The Descent.

Brigid

Terrifying. I'd never seen a horror flick about a deep cave before and this is the only one I've actually seen so far so if there is a better one out there I don't know about it. All I know is this one had my heart thumping, pulse racing and brain reeling for most if its 99 minutes. Serious, spine tingling suspense and some crazy-ass shockers kept me on the very edge of my seat. I love a good horror flick and they're hard to find (or I'm hard to please) and this one did a great job scaring the absolute shit out of me.

I give it three out of five stars.
*****

buddhafoot

I'll have to check it out.

Oh... here's handy wipe for that ... mess.

-bf

Brigid

lol!!

Nirvana

Brigid wrote:

Terrifying. I'd never seen a horror flick about a deep cave before and this is the only one I've actually seen so far so if there is a better one out there I don't know about it. All I know is this one had my heart thumping, pulse racing and brain reeling for most if its 99 minutes. Serious, spine tingling suspense and some crazy-ass shockers kept me on the very edge of my seat. I love a good horror flick and they're hard to find (or I'm hard to please) and this one did a great job scaring the absolute shit out of me.

I give it three out of five stars.
*****

Brigid, forgive me, but do you love pain? I can't stand horror movies. Never have. It seems too real to me. Nerve pill, please!!!

As for sitting on the edge of my seat: No thanks, I want to sit back and rest my poor old back.

It all seems too real to me. I have enough anxieties of my own without placing myself in a horrible, warlike environment. For catharsis, I'll take something more dramatic with good music.

Hey, girl, thanks for sharing. But I'd hate to spill my coffee all over my new khakis.

May the force stay with you!

Brigid

LOL!!!

Arctic-Stranger

This is relatively new for me, but I love a good horror flick. I never did before, but now...I don't know, maybe it takes the edge off of the stuff I see at work. (and within myself!)

Brigid

I've only recently experienced a renewed interest in horror (not torture movies like Hostel or Saw, though) and I find them to be a good shake up when I'm getting a little too comfortable in my privileged and luxurious life. Being reminded of the horrors of samsara every once in a while seems like a good idea for me. Strange as that may sound...! The Last King of Scotland was quite a good reminder of horror, too.

Palzang

If you like horror movies, how about a travelogue of India? Or maybe you could tape GW's news conferences...

Palzang

Arctic-Stranger

I think I will stick to the Last King...the problem with the GW Horror show is that you start saying, "It's only a movie," only to find out it is not!

I am with you on the torture stuff Boo. I like suspense, but usually avert my eyes at the more graphic gory bits. For example the thing I like about the second sequence in 28 Days Later is that as Jim wanders around London, nothing happens to him. You keep expecting it, but the horror of the situation carries the scene much better than running zombie could ever carry it.

So you recommend Last King?

Brigid

Yes, Last King had a strong impact on me. It was partly due to the fact that I remember Idi Amin from when I was a kid as this monstrous murderer and it created a strange conflict in me because at that time my ultimate hero was Muhammad Ali. Two big, powerful, black men but total opposites.

It also affected me strongly because it's filmed in this sort of raw, rough style, very 1970's, and I kept thinking to myself while all this was happening in Uganda my family and friends and I were swimming in our pool, having BBQs and enjoying our peaceful life in Canada. It's hard to explain my feelings about it but I still think of the film every couple of days. A certain scene will pop into my head, or a line from the movie or something. I guess it's kind of haunting me. So, the short answer is, yes, I highly recommend it. lol!

Brigid

For example the thing I like about the second sequence in 28 Days Later is that as Jim wanders around London, nothing happens to him. You keep expecting it, but the horror of the situation carries the scene much better than running zombie could ever carry it.

I forgot to respond to this in my last post. YES! lol! It's exactly that part of the film that captured me, Jim walking around an empty London with newspapers and other debris flying around in the wind. I LOVE that scene. The fist time I saw the movie I felt like I was him walking around, thinking "What the hell...? What do I do? Where do I go? Am I in imminent danger? Is there someone or something lurking around the next corner? Or even worse, is there no one at all...anywhere?"

