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Take the cannoli, leave the [Movies] Thread (contains Lights Out spoilers, quarantined)
Wow, that was actually... a really great movie? I enjoyed it immensely.
Lo is a movie about a man summoning a demon to retrieve the woman he loves from the depths of all. He spends the entire movie inside a pentagram, because stepping outside it would forfeit his life and immortal soul. Most of it is dialogue between him and Lo, the demon he has summoned, who claims that he is unable to help. There are also musical numbers, memories re-enacted as miniature plays, a couple other characters that make occasional appearances, and some absolutely hilarious lines.
The movie itself was apparently shot, in it's entirety, in only three days. The costume design is amazing, the writing is good, the acting spot on.
Probably my favorite movie I've seen this year. (although it came out in 2009)
But generally speaking, yeah, I think campus films tend to be weaker. High school films, on the other hand, seem to fare much better.
I've pondered this occasionally. Part of the problem, I think, is that many writers seem unable or unwilling to distinguish between high school and college in the way that they plot and write things. From a meta-plot perspective, college students are kind of difficult, since they are technically and culturally adults, but have a very short past and an unformed social and personal identity. Thus, you get strange situations and characters that feel unreal and unrelatable because they have no analogue the audience has personally experienced.
Perhaps for the sake of simplicity, college students in movies tend to act basically the same as high school students, with the same level of (or lack of) maturity and responsibility.* Intersecting with this, the movies usually entertain the bizarre conceit that college administrations are deeply invested in a kind of in loco parentis role, overseeing the students as individuals and closely monitoring/punishing them for their behavior. Animal House does that, and while the "zero point zero" scene is pretty funny, I can't imagine it ever happening to zany frat boys in real life. IRL, if you get schwasted and try to pull down the bronze statue of a staid 19th-century dean with a stolen ice cream truck, you aren't going to get sentenced to scrubbing toilets or whatever. You're just going to get arrested.
Same with the weird nerd/jock/stoner dynamics, which might be more accurate in the small-bowl environment of a high school but is just nonsensical at a university, where running into a major-sport athlete is kind of like spotting a rare species of bird. In my experience college students self-segregate along departmental lines, not high-schoolish "cliques", but I've never seen a movie where they actually did that.
And then, of course, there's the burden that "college" is almost invariably written as a four+ year Mardi Gras filled with wacky hijinks and over-the-top shenanigans. Obviously university students like to party and have done so since the Middle Ages, but most party-oriented movies seem unable to escape from the same tired plot retreads that have been in place since, well, Animal House at least.
This has always seemed very strange to me, given that most writers presumably attended college even if they didn't actually graduate, and ought to know what it's like. But, maybe, realistic depictions of college aren't interesting enough to justify much cinematic attention. "Woke up, took an exam, went to a gen ed class, worked a shift at the Student Union, went home and drank beer/smoked weed while playing Smash Brothers with my roommate" would not be great film. College movies seem more reflective of what they think college students would want to see, or wish their lives were like, rather than the typical reality.
But, then again, most high school lives are boring as shit, too, but there's been good movies and plots come out of that environment. So who knows?
*The only exception I can think of this is that there is the expectation that college students are sexually active (cartoonishly so, depending on the genre).
I randomly watched Lo a few years ago on Netflix at like, 1AM on a Saturday. I really enjoyed it too. I've seen a lot of movies I really enjoyed on Netflix in late night/early morning viewings that I wouldn't have looked at under normal circumstances. Mostly horror stuff. I absolutely love the V/H/S series, and Frankenstein's Army was surprisingly good too. There's another WWII horror movie that I can't remember the name of, but I remember really liking it. The Germans had a demon contained in an island base, and an Allied strike team stumbles upon it during a mission to destroy the base. The demon tries to trick the main character into releasing it by taking the form of his wife/girlfriend. Gah! I can't remember the name of the movie, but it was good!
Everyone has a price. Throw enough gold around and someone will risk disintegration.
IRL, if you get schwasted and try to pull down the bronze statue of a staid 19th-century dean with a stolen ice cream truck, you aren't going to get sentenced to scrubbing toilets or whatever. You're just going to get arrested.
From what I understand (and have experienced...) colleges will generally do their damnedest to prevent legal consequences for student crimes, to the extent they are generally not even going to report it as a crime.
Crime makes them look bad, and the easiest way to deal with it is just to deny it exists. Arrests and legal consequences complicate that, and there's a reason why (almost?) all colleges have their own internal justice system for students.
