|
 On 03/13/2017 at 06:07 PM by Blake Turner See More From This User » |
I said I'd talk about movies, and well here I am. To talk about movies. I have two this week, both are foreign, both are bloody, so if that's not your thing, sorry but you're a boring cunt. On with the movies!
Martyrs (2008)
Yeesh. This movie destroyed me. I haven't felt this wrecked after watching a movie since... god, maybe ever. A lot of people call this a horror movie due to it having bucketloads of gore, and I guess it is. However, when people describe horror, they usually describe a film supposed to creep you out i.e Juon or The Conjuring films, or they're describing bloody, pulpy, and - above all else - fun films like the Evil Dead films or slasher films.
This is horror to horrify. And not just with the gore. This is an emotionally intense film about friendship, torture and faith. This is a film that unfairly gets lumped in with Saw and Hostel because its got some torture in it. However, where those films revel in how creative and violent they can make their torture, this film goes for a more subdued effect. In fact, most of the torture in this film is psycological, with things like cutting hair and force feeding. The pain comes in beatings that aren't gory, they're just fucking hard to watch. And the torture is only in the last act of the film.
I don't want to give too much of the film away, so it's hard to talk about. Basically the setup of the film is that a young girl named lucie escapes from a group that has been torturing her. When the police search the place she escaped from they find evidence of torture, but no evidence of it being predatory or for the pleasure of the torturer, which utterly confuses them. They take the girl to an orphanage where she meets another young girl named and they become best friends. 15 years later, Lucie tracks down the people she thinks tortured her and blows them to pieces with a shotgun. She even kills their two children, who seem around 11-15 years old.
This isn't really a spoiler since this is the first 5 minutes of the film. Suffice to say, since they look like a normal family, Anna is sceptical that these people were involved in Lucies torture, and things get very morally fucked very quickly.
As I said in the beginning, this is a traumatic film, and the ending is thoroughly devastating. However, I believe it is a film that needs to be watched, as it is just so incredibly well done. It made me feel something, which is kind of rare in this day and age, especially in the horror genre. It also made me think, and I'm still pondering some of the questions it asked.
Also, it needs to be said, none of the gore in this film feels gratuitious. It needs to be there for the plot to work. So if you can stomach the gore, and can handle maybe having a movie kick you square in the nuts, give this a watch. I honestly don't have a bad thing to say about this film other than that you may fucking hate it if you're squeamish. Or you might find the film pretentious. I don't care, I loved it - even if I may never watch it again.
Oh yeah, and stay the fuck away from the piece of shit american remake. It's utter garbage.
I Saw the Devil (2010)
This film is maybe one of the best revenge films I've ever seen. Like, seriously, the Koreans know how make a fucking film. Between this, Oldboy and Train to Busan (I'll talk about the latter next time, and if you haven't seen Oldboy, fuck, watch Oldboy!) they've given us enough awesome films this century to last a lifetime.
I Saw the Devil is kind of reminiscent of Oldboy, partly because of its subject matter, and partly because it stars mother fucking Min-sik Choi. It's a film about a secret agent whose wife is kidnapped, raped, and murdered, so he tracks down the guy, kidnaps him, and beats the shit out him. Then he releases him and repeats the process. Then it becomes a weird cat and mouse game where the killer and secret agent are trying to outsmart each other and-
This movie is fucking awesome. Obviously, the film is trying to be like "oh, the main character is becoming every bit as villainous as the villain" thing, but I never reall felt that. Partly because the villain is a sociopathic monster, and the main character is totally justified... well for the most part.
I Saw the Devil feels like a mix of Oldboy, Prisoners, Seven, and maybe a bit of The Dark Knight?
I don't know why the last one is there, but I weirdly felt reminded of it when I watched it. The torture scenes mostly aren't that gory, though they are still disturbing. If you can watch a film like Prisoners or Seven, you can probably make it through this film. It's a little more disturbing than those films just because the main villain is so awesomely deranged and we spend like half the film with him.
This is just an awesome little revenge thriller that I 100% recommend if you like this kind of thing. It's extremely well made, and I'm extremely interested to watch more of this directors stuff.
------------------------------------
I should hopefully be back next week with more awesome films to talk about. I will definitely be taking a look at Train to Busan, which is a Korean zombie flick that's apparently supposed to be awesome even if you hate zombie flicks? Could be fun. If there's any other films you'd like me to talk about, please let me know. I'd rather talk about more obscure films though, since everyone and their mums will be talking about Logan (my review - good movie, let down by a stupidly overwrought ending) and that shit.
Have you seen Logan though? Deadpoooooooollllll!!!!
I did enjoy Prisoners (same director did Arrival, which I watched twice recently and have mixed feelings about), so I Saw the Devil will be one to watch with my revenge film loving best friend.
