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[9filmframes]

Things.

The Thing, The Thing

[culttech]

IN APPRECIATION OF TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE

Tales from the darkside aired in TBC and was part of the string of  EC comics/Twilight Zone inspired  horror anthology TV shows that appeared in the mid eighties to mid nineties. Along with the more widely known Tales from the crypt, it paved the way for the more child friendly offerings 'Are you Afraid of the Dark' and 'Goosebumps'. Despite being well liked, it is often panned for poor acting and low production values, however there is much more to the show than meets the eye and some of the episodes are genuinely scary, well acted, and well crafted pieces. The main thing that stands out, and makes the series so much more than schlock is the talent involved. George A Romero and regular cohort/effects guru/actor/badass Vietnam vet Tom Savini are behind many of the episodes. Stephen King wrote a couple and there are early appearances from some recognisable actors. I’m also a big fan of the format. A 20 minute segment means that the whole episode is going to be watchable, and that something will always be happening. There is no fat. No boring exposition scenes (well, some). More action. One of the problems with a lot of the well-liked slasher and horror films of the 70’s and 80’s in my opinion, is that they’re actually a bit boring apart from the violent and/or scary bits. This isn’t the case with Darkside. The short, contained stories are all created to fit the format sand thusly attention is sustained and due to the now somewhat gimmicky reveal of a creepy twist at the end of each episode, satisfaction is guaranteed. I’m not 100% on who the show was aimed at but I think it’s probably 10-15yr olds and their parents. However despite many of the episodes being more lighthearted, some of them are truly scary, and on top of that deal with serious themes and motifs including child abuse, grief, and the stranger elements of US Politics. One episode entitled ‘Price of Dreams, involves a mob boss who pays to sleep and dream forever as an escape from his life and his immense guilt. However once in the weird pod-like device all his dreams are about his awful abusive father. Another wonderfully meta layer to this episode is that the mob boss is played by Abe Vigoda (Tessio in The Godfather) and his father is played by Dominic Chianese (Uncle Junior in Sopranos). It’s a genuinely upsetting and supremely downbeat twenty minutes of television. Another episode ‘The Last Car’ is set exclusively on a train that never stops. It focuses on a young student trying to get home for thanksgiving who gradually realises the train is full of dead people… Or is she dead? Or is it purgatory? What does it mean? It’s up there with the likes of ‘’Rosemary’s Baby’ and ‘The Shining’ as a prime example of using film to not just frighten , but to create unease and disquiet. It’s slightly clunky, but is full of imagination and contains more ideas than most current horror films. Even the minutiae of the dialogue and miss-en-scene is excellent. It might be on youtube. There are also a plethora of priceless episodes that riff on more popular films. The excellent 'The trouble with Mary Jane' is almost a rip off of 'The Exorcist' with slightly more humour and a genuinely brilliant performance from it's young lead, who won an award for the performance. News that a reboot is on its way from Joe Hill is exciting and will hopefully encourage new fans to resurrect interest in this series.

[fuckyeahmovieposters]

Foxcatcher by Keith Brydie

[culttech]

Great Film

[culttech]

DEAR GOD

Judging by the poster they've  chosen, Netflix have decided to promote 'Bicentennial Man' as a full on horror film.

[culttech]

Check out my Letterboxd

http://boxd.it/ii4s 

[culttech]

NETFLIX AND THE PARADOX OF CHOICE

In his 2004 book 'The Paradox of Choice' American psychologist Barry Schwartz contends that eliminating choice can greatly decrease anxiety in consumers. Now I'm not saying that Netflix makes me anxious however his theory raises some interesting questions.

Every time I use Netflix (a service which I love) I have the same thing: I earmark a film to watch then as I'm about to click on it my eye is caught by another title. Then I think I'll watch that instead but I start to actually feel bad for not picking my first choice. I'll let Barry take over...

Missed Opportunities. Schwartz finds that when people are faced with having to choose one option out of many desirable choices, they will begin to consider hypothetical trade-offs. Their options are evaluated in terms of missed opportunities instead of the opportunity's potential. Schwartz maintains that one of the downsides of making trade-offs is it alters how we feel about the decisions we face; afterwards, it affects the level of satisfaction we experience from our decision. While psychologists have known for years about the harmful effects of negative emotion on decision making, Schwartz points to recent evidence showing how positive emotion has the opposite effect: in general, subjects are inclined to consider more possibilities when they are feeling happy.

