your thoughts, questions, etc about any horror stuff! Happy spooky season and stay safe!

#athina talks #horror #horror movies

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spaceorphanssecondbreakfastclub · 7 months

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SO's Bookclub : The Haunting

Title: The Haunting Author: Joan Lowery Nixon Genre: YA Mystery

Goodreads Summary :

The walls whisper. The ceilings shriek. No one can survive a night of terror inside Graymoss. The old plantation house has been in Lia’s family since the Civil War, but it’s been possessed for generations by a malicious spirit, and Lia’s family has always stayed far away. Now her parents have decided to move into Graymoss, and Lia must either change their minds or chase away the horror lurking inside the old house. Using clues from her great-great-grandmother’s diary and an old copy of Favorite Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, Lia must discover what—or who—the evil wants.

Review:

This is the first one of the four that I haven't read that I picked up a few months ago when I started doing this project. So, this is my first read through. And, you know, it's not that bad. I'd say it's on the upper end of these kinds of books, but ooff, still issues.

The plot revolves around Graymoss -- an old home in Louisiana belonging to protagonist Lia's family. Lia's mother wants to turn it into a foster care home for kids. But everyone else on the planet is like -- you crazy, place haunted.

On the one hand - meant to be a lot like Shirley Jackson's Haunting of Hill House. Having the story built on a creepy atmosphere and psychological terror instead of cheep jumps scares and gory slasher tactics. But... the novel spends so little time away from the house that it never really gets that spooky. Which is odd - because JLN is usually pretty good at setting a tense atmosphere.

A lot of her normal tropes are somewhat subverted. We're not in Texas because this was clearly inspired by something she discovered in Louisiana (the dedication points in this direction). Lia is fine as a protagonist and I really didn't feel like punching her at any point. The family is mostly decent -- except Grandma is a little weird, but not matriarchal. And, there is a guy who is involved but only for about two seconds, he's barely around to even be considered a love interest, and he's discarded just as quickly.

Oh - and there was mention of cell phones. Which I found interesting for a book set in the late 90s. These books almost feel out of time when they start mentioning modern technology.

The book does have a pretty decent premise, and there were pieces of the mystery that were intriguing but it never really gets off the ground. Plus - we spend a lot of time (especially for a short book) talking to people who don't really matter, who don't really tell us anything, or don't move the plot forward. (There's an entire chapter where they spend time with kids at an orphanage just to remind you that they want to put little kids into foster care using the haunted house.)

This entire novel could have worked better as a short story - one that took place in a single night -- kind of like A Deadly Game of Magic did. The clues that are sprinkled throughout the novel kind of point in an obvious direction -- especially the use of the Edgar Allen Poe book (which really, if anyone had been thinking - the whole mystery would have been solved easily way back when).

Overall, it's fine. There's nothing egregiously wrong with it, nothing made me want to throw it against the wall. But, she just didn't make great use of a haunted house trope, and you can tell a lot of why this book was written was because she was inspired by different parts of Louisiana culture.

Rating: 3.25 Stars

#sbc bookclub #books #book review #joan lowery nixong #the haunting

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slashercentral · 2 years

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Theory on why mr Frederick Charles Krueger killed only children (other than for cliche slasher purposes) ...

It's jealousy. Okay okay hear me out on this one - Fred had a rough childhood, I mean his mum was a nun who was r*ped and then when he was born she killed herself. He was left to be raised by the nuns at the church orphanage. So all this almost certainly leads to victims guilt and self hate, which in turn leads to jealousy. Just imagine being a little kid, not knowing your dad and knowing your mum killed herself after you were born because of how ashamed she was, being left with people who don't like you. Not only that but paired with being told you are a mistake and a curse and that there's something wrong with you for so long will eventually lead to the kid believing it, just living knowing themselves as a monster.

That's gotta hurt a lot!

In most cases like that, the kid ends up being the loner type; the weird kid. Shows a lot of concerning signs from a young age but it's always overlooked because "oh kids will be kids, they're so full of imagination!" This is where the jealousy usually kicks in - the "Why can't I be like them?" Believing that there's something wrong with you and seeing the others around you receive love will cause envy. Envy of "I wish I could be good like them" "I wish I was good enough" "I wish I wasn't a monster" etc etc you get the point here.

Knowing all this about Fred and just knowing his character makes it pretty obvious that as he got older those feelings stuck with him and were bottled up. As an adult because of his own childhood he probably had a trigger when seeing kids be happy and loved. I mean, imagine growing up with all that childhood trauma and then seeing how happy other people are, of course you're going to be jealous!

The reason behind killing and kidnapping was probably something along the lines of "my childhood was shit so yours should be too" (essentially if I can't have it no one can). Making other children feel pain probably gave him a weird sense of comfort because that meant he wasn't the only one.

tl;dr - Freddy has unresolved childhood trauma and because of that seeing other children be happy makes him jealous, leading to anger, which leads to him killing the children.

Or he doesn't really have a motive and he's just evil or something idk

#slashers #freddy krueger #a nightmare on elm street #slasher fandom #slashercentral screams #ive had this theory for a while but ive never talked about it lolz #finally got the courage to put my idea out there <3 #tw suicide mention #tw rape mention

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k00296471 · 3 hours

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Myself and Roes Comparisons research

•These films are also film the character Mary watches and is a fan of

•The audience we were basing our animated short film were for adults and older teens.

•Mary had a little lamb is a children's poem and song but with the horror in horror films. The children's poem will remind adults of their childhood and so will the 90-2010s set design era.

•These horror films I've researched include cults, supernatural forces, and the storyline of a child who isn't so kind.

True crime comparison

The slender man stabbings and the Japonese school girl murder case when a girl slit her classmates throat with a scissors.

Supernatural film comparison

2000s creepy pasta website. And slender man stories. Slender man video games for the 2000s.

•Pet sematary in 1989 by Steven King has a creepy possessed child. Who is taken over by supernatural forces. Mary is a creepy child who worships supernatural forces.

•The Insidious filmsThey have supernatural forces. Slender man summoning is included in our story.

90s- early 2000s Film comparisons

•These films include goth horror, slasher horror, cults sacrificing people story lines, and murder children story lines.

•Texas chainsaw saw massacre inclued violence and revenge.

•The Blaire witch project included wood scenes at night with supernatural evil forces.

•Midsummer included a cult.

•Children of Corn in 1984 were children part of a cult murder all the adults and worship an evil entity. Just like how Mary worships slenderman and kills and sacrifices Laura.

•The bad seed film. A girl who murders her classmate. Just Mary, who kills Laura. They both have storylines where a child kills their class mate.

•The orphanage (2007) Creepy goth horror. The film includes creepy dolls. And gothic dark interiors. The character Mary is very gothic.

•Another comparison is the film Alice Sweet Alice. Another story line where a girl commots crimes

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livingthroughundeadmovies · 2 years

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Turns out all I needed was an emo goth Batman

I was never really into Batman. I watched the Justice League cartoon when I was a child and found him quite annoying. When Nolan decided to have a more realistic dark approach to the character I didn't care either. The first batman movie to actually catch my attention was The Dark Knight. Heath Ledger was set to play the joker and after watching Brokeback Mountain I wanted to see everything he was on. I loved The Dark knight, not for its main character but for its villains. It was the first Batman movie I enjoyed and was hoping to enjoy others. I waited eagerly for its sequel, gathered some friends, and went to watch it late at night at a local movie theater. It was a disaster, I abhorred that mess of a movie and was baffled by the audience clapping at the end of it.