Martyrs sounds really interesting, but i
I have seen Logan. I told you what I thought in the blog :p
Arrival is on my to watch list, but haven't gotten around to it.
Martyrs sounds interesting but what? WHAT?!
Sorry, phone hates pixlbit. But it sounds like something that could trigger my repossession again, so I'm staying away. I need my car ( and swype texting is iffy).
In case it's not obvious i meant derision. No, depression.
I can agree about Logan. The X24 or 23 or whatever seemed like a plot hole to me almost, because ... Then ok, wtf do you need the ones you're chasing for? Just make clones of that thing. It was probably explained somehow, but oh well. I was watching for the claw violence and character drama and was given what I came for.
Yeah, same. The thing that annoyed me was near the end when they're chasing the kids through the woods... WHY DID NONE OF THEM USE THEIR POWERS?! Seriously, they were just running when they could have taken out a ton of them. I get that they were trying to make it to the border, but they could have used their powers to slow them down at least.
Also that Charles kept going on about X23 being Logan's daughter... fuck off, she's a clone, not his daughter, and comic book Logan would never go for that.
And one more thing... the entire point of Wolverine is that he goes into beserker rage much like The Hulk, and yet none of these movies seem to care or get that. That would have been especially poignant in a film like this since we have the shit Charles does.
And with the Martyr stuff, I'm still not sure I understand but if you don't want to go further into it that's fine.
I'm saying a movie that dark could really depress me and I'm trying to stay away from things like that.
Ah fair. Sorry I'm retarded. Yeah, it fucked me up for a while so it might be best to avoid. Though that is the reason I loved it so idk.
I really hate watching torture scenes of any kind, especially mean spirited or emotional ones with a sense of realisim where the bad guy gets away with it. Korean horror films especially go a bit too far with their shock. Not saying I can't or won't watch, but it does get to me. I was watching season one of the Scream TV show and characters get killed off every week. One of the characters was a closeted Lesbian who goes to a religious school and is in a secret relationship with one of the main characters who is also bisexual/gay girl. Anyway, the Scream killer on the show mainly uses text chats to lure people into traps and uses voice to mock and intimidate, but the killer in this case lured the closeted gay girl onto her deck/balcony to meetup thinking it was her girlfriend and the killer wrapped a noose over her neck and through her over the balcony. Then it was framed like a suicide, so her girlfriend thinks she commited susiced and doesn't know it was the killer because she was later hung from her ceiling fan in her room to look like a suicide. Very fucked up, emotionally.
There's also another movie I watched on Netflix called 'Hush' where a deaf woman is being stalked by creepy guy with a hockey mask in a cabin house in the woods and she cant really much except run and hide. Again, it's a simple premise but seeing a handicap person being tortured like that is kind of hard to watch.
("Hush")
I think Scream is a good TV show if you like the movies. It's updated for social media age and Hush isn't really gory or shocking, it's just uncomfortable to watch.
Are your film selections on Netflix?
Also, I didn't like the new Scream mask at first, but as the show went on I was genuinly terrifed whenever he showed up, because he hardly shows up. That absense of the fear kind works
("Scream")
I can't help you as I don't know what's on US Netflix. The listings are extremely different to ours unfortunately. I can tell you one of my future picks is, and that's "The Good, The Bad, and The Weird", which is a Korean Action Western by the guy who made "I Saw the Devil." It's quite a fun watch too, and the perfect remedy to these brutal flicks.
I saw Hush and really liked it. Reminded me a bit of You're Next with how resourceful the "victim" is. I started the first ep of Scream and wasn't blown away honestly. Does it get better?
I'm hate watching torture scenes too honestly, and Martyrs has some of the most brutal ones I've seen in terms of emotional weight. The gore in them isn't really that strong though for the most part, much less than the Saw or Hostel films anyway.
I Saw the Devil's torture scenes aren't really torture scenes either. They're mostly fight scenes or they're over really quickly.
I liked the way the main character fought back in Hush.It was like an extended opening of Scream 1 with Drew Barimore, or the ending of the original Nightmare on Elm Street where the women are trapped with the intruder and have to fight back. Home Alone too, I guess? At first I felt like her handicap was a cheap mechanic to get the viewer to care. Then I felt bad for assuming a handicap person couldn't be clever enough to survive an attack. It made me uncomfortable, but in the same way that anyone trapped w/ an intruder would be uncomfortable.
I saw Scream when it debuted on TV and wasn't blown away by it either. Watching through it on Netflix, it feels more like the films I guess because of the lack of commercial breaks and is more fluid. The thing that kept me going was the mystery of who the killer was, although I suspected who it might be in the beginning, I kept changing my mind as I watched more of it. There is also this double mystery of the origin of the killer. There is a history in the world where a deformed man was killed by police and drowned in a lake, so when murders start, there is a sense that there is a Friday the 13th type killer wanting revenge. There is a nerdy kid that is trying to piece together the whole puzzle, just as there is in the films. It follows the film formula, but the teen angst drama might make it hard to sit through all the episodes. I also like how it plays around with social media. I liked it.