This is exactly the emotion I'm talking about. The funny thing is that recently I've just been a massive kop out, watching endless episodes of 'The League' (which I recommend highly). I was going to watch 'The Crazies' the other night but I felt bad for not watching 'Downfall' which I'd half-promised myself I'd watch soon.

It is also interesting to note that Netflix Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt has proposed that the service will evolve beyond it's current incarnation into an even more streamlined set of recommendations. Imagine firing up Netflix and being given as few as 4 precision-tooled recommendations for your enjoyment.

[culttech]

10 THINGS I'D RATHER DO THAN WATCH 'DEATH PROOF' AGAIN

1) Endure a seven month stretch at a Miami Mega-Jail

2) Get castrated with some mouldy scissors.

3) Have a drink with "Sir" Alex Ferguson.

4) Live in Rwanda circa 1994.

5) Be a patient of Stoke Mandeville Hospital in the 70s.

6) Spend a day in York.

7) Have full-blown AIDS.

8) Get addicted to crystal meth and become a rent-boy.

9) Get stuck in a lift with "Grimmy" and/or James Corden.

10) Pass a kidney stone the size of my fist.

[culttech]

IS 'UN PROPHETE' THE BEST FILM OF THE 00's?

In my opinion this statement is fact. I must have watched this film over ten times. Every time I've noticed new things, tiny moments, shots and lines of dialogue. These tiny filmic inflections lift this film above of so many of it's contemporaries. If we look at the best films of the 00s, this is a bold statement. It's going up against the likes of 'Zodiac' (2007), 'The Dark Knight' (2008), Michael Mann's simply majestic 'Miami Vice' reboot, and handful of others. For example I'm a big fan of Tarsem Singh's 'The Cell' (2000) and even the criminally underrated 'The Hills Have Eyes 2' (2007).

Sometimes it's the circumstances in which you first watch a film that sandblasts it onto you psyche. I watched it for the first time on a shitty Novamov stream a few months before it came out. I was having a creative draught at Film School and this film re-energised me and changed my life.

Almost every aspect of this film is excellent. I'm not usually a fan of non-diagetic music in film, however Alexander Desplat's score is simply faultless; Perfectly underlining the emotions and themes of each scene it accompanies. The acting is also so interesting. At a stage in film where, in my opinion, acting has become a tiny bit in-your-face and overtly showy. Like all of the best films, the actors have been chosen less because of experience or reputation, but on genuine suitability for each role. Much like the actor in 'Boardwalk Empire' who so subtly portrayed J Edgar Hoover in the latest series, the actors (a mix of real convicts and relative unknowns) just ooze credibility. Gilles Cohen (above) plays Profundi, a magnificently coiffed Corsican heavy, and one of the most believable screen hardmen since Mr Blonde.

Despite this, the two leads are the most crucial performances in the film. Tahar Rahim's Malik El Djebena is the protagonist and obviously indispensable however it is Niels Arestrup's Cesar Luciani who is the bating heart of this film. The most fearsome mob boss since Michael Corleone in 2. He's just electric. His character arc is impeccable, the duality of his descendance and Malik's beautifully crafted ascendance is a joy to watch.

The plot is the film's best asset. It's just the coolest idea I've ever heard. The notion of an illiterate Muslim scheming his way up the Corsican mafia hierarchy is just so packed with drama. The violence isn't gratuitous, just amazingly orchestrated. The dream sequences simply work in a way they that they don't in 99% of films and the set pieces are stunning. The cinematography is insane, even smaller things like font of the sporadic captions is so cool and fitting. It manages to be a modern film, perhaps the best of the last 20 years and still stick to the centuries old structure of The Hero's Journey.

If you haven't seen it. Get it now. If you have, watch it again....

Now.

[mishimaclosing]

[culttech]

True Detective really does have the best title sequence around...

[culttech]

THOUGHTS ON TRUE DETECTIVE

I'm going to wait until I've seen the final episode until I give a detailed review of HBO's 'True Detective' but I thought I'd give a quick preparatory update.

