Recommend a scary movie that others might not have seen

Gerald said:

I've heard of this movie often, but never saw it. It wasn't released in too many countries, and not at all here in the Netherlands. I also have never seen it on tv, nor is it on dvd here. For a Disney movie it's pretty obscure.
In Germany it premiered on tv and in Japan on video, but it was made for the theatre, right?
Did it open big like most Disney movies in the US and UK, or more limited too? It doesn't have a lot of votes on IMDb.

The trailer looks great, I always love Jonathan Pryce (he is the master of the 'angry stare', especially in his later films and series). It's not on Youtube, so chances are small I'll ever see it.

SK wrote a rejected screenplay for it.

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It did indeed have a theatrical release. I have the poster (I collect horror posters). Not a lot of fanfare about it's release. It was kind of dark for a Disney film. There was an overall uplifting message but maybe they were skittish and did not put a lot of money into it. I wish I could see the King script. I wonder how it would have played. I do love this version though as it seems to capture the spirit of the book and I don't give a damn about IMDB. They had the latest Mad Max as the best horror for chrissakes.

I watched Lemora and it is so 70's and that's not a bad thing. It works for horror. The blue lighting works great for night and southern gothic quite well. Good thing, nearly the whole movie is night. I kept expecting morning to come at some point and it never did. The ending was forgone but interesting to see play out. The woods creatures reminded me of those in Omega Man. I'm enjoying seeing these old ones I missed more so than anything new which comes out. There is something lost in today's horror that is hard to define. Today's films are more sophisticated in the making but less in the atmosphere and understanding of what makes suspense somehow.

Scratch said:

It did indeed have a theatrical release. I have the poster (I collect horror posters). Not a lot of fanfare about it's release. It was kind of dark for a Disney film. There was an overall uplifting message but maybe they were skittish and did not put a lot of money into it. I wish I could see the King script. I wonder how it would have played. I do love this version though as it seems to capture the spirit of the book and I don't give a damn about IMDB. They had the latest Mad Max as the best horror for chrissakes.

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I liked it too. Especially for Jonathan Pryce and Pam Grier. This movie is a nice introduction to horror for younger kids, especially around Halloween time. That's a topic for another thread I suppose.

Scratch said:

It did indeed have a theatrical release. I have the poster (I collect horror posters). Not a lot of fanfare about it's release. It was kind of dark for a Disney film. There was an overall uplifting message but maybe they were skittish and did not put a lot of money into it. I wish I could see the King script. I wonder how it would have played. I do love this version though as it seems to capture the spirit of the book and I don't give a damn about IMDB. They had the latest Mad Max as the best horror for chrissakes.

I watched Lemora and it is so 70's and that's not a bad thing. It works for horror. The blue lighting works great for night and southern gothic quite well. Good thing, nearly the whole movie is night. I kept expecting morning to come at some point and it never did. The ending was forgone but interesting to see play out. The woods creatures reminded me of those in Omega Man. I'm enjoying seeing these old ones I missed more so than anything new which comes out. There is something lost in today's horror that is hard to define. Today's films are more sophisticated in the making but less in the atmosphere and understanding of what makes suspense somehow.

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Disney went a bit dark for a while end '70s, early '80s. There was also The Black Hole (1979), which was dark and I absolutely loved at the time.

I'm still under Lemora's spell. Every once in a while there's a movie with an atmosphere that stays with you for days or weeks even. I do think that at some point there is a morning, after Lila Lee's been put to bed by Lemora. I've only watched it once though, now waiting for the dvd.
If you mean 'predictable' with 'forgone', it wasn't to me. There is however a much longer cut, 113 minutes, considering it's a 85 minute movie that's a LOT. I have no idea what would have gone on in that footage and why it was shortened. It may have been shortened, because it played on double bills. Hopefully Blackburn will go into that on the dvd commentary, he didn't on the interviews I could find on Youtube.
Haven't seen Omega Man, so can't compare.