There is another film, the Green Room, which I dont care to watch just based on the description of it. Just don't want to see nazi punks murdering kids.
Have you seen the original Hellraiser? I saw it recently and was pretty horrified by it. Actually, I was as a kid as well. That's some gory shit!
Um dude, watch The Green Room, it's fucking awesome. It's not "Nazi's murdering kids," it's four kids trapped in a room with only one real exit, with one nazi trapped in the room with them, and trying to work out how the fuck they're going to escape. Seriously one of the best films I've seen in forever. Plus, Patrick Stewart is the bad guy!
Yeah I've seen Hellraiser, though not recently. I was a huge Clive Barker fan as a teen. Actually Martyrs reminded me a bit of that film for some reason. Does it still hold up?
Yeah it's mainly the teen drama stuff that turned me off Scream unfortunately. I did like the originals though (even the 3rd one that had Jay and Silent Bob in it for some reason) so I might have to give it another chance.
Alright, I'll bite and watch Green Room. Honestly just the trailer irked me.
As for Hellraiser, it has that feeling of artisitic integrity, where the creator is telling his story where I don't know what the main motivation is from everybody, just fucked up shit happens. I also like the 80s nostalgia. The visual effects still hold up. I dont know what the demons are about though? They're just there looking scary.
Part of what I like about Clive Barker was that he was very openly gay as early as the 70s, and yet was still adored in horror circles despite putting a lot of his experiences and wish fulfillment into thse books and films. I don't remember much about Hellraiser, so I can't recall any specific reference from that, but rewatching Nightbreed recently, that movie is almost entirely about homosexuals being persecuted, coming out, and then getting revenge on the public at large. Although, he replaced homosexuality with being an awesome movie monster...
I'm definitely going to have to watch the original Hellraiser again though. It's been entirely too long. I have the book it's based on but I haven't read it, and I have almost all of Barkers books too...
I find trailers for films that verge on horror are often terrible. I almost didn't want to post the trailer for Martyrs because it makes it look like a generic as fuck horror movie, which most trailers do. Green Room's trailer really doesn't do it justice at all. The movie isn't a horror movie, it's a thriller in the vein of David Fincher's Panic Room, except a bit more brutal and a hell of a lot more suspenseful. I think you'll love it honestly.
You should also check out that other directors films, like Blue Ruin and I Don't Feel at Home in this World Anymore. The former is a cool indie thriller that has some early Tarrantino vibes but is really subdued with barely any dialogue, and the latter is an insanely awesome dark comedy about a girl with depression who has her house broken into and becomes a vigilante. And it has motherfucking Frodo in it.
Hellraiser starts off with some guy buying a wierd trinket (puzzle box) from the middle east/africa then goes missing, apparantley after solving the puzzle and opening a door to another dimension. The story then picks up, years later where the now missing guys brother moves into his house with his wife and daughter. Frank (dead puzzle box guy) starts to reanimate slowly in a bedroom upstairs after blood drips through the floor, then the wife finds him all bloody and starts killing people, co-workers, to feed him until he is whole again. The wife is still in love with dead brother so she acts as his accomplice. Also, demons cross-over and holy fuck!
I should read the book then. Didn't know he was gay. Interesting. Not sure if it plays into this movie? I mean aside from bondage shit, but is that exclusivly a gay thing? Fifty shades is about that, but its for chicks, so I don't know?
I really don't know where that stereotype comes from, but bondage definitely isn't a gay exclusive thing haha.
I read one of his novels recently called Imajica, which is fantasy horror with extra dimensions and weird orc like beings with ak-47s. It was cool, if a little fucked up.
And man... I remember now. I really need to see that film again!
Hellraiser is the fucking shit!
The Good, the Bad, and the Weird. I want to see that.
Do it. It's awesome - if you don't mind subtitles that it.
I'm really behind on horror. Only saw It Follows last week (awesome movie). Hoping to see Get Out tomorrow.
It Follows is definitely one of the best horror films of the decade, definitely the best American Horror film of the decade at least.
I want to see Get Out so badly, but it's not out in Aus until late April.
I loved It Follows. It reminded me of how Stranger Things played around with nostalgia. Very effective.
I don't like horror. sorry man. I came for the mozzarella. Where is it? 
It's mixed in with the BLOOD!
Also, I Saw the Devil isn't horror, so check that shit out if ou like action-ish thrillers.
I'm more into total fantasy movies, like "I Saw the Nintendo Switch"
I don't think Martyrs is something I'd watch, but I Saw The Devil sounds interesting especially with that blurred line of who's the real villain, the murder or the guy who keeps kidnapping and beating him.
Comments