+3
Johnny ChopsockyScootaloo! We have to cook!Grillin' HaysenburgersRegistered Userregular
He Never Died
Fantastic concept, neat twist, okay movie. Henry Rollins is so goddamn good in this. It's definitely a movie that clenched its tiny tiny budget with an iron fist, which sometimes helped it and hurt it with the restraint such a budget demanded.
Perhaps for the sake of simplicity, college students in movies tend to act basically the same as high school students, with the same level of (or lack of) maturity and responsibility.* Intersecting with this, the movies usually entertain the bizarre conceit that college administrations are deeply invested in a kind of in loco parentis role, overseeing the students as individuals and closely monitoring/punishing them for their behavior. Animal House does that, and while the "zero point zero" scene is pretty funny, I can't imagine it ever happening to zany frat boys in real life. IRL, if you get schwasted and try to pull down the bronze statue of a staid 19th-century dean with a stolen ice cream truck, you aren't going to get sentenced to scrubbing toilets or whatever. You're just going to get arrested.
For small, non, illegal things, or things where the crime just happens against the University. The University can and often will impose administrative actions on the fraternity, like community service. Which can occur so long as the frat is officially registered with the University.
Its not nearly so one sided as Animal House depicts and is a lot more political, but its definitely there.
/experiences of a fraternity member whose alumni decided to do something racist
Edit: Administrative sanctioning powers extend to actions that occur within the fraternity house as well. Limit the type and number of parties, who can go, how alcohol can be served etc etc etc. Thinking about it again i am not too surprised that people who join frats can do well in "the real world" contrary to popular culture. The structure involves a lot of dealing with bureaucratic/administrative structures and rules and trying to herd sheep to follow them.
Wow, that was actually... a really great movie? I enjoyed it immensely.
Lo is a movie about a man summoning a demon to retrieve the woman he loves from the depths of all. He spends the entire movie inside a pentagram, because stepping outside it would forfeit his life and immortal soul. Most of it is dialogue between him and Lo, the demon he has summoned, who claims that he is unable to help. There are also musical numbers, memories re-enacted as miniature plays, a couple other characters that make occasional appearances, and some absolutely hilarious lines.
The movie itself was apparently shot, in it's entirety, in only three days. The costume design is amazing, the writing is good, the acting spot on.
Probably my favorite movie I've seen this year. (although it came out in 2009)
I watched Lo and Ink in the same day when they popped up on my Netflix. It was a pretty good day.
Edit: I feel like re-watching Ink now actually. Such a strange movie.
There's another WWII horror movie that I can't remember the name of, but I remember really liking it. The Germans had a demon contained in an island base, and an Allied strike team stumbles upon it during a mission to destroy the base. The demon tries to trick the main character into releasing it by taking the form of his wife/girlfriend. Gah! I can't remember the name of the movie, but it was good!
So I know everyone hates Daredevil (2003) but having seen it again after a good long while of not remembering it exists.
a.)The movie really is awful.
b.)Michael Clarke Duncan is Wilson Fisk / The Kingpin to me now.
The Netflix series is pretty good in almost every way and not to diminish Vincent D'Onofrio. MCD just had the presence and the smirk, I remember the minor controversy over the fact he was black but no matter how shitty everyone said the movie was, he always got praise.
Sort of a bummer he died so young. He nailed comedy in Talladega Nights and drama in The Green Mile and did a ton of voice acting.
Daredevil (2003) got way more hate than it deserved.
The real crime there was that someone watched it and decided Jennifer Garner's Elektra was what was good about it.
I probably should have qualified that it's awful, but no worse than the comic book superhero movies of that period of time. You're talking X2, League of Extraordinary Gentlmen, Hulk, Catwoman, Punisher... Hellboy is the only comic movie from those few years I remember fondly.
dispatch.o on
+1
AstaerethIn the belly of the beastRegistered Userregular
I really like the Daredevil movie. Especially the director's cut. That film got a bad rap.
Daredevil (2003) got way more hate than it deserved.
The real crime there was that someone watched it and decided Jennifer Garner's Elektra was what was good about it.
Colin Farrel's bulls eye will always have a special place in my heart for when he killed a dude, pointed to the bull eye thing on his head and then smiled.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
Met him once in Montreal. I was waiting for a bus and felt a tap on my shoulder... Was not expecting this giant of a man asking for directions to the hockey arena.
Super chill dude and it was hilarious to me that his bodyguard was much smaller then he was. This was late 90's-ish.
PSN: Canadian_llama
+9
cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
In case anyone was curious about The Woods' true nature...
WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT AND WHY IS IT TRYING TO STEAL MY SOUL THROUGH THE INTERNET
I submitted an entry to Lego Ideas, and if 10,000 people support me, it'll be turned into an actual Lego set!If you'd like to see and support my submission, follow this link.
