Genus Unknown
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« Reply #45 on: May 18, 2012, 01:44:34 PM » |
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Yeah I have a weird love/hate thing with that movie---I actually seem to like it less every time i see it, for more and more just technical storytelling reasons, but i love the concept. I feel the same way about Bram Stoker's Dracula...but that's mainly the Keanu factor
Now there's a film that makes me want to cry. Such a lovely film that looked great and had a solid story. But with some truly dreadful acting on the part of a couple of the cast. I remember that movie solely for Sadie Frost as Lucy Westenra.  That's one of those movies that I saw at the wrong time in my life. |
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« Last Edit: May 18, 2012, 01:47:45 PM by Genus Unknown »
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CMcCormack
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« Reply #46 on: May 22, 2012, 11:59:27 AM » |
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Stoker's Dracula? Yeah - how wildly miscast "young hot properties" can be...
But at least Hopkins played Van Helsing as the sadistic bastard we always knew him to be.
The Van Hesling casting in that film was brilliant. He wasn't the character of the novel - but he was the Van Helsing the 1990's needed him to be. I also think that Gary Oldman was a great Dracula who gets unfairly forgotten on the long list of actors to portray him |
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JulieH
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« Reply #47 on: May 22, 2012, 12:30:53 PM » |
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I also think that Gary Oldman was a great Dracula who gets unfairly forgotten on the long list of actors to portray him
True. So much better than Miles O'Keefe. Though Phil Fondacaro wasn't bad... |
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« Last Edit: May 22, 2012, 12:34:47 PM by JulieH »
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Bob Lovecraft
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« Reply #48 on: May 22, 2012, 03:12:43 PM » |
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And I love Saberhagen's Dracula Tapes, because the book agrees with me in all particulars....  Is that a novel? I've never heard of it if it is. Bob |
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If someone ever dares you to read the Necronomicon out loud... just say no.
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JulieH
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« Reply #49 on: May 22, 2012, 04:19:15 PM » |
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And I love Saberhagen's Dracula Tapes, because the book agrees with me in all particulars.... Is that a novel? I've never heard of it if it is. Bob Yup - the first of a series of 5 or 6 Dracula books Saberhagen wrote, including "The Holmes-Dracula file" |
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Bob Lovecraft
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« Reply #50 on: May 23, 2012, 08:16:56 AM » |
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I'm not a big fan of vampire stuff, but I do remember reading Saberhagen's "Book of Lost Swords" series. They were more good ideas than good writing to me, so I never picked anything else of his up. Maybe I will have to check this one out, though.
Bob
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If someone ever dares you to read the Necronomicon out loud... just say no.
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Inner Prop
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« Reply #51 on: May 24, 2012, 08:46:04 AM » |
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I was just telling the folks at work that I'm sick of vampires. I feel like I'm in a Monty Python cheese shop of vampires, there are scary vampires, and ghost vampires, and teen vampires, and vegitarian vampires, and funny vampires, and senior citizen vampires, I'm sick of them all!
Vampires and zombies, two, the two most overused movie monsters are vampires and zombies I'm sick to death of vampires and zombies and ghosts, three! The three most overused monsters are...
I'll come in again.
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Inner Prop
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« Reply #52 on: May 24, 2012, 08:50:53 AM » |
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I wish I could remember which movie it was. I saw a comedy-esque vampire movie where, at one point a titanic monster rises out of the seas and the hero is asked to deal with it by the other characters. He responds that he is a vampire hunter, he doesn't deal with this, "Lovecraft sh!t."
I can't remember enough of the rest of the movie to tell how germaine that sea monster was. I just thought it was funny since I think about that everytime I see a monster movie. If the monster is personal and on a human level, then it is certainly not Lovecraftian. If it is indifferent and powerful beyond the ability of the characters to deal with then it is. Transylvania Twist! that was it. I have to find a copy and report back. |
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JulieH
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« Reply #53 on: May 24, 2012, 09:34:36 AM » |
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I was just telling the folks at work that I'm sick of vampires. I feel like I'm in a Monty Python cheese shop of vampires, there are scary vampires, and ghost vampires, and teen vampires, and vegitarian vampires, and funny vampires, and senior citizen vampires, I'm sick of them all!
Vampires and zombies, two, the two most overused movie monsters are vampires and zombies I'm sick to death of vampires and zombies and ghosts, three! The three most overused monsters are...
I'll come in again.
