Top Five Films

London Frightfest 2013 has been and gone, this forum is available to post film reviews, chat, etc. from the festival.
jerichodark
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Re: Top Five Films

Post by jerichodark »

No-One Lives
Dark Tourist
You're Next
Odd Thomas
Cheap Thrills.
Alex J
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Re: Top Five Films

Post by Alex J »

In order, with 1 being my favourite:
1. Painless
2. You're Next
3. Cheap Thrills
4. We are what We Are
5. Dark tourist
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Re: Top Five Films

Post by leytonrocks »

My top five was:

1 Painless - a wonderful metaphor for the guilt and anger of a nation still living with the memories and surviving people who perpetuated the fascist regime.

2 Big Bad Wolves - Brothers Grimm meets Korea crime thriller.

3 Dark Tourist - One man's final descent into narcissistic madness.

4 You're Next

5 100 Bloody Acres

I did a top ten and asked a couple of Frightfesters to join me on Britflicks - http://britflicks.azurewebsites.net/blo ... blogID=385
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Re: Top Five Films

Post by steve806 »

I note Richard Streets top 5 is pretty similar to mine (I didn't see Your Next and should have put Odd Thomas not No One Lives - senior moment) and believe he and I are of a similar age (47) and have a similar festival history (shock around the clock/Eurofests etc - we previously discussed this on here Richard and were going to say hi at a previous Frightfest but it never happened - must say hi and get a coffee if we both go to Halloween) and I wondered if their is a correlation between age and the films we rated or otherwise.

Having watched films for 35 years now I find myself harder and harder to please. My gore hound tendency has diminished somewhat and I find the film makers imagination and story far more important these days so struggle to recommend a film just for the gore or the inventiveness of the death scenes which I would have done 10 years ago (I didn't applaud a single death scene this year). I not opposed to gore if it serves the story (I believe Martyrs is the best horror film of the last decade but not because of the gore but because it is searingly intelligent, questioning and provocative and stays with you long after).

So I just wondered if people choices bore any relation to their age or not?
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Re: Top Five Films

Post by The Aylmer »

steve806 wrote:I note Richard Streets top 5 is pretty similar to mine (I didn't see Your Next and should have put Odd Thomas not No One Lives - senior moment) and believe he and I are of a similar age (47) and have a similar festival history (shock around the clock/Eurofests etc - we previously discussed this on here Richard and were going to say hi at a previous Frightfest but it never happened - must say hi and get a coffee if we both go to Halloween) and I wondered if their is a correlation between age and the films we rated or otherwise.

So I just wondered if people choices bore any relation to their age or not?
That's a yes and no from me. I turned 52 the day before Frightfest this year and it's certainly true after 40 years of regular cinema going I'm getting harder and harder to please, especially when it comes to gore and scares. Nothing for me will ever match the sheer crap your pants intensity of seeing The Exorcist on a re-release in 1977 (my first X rated movie and we'd managed to sneak in under age as well) or the electric atmosphere of Carpenters Halloween a year later with every woman in the packed auditorium (and probably some of the blokes as well) screaming the place down. You can't buy moments like that anymore. As the years have passed those kind of moments have become ever fewer and far between, especially in this remake era where everything is just being rehashed and reheated for a new generation. That's why the likes of a Martyr's, The Woman or Human Centipede are always going to be welcome as it's something different that reminds me why I still stick with the genre. If it was all reworkings of Nightmare On Elm Street and Evil Dead I'd have given up long ago. That said, I always like to compare scores out of 10 with Richard every year (well, ok, Richard scores them out of 5) and nearly didn't this year until he caught me just as I was leaving the Phoenix early Tuesday morning! And it's fair to say, while we agree on quite a few movies there's certainly others I know Richard for one is never going to like no matter how well made they are (this years I Spit On Your Grave was pretty poor no matter what your tastes but I really rated the remake from a couple of years back). Age certainly plays a part. The older you get the more predictable a lot of it becomes. But the old adage about everyone having different tastes is still valid, even when you can see that bus pass looming on the horizon!
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Re: Top Five Films

Post by steve806 »

We seem to be on broadly the same page Aylmer, though I am with Richard on the I Spit on Your Grave remake - no matter the production value the story is low rent for me - I never got that it was a female revenge movie, its a film for guys and a pretty distasteful and pointless one IMO.

Totally agree regarding Exorcist, Halloween (my favourite horror movie - a purpose built scare machine that's never been bettered and the first horror movie that genuinely scared me) etc, though I suppose the point is that the Conjuring, Your Next etc etc provide the same thrill to the younger audience now and we are now so old we have become desensitised. Not many films have made the hears on the back of my neck stand up in recent years.