At the same time, I tried reading Batman comics and watching the animated movies. I was at college by then and compared to the material I was reading at the time (and that included comics and graphic novels too) it was all disappointing and a bit fascist. Yeah, I am one of those people who hate Bruce Wayne for not using his money to actually solve Gotham's social issues. When the Snyder-Affleck Batman came around I was just pissed. Pissed they were trying to make more Batman movies and not exploring other heroes, pissed cause I really don't like Snyder, and pissed because I don't like Affleck either. I didn't even bother to watch them, all the things I heard about the "Snyderverse" were enough.

Years later here come news of yet another Batman movie (oh no, not again), but this had some interesting people attached to it. Matt Reeves who had worked on the Cloverfield and Planet of the Apes movies, and Robert Pattinson (my teenage crush) as the title character. A director with a background in horror/suspense and an actor most nerd men actually hated. I needed to see it. I was impressed when the first teaser came out, it really seemed like something different was on the way. There was no joker this time and the lights seemed to be on during the movie. After a wave of good reviews from different people I decided to go and watch it. I knew it would be a good action movie, and it was, but I also got plenty of horror elements I was not expecting.

Reeve's Batman is the first to incorporate all the horror symbolism attached to the character into the film. It can be noticed right at the beginning with the soundtrack, it could be part of an old horror movie. It is very dramatic with melodies that sound like a mixture of a funeral march with ave maria. It gets darker in the right scenes and grandiose when the action asks for it. The visuals are also horror-like, the Wayne mansion is Gothic and decrepit, the entrance to the bat cave is through an abandoned subway station, there is a forsaken orphanage, and an action scene set in a nightclub reminded me of Blade.

I feel the horror references of the film reach their peak in the construction of the villain. This Riddler is very different from the one played by Jim Carrey. His first appearance comes in the form of a scare. He simply appears behind a character in dark clothes and eyes glistening just like an evil spirit in a haunted house or the killer in a slasher movie. And speaking of slasher movies, the mask the villain uses would fit perfectly in an 80s slasher. Paul Dano’s performance is great as always, it is a chilling mixture of Zodiac and Hannibal, mysterious and scary, especially after the mask is removed.

The Batman played by Pattinson also gets to have some scary moments. He always comes out of the shadows as slow as Jason Vorhees using the fear he instills as his first weapon. There is a specific moment in which his car comes out of flames that reminded me of Christine.

There are many other horror references throughout the film’s almost three hours ( they even use the classic slasher trope of the killer is dead, oh not he is not) and I want to rewatch it to see if I can catch some more. I wonder if the success of this movie can inspire other superhero films to have those elements of horror. The new Dr. Strange is directed by Sam Raimi but I doubt Disney will let him be as crazy and scary as he can be. In any way, Reeves's new Batman is a welcome surprise both as an action film and as a horror one. I hope we can have more movies like that.

#the batman #matt reeves #writing #horror movies

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snickertoodles · 4 years

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Megalist of Tropes and Themes to Tag Your Story With

If you’re prone to staring at your tags on AO3 wondering “what the hell do I put here?”, knowing you want to add a tag like “friends to lovers” or “found family” but not remembering all the popular tropes and themes everyone is into, this is for you. I basically spent an entire night on this so I hope it helps.

Notes:

I tried to keep it general and avoid really obscure tags no one would ever use.

This is made for AO3 and thus there’s a lot of fandom or fannish stuff in here.

I didn’t include any “inappropriate” tags. Feel free to make your own list.

Romance tropes and themes at the bottom. (Not all of them have to be romantic, but if they’re generally associated with romance and there are very few gen fics with that tag, it went there.)

Under cut because I’m probably going to edit this often and I’d like reblogs to be up to date. Please suggest any ideas you have.

Genre: Action, Adventure, Apocalypse/Post-Apocalypse, Contemporary, Comedy/Humor/Parody/Satire, Coming of Age, Crime, Cyberpunk/Steampunk, Drama, Dystopian/Utopia, Fairy Tale, Fantasy/High Fantasy/Low Fantasy/Urban Fantasy/Isekai, Family, Friendship, Gothic, Historical Fiction/Alternate History/Period Piece, Horror/Slasher, Mystery/Murder Mystery, Paranormal, Philosophical, Poetry, Romance, Slice of Life, Supernatural, Surreal, Suspense, Sci-Fi/Science Fiction/Space Opera, Spiritual, Thriller/Psychological Thriller, Tragedy, Urban, Western

Genre (Fandom): Angst/Light Angst, Case Fic, Crack Fic, Crossover/Fusion, Dark Fic, Fix Fic/Fix-It/Deconstruction, Fluff/Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Kid Fic, Podfic, Missing Scene/Gap Filler, Self-Insert, Shipping, Sickfic, Songfic, Whump

Length: Drabble, Ficlet, Flash Fiction, Short Story, Novella, Novel, Epic, One-Shot/Two-Shot/etc, Series/Duology/Trilogy/Saga/etc, Long, Short

Pairing: M/F - F/M - M/M - F/F - F/F/M - You get the idea. Also [Character] x [Character], Slash, Yaoi/Yuri (if people still use those...)

POV: POV Alternating, POV Multiple, POV First Person, POV Second Person, POV Third Person, POV Outsider

Ending: Happy Ending, Sad Ending, Bittersweet Ending, Ambiguous Ending

Diverse Characters: Gay Character/Nonbinary Character/Asian Character/Disabled Character/Autistic Character/Jewish Character/etc.

AU/Alternate Universe: (I do not have the time to list out Coffee Shop AU/High School AU/Canon Divergence/What-If/etc, I assume if you’re writing one then you already know to tag it lol)

Abuse

Adoption

Afterlife

Aftermath

Aged Up

Alcohol

Aliens

Amnesia

Androids

Angels

Animal Transformation

Anti-Hero

Awkwardness

Babysitting

Backstory/Origin Story

Band of Misfits

Best Friends

Betrayal

Blood

Bodyswap

Bodyguard

Bonding

Bounty Hunters

Bromance

Bullying

Canon Compliant

Character Development

Character Study

Childhood Friends

Children

Chosen One

College/University/Higher Education

Corruption

Criminals

Crying

Curses

Cute

Death

Delinquents

Demons

Depression

Destiny/Fate

Disability

Domestic/Curtainfic

Dragons

Dreams/Dreamscape

Drugs

Education

Ensemble Cast

Epilogue

Fanon/Headcanon

Father Figure/Mother Figure

Feelings

Feels

Fights

Flashbacks

Forgiveness

Found Family

Freedom Fighters

Frenemies

Future

Genderswap/Gender Change

Ghosts

Gods

Good Versus Evil

Gore

Grief/Mourning

Growing Up

Healing

Heartwarming

Heroes to Villains/Villains to Heroes

Holidays

Homesickness

Hospital

Hurt

I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping (A very legitimate tag.)