I would recommend everyone watches this programme. Especially screenwriters. There is so much to learn. The story is so layered, it has myriad cool literary references, it employs the best implementation of location I've seen for some time in both film and TV. Cary Joji Fukunaga's direction is impeccable in almost every aspect. I've watched every episode three times (still unemployed) and I've recently spent hours falling into the rabbit hole of reddit prediction/theory threads.

It's the best show HBO have made since 'Oz' and I look forward to reviewing every episode in depth.

Sorry about the weak poster illustration, I don't have Scrapbook Harald's skill and I did it quite quickly since I was worried about nicking some of the excellent posters already available on tumblr. 

Please look forward to my upcoming posts on underrated films including 'Roadkill' and 'Fat City'

[nicolegary-blog]

I’m not evil or anything, but I kinda want Claire Underwood to be my life coach.

[culttech]

THOUGHTS ON ‘PET SEMETARY’

I love this film. I think it’s criminally underrated, and in my opinion up there with ‘The Changeling’, ‘When a Stranger Calls’ and ‘Alice Sweet Alice’ as one of the best Horror films of the eighties. The reason I am writing this post is that I recently read this article on filmschoolrejects.com That said it’s not scary any more blah, blah, whatever. However this film has one ace up it’s sleeve. This ace is named Zelda.

The film concerns a young family who move to a new house near what Americans call a “Freeway”. When their cat dies (love it) they bury it in the eponymous burial ground and it comes back to life (great concept/excecution) 

Then when their son inevitably gets mashed by a truck on the freeway, his father decides to bury the boy in the “semetary” and shit gets real.

I really believe this film really utilizes all aspects of filmmaking to great effect. First of all the music’s really good and creepy. Like children singing. Then there is the fact that all the horror stuff is handled so well in the sense that there is no CGI ruining the feel of the film. Recently there have been so many instances of this trend taking me out of a film. There is also Zelda who is the scariest creation I’ve seen. The interesting thing about this is that this female character is played by a man - This makes it so terrifying. 

Anyway check it out. The old wise man also played Herman Munster. Fun fact.

[culttech]

Someone needs to give this guy Michael Chance a 5 picture deal.

twitter.com/projectarbiter

[culttech]

Please make sure you follow me on twitter if you like the blog. twitter.com/fdpdonoghue

[culttech]

It's really exciting to see that David Fincher is involved with a Graphic Novel adaptation of James Ellroy's 'The Black Dahlia'. It's only available in France at the moment and I'm not sure when it arrives in the UK but I'm really excited.

[cinephiliabeyond]

Film Noir burrows into the mind; it’s disorienting, intriguing and enthralling. Noir brings us into a gritty underworld of lush morbidity, providing intimate peeks at its tough, scheming dames, mischievous misfits and flawed men — all caught in the wicked web of a twisted fate. Bringing Darkness to Light (2006) is the definitive Film Noir documentary, exploring the roots of the genre, its expressions and meanings, and its influence on world cinema. Lavishly illustrated with clips from great Noir classics, the film explores the genre through interviews with filmmakers, actors, and writers such as Sydney Pollack, Paul Schrader, Christopher Nolan, Michael Madsen, Gordon Willis, William Goldman and James Ellroy. It was directed by the noted film historian Gary Leva, who knows very well what he is doing, having made 58 documentaries, most of them about the cinema. The documentary is broken down into several different sections with each one taking a look at different subjects or styles. Besides, the James Ellroy interview is worth all the bucks in itself. Amazon.

Paul Schrader: Notes on Film Noir. An amazing dissertation on one of the most important genres of American film, written by the legendary screenwriter of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. Not for everybody, but worth it for those willing to take the time to read it in full.

The Film Noir – Filmex — 1971 by Paul Schrader

Thanks to LoSceicco1976 for the heads up

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[culttech]

I'm in love with Film Noir. One of my favourite periods in film history. Very cool title picture montage...

[ronniewashere-deactivated201601]

From heart to limb to pen

[culttech]

This is the tattoo I got done in June of last year. Just wanted to give a shout out to the formidable Dan Ronson ( ronniewashere.tumblr.com ) check him out for more of his excellent designs. Can't wait to get my next one....

NB. It looks much less sore now it's healed!