Interesting to see now if a younger frightfester will provide an opposing view??
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Re: Top Five Films

Post by The Soapmaker »

steve806 wrote:Totally agree regarding Exorcist, Halloween (my favourite horror movie - a purpose built scare machine that's never been bettered and the first horror movie that genuinely scared me) etc, though I suppose the point is that the Conjuring, Your Next etc etc provide the same thrill to the younger audience now and we are now so old we have become desensitised. Not many films have made the hears on the back of my neck stand up in recent years.
Speaking as a 49-year-old, I'm still capable of getting spooked by films, it doesn't necessarily have to be anything original, it just has to have "something" which pushes my buttons. The slow build-up and sense of not knowing what's coming next usually does the trick.

I've not averse to a bit of splatter, but it's still better in a film with a bit of a storyline and some atmosphere. Hatchet III was just 85 minutes of people lining up to be killed.

I actually thought The Conjuring was really good. Other recent films which I found scary would include The Strangers, The House of the Devil, The Silent House (although the ending ruined it) and the utterly brilliant Tale of Two Sisters.

That said, now that I think about it, nothing I saw at this year's Frightfest was even remotely scary. I think that's a first.
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Re: Top Five Films

Post by Wolfshade »

steve806 wrote:We seem to be on broadly the same page Aylmer, though I am with Richard on the I Spit on Your Grave remake - no matter the production value the story is low rent for me - I never got that it was a female revenge movie, its a film for guys and a pretty distasteful and pointless one IMO.

Totally agree regarding Exorcist, Halloween (my favourite horror movie - a purpose built scare machine that's never been bettered and the first horror movie that genuinely scared me) etc, though I suppose the point is that the Conjuring, Your Next etc etc provide the same thrill to the younger audience now and we are now so old we have become desensitised. Not many films have made the hears on the back of my neck stand up in recent years.

Interesting to see now if a younger frightfester will provide an opposing view??
Not sure if I qualify as a young frightfester as I'm 34, but younger anyway. I agree with what you're saying, I don't think it's totally down to age, but after watching horror films for a long time, or attending Fright Fest regularly for years, you certainly become desensitised to gore to the point where it takes something genuinely out of the ordinary to shock you, and if something does shock me, I find it genuinely noteworthy. As for genuinely scary films, I think that's a much rarer thing, the only Fright Fest films I've found scary since I started attending (2007) are The Orphanage, House Of The Devil, Sinister and The Conjuring...outside Fright Fest there's maybe 10 (if that) films that I've seen that are scary. I don't think it's a new generation of films thing, even though The Conjuring might not hve genuinely scared you, or had as much of an effect on you as The Shining or Halloween, you have to admit it's a well made, tense and spooky film that manages to be quite scary. I don't think you can lump You're Next it the same category as the The Conjuring as it's a very different film; You're Next is an action film all about jump scares, which are much easier to do and don't stay with you for as long. I enjoyed both, but would recommend You're Next as a fun action movie to go see at the cinema and have a laugh with, whereas I would recommend The Conjuring as an excellent scary horror film. I guess what I'm saying is for me The Shining will always be the scariest movie I've seen, and Halloween is up there too, and I'm somewhat desensitised from horror movies, but I still can appreciate the likes of Insidious, The Conjuring and House Of The Devil as scary films, and I don't think I would like to get so desensitised to the point where I can't go and see a well made modern horror movie and find it scary, and I hope that never happens.

This year there weren't really any scary films, In Fear started off well, and built up and tense and dark atmosphere inside the car, but then totally blew it with the ending, and V/H/S 2 had some jumpy moments, but was more fun than scary. My favourite films this year were Cheap Thrills, We Are What We Are and Big Bad Wolves, none of which were scary or even massively gorey, just well made films, which I guess is what the seasoned horror fan appreciates most, given that genuinely scary films are so rare they hardly ever appear, and we're all so desensitised from gore that the prospect of another Saw rip off is just yawn inducing.

You mentioned Martyrs earlier, saying it was the best horror movie of the last 10 years, I totally disagree with that (it's a polarising film though), I found the storyline ridiculous and hated the way it tried to "justify" the gore with the pompous life-after-death musings, I didn't find that intelligent at all, just pretentious. Inside on the other hand, I thought was absolutely incredible, I'd say that is the best horror movie of the last 10 years; it absolutely flawed me with the gore, and took being shocking to a whole new level, but an the same time was a brilliantly made and compact film, had an excellent storyline and was dark, tense and menacing all the way through, everything you want from a horror film. It absolutely wipes the floor with Martyrs imo.
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Re: Top Five Films

Post by mightysparks »

Cheap Thrills
You're Next
Stalled
Big Bad Wolves
Haunter
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Re: Top Five Films

Post by DJBenz »

The Soapmaker wrote:Speaking as a 49-year-old, I'm still capable of getting spooked by films, it doesn't necessarily have to be anything original, it just has to have "something" which pushes my buttons. The slow build-up and sense of not knowing what's coming next usually does the trick.
I find the slow and quiet build-up to a scare is a set-piece that's too well signposted in most modern horror, one of the main reasons I didn't jump once during Banshee Chapter while others found it terrifying. The only part of any film I found spooky was the robotic eye segment of V/H/S/2, that really unsettled me - obviously the "something" that pushes my buttons. For everyone raving about the Safe Haven segment, I thought it was a great story, but not in the least bit scary. I'm 42, by the way. :)
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Re: Top Five Films