Imprisonment

Injury

Introspection

Illness/Sick Character

Immortality

Isolation

Jealousy

Kidnapping

LGBTQ/LGBTQ Character/LGBTQ Themes

Light-Hearted

Locked In

Loss

Love

Mafia

Magic

Magical Girl(s)

Major Character Death/Minor Character Death

Manipulation

Medieval

Medical

Melancholy

Mental Health Issues

Mentors

Merpeople

Mind Control

Military

Misunderstandings

Modern

Monsters

Morally Grey/Ambiguous Characters

Murder

Mythical Beings & Creatures

Mythology

Neighbors

Next Gen/Next Generation

Nightmares

Original Character/OC/OCs

Orphans/Orphanage

Out of Character/OOC

Parenthood

Past Lives

Peggy Sue

Pen Pals

Pirates

Platonic Relationships/No Romance

Platonic Soulmates

Plot Twists

Politics

Possession

Post-Canon/Pre-Canon/Mid-Canon/Bad Ending/etc.

Prompt Fill/Prompt Fic

Protectiveness

Rags to Riches

Rebels

Recovery

Redemption/Redemption Arc

Regret

Reincarnation/Resurrection/Rebirth

Rejection

Relationships

Religion

Rescue/Rescue Missions

Restaurants

Reunion

Revenge

Revolution

Rivalry

Road Trip

Robots

Roommates

Royalty

Sad

School

Secrets

Secret Identity

Self-Discovery

Self-Harm

Shapeshifting

Siblings

Single Parents

Slow Build

Soft

Spies

Spoilers

Substance Abuse

Suicide

Superheroes

Sweet

Sympathetic Villain

Teamwork

Team as Family

Team Bonding

Team Dynamics

Teenagers

Tension

Time Loop

Time Travel

Training

Trapped

Trauma

Travel

Undercover

Unreliable Narrator

Vampires

Villains

Violence

War

Weapons

Wedding

Wilderness

Witchcraft

Worldbuilding

xxx to Friends (Rivals to Friends/Enemies to Friends/etc.)

Zombies

ROMANCE TROPES

Battle Couple

Blind Date

Breakup

Confessions

Dating

Divorce

Dorks in Love

Drunken Confessions

Established Relationship

Eventual Romance

Falling in Love

Fake Relationship/Fake Dating/Pretend Relationship/Pretend Couple

First Kiss

First Love

Forbidden Love

Heartbreak

Idiots in Love

Long-Distance Relationship

Long-Term Relationship

Love/Hate

Love at First Sight

Love Confessions

Love Potion/Love Spell

Love Triangle

Marriage/Accidental Marriage/Arranged Marriage/Marriage of Convenience

Marriage Proposal

Mutual Pining/Pining

OTP

Pregnancy

Rarepair

Secret Relationship

Sharing a Bed

Slow Burn/Slow Romance

Soulmate/Soulmate AU

Tsundere/all of the other -deres

Unrequited Love/One-Sided Attraction

xxx to Lovers (Enemies to Lovers/Friends to Lovers/etc.)

#tagging #archive of our own #ao3 #tumblr #tropes #trope list #tag list #tag ideas #writing #writing resources #toodles talks

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lesbian-fabray · 4 years

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movies on my wish list - horror(ish) edition PART ONE

ginger snaps - after being attacked by a werewolf, a high schooler named ginger slowly begins to turn into vicious werewolf as her younger sister brigitte tries to reverse the process and minimize the casualties

10 cloverfield lane - a man and a woman are held in a bunker by a man who claims the outside world is dangerous due to toxic air and aliens. while he initially seems harmless, it becomes increasingly obvious that he is not.

the final girls - a group of friends are sucked into a slasher flick that the recently deceased mother of their fried max had starred in in the 80′s. the friends, as well as characters of the movie, must fight off the killer.

the mist - in what i consider the best stephen king adaptation of all time, a man and his son are trapped inside a grocery store with some other inhabitants of the town, which has been covered by a mist containing supernatural creatures. the people within the store quickly divide into different groups that immediately vilify the others.

scream - a classic horror film that resulted in not only the late-nineties wave of teen-centric horror movies but also in a breed of horror movie that was aware of the “rules” of the genre. it is about a group of teens that are terrorized by a killer who has killed others of their town in california.

the faculty - a product of the post-scream teen horror flick craze, this film depicts a group of teens who come to realize that people at their school, specifically the faculty, have been essentially possessed by alien creatures.

i know what you did last summer - another scream-inspired film, this one features a group of four teenagers who are terrorized by a man wielding a hook who claims revenge for a case of accidental vehicular manslaughter they committed and covered up the previous summer.

idle hands - while this film is more of a stoner comedy than a horror movie, it tells the story about a lazy stoner who has to try to stop his possessed hand from killing everyone he cares about.

psycho - a woman checks into the bates motel and is subsequently killed, and the local police investigate the circumstances that led to it.

orphan - a family adopts a child from an orphanage, but she slowly starts to show more of a sinister and violent side of her personality.

cursed - while pretty lame in terms of horror movies, this is a comedic werewolf movie that shows two siblings who have been infected after being attacked by a werewolf who try to figure out how to prevent themselves from transforming.

slither - a small town is invaded by murderous aliens that possess those in the town, leaving it up to a cop, a young woman, and some other members of the town to try to stop them from destroying the town.

resident evil - based off of the video game series of the same name, this movie shows a team of soldiers who infiltrate the building of a company that has had an outbreak of a virus that causes those infected to turn into zombie-like mutants.

sleepaway camp - cousins ricky and angela attend a summer camp, and those who wrong angela begin to turn up brutally killed.

#movies #horror #horror movies #scary movies #sleepaway camp #resident evil #slither #cursed #orphan #psycho #idle hands #i know what you did last summer #the faculty #scream #the mist #the final girls #10 cloverfield lane #ginger snaps

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tlbodine · 3 years

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A Trio of Torture Films

The 2000s in horror is perhaps best known for its “torture porn” phase -- a period in which horror movies featuring over-the-top gore, lingering shots of human misery, and plots focused more on suffering than death came to prominence.

There are a lot of reasons for the rise of the torture porn. A lot of it has to do with the political environment of the U.S. in the early 2000s -- post 9/11, with terrorism on the brain, a war being waged in two different countries, videos of people being beheaded, reports of torture and war crimes.

So here’s three takes on the torture genre from the 2000s that we’ve watched recently.

youtube

The Collector (2009), directed by Marcus Dunstan, is one of those films that streaming services have been recommending to me for ages and which I’d never gotten around to watching until now. It’s better than I expected it to be. I wouldn’t call it a great movie, I think it’s pretty obviously a fairly mainstream film trying to tap into a cultural moment to make a buck, but it’s well-made and not completely without soul.

The story is a home-invasion-gone-wrong film: A down-on-his-luck handyman tries to rob a rich family, only to discover when he gets there that someone else has also broken in, captured the family, and is horrifyingly torturing them all as some part of an elaborate game. There’s a little bit of everything in this movie, from over-the-top rube-goldberg torture devices to cat-and-mouse games, shadowy conspiracies, sticky skin-melting acid, window guillotines, a killing game, you name it!

This grab-bag of tropes is both a weakness and a strength. It hits a lot of the notes that fans may love about other movies made before and since: home invasion (The Strangers, Funny Games), home invasion gone wrong (You’re Next, The People Under the Stairs, Don’t Breathe), killing games (Chosen, 13 Sins), creative torture (Saw, Se7en). But it also doesn’t really commit to any of its themes; it doesn’t seem to be a movie that has much of anything to say.

But it’s fun to watch, if you enjoy blood & guts.

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Martyrs (2008) is a French “New Extremity” movement film written and directed by Pascal Laugier. It’s infamous for being extremely difficult to watch due to its brutal and graphic violence, and it deserves that reputation -- this is a hard movie to sit through. I do think it’s a very good film, though, and one that raises some really interesting questions if you choose to engage with them.