Whether something's lost in today's horror. It depends on the film, there are still films made in a classic style, like Crimson Peak. There is a tendency though to go for special effects quickly, which older horror didn't do so much, they rely more on purely atmosphere and the actors.

Gerald said:

Every once in a while there's a movie with an atmosphere that stays with you for days or weeks even.

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I love when this happens. David Fincher's Se7en was like that for me. I'm sure there are many others. One of the biggest surprises I discovered this last year was Maggie, with Arnold Scwarzenegger and Abigail Breslin; a for-real fresh take on the zombie film that really snuck up on me.

Zone D Dad said:

I love when this happens. David Fincher's Se7en was like that for me. I'm sure there are many others. One of the biggest surprises I discovered this last year was Maggie, with Arnold Scwarzenegger and Abigail Breslin; a for-real fresh take on the zombie film that really snuck up on me.

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Haven't seen Maggie yet. I thought Warm Bodies was one of the more innovative recent zombiefilms. Zombiefilms don't seem to renew themselves often, it's essentially the Romero take over and over. It's hard to find fresh ideas in them.

I'm not much into zombies but I LOVE ghost stories.

There are some amazing Spanish and Korean ghost flicks.

Shutter Shutter (2004 film) - Wikipedia

A Tale of Two Sisters A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) - IMDb

The Orphanage The Orphanage (2007) - IMDb

The Devil's Backbone The Devil's Backbone (2001) - IMDb

One movie I missed seeing that is gripping from beginning to end, or it was for me, is Arrival. Starring Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, and Forest Whitaker, among others. It is about alien invasion, yes. Are they hostile? Are they friendly? What's it gonna take to find the answers? I was on the edge of my seat every inch of the way! Arrival was first released in 2016.
Arrival (film) - Wikipedia

Donnie Darko is another movie that captured my attention yet many horror film buffs may have missed.

In a funny, moving and distinctly mind-bending journey through suburban America, one extraordinary but disenchanted teenager is about to take Time's Arrow for a ride. After surviving a freak accident, Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) begins to explore what it means to be alive, and in short order to be in love, he uncovers secrets of the universe that give him a tempting power to alter time and destiny.

Has some great songs in it too.

Gerald said:

Haven't seen Maggie yet. I thought Warm Bodies was one of the more innovative recent zombiefilms. Zombiefilms don't seem to renew themselves often, it's essentially the Romero take over and over. It's hard to find fresh ideas in them.

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I agree. That's what made Maggie so interesting. It's not your usual romp & chomp gorefest; it's actually rather subtle. Don't let the Arnold casting scare you - it's definitely worth a watch.

Charms7 said:

Donnie Darko is another movie that captured my attention yet many horror film buffs may have missed.

In a funny, moving and distinctly mind-bending journey through suburban America, one extraordinary but disenchanted teenager is about to take Time's Arrow for a ride. After surviving a freak accident, Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) begins to explore what it means to be alive, and in short order to be in love, he uncovers secrets of the universe that give him a tempting power to alter time and destiny.

Has some great songs in it too.

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I have a friend at work who raves about this movie, and then gets mad at me for not having seen it. I'll get to it one of these days.

Zone D Dad said:

I have a friend at work who raves about this movie, and then gets mad at me for not having seen it. I'll get to it one of these days.

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It wasn't my cup of tea. I don't think I've ever made it through it, despite a couple of attempts.

My dvd of 'Lemora' finally came. It even came with a booklet (or leaflet rather), which is quite amazing as often these only are in it when dvd's are just released, and are often missing in later printings.
It obviously looks better than on YouTube - Blackburn says it even looks better now then when it was first released. Although clearly a blu-ray release could even make it look better.

