Under The Bed

The rotting remains of 2012's festival
jonbly
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Under The Bed

Post by jonbly »

7/10 - interesting concept, and generally well played. Preferred the hinted menace of the earlier scenes, though, and didn't feel that the final form of the monster fitted with the rest of the film.
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Stephen with ph
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Re: Under The Bed

Post by Stephen with ph »

I thought I knew where this film was going, but I was disappointed by the finale.

I much prefer the ending I was expecting - when the police car pulls up in the final scene, the cops leap out and cuff our hero. It transpires that the monster has simply been in his mind and he is, after all, a certifiable mentalist. The camera pulls back to reveal his father on the garage floor, beaten black & blue and covered in ashes, whilst the house next door is in flames and his stepmother and cute neighbour are actually looking at him in horror, rather than awe and gratitude.

It turns out that he IS a nutjob, that he DID burn down his house two years ago and that his impressionable brother has only ever believed him because he doesn't know any better.

With that ending - best film of the festival so far :D
jonbly
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Re: Under The Bed

Post by jonbly »

Hmm... in that vein, jonbly's re-write of this is basically to finish making a twisted version of Monsters, Inc... so the monster should be a big cute furball with fuzzy Mr Tickle arms who's started to take his job a bit too far...
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Re: Under The Bed

Post by Kris »

Fun but wouldn't revisit anytime soon
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DavieT
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Re: Under The Bed

Post by DavieT »

Wins the prize for most innovative use of a dead relative :) - death by ash - was ok but nothing more
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Re: Under The Bed

Post by djwoody »

WTF!!! When did FrightFest start showing kids films??? Strip out the gore the end and my son could watch it (& still find it fu##ing tedious)
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Re: Under The Bed

Post by Dom »

Finally a monster movie that actually has a fucking monster and not some contrived, it was all a dream, I'm fucked in the head nonsense.
It also didn't blow it's wad in the first 20 minutes (Tulpa I'm looking at you!) and was bold enough to take it's time and build to a balls to the wall finale.

Loved it!
thesavageintruder
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Re: Under The Bed

Post by thesavageintruder »

I thought this one was quite a likeable 80's style kid-versus-a-monster movie. Could have used a sense of humour and a lighter approach (as with THE GATE, etc.) but how nice to see a man-in-a-suit creature.
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Stephen with ph
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Re: Under The Bed

Post by Stephen with ph »

jonbly wrote:Hmm... in that vein, jonbly's re-write of this is basically to finish making a twisted version of Monsters, Inc... so the monster should be a big cute furball with fuzzy Mr Tickle arms who's started to take his job a bit too far...
Can anyone film Jonbly's re-write in time for FF 14?
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Re: Under The Bed

Post by bernal316 »

Sorry guys but this was absolutely appalling. The only good thing about this movie was taking the piss out of it when it finished.

Under the bed, I wish I'd stayed in bed!!!!
horrorkid78
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Re: Under The Bed

Post by horrorkid78 »

awesome awesome film, loved every minute of it, sod all this giallo rubbish, give me a monster movie any day of the week
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Re: Under The Bed

Post by AdeBrown »

Bed Clothes Encounters of the sub-Poltergeist Kind.
I didn't really connect with the family, so didn't mind if the boys got out of that underworld place,
but I liked the way the Ned Flanders Kids were gratuitously introduced and offed :lol:

Who would win in a glib cliche fight, them or the brothers in The Thompsons?
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horrorkid78
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Re: Under The Bed

Post by horrorkid78 »

Ned Flanders Kids ha ha yeah that was pretty damm cool
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morralex
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Re: Under The Bed

Post by morralex »

This was bad, lazy, obvious film making. The overuse of Dutch angles to convey apparent dread and the embarrassing script lead me to walk out.
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damatotomato
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Re: Under The Bed

Post by damatotomato »

This film was all very 80's-family movie at the start and came over like a cross between The Goonies and E.T (hey, that older brother was also the older brother in The Goonies and E.T wasn't he?). But then imagine a film where the young cast of The Goonies get sliced and diced by the ugly pirate at the end or where E.T isn't cute and cuddly but evil and cruel, and eats Elliott instead of asking to help him phone home - this is that movie!

It worked, I felt, as an entry in the domestic stitch-up horror genre. The film had a subversive wisecracking feel. There was some genuine relationship developed between the older brother and the frankly (at times) hilarious kid brother (Gattlin Griffith), who was outstanding in his role. The cast played the film dead straight, which I liked. There were a few cute girls on the scene for the older brother (returning from a period of recovery after a breakdown) but this direction wasn't especially pursued as it would have been in many an 80's horror, I like to think this was another act of deliberate subversion. If it's just hasty plotting, I apologise.

The next door neighbour and his doopy kids was fun. I liked what happened to some of this family at the end of the film. In fact, I cheered the horror on. Out of all the cast, I half-hoped the stepmom would survive, I'm not sure if that's because she walks around the garden braless and seems like she actually cares about the kids, or because she's the only one in the family without 'issues', in fact - she's outrageously normal in a suburban garden of barking. At the end of the movie, she's the one holding the rope for the kids as they try to escape from hell, while the real mother is in ashes in the garage - if that's not subversion of the all-American family, I don't know what is.

The bed wasn't especially scary, but the plot, about the monster that lives under the mattress so you have to sleep on top of cupboards and things (but surely after all those years living with a monster in your house, that dumb dad would have spotted something odd going on, I mean, at the dinner table wouldn't you be asking your kid why he looks so traumatised every bloody night?) was suitably creepy and weird, like a bad nightmare after too much Stilton and crackers.

The monster was decent enough but the scenes in the demon's world were wonderfully surreal and full of energy and realisation, as good as the underwater sequences in Argento's Inferno. It looked like these scenes were originally intended for 3D - if they weren't, they should have been.

This was a horror film with a subversive touch - The 'Burbs meets The Beast in the Cellar and Disney's Don't Look Under The Bed (imaginary X-rated version), with some outrageously yucky special effects and squished heads at the end (hey - this was a family-friendly horror movie waiting to stab you in the neck just before the end credits rolled, mid-popcorn and cherry pop finishing off). Most of all, I had fun.

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Last edited by damatotomato on Wed Aug 29, 2012 5:14 pm, edited 6 times in total.
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