Silence in film is the most underrated technique imho. I love it. Give the audience time to make up their own plots, ask their own questions, fill in the blanks with their own imagination. What the silence insinuates and what the watcher infers from that silence can really make movie magic. The tension in the silence can be breathtaking. We're usually so fast to fill in a void, uncomfortable if there's too much silence in a conversation, we're always trying to fill the gaps with words, or more stuff, more paint, more notes, more anything, because we're so afraid of the empty space.

So the empty London and the silence was so amazingly powerful in that movie it's the first scene that comes to my mind whenever I think of the film. I loved that nothing physical happened to Jim. It was all mental/emotional. Frightening but peaceful at the same time.

I think I'm going to buy a copy of that film. I'd like to watch it from time to time. I like how it makes me think, where it takes me.

buddhafoot

Brigid wrote:

It also affected me strongly because it's filmed in this sort of raw, rough style, very 1970's, and I kept thinking to myself while all this was happening in Uganda my family and friends and I were swimming in our pool, having BBQs and enjoying our peaceful life in Canada.

B,

I feel the same way about The Killing Fields whenever I see it. What I was doing as a child in the 70's and the horror Cambodians were going through as a people.

-bf

Brian

Same here about Hotel Rwanda. That movie changed me. I still think about it every once in a while.

buddhafoot

Yep - that was a good one too.

I was scheduled to do some work on the Ivory Coast around that Hutu time - and then (luckily) I got a new job.

Glad I didn't have to go around there.

-bf

Palzang

And how about Bambi? No, I'm not being cute. The part where Bambi's mother dies in the forest fire can be pretty traumatic for a little kid! Was for me anyway.

Palzang

buddhafoot

If you were a REAL man, that kind of crap wouldn't have bothered ya.

Wimp.

-bf




P.S. When I was 4 or 5 I saw the old King Kong and cried when he died at the end.

Palzang

Yeah, you're right. I was a pretty wimpy 4 year old!

Palzang

Brigid

King Kong! I sobbed and sobbed. Did you know that was allegedly Adolf Hitler's favourite film?
I haven't seen Hotel Rwanda yet but I think I'll pick up a copy next time I'm in town. The Killing Fields really imprinted itself on my mind, too. The day I watched that film was the day I left childhood behind. It was such a shock and it went so deep I couldn't even cry.

And speaking of Bambi (yes, I cried over that one, too) how about Old Yeller? I can't watch animals dying in movies anymore.

Palzang

I had nightmares for years after seeing The Killing Fields - and I wasn't a kid when I saw it either. That scene of him crossing the field or rice paddy or whatever it was littered with rotting corpses was just too much for my feeble little mind, wimpy or no.

Palzang

buddhafoot

I know - the first time I saw it, I was quite young. I didn't understand why those fields were filled with decomposing corpses.

And - I freaked when I found out it was a true story. Hollywood or not - I thought if ANY of those horrors took place - it was took disturbing to try to realize something like that really happened in the 70's.

I just saw a documentary on the K Rouge not too long ago. Simply unbelievable Man's capacity to hurt it's own kind.

-bf

Palzang

Yes, the Khmer Rouge were true demons. They make Al Qaida and the Nazis look like amateurs. Can you imagine the suffering that Pol Pot created for himself? It boggles the mind! Truly a cause for arousing compassion, both for Khmer Rouge and their victims (which amounted to probably a third of the population of Cambodia!). It makes me sick just to think about it.

Palzang

not1not2

And let's not forget "Grave of the Fireflies" in the list of reality-based movies that disturb. It was an incredibly powerful film for me & I imagine it is one of the saddest movies ever made.

metta
_/\_

Palzang

I've read about that movie and would really like to see it sometime.

Palzang

Brigid

I've never even heard of it before but I'll keep an eye out for it. My DVD player is acting up and won't play certain discs etc. so I'll have to see to that first.

not1not2

Brigid wrote:

I've never even heard of it before but I'll keep an eye out for it. My DVD player is acting up and won't play certain discs etc. so I'll have to see to that first.

It's actually a Hiyao Miyazake film (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, etc) & it's animated. But it certainly isn't a kids movie.



And it's aparrently based off a semi-autobiographical novel of the same name.

metta
_/\_

Jason

I can admit that I cried when I saw it.