Listened to the audio-commentary and it does shed some light on the missing footage. From a certain point it deviates strongly from the shooting script (spoilers): it is the scene towards the end when Lila has fled into a room filled with mirrors and Lemora is closing in on her with a torch. The problem, Blackburn says, is they were running up against time, and the film was in danger of being taken away from them. Also they weren't happy with the way the fight between the vampiric townspeople and the woodghouls looked - in the film as it is you only see some slow motion parts of that.
Basically what's missing is a scene that takes place before this fight. The cool thing is that using the dvd you can download a pdf of the shooting script including the missing parts. There are more changes - often when you read a script of a film, the script tends to be more elaborate and things get shortened in the film itself (for various reasons: length, money, time constraints) - that is the case here too, but what Blackburn is referring to is a whole new scene, which takes place in the meeting hall of the townspeople before the ghouls come crashing in and the fight starts.
This scene is the mirror image of the scene which appears now in the film, where Lila is back in the church from the start of the movie. The way the story is presented now in the film, makes it appear as if the whole thing is more or less a dream of her. It is quite different in the shooting script. Instead of the human churchpeople accusing her of being impure and not as innocent as she appears to be, it is now the vampires doing this. Eventually the ghouls crash in and it plays out more or less the same, with Lila hiding and witnessing (flashes of) the massacre.
However the scene where she reunites with the reverend (Blackburn himself) is also different in the shooting script. In the script he comes across her and Lemora in coffins and drags the coffin containing Lila outside, where the scene unfolds more or less as it is in the film.
How this missing footage would amount to 18 minutes is not so clear to me - it doesn't seem particularly long on paper. Perhaps there was a lot of footage of the fight, but clearly the missing scenes appear to be shot, but just not included in the final cut. In the image gallery on the dvd for example, you see the reverend coming across the coffins.
I would love to see the footage reinstated, as the shooting script plays out much better and clearer, but the question of course is, was it lost and if not what's the condition of it?

The commentary is purely about the film and the shoot itself. It doesn't shed a light on why Blackburn has made so few films. It's nice that at the start of the film there is a picture of Cheryl Smith, her birthdate and date of death and the words 'For Cheryl'.

There doesn't seem to be a thread for movies you're looking forward to, so I mention it here. I'm looking very much forward to the remake of Suspiria. Firstly I'm just curious how you're gonna remake a film that has such a distinctive and unique look and feel, but it also has an interesting cast and it doesn't seem one of those remakes that is made just for the money, as the original is an important film to the director and it is more of a personal passion project.

The poster is now up at IMDb, but what's puzzling to me about it, is whether it's actually an image of the new film, or simply from the original. There is an image of a girl in a doorway with behind it the type of strong colourful lighting as in the original. In interviews it was said the remake wouldn't have that type of lighting. But why use an image from the original, especially if that's not a good representation of the look of the new film? If it's from the new film the resemblance to the original is very strong.

Suspiria (2017) - IMDb

Also the length of the film is puzzling, according to IMDb it apparently is 2 hours 50 minutes. There are theatrical films that long of course, but for horror that's exceptionally long. It would be more like the length if they had done it as a tv mini-series, but seems unlikely for a theatrical horror film. (Of course, if the film is good, I'd be totally up for it.)
My only guess is that it is the length of some rough first cut of the film, which can be quite long sometimes. But let's hope it is a good remake and indeed it merits such a long running time.

Jeepers creepers, well the 1st half of it.

Don't know if anyone cares, but I actually said it wrong about 'Lemora', as I watched once more. At least parts of the first missing scene I mentioned (the vampires accusing Lila) ARE in the movie, but they're superimposed over images of the congregation in the church. It's a bit confusing, but it all seems to be done to shorten the ending of the film. In any case, the script handles it much better, as I do feel the film falls apart a bit at the ending. Especially the reverend dragging the coffin outside would have been a far more dramatic ending.

IMDb has taken away the 170 minute playing time of the Suspiria remake. Like I said, it was the first cut shown to the producers. I fear this will be one of those cuts we'll never see. I hope they don't cut it back with too much or that it becomes a disaster as a result. I very much believe in seeing the director's preferred version.

