Discussion Posts

Do you know the Hamburger Bed Girl? Sure you do. She's an internet sensation. I prefer to refer to her by her new monniker, though, the Millenium Falcon Bed Girl. That's infinitely cooler. Over the last few months, Kayla and I have been locking horns in our crudely executed videos, debating the merits of various horror flicks both classic and . . . less classic. Sure, posting this is a bit self-serving. Why? 'Cause that's me. I'm the one on the left in the video, the less cute one. Yes, I may be a bit intoxicated. Yes, I'm certainly obnoxious, but mock away, internet mongrels. That's what it's there for.

DISCLAIMER!

Before you show up at my door with your torches and your pitchforks, ready to skewer and burn me for my heresy, let me be clear. I love Night of the Creeps. I love it. Fred Dekker's flick is one of the best horror films of the 80's. But, had Kayla and I sat around mutually singing it's praises for 5 minutes, it wouldn't have been much of a debate. Besides, what's more entertaining than horror nerds arguing, right? Right??

After the jump is the video. Check it out.

My inaugural foray into the Horror Squad Movie Club kicked off with the French thriller Ils, a little home-invasion flick often overshadowed by what I felt was the utterly predictable The Strangers. Of course, this film is approached in a much different way than Bryan Bertino's theatrical thriller, and while it all comes down to subjectivity, I personally feel Ils carried with it more tension and suspense than The Strangers, and for a variety of very important reasons.

Like Peter and Alison, I will forgo discussion questions and highlight what I feel are the most important aspects of the film, those crucial decisions made by the film-makers that resulted in a film that is wholly different from the big budget thrillers. Instead, I will discuss these aspects and why I feel they all add up to one Hell of an impressive little thriller, and one that surely does not receive the recognition it deserves among dyed-in-the-wool horror fans and casual fans alike.

Beware! Spoilers dwell within!

In my review for Jennifer's Body, I contextualized the film in a way that may be construed as hyperbole. While certainly viewing the Karyn Kusama-directed sophomore writing effort is, in fact, not worse than death, I can only imagine the similarity is unmistakable. Most of my time in the theater was spent with my hands placed upon head, jaw hanging open in abject bewilderment over the armageddon of suck that was unfolding on the screen before my eyes.

Naturally, there is bound to be someone who disagrees with me (though I don't really know how, since I'm always right), and that someone is Corey from the fantastic blog Evil on Two Legs. Corey, in his infinite yet questionable wisdom, considered Jennifer's Body to be the best horror film of 2009. Of course, this means debate! After about four attempts to record the damned thing, the stars aligned and Corey and I engaged in what ultimately turned out to be a fairly in-depth and analytical discussion over the relative merits of the film.

And I only dropped the f-bomb a few times

Amidst the brutally violent À l'intérieur, Frontiere(s), and Martyrs, which have come to represent what has been deemed the "New Wave of French Horror," there exists a little film called Ils (Them). Eschewing egregious amounts of blood in favor of real tension, this home invasion thriller by David Moreau and Xavier Palud has remained relatively glossed over, often in favor of the widely released The Strangers, which came out two years later and sported the same home invasion theme but with the unfortunate addition of Liv Tyler. Although clocking in at only 77 minutes, Ils is a relentless film from its horrific start to its brutal, yet subtle climax, and as such serves as a delightful respite from jump-scare laden thrillers and ridiculous remakes.

Ils has come to represent precisely what I look for in a horror film: real fears approached in a minimalistic fashion that rely, in part, on the subject matter, as opposed to jump scares or a hackneyed score to frighten the viewer. Ils is pure, unbridled tension, and for that very reason it makes my inaugural film for the Horror Squad Movie Club.

Growing up Freddy wasn't cheap, but the allure of his sinister voice and pizza face kept us coming back for more. Throughout the years there were some cuckoo products and marketing strategies to promote the five-fingered fiend, some of which you can check out after the jump. Until we can determine if Samuel Bayer's Nightmare on Elm Street remake is a complete disaster or not, enjoy this little stroll down Elm Street.

Hello, friends. We're trying out a nifty new chat service that will allow our writers and our readers to join hands in blissful movie geekery. For example, we're hoping to do our Movie Club with this service, but before we can do that ... we want to see how this Cover It Live program actually works!