Post by zappa fan »

5. The Last Days
4. We are What we are
3. Cheap Thrills
2. You're Next
1. Big Bad Wolves
LAST FILM- Turistas 2006
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Re: Top Five Films

Post by The Soapmaker »

DJBenz wrote:The only part of any film I found spooky was the robotic eye segment of V/H/S/2, that really unsettled me - obviously the "something" that pushes my buttons. For everyone raving about the Safe Haven segment, I thought it was a great story, but not in the least bit scary. I'm 42, by the way. :)
I agree, the eye segement of V/H/S/2 was the closest we got to anything scary. I even found the house itself quite creepy, even though it was a modern Hollywood house it seemed quite isolated and exposed, I wouldn't want to live in a place like that.
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Re: Top Five Films

Post by Malky »

Top 5

You're Next
Haunter
On Tender Hooks
No One Lives
Curse of Chucky

I'd have liked to have seen Cheap Thrills but it will get distributed an how often will I get the chance to attend the world premier of a documentary about body suspension? I also missed Conspiracy but The Desert was worth seeing.
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Re: Top Five Films

Post by streetrw »

I'm 49, and I got to watching horror movies just as the video nasties campaign was taking effect; we didn't get our first VCR until 1983 and it being a family machine, I didn't get to see many horrors by myself. (I'm also unusual, perhaps unique, in that I never saw any films underage.) The first one that really really scared me was Bava's Black Sabbath which I watched on my own, with the lights out, after midnight. The first story freaked me out so much I couldn't watch the rest of it that night!

I suppose it's harder to scare me in a cinema because it's harder to go for the genuinely scary route. It's far easier to do blood and gore, and that's not necessarily a bad thing; I like a cheap, unpretentious gore movie once in a while. Hatchet III may just have been 90 minutes of senseless axe murders, but on those terms it was well done and funny and entertaining. One of this year's Discovery films, Wither, was basically doing Evil Dead all over again and it was cheerfully grisly entertainment: it wasn't scary and it wasn't funny but it was perfectly enjoyable, moreso than this year's actual Evil Dead remake which was also full of gore and slime and blood and screaming but which also wasn't scary and wasn't funny. So why was Wither, to my mind, a better film than the Evil Dead remake? I think I just got the feeling that Evil Dead took itself more seriously. Aside from the very recent Sinister, Insidious and The Conjuring, there's been very little in the last ten years to have me watching the film through my fingers and/or sleeping with some of the lights on in the flat. Maybe the one before that was The Exorcism Of Emily Rose. But you'd think, given the sheer number of horror movies made every year, that more than a couple would TRY and be genuinely scary.

I didn't watch I Spit On Your Grave 2 because I really don't like sexual violence depicted on screen. In the Zarchi original I felt the makers were "getting off" on it and they were expecting us, the audience, to respond likewise. The ISOYG remake is perhaps less problematic, if only because it's more interested in the revenge than the rape, but it's still no way to spend an evening. Monsters, slashers, werewolves, aliens, serial killers are all fine, because they don't happen very often, if at all, whereas the stats on rape and sexual assault show it happens far too often in the real world for it to sit comfortably as entertainment. That's not to say it doesn't have its place, but I still maintain that if I'd been on the juries for the OPA prosecutions of ISOYG, Last House and House At The Edge Of The Park, I'd probably have voted guilty. I'm happy with Jason and Jigsaw hacking and maiming because it doesn't have a basis in reality, and their actions are never sexual. Maybe it's just me being odd, maybe it's an oversensitivity, but I prefer the outlandish and unreal. (The other day I found Russ Meyer's Up! nearly unbearable due to its comedically flavoured rape sequences.)

Anyway, enough about me. Here's a scan of the scores out of 5 I scribbled out during the festival: :)
http://streetrw.blogspot.com - For all your occasional film rambling needs.
http://twitter.com/streetrw - For when you really need to know what I had for breakfast.

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Re: Top Five Films

Post by The Soapmaker »

streetrw wrote:I'm 49, and I got to watching horror movies just as the video nasties campaign was taking effect; we didn't get our first VCR until 1983 and it being a family machine, I didn't get to see many horrors by myself. (I'm also unusual, perhaps unique, in that I never saw any films underage.)
I'm pretty sure I must have seen an "X" film or two on the TV long before I turned 18, but my first in the cinema was John Carpenter's The Thing. I thought it was actually on my 18th birthday, but a quick look at the BBFC site has revealed that they didn't actually pass it until about a week after that.

I have quite fond memories of the Video Nasties years, sneakily renting dodgy films when our parents were out or away. I seem to recall that very early on videos didn't have BBFC certificates and they had to put stickers on them at a later date....? My brother had Chas R. Balun's book The Gore Score and we tried to track down as many of those films as we could. I was over 18 by then, but my brother certainly wasn't....
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