The story centers on two girls who meet in an orphanage. One is a survivor of horrific abuse at the hands of a kidnapper; after escaping the torture dungeon where she’d been held, she’s haunted (literally) by her trauma and seeks vengeance on the people that hurt her. But the vengeance quest is not satisfying, and it plunges her and her friend into an even more gruesome and horrifying reality.

I don’t want to share too much more about the plot because it’s twisty and turny and it deserves to be enjoyed unspoilered. I will say that this movie is a genuine rollercoaster. It reinvents itself every 30 minutes or so. You know how I’ve talked about Hitchcock Twists, the kind of twist that dramatically changes the direction a film is taking to say “Surprise! You THOUGHT you were getting THIS movie, but instead it’s THIS!”? Well, Martyrs has like four Hitchcock twists. I’ve never seen that done before and certainly never with as much coherence as in this film.

What I think is especially interesting about it is the way the movie directly confronts the “blessed are the broken” trope. In the same way that Funny Games challenges people who find violence entertaining, Martyrs gives a stern look to people who look for meaning in suffering. “Perhaps,” Martyrs seems to say, while coldly looking you in the eye, “Suffering simply exists, and trying to find meaning in it is just an excuse to allow it to continue.”

And I really dig that.

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Hostel (2005), directed by Eli Roth, is one of the cornerstones of the “torture porn” genre, and it’s a movie I have a tremendous soft spot for. The story is pretty simple: A group of young men go on one of those European backpacking trips that’s mostly about doing drugs and getting laid. After a wild night in Amsterdam, they get a tip-off about a small town in Slovakia where there are no tourists, where the women are hot for American boys, and where you can pay to do anything you want.

The only problem, as they soon discover, is that they haven’t been sent to be the paying customers -- they’re the victims.

What follows is a bloody fight for survival and escape from a grisly real-world torture house where rich people from all around the world show up and pay a handsome price for the pleasure of killing with impunity. It’s that “red room” setup once again, but this one feels entirely too plausible.

What I really enjoy about this movie is just how surprisingly well-written it is. When you’re first introduced to the main characters, you have every reason to hate them; but the protagonist earns your sympathy slowly and organically, and the film recognizes and illustrates the difference between “feel good” violence (perpetrated against evil-doers) and horrifying violence (perpetrated against victims). Eli Roth is a filmmaker who understands the visual language of violence and knows how to work with it to dramatic and thematic effect. A lot of gory movies are one-note, causing you to just tune out the worst bits, but Roth keeps you on your toes -- sometimes cutting away and hinting, sometimes showing the aftermath, sometimes swiftly and brutally showing it on-screen.

I think Hostel is a film that has something to say about tourism and exploitation, and it’s a more thoughtful film than you might expect it to be. Kind of like how Texas Chainsaw Massacre stands out from other slashers because it means something to the creator, Hostel feels more important and more memorable than most other films of its genre.

I have not seen the sequels, and I probably won’t. I don’t think that I’d enjoy them.

#horror movies #horror by the decade #horror through the decades #the collector #martyrs #hostel

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kakusu-shipping · 2 months

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I was looking for a WIP I wanted to work on again and found a bunch of Slasher Orphanage (by @echoes-lighthouse) doodles I just?? Never posted??

So here are those I guess. The slasher Orphanage is a Slapstick Comedy to Me <3

#Emile's Arts #Evil Slasher Orphanage #Anna #Long post #Kind of. Just the comic at the start #A little more on my Slasher Orphanage S/I; He absorbed the Power of the Entity from Dead by Daylight by Eating it #And is now struggling with these eldritch abilities to tear the fabric of space apart #He keeps bringing killers from across dimensions into his little pocket dimension #(which he made to look EXACTLY like Echo's original dimension farm house)#And is trying DESPERATELY to hide this #The only people who know are himself Anna Stu and Brandon #Though Micheal has an inclination something's not right with Emile he just hasn't fully figured it out yet #I just think if you put a bunch of slashers in a house together there's a high chance of one of them stabbing the others #Anna gets stabbed the most btw she does not respect boundaries well. She's just so excited to be a mom.#Micheal hates her #He also doesn't like me and you know what that's fair. Wary of change.#Stu gets knowledge because he canonically watched Friday the 13th and Halloween in his universe #So he figures it out PRETTY quickly #And uses it to mess with me #I think he'd try to summon Beetlejuice in ear shot of me to see if it'd work

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warlocks-and-warkeys · 4 years

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Name: Abarai Jeriah or “AJ”

Race/Class/Alignment: Neutral Evil Half-Elf Great Old One Pact Warlock

Vitals: fairly unremarkable except for his purple-silver hair, keeps it short and it’s a very fine, thin texture, has narrow blue eyes the color of ice (though in the anime version he’d be one of those characters who’s drawn with their eyes almost constantly closed), always smiling in one manner or another, carries himself with a quiet, tucked-in confidence, one that’s content not being noticed but also doesn’t care if you do, his voice tends to be thin and reedy, usually kept at a low, even tone, though he does get significantly louder and more shrill when he’s excited, and when he laughs it sounds like kicking a metal bucket full of rocks (picture is Ichimaru Gin from Bleach)

Personality: AJ is evil. Straight up. Zero redeeming qualities. Absolutely nothing sympathetic about him. His particular flavor of evil is less interested in conquering and large-scale slaughter and more into individual trickery and deceit, serial killer-type stalking, and general all-around messing with people. He has this manic glee about him and delights in making others question everything they thought they knew, poking holes in their sense of security, and just outright terrifying them in very quiet, subtle ways. (Also he’s a cannibal.) On the one hand, being neutral means he’ll work with just about anybody as long as he can have some “fun” while doing it, so he has no strong allegiances to any one faction (not even his patron...his patron enables him by donating magic and AJ sows chaos and finds people to feed to his patron...it’s less loyalty and more just a mutually beneficial arrangement). On the other hand, he can be unpredictable in the worst ways, just as likely to burn down an orphanage as save its occupants so he can drive them crazy later. He’s generally in a good mood, though, no matter what happens.

Bio: AJ was born bad. Starting out a bastard in a small town, he didn’t have time enough to experience prejudice or develop a tragic backstory before he started wreaking havoc completely on his own accord. He ran the usual gauntlet of Extremely Bad Things kids do, and at the tender age of nine burned down his first house (with his family still inside). The locals promptly threw him into an abandoned mine shaft after that, one that ran deep into the earth, sealing the entrance behind and leaving him there to die. And he would have, if he didn’t find something down there in the dark that offered him a way out...

Quote: “Favorite food? Hmm. I think the triceps.”

Theme Song: “I’m Hungry” by Alice Cooper

I don’t normally go for evil-aligned characters so on the odd occasion that I do I find it better to just make them as unlikeable as possible. (That way if they inevitably meet their demise I don’t feel so bad. :-x ) Though I guess AJ is fun the way watching a slasher horror movie is fun. A momentary indulgence in consequence-free violence and insanity.

I also never really decided who his patron was. It would depend on what setting he’s being played in.