+1
ZampanovYou May Not Go HomeUntil Tonight Has Been MagicalRegistered Userregular
Albert Finney, Edward James Olmos and the wonderful Gregory Hines. Decent little horror movie.
I remember watching Wolfen as a kid. Some tv station was showing a different animal themed horror movie in the middle of the day for week and tho I don't remember details, I do remember liking that one best.
I will not be seeing this Woods film any time soon.
You're giving the film more credit than it deserves. It was middling at best as far as "scary things" goes.
It was a master's study in minimalist horror.
It was all tropes and boring as fuck.
You know what, nevermind. I am completely in the wrong. It was The Forest I saw. You are correct, I am a fool.
Edit: Though I couldn't stand Blair Witch I appreciate what it was (sort of). So I'll reserve judgement. Though I will firmly state that Found Footage is pretty awful and should have not been a thing that got many movies that were also terrible the green light.
Edit2: I am not a fan of the reliance on the victims/protagonists being borderline mentally deficient in order for a plot to be scary.. and that was what the entirety of Blair Witch felt like. Though to be fair, that's a premise for many horror movies.
I know some people who found Blair Witch legitimately funny. And not in a "lol so stupid" way, like they really found it humorous. Meanwhile the group I saw it with was sketchy about trekking back to the car in the dark.
ZampanovYou May Not Go HomeUntil Tonight Has Been MagicalRegistered Userregular
the most I remember about blair witch was cartoon network capitalizing on it
they did a huge marathon of scooby doo and in between episodes they had the gang going through a blair witch style first person camera view thing on the commercial breaks
and it led up to a scooby doo movie where they tried to pull off a zombie's mask and it wasn't a mask it was a real fuckin zombie WHAAAAAAAT
it was great and I never bothered watching the actual movie because it wouldn't live up to how great scooby doo is.
I feel like it's much harder for me to suspend my disbelief while watching horror films, because the second they purposely play with the background volumes and start artificially reducing the field of view for a jump scare, I tune out. With peripheral vision humans can see near 180 degrees without turning... giving me a 40 degree viewing angle so you can then play a loud note on a piano is startling in that I'm now irritated, but it is not scary.
"All tropes" isn't a legitimate complaint. Almost all movies are all tropes, its how well you use and execute them that makes them good. Blair Witch was both exceptional in its execution of the themes and structures as well as innovative in its technique.
Regardless of whether or not you like the movie its hard to claim its bad.
0
ZampanovYou May Not Go HomeUntil Tonight Has Been MagicalRegistered Userregular
I feel like it's much harder for me to suspend my disbelief while watching horror films, because the second they purposely play with the background volumes and start artificially reducing the field of view for a jump scare, I tune out. With peripheral vision humans can see near 180 degrees without turning... giving me a 40 degree viewing angle so you can then play a loud note on a piano is startling in that I'm now irritated, but it is not scary.
like most things it depends on execution
the best ones build on dread more than immediate anticipation of a Bad Thing and the music can be used to enhance rather than do most of the work
that's what makes it immersive and harder to tune out
but it's a tough needle to thread and not a lot of people can do it properly
I feel like it's much harder for me to suspend my disbelief while watching horror films, because the second they purposely play with the background volumes and start artificially reducing the field of view for a jump scare, I tune out. With peripheral vision humans can see near 180 degrees without turning... giving me a 40 degree viewing angle so you can then play a loud note on a piano is startling in that I'm now irritated, but it is not scary.
I completely agree. I find jump scares to be tiresome and annoying.
Of the top of my head two of the most terrifying moments for me in movies would have to be the opening of 28 Days Later. I was watching it at home alone on a relatively idyllic day and the sense of anxiety and tension created crept out of the movie and made me take a peak out of the window more than once. Like "hmm. . .not a lot going on outside. . ." and it was for a moment legitimately scary.
Another scare came from the War of the Worlds remake. I saw it with friends in a full theater but there are scenes where the aliens are just absolutely decimating everything in their path. Usually, you can kind of think about what you would do in a situation like that to maybe survive or find some comfort knowing that you would at least not run in a straight line.
But nope. That was just a total massacre and there would be absolutely nothing anyone could do to stop it. That kind of freaked everyone out and as we left the theater cautious eyes were pointed at the night sky.
Posts
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
Wow, that was actually... a really great movie? I enjoyed it immensely.
