The WHF Film Club

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

Another film I missed on my list, and I know Strapped is a fan, is Repulsion.

Strapped, have you seen Next Door? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0453383/reviews?ref_=tt_ov_rt

 

[strapped for cash]

Another film I missed on my list, and I know Strapped is a fan, is Repulsion.

I got so bored of waiting for a UK Bu-ray release that I tracked down the German BD, titled Ekel, which looks and sounds excellent (it's a straight port of the Criterion BD restoration, identical bitrate, etc.).

There's a French BD, but it's an awful transfer, plays at 50Hz rather than 24p, and it's expensive. The German release is absolutely the way to go for anyone residing in Region 2 looking for Repulsion on Blu-ray.

Strapped, have you seen Next Door? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0453383/reviews?ref_=tt_ov_rt

Thanks. I haven't seen it, or in fact heard of it. Added to the list of films to investigate.

 

[strapped for cash]

I meant the swimming pool scene. I can't remember the very end for some reason, which means I'll have to watch it again.

The Danny Leigh/Mark Jancovich commentary on It Follows is pretty good, though I didn't entirely agree with their reading of the film.

I've not seen, or even heard of The Babadook, so I'll have to keep an eye out for it. Is it the kind of film we'd find in Sky Movies Indie section?

It was only released last year and went pretty mainstream, though Jennifer Kent worked with von Trier before directing The Babadook, which was her first feature.

It might therefore be listed under "indie," but it's more straight up horror, even though the scares are subtextual and psychological and take a while to build. Kent also owes something of a debt to Lynch.

The Babadook has a 98 percent Rotten Tomatoes rating, if we put stock in such a thing.

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

Strapped, have you seen Next Door? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0453383/reviews?ref_=tt_ov_rt

Thanks. I haven't seen it, or in fact heard of it. Added to the list of films to investigate.

Without giving too much away, there are some similarities with Repulsion. I may nominate it as one of my 3 next time round.

 

[Frank Harvey]

The Babadook and It Follows are two of the better examples of horrors this year. Some very Carpenteresque shots in there, and some of the music is similar too, but I believe Carpenter/Halloween was an influence on the film.

 

[strapped for cash]

Some very Carpenteresque shots in there, and some of the music is similar too, but I believe Carpenter/Halloween was an influence on the film.

Carpenter was great at leaving spaces for "the shape" to walk into, and Mitchell et al. certainly used space in a similar way, while exploiting slow pans, meaning "it" could enter the frame at any time (and could take any form). Mitchell is stylistically indebted to Carpenter, but also departs from techniques Carpenter mastered.

One key difference, I'd say, is that Carpenter makes extensive use of point of view shots, following Michael's predatory line of sight, notably during Halloween's opening sequence. There are no POV shots from the monster's perspective in It Follows, so the threat is always in or outside of the frame.

Carpenter has openly acknowledged Bob Clark's Black Christmas as an influence. Clark used POV to represent the killer's perspective throughout Black Christmas; in fact we never really see the killer at all, or discover his identity.

Clark rarely gets the credit he deserves, with many suggesting Carpenter invented the slasher film. I guess we could go back to Psycho and further (The Spiral Staircase, and beyond) when tracing the slasher film's origins. The evolution of genre conventions is an interesting subject.

 

[strapped for cash]

Without giving too much away, there are some similarities with Repulsion. I may nominate it as one of my 3 next time round.

There are thematic similarities between The Babadook and Repulsion, since both are about a woman losing her grip on reality in isolated and claustrophic circumstances.

 

[Frank Harvey]

I've added Repulsion to my LoveFilm list.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Clark rarely gets the credit he deserves, with many suggesting Carpenter invented the slasher film. I guess we could go back to Psycho and further (The Spiral Staircase, and beyond) when tracing the slasher film's origins. The evolution of genre conventions is an interesting subject.

As much as I am a fan of Carpenter's work in the 70s and 80s, I personally wouldn't go as far to say he invented the slasher movie, although I know it is often said.

 

[richardw42]

Just watched IDA.