#OCtober #d&d stuff #d&d character #d&d 5e #dnd character #dnd 5e #dnd stuff #warlock #half-elf #evil

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femalechibiblogger · 4 years

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My Top 10 Most Tragic Villains

1. Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader

Anakin Skywalker is one of the most important characters in the Star Wars franchise. In the first movie, Anakin is only mentioned and is described as being a skilled Jedi Knight, a good pilot, and was also a good friend. Even in the prequels and cartoons that came years later, Anakin is shown to be kind, caring, and determined to save those closest to him. However...no one would have expected a great Jedi and friend to become the most infamous villain in the series. Anakin’s darker feelings, such as anger and jealousy, made him vulnerable to the Dark Side of the Force. When he has visions of his pregnant wife, Padme, dying in childbirth, Anakin is determined to do anything that he can to stop his vision from coming true...including betraying his friends, killing children, and helping a Sith Lord conquer the galaxy. However, Padme still dies, and Anakin becomes the Sith Lord: Darth Vader. Anakin had lost everything...his friends, his wife, everyone...and now all he had left was Emperor Palpatine and the Empire. But for many years, Anakin was unaware that his children had survived: His son Luke, and his daughter Leia. In the end, Anakin chooses to save Luke from Palpatine, and dies knowing that his son never gave-up on him.

Despite Darth Vader having been a villain, he is only a villain because he was deceived and tormented until he lost everything and everyone who loved and cared about him. For many years, Anakin was haunted by his past actions, and lived in great regret of what he had done. But in the end, we see that he still had some good left in him, as Palpatine could never destroy Anakin’s love for his children.

2. Arthur Fleck/Joker (2019)

Arthur Fleck is the main character of the original DC Comics story in the movie, Joker. Arthur is shown to be a mentally ill man who suffers from uncontrollable laughter due to a brain injury, who lives with his delusional and emotionally disturbed mother. Arthur worked as a clown, but his dream was to become a comedian. However, Arthur had been mocked by many people in Gotham, which caused him to kill three men who were harassing both him and a woman on a train. Arthur’s actions cause an uproar consisting of people who are either poor, unemployed, mentally ill, or all of the above. As the story progresses, Arthur discovers from shocking truths about his life: His mother had lied about him being the illegitimate son of her former boss, billionaire Thomas Wayne... His mother was actually his adoptive mother, and that he allowed her boyfriend to abuse Arthur...abuse that had caused him his head injury which is the reason for his uncontrollable laughing. Tired of being lied to and ridiculed all his life, Arthur kills his mother, dresses up as a clown, and kills people on live television. Not only that, but the protests that Arthur had unintentionally caused resulted in the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne, whose murders were witnessed by their son Bruce.

This is one of the few stories that actually features Joker’s backstory. This movie is not based off of any comics, and is therefore an original story. While Joker is one of Batman’s most dangerous villains, this may be one of the greatest portrayals of his former self. Arthur Fleck had suffered his whole life, until he snapped and would become one of the Gotham’s greatest threats.

3. Simon Petrikov/Ice King

The Ice King was the main antagonist of the cartoon, Adventure Time. Throughout the series, Ice King would attempt to kidnap princesses, especially Princess Bubblegum, and would often fight the two main protagonists: Finn and Jake. However, Ice King’s past was unexpectedly revealed in the episode, Holly Jolly Secrets. At first the episode is comedic and shows videos of Ice King’s hilarity...but it all becomes serious and sad near the end. Ice King is revealed to have once been a human named ‘Simon Petrikov’, who specialized in mysterious, supernatural artifacts. Simon had a great career, and was madly in love with his fiance: Betty. But one day, Simon found a mysterious crown buried in ice and snow. When Simon put it on his head, it gave him visions that made him act insane without him even realizing it. This drove Betty away, and Simon began to slowly change physically, emotionally, and mentally. In the end, Simon was driven completely insane and lost all memories of his past. His obsession with princesses is because he used to call Betty his ‘princess’...though he did not remember calling her that. In the series finale, Simon is freed from the crown’s power and is returned to his old self.

While Ice King was introduced as a comedic villain, and was the main antagonist for most of the series...he is still a tragic villain do to him once being a sane man with a good life, but began to lose his mind because of the crown’s magic. At least he was transformed back into his old self, in the end.

4. Mr. Freeze

Mr. Freeze is one of the most famous and tragic villains in the Batman universe. Mr. Freeze is, of course, a villain who uses the cold in his crimes. But in the past, Mr. Freeze was a scientist named ‘Victor Fries’ who had a loving and caring relationship with his wife: Nora. Victor loved Nora more than anything in the world. But at some point, Nora was diagnosed with a fatal disease with not long to live. Desperate to save her, Victor had Nora cryonectically frozen in order to keep her alive until a cure for her illness was found. Unfortunately, however, the equipment malfunctioned, causing the lab to explode in ice with Victor in it. Victor survived, but the explosion caused his body to only be able to survive in extremely cold weather. Nora had also survived...but her condition was even more serious than before. Victor created a suit to help him live, and began to commit crimes so he could continue keeping his wife alive.

Mr. Freeze’s motive for his crime spree is his wife’s life. He would go to extreme lengths to save her life...even if it meant becoming a bad guy.

5. Zack Foster and Rachel Gardner

While number 5 on the list consists of a duo...Zack and Rachel make one heck of a team. Zack and Rachel are the two main characters in the anime, Angels of Death, in which all of the characters are, in fact, mentally unstable individuals who like to kill people.

As a child, Zack had lived with his mother until her boyfriend set him on fire for his own enjoyment. While Zack survived this attack, his mother abandoned him at an illegal orphanage, where many other orphans were mistreated and starved by the couple who owned the orphanage. Zack was forced to bury the bodies of the orphans who died there, and was treated as a pet by the couple. One night, Zack watched a slasher film, which gave him the idea to stab the couple to death while they slept. Afterwards, Zack left the orphanage and was soon taken in a blind, homeless man who was the first and only person to ever show him kindness. However, the man was killed by a couple of sociopaths. Zack found out and killed them. For many years...Zack would kill people who were ‘happy’ and lied to him, thus earning him the title of a serial killer.

Rachel had lived with her parents before the start of the series. Rachel’s father was a cop who had a drinking problem, which resulted in several fights between him and his wife. Both of them blamed each other for Rachel’s lack of emotions, but only stayed together because of Rachel. Rachel’s father saw her as an insane girl, and her mother hated her and would even beat her. One day, Rachel found a stray puppy and wanted to keep it, but her parents wouldn’t listen to her and just kept on fighting with each other. But later on, she went back to where the puppy was and it bit her. This caused Rachel to blackout, but when she came to...she saw that she had killed the dog without even remembering what she had done. She then “fixed” the puppy by sewing it back together, thus “making it her’s”. When Rachel returned home with the puppy that night, her father snapped and stabbed her mother to death. Rachel witnessed it and ran back to her room, with her father chasing after her with the knife. Rachel took out a gun that her mother had hidden from him, and shot her father in self-defense. Rachel then sewed her parents’ bodies together, as her way of “fixing” them and creating her “perfect family”. A week later, the police arrived at the house and saw Rachel with the sewed up puppy and her parents. The police thought that Rachel was a surviving victim who was in shock, and was sent to a mental institution for treatment.

Zack and Rachel are quite complicated, as they have both protagonist and antagonist qualities. They both kill people and use each other to escape a building full of death traps and killers...but they also care and understand each other, as they have both suffered years of abuse to the point of developing murderous instincts.