Brigid

Oh man, now I really have to get it! There are no Hiyao Miyazake films at the local video store so I'll have to buy it. But from what you've all been saying it sounds like a wise purchase and a good addition to my movie collection. Thanks for giving me the heads up. You'll probably read a post from me in a few weeks time about how I sobbed for hours after watching it. It sounds very strange to say this, but I'm really looking forward to seeing it.

Jason

Brigid,

I wouldn't say it's a wise purchase per se, but it's an extremely powerful and heart-wrenching story to say the least. I watched it once, but I don't think that I could ever watch it again. I don't think that I would recommend it to emotionally sensitive people either simply because it is so painful to watch. Nevertheless, it has to be one of the most moving animated films (hell one most moving films period) I have ever seen.

Jason

Palzang

Boo,

I just ordered it from Amazon. If you buy it from one of their used places, you can get it for significantly less than new, even though many of these places also sell it new. I've had good luck with them, and the service is usually very good. Of course, you do live in Canada...

Palzang

Simonthepilgrim

As a teenager, I went to the British Film Institute to see All Quiet On The Western Front. It blew away any lingering illusions I had about war.

Palzang

Have you ever seen The Burmese Harp (Biruma no tategoto, sometimes translated as Harp of Burma)? It is, imho, the best antiwar movie ever made by anybody. It's about a Japanese soldier, the Burmese harp player, at the end of WWII in Burma who is separated from his unit and almost killed trying to convince a group of die-hard Japanese to give up and stop fighting. he is nursed back to health by a Buddhist monk who finds him nearly dead. Later he steals the monk's robes and puts them on so that he could try to relocate his unit. On the way he is treated with respect and given food by the populace because of his robes. He is horrified at the sight of mountains of dead Japanese soldiers either rotting in the tropical sun or being given summary burials by the British, so instead of returning to his old life and his country, he vows to remain in Burma as a Buddhist monk and give proper burials to as many dead Japanese as he can. Truly a powerful and moving film from Kon Ichikawa, who also directed the more well-known Fires on the Plain.

Palzang

Brigid

I'll look for that one too, Palzang. By the way, we have Amazon up here on the frozen tundra, too, you know. It's called Amazon.ca. We're not completely uncivilized. :crazy: :rolleyes: :tongue2:

Palzang

You are?! I mean, of course you are!

Palzang

Brigid

lol! It's so hot here today my igloo's melting...:)

Xrayman

Brigid wrote:

I've never even heard of it before but I'll keep an eye out for it. My DVD player is acting up and won't play certain discs etc. so I'll have to see to that first.

dear BOO,

I was reading an article from a nerd in an electronics magazine (yea I know, who is the nerd...) anyway, it said that often the cheapest DVD players play ALL sorts of discs in comparison to the big brands-in Aus there is a unit going for around $45 Australian (about 20 cents US):rockon:

Brigid

lol!! Thanks, Xray. I'll check it out.

Palzang

Xrayman wrote:

dear BOO,

I was reading an article from a nerd in an electronics magazine (yea I know, who is the nerd...) anyway, it said that often the cheapest DVD players play ALL sorts of discs in comparison to the big brands-in Aus there is a unit going for around $45 Australian (about 20 cents US):rockon:

Good, but unfortunately Boo lives in Canada, where the same player would cost about $400 Canadian (or 5 baby seal furs).

Palzang

Brigid

Ka-ching!! Good one, Palzang!!

Xrayman

yea I Know. hey?

anyway, the canadian dollar was pretty close to the aussie dollar a few years ago when I was there so I couldn't compare it to now. palzang.

Palzang

Just digging at Canadians. It's a favorite sport of those below the 54th Parallel. You probably don't get South Park down under.

Palzang

Brigid

South Park; Canadian animation guys working in the U.S. making fun of Canadians and making a ton of money at it. Those American's eat it up. That says it all really.

Palzang

Yup, that's the American dream (nightmare) at work!

Palzang

Brigid

Lol!!

Simonthepilgrim

Let's remember, too, what dreams are and how they fade away when daylight comes. They "leave not a rack behind".

Xrayman

No we don't have electricity yet, either. Of course we have South Park, what civilised nation doesn't?


P.S. Who killed Kenny, this time?

I'd bet we know more about the USA and Canada than Americans know about Australia.

Palzang

Xrayman wrote:

I'd bet we know more about the USA and Canada than Americans know about Australia.

So what's to know?

Palzang the xenophobic