 

[strapped for cash]

As much as I am a fan of Carpenter's work in the 70s and 80s, I personally wouldn't go as far to say he invented the slasher movie, although I know it is often said.

I didn't mean to imply you'd said as much, so apologies for a poorly worded post.

As you say, Carpenter is often credited with inventing the slasher movie, though it's probably more accurate to say he refined conventions that became genre staples (the virginal final girl, for instance, which is thre reverse of what Clarke did with Black Christmas).

Have you seen Black Christmas (the 1974 original and not the cr*ppy remake)?

 

[Frank Harvey]

I didn't mean to imply you'd said as much, so apologies for a poorly worded post.

Dont worry, I knew what you meant. It is often said, and I agree that it's a false statement.

Have you seen Black Christmas (the 1974 original and not the cr*ppy remake)?

Unfortunately, I have seen the remake, which is roughly on par with Dead Silence as being utter dross.

I watched the original for the first time about a year and a half ago, which I think may have been after seeing the remake. Chalk and cheese. I need to revisit the original soon.

 

[strapped for cash]

Quick change of subject. Was anybody following This is England '90? I though tonight's final episode was as powerful a piece of television as I've seen.

 

[thescarletpronster]

Was anybody following This is England '90? I though tonight's final episode was as powerful a piece of television as I've seen.

Please don't give away anything about what happens - I missed an episode of '88, and am waiting until I can catch up with that before watching '90. Sorry if that spoils the fun. Otherwise I can just go away and wait until someone tells me that you've finished discussing it and the thread is on another page!

 

[strapped for cash]

Please don't give away anything about what happens - I missed an episode of '88, and am waiting until I can catch up with that before watching '90. Sorry if that spoils the fun. Otherwise I can just go away and wait until someone tells me that you've finished discussing it and the thread is on another page!

Don't worry, no spoilers here and certainly no reason for self-imposed exile. You can safely check in on the thread!

Do you have anything to contribute to the pre-Hallowe'en favourite horror film discussion?

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

For some reason, I missed This Is England '88, and only found out it existed very recently. I think it was shown when my wife and I were moving house, so it just passed us by.

This latest series has been excellent, almost faultless, and for me, surpasses both the film and the '86 tv series by some distance.

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

Just watched IDA.

Thanks Richard. I have been watching This Is England '90, and I'm currently trying to get through all 8 episodes of the first series of The Returned before the 2nd one starts in mid-October, so I'm a bit pushed for time. But, I'm hoping I'll have time to watch it next weekend, and hopefully Mike wll be able to do the same, so witih a bit of luck, discussions can begin around a week from today.

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

Message for Strapped.

Did you, or do you own the VT65? If so, are there any known problems with it? I've been tempted by gel's post of one in Richer Sounds MK, for not much money.

 

[richardw42]

It's a short film, with credits just over 1h 20m. I'll give nothing away but I can see me watching it again at the weekend.

 

[strapped for cash]

Message for Strapped.

Did you, or do you own the VT65? If so, are there any known problems with it? I've been tempted by gel's post of one in Richer Sounds MK, for not much money.

Hi mate

The 50VT65 has an issue with colour uniformity, but it's mild and usually doesn't intrude on viewing.

That said, the colour uniformity issue is most apparent when watching B&W content, and I know you watch a fair number of B&W films.

There's none of the vertical banding (DSE) we both experienced with the GT50.

Maybe you could ask for demo to check everything's OK. RS might object to you taking along test slides, but you could ask to put up the AVS 20 percent grey slide. This would show up any colour uniformity problems.

Not to be controversial, but I know from PMs on another forum that the colour uniformity issue is common on the 50VT65, though it doesn't seem to affect larger screen sizes.

There's also a coloured line-bleed issue, which can show up as inconsistent tinting to faces.

Again this is most apparent when watching B&W content. Somewhere on the AVF owner's thread there are screengrabs from Psycho that show this up. (I tried to find the page but it's a long thread.)

Oh, there's some fan noise, too. This doesn't bother me, but other owners have complained.