6. Dr. Doofenshmirtz

Dr. Doofenshmirtz was basically the main comedic-antagonist of the cartoon, Phineas and Ferb. Doofenshmirtz is the arch nemesis of Perry the Platypus, and is always making some kind of ‘inator’ device to conquer the Tri State Area...though many of his “evil” plans backfire and are not really THAT evil. Though the reason why Doofenshmirtz is an evil genius, is because of his bad childhood.

Both of his parents neglected him, he always lived in the shadow of his younger brother, his only friend was a balloon, no one ever came to any of his birthdays, he was forced to wear dresses after his brother was born, and he was even disowned at one point and was forced to live with ocelots. So, yeah...it’s no wonder he turned to a life on crime.

Doofenshmirtz is quite hilarious and not very evil...but his terrible childhood makes you wonder how he hasn’t killed anyone! At least his arch nemesis and teenage daughter care about him.

7. Denzel Crocker

Denzel Crocker is one of the main antagonists of the cartoon, Fairly Odd Parents. Crocker is a fourth grade teacher who is obsessed with catching fairies...which makes the people around him see him as crazy. Of course, there is a reason for his obsession with fairies.

When Crocker was a child, his single mother worked two jobs and left him with an abusive babysitter. Because of this, he had fairy godparents...just like Timmy Turner. His life with his fairies was the only time in his life when he was happy. However, after Timmy went back in time and accidentally revealed that Crocker had fairies, his fairies were taken away from him and his memory was erased several times. People even forgot all of the good things that Crocker had done with his fairies, and was now hated by the townspeople. Because his memory was erased more than once, his appearance changed...but he still did not forget the existence of fairies, only forgetting that he himself had fairy godparents as a child.

Crocker’s obsession with proving the existence of fairies has caused him to become a laughing stock, to the point where he was expelled from Harvard, was denied funding for his fairy research, lost his girlfriend, and he never moved out of his childhood home. Crocker is capable of building extraordinary machines and is quite smart, but he wastes his talents on trying to prove the existence of fairies. If only Crocker had never became obsessed with fairies, he may have been able to live a normal and decent life.

8. Wellies

Wellies are the residents of Wellington Wells in the game, We Happy Few. Wellies are known to be decent citizens in Wellington Wells...but their minds and emotional states are from from decent. They kill or throw out anyone who becomes a Downer (a person who either won’t take Joy, or cannot take Joy due to having a bad reaction towards it). But their villainous characteristics are all caused by denial and drug usage.

In an alternate timeline, England surrendered to Germany during WWII and the citizens of Wellington Wells were forced to send their under 13 children on a train to Germany. The children never returned, even after Germany lost the war, and all of the townspeople were so traumatized by what had happened that they now rely on a drug: Joy. Joy is a pill that makes people forget the past, and put them in a state of constant happiness. The Wellies are addicted to this drug, as they cannot bear to remember what had happened to the children. To make matters worse, their whole civilization is now on the verge of collapse due to many problems caused by them always being on Joy: Broken machinery, plagues caused by pollution, towns beginning to collapse due to poor maintenance, starvation due to lack of food production, and a government who cannot bear to face the reality of their situation and would rather be on Joy than solve the problem.

Because of their reliance on Joy, Wellies are completely unaware that the town is collapsing, and would rather be in denial than face reality.

9. Mary

Mary is the hidden antagonist in the game, Ib. At first, Mary appears to be an innocent girl who claims to be trapped in the Fabricated World like the main protagonists, Ib and Garry. However, it is revealed that Mary is actually a girl from a painting who wants to escape the Fabricated World by replacing either Ib or Gary in the real world.

Depending on the game’s ending, Mary either replaces Ib or Garry in the real world by leaving one of them behind in the Fabricated World, or is defeated by Ib and Garry and remains trapped in the Fabricated World.

Mary was the last painting made by the artist: Guertena. She saw him as her “father”, because she was created by him, and was devastated by his death. Mary is very lonely in the Fabricated World, and wants so desperately to exist in the real world. Mary would do anything to become real and have a friend and family of her own. Years of loneliness can make a person desperate and insane.

10. Zombies

Zombies are always the villains in anything zombie-related. They are undead humanoids who eat human flesh, and drive survivors to do questionable things and fight for survival.

However, there is something that some people seem to forget: Zombies used to be normal, ordinary humans who did not become zombies by choice. They were turned into zombies either because of a mysterious virus, or a nuclear weapon that mutated them into creatures of the undead.

Zombies do not remember who they once were, and some even end up killing and eating their own loved ones without even realizing it. They have basically been ripped of their humanity and are now walking shells of their former selves.

#top 10 list #zombie #villain #tragic #dr. doofenshmirtz #angels of death #ib #video games #cartoon #denzel crocker #we happy few #wellies #ice king #mr freeze #darth vader #joker #arthur fleck

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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The 20 Best Horror Movies on Netflix UK – Scary Films to Watch Right Now

https://ift.tt/2RE5emn

Netflix is an ever-changing, constantly growing treasure trove of hidden gems and secret delights (here’s everything new on Netflix UK this month). Sometimes, a teeny bit too secret though.

Who hasn’t sat down to watch a horror movie and found themselves scrolling endlessly, either not being able to find something they’re in the mood for, or not really knowing what half the titles are, or if they’re any good?

We’ve scoured the full current catalogue available to watch in the UK now and picked out the best scary movies. It’s a mix of classic and new, and a range of slashers, horror-coms, mumblegore, monster movies and more to hopefully scratch that itch with ease.

We’ll keep this updated as and when titles drop in and out of the service.

Hereditary (2018)

If you haven’t seen this slice of trauma, the feature debut of Ari Aster, you probably should. If you have seen it, you probably won’t want to again. Toni Collette stars as a woman whose controlling mother has just passed away setting of a series of horrible events. Aster says the film was partly inspired by his own sense of his family being cursed – this a movie absolutely drenched in grief and pain with astonishing performances all round. It’s tough going, but it’s a masterpiece. Read our review.

The Platform (2019)

This existential Spanish horror made a splash at the start of lockdown with it’s tale of prisoner trapped in an enormous vertical prison with a platform at it’s centre which delivers food to the inmate floor by floor starting at the top, so that each floor only gets what the floor above has left over. It’s political, allegorical, it’s clever and it’s very violent.

The Endless (2017)

Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s gorgeous sci-fi horror stars the two as brother who escaped from a cult ten years ago and are drawn back in in search of answers when a strange videotape arrives. This is their third movie after Resolution and Spring and the two are only growing in strength as directors – The Endless is rammed with indelible imagery and deeply unsettling moments within a plot that is a joy to unpick.

What Keeps You Alive (2018)

Couple Jackie and Jules head to a remote woodland cabin to celebrate their first wedding anniversary but things go bad… Ok this sounds like the most generic slasher in the world but trust us it’s not. Twists hit early on (that we’d hate to spoil) and the tension ramps up fast in a very effective cat and mouse chase with a female bent. This comes from Colin Minihan who made Grave Encounters – this isn’t similar but both have a disorientating sense of place. Read our review.

Orphan (2009)

Released during the heyday of Dark Castle’s mid-budget horror splurge, Orphan is one of those genre films with an absolutely ludicrous (and therefore thoroughly enjoyable) twist, which we will not spoil for you. Peter Sarsgaard and Vera Farmiga star as a couple mourning the loss of their baby, who decided to adopt a little Russian girl called Esther from the local orphanage. Things quickly start to go very, very wrong as the pair start to suspect that wee Esther – who insists on dressing like a spooky doll – isn’t all she appears to be. Check out our review.