So in a way, you're like Horror Squad beta testers! Go put that on your resumé!

The topic of the evening shall be "slashers," so feel free to share thoughts, links, pics, and videos to the discussion. If you have ANY questions, comments, complaints, or council (I wanted the four-way alliteration) just let us know. Here's the doo-hickey!

The Horror Squad Movie Club is a new weekly feature where we pick a film, watch it and then discuss it. Feel free to read our introduction for more info.

Judging from Saturday's Twitter exchange (thanks for using the #hsmovieclub hash tag!), I think it's safe to say that many of you felt that Night of the Demons 2 wasn't a perfect film, but it was a hell of a lot of fun. Most of you kept comparisons to the original at a minimum, and no one has changed my mind -- for me, Brian Trenchard-Smith's version of the Halloween party at Hull House is where it's at. Like Peter, I don't particularly have any discussion questions for the group, but I'll highlight some of the things I enjoy about the film, which if you didn't get a chance to watch over the weekend, just watch it when you can and come back here to leave a comment. The rest of you, speak up after the jump.

Beware of yonder spoilers!

An article by David Barnett in yesterday's The Guardian shed light on one magazine's lack of acknowledgment given to women in the horror field. SFX Magazine, a veteran SF/fantasy UK mag, recently published a special horror-themed edition (SFX Collection: Horror), which included a "beefy 14-page news section, oodles of in-depth new features, and six great free gifts," but no women. In the article, Horror's Hidden Treasure's, 34 directors, screenwriters and authors were asked to name underappreciated cult horror that deserved more recognition, but no women were polled.

Ironically, this oversight comes during Women in Horror Month -- a time set aside to raise awareness and give more love to the ladies. It also follows a previous oversight five months earlier when the British Fantasy Society omitted women from a collection of interviews with horror writers. SFX at least managed to commemorate Black History Month with a feature on Blaxploitation horror. So, what's going on with the industry folks on the other side of the pond that things like this keep happening?

Editor Ian Berriman's editorial reads: "You see, some people think horror is a limited one-dimensional genre, but I don't see it that way. Horror is a broad church. It encompasses everything from the classy chillers produced by Val Lewton through to the likes of Saw and Hostel. It comes in an almost infinite variety of forms, and I love nearly every single one of them." Do you Ian?

Mark Lilly works at the Department of Integration and is trying to help the good citizens of the Big Apple -- some of who also happen to be werewolves, vampires and demons. His zombie roommate (who he found on Craigslist) and his sexually aggressive demon boss (also his office fling) are just a few in the cast of quirky characters (human and non-human) that keep him quite busy. You can catch the trailer for the series after the jump. I'm glad that the show features other characters like conjoined robots and mermaids in addition to the standard horror fiends. Also, does anyone else love that '2 Legit' t-shirt?

I think the animation is alright (someone loves Charles Burns), but I'd love to see a live-action version of this story on the big screen. Mark's zombie roommate, Randall Skeffington (voiced by Kurt Metzger) is played as a lovable slob, but he's still the kind of guy I would play video games or watch movies with. When I think of roommates in films, I instantly think of someone highly annoying. Actors like Renee Zellweger (she would always be asking for advice), Hugh Grant (zzzz...), Alan Tudyk (I love Joss Whedon but I can't stand this guy), anyone from the cast of Friends and Franklin from TCM (die!) would make supremely irritating co-habitators. What about the role for best demonic boss/love interest? The brunettes have my votes: Monica Bellucci, Edwige Fenech, Salma Hayek and Julia Voth.

Now, what about your picks?

Well, the inaugural Horror Squad Movie Club kicked off this past weekend with Eduardo Sanchez' rednecks-kidnap-an-alien flick Altered. Judging from people's reactions in the comments and on Twitter (thanks for using the #hsmovieclub hash tag, by the way) most people seemed to have never seen it and enjoyed it for the most part, so mission accomplished (though I do think it's safe to say I still love it more than most).

Unlike my pick for the Sci-Fi Squad Movie Club, Altered States, I don't particularly have any discussion questions for the group. I do, on the other hand, have a few aspects of the film I'd like to spotlight beyond basics like performances and overall package (it's a shame this ended up straight-to-DVD considering how consistently above average the whole production is).

If you're still susceptible to Altered spoilers, it's best to turn away now.