Martyrs just didn't work for me. I felt that it bit off more than it could chew philosophically and I found its editing a bit much, among other issues. Polarising film though as I know many fans who thought it was excellent.

Yeah I saw Occulus, a couple years ago. I remember I liked it, but honestly don't remember much else about it. Something about a mirror and them trying to smash it.

re: martyrs

all movies of the new french hardcore wave were pretty good.
sadly that waved off

I loved Noroi. One of my favorite horror movies of all time. Such a creepy, slow burn.

On a recommendation, I saw this last weekend and was pleasantly surprised. Sufficiently creepiness is created by slowly building the story largely without jump scares, good camerawork, a creepy kid ofc and a late 60s retro setting. The ending is a bit of a let down (I don't think they knew how to end it) and there really isn't anything new introduced here. But overall I was entertained which is all that matters in the end. Thumbs up!

Just caught a brilliant little gem of a gothic horror movie: I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House.

I reviewed in the main movie thread...it's my favorite movie of the year so far.

Making a bit of a comeback with Raw (2016) (actually a Belgian French co-production) which I caught the other day at a festival. I found it a bit too angsty for my tastes but it's a well made film and some may well like it.



I also caught Don't Kill It, a really dumb but fun horror in which Dolph Lundgren hunts a vicious demon. (and if that doesn't sell ya then nothing will)



Another film to watch out for is the really funny Director's Cut, a crowd funded film written by and starring Penn Gilette as an addled crowd funder obsessed with the star of the horror film he's partially funding. His mate Teller pops up in an amusing cameo and actually speaks.
Can't show the clip cuz it has a split second of bewbage in it but it's definitely recommended.

Pet
Dominic Monaghan's introverted loner kidnaps a cute waitress and puts her in a cage to "save" her.
However this is not by any means a standard derivative horror, it's a clever and original little flick and recommended.



The Devil's Candy
Entertaining horror in which a family of metalheads are menaced by Pruit Taylor Vince's Satanic obsessed psycho. Could have been a lot better and marred by a weak third act but watchable enough overall.

Conjuring 2

Nicholas Starks is to making you cry, as the Conjuring 2 is to making you scared. Yeah, it gets the job done, but it's so over the top that you leave a little unsatisfied. The original Conjuring was effective because of the atmosphere, tension, and characters. The sequel tried to repeat these moves ad nauseum, and while it works, it just doesn't work as well as the original, mainly because we are beat over the head again and again by the same scare tactics.

The plot is basically the same as the original. There's an extended, overly long opening sequence where Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson revisit the Amityville House, and then we get to the actual movie. There's a haunted house, where a family notices strange things going bump in the night, whether it's an empty rocking chair, a children's toy, shaking beds, or a TV remote control, and enter Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as the ghost whisperers. People get possessed, things go "Boo," and then we get a fairly standard horror third act, where everything seems to be going off the rails.

James Wan is an excellent director, and knows how to use the camera to produce the effective chills and jumps that we are expecting. The problem is it's done too often. There isn't much tension, because there are too many jump scares instead. There is one nicely done scene, where a painting of the demon may or may not be the real demon depending on the lighting, and it was done very effectively until the inevitable jump scare (it would've worked better if there never was any demon in that scene).

The kids are all interchangable. Yes there's a son who has a stutter, but otherwise the children are all the same. Even when one of the girls gets possessed, I had trouble remembering which daughter she actually was.

One nice touch was the skepticism of the movie. First the kids tell mom there's a monster, and she goes to make sure there are no monsters under the bed, and we've all seen this a hundred times where mom can't find anything wrong, and tells the children to go back to sleep, but in this movie, she actually does see it pretty much right away. Same for the cops who show up to the door. It's ruined a little by a lady representing the church as a skeptic, but it was nice that they didn't harp on whether this was real or not, we just know that this is really happening and go from there.

It's enjoyable, it'll scare you a bit, but you won't have any trouble sleeping at night after watching this one.

I generally agree with what you posted about the Conjuring 2 but I thought the girl who played the possessed girl was well above-average acting wise. and she is American which I thought was even more remarkable.

Agreed to a degree on Conjuring 2 but I gotta say I was pleasantly surprised by it also as I wasn't expecting much to begin with. As you said you won't have trouble sleeping but it was really well made and the creepy scenes were done right.

Thanks for your thoughts, I haven't minded his other films and a mate who seen it also liked it, so I intend to catch it when I can.

Seeing as Fidel Castro died...

As French Horror goes I liked Inside a lot more than Martyrs. High Tension was pretty good too (I think that was French)

If you liked high tension you'll really like Intensity by Dean Koontz......really good book. Same story, just better.

anyone here using shudder tv or screambox?

This was genuinely creepy.

The Wailing was the best horror of 2016 for me with Train to Busan a close second.

Baskin (2015)
Five cops get a hell of a lot more than they bargained for when answering to a disturbance & stumble across what appears to be a Satanic cult in this flawed/hit & miss Turkish horror that nonetheless looks very stylish especially considering its $350k budget. Comes across kinda like The Turkish Chainsaw House of 1000 Hellraisers but certainly has its moments & is a film I suspect may improve on revisits. I'll be very interested in any future film by the makers anyway.

Yeah, Baskin was bizarre as ****!! The Wailing is up next, and I'm looking very very forward to it!!!!

I'm going on a podcast about good and bad horror remakes, but haven't seen that many modern ones. Can someone suggest either good modern remakes or laughably bad remakes I can cram?

Ta

Sinister freaked me out for some reason. Probably because I watched it alone and in the dark. I kinda get freaked out by looking out my window at night, or that my wallpaper is staring at me.

The Strangers really screwed me up, because at the time, I lived in the middle of nowhere, and I was prime targeting for crazies.

Last 3 have not seen.

Do recommend the first 2 though.

Good Remakes:

Let the Right One In
We Are What We Are
Dawn of the Dead
The Crazies
Fright Night

Oh I've seen a few of these, and some I wouldn't have thought of. On my list so far for more modern ones are almost all of these (haven't seen We Are What We Are) plus

Maniac
Hills Have Eyes
I Spit On Your Grave

maniac remake is A+. also great soundtrack.

Let The Right One In was the original http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1139797/

Let Me In is the not so good but still watchable remake. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1228987/

Oops I thought they kept the original title. I quite enjoyed Let Me In.