Insidious (2010)

The many sequels may have yielded diminishing returns but the first of this franchise, about a couple (Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne) whose comatose son appeared to be trapped in another realm by a evil spirit, is a very effective chiller. Horror genius James Wan directs, and the first half of this movie at least is pretty much guaranteed to make you jump out of your skin.

Annihilation (2018)

An all star cast including Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Tessa Thompson, plus the quality direction of Alex Garland wasn’t enough to secure this horror sci-fi based on Jeff Vandermeer’s novel a theatrical release in the UK. Nevermind, that just means you can watch it for free on Netflix. Portman joins a crew of women exploring the mysterious Area X where he husband ventured some time before and came back changed. It’s a weird, unfamiliar landscape of beautiful flora and terrifying fauna defying explanation until the strange, indelible finale (not sure what it means? Have a read of this explainer). And you can check out our review, too if you like.

Daybreakers (2009)

You’ll get a little bit of everything with this Spierig Brothers curio. It was the film that really got the directing team noticed and it’s not hard to see why. Set in a dystopian world where basically everyone has been turned into a vampire, one corporation thinks it’d be a bloody (sorry) good idea to track down all the surviving humans and…well, basically milk them. Ethan Hawke stars as a vampire haematologist who starts to think there might be another way for this story to go after he’s collared by a former vampire (Willem Dafoe), who can cure everyone. (Living) dead good. Check out our review.

The Bar (2017)

Slightly bonkers Spanish horror thriller which sees a bunch of strangers stuck in a busy Madrid cafe when snipers begin shooting anyone who tries to leave. Confusion and personality clashes abound in this economical single location chiller with a dark sense of human as the inhabitants slowly discover what’s going on, who’s responsible and try to work out if and how they will survive.

Netflix UK: What’s New in April 2020?

By Kirsten Howard

21 underappreciated films to watch on Netflix UK

By Paul Bradshaw and 2 others

The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon’s love/hate letter to the horror genre felt like something of a game changer when it finally arrived (it was shelved for several years because of financial issue with original distributor MGM). Chris Hemsworth and Haley Bennett star in a double layer story about ordinary kids vacationing in a woodland cabin, with Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins as very particular kinds of bureaucrats up to something in the background. No spoilers, just watch. Here’s our review.

Cargo (2017)

Martin Freeman stars in this Netflix original developed from a short directed by Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke. Set in the Australian outback, Freeman is a father trying to find someone to protect his child in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. More wistful and emotional than that sounds on paper, there’s a fascinating subplot about an Aboriginal girl mourning her father and the final set piece is unforgettable. Check out our review.

Lifeforce (1985)

A Cannon Films classic directed by late Texas Chain Saw legend Tobe Hooper, people are still discovering the ’80s madness that is Lifeforce. Originally entitled Space Vampires, it’s exactly what you’d expect, and so much more. Nude, energy sucking bat creatures are brought back to Earth after an interstellar mission finds a gaggle of them lying dormant in Halley’s Comet, and it all goes very badly for the planet. You can expect a scenery-chewing Patrick Stewart to pop up in between the tits and gore. Not literally! Although, sometimes literally.

Creep (2014)

No, not the one set on the tube, this ‘mumblegore’ horror is far weirder than that. Director Patrice Brice plays Aaron, a videographer hired by Mark Duplass’s Josef to make a video for his kid to watch after he’s died of a terminal illness. Or does he? Playing on the power of politeness and the awkwardness of male relationships this is a highly original, itchily uncomfortable watch. Creep 2 is also on Netflix, and also good!

17 of the best TV series on Netflix UK

By Louisa Mellor

Underappreciated comedy movies on Netflix UK to watch now

By Mark Harrison and 1 other

Hush (2016)

Another smart sensory-based horror, this time from Oculus and Doctor Sleep man Mike Flanagan. This home invasioner sees deaf writer Maddie (Kate Siegel) attacked in her woodland retreat by a masked stranger. He uses her inability to hear to sneak around and terrorise her, but she has tricks of her own up her sleeve. Check out our review.

The Invitation (2015)

Karyn Kusama (Jennifer’s Body, Destroyer) just keeps knocking it out of the park (and she’s recently been attached to a Dracula movie from Blumhouse Productions), and with The Invitation she continued to secure her place as one of the best directors around. Here, Will (Logan Marshall-Green) and his girlfriend go to a party held by his formerly suicidal ex-wife, and discover that she seems to be happier than she ever was, but Will starts to suspect that rather than healthily coping with her mental illness, she may well have joined a doomsday cult instead, and be planning to kill them all. Paranoia and tension are at the max in this bad boy. Here’s our review.

Little Evil (2017)

Comedy horror from Eli Craig who made the wonderful Tucker and Dale Vs Evil. This time he’s playing on creepy kid tropes, particular those from The Omen movies. Adam Scott plays a man who discovers his new wife’s (Evangeline Lilly) son might actually be the anti-christ. And because it’s Eli Craig, of course it’s funny and very good natured as well as playing with the genre.

Gerald’s Game (2017)

Another Mike Flanagan offering here – what can we say? he’s damn good! – as Jessie (a spectacular Carla Guigino) and her husband Gerald drive to a remote house to try and spice up their marriage with a bit of gentle BDSM. One problem: Jessie is not into it. At all. Two problems: Gerald carks it, leaving her tied up with only her cunning to help her free herself from her prone, handcuffed predicament. Three problems: a mythical, supernatural killer may be in the house. Stephen King, you’ve done it again. Read our review.

Ravenous (2017)

Unusual Canadian zombie movie (in French) which sees remaining stragglers after an outbreak of the infected band together in disparate groups travelling to find other survivors. Ravenous sets up its infected as worshipping a sort of new religion of found items (chairs, TVs etc.) making comment on the zombification of society. It’s also funny and quite scary, so there’s that.

Veronica (2017)

Loosely based on a true story, Veronica is set in Madrid in 1991 and follows a young woman who messes with a Ouija board who thinks she’s accidentally summoned an evil spirit. Director by Paco Plaza, one of the two directors behind [REC], the movie gained minor notoriety when it first landed on Netflix because of a few viewers finding it overly scary. It’s true there are some seriously creepy bits (but you’ll be fine!).

The Perfection (2018)

Get Out‘s Allison Williams and Dear White People‘s Logan Browning star in this twisty, trashy but nonetheless enjoyable tale of two musical prodigies hothoused at a mysterious academy. It’s lurid and lavish (and it’s got some fairly dodgy sexual politics, we’d warn you) but great lead performances and a tricksy three act structure that keeps you guessing, make this an entertaining and unusual Friday night pick. Read our review.

Want more horror? Here’s our list of 81 genuinely creepy horror movies. Here are some horror movies it’s safe to watch with your kids. And here are some underappreciated Scream-inspired horror movies of the 90s.

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jacademia · 5 years

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Film Allusions in Crimson Peak

Hi, all! So because I am deep in my horror movie feels at present and, as horror is a genre that some of you are new to/unfamiliar with, want you all to have some more context for Crimson Peak as an intertextual Gothic pastiche, I thought make a little list of films (mostly horror) that CP references, alludes to, or visually echoes (other than Jane Eyre or any iteration of “Bluebeard,” that is). This list is certainly not exhaustive, but I hope will give you a starting place at understanding the scale of the intertextual web this movie is weaving (also maybe give you some movie recs if you’re into horror/classic cinema. I’ll try to include links to films in the public domain).