Here's the short of it. Are there issues with the 50VT65? Yes. But having owned a GT50 and a VT65, I'd say the VT65's issues are easier to live with. The VT65 is also a better television.

The price is good, though I wouldn't want to influence your decision too much. I also don't think RS accept returns on demo or open box stock, but you could push them on this and quote SOGA.

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

Thanks for that, Strapped.

With the issues you've outlined, and the lack of a 5 year warranty, or option for one, I think I'll go with Plan A, get JL to either fix or replace the GT50. I was going to wait until November, but I think the sooner I get the ball rolling, the sooner a resolution can be found.

 

[strapped for cash]

No worries.

As I say, the VT65 is less problematic than the GT50 (the vertical banding on the GT50 is a killer and there are no problems of that magnitude with the VT65). There are still issues, however.

I also don't think the issues with Panasonic plasmas are fixable. You either decide you can live with them or move on.

For me, there isn't an alternative television available right now, or probably in the near future, that I'd trade my VT65 for, despite its problems. The upcoming Panasonic OLED may be exceptional, but the price puts it well out of reach for mere mortals such as myself. And it'll be curved.

Perhaps the next LG OLEDs will be much improved, in terms of uniformity and near-black gradation. The problem is, you can play this game continually, hoping each year that manufacturers have fixed issues with earlier models, only to find the issues are still there or there are new problems.

Panasonic's big claim is that their processing will lift their new OLED above the competition. It'd be cheaper, however, to buy a flat LG OLED and an external processor such as a Lumagen. This might produce better images than the Panasonic. It's all hypothetical for me. I can't afford any of it.

Good luck, whatever you decide to do.

 

[thescarletpronster]

Do you have anything to contribute to the pre-Hallowe'en favourite horror film discussion?

I'm very far from being a horror fan, so not really. The films that immediately come to mind are things like Das Kabinet Des Dr. Caligari and Murnau's Faust and Nosferatu. But I'll have a little think about other ones.

 

[Frank Harvey]

I'm bound to miss some, but I'll have a go at listing some of my favourites,

An American Werewolf In London

Excellent, and still the best werewolf movie out there, not only as far as the movie is concerned, but also as far as the effects are concerned - still the transformation to beat.

The Thing

The Daddy of special effects. But even if there were no effects, this would still be a great movie. Plenty of pretenders since. THE benchmark for visual horror.

Les Diaboliques

Watched this again last week, love it - I wasn't aware of the type of film it was until I saw one of Mark Gatiss' horror documentaries - when I was younger I'd always ignored it due to the French title.

Audition

One I keep meaning to revisit, as I've only seen it once. It appeared on Netflix, but turned it off as it wasn't HD.

Dark Water

Original or remake? Both are very good, unusually.

Jacob's Ladder

Again, one I have only seen once quite a long time ago, and due to not really understanding it at the time, wasn't overly keen on it. I've been meaning to revisit it, but haven't managed to yet.

Martyrs

I've read a lot of negativity towards this film, which to me looks like the culprits didn't understand it. Yes, the violence is a little excessive sometimes, but there's a point to it.

Alien

Along with The Thing, one of the best alien movies out there. Aliens is a worthy sequel, but just can't match the tension of the original.

Next Door

Not seen it.

Sheitan

Not seen it.

The Exorcist

Again, the Daddy of possession movies. There's been numerous possession movies, particularly over the past 10 years trying to cash in, but none have ever created the same atmosphere as The Exorcist, which I think is partly down to the real special effects.

 

[Frank Harvey]

I also have a soft spot for Salem's Lot

Me too. Scared the s**t out of me when I was a kid, and I can still watch it now.

You'll like the butchered TV version then (a little ironic as it was a TV movie anyway). I caught it one afternoon on a Sky film channels, and wasn't doing anything else, so thought I'd watch it. As you know, the film is about 3 hours (presumably a two parter originally), and this had been whittled down to about half that length! ANY sign of horror and it was just cut, and huge segments were missing. It was quite funny to watch though, as it was just like watching some Miss Marple thing.