On the other hand, there is also a remake coming of Picnic at Hanging Rock, another classic schoolgirl mystery. And this one IS gonna be long. It's gonna be a 6 episode mini-series, starring Natalie Dormer.

Gerald said:

IMDb has taken away the 170 minute playing time of the Suspiria remake. Like I said, it was the first cut shown to the producers. I fear this will be one of those cuts we'll never see. I hope they don't cut it back with too much or that it becomes a disaster as a result. I very much believe in seeing the director's preferred version.

On the other hand, there is also a remake coming of Picnic at Hanging Rock, another classic schoolgirl mystery. And this one IS gonna be long. It's gonna be a 6 episode mini-series, starring Natalie Dormer.

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While I enjoyed watching the original film there's really nothing happening in it at all other than a group of school girls go on an outing and three disappear with no explanation. It was a very slow moving but fascinating film. I can't imagine a mini-series made about this event, unless it's going to be updated to the present time and a CSI team is brought in to investigate.

I love a good zombie movie...this isn't that scary but so very good...Train to Busan!

Holly Gibney said:

I thought it might be a good idea to have a thread where we can recommend horror movies that are a little bit obscure and that other members might not have seen. I say horror, but personally I don't differentiate between horror/thriller/suspense or anything like that - as long as it gives me a good fright, I'm happy!

With that in mind, my first recommendation would be Spoorloos, a really wonderful Dutch/French film from 1988. It is about a man whose finance is abducted from right under his nose one day (they are at a busy motorway service station, she goes off to pick up a few things from the shop, and... vanishes). When he finally realises that she is gone, he is frantic, running all over the place, causing a fuss, calling the police, etc - but all to no avail.
Fast-forward a few years, and he is slowly rebuilding his life after this awful tragedy when he suddenly starts to receive cryptic letters from somebody who claims to be her abductor. This is when the story of the film really begins.

I honestly cannot praise this film enough! There is nothing silly or over the top about it - no car chases or unrealistic rescue missions or anything like that. It is more of a realistic adult drama about a man who is being played with by a psychopath (not a "movie" psychopath, but a believable narcissistic human being), wrapped around a fascinating mystery. The mystery gets solved slowly, step by step, and the ratcheting-up of suspense is SO well done - once you start to watch, you won't be able to switch it off until you have followed the journey through to its end!

This film reminds me why I love French cinema. Their use of silence is wonderful and creates so much dramatic tension (in direct contrast to the "bombard the audience with noise and movement every single second" of most films); their dialogues are realistic and understated. In other words, they treat their audience like intelligent adults, and their films are all the better for it.

The wikipedia page is here - but please don't spoil it for yourself by reading the ending!
The Vanishing (1988 film) - Wikipedia

I would love to hear everyone else's recommendations for films that are slightly "off the radar", and will give you a good old scare!

Much love,
Hol

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Borderland, one of the most disturbing films I've ever seen, and the only decent After Dark Horrorfest movie.

I found a gooooooooood one. The Blood on Satans Claw. It is so very Hawthorn. But Nathaniel never had leave to go as far as they did in 1971. This was the era of mixing horror and sex for that titillating R rating and with this one it works well. Perhaps they were going for a Hammer films type of boost but it just so happened to fit with the story perfectly. Wicked youth so warped by the thing upturned by a plow you know that they were ripe for it in that time of wildness just before the age of full reason and mellowing begin.

The thing I like best about it is how it leads you to temptation then horrifies you with where it led you. The main arrow in the Devils quiver is a nubile body. This one hits that target. The Angel in this one is no angel. It takes a while to get going and it seems a bit clunky and disjointed at first but that somehow adds to the strange atmosphere it generates. It works so well as a witch tale it's images linger and not all of them pleasantly. Also it is just so damned odd. Seriously you have to watch it. I'm not sure it doesn't merit a spot in my top ten. Maybe not but it's close. Top twenty at least.


Okay playback is disabled but go to Youtube and find it. It will be worth it. I can't seem to even get a link going.