Saberhagen's books were written long before the current glut of vampires. in a past glut of vampires....  Zombies are the westerns of modern filmmaking - they're easy to film because you can find lots of people who already have their own costumes and will show up to shamble for free. Zombies are also (most of the time) zero guilt monsters. Until you run into a loved one, anyway. But being of zero intelligence, there's very little debate as to whether they're maybe just misguided or don't know how to relate to people - they can't be reasoned with, therefore it's completely ok to just shoot the hell out of them. And ghosts are just fun because they can be whatever you want them to be. (from a writer's POV) |
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Genus Unknown
Cultist
Committed for Life
Posts: 1185
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« Reply #54 on: May 24, 2012, 10:44:43 AM » |
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I was just telling the folks at work that I'm sick of vampires. I feel like I'm in a Monty Python cheese shop of vampires, there are scary vampires, and ghost vampires, and teen vampires, and vegitarian vampires, and funny vampires, and senior citizen vampires, I'm sick of them all! Yes, this. It isn't even that new a thing. Vampires have been played out since Anne Rice, but they just... keep... hanging... around... Zombies are going the same way, though they're a little behind and not quite as played out. But ghosts? When's the last time you saw a good old-fashioned ghost story in the movies? I guess there was The Woman in Black most recently, and then... what, The Others before that? |
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T. Kelly Lee
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« Reply #55 on: May 24, 2012, 12:16:25 PM » |
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Yes. I enjoyed Anne Rice stories before that damn movie came out. And I have no use for Twilight. Terrible story, poorly written. And the whole "vampire secret mafia underworld" thing was always boring. It's going to take a serious re-invention to do a good vamp film.
And I have NEVER like the George Romero zombies. You know that movie was originally supposed to be called "Night of the Ghouls." I prefer the Haitian-type zombies. That's so much more terrifying that the "Omega-man" type. And now zombie films really are just Westerns - you can blast all the bad guys you want without an ounce of guilt. There's no reason for a story. Zombieland was a fun take on this - but I don't need to see it again.
But GHOST STORIES!!! Seriously lacking. "The Awakening" and "The Woman in Black" were the only recent additions I can think of. And these were very good films! But something that's even remotely cerebral will never make it on the screen these days.
I recently re-watched George C. Scott's "The Changeling." My god, what a good movie that was. Never again, I'm afraid, in this age of over-produced story telling.
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CMcCormack
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« Reply #56 on: May 24, 2012, 01:33:11 PM » |
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Totally--I am a sucker for an awesome ghost story, but unfortunately they are few and far between these days. The Changeling is one of my absolute favorite movies ever though. Also good is an old adaptation of The Turn of the Screw called The Innocents. As for new ones, The Orphanage was pretty solid.
My main problem with ghost story movies is that a lot of times, for whatever reason, they take the scooby doo way out, where it turns out it's not really ghosts or something like that. I always hated that.
I hate modern vampires, love the more gothic, Hammer-esque vampires, and no matter how played out they are I'll always have a soft spot for zombies.
As for zombies being no-guilt monsters, that's more or less true, but the best zombie movies (i.e. night of the living dead) are more about the people in them than the monsters themselves
blah blah blah social commentary, blah blah blah the monster is us, etc etc
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Bob Lovecraft
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« Reply #57 on: May 24, 2012, 01:46:25 PM » |
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The only zombies that I have seen recent;y that I actually like are the ones in 1:18 Migration. I've mentioned this podcast/audio drama before, but it bears mentioning again since we are on the topic (or off topic, as the case may be). The idea of a head-shot taking out zombies has always seemed stupid to me as an animated corpse woudl have no use for sense organs or brain tissue since none of that would work anyway since the creature IS ALREADY F^$%ING DEAD!!!!! The definition of dead means that none of that crap works anymore!!! Ok... rant over... Anyway, 1:18 posits that the mechanism of death itself has changed, and that anything that dies reanimates after 1 minute and 18 seconds. Also, the "type" of zombie depends on the condition of the body at the moment (i.e. fresh kills can are typically faster than decayed or decomposed kills). Of course you still have the head-shot thing, but I guess you have to take the good with the bad. Bob PS - Yeah, none of this is lovecraftian, though.  |
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If someone ever dares you to read the Necronomicon out loud... just say no.
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Drew Unspeakable Name
Blissfully Ignorant
Posts: 32
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« Reply #58 on: May 24, 2012, 07:28:40 PM » |
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I just saw Women in Black. Does that strike you as Lovecraftian? Descent into Madness? check. Young grim protagonist? check. Creepy last century setting? check. Unfanthomable evil force? sorta/kinda check. Lots of books? check. Nilhistic universe? well, except for after the final train scene.
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Bunch together a group of people deliberately chosen for strong religious feelings, and you have a practical guarantee of dark morbidities expressed in crime, perversion, and insanity. ~H. P. Lovecraft
Yay, crime, perversion, and insanity! Sounds like a party! ~me
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JulieH
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« Reply #59 on: May 24, 2012, 09:05:14 PM » |
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But GHOST STORIES!!! Seriously lacking. "The Awakening" and "The Woman in Black" were the only recent additions I can think of. And these were very good films! But something that's even remotely cerebral will never make it on the screen these days.
I recently re-watched George C. Scott's "The Changeling." My god, what a good movie that was. Never again, I'm afraid, in this age of over-produced story telling.
The original Haunting was awesome, too. The Others was very good. Personally I hate Anne rice's vampire stories - "oh, oh, I'm immortal and no one understands me" or "I can be an asshole because I am powerful" pfaugh |
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