Lo is a movie about a man summoning a demon to retrieve the woman he loves from the depths of all. He spends the entire movie inside a pentagram, because stepping outside it would forfeit his life and immortal soul. Most of it is dialogue between him and Lo, the demon he has summoned, who claims that he is unable to help. There are also musical numbers, memories re-enacted as miniature plays, a couple other characters that make occasional appearances, and some absolutely hilarious lines.
The movie itself was apparently shot, in it's entirety, in only three days. The costume design is amazing, the writing is good, the acting spot on.
Probably my favorite movie I've seen this year. (although it came out in 2009)
I've pondered this occasionally. Part of the problem, I think, is that many writers seem unable or unwilling to distinguish between high school and college in the way that they plot and write things. From a meta-plot perspective, college students are kind of difficult, since they are technically and culturally adults, but have a very short past and an unformed social and personal identity. Thus, you get strange situations and characters that feel unreal and unrelatable because they have no analogue the audience has personally experienced.
Perhaps for the sake of simplicity, college students in movies tend to act basically the same as high school students, with the same level of (or lack of) maturity and responsibility.* Intersecting with this, the movies usually entertain the bizarre conceit that college administrations are deeply invested in a kind of in loco parentis role, overseeing the students as individuals and closely monitoring/punishing them for their behavior. Animal House does that, and while the "zero point zero" scene is pretty funny, I can't imagine it ever happening to zany frat boys in real life. IRL, if you get schwasted and try to pull down the bronze statue of a staid 19th-century dean with a stolen ice cream truck, you aren't going to get sentenced to scrubbing toilets or whatever. You're just going to get arrested.
Same with the weird nerd/jock/stoner dynamics, which might be more accurate in the small-bowl environment of a high school but is just nonsensical at a university, where running into a major-sport athlete is kind of like spotting a rare species of bird. In my experience college students self-segregate along departmental lines, not high-schoolish "cliques", but I've never seen a movie where they actually did that.
And then, of course, there's the burden that "college" is almost invariably written as a four+ year Mardi Gras filled with wacky hijinks and over-the-top shenanigans. Obviously university students like to party and have done so since the Middle Ages, but most party-oriented movies seem unable to escape from the same tired plot retreads that have been in place since, well, Animal House at least.
This has always seemed very strange to me, given that most writers presumably attended college even if they didn't actually graduate, and ought to know what it's like. But, maybe, realistic depictions of college aren't interesting enough to justify much cinematic attention. "Woke up, took an exam, went to a gen ed class, worked a shift at the Student Union, went home and drank beer/smoked weed while playing Smash Brothers with my roommate" would not be great film. College movies seem more reflective of what they think college students would want to see, or wish their lives were like, rather than the typical reality.
But, then again, most high school lives are boring as shit, too, but there's been good movies and plots come out of that environment. So who knows?
*The only exception I can think of this is that there is the expectation that college students are sexually active (cartoonishly so, depending on the genre).
From what I understand (and have experienced...) colleges will generally do their damnedest to prevent legal consequences for student crimes, to the extent they are generally not even going to report it as a crime.
Crime makes them look bad, and the easiest way to deal with it is just to deny it exists. Arrests and legal consequences complicate that, and there's a reason why (almost?) all colleges have their own internal justice system for students.
Fantastic concept, neat twist, okay movie. Henry Rollins is so goddamn good in this. It's definitely a movie that clenched its tiny tiny budget with an iron fist, which sometimes helped it and hurt it with the restraint such a budget demanded.
Steam ID XBL: JohnnyChopsocky PSN:Stud_Beefpile WiiU:JohnnyChopsocky
Guess I need to put that on my To Watch list.
For small, non, illegal things, or things where the crime just happens against the University. The University can and often will impose administrative actions on the fraternity, like community service. Which can occur so long as the frat is officially registered with the University.
Its not nearly so one sided as Animal House depicts and is a lot more political, but its definitely there.
/experiences of a fraternity member whose alumni decided to do something racist
Edit: Administrative sanctioning powers extend to actions that occur within the fraternity house as well. Limit the type and number of parties, who can go, how alcohol can be served etc etc etc. Thinking about it again i am not too surprised that people who join frats can do well in "the real world" contrary to popular culture. The structure involves a lot of dealing with bureaucratic/administrative structures and rules and trying to herd sheep to follow them.
I watched Lo and Ink in the same day when they popped up on my Netflix. It was a pretty good day.
Edit: I feel like re-watching Ink now actually. Such a strange movie.
I'm gonna add it to my to-watch list next, I think, thanks for letting me know it existed!
The Devil's Rock (2011).
a.)The movie really is awful.
b.)Michael Clarke Duncan is Wilson Fisk / The Kingpin to me now.