Nosferatu (1922) and other early 20th century cinema

Del Toro makes use of a lot of the aesthetics and techniques of film from the late Victorian period/early 20th century (appropriate since Crimson Peak is set in the 1890s - incidentally one of the peaks of Gothic literature). One of these is iris shots/iris transitions (shown above in this screenshot from Nosferatu). Iris transitions are when a circular black mask over the shot shrinks, closing the picture to a black screen (very common in early horror film and 1920s cartoons, ie Betty Boop). If you’d like some very iconic, silent vampire cinema, you can watch Nosferatu here at archive.org for free.

The Old Dark House (1932) | Watch free on Archive.org

Seeking shelter from a storm, five travelers are in for a bizarre and terrifying night when they stumble upon the Femm family estate.

A trope codifier for the haunted house movie, complete with oodles of Gothic weirdness, including those ooky spooky, co-dependent Femm siblings.

Rebecca (1940) | Watch free on Archive.org

A self-conscious bride is tormented by the memory of her husband's dead first wife.

Based on Daphne Du Maurier’s novel of the same name (itself heavily based on Jane Eyre), this Gothic variation on “Bluebeard” was Alfred Hitchcock’s first American film, won two Academy Awards, and is still considered one of the best psychological thrillers of all time. Features an overbearing female figure who directly interferes with our protagonist’s marriage to her, er, Prince Charming in the form of a Sapphic housekeeper obsessed with keeping the memory of the first Mrs. De Winter alive.

Notorious (1946) | Watch free on Youtube

A woman is asked to spy on a group of Nazi friends in South America. How far will she have to go to ingratiate herself with them?

Don’t drink the tea! Also, butterfly-backed chairs. Allll the butterfly-backed chairs.

The Fall of the House of Usher (1960)

Upon entering his fiancée's family mansion, a man discovers a savage family curse and fears that his future brother-in-law has entombed his bride-to-be prematurely.

Two prongs here: Crimson Peak is very much playing with Edgar Allan Poe’s short story (incest siblings! Gothic manors sinking into the earth!) and evoking a particular aesthetic associated with a number of 1960s/70s “schlock” Gothic horror films like those made by Roger Corman who applied his use of vivid color and psychedelic surrealism to a number of Poe’s works.

AESTHETIC!!!!! Speaking of aesthetic excess...

The Brides of Dracula (1960) and other Hammer Horror films

Vampire hunter Van Helsing returns to Transylvania to destroy handsome bloodsucker Baron Meinster, who has designs on beautiful young schoolteacher Marianne.

Known for a series of Gothic horror films made during the 1950s - 1970s featuring well-known characters like Count Dracula, Baron Frankenstein, and The Mummy, Hammer film productions hooked audiences with its use of vivid color, gore, sexy damsels in nightgowns, sexy women with fangs, sexy mummy girls, sexy... you get the idea. It left an indelible aesthetic mark on horror cinema since (including Crimson Peak). Also famous for catapulting the careers of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing or, as you might know them, Count Dooku and Grand Admiral Tarkin from Star Wars.

The Innocents (1961)

A young governess for two children becomes convinced that the house and grounds are haunted.

Frequently listed as one of the best horror films of all time, The Innocents (one of Del Toro’s direct inspirations -- clock the nightgown in the screencap) is a loose adaptation of Henry James’ seminal Gothic novella The Turn of the Screw.

So many more under the cut...

The Leopard (1963)

The Prince of Salina, a noble aristocrat of impeccable integrity, tries to preserve his family and class amid the tumultuous social upheavals of 1860's Sicily.

Another of Del Toro’s direct intertexts, which influenced Crimson Peak’s party scenes.

Suspiria (1977), the films of Mario Bava, and giallo cinema

An American newcomer to a prestigious German ballet academy comes to realize that the school is a front for something sinister amid a series of grisly murders.

A cult horror classic, Italian director Dario Argento’s Suspiria plays fast and loose with Gothic horror and fairy tale tropes, making for a slasher film quite unlike any other. Notable for its dreamlike surrealism, use of highly-stylized colorization, and sheer amounts of gore, Suspiria remains one of the most aesthetically influential horror films of all time and, looking at screenshots, you can maybe see its visual influence on films like Crimson Peak:

Guillermo Del Toro has also cited Mario Bava, another of the key figures in the golden age of Italian horror, as inspiration for his use of color and set design in Crimson Peak.

From Bava’s Black Sabbath (1963):

From Blood and Black Lace (1964):

Bava’s film, Blood and Black Lace, belongs to the giallo genre, which refers (at least, in English-speaking countries) to (largely 1970s) Italian horror thrillers/slashers notorious for their combination of intense, stylized violence and eroticism. Very much a precursor to the American slasher film.

The Shining (1980)

A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.

As film that also loosely adapts “Bluebeard,” it’s perhaps unsurprising that there are so many allusions to Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novel of the same name in Crimson Peak.

And, man, does it have it all! Snowed in, Gothic entrapment! Threats of domestic abuse! Secrets locked away in forbidden rooms! Ghosts! So many ghosts!

Ghosts in the bathtub!

Ludicrously enormous amounts of blood! Innocent waifs with the ability to commune with the dead! Intrepid third parties who heroically make an attempt to reach the isolated Gothic hellscape to help our damsel in distress only to get immediately merc’d! It’s all here, y’all.... except the incest, of course.

Flowers in the Attic (1987)

Children are hidden away in the attic by their conspiring mother and grandmother.

Ok, this is something of a cheat, as Crimson Peak is alluding more to V.C. Andrews’ infamous novel of the same name, not the 1987 film (which is an abysmally terribly adaptation and hilariously bad flick). Anyway, abused siblings are locked away in an attic... and... well... things get all... Sharpe family values, if you know what I mean.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

The centuries old vampire Count Dracula comes to England to seduce his barrister Jonathan Harker's fiancée Mina Murray and inflict havoc in the foreign land.

If you liked Crimson Peak, I think you’ll enjoy this too, as, like CP, this movie is a sincere horror film, but also a pastiche/celebration of the Gothic and vampire cinema. It’s visually sumptuous and very high-energy (if you didn’t like CP or Moulin Rouge!, this one is probably not for you).

Sleepy Hollow (1999)

Ichabod Crane is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate the decapitations of three people, with the culprit being the legendary apparition, The Headless Horseman.

This is another one that, if you liked CP, you might enjoy. Based on Washington Irving’s "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” Tim Burton’s film evokes a number of genres and horror aesthetics, most notably the Gothic horror flicks of the 1950s/60s, to create a kind of Hammer Horror film for American Gothic.

The Devil’s Backbone (2001) and Del Toro’s other films

After Carlos -- a 12-year-old whose father has died in the Spanish Civil War -- arrives at an ominous boys' orphanage, he discovers the school is haunted and has many dark secrets that he must uncover.

Crimson Peak is not Guillermo Del Toro’s first foray into Gothic horror, as ghost stories and dark fairy tales are very much his specialty (as we shall see again in Shape of Water later this semester). I highly recommend his ghosts-as-a-reflection-on-the-trauma-of-war film The Devil’s Backbone and his take on portal fantasy, Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), as they’re both excellent and you can see echoes between them and the effects/visuals of Crimson Peak.

#crimson peak #horror #a long post no one asked for

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