THE BORE
General => The Superdeep Borehole => Topic started by: The Fake Shemp on March 17, 2008, 02:02:54 PM
-
Y'know, the film just suffocates you. You feel like the end is inevitable. It's so grim and suffocating. I think suffocating is what I'm looking for.
-
so you want movies where the inevitability of demise is the outcome?
where there's no happy ending and everyone knows it from the first frame?
-
Yeah, that's part of the equation, but there are several good films where you know from the first frame that the characters are going to die. But Dawn of the Dead excels in this intangible feeling of "suffocation". I think maybe it's not just the inevitable demise of the main characters, but the entire world that the story exists in. Dawn of the Dead is told in a way that's pretty epic - you really get the feeling the world is going to end mainly due to the first act. If it was just a low-budget zombie flick shot in the mall, it'd be a lot different, I gather.
-
Se7en
morgan freeman even tells you at the beginning of the film - "This is not going to have a happy ending"
-
I own that, but it doesn't suffocate the viewer like Dawn of the Dead, nor does the world end. The literary equivalent would be H.P. Lovecraft, if I had to best describe the feelings such works envoke.
-
so, you mean "end of the world" by "end"
i see
then
In the Mouth of Madness
Prince of Darkness
The original version of Pulse
-
also, The Thing
John Carpenter used to be pretty big on end of the world stuff
-
In the Mouth of Madness is probably the only comparable film on your list - they save the day in Prince of Darkness and the film does not feel very suffocating (although it did until the climax). Also, again, while the end for the main characters in The Thing is inevitable, they still come out on top. In the Mouth of Madness sort of captures that feeling, but whisks away our main character to a rural town for lame post-80s Carpenter hijinks and by the time we see him in the real world again, it's already done.
That is one of the films I've been watching recently to try and nail that feeling, but only because it came so close and blew it - not because it's a great example of it.
-
i'm going to trow some stuff out here.
sadly it's really hard to get a really fatalistic horror film, because they rarely end as they should.
check out
the mist (most recent)
martin
let's scare jessica to death
in the mouth of madness
ju-on
blair witch project
kairo
the descent
the thing
repulsion
that's all i can think of off of the top of my head
let me check some magazines and books that i have at my house to see if i can add more to this list
-
and i see you've already knocked down quite a few on my list.
maybe you would want to check out apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic films?
-
I should see The Descent and The Mist. I have not seen Martin or Let's Scare Jessica to Death - links?
No, I don't want to do post-apocalyptic films for a lot of reasons and 99% of apolcalyptic films turn into melodramatic drivel. I guess fatalistic horror films is the best description of stuff I'm trying to research. In the Mouth of Madness is probably the one I've been studying the most because it has some of the attributes I'm really, really looking for in a film, but kind of blows the rest.
-
when i was younger i had what i thought was a pretty cool idea for a sequel to The Thing (i saw elements of this in the different comic miniseries dark horse published years later)
a freighter crew is transporting pieces of the wreckage from the outpost back to the US (you'd never see macready or childs, they disappeared, so the ending to the first movie remains intact)
of course, thing gets loose, wreaks havoc on the ship, sucks faces and assimilates, tentacle-whips motherfuckers all over the place
a couple of the crew realize what would happen if it gets back to the mainland, so they try to destroy the ship while it's still in colder waters
they manage to destroy the ship and make it to a lifeboat
as they sit waiting to die or be rescued, the boat begins to rock violently, finally settling, and they see what caused it - a wave, building, and headed in the direction of land
the implication being, of course, that the thing is absorbing all the aquatic life as it is moving to where the people are
fade out on them staring at the wave disappearing over the horizon
well, as a fifteen year old i thought it was pretty cool, anyway
-
they don't save the day in prince of darkness, though - remember the transmission from the future
-
martin:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_%28film%29
but perhaps The Crazies by Romero would be a bettter fit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crazies
Let's Scare Jessica to Death
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let's_Scare_Jessica_to_Death
oh, check out
Punishment Park by Peter Watkins, perhaps.
check out jingoku. it's a japanese film from the 60s. it's guaranteed to not have a happy ending because everyone dies 20 minutes in then spends the rest of the time in buddhist hell.
-
I always felt that the transmission was just a reaveal of what would have happened, not what did. They ultimately had a happy ending.
Your idea for THE THING 2: THE THINGENING sounds very Hollywood. You could probably sell that, actually.
-
when i was younger i had what i thought was a pretty cool idea for a sequel to The Thing (i saw elements of this in the different comic miniseries dark horse published years later)
a freighter crew is transporting pieces of the wreckage from the outpost back to the US (you'd never see macready or childs, they disappeared, so the ending to the first movie remains intact)
of course, thing gets loose, wreaks havoc on the ship, sucks faces and assimilates, tentacle-whips motherfuckers all over the place
a couple of the crew realize what would happen if it gets back to the mainland, so they try to destroy the ship while it's still in colder waters
they manage to destroy the ship and make it to a lifeboat
as they sit waiting to die or be rescued, the boat begins to rock violently, finally settling, and they see what caused it - a wave, building, and headed in the direction of land
the implication being, of course, that the thing is absorbing all the aquatic life as it is moving to where the people are
fade out on them staring at the wave disappearing over the horizon
well, as a fifteen year old i thought it was pretty cool, anyway
that's actually not that bad.
-
Yeah, I could imagine Universal greenlighting a David Koepp script based on that story. Directed by Eli Roth.
Let's Scare Jessica to Death sounds awesome. How do I go about acquring such a movie?
-
it's out on legitimate DVD release
so netflix or amazon
-
how about Hellraiser?
maybe event horizon?
-
Seen both - neither are bad suggestions. Hellraiser feels contained to just a couple of characters and not the world itself, and Event Horizon is bit too over-the-top for what I'm looking for. Hellraiser does suffocate near the end of the flick, though.
-
the crazies is a good choice - they're remaking it - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455407/ - could be Zack Snyder DotD good, could be Rob Zombie Halloween bad
-
well the problem is that it's hard to do an END OF THE WORLD movie, esp in horror form.
there's usually an out at the end of it
there's a great book called When Worlds Collide which is an end of the world book which is about a planet heading towards earth and the mad scramble to find a suitable replacement planet, build a rocket and get people there.
in it there's riots, wars and all kinds of stuff like that when the world realizes what's going to happen. i think that a ground level one small family view of how the actual end of the world affects them would be worth exploring.
check out terrorist horror film Right Outside your Door
-
the crazies is a good choice - they're remaking it - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455407/ - could be Zack Snyder DotD good, could be Rob Zombie Halloween bad
they're fucking remaking April Fool's Day and goddamn Prom Night
nothing really surprises me anymore.
-
I call Dawn of the Dead "Survivor horror". I love the constant tension and their duty of being fully focused all the time because they are never truly safe.
-
I've got to tell you, I think Day has a much better sense of it being the end of days. Everyone is stir crazy, and they go up and down the east coast without any sight of people.
-
Invasion of the Body Snatchers?
-
Invasion of the Body Snatchers?
Actually, the 70s remake is not a bad pick for this either.
-
Shaun of the Dead
-
Invasion of the Body Snatchers?
Actually, the 70s remake is not a bad pick for this either.
Yup that's the one I'm talking about. I saw it for the first time late last year (*sigh* i know i know) and the ending was pretty refreshing. Often horror films will end with a cliff hanger; the protagonist rides into the horizon, but then omg the monster is in the backseat of the car look out - *credits role*. But with the Body Snatchers I felt a sense of shock with a bit of sadness. Like damn, humanity LOST.