The Netflix series is pretty good in almost every way and not to diminish Vincent D'Onofrio. MCD just had the presence and the smirk, I remember the minor controversy over the fact he was black but no matter how shitty everyone said the movie was, he always got praise.
Sort of a bummer he died so young. He nailed comedy in Talladega Nights and drama in The Green Mile and did a ton of voice acting.
The real crime there was that someone watched it and decided Jennifer Garner's Elektra was what was good about it.
I probably should have qualified that it's awful, but no worse than the comic book superhero movies of that period of time. You're talking X2, League of Extraordinary Gentlmen, Hulk, Catwoman, Punisher... Hellboy is the only comic movie from those few years I remember fondly.
Colin Farrel's bulls eye will always have a special place in my heart for when he killed a dude, pointed to the bull eye thing on his head and then smiled.
pleasepaypreacher.net
And I'm not just saying that because it ships RDJ and Tobey Maguire. I mean that's like 50 percent of the reason but
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082085/
Saw it a few years ago and was impressed with Travolta in it, and Nancy Allen (aka Officer Lewis from Robocop)
check it out
Ahh one more from 1981
Wolfen
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083336/
Albert Finney, Edward James Olmos and the wonderful Gregory Hines. Decent little horror movie.
Met him once in Montreal. I was waiting for a bus and felt a tap on my shoulder... Was not expecting this giant of a man asking for directions to the hockey arena.
Super chill dude and it was hilarious to me that his bodyguard was much smaller then he was. This was late 90's-ish.
I remember watching Wolfen as a kid. Some tv station was showing a different animal themed horror movie in the middle of the day for week and tho I don't remember details, I do remember liking that one best.
PSN/XBL: Zampanov -- Steam: Zampanov
Oh, the wooden figures from Blair Witch Project is what they look like.
I will not be seeing this Woods film any time soon.
Having just seen both films, boy is he capable.
You're giving the film more credit than it deserves. It was middling at best as far as "scary things" goes.
Edit: I fell asleep about an hour and a half into watching it... in a movie theater.
It was a master's study in minimalist horror.
It was all tropes and boring as fuck.
You know what, nevermind. I am completely in the wrong. It was The Forest I saw. You are correct, I am a fool.
Edit: Though I couldn't stand Blair Witch I appreciate what it was (sort of). So I'll reserve judgement. Though I will firmly state that Found Footage is pretty awful and should have not been a thing that got many movies that were also terrible the green light.
Edit2: I am not a fan of the reliance on the victims/protagonists being borderline mentally deficient in order for a plot to be scary.. and that was what the entirety of Blair Witch felt like. Though to be fair, that's a premise for many horror movies.
It hit people very differently.
they did a huge marathon of scooby doo and in between episodes they had the gang going through a blair witch style first person camera view thing on the commercial breaks
and it led up to a scooby doo movie where they tried to pull off a zombie's mask and it wasn't a mask it was a real fuckin zombie WHAAAAAAAT
it was great and I never bothered watching the actual movie because it wouldn't live up to how great scooby doo is.
PSN/XBL: Zampanov -- Steam: Zampanov
Regardless of whether or not you like the movie its hard to claim its bad.
like most things it depends on execution
the best ones build on dread more than immediate anticipation of a Bad Thing and the music can be used to enhance rather than do most of the work
that's what makes it immersive and harder to tune out
but it's a tough needle to thread and not a lot of people can do it properly
PSN/XBL: Zampanov -- Steam: Zampanov
And not in a good way. 'Gee, there seems to be a thing that only appears when I turn out the light, better flick the switch on and off several times'
I know you have to give them some leeway for stupidity, but I'd be NOPEing it out of there after the first switch.
WoW
Dear Satan.....
I really like the concept I'm just not sure I'll like the actual movie
PSN/XBL: Zampanov -- Steam: Zampanov
I completely agree. I find jump scares to be tiresome and annoying.
Of the top of my head two of the most terrifying moments for me in movies would have to be the opening of 28 Days Later. I was watching it at home alone on a relatively idyllic day and the sense of anxiety and tension created crept out of the movie and made me take a peak out of the window more than once. Like "hmm. . .not a lot going on outside. . ." and it was for a moment legitimately scary.
Another scare came from the War of the Worlds remake. I saw it with friends in a full theater but there are scenes where the aliens are just absolutely decimating everything in their path. Usually, you can kind of think about what you would do in a situation like that to maybe survive or find some comfort knowing that you would at least not run in a straight line.
But nope. That was just a total massacre and there would be absolutely nothing anyone could do to stop it. That kind of freaked everyone out and as we left the theater cautious eyes were pointed at the night sky.